Rick Geary & H.H. Holmes

Earlier this year, I read Watchmen and really enjoyed it. So I did some research and made a list of some comics that I wanted read because after all, comics were one of the main reasons why I started to read as kid. I guess you could say that comics taught/motivated me to read. See! Comics aren’t bad after all!


By far the best comic that I’ve read this year so far was The Lindbergh Baby by Rick Geary. Rick Geary retells historical events with amazing detail. I remember staying up to 2 in the morning trying to finish this book, the next morning I woke up and had to tell my wife everything that I read.


The next Rick Geary book that I want to read is called “The Beast of Chicago: The Murderous Career of H.H. Holmes.” Who is H.H. Holmes? He was the first serial killer in the world; he was a doctor who was obsessively fascinated with the human body, especially the human skeleton.

In the late 1800’s, in anticipation for the Chicago World’s Fair, he built a castle-looking, block long, 3 stories tall building, in south-side Chicago. The upper two floors contained his office and a maze of windowless rooms, doors and stairs that would lead to nowhere, doors that could only be opened from the outside, as well as other odd things. He would hire mainly female employees, pay insurance premiums for them, murder them, and then collect the insurance money. Remember that this was in the late 1890s, so there was no forensic science back then to trace these bodies back to H.H. Holmes as homicides.

It was later discovered that he would lock his victims in bank vaults or place them in sound-proof gas chambers inside his castle looking hotel. It was also discovered that he also had a secret chute to transport bodies from the upper two floors into the basement where he had pits of acid, furnaces, and other things to dispose of the bodies. He also sold organ and skeletons to various medical schools. Inside his “castle,” he also performed illegal abortions where often both mother and child would die.

It was reported that many people came to Chicago to see the World Fair but some never returned home.


The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, a very popular book over the past few years depicts the story of H.H. Holmes as well.

Okay, I’m sorry for freaking you out! I really am! But the point is that a well crafted story is an amazing adventure! It does not matter what the medium is, whether it be a comic book or a novel or a movie or tv show or a conversation. If the story is good, it is worth engaging.