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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: Frazetta’s Dracula Meets The Wolfman

Posted in comic books, Dracula, monsters, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, comic books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, werewolves, Wolf Man on October 4, 2010 by Paxton

In 2007 Image Comics started releasing several limited edition comic books based on the paintings of sci-fi/fantasy legend Frank Frazetta. Their first comic was based on one of Frazetta’s most well known pieces, The Death Dealer. The Death Dealer was the subject of several of Frazetta’s most famous paintings. The comic book told the origin of the famous character and fleshed out some of his adventures. When that comic proved successful they decided to continue the series by telling the story behind other famous Frazetta paintings.

(Via FrankFrazetta.org)

In 2008, Image released a one-shot comic book based on Frazetta’s painting, Dracula Meets The Wolfman (see above). The one-shot comic was released with three limited edition covers. Cover A was the original Frazetta painting. Cover B was done by the book’s artist Francesco Francavilla. The third cover was a limited edition sketch by Nat Jones (see covers below).

Dracula Meets Wolfman Cover B Dracula Meets Wolfman Cover C

I recently read this one shot comic and, as for the story, it’s a little thin. It feels like only part of a larger story. Nicolae, who is apparently a werewolf, is in love with a peasant girl. The peasant girl is taken to Dracula who intends to feast on her blood. Nicolae shows up all wolfed out and battles Dracula for the life of the peasant girl. That’s essentially it. The peasant girl is killed and we get an epilogue that fast forwards years later where the Wolf Man ambushes Dracula on the tarmac of a private airport. It’s really disjointed and feels like the middle part of a three part story. I was hoping there were other issues to flesh out the rest of the story but there isn’t. That’s it.

Needless to say, for me, the idea is far better than the actual execution of that idea. I love Frazetta, I love the painting, but I do not love this comic book.

Stay tuned, all week I am looking at werewolves in comic books.

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

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: 6 Crazy-ass werewolf movies and their posters

Posted in Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, pop culture, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, Halloween, holiday, movie posters, movies, pop culture, werewolf, werewolves on October 1, 2010 by Paxton

Welcome to Day 1 of AWESOME-tober-fest. A month long celebration of all things scary, weird and AWESOME. This month’s theme is werewolves. So today, to kick off AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, I’m going to look at a bunch of crazy-ass and randomly weird werewolf movies and their posters.

Let’s kick this party off with…

Legend of the Werewolf (1975) – This is a pretty spectacular poster. The white werewolf looks great. Almost like a Polar Werewolf (they live in the Arctic Circle, you know). The red eyes and teeth are striking. I like the font on the title too. What’s up with the hanging corpse on the left? What does a hanging have to do with the werewolf? I don’t remember hanging being one of the traditional ways to kill a werewolf. Does the werewolf actually hang someone? And what’s with the little Jack the Ripper silhouette below the hanging? Is this a werewolf vs Jack the Ripper movie? If so, that’s pretty awesome. Check out Grand Moff Tarkin in the lower right corner.

Werewolf Woman (1976) – This is the plot synopsis from IMDB:

A woman has dreams that she is a werewolf so she goes out and finds men. She proceeds to have sex with them and then rip their throats out with her teeth. She eventually falls in love but then she is raped and her lover is murdered so she goes out for revenge.

I’m not sure what I can really add to that, except that might be the single greatest movie synopsis I’ve ever seen. Simple, to the point, AWESOME.

Werewolves on Wheels (1971) – This movie looks so ridiculous. A biker gang encounters black robed, Satan worshiping monks who secretly turn one of the female gang members into a werewolf after the bikers trash their monastery. And the hilarity ensues. The other tagline for this movie was “If you’re hairy, you belong on a motorbike!” And I’m seriously not joking.

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Gird your loins. AWESOME-tober-fest is coming.

Posted in Halloween, holiday with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, Halloween, holiday on September 29, 2010 by Paxton

Well, well, well. It’s that time of year. Friday is October 1st. You know what that means? Yes, it’s
AWESOME-tober-fest time. For those that don’t know, AWESOME-tober-fest is this blog’s month long celebration of Halloween. There will be at least 1 post every weekday until Halloween.

AWESOME-tober-fest has been going on since 2007. You can check out all of my AWESOME-tober-fest articles by clicking the above banner. There’s lots of content, so have at it.

The last few years I’ve joined Shawn Robare, John Rozum and company for the Countdown to Halloween:

Countdown to Halloween is a collection of hundreds of blogs that have come together to celebrate Halloween. There are thousands of posts going on all through October, so it’s fun to go to Countdown and see what other people are doing.

Anyway, I started doing overall themes for AWESOME-tober-fest in 2008. Last year I did Frankenstein as my overall theme. This year, it’s werewolves. Werewolves are my favorite monster so I’m extra excited to get to this year’s content. Each week in October will have a subtheme. On Friday, I’ll look at crazy werewolf movie posters. Then the week of Oct 6, I’ll look at werewolves in comic books. The week of Oct 11 will be werewolf novels. Oct 18 will review werewolf TV shows and the final week of AWESOME-tober-fest will review a bunch of werewolf movies including the original Universal Studios films. It should be a blast, so come check back here every day in October.

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

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Happy Halloween from the Cavalcade

Posted in Halloween, holiday, movies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2009, Halloween, holiday, movies on October 31, 2009 by Paxton

Happy, Happy Hall-o-ween.
Hall-o-ween, Hall-o-ween.
Happy, Happy Hall-o-ween.
Sil-ver Sham-rock.

I challenge you to watch the above YouTube clip from Halloween III and NOT get that tune stuck in your head the rest of the day. You’re welcome.

So, I know you are all waiting with baited breath. What did I dress up as for Halloween this year? Glad you asked, I was Capt Kirk from the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie.

And here’s an action shot.

Pretty awesome, I know. Thanks to Debi for taking the pics of me.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2009: Star Wars and Zombies

Posted in Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, pop culture, Star Wars, Uncategorized, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, Star Wars, zombies on October 30, 2009 by Paxton

Okay, one more day until Halloween. I’m going to break with the Frankenstein theme today because, honestly, I’ve done enough Frankenstein. I love the big, lumbering, green guy, but I’ve been up to my pooper in Frankenstein stuff for 2 months now and I’m ready to just put that whole thing on pause for a second. Don’t worry, I’ll go back to Frankenstein (and Boris Karloff) in mid November for the Boris Karloff Birthday Blogathon.

Right now, though, I want to talk about Star Wars…and zombies.

Star Wars and zombies go together like Lennon and McCartney. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Peanut Butter and laaaadies. One thing makes the other better. And for this Halloween season, there are a couple projects that bring Star Wars and zombies together like some awesome Halloween version of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial (where someone gets their chocolate in someone else’s peanut butter).

The first cool, Star Wars zombie item is the book Death Troopers

The book takes place just before Episode IV (A New Hope) and involves a derelict Star Destroyer and an unknown virus. I got the book from my friend, Dr Mike, and I am currently reading it. It’s pretty much as bad ass as you think it is. I’m not sure why Star Wars and horror (and more specifically, zombies) hasn’t been done before, but count me in. EXCEPT, Star Wars really needs to tread lightly here. A virus that makes characters zombie-like is awesome, but I’m not sure I want vampires or werewolves popping up. Actually, I KNOW I don’t want vampires popping up. I love this idea, but it has the potential to get very bad, very quickly.

Unlike every other Star Wars book that is published, this book is a one-shot. It’s not part of some multi-arc storyline in which you have to read 6 other books and 2 other comic books to fully get the story. It’s completely self-contained, like all Star Wars books USED to be in the ’90s. And I love it because of that. These ridiculous 19 book series with in a series are why I stopped reading Star Wars fiction to begin with.

Another cool zombie item? Star Wars zombie posters. There is some really cool zombie artwork on the Official Star Wars Blog Flickr Photostream. There are several zombie versions of the Star Wars posters, like Zombie Wars and Episode III: Revenge of the Zombies (click images to see them BIGGER).