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Cavalcade Comics #11 – The Frankenstein Monster vs The Winter Olympics

Posted in comic books, Frankenstein, monsters, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, comic covers, Frankenstein, monsters, Photoshop, Vintage Comic Throwdowns on December 16, 2015 by Paxton

I’m temporarily sticking my head out from where I’m hibernating during the winter to post up this newest cover in my Vintage Comic Throwdown series.

This month’s cover isn’t necessarily holiday themed, as I don’t really have a “Christmas” themed cover in my back log. But I do have a “winter-y” themed cover I can use. Peep your ‘balls on The Frankenstein Monster vs The Winter Olympics.

I’m sort of in love with the concept as well as the execution of this cover. It was birthed almost entirely out of one awesome Marvel Treasury front cover as well as the back cover pin-up. Check out that cover’s double sided awesomeness right here (click to see BIGGER).

This is Marvel Treasury Edition #25 from June 1980. The front cover was drawn by Al Milgrom and Jack Abel. The back cover “pin-up” was drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz and Bruce Patterson. So much action-y goodness that I couldn’t pass up using the majority of the elements in this layout. You can see all of them in the cover. The skiers, the snow, the broken light pole, the building in the background with the crowd. All re-purposed for my Frankenstein gone amok cover.

An element that I didn’t use from the Marvel cover is the Frankenstein monster himself, which comes from Marvel’s The Frankenstein Monster #7 from Nov 1973. Drawn by the great John Buscema.

Frankenstein Monster 07

I love doing these monster mashups. I have another Frankenstein monster mashup stashed away as well as a return for Ghost Rider! But is it the old gunslinger Ghost Rider or the Hell Cycle ridin’ demon? You’ll have to wait to find out.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2015: Scarlet in Gaslight (1987)

Posted in comic books, Dracula, Genres, horror, monsters, nostalgia, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2015, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, Sherlock Holmes on October 29, 2015 by Paxton

This week, instead of the Invisible Man, I am revisting some of my earlier AWESOME-tober-fest themes. Today I’m looking back at Dracula, whom I covered back in 2011.

The comic Scarlet in Gaslight was released by Eternity Comics in 1987-1988.

Sherlock Holmes SIG01

This comic is a Sherlock Holmes mystery where the detective meets the Prince of Darkness, Dracula. It was written by Martin Powell and drawn by Seppo Makinen. If they sound familiar these are the guys who did the Sherlock Holmes vs Invisible Man comic I talked about earlier, A Case of Blind Fear. They actually did this Dracula comic a few years before they did the invisible man mystery.

Sherlock Holmes SIG03

In style and execution this comic is very similar to A Case of Blind Fear. Only, sadly, it isn’t quite as successful. The story tries to incorporate Sherlock Holmes into the events of the Bram Stoker novel which, like in A Case of Blind Fear, would cause changes to the novel’s events as well as the outcome. In the comic you see Lucy suffering in her room where Dracula has been visiting her. You see Van Helsing trying to help her by covering the room in garlic. We also see Dracula has the look from Stoker’s novel with the mustache, but it just isn’t working as well for me as it would a few years later with A Case of Blind Fear.

Lucy gets a bigger part and you see Sherlock having lots of issues with all of the supernatural things going on. He even has sort of a breakdown in the middle of the comic because his precise mind can’t process what it sees. This stuff is interesting but also, in the full run of the comic I was mostly bored reading. I just couldn’t connect to this comic the same way I connected with the later invisible man story. A lot of that may be my issues I have with the Bram Stoker novel itself, but I can’t be sure. Taken at face value, some of this comic is pretty cool, it just has trouble keeping that coolness flowing throughout the four issue story.

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

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2015: Hammer’s Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

Posted in Genres, horror, monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, werewolf with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2015, Halloween, Hammer Studios, holiday, monsters, movies, reviews, werewolf, werewolves on October 28, 2015 by Paxton

Today I’m journeying back to the heady days of October 2010 when I covered werewolves for Halloween. My intention that year was to actually watch and review Hammer’s 1961 werewolf film, Curse of the Werewolf. It was supposed to go right there during that last week after I covered Universal’s Wolf Man movies. However, plans got away from me and I was not able to cover it that year.

Now, I have that chance back. Plus, I haven’t had a Hammer movie review on AWESOME-tober-fest since 2013’s review of The Plague of the Zombies. So, let’s do this.

Hammer’s Curse of the Werewolf starred Oliver Reed and Catherine Feller. It was the only werewolf movie Hammer ever made. It’s very gothic and tragic, lots of sexual subtext and, kind of all over the place.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Hammer Films card COTW card
Title cards for this movie. Not quite as cool as the Horror of Dracula cards.

Marques and wife
This is the Marques Siniestro and his new bride. In this opening scene the movie goes out of its way to show you how mean and cruel this Marques can be. Even his wife is looking at him like, “You’re such an asshole.”

Chef 01 Chef 02
The chef brings out some roasted goose for the newlyweds. The Marquesa says she doesn’t like goose, so the Marques actually gets up out of his chair, yells at the chef for not knowing the Marquesa doesn’t like goose and throws the entire tray of goose on the floor. Then while the chef cleans up the mess the Marques pushes the chef down into the mess.
ASS. HOLE.

Beggar 01 Beggar 02
After the chef debacle, a lowly beggar comes to the Marques’ table to beg for food and drink. The Marques offers him a handful of gold to be the Marquesa’s pet. Then, he completely humiliates the beggar by making him dance in front of everyone for some food and wine. Then the beggar is sent to the dungeons anyway.

Here’s the Marques leering at his wife before sending the beggar to the dungeons. He just informed her it’s time for them to “retire”. Ugh, shivers went up my spine the way he said it. She’s clearly re-thinking her life choices at this point.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2015: Dell’s Frankenstein

Posted in comic books, Frankenstein, monsters, nostalgia, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, AWESOME-tober-fest 2015, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters on October 26, 2015 by Paxton

Here we are, kids. The final week of October and the final week of AWESOME-tober-fest 2015. It sure has been a lot of fun this year, I hope you guys are enjoying this year’s celebration as much as I have been.

Anyway, this final week, I’m parting with my month long theme of the invisible man. Each day I’ll be revisiting a previous theme from an earlier AWESOME-tober-fest. I’ll use this week to review a few things that were supposed to be included in previous years, but for some reason, got cut from the final lineup. And since I’ve always wanted to do them, here’s my chance.

Today, I’m revisiting AWESOME-tober-fest 2009. That year was the first year I did “daily updates” and is the starting point for what AWESOME-tober-fest is today. That year, I covered Frankenstein’s Monster. On October 23, I talked about a bunch of different Frankenstein comics. Amongst that list was a blurb on an obscure 1960s Dell comic called Frankenstein #2.

The Dell monster comics should be familiar to anyone who reads AWESOME-tober-fest. But, to refresh your memory, in the 60s, Dell Comics acquired the Universal Monster license and did comic adaptations of several of the movies. Then, Dell decided to reboot three of the monsters into super hero comics. I reviewed the Dell Werewolf and Dell Dracula comics in their respective AWESOME-tober-fest reviews. But I never got around to a full review of the Dell Frankenstein comic. Today is that day.

As I mentioned, Dell rebooted Frankenstein’s Monster into a super hero comic in 1966 starting with issue #2 (issue #1 was an adaptation of the Universal movie). Like the other monster super heroes, it would only last three issues. Here are issues #3 and #4.

Similar to Dracula, this one is pretty zany. But in a fun way. I mean, look at Frankenstein up there. His head is GREEN but his arms are inexplicably flesh colored. What?

Origin 1 Origin 2
Here’s Frank’s origin from the first issue. It’s 100 years after the Universal movie. Frankenstein’s Monster is buried beneath the ruins of the mad doctor’s castle. A random lightning strike revives the monster who awakens with partial amnesia.

Birth
Frank realizes that he’s stronger and smarter than 50 men, so he decides to use his abilities to fight crime. And somehow in the last 100 years Frank’s extremities have gone back to their pinkish color while his face remains ghastly green. Also, I guess Dr Frankenstein knew that his creature would eventually fight crime so he left a unitard and some masks for the monster to cover up his monstrous face.

Mask 1 Mask 2 Mask 3
And Frank makes sure to use those masks ALL THE TIME. That’s some Mission: Impossible level mask technology right there.

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It’s Back to the Future Day!

Posted in Back to the Future, movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags anniversary, Back to the Future, movies, pop culture on October 21, 2015 by Paxton

October 21, 2015. Today is the day Marty traveled to in the beginning of Back to the Future II.

back-to-the-future-ii-1

This is important enough that I wanted to interrupt my already in progress AWESOME-tober-fest to throw out a bunch of Back to the Future articles I’ve written over the years. Being as big of a fan of that movie as I am, I’ve written a ton of articles remembering that movie. And it’s sequels.

Here are a few of them.

A review of the Back to the Future Trilogy on it’s 25th Anniversary (July 2010)

Flipping through the Back to the Future Official Book of the Complete Movie Trilogy

The Back to the Future Movie Souvenir Magazine

Looking at the Back to the Future Video Games

Remembering the Official Back to the Future Fan Club

How about some Podcast listening for you today.

Check out Nerd Lunch’s appearance on The After Movie Diner to discuss the entire Back to the Future Trilogy

CT Reboots Back to the Future in Nerd Lunch Episode 92

Nerd Lunch actually spent an entire episode talking about the BTTF Trilogy. It was WAAAAAY back in Episode 2

So read some of these articles, listen to some of those podcasts and thoroughly enjoy Back to the Future Day!

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