I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DEATH LURKS-“Happiness Pie” (1996).

After Grivo took GLeeMONEX, he went from being a dark man embracing darkness into a happy man who loves happiness.  In pie form.

What’s in this pie?

Two cups love
A cup and a half of understanding
a tablespoon of good old-fashioned compassion
sugar to taste
and the ovens … are our hearts

This song, like the other Death Lurks songs was written by Craig Northey of Odds.  And while the lyrics are deliberately over the top treacle, the song is top-notch.

The jangly guitars sound just right and you can easily start to sway along.

Much like this movie was all about drugs, this song is like a gateway into pop music.  You listen because it is so silly and easy to mock.  But you slowly start to get into it because the music s really catchy.  And soon enough you like pop music as well!

True story.

[READ: January 20, 2020] “Another Castle: Grimoire”

This story was written by Andrew Wheeler and illustrated by Paulina Ganucheau. It was published as a five issue arc and collected in this one volume.

In the Kingdom of Beldora a heart finch appears on a branch outside the window of princesses Artemisia (Misty).

Her lady in waiting is thrilled at the good omen, but he princess recognizes that it is not actually a heart finch.  She realizes it as a spy and puts a pair of scissors through it and it immediately disintegrates.  Then the princess if off to defend the kingdom–Shadelings are spying on them.

The Shadelings are run by Lord Badlug.  It has been ten years since he’s done anything to their kingdom, but hey can’t forget his treachery.

Misty’s father tells her to settle down and go back to her friends.  But Misty knows what she is doing.  She runs up to the throne and grabs The Leveler–the only sword that can kill Lord Badlug.

As she trolls the forts with the sword she runs into Pete, the man she is likely to marry.  Pete is the prince of a nearby kingdom and it is speculated that when the two kingdoms unite they can defeat Badlug once and for all.

Pete came to see that she was safe, but Misty thinks he’s more sheep than wolf in times of trouble.

While they are talking she hears an old woman call for help.  The old woman proves to be Badlug’s mother who grabs Misty and plans to take her to Grimoire to marry Badlug.  Grimoire is also the castle that Badlug once took Misty’s mother.  She never saw her mother again.

In between the action are pages from Diego’s Book of Conduct, which explains the way Misty is supposed to behave: “Princes can win wars but princesses can win the peace.”

As Misty is taken away, Pete takes the Leveller and swears he will save Misty.  Although Misty is dismayed that he is holding it with one hand when it clearly a two-handed sword.

When Misty arrives at the castle she is attended to by a gorgon named Gorga (who is naive but ultimately kind) and a flying creature named Fogmoth (who mostly bakes).

Gorga thinks Badlug is terrific.  Ganucheau draws Badlug very creepily–he is very white and skeletal.  He gave his soul to dark forces in exchange for life everlasting,  He draws his strength from the land of Grimoire.  But he wants more power and land and by marrying Misty, Beldoria will be rightly his and his power will be unstoppable.

Misty pretty easily manages to escape but she quickly comes across another castle–an old decrepit castle where Badlug once kept the previous princess–Misty’s mom.

Her mom killed herself rather than go along with the wedding (this story is kind of dark).  Badlug was so enraged that he burnt the whole castle to the ground with everyone in it.

Misty realizes she can’t leave if her actions will hurt others.  She asks Gorga to bring her back to her room.

Then we see Pete fighting against monsters on his way to recuse Misty.

He is more interested in telling his own story (he forgot to bring a bard).  He calls himself Pete the Dashing. But while he is monologuing like this he gets smacked in the face with a tail.  He’s pretty terrible and is on the verge of defeat when he accidentally slays the first monster.

Turns out everyone in Badlug’s castle is watching him through a magic mirror.  Misty knows that Pete is going to die.  This upsets Gorga who thinks Pete is very handsome.  Misty dismisses him and even says he’s not that handsome.

She asks Gorga and Fogmoth if they can help with the other monsters that Pete must face.  Turns out there are a whole bunch on the way to the castle.   He bested the Verminitaur, but he still must fight the Weremaid, the Rockroach, the Manti’caw,  Aleg and Elsa, and Thrawgg the Unconquered.

All of the monsters are employed by a boss.  They are able to buy off the boss who agrees agrees to have them stand down when Pete comes by.  All except Thrawgg.

Pete is telling his story in verse as he meets all of the monsters.

The Weremaid who “meant to render him from head to toe” (in real life, she paints him). then he meets the “Roach of the Rock who mercilessly sought to clean his clock” (literally, he is a clockmaker).  The Manti’caw deas him a deadly hand (in poker).  Finally he meets Aleg and Elga the giants.  They give him tea and say they’ve come into some money and have retired form monstering.  Pete is amazed at how nice all these different monsters are but he still wants to say he killed them in his poetry.  They say it’s fine although he will certainly die when he faces Thrawgg.

We soon learn about Robin, the rightful king of Grimoire and Fogmoth’s boyfriend  (he’s NOT my boyfriend).  There is a hilarious caricature drawn of Robin.  But when Misty meets Robin, he is handsome and powerful encouraging everyone to fight with him.  But he is preaching to no one on a soapbox in an alley.

Meanwhile Fogmoth flies Gorga to deal with Thrwagg.  She has not been able to use her full powers to turn anyone to stone. But she is able to stun Thrawgg.  But just as she does so Pete shows up with his sword and believes that she is the monster.

Things escalate quickly with battles and romance and a wonderfully strong heroine who is not going to follow conventional rules.

I enjoyed some of the twists that allowed romance to bloom.  I love that Pete almost dies and then has something even stranger happen to him.  I also loved that there were all different types of romances in the story as well.

This story was pretty exciting with enough pot twists and interesting characters to make it a real page turner.  And while many of the story parts weren’t especially original, it was still an enjoyable story.