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Graphic Book Review: FVZA Vol 1

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FVZA_coverZombos Says: Very Good

Radical Publishing collects the three-issue comic series of the FVZA: Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency, based on the spoof organization's website. The artwork is gorgeous, the story tried and true, but the logic of the premise escapes me. Why would vampires pollute their preferred food source by turning people into zombies? It does not make longterm practical sense for their survival.

David Hine fortifies the FVZA idea with enough pseudo-historical context and political name-dropping to flesh out the agency's growth, spanning back to the days of the Wild West. Briefly disbanding after vampire and zombie activity seemed to stop, Dr. Hugo Pecos, the pragmatic and unemotional leader of the agency, is given the go ahead to start it up again when a new zombie virus, released by a scheming vampire, breaks out.

Given the numerous "agencies" dealing with supernatural or fantastic events that are now policing the horror, sci fi, and fantasty mediums, it would be easy to dismiss the FVZA as another would-have, could-have plotline, but Hine keeps it involving by focusing on Dr. Pecos' little emotional armor chinks, his incessant training of his niece and nephew after their parents are killed, and a well-constructed narrative that ties it all together through the people it involves.

Landra and Vidal are tutored in fighting techniques and the history of the agency, a lengthy preamble that's made visually engrossing by Roy Allan Martinez and Wayne Nichols as it moves from the Copper Creek Siege of 1885, through a Nazi concentration camp in World War II, and ends with the shutdown of the agency in 1975.  The pencil art is painted by Kinsun Loh and Jerry Choo, lending a near irredescent quality across the colors, enriching the somber mood with a darker tone while giving expressive highlights to the vampire and zombie action.

Hine uses a neat dramatic wrapper to begin and end the series. In the opening Dr. Pecos is about to be shot dead by Landra. The events leading up to this point are illustrated across the three issues, finally bringing us back to Landra and Dr. Pecos, and the gun she's pointing at him ready to fire.  A childhood story Dr. Pecos would tell her at bedtime, Kiss Me Dead, provides the effective–and I would add noirish in its importance–sad but necessary denouement.

The vampires in FVZA: Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency are vicious, ugly, and hungry. The zombies are victims, but still hungry. The agency and its people are also hungry, but their hunger is  more personal and harder to satisfy.

Television: The Purple Room (1960)

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Thriller Let me assure you, my friends, this is a thriller! (host Boris Karloff)

The first horror-tinged episode in the television series Thriller is The Purple Room, written and directed by Douglas Heyes. It first aired a little ahead of Halloween on October 25th. It also scared the Dickens out of me and many other viewers, a foreshadowing that Thriller would become one of the best horror anthology series–Stephen King in his Danse Macabre considers it the best–done for the small screen.

Have you any idea what it takes to scare you or me in-between commercial interruptions (when the series originally aired)? The producers and talent behind Thriller assuredly did, once they moved away from the crime story episodes and allowed Boris Karloff, the epitome of the horror mood, to introduce his kind of story. Recently released in a complete 14 disc DVD set that includes all 67 episodes remastered, with commentary and additional features added, Thriller can be savored like a fine, tingly-tart wine: take a sip from Robert Bloch's Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper; swish around a little of Robert E. Howard's Pigeons From Hell; then gulp down Donald S. Sanford's The Incredible Dr. Markesan. If your head should get a little fuzzy, go lie down in The Purple Room.

Duncan Corey (Rip Torn) inherits a Baton Rouge Victorian mansion, complete with threadbare carpets, dreary drapes, and tragic ghost story. The will stipulates he spend one year living in the house before he rightfully owns it; that is, one year after one mandatory night spent in the desolate house, which Norman Bates recently vacated (horror fans will immediately recognize it as the Bates Mansion from Psycho). Duncan smugly agrees, knowing a land developer will pay handsomely for the property. His cousins, Oliver (Richard Anderson) and Rachel (Patricia Barry), drive him to the mansion and make sure he's made as uncomfortable as possible by telling him all the sordid details of the death and madness that took place in the purple room. Hint: they will inherit the property if he doesn't.

With no electricity, candle-light and noir shadows make the atmosphere dramatically gloomy. Duncan tells his cousins he expects them to try and scare him. He warns them he's armed and shows his handgun. He even bangs the walls looking for the secret passages they might use to skulk around in. When they drink liquor from a decantor in the purple room, he exchanges drinks in case they try to drug him. After Oliver and Rachel leave, creepy sounds of doors opening, chains rattling, and things walking around–best left unseen–begin, causing Duncan to joke how amateurish their attempt to frighten him is. But are his cousins doing it? Duncan holds our attention as he alternates between cockiness and uncertainty, making us wonder if it's real or fake, until he walks into one of those best left unseen situations.

The intense black and white chiaroscuro and Boris Karloff's signature presence make this episode a thriller best left seen.

My Halloween: Halloween Addict

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Cropped - ben_cooper_darth_vader Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with Allhollow Steve of Halloween Addict who keeps his October Dreams in mind all through the year…

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

I think it’s one of the few holidays that is really about fun. It hasn’t been clouded by set-in-stone tradition, family politics, overcrowded holiday travel, gift buying stress, etc.  It’s about the thrill of being out at night, getting free candy and treasures, dressing up in costumes, watching scary movies.

You can celebrate Halloween however you want: with loved ones indoors, traipsing through a corn maze at night, by the warm glowing warming glow of a television horror marathon, handing candy out to kids and families at your door, building a yard display for the community to walk by and see.  So many different things, and it’s all about fun.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

My ideal Halloween would be waking up with a balanced Halloween breakfast of pumpkin pancakes and a bowl of a General Mills Monster Cereal. Then I’d be out the door embracing the crisp Fall day and off to the local pumpkin patch for pumpkin scrutinizing and picking. From there I’d head back home to read a little from my favorite Halloween tome “October Dreams” while sipping a pumpkin spice latte. With AMC’s FearFest on, I’d spruce up my house with any last minute decorations and carve my jack o’ lantern before the trick or treaters start showing up (I’ll be the cool house giving out mini Jones Halloween sodas and full sized candy).  When the doorbell stops ringing I’ll switch over to my annual tradition of watching Trick ‘r Treat with the lights off. I’d close the evening with John Carpenter’s Halloween.  Once the clock ‘ticks to 12:01am on November 1st the magic of the night dissipates…

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

As a kid, I had a 55″ classic Beistle jointed green-tinged skeleton that hung on my bedroom door every October.  I loved that thing.  When the skeleton got hung up I knew that candy wasn’t far behind. As for collectibles/decorations I don’t like, I’m not a huge fan of vintage Halloween collectibles. I think it comes down to the fact that I don’t like googly-eyed jack o’ lanterns. I like a traditional jack o’ lantern with empty triangle eyes. There’s something both friendly and sinister about that traditional look.

Cropped - Collegeville_Tiger_19734 When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

I can’t quite remember my very first.  I know that one of my very first costumes was a Collegeville “Tiger” but the one I really look fondly on was when I was in Elementary School and asked for and received a Ben Cooper “Darth Vader” costume.  My mom had this black velvet cape from a Halloween party she and my dad had gone to a few years before and I swapped the crappy, short vinyl cape that came with the boxed costume with the huge, black velvet one.

I wore it to school for the October “costume day” (when the teachers parade the classes around to each other’s classrooms). In my mind I WAS Darth Vader. There was no more authentic looking Vader in that parade.  Didn’t matter that I was still wearing the bright yellow vinyl suit part that said “DARTH VADER” across the chest, or that the cape was red on the inside (clearly more Dracula than Vader), OR that I was only 3 1/2 feet tall and not a 6′ 5″ David Prowse, OR that the mask had a rubber band holding it to my head.  Didn’t matter.  I was rockin’ that Vader costume.  Even had the “Imperial March” tune stuck in my head as I tromped around.  I couldn’t have been happier.

What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?

Clever answer:

Question: Do you want to see something really scary?

Answer:  [attacking] Raawwwwwwwwr!

Straight answer:

Question: Would you like to make enough money doing HalloweenAddict.com to quit your day job and live comfortably?

Answer: Yes. Yes I would.

My Halloween: My Ghoul Friday

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GFpic Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with My Ghoul Friday who’s the kind of girl you want to have around every day of the week, but especially on Halloween…

Why is Halloween important to you?

Halloween is the one season of the year when the general public gets on the same page as they engage in play, and they see beauty in the dark.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

That’s really tough. My ideal Halloween might be a bright, crisp, but not too cold day that started with pumpkin flavoured coffee before heading to a pumpkin patch that had different types and colours of pumpkins and gourds. After choosing a wheelbarrow full of goodies, and maybe consuming some hot apple cider, I would make my way to a place in the country – maybe a cottage – where I and my closest friends (Oooo and let’s throw in a number of fellow haunters I’ve always wanted to meet) would spend the afternoon adding the final touches to decorations (would be nice if there was a barn available). There would be cooking over a fire and music as we got closer to evening. And the night would be capped off with some excellent horror movies and perhaps a few games. I suppose that’s a bit boring. Even if we added attending a Halloween fair or parade in the afternoon, my ideal Halloween doesn’t get very fancy.

GFLamp What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

I have a plastic vintage black cat & pumpkin lamp I found at a second hand store for a dollar. It sits in my office year-round.

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

If you’ve ever gone to my “About Me” page, you’ve read the story. It started when my parents let me spray paint a tombstone on the concrete wall of our basement for my Grade 4 Halloween party.

It was my first real Halloween party, and I wanted it to be great. I constructed a haunted house the length of the basement and led people through dangling, slimy snakes hanging from the ceiling – just one example of the many forms and obstacles waiting for them in the shadow. I hadn’t gotten over my fear of the dark, and I was deathly afraid of being in the basement alone (never mind with the lights off), but to make sure I could see well enough to safely guide each guest one by one through the haunted space, I sat alone in the pitch black basement for 20 minutes before the party goers even started to arrive.

That’s when she was born, the little ghoul in the basement. Since then, she has come back to me every year, usually in late summer, ready to build creatures for Halloween. Sure, she’s there throughout the other months, peeking through my eyes at the newest horror film being released, or tickling my neck so I turn to see the brochure for the Festival of Fear coming to the city.

What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?

Q: Can we, the general public, help you with time and donations to make your ideal Halloween come true?

A: And my answer is yes 😉

My Halloween: The Moon Is a Dead World

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Ryne cookies Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with Ryne who beams some Halloween rays from The Moon Is a Dead World to light up the night…

 

Why is Halloween important to you?

I can’t remember when Halloween first became a staple of my life. Each Halloween in my younger years gets jumbled together into one big happy, spooky memory. I think, strangely enough, my love of Halloween began when I was eight or nine years old. My family was eating dinner in the living room on Halloween night when trick-or-treaters showed up at 5 o’clock! Trick-or-treating wasn’t supposed to start until 7, and it was a surprise to us that anyone would begin so  early. For some reason, this memory sticks with me as the biggest reason of why I love Halloween so much. Maybe it was the fact that I was with my family on that fateful Halloween, or maybe it was the enthusiasm of the trick-or-treaters that visited so early. Either way, Halloween became one of my favorite times of year, and it still holds that magical feeling from when I was a kid.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

I prefer my Halloween spooky rather than playful, so the trick-or-treaters in my ideal Halloween would have to be decked out in scary apparel – no princesses or pirates allowed! Also, you know that scene in Trick ‘r Treat where Anna Paquin walks down a forested path decorated on either side by jack-o-lanterns? That would be included as well, because the whole town gets caught up in the festivities.

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

This is a little embarrassing, but I really enjoy the old McDonald’s Halloween Happy Meal toys they gave out in the ’90s – the ones that feature the Hamburgler, Grimace, and Ronald McDonald, where their costumes can be interchanged. It’s a nostalgic thing for me, I guess, because it reminds me of my childhood. We’ve had them for years, and still never hesitate to put them around the house each Halloween.

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

My very first Halloween…like I said, my past Halloweens are all a jumble of memories, but I think I had to have been 4 or 5. I was Frankenstein, and I had a fuzzy, puffy Frankenstein mask and clogs to make me taller. We put something on my neck to look like bolts, although I can’t remember what we used.

What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?

Q: Trick, or treat?

A: TRICK! For me, it’s never about the candy!

My Halloween: Fascination With Fear

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ChrisblueFive questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with Christine of Fascination With Fear who tells us what else holds her fascination…

Why is Halloween important to you?

Halloween is my favorite day of the year.  Has been since I was small enough to know what a favorite is.  It’s rather funny to think I love the holiday so much when I’m not really a big fan of kids (that alone should get me burned at the stake).  But it is such a fabulous time of the year.  In addition, October is my favorite month, and it’s just capped off by the holiday.  Over the years, I’ve always tried to take off work on October 31st, and sometimes November 1st as well – as the horror movies run late into the night.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

Well I might piss the parents off here, but I don’t have kids – so my Halloween is sans children.  Though I can very much appreciate kids in their costumes wandering aimlessly around my small town – I remember when I was a kid how much it meant to me.   But my perfect Halloween would consist of driving up to our cabin in the woods about an hour north of home (the one we lovingly dubbed the Evil Dead cabin, due to its similar look).  We’d have to take along our jack-o-lantern, cause that’s only right.  I’d sit outside and read in the crisp fall air so I could smell the dead leaves and feel the last of the autumn sunshine, then I’d have the hubby start a campfire and we’d hang out around that toasting up some marshmallows and such.  Then of course, it would be horror movie central for the rest of the evening, capped off by a trip to the outhouse in the dead of night right at the edge of the (Blair Witch) woods.

Punkinhead What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

My movie (DVD/VHS) collection would have to be my biggest horror/Halloween collection, but I do have a ton of Halloween decor. As I get older I cringe at the thought of putting it all away in November, so I haven’t been putting out quite as much. But I love antique looking Halloween collectibles – things that look decades old. Oh, and I collect witches.  Lots of them.

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

I grew up in western Pennsylvania, so sometimes it can actually snow around Halloween. I recall one year when I was quite young and wanting to be a veterinarian for Halloween (you know, scrubs and a stuffed dog -real inspired), but it turned out to be like, thirty degrees outside. Hence, my hunter costume. Yep, camo and a shotgun.  Unloaded of course, but this was back in the day when a seven year old could tote a gun around town without getting thrown in juvie. Oh well, that big coat held a lot of extra candy.

What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?

Q: Why doesn’t my town hold Trick-or-Treat AT NIGHT???

A: I’ve been asking myself that question for over thirty years.  Runs in my mind when I was small, we trick-or-treated at night.  Folks with the porch light on were handing out candy, if the house was dark you steered clear (or threw corn at it later on). Later in my teens, my town changed it to daylight only. From around noon till 4pm. And no, my town is not full of crime.  At all.  There is no real reason why kids can’t trick-or-treat at night here.  It makes me so mad when I think about it, them taking away our fun and making kids even more afraid of the dark than usual.