Danica Davidson Archives - Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Sadako at the End of the World by Koma Natsumi and Koji Suzuki

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 16, 2020November 15, 2020ReviewsColumns, Danica Davidson, Graven Images, Koma Natsumi, manga, Reviews, Sadako at the End of the World, The RingLeave a comment

Sadako at the End of the World by Koma Natsumi and Koji Suzuki
Yen Press (November 17, 2020)
146 pages; $15 paperback, $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Sadako, the vengeful ghost villain from The Ring franchise, gets a new twist to her story in the manga Sadako at the End of the World.

The Ring started out as a 1991 novel written by Koji Suzuki (and is available in America from the publisher Vertical), and that spawned off into more books and then movies. Japan made two movie adaptations and South Korea made one before the franchise made its way to America with a 2002 Hollywood movie adaptation starring Naomi Watts. In America, “Sadako” was changed to “Samara Morgan.” The obsession with Sadako and The Ring franchise continues in Japan, where their most recent movie in the franchise (called Sadako) came out in 2019.Continue Reading

Review: The Witch and the Beast by Kousuke Satake

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 4, 2020October 31, 2020Breaking NewsColumns, Danica Davidson, Graven Images, Kousuke Satake, Reviews, The Witch and the BeastLeave a comment

The Witch and the Beast by Kousuke Satake
Kodansha Comics (October 27, 2020)
192 pages; $12.99 paperback, $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

The Witch and the Beast opens with a question: “Do you know how to break a witch’s curse?” It gives two answers: “Method 1: A loving kiss from a prince on a white horse. Method 2: Hope the wrathful witch has a change of heart.”

But the manga is quick to assure us that these methods are nearly impossible to work out.Continue Reading

Mark McKenna on the EC-style Horror of ‘Combat Jacks’

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 30, 2017October 29, 2017InterviewsCombat Jacks, Danica Davidson, Interviews, Mark McKennaLeave a comment

Mark McKenna got his professional start in the graphic novel world in the mid-’80s and has since worked on almost 600 comics. Drawing and inking for DC and Marvel kept him in the world of household-name superheroes, but McKenna has also published creator-owned horror comics for both adults and children. With Halloween just around the corner, Cemetery Dance caught up with McKenna to talk about his creations, how he approaches horror comics, and how he was influenced by early horror tales from EC.Continue Reading

Q&A: ‘Channel Zero: No-End House’ Creator/Showrunner Nick Antosca

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 20, 2017September 19, 2017InterviewsBrian Russell, Channel Zero, creepypasta, Danica Davidson, Interviews, Nick Antosca, No End HouseLeave a comment

Last year the horror anthology series Channel Zero spooked audiences on SyFy. Now season two, called Channel Zero: No-End House, is set to premiere on SyFy tonight at 10 p.m. EST. Nick Antosca, the creator of the show, got his professional start writing horror books, and he said the new season has a John Carpenter feel and is inspired by Brian Russell’s creepypasta tale, “NoEnd House.” He also told Cemetery Dance Online about his literary inspirations and how he approaches writing horror, no matter the medium.

(Q&A conducted by Danica Davidson)Continue Reading

Robin Furth and the Comic Side of The Dark Tower

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 2, 2017August 2, 2017InterviewsComics, Danica Davidson, Dark Tower Week, Interviews, Marvel Comics, Robin Furth, Stephen King, The Dark Tower2 Comments

Robin Furth doesn’t live in Mid-World, but it could be argued she knows it better than the characters themselves. After working as Stephen King’s research assistant, Furth published Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Concordance, has written the graphic novel adaptations of The Dark Tower series for Marvel Comics, and is a consultant for the new film The Dark Tower and the TV series that will follow. As an avid folklorist, a fan of comics and King’s own go-to expert on all things Roland Deschain, Furth is the perfect person for all these jobs. She spoke to Cemetery Dance Online about her books, graphic fiction as a medium, and what she thinks about the upcoming movie and Idris Elba as the lead.Continue Reading

Mikita Brottman: The Study of Fear

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 5, 2017April 30, 2017InterviewsDanica Davidson, Interviews, Mikita BrottmanLeave a comment

Mikita Brottman has loved horror since an early age. She was reading it as a child in England, reading it as a student at Oxford University, and has been reading it during her career as a professor and psychoanalyst. Since the ’90s, she has published a series of both fiction and nonfiction books on taboo subjects—everything from cannibalism to serial killers to her experience doing a literature program at a Maximum Security prison. In their own ways, each book brings together her love of horror, the misunderstood, psychology and academia. Her academic works that deal with horror are both full of detail and accessible, something not always found together, especially when the academic world has tended to turn its nose up to the aesthetic of fictional horror. Brottman spoke about her books, the appeal of horror and what she thinks can make horror its scariest.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”: The Authorized Graphic Adaptation by Miles Hyman

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 5, 2016October 4, 2016ReviewsDanica Davidson, Featured, Graphic Novels, Miles Hyman, Reviews, Shirley Jackson, The LotteryLeave a comment

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”: The Authorized Graphic Adaptation by Miles Hyman
Hill and Wang (October 25, 2016)
160 pages; $30.00 hardcover; $16.00 paperback
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is one of the most famous—and infamous—short stories of all time. People reading it for the first time aren’t prepared for the twist ending, and when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1948, it offended some people so much that they wanted their subscriptions canceled. Those not so easily offended, though, were riveted to the story, and those who couldn’t keep it out of their minds realized they’d been swept up by its power. Seventy years later, the story continues to haunt, and now it’s been adapted into graphic novel format, done by Jackson’s own grandson, Miles Hyman.Continue Reading

Miles Hyman: Getting Graphic with Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 4, 2016October 4, 2016InterviewsDanica Davidson, Featured, Interviews, Miles Hyman, Shirley JacksonLeave a comment

Modern horror wouldn’t be what it is today without the influence of Shirley Jackson’s writing. Her grandson, Miles Hyman, pursued a career in art and has worked on many books and graphic novels, including a recent graphic novel adaptation of James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia, published by Archaia. Now he’s releasing his graphic novel adaptation of “The Lottery,” out from Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 25, to scare new readers and show old ones a new way of looking at the iconic short story.Continue Reading

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