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“20-whatever?” She’s indifferent even to her own age! Impressive detachment levels there, Sera! (Nails her height and weight right on the nose, though.)

Let’s take a look at some of these tiny little panels here. Real potent combination of “INTENSE FLASHBACK” and “whut?” going on in my brain here…

MIDRIN CAPSULES – That’s a migraine medication. Since I was about 11 or 12 I’ve been getting these intense, blinding migraines every few months or so. Seriously, blindness. It looks like reality has collapsed in on itself at several points in my field of vision. And that means the clock is now ticking: I have 20 minutes to take my Midrin or searing pain over one eye will knock me out for the rest of the day. One time in the ZIM days I went blind in my cubicle and realized my pills were still in my apartment. Being 23, immortal, and stupid, I thought, “Eh, I can probably make it home in time. Who needs working eyeballs on freeways?” To this day I’m not 100% sure I survived.

BOOKSHELF – Conquer Social Phobia is a real book I really owned and it really didn’t help.

LITTLE DOLL THING – I don’t know what’s up with the doll. Did Sera make that? Is it supposed to be Vicious Whisper? This information: officially lost to the ages.

“ULTRA BIGGUN” – I drank at least one 7-Eleven BIG GULP of Coke every day for ten years and I am here to tell you do not do that.

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CAT EYE – Sera’s big fluffy white cat is named Gnarly, but I don’t think it ever comes up in the book? So that’s a fun fact just for you (neat)! I had a big fluffy black cat named Igor at the time. I miss him very much and I’m sure he’ll come up again.

R.I.P. – That’s Sera’s belt buckle. It featured heavily in a bunch of old character designs, but this might be its only appearance in the issue. For this issue it’s just “R.I.P.” floating there, no context, a simple, grim reminder that the Reaper awaits us all. You are very welcome.

CLOCK – Not sure what the clock is all about. Maybe just to suggest Sera’s still up painting at midnight? A lot of this first SR book was made in the wee hours, often until 4 or 5 in the morning. To this day I still like to be awake when the rest of the world is not, but now I go to bed at the more refined, gentlemanly hour of 2 AM.

TECHNICAL CORNER: The first couple issues of Serenity Rose have a LOT of Photoshop “Paint Daubs” filter. I liked the way it worked with the mechanical pencil texture. But by issue three I started thinking the pencil texture was beautiful all on its own. Good job, mechanical pencil texture!

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

This might shock you, but October isn’t just National Serenity Rose Awareness Month. It’s also “THE SPOOKY SEASON.” Which means I go from watching primarily horror movies to exclusively horror movies. This year I noticed Criterion Channel had a bunch of those “hopping vampire” movies from 1980’s Hong Kong, so I dove at the chance to fill that embarrassing gap in my horror knowledge. 

Verdict? THEY ARE FANTASTIC. On the scary scale they’re about Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein level, but scariness isn’t what we’re here for. We’re here for astonishing stunt work, goofy slapstick, and brain-melting practical effects, and along those lines Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Mr. Vampire I-IV more than deliver. If you’ve got Criterion, definitely check them out. They’re kind of hard to find otherwise!

(If you don’t have the Criterion Channel, just watch Evil Dead 2 again.)

NEXT WEEK: PURE RAGE.