When I was growing up in the 80s, stories that were marketed as ‘children’s' were occasionally brutal.

Characters got maimed or killed, tortured or traumatized, met with horrid ends in worlds that were anything but rosy. And this was a pattern that wasn't limited to, say, English literature ...

Some of my earliest memories are playing with Star Wars toys - my awareness of the first film and the toys are muddled together, but I clearly remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back, and vividly recall the couple-years-long wait after that, before Return of the Jedi would come and resolve the ...

Halloween, aka Eve of All Saints, is a Day of the Dead.

Days of the Dead exist in nearly every culture. There's the famous Dia de Muertos from Mexico, but there are also less known ones.

For example, in Greece we got “Soul Saturdays” which are basically two Saturdays ...

Who doesn't love a happy ending?

Eh, there are a good few people I've met that just turn their noses up at happy endings, because apparently according to their opinion, happy endings are for the weak.

But for all other normal people, a happy ending is a good ...

Do you dare delve into the dark underworld of bizarre abandoned comics on the Duck? Locoma does… and occasionally brings back little treasures he finds, to share with everyone else. A brilliant idea (with a huge amount of potential comics), most of the “anti-featured” comics Locoma links to are very ...

Doctor Death is an interesting nickname, but a suitable one- this particular practitioner has the ability to supernaturally sense the pleasure and pain of those around him. Cancers, diseases, and more… he doesn't seem particularly happy about it, perhaps because it's mixed him up in a seedy underworld ...

In this re-imagining of a golden-age comic character, BSP_Curt has made a grim and violent tale. A guy who seems like an unlikely hero has a personal vendetta against some underworld crimelords- the people responsible for the death of the woman he loved. The “Curse” is the attention of the ...

The Greek pantheon has arguably been the most entertaining and bizarre of the dysfunctional god families. DIS centers on Hades, overseer of the underworld, and how much he hates his assigned work, his demented nephew Hermes, and his new admirer. The stories are drawn in a somewhat manic art style ...

Amelia is a rather unladylike lady, stifled by Victorian society, whose primary source of entertainment is consorting with low criminals and swindling her peers out of as much of their money as she can. She cannot abide her uncle, the family patriach (a boor and a great one for rules ...