Scream!: The Specials 1985-2024 (2025)

Scream!: The Specials 1985-2024 (2025)

Author + Illustrators: Various (Too numerous to mention here. See CREATOR INFO at the bottom of the page for full list of known names.) | Page Count: 400

'It was three o'clock in the morning and Billy Billings was having his nightmare again... Only it wasn't a nightmare any more, it was real!'

A companion volume to 40 Years of Scream!: The Archival Collection (2024) that collects together much of the post-cancellation Holiday Specials, including those from the revived era (2017-24).

Slightly more than half of the book is vintage content from 1985-89. The reminder reprints everything Scream! related from 2017-24. See footnotes for a full list of what's included. [1]

It makes my day to see the 1980s specials get a second life, but it's not as complete as it could've been. I'm not trying to deter anyone from buying it, but I feel it's important to note certain details.

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Dir. Adrian Lyne

Jacob's Ladder has never had a poster or home release cover that did it justice, on any medium, so I chose the image that I consider to be most iconic. It was used to promote the film in UK Video Stores, and is the one that I had taped to my wardrobe door for many years as a teenager.

It doesn't give any real indication of what the story is about, but, after viewing, you'll maybe agree that it does at least capture the tone of the film's more unsettling, thematically dark moments.

I'm deeply sympathetic to whoever initially chose it because I now find myself wanting to convey why I feel the film excels in its genre, but also want to avoid providing info to anyone who hasn't seen it, because a first viewing is best experienced with as little foreknowledge as possible.

It's a psychological horror in which a Vietnam vet named Jacob (Tim Robbins) struggles with fragmented memories of at least two traumatic events: one that occurred before the war, and one that occurred during it.

Batman: The Animated Series: Movies (1993-03)

Batman: TAS: Movies (1993-03)

inc. The New Batman Adventures

01. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993, Dirs. Eric Radomski + Bruce Timm) was the first film in the DC Animated Universe (TAS).

Its Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) isn't just an angry orphan fighting against a world that he feels took something irreplaceable from him, he's a flawed dark avenger, suffering emotional conflicts as he weighs the lure of a normal, loving relationship against an earnest vow to protect others from the pain he weathers. He's fully aware of why he does what he does, but finds reasons to justify it.

The emotional twists and turns in the story are supported by a number of flashbacks that, among other things, tell the story of his first few forays into night-time vigilantism.