As I get older I find my constitution for extreme graphic violence isn’t what it used to be. Many years have passed since I’ve eagerly sat down to watch a horror flick, so gruesome fare like the Saw series winds up way outside my radar. Having said that, I can’t ignore the success and longevity that 2008’s Crossed series produced; and figured I’d just have to suck it up and see why this little universe has found a home with loyal fans.

Like most post-apocalyptic yarns, this story begins with one person who attacks another; spreading sickness among the population like wildfire and eventually burning through most of humanity with staggering speed. But that’s where the easy comparison to your average zombie plague stops. See, the infected aren’t mindless shufflers; they’re every bit as human as the rest of us, only they’re fueled by an uncontrollable evil to create havoc. There’s no reasoning, no negotiating; just carnage.

And it is downright terrifying.

For the most part, combining an independent publisher and two barely-known creators on an unknown property usually equates to low sales and obscurity. This is the nature of an industry as small as comics; the pond’s too small for the little fish to compete. For every rule there is an exception, however, and this series slams that point home. Welcome to Lovecraft, indeed.

The premise is fairly straightforward: following the grisly murder of the family patriarch, the remaining Lockes relocate to their family estate in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. You can stop using “straightforward” after that, because nothing is as it seems. It isn’t until the last few pages of the first issue that you realize the mansion they now call home has a few secrets of its own.

Through wonderful pacing and a few helpful flashbacks, you’re fully invested at the end of that first issue. No wonder it completely sold out on the day of its release; as far as #1’s go, this was incredibly close to perfection.

About a year ago my wife decided to give Fringe a shot. At the time I had declined her invitation to join in, and was subsequently exposed to so many of her chuckles with her headphones on that I began wondering if the show was more comedy than science fiction. The answer? Emphatically both.

Anna Torv stars as Olivia Dunham, an FBI agent tasked with the unexplained phenomena that lies on the fringe of science (oh, hello title!). Most of us would think that’d be a pretty awesome job if we were put in her shoes, until she realizes she has to work with Peter Bishop – a “civilian consultant” who’s essentially a con man – and his father, Dr. Walter Bishop; a brilliant scientist who’s crazier than a bag of cats. Throw all that in together and let it simmer, for after 20 episodes you’ll have a good start.

Sadly, there’s only one reason that this first season wasn’t a home run for me, and that’s due to Dunham. Let me be clear: Anna Torv (at least in the inauguration) is not the problem; her character is. Whenever you deal with a show like this there’s plenty of suspension of belief to make it work. Obviously, I won’t sit there screaming at the television because a non-existent virus didn’t work properly; but Dunham is written as the most terrible FBI agent the agency has ever produced. Practically every decision she makes is mind-numbing; so much in fact that I can’t believe she’d ever be an agent of any kind regardless of how many alternative worlds there are.

When I began the task of playing catch-up on pop culture, one of the names I was determined to investigate deeper was none other than Alan Moore; legendary comic scribe, self-proclaimed wizard and all around “don’t get too close to him” guy. I’ve read most of his more popular stories numerous times over the years (Watchmen, Batman: The Killing Joke and the classic “For the Man Who Has Everything…” story in Superman Annual 11, to name a few); but now it was time for something new. Well…new to me, at least.

My first choice was pretty simple actually, for when I was a wide-eyed 9 year old I had somehow gotten my hands on a couple of his Saga of the Swamp Thing issues. I remember absolutely nothing about the story, probably because at that age his style of writing may as well have been written in Arabic to a child. I only remember the images of grotesque beings prancing around in a horrifying setting.

Apparently that was enough for me, as I didn’t continue on with the series at that time. Almost thirty years later I’m pretty sure I can handle whatever Mr. Moore can throw at me, so I added the recent hardcover collections of his run to my library, waiting for the day when I could jump back into it.

Following the release of 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – a movie that took me a full decade later to actually sit down and watch (told you I’m slow) – Peter Jackson had seemingly done the impossible: bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s famed series to life on the big screen…and made it amazing. So amazing in fact that I was determined not to let another decade pass before I got to watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

What did I find? More of the same; and I couldn’t be happier for it (you can go here for an in-depth review by our own Nat Almirall). Sure, the length of the movie is every bit as ridiculous as the original trilogy, but if you know that going in there’s really no point in complaining about it. Instead, I focused on what made me love that first offering so much: colorful characters, gorgeous settings and an adventure that could easily stand in as a double for the definition of “epic.”

Many of the same stars and characters make appearances in Hobbit, so there’s practically no chance of unfamiliarity with the viewer…unless this is their first foray into Tolkien’s universe. And unless they have an aversion to fantasy – at which point I’d ask why they’re watching something like this in the first place – they’ll still have a great experience watching a younger Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman in his usual twitchiness) and his new band of brothers come together for the greater good.

In September of 2005, both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel had finished their runs while Smallville was about to kick off their fifth season. As for me, I had a very busy 5 year-old (hey kiddo; daddy loves you) and another on the way, and my wife and I were looking for a bigger house.

Needless to say, when I started seeing promos for Supernatural – The WB’s latest genre-infused drama – I decided to take a pass as time had become a precious commodity. Almost a decade later I set out to rectify that slight…

Basic premise of the show is simple: John Winchester (played by George Clooney-lite, Jeffrey Dean Morgan) witnesses his wife Mary (Samantha Smith) murdered by a demon. Years later, his sons Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) reunite to track down dear old dad and kill whatever goes bump in the night along the way.

This set up allows for the “freak of the week” template that Smallville had used for most of their seasons, and it works well within the realm of the spooky. Another aspect that clicked in that first season were the genuine scares, of which there are plenty of. The amount of times I jumped could almost be categorized as a work out.