Columns Archives - Page 9 of 29 - Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Grendel, Kentucky by Jeff McComsey and Tommy Lee Edwards

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 5, 2023May 4, 2023The Comic VaultColumns, Grendel Kentucky, Jeff McComsey, Joshua Gage, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

Grendel, Kentucky by Jeff McComsey and Tommy Lee Edwards
Upshot (March 2021)
96 pages; $9.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Grendel, Kentucky by Jeff McComsey is an incredible graphic novel that takes the Beowulf saga and modernizes it. The story focuses on Marnie, who leads the all-women biker gang The Harlots. She’s called back to her hometown of Grendel for the funeral of her adoptive father, Clyde, who was supposedly killed by a bear. When she finds out the truth, which is much worse, she seeks vengeance for her father and learns about what it means to be a family and what it means to hold on to family secrets.Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Justin Burnett

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 28, 2023April 1, 2023Night Time LogicColumns, Daniel Braum, Justin Burnett, Night Time LogicLeave a comment

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Horror and weird fiction is the labyrinth.”

photo of Justin Burnett — Justin Burnett

Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed.

In this column, which shares a name with my New York based reading and discussion series, I explore the phenomenon of Night Time Logic and other aspects of horror fiction by diving deep into the stories from award winning authors to emerging new voices.

I have an interest in strange tales, the kind of story one might call “Aickman-esqe” and like to discuss them here and look at stories through that lens when I can. My first short story collection is titled The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales in homage to the lineage of Robert Aickman’s strange tales. The new Cemetery Dance Publications trade paper back edition of the book can be found here. It discusses strange tales in the all-new story notes and features a full essay on one of Aickman’s tales.

In my previous column I spoke with Ray Cluely about ghost stories, settings in his fiction, his strange tales and more. In today’s column I speak with Justin Burnett about “leaving knots tied,” the uncanny, doppelgangers, music, labyrinths and more.

We begin with a discussion about his debut fiction collection The Puppet King and Other Atonements.Continue Reading

Dark Pathways: That Special Scary Friend

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 14, 2023April 3, 2023Dark PathwaysBeulah, Christi Nogle, Columns, Dark Pathways, Ken BroskyLeave a comment

Dark Pathways

cover of Beulah Christi Nogle’s Beulah is an absolute banger of a horror novel. The Stoker Award nominee for Best First Novel puts a classic ghost story inside an old schoolhouse being renovated by a family desiring a new start, and it’s narrated by a young woman named Georgie. Narrated incredibly well. Georgie is perceptive and intelligent, clearly at qualms with her mother, distant around others, protective of her little sister Stevie. And she’s deeply honest with us, the readers, allowing us inside her thoughts. All this comes through in the tight prose:Continue Reading

Dead Trees: Midnight Movie by Tobe Hooper

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 7, 2023March 26, 2023Dead TreesColumns, Dead Trees, Mark Sieber, Midnight Movie, Tobe HooperLeave a comment

banner reading Dead Trees by Mark Sieber

Tobe Hooper was not a man. He was a God who walked the Earth for too few years.

Hooper did a lot of things in his time here, but he will always be remembered, be cherished, for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. TCM is a strong candidate for the greatest horror movie ever made. It’s the Crown Jewel of the 70’s exploitation era. No other film can touch it.Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Ray Cluley

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 31, 2023March 26, 2023Night Time LogicColumns, Daniel Braum, Night Time Logic, Ray Cluely, The Night MarchersLeave a comment

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Ghosts of the Sea. Strange Tales. And Coping With Loss.”

cover of All That's Lost Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed.

In my previous column we visited with UK author and editor James Everington about strange tales and his anthology of liminal sea-side stories. In today’s column I talk with Ray Cluley about ghost stories and more. Ray’s stories not only feature a wide range of setting-forward fiction he also writes strange tales so it is easy to see why they quickly captured my attention.

We begin our discussion with a look at a trio of stories from his latest short story collection.Continue Reading

Review: Angels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse by Christopher ~cliff~ Reichard

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 20, 2023March 18, 2023Reviews, The Comic VaultAngels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse, Christopher ~cliff~ Reichard, Columns, Joshua Gage, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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Angels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse by Christopher ~cliff~ Reichard
Self-Published via Kickstarter
191 pages; $21.99 hardcover
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Chris ~cliff~ Reichard is the writer and creator of the Angels of Hell comic book and poetry series. Their dark writing style has been influenced by various horror, Gothic and religious media that has only been darkened further from the worldly experience of being a combat veteran and a social activist. They successfully ran a Kickstarter campaign to get the comic series started. Chris is a simply, complicated person that lives and breathes in his Midwest American roots, the Greater St. Louis area of Missouri. Their newest collection is Angels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse. Continue Reading

Review: Dead Dudes by Christopher Sebela and Ben Sears

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 10, 2023March 5, 2023Reviews, The Comic VaultBen Sears, Christopher Sebela, Columns, Dead Dudes, Joshua Gage, Oni Press, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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cover of dead dudes Dead Dudes written by Christopher Sebela, illustrated by Ben Sears, colored by Ryan Hill and Warren Wucinich, lettered by Crank!
Oni Press (September 2020)
126 pages; $19.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Trev, Kent, and Brian, collectively known as Ghostbros, are three struggling television paranormal investigators. Their show is about to be cancelled due to low ratings. Their competitors, Parawarriors, are stealing their audience with their new gadgets and their ability to not just investigate ghosts, but actually fight them. To save their show, Trev forces Kent and Brian to go to the most haunted place he can imagine: Edgeway Penitentiary in rural Montana. The team gets there and, within hours, discover that not only are ghosts real, but they are willing to kill. That’s when the problems really being in the young adult graphic novel, Dead Dudes.Continue Reading

Dark Pathways: Through the Monster’s Eyes

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 3, 2023February 25, 2023Dark PathwaysColumns, Dark Pathways, Larry Hinkle1 Comment

Dark Pathways

One of the short-listed nominees for the Bram Stoker Award in Short Fiction caught my eye this week: “That’s What Friends are For” by Larry Hinkle, published in volume 16 of Dark Recesses Press. I really liked it. Sometimes, when you’re in a good reading groove you can lose yourself in a short story, eschewing all distractions (and never once checking Twitter!) “That’s What Friends Are For” did that for me.Continue Reading

Exhumed: “Night Game” and “Orange Grove Court”

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 17, 2023February 16, 2023ExhumedColumns, Exhumed, Jason Sechrest, K. Edwin Fritz, Night Game, Orange Grove Court, William Relling Jr.4 Comments

banner reading Exhumed - The Fiction of Cemetery Dance by K. Edwin Fritz

Hi there. I’m Keith… or “K. Edwin” if you prefer. I’m a middle school English teacher, a writer, and like any perfectly normal fan of horror these days, another random guy who is totally obsessed with Cemetery Dance Magazine. Ok, maybe I take it a bit further than most… I actually own every single copy (but that’s a story for another post).

Exhumed is my humble attempt to read and review every short story and novel excerpt ever published by CD. In their 34+ years of publication, there have been 577 (and counting!) pieces spread out over 77 issues. Since each Exhumed post covers just two stories (one “old” and one “new”), I think I’m going to be doing this for a while. I sure hope you’ll join me along the way, whether that means reading each piece as I review it (assuming you can find them all) or just taking it all in while I do the hard work and wax poetic with my observations. Either way, grab your shovel and dig in. There’s no telling what we’ll unearth together. Continue Reading

Video Visions: It’s Bloody Valen-Time

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 14, 2023January 31, 2023Video VisionsColumns, Hunter Shea, My Bloody Valentine, Valentine's Day, Video VisionsLeave a comment

Black background with spooky lettering that says Hunter Shea Video Visions and the Cemetery Dance logo

photo of the killer from My Bloody Valentine Ah, February. Where love is in the air, or in many cases, a desperate need to find love by Valentine’s Day. Maybe we let up on the horror gas for a spell, and let the heart run free.

Or, maybe love and death are meant to go hand in hand. Look at the phrase, la petite mort, aka, the little death, that blissful moment after you’ve achieved the BIG-O and everything goes numb and still. To love is to die a little, bit by bit, orgasm by orgasm, heartbreak by heartbreak. It’s a wonder we don’t have a treasure trove of V-day themed horror movies. Maybe we’re looking at this special day all wrong.

I think I need to start with a love story and how it’s bound to a very popular movie this time of year. That story would be mine. Now, if Cupid would aim that arrow somewhere else, I can get rolling. Continue Reading

Review: Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 6, 2023January 12, 2023Reviews, The Comic VaultColumns, Joshua Gage, Norman Shurtliff, Reviews, Skull Cat and the Curious Castle, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff
IDW Publishing (February 21, 2023)
112 pages; $14.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Scully the Cat’s father was injured hunting gold on a mountain, so Scully has to get a job with a local garden crew. His first job is at Le Dark Chateau, a haunted mansion rumored to have a hidden treasure, but it’s protected by unknown evil. When Scully’s new crew goes missing and he catches the lady of the manor drinking red liquid from a mug, surely she has murdered everyone and is drinking their blood! Will he have the same courage as his father? Will he find the treasure of Le Dark Chateau, or will he find a different type of treasure, instead?Continue Reading

Dark Pathways: In the Dead of Winter

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 3, 2023January 12, 2023Dark PathwaysColumns, Dark Pathways, Ken Brosky, R.A. BusbyLeave a comment

Dark Pathways

cover of Bleak Midwinter For those looking for a great collection of horror stories, please for the love of God look no further than Bleak Midwinter: The Darkest Night. Editors Damon Barret and Cassandra L. Thompson just knocked this collection out of the park. It’s fantastic. It’s scary. And the stories are of an exceptional quality. I want to talk up one in particular for this post, because I just re-read it while delayed at the airport and I’m more convinced than ever that I’m in love. There are few things scarier than missing a flight … and this particular story is one of them.Continue Reading

Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #231

Bev VincentJanuary 24, 2023January 24, 2023Stephen King News from the Dead Zone'Salem's Lot, Bev Vincent, Columns, Doctor Sleep, Fairy Tale, Flight or Fright, Gerald's Game, Gwendy's Button Box, Holly, It, mike flanagan, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King, The Boogeyman, The Dark Tower, The Long Walk, Welcome to Derry1 Comment

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and pleasant holiday season. I know a lot of people had travel issues, so I hope none of you are still stuck in an airport somewhere (if you are, Mr. King and I have an anthology to help you pass the time) or trying to track down your luggage.

Will 2023 be a good year? Hard to say, but I know one thing for sure: we have a new King book to look forward to in September and a movie adaptation that has the studio’s confidence.
Continue Reading

Dark Pathways: Walking on Eggshells

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 6, 2023December 18, 2022Dark PathwaysColumns, Dark Pathways, Eggshells, Gemma Amor, Ken BroskyLeave a comment

Dark Pathways

I’ve been wanting to write something about Gemma Amor for a while now, and I think her short story “Eggshell” is a perfect opportunity. Originally published in the Human Monsters anthology, “Eggshell” is a personal favorite of mine and I want to share with you exactly why. Here’s a hint: it involves skulls. Continue Reading

Review: A Gift for a Ghost by Borja Gonzalez

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 26, 2022December 18, 2022Reviews, The Comic VaultA Gift for a Ghost, Abrams Comic Arts, Borja Gonzalez, Columns, Joshua Gage, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

cover of A Gift for a Ghost A Gift for a Ghost by Borja Gonzalez
Abrams Comic Arts (May 2020)
114 pages; $24.99 hardcover
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Borja Gonzalez is a self-taught illustrator and strip cartoonist from Badajoz, Spain. His first published title, La Reina Orquidea, was a precious and haunting short piece which placed the author at the center of national attention. A Gift for a Ghost is his first long form work, recently translated into English and published for readers in the U.S.Continue Reading

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