Despite the cool cover, THE RED MAGICIAN by Lisa Goldstein only has one scene with a golem, as the eponymous magus attempts to create one only to have a hostile Rabbi/mystic undo his work. That said, this was a good one to reread, told from the POV of a young Jewish girl watching the Red Magician warn her 1930s European village about bad things coming, only to find the local Rabbi, who has magic of his own, stubbornly oppose him. As usual for Goldstein (this was her first novel), the magic is wild, unchaotic and feels very magical; the golem’s creation feels mystical, rather than simply reciting a spell.
SWEEP: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier is set in 19th century England, where protagonist Nan has been enduring life as a chimney sweep working for the brutal Crudd ever since the disappearance of her mentor/father-figure (never named other than “the Sweep”). When she almost dies cleaning out a school chimney, the ball of strange soot the Sweep left with her comes to life as a golem and saves her. Now they have to stay off Crudd’s radar while Nan introduces her new friend Charley to the wonders of life. This is a good juvenile, though stock as a story of an artificial life form; as a golem it’s only marginal (it talks — golems can’t — and there’s no clue how the Sweep created Charlie).
In THE MONOLITH by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Phil Winslade, protagonist Alice is a drug addict trying to avoid falling into the clutches of Princeton, a ruthless pimp who wants her working for him. When she inherits her grandmother’s old home she hides there, but discovers Something walled up in the basement. It turns out that years earlier, grandma helped a local rabbi make a golem to fight the local mobsters only to seal it away when it became too aggressive a vigilante. Now, though, it may be the defender Alice needs … This is the first three issues of a DC series, though the TPB came out from Image (I presume that means it’s creator-owned) — as the remaining issues involved Batman, I doubt we’ll see them reprinted. No great loss: I saw this in single issues and wasn’t impressed. It’s readable, no more than that.
I’ll add one last extra that definitely belongs in my article, the third and final issue of Atlas’ Bronze Age The Scorpion, by Gabriel Levy and Jim Craig. As Tom Brevoort explains, the first two issues, by Howard Chaykin, had presented the Scorpion as an immortal 1930s pulp hero, whom Chaykin turned into Dominic Fortune at Marvel 
after Atlas tanked. In #3, the Scorpion is a modern-day costumed crimefighter (given the immortal angle I’m guessing he’s the same guy) who goes up against a Fourth Reich with the help of a golem (the rationale for creating the golem is both contrived and kind of interesting).
#SFWApro. Top cover uncredited, bottom one by Jim Craig, all rights to images remain with current holders.
Although I remembered Barbara Anson’s 1978 GOLEM as what my friend Ross calls “drugstore horror” (not meant as a compliment) it’s actually much better than that: Anson’s really done her research on the relevant kabbalistic mysticism, even if she ignores some of it when convenient (rather than having a spiritually evolved mystic create the golem, the protagonist just has to recite the appropriate rituals while stoned enough on his meds not to be thinking how ridiculous this is). The protagonist, a paraplegic Jewish Vietnam veteran realizes his rabbi father’s electrocution death was no accident (“My father was devout — he’d never have changed a fuse on the Sabbath.”) but can’t convince anyone that a Satanic cult is making regular sacrifices of religious leaders every Halloween. Not classic, but I liked it more than I remembered. However the protagonist is an unpleasant boatload of disability cliches.
Walking the dogs this week I met Sparrow, an older cat who lives down the street. Much the same stripe and color pattern as Wisp, but to me they look very different now that I know Wisp so well.
THE SCENT OF MAY RAIN (done as a 
AQUAMAN: Deadly Waters by Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo collects the final run of Aquaman’s Silver Age serie. Aquaman gets trapped in a subatomic 
universe, meets Deadman, fights off aliens, thwarts a deranged millionaire and battles a reckless superhero in Detroit, all with some wild art by Aparo, who seems to be channeling Ditko in some of the subatomic scenes. I really dislike that Mera gets to do nothing but wring her hands and worry (as I’ve mentioned before, 
