Holy smokes, a wild review has appeared! The Phantom Project now has 40% more fierce guitar riffs than it did before.

Thanks to awesome internet collaborators, I now have a copy of the second Robert Englund Phantom horror film, just in time to enjoy it for Halloween. Stay tuned to hear about me whimpering like a little girl and making John sleep with the lights on.

I was alerted today by a studious reader that Herbert Lom, the fantastic actor best known to most of us as Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movies but most famous in Phantom circles as the ill-fated and tragic Professor Petrie from the 1962 Hammer horror film adaptation of the story, died yesterday of natural causes.

Whether you were a fan of the 60's adaptation or not, you have to admit that the man deserves acting props. We'll pour one out tonight for Mr. Lom, and rewatch his exploits in honor of his contributions to the ever-changing craziness of the Phantom story.

Okay, after internet research has gotten me exactly nothing on this, I come to you, other readers.

I read (and reviewed) T.A. Chappel's Mask in the Corridor a little while ago, and in the author's note at the end she mentions that she's working on a sequel entitled A Century Away. That was in 2006, and in 2007 a book called A Century Away by Chappel did indeed appear on the scene.

I haven't bought a copy yet, though, because I can't for the life of me tell if it's actually a new book or just a re-issue of Mask in the Corridor. The two books appear to have almost identical summaries about Jillian and her archaeological travails, so I'm stuck trying to figure out if Chappel's assertion that it's a sequel was still true a year later or if something happened in the interim that instead turned it into a mere new edition of the first book. I haven't been able to find any previews of it on the web, but Google Books seems to think that A Century Away is about 50 pages longer than its predecessor... but since it's from a different self-publisher (PublishAmerica instead of Mask's Authorhouse) and she could have changed the formatting, that doesn't really give me much evidence.

I suppose the smart thing to do is just to buy a copy and hope for the best, but I'm not made of pennies over here. Anybody out there already own this book who could shed some light on the situation?

Holy smokes, I have been gone longer than ever before. I'm sorry for the long radio silence - apparently getting married involves a lot of time and effort that I was not previously aware of. Since I don't have to do it again, however, I'm pretty confident in saying that that, at least, isn't going to get in the way again!

I wish I had something awesome to tell you about on my first day back, but instead I just have a review of a sadly terrible book. Oh, well - we'll keep our chins up for the next time!

I have been gone for possibly centuries. I have a good excuse: I was busy getting married. See? (John doesn't know he's being featured on the internet today, but I figure his hat was too awesomely nineteenth-century to be denied.)

But you guys aren't here to hear about that, you're here to see hilarious Phantom shenanigans, so I am totally on the ball to deliver! I caught these local sketch comedians in my hometown recently and about died. They told me later that they considered it a homage to the Phantom Project's worst Hall of Fame entrants.

Thanks for the tip from Mon Frere on Vimeo.

A thing of beauty.

The end of the month? Not without a little review, it isn't! Take that, time!

June this year is the month of big old life upheavals, but I hope to be able to get at least a review or two out to you, wonderful internets. After all, if you weren't there to understand my bad Phantom lit pain, who would be?

Okay, kids - it's review time again! The month sabbatical was a combination of life pressures (apparently planning a wedding is hard, or something) and this book being a real clunker to get through. The next one looks like smoother sailing, so hopefully it won't be so long until we have another nugget of Phantom joy to examine.

Wow, did that book ever bring out the swearing sailor in me. Whew.