Veterans Day!

We remember and salute all who have served. Thank you.

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Kirby Is The Topps!

Above are Jack Kirby's covers used to kick off Topps Comics "Kirbyverse". This was a pretty impressive attempt to give the "King" another ride by taking some of his later concepts and getting other folks to bring them to the page. The likes of Don Heck, John Severin, Dick Ayers, and Steve Ditko are on hand to handle the art and Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, and Gerry Conway take on the scripts.

This is the kind of project Kirby wanted to have ultimately at DC when he first left Marvel at the height of his fame and influence. It didn't work out, but we get a glance of what a "Kirbyverse" might've looked like in the 90's. These aren't great comics, but they are fun and entertaining, a virtue rare in the modern comics market.

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I Bury The Living!

It's almost unheard of for me to chance upon a movie I have no context for. I've either read or seen something for just about every movie out there that I'd be interested in. That's not to say I never run across new stuff, but that's the point I run across it and then I go see the flick if I can.

I Bury the Living starring Richard Boone (Paladin) is a movie for which I've only read the title. I knew nothing about this 1958 flick before I got it in a batch of cheapies. I watched without pre-conception and found it a most remarkable and creepy movie.

The premise is pretty simple. A fundamentally good but busy man finds himself having to manage a local cemetary in his spare time. He meets the Scot gravedigger and learns that a map full of pins marks the purchased but empty gravesites and the occupied ones -- white pins for the empty and black pins for the inhabited. Our hero accidently puts black pins in empty sites on the map and those folks die. The details are interesting, but it keeps happening and despite his attempts to report the impossible events and his desire to accept the grim responsibility no one in authority appears to believe him. His struggle with this offers Richard Boone a grand acting opportunity and he makes the best of it.

I won't say more for fear of spoiling this pretty dang good movie, but I was convinced the map, a key visual element of tasty movie would turn out to be a spell of some kind. You have to watch to movie to see if I'm right, but it's worth the effort.

Great flick!

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Ditko's Derby Dozen!

Above are some keen Charlton comics Steve Ditko covers! Why? Why not!

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Count Dracula And His Vampire Bride!

I can't really say I've been a big afficianado of Christopher Lee's Dracula. I've seen several of them recently, and I have to confess he brings a certain different something to the mix. The first thing I noted about his movies is that he isn't really the star, it's the folks who are pitted against him who dominate the screen and Dracula appears sparingly to wreak havoc and whatnot.

The Satanic Rites of Dracula or as it was known in the U.S. Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride offers up a pretty good brew of what makes these Hammer flicks tick. This one set in the 20th century follows on the events of the previous movie Dracula 1972 A.D..

There are some spoilers below so tread carefully.

Dracula it seems didn't "die" after the last movie (shock) but survived yet again and became the mysterious director of an organization which has a headquarters on the site of the church where he was presumably killed. This company has lured in powerful men in government and the military by means of a seemingly Satanic cult. Some government security agency becomes aware of this and sends in an agent who is killed but who manages to report back. His superiors realize that the men involved are too powerful and influential to oppose openly so they enlist the aid of Dr.Van Helsing to guide them in matters supernatural. Dracula's role is uncovered and the ultimate battle is an interesting if curious one. I'll have to say that Dracula is trapped in the most original if contrived way.

Peter Cushing as Van Helsing is looking quite old in this one, but he and Lee as Dracula have some very good scenes together. The movie though seems to want to be an action flick and does so pretty well in places. The horror elements are minimal after the first section of the flick, though I will confess the basement full of vampire chicks was pretty heinous. The lighting undermines the effectiveness of these scenes, as the color is brighter than I expected. They seemed to want lurid more than creepy.

All in all this is a fun and diverting movie, better than I expected frankly.

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Rocket Blasts By Zeck!

Above are two outstanding covers for RBCC (Rocket's Blast Comic Collector) by the talented Mike Zeck! The drama of these is wonderful especially the Captain Atom cover.

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Blood Of Dracula's Castle!

What a movie this is!

I've never seen this 1969 drive-in B-movie before yesterday evening. I was waltzing through my local Wal-Mart and checked out the discount movies and found a wonderful collection of trash called Gorehouse Greats and was especially attracted by the movie title The Blood of Dracula's Castle. When I saw the name John Carradine I knew I had to watch.

It was fantastic! Fantastically bad that is, in a wonderful wacky way. First let's assert that there's nothing remotely scary about this movie. It has a castle located somewhere either in a forest or a desert (it changes) occupied by Count Dracula (not played by Carradine for goshsakes) who goes by the name of "Townsend". He and his wife live a life of repose like some Florida retirees or something drinking blood from goblets supplied by their butler George (Carradine) who gets the stuff from girls chained in the basement and watched over by giant Fankenstein wannabe "Mango". There's also another member of the brood named Johnny who escapes prison and after much running ends up back at the castle in time to meet the new owners. They are a hip young couple who have just inherited the castle and want to take possession. Needless to say they don't know what they are in for. Johnny may or may not be a werewolf, the version I have doesn't show that, but apparently one version does. So this is for all intents and purposes a late 60's "Monster Rally" movie.

The fact that no scene really takes place at night really undermines any meager attempt there might be at tension or suspense. There are some passable stunts and the guy playing Johnny is way over the top and neatly so. The movie has the young couple touring Marineland at the beginning of the movie and I'm sure this is probably the only movie that has Dracula and a dolphin in the same flick.

One thing I'll give them points for is the way it starts. There's this upbeat music playing as a girl drives along carefree. We listen to it for a long time then she breaks down and it continues right up until she meets Mango, the tune and tone shift if only briefly before we go to Marineland. These shifts are peculiar and offer at least a smidgeon of surprise. If somehow you didn't know you were watching a horror flick at the beginning you might be a wee bit surprised by the abrupt change.

John Carradine is perfectly okay in this. He does what he's asked and lives up his dual role as immoral butler and apparent priest of "Luna" the Moon god he and apparently the Draculas worship. It's out there man for sure.

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