Monthly Archives - July 2023

Arkhaven Spotlight: Give My Regards to Black Jack

One of the biggest reasons that Manga has completely buried the American comic book industry is that American comics are extremely limited in its audience. The comic book guys are pretty much it. If you like superheroes or to be more accurate diverse and inclusive superheroes then the big two has got your back fam. However, in Japan if you like superheroes there's a manga for you. If you're a toddler there's a manga for you....

Read more...

The Unfathomable Eighties Movies (part 1)

This piece has been on a backburner for a while.  However, the OceanGate Incident has forced me to turn up the gas on it. At the tail end of the 1980s, right before the world would “wake up from history” and then roll over and go right back to sleep again, there was a flood (sorry) of deep-water horror movies.  At the time we didn’t know why we were being drenched (I’ll try to control myself) with these things.  Although now we know that...

Read more...

Blobs and Ends

You would never see a sign like this today80s Lifeguard 1: Only for the weak!80s Lifeguard 2: Yah, only the weak like you, ha! ha!80s Lifeguard 1: Weak little girly man!80s Lifeguard 2: Girly man! Ha! Ha! Ha! I woke up today, convinced it was Thursday. Not a great start. I haven't done one these miscellaneous dumps for a while, so here it is. FIRST The Russian vampire movie Empire V. I'd heard a little about it but not much. ...

Read more...

The Dark Herald’s Favorite BBQ Sauce

This is it. This is all you are getting from me today. This is a South Carolina stylesauce and goes best with pulled pork barbecue. 2 cups prepared yellow mustard 2/3 cup cider vinegar 3 tablespoons tomato paste 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce (your choice 3/4 cup white sugar 1 tablespoon mustard powder 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules or soup base 2 teaspoons dried rosemary leaves 1 teaspoon celery seed 2 teaspoons onion powder 2 teaspoons garlic powder 2 teaspoons Morton Kosher Salt 1 teaspoon black ground pepper Simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Now go...

Read more...

The Dark Herald Does Not Recommend: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

I was a very reluctant convert to the Church of Indy.   I hadn’t seen Raiders of the Lost Ark for most of its original theatrical run.  Sure, I knew that Lucas had written it, Spielberg had directed and neither of them had ever failed me… Yet.  But it just didn’t interest me either.  I saw the commercials and they looked something like the old Crash Corrigan serials that Channel 38 had strung together into an incredibly cheap Saturday morning movie.  It didn’t look like the...

Read more...