AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: Five Ghosts: The Haunting of Fabian Gray (2013)

Posted in comic books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture with tags , , , , , , , on October 5, 2017 by Paxton

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Today I’m going to talk about a comic book called 5 Ghosts. It was first published by Image in 2013. It’s written by Frank J Barbiere and drawn by Chris Mooneyham.

5 Ghosts 001 5 Ghosts 002

The premise is pretty interesting.  Fabian Gray is an adventurer and master thief.  After an accident, he was infused with an artifact called The Dreamstone.  It allows him access to the abilities of five ghosts; the archer, the wizard, the detective, the samurai and the vampire.  However these abilities have a cost.  In not only his body, but his mind.  Plus, the accident also robbed him of his sister who he’s determined to find and bring back from wherever she is.  All while being chased by a shadowy group of supernaturals.

That’s a pretty great premise.  And it mostly lives up to that premise.  The art is fantastic.  It’s drawn like an old book or pulp novel.

5 Ghosts 003

There’s lots of action. Lots of flashbacks. You don’t get much of Fabian’s backstory and when you do it isn’t until midway through the book. But there’s some good, snappy dialogue and great action. I like how the ghost abilities work and that the actual process of using the abilities seems to cause Fabian a lot of problems.  However, I do wish they had filled in more backstory.  Like, a fuller version of the story of how Fabian ended up with the Dreamstone embedded in his chest.  And maybe even more background on the ghosts that inhabit Fabian.  But, conversely, I also like that the exclusion of these stories allows the reader to fill some of that story in themselves.  But I also assume these story aspects will probably be told at some point.

It all boils down to this, I guess, this comic is definitely worth a read if you’ve been considering it at all.  Fun adventure, supernatural elements, cool throwback style art.  There’s something for everyone.


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

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: Casting the Runes and other Ghost Stories by MR James

Posted in books, Classic literature, Genres, ghosts, Halloween, holiday, horror, monsters, pop culture with tags , , , on October 4, 2017 by Paxton

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Doing research for ghosts I looked up scariest ghost stories to see what popped up that I want to cover. The name M.R. James kept showing up in lists.

MR James

He’s a very well respected author from the late 19th-early 20th century.  Most of his work with ghost stories shows up in the early 1900s.  James began what is now called “antiquarian ghost stories”.  James abandoned the high “Gothic” cliches of what was then the presiding style of ghost stories and set his stories in a more contemporary setting.  He also generally used a protagonist that was a naive or very reserved scholarly gentleman who had found or come into possession of a mysterious object that drives the crux of the story.

There have been several collections of James’ ghost stories, so I picked one that had the most variety but also one that included several that were generally considered his best.  Hello Oxford World’s Classics edition.

Casting the Runes cover

In this collection, the main ones I wanted to read were Casting the Runes, Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, and A Warning for the Curious. I also planned to cherry pick a few others depending on how much I liked what I read first.

So, I read the stories, what do I think?  Honestly, the stories just didn’t grab me.  There’s some interesting things James is doing, but none of them connected with me.  I read the story, liked the setup, but nothing ever creeped me out or scared me.  I came in fully expecting to be terrified of these stories but…nope.  Nothing.  I think James is a good writer, but for whatever reason, these just didn’t punch those specific creepy buttons for me.  I was more scared when I reread those old Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books than I ever was here.

This is a shame because I really was excited to read these stories for some good creepy fun.


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

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: A Night of Fright is no Delight! (1970)

Posted in cartoons, TV shows with tags , , , , , , , , on October 3, 2017 by Paxton

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I’m a big fan of Scooby-Doo Where Are You?  I watched it as a kid and I find even now it’s still fun to watch.  I covered a Scooby Doo episode last year for mummies, so I thought I would do one again this year.  So I picked one of my favorite episodes that involved…ghosts.

And the episode I picked was only four episodes after the mummy episode.  It’s from Season 1, episode 16 – A Night of Fright is no Delight. It aired in early 1970.

Scooby Doo titleScooby Doo title

I love this episode. The design of the ghost is so cool. I remember seeing it when I was a kid and thought that it was just so awesome.  Obviously, I liked it so much I used it for my AWESOME-tober-fest banner this year.

Enough talk, let’s take a look at the episode.


The Mystery Inc crew is sent to an old Southern mansion which seems to be on an island in the middle of a lake somewhere? Col Beauregard Sanders (yep, Col Sanders) has included Scooby in his will for saving him at some point in the past.


The lawyer is Mr Creeps. Perfect name.  Col Sanders’ will is recorded on a long playing record because it’s 1970.  All of the relatives plus Scooby must spend the night in the haunted house to get their share of the Colonel’s money.


Getting ready for bed, Shaggy, in keeping with his M.O. of trying to eat things that are inedible to normal humans, tries to put fish food on his sandwich.  See also “Liver a la Mode sandwich with an olive garnish” in Scooby Doo and a Mummy Too!


While Shaggy eats his fishy sandwich, Scooby decides to take a bath and gets kidnapped in the most Scooby Doo way possible. I love that there’s a second bathtub FULL OF WATER behind the false wall ready to take the place of the missing Scooby.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: Mickey Mouse in Lonesome Ghosts (1937)

Posted in cartoons with tags , , , , , , , on October 2, 2017 by Paxton

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This is it. The 10th year of AWESOME-tober-fest begins TODAY! And we are going to start with an old Mickey Mouse cartoon.

On Christmas Eve 1937, three days after Snow White‘s theatrical release, Disney released the cartoon short Lonesome Ghosts.

Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey. I have a fond nostalgia for this short. I remember it well because it came on a cartridge that was released with the Fisher Price Movie Viewer.  And I had one.

The viewer had a crank on it that you moved to advance the film footage. There were a ton of cartridges available but for some reason the only cartridge I remember owning was Lonesome Ghosts.  One of the cool features of the viewer was that if you ran the crank backward, the footage would run backward.  So I would alternate scenes running them forwards and then backwards.  It was endlessly entertaining.

The gist of the cartoon involves four ghosts living in an old abandoned mansion.  They are bored because they’ve scared off all the people.  They see an advertisement in the newspaper for ghost exterminators and they call them in so they can scare them off.

You can watch the short in its entirety here.


Here are the opening title cards.


As I said, these four ghosts are bored having scared away all the people.  So they see in the newspaper an ad for a ghost extermination company and decide to call them in and have some fun.


They imitate a scared lady and ask Mickey, Donald and Goofy to come help.


Our ghost exterminator crew arrives all geared up. Mickey has brought a shotgun. To use. On a GHOST.  I wonder if they’ve ever actually been out on a call before?


So, as I thought, we see the shotgun didn’t work on a ghost. However, not because the ghost is incorporeal.  The ghost actually sticks his fingers in the barrels to make the gun explode.  Interestingly these ghosts are everything except incorporeal as later on Donald actually punches a ghost in the face.  And it lands.


This sequence is the one I remember most with that Movie Viewer above.  The ghosts go in the closet and when Mickey opens it to go after them a ton of water falls out.  I remember watching and reversing this sequence over and over again to see the water rush in and out of the door frame.

One has to wonder if this particular cartoon had any influence whatsoever on the movie Ghostbusters.  Or even the original TV show The Ghost Busters.  Probably yes, on the latter.  For the former, I can’t say for sure.  However, at one point, Goofy does say the line, “I ain’t scared of no ghosts.”

The cartoon is a short eight minutes and change.  It’s a fun watch.  Check it out.


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

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AWESOME-tober-fest officially starts on Monday!!

Posted in Halloween, holiday with tags , , , on September 29, 2017 by Paxton

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Check it out!  The Halloween decorations are up!  We are inside the spooky season, guys! This is just a heads up to let you know that AWESOME-tober-fest 2017 begins on Monday.

So on Monday I begin talking about ghosts and ghost stories.  Expect updates every weekday in October.  I’ll be reviewing tons of books, comics, cartoons and movies all having to do with GHOSTS.  That’ll be happening for the first three weeks of October.  Then, for the last two weeks, starting on Mon October 25, I’ll begin what’s called my “Greatest Hits”.  For those two final weeks I’ll be revisiting topics from previous AWESOME-tober-fests like vampires, werewolves and zombies.  I’ll even debut a brand new Cavalcade Comics cover during those weeks and a brand new episode of I Read Movies!  So enjoy that!

If you check out that banner above this article you may notice the red burst that says “10th YEAR”.  Yes, this is the 10th year that I have done this Halloween celebration.  So help me go out this Halloween with a BANG!

Or a BOO as the case may be.  See you on Monday.

 


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

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