A Post About Another Post

  
      Recently, I was inspired to write a comedic post about Conjure, a Magic: The Gathering magazine from 1994. Conjure is a charmingly incompetent relic seemingly published by a team of guys killing time before the refill date for their anti-psychotic meds. As I wrote this post, though, I found myself with a problem: in order to write the sort of article I wanted to write, the piece was turning out to be pretty insider-y. That is to say, an audience without some understanding of the game of Magic would probably be fairly lost. As such, it didn't seem to be a great fit with the rest of my site (no mean feat for a blog combining lunchmeat reviews with an exhaustive analysis of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). Rather than dilute the article, or scrap it entirely, I decided to see if a site dedicated to Magic content might be interested in it. I contacted noted Magic rabble-rouser Dr. Jeebus, proprietor of just such a site, mtgbrodeals.com, and after a bit of back and forth, the good Dr. was kind enough to post my piece. I really appreciate the mtgbrodeals approach to content; it is, shall we say, far less stuffy than your average MTG site (I can feel free to use swears where appropriate), and it encourages an unconventional, creative look at the game rather than the industry standard of fairly dry analytical articles. For example, one gentleman, Jack LaCroix, has written a couple of very amusing pieces about the game as viewed through the lens of Gonzo journalism. The site as a whole represents a refreshing take on a game that oftentimes is taken way too seriously. And no, I am not getting paid to say this. If you would like to check out my foray into collectible card game nostalgia, or if you're just morbidly curious, here's the link: Conjure Magazine: Yep, This Was a Thing.
     I'd like to extend a hearty thank you to Dr. Jeebus for helping share my work with an appropriate audience, and for putting my post right below one from Syd Lexia. Oddly, this blog already has a somewhat tenuous link to Syd Lexia's website that, until now, no one but me has ever known about. You see, last October I wanted to write a Halloween-themed article about the NES game Monster Party. As I was researching it, I came across Syd's fantastic article on that same topic. After reading it, I realized that the quintessential Monster Party article had already be written, thus rendering my initial plan rather pointless. I then decided to instead write my Scary Stories blog, which is far and away the most-read post I've ever, uh, posted. So yeah, funny how that all works. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my Magic article if you happen to check it out. I'll be back with a more standard post (at least as standard as things ever get around here) some time in the near future, unless I contract malaria or something.

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In a Dark, Dark Room, or Scary Stories for Babies

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     As I continue my quest to present the world's most thorough and scholarly examination of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series of youth horror books (having already written Power Rankings articles for the first and second books as well as an opinion piece about the audio books ), I would be remiss to ignore another book that is closely related to the series in spirit if not name. If I'm going to write this series of articles, after all, I must do it correctly. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and all that.      So imagine: you're a folklorist that enjoys frightening children, and you're doing a pretty bang-up job of ensuring that the nation's youth can only slumber in nightmare-haunted fits and starts. But there's a problem: what about the particularly young children? The ones that can read but whose parents still shield them from imagery of blood-soaked corpses? What is to be done about them? The answer to these questions is fright t
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The "Official" Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Power Rankings

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Since I have been sitting in front of a computer for 95% of the past seven years (go ahead and do the math, Pointdexter!), I have become quite familiar with the various types of articles that online media websites like to post. One of my favorite sorts of article is the Power Rankings that websites such as ESPN.com will do. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, a Power Rankings article is basically a list of sports teams in order from best to worst or vice versa at a certain point in time, with an explanation for their placement. These rankings are arguable and often, especially for certain portions of the list, fairly arbitrary. Having said that, they are a hell of a lot of fun to read, so I thought I’d try my hand at one. The sports theme has been done to death, though, by writers far more knowledgeable in the field than I, so today we're trying something a little different. After a thorough investigation of what exactly constitutes my “wheelhouse,” I submit for your approva
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The "Official" More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Power Rankings

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Well, it’s April, the month of my birth. What more appropriate time than this to discuss terror and dismemberment? That’s right; continuing what I started here , it’s time for the next installment of " Scary Stories Power Rankings," wherein we take a look at the second book in the vaunted trilogy: More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark . Perhaps it’s just me (it usually is), but it seems that of the three volumes, More Scary Stories gets the least love. While I do not necessarily agree with this, I think I understand it, because this book is weird . I mean, obviously any collection of tales of terror retold from folklore is going to have an air of the unusual about it, but even by those standards, there is some absolutely off-the-wall batsh*t insanity between these covers. For a tiny taste of how twisted things get here, check out the dedication page: Yep, that’s a severed pig man’s head hanging on a clothesline. And he looks pretty god damned satisfied with himsel
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