TV Review: Tientsin Mystic Tientsin (now usually romanized as “Tianjin”) is a river and port city in Northern China. During a ceremony to honor the River God, two corpses are discovered by salvage diver Guo De-You (Xian Li). One is an infant of unknown origin, but the other is the leader of the prestigious Chamber… Continue reading TV Review: Tientsin Mystic
Tag: hypnosis
Comic Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes 1
Comic Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes 1 edited by Cory Sedlmeier As has been mentioned on this blog before, by the late 1940s, superheroes had become passe in comic books. A handful continued to be published over at National Publications (DC) on a regular basis, and there was the odd minor publisher title,… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes 1
Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine August 1949
Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine August 1949 edited by Ellery Queen It’s time for another issue of this venerable mystery magazine. The cover this time is uncredited, and does not directly match any of the stories in the issue. “Double Exposure” by Ben Hecht opens the issue with a tale of a psychiatrist who… Continue reading Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine August 1949
Book Review: All My Friends Are Super Heroes
Book Review: All My Friends Are Super Heroes by Andrew Kaufman Toronto has a lot of superheroes. But now there will be one less. The Perfectionist is flying to Vancouver to start over after the disappearance of her husband Tom. What the Perfectionist doesn’t know is that Tom is on the flight with her, and… Continue reading Book Review: All My Friends Are Super Heroes
Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3
Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3 by Robert Bloch Robert Bloch (1917-1994) was a prolific author of horror, science fiction and mystery works. (You may have seen, read or at least heard of Psycho.) This volume, originally “Selected Stories” and by no means complete, features 39 stories published between 1960 and… Continue reading Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3
Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries Fall 2016
Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries Fall 2016 edited by Matthew Moring Every so often, someone tries to relaunch a once-popular magazine. Most of these efforts fold quickly. The subject of this review is one such, lasting a single issue. As you’ll recall from a previous review, Famous Fantastic Mysteries was primarily a reprint title, presenting… Continue reading Magazine Review: Famous Fantastic Mysteries Fall 2016
Comic Book Review: Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom Volume 01
Comic Book Review: Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom Volume 01 Written by Paul S. Newman & Matt Murphy; Art by Bob Fujitani & Frank Bolle Dr. Gail Sanders’ first day on the job at Atom Valley is also almost her last, as an experimental rocket goes off the rails. Fortunately, she is saved by her… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom Volume 01
Book Review: The Inkblots
Book Review: The Inkblots by Damion Searls “What do you see?” Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922) was a German-speaking Swiss psychiatrist who developed an interesting experiment involving inkblots. The son of an artist and himself artistically trained, Rorschach was fascinated by visual perception and hoped to use the things people saw when they looked at his inkblots to… Continue reading Book Review: The Inkblots
Book Review: Seven Come Infinity
Book Review: Seven Come Infinity edited by Groff Conklin The title of this anthology refers to the phrase “seven come eleven” from craps, referring to the ways you can win. In the preface, it’s mentioned that there are a finite number of possibilities for the outcome of rolling two dice. But when you write a… Continue reading Book Review: Seven Come Infinity
Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Flash, Volume 4
Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Flash, Volume 4 edited by Julius Schwartz The Flash is Barry Allen, a police detective who was working during a thunderstorm one night when a bolt of lightning struck a shelf of chemicals, spilling the mixture on him. Barry quickly realized that he’d been gifted with super-speed, making… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Flash, Volume 4