Horror

This sounds like it could have been remants from the seemingly never-ending inventory that Joseph and Peter Koch were selling from back in the 1970s. Advertising in nearly every issue of the then very prosperous and now defunct Comic Book Buyer's Guide, they offered lots of comics and monster magazines at very reasonable prices.The lot was up for auction back in 2003 with a minimum bid of $1,000 and a buyer's premium of $3,379. It did not sell and I do not have any information on its final disposition. One could have literally go into the monster 'zine selling business for a few thousand bucks with this rare opportunity.Here is the description of the lot:"Did you ever want to luck into the chance to buy a warehouse find of 1960's monster magazines and comics? Are you tired of hearing of all those lucky stiffs who did get that chance while you were left out in the cold, either a dollar short or a day late? Well, here's what may be your last chance! Offered is an assortment of different titles spanning the years 1963 to 1971, with the vast majority from the late 60's. Included are over 5,500 copies of various classic Warren Publications (50 different issues), Gothic Castle's Castle of Frankenstein issues (four different issues), or Wally Wood and Steve Ditko's privately published Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon! Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon: Wally Wood and Steve Ditko's privately published "adult" color comic, designed for distribution through military base PX's, as its non-code-approved status rendered it undistributable through normal channels. (It has been reported that a CGC 9.8 of this book recently sold on eBay for over $80.00!) Included are seven 300-count cases-probably 2,100 copies! (We cut the binding wires on the only worn looking example of the original Ronald's printing cases, and discovered that the majority of the case's contents remained minimally Very Fine to Near-Mint in condition, with some yellowing to the pages of the outermost copies. The case was one copy short of 300. We think it's a safe bet that the remaining six cases' contents are at least this good.)Warren Publications (numbers in parens. is quantity of copies of that issue, followed by average condition of the issue's sampling): Blazing Combat #'s 3 (5, FR/GD) and 4 (11, GD-); Creepy #'s 4 (5, F/VF), 6 (2, F/VF), 7 (25, F/VF), 12 (24, F/VF), 24 (23, F/VF), 25 (62, F/VF), 26 (66, VG/F), 27 (60, VF/NM), 28 (29, GD) and the 1969 Yearbook (8, GD/VG); Eerie #'s 4 (3, FN-), 5 (50, VF/NM), 7 (12, VG/F), 14 (45, FN-), 15 (26, VG/F), 19 (13, VG/F) and the 1971 Annual (7, VG); Famous Films Series ("fumetti" styled comics of horror films-photos with word balloons)-The Mole People (18, GD-), Horror of Party Beach (293, FN) and Castle of Frankenstein/Horror of Dracula (Christopher Lee throughout! 430 copies, FN); Famous Monsters of Filmland #'s 33 (2, VG+), 34 (1, VG), 36 (34, VG), 39 (1, FN), 41 (1, VG), 42 (1, VF), 49 (5, VF), 50 (31, VF/NM), 53 (11, VF/NM), 55 (5, F/VF), 57 (1, FN-), 58 (1, VG), 59 (2, VG/F), 60 (2, VG/F), 61 (2, VF), 62 (2, VF), 64 (6, VF/NM), 65 (5, FN-) and 1969 Fear Book (9, FN-); Monster World #'s 1 (2, FN-), 2 (1, VG+), 5 (398, FN-), 6 (306, FN), 8 (284, F/VF), 9 (1, F/VF) and 10 (Batman feature-15, VG/F); Screen Thrills Illustrated #'s 7 (Captain America Serial-203, GD) and 8 (The Spider Serial-442, VF/NM). Gothic Castle Publications: Castle of Frankenstein #'s 14 (Star Trek Cover-15, GD-), 15 (194, Fr/GD), 16 (129, GD-), and 17 (98, GD/VG).Tremendous breakout value here, with the opening bid being less than ten-cents per book! Please note: Due to the size and/or weight of this lot, the cost of shipping will be substantial (19 shipping boxes, approximately 70 lbs. each)."

“One of Our Planets is Missing” by original series director Marc Daniels is another superb early episode of Filmation’s Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 – 1974). The episode is not only true to Star Trek’s spirit of adventure and decency in the face of dangerous alien contact, but forward-looking in its approach to its subject matter. The episode also maintains remarkable continuity with the established Trek universe. In “One of Our Planets is Missing” a “huge cosmic cloud” moves into the "outer fringe of the galaxy.” This cloud is a “strange combination of matter and energy” and quickly consumes an uninhabited planet. Worse, it is on a direct course for a world of eighty million colonists: Mantilles. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) orders the Enterprise to investigate, and takes the ship inside the strange cloud. Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. McCoy (De Forest Kelley) soon realize that the cloud is alive, and possibly intelligent. Spock likens the space-going organism to a “bull grazing in the pasture of the universe,” a bull who may be unaware that it is harming other life-forms. With only hours remaining before Mantilles is consumed by the cloud, Captain Kirk must consider destroying the organism’s brain, but Spock attempts a Vulcan “mind-touch” and contacts the alien being in hopes of reaching some kind of agreement. He allows the cloud entity to see life through his eyes, and recognize that it is destroying life-forms with its basic, biological behavior. The alien understands Spock’s message of peace and cooperation, and pledges to return to its “origin place” outside the galaxy. “One of Our Planets is Missing” charts the Enterprise’s encounter with a mysterious space cloud, a sort of scintillating alien rendezvous that would recur, with some variation, in films such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and episodes such as Star Trek: Voyager’s “The Cloud.” Here, the cloud is not cloaking a vast life-form (as is the case in the first movie), but is an actual life-form unaware that its behavior may be interpreted as hostile. In the best tradition of Star Trek stories, this alien -- once it learns of its behavior – seeks a peaceful end to the crisis. No phasers are fired. No punches are thrown. With its female voice (provided by the late Majel Roddenberry), the Cloud here also evokes memories of another benevolent cloud being, the Companion from the episode “Metamorphosis.” In "One of Our Planets is Missing," Spock uses the Vulcan mind-touch to give the cloud a sense of humanoid life, a development which recalls not only “Metamorphosis” (and Commissioner Hedford) but some moments in the third season Star Trek episode “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” Here, however, the entity in Spock’s body not only gets to “feel” and “touch” human life, but through a video presentation on a view screen, gazes at human life on Earth. It sees cities, children playing and other aspects of our existence. In terms of continuity, “One of Our Planets is Missing” is rather amazing, especially for a Saturday morning production in 1973. Kirk contacts the governor of Mantilles, Bob Wesley, a character seen in live-action in the second season episode “The Ultimate Computer.” We learn that Wesley left Starfleet for politics, and now lives on Mantilles with his eleven-year old daughter, Katie. This is a great character touch that connects the animated series to its live-action predecessor, and not in a gimmicky or exploitative way. Also in “One of Our Planets is Missing,” Kirk grapples with the necessity of killing the cloud to save the population of Mantilles, and verbally references his speech from “A Taste of Armageddon” about deciding “not to kill…today.” It’s a deliberate call-back to a great (and under-appreciated episode), and also a good re-assertion of Kirk’s essential humanity.

The Peter Cushing Centennial Blogathon : Day One

Looking forward to Season 6 of "True Blood" but maybe a little hazy on what exactly went down in Season 5? Well, nip that short-term memory loss problem in the bud with this nifty five-minute recap video courtesy of HBO. Season 6 picks up immediately after last year's bloody finale, which found Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) attempting to escape a very scary--and very naked--Bill (Stephen Moyer, who also directed the premiere episode). Joining the "True Blood" regulars this year are guest stars Rutger Hauer, Arliss Howard, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rob Kazinsky, Karolina Wydra, Luke Grimes, and Amelia Rose Blaire. Related Story: New "True Blood" Season 6 Teaser Home to Governor Burrell's Anti-Vamp Tirade; #ShowYourFangs Campaign Launches The battle between humans and vampires begins on June 16th at 9PM, when "True Blood" Season 6 premieres. Tweet or Instagram a photo of yourself using #ShowYourFangs to tell the world that you stand with the bloodsuckers. Visit ShowYourFangs.com for more info. For more info visit "True Blood" on HBO.com, "like" "True Blood" on Facebook, and jump in on the Twitter conversations here using the hashtag #trueblood. VISIT THE EVILSHOP @ AMAZON! Got news? Click here to submit it! Show us your fangs in the comments section below!

This week, upon the 100th anniversary of his birth, May 24, 1913, fellow bloggers are joining me in celebrating the life and career of actor Peter Cushing.A young man and a fledgling actor in 1939, Cushing traveled halfway around the world to Hollywood where he got his first film experience under director James Whale. In 1940, he appeared opposite Laurel and Hardy in A Chump at Oxford. Kicking around the film capital, he joined fellow British expats playing cricket and he met Boris Karloff. Compelled by patriotism, Cushing cut short his Hollywood adventure and headed back home to duty in blitzkrieged London. He was promptly drafted into the theater and soon touring the world as a member of Laurence Olivier’s troupe. He would play Osric to Olivier’s Hamlet in the 1948 film adaptation. In the Fifties, Cushing became a household name on British television with award-winning performances in live broadcasts playing, among many others, Beau Brummell and Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four. In 1957, with The Curse of Frankensteinfor Hammer Films, Cushing embarked on a spectacular career as a horror film star, rising to a pantheon that includes the Chaneys, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and his contemporaries and friends Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. No sketch, however brief, of Peter Cushing’s extraordinary life and career is complete without a mention of his wife Helen, née Beck, who passed away in 1971. Cushing was devastated and he would mourn her every day for the rest of his life. He would say that he was just killing time, only waiting to be reunited with her. I was in London last winter, doing research at the National Gallery where I had access to Peter Cushing’s file. It contained a photograph of a young Helen Beck, and I was struck by her beauty and the kindness in her eyes, and I understood, a little bit at least, how deeply her loss must have affected Cushing. Peter Cushing work until the end. His last gig was narrating — with Christopher Lee — Flesh and Blood, Ted Newsom’s documentary about Hammer Films. Cushing passed away on August 11, 1994, the very same week that the film was broadcast in England. At the top of this post is the splendid cover by Quinton Winter for a recent issue of Fortean Times.It features an article, The Human Face of Horror, by Stephen Volk and an extract from his novella set in Cushing’s beloved Whitstable. There is also a look at Cushing the artist, his watercolors and illustrated scripts, and a Fortean appraisal of “Weird Whitstable”. The issue is well worth seeking out.Now, on to the Blogathon! Check back often. We have a fabulous group of participating bloggers and I’ll be updating here with new links as they come in every day and all through the week.

Marguerite MacIntyre plays Caroline’s mom Sheriff Liz Forbes on The Vampire Diaries and now it seems she has a new gig. She will be leaving Mystic Falls and heading to New Orleans as a writer on the show’s spinoff, The Originals. I’m hoping this still means she will be on The Vampire Diaries playing the sheriff. I know some of the characters are heading to college, but lets face it Mystic Falls is a breeding ground for evil. It still needs it’s sheriff! Gratz to Marguerite on the new job! Learn more at Wetpaint.

Here's another nicely illustrated Standard Comics spooker loaded with chills and atmosphere, originally presented in the August 1952 issue of Adventures into Darkness #5, which is, (for anyone wishing to complain about scans on a FREE blog), another issue that I temporarily do not own. So! --from the completely acceptable re-colored version via Eclipse Comics' great 80's Seduction of the Innocent series (issue #2), and featuring fantastic artwork signed by Ruben Moreira.

Reviewer Rating: 7 Rating #: 7/10 Director: Andres Muschietti Runtime: 100 minutes Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jessica Chastain, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nelisse Overall: This is an effective supernatural chiller that offers a lot of solid creepy scenes in the first half, but kind of falls apart towards the end due to the overexposure of the CG'd Mama character. However, it was an integral part in the climax, so I won't entirely fault it for that, especially since I really liked the unique concept behind the story. If you're looking for a creepy solid ghost flick with a good pace and semi-creative storyline then give this a look. Mama is based on a successful short film with the same name from director Andrés Muschietti. The short actually caught the attention of Guillermo Del Toro, who helped put the project together and turn it into a full length feature and with good reason, as the flick is a surprisingly effective chiller for the first half, but falls victim to some iffy CG and a little too much Mama exposure with the remaining half. The flick starts off with a father attempting to flee the police after murdering his wife. He grabs his two young girls and makes for a daring escape, but in the process finds the car veering off the road and into the nearby wilderness. Hurt and bleeding, the man roams the woods with his daughters until coming across a secluded broken down cabin. Seeking shelter they make their way inside, never to be seen again... read more

Good news has arrived for fans of the Vampire Hunter D series: A new novel by famed horror/sci-fi author Hideyuki Kikuchi entitled Noble V: Greylancer is now available, which details the beginning of the 3,000-year war of Vampire Hunter D. From the Press Release: VIZ Media’s Haikasoru literary imprint delivers a bloodthirsty new chapter of the legendary Vampire Hunter D saga with the North American release of Noble V: Greylancer, now available in stores. The new fantasy novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi, carries an MSRP of $14.99 U.S./$16.99 CAN. The release also includes a bonus novelette titled "An Irreplaceable Existence.” An eBook edition is also available for the Amazon Kindle and from Apple’s iBooks Store and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Books Store. Internationally acclaimed writer Hideyuki Kikuchi, author and creator of the famed novel series Vampire Hunter D, delves into the past with his latest addition, Noble V: Greylancer. It is the year 7000 by Noble reckoning, and the vampire rulers of the world have grown complacent. When the Outer Space Beings (OSBs) invade, the Noble warrior Greylancer must pit his skills and magic against the technology of the OSBs, quash an anti-Noble rebellion, and, when he is critically injured, turn to mere humans for help. The Three Thousand Year War of Vampire Hunter D begins here! “Hideyuki Kikuchi is one of Japan's top horror and science fiction authors in the proud tradition of Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King. His Vampire Hunter D setting has been attracting fans in the U.S. for more than twenty years,” says Nick Mamatas, Haikasoru’s editor. “Noble V: Greylancer reveals the mysterious history of the Nobility and follows the exploits of the powerful Noble warrior Greylancer as pushes his own immortality to the limit. Kikuchi is an ardent fan of many classic horror tropes, and his new novel exquisitely combines the danger and violence of traditional literary vampires with the nobility and dark attraction of modern vampire iconography.” Hideyuki Kikuchi was born in 1949 in Chiba, Japan, and, inspired by the work of writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, he began writing supernatural fiction in the early 1980s. His first novel, Demon City Shinjuku, debuted in 1982. Horror films, most notably 1958’s The Horror of Dracula, had a tremendous impact on Kikuchi and inspired him to create the legendary Vampire Hunter D series, which has spawned more than 17 novels and a host of novellas and related short stories. One of the world’s most prolific authors, Kikuchi has published over three hundred books and still produces multiple novels per year. He has enjoyed tremendous international success as a novelist, and much of his work has been also been adapted into manga and anime, including Vampire Hunter D, Wicked City, A Wind Named Amnesia, and Dark Wars: The Tale of Meiji Dracula. For more information on Noble V: Greylancer and the Haikasoru imprint, visit the dedicated Haikasoru website. VISIT THE EVILSHOP @ AMAZON! Got news? Click here to submit it! Join other mere humans in the comments section below!