As we approach this year's Free Comic Book Day, I checked out an offering from Dark Horse Comics that I picked up last year. It not only featured Hellboy, but also included a short graphic piece from Netflix's "Stranger Things." There was a classic Romantic Gothic style that Mark Laszlo and Dave Stewart utilized in Hellboy's panels throughout the story by Mike Mignola. Jonathan Case used a more straightforward approach with his artwork to bring Dereck Fridolfs' story to life.

A week ago, I was hanging on the Asbury Park boardwalk with my grandchildren and these wild memories were flooding my head. Although I grew up in the Bronx, I have spent many a summer down the Jersey Shore. Then I looked across the street and saw The Stone Pony and another set of memories came my way. I remember when Dominic Santana bought The Pony and was working towards reopening the venue and I introduced him to FRED's Papers, with whom he took a backpage ad. I drove him to the Asbury train station to pick up his partner, all the while selling him on the Jersey Shore Publication.

A few towns away from the brush fires on Tuesday evening, one couldn't tell that people's homes were in danger. I drove to Manchester around 4:45pm to attend an event at a senior housing development. The parkway was open and running smoothly. There was a brush fire burning in Waretown, but nobody knew at that time how bad it was going to get. By the time the event was getting ready to start at 6:00pm, it was reported that the parkway was closed from exit 63 to exit 80. I was near exit 83. Needless to say, I didn't stay for the event and took route 70 home as they were beginning to evacuate some homes close to me. As I passed the exit 74 entrance to the Garden State Parkway South, I saw two cop cars blocking the entrance as flames were reaching crazy heights about 100 feet from their cars.

While at this year's iHeartHorror event, I had the pleasure of meeting Daemon Manx. He is holding the book I purchased that day in the photo above. Published last year in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, "The Ojanox Book 1: Scream In The Dark" was a masterclass in character development, which brought back my fondest memories of reading Stephen King novels. I knew upon purchasing this book that the story wasn't going to end here. You could say the fact that "Book 1" was in the title was a dead giveaway. However, I wanted to get a taste of the story first. Needless to say, I now have to track down "Ashes To Ashes," "All Fall Down" and "Lonesome Mountain."

These are some pictures of the smoke created from the brush fires that were burning out of control in New Jersey. A big thank you goes out to all of the First Responders who managed to control what could have been a bigger catastrophe.

While visiting Amy's Omelette House in Long Branch, New Jersey, for an Easter Brunch, I looked up from my seat and immediately saw the most interesting cow that I ever had seen. Even though most people know that I am from the Bronx and you don't get to see many (if any) cows there, I have been to areas in Pennsylvania and Michigan, as well as other states, where I had the opportunity to see cows.