Are you still having trouble getting in the mood for Valentine’s Day? Allow me to help with a series of covers that combine my two favorite things, love and baseball! These baseball romances are guaranteed to touch even the outfield of your heart. Plus, if you’ve been confused about the difference between first base, third base, and all the way, these books are here to help, just in time for Valentine’s Day!
St. Valentine heals an epileptic.
No one knows when the first Valentine’s Day was celebrated. Saint Valentine lived in 3rd Century Rome and provided care to persecuted Christians before being martyred by Emperor Claudius II. Valentine is the patron saint of Terni, epilepsy, and beekeepers. How his feast day became associated with the celebration of courtly love, no one is sure. References to Valentine’s Day as a romantic holiday can be found in the works of both Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare.
No one knows when the first Valentine’s Day card was sent but, by the time of the Victorian era, they were a part of the tradition. Here is a beautiful Valentine’s Card from the 1890s, with a romantic scene of courtship and a paper lace design. Sold in London, this would have been an expensive card that would have been sent by a member of the upper classes.
However, during the Victoria era, there were also what was known as the Vinegar Valentine Cards. These were cards that were sent to let someone know that they were either not loved or that the person they thought they love was not worthy of them. These cards were often sent and left anonymously. Can you imagine the feeling on Valentine’s Day of not knowing whether you’re going to get a card like the one above or a card like the one below?
That’s one Valentine’s tradition that I’m glad we no longer have to deal with!
I woke up and saw that a thick fog had descended over the neighborhood. I know better than to let a good mist go to waste so I grabbed my camera and I went for a walk.
Previous Moments:
Hello Horror fans, This has been about 10 years of me writing for this blog and yes, I’m still getting better! I found my voice years ago and still love the sound of it!
“We forgot about the zombies” begins with two out of shape men fleeing the undead and taking refuge in a barn. The skinny/unathletic protagonist- I shall call him – Mr. Skinnypants! Mr. Skinnypants has a huge gooey chunk of his arm hanging and it’s kind of funny. I did laugh. I think we might be in for something good.
The abandoned barn has a table filled with syringes that are poorly labeled with only a C and E with letters missing. Mr. Skinnypants immediately injects himself, turning him into a carnivorous WereRabbit! Yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo is OUT FOR BLOOD!!! The C and E stood for cute! This goes on for a while and it is pretty funny. See Noah, this is how it’s done or maybe you’ll be the Next Alex Magana and I will be allowed to hate you. The short ends with another good gag.
This short totally delivered. It had a good beginning, middle, and end. You understood the characters and the jokes landed well- very entertaining.
It’s nearly Halloween! Have you picked out your costume yet?
No?
Don’t worry! The Shattered Lens is here to help! For inspiration, check out the fashionable outfits featured on these pulp paperback covers, all done by artist Boris Vallejo! Find your costume below!
Happy Halloween!
by Johnny Craig
Along with The Haunt of Fear and Tales From The Crypt, The Vault of Horror was a horror anthology comic book that was published, from 1950 to 1955, by EC Comics. Hosted by The Vault-Keeper, The Vault of Horror featured adaptations of classic horror stories along with totally original tales of terror and fright. The Vault of Horror was so popular among young readers that eventually a psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham claimed that it, along with other comics, was responsible for juvenile delinquency and every other social ill facing 1950s America. Congress investigated and, because of all the bad publicity, EC canceled all of their horror titles.
However, the jokes on Wertham and Congress because The Vault of Horror is now eagerly sought after by collectors and is viewed as a high point in comic book history. Below are a few covers from The Vault of Horror, all done by artist Johnny Craig.
Are you read to enter the Vault?
Published by EC Comics, Tales From The Crypt is one of the most fondly-remembered horror comics books of the 1950s. The series actually began under the title International Comics and went through several other title changes before becoming Tales From The Crypt. A horror anthology series that was hosted by The Crypt Keeper, The Vault Keeper, and the Old Witch, Tales From The Crypt ran from 1950 to 1955 and was so popular with young readers that a psychologist named Fredric Wertham claimed that reading the comic book could lead to juvenile delinquency and other deviant behavior. The resulting moral panic led to a Congressional investigation and the adaptation of the Comic Book Code. It also led to the cancellation of all of EC’s horror titles, including Tales From The Crypt.
In the decades since, issues of Tales From The Crypt have been highly sought after by collectors and the comic book even inspired a television show on HBO. Below is a selection of the covers of Tales From The Crypt, the series that corrupted America’s youth.
It’s always interesting to see what used to be controversial.
It’s October and, just in case you need some help getting into the Halloween spirit, here’s some classic vintage horror movie posters! All of the posters below are from the 1930s and were commissioned by the Universal Pictures art department. Universal was Hollywood’s top studio for horror in the 30s and their posters helped to make stars of everyone form Bela Lugosi to Boris Karloff to Lon Chaney, Jr.
Let’s get in the mood for horror with the help of Universal Pictures:
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Murders in The Rue Morgue (1932)
The Old Dark House (1932)
The Mummy (1932)
The Invisible Man (1933)
The Black Cat (1934)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Night Key (1937)
Usually, I only share trailers but I simply had to share the first official movie poster for the MCU’s Black Widow, which will be coming out in May of 2020.
Seriously, this is so kickass!
Now, before you read any further, I guess I should say that I’m about share a spoiler from Avengers: Endgame. I think everyone in the world has seen that movie by now and, if you haven’t, you probably don’t care about the MCU or any of that other stuff. But still, just in case, consider this to be your SPOILER WARNING:
I really liked Avengers: Endgame but I do have to admit that it really pissed me off that they killed off Natasha. Storywise, there was no reason to kill off Natasha. If anyone in that scene needed to redeem themselves by sacrificing their life for the greater good, it was Clint! After all, Clint’s the one who spent the past few years going around the world and killing anyone who he felt didn’t deserve to still be alive. (And yes, Clint killed a drug lord at the start of the film and drug lords are evil but he also killed everyone who worked for the drug lord and some of those people were probably decent people who were doing what they had to do to survive or provide for their families.) The whole movie felt like it was set up for Clint to finally prove he deserved to be an Avenger by sacrificing his life. Instead, they killed off Natasha and it just felt totally wrong.
(It also felt rather cynical. Of course, they couldn’t kill Clint. They needed Jeremy Renner around to appear in the show about Hawkeye’s daughter that’s going to be on the new Disney streaming service.)
As the first woman to be prominently featured in multiple MCU films, Natasha was always my favorite Avenger and killing her off before she even got to star in her own movie just felt totally wrong to me. (The fact that Brie Larson’s dull Captain Marvel got her own showcase before the Black Widow will always bug me.) Still, I did take some solace from the fact that, even after Natasha’s death, there was still a Black Widow movie scheduled to come out and Scarlett Johansson would be starring in it.
Of course, then I found out that the Black Widow film is a prequel and it also sounds like the film’s ultimate goal might be to introduce Florence Pugh as the new Black Widow. Don’t get me wrong. Florence Pugh is one of the best actresses around but still, Scarlett Johansson will always be the Black Widow to me and the character’s pointless death will always bother me. So, up until a few minutes ago, I was not quite as enthusiastic about seeing the Black Widow film as you might normally expect me to be.
But, seriously, this poster is freaking perfect. It’s everything you would want a poster for a Black Widow stand alone film to be. I hope the movie itself lives up to fierceness in Natasha’s eyes.
I guess I’ll find out in May!
by John Newton Howitt
With Independence Day approaching, it’s time to honor Jimmy Christopher. Jimmy was an agent for United States Intelligence, cod-named Operator #5. From 1934 to 1939, Jimmy kept America safe from its enemies as the star of the 10-cent pulp magazine, Secret Service Operator #5. Today, Secret Service Operator #5 is best-remembered for two things: a 13 issue arc in which Jimmy became a freedom fighter after America was conquered by the Purple Empire (a thinly-veiled stand-in for Nazi Germany) and a series of exciting, patriotic covers.
Unless otherwise noted, the covers below are all credited to John Newton Howitt:
by Rafael De Soto
Unknown Artist
Unknown Artist
Through the Shattered Lens 