« May 2011 | Main | July 2011 »
I picked this pressbook up because of its layout: the black and brown cover is striking, the use of font style adds to the flapping wings horror, and this movie's posters scream cheesy bat people makeup shown maybe two-thirds of the way into the story. But perhaps I'm wrong? Maybe this is a fantastically scary vampire opus? Nah!
From The Munsters, No. 1, 1997, published by TV Comics! I would have preferred Lily Munster instead, but I like Grandpa, too. Now, if Eddie's doll Woof Woof was made into a cookie jar, I'd buy that in a heartbeat.
Zombos Says: Very Good (but will seem very familiar)
The gang’s all here in J. J. Abrams’ Super 8. You’ll recognize them from The Goonies, The Monster Squad, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: there’s the fat kid waiting for his lean years; the geeky kid with needed gadgets (explosive ones this time); the love-struck kid dealing with loss; the cute, hip girl everyone likes more than she likes herself; and parents who stay in the background much of the time because this is not their story. What’s different is the monsterkid nostalgia you’ll experience if you’ve ever held an 8mm camera to film backyard horror movies, or dry-brushed Aurora model kits with Testors paints, or just wore dark paisley shirts with big collars, sported mutton chops, and listened to music cassette tapes while cruising.
Charles (Riley Griffiths) is the fat kid who’s directing a zombie movie everyone’s got a part in. He's secretly got a crush on the cute girl, Alice (Elle Fanning), so arranges for her to drive them to the train station late at night for a shoot. The Dick Smith's Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Handbook geeky kid, Joe (Joel Courtney), unknowingly mucks it up by falling for Alice, but he does fantastic zombie make-up so Charles can't lose him. Watch the gang's finished 'movie' during the end credits and you'll see the same Dick Smithish zombie kid stumbling in different scenes, although he's killed each time. Getting to the end credits is a Spielbergian adventure seen through Abrams' eyes and the avocado greens and harvest golds of 1970s melange.
A mysterious late night train surprises the kids during taping, and when it's driven off the rails, it surprises us. An almost endless shooting gallery of heavy train cars, twisting metal, flaming explosions, and mad dashes through it all flying through the air, thunking down too close, becomes absurd, outrageous, and awesome. The incendiary-prone geeky kid (Ryan Lee) eats it all up with relish. What comes out of one of the train cars is a multi-legged nightmare for the small town and a Hardy Boys mystery for the kids to solve. The adults get in the way without realizing it, but youthful resourcefulness pays off when the military takes over the investigation of the train derailment, and the hunt for the missing living cargo. Of course there's the essential antagonistic-and-sadistic-career-military-guy-who's-sinister-agenda-only-makes-things-worse running the investigation (Noah Emmerich).
Charles, taking a page from the Roger Corman school of filming, unperturbed, takes advantage of the army's investigation and train derailment by including them in his taping. His investigator (Gabriel Basso) conducts an investigation while the military conducts theirs in the backgrounds of his scenes.
The often hopped-up, long-haired, electronics store shlub Charles gives his 8mm film to have developed provides necessary ground transportation in exchange for a date with Charles' hot sister as the hunt picks up speed for the monster, the really pissed-off something kidnapping townspeople, wrecking property, and driving all the dogs away. It's unhappy and angry from being locked up for years. Coincidentally, Joe is unhappy and angry because his mom was killed at the steel mill and his dad ignores him. And Joe's dad is unhappy and angry at Alice's dad, who was supposed to be working that shift where she died instead. And Alice is unhappy and angry with her dad because he can't get over his guilt, either, or the loss of her mom. Her dad's a long haired shlub, too, but he has his moments of redemption. And redemption comes for everyone when it's needed the most.
Super 8 isn't a coming of age movie. It's not really meant to be a nostalgic mind trip, either, though some of us will be reminded of nostalgic things and yearn for them again. It's even not a Spielberg adventure, but the camera movements and your emotions will remind you of what those adventures were like, except Super 8's more up to date in its nostalgic hipness.
It knows what we miss and gives it back for a little while.
In the pre-flea market, pre-yardsale and pre Ebay days of my youth, a truly exciting place to visit and spend my meager allowance was the Farmer's Market. In concept it seemed to exist somewhere between a wholesale produce market and antique barn. One cubicle was always immediately searched out and perused by me. This area contained a variety of notions (such as rubber monster masks, whoopie cushions, kazoos, etc) and back issues of comics and monster magazines. These periodicals always seemed to be in pretty good condition, except for the tops of the front covers. These were savagely removed, probably by something like a box cutter. I was informed later that this was done so the individual dealer, at the time, could return these sliced off sections of the front covers for credit. The rest of the magazines were subsequently sold to vendors, by weight. Then these vendors, who occupied these cubicles in the Farmer's Markets, would in turn re-sell them, usually for the affordable price of 5 cents per copy. This was definitely within my pre-teen budget.
Perusing the monster magazines I first set my eyes on Fantastic Monsters of the Screen. Having regularly purchased copies of FM and CofF for some time before and since, these seemed almost as interesting. For the grand total of 25 cents I bought the first five (of seven total) issues. This was after carefully perusing all of the available copies. All had that cut across the top, with the titles removed, as well as corresponding portions of several pages beneath. The person who wielded the mutilating box cutter was probably in a hurry. For a nickel apiece, I wasn't planning to save these as collectibles but, rather, to further mutilate them. As did many monster magazine readers of the era, my plans for these issues was to remove the illos of the monsters. These, in turn, would either go into some sort of personal album or decorate the walls of my bed room. I wasn't planning to use anything like a box cutter, though.
As was the case in the other monster mags I acquired, the ads towards the back of the issue were of interest. These were pages filled with the usual 'cool stuff' which went beyond what the vendor in the Farmer's Market had for sale. Two small ads were unique. One was for sets of color slides of 'Hollywood Monsters' and the other was for a 50 foot reel of 8mm film and 100 foot reel of 16mm film of 'Filmland Monsters.' Both ads were illustrated with familiar monsters. The ad copy read: See the Hideous Three Eyed Atomic Mutation, the She Creature, the Crawling Claw, the Smashing Awesome Amphibian...and, the Mushroom Monster from Venus! The illos of the slides matched the subjects of the film footage. Both ads had the same address: Golden Eagle Films of Topanga, California. Of all of the items offered for sale in any of the monster magazines I had ever possessed, these interested me most.
However, since it was a year or two past the publication dates of Fantastic Monsters (which appeared between 1962-63) I thought the magazine had stopped publishing, and the company - Golden Eagle Films - had long since gone out of existence, along with all of these precious items.. That was that, I surmised.
A friend, and fellow collector, years later lamented that I should have at least dropped a note to Golden Eagle Films at the Topanga Canyon address and inquired if any of the advertised treasures were still available. Thinking back, I figured what a totally logical and terrific idea. It would have been a 50/50 chance. Paul Blaisdell, editor of Fantastic Magazine and seller of the desired items, still lived in Topanga Canyon. He died there in 1983 at the 'youthful' age of 55.
In the few brief, but pleasant, conversations I had with collector Bob Burns, he told me that along with being an accomplished illustrator, sculptor and model maker, Paul Blaisdel was also an accomplished photographer. He often made photographic records during the planning, constructing and usage of his monstrous creations. His medium included color slides and film, 16mm film and stereoscopic photos. American International allowed him to market any and all color slides that he personally took of his 'creations' as well as a limited amount of the film footage that was used in their feature productions. The limitation was that footage of the creatures could be included as long as the featured players were not. This is what comprised the 5 sets of slides as well as what was featured in the 50ft and 100ft of 8mm & 16mm film - in 'sparkling black and white.'
Had I managed to track down these mail order items they would truly be valued collectibles.
All that would be needed next to create the ultimate collectible package would have been the Fantastic Monsters Club package. This consisted of a 'blood red membership card,' a free monster photo (of a Blaisdell creature, natch), an exclusive member's bulletin complete with a secret message and strange facts, plus a year's subscription to Fantastic Monsters. All this for $3! Including the 5 sets of monster slides @ $1 apiece and the 8mm film @ $2--I would also have had to acquire the 16mm film @ $6--this monsterkid would have had to shell out a grand total of $16 (not counting postage) at the time.
The value of all of this in today's collectibles market? Who knows?
Zombos Says: Very Good
Nathaniel Cade is an 1860s vampire hoodwinked by President Andrew Johnson to serve and protect the President of the United States. His new partner, Zach is a modern day career-hungry politico hoodwinked into being Cade's human compatriot after a dalliance with the current president's daughter. Konrad is an evil Dr. Frankenstein type formerly of the Nazi SS who tries to hoodwink them both in Blood Oath, a race against time supernatural spy novel assembling terrorist plots with nearly unstoppable zombie-steins to keep your blood running.
Cade's blood oath to protect the oval office, bound by Marie Laveau's Voudou in the 1800s--explained in a flashback to the events that prompted President Johnson to enlist Cade's services--keeps him from harming anyone except those who threaten the United States. He is incredibly strong, nearly indestructible, very self-assured, a natty dresser, and difficult to work with.
In the opening salvo, a Special Ops mission in Kosovo pits him against a Serbian werewolf to retrieve a mysterious box. His constant battle with the Other Side's horrific threats is hinted at here, but as soon as the box is safely returned to the Smithsonian, where Cade has his digs, another terrorist plot begins.
Christopher Farnsworth keeps the story concise and the reading tuned to non-stop pitch as Cade and Zach get to know each other's foibles, strengths, and annoying habits in their search to find the truth behind a container shipment of badly decomposing body parts. Cade suspects his nemesis, Dr. Konrad Dippel, an alchemist who discovered the Elixir of Life and thus has lived for over 300 years, is behind the mystery. Konrad's penchant for assembling body parts into dead-men-walking automatons of destruction doesn't hurt, either, to implicate him. But another covert operation and shadow organization interferes with the investigation, providing more obstacles for Cade and Zach to overcome. These obstacles push each to their limits, revealing both men's vulnerabilities and their importance to each other.
The strength of bond that slowly grows between them, the stoic vampire who refuses to drink human blood and attends AA meetings (though he doesn't know why), and the flippantly selfish younger man, lends the story a deeper and continuing interest that will garner a following of loyal readers. Through little touches of their actions, dialog, and silences, Farnsworth softens Cade's and Zach's innate inhumanness into revelations for both of them; ones they didn't know they had buried away inside.
I found this Halloween diecut decoration three Halloweens ago. It's around 13 inches high and 7 inches wide. It looks very much like Christopher Lee's Dracula and I've not been able to identify the outfit that marketed it.
Honestly, unless Jovovich is in the game, I'm not interested...from The Dreaming, No. 43, 1999...
To be conscious or not be conscious...that's the kicker...from TMNT Mutant Universe Source Book, No. 1, 1992...
I wish arcade games were STILL a quarter...from Superman: The Man of Steel, No. 10, 1992...
Yes, you actually thought this was way cool graphics back in the day, don't deny it...Wonder Woman, No. 50, 1990...
Go ahead, shoot your eye out!...The Unexpected, Vol. 25, No. 204, 1980...
There's some cool stuff to be found on comic book back covers...Our Fighting Forces, Vol. 21, No. 149, 1974...
