The Black Casebook

I’m observing Beast Mode November

Be the Tibetan monks teaching forbidden techniques you wish to see in the world

Much of my life is organized around becoming Lord Hazanko within the next few decades

“Don’t be a two-time loser, Sidney. The penalty could be severe.”

Delighted to hear Darwyn Cooke getting love from Jason Mantzoukas and Paul Scheer on Blank Check #realballknowledge

Finally dug out the Fourth World stuff I had from storage, inspired by @blackcasebook.bsky.social’s latest mailbag

Reign: The Conqueror has to be the most obscure work of fiction that’s embedded itself deepest into my brain. I don’t know if it was actually any good, but ever since I saw Reign on Toonami as a kid I’ve been ominously invoking the PLATOHEDRON

I’m glad I got to The Saga of Ra’s al Ghul in an early episode, because Orientalism has been one of the most reliable themes in the Batman stories I’ve covered (The Dark Knight, A Death in the Family, Cold Days, even The Black Mirror).

People twist themselves into knots trying to escape the essential fact that Ra’s and Talia are Orientalist characters. Ra’s is literally Fu-Manchu, while Talia is a blend of Fu-Manchu’s beautiful, noble slave girl and beautiful, evil daughter. It’s like trying to salvage the Mandarin.

Thoroughly enjoyed Ngozi Ukazu’s Barda. Even though the art isn’t my exact cup of tea, Ukazu updates the Fourth World without sacrificing any of its bleeding-heart sincerity or operatic grandeur. Lovely book, and a great introduction to the story for new readers.

There's still a tiny chance that the patron vote could swing it for Berserk, but I'd start getting ready for the Big Red Casebook, folks.

Hellboy is the leader in the clubhouse at the moment, but Berserk, James Bond, and X-Files fans:

PSA: Between my day job and the holidays, it’s unlikely that I’m going to get the Dark Knight Returns episode finished before the end of the year, so I’m prioritizing doing another bonus mailbag episode. Which subject would y’all rather hear about?

- Berserk
- James Bond
- Hellboy
- The X-Files

The Batman Creators account posted it on Twitter saying it's from "Knightfall Remastered" by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway, but I'll be damned if I can find any evidence that such a thing exists

It's nice that they made a "remastered" version of Knightfall for people who think ketchup is too spicy.

It feels like Fox Mulder should be more of a Zoomer cultural icon: downwardly mobile, obsessed with conspiracy theories, has a goon cave,

Treasured memories: sitting and reading the big-ass booklet while the game installed, imagining all the wild stuff I was going to do, then just playing a mage like I always did/do

Guys love to be named Leodegrance of Cameliard

The hot new trend with teens is talking like Glorious Godfrey. They call it “going Godfrey Mode”

We aim to please

@blackcasebook.bsky.social ‘s Glorious Godfrey voice is destroying me rn hoooooooleeeee I’m running this shit back like funk flex debuting Otis

you cannot do the panicking-no-commas thing in a sentence that ends with "american experiment." you're just fiddlin with your pockets doin that. you're lookin for a bus pass

More evidence for my argument that RFK Jr. is a Hellblazer villain: this is purple prose worthy of a bad Vertigo horror comic. Jamie Delano after a serious concussion.

A kindred spirit, certainly

Why am I reading everything Nuzzi writes in @blackcasebook.bsky.social's Tom King voice

Good news: If you would like to watch Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants on YouTube I have done a painstaking 4k upscale of this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0gW...

In Excalibur, Arthur takes a leap of faith and hands the magic sword Excalibur to Uryens, a man who was just trying to kill him, so that he can knight him. It’s a test of courage that wins over Uryens and all the rebellious knights.

At the end of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Batman makes a similar leap of faith, entrusting his life to the homicidal maniac (and old friend) Harvey Dent. Even though the coin lands on the side of execution, Harvey repays Batman’s trust by lying about the result, allowing him go free on the asylum’s own terms.

"You will be the land, and the land will be you. If you fail, the land will perish; as you thrive, the land will blossom."

“The myriad repressions of a remora who confuses himself for a shark. Behind his Ken doll complexion, behind his alternately uncomprehending and fearful eyes, Bill Harford is suffused with petty bourgeois dread: that he is being cuckolded by his equally repressed wife; that almost everyone he encounters seems to provide an opportunity for illicit sex, which terrifies more than titillates him; that he might actually be gay; that he is nothing more than an imposter, a parrot, with no agency of his own; that sinister immigrants, Jews, and other alien forces are encroaching on all sides; that he is in fact profoundly unsatisfied with life in his personal Garden of Eden; that beneath the imperial splendor of his elite Manhattan lifestyle, there is only a yawning abyss.”

I am once again called upon to explain what Eyes Wide Shut is actually about

(it’s got less to do with Epstein and co. than it does the inner life of a man who’s *just* close enough to power to develop prurient fantasies and dreads about it)