Another BubbaFest has gone into the books, and one of this year's highlight's was a chance for attendees to enter the world of THE WALKING DEAD and participate in a photo shoot that put them right into the thick of the series.

Entering the walk put attendees alongside Rick Grimes (portrayed by Cecil Grimes Cosplay) and Negan (Negan Unchained Cosplay), as they encounter the serie's "Hilltop Kid," played by series actress Kaylie Turner.

Our sometimes guest-contributor, That Umbrella Guy, was among the attendees, and brings us this video of his meeting with the folks who brought THE WALKING DEAD... to life.

Owen Long's indy project, SEEDS, is an art film with a horror angle; a blend of Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS and Nabokov's LOLITA, with a subtle hint of H.P Lovecraft peppered throughout.

The focus of the film is on Marcus (TREVOR LONG), a man who lives a hermit-like existence in his parents' old home. For reasons we never quite understand, he's forever rewiring the place in ways that are clearly not up to code. Marcus is haunted by the death of a woman he had a fling with once, in a hotel, and which he paid to have covered up by a man who continues to show up in his life delivering pills. What the pills are for is never quite clear, as Marcus seems deranged before taking them, and just as deranged afterward.

It's the penultimate issue of what was anticipated to have been a huge event in the DC Universe -- the culmination, in fact, of what began in REBIRTH.

It still is the culmination of what began in REBIRTH. Except REBIRTH doesn't mean anything any longer. The years of teasing the presence of Saturn Girl in the present day, the absence of the Justice Society, the return of Wally West, THE BUTTON... all of that is for naught, because the Legion of Super-Heroes is being introduced in a different fashion, the Justice Society has already returned in JUSTICE LEAGUE, and Wally West has been ruined by Tom King in HEROES IN CRISIS.

When the AIMS Team didn't find the Waya Woman last episode, they decided to return to Jackson County and continue the hunt for this 7-foot tall wolf creature. And there's still the mystery of the triangular stone carving in the old house that points (for reasons unknown) to locations of sacrificial alters in two directions -- and something else in the third.

When I began reading VAMPIRELLA / RED SONJA #1, I was immediately sucked in by the artwork of Drew Moss. Set in 1969, Vampirella's style was appropriate to the era. There was a beguiling beauty to this retro-look that merited revisiting, and the highlights of Rebeca Nalty's colors really make the panels pop for this issue.

But this was no mere eye-candy comic. Jordie Bellaire has set up an adventure/mystery that brings Vampirella -- still a newcomer to Earth at that time -- to Russia, to investigate a decade-old mass killing that may or may not have been the work of a Yeti. Since the story is set nearly fifty years ago, Vampirella has to do the investigating without the benefit of the Internet, which is not only a refreshing read but must also be a challenge to write. Writing it this well is a testament to Bellaire's writing chops, and I look forward to more from him.

In Gail Simone's debut issue of Dynamite Comics' DEATH-DEFYING DEVIL, we thought the almight Devil had been depowered, brought down to earth, and made into a street-level hero of the people. The Devil had come to the defense of a motley crew of residents of a ramshackle house who had been beset by street thugs and corrupt cops, and he had gotten his ass handed to him handily.

With the second issue, we get a little more of the curtain pulled back. The Devil is still in the house--drinking tea and eating coffee cake with the elderly former actress turned crazy cat lady. When he learns that she doesn't go to the market any longer for fear of the street gang members always waiting to pounce, he very gallantly offers her escort. And when the inevitable attack comes, he defends.

And that's when things get weird.

Just short of two years ago, Zoe Quinn was being celebrated as having overcome online harassment to go on and become a game designer on a hotly aniticipated indy game project with Chuck Tingle. (Editor's Note: The crowdfunded game has yet to be delivered and is currently over two years late in fulfillment.) She was the model of the underdog who wouldn't give in to online trolls.

Six days ago, Quinn recalled sexual abuse details from an old relationship with fellow game designer, Alec Holowka. Instead of taking these details to the police for investigation, Quinn chose to air the accusations through her Twitter account, @UnburntWitch.

The seventh season of ARROW brings with it echoes of the Green Arrow movie idea that was tossed around in the late 1990s. SUPERMAX was teased as a film about a superhero who gets incarcerated in a maximum security prison with the people he helped put there. It was later revealed that superhero was going to be Green Arrow, but the movie never made it out of development.

Now in ARROW we get a taste of what that movie might have been, as Oliver Queen (STEPHEN AMELL) is arrested for his activities as the Green Arrow under a plea deal that allowed the rest of Team Arrow -- including his wife, Felicity (EMILY BETT RICKARDS) -- to walk free. But while Oliver's new identity is Inmate 4587, a new Green Arrow has taken to the streets, one whose identity remains a mystery to all.

The King of the Monsters doesn't get much respect these days. Attempts to bring the giant radioactive lizard to the big screen have largely succeeded in special effects, pleasing the hardcore Godzilla fans, but plotlines haven't been enough to draw in wider audiences.

The fourth season of THE FLASH ended with the world-shattering introduction of Nora West-Allen (JESSICA PARKER KENNEDY), the super-speedster XS from the future. Now, in typical DC Comics canon, XS is Jenny Ognatz, from a thousand years in the future and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The children of The Flash were supposed to be The Tornado Twins, one of whom would give birth to Bart Allen, the speedster known as Impulse. And that may still be the future for The Flash. Because the timeline is malleable.

Every month the staff at Critical Blast combs the cosplay community for up and coming cosplayers who deserve to have a broader audience for their work, taking into account not only costuming skills and spirit, but also how they use that ability in service to others. Through this, we've not only met some talented cosplayers, but also some fine human beings.

This month our quest takes us into the world of anime and gaming, to find a cosplayer whose work is a royal treat. Equally comfortable with dark princes and fairy princesses, we are happy to introduce  you now to our...

Critical Blast Bombshell, September 2019

Mako

Schadenfreude ran rampant today among anime fans who have found themselves at odds these past several months with a handful of voice actors employed and/or contracted to Funimation, a company licensed to provide English language dubs for Japanese animated franchises, including the extremely popular DRAGONBALL Z.

Funimation has been at the core of a controversy surrounding one voice actor, Vic Mignogna, who has been accused of sexual misconduct and summarily fired from doing further voice acting for the studio. Fans of Mignogna have come together under the banner of #IStandWithVic, claiming no concrete proof has been established, and indeed Mignogna has set up a legal fund for the express purpose of filing a defamation suit. Meanwhile, his accusers have organized under the hashtag of #KickVic for the purpose of protesting conventions that continue to host Mignogna as a celebrity guest.

The scariest horror stories are the ones that feature real monsters: humans.

OCTAVIA SPENCER impresses in every role I've seen her, but MA is the first time I've ever seen her in a horror/suspense role. She doesn't disappoint. In fact, she downright disturbs.

The character of Sue Ann is a mixture of psychoses, springing from a traumatic event in her adolescence. Arrested development, kleptomania, Munchausen's -- all these and more bubble in the cauldron of Sue Ann's plan for vengeance.

MA opens when Erica (JULIETTE LEWIS) returns to her home town with her teenaged daughter Maggie (DIANA SILVERS) in tow. Maggie makes some new friends, who like to party it up. When they try to get an adult to buy them some booze, they meet up with Sue Ann, who agrees to make the purchase. Expressing concern for the teens' safety, she also offers them her basement as a place for their revels. Her catering to them soon has them calling her "Ma," which she encourages.

Fourteen seasons. Over three hundred episodes. And the Winchester Brothers are still out there, plugging away at evil and taking out the monsters.

Now you have a chance to have this milestone season added to your video collection, with all the bonus features and the digital version to carry with you so you can enjoy the adventure at any time.

But first you have to acquire this artifact. And for that, you have to...well, honestly, you don't have to do that much. Just check out the form below and pick the option you like best. You can even pick all of them if you'd like to maximize your number of entries and increase your odds.

Be sure to check out our rules and regulations before proceeding, then get on with it and kick some demon butt! (Or, you know, just click some things.)

ComicsGate and GamerGate. The boogeymen that allow the geek and nerd communities to partake in outrage culture continues to be the gift that keeps on giving in that regard, despite the fact that most of the world has forgotten what GamerGate was about (for which Zoe Quinn is no doubt grateful) and ComicsGate exists now largely as a hashtag to market the ideology behind the comics they produce and, yes, deliver.

Not that this stops Anthony Gramuglia, writer at large. In a recent piece for The Mary Sue, Gramuglia conducts “interviews” with a handful of people with axes to grind. The Spectre of Hate is raised more than once, and the fearmongering goes into high gear in order to gin up the clicks. He expands his reach from ComicsGate to the more recent AnimeGate, spun out of accusations against DragonballZ: Broly actor, Vic Mignogna, and the resulting defamation suit that followed.

The Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings (AIMS) team is back in West Virginia, taking the first step in their quest to unravel the mystery of the creature known as the Spearfinger.

Having been given a mission of sorts by a mysterious person who kidnapped Buck last season, the AIMS team must go on the hunt for a handful of strange cryptids, which will ultimately lead them to the big bad monster. They start with the Waya Woman, aka Queen of the Blood Wolves. Unlike the Woman of the Woods, the Waya Woman is a beast, a 7-foot-tall wolf creature that walks on its hind legs.

When I was in first grade, I wrote my first play. At a school assembly, I saw that play come to life, thanks to the support of my teacher.

In eighth grade, we had to turn in a paper every week on any topic. I turned in episodic chapters of a monster adventure, and my teacher set aside time for it to be read, by the author, to other classes.

Mrs. Joanne Paul and Mr. Stanley White cultivated those early efforts, allowing me to realize the dream of becoming a professionally published artist.

Parker Davis is an eleven-year-old boy with a dream. Since the age of three, he has been expanding the universe of his own superhero creations: Pillowman and Blanketboy. And thanks to the advent of crowdfunding, he's close to seeing those heroes star in a published comic book.

There's a new villain haunting the dark streets of Gotham City -- and he knows the secrets of the entire Bat-family!

Who is this mysterious Red Hood (JASON SPISAk), and how is he so familiar with Batman (TROY BAKER), Nightwing (LOREN LESTER), Robin (SCOTT MENVILLE), Batgirl (ALYSON STONER) and even the latest member, Batwoman (TARA STRONG)? That's the mystery they have to solve before Gotham is blown to smithereens, as the Red Hood has set five bombs to go off in town, each guarded by an Arkham Asylum super-villain. 

In terms of sheer visual spectacle, ROCKETMAN is without peer. Brilliantly mixing magical metaphor with raw reality, this film straddles the boundaries between musical and biopic.

From the very first scene and the very first note, ROCKETMAN is riveting. The film opens with the adult Elton John (played superbly by TARON EGERTON) strutting into an addiction support group in full sequined regalia. It doesn't feel like it could be real, and it's the most subtle part of the film, as it's used as a storytelling device throughout the movie. As we progress, we return to this device, each time with more of the costuming stripped away--a metaphor for deconstructing the mythical Elton John and getting down to the man himself.

There have been several efforts to destroy my childhood by revamping and modernizing classic characters. But I have to give props for someone who goes all-out to in-your-face do it.

The Banana Splits were the hosts of a Saturday morning kids show. They were a rock and roll group comprised of Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky--an anthropomorphic dog, gorilla, lion and elephant. It was silly, it was slapstick, and it was a bit psychedelic (although my tolerance had already been set high thanks to LIDSVILLE and THE BUGALOOS).

This film from Director Danishka Esterhazy takes a decidedly different course with these beloved and/or forgotten (take your pic) children's icons, turning them into animatronic actors who go on an unexpected crusade of slaughter, answering the age-old question: What if the Terminator had been a furry?