Just Beyond: The Scare School Original Graphic Novel

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Down the hill, the area around Bournemouth Pier is still buzzing with holiday vibes. I stop for a picnic on the beach – and the obligatory 99′ ice cream – before leaving the tourists behind and turning into Bournemouth’s gardens. Quantum mechanics tells us that the universe is made up of fields of vibration that are interconnected, unified, in constant communication and that act independently of time and distance; where everything in the universe is made of energy, is connected to and contributes to, the whole. Yes, you are connected to everything that exists in the past, present and future. The idea of looking beyond the visible and our earthly constraints, looking both beyond and within, informs The Stuff Of Us, another gently strummed number as he sings of “ almost biblical sceneS” and how “ to be blessed is always to be cursed as well/ dark matter holds it all in place/so when we grind against it let’s keep our angles true”, coming to understand that, once all the deadwood is gone, “ the stuff of us that’s most real is eternal and free”.

The Lower, Central and Upper Gardens cut a long, green strip through Bournemouth town centre, following the narrow River Bourne. Dating from the Victorian era, filled with lawns and flower gardens – as well as more modern attractions like miniature golf – this narrow park forms a gorgeous centrepiece to the town. Today, the house is a museum and gallery, with regular exhibitions alongside the permanent collection. There are very few barriers or glass cases, so it feels more like wandering through someone’s living room than visiting an art gallery. A simple strum until electric guitar briefly surfaces midway, Emily is about accepting that “there ain’t much of nothing that we can change in this world/except for our own mind and heart to be more kind and brave in the face of it all” and how there’s no point stamping your foot and getting angry “ when things just don’t bend in the way we’re convinced they should do”. Given the line, “ once you have grown some this song might make sense to you” and album cover, I’d place bets it’s one for his daughter.

A politically active high school student is sent to a school for difficult girls, where manners mask the schools fascist brainwashing. The school, which strictly bans music, has its nefarious plans dashed when the new student and her roommate play She’s a Rebel by Green Day over the schools loud speakers.

Just beyond it, the hilltop ruins of a Norman Castle dating from 1160 look wonderfully out of place, dropped between the high street and a busy main road. I sit with a glass of wine, watching the stars come out and the lights of ships out at sea. No TV, no scrolling on my phone. Just me, the empty beach, and the sounds of the waves.It’s bliss – and exactly the kind of holiday I needed! Henry Thomas starred in The Haunting of Bly Manor. (Image credit: Netflix) 'Just Beyond' cast — who else is starring

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The water is sharp and cold, the way the English Channel always is, but it’s not too cold. My nerves jolt awake and I swim, joyfully, the whole of Bournemouth Beach to myself. The report builds upon concerns raised by the Football Association, which estimates about 120,000 games are lost every season. The fashion gods have been really good to us,” says Bethell, of the revival. Having sold umpteen tea dresses, Bethell describes dungarees as an evergreen product and says the school blazer is “the thing people can’t get enough of right now. Over the last two decades, so much has changed but so much has stayed the same.” There’s some comedy here, mostly in the way that Sam has to try and blend in with his new family. But it’s also sad, especially the happier it gets. There’s an overwhelming sense that all of this is temporary. As Sam’s mom and dad gradually come around to the idea that he’s telling the truth, and spend lots of time together at the lumber yard and a diner, Sam’s real reality begins to encroach on them. He sees the destroyed version of his own world; the collapsed treehouse, surrounded by devastation. He runs the risk of getting trapped there if he takes too long, which means that sooner rather than later he has to leave this idyllic version of his perfect life and return to his own, the one where he lost the man he loves most in the whole world.