It's Halloween! My favorite holiday of the year and while I didn't get to dress up at work today, that's fine because I still get to celebrate this awesome day! So, in the spirit of all things spooky I thought we'd talk about more creatures I'm glad aren't real. I really wish Clowns weren't, sadly, they are. If you're considering clown as a career path, I beg you, please don't. I would cry. 

Vampires are awesome, in literature, except for the Twilight series. Sorry to any fans out there, but Twilight ruined vampires for the modern era for a time. Thankfully the old classic vampires came back. We've always shown them as suave, sexy, and utterly irresistible. In a lot of lore, they have tragic back stories that they have to overcome. 9 times out of 10 the vampire protagonist we love, was turned against their will. Whether they were or weren't isn't really up for debate here, because even a good vampire is a vampire. Like my dad says 'there's only a good pirate because there's a worse pirate.' Which I think applies here. The idea of living forever, staying young, and attracting anyone you want comes at a price. The lore suggests the soul is given up, and of course there's the blood sucking. Which, dude, we somehow romanticize that, but imagine having two sharp teeth sink into your neck....bad idea. So, while they're fun to read about, let's be glad we don't find these bloodsuckers tapping at our windows in the middle of the night.
 
Werewolves are no different. From Blood and Chocolate to even Harry Potter, our ideals of a werewolf have changed. There are the stories where they can turn freely between a wolf and a human, and the more older legends about werewolves transforming under the full moon. For decades these stories have entranced generations. Where there is a vampire story there is typically a werewolf one. Regardless of which mythos we believe in, werewolves are serious business. They'll hunt you down and nom on you, so really....let's just be glad they're not real.

Talking animals may not seem scary, but hear me out here. You're on your bed, minding your own business, when bam! Your dog tells you something. Or your cat calls you stupid. Yes, animals do that in their own special ways now, but for real though, if animals started talking, we would be doomed. Cats could yell, dogs wouldn't shut up about playing games or wanting food, and the whole world would descend into chaos. Talking animals always looks cute, and the idea sounds awesome. Who wouldn't want to hold a conversation with their pet? But think of the ramifications to that. Animals know what you do behind closed doors. Animals also know what you say about other people when it's just you two. Above all, they know where you keep the food.​

Guys, it's October which is officially my favorite time of year! Halloween is my Christmas, and with that, there are some utter Halloween must haves for the season. First of all, anyone who doesn't love this holiday as much as I do is no longer my friend. I'm just kidding, I still love you. I'm just sitting here admiring the spoopy decorations around my house. Yes, you read that right, decorate. Not everyone does this, but if you're like me, it's a must have for this holiday. You don't have to go all out. But an excuse to hang some purple and orange lights around the house? Why not! It's always fun to have just some string lights to plug in. Okay, no, we probably shouldn't have them year-round, but hey! We are adults and get to do whatever we want, right?

With that, let's be honest, we are nerds. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a huge part of this season, and possibly even into Christmas. So, with that, Hot Topic is filled with Nightmare Before Christmas stuff, because Halloween is the coolest holiday in the history of ever. Decorations are everywhere and it's the perfect time for us nerds to strut out stuff. We are a creative people, we have stores at our disposal. Between Spirit, Party City, ThinkGeek, and all the department stores out there, there isn't a theme out there we can't create. And Halloween doesn't have to be scary, it's just a bonus if it is! Either way, if you have a house with a yard or an apartment there's a way to make Halloween your own.

Above all, it's about costumes. Normal people look forward to dressing up once a year. But for us geeks, it's literally the holiday of all holidays. It's not just about costumes, no, it's about showing off our mad skills. That's right, Halloween is the holiest cosplay holiday. It's not about competitions or cons, it's about strutting our stuff, and also looking fabulous as our favorite characters. Above all, Halloween is about fun. All work and no play is hard on anyone, so one night a year we all throw caution to the wind and just be our true nerdy selves. But the best part about October is how it has changed to encompass Halloween throughout. No longer is it just one day, but many of us choose to dress up several times! I've got some fun ideas for work, because why not? And it allows people who are otherwise too shy to dress up do so without judgement. The perfect costume is a must have for any Halloween event.

And of course so is candy and food. This geek loves her food. Once for Halloween, I tried making a vibrant blue and bright purple cake just because I could. Don't we adults have gatherings and parties during this season? Yes, we do. And with that comes the need to feed. All food can be made spooky, geeky, or fun! With just a bit of food coloring and some creative desire, any meal can be Halloween ready. Also, pumpkins.....lots of them. Everywhere.

Halloween is about fun, even if you're not into the scary. But if you are, then break out those horror movies and grab the fake blood! I've learned to enjoy the scarier movies as I've gotten older. They do have a certain charm. But more so the scary shows that air on TV. As I write this Haunted is playing in the background. Real life ghost stories are totally my thing, and Halloween offers me plenty of the paranormal. Scary shows, movies, and all thinks spooky are the best part of Halloween. Well, aside from the candy....but that's just a given!
 

The most recent episode of the new Doctor Who centered around the iconic Rosa Parks and her brave act to not give up her seat on a segregated bus. The sad truth of America’s past was shoved into our faces without any apology; offering a glimpse back into something we claim to have stepped out of. The show also argued that perhaps we didn’t step so far from this embarrassing time as we originally thought. With Yas and Ryan commenting at one point that they both struggled with their own bits of racism. Ryan saying how he got ‘stopped more than (his) white mates’ and Yas’ sad confirmation of ‘being called a terrorist when (she) leaves a Mosque’.  

The sad truth is, while Mrs. Parks did amazing in taking a step to break those barriers, we in 2018 are still not equal. That is a problem. That is THE biggest problem. Humans are so caught up in the ‘Us vs Them’ mentality that we have forgotten the people who came before us and fought for equality. I’ll be the first to admit that I cried during this entire episode. The depiction of cruelty that segregation openly displayed showcased in a modern TV show, stole my breath away. While some do not want to see it, others do not want to admit it, our leaps and strides have not been so grandiose as they should be.

When John Boyega was cast in Star Wars ‘Episode VII’, he received death threats for being Black. He’s still billed below 5 other white actors, despite being a main character. Fans were so upset about his casting they literally sent him death threats, just because of the pigmentation of his skin. I cannot begin to wrap my head around how utterly disgraceful of a notion this is. Yet, this is not the only backlash actors have received. Many fans protested the new Teen Titans Netflix series due to Starfire being portrayed by Anna Diop, before the show was even released.

The comic world has had its own share of backlash. When it was announced that the new Ms. Marvel would be Muslim, people lost their minds refusing to read the new series. Same thing happened when Tony Stark was replaced as Iron Man by a smart, African American young woman named Riri. Before that, however, we got fans who were really irritated by a bi-racial Spider-Man. Many argue that comic characters should stay as they are and be portrayed by the correct race. While others, myself included, believe it’s time for a change. Comic characters should reflect their demographic, and why can’t they reach people of other ethnicities? We need more diversity in all media types, because we are a diverse species.

Doctor Who has made a lot of progressive arguments, more subtly, throughout its run, and yet this episode struck me to my very core. I’ll be the first to admit it made me super uncomfortable. I didn’t grow up near or around this mentality. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a military community filled with many people from all types of backgrounds. I was lucky to not truly understand that racism was a vapid problem until my teen years. I find racism to be sickening on a bone deep level, and it truly has no place in society. Yet there are some who disagree. Some who claim by changing certain characters, or whatnot, to fit minority needs is disrespectful to its roots.

I think Mrs. Parks would be utterly disgusted with such a remark, to which I fully agree. Every child should have heroes to look up to. Doctor Who took a big leap in making the Doctor a woman; one that had many fans petitioning to have her turned back into a man. I think this show is not only going in the right direction. I think it’s doing a damn good job of showing us where we need to be and where we’ve been. The latest episode was a wonderful reminder that there are serious issues we need to work on as a society; lessons from our past that we should never forget. It seems that a change in the Doctor’s gender was a well-founded one at that. A female Doctor might just be the one we need to help us swallow some ugly truths. I welcome the change with excitement! The Doctor is always going to be the Doctor, regardless of gender. Perhaps this show can offer a lot more life lessons. Bravo Doctor, Bravo.

​Looking back, I’ve come to realize that growing up in the 80’s and 90’s was quite the awesome experience. Because for the most part, the music was pretty bitchin’, technology was evolving at an incredible rate, so you were treated to some kind of new marvel on a regular basis, there were Saturday morning cartoons to enjoy, ones that you simply could not miss because they were so freakin’ epic and if you were a horror fan like myself, you were able to grow up in the midst of a horror renaissance where Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees ruled the silver screen and other monsters and terrors could be discovered via the wonder of VHS.
 
But while it was supremely cool to experience all of those things, the only real downside of growing up in that era, was the fact that the internet did not exist until the late 1990’s, which made life for a young horror fan such as myself extremely difficult for a time. Because it was simply impossible to geek out with others about the genre outside of your family and friends, provided they liked horror of course, and learning more about a horror film or franchise was simply impossible unless someone had bothered to write a book about said film or franchise. Enter a magazine known as FANGORIA. Because this particular mag is one that I stumbled upon in the late 1980’s and it was a true gift from the horror gods.
 
For this entire magazine, focused only upon the wonder of the genre and it’s quality writing and features, spoke to the souls of horror fans everywhere since the writers of this mag loved scary movies, and you could feel that passion in their words, but the magazine offered so much more than mere geek out moments, it was…a celebration of horror in every sense of the word. The genre’s past, present and future releases were all on display here, allowing for aficionados such as myself to learn everything there was to know about the genre and they did such a good job of building anticipation for upcoming horror films that I would count down the days to a particular release on home video so I could finally see what the writer in question was raving about.
 
In fact, I loved this magazine so much, I made a point to mow more lawns in the summertime to buy a yearly subscription and I’ll never forget taking the copy that featured the zombie movie Night Life on the cover to help the folks at my local video store order a copy for myself and others to enjoy. But, alas, the good times with FANGORIA would only go so far. For as the internet grew and print began to suffer, so did the magazine, eventually fading into oblivion not that long ago and I will admit that I was sad about this. After all, FANGORIA was a horror institution and knowing that it would no longer be on shelves was heartbreaking to say the least. But alas, it faded into the void…if only for a little while.
 
Because others understood the wonder and the power of FANGORIA, and a company named Cinestate snatched up the rights, and brought this sucker back to life and the instant I heard it was returning to print, I snatched up a subscription and soon as it was available and last night, when I went to check my mailbox, an incredible treat was waiting for me in a black bag, a brand new issue of FANGORIA, the first one to arrive in my mailbox in years and my goodness, what a treat this turned out to be, since this magazine did not skip a beat. The writing is as fantastic as ever, the features are as informative as ever, offering up incredible insight on the new Halloween movie and its impact on everyone involved with it and gosh, there’s just so much more to discuss about this particular issue that I could go on for days about it. But I won’t, because you need to get a copy for yourself so that you too can enjoy the wonder of picking up this resurrected magazine.
 
Which brings me to my final thought when it comes to FANGORIA’s resurrection, the fact that well, holding that brand-new copy in my hands…was simply a magical experience. Because in that moment, the history and the importance of that magazine washed over me. It’s helped to grow the horror genre into what it is today, and it has influenced who knows how many filmmakers and on a personal level, it helped stoke my love of horror films, it was one of the many reasons I got into creative writing and well, it simply invigorated my imagination when I was growing up, and opening it once again, allowed for a flood of wonderful memories to fill up my mind, and I think it’s magnificent that a new generation, and an older one get to experience that kind of wonder all over again. So, my thanks go out to Cinestate for starting the resurrection process and Phil Noble Jr. and his incredible writing staff for making FANGORIA better than ever, and I am simply over the moon over the fact that FANGO is back and that its future is a bright one indeed.