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

Posted in comic books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, Awesome-tober-fest 2017, ghosts, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, The Mummy on October 5, 2017 by Paxton

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.

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

Posted in cartoons, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, Awesome-tober-fest 2017, cartoon, ghosts, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, Scooby-Doo on October 3, 2017 by Paxton

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 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 AWESOME-tober-fest, Awesome-tober-fest 2017, cartoon, Disney, ghosts, Halloween, holiday, Mickey Mouse on October 2, 2017 by Paxton

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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