He wears a smile.

Among the many fine offerings of the base library are boxed sets of the Twin Peaks television series. I remembered the series from when it first aired but as I was only nine years old at the time and had no control over the television (though I managed to see a few episodes because I remembered the premise, the Nadine amnesia storyline, and Agent Cooper) this was my first chance to see the actual resolution.

I understood that it would be strange. I remember that the main character was basically a clairvoyant FBI agent, that there was at least one character with unexplained superstrength, and the Red Room dream is infamous. I was prepared for a mystery/horror series, but I expected it to be more surreal than petrifying. But I had missed one thing in my sporadic childhood viewing.

BOB.



Bob is, without a doubt, the most terrifying character ever to cross the screen. Mike Myers, Freddy Kreuger, It? They don't hold a candle to Bob. Jigsaw? Don't make me laugh. Bob is the scariest thing ever put on film, and they didn't even need to give him makeup.

It's amazing. It's just this guy. This guy in denim with scraggly long hair. In normal life he'd just look like someone's scraggly uncle, but introduced in the context of the Twin Peaks series, he is nightmare fuel of the highest order. And the freakiest thing of all? He was an accident. Frank Silva was a stagehand who trapped himself on a set, and then got accidentally caught in the mirror in one of the scenes.



From there he became the star of sudden cuts, dream sequences, and of course, my nightmares. Normally I despise the quick cut to a gruesome scene or image in horror movies. It seems like such a cheap way to build tension. But modern movies tend to add particularly shocking images. These aren't particularly shocking images when taken out of context. The quick cuts tend to occur only when someone has a vision, or when the audience needs to know he's behind something. They build on the character's concept as a supernatural entity. Bob's appearances aren't a clumsy insertion into an otherwise dull scene, they're artful reveals.

The character never really gets any dialogue, but he doesn't need it. He just has to look menacing and slink around. Lynch used him only in shadowy visions and--most creepily of all--mirrors. By using him so sparingly and only in specifically unearthly scenes, he turns this ordinary guy into something completely unnerving. There's no makeup, CGI or gore needed. It's just lighting and emotion. It's bare bones horror.

That's fucking genius. That's how a horror story should be made. People and things that would be otherwise unremarkable are cast in a strange light and turned into something sinister.

Horror Heaven

So I got  Justice League: The New Frontier and really enjoyed it.  Particularly the first Flash sequence, that was fun.  Neil Patrick Harris as Barry Allen works.  Also, can't believe I didn't realize before watching that this release is perfectly timed politically..  Because of the Silver Age setting and the McCarthy era backdrop, there's a lot of dialogue that is custom-designed to comfort Americans who are feeling kind of shitty about how their government is behaving and hoping for an inspirational figure to usher in change.

I like my new toy, too.  He has a little lantern to go with him, and he's molded to the base so I can leave him out somewhere.

And while I was at the store I saw one of those cheap collections of old black and white movies.  50 black and white horror movies for 20 bucks.  I picked it up on a whim because it had the original The House on Haunted Hill.  On getting home I discovered it had silent movie classics Nosferatu and Fritz Lang's Metropolis.  One of the first Superman stories I ever read was the Superman: Metropolis elseworlds, which led me to checking out the movie out of curiosity.  It has a special place in my heart and now I own it.

I found a book of classic ghost stories (Not just Poe reprints, but it has Ambrose Bierce and Washington Irving stories).

I also got my hands on a copy of John Keel's Mothman Prophecies book.  I'm only 25 pages in and this book is Urban Legend Paradise.  There's UFOs, metaphysical speculation,  multiple counts of small-town weirdness, a giant fucking bird with hypnotic red eyes, the US government trying to act like they know what the hell is going on and that nothing is going on anyway, military red tape stupidity, historical ties to stories about faeries, The Devil, and encounters with the inhuman kind of Men in Black (not the run-of-the-mill government spooks, these are the MiBs who are like aliens or robots trying to cover their tracks).

I'm starting to come to terms with being a horror fan.  I started out with kid's ghost story anthologies (The Dark Thirty, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Are You Afraid of the Dark?), and I worked my way up to the hard stuff (Lovecraft, Internet and Radio tales of ghost encounters) from there.  and have been utterly hooked on these sorts of things ever since.  I hate the current trend of torture porn, and have no interest in mortal slasher flicks.  But I can't stay away from a good ghost tale (particularly one that purports to be true).  I can't help but research weird and frightening occurrances.  I absolutely adore horror movies made before 1970 (I love the camera tricks that cover for bad special effects).  I like modern supernatural thrillers provided they have a creepy air.  The only romance I read is paranormal horror romance.  I can't resist this stuff.

But there's a problem.  It's the same as the reason my favorite superhero is Green Lantern.  I'm a huge wuss, a neurotic person with a highly active imagination.  I am what is politely referred to as high strung.   Other people are amused by my nervousness.  In my first year in the USAF, the guys in the dorm used to knock on my door when they walked by.  They knew I was in there watching or reading something creepy and I would scream audibly.  I haven't calmed down.  Right now my boss greets me suddenly and boisterously every day because it never fails to make me jump, yelp, and drop whatever I'm carrying.

I never watched horror movies as a teenager because I always figured I'd have nightmares.   (Oddly enough, I rarely have nightmares from this stuff.  The problem is getting to sleep.)   Trailers and commercials for horror movies spook me out.  I have an irrational terror of witch stories (yes, I know just how wrong that is for me).  I don't have mirrors or televisions in my bedroom because reflected light (and my own ghastly snarl-haired pale visage) is too unsettling in the dark.  I stay up late reading ghost stories and then kick myself for it.  But I can''t stop.  I'm drawn to it.

It always seemed like I was being incredibly unwise by exposing myself to this stuff.  My brain clearly hates me, and I'm giving it ammunition.  Then I was completely flipping out at work on Friday over something my physician suggested I might have when I realized just why I adore urban legends, ghost stories, and creepy suspenseful horror.  I'm the kind of person who makes her own life 50 times more stressful than it needs to be.  I panic needlessly and worry endlessly about my lot in life.  No matter how secure my job, my financial health, my physical health, my safety and my future is I will always be convinced everything I love is about to dissolve and slip through my fingers like purple art project scenery sand.  Or worse, crash on the floor and spill out like brains and blood from a crushed skull.  Supernatural tales of terror give me something else to worry about.

Something fun to worry about.

It's time to stop calling myself stupid for this, and embrace it.

I'm off to go replace my worries with the Scariest Thing Ever Written (Dreams in the Witch House by HP Lovecraft -- Witches, ghosts and geometry, oh my!), then I'm going to bury myself in modern North American mythology.  Dig me out when the next issue of Green Lantern comes out.

About Fucking Time.

Newsarama:

WONDER WOMAN #5 (JAN070319), which was previously slated to feature the final chapter of the 5-part story "Who Is Wonder Woman," will feature a new story when it arrives in stores on March 14.

This new story is by Will Pfeifer (CATWOMAN, AMAZONS ATTACK), with art by Jean Diaz, Geraldo Borges and Wellington Diaz and a cover by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson. In it, Wonder Woman learns that a new women's movement has begun, inspired by her killing of Max Lord - and leaving Diana torn between the good intentions of the movement and the validation it gives her violent act. Worse yet, she's ordered to investigate a possible connection between Wonder Woman and this movement by Sarge Steel and the department of Metahuman Affairs!

Chapter five of "Who Is Wonder Woman" will be rescheduled at a future date.

Retailers may adjust orders on WONDER WOMAN #5 (JAN070319) now through its final order cutoff date of Thursday, February 22.

Also, orders for the WONDER WOMAN: WHO IS WONDER WOMAN? HC (FEB070299) have been cancelled. This title will be resolicited at a future date.

A step in the right direction, at least. Actually getting the damned book out!

The article says issue 4 is due out on February 21st. If that gets delayed they should do a two page recap and print the last two issues as flashbacks or a story told by the characters. It'll look bad and sloppy, but honestly, this has gone on too damned long.