From Professor Kinema's collection comes this lurid, action-filled Mexican lobby card for The Scarlet Pimpernel. The American poster artwork is noticeably more staid and I don't recall a quillotine lopping off anyone's head being prominently touted in any of it. Of interest, the artist signed his work, appropriately enough, "Dela Mort."
PIFF! POW! BAM! Dont' touch that mouse! It's the Batman pressbook from Tony Rivers.
Zombos Says: Very Good
The Walking Dead magazine debuts today. Newsy bits on everything you can stuff a Walking Dead survivor or zombie into abound. Both the comic book series and the AMC television series are covered. Toys, games, events (like the 2012 San Diego Comic Con), you name it, it's all here, published quarterly. Here are some highlights of what I enjoyed reading the most in this first issue.
Stuart Barr's The Story So Far...covers the comic book's storylines up to the present. Don't read it if you're skittish on possible spoilers for the television series (or the comic book if you're a spotty reader), but here's your chance to come up to speed on the Walking Dead comicverse. And just when you come up for air the third season preview does tempt you with spoilers; I love spoilers, especially the who-lives-and-who-dies kind. Just keep in mind the television series and the comic series don't always jive, so expect surprises and fresh takes on characters and their travails. Looks like the Governor and Woodbury will be popping up, though, sooner than later.
Tara Bennett takes us to the West Georgia Correctional Facility set (Raleigh Studios, Atlanta) to provide us with some insight on the design, like how the prison cell lighting is toned to create just the right mix of gloom and despair, and there are a horde of interviews covering a wide range with Charlie Adlard talking about drawing the Walking Dead comics and Glen Mazzara, the show's executive producer and showrunner, giving us his daily grind on making the television series. Of course there's an interview with Danai Gurira and her new role as Michonne, the Katana-wielding zombie slayer with her two leashed, and defanged, walking buddies. Gurira talks about her prep work for the role.
A quick read but very informative is the article, Anatomy of a Story. In this first installment, A Larger World (a storyline which played across comic issues 91 through 96) is examined. Storyline insight is not only useful to writers looking at how key elements of character development drive successful plots, but it also can be fun for any Walking Dead fan who's interested in knowing why they are a fan. Sure, the zombies are cool, but it's the walking living that keep us coming back for more.
Speaking of cool, there's a shot of Gentle Giant's The Walker Horde, a scrumptious set of little plastic zombie figurines, due on toy shelves sometime in 2013. Here's my plan: I take these little terrors and pile them up around my Clone army. Yeah, baby, now that's what I'm talking about. Lightsabers, Clones, and zombies! George?
For completists, here are the variant covers:
What drew my attention to this colorful Mexican lobby card was the leering devil. Honest. But look at the balance overall: looking from left to right, you know exactly what this movie is about without looking at the title or other text.
Here's a nifty Halloween treat from Tony Rivers. He notes: "This one's a little tricky...I used to have the press book for ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN and photocopied several pages. I also have the Philip Riley script book, but he only had 11 of the 12 pages. At one time I did take photographs of each page with a camera so I had to use the photo I took of page 10 to have the complete press book but the image is small and you can't really read what it says on page 10....so until I can find a better version, here's the "complete" 12 page ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN pressbook."
A coloring contest for The Face of Fu Manchu? Sure, the cover of this pressbook is fantastic, but I'm not sure using a coloring contest (see next to last page) is a suitable promotional gimmick. I think Tsai Chin as his daughter stole the show. This series left quite an impression on me when they originally appeared in the theaters. I read the Sax Rohmer books after seeing Christopher Lee's sinister performance.
The original theater 3D release of Creature from the Black Lagoon used the gray polarizing lenses, not the red and blue ones. This is one of the few 3D movies that looks good in 3D, especially the underwater photography. Still a treat to see today, the Creature will always be with us.
Comic reader version: Download Creature from the Black Lagoon Pressbook
See more pressbooks From Zombos' Closet.
Continue reading "Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) Pressbook" »
A tense scene from the movie, vibrant colors, and expressive artwork bring this Mexican lobby card for The War of the Worlds to life.
Not an overly impressive lobby card with its hasty paste-up approach (at least the title font is great), but House on Haunted Hill is in my top 5 movie list for Halloween viewing.
A primitive illustration of an oversized mole man holding an unconscious woman, and the embellished photograph in the top left corner highlight this Mexican lobby card for The Mole People from Universal.
Once again, Tony Rivers strikes: " Here's the US press book for Hammer's Curse of the Werewolf including the 2 page supplement for the double feature of Shadow of the Cat, 10 pages in all."
