Februarius!

This month will spend a lot of time visiting some of the most fascinating territories in popular literature. We will be spending quite a bit of time on Skull Island, the remote and time-lost land where the "Eighth Wonder of the World" the mighty King Kong ruled with savage violence. In addition to other aspects, I'll focus on the additions made to the sprawling Kong saga by Joe DeVito and his co-writer Brad Strickland. These two operating from the base of the Lovelace novelization which rights are owned by Merrian Cooper's estate rewrote the original story and then proceeded to give us both a sequel and a prequel. That's been adapted and revised more than a few times over the last twenty years. I want to dig into these as well as other aspects of the first great giant monster. You only think you know what Skull Island was all about until you enter the "DeVitoverse". 

Then we switch from Skull Island to the Skull Cave as it's into the Deep Woods of Lee Falk's Ghost Who Walks. Expect the Phantom to stay with us both in comic book and novel formats. This month will see a peek at the comic when King Features took it over as well as when Charlton Comics picked up the venerable property.  

My strange and wonderful trip through the strange and wonderful land of OZ continues as well. I'm long overdue to read these charming classics from the beginning of the previous century. Dorothy Gale returns to OZ and meets the newly crowned Ozma of OZ. 

The Dojo will continue to tour the fascinating boroughs of Astro City, the remarkable comics world in which we meet new superheroes as well as those folks around them as understood by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross. The MetroBook reprints are great ways to revisit these lush and highly personal stories. 

Then it's on to Metropolis U.S.A., that greatest imaginary American city in comics protected by the "Man of Steel". There's some action planned for later in the month for the "Son of Krypton". I've a hoard of Superman collections around here and it is high time I dug into some of them. 

All that and lots of other oddball places and Bronson Canyon as well. February is a short month, but a busy one all the same. You might think you cannot come back and see but you must. 

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