Sweet Skulls: For Those With a Taste For Terror!

Revenge of the Zombies

2009-07-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The poster art for "Revenge of the Zombies."
(Click on image to view full-size.)

Also known as "Black Magic 2" this 1976 kung-fu/horror exploitation movie has a little of everything in it, but equals a lot of nothing. Still, there are a whole lot more worse ways to spend an evening. Cool poster.

Ghost Town posters

2009-06-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The poster art for Empire Studio's 1988 "Ghost Town."
(Click in images to view full-size.)

You've heard of the gunfighter called "The Man With No Name,"
now meet "The Man With No Flesh."

Something tells me that this town's Welcome Wagon is driven by the undertaker.

Awesome skele-centric artwork on these two posters! Worthy entries into the Sweet Skulls crypt of archives.

The Undertaker And His Pals poster

2009-06-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlights shines this time on:
The poster for "The Undertaker and His Pals"

(Click on image to view large size!)

Cool skull-enhanced poster art for the 1966 "classic" film.

Earl Norem Skull

2009-06-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Earl Norem's Skull Art
(Click on image to view large-size!)

Earl Norem, the artist responsible for so many memorable monster and comic book covers, as well card art on the legendary "Mars Attacks!" cards, also lent his considerable talent to the lesser-known "Dinosaurs Attack!" set from Topps that they put out in 1998. The panels picture above are from his art for the graphic novel adaptation of the card story. To find out what's happening in the scene above, and to see more eye-popping Norem art, as well as get the whole story on the unbelievable gory "Dinosaurs Attack!" bubblegum cards, go to my other blog "Monster Memories."

Cry Of The Banshee Posters

2009-05-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

The skeletal spotlight shines today on:
The poster art for 1971's "Cry Of The Banshee"

You gotta love this one; a skull, busoms, a riding skeleton, torture; awesome graphic art of the title; and the coolest poetry you will ever read on a tombstone.

Glowing USB Human Skull

2009-05-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

source: http://www.geekalerts.com/usb-skull/

Now, you can look awesomely cool, instead of nerdy, when using your computer! Won't the girls just flock to you, enamored by your bad-boy demeanor and attitude? Um, well... probably not. But you will have fun eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew by the light of this nifty glowing thingie!

Skull MP3 Player

2009-03-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

This is sure to attract the chicks when they see you coming down the street boogieing to your music! What kind of chicks, is an open question.

link: http://www.geekalerts.com/human-skull-mp3-player-belt-buckle-with-leds/

And here: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/11/17/mp3playing-skull-bel.html

New Terminator: salvation posters

2009-03-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

I'm getting more excited the more of this I see. Let's hope this is the start of a new trilogy!

Source: IGN's Terminator: Salvation posters and images

Evidence Of Skeleton People Unearthed

2009-03-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
News Story: "Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People"

Archeologist investigates remains of spooky skeleton person.

It may be old news, but for readers of this site, it's exciting: evidence that a race of living skeletons once walked the earth! Incontrovertable findings show that the scary skeleton of fiction really did once exist.

For the full story read: Skeleton People

Also: while there, read the Opinion "Things Just Taste Better Out Of A Skull." Delightfully refreshing!

Masters of the Universe promo

2009-02-17T11:41:00.000-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"Masters of the Universe"
(Click on images to view full-size.)

Say what you will about the film, that is one great piece of poster art.

The pages scanned in here are from a glossy newspaper-format promo magazine for upcoming Cannon films, which was sent to video stores at the time. This is to promote the VHS release of the movie.

I resisted watching this movie for nearly a year after it came out on video, as I considered it far beneath me. A movie based on a silly kid's toy line? No way would I watch this dreck!

But, I finally gave in and rented it; and surprise, surprise, surprise: I enjoyed it! People complain of it's cheesiness, but I like cheese in moderation, and this is like creamy Velveeta on a crisp, fresh Saltine cracker. As silly as it is, and it is very silly, there are some things to like about it. An awesome score by Bill Conti brings a weight and emotional impact not expected; Frank Langella as Skeletor brings to the role his voice and regal but wry bearing. Other things that stand out; Meg Foster's spooky eyes as Evil-Lyn, Teela's thong-enhanced tights, James Tolkan (Mr. Strickland from "Back To The Future") doing his usual character as Detective Lubic; epic sets and effects, bringing to life the Moebius art design. Somehow the movie succeeds in rising about it's toy-based roots and does it with a grin that says "we know it's dumb, but let's have some fun with it!"

The departures from the animated series concepts only served to make it a better movie, moving it more into a science fiction realm than that of sorcery. And bringing the action to Earth, involving a teen couple as our link to reality, makes the drama more close to home and relatable.

So, I've watched far, far dumber movies than this with lesser music, actors, effects and story. Why shouldn't I put this on occasionally and enjoy it for what it is? Cheese-Whiz squirted right out of the can onto the tongue.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-13T08:09:00.001-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on...
Those Loving Bones

"Our Love Will Go On"

Ah, Valentine's Day... when lovers everywhere exchange gifts to commemorate a bloody massacre in Chicago in 1929. I hope you and your loved one connect on a deep level this weekend. And guys, remember... it's not about the candy, cards, stuffed animals, and jewelry... but just try not getting them and see how important they are.

Source: http://chrispeters.com/chrispweb/

And now to the real question... whither Sweet Skulls?

My recent approach to dealing with the stress.

You know how it is when you owe a friend some money and you don't have it, so you start avoiding them? You'd rather just not have to deal with them, knowing that they expect you to pay them back... but really, they'd rather have you around than not.

That's how I've been treating this blog, and consequently my regular readers. A few months back I had a harddrive crash and I lost all the many files I had collected to post on this blog. It kind of took the wind out of my sails as far as the ability to post regularly, and I've avoided even visiting it since I knew I owed my online pals more of what I had been delivering. I had to admit I had kind of run out of steam when it came to skulls. I have to go looking for things to post, as opposed to drawing out of my own resources and collected items. I have updated my three other blogs regularly, since their topics are easy to come up with new material out of my collection.

In fact, I'm on the verge of starting a new blog that focuses on science fiction similar to the way My Monster Memories focuses on horror. As yet un-named, it will spotlight movies, TV shows, cartoons, books, whatever I pull out of my collection bookcases or DVD shelves.

Don't worry; I'll continue to post occasionally on Sweet Skulls, as I find something post-worthy. It's now basically a vault of skeletal remains, remaining as a memorial, to be opened sometimes as new bones are deposited. But I do encourage you to often visit my other blogs, as I have no trouble finding material for them more regularly. They are:

My Monster Memories (The place to go if you liked this one; it's really very similar.)

My Star Trek Scrapbook (For Trekkers, obviously; old newspaper and magazine articles, and items from my 35+ year-old collection.)

Held Over! Movie Ads (For those who like their old movie ads black and white, half-toned and yellowed, from my thick scrapbooks.)

And I'll announce when the new Sci-Fi blog launches. So, thanks for reading, and come back sometimes, but more importantly, visit and bookmark the other blogs, where the action is.

Until next time, the vault doors creak shut...

Happy New Year!

2008-12-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

It's hard to blow a horn with no lungs!

The entire staff of Sweet Skulls (as well as that of Monster Memories, Held Over Movies and My Star Trek Scrapbook) wishes you a New Year filled with success and happiness. And by entire staff I mean me.

And here's a cool link I just found that's right up my bony ally!

The Face of the Future Part 2

2008-12-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"The Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come" from "Scrooged"
(Click on images to see larger.)

Did you ever get the weird feeling that your TV is watching you?

In the 1988 film "Scrooged," Bill Murray stars as a modern-day lost soul in dire need of redemption. This is the second film to show the Ghost of Christmas Future as the skull-faced specter, but with a twist; the ghost has a TV screen in the hood that shows different images.

Taking a stiff drink to get a grip, the bony hand of the future is about to get a grip on him.

Eash Spirit is given a different interpretation than the usual; The Spirit of Christmas Past is an elfin cab-driver; the Spirit of Christmas Present a giddy, violence-prone fairy; however, the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come is the closest to the original, only with more emphasis on the horror.

When cornered in the elevator by the oversized Ghost, a peek inside it's robe reveals the trapped souls of previous victims, an idea borrowed from the Nightmare on Elm Street series. More the specter of Death here than any other version, it only needs a scythe to complete the image.

At one point the shifting images in the Ghost's face screen reflect the main character's own visage in a decayed and horrific state. All this convinces our man Frank Cross to change his ways, although one gets the idea that he repents only to save his life, instead of having a truly humbling and heart-changing experience. This movie is pretty low on my list of favorite versions of the story, but it's worth a watch for a holiday laugh, like "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

In any event, we can all learn from Scrooge's lessons, and hopefully "to open our shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below us as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

For a special treat, read the entire Marvel
comic adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" here!

Have a wonderful Christmas!
And, as Tiny Tim observed, "God Bless Us, Every one!"

The Face of the Future

2008-12-22T08:21:00.001-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"The Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come"

(Click on images to view larger.)

"Hey, Ebenezer, pull my finger!"

In the 1971 film "Scrooge," starring Albert Finney, we finally get to see what's hidden under the dusky shroud of the Ghost of Christmas Future. And as we suspected, it's not a pretty sight.

Scrooge did the smelly spook one better by actually soiling his shorts.

Earlier versions of the film never showed what this Ghost looked like other than the novel's description of a black-cloaked figure shrouded in darkness. But even there the resemblance to the Grim Reaper was not lost on Scrooge who, upon being taken to the cemetery in the final vision, looked upon the Ghost and "dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape."

"Watch that first step, it's a killer!"

In the scene depicted here, Scrooge, upon reading his own name on the tombstone, turns around to beg for mercy and stares straight into the bony face of his future. The fright causes him to lose balance and tumble into what is now an open grave. The film then takes this scene farther, by having Scrooge experience a little of his pending punishment right then, as he falls down a chasm til he ends up in Hades. The Disney short animated film version done years later was inspired by this scene and did their own take on it.

"And a partridge in a pear treeeee!"

This musical version of the story is my second favorite, right after the 1951 Alastair Sim version. Dickens knew that there was no better time for a ghost story than at Christmas, and he crafted the granddaddy of them all.

"Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?"

Next time, another sinner sees the Face of Death!

Terminator Salvation teaser poster

2008-12-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The "Terminator Salvation" teaser poster

(Click to view large size.)

I have to admit this film is starting to look interesting. The trailer is intriguing, and I like the poster concept of the Terminator face formed out of the ruins of LA.

If you think this is cool, check out the animated Flash version!

I'm ready for a well-done story of the post-Judgement Day fight against the machines, leading up to the final battle when John Conner wins the war and sends his best friend (and father) back in time to stop the original cyborg, and die in the process.

I'm just hoping this film exceeds my expectations and meets my hopes, and spawns another film or two in order to bring it full circle and let us see the events at the other end of the first film.

Flesh Feast poster

2008-12-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The "Flesh Feast" poster art

You gotta love that rotting corpse hanging from the ceiling. They just don't make posters like that any more! From 1970, this el-cheapo filmed-in-Florida flick exploits the natural gag-and-ick factor of maggots, while providing ex-actress Veronica Lake a small check to pay for some extra dog food she might have needed. Surely the script didn't entice her to come out of retirement! I mean, what self-respecting actress would want that as the last movie on their filmography?

The Graveyard Shift poster

2008-12-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The "Graveyard Shift" poster

"Yeah, black lung killed me, but I'm still working off my debt to the company store!"

Although the poster seemed to promise coal miner zombies rising from the depths of the unsafe shafts to wreak bloody pick-and-shovel vengence on the tight-fisted company owners who put them at risk, no such luck. Maybe someone will make that movie someday!

As it is, it's a cool poster for a so-so movie about giant monster rats living under an old textile mill. It seems more like an extended episode of Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" than anything else, and I can see our man Mike Rowe digging in and cleaning out the gunk and mutated rats, which aren't as nasty as some things he's had to contend with.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2008-11-27T14:51:00.000-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"Planes, Trains and Automobiles"

This film is an annual Thanksgiving tradition at our house, after the big meal. This sequence is one of my favorites in a movie full of funny moments! Neal Page and Del Griffith get a glimpse of their mortality during a near-death experience.

I have to admit that I well up and get all emotional at the end when Neal takes Del home with him for the holiday.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving holiday weekend!

The House On Skull Mountain

2008-11-24T06:56:00.000-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"The House on Skull Mountain" poster art

(Click on image to view larger size.)

Sure, it's a bad, bad (and not in a good way) movie. But I loves me that skullicious poster art! There's just so much going on there... wicked lightning, a bleeding skull, which happens to be on fire, a panties-revealing defenestration, and probably more up in the house we aren't even seeing.

This is one of those that caught my eye when the ad appeared in my local Macon, GA newspaper in 1974. Check it out at my other blog Held Over! if you want to see it in glorious black and white halftone.

The Conqueror Worm poster

2008-11-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"The Conqueror Worm" poster
(click on image for hi-rez)

A great rotting-skull-centric poster with awesome artwork, for a movie that features the legendary Vincent Price. Initially released in 1968 under the title "Witchfinder General," it was released under this new title later to link it to the successful series of Corman/Price/Poe films that had come before.

Although I missed seeing nearly all of the Price films when they came out, I've been steadily collecting them on DVD as they are released. So far, I don't have this one, but am on the lookout for it. If the movie is as good as the poster I'll have a classic.

A printable page for the kiddies to color when they're getting in your hair.

If you have an insight or memory, or even a mini-review of this film you'd like to share, leave a comment and do so, please!

Theatre of Blood poster

2008-11-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

First, an apology to my regular readers; I haven't been able to post for a few weeks, as "real" life caught up to me lately and I had very little extra time for awhile. Hopefully now I can get back in the swing of things and post at least once a week. Also, my yahoo mail account is acting weird, I can send mail to it but anyone else seems to get a bounceback message. As soon as I can open another account somewhere I'll post the address!

Thanks for sticking around! -Fred

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The "Theatre Of Blood" Poster

My first glimpse of this cool poster art was on the very first "Monster Times" issue I ever saw. This paper and I fell in love the moment we met, and I bought every issue I could find thereafter. I even have this cover framed on displayed with other special (to me) TMT covers. You can see them on the wall over my DVD collection.

The level of writing and the humor inherent in the magazine were somewhat above the level found in any other monster mag, and was a joy to read. I was 14 when I got this issue, and we were a perfect match.

Here for your ocular enjoyment is both the poster and the Monster Times cover which I scanned in. There are so many memories wrapped up in that issue that I could never blog about them all without boring you.

The milkman was always leaving something extra just to show he cared.

If you've never seen the movie, it's a must for any horror/Vincent Price fan. Living out an actor's dream, he takes bloody and ironic revenge on his theatrical critics. Making a living criticising others who do what they cannot, they have it coming and you cheer each time another one bites the dust.

The Disembodied poster art

2008-10-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"The Disembodied" poster art

Haunted Horror artwork

2008-10-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The back card artwork for the Halloween sound effects cassette "Haunted Horror."
(Click on image for a frighteningly large version!)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, writing many words on this blog right now is tough since it's getting into the busy time of year for me. So, rather than let it languish, I will just post some skelecentric images that I like and let them do the talking for me.

Here is the rather neat-o artwork for a horror sounds cassette tape I bought back in the early 80's and have kept ever since. And with all the many blog entries out there showcasing Halloween Sound Effects LP and CD covers, I've never seen this posted anywhere before. Not earth-shaking or soul-changing, but hey... it's a new post! Whoopee!

And more will follow with the pressure off to wax eloquent. Below is a Halloween party plate I saved from a few years ago. I suppose in 50 years it'll be worth something... but I like it.

Ray Bradbury's Skeleton

2008-10-09T11:59:00.000-07:00

Published in 1994, special issue #1 0f Topps' adaptations of Ray Bradbury stories featured this version of his classic story "Skeleton," about a man who fears those bony horrors to such an extent that he wishes to rid himself of the one hiding inside his own body! Ordinarily this could only be solved by repeated and expensive visits to a psychoanalyst; but unfortunately (for him) he finds someone all too willing to help him achieve his goal...

Well, a little inconvenient, I'll admit... but with a large rolling bucket Clarisse should be able to help him get around. Feeding him, changing his diaper, bathing him... it's all a chore, but she looks at the good side; his not having a backbone means he'll never stand up to her mother again!

The moral: Love your skeleton or you'll lose it's support!

"Death Dives Deep" 3-D comic

2008-10-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

The enchanting, dare I say "bewitching" bad-girl art by the late Dave Stevens adorns the cover of the 1985 issue of the "Seduction of the Innocent" comic. All of the stories are reprints from the "Adventures Into Darkness" comics originally published by Standard Comics between 1952 and 1954. The black-and-white art has been given a 3-D treatment that really adds depth to the stories, pardon the pun. The three "D's" in the title "Death Dives Deep," as well as the underwater setting, make it perfect to adapt to this format.

So, dig out those red-and-blue 3-D retro glasses, and really "get into" this simple story of deep sea death. After I did the scans I enhanced the art by adding more contrast, and the 3-D effect in the enlarged image is startlingly deep! The effect of the fish swimming through the skull's eye sockets is particularly neat. Take a deep breath and dive in, cause it's comin' at ya!

Click on the images to view full size.

Okay, as you blink and let your eyes adjust after taking off the dorky-looking glasses, let me know if you want more 3-D pages posted in the near future. A headache is a small price to pay for such coolness, and after all, that's why they made Tylenol!

The image above I clipped from a local TV guide in the year that the first "Treehouse of Terror" episode ran. The annual shows have been traditional viewing for me all through the month of October ever since. At this point I'm up to episode #4. Which one did you last watch? And which is your favorite?

For more art like this, check out my post on artist Den Beauvais over at Monster Memories!

The Amicus "Tales From The Crypt" poster

2008-10-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Amicus' "Tales From The Crypt" poster art
(Click to view monster-sized... if you dare!)

This is it, folks... the Big One. The Ultimate. This poster rocks, rules and reigns as the King of Skull Movie Posters. You would have thought that Peter Cushing's earlier film "The Skull" should have had such an awesome poster, but it didn't. This poster probably accounts for the remarkable box-office the film did, and as a result more Amicus anthology films came hot on it's bony heels. The opening credits, featuring a trip through an ancient row of crypts to the sounds of the classical "Toccata In Fugue," are eerily effective in setting the nightmarish mood. As a group of tourists follow a guide into the catacombs, the feeling of dread increases as the passageways grow narrower. And when they find themselves in a room facing a mysterious hooded figure, they are forced to recall the last thing they were doing before coming there.

As each one flashes back to the immediate events preceeding their entrance into the crypts, we find that they are events leading up to their deaths. After each person is made to face their own guilt, the horrific end awaiting them is revealed...

Be sure to click on any or all of the following images to view the full-size version.

Authur Grimsdyke returns from the grave to exact bloody vengeance on the selfish cad that drove him to suicide. The rising-from-the-grave sequence was one of the best filmed up to that time, and the empty eyesockets makeup was very effective.

It also makes a killer eye-catcher of a magazine cover! Painted to perfection and flipped to make it a little different, this FM cover is a classic.

I bought the book way before I ever saw the movie. The cover alone, scanned in above, was enough to give one nightmares. When I finally saw the movie on TV in 1981, it was truly a scary experience.

"My eye! Has anybody seen my eye?"

An alternate, less effective "eye-less" version of the poster. Perhaps the uptight British felt it was too scary for their straight-laced citizens? "I say... Boo! Sorry, old chap, didn't mean to put a fright in you!" The difference displayed really shows just how effective the lone eyeball was in making the image memorable.

More "Garfield In Disguise" comic strips:

To Be Continued!

The Evil Dead 2 poster art

2008-10-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The "Evil Dead II" posters
(Click on any images to view full size.)

We kick off the month of Halloween, known also as October, with a look back at one of the most skulleriffic movie posters of all time: "Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn." Running a close second only to the photo artwork for "Tales From The Crypt" by Amicus, this poster seems to make the horror personal. It's as if the dead in the movie had their eyes on you and intended on dragging you down with the movie's victims.

Amping up the gore and humor factor with a bigger budget, "Dead By Dawn" was even more fun than the first, and a hoot to watch with a crowd. It's one that you should put on as you gather around the TV this October with your family close beside you. As you hold each other tightly, you will all share in the warmth and love that binds you as the screams are dragged from your throats. The bonding memories will linger for years to come.

With all the demands on time that seem to increase with the fall season, and the three other blogs I run, it's tough to write a lot each time here. But, I have determined to keep the posts coming regularly, even if it's nothing more than another cool skeletoniacal poster or picture for you to peruse. I recently had an external hardrive crash on me (a Western Digital less than a year old that suddenly developed the Click of Death) and it contained the extensive files in my blog folders that I had amassed over the past 6 months or so. I lost a lot of the material I had stockpiled for future use, so I have to begin the process of relocating that material from the various places I had gleaned it, beyond what I have myself in my collection.

More "Garfield In Disguise" strips:

To Be Continued!

"Fright of the Living Dead"

2008-09-24T06:13:00.001-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The "Night of the Living Dead" FEAR Poster

FEAR that deadliest of all emotions clutching at your heart the... Night of the Living Dead.

Lack of punctuation aside, the skull-oriented "Fear" poster, with the focus on the fright factor, is one of the more unusual promotional efforts done for the movie. While most movies of the time were merely hyped as scary, not delivering on the full extent of the promise, "Night" was one that the posters and hype were unable to communicate the true horrors fully.

There's little that can be said about "Night" that hasn't been said already, and by better writers than me. What I can do is simply relate what it means to me, which is something unique to each person. If you haven't seen it yet, (is there anyone out there that hasn't?) then this post contains spoilers, and you might want to go watch it first then come back. It's required viewing for any horror fan.

While watching the movie again last night (I've lost count of how many times I've seen it), I was struck by how that poster described one scene in the movie particularly. If there was any character most affected by the terror, it was poor Barbara. Already skittish about being in the cemetery at the start, the teasing by her brother didn't help things. Then when the attacks begin, her fragile psyche began to fracture, the fear pounding at her mental defenses like the zombies pounding at the doors. As she takes refuge in the farmhouse, her mind also begins to take refuge in the deeper basement levels of shocked isolation. Unable to face the reality of the situation, she begins a rapid descent into a withdrawn catatonia and state of shock.

Actress Judith O'Dea portrayed a woman whose fear eats away at her before the living dead ever get a chance. We see her begin to fall apart as events beyond her understanding close in around her, going from hysterical denial to simply sitting and staring into space, disconnected from the situation and people around her. Only at the end, as she is grabbed by her reanimated brother and dragged out into the hungry crowd of dead clutching hands, does she seem to come to her senses and make an effort to fight back. Sadly, it is too late, as she is overcome and devoured alive.

I made this series of screen captures below to illustrate the emotional meltdown, from one short scene as Barbara relates to Ben how she and Johnny were attacked and her brother killed. The outburst ends with her unreasonable demand that they go find him, and when Ben tells her that her brother is dead, she slaps him. One quick jab by Ben to the jaw later, Barbara faints, overcome by the emotion, and retreats from reality for the rest of the film.

Although there is an impulse to laugh at the display and consider it overacting by Judith and histronics by Barbara, within the context of the film it plays as a pathetic and pitiable expression of terror too terrible to handle. It seems to indicate a psychological problem brought to the surface and exacerbated by the end of normalcy.

Now, that's Acting, folks! A whole movie's worth of emoting (possibly several), compressed into one short scene about a minute long. Under different circumstances she might have been given the "Shatner Award For Acting Excellence" statue. As it is, we are left hoping we never come to such an emotionally-devasting place where we fall apart in like manner. But if you do laugh at least once while watching it, I can't really blame you. Watching a nervous breakdown in progress is funny until it happens to someone you know.

Oh, and for a change of gears, from fear to fun, here is the next installment of strips from "Garfield In Disguise."

To be continued!

Boris the Friendly Skeleton

2008-09-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

Boris the Friendly (and Educational) Skeleton

Todd and Elliot learn that, when you take away all the skin, muscles, tendons and organs, Boris was just like them. Only taller.

Skeletons get a bad rap, man. People see one walking -simply walking down the street, minding their own bony business- and they freak out. The screaming, the running, the chasing with torches... Oy! It's enough to make a skeleton hide all day in a closet and not venture out till the dead of night, to gather with friends in an out-of-the-way cemetery and dance till dawn.

But thanks to an effort by open-minded educators, the feared and derided skeleton is getting a new image, with a long overdue public relations facelift. Visiting schools and rubbing shoulders with kids across the country, Boris The Friendly Skeleton makes pals and works tirelessly to change the public perception of skeletons as scary creatures who leap out of dark corners just to frighten people.

Boris and a group of private school attendees have an informal chat about the beneficial effects on society of living/dead relationships.

It's true, that some of the blame for the stereotype must be laid at the metatarsals of many skulking skeletons who love to do just that, dragging guilty double-crossers and murderers down to a well-deserved early grave. But kind and innocent people have little to fear from revenging skeletons, and Boris is making the point wherever he goes. Of course, there was that unfortunate much-publicised incident where he did suddenly strangle a teacher's aide and feed her to the alligators during a field trip. But as he told the press later, "That woman had killed the wife of a fellow teacher she was having an affair with, and disposed of her remains by feeding them to the alligators she cared for on her moon-lighting job at the zoo. I had to act; it's a living skeleton mandate!" After the furor died down, few could argue with the justice in that; but some remain skeptical and worried about letting him around their children.

"See, kids? This skull is from a baby skeleton who was even younger than you when he died. And Boris here doesn't even mind that your hand is on his naked crotch. He has no organs!"

David Finklestein voiced his concern in a recent parent-teacher's meeting. "What if my kid steals a candy bar --heaven forbid-- and Boris suddenly decides to pour acid over his hands in ironic revenge?" Susan Jackson, a mother of two, spoke up. "And who knows what's in the brain of a skeleton... I suppose they have a brain, don't they? Anyway, what if he gets the urge and takes a bite out of my little Billy? It's just in their nature, they can't help it. You can take the skeleton out of a killer, but you can't take the killer out of the skeleton!"

Smiles all around as Boris shares a happy moment with his new little friends.

It was for such unreasoning prejudice that the "Friends of The Long Deceased" society hired Boris and sponsored his tour of public schools around the country. They also created a line of educational toys designed to rear a new generation that was free of skeletophobia. You can see below that they are successful in helping kids be fear-free toward our fleshless relatives.

Deron never knew that blowing into bones could be so much fun!

Little Leslie wants to be a forensic investigator when she grows up.

Teresa's curiosity overcame her parent's warnings that children shouldn't play with dead things.

Read all about it here: http://www.chaosscience.org.uk/pub/public_html/index.php

Skeletons are our friends. We should support them, because they support us every day of our lives. And after all, there's a little bit of skeleton in all of us, isn't there?

Today's "Garfield In Disguise" strips:

More to come!

Star Trek's Bones

2008-09-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Star Trek's "Bones"

"I wonder why they imprisoned a med-school skeleton?"

It isn't October in a Star Trek Fan's home without a screening of "Catspaw," the Halloween-themed episode of the original series. I have fond memories of this one from when I saw it as a kid about 9 years old. It was close to Halloween when they showed it, and I thought it was one of the neatest shows I had seen.

Over the years, I collected a lot of newspaper and magazine clippings related to Star Trek. So, rather than let them continue to yellow all alone in the collection cabinet, I decided to use the blogging medium to share them with other fans who might find them interesting. And believe me, I have a lot to share, from the early 70's when I began snipping and clipping, on through the various incarnations of Trek through the years.

Yes, it's true: I used that picture of a Trek skeleton above to stealthily (yet shamelessly) justify cross-promoting my new (and fourth) foray into the wide, wide world of blogging. Once you start, you just can't stop! And since some of you here might be Trek fans as well, I wanted you to know about it.

And in case you need more of an incentive, I present:

Many a young red-blooded white boy felt their first desire for some cross-cultural relations right here.

This new blog will often reflect my 35-year-long healthy obsession with the Enterprise's diva, Nyota Uhura. Need I say more?

The intersteller coordinates are: http://www.mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/. Beam on in and visit there sometime soon!

While I'm plugging, check out my other blog Held Over! for a look at the original TV Guide ads for "The Star Wars Holiday Special."

Oh, and here's the promised next installment of my presentation of the strips from "Garfield In Disguise."

Stay tuned all during the Month of Hallowoctober for more!

Garfield In Disguise

2008-09-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"Garfield In Disguise"
(Click on images to enlarge.)

What, you may demand, is Garfield, of all things, doing on Sweet Skulls? Well you may ask... and the answer is, did you notice the skeletal pirate ghosts on the cover? Well, one prominent skull or skeleton is enough to qualify it for this blog, and these are certainly sweet, so there you go.

"Garfield's Halloween Adventure," originally titled "Garfield in Disguise," was the first Garfield TV holiday special, premiering in 1985. Now, if you are the dark 'n moody type who is too into blood, guts and nihilistic gloominess to enjoy a simple laugh (and they don't get much simpler), then you probably despise Garfield, and you might as well skip out now. I don't lo-o-o-ve him, but I'm amused enough by his holiday specials to watch them during the various seasons. The Halloween Special is my favorite, for obvious reasons. Every October, certain cartoons come off of the movie shelf for multiple viewings and this is one of them. I was one happy cat when it finally came out on DVD a few years back as part of the Garfield: Holiday Celebrations collection; I could finally put away my grainy SLP-recorded video where I taped it off TV over a decade ago. (I'll be blogging ever-so-eloquently on my other favorites during October over at Monster Memories.)

Now, I could post screen grabs from the program, and probably will as the month goes by. But since I have the book adaptation, the covers which are posted above, I thought I'd string them out over the next month leading up to Halloween, just for your slow and lingering enjoyment. They might be posted alone, or if the subject matter of a certain day is on something else, I'll post them at the bottom.

There's a lot I like about this special; the songs by Lou Rawls add an element of coolness to the fat cat's crooning, the background art is spooky, the gags funnier than most Garfield material, and it all culminates in the creepy haunted house where an old man relates the tale of the cursed treasure. When the pirate ghosts show up, it's everything you could wish for in a Halloween cartoon.

The book version differs in a few ways from the television version; First, it adds a scene with Garfield telling Odie a little bit about Halloween's history, and the book implies that the old man is himself a ghost, and their boat is merely pulled away by the current instead of stolen by the old man. And finally, an final sequence where Garfield uncharacteristically takes a ring from the treasure and is followed home by the pirate ghosts until he returns the ring.

What is this to the left? I know what it looks like... and yes, it's hidden very carefully in the comic strip below. See if you can spot it...

Oh, and in case you want to see the strips all together, when I post the last strip I'll collect them all on one page and link to it on the sidebar.

Here we go, as the morning of All Hallow's Eve breaks over the horizon. In the glow of the tv, we see the sleeping feline, who is blown out of bed by the viscerally-irritating Binky the Clown's AM show, and unthinkingly duped into a moment's activity...

Here we see Binky's first appearance in a Garfield strip. Grating from the very beginning!

Garfield's understandable desire to kill Binky is tempered by the mention of free candy.

To be continued!

All images from the book and TV special are copyright Jim Davis and United Features Syndicate, Inc.

Don't miss the post on "Monster Memories" from the 1974 "Nightmare" Yearbook of the comic story "Hag of the Blood Basket." It's an epic tale of horror!

Halloween II poster

2008-09-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The"Halloween II" poster
(Click on images to view full size.)

"How about if I carve you up this Halloween? How would you like that, huh?"

It's been noted by other bloggers better than I that Halloween is in the air, or at least in the aisles of the stores now. Decorations and candy are moving up toward the front from the back, and by the end of the month will have migrated to the main aisles. So, since October is such as short month, only having a scant 31 days in which to celebrate Halloween, I'm starting now on this blog (and on Monster Memories) in order to squeeze in as much as possible. And what better way then with a movie named for the holiday, which features one of the coolest posters ever? Combining a skull with a pumpkin was a great idea.

When we last saw Michael Myers in the classic film, he had been shot six times by Dr. Loomis (without so much as a "put your hands up!" warning) and taken a nasty tumble from the second-story balcony of the Wallace house where he had attacked Laurie Strode. But that hardly slowed him down, and within only a few seconds he had gotten up and vanished, to finish out the entire Halloween night in the sequel, "Halloween II."

The closing scene of the first movie described above was re-shot for the opening scene of the second, probably because there were subtle differences between the Shapes of the two films. It's somewhat humorous to note how obvious it is that the stuntman is backing up a ramp installed on the balcony as he is "shot," to better help him to fall straight back onto the airbag. And the outline of his body left in the grass is almost cartoon-like, to make sure the viewer gets the fact that he is no longer where he fell. The place where his body lay looks like a flat wooden cutout was pressed down on the grass and stepped on by five or six heavy men, to make such an even impression. Michaels' body would have had to have been perfectly flat on the bottom to leave such an imprint.

Lacking the atmospheric buildup of the first film, and Carpenter's direction, the second film directed by Rick Rosenthal is more workman-like and by-the-numbers. It's not as good as the original by any means, but I still watch it after the first one every October at least once or twice. The credits are cooler, the music gets some added themes, some gorier wince-inducing kills (the one with the naughty nurse in the hothothot tub was especially memorable) we learn that Laurie is Michael's sister, and that they trick-or-treated a lot later back then than they do now. It's not a bad follow-up at all, and notable in that it takes up directly after the first one without a moment lost between them. It really does continue the story and for that reason it's part of a whole. Now, I never cared for any of the later sequels, and felt them to be a cheat. Dr. Loomis got blowed up real good, and shows up again later with only a slight scarring on his face? Michael was reduced to a smoldering husk and then he's good again? I don't buy it. It ended with "II" as far as I'm concerned; it was made with the intention of concluding the story of Michael and Laurie and that's good enough for me.

However, all of Michael's toughness and ability to weather six bullets ("I shot him six times! I shot him six times!") and overall badness I attribute to the fact that he was wearing an altered Captain Kirk mask. Yes, The Face of the Almighty Shat imparted his powers and mere knitting needles, knives, coat hangers and bullets were no match for him. If only he had used those powers for good!

"Inn Of The Damned" poster

2008-09-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The "Inn of the Damned" poster
(Click on image to view full size.)

"O-o-o-o-owtch! Dang, that sucker's sharp!"

As I mentioned on my other blog "Monster Memories," I'll be out of town for a few days. A short vacation, if you will. So, as I feverishly try to get several days worth of work ahead, I'm squeezing in a little post here just to present something new. The skull-faced killer on the pretty-neat artwork qualifies it for a guest appearance here on Sweet Skulls.

But I wonder... Inn of the Damned what? "Damned leaky roof?" "Damned lumpy mattress?" "Damned toilets that won't flush all the way, leaving bits of corn and paper swirling around in it?" "Inn of the Damned Ice-Machine That Doesn't Work?" The title is a bit vague.

I scanned in the video-release promotional sheet for this movie, sent to video stores back in 1984. I've never seen the movie, released in 1975, but the line "in the tradition of Hitchcock" basically clues you in that it's a rip-off of... er, "homage" to The Rotund One's classic film "Psycho." If you've seen it, tell me what you thought of it in the comments.

Have a good weekend, and I'll see ya, in a manner of speaking, next week when I get back!

Oh, yeah, lumber over and visit my equally-perfunctory (but more entertaining) blog entry for today over at "Monster Memories." It's a scan of an article in a 1975 issue of Monsters Of The Movies featuring an interview with Elsa Lanchester.

If you don't know who that is, go whip yourself for not being educated about the classic monster movies. And don't enjoy it, it's punishment.

The Legend Of Hell House

2008-09-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"The Legend of Hell House" poster
(Click for hi rez)

Synopsis: "A team consisting of a physicist, his wife, a young female psychic and the only survivor of the previous visit are sent to the notorious Hell House to prove or disprove survival after death. Previous visitors have either been killed or gone mad, and it is up to the team to survive a full week in isolation, and solve the mystery of the Hell House."

Once again, I am fooled by misleading poster art. Just FYI, there is no scene wherein a woman's bloody hand holds a miniature model of the Hell House, and there is certainly no giant skull with one green eye floating over it. And I waited the whole movie to see that scene! Skunked again.

Seriously, though, that's an awesomely iconic image that really sends a chill down one's spine. Since it's so well-remembered by the public, can you tell me why, oh, why the DVD cover designer turned up his or her nose at using it? And why they substituted a seemingly random screen-grab that (A.) not only tells you nothing of the film and does not make one want to see it, but (B.) is hard to even tell what it is.

Come on, people; use the famous poster art for the DVDs of horror movies like this and stop thinking you know better, 'cause you don't. Your college degree in art and design taught you nothing. Get your nose out of your Starbucks and realise that the movie poster artists of the past put you to shame, and then get over yourself and use their stuff.

On Christmas at Hell House, it's more likely a demon walking on the roof than Santa and his reindeer.

Anyway, the 1973 release by Academy pictures, starring Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowell, does a good job of walking the tightrope between physical and psychological causes for the haunting versus the supernatural. The near-documentary feel of the film actually adds to the dread and fear, rather then detracting from it as one might suspect.

"How much are they paying us for this again?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

And although the events in the film take place over the Christmas holidays, this is not a film to put on in December to cheer one up, but rather at Halloween or days thereabout. The spirit of peace and goodwill usually prevelent during the holidays doesn't penetrate these walls to the slightest degree. The atmospheric photography really bring an aura of foreboding fear that few other haunted house movies can match, much less surpass.

Being perpetually fog-shrouded should have been warning enough.

"Of course I'm not gay, where did you ever hear that rumor? By the way, that is a simply horrid outfit you're sporting. Who dressed you, the dog?"

For a great review of the movie, check out the typically-insightful post at John Morehead's typically-insightful "Theofantastique" site. With stuff like that out there, I won't even embarrass myself with doing one.

"Oh, no... how did the FBI find out about my pirated film collection?"

In case the above reference leaves you stumped, here's the story. It's quite an interesting read! Makes you appreciate the availability and low prices of films for the individual now. Poor Roddy just lived at a bad time for movie collectors.

The cat knows something, but he ain't telling. Cats are notorious for not volunteering information, and for leaping on your back when you are least expecting it.

"I'm sensing something... Flicka? Is that you?"

Below are pictures of the actual location used for filming; Wykehurst Park, near the village of Bolney, East Sussex, in England. Not exactly a place to vacation to recover from depression.

Image source

Wikipedia entry:
Wykehurst Park is an elegant 130 room 150 year old mansion located near the village of Bolney, East Sussex, in England. The house came into prominence in the early seventies when the external shots of the house were used to film the horror film, "The Legend of Hell House," a psychological horror film, where the house lends its image to the horrifying nature of the story. It is a gothic mansion with turrets and arches and conical roofs, and many architectural devices to give it the appearance of a fairytale mansion from bygone days. The large black gates are fashioned in wrought iron. Alongside these gates, massive griffins with spread wings, perch on either side, and guard the entrance to the property which leads through a pebble drive to a grassed patio surrounding it, descending to a garden laid to lawn at the back. If you are able to get right up to the French windows you will just be able to view a grand, wide, polished wood staircase beginning the passage to the numerous rooms and accommodation upstairs.

Wykehurst Place, Bolney, West Sussex, England, UK

Also featured in "Hammer's House of Horrors" TV series, as well as other movies.

P.S. Don't forget to check out my other blog: "Monster Memories!" The latest post recalls those scary "Lost In Space" monsters.

Strange Change model kit ad

2008-08-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The "Strange Change" model kit ads
(Click on images to view full size.)

I've been having a blast going through my collection bookcases lately, mining them for material to post on my blogs, here on Sweet Skulls and Monster Memories. Usually, the only time I would get into them very much was when I was packing them up for a move. That was a killer; if you look at them in this picture, you might never guess that they would fill up ten banana boxes each. That's 30 heavy boxes total. I hope I never have to move them again, but that's hoping for too much, I suppose. Otherwise, I only reached into them occasionally as I was looking for something to read on a bathroom visit that threatened to be of extended length. Under such circumstances, you grab what you can off the top of a stack and hoof it!

Now, though, I am seeing things I haven't seen in years, re-discovering items I had forgotten I had. In many cases it's like seeing a friend you haven't come across in years.

Anyway, these ads for the "Strange Change" model kits from the early 70's were something I had forgotten about completely. It must have been well over 30 years since I saw these ads and thought about them! Or course, I never owned one of the kits; if you've read this blog much you know I kept my collecting to things like books, magazines and comics that could fit flat in a drawer, for easy hiding and quick packing. But that didn't keep me from reading and wishing!

"Ah, excuse me, do you have any toilet paper over there? Hello?"

The Vampire was the one I wanted most; I mean, changing from a "living" vampire to a skeleton, and back, how incredibly cool was that? I thought it was the coolest idea in the whole line of hobby kits put out in the MPC line, including the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean kits. It was like a scene from a Hammer Dracula movie!

"Goodbye, I'm off to the age of dinosau....Aaaiieee!"

I always thought it was "strange" that the time machine had the monsters appear inside the craft, but I guess they were taking dramatic license, and assumed that we kids would figure it out that it wasn't merely a fatal design flaw by a careless inventor.

"Close it, close it! Gosh, this is my private time, Mom!"

The Mummy was kind of neat, but he only got a little distressed and dishevelled in his change, not that big a difference. I think the Wolfman would have been a better candidate for a dramatic change. But what would they have put him in? A dog kennel?

If they wanted a truly strange change, they could have made one where Frankenstein's monster changes into the Bride! But that would have been a little ahead of it's time.

Of course, the ultimate would have been to make one with Vampirella; where she changes between slightly dressed and completely undressed! Ah, one can dream...

Don't forget to visit my other blog: Monster Memories!

The Living Skeleton

2008-08-26T12:56:00.001-07:00

Today's Skeletal Spotlight shines on:
"The Living Skeleton" story

From Gold Key's "Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery" June, 1970.

(Click image to enlarge.)

If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on the night watchman.

Ooooh, spoooooky!

To get the full effect, this is best read with a flashlight, under the covers, when you are 8 years old. Even then, the most you might get is a slight shiver; this is not the scariest thing ever written. But it's supposed to be a true story, which does make it a little creepy. And after all, we both know that kindly, grandfatherly Boris Karloff or Gold Key Comics wouldn't lie to us kids, would they? Would they?

In the inescapable logic of Criswell...

"Can you prove that it didn't happen?"

I didn't think so.

"Creepers" poster art

2008-08-25T10:44:00.001-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The "Creepers" video release poster
(Click on image to enlarge.)

"Have some bugs, they're rich in protein... mostly mine!"

This is the 1986 promo poster advertising the VHS video debut of Dario Argento's "Creepers," which was the American name of the edited version of "Phenomena." Since I worked in radio, I was able to get on a couple of video release company lists as a reviewer... so they sent me promo material! That was sweet. Between that and getting in good with the local Entertainment Editor at the local newspaper, who gave me their no-longer-needed press kits, I was getting some good stuff. One of the best items was a specially-produced kit for James Cameron's "The Abyss," which was a notebook-bound slick book of stills, behind-the-scenes pics and info, all in a special slipcase. Classy.

I liked "Creepers," being as it was my first exposure to Argento's work, and the art is neat in this version of the poster. Another version (pictured to the right) has star Jennifer Connelly's face, but this one depicts half of it eaten away... which does not happen in the movie, but was probably done to make it appeal to the American gorehounds.

Sporting an atmospheric Goblins score, a sleep-walking psychic heroine, foreboding locations and scenery, bloody decapitations, detective work that involves tailing a fly, a dip in a maggot-and-corpse-filled pool, a Poe-inspired straight-razor-swinging chimp, flesh-eating insect swarms, a murderer stalking students in a female school with a staff featuring detachable blades, it has it all.

Here's a great review by a fellow blogger at the Tomb of the Headless Werewolf that renders any attempt I might make a redundant effort.

The Creeping Flesh

2008-08-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"The Creeping Flesh" poster
(click on images to view hi-rez.)

The sensationally-titled "The Creeping Flesh" from 1973, starring horror gods Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee is among one of director Freddie Francis' most interesting efforts, standing tall among his already impressive movies. (Here is an insightful review of the film from another site that I think you'll find most interesting.)

"Man, I'm so scary I make my own flesh crawl!"

Turnabout is fair play, as we see from the poster below. This artwork is very unusual in that the poor skeleton is the helpless victim and the monster is a naked, though oddly nipple-less woman.

"He ain't heavy, he's my daddy's skeleton!"

The IMDB synopsis for the 1970 "Blood Mania" reads "A sex-crazed nympho helps speed along her father's death so she can use the inheritance to help out her depraved boyfriend." By most accounts it's a waste of time. But we got an amusing poster out of it! Scary though, it's not.

But, the story is not over... for look at the image used on the DVD release of "The Creeping Flesh!" Yes, the skeleton is being carried by the man. Full circle.

(Which brings up a point; why is it that so many recent DVD horror releases forego using the awesome poster artwork, in favor of a lame screen-capture from the movie? I mean, there's nothing particularly scary about a man carrying around a lifeless skeleton, is there? Makes the skeleton seem harmless. Whereas in the original poster spotlighted this time, the evil skeleton seems anything but harmless. )

"Good grief, you been packing in those fried twinkies lately, haven't you?"
As he stumbled over the threshold with his new bride, his insinuations about her weight got the honeymoon off to a bad start.

And so, as we draw the curtain on the happy couples, we have learned that it matters little who carries whom... as long as they have each other to hold.

Skeletal Cheerleaders

2008-08-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Skeletal Cheerleaders

1987, for all of it's other dubious distinctions, gave us two (and really two more than we needed) slasher films about cheerleaders. But even if the films were bad, the posters are cute, upbeat and perky.

When it came to boyfriends, the usually inseperable gal pals found that it was the one thing that could come between them.
(Image Source)

Oh, and don't forget to visit and bookmark my other blog, "Monster Memories!" I have recently disinterred it, winched it up to the roof during a thunderstorm, and brought it back to lumbering life! I'm adding entries about once a week or more, so put it on your list of blogs to check in on regularly. Together we can revive our monster memories!

Scream Issue #6 cover

2008-08-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The Scream cover art from issue #6, June 1974
(Click on images to enlarge.)

"Always after me Lucky Skull!"

In this awesomely rendered cover painting, Dr. Frankenstein looks as if he has fared a bit more worse for the wear than his movie counterpart. Based on a publicity photo of Peter Cushing for "Frankenstein Created Woman," pictured below, the cover art was for the story inside titled "2073: The Death of The Monster."

"A hush falls over the crowd as Dr. Frankenstein concentrates on getting the spare he needs to win this bowling tournament."

In preparing this blog entry, I was a bit conflicted... the cover was right for Sweet Skulls, but the story inside was more suited for Monster Memories. So, with true Solomoniacal wisdom, I decided to split the two up, put them on each blog, and cross promote the two. If I weren't so humble, I'd say I was a genius.

Obviously the standards for attractiveness have changed over the years.

The panel above comes from the story inside, a neat little tale of the Monster's ultimate end. Of course, he's been dead "for good" before, so consider it just another chapter in the life and many deaths of the Creature.

To read and enjoy the whole tale, go to the Monster Memories entry on it!

Psycho #12: Welcome To My Asylum!

2008-08-15T03:11:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"Welcome To My Asylum" from Psycho #12, May 1973

So, I was digging through some stacks of magazines in one of my collection bookcases last night, scanning in a whole bunch of new old stuff to use on my various blogs. I put stuff that I'd like to share in three stacks; one for Sweet Skulls, one for Monster Memories, and one for Held Over! Movie Ads. Going through my stuff for this is so much fun; because if I didn't have an excuse to actually sit down and do it, I might not see it for a long time otherwise. I'm rediscovering a lot I had forgotten about, or at least hadn't thought about for ages. So, blogging is a good thing! I hope you are enjoying the results of my collection-sifting as much as I am.

I only have a few issues of Skywald's Psycho, and they're all a lot of fun. Since the criteria for being featured in this blog is to have "skull-terior" motives, or containing at least one or more of the calcified cadaverous creeps, this story qualifies.

Here's a brief (and I do mean brief) little tale from Issue #12 that I bought in spring of 1973... it places you in the role of the first person, taking a tour of an infernally bad asylum. Did I say infernally? Well, I meant nothing by it... nothing at all!

The End.

Betcha didn't see that one coming, did ya? You know, how it turned out that you were the new inmate.. and that you were dead and all... and in hell... yep, a real shocker of an ending. A twist, if you will. Totally unexpected, infernally surprising, even. Um... uh... well, see ya next time! (Hurriedly beats it.)

Skull Head Lights

2008-08-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The Skull "Head Lite"

From the Nov. 1980 issue of Famous Monsters.

If I had been a kid when this came out, and I got it, you know what I would have liked to have done with it? I'd have waited till after bedtime, then snuck into my little brother's room with it. Then, holding it out in front of me and making it float in the darkness, I would have made the jaw move and spoke for it in a haunting voice, saying "Wa-a-a-a-ke u-u-u-u-p! I have come to take you to... HE-E-E-E-E-ELLLLLL! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!" But the screams and subsequent awakening of the parents and the extreme trouble it would have gotten me into wouldn't have been worth it. Very little was.

The actual product, actually bigger than one would have imagined, knowing most ads.

I imagine more than a few kids that got this put it in the basket of their bike and tooled down the street at dusk terrorizing the neighborhood cats. Of course, the kids that liked this sort of thing grew up and got adult versions to make their cycles look cooler. Pedestrians would look like a deer in headlights when they saw you coming down the street at them, blinding them into targetable immobility with the glaring stare of these chrome skulls.

"You... light up my death... you take my hope... to carry on...!"

Source: http://www.realheadlight.com/ssaircleaner.php

And then there's this even more awesome version, which is more scary and less goofy.

Source: http://www.skullenterprises.com/headlight2.html

You can't run and you can't hide from the cycle-mounted skull light. It will find you in the dark and run you down just for kicks.

Where The Skeletons Roam

2008-08-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"The Devil's Tramping Ground"

Link: http://www.geocities.com/trampingground

I don't ordinarily feature sites on this blog... I link to them, maybe even mention them. However, this one I'd like to bring your attention to. And don't just click on it and view it at work or casually during the day. To get the full experience, you really need to do it at night, the later the better.

As you navigate through the eerie landscapes, and click on various interactive parts of the image, you will feel a little of the uneasiness you might experience should you be in the woods at the real Devil's Tramping Ground in North Carolina... a mysterious dead spot in the woods steeped in local folklore.

The artist behind the site, Ed Blain, operates Dark Arts Media to showcase his unique Flash creations. The art, combined with original music, really does impart a sense of foreboding... reminding me of the way I felt when watching a spooky movie as a kid, a feeling hard to come by now, as jaded as I am by unrelenting gore effects and shocking images. There is no screaming terror in these artistic expressions, only a visual recreation of some traditional ghost stories, and original material. I think it's the fact that you are made to feel that you are there, and are alone in the dark as you explore. And if you were to be doing that and see some of the sights for real, you would definitely be unsettled.

http://www.darkartsmedia.com/Banshee.html

So, tonight, when you are all alone, and the lights are all out, draw close to your computer, turn on your speakers, and take a walk in the haunted woods. Leave no trail untried, and see where you end up. Also participate in "The Banshee" story, which is quite eerie. You will feel once again that you are six, sitting around the campfire surrounded by the dark, a delicious shiver tickling your spine as you listen to a "true" ghost story.

Here is a list of Ed's pages you will enjoy!

The Tramping Ground
The Maco Lights
The Banshee
The FeeJee Mermaid
Hell's Kitchen Haunted Hallway Cam
The UFO Cam
The Windermere
The Ghost Trick
Stranger Pilgrims
The Lost Magic of Franklin Love
Ventriloquest
Preview Gargamoth the Monster
The Google Trick

Look at my brain, mommy!

2008-08-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The "Bitz" Anatomy Skull

Hey, kids! Want to be a brain surgeon? A Crime Scene Investigator? Mortician? Serial killer? Then you need "Bitz!" The game where you put together then take apart a human skull and brain! Be the envy of all your friends! Learn what you look like inside! Pretend you're Dr. Frankenstein or Hannibal Lector! Conduct your own autopsies! Educational fun for ages 6 and up. Fake blood not included.

"Practice on this instead of your little sister, your mother will love you for it!"

"I don't know, having the top of my skull open just kinda strikes me as funny, ya know?"
More info: http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/Toys-games/Skull/e/9781400665204

"Baby brains may be underdeveloped, but they are sooo much tastier and tender than those of adults. We Japanese know this."
More info: http://www.daylife.com/photo/0avk2f5e0i0U7

Another type of this kind of toy that Herbert West likely played with while growing up.
More info: http://www.boneclones.com/BC-092-Set.htm

Seriously though, any kid getting this at 6 years old is going to be messed up. If he or she doesn't turn out to be a sicko killer with a taste for brains, they will at the very least become a Monster Kid and spend the rest of their life obsessing about weird movies and comics. And nobody wants that! They should turn out normal, emulating Brittney Spears, rapping with Flava Flav, and learning how to steal cars and kill cops while playing XBox or whatever.

Propaganda Skulls

2008-08-11T20:11:00.001-07:00

Propaganda art is so cool. Especially when they invoke the skull image to make a point. Either the enemy is death, or you are death to the enemy... the death's head catches the attention, which is perhaps why it is so prevalent in art and the media. Below are a some examples of it's use as a wartime warning.

"Grinning death's head" Artist unknown, 1939-1945

A pencilled careless talk drawing of a grinning death's head skull wearing a German U-boat sailor uniform, with a skeletal hand cupping it's ear in order to listen to useful information, including ‘sailing dates, cargoes or destinations'. With the UK a maritime nation, reliant upon many imported goods, the U-boat created havoc with merchant shipping. With good information, targeting could be more precise, and the damage more devastating.

WWII German propaganda leaflet dropped on Allied troops fighting for Anzio in Italy.

This one is self-explanatory. Hitler=death. Hard now to imagine a time when people had to be told this.

Hmmm... I wonder if George Romero saw this before he made his first zombie movie?

Yes, the skull is nature's way of getting our attention and focusing us on our mortality. After sex, the skull is the most effective way to grab the eye and make a point, hence it's usefulness in propaganda.

Have you hugged a skull today?

Monster Memories...LIVES AGAIN!

2008-08-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

Before I started Sweet Skulls, I created a blog to post stuff about the monsters of my youth that I loved so much... Monster Memories. It only went as far as one post... and fell into a coma. The fact is, there was such a wide area of topics to choose from that it was just too daunting to add to very often. So I narrowed my focus to skull-oriented items and was able to keep it going more easily.

But, after awhile, there were things I wanted to blog about that didn't fit the format. So, I am resurrecting MM to showcase those things as I get the sinister urge. I will probably only post a new item about once a week, so it won't get to be too much. Without the pressure to post an epic every day, I can handle it and still have fun.

It's at: www.MonsterMemories.blogspot.com.

So, visit it now and then to stimulate your own monster memories! Oh, and here's you a skull... a screen capture from "Fantasia." Now, that's art.

The Skull newspaper ad

2008-08-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"The Skull" newspaper ad from 1965.

The ad for "The Skull" above is part of my personal collection of clippings that I made for my scrapbook. Besides the ads I clipped when the movies were coming out, some others I found in a neat way: I discovered that the attic of the house I lived in at the time, was chock full of old newspapers! Although it was hot up there, I spent a couple of summer vacation months going through them one at a time, looking for movie ads and articles on genres I was interested in.

This one was from a 1965 newspaper. I was saving it for a future post on "The Skull," but I'm showing it now to introduce a new blog I have just begun (Don't worry, it won't supplant this one, only supplement it). I'll revist "The Skull" and treat it right soon with some screen grabs and a good look at the posters.

What this post is REALLY about...

The blog I'm plugging is called "HELD OVER! Newspaper Movie Ads" and it is just for showcasing the movie ad clippings that fill up my old scrapbook. Whereas "Sweet Skulls" focuses on, well... skulls, this new blog will reflect the varied interests of my young self and will feature ads from genres such as horror, sci-fi, kung fu, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, etc. I'll be posting them every few days or so over there til I've done them all.

If you get a kick out of seeing old newspaper ads for movies, check it out occasionally. Each one featured in a post are ones I clipped with my own young hands (hence the uneven edges) and scanned in with my somewhat older hands now.

I also plan on posting other occasional goodies that I clipped also, like TV ads for shows I liked, and articles about the movies and TV programs. I think it will be fun! Leave some comments when you visit and let me know if you like it.

The address is www.heldovermovies.blogspot.com .

Burial Ground

2008-08-07T03:50:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The "Burial Ground" poster art
(click image for hi-rez version)

You know you'd buy a ticket to see this movie.

The poster for 1981's "Burial Ground" is a classic bit of zombie movie artwork where once again the promotional effort is better than the movie... in this case, a whole lot better. That is one cool poster!

"Wa-wa-wait! I'll shave it off if you don't like it!"

But that's not to say the movie is completely worthless... not by a long shot. It has it's merits and I still enjoy putting it on occasionally, which is more than can be said for some others. I'd put it slightly below "Hell of the Living Dead" and above "Nightmare City." The proximity it shares with these other titles should give you some inkling of the quality; it resides firmly in that murky swamp of "so bad it's good" territory. In fact, the things that make this movie bad are the very things that make it fun to watch.

"WHAT is that I'm feeling in my underwear?"

A professor researching a burial ground of the ancient Etruscans in Italy makes a discovery of some kind that amazes him. But the ascot-wearing Etruscans buried there want to keep their secrets, so they arise and begin killing and eating all they encounter. Luckily for them, several vacationing couples have come to the Professor's castle-like mansion (apparently he needed some extra money to keep up his research) and they are more interested in getting down than getting out alive. Below are some screen captures I made to share with you. The living characters aren't interesting enough for you to care when they die; their main function is to become zombie chow, so the zombies are my main focus. Oh, and "little" Michael... we certainly can't forget Michael. Who could, having seen him? He's creepier than the zombies, and all he wears is a bad wig.

"Mother, may I have some warm milk before going to bed?"

Michael, a strange man-child, has a thing for his mother, which is understandable; lots of young boys have lusted after their hottie mothers. But she encourages it; when he shows up in the room where she and her boyfriend are giving the bedsprings a workout, she leaps up out of the bed naked, sauntering across the room to grab a sheet and halfway drape herself with it. When all she had to do was cover up a little more while in bed! Yep, the stunted kid is messed up physically, but his emotional problems stem from her unwillingness to let him grow up. Her own neediness and insecurity cause him to be confused about his budding sexuality.

Or, he could just be a horny midget with a slutty mother.

"Oh, man, a maggot just crawled in my mouth! Yuuuk!"

The ease with which the dead are accidentally raised by the hirsute, hapless professor studying the Etruscan tombs seems to indicate that some cemeteries should display "Quiet: Do Not Disturb The Dead!" signs. At least in most of these films some explanation is attempted; Trioxin gas, space radiation, black-magic voodoo, Egyptian curses, biological viruses, etc., but here they just seem to come out because he was being a little too noisy... or nosy, perhaps.

"Boo-gah boo-gah boo-gah!"

The "make-up" of the zombies seems to be composed of slathered-on plaster, into which assorted teeth, hair, eyeballs and live worms are implanted. Then as the "actor" goes through his paces, the dried mud-like layers crack, to reveal red stuff below. Although the effect could work to portray dried-up corpses to good effect, the overdone, hand-molded result hardly resembles human skeletal anatomy at all. Blackened noses poke through the caked mud and blackened lips show plainly behind "teeth," all too obvious in the lingering close-ups. Other zombies are fresh-faced youth with only a little make-up, though, belying the idea that they have all been dead for centuries. However, the makeup is certainly better then the oatmeal-wearing things in "Nightmare City," which seems to indicate that they all died while eating breakfast and keeled over face first into their bowl of Quaker Oats.

His mother warned him that sunbathing without enough tanning lotion would make his skin peel.

The director makes an attempt to mimic Lucio Fulci's Zombie, both with the inclusion of live maggots and nightcrawlers on the makeup, and even the wood-in-the-eyeball gag, only this time it's a glass shard. But the silliness of the living, and the intelligence of the dead, take away any tension and replace it with amusement. The tool-using zombies are so smart that one expects them to soon figure out how to hotwire one of the cars and ram the door with it. The only reason they don't have to is the idiocy of the people inside, who all too soon put themselves on the menu.

Somehow I don't think this fellow looked much better when he was alive.

"Miss! Can you get me out of this mudpack? It's drying out and hurting my skin."

These Etruscans really knew the secret to fertilizing their flowers!

Refreshed from his little dirt nap in a planter, this zombie has an appetite for mayhem.

"Should we get in the car and drive away?"
"No, they'll be expecting us to do that!"

"What... is there something on my face?"

"I'm too sexy for my ascot."

"By the power of the pitchfork, I command you!"

"Oh, no, you did not just pull a rake on me!"

"Aw, come on, you're making it so easy it's not even fun any more!"

Considering the amount of live worms these guys carry around, they'd be very handy to take fishing.

One death that will have you chuckling rather than upchucking is when a maid sticks her head out of a window. One of the zombies below nails her hand to the window sill with a thrown spike, while another slowly reaches up with a scythe. Putting it above her head behind her neck, he very slo-o-o-wly brings it down and severs her head as smoothly and easily as if her neck were made of warm liverwurst. Yes, super-strong and intelligent. The people never had a chance.

This fan completely lost her head over Episode 3: "The Revenge of the Scythe."

"Is this bugging you? Is this bugging you?"

Near the end one of the female characters is surounded by the zombies who advance slowly with hands outstreached. Apparently the are just trying to freak her out, as once they are inches away they all just hold the position while she screams. Must have been waiting for the director to yell "cut!" but he probably was off behind the set wall quaffing down a pint or feeling up the script-girl.

Whoever this mysterious "Black Spider" is, I wouldn't trust the prophetic writings of someone so bad at spelling.

Here's a good review of the film from someone better at that sort of thing that I am... AllThings Zombie.

"Did they just call for lunch? I can't hear a thing through all this junk!"

I'm not convinced this kid ever actually became a zombie. He was just acting normally.

Who these hooded guys are in the church next door is never explained. Sheesh, this late in the movie and you want explanations? They're just zombies, okay?

Here's a YouTube video of the trailer for your enjoyment!

Eerie Bones

2008-08-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"Eerie Bones" from Tales from the Tomb magazine #2, April 1970
(Click on images to enlarge)

The dialog may be simple, but the underlying meaning is full of layered subtexts.

As covers go, this particular issue of TFTT was pretty tame compared to some of the others, which were literally dripping with grue and violence. I had come into the world of the graphic gore and horror of these mags around 1972 and they blew my little mind. I suspect they blew my mother's mind also because my issue disappeared shortly after I bought it. I didn't start getting them again until years later when I was able to pick up some back issues in comic shops, like this one.

"A woman's place is in the tomb," explains the husband vampire.

Here's a skeletally-oriented story that is fun, and illustrates the level of art and writing that was standard for these mags. Nothing truly spectacular, or deep, but good enough to send chills down the spine of the pre-teen audience that would buy it. The forbidden-fruit attraction made them especially exciting and were ones that you never let your parents find if you could help it.

So summon forth the inner kid again and let him enjoy this while your adult self takes a break.

So it's Snake 1, Skeleton 0 as the fight of the century ends. But the snake's victory was an empty one, since it's bony prey had no meat left to ingest. As for the hero's plan of burying the bones in different locations, I wouldn't count on that working for long. You just can't keep a good giant skeleton down.... especially one so eloquent. Using a combination of mime and subtle inflections, the creature was able to make a simple "Aaaarrrrgggrrrr!" communicate a plethora of emotion and loneliness.

Below are some of the later, more gruesome covers of the type that I was first introduced to. You will not find anything like this on the newstands today. Ah, the good ol' days, when a kid could take some change to the corner store and get some candy, soda and mind-searing images of death, mutilation, torture and terror. Today's coddled, over-protected kids would be traumatized. But we ate it up!

I suppose as long as the violence was monster-on-monster, it was easier to get away with. In reality is just desensitized us to the plight of the abused vampires, werewolves and ghouls.

Okay, it's safe, you can call your adult self back in now, and tell it that those cigarettes will kill them someday. And look out, your boss is headed this way.

Knight of the Living Dead

2008-08-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"Knight of the Living Dead"

"Knave, thou art going down!"

(Image Source)

The spine-tinglingly-cool image above (visit the link for the source and even higher rez image) is really just a good way to introduce the comic I'm actually spotlighting, which is "Doomed To Battle" from Gold Key's Mystery Comics Digest #6, published in August 1972.

I scanned it in from my copy in large format so you can enjoy the artwork without squinting your eyes at the reduced size that the digest shrunk them down to.

The MCD issues alternated between three comics that they reprinted from: Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery, and Twilight Zone.

I've posted some covers before from the Mystery Comics Digests I have, but this is my favorite story from this particular edition, which collected the stories from the Twilight Zone comics they had put out in the past.

Hope you enjoy the story as much as I did, when I first got the book in 1972 as a tender young lad of 13. I remember I drew a picture recreating one of the panels in it, as I liked to do when an image caught my eye. The art is uncredited, so if you know who drew it, clue us in! Oh, and if anyone else has already posted this, sorry, I didn't see it!

And so, Sir Duane The Obnoxious must battle it out in limbo like Lazarus from Star Trek. Not a shocking twist, just a simple straightforward story of skeletal revenge. Sweet.

Terminator Salvation poster

2008-08-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The Terminator Salvation poster

Interesting hints in the teaser poster above. We know that we will see John Conner as he begins the battle against mankind's dominator, Skynet and the Terminators which it develops to infiltrate the resistance. Presumably we will see the pre-Arnold-type models that they created first. The DNA strand in the eyes clues us in that the battle-scarred robot is looking toward using human biological material somehow, and we know what that leads to.

I think that with the star power of Bale that this has a chance of succeeding without Arnold's involvement... but eventually we are going to have to see the Sargeant Candy-based model if we ever witness the events of the final battle where he is sent back into the past, full-circle. Maybe they'll create a CGI version of him using Arnold's motion-captured performance and voice?

Skeletal Pirates

2008-08-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The Pirates of the Caribbean Skeleton art

(Image source)

The cool skeleton pirate artwork by Anne Stokes pictured above nicely kicks off this post on the Disney "Pirates of the Caribbean" hobby kit ads. I was going through some of my old comics the other day when I ran across this 4-page ad for the launch of the then-new hobby kits based on Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean," which wasn't even a movie at the time. I scanned them in a high resolution so you can enjoy the details.

(Click for large versions)

Although the actual "zap" action sound was more like a faint "click," we won't fault the marketers. The skeletons were pretty cool.

Before video games, the "whoosh" and "zap" were pretty exciting for kids of the day.

Although I never owned one of the Pirates kits (I was content just to have the Forgotten Prisoner), I always thought they were neat and liked the ads. They weren't ones that you quickly skipped over to finish the rest of the comic story... no, these were worthy of being read and each detail soaked in. This particular comic I remember reading when I was sick once. I had opened my small suitcase where I stored all my comics, and spread them out all around me on the bed. Then I read all day, and being sick wasn't so bad. I still wish I had the suitcase, just for the memories associated with it. I can still hear the particular "clunks" that the lock clasps made as I popped them open, and the scent of the old paper within as the top went up. I do have the comics, though, and nothing takes me back to being a kid faster than taking them out of the bookcase now and going through them again.

Here's a picture of one built that I found on an eBay page...

"Avast, ye scoundral! Leggo me leg bone a'fore I makes a suitcase outta ye."

The Famous Monsters ad so many kids were familiar with.

And below are some box art images for your enjoyment. The artwork was really the best part about the whole thing, and I think it would be neat to have these enlarged and framed on my wall... if said wall wasn't already taken up with my framed Halloween LP covers. The last two were apparently added later after the success of the first five.

For some reason, "Fate of the Mutineers" was my favorite by a small margin, and if I had bought one it would have most likely been it. The idea of one trying to help another out of the quicksand, only to yank his arm bones off, appealed to my twisted sense of humor.

Below are some images of the Pirates models and toy figures available now. Much nicer, and better. But, they don't have the memories that the original kits do!

(Image Source)

And to wrap this post up in the same manner as it was begun, here is a superlative skull and crossbones by Anne Stokes. I will be featuring her incredible artwork in a post soon!

Dracula Returns! Again!

2008-07-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The skullerific cover art for "Dracula Returns!"
(Click on images to enlarge)

"Hey, I'm over here, behind this big ol' skull!"

My grandma's house was a few miles from a small bookstore called Bill's on Ingleside Ave in Macon, GA. As a young teen, when visiting her house on the weekend, I would sometimes walk the distance to look for the latest issue of The Monster Times or other cool magazines. After all, they had a better selection than the closer-to-home drugstore where I usually went. One summer, in 1973, I came upon the first in the Dracula Horror Series titled "Dracula Returns," and had read it nearly halfway through on the walk back to her house. It's a wonder I made it without getting run over, but I was pretty good at walking and reading. I still recall exactly where I was in the book at particular points as I walked home, passing under the oaks draped with spanish moss, blowing in the faint breeze.

Most horrifying of all, the flower in his buttonhole seemed fresh! Aaaiiiieeee! I never knew the Count liked wearing a daisy on his suit.

The series was begun as we learn how the telekenetic wheelchair-bound Professor X... uh, I mean, Professor Harmon, is drawn by Dracula's consort/slave (and sometimes black cat) Isis... I mean, Katara, into bringing the Count back to life. The Professor thinks he can control the Prince of Darkness by implanting a sliver of wood next to his heart, and triggering the mechanism with his mind to temporarily kill him should the need arise. He intends to use the vampire as a weapon in the war against crime. Needless to say, you can't keep such a creature on a short leash without getting bitten.

I might point out that close to the same time, Marvel was publishing the first issue of "Tomb Of Dracula," which I bought and still have. The wheelchair-bound protagonist Quincy Harker (depicted to the right) resembled the character of Professor Harmon, at least superficially, but with the publishing dates so close it might have only been a coincidence. However, Harmon wanted to use Dracula, and Harker only wanted to kill him.

"Put your head on my shoulder..." The awkward positioning of Katara makes it look as if her head has been grafted onto Drac's right shoulderblade.

Assisted by Cameron Sanchez, a strong and devoted friend, Harmon unleashes this supernatural force on those seemingly above the laws of man. The shape-shifter Katara helps out, but always with her Master's best interest in mind. Although Harmon considers himself morally above the criminal element he is seeking to expunge, Dracula knows that he in his own way is as blood-thirsty as the vampire he is using, and points that out, to the Professor's unease. Is he any better than the criminals and Dracula, by using such harsh and brutal methods? He is certainly no hero, but the thought doesn't hinder him from continuing to risk using his unwilling ally. And the blood flows copiously as Dracula, unleashed upon various criminal elements, metes out gory justice with slashing fingernails and fangs. They'd have been better off in jail.

The part of Professor Harmon will be played this episode by Boris Karloff.

As a youth I enjoyed the book, detailing Drac's return to "life" in modern times, and the various missions he sends the Count on fulfill his thirst for blood and the Professor's for justice. But Vlad's own agenda and desire for freedom mean that he is always looking for ways to escape the restrictions and feast on the Professor's own blood. Travelling from country to country during their adventures, the unlikely quartet meet with what seems to be a supernatural threat, but only turns out to be someone faking it. Though not always the case, this happens to such an extent that you begin to think that at the end, the bad guys are going to say "and I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that meddling wheelchair guy and his vampire!" Then Dracula slaughters them.

"One... two... three! Three million beautiful gold coins! Ah-ah-ah-ah-aaaaah!"

The series was successful enough to generate eight followups, which came out in extremely rapid succession, three of which I was able to find. After that I lost track of them. From what I've seen, after about #5 the artwork started to slide and Drac became more of a cartoon figure. But if I were to run across any at a used bookstore, I would pick them up and read them just for old time's sake. If the series were honest, it would end with Dracula finally turning on Harmon, proving the truth of the saying "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword." The revenge on evil, using evil to inflict it, that the Professor engineered would certainly turn on him at last. I doubt that ever happens, though. A continuing series such as this rarely ever concludes and wraps things up, as there might always be another book if the last sold well. The author is not willing to burn his coffins behind him.

Ad from Famous Monsters about the book series...

Kids! Ask your parents for the money to order!

Side note: In the same "vein," we have a novel that was published in 1973 that purports to be "non-fiction," in which a series of letters, journal entries and newspaper clippings tell the story of Dracula's resurrection and subsequent neck-bitings. Although a fun read at the time, the cover art depicts a very anemic-looking, not to mention fey, Count which reinforces the common Lugosi stereotype.

"I vant to suck... your blood! Vhat did you think I vas going to say, you naughty, naughty boy?"

Just to be a completist, below you will find the remaining covers to the rest of the books in the series. These I scavenged from around the web, but the ones above this I scanned in from my own copies.

The complete list:

#1: Dracula Returns (Pinnacle 1973)

#2: The Hand of Dracula (Pinnacle 1973)

#3: Dracula's Brothers (Pinnacle 1973)

#4: Dracula's Gold (Pinnacle 1973)

#5: Drums of Dracula (Pinnacle, 1974)

#6: The Witching of Dracula (Pinnacle, 1974)

#7: Dracula's Lost World (Pinnacle, 1974)

#8: Dracula's Disciple (Pinnacle, 1975)

#9: Challenge to Dracula (Pinnacle, 1975)

Update: Hey, you want to really know more about the Dracula Series, from someone much more erudite than I am? Read the excellent and comprehensive post on it over at the Groovy Age of Horror blogspot! Makes me want to take mine down out of shame.

Space Skeleton!

2008-07-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

A "Space:1999" newspaper ad

In space, no-one can smell you rot. (Till they open the door, then pheeeeew!)

Well, since I spent so long yesterday posting the video for my "movie," I thought I'd take it easy today and lay a newspaper clipping from my old scrapbook on ya. The circa-1976 ad copy "Planet of the Living Dead" plays up the aspect of the moist skeletal corpse in the photo to good effect, and although I was a bit luke-warm about "Space:1999," (being a true Trekker) I liked the ad enough to clip it and save it. Wow, it's a good thing I did, or some 32-odd years later I might have actually had to work on this post today.

Whew! Is that foresight or what?

I might add that even lukewarm about it, I watched it when I could as a teen, sci-fi being scarce as it was then. I cut out any newspaper articles about it, bought the first issue of the comic magazine, the View-Master reel set, the soundtrack cassette, and some of the bubble-gum cards, all of which I still have. But that was about the extent of my collecting... I always liked UFO better. Those purple-wigged gals really launched my rocket!

"So how 'bout it?"

Prey For The Dead

2008-07-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

My home-made movie "Prey For The Dead"

Back in the summer of 1991, a friend and I took my single VHS camcorder out on location in several cool places and made our "big 15-minute epic" horror movie. We filmed in two historic cemeteries; the credits were filmed in Rose Hill in Macon, GA and the first stalking scene in Bonaventure in Savannah, GA. That was the same cemetery where later they filmed scenes in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." We only had one battery, so we had to film quickly and with as few takes as possible.

The entrance to Boanventure, seen in the movie.

The above area can be seen in the background as the truck is driving down the cemetery road.

The monument where our hero visits before the stalker appears.

Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, GA where the credits were filmed. Awesome location!

It was all for fun, and there was no special lighting, costumes or effects. We just made it up as we went along, except for the general idea: a man has been having nightmares of being stalked by a stranger in a skull mask, and he's now in therapy. As he relates the dreams, we see them as he did. Keep in mind that all of the sound was dubbed in later, we didn't use any of the sound from the camera. Since it was made on VHS and dubbed to a tape editor then back to video, the picture is not great, and the Youtube compression makes it ever fuzzier. There are some tape wrinkle artifacts as well. It's very amatuerish, so don't expect too much... but I enjoy watching it, so you might.

The statue that the main title is over in the movie.

Another Rose Hill tombstone you will see used in the credits. Can't get a bad angle here!

The cloth pullover skull mask was a neat item that fit over your head like a stocking, and was a tight fit, giving the impression of makeup more than a rubber mask might. Since there were only two of us, when one was in the shot, the other had to film. I play the stalker and my friend plays the hapless victim, but the names on the credits are nonsense monikers made up to protect the guilty. Hope you enjoy it; we had fun making it!

Here's part one; I had to cut it into two sections for YouTube upload.

Well, of course you noticed the Evil Dead-influenced camera shots... I love doing that "camera on the ground" kind of movement. There's even a quick shot of a building I videotaped while in Miami thrown in there for the location of the psychiatrist's office exterior.

The second half, available below, was filmed in the mountainous terrain and caves at Grandview State Park in West Virginia.

Part two, the shocking conclusion of "Prey For The Dead."

And there you have it, the results of a vacation 17 years ago spent running around filming like mad. I know I could do better today with the digital cameras, PC editing, etc., but I'm not as inclined to don a skull mask in public as I once was. Maybe I'm maturing... maybe even growing up, perhaps?

Nah. Just getting older and more tired, is all. The cemeteries are too hot and the hills are too steep.

Return of the Living Dead 1985 article

2008-07-27T13:58:00.001-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The Return of the Living Dead

Click to get a nice big image of this poster art.

The French poster for ROTLD, arguably better than the American.

Back from the dead and ready to party with a few friends.

The first issue of Forry Ackerman's new publication "Monster Land" which came out in February of 1985, contained an article on the then-upcoming movie "Return of the Living Dead." Poor old Forry, you remember, had been ousted from his position as editor of FM by the Warren company and this led to their parting. Forry was able to start up another virtual FM called Monster Land, with the "Monster" in the same familiar type and size as Famous Monsters, and this along with a painting of the Ackermonster, let fans know he was back in business... at least for a little while.

Below is the inside cover text which trumpeted the story of his return to publishing. Although not the focus of today's entry, I thought it still might be interesting to some that never saw it. Interesting phrasing of the copy, both for what it said in between the lines about the restrictions placed on him by Warren, as well as the "classic monsters" magazines versus the modern Fangoria-type mags. It was a sad reality that as his FM audience grew up, the younger readers coming to the magazine stands were looking for exactly what Fangoria was offering. And the older classic-monster fans who were still buying such publications were growing fewer. Even I fell into that category. What amused and amazed me as a kid no longer held the attraction, when Freddy Kruger and others were dripping blood and grue from the covers of Fango.

Another hi-rez artwork image for ya.

And now, for our feature presention... the ROTLD article. I remember that Zombie Summer... when so many classic Zombie and horror flicks came out. Aging fans still talk about it in hushed tones... it was like dying and going to zombie heaven... which I guess for a zombie is finding a schoolbus full of teens. And like they would have chowed down on such a gut-filled feast, we chowed down on the moist and meaty movies of 1985.

Tarman was happy to see the fresh-faced, "with-it" teens arrive to bring some life to the party.

Seeing ROTLD for the first time was an electrifying experience. Totally different than what was expected, it crackled with energy, humor and atmosphere. All we could do was sit back and be smacked in the face with one surprise after another, with the gore effects bringing screams to the audience in between the laughs. If zombie films are exciting today you can thank this movie for setting the tone for hyper-active undead action mixed with dark humor.

Enjoy the article below from 23 years ago, and relive the excitement of reading this before you saw the movie in the theater... or, for you young whippersnappers, try to imagine it. The article got me excited for it, but no-one was prepared for it when they saw it. I first watched it with a group of friends at a midnight showing, and I took my fabric pullover skull mask in my pocket. During the scene of the zombies coming out of the graves, I put it on and sat there watching the movie. In front of us were three already-scared teenage African-American girls, and when one looked back and saw me, she screamed, then the other two screamed, and they freaked. By the time the summoned usher came around with his flashlight, I had pocketed the mask and was wearing my best innocent face. Mean? Possibly. Fun? Oh, yeah...

Frank indulges in a bit of humorous foreshadowing.

It's interesting how designer Bill Stout refers to a "spore" being responsible for the return of the rotten ones, when the script revolves around the 2-4-5-Trioxin. So this interview must have been conducted early in the short production process. Also some of the designs and efforts he made to show various time periods were never seen in the film. Although a few make-ups of decaying zombies made it onto film, the majority of corpses in the crowd scenes just are regular people, albeit muddy, with very few make-up effects or even masks in view. The sudden change in make-up artists before the job was finished probably accounts for some of that, as time was running out to finish what was a big job. But the individuals we saw, such as Tarman, the woman half-corpse, and a few others, carried the film in terms of startling creations, the likes of which we had never seen before.

1974 Skull Cup Ad

2008-07-26T07:03:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

Famous Monsters Skull Cup Ad
(Click for high rez!)

"Drinking from this cup with impress your friends and get you girlfriends!"

"A big four and half inches tall!" Hey, I wouldn't brag about that if I were you.

The ads in the pages of Famous Monsters were part of the fun of the magazine for us Monster Kids. Although in my case I never could order anything, just reading them was enough. And oddly, they're even more fun to read now, for the nostalgia they evoke.

By now we've generally seen and probably own on DVD most of the films in the articles. The pictures and articles no longer represent a glimpse of unknown adventures we long to see. But the ads still have the bit of mystery about them because most are for items we never acquired.

The enjoyment of the ads now also stem from the text copy. Tell me you didn't grin just a little as you read the ad above! "Horribly frightening!" "You'll scare the death out of friends and family!" Good stuff... and back then, we believed it.

I'm sure that someone has already posted this ad somewhere on a blog... these old FM ads are popular. But I went through my FM issue #107, May of 1974, and I enjoyed re-reading not only the mag but remembering the time I bought it. I enjoyed scanning it in, formatting it, and posting it. If for nothing but all that, it was worth it! Others will be forthcoming, as well as some from other publications of the same general time period. Hope you enjoy them too. In fact, here's one now... for a 12-inch replica of the horror within. Perfect to look at as you raise your skull cup to it in a toast.

What really attracted the kids to this was the "Free Anatomy Chart" included. Hopes of finally seeing a naked female were dashed when they realised it was a skeleton anatomy.

Below is a photo I found online of the actual cup from a Flickr page of a fan who has a lot of the Don Post masks. Check out his page for a lot of cool pics of the actual products the ads were hawking.

Image source

An earlier version of the ad when it was cheaper. Use your imagination for the ominous-sounding "anything else" it makes taste better!

Reaper Man artwork

2008-07-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Josh Kirby's Reaper Man artwork

What happens when Death loses his job? He goes with what he knows.

The cover artwork by Josh Kirby for this book in the Discworld saga beautifully illustrates the story inside. It shows us that a man is essentially the same no matter what he does. Being faithful to your calling, even when demoted or replaced, means that someday you will be recognized, and very likely end up in a better position than you held before. The Biblical stories of Daniel and Joseph both demonstrate that integrity pays off in the long run.

To learn more about the book and the Discworld series, read the Wikipedia entry.

Each species in the novel has it's own Death. Notice the Death of Rats on his knee. But, are those hands instead of feet on this guy?

Learn more on Josh Kirby's Reaper Man artwork, and more on the artist himself here.

A neat "Rolling Tombstones" book cover artwork by Josh.

Did you know that Josh was responsible for some awesome movie poster artwork you've seen? Here's one you might recognise...

Sadly, Josh met the Reaper personally at the young age of 72, moving on to parts unknown in October of 2001. His artwork will remain as a testament to his life and talent.

Although the artwork on the Reaper Man book cover made our friendly reaper more of a farmer than cowboyish, it still reminded me of one. So I've rounded up some more western skull images. Considering that in many depictions Death rides a horse, the cowboy motif is appropriate.

The Marlboro Man finally gave up smoking... but sadly, too late.

Riding off into too many sunsets finally killed this cowboy from skin cancer.

"The South will rise again.... and eat you!"

"Well, pardner, the Great Roundup is a' comin'. Whose brand you wearing?"

And looking at skeletal cowpokes we mustn't forget the Caretaker from "Ghost Rider," who in his time as the Rider got around the old-fashioned way.

"Let's ride, son! 'Course, soon as we get there, you're on your own, I'm splittin'."

There are images to be found floating around that show the deleted character from "The Crow" that was originally intended to be the title character's guide. He was cut and replaced by the bird, but here we see he looked a lot like the original Ghost Rider.

"Whaddaya mean, you're replacing me with a blackbird? Sure, he works for birdfeed, but I'm so much cooler!"

"Cut my part, will ya? You are sooo dead!"

Don't forget the zombie gunslinger below from "House II: The Second Story."

"General Custer is roundin' up a gang to gitsome payback. Wanna join?"

And then there's the irascible old mummy-lovin' Judge from "The Frighteners," a movie I'll be featuring on a future blog entry.

"There's some life left in these old bones yet! Jes' ask Anak-Soon-Amun."

The Skull Chair

2008-07-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Bob the Angry Flower's Skull Chair
(click on images to enlarge)

http://angryflower.com/archive.html

Bob the Angry Flower, always honing his world-domination plans, hangs out with his long-suffering pals; the jaded and cynical Stumpy and the innocent and optimistic Freddie the Flying Fetus. Don't look for explanations... don't question. Just accept that it's Bob's world and you are a boot-trodden yard muffin in it. Check out the archives. And take a ham sandwich, you'll be there awhile.

Since he brought up the subject of skull chairs, here are a few more to consider adding to your collection. They will complement my skull-shaped commode quite nicely.

Designed more for looks than comfort, it just never caught on for a TV easy chair.
Image source and more info

The chair to use when mixing a Flaming Skull. And also when preparing a drink.
Image source

Before The Phantom got his Skull Throne, he had to make do with the Skull Chair.
Image Source Tom Spina Designs

Presenting The Sensory Deprivation Skull Chair!

"Okay, guys, the shot you gave me is starting to kick in. What happens now?"
(Image source)

Useful more as a torture device/solitary confinement than a relaxation/meditation aid, this was designed by the same wacky, way-out-there "artiste" Atelier van Lie Shout (sic) who made the Skull Sauna, posted on earlier.

In the Skull Chair, no-one can hear you scream...

Yes, it might be cool to sit in it for a few minutes, even in the dark with the door closed... but let someone LOCK it from the outside, and see just how fast you being the slide down into apprehension, then fear, then claustrophobia, then panic, then loss of bladder control, then traumatic catatonia.

Comes with convenient Urine Collection pan in the bottom of the chair.

Yeah. It's a torture device at it's evil heart, just like waterboarding is slightly more than a pleasant and relaxing facial moisture therapy.

Besides, you remember what came out of the last movie sensory deprivation experiment, "Altered States."

If you have a case of "shy bladder" don't try going here.

When finished, take your skull-print paper from this cheery holder.

In case you don't have a skull-shaped commode, you can make do with a skull-adorned toilet seat cover...

Just don't sit on it with the lid down.

And in case this excessively scares the crap out of you, use this skullish toilet brush and holder when you are done...

Airbrushed Skull Art

2008-07-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

Today's Skeletal Spotlight shines on:
A Wicked Airbrushed Skull
(Click images to enlarge)

"Hurry up and paint me, my face is aching holding this pose!"
image source

Airbrush artists don't get much respect from the art community. You won't see very many examples of airbrush artwork hanging in a museum gallery. You won't even find them on sale at Dollar General on the shelf with the shrink-wrapped, cardboard-mounted pictures in plastic frames. You'll mostly see them at motorcycle shows, arts & crafts booths and mall kiosks on T-shirts. Like their poor kissing-cousins, black velvet paintings, they're the black sheep of the art family. Yet, when it comes to skull artwork, you will seldom find better or cooler versions than the airbrushed kind.

So, at the risk of appearing low-class (this blog, low-class? Never!), I'm featuring a few crypt-kicking images from around the web. Hang up your hat, kick off your boots, pop a cold one and enjoy!

"So, cutie... wanna come up to my loft apartment and see my airbrushings?"
image source

Only an airbrush stencil but cool anyway. Wait a minute... they use a stencil? Say it ain't so!
image source

"Smoke gets in your eyes..."
Image source

The owner of the bike with the above artwork gets ready to hit the road.

"Smoking kills? Bah... I smoked for years and look at me!"
Image source

And... saving one of the best for last. And there you have it, all this was nearly a full 30 seconds of mildly entertaining diversion for today. Now, get back to work, slacker!

Image Source

Skull of the Bat

2008-07-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Detective #620 cover

"Yeah, life is good!"

Went to see "The Dark Knight" this past weekend and was blown away by it. With the web as busy as it is this weekend with all the buzz about it, no need for me to go much further into the awesomely awesome awesomeness of it. Also, this blog is about skulls. So, here are a couple of skull-centric Batman images I scared up, cause I didn't want to be left out of the Bat-blogging fun!

Image source: http://jordenhaley.blogspot.com/2007/10/batman-skull.html

Here are some more skele-terrific Batman covers!

Achmed The Dead Terrorist

2008-07-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

The skeletal spotlight shines this time on:

Jeff Dunham's Achmed The Dead Terrorist

"If this is Paradise I'm sooo screwed!"

This is one skeleton that makes me laugh. His character was only scary when alive... now, dead as he is, he's disempowered and disillusioned. Comedian ventriloquist Jeff Dunham brings him to life, so to speak, and makes the terrorists funny. I'm only surprised he's not received death threats from the radical Muslims for mocking their so-called martyrs. They're not known for their ability to laugh at themselves, or patience with those who laugh at them.

Here are a couple of YouTube clips I found that you'll enjoy if you've never seen them!

"Silence! I keel you!"

I've adopted Achemed's phrase "Silence! I keel you!" for all sorts of situations I encounter. The eyebrow contortions add to the effect greatly.

The Gates of Hell...Again!

2008-07-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The Gates of Hell video box
(Click images to enlarge.)

Back in the day, the early 80's to be more precise about which day we're talking about, certain video releases came out in oversized boxes. These make good collector's items today. The only example I have of this is of my favorite Fulci film, "The Gates of Hell" as it was known back in the aforementioned day. Sure, we have the DVD now, with the original title "City of the Living Dead," but to us aging gorehounds it's still known as "Gates."

Since yesterday's post was such fun, and so popular, I took out my camera and snapped these images of the front and back of the box, just in case you might like to see it. And I took out the DVD and grabbed some 20 or so frames from it to share some of my favorite images from the movie. In case you haven't yet seen it, I hope these images will pique your interest and cause you to seek it out.. and if you have for the umpteenth time as I have, then I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing them again.

The misty cemetery scene sets the foreboding tone for the film. The music during this scene really enhances the mood as the disturbed priest searches for just the right limb.

The mysterious tombstone that seems to be the center of the brewing trouble. It's never explained, but one gets the impression that the priest is aware of the prophetic nature of the incantation and is fulfilling it. At the very least the headstone engraver made a few extra dollars on all that extra text.

Obviously having missed a lot of sleep, or with the ragweed pollen allergy is kicking in, our poor disillusioned and backslidden priest chooses just the right spot to offer the final unholy sacrifice. His blasphemous act will open the local Gate of Hell and empower him to act as leader of the restless dead.

Amidst the moans and groans of the rising dead, which creepily include a crying baby, the first corpse to rise is the one only covered under leaves in a slight depression. Still, the image is powerful and is the one that most of the international posters were inspired by.

A chilling scene as the prematurely buried and traumatized Mary is first seen through the pickaxe-pried wood. It really give you a horrible feeling as she is revealed and screams!

The Famous Gut-Barfing Scene:

Confronted by the ghost of the undead priest, a necking couple become the first victims.

It starts with blood coming from her eyes, a terrific effect. I don't know how she kept from blinking the whole time! I'm assuming that the "blood" is being pumped in from the sides, the tubes covered by her hair. The same effect happens at the end of the movie again, and it's even more convincing.

After some bloody foam, the first batch of intestines begins to slowly exit her mouth. Actress Daniele Doria's own intestinal fortitude is stronger than mine, having stuffed the sheep guts in there for the scene. The long-suffered actress was "killed" in interesting ways by Fulci in three of his other movies. What a trooper!

The guts continue to slowly unfold and drop out as the gagging and squelching sounds enhance the effect. If you aren't making some of your own gagging sounds by this point, you've either got a stomach of steel or you've seen it too many times.

Once the backup is cleared, the larger intestines and organs slide out rapidly. They are accompanied by your last meal as you watch and listen. Accomplished by using a dummy head, the final exodus of what appears to be the stomach is usually what sends my first-time guest viewers running to the bathroom.

Her aghast and sickened boyfriend gets a brain squeeze applied. Below is a YouTube video of the scene, for your viewing enjoyment! WARNING: if you have never seen it, have a vomit bag nearby! Not for the squeamish, as they say.

This right here is one of the most disturbing zombie images on film. The same girl that lost her innards has come back to haunt her little brother. Talk about cold!

Besides the obvious New York locations, some of the movie exteriors were also filmed in Savannah, GA during July and August of 1980. What really, really irks me is that I was actually living in Savannah at the time! If only I had known. I mentioned this on the last post, but this time I have pictures from the movie scene and closer location pics to match, so it's not a repeat of the same info.

This scene was filmed on the lower level of Factor's Walk in Savannah. It's between the bluff and the River Street buildings. Notice the archways to the right which lead to underground storage areas, now used for parking. Compare to the picture below...

This postcard shows almost the exact angle of the first scene!

The photo above of the same location shows where the boy first ran onto the street under the bridges after coming down the steps, which are on the right around the corner of the building, which is actually the Courthouse. He ran up the street under the bridges. You can see the same archways on the right that were visible in the first photo.

Above is a reverse angle after coming down the stairs, and starting the run up the street. The bottom of the Courthouse building in the last photo can be seen in the background.

The second bridge in the above photo is where the zombie pictured below leaps down from.

After athletically leaping from the bridge (these zombies are in excellent shape), the former boyfriend of Miss Oral Evisceration accosts the innocent boy. Michele Soavi played the character, and he went on later to direct and star in other horror movies.

A maggot storm, completely unforeseen by the Weather Service, blows in through a window, prompting more puking. The noisy larvae stick in clumps to our heroes, as if glued on... which they were. I'm just wondering where they got that many live maggots! I'm betting they were meal worms or something, bought at a local wholesale bait supply company.

There's that girl again. She scares me.

A brain tissue sample is painlessly extracted by Sandra, one of our former heroines. Painless for her, that is. It seems quite excruciating to our reporter, however. And who knew rats dig brain food?

"And when they got home, there, on the passenger-side door handle... there hung... a BLOODY HOOK!!!" The undead priest always illuminated his face from below with his flashlight for spooky effect.

Setting the department store manniquins on fire didn't require massive amounts of very visible protective clothing as the stuntmen did.

The entire world is destroyed. The End. At least, that's what is inferred... reality fractures and breaks down as the membrane between Earth and the Beyond is ruptured by the passage of the priest. Ri-i-i-ight. In reality, Fulci credits the unfathomable ending to editor Vincenzo Tomassi, who came up with the reality-cracking scene after the original footage was accidentally destroyed. I'd just be happy knowing what the last scene was supposed to be! What was so horrifying? As with how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, the world may never know.

Look out, "Dunwich!" Here I come!

Newsflash: I have only recently learned where the opening cemetery scene was filmed in Savannah. As soon as I get there and take some photos, I will post them on this blog and I'll report every goosebump I get. I'll try to also take some video and post it as well. It should be very soon!

Well, that's it. I enjoyed scanning through the movie collecting these images, and it made me want to sit down some dark night soon and watch it again. Hope it did the same for you!

The Gates of Hell

2008-07-16T08:50:00.001-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"The Gates of Hell" poster

The VHS release sheet. Click to view a ridiculously large image!

Here lately I've been going through some of the material I have in my three bookcases which contain my sci-fi/horror collection items. Most of the stuff in there are magazines, comics, books, and various things like cards, clippings and promotional material. The reason for it is to find interesting things to post here, but the process is fun and I find stuff I had forgotten I even had.

A hi-rez image of the theatrical poster.

For a period of time during the 80's I had a friend that worked at a video store, and I got a lot of the promotional items that they were either done with or never used. A lot of it was in the form of 8 x 10 glossy color pages advertising the new videotape release, and these fit into my plastic notebook pages perfectly. The first image posted above is the one for the 1983 video release "The Gates of Hell," as "City of the Living Dead" was known in it's initial American release in 198o. I'll be sharing the high-rez scans of the other ones that fit this blog's theme as we go along. These are rare items that you may never see posted anywhere else... until, of course, other fans download them and then use on their own blog (like I did for the majority of the posters and video covers below).

A case for Visine if there ever was one. The eye-bleeding horror she is looking at literally makes her eyes bleed. And you can't watch this scene without your own eyes watering.

The phrase "puking your guts out" is also taken literally in this stomach-wrenching scene that will have you doing the same the first time you see it. The actress gamely stuffed raw sheep intestines in her mouth for this scene! This gal really must have wanted to please the director, I tell you. It might just be the single most disgustingly nauseating image ever put on film... unless you count some episodes of "Fear Factor."

"The City of the Living Dead," is my absolute favorite film by Italian gore-meister Lucio Fulci. From the first scene of the priest's suicide in the foggy cemetery, to the fiery underground conclusion as they face the undead ex-Father and his rotted minions, it's one of the most frightening films I have ever seen... and that's saying a lot. Featuring the greatest scenes of gut-barfing, brain-squeezing, worm/filth-smearing, head-drilling and maggot-raining you'll ever see, it drips with atmosphere and dread. The zombie/ghosts, appearing and disappearing to horrific effect, are nightmare-inducing and will make even a grown man like me turn on some more lights when watching alone at night.

"Accck! I... change my mind... *choke* somebody help... *gasp* Aw, hell! *wheeze*"

Poor mentally-challenged Bob gets the point drilled into his head by an irate father.

Never in the history of cinema has oatmeal been so frightening.

The music is another element worth mentioning. The score by Fulci regular Fabio Frizzi adds much of the tension, dread and terror to the brooding photography by cinematographer Sergio Salvati. The near-constant wind during the daytime, the fog-shrouded night scenes, the growls and groans of the ghost zombies, even the echoing hoot of what is supposed to be a racous owl (which is really a howler monkey) all bring an over-arching feeling of unease.

Some of the foggy scenes in the town of Dunwich were filmed in Savannah, GA, in locations I recognised since I visit there often. The bridge that the zombie jumps down from in one scene was filmed down near River Street on Factor's Walk. It's a creepy and atmospheric location at night; with the old cobblestone road, historic buildings, catacomb-like parking coves and spanish moss hanging from the ancient oaks. Although you are more likely to get mugged at night than killed by a zombie, it's still pretty scary. It was neat standing in the spot where they filmed... knowing that Fulci and the crew making the movie I loved had been in that same place at one time.

(Image source)
A location in the movie, filmed on Factor's Walk just behind the River Street buildings and shops. You can imagine it at night!

The scariest thing falling from the bridge on you at night might be from a drunk taking a leak, stumbling up from the bars at River Street.

Thin on logic and cohesive narrative, but thick with style and vision, "City of the Living Dead" is what you take out and show when the company dares you to play "the scariest movie you've got." Which is what my mother-in-law said, much to her regret. Her nerves and stomach took days to recover. Needless to say, she never repeated the mistake.

The main reason the undead are so scary to me in this film is that they are functioning with will and with an agenda (to kill you and add to their numbers) rather than the usual mindless flesheaters we have become accustomed to. They love to mess with your mind, toying with you and scaring the crap out of you before killing you. They like to grab your scalp with unnatural strength, rip off a section of your skull and squeeze out your brains as you scream and die. That's just wicked, not hungry. And the images of the undead faces are unlike any other Fulci film. With eyes full of evil, their bloody, decayed faces lit from below and filmed in close-up, the living dead are truly terrifying as they get in your face and your nightmares.

Wallpaper source: Beyond Horror

To enjoy the film, you have to overlook the usual Fulci lapses in logic. For example, when Mary the psychic dies, why is she buried without an autopsy and embalming? The possibility of premature burial no longer exists with present-day burial practices. Under such strange circumstances an autopsy would have been required, and as the medical examiners like to say. "well, they're dead now." But searching for logic in a Fulci horror film is a waste of effort. The story serves much the same function as the Doombuggies track in the Haunted Mansion; it only exists to get you from one scary scene to another. As long as it does it without too many bumps, you don't think about it much.

The Pakistani poster puts one of their local actors on it and tries to insinuate the film features their own talent. The green-faced, orange-tongued goofball is fortunately absent... unless they filmed something and edited him in. You never know with these crazy foreigners.

The large wooden cross he's holding is about to get shoved into the dead priest's crotch. An unorthodox way of killing the living dead, but effective, as it has the effect of causing him to burst into flame. Although the poster juxtaposes the two images to give that impression, probably only coincidentally, it actually happens in the film!

The mask based on the image of the famous poster art. The same zombie showed up on the poster for the Italian gut-muncher "Hell of the Living Dead," also known as "Zombie Flesh-Eaters." He does not appear in the films, however.

The Bones of Bryan Baugh

2008-07-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

Bryan Baugh's skele-terrific artwork

"Hi, folks! I'm Robert the Eco-Zombie. I encourage you to use Eco-friendly burial methods, such as skipping embalming and using bio-degradeable cardboard caskets. They preserve the Earth for future generations, and make it so much easier for us zombies to come back and EAT THEM!!"

Bryan Baugh loves zombies and skeletons, that much is obvious. I'm betting his artwork got him in trouble with more than one uptight teacher in school who didn't appreciate his doodling during class... or his choice of subject matter. But thankfully he stood his ground and now he's making a living doing what he loves: horror art. During the day he works for Walt Disney Pictures, Television Animation, and the rest of the time it's ghouls, girls and gore.

Way to go, Bryan!

Visit Bryan's site for more of his artwork:
http://www.cryptlogic.net

and his cool blog:
http://bryanbaugh.blogspot.com

Carl really got a kick out of scaring the tykes. As an ex-camp counsellor, it was in his bones.

"I'd go a loooong way for a hot cheese Krystal... with a side of fresh BRAINS!!!"

Bryan not only draws beautiful living dead, but his girls are quite attractive too, as the art below vividly illustrates...

Although secretly wishing some boys would crash their pajama party, the girls didn't quite count on them all being zombies.

Check out his "Horror at Party Beach" illustration on his site for more feminine pulchritude. I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.

Nightmare Issue #13

2008-07-14T06:36:00.001-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The "Nightmare" issue #13 cover and story
(Click on images to enlarge)

In the summer of 1973, my skinny, bookish young 14-year-old self saw this issue of Skywald's Nightmare on the magazine rack at Chichesters Pharmacy on Vineville Avenue in Macon, GA. A cold thrill coursed down my spine, not only because I knew the Skywald mags to be the good stuff, but because the cover art was truly the fabric of nightmares. The beautifully rotting face of the living corpse on the cover was riveting. I quickly snatched it up, had it paid for and out of the store within 30 seconds flat.

Driven mad by high gas prices, he just had to let off a little steam.

Now, most all of the items that I would pick up at the drugstore during the weekend stay's at my Grandma's house, I would read as I walked back from the drugstore. Be it the latest Star Trek novelization, comic book, Monster Times, Famous Monsters, Castle of Frankenstein, Planet of the Apes, Dracula Lives, etc., they would all be perused as I walked the four blocks back home. But the rare issues of Skywald's Nightmare or Scream I lucked upon were saved til the night-time hours. It wouldn't be right to read them in the bright light of the daytime... no. That would be missing some of the special thrill.

After chowing down on the bagful of cheese Krystals I brought home for our supper, watching Kung Fu and the Saturday Night Movie on TV with Grandma, and finishing all the other magazines or comics I had bought, then... and only then...when it was after midnight, came the time for Nightmare. I retreated to my room, with a bedside lamp and a candle lit on the dresser. With a bottle of blue cream soda and some snacks on the table, I would almost reverantly take out the issue and open it. The horrors inside were devoured and absorbed into my young monster-hungry mind, filling it with delicious chills.

This is the first time I've presented an entire story in the Sweet Skulls blog. Usually I only feature the skull-centric cover art. But as I took out my old copy of this issue and scanned in the cover, I re-read the story and decided it would be a shame not to share the whole thing with you. So I spent about an hour scanning in the pages, then another hour cropping and formatting the images for posting. It took another hour to upload them to the blog page. The time required for all this is another reason I don't do it much; how Karswell does it on a daily basis is a mystery to me. I also don't want to encroach on territory already excellently covered by his blog "The Horrors Of It All," but since he mostly features pre-Code comics, and this is from a B&W horror magazine, I thought it was worth doing. As I have time, and if the story is good enough, I may do it again occasionally.

In the page details posted above you can see some of the panels that I really liked. Now, here for your enjoyment (I hope), is the complete story of "The Corpse," scanned in high-resolution. The ending really went differently from the expectations one usually has in these "revenge of the living dead" stories, another reason I liked it so much as a teen.

There you go... bet ya didn't see that one coming, did ya? Well, maybe you did, being so smart and all, but 14-year-old Fred didn't, and that's the standard I judge these old stories by.

Here's a bonus scan of a splash page about H. P. Lovecraft that I thought was well done. It looked like I did after I fell asleep reading the magazine and dreamed about all that weird stuff! Unlike most, I actually enjoyed my nightmares... they were like a realistic movie, and the scarier the better.

Sipping Tana Leaf Tea

2008-07-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

NEWSFLASH:
Blue-collar"Sweet Skulls" blogger inducted into prestigious League of Tana Tea Drinkers!
Speculation runs rampant as members wonder how he got in!

Eeeeee! Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, I just can't believe it!
I could just DIE of happiness... AGAIN! Eeeee!

The League of Tana Tea Drinkers is an elite collection of brainy bloggers whose member credentials are impressive. Authors, industry insiders, professionals... the Mensa club for refined horror enthusiasts. A rarified, sophisticated, intelligent gathering of film fans that only invite those whose blogs reflect class and insight.

So how I got invited is beyond me.

Their blogs and articles reflect their college degrees and years of experience, while mine read like a 15 year old monster kid... which is essentially what I am under the layers of fatty encrusted adult responsibilities.

I rather feel like I'm the mentally-challenged caddie who the members invite into the country club for comic relief. But hey, I'm here, so I'll enjoy the benefits and laugh at all the jokes as if I belong, all the while snarfing up the expensive hor'dourves and stuffing the cheese crackers into my pockets.

In closing, thanks to my secret sponsor for recommending me, the League for accepting me, and the other members for welcoming me. I look forward to joining the topic discussions occasionally, and often rubbing my bony online shoulders with the upper crust of horror-film-appreciation society.

I lift my foggy dry-ice-spiked cup of tana leaf tea to my fellow League members. Under the light of the full moon, I salute you!

The Musical Dead

2008-07-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Skeletal Musicians
(Click on images to enlarge)

"Come on, toots! Loosen up! I been dyin' to dance with you."
(To read the story in this issue, visit the post on it at "The Horrors of it All" blog.)

In an earlier post I looked at Disney's "Skeleton Dance," a black and white classic cartoon. But the imagery of the dead playing music is found in popular media and spooky entertainment to a greater degree than dancing skeletons. This time we'll look at some of the various expressions in comics, film and art of the musically-inclined deceased.

The band and the dancer were really hot tonight.

Even death couldn't keep Lawrence Welk from leading the band.

Taking a break from reaping helped Death keep everything in perspective. And besides, he played a mean fiddle.

The Mad Organist was happy to play a requested tune for visitors. He got them so seldom, after all.

Almost as bad as the hellfire was the incessant, ear-splitting and nerve-grating tooting that he called music.

Even in medieval times the dead liked to strike up the band.

Tim Burton's 2005 "Corpse Bride" featured a swingin joint with a happenin' band. In the Underworld of the Living Dead, they were the living end.

1967's Rankin-Bass "Mad Monster Party" (the first feature-length stop-motion animation movie ever), which Burton lists as a strong influence, had a bony Beatles-type band at the party. They also influenced The Misfits.

A vintage Halloween decoration depicts some real-gone cats in big rubber boots as they liven up an All Hallow's Eve shindig.

In "Skeleton Frolic," the color remake/sequel to Disney's B&W"Skeleton Dance," made by Ub Iwerks several years later, this skeleton band supplies the tunes for the spook's nightly jamboree.

The drummer in particular seemed to be enjoying his work way too much.

In Disney's 1929 "Mickey Mouse in the Haunted House" short, Mickey is drafted to join the band and play while the bony tenents kick up their heels.

Image Source

Sadly, the Three Caballeros starved to death after trying to make it as a mariachi band.

(Image Source)

Despite their lack of lungs for the wind instruments, skeletons manage to live unlife to the fullest, and break into merry music at the drop of a shroud. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!

Mystic Skull board game

2008-07-09T08:25:00.001-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Ideal's 1964 "Mystic Skull" board game
(Click on images to enlarge)

Warning: not responsible for actual results. Injuries and death may occur. Oh, yes... there will be blood.

Oh, if only I had seen this as a kid, I could have easily gotten my grandma to get it for me. She not only was a pushover when I wanted something (knowing how deprived I was at home) but she was knowledgeable about such things as this. We already occasionally played on the Ouija board when I stayed over for the weekend, and between that and the FATE magazines she had from years of subscribing, my nightmares were scarily sweet.

Since all my knowledge of this cool-looking game are second-hand, all I can offer are pictures and game instructions. If you were like me and never had it, these images will be fun. If you did have it, then share your memories of it in the comments, please!

It's not only an occult religion that involves worshiping snake-gods, performing sex rituals and summoning demons, but now it's a game for kids! Yay!

How to play: "Imagine yourself a 'witch doctor' who can cast a hex. Each witch doctor tries to fill his opponents' voodoo dolls with pins while trying to keep his own from being filled. By stirring the cauldron with the bone, the mysterious moving Mystic Skull will magically stop at the various voodoo segments around the board, directing you to place pins in your opponent's voodoo doll or to exchange one of your tokens in order to remove pins from your own doll. Players should use their tokens wisely and to their best advantage--they may help a player eliminate an opponent or save himself, but when a player uses his tokens up, he is at the mercy of the other players. When a player's doll is filled with pins, he is considered to be under a spell, and is out of the game. The last player whose doll still has empty pin holes in it is the winner."

Caution: If itching or burning persists, discontinue playing and see a doctor. If psychosomatic pain results from the pins sticking in your doll, see a psychiatrist. Therapy may be needed after extended playing. Hearing distant jungle drums in the night, urges to shed clothing and dance around fires are only residual effects and will fade after a few weeks.

(Black chicken for sacrifice to Petro-Loa not included.)

Sticking pins in a voodoo doll to cast spells has never been so much fun!

I loved staying at my grandma's, but it was about as far from your stereotypical grandma's house as you could imagine. She was a night-owl, and so I stayed up til about 1 or 2 o'clock watching movies, reading my comics, monster mags and books... pure heaven for a kid like me.

Why play 'Doctor" with the neighborhood kids behind
the garage, when playing "Witchdoctor" is much more fun!

"Whoops! The Mystic Skull has landed on your color. Kiss a snake and collect a handfull of bones!"

1967's "Ka-bala" was one mystical board game I did get from my Grandma. That glow-in-the-dark spinning eyeball was awesome, and you played the game in the dark! How cool was that? The intructions had the players begin the game by chanting in unison "PAX, SAX, SARAX, HOLA, NOA, NOSTRA." Learning fortune-telling, tarot cards and astrology, all under the watchful eye of "Zohar"... educational and fun!

Disclaimer: Any resemblance between actual futures and the predicted futures are entirely coincidental.

The only drawback was the darned Eye of Zohar which followed you around and liked to hover over your bed at night, glaring balefully, until an exorcism was performed. Other than that it was pretty neat.

Efforts to cheat fate by pushing down on your side to make the ball land where you wanted it, were instantly punished by Zohar's Gaze of Death, which had the effect of making your fingers sweat.

"Yes! You, Uh... NO! Wait, it keeps moving... Nnnn...yes! Dang, my depth perception sucks."

Scream... and Scream Again!

2008-07-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
The "Scream and Scream Again" poster
(Click on images to enlarge)

"Billy! I've told you a hundred times not to leave the lid up on the acid pit!"

In 1969 when this film was in the theaters, I was a wee (yet really cute) tyke of ten tender years and could only gaze in wonder at this awesome poster. I was living in Belpre, Ohio at the time, and there was a drive-in theater near our apartment that I walked past each day on the way to and from school. This movie was on a double-bill with "The Oblong Box" and seeing both posters ignited a passion to see the movies that would go unrequited for 35 years. Fortunately, they were released recently on a Midnight Movies disc together, recreating the double-feature experience.

In my bedroom in the apartment about two blocks from the drive-in, it was possible to see a small part of the top of the screen if I climbed on top of my dresser and peeked out of the top of the blinds. Needless to say I couldn't see enough to tell anything, but such was my mania that I woke up the next morning with a crick in my neck from craning to view what I could for nearly a half hour. The images of the posters, that of corpses buried underground and upside down in a pit of acid, bounced around in my monster-addled brain while at school, inspiring me to draw copies from memory. These sadly got confiscated and unceremoniously trashed by a teacher who had no love for art.

"But they told me urine was good for the skin!"

The art for both was striking, but the "Scream" poster was especially memorable, with the poor woman trapped in the acid dissolving alive as her skull and bones were exposed. Strong stuff for a 10 year old who had yet to see even a Famous Monsters magazine. Little wonder it stuck in my memory all those years. It's a testament to my innocence at the time that I never noticed the state of the thinly-veiled and about-to-be-revealed bosom.

"Aaaaiiiieee! It's fading my lovely new pink dress!!!!"

Totally unrelated to the movie, but connected in my memory with the drive-in, was the day I took a shortcut through the woods behind it along the wooden fence surrounding it. I was walking with a three or four other kids, and took the dare to join in a whizzing contest to see who could project the furthest. It was with no little pride that I won. (Nowadays the whole posse would have been rounded up by the PC Police amidst a swarm of reporters and carted away for rehabilatative therapy.) That was about the extent of my naughtiness at that age. I was a good kid who only wanted to see those forbidden and tantalising movies that the posters told about.

Another later move took us to Georgia (we moved a lot) where we lived behind a drive-in that had no fence around it, only protected from prying eyes by virtue of being located over a 10 foot tall dirt bank which you had to climb in order to see the screen. Which would have been great, but we lived there during the winter when it was closed! Talk about your good news and bad news.

"Sure, I'm being dissolved away, but for some reason I find it strangely arousing!"

You know what I'd like to do? Make movies based on some of the awesome posters like this and write them so that what was on the poster actually happened in the film! Imagine how good some of them could be! Never mind what the original was about... just make a movie based on the impression given and on what the poster portrayed. Now that would be worth seeing.

Poster from "The Cauldron of Death" with a similar theme, thrown in because it features flesh melting from a skeleton in a vat of acid. I don't know if the movie is any good, but I like the poster art. Who in their right mind wouldn't?

The Skull of Frankenstein

2008-07-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

"The Skull Of Frankenstein"

(Click on images to enlarge)

If anything, he's even scarier now.

Image source: http://www.sideshowworld.com/TSK-FranksSkull.html

All I want to know is... how did he finally expire?

I mean, The Monster was one tough son-of-a-gun, but like a Timex watch, he took a licking and kept on ticking. After all he went through in the film series and survived, I can only imagine it took an extended acid bath or a nuclear blast to cause him to succumb. And looking at his remains, I'm not entirely convinced we've seen the last of him.

Artist Thomas Scott Kuebler really turns out some incredible work. Check out his site for a gallery of nightmarish sculptures that is every monster kid's dream; not only Frankenstein's Monster (alive and "dead") but other classics like Nosferatu, Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera, Lon Chaney Jr's Wolfman, and fantastic original creations.

This guy should be working in the movies, is all I can say.

Whatever you do, don't put it by an open window during a thunderstorm.

Another reason he wanted a bride... to wash his clothes without shrinking them.

Honeymoon From Hades

2008-07-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The poster for 1985's "Honeymoon"
(Click for higher rez.)

"You may now kill the bride... uh, kiss the bride, yeah... I meant kiss her."

1985 was a very good year for horror movies: "Creepers," "Day of the Dead," "Fright Night," "Re-Animator," "Return of the Living Dead," and "The Care Bears Movie."

"Honeymoon," however, flew under my radar, and I never got around to checking it out on video when it came out. But the poster is cool, and has earned an entry in the Sweet Skulls blog just by virtue of the blushing... uh, make that bleeding bride's toothy smile.

I haven't been able to find much in the way of descriptions online. If you've seen it, feel free to tell what you thought of it in the comments!

Meanwhile, the poster and tagline reminded me of these two classic comic covers, the difference being that on them it's the groom who is "late" for the wedding.

"With this ring, I thee... KILL!"

And instead of rice, the guests all threw maggots at the happy couple.

"Sorry, folks, but we reserved this cabin before we died."

Of course, no entry about skeletal brides would be complete without a reference to the greatest movie ever made about post-mortem marriage, Tim Burton's "The Corpse Bride." If only they had been Mormon, marrying the dead would have been no big deal.

Tim Burton's sketch of the Corpse Bride. Isn't she loverly?

Knowing she needed pre-nuptial counselling, the little maggot gave her an earful.

Love means never having to say "you're rotten."

"Oh, my... honey, it's so BIG!"

"No thanks, I'll keep waiting... he'll be here soon."