Time-Life The Enchanted World: Ghosts

I am a legitimate, to the bone product of the 1980's. I watched Transformers and G.I Joe, He-Man, and even She-Ra though I hated her and possibly thought her twin brother was hawt. But some of the staples of my childhood in that most neon-colored of decades have been forgotten, and I am here to remind you of them, starting with a book series that my mom got: Time-Life Books "The Enchanted World" series. Anyone else remember these? Here's the commercial, to stir the blood into remembrance, as it were:





We had a ton of these; my mother is the progenitor of my morbid streak, though she's much less open about it than yours truly. I LOVED these books when I was a kid; I was about five years old or thereabouts when Mom started getting them. If I begged enough she might read pieces of it aloud to me as I played in the backyard and she worked on her tan. I started out just looking at the pictures, then eventually reading the captions and little stories told in the margins; by the time I was in high school I knew my favorites cover to cover.

For years I tried to talk Mom into letting me have them-- I doubt seriously they've been read all that much since I left home, but she would never give them to me. It's like that damn Monster Mash record, all over again.

Until I finally just found my own on eBay, my sister and I would slap the SHIT out of each other over who got this album when Mom died. We're a delightful bunch.

Most of my friends didn't remember these books at all, probably because it was a mail-away deal, not something you could just impulse buy at the local book store. Those who did usually only had Witches and Wizards, the first volume in the series. Mom has at least ten of these volumes, which was apparently unusual.

I wanted to read these books again so badly, but didn't want to pay God knows how much on eBay. Compounding the problem, I didn't know the name of the series (The Enchanted World). Doing a search online for a book called Ghosts usually ends up about how you'd imagine it would. But one day Bevin, my frequent (and often unwilling) partner in crime (as opposed to Cins, who is ALWAYS willing to shit stir) and I lucked out one day whilst shopping in Seattle. We went to Half Price Books, a store whose very existence makes me ridiculously happy, when a familiar brown cover (Magical Beasts) caught my eye as I was heading upstairs to look for more glorious girl-smut to add to my forever expanding library. The book was on the very top of a tall shelf, unnoticed for who knows how long; only reason I saw it was because it just happened to be at eye level with my head at the right angle when I was on one specific step. Between myself and Bevin (she bought Water Spirits, I bought almost all of the rest) we decimated that shelf. I got almost all of my favorites (still need Gods and Goddesses and Water Spirits) and a few other my mom doesn't have. Several of them are of a decidedly spooky bent, and perfect for this blog and the upcoming season!

My favorite as a kid was Ghosts. Simple, elegant, freaky as Hell's own gate. I would haul this out every time I had a sleep-over; great fodder for scaring the piss out of myself as well as my poor victim, usually one of my best friends, D.J. Heh. I'll have to remind her of that.

Skeleton or not, I'd still kiss him. With tongue, all lickory like! Painted by Horace Vernet.

This book is so very cool and creepy; the cover alone was enough to give myself the chills, and more than once, even as a teen, I had to put the book away when home alone because I'd unnerved myself. I self-medicated with My Little Ponies. (True fact: Cins was a My Little Pony in a former life! I was a witch.)

The book utilized a wide variety of artistic talent-- in researching this, I made some surprising discoveries. I also discovered that other than cover pictures, you can't find SHIT for these books. So I took photos; I could have scanned but eh, I'm lazy.

Click any of the pictures below for size GIGANTIC, so you can read the text on some of 'em!

This is just the flyleaf. There are three or four of them like this; how effing scary is that?! Painted by John Jude Palincar.

There's a lot of tricks like these in this book, and freaking LOVE it. Book credits this to Yvonne Gilbert.

This is one of the pictures I "hid" from; didn't like to actually look at it, as it were. Called the Ankou, a representative of Death in Bretagne (Brittany). Credited to Mark Langeneckert.

This is from the story titled as The Hooded Congregation, a story from Sweden. Scariest Christmas eeeeever. This and several other contributions in this book was done by Chris Van Allsburg, the artist who wrote and drew The Polar Express, Jumangi, and Zathura! I find it hilarious that I knew this guy's work from this; we never owned any of his children's books.

"Clattering on the staircase and howling in the hall, ghosts known as screaming skulls terrorized anyone who sought to displace them from the houses that once had been theirs." (pgs 58-9) Painted by John Jude Palencar.

This snippet is the reason my younger brother and I don't like to go near random wooden stakes in the ground. Seriously. Painted by Marshall Arisman.


Does this really need words? Painted also by Marshall Arisman.

One of my favorite ghost stories of all time, painted by Judy King Rieniets.

The Wife's Revenge; if my husband poisoned me and drove me to suicide he'd be lucky if the least he got was a haunting. Created by Kuniyoshi, a famous Japanese artist who was born in the 18th century. Old school horror!


She sees you. Everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. Go check under the table cloth. G'wan. Have a peek. Painted by Gary Kelley.

Remember the story of the bride who wanted to play hide and seek at her wedding reception? Yeah, they found her. Eventually. I'm gonna play trick-or-treat at my wedding reception just to see the uneasy looks on everyone's faces. Painted by Rick McCollum.

These books are pretty prevalent online for those interested in checking a few out. I love them and recommend them to everyone; you can get the whole set (all TWENTY ONE volumes) for about 150$, which breaks down to pretty minimal per book. Not bad for something that originally retailed in 1985 for 15$. A lot of people are selling the books individually, too, and your local library might have some to flip through; I know ours does.

Go forth! Read and better yourselves! Now please excuse me, this took me hours to write, I'm sure you have eye strain, and I need a shower.

The Halloween Comics You're Not Reading, Part l

I love Halloween. In my head it's always orange and purple and black; even Christmas is a touch spooky with me around, because I like to pass time on Christmas Eve telling ghost stories and put Haunted Mansion ornaments on my tree. I occasionally try to count all of the Halloween stuff that's up all year round in my bedroom and always lose count/interest somewhere in the thirties.

Some of my favorite authors and artists have hat same ever-present autumn in their souls, and lucky for me, let it reflect in their work. I think I'm going to do a feature on each of them as it occurs to me, so today I'll sing the song of Dan Brereton, one of my favorite artists and creator of one of my favorite comic book series, The Nocturnals.

Meet the family!

The Nocturnals is a neat mesh of weird: you have pulp, horror, and Halloween, and it creates something really special. Essentially, this is an ensemble story about a family and the trouble that they frequently face. The saturnine fellow up there with the girl with two-tones hair is Doc Horror and his daughter, Evening. Doc and Eve fell to earth from another dimension, trying to escape the parasitic evil that took over their own planet. Eve was just a small child at the time, and as a result of her fall was seperated from her father for a year as he tried to find her. Doc ended up working for an old time gangster who eventually helped him reunite with Eve.

Around that same time period their littel twosome grew by several as Polychrome, Starfish, the Gunwitch, Firelion, and Komodo were adopted into the clan. Eventually the Raccoon began to tag along too, originally because he'd very much like to get into Starfish's pants. Each Noctunal has their own bizarre back story, and it parts of each are revealed through the different stories currently out. There's also a Nocturnals bible called Nocturnals: A Midnight Companion, which gives more in-depth character backgrounds and biographies.

Here's a quickie into:


Polychrome, or Poly for short. She's a ghost, murdered and originally a wraith, but she now cruises with this crew and helps protect instead of haunt. She's a very gentle sort of soul, and doesn't have the same appetite for violence that her adopted kin possess.

Firelion, or Phestus Gold as he is named. Used ot be a cop, then caught fire, all by his lonesome. The government rebuit him, bigger, faster, fire proof. They HAVe the technology! Too bad they all sucked, and Phestus his the road. He likes stabbing things and lighting them on fire, depending on his mood. Me likie Phestus. Lots.


Doctor Nicodemus Horror, head of the family, so to speak. His wife was killed (I think) by the same entity that he and his daughter fled from on the Black Planet. He can't be out int he sun as it's lethal to him, and he's also contracted a nasty little virus that occasionally brings out his more lupine characteristics. He's a genius and very compassionate, despite the fact that he looks like Dracula.

Evening Horror and The Gunwitch, two more members of our little group. Eve is also referred to by her loving family as Halloween Girl, a very appropriate title since she is rather a physical embodiment of that holiday. This kid is seriously spooky, and she's got a plastic jack o lantern full of toys that mean serious business when it comes to Eve's protection. Somehow she can hear ghosts, though I'm not sure if it's a gift she inherited from her mother or something in her that changed when her father dumped her through the portal as a small child. With her there is the Gunwitch, a resurrected gunslinger who is part zombie, part enforcer, and all silent, doting babysitter for Eve. He's a dead eye shot, and also just a dead eye, what with the zombification and all. He was called back into service by Doc Horror, and protects his friends with his guns. Eve made his hat.

Starfish, the aquatic anomaly. She was discovered as a little fetus thing in suspended animation by the good doctor. He out her in a tub back at the Tomb to study her, and to his shock, he grew a girl! She's quite volatile, and good in water or out of it. She's very good with a gun, and as the Raccoon discovers, not above slinging a punch. She's most (to me) like Eve's sister, and doesn't hesitate to call a brat a brat when needed.

The Racoon, who was called Bandit and is called Procyon Cleanhands. He was built by the Narn K Corporation in what was dubbed The Monster Shop. Supposed to be warriors for sale, they kinda ruined that by having a nasty little thing called free will. He escaped some time before the start of this story, and Doc helped him get on his feet though he soon went his own way. He has a very ambiguous moral compass and tends to be on his own side, rather than a straight good or bad guy. He thinks Starfish badly needs to get laid, by him, and is doing his hardest to make that happen.


Komodo, or the Dragon Boy. Narn K's most recent escapee, he got his wings clipped (right off) for his first escape attempt. I think he's roughly a teenager in temperament and age, and also very restless to see the world. He and Eve get along quite well.

There's your basic rundown, now go read it! Gorgeous art all through out-- the issues that Brereton illustrates as well as writes are all entirely painted interiors, and are gorgeous. Eventually I want to get some actual prints of Brereton's work for my walls, but until then I have the internets. Dan Brereton is my favorite to do the art for the books, but some stories have been done by Ted Naifah (of Gloom Cookie and other stories).

One really great idea conceived of and executed resulted in the story The Troll Bridge. Eve makes "friends" with a rotten little devils head lantern, and ends up dragging her through several different worlds. All of the artists of these respective worlds did the art for this massive cross over, and it's AWESOME. Jill Thompson gets to draw Eve in the Frightside, where she meets The Scary Godmother, another favorite of mine. She also meets Usaki Yojimbo (and is drawn by Stan Sakai), as well as Jingle Belle, Santa's daughter, you get to see a zombie gunfight, all kinds of great stuff!

If you need a jumping off point the story starts (I believe) with The Black Planet. Go. Read.

REAAAAD!

Seriously, how can I resist having such art in my home?