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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Dell Dracula comics (1966)

Posted in comic books, Dracula, Frankenstein, monsters, nostalgia, pop culture, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Dell Monsters, Dracula, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters on October 4, 2011 by Paxton

Continuing our Halloween AWESOME-tober-fest, this week we are looking at comics featuring Dracula. Today is one part of a group of comics by Dell that re-imagines the Universal Monsters as super heroes.

I have previously looked at the other Dell Monster comics for Halloween. Dell picked up the Universal Monster license in the early 60s and tried to reboot the monsters into super heroes. It was as gloriously insane as you think it was. I talked a little bit about the Dell Frankenstein comic during AWESOME-tober-fest 2009. I hope to someday revisit that comic for a more in depth review. Next I took a long look at the Dell Werewolf comic for AWESOME-tober-fest 2010. While strangely awesome and weird, the Werewolf comic had the best plot so far. They next turned their eyes toward Dracula. And the above comic laden with ridiculous weirdness was the result. Check out that goddam costume. Did he design it in the dark?

The Dracula series only lasted three issue. Here are issues #3 and #4.

The comics are pretty zany. Let’s take a closer look at some of the more entertaining bits.

Dracula origin 2
Here’s the new Dracula’s origin. This guy, Dr Dracula is trying to clear his family name since it’s been smeared by legend. He is trying to cure brain damage with bats…somehow. He creates a serum, pronounces it a success and then proceeds to let go all of his test bats because his work is done (without testing it?). Then one of the bats knocks over the serum and it pours into Dracula’s celebratory drink…without him knowing it (of course!). The serum inexplicably gives Dracula the ability to transform into a bat which, if you think about it as a super power, kinda sucks.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: A Story of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein book and record set (1975)

Posted in Dracula, Frankenstein, monsters, nostalgia, pop culture, vampires, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Dracula, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, werewolf, Wolf Man on October 3, 2011 by Paxton

Welcome to AWESOME-tober-fest 2011. For those that don’t know, this is my yearly Halloween celebration. I do it in conjunction with the Countdown to Halloween Blogathon. Each week I’ll be looking at comics, movies, TV shows and books that feature monsters. This year’s theme is Dracula/vampires, so the stuff will all feature Dracula or vampires.

Anyway, we begin the celebrations with comic book week. This week I’ll look at a bunch of comic books and comic book stories that featured the character of Dracula. Today, I’ll start with a different type of comic book. A Power Records book and record set. This is the book and record set of A Story of Dracula, The Wolfman and Frankenstein. It was released in 1975 and features awesome artwork by Neal Adams. Somewhat of a long and awkward title, isn’t it? I thought this book would be appropriate to look at today because it features the monsters in reverse order of how they appeared in the last three years of AWESOME-tober-fest.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2011 – Dracula/vampires (NOW)
AWESOME-tober-fest 2010 – Wolf Man/werewolves
AWESOME-tober-fest 2009 – Frankenstein’s monster

The book contained one long story incorporating all three monsters.

The story starts as a man and woman are discovered in the woods by a blonde Dracula with a Ted Nugent mustache. The guy is revealed to be Vincent, the nephew of Baron von Frankenstein and the girl his fiance, Ericka. He survived the murder of his uncle by villagers (saving the knowledge of his uncle’s work) and is being chased by those very same villagers. Dracula offers his castle as refuge. But as soon as the couple settle into the castle, Dracula takes Ericka hostage and forces Frankenstein to create a slave using his uncle’s lab equipment. Frankenstein builds the monster and imbues it with life. However the monster goes apesh*t and tosses the fiance out the window (I’m not kidding). Frankenstein begs Dracula to save her and so he calls The Werewolf.

The werewolf attacks Ericka, then takes her to a gypsy camp run by Maleva and her son Bela (the two gypsies from the original Universal Wolf Man movie). Ericka discovers a pentagram on her hand and remembers a werewolf poem, “Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night may be become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the moon is shining bright”. Yes, apparently Ericka has been turned to a werewolf. Of course, at that moment, the full moon comes out from behind some clouds and Ericka turns into a wolf and engages in a battle with another giant werewolf. Bela shoots the other giant wolf and it turns back into Maleva. As a wolf, Ericka flees and somehow finds her way back to the Castle Dracula.

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The Cavalcade’s review of Twilight: Eclipse

Posted in movies, reviews, Twilight, vampires with tags movies, reviews, Twilight, vampires on March 8, 2011 by Paxton

So, despite the fact I am constantly speaking out against this entire series, I continue to watch the movies. I’m committed at this point. For better or worse, I’m finishing the series. I originally spoke out about the books while I reviewed the first movie here. I watched and reviewed the second ridiculous movie, New Moon, here.

So after the debacle that was the second movie, I was actually excited to see the third movie because the trailer looked good. And what I mean by that is that I didn’t hate the trailer on sight. It looks like they decided to push the whole Bella/Edward nonsense to the back and focus on a new vampire who is creating a vampire army to take on the Cullens. It looked, well, if not good, then at least interesting. Let’s take a quick look at that trailer to freshen our memories and to give you the state my head was at when I watched this movie.

See, not too bad…considering what has come before. And I kept hearing from people that this is the best Twilight movie. However, now that I think about that, I’m not really sure how great a compliment that is. That’s like being the smartest guy in Special Ed. But there looks to be some good vampire vs werewolf action, Jacob has that great line about “…killing some vampires” and the new vampire army walking slowly out of the lake. Not bad, Twilight. Not bad.

Anyway, in light of this trailer, I recently convinced my wife to sit down with me and watch the third movie (she hated the first two). I’m going to try to keep my review spoiler free. Here we go.

F**K. THIS. MOVIE.

I hope that’s clear and concise enough to everyone involved in making and writing the movie. F**K. THIS. MOVIE. It’s terrible. That trailer up above? It’s the second trailer. I should have watched the first trailer. In a quick 1:40 trailer you get the best 10 minutes of the movie. The rest of the nearly 2 hours is taken up with Bella/Edward bullsh*t. The big Cullen vampires/Wolf Pack battle with the vampire army didn’t happen until like an hour and forty minutes in. Yeah, for AN HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES I had to watch the sappy EMO melodrama that is Bella with her ENORMOUS two front teeth and hipster Edward who looks like he never washes his hair. I actually hated this movie MORE than New Moon. It’s going to be really hard to sit down to watch Breaking Dawn. I just can’t take anymore Bella and Edward. Plus, Dakota Fanning and the Volturi only show up in 2 scenes. And no Michael Sheen. What’s the point?

So to the entire Twilight franchise, but especially this movie. F**K YOU and everything you’ve done to the lore and myth of the vampire.

Oh, my wife’s review was something like, “…the only part of the movie I liked was when Jacob took his shirt off.”

So there you go.

I’m going to watch the last movie (Or two, since I hear the fourth is supposed to be in two parts a la Harry Potter) but only out of stubborn obligation.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: Rick Moranis in Gravedale High

Posted in cartoons, Halloween, holiday, monsters, TV shows, vampires, werewolf, werewolves with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, reviews, TV shows, werewolf, werewolves on October 20, 2010 by Paxton

Here we are, Day 14 of AWESOME-tober-fest. It’s Hump Day everyone and we came here to talk about werewolves in TV shows. The previous two shows were live action, but our next three entries will be cartoons. Two of these cartoons were absolute favorites of mine growing up in the 80s. Today’s cartoon, however, I didn’t really get a chance to watch on TV as it was only on for one season. But it had a great premise that I love, even today, and I would have watched religiously.

Today we will look at Gravedale High.

Gravedale High first aired in 1990. It was very similar to another of one of my favorite cartoons, Galaxy High. Just swap out aliens for monsters and change the perspective as the main character in Gravedale is a teacher, not a student. However, the “fish out of water in high school” theme is prevalent throughout both cartoons. Plus, it has Rick Moranis, who I love.

Here’s Gravedale’s intro.

The premise is, Rick Moranis voices Max Schneider, a human teacher who is hired at Gravedale High, a high school for the current generation of monsters. Among the student population are vampires, werewolves, centaurs, Medusas, mad scientists, Igors, Gillman, etc. It’s a great concept that I adore to this day. Imagine Drak Pack, but instead of solving crimes the monster teens are actually going to high school. And obviously there’s a lot of monster/human relationship humor in every episode. Here’s some of the main characters in a great pic from DeviantArt :

The show was voiced by a lot of very famous voice actors.The first student on the left is Reggie Moonshroud, the nerdy werewolf. He was voiced by Barry Gordon, best known as Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Nestle Quik rabbit. Rick Moranis’ Max is second from the left. Vinnie Stoker is the Fonzi-esque vampire and was voiced by Roger Rose whose been in Knight Rider and voiced characters on The Jetsons and Batman the Animated Series. To the right of Vinnie is Gill Waterman, the character based on Creature from the Black Lagoon. He’s voiced by none other than Jackie Earl Haley, he of the new Nightmare on Elm Street and Watchmen movies. Lastly on the right we have Frankentyke who is voiced by Frank Welker who famously voiced Fred from Scooby Doo as well as Megatron and Soundwave from Transformers. Other voices included Tim Curry as a mummy history teacher, Rikki Lake as a fat mummy named Cleofatra (subtle), Jonathan Winters as a zombie coach and Eileen Brennan (Mrs Peacock in Clue the Movie) as a teacher that looks like the Bride of Frankenstein.

As you can see, it was a strong cast. Unfortunately, it only lasted 13 episodes, and it’s unclear whether all of those episodes even aired. I don’t believe this was ever released on DVD. I thought it had been released in the UK or Canada, similar to Drak Pack, but I can’t seem to find it on Amazon UK. You can see a few episodes on YouTube.

So that was Gravedale High. The next two cartoon entries on Thursday and Friday are two cartoons I LOVED as a kid. While Gravedale High has a werewolf as part of the ensemble, the next two cartoons both star a werewolf. And one was based on a movie. Can you guess? Well, come back tomorrow and Friday to read about the final two werewolf TV shows for this week.

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

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Billy the Kid Week 2010: Freaky Friday the 13th featuring Billy the Kid, The Three Stooges and Dracula

Posted in Billy the Kid, Dracula, monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews, vampires with tags Billy the Kid, Billy the Kid Week, Dracula, monsters, movies, pop culture, reviews, Three Stooges, vampires on August 13, 2010 by Paxton

This is Day 5 of Billy the Kid Week. All week I’ve been reviewing movies featuring the character of Billy the Kid. Here are the previous week’s entries:

Day 0: Young Guns II 20th birthday
Day 1: Howard Hughes’ The Outlaw
Day 2: The Left Handed Gun starring Paul Newman
Day 3: Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Day 4: Young Guns 22nd birthday

Since today is Friday the 13th, I am dubbing today as Billy the Kid Week’s “Freaky Friday”. I will review one wacky and one scary movie featuring Billy. The first movie will be the Three Stooges’ epic western, The Outlaws IS Coming. The second movie will be the horror schlockfest Billy the Kid vs Dracula. These movies look like they should be appropriately zany, so let’s get started.

Released in 1965, this is the last fully completed film featuring The Stooges. They began filming one more movie, Kook’s Tour, in 1970, but Larry had a stroke before filming was completed and the movie sat unfinished and unreleased for years afterward.

The original title of this movie was The Three Stooges Meet The Gunslingers. That earlier title sounds reminiscent of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein for a reason as this movie is setup in much the same way. Instead of being a “monster rally” movie featuring a famous comedy team, it’s a “gunslinger rally” movie featuring a famous comedy team. There are 9 famous gunslingers in this movie including Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickock, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Johnny Ringo, Cole Younger, Rob Dalton and Belle Star. Each of the nine gunslingers were played by popular local Kid-TV hosts of the day. Other notable stars in this film are Adam West as Kenneth Cabot, a naive ne’er-do-well who works with the Stooges, the gorgeous Nancy Kovack as Annie Oakley and Henry Gibson as Charlie Horse, the Indian chief’s son. The movie is even narrated by Paul Frees, known for his voice work on Rocky and Bullwinkle (most notably, Boris Badenov). So, lots of talent were culled together to make this last movie for the Stooges. West would go on to Batman the very next year. Nancy Kovack would go on to several roles in geek classics like Queenie in two episodes of West’s Batman as well as Nona in an episode of the original Star Trek in 1968.

The Gunslingers

In the movie, the Stooges work as photographers and “undercover investigators” at an organization similar to the ASPCA. They work with West’s Cabot and are sent on an undercover mission to Casper, Wyoming to determine why the population of Bison are dwindling. They discover that a ruthless cattle baron, Rance Roden, has a group of deadly gunslingers killing off the bison to stir up the Indian population into an uprising that will slaughter the cavalry and put Roden in charge of the government (how the cavalry being defeated puts Rance as ruler of the government is not explained). Oh, and Roden is selling government weapons to the Indians. We meet the group of gunslingers in the beginning and learn where their territories are. For some reason, Billy the Kid is said to be in charge of the Dakota Territory instead of Santa Fe (New Mexico, where Billy spent the majority of his life). Johnny Ringo is in charge of Santa Fe. Not a big deal since this is a Stooges movie, but it surprised me. Anyway, we meet the gunslingers in the beginning, then we really don’t see them again until the end when there’s a big gunfight. So, Billy the Kid only has dialogue in like two scenes. Also, he’s played with the temperament of a teenager or child. He whines and cries whenever he doesn’t want to do something. Roden’s henchman Trigger Mortis (Get it? It’s a play on Rigor Mortis…haha!) gets most of the screen time for the villains.

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