Posted on October 6, 2025
setting the stage for chandler and nabokov
when a raymond chandler postscript short enough to almost go unnoticed had me dredging the archives, I realized I might have to reopen a case from my past – one that may be impossible to solve…
Posted on September 30, 2025
tomohisa yuge and the case of the stolen bedroom
as must be obvious by this point, I’m a big fan of kamen rider – and when you’ve seen 35+ seasons of a show, you’re bound to have some favorites. setting aside the showa seasons as their own category (since to me, they’re just incomparably good), I’m particularly fond of the seasons from the early to mid 2000s. there’s just something about them that clicks, y’know?
one season in particular that has permanently burrowed its way into the rotten apple of my brain is the 2002 season kamen rider ryuki, the twelfth installment of the franchise. now, I could go on and on about the protagonists or the plot – but I’m not here to sell you on ryuki. no, today I’m here to solve a mystery… one involving manga, magazines, and one very particular teen model… was this my toughest case yet? read on to find out!
(more…)Posted on September 23, 2025
of william morris, julio cortázar, and dragons
for the past year I’ve been reading Fiona MacCarthy‘s biography of William Morris (a low and slow reading, if you will) and now, through a gradual accumulation of coincidences, my head is full of dragons.
(more…)Posted on July 24, 2025
Yves’ digicam choice is no Soft Error!
forgive the pun, but this morning I was delighted to discover that a musician I follow – Yves (former Loona, now solo) – used a digicam I have in my collection in some of her album art! from the poster for the listening party, we can see more details:
as far as I can tell, this appears to be a Casio Exilim EX-Z50 with the logo photoshopped off! I may well be wrong – many models within a numbered range have similar button layouts – but this one struck me with pleasant familiarity when I first saw it, because it’s one of my own most-used digicams. it’s a decent lil guy – sturdy yet compact, it’s got great battery life and gets the job done. a good choice, if I do say so myself ;^)
Posted on July 11, 2025
the mystery of the calbee cards
while doing research for a future project, I noticed something strange… was it a figment of my imagination? or had a phantom kamen rider appeared?! read on to find out!
(more…)Posted on June 26, 2025
edogawa ranpo covers part 6 – curse of the fiend with twenty (five) poplars
while trawling the web for more edogawa ranpo covers (as I am often known to do), I stumbled on a puzzling cache of detective novels shrouded in mystery – was ranpo among the illustrious authors? were the rip-roaring covers eerie… or eerily familiar? and what will I do when confronted with an actual phantom novel?! read on to find out!
(more…)Posted on June 23, 2025
edogawa ranpo covers part 5 – the edge of kodansha-hunting
as I’ve been looking for various versions of the edogawa ranpo boy detective series, there’s one edition that stood out from the rest – read on to learn more about this hair-raising kodansha selection, their unreal cover illustrations, illusive authorship and perhaps… a connection to kamen rider?!
(more…)Posted on June 13, 2025
edogawa ranpo covers part 4 and a half – a poplar interlude
while hunting for the edogawa ranpo covers from my last post (the ones rewritten to include the boy detectives) I found a funny little oddity: an edition of the rewrites that also included… something mysterious!? read on… if you’ve got the nerve!!!
(more…)Posted on June 11, 2025
edogawa ranpo covers part 4 – the fiend with twenty poplars
after finding the original 26 shonen tanteidan book covers from this poplar edition, I had no idea I might find more – let alone 20! a mystery was certainly afoot… and I planned to solve it. read on – if you dare!!
(more…)Posted on June 10, 2025
edogawa ranpo covers part 3 – the case of the missing poplars!
back in my first post on these shonen tanteidan book covers, I didn’t really have much info on them – but then I got stuck into digging up more info while I’ve been recuperating from a cold (cough). and so, here I present – the remaining covers that I was missing from that first batch of Poplar Publishing editions. which should be the end of it… OR IS IT??? read more to find out!!
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