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AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: The Lost Boys sequel comic from Vertigo

Posted in comic books, monsters, movies, pop culture, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, Awesome-tober-fest 2017, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, pop culture, vampires on October 30, 2017 by Paxton

The Lost Boys is a cult classic. It is beloved by many. It’s not hard to argue since the movie is so good in so many ways. It’s a great addition to the vampire mythos. It has the two Coreys. It has a beefy, oily guy in chains playing the sax. It has a rockin’ soundtrack. It was a literal time capsule of the 90s. Not much to really argue about there. Why didn’t we ever get a decent sequel?

You probably already know about those two The Lost Boys “sequel” movies. The Tribe and The Thirst.

I’ve seen them. They’re terrible. They even bring back the Frog Brothers. Still terrible. Actually, that probably makes them even more terrible.

Back in 2008, Wildstorm put out a sequel comic called Reign of Frogs that also brought back the Frogs and made the story more about them. And it was a bit nonsensical and not very good either.

That first movie is so good and beloved, you really want these projects to work. But for the most part, they don’t.

Flash forward back to 2016. Vertigo starts releasing a Lost Boys comic. Written by Tim Seely. It is billed as the Lost Boys sequel you always wanted.

We’ll see about that.

The story takes place in Santa Carla very soon after the first movie. The Frogs are training with Grandpa who now, we know, belongs to a group of vampire hunters. Michael is dating Star. The mom is back at the video store. Things are trying to get back to normal. Until a group of vampires called the Blood Belles show up and start killing all the resident vampire hunters. So the Frogs have to weapon up with Sam and Michael to stop whatever plans they have in store for Santa Carla.

It’s a decent setup. The writing is mostly solid. The covers are great and the interior art is mostly good but the faces on the characters are off. It was confusing to read because I couldn’t tell the difference between Michael and Sam nor either of the Frog Brothers. So it was tough understanding at first who is talking. Other than that, I felt like Tim Seely represented the characters well and wrote in their voices that I can remember from the original movie.

Other than that the overall plot is good. We get the return of a few more characters from the original movie. It’s fun. Nothing ground breaking or amazing but a solid return to that world.

Or at the very least, a more solid return than any of the other returns we’ve gotten before.

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

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: The Ghost Busters episode 10 – The Vampire’s Apprentice (1975)

Posted in Dracula, Halloween, holiday, horror, monsters, pop culture, TV shows, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Dracula, Ghost Busters, Halloween, holiday, monsters, TV shows, vampires on October 26, 2016 by Paxton

Today, I finally get to talk about the old live action TV show, The Ghost Busters, from 1975. I talked a bit before about this show back in 2007 when I discussed the difference between The Real Ghostbusters cartoon and the Filmation Ghostbusters cartoon. As I said earlier, I actually like the old Filmation Ghostbusters cartoon so I was excited to finally go back and check out the TV show that spawned the cartoon.

The show first aired in 1975. It lasted for one season of 15 episodes. It starred Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch and Bob Burns as bumbling paranormal detectives who use a “ghost dematerializer” gadget to send said ghosts back to the netherworld.

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The show made use of several famous monters in its 15 episodes including Jeckyll & Hyde, Dr Frankenstein and his monster, the Red Baron, Billy the Kid and, in the episode I’m about to look at, Dracula and his wife.

Here’s Dracula and his wife. Since this show is a comedy, the duo are characterized as very slaptick and goofy.

It’s interesting, the episode several times mentions that they are the GHOSTS of Dracula and his wife, which doesn’t really make a whole hell of a lot of sense. They interact as if they are corporeal vampires, but in the beginning and the way they are dispatched in the end seems to suggest that they are ghosts. Weird.

The whole episode is weird and the humor is…eh. At one point, Larry Storch’s Spencer is turned into a vampire. To ward all the vampires off, Forrest Tucker’s Kong hands them a “wooden steak” (Haha! Get it?). Of course the vampires look at it oddly at first and then they theatrically recoil in horror when they realize it’s a “wooden steak”. That’s the level of hilarity throughout this episode. Plus, there are constant jokes about how Dracula can’t remember anything because he’s getting old and he’s constantly running into walls when he turns into a bat.

When it’s finally time to dispatch the vampire “ghosts” Kong grabs the “ghost dematerializer” and disintegrates Dracula and his wife back to wherever the hell they came from.

So I’ve finally watched this show. It’s not great. Definitely a product of the time, but the concept is solid. I’ll check out a few of the other episodes with other more famous monsters. I’m really interested in checking out the episode with Billy the Kid’s ghost!

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

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.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Cavalcade Comics #13 Halloween Edition!!

Posted in comic books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires, werewolf, werewolves with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, Halloween, holiday, Vintage Comic Throwdowns on October 24, 2016 by Paxton

Here we are, the final week of AWESOME-tober-fest. It’s this week the last few years that I’ve started a tradition to diverge from my overall theme to do a sort of “greatest hits” of my previous topics. So instead of more mummies, I’m happily going to be doing other things like vampires, werewolves and movie maniacs.

Another sort of tradition I’ve started to debut during this week is a brand new Cavalcade Comics vintage throwdown cover. Last year I did the Dell Monster Squad featuring three of Dell Comics’ monster superheroes. I was actually pretty proud of that cover.

This year, I’m going a little bit more generic but still featuring 2 of those monsters in the form of Werewolf vs A Planet of Vampires!

It’s poetic that I’m debuting issue #13 of these covers during my Halloween celebration. I love that it worked out like that (no, I didn’t plan it that way). Also, this particular cover was actually developed very early on when I started this feature. It was probably the fourth or fifth cover I actually did but for some reason I just sat on it until I decided now is the time to reveal it.

The werewolf part of this cover in the background is taken from Werewolf by Night #19 (1974). One of my favorite covers from that series. The vampire and his victim in the foreground are from Atlas Comics’ Planet of Vampires #2 (1975). However, the Planet of Vampires logo is actually from issue #3.

I still have several other covers done that I haven’t released yet. One of them is actually the second cover I ever did and just never released it. We’ll see when, or if, that one ever comes up.

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

AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: IDW’s Infestation event (2011)

Posted in monsters, pop culture, vampires, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, reviews, vampires, zombies on October 17, 2013 by Paxton

Today we are going to look at a big comic book crossover event from 2011 done by the publisher IDW. It was called Infestation.

The crossover involved four of IDW’s licensed properties; Ghostbusters, Star Trek, Transformers and GI Joe, and one of their own titles; CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations. On the outset, it was exciting to me because I wanted to know how the hell they were going to combine universes. Would Kirk meet Optimus Prime? Would GI Joe try to recruit Egon? The concept brimmed with potential awesomeness.

In case you aren’t familiar, CVO is a group of vampires and other magical beings that work for a clandestine group in the government who fight supernatural attacks on Earth. It’s a pretty cool concept and the group is pretty cool. The story begins at a hidden weapons base in New Mexico. An interdimensional being called the Undermind tries to take over our world. The Undermind is a supernatural entity that takes over beings and turns them into, essentially, zombies who do his bidding. A vampire member of the team, Britt, is bitten by a zombie and becomes a vampire/zombie hybrid. The Undermind uses her dual supernatural nature to make her supremely powerful at wielding magic. Britt opens up portals in four other universes and minions of the Undermind escape into each. We soon discover that each of these portals leads to the worlds of Ghostbusters, Star Trek, GI Joe and Transformers.

Here’s a pic of Britt in her all powerful vampire/zombie form.

In each of the universes the Undermind attacks, an analog of Britt appears. You can see the analogs in the margins of this picture. So in the Transformers universe, Britt actually becomes this weird looking human-faced Transformer (upper left).

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