Atomic Pulp & Other Meltdowns

Comic Strippers!

2012-01-30T04:09:00.003-05:00

Last year, my pal and Femme Noir partner-in-crime, Joe Staton, landed the penciling gig on the Dick Tracy newspaper strip, and has continually knocked it out of the park artistically. If you haven't been following it in your paper (assuming there's a paper in your town that carries it) or online, you've really been missing out.

Yesterday another artist pal of mine, Terry Beatty, with whom I worked on the Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger comic book some years ago, took over the art chores on another long-running classic comic strip, The Phantom (Sundays)! The first installment (above) looks beautiful, and I know that Terry (and colorist Tom Smith) are only going to get even better as time goes by.

It's a shame that so few newspapers carry adventure strips these days, but it's good to know that two of the most legendary American comic strips survive in the talented and capable hands of my friends!

The Perfect Match To Set The Screen On Fire!

2012-01-27T01:51:00.000-05:00

Wednesday Cover: HEROES, INC.

2012-01-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

Heroes, Inc. Presents was a 1969 comic book produced by the great Wally Wood to be sold exclusively in military PXs for the entertainment of American G.I.s.

It featured several strips - Cannon, a hard-boiled and violent spy adventure, Dragonella, a comedic T&A fantasy, and The Misfits, a sci-fi/superhero mash-up. It wasn't a success, though a second "issue" was produced in the mid-70s as a fanzine.

I got my copy back in the 80s for a buck or so - apparently the title was way over-printed and under-distributed, so there were a lot of copies floating around for a while. It's a fun comic,

King Of The Monsters!

2012-01-23T04:03:00.002-05:00

I must admit, that I'm eagerly looking forward to picking up the Criterion Blu-ray release of Gojira/Godzilla (1954) later this week. (Dig that awesome Bill Sienkiewicz cover art!) The advance reviews of this new high-definition, fully-restored and remastered edition of the original Godzilla movie are positively (and radioactively, no doubt) glowing!

By all reports, the image quality of the new Blu-ray is vastly superior to the version that Classic Media released on DVD back in 2006 (and later, on Blu-ray). That edition was the first time that the original Japanese version of the film received an authorized U.S. video release, and I was glad to have it. But, although I figured it was the best we were going to get, considering the age of the movie, it wasn't the greatest looking disc. This new Criterion edition supposedly benefits from an extensive digital restoration... and I can't wait to see it!

It's supposed to go on sale on Tuesday.

2012-01-23T03:53:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to remind folks about my Space: 1970 site, a 70s nostalgia blog devoted to the sci-fi movies and television shows of the polyester decade. Space: 1999, Battlestar Galactica (the original), Quark, Logan's Run, Star Wars, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century - all of these are covered at Space: 1970, along with many more shows and films.

I've seen a huge increase in traffic over there since New Years, and I've been posting new stuff there almost every day. If you grew up during the 70s - or just have an interest in / fondness for the genre - you should check it out.

Is It SAFE?

2012-01-18T16:12:00.002-05:00

From LionsGate: A second-rate cage fighter on the mixed martial arts circuit, Luke Wright lives a numbing life of routine beatings and chump change...until the day he blows a rigged fight. Wanting to make an example of him, the Russian Mafia murders his family and banishes him from his life forever, leaving Luke to wander the streets of New York destitute, haunted by guilt, and tormented by the knowledge that he will always be watched, and anyone he develops a relationship with will also be killed.

But when he witnesses a frightened twelve-year-old Chinese girl, Mei, being pursued by the same gangsters who killed his wife, Luke impulsively jumps to action...and straight into the heart of a deadly high-stakes war. Mei, he discovers, is no ordinary girl, but an orphaned math prodigy forced to work for the Triads as a "counter." He discovers she holds in her memory a priceless numerical code that the Triads, the Russian mob and a corrupt faction of the NYPD will kill for.

Realizing he's the only person Mei can trust, Luke tears a swath through the city's brutal underworld to save an innocent girl's life...and perhaps even redeem his own.

Rockin' With The Green Slime

2012-01-17T03:14:00.000-05:00

I love this movie. And this song.

The Eighth Wonder!

2012-01-08T04:30:00.000-05:00

A couple of nights ago, I picked up the original King Kong on Blu-ray. Warners did an astounding job on the transfer, which appears to be derived from the same source used on the 2005 DVD, but further tweaked for high definition. I don't know how many times I've seen this film, but watching it again the other night on the 55" HDTV was almost like seeing it for the first time. It was a wonderful experience, and on the big screen TV, I noticed a multitude of details that I never really saw before.

I've owned the movie on VHS and on laserdisc (the 90s Criterion edition) and on DVD. It is, without question, one of my top ten favorite films of all time. I am so pleased to be able to have it on my shelf in this format. I'm also glad that Warner Home Video included all of the supplemental material from the 2005 DVD, particularly the exhaustive retrospective documentary produced by Peter Jackson.

Wednesday Cover: THE BLONDE IN SUITE 14

2012-01-04T23:37:00.000-05:00

New Year's Graphic Novels

2011-12-31T01:32:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I ordered two new books from Amazon, using a portion of a recent freelance check. Both titles harken back to my personal "Golden Age" of comics in the early 80s: the long-awaited Marv Wolfman/George Perez New Teen Titans graphic novel, "Games," and The Complete Captain Canuck - a favorite series from my youth, collected in paperback with gorgeous art by George Freeman.

The New Teen Titans was probably the first superhero comic that I made a point of following on a monthly basis, starting with the third or fourth issue. It was also the title I collected for the longest time: I bought it - and its spin-off titles/annuals/specials - every month for more than ten years. This graphic novel was originally announced back in the late 80s, if I recall correctly - so it's been a long while coming.

Captain Canuck was an oddity; a Canadian-produced comic about a Canadian super-hero, that somehow got distribution to local newsstands here in Maine. In fact, I bought my earliest issues of Canuck at the same convenience store where I discovered the Titans. I discovered Canuck with its fifth or sixth issue, and eventually tracked down and collected all but two issues of the run. This trade has them all, including the unpublished final issue. It was an offbeat, cool comic combining super-hero, sci-fi and spy elements, and I loved the art by George Freeman. I'm looking forward to having the collection on my shelves.

With luck, these will show up in my mailbox soon after New Years.

Holiday Double Feature

2011-12-26T08:00:00.001-05:00

Ahh... those marketing geniuses at American-International Pictures. Because nothing says "Happy Holidays" like a Blaxploitation double feature of Blacula and Slaughter! Actually.... hmmmm.... now that I think about it --

Toho-ho-ho

2011-12-25T17:29:00.000-05:00

The Falcon Has Landed

2011-12-22T16:25:00.001-05:00

Today I received the Falcon Mystery Movie Collection, Vol. 1, from Warner Archives, containing the first seven films in RKO's "Falcon" series. The films - which starred George Sanders and then his real-life brother, Tom Conway - are tight little B-mysteries in the vein of the studio's "Saint" programmers.

I guess I know what my next seven midnight movies are going to be...

Wednesday Cover: DAGAR THE INVINCIBLE

2011-12-21T00:20:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my generous mother-in-law and her holiday largesse, I was able to order myself a copy of the Dagar The Invincible Archives Vol. 1, featuring stories by writer Don Glut and artist Jesse Santos. Should be here sometime next week.

This artwork originally graced the sixth issue of Gold Key Comics' Dagar the Invincible/Tales Of Swords & Sorcery, back in 1974, and Dark Horse Comics used it for the cover of their hardcover archive edition. Unfortunately, the Grand Comic Book Database doesn't identify the artist.

Not Feeling It

2011-12-20T03:37:00.000-05:00

For a number of reasons, neither my wife nor myself are really feeling the holiday spirit this season. In fact, less than a week to go before Christmas, and we have no tree, nor have we put up any decorations - the first time in the twelve years that we've been together that we haven't had either around the house.

It's not even a "Bah, Humbug," situation. Neither of us has any particularly negative feelings towards the holidays; we just don't feel like participating in the yuletide celebrations this year.

Frankly, it hasn't been a particularly great year, and although we've had as bad or even worse ones in recent memory, I think we're just feeling run down and worn out. I know that we're both really missing China - her passing has left a huge hole in our lives, and we've been having a hard time dealing with it. Money is tight - as usual - and there are a lot of things around here that need replacing or repair. And, as for myself, I really wish more of my friends actually lived close enough for me to hang out with them once in a while. I miss socializing with folks.

Oh well. I suspect that it's going to be a rough winter for us, but we'll get through it....

EXPENDABLES 2!

2011-12-16T16:02:00.002-05:00

I don't care how stupid you thought it was, but I loved The Expendables (and even bought and watched the extended cut on Blu-ray this week). It reminded me of weekends in my twenties when I was living in Bath, Maine next door to my pal Mark Gerardi. Almost every Saturday, we would get together, rent a big stack of action movies on VHS, grab some food, and hang out all afternoon, watching the movies of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme... It's because of these fond memories - at least, in large part - that I loved The Expendables, and I suspect I'm going to love the sequel even more.

What can I say? Dumb action films are my recreational drug of choice...

R.I.P. Eduardo Barreto

2011-12-15T14:49:00.007-05:00

I am stunned today by the sad news of the passing of my friend and colleague Eduardo Barreto. I had the great pleasure and privilege of working with him on Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger in the mid-90s as his editor, and, for the past few years, we had been collaborating on a planned Sinbad graphic novel - an exciting project that, sadly, will never see completion now. We were also putting together a proposal for King Features to revive Secret Agent X-9 as a daily & Sunday comic strip. With the current sad state of newspaper publishing, Eduardo knew it was a longshot when he asked me to write X-9 for his pitch, but he very much wanted to get back on the comics page - and we both loved the character.

My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. All of us who knew him will remember him fondly, and all admirers of his work - and they are legion - will never forget his talent and superb storytelling skills.

R.I.P. amigo.

Eduardo's pin-up for my Perils On Planet X project

Page 1 of Sinbad & The Coils Of The Serpent

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS!!!!

2011-12-13T18:17:00.001-05:00

My copy of Media Blasters' new Blu-ray edition of the 1968 Toho kaiju klassic, Destroy All Monsters, showed up in the mail today! It's a great package, far superior in every way to the DVD that came out from ADV Films back in 2000.

Not only is the HD widescreen transfer significantly better-looking, it also includes, in addition to the awful, "International" English dub, both the original Japanese language track (my preferred way of enjoying these films) and the far superior English dub prepared by American-International/Titra Productions for the original U.S. theatrical release. It seems to have been taken from an old tape source, and there's a little distortion here and there, but it's very welcome. Another cool bonus is the 7-minute Castle Films Super-8 "condensed" version of Destroy All Monsters!

Look for a full review at DVD Late Show in a few days. This new edition is also available on standard DVD.

Wednesday Cover: SPACE BUSTERS

2011-12-07T01:53:00.000-05:00

I know nothing at all about this magazine or this cover, except that I friggin' love it.

New Reviews @ DVD Late Show

2011-12-06T05:08:00.003-05:00

It's been rough updating my DVD Late Show review site lately.

First, I had a problem with hackers planting malicious code in one of my web accounts, which, because I hosted images for all of my sites on that server, affected all of my sites. It took about a month to clear that mess up, and then, soon thereafter, I was hit with the loss of my beloved dog (which I wrote about here a few days ago), and couldn't manage to accomplish much of anything for a few weeks. I certainly wasn't up to writing any DVD reviews.

But the discs kept piling up - and that pile was starting to get pretty intimidating.

Last week I managed to get two articles posted to DVD Late Show, and I just posted two more today. My intent is to get at least four or five more reviews posted to the site before the weekend. If you haven't been over there in a while, here's a list of some of my most recent DVD & Blu-ray reviews: The Incredible Melting Man, Master Of The World, Frankenhooker (on Blu-ray), Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, Scream 4 (on Blu & DVD), Dark Angel (a/k/a I Come In Peace), More Brains!, Lucio Fulci's Zombie (on Blu), Wild Wild Planet, Horror Express (Blu & DVD), Enter The Ninja, and Tucker & Dale VS Evil!

I hope you'll swing by the site and check them out. Thanks!

Max Allan Collins' NOLAN Returns from Perfect Crime

2011-12-01T00:38:00.002-05:00

Max Allan Collins has been one of my favorite crime fiction authors since I first discovered his work around 1983. I was a fan of his comic book series Ms. Tree (with artist Terry Beatty), and, once I stumbled across a paperback copy of his novel Blood Money in a Dover, New Jersey thrift store, I was a die-hard fan of his novels as well.

Around 1991, I finally had the opportunity to work with him – first when he contributed stories to comics and magazines that I edited for a small company called Alpha Productions, and then again a couple years later, when I went to work for Tekno*Comix in Boca Raton, Florida. It was there that I had the great privilege of working with both Max and Mickey Spillane as editor of their Mickey Spillane’s Mike Danger comic book series.

Over the ensuing years, Max and I have stayed in touch off and on, and about a month or so ago, he contacted me to see if I would be interested in designing some covers for new editions of his out of print “Nolan” crime novels, scheduled to be published by Perfect Crime Books. These books, which chronicle the exploits of an aging professional thief and his youthful, comic-fan sidekick, are among my favorites of Max’s many works, so I was thrilled by the offer.

I’ve just sent off the final print files to publisher John Boland, and, with his kind permission, thought I’d share them here. Presumably, these books will be available for purchase sometime in 2012.

I really enjoy doing this kind of design work, and will be working on some covers for my pal James Chambers next.

Wednesday Cover: The Consummata

2011-11-30T01:24:00.001-05:00

I was in a bookstore yesterday for the first time in months, and finally got to see the new Hard Case Crime releases from Titan Books. The new, larger trade paperback size is certainly attractive, but it's going to make it a bitch shelving the new releases with the earlier, standard-sized, HCC titles.

I picked up two: Quarry's Ex by Max Allan Collins, and The Consummata by Mickey Spillane & Collins. The Consummata is the long-awaited sequel to Spillane's The Delta Factor, wrapped up and polished by Collins and published by HCC under this gorgeous Robert McGinnis cover painting.

Oh, by the way, I'll have some interesting news to share regarding my involvement with some Max Allan Collins re-releases soon.

Farewell, China

2011-11-29T03:08:00.001-05:00

A little over two weeks ago, we lost our dog, China. She contracted an especially virulent case of Lyme Disease at the end of October, and although it looked as if she was going to pull through - twice - she experienced acute renal failure, and on Sunday the 13th, we took her to the vet and let her go.

I have attempted, several times, to write about this over the last two weeks, but each time I tried, I was overcome with emotion and unable to continue. Many people may not understand the depth of my bereavement over the passing of a pet, but China's death really shook me up. She was not just a member of our family - she was our family. Brandi and I adopted her from the Palm Beach Humane Society in December of '02. Over the ensuing years, she was not just our pet, but our constant companion. She accompanied us on road trips and hiking expeditions, weekend drives and camping trips, and, since we moved to Maine in '04, to every family gathering and holiday celebration.

I'm having a very difficult time adjusting to her absence. For the last six years or so, I've worked from home, and my girl was near my side all the time. I still find myself thinking several times a night that I should get up from my computer and go take her for a walk, or, often, find myself slowing as I pass the couch, reaching out to rub her belly.... and then experiencing the cold, hard feeling in my gut that reminds me that she's not there.

It's especially difficult for me because, literally less than a month ago, she was proclaimed to be in perfect health for her age, and it looked like she would be around for many more years. But once her kidneys failed, she seemed to completely give up.

I've lost pets before, and three years ago, I was devastated when we had to put our cat Audrey to sleep. But this loss is hitting me particularly hard. China was a big part of my life every day for almost ten years, and everything just feels "wrong" without her in it.

I haven't done much work over the last two weeks, and things have piled up. I have a design gig that I'm finishing up today, and a huge stack of DVDs and Blu-rays to review for my DVD Late Show website. I haven't even been up to posting to this or any of my other blogs. Hopefully, writing this indicates that I'm ready to get back to work.

Damn. I miss that dog.

DANGER 5!

2011-11-10T17:19:00.002-05:00

Happy Charles Bronson Day!

2011-11-03T22:49:00.000-04:00

Let's raise our glasses in remembrance of the great Charles Dennis Buchinsky on the 90th anniversary of his birth! They don't make tough guys like Charles Bronson anymore!

31 Days Has October: Anniversary

2011-10-31T12:24:00.000-04:00

Early in the movie The Crow, a character asks, "Who the f*ck gets married on Halloween?" Well, my wife and I tied the hangman's knot eleven years ago today. It still astounds me that I found someone to marry me at all, and that she's hung around this long still surprises me. Yet, here she remains, and we're still remarkably happy. Sure, life could be better - money and medical issues cast an omnipresent pall over our day-to-day existence - but our union remains strong and passionate.

So to my beloved Brandi - and to all who chose this haunted holiday to marry -- Happy Anniversary!

31 Days Has October: Our FRINGE Binge

2011-10-28T23:52:00.004-04:00

One thing that's been eating into our Halloween horror film watching has been the fact that the Blu-rays of the second season of Fringe have been showing up this month from Netflix, and Brandi and I keep binging on episodes. We didn't catch the show when it premiered - we didn't (and still don't) have cable - but a year or so ago, we found the first season on Blu-ray new at Wal-Mart for a ridiculously low price. As Brandi was a huge fan of Lost, and Fringe was from the same creator, (J.J. Abrams) we decided to pick it up.

We really enjoyed the show, but subsequent season sets were priced beyond our means. Eventually, we put the show on our Netflix DVD queue, and they started showing up in our mailbox a few weeks ago. We've just finished watching Season 2, and Season 3 discs should start showing up next week.

It's a fun show with a fascinating premise and a good cast. My particular favorite is John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop. I love the fact that he's a mad scientist; a direct descendent of the characters that Boris Karloff played in all those Columbia B-movies back in the 1940s. In fact, I think the reason I like the show so much isn't because of the weird X-Files-like mysteries or the "alternate universe" mythology, but because it's the only TV show where a mad scientist is (essentially) the main character.

And although it's taken our attention away from the scary movies I'd intended to concentrate on these last few weeks, the show contains enough creepy and spooky stuff to still qualify as legitimate Halloween viewing.

31 Days Has October/Wednesday Cover: TOMB OF DRACULA

2011-10-26T16:03:00.000-04:00

"Gaze into the eyes of Dracula, human fool...!" A delightfully psychedelic cover by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, from Marvel's Tomb Of Dracula #55.

31 Days Has October: Decorations

2011-10-25T03:11:00.001-04:00

This is the Halloween wreath created by my beloved wife Brandi for this year's holiday. Each year, she spends hours decorating the house for Halloween, coming up with her own creations, carving pumpkins, and planning outdoor displays, basically imbuing this old place with the spirit of the season.

This weekend - weather permitting - we'll be putting up the Styrofoam cemetery in the front yard and hanging the ghouls from the trees...

31 Days Has October: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

2011-10-24T00:03:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, I watched the new Phantom Of The Opera (1925) Blu-ray from Image Entertainment. I still have to work my way through the other features (including the 1929 re-release versions of the film) before I can write my full review (for DVD Late Show), but the restoration of this silent film classic is really quite amazing. It's impressive how engaging and thrilling a cinematic experience it is, even now, after nearly a century.

31 Days Has October: GHOSTBUSTERS

2011-10-23T23:24:00.001-04:00

One of the least-scary but most financially successful "spooky" comedies of all time is Ghostbusters, but that was our Countdown to Halloween movie tonight. Neither of us was in the mood for anything heavy, Brandi had to go to bed early, and we hadn't watched the Ghostbusters Blu-ray we bought a few months ago yet. So.... anyway, sometimes it's relaxing to just revisit a movie that you know by heart.

31 Days Has October: VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED

2011-10-22T21:00:00.001-04:00

Tonight's Countdown To Halloween movie: Village Of The Damned, from 1960. Earlier today, we re-watched Halloween III: Season Of The Witch. Boy, even with Tom Atkins and Dan O'Herily, that film was a complete misfire. Intriguing premise, but unfortunately lackluster execution. Still - I can't get that damned Silver Shamrock jingle out of my head.

William Castle week didn't really go all that well, unfortunately - Brandi's been having a rough time at work lately, and she really wanted to burn our way through the Fringe season 2 Blu-rays that we've been renting from Netflix. So most of the week, we concentrated on those episodes, and she tried to get to bed earlier than usual. This left no time for our nightly fright features.

On Friday night/early Saturday morning, I did watch the new Blu-ray edition of the 1925 Lon Chaney Phantom Of The Opera. It looks great, and the film still holds up as a remarkable cinematic experience.

31 Days Has October: MR. SARDONICUS

2011-10-21T23:21:00.000-04:00

Trailer for William Castle's 1961 Gothic horror film, Mr. Sardonicus.

31 Days Has October: Bela Lugosi Day

2011-10-20T15:49:00.000-04:00

Remembering the immortal Be'la Ferenc Dezso Blasko on the anniversary of his birth. Hollywood's boogieman supreme, now and forever.

31 Days Has October/Wednesday Cover: TERROR TALES

2011-10-19T18:29:00.000-04:00

31 Days Has October: THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL

2011-10-18T23:00:00.001-04:00

Confession: the wife and I did not watch any scary movies tonight. Brandi was really tired, and we kinda got hooked on watching Psych episodes on Netflix.

But, as I'm determined to post something Halloween-related every day this month, here's the original theatrical trailer for William Castle's classic, The House On Haunted Hill, from 1958. I love this movie, and I even like the 1999 remake. In fact, I'm thinking we'll probably watch a double feature of both versions on Friday night. Maybe....

31 Days Has October: THE TINGLER and William Castle

2011-10-17T22:58:00.001-04:00

We kicked off the third week in October - which I have deemed "William Castle Week" - with the producer/director's 1959 chiller, The Tingler, starring the great Vincent Price. I'm a huge fan of Castle's gimmicky spook shows - he brought old fashioned showmanship and a sense of tongue-in-cheek gallows humor to his productions, a combination that seems very much in the spirit of the Halloween holiday to me.

Tomorrow night, I'm thinking we'll be watching The House On Haunted Hill or maybe Mr. Sardonicus....

31 Days Has October: NOSFERATU

2011-10-16T23:43:00.000-04:00

Tonight I'll be digging out my old Image laserdisc of F.W. Murnau's 1922 unauthorized silent adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu, and giving it a spin in my old LD player. For some reason, I never picked up any of the DVD versions of this film over the last decade or so. I'm looking forward to seeing how the picture holds up on our HD big screen television.

I first saw the movie in high school, a 16mm print rented by the library. I don't remember why - I don't think it was Halloween, and we definitely didn't read Dracula in class - but even then I wasn't turned off by a silent film. I really enjoyed the nightmare quality of the imagery, and to this day, Nosferatu remains one of my favorite vampire movies... and the pseudonymous Max Shreck remains one of the best Count Draculas - even if he's operating under the alias of "Orlok."

31 Days Has October: THE MAN WITH THE HEX

2011-10-15T23:30:00.003-04:00

Brandi and I have been watching the 2002 animated series, What's New Scooby-Doo this week on DVD (I picked up the complete first season for $3 at Big Lots). While it's not as innovative and/or clever as the newer Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated series that we've been enjoying, it's not bad - a decently written and animated modern updating of the original 1969 series. One thing that's interesting is that it incorporates lots of contemporary (circa 2000) pop songs by real bands (including The Ramones!), and I'm actually discovering some artists I was previously unaware of.

In one episode, the Scooby Gang is chased around a New Orleans amusement park by a couple of Civil War phantoms, accompanied by the tune "The Man with the Hex," performed by the jump blues/swing band, The Atomic Fireballs. I loved the song. Apparently it's been featured on a number of film soundtracks, but hey... I don't watch stuff like American Pie.

In any case, it's a great Halloween tune...

31 Days Has October: THE WEREWOLF

2011-10-14T23:41:00.002-04:00

We're wrapping up Week 2 (Werewolf Week) of the greatest month of the year with The Werewolf, a 1956 Sam Katzman production that puts a Fifties, Atomic Age twist on classic lycanthropic lore. Ordinary businessman Duncan Marsh (Steven Ritch) becomes a bipedal, bloodthirsty werebeast not through any sin of his own doing, nor through an unfortunate, violent encounter with a rabid wolfman, but through the machinations of a couple of remarkably irresponsible scientists. This pair of geniuses take this survivor of an automobile accident, and impulsively decide to test their latest experimental "radioactive wolf blood" serum on him. Obviously, these guys skipped the ethics class.

Anyway, though produced by the notoriously cheap Katzman, The Werewolf is a nifty little monster flick, that benefits from some picturesque natural location work, shot around Big Bear Lake in the San Bernadino National Forest in Northern California. The werewolf make-up is cool, too; created and executed by Clay Campbell, it is nearly identical to the one he created for actor Matt Willis a decade earlier for the 1944 Bela Lugosi chiller, The Return Of The Vampire, just a little shaggier.

The script is exciting and even thoughtful, populated by a cast of characters that come across as real people. The characters evince sympathy for the tortured human within the monster, and try to take him alive with the intent of trying to get him help. It's only when the body count gets too high and the wolf overcomes the man that the townspeople, led by the compassionate sheriff (Don McGowan), realize they have no choice but to shoot to kill. And that's another cool thing about the movie - as this werewolf is a creature of science, there's no need for silver bullets or full moons or any of the other traditional trappings.

The Werewolf is not a horror "classic," but it's a much better-than-average 50s B-monster flick, and one of my favorites.

31 Days Has October: DOG SOLDIERS

2011-10-13T22:15:00.002-04:00

Neil Marshall's debut film, 2002's Dog Soldiers, is a great little action horror film pitting a handful of British soldiers in the Scotland highlands for training exercises against a vicious pack of exquisitely-designed werewolves. Fast-paced, with good performances from Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd and the rest of the cast. The script is relatively smart, too, with some genuinely inventive suspense sequences and a nice, black sense of humor.

I bought the DVD back in '03 or so, and really enjoyed it, but hadn't watched it again since. Spinning it tonight reminded me how much I liked it - it's a fun, different kind of werewolf movie. I haven't liked all of Marshall's follow-up films, but his cave-crawling thriller The Descent is a damned good scary flick, too.

31 Days Has October/Wednesday Cover: WEREWOLF BY NIGHT

2011-10-12T23:29:00.003-04:00

When monster titans clash! Art by the incomparable Mike Ploog.

BTW - Tonight's Countdown To Halloween movie was John Landis' An American Werewolf in London on Blu-ray. I still really love that flick.

31 Days Has October: WEREWOLF OF LONDON

2011-10-11T00:22:00.002-04:00

The second night of werewolf week was spent with Universal Studios' first lycanthropic effort, 1935's Werewolf Of London, starring Henry Hull, Warner Oland and Valerie Hobson. It's not a great movie - Hull's cold Dr. Glendon is a remarkably unsympathetic protagonist, and the melodramatic plot hasn't much bite - but I very much like Jack Pierce's design for Hull's hairy alter ego. It's quite different from the one he would design for Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man, six years later:

While more man than wolf, I definitely think it's scarier than the more famous Wolf Man make-up.

31 Days Has October: SILVER BULLET/CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF

2011-10-10T23:03:00.002-04:00

Every night in October, the wife and I are watching scary movies, and each week of the month, we're choosing a theme. The first week of the month were Amicus Productions horror anthologies from the 60s and 70s, and this week - to accompany the full moon - we're watching werewolf flicks. We kicked Wolf Week off tonight with 1985' Silver Bullet, adapted by Stephen King from his illustrated novella, The Cycle Of The Werewolf.

It's a fun movie - very 80s - with a good cast, including Gary Busey, Megan Follows, Corey Haim, Terrence O'Quinn and Everett McGill.

The animatronic werewolf effects created by Carlo Rambaldi aren't quite up to the level of Rob Bottin's work on the first Howling film, or Rick Baker's American Werewolf In London effects, but they're effective enough, and still preferable to today's computer-animated cartoons. Too bad the actual creature looks more like a bear than a wolf.

I hadn't seen the movie in about ten years, and it's been longer than that since I read King's book. I have often pulled it off the shelf to enjoy the great illustrations by Berni Wrightson, though.

31 Days Has October: THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST

2011-10-09T23:58:00.003-04:00

I'm a big fan of 40's Poverty Row mystery, crime and horror films, so I was pleased to discover, thanks to a post from a Facebook friend early this morning, that the 1945 Republic Pictures chiller, The Vampire's Ghost, was currently available for streaming through Netflix Instant.

Set in Colonial Africa, The Vampire's Ghost eschews the usual Gothic or contemporary urban trappings of the genre, and sets its action in a European-inhabited African community surrounded by jungle. (Interestingly the map shown at the beginning of the film indicates a decidedly landlocked, mid-Continent location for its fictional city, yet there are numerous sailors present in the film's tavern, and mention of a seaport...). Into this environment comes gawky Webb Fallon (John Abbot), who takes over proprietorship of the local tavern. Soon, mysterious deaths are occurring both within the European enclave and the surrounding native villages, and the jungle drums soon spread the word: a vampire stalks the jungle.

The story and script are by acclaimed author and screenwriter, Leigh Brackett, and it's a bit of a departure from her screenplays for Howard Hawks. Brackett's script is surprisingly thoughtful for a B-horror programmer, from its unusual African setting to its imaginative interpretation of the cinematic "rules" of vampirism. Unfortunately, the film is almost completely miscast - John Abbot plays the role of an urbane, 400 year-old bloodsucker reasonably well, but lacks screen presence and bears an unfortunate physical resemblance to a depressed Don Knotts. I'm convinced that if Republic had cast Bela Lugosi or John Carradine - or even someone like Lionel Atwill or Henry Daniell - in the role, the film would be remembered today as a Poverty Row "classic."

Burly Grant Withers - who I know mostly as the first screen Jungle Jim and as Police Detective Bill Street in Monogram's Mr. Wong series - makes an unconvincing Catholic missionary/priest. I suppose they were going for a Pat O'Brien type of cleric, but Withers just didn't pull it off. Fortunately, both of the major female characters come across well, especially sexy Adele Mara as the dancer at Fallon's saloon.

The movie is solid fun, smartly-told, and at a brisk 59 minutes, it never wears out its welcome. It's cool to discover a new Halloween treasure, especially one written by one of my favorite authors. If you have Netflix Instant, I recommend checking it out.

31 Days Has October: The Ghastly Ones

2011-10-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

The greatest horror-surf band of them all, The Ghastly Ones, and their classic "Haulin' Hearse." Dig that gorgeous go-go- ghoul!

31 Days Has October: THE CREATURE COMMANDOS

2011-10-07T00:00:00.001-04:00

The Batman: Brave And the Bold team do it again! The Creature Commandos & Batman vs the Ultra-Humanite on Dinosaur Island in "The War That time Forgot!"

Why can't actual comic books be this much fun anymore?

31 Days Has October: TALES FROM THE CRYPT

2011-10-06T06:34:00.000-04:00

For my money, the best of the Amicus horror anthologies is their version of the EC Comic, Tales From The Crypt. Featuring Sir Ralph Richardson as a remarkably dignified Crypt Keeper, and a top-notch cast of English thesps in a quintet of excellent adaptations of the some of the best stories from the comic book.

I never thought Fredddie Francis was a particularly good director - his movies tend to be a bit too leisurely-paced and too restrained by good taste for fright flicks - but he's a helluva cameraman, and, like all of his films, Tales is exceptionally well-shot. Virtually every frame is beautifully composed for maximum visual impact.

31 Days Has October/Wednesday Covers: NIGHTMARK

2011-10-05T00:01:00.003-04:00

The first Wednesday Cover of this 31 Days Has October "celebration" is from the 1994 one-shot comic, The Nightmark Mystery Special. The character of Gideon King, The Nightmark, was my first published creator-owned property. King was a 1940s Boston private eye who had been chosen by unnamed powers to be the Nightmark - a grim & gritty champion against supernatural evil.

Obviously, I threw just about everything I loved into the mix - noir private eye fiction, Lovecraft, Kolchak, Hammett, Spillane -- but it never quite caught on. I wrote five Nightmark comics (and actually drew one of them) published by Alpha Productions between 1990 and '94, and revived the character in the Shadow House series for another five issues in 1997-'98. The cover above was drawn by artist Steven Butler, but I forget who rendered the colors....

And here's Gideon King on the cover of Shadow House #1, painted by the great Dan Brereton!

31 Days Has October: THE VAULT OF HORROR

2011-10-04T23:34:00.002-04:00

Tuesday's Amicus anthology was the studio's 1973 film version of the classic EC horror comic series, The Vault Of Horror. Directed by Roy Ward Baker, the film adapted five stories from the notorious comic, with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, the 20th Century Fox/MGM "Midnite Movies" DVD appears to use the television syndication cut, as several seconds are missing and/or optically obscured.

Still it's a fun film, with some delightfully tacky early 70's decor and fashion, a fine British cast including the fourth Doctor, Tom Baker and Bond villain Curt Jurgens (no Peter Cushing this time, though - a serious omission, IMO), and some creepy moments. Its companion feature, Tales From The Crypt - also based on a famous EC title - is better, as I recall. We'll probably watch that one tomorrow.

31 Days Has October: TORTURE GARDEN

2011-10-03T22:57:00.002-04:00

Our second Amicus horror anthology based on the works of Robert Bloch, is 1967's Torture Garden. I enjoy the film, especially the exquisite camerawork of director Freddie Francis, but it's not all that scary, mostly because three of the four Bloch stories chosen to be adapted simply don't work very well on film.

The first segment is quite a bit of classic, Old School Gothic horror fun, but the second tale just doesn't work in this format, though I think, with a better director and a sharper, more satirical script, it could make a helluva movie on its own. The third story, in which a young woman becomes romantically involved with a concert pianist only to incur the jealous rage of his piano, is just way too friggin' goofy. The final segment, "The Man Who Collected Poe," is probably the best of the quartet, mostly because stars Peter Cushing and Jack Palance seem to be having a ball filming it.

I reviewed the Sony DVD for my DVD Late Show column back in 2005, and hadn't seen it since. It's fun, but probably my least favorite of the Amicus films I've seen....

31 Days Has October: Amicus Anthologies & THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD

2011-10-02T23:58:00.004-04:00

Our Halloween film festival kicked off this evening with the 1971 horror anthology, The House That Dripped Blood. Four creepy classics from the blood-tipped pen of the great Robert Bloch, presented in that inimitable Amicus Studios style, with a superb cast including Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt, Denholm Elliot and Doctor number Three, John Pertwee in a delightfully comic turn.

Over the next few evenings, I think we'll spin a few more of the studios' trademark anthologies, including Torture Garden, Asylum, The Vault Of Horror and Tales From The Crypt...

31 Days Has October: Count Chocula

2011-10-01T23:49:00.003-04:00

As a kid growing up, my absolute favorite sweetened (i.e. sugar) breakfast cereal was Count Chocula. Well, apparently General Mills has decided that these days, they'll be selling Count Chocula (and Frankenberry) only during the month of October. I don't eat any cereal anymore, but I bought a box today, figuring that it wouldn't hurt me, and it'd be a good way to kick off my favorite month of the year.

And it was!

Brandi and I also watched the entire Scream trilogy (we saw part four a week or so ago) on Blu-ray. The Countdown to Halloween has begun!

Wednesday Covers: Kane Of Old Mars

2011-09-28T02:54:00.002-04:00

a/k/a The City Of The Beast

These are the Lancer Books editions of Michael Moorcock's "Kane of Old Mars" trilogy, a highly enjoyable, if fannish, pastiche of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom" cycle. These three books chronicle the adventures of American physicist and Olympic fencer Michael Kane, who invents a teleporter that accidentally sends him to ancient Mars. There, he fights blue giants and wins the love of a beautiful martian princess. You know - the usual.

These three paintings are by the great Gray Morrow.

I actually own these books in multiple editions - the DAW Books paperbacks from the 70s-80s with the Richard Hescox covers and the omnibus edition published by White Wolf in the 90s, with its John Bolton cover painting. These Lancer editions are my favorites, though.

Although these books are unabashed imitations of Burroughs, written by Moorcock when he was still quite young, and, as such, have all the weaknesses inherent in pastiche, they will always hold a special place in my fantasy-loving heart. You see, when I was in Junior High, I found a copy of this Lancer edition of Warriors of Mars (later, with the other two volumes, re-titled by the author - see captions), with that gorgeous and exciting cover, on the school bus. I turned it in to the driver, who put it in the lost & found box under his seat. After a week, no one had claimed it, so he gave it to me. It was my first taste of interplanetary romance, and it - obviously - had a huge impact on me and my reading tastes. I still pull these books down once a every year or two and revisit them.


a/k/a *Lord Of The Spiders*

a/k/a Masters Of The Pit

Godzilla's A Pepper.

2011-09-25T23:18:00.000-04:00

Well, we may not be seeing Godzilla 1985 on DVD any time soon, but thanks to someone over on YouTube, the commercials that the Big G starred in for Dr. Pepper around the time of that film's American release are once again available to fans of the prehistoric pitchman/beast.

That's right – years before throwing down with Charles Barkley for Nike, 'Zilla shilled for soft drinks.

Apparently Dr. Pepper had already made arrangements to use Godzilla in their ads when New World Pictures, who had acquired the Big G's 1984 "comeback" film from Toho, contacted the Pepper people about cross promoting their (heavily edited) version of the movie with the soft drink campaign. This is why, in various scenes of Godzilla 1985, a Dr. Pepper vending machine is prominently placed in the hallway of the "Pentagon." Reportedly, the guys at New World really pushed returning star Raymond Burr (reprising his role of "Steve Martin" from the 1956 Godzilla King of the Monsters) to drink a Pepper onscreen, but iron-willed Ironside flat-out refused. (Another character is seen sipping the beverage instead.)

Two commercials were made: the one above, and another one - a sequel, actually - posted below, with a cutesy female monster with a bow on her head and ray-beam eyes, whose love is won by the Big Guy with the help of a giant Diet Dr. Pepper...

I like the ad above a lot better. Aside from the unfortunately under-detailed Godzilla suit, I love the B&W photography and the humor of the spot. Enjoy.

Waiting For Magnus

2011-09-24T06:27:00.002-04:00

As I've said before, I buy very few comics and graphic novels these days. I don't live close to a comic book store, and I don't have a lot of extra money. What cash I do manage to scrape up usually goes toward DVDs and the occasional crime or fantasy novel. Besides, I don't really have a lot of interest in modern mainstream comics.

But, once every few months or so, I come across a graphic novel or reprint collection online that I'd like to have. A few weeks back, I was reading Rip Jagger's Dojo, and came across a post about Dark Horse's Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 A.D. Volume One trade paperback, reprinting the first seven issues of the fantastic Gold Key science fiction series, written & drawn by the legendary Russ Manning. I have a few Magnus comics stashed away in my longboxes, and have always loved the series. The stories are fun and exciting, and graced with Manning's astoundingly clean art and clear, straightforward, graphic storytelling. Plus, you know, robots.

Anyway, I found a used copy online for a reasonable price, and ordered it. I'm waiting for it now, and hope that it will show up in my mailbox in the next few days. I also hope that it's in good shape. The seller had it listed as "Very Good," but I've noticed that, unlike comics, there appears to be no universal grading system for used book dealers.

This is the downside to buying old books (especially paperbacks) online - sure, you can find almost any title that you're looking for, and often at very reasonable prices (shipping'll kill you, though). But you can't hold it in your hand and inspect it before shelling out for it, to make sure that the spine isn't broken or the cover bent back, or the pages loose or overly yellowed. Most of the time, I've been pleased with my purchases... but there have been a couple of disappointments.

Anyway, fingers crossed. I'm looking forward to having these great comics in a single, handy, bookshelf format.

She's a Wonder...

2011-09-22T00:10:00.002-04:00

Another incredibly awesome "cold open" from Batman: The Brave And The Bold - this time featuring the amazing amazon, Wonder Woman, in her classic costume... and accompanied by her original 70's TV theme music!

I'm collecting The Brave And The Bold cartoon on DVD, and I'm going to really miss it when it's gone. The creators of the show - unlike the cynical jokers currently in charge of DC Comics, who just published a comic book with Catwoman and Batman having sex actually on-panel- remember that super-hero stories are supposed to be good-spirited fun.

Wednesday Covers: Star Hunters

2011-09-14T00:04:00.003-04:00

Here's the cover, by Rich Buckler & Joe Rubenstein, to the 7th and final issue of DC Comics' Star Hunters. The book was the company's attempt to ride the Star Wars comet, premiering in the Fall of 1977. Written by David Micheline, it chronicled the adventures of an Errol Flynn-inspired space rogue named Donovan Flint and his crew of renegades as they battled an oppressive regime. I was a big fan of this book back in the day, and would like to someday re-assemble the run.

The characters were first seen in issue #16 of the company's catch-all title, DC Super Stars, which alternated as a reprint book and a showcase vehicle. That first appearance benefited from the classically-styled adventure art of Don Newton. I liked Rich Buckler's art on the series okay, but it lacked the gracefulness of Newton's work.

Atomic Hotties: Carla Gugino

2011-09-13T03:23:00.002-04:00

As part of my effort to keep this blog alive and interesting, every once in a while, I'm going to post a tasteful-but-sexy picture here of a female celebrity that I find particularly attractive.

Frankly, I thought a little glamor might brighten up the place a bit.

Kicking off this irregular photo feature is the stunning Carla Gugino. I will watch pretty much anything this beautiful, smart actress appears in: Sin City. Watchmen. The Spy Kids movies. Faster. The One. Race To Witch Mountain. And I loved her on the short-lived - and cancelled way too soon - Karen Sisco television series.

New & Coming Soon @ The Late Show

2011-09-13T01:21:00.000-04:00

This week at DVD Late Show, I've got new reviews of Culp & Cosby in Hickey & Boggs, the Man From Atlantis television series, the animated Conan The Adventurer, and the Blu-ray editions of cult favorites Maniac Cop and The 10th Victim.

Over the remainder of the week, I expect to post reviews of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series, Master of The World, starring Vincent Price & Charles Bronson, The Incredible Melting Man, the Sword & Sorcery Collection (Deathstalker, Deathstalker II, Barbarian Queen and The Warrior And The Sorceress) and the Women In Cages Collection (The Big Dollhouse, The Big Bird Cage, and Women In Cages) - both from Shout! Factory's "Roger Corman's Cult Classics" line - and Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes on Blu-ray.

Recent reviews include James Glickenhaus' The Exterminator on Blu-ray & DVD, the Norweigian monster flick, Trollhunter, Thundarr the Barbarian, and the 1990 DTV version of Captain America.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg. After a Summer of admittedly erratic posting I now have a bunch of discs on the review stack that I need to get to soon, as well. Stay tuned!

Check 'em out!

Casting U.N.C.L.E.

2011-09-08T18:13:00.003-04:00

Now that George Clooney has had to back out of Steven Soderbergh's 1960s-set Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie for health reasons, the role of Napoleon Solo is wide open. There was concern among fans that Clooney, 50, was too old to play Solo (the original Solo, Robert Vaughn, was 50 when he appeared in the 1983 reunion movie, The Return Of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. as a retired agent!) anyway, so the studio now has the option of casting a younger - and less expensive - actor in the role (which would certainly make potential sequels more viable, as well).

Not that anyone cares what I think, but here are my choices for Solo and his Russian colleague, Illya Kuryakin: Topher Grace, age 34, as Napoleon Solo, and Alex Pettyfer, age 21, as Illya.

Grace has yet to really find a star-making film role, and I think his charm, sense of humor and looks would well-suit the part of U.N.C.L.E.'s top Enforcement agent. He's even worked with Soderbergh before in Traffic and the Ocean's 11 movies

Pettyfer was great in the under-seen Alex Rider teen spy movie, Operation: Stormbreaker, and has a quiet, thoughtful charisma reminiscent of the original Illya, fellow Brit David McCallum. And the blond hair, of course. He's a little young, but Illya could easily be portrayed as a rookie agent paired with the more experienced Solo.

Anyway, those are my choices. As for Waverly - Ian McKellen of course!

Wednesday Cover: Wake Up Dead

2011-09-07T06:55:00.002-04:00

Never read the book (though I think I'd like to), and have no idea who painted the cover. But I love it.

Into The Wild "Blu" Yonder

2011-09-06T23:51:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to discover that one of my favorite adventure films, Joe Johnston's 1991 adaptation of the late Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer, is coming to Blu-ray disc in December.

I'm guessing that I have the success of Johnston's other World War II-era comic book movie, Captain America: The First Avenger to thank for Disney actually making the effort to prepare and release a high-definition version of The Rocketeer. It certainly wasn't a big hit for the studio in '91 - like pretty much every other period comic-based movie of the 90s (i.e. Dick Tracy, The Phantom - which I think is somewhat better than its reputation - and The Shadow - which was really rather bad, actually), it pretty much bombed at the box-office. But it is a charming film, well-cast, and extremely faithful to the spirit - if not the letter - of Steven's comic book stories, and I'm excited to see it released on Blu-ray.

I won't lie - nor apologize for it: I'm now addicted to high-def. I friggin' love my Blu-ray player and our big TV, and am dismayed at how poor many of my older, standard-def DVDs look on that screen. Newer DVDs look fine, but a lot of titles from the early years of the format - like the DVD of The Rocketeer, for instance - look really soft and fuzzy.

Obviously, I cannot afford to upgrade all of my old DVDs to Blu-ray (and, really, most of them will probably never even be offered in HD), but The Rocketeer is one that I will definitely be picking up again.

I'm especially looking forward to enjoying the young Jennifer Connelly's big, beautiful... uh, eyes... in HD.

Still Missing on DVD: THE SOLDIER (1982)

2011-09-03T03:26:00.002-04:00

I just reviewed director James Glickenhaus' 1980 vigilante flick, The Exterminator, over on the DVD Late Show website. It's not a great movie, but I enjoyed revisiting it, and I began to wonder whatever happened to Glickenhaus' follow-up film, the 1982 low-budget, action-espionage flick, The Soldier.

Again, I wouldn't really say that The Soldier is a particularly good movie - like a lot of the director's films, it has a few truly terrific action set-pieces tenuously linked together by a somewhat dodgy script. But in the early 80s, the movie was ubiquitous - you could find the VHS tape in every mom & pop video store, and it ran endlessly on HBO in late night/pre-dawn slots for several years.

Starring Ken Wahl, pre-Wiseguy, a few other tough-guy actors (most notably, the late Steve James), and Klaus Kinski as the heavy, The Soldier was a definite cult favorite - especially among teenage males and insomniacs. The director even paid tribute to it in his 1988 cops 'n robbers flick Shakedown, where he had it playing constantly at the 42nd Street grindhouse frequented by Sam Elliot's character. For some reason, though, it's never made the jump to digital disc - at least not in U.S. As far as I have been able determine, the rights might be held by MGM, so maybe there's a slim chance that they'll release it as one of their Manufacture-On-Demand "Limited Edition Collection" titles.

I'll have to keep an eye on Netflix. If The Soldier shows up on Netflix's Instant service, that will be a definite indicator that someone has finally dug it out of the vault and may be working on a MOD DVD release (that's been MGM's pattern so far).

2011-09-02T23:41:00.000-04:00

China Meets Mr. Bill. Photo by Brandi.

Oh no!

Wednesday Cover: The Out Is Death

2011-08-31T04:07:00.000-04:00

Cover illustration by the great Mitchell Hooks. The book's pretty good, too.

Recent Reviews at DVD Late Show

2011-08-31T02:15:00.002-04:00

That's right, pulpeteers: it's time for another reminder that I also publish a variety of cult, B-movie and genre DVD and Blu-Ray reviews over at my DVD Late Show website. Admittedly, posting has been rather erratic over the Summer, but I think I'm getting back on track, and hope to plow through the backlog of discs that have piled up on my desk over the next few weeks.

Since the last time I posted a site update here, I've published reviews of Hobo With A Shotgun, starring Rutger Hauer; the classic Hanna-Barbara sci-fi 'toon, The Herculoids; The Baby; the Shout! Factory Blu-ray special edition of Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars; the Women In Prison Collection (Chained Heat, Red Heat, & Jungle Warriors); the George Sanders RKO Saint Film Collection; the Damnation Alley special edition Blu-ray; the low-budget Steve Austin action flick, Tactical Force; Batman: the Brave & The Bold, Season 2 Volume 1; the Man From Atlantis Complete TV Movies Collection; and VCI Entertainment's Blu-ray of the 1964 spy spoof, Agent 8 3/4 (a/k/a Hot Enough For June).

If all goes well, the next few days will see DVD Late Show reviews of James Glickenhaus' drive-in fave, The Exterminator, starring Robert Ginty & Christopher George; Conan The Adventurer Season 1; the Norwegian monster flick, TrollHunter; Man From Atlantis - the Complete TV Series; the 1990, Albert Pyun version of Captain America; Thundarr The Barbarian and more. Check it out!

Stop-Motion JONNY QUEST!!!

2011-08-30T18:07:00.007-04:00

Jonny Quest Opening Titles from Roger D. Evans on Vimeo.

This is AMAZING!!!! And here is the website where artist Roger Evans explains the making of it. Enjoy!

Kirby!

2011-08-28T03:29:00.000-04:00

Remembering the legendary Jack "King" Kirby on his birthday. Comics will never see his like again.

The Reboot of Mr. Wong

2011-08-25T02:17:00.002-04:00

It's interesting that so many people - including myself, on occasion, complain so much about Hollywood's seeming obsession with sequels, remakes and "reboots." The thing is, none of this is new. As I like to point out, John Huston's classic The Maltese Falcon was a remake of a movie made ten years earlier. Reboots - as we call it when filmmakers take an established franchise character, and start over with a new actor, pretending that the previous film installments never occurred - like Batman Begins and Casino Royale, aren't exactly a new phenomenon, either.

Karloff as James Lee Wong

Over the two years of 1939 and 1940, Poverty Row film studio, Monogram Pictures, produced six movies about a Chinese detective living in San Francisco named James Lee Wong. These films were based on some magazine short stories by pulpster Hugh Wiley, and were intended as the low budget "answer" to Fox Studios' popular Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto film series. In the first five films, James Wong was portrayed by Caucasian screen bogeyman Boris Karloff, under some light makeup, as a sly, somewhat sedate, consulting criminologist. His police contact was Lieutenant Street of the SFPD, portrayed by burly character actor Grant Withers, and they were frequently aided/irritated by a pretty young reporter played by Marjorie Reynolds.

These first five entries - Mr. Wong, Detective, The Mystery Of Mr. Wong, Mr. Wong In Chinatown, The Fatal Hour and Doomed To Die - were decent enough B-mysteries, a little lethargically-paced, perhaps, but okay time-wasters. When Monogram began production on their sixth Mr. Wong mystery - Phantom Of Chinatown - Karloff was, for some reason, unavailable. But, instead of casting another Caucasian actor (like Roland Winters, for example), Monogram actually hired Keye Luke - probably best known as "Number One Son," Lee Chan, in the 20th Century Fox Charlie Chan films - to take over the role.

Keye Luke as Jimmy Wong

And, according to most sources, that bold casting choice made Phantom Of Chinatown the first American-made movie since the Silent Era to have an Asian actor in the lead role. Top-billed, no less.

Of course, Luke was in his early 30s at the time, and Karloff was in his 50s, so it seemed unreasonable to expect audiences to believe that Luke's Wong was the same Wong as Karloff's, so the characters call him "Jimmy" and Withers' Lieutenant Street acts as if he's meeting Mr. Wong for the first time. Now, for some reason unknown to me, Phantom was the last Mr. Wong film at Monogram (although the scripts would all be recycled when the studio got their hands on the Chan character a few years later), but it's pretty clear that they were setting things up to continue with Keye Luke in the lead.

Now, there were other film mystery series that replaced lead actors during the 30s-40s - Sidney Toler replaced Warner Oland as Chan at Fox, a couple of suave British actors took turns playing The Saint at RKO before and after George Sanders, Ralph Byrd took over for Morgan Conway as RKO's Dick Tracy after a couple of films, etc. - but there was generally no acknowledgement of the change, and, as far as I can recall, in no cases did they ever just act like they were starting over from the beginning!

Nowadays, "reboots" may be annoyingly trendy and way too common (a Spider-Man reboot? Already?) -- but the idea certainly isn't new.

Made In The U.S.A.

2011-08-24T17:37:00.001-04:00

I've seen three out four of the major studio super-hero movies in the theater this Summer (unfortunately, I missed X-Men: First Class). I thought Thor was pretty good, but I had some issues with it (especially the ending), and didn't like it quite as much as most people seemed to. On the other hand, I liked Green Lantern somewhat better than most reviewers and fans did - but, admittedly, I have a soft spot for the character, and was thus willing to forgive certain plot problems. Most recently (a few weekends ago), Brandi and I went to see Captain America: The First Avenger... and I loved it!

I suspected from the trailers that it would be right up my alley, and that suspicion was reinforced by the fact that it was directed by Joe Johnston, whose film adaptation of Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer is among my favorite comic book movies of all time (I really want Disney to re-issue it on Blu-ray). Johnston really has a feel for period adventure fare, and his handling of the WWII setting and the various pulpy elements of the Christopher Markus/Stephen McFeely screenplay was exemplary. I've heard a number of fans bitching online about the changes to Cap's origin story (especially the changes made to the character of "Bucky" Barnes), but considering all the retcons and embellishments made to the original, 60 year-old Simon & Kirby story (which, remember, was 8 pages long and aimed at an audience of ten year-olds), I thought the movie pulled off a brilliant balancing act, capturing the essential spirit of the character and concept, while interpreting it in a way that appealed to a mainstream audience of all ages.

The cast was fantastic. Chris Evans made a great Cap and even greater Steve Rogers. Tommy Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving were perfect in their respective roles. Hayley Atwell was sexy, smart, and capable. Neal McDonough as "Dum Dum" Dugan - small a part as it was - was inspired casting. There wasn't a single miscast role in the film.

Even the extensive CGI (which I have a reputation for hating) didn't bother me, because it was executed with care, thought and some genuine artistic style. A shot or two might have jarred, but overall, it enhanced the storytelling, and that what it was supposed to do. What people misunderstand about my criticisms of CGI and other modern filmmaking tricks, is that I only hate them when they interfere with my ability to engage with the story. Nothing yanks me out of a movie story faster than an unnaturally-moving cartoon monster or obvious CGI "stunt" - fortunately, Captain America: The First Avenger, had very few moments like that.

Anyway - if you haven't seen it, you probably should (I think it's still in theaters, right?). I know that when the Blu-ray disc comes out, it'll be going straight into my home video library. It's really good stuff.

Kelly Covers Carter

2011-08-20T03:08:00.002-04:00

Down To A Sunless Sea

Jandar Of Callisto

Ylana Of Callisto

Just because they're pretty, here are three stunning and evocative paintings by fantasy illustrator Ken Kelly that graced the covers of the Lin Carter interplanetary adventure novels Down To A Sunless Sea, Jandar Of Callisto, and Ylana Of Callisto.

Enjoy.

The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. on DVD

2011-08-19T00:11:00.000-04:00

It's April in August -- According to Stephanie "April Dancer" Powers herself, the complete The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. television series will be out on DVD from Warner Archives next week! Man, I love Manufactured-On-Demand DVD.... of course, I'd love it more if the discs were a little cheaper.

At Last! Culp & Cosby, P.I.s

2011-08-18T00:48:00.002-04:00

Finally! Never before legally released on home video (although there was/is a really awful unauthorized DVD floating around), Robert Culp's 1972 P.I. flick Hickey & Boggs, which reunited him with his I Spy co-star Bill Cosby, with a script by Walter Hill, is officially coming to DVD later this month, courtesy of MGM's "Limited Edition Collection" of Manufactured-On-Demand discs.

I've only seen about the last 5 minutes of it on cable TV in the mid-90s, and I've wanted to see the whole thing ever since. It's generally well-regarded by P.I. movie/noir fans, even though it was apparently a bit too grim and dark for audiences in 1972. I'm eager to get my hands on the movie - hopefully, it won't disappoint.

Wednesday Cover: THE BEST OF LEIGH BRACKETT

2011-08-10T01:31:00.001-04:00

I recently ordered a slew of fantasy paperbacks from online used book dealers. As noted last week, I primarily acquired a handful of Lin Carter fantasies to fill in some holes in my collection, but I also decided to get some Leigh Brackett space operas/interplanetary swashbucklers as well. I am currently alternating between the two authors. I just finished Carter's first "Zanthadon" lost world adventure, and have started on Brackett's Outlaw Of Mars. Upon completing that, I intend to read another Carter book.

I have not previously read much of Brackett's work, although I have been long fascinated by her career as a writer. I've always felt a little odd in that my love for fantasy fiction rivaled my rabid affection for hardboiled crime tales, so I'm intrigued by this woman who not only appears to have shared that duality of literary passions, but is considered to be one of the greats by aficionados of both genres. As her career also included notable screenwriting credits (The Big Sleep and The Empire Strikes Back!), she attracts my attention as a film buff, too.

The Best of Leigh Brackett was published by Ballantine Books' Del Rey science fiction imprint in 1977, and collected a handful of her classic short stories and novellas. It was edited by her husband, noted science fiction author Edmond Hamilton, and was graced with this cover painting by Boris Vallejo.

Actually, this is the only book of that recent batch of purchases that has yet to arrive; ironically, it's also the only one that was shipped from a Maine-based bookseller! All the other books came from much further away and got here more quickly. Gotta love the Post Office!

2011-08-09T00:34:00.001-04:00

Zoe. Photo by Brandi.

Here's Zoe, keeping me company in my cluttered office.

BLACK DYNAMITE - The Animated Pilot

2011-08-08T02:26:00.000-04:00

I'm a big fan of the 2009 blaxploitation parody Black Dynamite, so I’m looking forward to the upcoming animated series, coming soon to Adult Swim.

Titmouse, Inc., produced the 11-minute pilot above, which features much of the original film’s cast reprising their roles for the animated version, including Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, Kym Whitley and Tommy Davidson. The animated series is aiming for a Spring 2012 premiere on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

Super

2011-08-04T16:13:00.000-04:00

The first official shot of actor Henry Cavill as The Man of Steel. Looks good to me.

The Engines Of Sacrifice

2011-08-04T06:50:00.000-04:00

My pal James Chambers, an exceptionally fine writer with whom I collaborated with on our comic book series Shadow House (among other projects), has a new horror fiction collection coming out from Dark regions Press called The Engines of Sacrifice. This volume contains four novellas inspired by the Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft.

These are:

"Investigation 37": In the late years of the Vietnam War, Lavender May runs away from home to search for freedom and peace in New York City, but instead, she finds only a world of magic, witchcraft, and lies.

"The Ugly Birds": Only one thing could save Carmine Darabont's comics magazine from going under: publishing the next chapter of the hit series The Otherworlders. But what dark secret drives its creator--Carmine's ex-fiancé--to refuse to deliver it?

"The Hidden Room": At the height of the Cold War, Doctor Calvin Lenox is a member of the Nuclear Emergency Search Team. With his life spiraling into despair, he confronts the mystery of a runaway Soviet defector and the death of three men, only to find himself at the mercy of...the Faceless God.

"The Engines of Sacrifice": What is the power of words? Can they control the fabric of reality? In a horrifying new world, underground author Rowley Cray struggles against a totalitarian government gone insane and the possibility that he can control the souls of the dead.

Jim's numerous tales of horror, dark fantasy, crime, and science fiction have appeared in more than 30 anthologies and magazines, including: Bad Cop, No Donut; the award-winning Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series; Bare Bone; Cthulhu Sex; Dark Furies; The Dead Walk; the award-winning Defending the Future anthology series; The Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon; Dragon’s Lure; The Green Hornet Chronicles; Hardboiled Cthulhu; Allen K’s Inhuman; Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak: Supernatural Sleuth; New Blood; No Longer Dreams; Warfear; and Weird Trails. He wrote the collections The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales, and Resurrection House.

If Lovecraftian terror is your thing, I guarantee that you'll like Jim's handling of the Mythos. You can pre-order the book HERE.

Wednesday Cover: The Black Star

2011-08-03T00:32:00.002-04:00

I make no apologies for being a fan of Lin Carter. In recent years, it has become fashionable to deride his fiction for its derivative nature and ignore his contributions to the fantasy and science fiction genres as an author, anthologist and editor. True, his work was "inspired" by the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Jack Vance, Lester Dent and many others, to the point of pastiche - and, to his credit, he gleefully made no secret about it; but it doesn't mean that his stories weren't good fantasies in their own right. He was a prolific, skilled wordsmith with a fertile, unbounded imagination, and an exemplary editor, and I've enjoyed reading and re-reading his adventures since I was a teenager.

The way I see it, he was simply a man who loved heroic fantasy, and when he had read everything that was available in the genre, he wrote his own. Since that's pretty much what I do, who am I to criticize?

Here is Frank Frazetta's dynamic cover painting to Carter's The Black Star, the first volume in a proposed trilogy of sword & sorcery novels set in ancient Atlantis. Unfortunately, the second and third Atlantean books never materialized; two more among the many unfinished projects left unrealized upon Carter's death in 1988. Despite that, The Black Star is still an entertaining and engaging fantasy adventure.

I've had Lin Carter on the mind of late because I recently acquired several "new" Carter paperbacks - finally completing the Jandar of Callisto and Thongor of Lemuria cycles, and picking up all five of his Zanthodon novels (his "take" on Burroughs' Pellucidar). There's still a couple of dozen Carter books I need to get to complete my collection, but I will... someday....

Space Ghost Meets Batman

2011-08-02T17:27:00.002-04:00

Here's the cold open to a recent episode of Cartoon Network's Batman: The Brave & The Bold animated series that teams the caped crusader up with Hanna-Barbera's spectre of the stars, the legendary Space Ghost - and his companions, Jan, Jace and Blip! Actually, at just under 6 minutes, this is nearly the length of an actual, complete 60s Space Ghost episode!

Gorgeous stuff. A nice homage to Alex Toth's original Space Ghost designs, but with a nice, modern feel. This really makes me want to see WB Animation and Cartoon Network create a new Space Ghost/Herculoids adventure hour - or, better yet, a direct-to-disc feature film!

2011-07-29T05:46:00.001-04:00

China. Photo by Brandi

Tarantino on Blu-ray

2011-07-28T01:38:00.001-04:00

I like Quentin Tarantino's movies. Pretty much all of them, in fact, although I thought Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds were poorly-structured, narratively. Still... from Reservoir Dogs through the Kill Bill films, I've found Tarantino's movies to be a lot of fun. When I got into laserdisc in the 90s, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction were among the first platters I bought. Yes, I know it's not considered cool to like QT nowadays, and yes, I know that his movies tend to be patchwork cinematic creations comprised of thinly-disguised homages and/or outright swipes from dozens of other films - but I actually like that. Part of the pleasure I derive from something like Kill Bill or Basterds is recognizing QT's influences and inspirations from my own obsessive movie-watching.

In the last year, as I've been compiling my Blu-ray collection, I've been rather surprised that probably his best-known film (after Dogs), Pulp Fiction, was not available on the format. Neither was Jackie Brown, which I think is a fine Elmore Leonard adaptation and probably Tarantino's most under-appreciated film. Apparently, it all has to do with the breakup of the Miramax label at Disney, and the redistribution of the various Miramax titles to different companies. (Including the unfortunate acquisition of many of the Miramax/Dimension Films sub-label's genre films by the crap merchants Echo Bridge Entertainment.)

Well, anyway, it's finally been announced that Lionsgate will be releasing Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown on Blu-ray on October 2nd, with transfers supervised by QT himself. Obviously, I'm eager to add these flicks to my HD library.

Dragon Crusaders

2011-07-27T15:10:00.001-04:00

Well, The Asylum has another fantasy film on the way from writer/director/cinematographer Mark Atkins, Dragon Crusaders. I tend to enjoy Atkins' films more than many of the others produced by the microbudget studio, and am still quite a fan of his 2008 fantasy, Merlin And The War Of The Dragons (although I was less impressed by the 2009 follow-up Dragonquest). Well, here we are with dragons again (the better to take advantage of existing CGI models and animation, no doubt), but it looks like the story - a pretty standard fantasy plot - has been tailored to the small budget (no "big" armies evident this time) and that the filmmakers have returned to the gorgeous Welsh locations that so enhanced their Merlin picture.

What the hell. I'm looking forward to it. Might be fun.

Wednesday Cover: Dagar The Invincible

2011-07-27T01:43:00.000-04:00

2011-07-26T00:00:00.001-04:00

Sneaky Zoe. Photo by Brandi

A Dog's Life... of Mystery!

2011-07-25T03:08:00.002-04:00

I am not - generally speaking - much of a fan of literary "gimmicks," especially in mystery fiction, but a while back (I forget how - maybe through an Amazon "recommendation") I became aware of the "Chet & Bernie" mystery novels by Spencer Quinn (real name: Peter Abrahams), about a hardluck private eye named Bernie Little, and his canine partner, Chet... mysteries narrated by Chet. Yeah. The dog.

I don't know why, but that intrigued me, especially since the reader reviews on Amazon and other sites were generally very positive. So, I put the first book in the series, Dog On It, onto my Amazon wishlist, and figured I'd pick it up one of these days.

Well, on Friday, Brandi took a half day off from work, and with my jury service completed, we made an afternoon of it. We went to Longhorn steakhouse for an early dinner, and then went to see the last Harry Potter film. We had an hour to kill between those two activities, however, so we dropped by the local Barnes & Noble to browse around a bit. There, I happened to find the first and third "Chet & Bernie" novels in trade paperback, and remembered my interest in them. But at $15 each, it was a bit more than I could justify spending (money's tight for most of us these days), especially since I wasn't really sure if I'd like them, and they didn't have book 2 on the shelf. But, as we were leaving, I found the first two books - in their original hardcover editions - on the bargain table for only about $6 each. Two books for $12 seemed like a deal that made more sense, so I picked up Dog On It and Thereby Hangs A Tail (mystery writers love their puns, don't they?) and headed off to the movie.

I've already read the first book and am about halfway through the second. I'm kinda surprised, because I've had difficulty focusing on reading anything of length lately (my TBR pile holds the last two Robert Crais "Joe Pike" novels, the last two Spillane/Collins "Mike Hammer" books, the last two "Alex Rider" adventures from Anthony Horowitz, and Carte Blanche, the new Bond book by Jeffrey Deaver - all books that normally would get read immediately upon purchase, and quickly completed, at that!). But the "voice" that Quinn has created for his canine narrator is truly engaging, and I have been well and truly engaged.

The concept is ridiculous and impossible, of course, but Quinn manages to make it somehow believable. Chet (plain and simple) certainly possesses an astounding vocabulary, but his reactions, distractions, observations and obsessions are somehow... right. Chet's loyalty to his "partner," joy in life's simple pleasures, confusion over abstracts like finances, and overall ability to live completely in the present, all make for a unique and comforting read -- and apparently, these books were exactly what I needed right now.

As mysteries, they're not all that challenging, but they're surprisingly involving and enjoyable reads, and if you're someone who doesn't mind a little goofiness in your crime fiction, you might want to check them out for yourself. Me, I need to find that third book cheap now.... (Wait? There's four books?!)

More info at chetthedog.com

DRESSED TO KILL Double Feature

2011-07-17T03:10:00.000-04:00

Tonight's late night double feature - two 40s series mysteries with the same title! Lloyd Nolan is private eye Michael Shayne in 1941's Dressed to Kill from 20th Century Fox and Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce co-star in the 1946 Universal Sherlock Holmes mystery of the same name. Movie mysteries until dawn!

Wednesday Cover: The Five Faces Of Murder

2011-07-13T16:16:00.002-04:00

I'm something of a fan of Jay Flynn. Many (probably most) of his books are the worst sort of hacked-out trash pulp, but there are a few gems scattered among the garbage, like The Action Man. I've never read The Five Faces Of Murder, though, so I have no idea where it falls, quality-wise, in his "oeuvre." Nice cover, though. I don't recognize the artist, unfortunately.

2011-07-13T15:19:00.001-04:00

Zoe. Photo by Brandi

Lady Sabre & The Pirates Of The Ineffable Aether!

2011-07-11T16:01:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite comics/crime writers, Greg Rucka, and one of my favorite artists (and collaborators), Rick Burchett, have just launched a new webcomic - Lady Sabre & The Pirates Of The Ineffable Aether!

This steampunk-ish fantasy is something of a departure, genre-wise, for both creators, but based on today's first installment, it already looks like a winner - and a genuine masterpiece in the making. Check it out!

RKO's Saint

2011-07-10T02:00:00.004-04:00

I just received the George Sanders Saint Movie Collection from Warners Archive. The two-disc, manufactured-to-order DVD set includes all five of the Saint movies that George Sanders starred in for RKO - The Saint Strikes Back, The Saint In London, The Saint's Double Trouble, The Saint Takes Over and The Saint In Palm Springs (Louis Hayward and Hugh Sinclair also played Simon Templar in RKO films, but it's the five with Sanders that are the best-remembered.

These are not remastered or restored in any way. The source prints used for the transfers all show significant age-related wear and tear, but they're still pretty decent, and certainly watchable.

So far, I'm really enjoying them. I love these old hour-long B-mystery series detective flix, whether they feature Sherlock Holmes (the Universal series), Charlie Chan, Mike Shayne, Mr. Moto, or Mr. Wong, and these are right in there with those esteemed series. I had a copy of The Saint Strikes Back on VHS years ago (pictured at left), so I was pretty familiar with that one, but they're all a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed The Saint's Double Trouble, in which Sanders plays both Templar and his criminal double, even though the great Bela Lugosi is terribly underused in the flick. Later tonight, I plan on checking out The Saint Takes Over.

I loved Roger Moore in the 60s Saint TV series, and liked Ian Ogilvy in the 70s revival, The Return Of The Saint (great theme music, too). But I'm beginning to think Sanders is my favorite Simon of all.

So, thanks, Warner Archive, for bringing these to DVD at last. Would it be too much to hope that The Falcon series might be on the way? Or am I being greedy?

More Mike Hammer coming to DVD!

2011-07-09T00:44:00.001-04:00

2011 has been a good year for Mike Hammer on DVD so far, even if the Armand Assante I, The Jury and the 80s Stacy Keach TV series (both of them) are still among the missing. We've had Criterion's amazing restoration of Kiss Me Deadly (my review HERE), and the MGM Limited Edition Collection has made available the rather less-than-stellar (but still appreciated) My Gun Is Quick (my review HERE) on manufactured-on-demand DVD.

Now, it looks like A&E Home Video will be releasing the 50's syndicated television series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, starring the incredible Darren McGavin to DVD in September, with a 12-disc set containing the entire series. The suggested retail price is astronomical (at least, for me), but at least they're releasing the whole series at once, so if I do manage to scrape up the lettuce, I won't have to wonder if the rest of the seasons will come out.

Yeah - damn right, I'm still burning about their Peter Gunn DVD releases ten years or so back, which dried up incomplete after two volumes.

Thanks to Bish's Beat for the head's up. You can pre-order the set from Amazon (at a slightly less astronomical discounted price) here: Mickey Spillanes Mike Hammer-Complete Series

Wednesday Covers: The GRACKLE

2011-07-06T01:24:00.000-04:00

Back in the mid-90s, right around the time that Frank Miller's Sin City and David Lapham's Stray Bullets were actually selling better than many super-hero titles, the increasingly desperate management of Acclaim Comics decided to launch an entire line of crime comics. One of them was a limited series called The Grackle, written by Mike Baron and illustrated by the great Paul Gulacy. Here are two of the four cover illustrations he did for that miniseries.

2011-07-05T16:01:00.001-04:00

China. Photo by Brandi

Recent Reviews @ DVD Late Show

2011-07-05T04:57:00.001-04:00

That's right, kiddies: it' time for another reminder that I also publish a variety of cult, B-movie and genre DVD and Blu-Ray reviews over at my DVD Late Show website.

Let's see. In the last few weeks I've posted reviews of the Mike Hammer potboiler My Gun Is Quick; the Mike Hammer classic, Kiss Me Deadly on Criterion Blu-ray; Mega Python Vs Gatoroid, starring 80s pop tarts Debbie Gibson & Tiffany; Larry Cohen's The Ambulance, starring Eric Roberts' amazing mullet; the Medieval horror film, Black Death, starring Game Of Thrones' Sean Bean, on Blu-ray; Burn Notice - The Complete Fourth season; the incredibly fun 1968 space opera, The Green Slime; the excellent Burn, Witch, Burn, with a screenplay by Richard Matheson & Charles Beaumont adapting a Fritz Lieber horror classic; Walter Hill's The Long Riders, on Blu-ray; the 1977 lost world adventure, The Last Dinosaur, starring Richard Boone; and Roger Corman's Dinocroc Vs Supergator, on Blu-ray.

Reviews on tap for the rest of this week include Hobo With A Shotgun, with Rutger Hauer; The Baby; Thundarr The Barbarian - The Complete Series; and the Linda Blair/Sybil Danning Women In Prison Triple Feature of Chained Heat, Red Heat & Jungle Warriors. Check it out!

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-04T02:06:00.000-04:00

Still Missing on DVD: I, The Jury (1982)

2011-06-27T01:25:00.002-04:00

So, Robert Aldrich's Mickey Spillane film "adaptation," Kiss Me Deadly came out on Blu-ray last week (I haven't picked it up yet, but it's a priority purchase, and I hope to get my hands on it soon), and My Gun Is Quick came out on Manufacture-On-Demand DVD from MGM earlier this month (you can read my review HERE), but there's another Spillane-based film that has never been released on DVD that I would very much like to add to my library, and that's 1982's I, The Jury, directed by Richard T. Heffron from a screenplay by Larry Cohen.

Starring Armand Assante as Mike Hammer and Barbara Carrera as the flick's femme fatale, I, The Jury takes great liberties with the Spillane source novel (as do the other films mentioned above), but is chock-full of sleazy, drive-in movie energy. The cinematography has something of a TV movie look (at least, it does on the pan & scan VHS print; the only one available for the last thirty years - presumably, it would look better in its correct theatrical widescreen aspect ratio), but it's gleefully violent, filled with gratuitous nudity, and Assante plays Hammer with a nice psychotic edge. Cohen's script is wryly humorous and damned sexy, and the supporting cast - which includes Laurene Landon, Paul Sorvino, Judson Scott and Geoffrey Lewis - is great. I also love Bill Conti's jazzy score.

It was not a box office success, and it's not really remembered fondly by most people (at least, not on the IMDb), but I've loved it ever since I first rented the tape as a teenager. It's not at all faithful to Spillane's novel (except the ending), but it's not a 50s period piece, either. As a product of the early 80s, I think it updates the Spillane style quite appropriately. Everything's more cynical and graphic - and that was the early 1980s, all over.

It was originally released by American Cinema, one of the first "big" films from the scrappy little studio that had made the early Chuck Norris vehicles A Force Of One and The Octagon. The VHS was issued not long after its theatrical showings by CBS/Fox - but that particular entity no longer exists, with CBS and Fox having long ago gone their separate corporate ways. A few of the American Cinema titles made it to DVD a few years ago (albeit as pan & scan, budget-priced discs from Trinity Entertainment), but I, The Jury wasn't among them, so I wonder if the rights are tied up elsewhere?

I'd love to see I, The Jury make it to DVD (or, better yet, Blu-ray); maybe a quality cult label like Blue Underground or Severin Films could untangle the rights and give it a digital upgrade.

I hope so - my VHS tape is nearly worn out.

2011-06-26T19:06:00.003-04:00

Zoe. Photo by Brandi

Why, yes. I have decided to post more pictures of my pets lately. Your point?

R.I.P. Gene Colan

2011-06-24T02:31:00.003-04:00

Legendary comics artist, Gene Colan, has passed away at age 84, after several years of poor health. His career was astounding, beginning in 1944 and continuing until just a few years ago. He drew everything - for everybody - including definitive runs on super-hero titles like Iron Man, Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, but personally, I was most familiar with his crime and horror books, particularly those published in the 80s. His lush and distinctive penciling style was perfect for the the moody, atmospheric genres of noir and supernatural suspense.

More information about his life and his passing, from his friends and colleagues, can be found HERE and HERE. Rest in Peace, Mister Colan, and thanks for all the beautifully-drawn thrills and chills.