From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: Zombie Apocalypse (2008)

Zombie films have been a popular part of the Horror genre for a very long time at this point, and the TV show The Walking Dead has ensured that Zombies will not fall out of style anytime soon. Most of the films that are coming from indie directors and companies also want their piece of the undead pie. And for this “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update we will be taking a look at a promo comic that was released alongside the 2008 direct to video film Zombie Apocalypse! This is a film that I am sure many of you readers have never heard of but that you are surely Googling now…go on…I’ll wait. So if you are ready like I am, let’s see what the Zombie Apocalypse world has in store for us in both movie and comic worlds!

The Zombies in Zombie Apocalypse are created by a gas that was made by the Government and the Illuminati to use as a weapon against mankind. What started as a lab experiment now has the gas make the undead rise all over town, and they infect and eat people all around them. The zombies in this film are all over and kill in packs as they overwhelm their victims with sheer numbers, but they also kill by themselves, and as a single zombie, they can be even more dangerous as they are more silent and can stalk with more ease. The zombies look like dead humans with many of them having bloody open wounds on their faces making them easy to spot, but can also cause lots of panic in the living who have to look at them. To dispatch their human prey, the zombies use not only their numbers but also their teeth that carry the virus and can rip flesh as well as their hands that they scratch and rip at their victims. They also attack with fury making them even harder to escape from once they have you in their grip. These zombies also move at a normal speed and are not super slow, but are also not super fast making them a moderate threat when it comes to them giving chase. But while they are dead, they do also have weaknesses as you can kill them with guns, knives and almost any normal way you can kill a person as long as you give them head trauma. They are also not that smart and can be out maneuvered when dodging them. Over all these zombies are not as threatening as the ones we have covered before like Dawn Of The Dead (2004), Plague Of The Zombies or even Human vs Zombies, but they still are a major threats and can kill and eat a human with the best of them. I should also note that the zombies who started this outbreak was set free by the despicable Agent Net who is using them to hunt down the man who trained him and has turned on the Illuminati, making his one of their secret weapons when it comes to killing humans.

Now that we understand the killing nature of the Zombies, we should take a look at the film they are from, Zombie Apocalypse. Like always I will take the film’s write up from our pals at IMDB, and I will write a little about the films production as well as my thoughts on the film. So if you’re ready, let’s see what this Zombie Apocalypse has in store for us.

Zombie Apocalypse (2008)

“Two college roommates get the fright of their lives when they head out to the bar, and come face to face with a shambling army of the undead. All Mark and Tom wanted was a fun night out on the town, but now they’ll be forced to fight if they want to survive until dawn. Thankfully Mark is handy with an axe, and medical student Tom has played enough video games to keep his cool in the chaos. With depressive video store clerk Raven helping to fend off the horde, they may stand a chance of making it through the night without getting devoured – or worse. But who is Miller, and what connection does his missing wife have to these horrible creatures. By the time the weary survivors find out, it may already be too late.”

Zombie Apocalypse was written and directed by Ryan Thompson and was his first feature film. It went direct to video and caused a mini splash for fans of indie zombie flicks. The film’s budget was around $5,000.00 and was released by Phantasmal Pictures that released many of Ryan’s other films as well. The cast included such actors as Kenny James, Hannah Gaff and David Calkins and many others including Kelly Knoll and Matt King, with this being many of their first roles. The cast and crew also went to many conventions and screenings to try and get this film out and in the public eye. The film when released was met with mix reviews with many Horror Fans being very displeased with it and giving it low star ratings. While not a household name when it comes to zombie Horror Movies, this film did make a mark no matter how small. The film did spawn a sequel in 2011 called “Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption” showing that it did have its own cult following.

I remember seeing this film before on the shelves of second hand media stores when I was looking through the Horror section to find a good fright flick to watch, but never bought it as I have been burnt out on micro budget zombie flicks for a long time. Years would pass before I would finally breakdown and buy a copy, and the main reason I did was because the copy came with the prequel comic and was perfect to cover here on Rotten Ink. So I ordered a copy of the film from Amazon and once in I read the comic and watched the film…the comic review will be coming up in this update soon while I can talk about the movie now. The film was not nearly as bad as most reviews would have you believe as it does have some charm with its over all dark humor and zombie shuffling around the streets. Another highlight for me was actress Kelly Knoll who plays Raven a woman who loves Horror and worked for a Video Rental Store…she reminded me of some of the ladies I knew that worked at local rental media stores. The downside is the acting is really terrible in spots, some scenes are out of focus and the widescreen presentation stretches the picture making it look odd. The effects are also pretty cheesy and most major blood splatter takes place off camera or so quickly you cannot make it out or worse is digital blood! Over all I enjoyed watching the film and while it is a bad movie, it does have some cool elements that make it enjoyable watch on a boring late night.

 

So now that we have taken a look at the film and the zombies who bring the terror in said film, I think it’s time we take a look at the promo comic that came FREE with the DVD! I want to thank Amazon for having this DVD/Comic Combo in stock and making this update possible. I also want to send a big thank you to the makers of this film for making this comic and bringing Horror Films and Horror Comics together. I want to also remind you all that I grade this comic on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So if you are ready like I am, let’s see what Zombie Apocalypse has to offer in the way of scares on pages with ink!

Zombie Apocalypse # 0  *1/2
Released in 2008   Cover Price FREE     Apocalypse Comics     # 0 of 0

A biker is riding on a quest to find his wife who is missing and has clearly been kidnapped. He remembers the past and in a research lab his wife Dr. Irene Miller is ordered to fill a room with gas that poisons and turns a group of men into zombies. She is heartbroken that she damned these men, but the Army General in charge is pleased with the outcome. The plan is to use the zombies as soldiers and win wars with the undead, never losing another American life of foreign soil. The biker who was once an agent has gone rogue and is now wanted for all the knowledge he has about the zombie project, and while on the run and searching for his wife, he stops at a strip bar and after talking to an old man, he flashes back to when he met Irene and how his own partner Net turned on him and reported them to the higher ups who in turn took Irene away. As he leaves the strip bar, he is sucker punched by Net who throws him into a car and so ends this prequel comic.

The plot of this comic has a rogue agent on the run form the Government and the Illuminati all the while trying to find his missing wife! While this is a fun prequel comic that showcases our hero, naked ladies and the true evil nature of those in charge of Project Apocalypse…there is no horror at all and the zombies themselves are barely seen and are behind glass. Our hero is Miller, who is a man who is running from his past as well as trying his best to find his missing wife. We don’t get a feel for the character and who he is and in the movie he is a silent badass while the comic kind of has him being a confused man with a one-track mind. Agent Net only shows up on the last page for the most part and is a scum bag who’s idea of a fair fight is punching a man as he walks through a door, what a coward! The Zombies in the issue are an after thought as they really do only appear behind glass when the gas infects men who were locked in the room. The comic is bloodless and does not pack any scares as no horror action takes place. The comic does showcase nudity as a scene takes place in a strip club…so I guess it does at least have one of the three elements of a Horror Comic. The cover for this issue 0 is pretty good and does have a indie zombie look and feel to it. The interior art is ok and while not the style or art I like, Brian Sheehy does a good job with what he has to work with. Over all this is a cool promo comic that acts as a way to start the film, but is a pretty bad Horror Comic…so I guess I will give it a below average star rating as it could have and should have been more. Check out the art below to see the style of Sheehy.

So Zombie Apocalypse was a Indie Horror Movie that made a wise move when they made a comic book to go alongside it, and while this comic was not that great, I do give them credit for doing it as I have said before more filmmakers and companies should do this as it helps add to the film’s story and can even bring viewers in. Let’s be honest, I may have never gotten around to seeing this film and the comic is what brought me to it, showing comics as promo items work! But for our next update let’s leave a world over run with zombies behind and take a look at ghost pirates as we take a look at the 2005 remake of The Fog as well as the Dark Horse Graphic Novel based on it! So until next time, read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next time for terror of the sea….or is that ocean?

From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: Giant Spider Invasion

The 70’s were filled with nature run amuck Horror Films, and many of them had to do with animals and one of these films was the 1975 cult classic Giant Spider Invasion, a film that was so cheesy and goofy that movie goers for decades have enjoyed! And you guessed it, this From Horror Movie To Horror Comic update will be all about Giant Spider Invasion as I feel this is a great time to chat about this movie as well as the promo comic adaptation of it. So arm yourself with spider repellent and watch out for webs as we don’t want to fall victim for these giant spiders who want us all dead!

So let’s first take a look at the Giant Spiders, their killing ways, and why they are so massive! The Spiders’ origin is that they have fallen from space while inside rocks that also contain diamonds. Once freed from their stone homes, they wreak havoc on people and animals as they eat the flesh of both and grow very rapidly to massive size. The Giant Spiders use their speed and size in order to take down their victims as well as their many legs and sharp fangs that they rip and tear human flesh with. They also use their webs in order to trap humans so they can go in for the kill. The larger ones can use their size also to bring down homes and hiding spots while the smaller ones can get into tighter spaces and cause damage and harm. They also can use fear to their advantage as most people freak out when they are seen and cause people to panic and make mistakes when trying to flee. They also can kill in packs, making them deadly not only on their own but more so when they are together and can swarm and overwhelm. They also can shrug off gunfire, as it has no effect on them. While the Giant Spiders are dangerous, they do have some weakness and it all comes from a hole that was created by them falling to Earth that acts as a black hole and is the source of them living; if the hole can be closed the Giant Spiders die off! So as you can see these, Giant Spiders from Space really are very deadly and they have a taste of human flesh!

So now that we have taken a look at the Giant Spiders, we are at the point where we should take a look at the film they are from. As always, the film’s write up will be taken from our good friends at IMDB with everything that follows coming from my own words. So if you’re ready, I am ready to talk about some very large and angry space spiders who want to ruin days and make us all their human prey.

Giant Spider Invasion (1975)

“A black hole hits North Wisconsin and opens a door to other dimensions. Giant 15 meter spiders emerge from it, who have an appetite for human flesh! Dr. Jenny Langer and Dr. Vance from the NASA try to save the world.”

Transcentury Pictures teamed with director Bill Rebane to make a Horror Science Fiction film that would feature giant spiders running wild in a small town. And with a budget of only $300 thousand the film Giant Spider Invasion went into production in order to cash in on the killer animal trend of Hollywood with Bill Rebane as the director and the script by Robert Easton. Richard L. Huff handled the casting that included aging actors like Alan Hale Jr., Steve Brodie, Barbara Hale and Leslie Parrish as well as fresh faces like Diane Lee Hart who would do the film’s nude scene. The film’s special effects for the giant spiders was mostly done with puppets as well as a car made up to look like a spider, adding to the film’s over all cheap and silly feel. The film’s score was handed by Bill Rebane as well, and once done the film was released by Group 1 and was a Box Office hit here in the US as it did $2,347,000.00 making it very profitable. After the film was done with its theatrical run, it would gain more fans when shown on ABC a total of three times. It would also gain more fans again when it was featured on the Horror Host shows Mystery Science Theater 3000 plus Dr. Creep’s New Shock Theater and even was praised by Razzie Movie Award creator John Wilson as being a bad movie worth seeing. The film would also be released on VHS, DVD and even Blu-Ray and became a massive cult classic film! Director Bill Rebane is known for his other very cheesy films Monster a Go-Go, Rana: Legend Of Shadow Lake and Blood Harvest to name a few. This film in 1975 was released alongside such other Horror Movies as Jaws, The Devils Rain, Legend Of The Werewolf, Night Of The Seagulls, Bug, Deep Red and many more! So while this film was lost in the shuffle of better films, it still made its mark on the world of Horror.

My first memories of seeing this film was when Dr. Creep showed it on his public access rebirth show New Shock Theater back in the early 2000’s, and I also remember it showing on MST3K proving the Horror Host are a great way to be introduced to movies. The thing about seeing Giant Spider Invasion is that it was a cheesy film that, while entertaining, I would always just wish I was watching the films that inspired it like the Universal Monster films “Deadly Mantis” and “Tarantula” or even the films that followed it like “Grizzly” and “Day of the Animals.” Now I am not saying that Giant Spider Invasion is bad, it’s just an okay animal runs amok film that features lots of aging actors and poorly put together giant spiders. When watching the film, I can remember always laughing out loud about just how bad the spiders looked in many of the scenes, but always enjoyed the quick nudity scene of Diane Lee Hart who I knew from the comedy film The Pom Pom Girls. It’s also really funny to see Alan Hale Jr. as the police chief when all you can really see him as is The Skipper from Giligan’s Island, even at one point he calls someone little buddy…so cheesy! The thing about this film is while I have seen it multiple times I just never really had a connection to it and for the longest time only owned the Horror Hosted versions of the film before finally breaking down and getting the Retro-Media release in order to get the comic reprint to cover for this blog update. So if you like Horror Sci-Fi films based on giant spiders that attack humans in a small town that is directed by a master of b-movies and is packed with old TV actors…this film is for you! And keep in mind I do not hate this movie. I really do enjoy it just don’t have much to say about it nor any cool stories about watching it besides the fact Dr. Creep hosted it.

So with that it’s time we take a look at the promo comic for Giant Spider Invasion that was originally given away at the theater and was later reprinted for the DVD release. I want to thank an Ebay seller for having this DVD & Comic combo in stock and making this update possible. I want to also remind you all that I am grading this comic on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So if you’re ready to put your arachnophobia aside and come take a look at Giant Spiders from Outer Space with me, we should get to it!

Giant Spider Invasion # 1    **1/2
Released in 1975     Cover Price FREE      Group 1      #1 of 1

Ev and Dan Kester discover a meteor that fell from space and crash landed on their farm and inside this space rock is diamonds like they have never seen before! But they fail to notice there’s also a spider…while this is going on Dr. Jenny Langer is calling NASA to warn them of the radiation that also has came with the meteor. Little do Dan and Ev know that their house is being over run by the space spiders who are also growing in size, and with this the couple meet their end by the fangs of the spiders who are also now making their way toward town! Dr. Jenny along with some soldiers arrive and think that a black hole in space is what’s feeding the spider and causing them to grow massive! While the townspeople arm themselves and try to kill the spiders and save others, a massive 30-foot spider has entered the town and all looks doomed as our mini promo comic comes to an end and informs us to go to the theater and see this movie!

This is a very cool little theater promo comic from the 70’s that I am sure did its job and got movie goers to flock to their local cinema and see the film! This is one thing movie makers are lacking right now is making free promo comics to give away to movie goers I mean imagine if movies like Hell Fest, The Conjuring and Sinister had cool comics made and given out…these From Horror Movie To Horror Comic updates could go on forever! Now I need to also stress this promo comic is super short and is only 4 pages long as both front and back cover is used for story as well. Our plot is also very simple and has a meteor falling from space that is also caring space spiders that grow massive here on Earth and start killing in a small Wisconsin town. Our hero of this short comic is Dr. Jenny Langer who is the one who warns of the fallout of radiation from the meteor and is the one who tries to enlist the help of NASA as well as find the source of the spawning point. Dan and Ev Kester are a couple who seem more into harvesting the diamonds and not paying attention to their farm being infested by spiders who are growing large at an alarming rate, but they of course meet their end by fangs. The Giant Spiders are the baddies of the comic and man once they grow they become aggressive, are unstoppable and very mean spirited. In fact even smaller the spiders are very much blood thirsty and want to kill any human who comes close to them. The comic does not have any blood and has two confirmed deaths that happen off panel, but while it does not show the red stuff, it does have a great classic horror atmosphere that will surely please fans of old school 50’s horror movies. I am not sure on who did the art, but I will say one thing it’s pretty dang great and I wish that Dell Comics or Gold Key Comics would have made this into a full comic with the same artist brought on board. The cover is pretty great as it’s the movie poster mostly with the bottom half being the first four panels of our adaptation. Over all this is a pretty great promo comic that adapts a cheesy B-Horror Movie that also leaves us as a reader on a cliffhanger making us want to see the movie to figure out how we can rid ourselves of these pesky Giant Spiders! Check out the art below to see how great the art is in this promo comic.

So as you can see Giant Spider Invasion is a fun movie that had a fun promo comic book that shows even the cheesiest of the B-Movies can make a great comic book for fans of Horror Comics. Plus for many people spiders let alone giant ones will always strike fear into their hearts and this short comic delivers scares for those with the heebie jeebies of these eight-legged creatures. For our next update we will be leaving the world of Horror Movies behind and will be taking a look at another Atlas Comic superhero with Demon Hunter, should be a real fun time. So until next time, read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next time as we go on a demon hunt!

The Conspiracy Of Sexy Cyber Vampires From College

Welcome back to another update here at Rotten Ink.  It’s crazy to think that 2016 is already here, and this is shaping up to be one heck of a year for horror films as well as super hero flicks as this year we get a new Conjuring, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Phantasm as well as a new Captain America, X-Men and Superman! For this update I decided to take a look at a comic based on a film and maybe share some more stories of working on one of my own micro budget flicks! The comic we will be covering is the last of the Draculina photo comics based on a film called The Vampire Conspiracy, and the film of mine we will take a look at is The Sadness.  So get your mind ready for the world of low budget films and enjoy this update.

In 2005 I was itching to make a movie.  At the now defunct  Precinct 13 Video in Kettering, I was talking to my friend and shop owner Jason about an idea I had about a supernatural style killer who targeted women and video taped the aftermaths of his crimes. Jason liked the idea, and I went to the normal Independent B Movie alumni Dave Wean and Josh Weinberg and told them the idea as well, and got the same feedback! The idea stewed around in my brain for a few months, and I decided that the killer I created for “Long Dead Winter,” a film never finished by Mike Ritchie, would be used as the killer.  His name was The Sadness. I kept the idea from the unfinished film of The Sadness hearing his father’s voice in his head driving him to kill no matter what.  The Sadness went from a serial killer to a cold blooded Michael Myer style slasher in a blink of an eye. At the time I had just gotten out of a long relationship with a young woman named Misty, who viewers of our films know for her parts in Razor and Farmer Joe, and had just met a young woman who I fell head over heels for named Lindsey who was a sweet and caring person.  This was to be a short lived thing as all things in life change and she stopped calling and we stopped hanging out with one another…but with this came the motivation to complete my script and make The Sadness come alive on the TV Screen. I spent months with my notebook and wrote scene after scene. I added a character named Jason played by comic artist Jason Young who was as confused as me about a woman he cared for.  I added a radio DJ character as we had access and permission to film inside Wright State University to use their media area.  Garrison Kane came back to play The Sadness just as he did for the footage for Long Dead Winter. I then cast the rest of the spots with great actors and friends like Josh Weinberg, Mindy Becker, Andrea Seay to name a few, and production was soon on it’s way. The script was mostly a dark mood with lots of effects kills and lots of drama elements between characters. The plot has a woman witnessing the murder of her neighbor and decides to talk about it on her collage radio show.  Big mistake as this draws the killer to the college as he is silent, deadly and never leaves a witness alive! I should also say that The Sadness is a cold blooded killer who does not talk, does not feel pain, does not have remorse and wears a red and black mask, has long black hair and always has a black suit on. The dumbest mistake we made with the character was trying to use and change up a WWF Kane mask as his face plate.  If I could go back, I would change it 100% to just a solid red mask like all the character’s promo art. I should also note at the start of filming I had just met and started dating Jennifer.

We decided to shoot all the college footage first as it was the most demanding of the sets as students were still in the building even as we filmed for many days starting at midnight! The area we picked next to the radio booth was perfect for our location as lots of scenes took place in the radio room as well as the waiting room.  On the first day of shooting things were going pretty well for the most part. Jason, Sam and Mindy were hitting their marks but things went south pretty quick as I would soon find out the Mindy had snuck alcohol in and was getting more and more drunk as the filming went on, and by 5am she went missing in action! I was annoyed but realized that she did not mean to get that out of control.  So I filled the rest of the first night with shots of The Sadness wondering around the college. The second day of filming was way more relaxed with everyone showing up and having fun, I even allowed for some ad-libbed lines that were comical to bring the mood up for the DJ characters to show they were just fun loving students. But we did have an accident that night as Garrison as the Sadness could not see out of his mask and wig and really stabbed Jason in the back! After checking the wound and seeing that it was not that deep, Jason was a sport and continued the shoot. After all the DJ stuff with The Sadness as well as the final scenes of the film were shot, I finished up all the inside college shots of The Sadness chasing Jason as well as him stalking the hallways. As I got this footage shot, Jason Wilson from Precinct 13 Video was uploading it and started to do the first edit of the film. What followed next was some of the outside shots of The Sadness killing random people, getting the voice over of his father played by a co-worker of mine named James as well him preparing for his kills and other small fill in shots. By this time Jason Wilson informed me that the film needed another kill so I had to add in a couple of new college kid characters and re-film at the school of them being introduced and the female one being killed off, for these shots I had to have Josh Weinberg fill in for The Sadness as Garrison was swamped with his day job. Jason added these scenes into the film and made the pacing a little better for a drama slasher film the extra kill added some more horror to a film that was quickly becoming a drama about lost love. In a odd twist I was able to talk Lindsey into playing the part that was based on her and she did a fantastic job of what lines she was give, it was nice to see her and for her to understand that I had to make the film and way I needed to as I was a person who was amped up and need to get the hurt, anger and ideas out of my brain and into this movie. Josh Weinberg stepped up and became my assistant director and even filmed some shots as I was also at this time hired to play a big part in a film directed by my film mentor Andy Copp called Fun In The Old Town Tonight. The final day of filming was the films opening kill and I was so hyped when my close friend Andrea Seay took the role of the first victim and we spent the whole night filming the scene that I not only had to direct but also do the special effects for, this being the end of the movie that was a personal one made my emotions run high as I was one happy film maker to get this off his chest on questions of why people drift apart, and like a bonehead I made a terrible mistake that coasts me my best friend and someone who I still care about to this day as one of my actions made Andrea and my friendship come to an end. Looking back all this time away from this film and production while it was a great experience to be able to get heartbreak off my chest and that came via Misty who I had to break up with for both of our sanity and Lindsey who just was not meant to be, got to work on special effects and watch a killer from my own mind come alive, have friends come together to make something personal of mine alive, the worst part of this production was loosing Andrea as a friend as she was always their for me as I was always around for her. Even if I have not spoken to her sense 2006 I still think very highly of her and hope that some day the wounds can be healed.

As Jason Wilson finished editing, I obtained music for the film and was able to get tracks from the likes of Centerfold, Winter of Discontent, Patrick Neeley, Society’s Whore, David Wean and Ed vs. Radio, and with their music, we added a whole new level of entertainment to the film. The film premiered at Precinct 13 Video in 2006 and showed at midnight.  I was happy to see that the place was packed and many people were hyped to watch the film. It was super cool to hear people clap when my name popped up as director and even cooler to hear them clap and cheer when the film ended. Many people who attended came up to me and loved the idea of a drama slasher film and got the nature of the film.  Others came up to me and didn’t like that the film was more dark and only had some comedy to it as they wanted more Werewolf of Ohio type films from me….it was very split and this was really amazing to hear the two sides out. For me the film was made to let out stress and was packed with drama, comedy and horror with a touch of cheese and was meant to just entertain and allow me to make a killer like Michael Myers of Halloween who is my favorite slasher icons and I did what I set out to do! The film came out on DVD by Bloodline Video for a short time, would play on local TV, and screen at conventions as well as come out via Warlock Home Video a few years back. The film is pretty much out of print nowadays, and while it may be gone, it’s not forgotten as I have had people make comments to me about the film in the past year as well as The Sadness himself will have a cameo in the comic series We Kill The Dead alongside the likes of other independent horror characters. In 2008, I started to work on The Sadness II that would have followed up right after the events of the first film.  We filmed a first kill scene, and quickly it was clear that the rage was missing from the script and it was nothing more than a slasher film that would have been packed with way more gore and boobs and no heart and plot.  So as soon as I started filming, I quickly pulled the plug on the film. Now in 2016 I have the bug again and really want to make a reboot to The Sadness and bring him to modern times and explore his back story, his anger and his legacy.  So who knows, maybe soon I will film this and share the experience with you readers. Out of all the old no/low budget films I have shot, I think I am the most proud of The Sadness as it truly did capture what I was trying to pull off, and while it is flawed, I still find it to be one of the best things I did for Independent B Movie and Bloodline Video. Below is the cover for the film’s first DVD release.  Yeah, it was cheesy and was made by Patrick Neeley.

On January 1^st 2016 my cousin Stephen had a get together at his house to play a POG tournament! That’s right POGS the game that I had not played sense I was in the 9^th grade mostly against my friend Jade during breaks in-between classes and during lunch. For those who don’t remember this game you would stack 10 or more cardboard POGS on a mat or the ground and use a heaver metal or plastic round disk and slam it onto the pile hoping to turn them over and for each one you got a point, in the end the player with the most points wins. I remember that I use to collect POGS and that we would play for keeps, as the winner would win all the caps they turned over during the match. My go to Slammers where a Universal Monster Dracula one that was made of plastic and a thin metal one that had a big haired red skull face skeleton creature on the front with the message No Drugs on it. I owned many other slammers like Star Wars and other comic and cartoon characters as well as other generic ones but those two were my favorites. This POG rebirth sparked from a small POG Tournament set we bought in at Game Swap and after seeing it Stephen bought it and we chatted and before we knew it a tournament was set for New Years Day! Looking at the invite that was sent out on Facebook and seeing the likes of friends like Thomas Smith, Josh Weinberg, Garrison Kane, Spencer Lucus, Jeremy Hoyt and Theresa Lopez to name a few all saying they were entering I new the competition was going to be tough and then hearing that comic artist Jason Young as well my own girlfriend Juliet were entering I knew I had to get the perfect Slammer Team in order so I hit Ebay and Amazon and dug deep to find what I considered the best of the best in Pog winning greatness, and now I will present them to you in all their glory, also cue Sirius by Alan Parsons Project! The first one I bought was “Jaws” a red light metal slammer featuring the icon of cinema of the same name, the second Slammer to join the team was a light plastic one featuring a large sharp toothed islander looking guy called “Da Cruncher”, next was a metal slammer that featured the MTV cartoon character “Butthead”, then I was lucky and found the red skull big hair skeleton just like I had when I first played so “No Drugs” became my third metal Slammer and my final main roster Slammer was a Universal Monster thicker plastic one that I call “Universal The Mummy” as that character was featured on the front and that those were the ones I selected as my starting line-up. I also for safe measure I brought a few fill in Slammers just in case any of my A-Team failed me in a match and they where a plastic Star Wars one that had “Han Solo” on it and for good measure I brought the worst slammer in the world called “Bad News” that featured a Grim Reaper on the front and was a medium plastic one that had no grace or style. Below is a picture of my Slammer Team and the back ups.

Juliet and I showed up ready for battle as my Slammer Team was about to be put to the test as the competition all seemed ready with their chosen Slammers. My first opponent was my good friend Jeremy Hoyt and my slammers of choice were Butthead and Bad News and with a semi quick match I won and moved on in the tournament thanks mostly to Butthead who was a slamming beats! The Second round I faced Stephen Basile a really nice guy whom I have meet through my cousin Stephen with the same slammer combo I started out strong but by the end of the battle Basile smoked me and gave me my first loss. But with this loss I was not out of the game as I dropped to the lower bracket and would have to earn my way back into the race for the trophy and the $10.00 prize, my third match was against Justin Barlow and this was one epic pog match as we ended up at a tie and had to go into sudden death the first of the night, just barely I was able to pull off the win thanks to slammers Butthead and Jaws! Moving back up my opponent was Charles “Bubba” Walters who is my uncle and Stephen’s dad and I must say I really stunk in this match and Charles made quick work of me as Butthead and Jaws really failed to deliver and with this loss I was out of the running to win. Juliet however beat her first round opponent Jennifer Barlow and then forfeited her spot as she had to bartend at her second job….yeah she left the game. But this was a blast and I am hoping that Stephen decides to do this again next year as I for one would enter again and try even harder to win a torphy and bring it back here to show off on Rotten Ink. For those wondering who won the rundown is this Josh Weinberg won 3^rd place, Charles “Bubba” Walters won 2^nd place and the 1^st place winner was Theresa Lopez! And the best part about it was that Theresa didn’t lose one match she cleaned house and is one amazing pog player! Oh I should also say that other players that have not been mentioned yet who entered and played were Thomas “Maurice” Smith, Garrison Kane, Ashley Knox, Nate Stevens, Dan Lopez and Spencer Lucas all great Pog warriors who made the event even more fun!

On February 3^rd 2016, a quest to visit a Haunted location was on the books and Josh Weinberg and I traveled to Camp Chase Cemetery, a Civil War graveyard that houses over two thousand confederate soldiers who were prisoners of the war, many of whom died from smallpox and lack of food. After the war, the camp became mostly a forgotten cemetery with cheap wood makers placed for tombstones with no care the site started to fall into shambles. It was not until 1895 that the poor souls buried at Camp Chase got the proper respect as retired Union Colonel William Knauss took it upon himself to lead an effort to restore the site and give the soldiers stone tombstone markers as well as held a memorial service for those who were buried there. By 1902 a new stone wall was built around the cemetery as well as a statue of a rebel solider above a boulder with the simple word American on the archway. The ghost that is said to haunt the area is Louisiana Rainsburgh Briggs aka Lady In Grey who is said to have been in love with a solider that died and is buried there named Benjamin F. Allen a private from the 50^th Tennessee Regiment, and it’s said you can see this woman in grey wonder around the tombstones and cry at the grave of Private Allen as well as leave flowers for her lost love. On this day the weather outside was sunny with a cool breeze blowing as it was in the upper 50’s when finding the cemetery the first thing I noticed is that it sat between a home and a closed for the season ice cream shop with a school being behind it. We parked at a nearby BP Gas Station and walked to the iron gates and entered and noticed that the area was way smaller than we expected, we walked the among the tombstones looking for Ben Allen’s tombstone and when finding it we first noticed that no flowers were at the grave, we then waited around hoping to see or hear the Lady In Grey and all we could hear was the mass amounts of traffic that was driving on the busy street the cemetery is on. As we left we both agreed that while the area was amazing for the history aspect as a haunted location it was lacking as the noise of the busy city killed the element of atmosphere and the Lady In Grey was nowhere in sight. Fun trip over all and great place to visit and see a history landmark, check out some pictures I took below including the grave of Ben F. Allen!

After the long yet fun holiday season and the tragic loss of my cousin Norman D., I decided that once more Juliet and I needed to have a Horror Movie Marathon to unwind from the stresses of work and the post holiday blues so Tuesday February 9^th 2016 became the date with horror film destiny. We decided to do a pre-show Monday night and we started off with the cheesy film “Guru, The Mad Monk” about a crazed monk and his vampire girlfriend and hunchback assistant who all run a church where the guilty go to die.  Throw in a love story between one of the jailers and a woman from his past, and you have this no budget cheesefest. “Teenage Slumer Party Massacre” is about some girls having a sleepover on Spring Break and being stalked by a goof in a old man mask wielding a power drill.  This one was a real stinker! To my surprise. Juliet enjoyed Guru, and we shared lots of laughs about its terrible yet fun nature. Teenage Slumber Party Massacre was a complete bore and could have been best summed up with cute girls talking about guys and hotdogs with very little slasher action, super lame. After the films, I read a couple of comics and went to bed with visions of horror films in my head.

At 7am Tuesday we started the event and as always loaded up on snack foods and prepared Breakfast Casarole and made slow cooked a roast in the crockpot for dinner. The film to kick it all off was a Universal film called “Night Monster” thats stars Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill and is about a mansion that holds murder and mystery when doctors end up dead while staying with a patient they left crippled. The 2^nd film of the day was the zero budget film called “Alien Beasts” that is about enter dimensional beings attacking Earth and a group of government agents that try and stop them. The 3^rd haunting flick was “Amityville Theater” about a young woman who’s parents have died and she inharites they old theater only to find out like everything in Amityville the ghosts and demons don’t rest! The under rated slasher “Alice Sweet Alice” was the 4^th film of the day and is about a murder of a young girl that is blamed on her sister, but did she really do it? Paul Naschy as the Mummy Amenhotep was in the 5^th film of the day called “The Mummy’s Revenge”, a Horror Movie Marathon is just not the same without a Naschy film But sadly we did not get to finish Mummy’s Revenge as two different copies of the film on DVD-R’s had such bad digital breakup that the film would freeze, DVD-R’s really suck and anytime we have had issues at a marathon it has been with films on this format, for shame that it had to be the Nachey film that had issues. The 6^th film of the day “Born Of Earth” is about creatures that live in the ground and steal people and one mans fight for the truth about his missing children. Movie # 7 was the Full Moon Entertainment flick “The Dead Want Women” thats about 1920’s silent actors who were murdered by a fellow actor return to to life during present day to find sexy ladies. “The Reeker” was the 8^th film of the marathon and is a monster slasher film about a group of friends out of gas in the desert and a foul smelling ghoul with death on it’s mind is stalking them one by one. The 9^th film is a guilty pleasure film for me called “Rocktober Blood” about a 80’s Hairband Singer who slashes his friends from beyond the grave or is he? Number 10 keeps the slasher theme as its “Cinco De Mayo” about a killer in a Mexican skull mask killing collage kids who don’t want to learn about heritage. Another slasher film called “The Mutilation Man” was the 11^th movie and was about a killer getting revenge on some people that got away with a crime from the past, also this is not to be confused with with Andy Copp’s film of the same name. The 12^th and final film of the night was “Daughter of Dr. Jekyll” that follows the Daughter of Henry Jekyll who is battling her families curse that is mixed with the werewolf folklore and makes you wonder is the curse real or is someone trying to drive her mad!

Another great Horror Movie Marathon in the history books and it was the pefect way to combat a day that was filled with snow and cold winds! As always, after the films Juliet and I sat and chatted about the films of the day and picked our worst and top 3 best of the day.  This was a pretty tough one as I enjoyed many of the films we watched. For me the turkey of the bunch was The Mutilation Man as I found it to be boring and kind of bland in terms of the reveal of the killer’s identity.  The gore worked pretty well, and the acting was okay’ for this films budget level. Juliet’s Golden Turkey of the day went to Alien Beasts as she felt it made no sense and was too scattered to be entertaining. My top three list goes like this: # 1 hands down is Alice Sweet Alice, a film I grew up watching on TBS and find to be a great slasher with twists and turns and some great creepy moments. # 2 goes to Rocktober Blood, a film I have been a fan of since I was a teenager.  The music rocks, the story is silly, and the killer Billy Eye is so cheesy they should name a shredded cheese after him! And # 3 has to go to Daughter of Dr. Jeykll, a great classic black and white horror film that captures the mood and feeling of the book the film’s characters spawned from. Plus a femele version of Mr. Hyde who is represented as a werewolf is some great early horror film stuff even if they were just nightmares. But I also really enjoyed The Reeker, Night Monster and The Mummy’s Revenge that would have taken the # 3 spot it we were able to finish it. Juliet’s Top 3 went like this: # 1 Alice Sweet Alice, # 2 Cinco De Mayo and her # 3 was Rocktober Blood with The Reeker coming very close to making her list. Once more this was a great way to unwind, and I am looking forward to the next big one I will be holding in April, and of course when it’s over I will cover it here on Rotten Ink.

One film that I would love to see be turned into a comic book that’s also about sorority girls is Evil Toons.  It was released in 1992, directed by Fred Olen Ray and stars David Carradine, Dick Miller and a ton of beautiful woman like Michelle Bauer, Monique Gabrielle, Susanne Ager and my favorite of the bunch Madison Stone. I first saw this film when my brother and I rented it on VHS from K&L Video in Kettering, and from the start, I found myself loving this film and went and found it on VHS to buy. It’s about a demon who is accidentally unleashed from a spell book by four sorority girls who have been hired to clean a old big house before the new owners move in. The demon, who is a cartoon, attacks and kills the girls and anyone else silly enough to get in his way. This is a perfect source for a mini-series of comics that has the book of spells being delivered once more to a wrong address, this time a sorority house filled with all types of college babes.  On Halloween night, they all have a mass sleepover where they watch horror films, eat junk food and by mistake read a spell that sets the demon free, and it runs loose in the dorm killing and possessing as many young woman as he can! The lead in the series would be a sweet woman who grew up in a small town and was taught not to mess with evil and her knowledge is what keeps the few who live alive! The comic would be part horror and part comedy and have enough blood and nudity to please fans of the film. And if they really wanted to spice things up you could mix Evil Toons with Ghoulies and have mayhem at the college as both set of demons try to out do each other in the kill department. If this comic was to get made I would like to see Fred Olen Ray’s own company Retromedia release a line of comics based on his movies, and if one of my friends were to tackle this project I would say Bruce O’Hughes or Damien Brunk as both would understand the cheesy sleazy nature of the comic. Maybe Ray is reading this update (doubtful) and will like the idea and make a comic based on this film as well as his other work come alive…

So while I have the chance, I should also talk about Madison Stone from Evil Toons as I won’t get the chance to for any other update, and with the lack of info about actresses from The Vampire Conspiracy, this seems like the best time. Madison Stone was born on January 12^th 1965 in Miami, Florida and started her acting career in adult films where she ended up starring in over 100 titles with such classic names as Jail Babes, The Anus Family and Voodoo Vixens. Her adult film career was so big, she is a member of the AVN Hall of Fame, and in 1993 she was voted XRCO Fan Favorite! Madison went on to be in “mainstream” movies like Evil Toons in 1992 and Daylight in 1996 alongside Sylvester Stallone! Madison continued to appear in adult films until 2004 when she retired. She is known for her raven dark hair and now for her tattoos and piercings, even having one named after her The Madison Piercing that’s at the front of her neck! She is now a tattoo artist and owns her own shop in California called “Madison Tattoo Shoppe” and sings in bands like Kiss The Monkey and Four Ugly Women. Even now at the age of 51, she is as stunning as the first time I saw her in Evil Toons! If I ever were to make another independent horror film and had a good budget and she was willing to come out of retirement, I would for sure cast her as well as it would be cool to have her on a episode of Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre. Check out some classic pictures of her below.

The Vampire Conspiracy is directed by Geoffrey de Valois and was released in 1995 to the direct to VHS market as filler for ma & pa video rental stores around the good old USA. The film starred such talents as Heather Lemire, Liddy Roley, Barbara Savage and Jasmine Jean and is clearly a softcore film sprinkled with horror elements as the plot is about cyber vampires selecting a collage sorority to be their breeding slaves…this film reeks of pure sleazy cheese and to be honest while I have seen the cover box on video store shelves and on the pages of Alternative Cinema Magazine, I never took a chance at renting or buying it as it looks like it’s terrible. That’s the thing that younger people who didn’t have the joys of walking around a good well stocked video store will never have, the memories of walking around and looking at all the cover boxes and wondering what film awaited you on the VHS tape or DVD disc. Reading this comic will be the first time I have had any contact with this film so I am pretty hyped to see how it stacks up against the likes of Lust For Frankenstein, Tender Flesh and Mari-Cookie in quality and enjoyment. Before I even open this book, I want to make a few predictions on what this photo comic will showcase and that’s lots of bare female breasts and terrible lines of seduction. Below is the VHS Cover as well as the only still from the flick I could unearth on Google. Another thing I could not find much on was the actresses, so sadly no showcase on any of them.

So we covered The Sadness, Evil Toons, a recent Horror Movie Marathon, a POG Tournament and took a look at the film for The Vampire Conspiracy so now I think it’s time we let the cyber vampires feast! The clouds have uncovered the moon and the dust has settled, as I am proud to say Rotten Ink is at the final issue of the Draculina Photo comic series as I have finally gotten my hands on The Vampire Conspiracy thanks to Ebay! Before I dive into this photo comic I should remind you that I am grading this issue on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So if you’re ready to battle some large chested cyber vampires, we should jump right into this review with garlic and some holy motor oil!

The Vampire Conspiracy # 1  *1/2
Released in 1998    Cover Price $4.95    Draculina    #2 of 4

Lisa is a strange woman who wants to join The Beta Sorority and is at the beach with the girls who all dislike her because they find her odd. But things are cut short when a vampire woman named Jana attacks and kidnaps some of the sorority girls to take to the Vampire HQ so that they can be breed with vampire DNA and the mindless offspring can be used as slaves. The lead vampire also runs a adult video company and makes vampire female centerfold videos, as Jana tortures the prisoners. As Lisa is dealing with her personal issues, the video that’s sent out is a way for the vampires to turn some viewers into vampires who have a trait in their blood, and shocker, Lisa turns out to be just that person.  After killing the coeds that teased her, she heads to Vampire HQ and decides that she wants to be the Queen of the Sorority and saves her fellow students and kills the Vampire King with a cross! In the end she is still a vampire as is her friends, and they decide to open a new all female vampire sorority.

Yep, this is what I thought it would be: page after page of naked boobs and a story that is as weak as ice melting in the hot summer sun. So the “plot” of this stinker is vampires want to use young woman as breeders for hybrids that will be used as slaves, and they are using all types of ways to turn people into vampires including a VHS tape that has the power to make people turn.  It’s up to the oddball girl to chose between saving her fellow coeds or joining the King of the Vampires. The main character is Lisa, a pretty woman who wants to be voted queen of her sorority and feels like she never fits in.  She is turned into a vampire by the video and kills those who tormented her and even takes out the Vampire Queen! Is Lisa a good person…no not at all as she kills her fellow coeds as well as her shrink in cold blood. The Vampire King who is the main bad guy is pretty lame and mostly barks orders, makes love to his assistant and gets his ass kicked really easy in a fight with Lisa. Lana is a sexy vampire in leather who gets joy in torturing her prisoners, but while she is badass in beating up humans, she as well goes down like a chump. The rest of the characters are all disposable and add nothing but pairs of boobs to the story. While the woman are nice to look at, the photos put together loosely make a story and for the most part this is a very forgettable read. After this photo comic I don’t think I would ever really track down the film to watch as I didn’t enjoy what I saw and read here. Not much more to say; vampires and boobs are cool, but that only takes a photo comic so far.

So that’s the end of the Draculina Photo Comics, and I must say it ended the way I thought it would and that’s on a low note! While photo comics are a good idea and Draculina was onto something that could have been an amazing idea, I think they chose the wrong films to do this with as the films they gave this treatment already had weak stories and became even weaker when squeezed into a comic. But let’s wash the taste of this vampire comic out of our mouths as our next update will take a look at the Queen of Horror Hosts, the one and only Vampira! So until then read a comic or three and enjoy being around your loved ones.

The Tender Flesh Of Amber Newman

Imagine you’re invited to a nice hunting getaway by a bunch of rich people who you just have meet.  They treat you super nice and feed you a huge feast the night before the big hunt and give you a nice comfy bed to sleep in. When you wake up the next morning you find yourself the prey as you are the rich snob’s human target! This has been the plot of many Hollywood movies like “Hard Target” with Jean Claude Van Damme and “Surviving The Game” with Ice-T, and it also is the plot of the Jess Franco cheap shot flick Tender Flesh that will be the subject of today’s update! So for this quick update we should learn some survival tactics in order to survive yet another Draculina Photo Comic!

In 1997, Jess Franco made the film Tender Flesh and this film sparked his shot on video “boom” of releases that were coming out via Sub Rosa and Alternative Cinema on VHS and DVD. The film was written and directed by Jess Franco who also did some of the soundtrack and executive produced. It starred Lina Romay, Amber Newman, Monique Parent and Aldo Sambrell with Newman being the lead. The film’s plot that I don’t want to get too much into on this part of the update and would rather save it for the comic part is about a stripper who is sold by her boyfriend into a game of hunting humans on a remote island. I can remember seeing the film on VHS to rent at places like West Coast Video and K&L Video and never wanting to see it all that much even though it did have Amber Newman in it. Years after it came out, I watched the film on DVD with my pal Jason Gilmore during one of our all night watching movies and playing video games marathons and like most of Franco’s work at this time, we both disliked it, but yet still had fun watching just how cheesy and sleazy it was. The film not only was released on VHS and DVD as a single feature but also as a double feature paired with another Franco flick “Lust For Frankenstein” giving the viewer two low budget sleazy films for the price of one. So if you’re itching to see this film after you read the comic adaptation review you can find it out in the world, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Tender Flesh stars the queen of softcore porn Monique Parent who was a popular B actress at the time of this film’s release. Her first major role was in the 1991 erotic Cinemax classic “Night Visions,” and from there her career took off as she took roles in such sleazy films as “Sex And The Single Alien”, “Body of Influence”, “Night Eyes 3”, “Sexual Outlaws”, “Stripshow”, “The Key To Sex” and “Black Scorpion”. The role I remember her for is Cassandra in “Mirror, Mirror III: The Voyeur”, while a weak entry in the horror series I still remember her performance. One other really cool thing about Monique is she also was an actress in the full motion video game “Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle Of Flesh” as she played Jocilyn Rowan. Monique Parent never broke into hardcore adult films even though her fans wanted her to, and she is still working to this day at the age of 49 as she is to star in the horror film “Axeman 2: OverKill” due out sometime this year. While never one of my favorite sleaze queens, I still respect her work in the b-movie world.

Another actress that stars in this action erotic thriller is Analia Ivars who was a Spanish actress who did some work before she became one of Franco’s go-to gals when it came to taking her cloths off in his 90’s shot on video stinkers. Her first role with him was Tender Flesh in 1997, and she would go on to show her goods and acting chops in such Franco films as “Mari-Cookie And The Killer Tarantula”, “Lust For Frankenstein”, “Vampire Blues”, “Dr. Wong’s Virtual Hell” and “Helter Skelter” in 2000. After her time with Franco and his One Shot Production Company, she went on to be in a few others films with her latest being “Cenizas Bajo El Mar” that translates to Ashes Under The Sea. A good-looking b-actress who was willing to show it all plus some to help with Francos movie magic is the best way to end this look at Analia.

Before I torture myself with reading another Franco inspired photo comic from Draculina, I would like to take a look at another film I would love to see turned into a comic series and that’s the 1956 black and white horror film called “The Werewolf” that was directed by Fred S. Sears and stars Steven Ritch as Duncan Marsh, a man lost in a small town (Mountaincrest) during the cold winter with no memory as to who he is thanks to a car wreck, but things are worse for him as he turns into a werewolf and kills a local bully! Now in the snow covered hills in the woods, he hides as the locals come looking for him as does his searching wife and son, but also the two scientists that are the ones who made him into this monster by experimenting on him with wolf’s blood. Will Duncan be saved and returned to his family? Will the Sheriff and his nurse girlfriend be able to find a cure? Or will the scientists kill him before he can tell their secret? The film took a cool twist with the werewolf legend and it’s no longer supernatural, a scientific experiment gone terribly wrong.  This more science driven approach would also be used in the 1957 film, The Vampire. I first saw the film on TNT and taped it on a VHS tape and would watch the film from time to time; it even played on TNT’s Monstervision when it was un-hosted. I really liked the film and the atmosphere of the small mountain town. If this was to be made into a comic book, I would like to see it start from the beginning and act as a prequel to the film, show the evil things the scientist did to Duncan and show how he escaped and his journey to Mountaincrest and all the transformations he had along the way. Duncan as a werewolf could be almost like an antihero much like Eric Cord of Werewolf fame and could in some odd way stop the bad guys while saving the good ones. For instance a young man takes his girlfriend to the drive-in and had very bad intentions after the night’s film, you see he is not who she thinks he is because he ain’t just the local jock he is also a real lady killer! And Duncan stops at the Drive In for a late night hotdog and his Werewolf side ends up saving the young lady from being strangled. Or they could go the opposite and just make Duncan’s werewolf side a killing machine, and show the human sides torment of finding out what his other dark side has done. The comic just needs to end with the car wreck that leaves him with no memory. I would have loved to have seen Dell make this comic, and if I would have it done, I would say Justin Wasson or Jeff Potter would be my picks for sure. Who knows, like the other films I would love comics of made, maybe someday I can get this in a custom comic just for Rotten Ink.

Well we have arrived at the point on this update where I will be reviewing the comic, and so far we have covered Spanish actress Analia Ivars, softcore queen Monique Parent as well as even a comic I would like to see made based on the ’56 film The Werewolf, so I think I have done well for this quick update! Before we join the hunt, I should tell you rule # 1, that I grade these issues on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, it’s entertainment value and it’s art and story. I want to also thank Ebay for having this in stock and thank Amber Newman for at least giving me something pretty to look at. So to let you readers also know what Sleazy Queen plays what character I will give you a rundown: Newman plays Paula, Romay plays Gorgona, Parent plays Irina and Ivars plays Furia. So get your hunting knife ready and make sure to wear your camos, cause we are on the hunt for some Tender Flesh!

Tender Flesh # 1  * 1/2
Released in 1997     Cover Price $4.95     Draculina     # 1 of 4

Paula is a young American girl who is trying to get a job at a top Spanish strip club and is hired by Mrs. Gorgona Radeck for the job. That night while dancing Paula catches the eye of rich woman Baroness Irina and her husband Kallman who want to pay for a private show that is set up between Radeck and Paul’s boyfriend Carlos that will take place on a paradise island. You see they want Paula to be a sex slave for a weekend and to help on a hunt. Once there they meet a mute woman named Furia who is Gorgona’s servent and does all types of “favors” for the guests, and after a short time the rich folk send Carlos packing and drug Paula and whip her with riding sticks.  The next morning she awakens to find a video message from Gorgona telling her that she has two hours to get to the other side of the island to a speedboat filled with $50,000 dollars! Furia attacks Paula and puts her in a plastic bag and drives her to the middle of the woods and drops her off as Gorgona, Irina and Kallman armed with bows & arrows, knives and a pistol gear up for a human hunt! Paula escapes the plastic bag but is shot with an arrow leaving her wounded.  As Irina comes in for the kill Paula sets her up and slits her throat. Meanwhile Carlos is on his way back to the island after he regrets leaving Paula there knowing that she was to be killed for a game, but he’s too late as Kallman shoots Paula dead with his pistol. Carlos tries to make his way to the money but he himself is killed by Furia! In the end Gorgona, her husband who’s a cook, and Kallman are upset that Paula was shot because the meat is wasted but instead they eat Irina.  You see, they hunt young beautiful woman to eat their tender flesh.

I would have to say that this is one of the better Draculina Photo Comics, but that still doesn’t make it good. The plot is all about hunting a human down like they are a deer so that the hunters can eat what they kill, and it’s also the rich vs. the poor as the villains of this comic clearly think they are above the law. Our hero is Paula a brain dead stripper who takes an offer to be a sex slave for money, but when push comes to shove she tries her best to survive attacks that sadly do leave her dead. Carlos is Paula’s boyfriend and “pimp” and is a total scumbag and I for one was glad when he died.  He was a greedy tool who seemed not to mind seeing his girlfriend dead when he remembered that there was money on a boat. Gorgona, Irina and Kallman are all rich cannibals who are also perverts and weirdly enough only one of them dies, showing that if you’re a millionaire cannibal nothing bad will happen to you. I do love the fact that when Irina dies, she is cooked like a roaste pig and eaten by her husband and friends. The downside of this comic is the fact none of the characters are 100% likable because we get no backstory to any of them to make us care. The photos picked are well selected, and the cover is at least eye catching, but there’s nothing too special here and over all it holds very close to the film by being very forgettable.

One thing I can say for sure is that I only have one adaptation photo comic left of a Franco cheesy erotic film, and this fact makes me very happy! But our next update comic might be worse then this one because I am digging deep into my past and showcasing one of my early creative works as we take a look at Robo-Raccoon, a comic book series I made when I was a very young lad…so if you can withstand a space adventure with a Raccoon hybrid filled with aliens, monsters, misspelled words and bounty hunters, then you make sure to come back next update! So until then watch a horror film or two, read a comic and support your local Horror Host.

Mari-Cookie Smothered In Gravy

It’s getting close to Thanksgiving, another great American holiday filled with family, stories and food and some great times spent with my family. When I was younger, we would have Thanksgiving a lot of times at both my grandparents’ house (mostly the Brassfield side) and even at my Aunt Laverne and Uncle George’s, but as for the most part for the past 10 years or so we have had a very small one at my parents’ house.  It’s always a fun time of chatting with my parents and my brother and his family about work, pro wrestling, MMA, TV Shows and movies all the while football is on the TV and great food is on the kitchen table ready to be eaten. The food highlights of what my mom fixes are the Thanksgiving classics mashed potatoes and turkey, glazed ham that is super tender and this corn dish that has boiled eggs and italian sausage in it…I think it is my favorite holiday dish. So for this pre-Thanksgiving update, we are going to take another look at a Draculina Photo Comic based on yet another Jess Franco shot on video film called “Mari-Cookie And The Killer Tarantula.”  So grab a turkey leg and load those mashed potatoes with gravy, ’cause this is going to be one cheesy filled quick and fun read.

Mari-Cookie And The Killer Tarantula aka “Eight Legs To Love You” is a 1998 shot on video film by Jess Franco that is a mix of horror and comedy and stars many great aging scream queens like Michelle Bauer, Lina Romay and Linnea Quigley as well as 90’s B-Movie actress Amber Newman. This was yet another cheapie, shot fast and put out direct to video in the US market by the company Sub Rosa who was releasing many of his 90’s video work. The film is about two missing people that are trapped by a human spider…yeah it’s as odd as it sounds. I first saw this film on a DVD that I got as a screener from Sub Rosa as I was a movie reviewer at the time and invited my pal Jason Gilmore over to watch it as he enjoyed watching terrible films like this with me. I can remember that both of us were amazed by the train wreck we were seeing on the TV screen as Lina Romay wore all types of silly outfits and wigs, and we were both wondering what Quigley and Bauer were thinking when they signed on to make this film as I am sure the money could not have been that good. The film was neither scary nor funny and was in fact more strange and laughable due to just how dumb the script was and not for the humor that was intended. If I remember on the review I did for the film on the Independent B Movie website, I gave it 1 out of 4 stars and was by no means a fan of the film nor was Gilmore, making this another miss for me of “modern” Franco work. Look below for some screen shots of the movie as well as the DVD cover.

Linnea Barbara Quigley was born in Iowa in 1958 where she spent most of her youth until 1976 when the family moved to Los Angeles.  She began working for a health spa, and her friends pushed her into doing some modeling that lead to her first major acting role in 1979’s “Fairy Tales” that lead to more roles in horror style b-films like Don’t Go Near The Park, Graduation Day, The Black Room, Savage Streets and Silent Night Deadly Night to name a few. But in 1985 when she played the part of punk rock chick Trash in the zombie film Return Of The Living Dead is when her popularity exploded and lead to many other classic roles in 80’s horror films like Creepzoids, Nightmare Sisters, Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Dead Heat, Night Of The Demons, and Witchtrap to name a very few. During the 80’s she became one of the biggest horror actresses and was considered the top scream queen of that decade. In the 90’s Quigley’s roles didn’t slowdown as she was in such films as Innocent Blood, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, Stripteaser, Jack-O, Burial Of The Rats, Death Mask, The Killer Eye, Kolobos as well as Jess Franco’s film Mari-Cookie And The Killer Tarantula . Throughout the 2000’s to present day she continues to work in major and minor roles in many types of B-Films on all types of budget levels.  Some of these films that fans would know include Blind Target (another Franco film), Corpses Are Forever, the 2009 remake of Night of the Demons, Terror Toons 3 and is rumored to even be in the remake of the film Crazy Fat Ethel. Some cool things you may or may not know about Linnea are the following: she was in two rock bands, one before she acted in films called Mad Whistle and one after called The Skirts. Linnea was also a Playboy flashdancer and shared a photo with other dancers in a 1983 issue. Linnea has a very tiny cameo in A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master where she is the topless soul trying to bust out of Freddy’s chest in the end shot. Linnea and fellow Scream Queen Brinke Stevens in the 80’s did many adult photo shoots together even one for Playboy. In 1978 Linnea did a nude spread for the biker magazine Easyriders. I have meet Linnea many times via my convention travels and must say she is a sweet, down to earth real person who took her time to always talk to me and treat me as if I was a friend. And while she does that to every fan she meets, it still makes ya feel special and makes you respect her for all she has done in film and beyond. Here is to you Linnea Quigley, thanks for all the years of entertainment and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Speaking of Return Of The Living Dead, did you know that at one point a comic sequel based on a original 1985 script by actor Don Calfa who played mortician Ernie in the original film was in the works in 2008? I didn’t either until earlier this year, and man was I let down when I found out it was completed with a total of 70 pages and that for some reason even in 2014, the comic has not found it’s way out into the hands of the fans of the film and horror comics. The story of the comic would have the military missing dropping the bomb at the right place and by doing this, all the characters you love from the first film are alive and well and trying to figure out a way to stay alive in the zombie filled world around them. The art is done by Gary Smart who later went on to write the book “The Complete History Of Return Of The Living Dead” as well as the upcoming book based around Hellraiser called “Leviathan: The Story Of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II” showing that this comic had the combination of a great script and great artist who knew the source material and knew the characters better than anyone. Years would pass and besides some of the the art work and covers for the graphic novel and even normal comic style covers, no release date was ever set, and last I heard about it was in 2012 when on a message board and a Myspace post said that the comic was stuck in limbo due to the film’s rights holders not being found and getting back to Don and Gary. It’s 2014 and still no comic and all I can say is for godsakes please some comic company get the rights to this comic and get it into all our hands…you owe it to Tarman to do so.

Man I really hope that comic can find a distributor soon. I mean Horrorhound Magazine, if they ever decide to get into the comic game, would be perfect for the release as would IDW if they would have stayed with the MGM Midnight Movie comic lines. But only time will tell if and when this comic will see the light of day. So let’s get to the main event of this update, a look at the photo comic for Mari-Cookie done by those fine sleazy folks at Draculina who also brought us the Lust For Frankenstein photo comic we reviewed back in May 2014. And before we get into the review, I want to give a list of the actress that play parts in this film:  Lina Romay plays Mari-Cookie and The Tarantula, Amber Newman plays Precious, Michelle Bauer plays Sheriff Marga, Linnea Quigley plays Tere and Analia Ivars plays Queen. I want to thank a seller on Amazon for having this comic in stock, and I want to remind everyone once again I grade these on a standard 1-4 star rating and am looking at how well the comic keeps to the source material, its entertainment value, its art and story. So with no more wait let’s get captured in the web of Mari-Cookie And The Killer Tarantula.

Mari-Cookie And The Killer Tarantula # 1    1/2
Released in 1999   Cover Price $4.95   Draculina Comics   #4 of 4

The Tarantula is the Dock’s newest and hottest stripper but with her appearance also has come disappearances that are rocking the community. Mari-Cookie is a goofy woman who is married to Martin and is the prime suspect in the missing person case that female Sheriff Marga wants nothing more than to solve. Mari-Cookie and Martin have a terrible sex life, and her best friend is Tere who just so happens to have a knockout for a daughter named Precious who seems to have caught the eye of many of the town’s females. Sheriff Marga and her Deputy Barney alongside one time most popular stripper Queen are all trying to figure out who The Tarantula is and if she really is linked to the missing people. So Queen uses Precious to attract The Tarantula as she and Martin follow the two, also on the trail is Sheriff Marga who is with Tere who is upset to see her daughter making out with another woman and not with her! In the end The Tarantula, who in fact is really Mari-Cookie and has the power to turn into a spider, convinces the women to throw Martin out of the mansion and Sheriff Marga , Queen, Tere and Precious all join The Tarantula in a orgy. 

Oh My God! This could be the worst comic I have ever read and makes the last Draculina Photo Comic for Lust For Frankenstein seem like a masterpiece! The plot is so rushed and basically at no point do you ever feel like any of the characters matter nor do any of them make any sense. The plot or paper thin story is this: people go missing after visiting a strip club and all are seen with the town’s most popular dancer who in fact is a real life spider who can trans-morph at will who also hides out in the world playing the part of a dim witted blonde housewife.  She is being tracked down by a group of females who by the end of the issue all are in love with her and want to make love to her and her silly Rick James like wig. Mari-Cookie/ The Tarantula is the main baddy of the comic, and she is not scary nor really threatening as all she really wants to do is capture women and some men and make love to them, and forces them to drink a brew that is filled with puss and monkey balls. Her look as The Tarantula is silly as she wears a terrible wig and walks around pretty much nude; she is a bland character. Sheriff Marga is a stuck up mean spirited woman who seems to enjoy making out with women and wants to solve the case not for the good of the town but for her own gain of getting power in the ranks of government. Queen is a hot bitter stripper whose only motivation is to help bring The Tarantula down so that she can be the top stripper again.  She also seems to have some love affair going with Precious who she uses like a dumb dog. Precious is the daughter of Mari-Cookie’s best friend who is hot but also dumb as a box of rocks. Tere is Precious’ mom and friend to Mari-Cookie who likes to suntan by the pool and at some point has fallen in love with her own daughter…yep it’s a sick one. Martin is a waste and is just the husband of Mari-Cookie who likes to screw around behind her back. Deputy Barney is a nobody who does zero in the hunt and there is also The Tarantula’s driver who loves to lick and suck on female toes. This whole comic was such a waste and sadly the only highlight was all the nudity of the Scream Queens.  The comic as zero art and most the pictures used are okay with a few being blurry. The cover is eye catching, and if you’re a Lina Romay fan the image of her will draw you in. This so far is the lowest rated comic I have ever reviewed here on Rotten Ink and was not worth the money I paid for it let alone the original cover price nor the printing coast of the issue. I would say skip it unless you want to take a look at one of the worst comics in history of Horror Comics. Oh yeah the humor in the comic doesn’t work and it never made me smile let alone laugh. And I should say the comic follows the film pretty well, but is a more rushed version with even a character name change as Precious is named Amy in the movie. 

Well I hope this warm up to the main course of November’s updates didn’t turn your stomach too badly.  I mean while the comic was terrible as is the move it’s based on we did get to take a look at Scream Queen Legend Linnea Quigley as well as talk about the needs to be released Revenge Of The Living Dead comic so those are two big pluses. But next will be our Thanksgiving Day update and to keep the tradition of the first, we will be looking at Hercules again this time based on the TV show “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” with comics done by Topps.  So make sure to check back! Until then read a comic or two, support your local Horror Host and watch a horror film because any thing is better than Mari-Cookie!

Ashes To Ashes Burial By Rats

Well this was suppose to be Ghosts of Dracula, but I misplaced the final issue so you get…RATS….. Thousands…. Millions Of Them! All Red Blood! All these will I give you if you only read Rotten Ink! That might not be the exact quote Renfield gave in the 1931 film version of Dracula for Universal Pictures, but it was close. Growing up I liked rodents, and even had two as pets that I got from my neighbor when they were tiny babies when her pet mouse had a litter. They both were little females; one was grey with a white side strip and underbelly who was called Grey Man while the other was just solid white with red eyes and her name was White Man…yeah for some reason my brother and I decided that little female baby mice looked like little people so they got nicknamed men. They were my buddies, and I used to hang out with them all the time as they were well behaved and when letting them run free in my room they never wanted or even tried to escape. Both of them had things they liked to do with me. White Man loved to fall asleep in my lap or on my shoulder while I read comics, books or magazines while Grey Man was all about me playing NES games and would spend time watching the lights on the screen. Both of them were so gentle, and I never once was bitten by either nor was anyone else I let pick them up.  They were perfect pets and well loved by me and my family. They would even take sunflower seeds from your hand and would be so gentle. Sadly as those of you long time readers remember, White Man passed away from a tumor while I was away at camp and Grey Man passed away a short time later. They both lived a long life, and I loved them both equally and miss them as they truly were perfect. I know you’re probably thinking it’s silly that I cared this much for mice, but to me they were just like the cats and dogs I owned, a part of my family. Some time passed before I got another mouse, and when I did I got him from Jack’s Aquarium and Pets.  He was a black and white male named Ben, and yes, he was named after the film that I had seen a number of times on TBS and was even hosted by Grandpa Munster on Super Scary Saturday. Ben was a good little guy.  While moody, he still never bit me and for the most part was chill.  Ben, however, was always trying to escape his cage and would even climb his water bottle and try and push the lid off the cage…he never got away, but man he tried. Ben was very different from Grey and White as he would not sit still for long and only time he would was when he would be on my bed and get warm and fall asleep. After Ben passed away, my next tiny rodent pet was a Hamster called SPG named after the Hamster from the BBC show The Young Ones, and man he was mean and liked to bite even when he was happy! Below are some pictures I took of White Man and Ben, and while a Grey Man one was taken, it was so blurry that it would not scan well.  Sorry, I know these two are bad as well, but I took them when I was a kid.

In 1995, New Concorde Pictures released a film to cable TV and video called “Bram Stoker’s Burial Of The Rats.”  The film was produced by Roger Corman, the master of the B-movie, and was directed by Dan Golden.  It was based on a story by you guessed it Bram Stoker and adapted to screen by a total of 4 writers. The film follows a young Bram Stoker as he is taken prisoner by a rouge group of female bandits called The Rat Women who are ruled by a flute playing queen and seven white mice whose tails are tied called The King. The twisted tale is to show how and why Bram went on to become of the world’s most famous horror story writers. The film stars Kevin Alber, Adrienne Barbeau, Maria Ford, Olga Kabo and in smaller roles actresses Nikki Fritz and Linnea Quigley who each played Rat Women. Now I can remember this on VHS sitting on the shelf of K&L Video and the poster hanging on the wall of the video store for awhile and always trying to get my brother to rent it because it had Maria Ford in it who I really liked at the time but I will get into that more later.  My brother always shot it down and said that it looked boring and would then go for films like Deadtime Stories or Don’t Go Into The Woods. So it would be years after it’s release before I would see it, and I found the film entertaining and goofy and must say Maria Ford looks fantastic as a warrior woman. The film performed badly with critics and fans, and as of 2014 it has a 4.1 out of 10 stars on IMDB. But I don’t want to get too much into the plot of the film here, as the comics we will be covering from Cosmic are the adaptation of the film. But before we move on we will take a look at some of the lovely actresses that are in this film.

Adrienne Barbeau started her career in entertainment in the 1960’s.  After being a Go-Go dancer, she landed some roles in theater in such musicals as Fiddler On The Roof, Grease, The Best Little Whore House In Texas and even a nudie musical called Stag Movie. She left the theater in the 70’s to become a TV star and took roles in such shows as Maude, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, All In The Family and even participated in The Battle Of The Network Stars. Along the way she married horror film director John Carpenter as well as posed for a high selling cheesecake poster that helped spark her rise as a sex symbol and was a topic for drive in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs who helped the actress gain more attention. In 1980 she starred in her first horror picture when she played the lead role in the film The Fog.  She went on to star in many other horror/sci-fi films over the years that include Escape From New York, Creepshow, Swamp Thing, Two Evil Eyes, Unholy and Burial Of The Rats. At this time she also took some roles in comedies that went on to become cult classics like Back To School, Father Hood, The Cannonball Run, Cannibal Women In The Avocado Jungle Of Death and Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island. Barbeau at the time of acting in films still do roles on TV with one of her biggest being the voice of Catwoman on Batman The Animated Series in the 1990’s, and speaking of her voice talent she also lent her pipes to a few video games like God of War III, Halo 4 and Batman: Arkham Asylum. As of 2014, Barneau is 69 years old and shows no signs of slowing down as she is still taking work in movies, TV and video games. Barbeau in acting is known for always playing the tough woman who has the take no crap attitude as well as for her large natural breasts. In the film Burial Of Rats, she plays Queen Rat.

Olga Kabo is a Russian actress and theater performer who at a young age mastered the English language as well as dance and acting as she got her first major role by the age of 15. As she grew up she got more and more roles and became a very popular actress of Russian cinema and was the star in such films as Lysistrara Comedy, Burial Of The Rats and The Ice Runner becoming a sex symbol with these roles. Nowadays, at the age of 46 she spends most of her time acting on stage and still being a popular draw to fans who come to see her perform. In Burial Of The Rats, she plays Rat Woman Anna.

 

In the 1990’s, one woman’s name stood out to me when it came to being in low budget horror and sleaze films and that name also marked another big celebrity crush for me. I first laid eyes on Maria Ford in the 1990 slasher film sequel “Slumber Party Massacre III” where she had darker hair and played the part of Maria. I quickly became a fan of the beauty and began buying her films from local video rental stores with the second film I saw of hers being  “Stripteaser” with many more to follow like “Showgirl Murders”, “Rain Killer”, “Deathstalker IV: Match of the Titans” and “The Unnamable II” to name a few. Something about the skinny blond haired Maria Ford drew me in and I was taken back on just how sexy girl next door she looked. I even got my friend Jason Gilmore to become a fan of hers and by watching her films he also found an actress that he became a fan of named Nikki Fritz. Around this time I would say one my favorite actress in these style of no budget films would be Maria Ford as well as J.J. North and Ariauna Albright, Charlie Spradling, Denice Duff and my top was Tina Krause. I spent so much time and money buying films that had her name on the cover box.  While many were terrible, it was okay because I got to see Maria do her thing and act well even with poor scripts she was given. As I grew older Maria Ford’s roles became fewer and fewer, and the last major one I could remember coming out was one that was released to VHS when I worked at Blockbuster called “Perfect Fit” and that was a dark comedy. Maria Ford also went on to be in a bunch of Cinemax Soft-Core Adult titles and had small roles in many Hollywood films as the cute girl like in “Beethoven’s Fifth” and “The Addams Family Reunion”. She was also on TV with roles on 7^th Heaven and The Drew Carey Show showing that Ford had a lot of talent. While over the years her appearance has changed, I still find myself a fan and would love to work with her sometime in my life.  Could you imagine her being in a Baron Von Porkchop episode…that would be epic! In Burial Of The Rats, she plays the lovely Rat Woman Madeleine. Oh and look at these pics below, and see why the young Matt Brassfield fell in love with Maria Ford! Also I want to say that she is not just an actress but she is also a model and dancer.

From pet rodents to the beauty of Maria Ford, I think we are ready to tackle this comic series don’t you? Now I am sure your wondering why I did not talk about Bram Stoker and his writings, and the simple answer to that is I am going to really cover his career when I take a look at Topps Comics 4 issue run based on the Francis Ford Coppola film “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” and to be honest I am really looking forward to that. Before I do I want to remind my readers I grade these issues on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, it’s entertainment value and it’s art and story. I also want to think Lone Star Comics for having all three of these issues in stock.  So with no more wait let’s go see what it’s like to be Buried Like A Rat!

Burial Of The Rats # 1   **1/2
Released in 1995    Cover Price $2.50    Cosmic Comics    #1 of 3

In 1854, a woman slits the throat of her abusive husband and flees into the sewers where she finds a nest of young rats and is happy to become their Queen. Years pass and it’s now 1864 as Bram Stoker and his father are traveling by coach when their driver is killed by rats, and they are attacked by hooded figures.  During the attack Bram kills one of the assailants and is knocked out and taken to a castle where he is to be judged by The Queen and as for the father he is left knocked out in the middle of the woods. While captured Bram finds that his two capturers are beautiful woman.  Anna has dark hair and a mean spirit, and Madeleine, who is blonde, seems to have a touch of compassion in her. Bram is sentenced to death by a pendulum that he is tied to and after each woman takes turns hitting a switch with a hammer he is lowered deeper and deeper into a pit that holds blood thirsty rats! Anna has the honor of the first hit and Madeleine is to deliver the last which she does half heartedly sparing Bram’s life! Bram is thrown back into his prison cell, and it’s clear that both the Rat Queen and Anna want him dead but Madeleine seems to want to spare his life knowing that he only killed one of their “sisters” trying to protect his father. It’s clear that a bond is happening between Bram and Madeleine as she brings him his book and even bathes him with a wet cloth, but Anna and The Queen have other plans as they want Bram to come along on a raid with the hope of him trying to escape so that they can kill him! As Bram is being prepared for the raid, his father who is tired and beat up makes his way to help…

The first thing I want to say about this comic is the mood is just right and has a real sleazy Roger Corman feel to it. This issue follows a young Bram Stoker way before he wrote Dracula or any of his other horror stories as he becomes a prisoner to The Rat Queen, a crazy woman who plays a flute that controls the city’s rats as well rules over a group of warrior women. Bram Stoker, who is the main focus of this series, is by no means a man’s man in this issue and in fact is shocked when he shoots one of the hooded attackers and after doing so is quickly beat down. Even if he is no Lone Ranger or Tarzan, I find myself cheering for him to survive this bad situation. Madeleine, who was once a prostitute who was forced into being one when her family was murdered, is still a pure and loving woman who is clearly hiding behind a warrior’s attitude. Anna however has nothing but hate in her heart, as she was once a slave who was beaten with whips by a high-ranking village official  While she is a bad girl, I really like the character who you know is also clearly in love with Madeleine. The Rat Queen is a crazy old bat who gets joy in killing men and bossing rats around.  She is clearly one of those characters that you hope meets a very horrible end. The Rat King is pretty kick butt as its seven white rats whose tails are all locked together.  They all wear crowns and love flute music. I must say that so far this adaptation is starting off right because this first issue is very entertaining and is making me looking forward to the second issue. The art of the comic is great and has most the characters looking like the actors that played them in the film and is done by Francisco Solano Lopez who should have been hired to do many more horror movie themed comics! The cover is just a blown up image taken from the films VHS cover box and the poster used to promote the film. So let’s get back to the story and see if Bram tries to flee on the raid or it he will stay and try to be with the lovely Madeleine.

Burial Of The Rats # 2   **1/2
Released in 1995    Cover Price $2.50    Cosmic Comics    #2 of 3

Bam traveled along with the Rat Women as they entered the village and killed all the priests inside the church stealing all the gold and letting the rats eat the flesh off their victims. Bram leaves a blood smeared note in an open book for his father and heads back to the castle with the Rat Women. Madeleine steals a pen and paper and brings it to Bram in his cell and he starts to write about his time with them and talks of the raid he just witnessed. The next day as Bram is reading his writings to Madeleine, Anna over hears it and reports it to the Rat Queen who sneaks up on this happening.  To Anna’s shock, the Queen likes what she is hearing/reading and allows Bram to continue his book in hopes that when it comes out it will make all men fear them! When Bram and Madeleine are alone they confess their love for one another and make love, but that night Bram also has a nightmare that has everyone on the castle turning into Rat People! At dinner Madeleine brings Bram to the feast and he talks The Queen into another raid to save a 12-year-old girl who was busted for stealing and as punishment was sent to work at the whore house.  Anna is against the raid as she feels it’s to soon after the attack on the church by they go ahead and do it anyway. Bram enters the whore house and looks for the young girl and when he finds her a fat slob of a man is in with her, he deals with the man as Anna and Madeleine make their way into the room via the window and all together they save the young girl and the rats have a feats on the fat mans flesh. The raid does not go off without it’s downsides as the madam of the house runs to the police and a witness sees the women and hears them call Bram’s name! As they flee back to their home Madeleine is captured, and Bram is believed to be the ruler of the Rat Women by the police!

Oh the horror of watching rats eat the flesh off of dying men…no, really it’s a pretty cool scene for this second issue in the adaptation. This issue’s main focuses are the fact Bram’s writings have saved him, and he is in love with one of the Rat Women.  They do another raid too soon but it’s all for a good reason to save a young woman and Bram proves that he will do the write thing and is a huge help in the raid and lastly that Bram’s father has not given up on finding his son alive. Bram in this issue while still not a tough guy like Wonder Man or STEEL he is very smart and uses what little power he is gaining from respect from The Rat Queen to his own advantages. I love the fact that he could have easily tried to escape during the second raid but knew that saving the young girl was the more important thing to do. Madeleine is truly a warrior with a heart and while loyal to her fellow Rat Women love is also on her mind. The Rat Queen while crazy also seems to know right from wrong and in a weird way by this issue you as the reader start to wonder who the real bad guys are, given the fact everyone they have murdered has been a terrible person! Anna is filled with not only hate this issue but also jealousy as its clear she wants the affections of Madeleine and despises the fact Bram is getting it and not her. The issue is filled with more rats eating the skin off men’s bones as well as has Anna blowing the neck off a priest who has been molesting women in the church, all gruesome stuff that the horror comic fan in me was very happy to see. The art once more is done by Lopez and is fantastic, but his time around the cover is a little weak and kind of generic or better yet I should say is good for a pin up but not a main cover. Well at this point we have one more issue to go, and then we will be at the end of Bram Stoker’s adventures with the Rat Women.  I don’t know about you, but I really can’t wait to see how this one ends.  So let’s not waste time and dive right in and hope we don’t get eaten alive by the rats.

Burial Of The Rats # 3   **1/2
Released in 1995    Cover Price $2.50    Cosmic Comics    #3 of 3

The Rat Queen and the Rat Women return to the castle and are happy about the night’s raid, but word comes quick that Madeleine has been captured and that one of the other Rat Women is dead! Bram is upset by this news and so is Anna, and the two argue in front of The Rat Queen.  To prove his loyalty to the Rat Women he must pass two tests to be one of them: the first test is to drink the blood of Anna and the second one will be decided by Anna after they rescue Madeleine.  They all rush off to do so and clash with prison guards and army soldiers alike, but the rats and The Rat Women are successful.  This rescue also has some downsides as Bram saves Anna from her old “master” by killing him before he killed her and thus robbing her of her revenge, and second Anna, unbeknownst to anyone else, knocks out and kidnaps Bram’s father! Back to the castle Madeleine is weak but still gets up to watch Bram’s final test set before him by Anna, to stab and kill his own father! When he refuses Anna pulls out a gun and is about to shoot them both, just as she pulls the trigger Madeleine jumps in front of her man and takes the bullet! Anna is tore up that she just shot the woman she loves so she commits suicide and as this happens the army has shown up and attacks the castle killing many of the Rat Women and even Rat Queen dies when she kills the Captain and breaks her flute causing the Rat King and his fellow rats to attack and kill her. In the end Bram, his father and the body of Madeleine escape the castle that is burning and Bram knows now more than ever he must become a writer.

It’s a love triangle that is built on blood, teeth and romance and sadly we all know that for one person it’s not going to end well…and that person is Bram as the rage of Anna leads to Madeleine’s death and then the raven haired beauty commits suicide.  He is robbed of his love and even revenge. This issue brings the whole story to an end and focuses on the rescue and untimely death of Madeleine and shows what events cause a young Bram Stoker to write his classic horror stories like Dracula. Bram in the issue also shows that when pushed he will fight back and kill if he has to, his love for Madeleine was strong so strong that he was willing to throw away his old life to become a full member of The Rat Women. Madeleine in the issue is pretty much at death’s door from the start as she starts off the issue a prisoner where she is being tortured for answers and when rescued she is weak and then gets shot! Poor woman, all she wanted was true love with her soul mate. Anna is a sad case as she really does love Madeleine, and it’s clear to me as a reader that they had something going on before Bram showed up and stole her away. Plus I feel bad for her because she so wanted revenge on the man who beat her when she was a slave but Bram as well took that away from her. Mr. Stoker, Bram’s father, is kind of just a pawn in the story and while he plays a part in how the story unfolds, he just kind of was a background player in terms of how much impact he had on me. Rat Queen turned out to be all right, and all she really wanted in life was to be free of man’s world where women were treated lower than the rats she commanded.  It’s a fitting end for her as she is eaten alive by her King and all the other rats she once commanded. By the end of this issue, it seems as if the men of the evil world around them win as the castle is on fire, the Queen is dead as are many of the other Rat Women making one truly wonder if the right side won. The art by Lopez captures the feeling of the low budget film so well you almost wish the series would have continued with more adventures of young Bram Stoker and what’s left of the Rat Women.  The cover on the last issue as well is pretty good and reminds me of some of the covers used by Eternity for their comic based on The Puppet Master films. Over all this series held true to the film and was entertaining enough that it kept my interest during every issue. If you’re a fan of Bram Stoker, horror comics, the film itself and even comics like Red Sonja and Kull The Conquer then I would say you should check this comic series out. Below are some samples of the artwork used in the comic.

The three issue comic adaptation of the low budget Roger Corman film is packed with blood and gore, a pretty interesting story and characters that are entertaining and capture your interest and for that Cosmic Comics gets a big thumbs up from this comic reader for being able to turn a so-so film into a enjoyable comics. The one thing that is off is while the characters of Madeleine and Anna look like actresses Maria Ford and Olga Kabo, the Rat Queen looks nothing like Adrienne Barbeau as in the comic she looks like a 99-year-old hag! Cosmic also did a few more series based on Roger Corman films like Little Shop of Horrors, Death Race, Caged Heat and Rock N Roll High School and at some point on here I will be sure to cover them.  I would also like to dedicate this update to Roger Corman for being the man when it comes to making and producing B-Movies and to Maria Ford for being a very underrated actress. So next update I am thinking we will take some time away from comics and do another Horror Host Icon, and this time around I think I am going to take a look at the world’s youngest Horror Host Dr. Freak! So make sure to come back for that one as I am sure you’ll learn a thing or two about this zany horror host! So until then read a comic or two and enjoy a B-Movie!