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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Angel vs Frankenstein (2009)

Posted in comic books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, horror, monsters, TV shows, vampires with tags Angel, AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, comic books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, reviews, vampires on October 25, 2016 by Paxton

Back in 2011, when I did Dracula/vampires for my theme, I covered the appearance of Dracula in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This included several comic book appearances with Buffy and Spike. So, I thought I should next cover another Buffy character teaming up with another classic monster. Let’s see if this one fares any better.

In 2009, IDW released a one-shot called Angel vs Frankenstein. It was written and drawn by the great John Byrne.

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The story takes place after Mary Shelley’s novel, which we get a brief recap of in the comic. It also takes place before Angel is cursed by the gypsy to have a soul. So, after Frankenstein discovers Victor dead in the arctic at the end of Shelley’s novel, he decides to return to his home to claim the right as the last heir of Frankenstein. However, the monster realizes he can’t do it alone, so the monster hires Angelus to return to Castle Frankenstein with him to help. However, Angelus has different ideas and throws the monster out of the stagecoach and over a cliff. He then goes to the castle to claim the fortune for himself. But the monster didn’t die, and it makes its way back for his revenge. Queue Frankenstein vs Angelus fight.

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It’s a pretty good story. I like the setup. I love Byrne’s art. I enjoyed reading it. It’s only a one-shot, so it’s short, but Byrne makes the most of it.

Then in 2010, IDW released a sequel called, appropriately, Angel vs Frankenstein II. This one-shot was also written and drawn by John Byrne.

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This takes place many years after the first comic. Angelus is now just Angel. He’s in America and working as a janitor at a mental hospital. He discovers the monster bound up in a hidden set of rooms in the hospital. Angel tries to sort out the mystery of how the monster got there but when the monster sees Angel, he goes off on a rampage thinking it’s Angelus and Angel has to stop him from tearing apart the city. We also learn a few secrets about the nature of this Frankenstein monster.

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Again, this is a good, if a bit more understated comic story. It’s another one shot, but Byrne makes good use of the characters and his art is great. I like the wrap up of the Frankenstein monster here. I’d definitely recommend these comics to a fan of Angel.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Fangoria #182 (1999) – Mummy Mania issue

Posted in Genres, Halloween, holiday, horror, movies, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Fangoria, Halloween, holiday, horror, magazines, monsters, movies, mummy, pop culture, reviews, The Mummy on October 21, 2016 by Paxton

Time to dip down into my stack of old Fangoria magazines to see if there are any cool mummy issues.

Oh look! Found one.

Check out Fangoria #182 from May 1999. It’s the Mummy Mania issue with a cover story about the new Stephen Sommers directed The Mummy remake.

The issue features lots of other mummy based articles. The one I want to look at today, though, is an in-depth blow by blow of the history of the mummy in cinema. It’s called “Show Me the Mummy”.

It’s a more straight forward historical account of the birth and proliferation of mummy movies than that Starlog invisible man article from last year that tried to write the history of the invisible man in popular culture into a weird, narrative story that presumes invisibility actually exists. Essentially turning movies and TV shows with invisible people into “historical documents”. This article, is a nicely researched account that doesn’t just list out mummy movies but gives some background info into some of the bigger releases.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Asher Cobb from The Sixth Gun

Posted in comic books, Genres, Halloween, holiday, horror, monsters, mummy, pop culture, Western with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, comic books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, mummy, pop culture, reviews on October 19, 2016 by Paxton

Today I’m going to talk about a specific mummy character from one of my favorite comic series, The Sixth Gun, by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt.
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The comic is a horror western about six cursed pistols and the battle between good and evil to possess the guns and prevent them from destroying and remaking the world. There’s so much stuff running through this comic like gunfighters, undead Civil War generals, dark swamp gods, skinwalkers, black magic, ghosts and a 9 foot tall mummy. It really is worth a read and I can’t recommend it enough. The series as a whole ended this year with issue #50 and I recently did a re-read of the entire series from Book 1 up to the final issue and I loved every bit of it. The comic really gets deep into its own mythology and I really liked how it ended.

Anyway, the part of this comic I want to discuss today is the aforementioned 9 foot tall mummy. His name is Asher Cobb.

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Asher first shows up in the series in the collected edition Book 3: Bound. Specifically in the final page of issue #12.

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He shows up out of nowhere and steals the coffin containing the undead corpse of the evil General Hume. He fights spectacularly for the next issue and a half. Then, in issue #14, we finally get his origin as told to us by an old carnie.

Asher Cobb was born deformed. He was oversized, which made him an outcast. To add to that, he also received visions. Visions of the future. He was befriended only by a nice girl named Ruth who he fell in love with. One day he received a terrible vision of Ruth’s death. So to prevent the death of the girl he loved, he sought out some old witches and made a devil’s bargain to cheat death. But to do that, he had to endure death.

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Unfortunately Asher was not able to prevent Ruth’s death so he is constantly wandering, driven crazy by his unnaturally long life and the knowledge that he couldn’t prevent Ruth’s death. He is at first used by the forces of evil as a tool, but Asher would show up much later helping out the good guys and hoping that whomever acquired the guns and remade the world, would also bring back his beloved Ruth.

Asher is a pretty great character, both in the story but also visually. He is super strong, gets visions of the future and just looks awesome. He’s just one of the reasons I love this comic.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice (1989)

Posted in books, Halloween, holiday, horror, monsters, mummy with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Halloween, holiday, monsters, mummy on October 17, 2016 by Paxton

Anne Rice is known for her vampire books, but she’s written a slew of other supernatural books featuring other things like witches, werewolves and, more relevant to today’s article, a mummy.

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Per Anne Rice’s bibliography, I was aware of the Vampire Chronicles as well as a few of her other erotic tales that she’d written. I had read Interview with the Vampire and tried to read The Vampire Lestat back in college but gave up after twenty pages or so. I hadn’t been aware of this mummy book until I started researching for AWESOME-tober-fest.

The premise is thusly; an archaeologist discovers a long lost tomb, presumably to Ramses the Great. He opens it up and begins cataloging everything and notices several weird details like lots of Roman and Greek influences as well as Latin inscribed on the tomb itself. However, before he can finish translating the tomb’s scrolls, the archaeologist is killed, seemingly by a curse on the tomb. And when the mummy and artifacts are brought to London to be displayed in the archaeologist’s home, strange things begin happening, not the least of which is that the mummy itself has risen from its sarcophagus.

That’s a quick, elevator pitch to what’s going on. I’ll say this, I liked the plot of the book. It was interesting. The titular character was interesting as well. In fact, Ramses himself seemed like a variation of Rice’s vampires. He’s immortal, he has a “thirst”, not for blood, but for satiating his physical senses with things like eating, smoking, drinking and sex. However, instead of existing only at night, Ramses is fueled by the sun. He’s like a “sun vampire”, if you will.

Anyway, like I said, I enjoyed the book’s overall plot but the page to page events were too exposition-y with a bit too much of the Harlequin melodrama. I don’t need to be hammered over the head with how evil cousin Henry is. Or how “in on it” Uncle Randolph is. I don’t need to hear how much the daughter is falling for the bad boy Ramses despite her feeble attempts to ignore her yearnings. You got a good plot, let it run, Anne, don’t bog it down. There are too many characters with too many less interesting stakes in what goes on and it bogs down what could be a nicely paced action yarn.

The action does pick up a bit in the last third, but honestly, by then, I was prepared to tap out. I didn’t really care for any of these characters and I was only mildly interested in the conclusion to the story.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Hammer Studio’s The Mummy (1959)

Posted in Genres, horror, monsters, movies, mummy, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Halloween, Hammer Studios, holiday, monsters, movies, The Mummy on October 14, 2016 by Paxton

Okay, I’m doing a more popular monster, so I get to visit a Hammer film this year! In 1959, one of the more prolific Hammer directors, Terence Fisher, as well as one of the more prominent writers, Jimmy Sangster, tackled Hammer’s version of The Mummy.

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It starred the usual Hammer all stars, Peter Cushing as John Banning and Christopher Lee as the mummy. As in the other Hammer monster movies, their mummy movie was based on Universal’s version, but maybe not the one you’d think. Instead of re-adapting Universal’s 1932 The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff, this movie takes it’s story from two of the later Universal mummy sequels; The Mummy’s Hand (1940) and The Mummy’s Tomb (1942). With a little bit of the climax from The Mummy’s Ghost (1944). And while the Karloff version is held in higher regard, I feel the sequels have a bit more fun with the subject.

So, how did Hammer do? I love the Hammer aesthetic. Check out my reviews for Horror of Dracula or Curse of Frankenstein. When Hammer works, it’s dynamite. When it doesn’t, you get well meaning missteps like Curse of the Werewolf.

I won’t say this particular movie was a misstep. But it wasn’t a favorite. It just seemed to drag a lot, especially in the middle. But while the story was lacking, the other Hammer touches where there. The set design is GREAT.

The tombs look great and are set designed in that spectacular way that Hammer usually does. I mean check out the above picture of the recently opened tomb. It’s not been opened in thousands of years but the green lights apparently still work. Amazing.

Also, Cushing and Lee are great as always. I just love watching Cushing be gentlemanly and awesome.

And Lee’s mummy looks just incredible as well. Especially when he’s getting shotgunned in the chest by Peter Cushing.

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And check out this “ancient scroll” that is the basis for much of the plot of this movie.

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Looks like it was printed last Thursday at Kinkos. That being said, it’s beautiful looking. Take a look at the inscriptions on the left picture (click it). That’s some wonderfully detailed imagery for just a few seconds of on screen footage. That’s Hammer for you.

Here’s where I think the problem lies. The mummy, as a monster, is essentially boring. He’s too passive. Much like my issues with traditional zombies, I don’t really enjoy watching mummy movies. And that’s my main problem with this movie. The mummy is used as “muscle”, the second banana if you will. It’s probably why I like the Brendan Fraser mummy movies a bit more because I feel like that mummy was in charge. He actually felt dangerous. While it was fun to watch Cushing and Lee, the overall story was a bit boring, but that’s a problem with most mummy movies for me and not necessarily a problem with Hammer’s movie.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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