Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts - Stan Lee, Steve Ditko

I've been doing something a little different recently. I've been straying away from my normal comfortable genres and authors and steering out into the unknown. I've technically been working on this Epic Collection for quite a while, but it's been an interesting ride.

This collection is the initial introduction of the Dr. Strange character into the Marvel universe. I'm not going to try and sum up a comic series. While there are recurring characters and sometimes a storyline will continue from one issue to another, it's a comic. In 10 pages, Dr. Strange confronts a foe and either takes care of the problem or you're waiting for the next issue.

Dr. Strange was one of my favorite characters when I was watching the MCU, so I had a good time reading these. I don't think they're for everyone, though. It's definitely old-school, and that might not work for some people. I laughed out loud a few times, and truly had a good time.

From the cover of an issue - not relevant to the Dr. Strange part of the comic, but my favorite visual for sure!

The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits - Elizabeth Peters

 I was in a mood where I wanted to read something that's been sitting on my shelf for a while, and so I dusted off one of my Elizabeth Peters books and cracked open the cover. 

If you aren't familiar with this author, her real name is Barbara Mertz. She wrote fiction under the pseudonyms of Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters and also wrote a few nonfiction books under her own name. Her paperbacks (and a few hardbacks) have occupied an entire shelf on my bookcase for many years. I've downsized my paperback collection numerous times, but her books never leave. Unfortunately, she died in 2013. 

This book isn't part of a series, although many of Mertz's books are. Carol receives strange messages hinting that her father might be in danger. It's been years since she's seen him, and she shouldn't care, but something drives her down there. Her trip gives her much more than she bargained for, and everything she believes will change by the time it's over.

I don't want to give anything away, there are a lot of twists and turns in there, but I will mention that the book has drug references in it. There's no sugarcoating what they can do to a person, and it isn't glorified in any way. I guess it could be a deterrent for some, but it didn't bother me. 

I thought this book was clever and Peters did a good job writing a convincing story. Even though it's written from Carol's point of view, I felt some anxiety for her character during the action at the end. I think that's a mark of good writing, but others may feel the writing to be dated and a bit slow at times. For me, it was nice to revisit something I enjoyed in the past. If you consider that it was written in 1971, it might give you a bit of perspective on the writing style itself. Good Book!