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When we first meet Sonia, it’s in Denny’s apartment after it’s been ransacked by Chip because Denny had the gall to throw a birthday party. Sonia is shocked he would be such an asshole just because Denny wanted to celebrate his birthday, at which point Denny clarifies that it was her own birthday party she was throwing. I’m not sure what’s more upsetting: the fact Sonia didn’t realize it was Denny’s birthday or that Denny had apparently never bothered to invite her best friend in the first place. Either way, when you add Denny’s refusal to visit her best friend’s sister in the hospital, there really does seem to be more behind Sonia’s decision to make out with Kaz than meets the eye.

Thanks for creating the thread, @RyanSz. I'm just going to list what my "pulls" are from my local comic shop - for those who don't know, this basically means it's what I have my shop set aside for me as it is released. I may also separately list some all-time recommendations for books for whoever is interested, but I'm not at home at the moment so I'll need to wait until I can look at my shelves. So my pull list is as follows; W stands for writer and A for (primary) artist: The New Batman Adventures: Paul Dini (W), Ty Templeton (A) - basically a new miniseries of comics in the universe of Timm's early 90s classic Batman cartoon. Blackwood: Evan Dorkin (W), Veronica Fish (A) - I pretty much pick up whatever Dorkin works on, from his own auteur books (Dork, Milk & Cheese) to his collaborations with artists (Beasts of Burden, etc.) This one is a dark tale of kids at a school for witchcraft. Die: Keiron Gillen (W), Stephanie Hans (A) - very smart series about a group of kids who discover a fantasy world that works according to paper RPG rules. They manage to escape as kids but then get pulled back into it as adults. Dark and brilliantly illustrated like most of the books Gillen has worked on like Young Avengers and The Wicked + The Divine. I can easily see this getting adapted as a big HBO series or something. Exorcisters: Ian Boothby (W), Gisele Lagace (A) - fun and silly story about twin women (sort of) who battle demons, literally and figuratively a la Supernatural. Boothby is a veteran humour writer who has worked on the Simpsons comics and Lagace is the head of a webcomics empire that includes Menage a Trois, Eerie Cuties, and more - she also has done some excellent contract work for Archie. Faithless II: Maria Llovett (W/A) - Llovett has quickly become one of my favourite current artists, her work is very reminiscent of eurocomics and Paul Pope. This book is essentially erotica, the story of a young artist who becomes involved with a gender-fluid demon who is also her patron. Plus the optional X-rated covers are by one of my other favourite artists, Tula Lotay. FirePower: Robert Kirkman (W) and Chris Samnee (A) - a fun new action title which is basically a mashup of Iron Fist and Avatar: The Last Airbender, only about firebending instead of airbending. Kirkman needs no introduction, he is the creator of The Walking Dead and Outcast and Invincible. Samnee is one of my favourite artists, having worked on great runs of Daredevil and Black Widow and Captain America and a bunch of other stuff. Plunge: Joe Hill (W), Stuart Immonen (A) - first of all, any book with Immonen is worth looking at, even if Warren Ellis wrote it. This one is a wonderfully creepy arctic horror story that will hit the same spot as The Terror or The Thing. Sabrina: I enjoyed a lot of the Archie relaunches but this is the only one I'm still buying, by the great writer Kelly Thompson and artist Veronica Fish again. There is also a darker horror title that maybe will be continued? It's the one that the Netflix series draws most of its inspiration from. Sex Criminals: Matt Fraction (W), Chip Zdarsky (A) - it's hard to explain this book if you aren't reading it already, but it is very special, as much for the painfully honest letter columns as it is for the actual story. It's unfortunately ending soon. Steeple: John Allison (W/A) - I love John Allison and would follow him into hell, which I guess I kind of did when reading his long running webcomic Scary Go Round, which morphed into the wonderful college series Giant Diays, which in turn has morphed into the post-college book Wicked Things (see below). This book is about a young female vicar sent to a remote seaside town where the grizzled elder vicar spends his evenings fighting off what appear to be Lovecraftian sea monsters. Also, satanists. Strange Adventures: Tom King (W), Mitch Gerads and Evan Shaner (A)- Ryan mentioned one of King's other great books (Mister Miracle) above, and I know Zouks is a fan of everything King has worked on. His Vision series for Marvel is being adapted as a TV series currently, which should be pretty interesting. This is their latest book, about the classic DC hero Adam Strange, who travels between Earth and the alien planet Rann, and the schizoid existence that he leads. Brilliant so far, only a couple of issues in. Wicked Things: John Allison (W), Alison Cogar (A) - the latest incarnation of the Scary Go Round comics. You certainly could just start here, but I highly recommend you go online and dive into the SGR archive, then read Giant Days, then this. It's wonderful, sometimes dark, often poignant, always fun. @RyanSz, I haven't followed the Doomsday Clock stuff - I really hate what DC has done to Alan Moore with the Watchmen spinoffs - but if you haven't seen it I highly recommend Keiron Gillen's recent miniseries called Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, which is a post post modern look at Watchmen through the lens of one of the Charlton characters that Moore originally based it on.

Bar none one of favorite movies of all time. Another Lithgow movie, and this is easily one of his better villain roles. I really dont know how to describe it, but at a certain point in the movie John Lithgow forcibly gives Denzel Washington an STD, if that isnt reason enough to see a movie I dont know what is.

So the idea of a topic like this was brought up in a recent discussion that took place in a mini-ep where we realized that many of us have a love of comics, but our recommendations get lost to time in the middle of other discussions. So I figured why not go with the idea and start the topic. Basically it's about sharing a love of the comic medium and giving others ideas for series we may not have heard about or on the fence on for reading. Couple things: If it's a specific run of a series, like with a superhero, try your best to list the writer to make it easier to find Just give a brief pitch of what the series is about or why you like it, otherwise be sure to use the spoiler covering Since I'm now back at work a bit more, albeit still under a modified lockdown, I've been reading into my backlog of paperbacks and have really been lucky with some good series. DC Doomsday Clock - a fantastic blending of the mainstream DC universe and Alan Moore's Watchmen universe Mister Miracle by Tom King - very interesting blend of psychological look at a hero riddled with trauma/PTSD and having to deal with the fallout of his upbringing as the adopted son of Darkseid Marvel Spider-Man: Life Story - a Spider-Man tale with now sliding timeline, so Peter Parker is aging realistically and is dealing with real world events like the Vietnam War and other societal landmarks Image/Dark Horse/Etc. Deadly Class - solid high school story where the school specializes in creating the next generation of criminal and killers, where cliques are made of groups like the Yakuza and cartel rather than jocks and preps A Walk Through Hell - a dark psychological horror story involving two FBI agents who are forced to combat their sins and their ramifications while searching a new crime scene

Paul, June, and Jason discuss the 1987 comedy horror My Demon Lover. They talk about horny demons, the Mangler, the fully clothed shower scene, the castle in the middle of central park, and more. In which I learned that Nick from Family Ties wasn't played by Dermot Mulroney.

It was Colonel Mustard in the library with his terrible terrible words.

@Cam Bert mentioned the Got Milk? commercial. Here's the original then some others. Here's "Aaron Burr" (Leslie Odom, Jr's) recreation. https://ew.com/article/2015/05/20/hamiltons-aaron-burr-recreates-famous-got-milk-commercial/

The movie doesn't explain it clearly but the fake hand DOES seem to serve a purpose. In the scene where Chucky the Mangler is showing Denny is rat and bible he says "I can teach you how to make that glove, like the one I used to chloroform you. Its real easy." He then changes the subject to his "lab" and his TNT but that implies he built a hand that he either soaks in chloroform or, more likely from a practicality stand point compared to carrying a sopping glove of chemicals around, has a method of dispensing chloroform, which is probably how he can easily kill his victims despite seemingly being physically normal in his non-demon form. Also, I think Chucky did know he was a demon but it is weird that he never seems to turn into one until the end. I have two theories about why he didn't turn into one until the end though: one is that he is usually impotent or isn't aroused by simply being around women and perhaps not even murdering them. The only time his is aroused is when he sees Kaz meaning he's aroused by demons or by the intimidation of Kaz's demon form. The other is the opposite: he has complete control over his sexual self and can hold everything back until it is useful for defending himself against Kaz. Lastly, Kaz's demon didn't seem to have... a personality. It didn't feel like it was a seperate entity within Kaz and even when he was threatening he wasn't a specific other character, he was Kaz as a bad/horny dude or playing a character (Date from Hell/Mom). I feel like the demons in this film aren't fallen angels from Hell but something more like a familiar: a witch's spiritual assistant (according to wikipedia, malevolent familiars are considered demons). I don't think it had a mind of its own but it had something more akin to a set of preprogrammed actions to repel women while making Kaz overtly attracted to them and inappropriate in public to them, to add to Kaz's suffering. That said, for the most part it never did seem specific about what transformations for what situation save that the more Denny tried, the more specifically unappealing to Denny Kaz became.

What you're saying is that if Kaz actually came, he might have gone from Asmodeus to Belphegor?

I really enjoyed this movie and the episode was fantastic While I don't think any of us can say for sure whether or not Kaz and Sonia had sex or just made out, I have to agree with Jason that Kaz smoking a cigarette is the accepted short hand for post coital satisfaction. My problem with this, however, is that if Kaz came, and is presumably no longer horny, what guarantee did they have that the lust demon would even stick around? I mean, I totally get the position they are in, and if it's their only hope of saving Denny, it would be downright irresponsible of them *not* to turn Kaz on, but no one said they had to go until completion. I'm just saying that it was a pretty dangerous game they were playing with Denny's life, and if I were her, I would still be kind of pissed.

I found it interesting that Kaz did not react the same around Denny as he did most other women. With most women, he seemed to immediately want to turn into the demon, whether it was with the woman on the subway or Denny's friend, Sonia. But with Denny, he spends a lot of time with her without any issue. It is not until they heavily start making out that the demon shows any sign of appearing. At first I thought this might be just another example of the film's inconsistencies. Or worse, that they were implying that Denny was not as attractive as those other women. But I think the film was trying to make a distinction between love and lust. He does not respond the same way around Denny because she is his "true love". This idea is reinforced by the fact that the sword Sonia grabs from her occult store is labeled as 'the sword of Asmodeus'. Asmodeus is known as the demon of lust. In 1589, a German bishop named Peter Binsfeld published an influential list of demons and paired each demon with one of the seven deadly sins: Lucifer (pride), Mammon (greed), Leviathan (envy), Beelzebub (gluttony), Satan (wrath), Belphegor (sloth) and Asmodeus (lust). It is said that Asmodeus' dominion is lechery - he causes performance issues when men are with their wives and induces their attraction to other women. Furthermore, one text described Asmodeus as a demon who perpetually spawns new demons to bring chaos to the world, inciting lechery and excess wherever they roam. Given that we know both Kaz and Chucky have been cursed by the same person, is it possible that the Romanian grandmother and her granddaughter are agents of Asmodeus who have concocted this honeypot trap to lure young boys in so that they can be made into these demons?

Sorry Paul, this is not Beauty and the Beast. This is an attempt to make a rom-com with Freddy Krueger in the lead (yes, the lead is a demon, but what would you classify Freddy as?). Evidence of this: The film was produced by New Line Cinema, the company that was made from the success of the Nightmare on Elm Street films. The demons in this film—particularly Kaz, when he is shape-shifting into the mom and so forth—have incarnations that feel mind-fucky in a Freddy Krueger-ish way. Kaz occasionally makes wisecracks in a similar style to Freddy. Women are slashed—or mangled—in a less graphic version of how Freddy mutilates teens. In regards to the dorky character who is the actual mangler—he has to know he’s a demon. I agree his behavior is weird whichever way you slice it, but while he’s abducting Denny he keeps saying ominous shit—like constantly singing “old time religion”—that doesn’t make sense if he DOESNT know he’s a demon. Plus, in the climax, he blows freezing breath and explodes out of his skin in a way that seems like he KNEW the demon was always hiding under there. I think the mistake you guys are making in your analysis is that you’re looking for logic where there is none. I loved it, but this horror/rom-com hybrid could only have been made while people were doing rails of cocaine off of every conceivable surface. It is a series of “and then THIS happened!”-style non sequitors instead of a coherent plot. These weird, abrupt left turns occurred even in the dialog, like when Sonia suddenly starts talking about having to return her boyfriend’s umbrella. I enjoyed it, I’m glad the filmmakers were coked up enough to make it!

I was listening to an older episode of HDTGM, and Paul mentioned someone who made a cartoon version of moments in a few episodes. That got me watching this one about Reindeer Games: Watching this made me realize -- did Paul actually already realize the Rudy/Rudolph connection when he revealed it to the rest of the crew? Or was this a spontaneous realization in the moment. I had always assumed the latter but watching it in this format made me realize it might have just been impeccable comedic timing of a reveal. Absolutely side-splitting either way.

So much to unpack in this film: 1) It utilizes the racist trope of "ethnic" people who utilize or connect with occult forces: The Romanian grandmother who applies the curse; the Black street psychic ("Fixer") who shows Kaz his true nature; and Latinx Sonia, who has visions of the Mangler's attack on her sister. 2) Denny is rather infantilized. She has dolls on her bed, wears bear-footed slippers, and has a skirt with big appliqued Scottish terriers and fire hydrants. 3) Denny's position is a metaphor for domestic violence: even when she finds out that her Kaz turns into a monster when aroused, she thinks things will still work out, and that she can "fix" him. He later complains that she's trying to change him, a common male grievance. 4) Phil's fake monster hand just seems to be a clunky attempt at a red herring - that he's the Mangler but a "regular" man who disguises his crimes as those from a monster. There's no diegetic need for him to use that hand when kidnapping Denny, it's just for the audience. This is all soon dropped when we find he's an actual monster. 5) Yes, there is a castle in Central Park - Belvedere Castle, of course not as large or elaborate as Phil's. But how is there a Monster Castle in the middle of Central Park that no one has noticed?

I don't think anyone mentioned that a "gris-gris" (pronounced "gree-gree" like Sonia's sister Miguela's store) is actually a word that refers to a charm or talisman that is meant to ward off evil spirits. Maybe this is some oblique rationale for why Miguela survives her attack from the Mangler? Or maybe, considering her sister is psychic, she has some sort of familial passport to the spirit realm and is able to resist somehow? Or maybe the writers of the movie just had a list of cool sounding spiritual-esque words and picked one at random for the name of the store. Either way, just a little trivium for you.

Wow, Paul and Jason got really horny from My Demon Lover. Lines from the intro banter: I got excited. He was such a SEMINAL... It BLEW my mind. I remember this movie COMING out... I was so EXCITED to see a movie with Nick but it was too ADULT for me... And then the story of Paul's strict father and nudity... Omissions: I can't exactly say I'm surprised you guys didn't notice this because it's pretty esoteric trivia, but My Demon Lover is a knockoff of a Japanese short erotic horror/romance/comedy animated film called "Call Me Tonight." Seriously! My Demon Lover was released on April 24, 1987 whereas Call Me Tonight was released on July 28, 1986 - a whopping NINE MONTHS EARLIER! Call Me Tonight is a comedy about a young man who turns into a demon when he gets sexually aroused, so he calls a telephone sex club operator to help cure him of his strange problem. Or maybe for some reason 1986-1987 was a super horny time and two unrelated film productions on opposite sides of the Pacific got the idea to make a comedy about a guy who turns into a demon when he gets aroused, but I WANT TO BELIEVE in the interconnection of the late 80s and demon lovers on people's brains. Call Me Tonight is short and has excellent animation, demon designs, and is bonkers in all kinds of different ways, so if you have half an hour, I'd recommend it as a forgotten gem. There's a Spanish subtitled version on Youtube, and an English subtitled version on Bitchute. https://www.bitchute.com/video/un-uMOClSp8/ Perhaps Japan got its revenge for being ripped off - My Demon Lover has that wonderful demon hand, and 1993 manga series Hell Teacher Nūbē features a schoolteacher/exorcist who uses his own demon hand to protect his students from ghosts and monsters. P.S. Further HDTGM connections: Call Me Tonight was the first in a four-episode series from Animation International Co. (AIC) called "Pink Noise"; the fourth and episode,"Bodyjack", was released in 1987. It's about a mad scientist who creates a device that lets a young man's spirit go into a woman's body so that he can experience sex as a woman. HDTDGM-covered 1992 sci-fi "classic" Freejack sounds like a watered-down version of this lecherous adult short film! Conspiracy? I say yes!

The plot description of this from Wikipedia is: Do we think someone edited this to be funny? Should we add Ron Silva?

I was curious how everyone got home after the battle at the castle considering Kaz blew up everyone’s car with that dynamite. Did he have absolutely terrible aim? Or does Kaz secretly hate cops?

I just took a T&A test, turns out I'm 100% two tits

This was my initial reaction to Jason's view of the movie's message

Why do we PARK in DRIVEways and DRIVE on SIDEWALKS?

Stunk between a skunk and a fart place.

Bikers must yield to walkers. Walkers must yield to horseback riders. Paper covers rock. You sunk my battleship.

Bottle of red, bottle of white and that’s all the blood and semen my hospital will need tonight.

You have the right to rap about historical figures, anything you say can and will be choreographed into a spectacular dance number. These are your Lin-Manuel Miranda Rights.