Horror Host Icon: Baron Von Porkchop

Dayton, Ohio really does have its fair share of Horror Host history, with many of them being household names and each meaning something to their viewers. Names like Dr. Creep, The Creeper and A. Ghastlee Ghoul have graced the TV Screens of many late night viewers and each have inspired and entertained generations of Monster Kids and each of them helped shape my creative mind in their own ways. And in 2010 the Dayton market was pretty dry when it came to Horror Hosts as Iris & Retina of Mondo Smash A’Go-Go had slowed down and reruns of New Shock Theater and The Ghastlee Movie Show were hard to find on the access stations DATV and MVCC, and then that void was filled when Baron Von Porkchop and his Terrifying Tales of the Macabre hit DATV like a frightening freight train! And still to this day Baron Von Porkchop is the cities current King of late night viewing and a fan favorite to many. This Horror Host Icon update will be one that will not only talk about Baron Von Porkchop and his Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre, but will also give a little behind the scenes and facts that many do not know. So it’s with great honor and pride that I bring to you readers Horror Host Icon: Baron Von Porkchop. So let’s travel to Porkchop Manor and see what BVP has in store for us.

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Baron Von Porkchop is a ghoul who originally died in the 1800’s after a wagon accident that also left his wife The Baroness dead! The couple was buried in two different locations when their enemy Count Van Lambchop paid for their burials as a fake act of kindness to impress the townspeople of New Burlington. Decades passed and in 2010 Baron and Baroness Von Porkchop where dug up and come back to life and while Ghouls they continue their lives at their now moved Manor as their old town of New Burlington was flooded and the town moved to a hidden location in Ohio. And while their pork meat empire slaughter houses are now closed they did generate money while they were dead and their bank account is well stocked with cash and making it very easy for them to continue on and have all types of adventures around the state of Ohio. Baron Von Porkchop dresses in a nice black coat, with a top hat, blue vest, glasses with a magnifier and has very pale grayish skin. While he is a ghoul he is not a flesh eater and has a very fun loving nature with a hint of an ego. He really enjoys hosting the movies and bringing his viewers his show as his “Piggies” as he calls them are like his close friends. Baron is very much in love with The Baroness as he would do anything to make her happy, and his best friend is the family butler Bean. Baron Von Porkchop besides his show has done lots of cool things in and around Dayton as he has hosted a Halloween Theme Dinner party at Lily’s Bistro, he has been a guest and attended conventions like HorrorHound Weekend, I.C.E. and Cinema Wasteland to name a few. He has hosted movies at theaters Englewood Cinema and Danbarry Huber Heights. He has hosted verity show “Dirty Little Secrets” at Wiley’s Comedy Club. At Gilly’s Jazz club an event called “Baron’s Ball” was held that had many great music acts play for Baron and his guests, not to mention he even hosted the freakshow event called “Captain Johnny’s Whiz Bang” at Gilly’s. He has attended Halloween Parties for fans and even has done charity events. Plus he has appeared in comic books namely “Shocking Macabre Theater” by Sparkle Comics. As you can see Baron does lots of great things for fans to enjoy, and he has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. Stephen Alexander II is the man who plays Baron Von Porkchop and is not only my cousin but also was a founding member of the “Gem City Gentlemen Of The Gilded Beard” a beard club that did events for charity, he also is a writer for comic book company Sparkle Comics and is a pretty creative guy who also makes custom Funko Pop! Figures, creates enamel pins and repairs old smoking pipes.

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Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre began in 2010 and started airing on DATV, MVCC and The Monster Channel with host Baron Von Porkchop and took viewers by storm as the area of Dayton, Ohio was in need of an active Horror Host as many of the hosts had taken time away or retired. Out the gate Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre gained a great following with loyal viewers who enjoyed Baron Von Porkchop and the crazy world around him. The show is still going strong as of 2021 and has had a number of regular episodes as well as many specials, showing that BVP is here to stay! The show is one that takes Baron all around the city of Dayton as well as conventions and events and even has guests and story arches…it’s like a Horror Host sitcom wrapped around cheesy films. Baron on the show not only hosts classic public domain films but also hosts many independent films of all types of budgets. Baron has even hosted wrestling matches from Rockstar Pro Wrestling for a special. Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre is a staple of Dayton airwaves and still has many more episodes and specials to come.

But did you know that Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre was original going to be new episodes of Shock Theater and was slated to be the return of Dr. Creep as Dayton’s Horror Host? For years Dr. Creep and I talked about bringing his show back as while his health was on a decline he had the itch to get back to hosting movies and entertaining viewers. So to prepare for his return I wrote out several episode ideas and decided to film a Horror Host show that would be just seen by my friends in order to truly get ready for Dr. Creep’s return. So while chatting with my cousin Stephen we decided that he would act as the host and the name Baron Von Porkchop was created by me due to his sideburns. We came up with an idea of Baron going fishing to capture a Creature From The Black Lagoon type fish monster in order to serve him to dinner guests, Baron was more of a snarling sinister type Host with a toned down voice, in other words he was more played on fear and not laughs. We choose the movie Night Fright to host and once filmed I made generic opening credits for the show we were calling “Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre” and once edited I burnt it onto a DVD and gave copies to a few fiends including Rick Martin and Andy Copp both who brought back Dr. Creep with New Shock Theater back in the late 90’s, and the response we got from the episode and Baron Von Porkchop was overwhelming with everyone saying that we should do more episodes and turn him into an ongoing Horror Host! Andy Copp told me he thought I had something special with Baron and even said that he could get it aired on public access station DATV, and with those kind words among many others Stephen and I decided that we would indeed keep Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre as it’s own series and when Dr. Creep’s health would get better I would do both shows! Sadly Dr. Creep’s health only got worse and on January 14, 2011 the world lost this amazing man and host, and this was very sad for not only Dayton but for all who enjoyed Dr. Creep’s antics.

As the show grew I knew that I had to cast my friend and then co-worker Stephanie Stidham in the show so she became Baroness Von Porkchop, and the show just kept growing from there. While working on Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre BVP has had the pleasure of working with many of the Horror Hosts from Dayton’s past like A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Dr. Freak and Iris & Retina and this to me shows the bond that our area hosts have together. Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre has become a true Friday night tradition for many viewers as we have gotten fan snail mail and emails from viewers as even our home station of DATV has gotten mail about how much the shows means to our viewers and one amazing thing was a local retirement home have movie nights watching Baron! Heck even during the 2020 pandemic we even filmed a few Specials to help our viewers out and give them some laughs during the hard time. I truly love creating the show Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre alongside my cousin Stephen and we have more ideas and spooky, silly adventures planned for Baron coming up over the next few years.

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As like all good Horror Hosted shows Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre has it’s fair share of amazing cohosts and sidekicks that live in and around the Porkchop Manor. The lovely Baroness Von Porkchop is the voice of reason when it comes to the decisions made in and around the Manor, she is elegant and stunning and was a former Miss Slaughterhouse Pageant winner and is one of New Burlington’s most beautiful women, The Baroness is played by Stephanie Stidham. Bean is the longtime hunchback butler for the Porkchop’s and is the one who for over a century took care of Porkchop Manor and is responsible for finding them and bringing them back to life, he is a silly goofy man who helps BVP get into all types of wacky adventures and always encourages his off the wall and lazy ways. Bean is played by Bruce Lerma who is the nephew of Horror Hosts Iris and Retina from Mondo Smash A’ Go-Go! Jenkins The Pigman was the first pigman experiment that BVP and Bean created and they decided not to kill him for his meat and keep him as a member of the manor, Jenkins is very strong and also has a darkside and will do whatever he can to protect Baron and Baroness. Jenkins The Pigman was played originally by Gary Wolf and later on by myself among others. The manors cook is JD The Meatman a loyal and skilled meat cutter who has worked for Baron in his old slaughterhouse and now works in his kitchen, JD is played by artist Eric Shonborn. Viola Poison was at one time the maid for Porkchop Manor and was skilled in not only cleaning but also using Poison, she also had a massive crush on the Baron and this is what lead to her leaving the Manor, Viola was played by Emily Marshall. And these are the main sidekick characters that make up Porkchop Manor!

Baroness Von PorkchopBeanJenkins The PigmanJ.D. The MeatmanViola Poison

The Baron also has some friends in and around town that includes his neighbors Sleazy Tom a laid back ladies man who while sleazy does have a good heart who was played by Max Ervin (who sadly passed away in 2013) and on the other side is Mr. G the lizard headed mascot form the closed down Renaissance Music Media store who is enjoying retirement and is still played by Geoff Burkman. The Son Of Hercules a strong man of myth and legend and is one of Barons best friends and is played by Mike Ritchie. Melvin is a monster-faced goofball who is the helper of Stephen Von Frankenstein and enjoys hanging out with Baron and is his Halloween buddy, Melvin is played by the legendary local actor Josh Weinberg! And this is just a drop in the hat of the townies that live in New Burlington as names like Oliver The Werewolf, Mr. Pepperton, Susie The DJ, Beerwolf, Wolf Hunter Duke, BK King, Reporter Ted The Fox, Mr. O and so many others make up the townies.

Sleazy TomMr. GSon of HerculesMelvin

Also Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre has had some review hosts that make up one of the shows segments with the original being Reverend Zealot who brought back The Cult Corner that he use to do on New Shock Theater that was hosted by Dr. Creep! Filmmaker Andrew Copp played Reverend Zealot for the second season and sadly he passed away in 2013 making another loss for the show. Brett does video game reviews on his Bad Or Rad segment that started in the third season and he is blogger Brett Prescott. Both Zealot and Brett help make episodes of Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre more special for viewers and both are vital to making the show even more fun.

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But while BVP has his fair share of friends he also has those in New Burlington who dislike him and the fact he hosts movies for viewers of Public Access, and these sticks in the mud want to end Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre…or even take it over! His main nemesis is Count Van Lambchop the poultry King played by Thomas Smith who is extremely competitive and is upset that he did not become the host of Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre as he and his wife the lovely Countess Van Lambchop played by Jaimie Mazzone were resurrected before the Von Porkchops. They also have a very loyal butler named Cornbread who dislikes Baron, but he truly cannot stand Bean! The three of them do whatever they can to annoy and be thorns in the side of Baron as they think they should be the center of attention. The next major hater of BVP is Baron Von Porkchop Jr. played by musician Todd The Fox is a crazy fraud he has the people of New Burlington believing that he is truly his son, he is manipulative as well as short tempered and dangerous! And this is just a drop in the hat of the villains of the show as names like Chicken Man, Fulci Zombie, Headless Horseman, The Sadness, Crazed Fan and David J. Getz also cause issues. Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre is like no other Horror Host show from the area as it truly does have a massive world and tons of characters that make it up.

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When Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre started up as a full show I spent so much time building the world of New Burlington and knew that I wanted it to be filled with all types of townies from normal people, monsters, retired mascots and even movie characters from indie made films…and one other character that was planned was Baby Von Porkchop who was going to be The Baron and Baroness’s daughter that was going to be played by my friend KD Cyr, the character would have been stuck in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and would have sent video messages to her parents about her adventures from the haunted woods. You see KD lived near the barrens and was a creative soul that I meet on social media and we hit it off as both of us loved Horror and cheesy movies, and when creating the character I had her 100% in mind and she as well helped create the attitude and storyline for Baby. I was so excited to have her on board for the show and at one point an episode was planned that would have had Baron, Baroness and Bean heading into the Pine Barrens to find her only to have a run in with the Jersey Devil of course! KD would do some trial run footage with a friend and make-up designs, but would never share as she always said that footage was bad as she was nervous in it, and I would encourage her and of course put no stress on her. We put off the characters debut so that she could find what worked for her with playing Baby, and all was going well. But sadly in 2015 the world lost a truly amazing person as KD passed away from a car accident when a reckless driver crashed into the back of her car. Truly heartbreaking news when I found out and even if she never made an appearance on the show she is still to all of us a part of our cast family, and I felt it was only right when writing about the show that she gets the respect she deserves. My deepest sympathy goes to her family and friends as she was an amazing and creative soul.

KD Cyr Baby Von Porkchop

One thing that I love seeing is fan art done by our viewers as well as just fans of Horror Hosting and over the years we have gotten some pretty amazing pieces of art sent to us! Crazy even some of the artists have who sent us some of the art ended up being on the show! As a creator of Baron Von Porkchop and Sparkle Comics when anyone takes the time to make art for us it’s very appreciated and we love seeing them! Below is some art from many of the talented artists who have drawn BVP over the years. And I want to also send out a massive thank you to everyone who has ever sent us fan art or done art featuring Baron Von Porkchop or any of the cast of Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre. Artwork below features ones done by Brett Prescott, Eric Shonborn, MonkeyGoatBoy and Bradley Beard.

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Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre has had many regular episodes as well as specials over the years and each of them I enjoyed making, being apart of and even watching, but one has always stood out as the most important episode to me and that was Episode 8 as it was the tribute to the late Dr. Creep who passed away before the episode was filmed. The original idea for the episode was it was suppose to be Baron Von Porkchop hosting a dinner party that the guest of honor was to be Dr. Creep who would have taken over the episode sharing stories of his years of being a Horror Host and they would have hosted a Bela Lugosi film. But sadly Dr. Creep who was in poor health passed away on January 14, 2011 at the age of 69, and this was a sad day for all of Ohio and those of use who grew up watching Dr. Creep and knew the man behind the grease paint. And the episode that was suppose to be his comeback to TV ended up being turned into a celebration of his life and memory. The episode was turned into The Baron and Baroness throwing a dinner party to honor Dr. Creep’s memory and had many of his friends on talk about his life and tell fun stories. Many names showed up like A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Dr. Freak, Jeff McClellan, Rick Martin, Geraldo The Hunchback, Reverend Zealot, Mr. G and even characters like Melvin, Duke The Wolf Hunter and Son Of Hercules showed up to pay respects. After the guests shared their stories we showed classic clips of Dr. Creep from Shock Theater. It was very magical hearing each of these guys sharing their stories of traveling, hanging out and working with Dr. Creep. Many also told stories of meeting him for the first time or shared stories he had told them…it was very magical and was something that I hope he would have been proud of. Below is a picture from that film shoot with all the people involved in one shot. Well I need to also say thanks to Juliet Fromholt, Emily Marshall, Maurice Smith, Josh Weinberg and Eric Shonborn all who helped makes the special possible but are not in the picture.

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For me one of the greatest honors of doing and creating this show was when on September 11, 2021 when Baron Von Porkchop was inducted into the Horror Host Hall Of Fame as part of the 2020 class in Ohio! BVP took his place with the other Icons from Dayton that was placed in the Hall Of Fame like Dr. Creep, A. Ghastlee Ghoul and The Creeper! This introduction was well attended and BVP was inducted by “The Mummy and The Monkey” an amazing Horror Host duo from Cleveland, Ohio. It was really cool seeing Baron on stage getting the honor of being inducted in, as the years of hard work paid off and it was awesome to see the fans clap for him to get this honor. While the Hall Of Fame was very odd as it was a smaller event due to the on going pandemic and some audio issues plagued the start of the ceremony it was something very special for BVP and myself.

Baron Von Porkchop and his Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre as you can see is a show that has became a main stay in Dayton, Ohio and has expanded to the world thanks to the online stations like The Monster Channel and even the online viewing streams of DATV and MVCC. And really one of the biggest honors making this show is getting feedback from the fans as well as being inducted into the Horror Host Hall Of Fame thanks to fan votes as well as votes from his peers. And we are now at the point of this review to talk about the episodes and I decided to not cover all of the episodes of Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre as I will cover Baron Von Porkchop again in the future so I decided to cover seasons one and two as well as the specials that went along with those two seasons. The movies plots will be taken from our pals at IMDB with some being written by myself as well as all the hosts segments. So if you are ready lets spend sometime at Porkchop Manor and have some fun with BVP and his friends that make up New Burlington.

Baron Episode 1

TTOTM: House On Haunted Hill
Starring – Vincent Price & Carol Ohmart         Not Rated       1959

Host: Earl The Gravedigger leads Baroness Von Porkchop and Bean to a dug up gravesite and when the coffin opens its Baron Von Porkchop! Once back at the manor that is located in New Burlington they get cleaning as the place is dusty and Baron even meets his neighbor Sleazy Tom for the first time that wants him to watch his 1900 # dating ad. In the end Baron informs the Piggies at home that we will be returning next week with a new spooky film to share with them.

Movie: Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his 4th wife, Annabelle, have invited 5 people to the house on Haunted Hill for a “haunted House” party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.

Baron Episode 2

TTOTM: Driller Killer
Starring – Abel Ferrara & Carolyn Marz     Not Rated     1979

Host: Baron Von Porkchop and his friend and butler Bean are working in the manors garage on making a pig man in order to raise and then slaughter and sell his meat as Pig Man Sausage! Throughout the episode Baron and Bean work on the Pigman trying to give him life and add organs as well as use electricity to try and start his heart. In the end when all looks as if it has failed the Pigman rockets up to life and runs from the garage…Baron and Bean end the issue by shooting the Pigman dead so that he would not run amuck in New Burlington.

Movie: Reno is an artist struggling to survive in NYC. He draws inspiration from scenes of daily street life and occasional random violence. Under pressure to finish his oft-delayed grand masterpiece, his psychotic alter-ego takes over and he begins killing random vagrants to boost his creativity, not quite realizing that it is happening in reality. When an art dealer grimly rejects Reno’s finished masterpiece, Reno’s mental condition quickly deteriorates.

Baron Episode 3

TTOTM: Frankenstein ‘80
Starring – Gordon Mitchell & Xiro Papas     Not Rated     1972

Host: While walking through the woods Baron Von Porkchop runs into a weird looking creature man named Melvin who informs him that Stephen Von Frankenstein needs his help! As Baron follows Melvin to Castle Frankenstein he is told by Stephen that his Monster is now free and wondering the woods! So Baron along with Melvin go looking for The Monster only to find him in a very bad mood!

Movie: A mad scientist creates a monster called “Mosaico,” who breaks out of the laboratory to hunt down and kill beautiful women.

Baron Episode 4

TTOTM: Ulysses Against The Son Of Hercules
Starring – Mike Lane & Georges Marchal     Not Rated     1962

Host: Baron, Baroness and Bean get a call from The Son Of Hercules that he needs their help in order to get back a golden apple that is in the hands of an old witch that is inside a haunted collage! So brave Baron and Bean take the quest and leave Baroness behind, while on the quest the encounter a zombie and ghosts before coming face to face with the witch…the coward out and run away before getting the apple. On their way back to face The Son Of Hercules they are coming up with a story in why they failed in the quest only to be greeted by the Baroness who had went the quest along and retrieved the apple!

Movie: Ulysses offends the gods by blinding the Cyclops, so they send Hercules to capture him and bring him to them.

Baron Episode 5

TTOTM: Five Minutes To Live
Starring – Johnny Cash & Ron Howard     Not Rated     1961

Host: Baron and Baroness head to grocery store Big Bear in Lebanon, Ohio in order to sell them his freshly made Pigman sausage as when he was alive that chain was very much into stocking his quality pork products. But to their horror Big Bear is out of business and hanging around was one of the stores old managers who tells them they should sell their meat by going door to door…and Baron and Baroness do just that and turn it into a computation on who can sell more! The split up and meet all types of strange people trying to sell them this meat…in the end The Baroness comes out the winner!

Movie: Fred narrates the film in flashback, detailing a suburban bank robbery that goes awry. In his simple plan, he hires a hard-up hood, Johnny Cabot to take the wife of the bank’s vice president hostage. Cabot will hold her until he gets a call alerting him that Fred has been successful in getting ransom money. Cabot waits, and watches the Wilson house as the husband leaves for the bank and their young son heads off to school. Posing as a door-to-door guitar instructor, he forces his way into the house and takes Nancy Wilson hostage. At the bank, Fred talks his way into Ken Wilson’s office, and presents his personal check for $70,000, intending that Wilson will withdraw the funds to cover the check as a ransom for his wife. He has Wilson call home to prove that Nancy is being held by the unstable Cabot, and gives Wilson 5 minutes to make his.

Baron Episode 6

TTOTM: Fury Of The Wolfman
Starring – Paul Naschy & Perla Cristal     Rated PG     1972

Host: Baron Von Porkchop gets the invite of a lifetime as he is able to sit down and have a one of one interview with world famous werewolf hunter Duke! Duke The Wolf Hunter was seen in the second shot on video film “The Wolf Hunter II” and shares is secrets of hunting down werewolf scum. Also along for this amazing interview is Bean who is star struck by the hunter, as well as a heck of a lot of blood sucking Cicadas who are trying to ruin Baron’s show!

Movie: Waldimar Daninsky, a lone survivor of a Tibetian expedition, returns home to find his wife has been unfaithful to him. Carrying the curse of the pentagram (or pentagon, as stated by the monk who nursed him back to health), the fury of the wolfman is unleashed! After disposing of his cheating spouse, he finds himself captive in a castle by a female mad scientist conducting mind control experiments. In a vein attempt at escape, he discovers the freaks left over from past experiments dwelling in the dungeons.

Baron Episode 7

TTOTM: Night Fright
Starring – John Agar & Dorothy Davis     Not Rated     1967

Host: Baron Von Porkchop is going fishing to try and snag a fish creature using Beans brain as bait! He is trying his hardest to capture this creature as he wants to serve his meat to his dinner guests that are gathering the next episode to honor the late great Dr. Creep! In the end Baron is able to snag the creature!

Movie: A government space experiment into the effects of cosmic rays on animal life goes horribly wrong, creating a mutant monster that terrorizes a rural community.

Baron Episode 8

TTOTM: Dr. Creep Tribute
Starring – Dr. Creep & Dow Thomas     Not Rated     1970-1990

Host: Baron and Baroness Von Porkchop are throwing a dinner part to honor Dr. Creep the Dayton, Ohio iconic Horror Host. They have JD The Meatman cook up the Creature Meat and have snacks and treats for the guests as Bean escorts them to the dinner table. Guests include Rick Martin, A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Jeff McClellan American, Dr. Freak, Geraldo The Hunchback, Duke The Wolf Hunter, Son Of Hercules, Melvin, Mr. G and Reverend Zealot and they all share amazing and fun Dr. Creep stories and myths.

Movie: Clips of Dr. Creep over the ages from his shows Shock Theatre, Saturday Night Dead and New Shock Theater. As well as some of his public appearances over the years at events.

Baron Episode 9

TTOTM: Independent Short Films
Starring – Dave Wean & Kipp Poe     Not Rated     1990’s-2000’s

Host: The Baroness wants Baron and Bean to clean up the garage as its getting out of hand with boxes that is filled with old media, toys and forgotten relics…but cleaning is no fun so they decide to dig out some independently made horror short films and share them with the Piggies at home! They also find out that Mr. G has moved in next-door and he as well shares a short film! And when all said and done Baron and Bean do nothing and the Baroness is not very happy!

Movie: Indie short films shown on this episode are “The Cask Amontillado”, “Dreadful”, “Callback”, “Songs In The Key Of Satan” and “Outpost 31”.

Baron Episode 10

TTOTM: Phantom From 10,000 Leagues
Starring – Dave Wean & Kipp Poe     Not Rated     1955

Host: Baron Von Porkchop is very distracted from hosting the nights film as he has gotten himself a video game console and is playing the game Space Invaders as he thinks that by playing the game he is saving the Earth. He is so focused that he is ignoring the issues of the manor as well as his wife The Baroness and friends Sleazy Tom, Bean and Jenkins The Pigman!

Movie: An unusual radioactive rock on the sea bottom mutates the ocean life into a horrible monster. When charred, radioactive bodies begin to drift ashore a scientist and government agent investigate the phenomenon, and it’s connection to a local marine biology professor.

Baron Epiosde 11

TTOTM: Quiet Nights Of Blood And Pain
Starring – Amanda DeLotelle & Loren Goins     Not Rated     2009

Host: Baron Von Porkchop has cult indie filmmaker Andy Copp over to the manor to chat about his legacy of making films, television shows as well as his work with Dr. Creep. And of course Bean is around to make sure their guest is uncomfortable or is that comfortable?

Movie: The movie deals with two soldiers home from the Iraq war suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but in vastly different ways. One see’s her life falling apart in night-terrors, flashbacks, insomnia, and a total lack of government support. The other still believes he is fighting the war now that he is back on American soil. Still convinced he is supposed to torture and kill any and everyone who can be viewed as Anti-American. Soon they will be at a crossroads and blood will be flooding the American streets.

Baron Episode 12

TTOTM: White Pongo
Starring – Richard Fraser & Maris Wrixon     Not Rated     1945

Host: Baron Von Porkchop and Bean are on the hunt for a creature that broke into the manor and stole one of the Baronesses little figures! The two head to the woods and soon find that they are looking for a Were-Gorilla, and they try to get the item back as well as avoid its rage.

Movie: Suspecting that a safari guide is a wanted killer, undercover policeman Geoffrey Bishop joins a safari led by the suspect for a scientist that hopes to find and prove that a fabled white gorilla is a missing link.

Baron Episode 13

TTOTM: I Eat Your Skin
Starring – William Joyce & Heather Hewitt     Rated PG     1971

Host: Baron and Baroness Von Porkchop get a visitor who claims he is their long lost son, but the thing is they never had a son! Baron Von Porkchop Jr. starts to be a menace around the manor as well as starts to interfere in the personal life and business life of Baron that causes him lots of issues. But it’s soon seen that BVP Jr. is not stable and Baron must find a way to get ride of him once and for all.

Movie: A cancer researcher on a remote Caribbean island discovers that by treating the natives with snake venom he can turn them into bug-eyed zombies. Uninterested in this information, the unfortunate man is forced by his evil employer to create an army of the creatures in order to conquer the world.

Baron Episode 14

TTOTM: Atomic Age Vampire
Starring – Susanne Loret & Alberto Lupo     Not Rated     1960

Host: Baron Von Porkchop is forced to find a job as Baroness is sick of him just hanging around the manor so he gets hired to be a DJ at New Burlington’s radio station. And of course Baron has no clue what he is doing and causes all kinds of havoc on the air as well as broadcasting dead air!! And as fast as he is hired he hides so they can not fire him.

Movie: A stripper is horribly disfigured in a car accident. A brilliant scientist develops a treatment that restores her beauty and falls in love with her. To preserve her appearance the doctor must give her additional treatments using glands taken from murdered women. His unexplained ability to turn into a hideous monster helps with this problem but does nothing to win her love. The doctor’s woes multiply as the police and the girl’s boyfriend begin to close in on him.

Baron Episode 15

TTOTM: Wolf Hunter 1 & 2
Starring – Matt Hoffman & Jason Gilmore     Not Rated     2001/2006

Host: Baron Von Porkchop heads to the werewolf infested Malice’s Bridge in order to get an interview with the famous Wolf Hunter, but he soon finds out that the hero is not showing up but instead he is being stalked by many werewolves from Independent B Movie films like Scars, Red-Eye, Man-Beast and Oliver. But lucky for BVP his luck foils many of their attempts to make him dinner.

Movie: The Wolf Hunter: Malice king of all werewolves is rampaging in Ohio and a business owners daughter has been kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend who is now a werewolf and the states only hope is The Wolf Hunter. Wolf Hunter 2: Malice is still on the loose and now his biggest rival Ravenger has entered Ohio and a werewolf turf war is about to go down, and The Wolf Hunter who is trying to kill off the werewolves and keep order has his own issues when Duke another Wolf Hunter is called in. Can the two work together and stop this werewolf invasion?

Baron Episode 16

TTOTM: Vampire
Starring – John Beal & Coleen Grey     Not Rated     1957

Host: Baron and Baroness Von Porkchop get sad news that their butler and friend Bean has to leave the manor as he has found a wife and plans on starting his own family. And now Baron and Baroness must hold interviews in order to find his replacement and all types of people show up in order to get the job and some of them are perfect fits while others are weirdoes. In the end BVP shoots them all down before hiring maid Viola Poison strictly on her good looks. Lots of cool cameos in this episode including Geraldo The Hunchback from New Shock Theater.

Movie: A kind, small-town doctor mistakenly ingests pills made from vampire bat blood and they turn him into a dangerous fanged creature.

Baron Episode 17

TTOTM: Legend Of Bigfoot
Starring – Ivan Marx & Peggy Marx     Rated PG     1975

Host: Baron Von Porkchop gets fellow Dayton, Ohio Horror Hosts Iris & Retina to help him hunt down a Bigfoot as he needs the creatures meat in order to make his famous BigFoot Chili to enter into the New Burlington Chili Cook-Off! The Horror Hosts wonder around the woods and hear the yells of the creature as well as find the evidence that they need to know they are on the right track. And in the end Baron is able to take down one of the creatures.

Movie: A documentary about the legendary creature, Bigfoot, with emphasis on him being the missing link.

Baron Episode 18

TTOTM: Undertaker And His Pals
Starring – Warrene Ott & James Westmoreland     Rated R     1966

Host: Baron Von Porkchop has brought his whole crew (Baroness Von Porkchop, Jenkins The Pigman, JD The Meatman and Viola Poison) to the New Burlington Chili Cook-Off as he has entered his famous Bigfoot Chili, but the compotation is heavy as rival Count Van Lambchop and his wife The Countess has also entered their chili in the contest. Viola and Jenkins try to help rig the voting by messing with others chili as Baron and the Count continue their life long feud. With a panel of guest judges that include musicians and comic book artists it’s a chili showdown for who takes first place. This episode also has a cameo from Bean!

Movie: An undertaker and his two friends, who are restaurant owners, drum up business by going out on the town and killing people; the restaurant owners use parts of the bodies for their menu, and the undertaker gets paid by the families to bury the remainder. Their racket goes awry when 2 detectives suspect that something isn’t quite kosher.

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Now that we have taken a look at the first two seasons (season three and on will be for another future update) lets take a look at the special episodes that when along with these first two seasons.

Son of Hercules Special

Son Of Hercules Power Hours: Samson
Starring – Brad Harris & Mara Berni     Not Rated       1961

Host: The Son Of Hercules hosts his own show that was a failed TV Polit that he was trying to get TBS to air in the 1980’s. This special has Son Of Hercules giving work out tips, arm wrestling an alien as well as showing his love for heavy metal music. A silly fun time with the Mighty Son of Hercules!

Movie: While traveling through the kingdom of Sulom, Samson is arrested and finds that the queen no longer reigns and that a power-mad warlord and his army of mercenaries now controls the kingdom. Samson teams up with some of his one-time adversaries to battle the usurper and restore the rightful queen to power.

Baron Halloween Episode 1

BVP Halloween Special 1: The Sadness
Starring – Jason Young & Garrison Kane     Not Rated       2006

Host: Baron Von Porkchop celebrates Halloween by going to the site of The Sadness Collage Murders, and once there he starts coming across bodies and thinks that the students are adding the spooky holiday festivities, but the Baron soon realizes that The Sadness has returned to the scene of the crime and that Baron might just be his next victim.

Movie: A young collage student witnesses the murder of her next door neighbor and makes the mistake of talking about it on her friends radio show, and now the killer knows as The Sadness has shown up to the collage and wants to silence her and her friends forever as he never leaves a witness behind.

Baron Beards of Science Special

BVP Charity Special: Abraham Lincoln
Starring – Walter Huston & Ian Keith   Not Rated       1930

Host: Baron Von Porkchop and Count Van Lambchop are having an argument about the location of Lambchop’s new poultry farm when the zombie of Abbe Lincoln and his subjects come back from the grave and are hungry for brains and both Barons and Counts look good to them, so now the two foes must survive together in order to escape the zombie version of America’s 16th President. Done for the Gem City Gentlemen Of The Gilded Beard charity event.

Movie: Brief vignettes about Lincoln’s early life include his birth, early jobs, (unsubstantiated) affair with Ann Rutledge, courtship of Mary Todd, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates; his presidency and the Civil War are followed in somewhat more detail, though without actual battle scenes; film concludes with the assassination.

Baron Halloween Episode 2

BVP Halloween Special 2: Werewolf Of Ohio
Starring – Josh Weinberg & Matt Hoffman     Not Rated       2001

Host: Baron Von Porkchop and his friend Melvin are going trick or treating and Baron is not following the safety rules and is making all kinds of mistakes, but they soon meet an old man who tells them the story of The Headless Horseman, and little does Baron know that The Headless Horseman is now in New Burlington and has his site on making this Halloween very fighting for our Horror Host.

Movie: Josh is a young man who’s family has been killed by a werewolf and has spent his life trying to track and kill the beast, now with a trusty Cameraman and the world famous Wolf Hunter he tracks down this killer beast for one final showdown.

Baron Horrorhound 2012

BVP HorrorHound 2012 Special: Corpse Vanishes
Starring – Bela Lugosi & Luana Walters     Not Rated       1942

Host: Baron Von Porkchop is a guest at the HorrorHound 2012 convention and has decided to leave Viola Posion and Susie The DJ in charge of his table as he goes on a quest to find and win the heart of Horror Hostess Marlena Midnite of Midnite Mausileum. And while on his quest he stops along the way to talk to his fellow Horror Hosts as well as celeberties in attendance including Gunner Hansen and Doug Bradley. And when Baron finds her will he win her over or chicken out.

Movie: Dr. Lorenz, a mad scientist, wants to keep his elderly wife young. He does this by kidnapping young females and extracting fluid from them. He then injects this fluid into his wife.

Baron Arcade Special

BVP Arcade Special: Beast of Yucca Flats
Starring – Tor Johnson & Conrad Brooks     Not Rated       1961

Host: Baron Von Porkchop heads to the store Game Swap as they have just gotten in a new Pac Man Arcade Machine for play and he is annoyed that he has to wait in line as all he wants to do is play a game of Pac Man and even has brought his tip book as well as Jenkins The Pigman along for the experience. But will Baron be able to play a game before the store closes as the line is long and his anger is rising.

Movie: A defecting Soviet scientist is hit by a nuclear explosion near Yucca Flats and roams around as a beast.

Baron Halloween Special 3

BVP Halloween Special 3: Indie Short Films
Starring – Stephen Alexander & Zach Prater     Not Rated       1990’s-2000’s

Host: Baron Von Porkchop and Melvin are dared to stay the night in the haunted graveyard of Dr. Freak by JD The Meatman and with snack food in hand and shaky nerves the two hang out and tell each other ghost stories that are really short films from Indie Horror Film directors. But when Horror Host Dr. Freak shows up will be mad about his trespassing guests or will he join in on the spooky tales of terror this Halloween night.

Movie: Indie Films show are “El Toro 2”, “Hellraiser: Warehouse”, “Mummy vs. The Stalker”, “The Return Of Freddy”, “Bark At The Moon: Malice”, “Bark At The Moon: Scars”, “Nightmare” and “High Hopes”.

Baron Black Friday Special 1

BVP Black Friday Special 1: Farmer Joe
Starring – Mike Ritchie & Henrique Couto     Not Rated       2001

Host: Baron Von Porkchop has made a half man and half chicken creature that was suppose to be for Thanksgiving but had pitty on the creature and let him live, but now the Chicken creature is a menace and is always on his cell phone and is just rude to everyone he comes across! Baron goes to get advice from the BK and learns that he must kill his creation with an ax, but can he do it?

Movie: Danny is a young kid who is being bullied and on a dare goes to a haunted farm and summons the spirit of the crazed Farmer Joe who is out for revenge on the man who sold him bad seeds and ruined his harvest many years ago, but he also has Danny and his bullies on his radar of death, can Danny’s Dad save his sons life and soul, or is all hope lost now that Farmer Joe has returned.

Baron Halloween Special 4

BVP Halloween Special 4: White Zombie
Starring – Bela Lugosi & Madge Bellamy     Not Rated       1932

Host: Baron Von Porkchop and Melvin this Halloween decided to rent a small cabin in the country to get away from all of the craziness that they have been through the past three years, but unlucky for them the Fulci Zombie an ax swinging undead serial killer is around and wants to make them both dead! But will Baron and Melvin figure out a way to stop this murdering rampage or will they just be more victims on his ever-growing list.

Movie: A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.

Baron Black Friday Special 2

BVP Black Friday Special 2: Razor
Starring – Jason Gilmore & Josh Weinberg     Not Rated       2002

Host: Chicken Man is back and is running all around New Burlington causing issues for all the locals and making them all very angry, and they want to know who is the man behind this menace and many point the finger at Count Van Lambchop and Baron now must stop his creation before the town discovers the truth that this cell phone texting annoying chicken is his doing.

Movie: A young man is plagued with memories of a past he seems to have lived and a father who was pure evil, now Mike must unravel a mystery that all leads to a blood drinking killer that has been around for centuries and try and figure out how his life and past are tied to this psycho.

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Baron Von Porkchop is a Horror Host that has brought Dayton, Ohio and beyond viewers laughs, scares and cheesy movies for over 10 years now and the cast of characters that make up New Burlington have all did their part to make this show special. And from the bottom of my heart I want to think every cast member and every fan that has made Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre must see TV and apart of your life, as well as make the dreams of this blogger come true as I have always wanted to create my own show and I cannot think of a better person to create this show with then my cousin Stephen. And like I have said this will not be the only Horror Host Icon update about Baron Von Porkchop so you fans, friends and readers will have more to look forward to in the future. But now lets talk about our next update that will be our Halloween update and will take us away from the world of Horror Hosts and into the world of SOV Horror as we look at a 1990’s gem called “Hatchet”! So until next time, read a comic or three, watch an indie film or two and as always support your local Horror Host. See you next update for some VHS Horror Fun.

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Horror Host Icon: A. Ghastlee Ghoul

It’s late night in Dayton, Ohio and you are flipping stations waiting for the midnight hour so that you can turn to public access and catch a Horror Host that was like none other in your area. His show was a mix of Night Flight and Shock Theater and was filled with crude humor and off the wall skits, and if you were lucky the episode might have porn clips (minus all nudity) set to the song “She’ll Be Coming Around The Mountain”! This magical show was called The Ghastlee Movie Show, and its host was A. Ghastlee Ghoul. No joke, this was on my must-watch list every week as this show was so crazy, so fun and so off the wall, it really was something I looked forward to watching while relaxing in my room after a long week of school and laughing my butt off to Ghastlee and his cohorts’ zany segments and skits.

While Dayton has had its fair share of Horror Hosts like Dr. Creep, The Creeper, Dr. Freak, Baron Von Porkchop and Iris & Retina and all of them are top notch, there is only one A. Ghastlee Ghoul. It’s my complete honor to bring you readers this very special Horror Host Icon update that is all about the one and only master of the late night puns, A. Ghastlee Ghoul!

The Ghastlee Movie Show started in 1991 and was spawned off another public access comedy show called “The Underground Sideshow” from 1988 as it started off as a skit about a reluctant Horror Host. And with that skit, a new breed of Horror Host show was born in Dayton as it took over the time slot of the show that spawned it and became a late night hit with viewers.

The show lasted for decades, and Ghastlee was a Horror Host that I can remember kids talking about once I moved from Waynesville to Kettering as everyone enjoyed the rapid fire pacing and the chaos of the skits with the use of music and visuals. His show was like nothing seen before from a Horror Host…at least in our area!

A. Ghastlee Ghoul became such a popular host that he also began appearing on other local access shows like “Media Only” and even “New Shock Theater,” teaming him with one of his biggest inspirations, Dr. Creep! Ghastlee’s zany show even helped spawn the world youngest Horror Host Dr. Freak and this even lead to him appearing on his show “Cult Theater” and giving the film Zombie 4 the old “Mystery Science Theater 3000” treatment. The show’s popularity among public access viewers grew and this lead to A. Ghastlee Ghoul becoming the official second most popular Horror Host in the Dayton market and lead to so many other cool appearances that we will get into a little later.

One of The Ghastlee Movie Show’s most watched episodes had him starring at the camera the whole time looking sad, and this both worried and puzzled viewers as they just didn’t understand what was going on…and that was the point and it had them coming back for more! Over the years The Ghastlee Movie show has slowed down with new episodes coming only in the form of the occasional special or Ghastlee appearing on other shows like Baron Von Porkchops Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre. But while The Ghastlee Movie Show might be entertaining viewers and fans with reruns right now, plans of new episodes are in the works as of this update! I will say never count A. Ghastlee Ghoul out as who knows when a new Ghastlee Movie Show will emerge from the depths of Dayton and introduce a new breed of viewers to this innovative and one of a kind show.

When I first moved from Waynesville to Kettering, I hated it so much as I was always the strange monster kid who loved to talk about Horror Movies and draw pictures of monsters and demons…and this new school was not about it as the kids were all fine but 97% of the staff was not and thought I was in some sort of cult and was dangerous…it was the satanic panic all over again! But while Kettering Schools sucked ass, it was during this time that I discovered The Ghastlee Movie Show. I had seen him on other shows like “Media Only,” but while here in Kettering I really got to discover just how amazing his show was.

I watched every Friday night and would even tape it and watch the reruns. His show was that mesmerizing to this then-teenage monster kid. My favorite episode to watch was when he hosted the film The Manster as he inserted himself into the movie and did some great comedy bits that fit perfectly with the events of the film. I also saw his starting at the camera episode and watched the whole thing…in fact several times…I know that explains a lot!

I first got to meet Ghastlee in person at one of the Horrorama Movie Marathon events and became life long friends with him when I answered a trivia question about his show and won a prize. After this, Ghastlee and I emailed each other from time to time, and I was even lucky enough to be on his show once (more on that later) and would go to events he was hosting like screenings at Neon Movies. We also both would be at many of the same conventions once my friends and I started the SOV film company Independent B Movie.

A. Ghastlee Ghoul is like a second father to me and has always watched out for me as well as has always been around when needed and has supported all my weird creative outlets as I have always been around for him. He is a true friend who has helped inspire many of my projects including the creation of Horror Host Baron Von Porkchop that I created back in 2010 alongside my cousin Stephen. I am a very lucky person as I have lots of great people in my life, and I am lucky to call many of the Horror Hosts I grew up watching friends like A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Dr. Creep, Dr. Freak, The Creeper and Iris & Retina of Mondo Smash A’Go-Go all who are Dayton Hosts. So here is a big thank you to Bob Hinton, the man behind A. Ghastlee Ghoul for all his years of friendship and for being an amazing Horror Host and a great person.

A. Ghastlee Ghoul was just that – a ghoul who has a pail white face, a goatee and long hair who has a twisted and fun sense of humor and is filled with random and off the wall thoughts and jokes. His original look was wearing all black with a long black coat and a strange looking glove that was deformed looking. His attire would later change to a long red & black coat with a red hat, and this became his signature look.

Ghastlee’s sense of humor is a little twisted, and he has no filter and a manic style of hosting. While Ghastlee has hosted films, he mostly was known for hosting clips that had a gonzo style of editing that included clips of adult films mixed with old commercials and horror movies all set to music. While a ghoul, A. Ghastlee Ghoul is not the flesh eating kind and is more of the pun infested kind who enjoys making people laugh as well as become shocked by his brand of humor.

Besides his show and hosting movies, Ghastlee is also known for playing in bands in the area as well as hosting a radio show, making him a multi talented Ghoul! Besides being the host of The Ghastlee Movie Show, he has also guest starred and hosted many other shows like New Shock Theater, Cult Theater, Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre, The Spooky Movie, Weird Web Theater and many more! While A. Ghastlee Ghoul might not be of the flesh eating variety, this Ghoul how ever is the type to both humor and frighten you with his quick wit and zany personality.

Like any good Horror Host show, the Ghastlee Movie Show has its fair share of co-hosts and sidekicks! With one of the early ones being the one and only Uncle Jasper! But then was added Lou The XXX-Mas Devil, who is smooth and a ladies man and an amazing co-host that adds lots of fun moments to the show. Then came Jeff McClellan, American, a cigar chomping pro American who has strong right views. Grimsburger The Doorman was his grunting, raw meat-eating doorman, and lastly was the Horror Hostess Suspira who added a horror lady charm to the show. Plus over the ages he had many other guests that include Dr. Creep, Dow Thomas, Dr. Freak and Baron Von Wolfstein! And for those who might not know, I once played a character on his show and was called “Son Of A. Ghastlee Ghoul” who was indeed a fraud when his real life daughter showed up and fronted me out! That was such a fun time, and the episode had both not only me but also my pal Jason Gilmore. All the co-hosts are so important to this show and each added their own touch to making Ghastlee Movie Show even more special for viewers.

Good old Ghastlee has also spread his madness to many great events as well as he is a staple at many conventions over the years with his main appearance being at Cinema Wasteland in Strongsville, Ohio where he even hosts an event called “Ghastlee Night At The Movies” that showcases his zany games and even musical performances and this is a staple for Wastelanders. In 2004 Ghastlee even had his own convention here in Dayton at the Convention Center called “Ghastlee’s Scary Camp” that was a great time for everyone who attended and had many great guests like Sid Haig, Conrad Brooks, Bill Hinzman and Heather Leigh Davis to name a few, not to mention David “The Rock” Nelson was also running around!

A. Ghastlee Ghoul also has been in many bands around here with his two most popular bands being Rat Sass and Splattertude, and they have played at many great venues and has even had “A. Ghastlee Night At Gilly’s” events at the classic Gilly’s Jazz Club! He has live hosted movies at theaters like Neon Movies, Page Manor, Englewood Cinema and even Danbarry Huber Heights and even has co-hosted charity movie marathon Horrorama off and on for years. He also did Frightfest, a meet and great at a Blockbuster Video in Middletown, a very cool idea that brought video rental store and Horror Host together. He has written many short stories as well as co-authored the cult classic novel “Underpants Of The Dead” as well as wrote two of the stories used in the comic book series “Shocking Macabre Theater” that also showcases Ghastlee as one of the main characters! Not to mention he has even hosted comedy and freakshow acts alongside Baron Von Porkchop at Wiley’s Comedy Club!

In his early days as Bob Hinton, he ran many haunted houses….and this is just a drop in the hat of all the amazing things A. Ghastlee Ghoul has done in and around the Ohio area, showing that this Horror Host and the man behind it truly is a creative mastermind. Oh man I should also say that in 2004 he made the horror comedy film “Joe Nosferatu: Homeless Vampire” that also showcased many other Horror Hosts including Dr. Creep & Dr. Freak! And he even has done radio with his show “Wackadoo Wax Radio” with co-host Comrade X…man A. Ghastlee Ghoul/Bob Hinton really is a man of many talents! One more thing that is very important to Horror Host fans around the world is Ghastlee is also one of the founding creators of The Horror Host Underground, a very cool group that allowed viewers from all around the U.S to see hosts from other states!

On March 19, 2016 at Horrorhound Weekend, the “2016 Class of the Horror Host Hall Of Fame” induction took place and in this class was the one and only A. Ghastlee Ghoul. To me this was long over due as Ghastlee truly is an iconic host who had a style all to his own, setting him apart from the pack. For this event Ghastlee was inducted by Halloween Jack and Baron Von Wolfstein, and I was honored that he wanted me on stage with him during this time for him to be honored for all his years of hard work being a Horror Host. A. Ghastlee Ghoul was joined in his class by the likes of Feep, Ivonna Cadaver, The Great Zucchini and Ghost Host to name a few. It was great to see Ghastlee get the respect and honor he 100% deserved as he really is a true icon of Horror Hosting and has done so much for Hosting on screen and off it!

Shocking Macabre Theater has two issues released by Sparkle Comics so far and features Dayton’s best Horror Hosts like Dr. Creep, The Creeper, Baron Von Porkchop and of course A. Ghastlee Ghoul all sharing scary stories with the readers. Artist Damien Brunk is the one who brings the host parts alive on the pages. But what people do not know is that when Sparkle Comics first started in 2016, one of the first comics in development was a comic based on A. Ghastlee Ghoul that would have him and Lou The XXX-Mas Devil going on Scooby-Doo style adventures. The art for this series was going to be done by my friend Brett Prescott who also would have helped write the adventures along with myself, and we would have had A. Ghastlee Ghoul also help with the stories. The idea would have taken Ghastlee and Lou all over the state of Ohio and would have had them running into local legend monsters as well as would have had an enemy known as The Phantom who would wear all black and would almost be like the Super Goof baddy Phantom Blot but way more sinister and mean. This sadly got sidelined and never made it into full production as we mostly just worked on character designs and loose plotlines. As of now, the comic is one the list of comics that are no longer being developed, but who knows, maybe one day Brett and I will work on this comic series and at least deliver a one shot issue. Check out some of the art design below to see how this comic would have looked.

Before we get to the episodes, I would like to take a moment to talk about his most iconic one in which Ghastlee starred at the camera for 30 minutes straight as candle smoke entered the frame. The watchers of Dayton public access were mesmerized by this episode as it was met with mixed reactions! Many viewers just watched in amazement to try and figure out if Ghastlee was pulling a joke; many others thought he was trying to steal their souls or hypnotize them and it was part of some sort of devil worshiping ritual! When I saw the show when it originally aired, I picked up more of a sad vibe, almost like Ghastlee’s heart had been broken and this was his way of dealing with it. Ghastlee himself would go on and say that the episode was an experiment to see if people would watch the full episode and find a meaning in it. This episode lives on still to this day as people who love Dayton, Ohio Horror Hosts talk about this episode amongst themselves, I think one amazing thing about this episode is the fact that people wrote in to the station to complain about it and this causes major stress between Ghastlee and the station. This episode is truly one that needs to be seen as it’s one of the oddest episodes of The Ghastlee Movie Show you will ever see.

So as you can see, A. Ghastlee Ghoul is a true Dayton original Horror Host entertainer who has entertained, confused and inspired many viewers over the years of his show. And now it’s time for me to take a look at some of the shows I have of A. Ghastlee Ghoul on DVD as part of my horror host collection. I want to thank Bob Hinton himself for getting me almost all of these episodes as well as fellow Horror Host tape traders. I do not give these episodes a star rating and the host segments are written by me with the films’ write-ups coming from our pals at IMDB. I am also not going to cover the DVDs of “Best Of The Ghastlee Movie Show” nor “Grimsburger Raw” as those are clip shows and I want to showcase the full episodes. I also have a ton of episodes and these are the ones I selected at random to showcase The Ghastlee Movie Show. Some of these episodes are the ones that made me a fan all those years back. So if you’re ready, let’s dive into the weird and wild world of A. Ghastlee Ghoul and his movie show!

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Alcohol Patch
Starring – Uncle Jasper & Erin Ghoul         Not Rated       2000

Host: Ghastlee, wearing a fur coat, is hanging out with Uncle Jasper and once more welcoming us to the show with his super quick wit and racy humor. He also talks about the theme of the year as well as how only 141 people watch his show. He also showcases the new alcohol patch and then brings on a group of teens who are his live audience. He talks more about the patch and interviews the teens and shows some random clips and skits before ending the show. Also his daughter shows up to end the show properly as he is on the alcohol patch.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Anther Dimension
Starring – A. Ghastlee Ghoul   Not Rated   1998

Host: Ghastlee joins you from another dimension to host the night’s show and treat us to soothing music over psychedelic colors and images. Ghastlee returns to warn the viewers about being trapped in another dimension and tells them all not to get stuck in one as it’s bad! Then back to the music; this time set to clips from movies. Ghastlee comes back and asks for help to escape from the other dimension and that really this episode is just a concept as he has run out of ideas! Then back to clips and skits that include classic skits used on classic episodes. Ghastlee joins the viewers again from the dimension and ushers them out of the episode.

Note From Matt: This is episode 52 of The Ghastlee Movie Show.

Ghastlee Movie Show: Bad Trip At Creepy Crick
Starring – Jesse Nutt & Gary Davis     Not Rated       1992

Host: Ghastlee shows up a little way into the movie and is upset they started the show without him and is even more mad they are showing this shot on video B-movie! Next time we show Ghastlee, he is on set and shows a fake commercial for foot care. And when the film is over, Ghastlee enters the film and beats the actors with a stick! He also shows a music video and a Little Lulu cartoon.

Movie: A group of friends are fishing at a small creek and are warned by a Monster Hunter that a fish monster is on the loose and people have been turning up dead! The group of friends decide to stay instead of leave and to their horror the monster shows up! The group of friends turn the table on the monster and find that the creature is in fact not real and is just the Monster Hunter dressed up. And in the end a twist happens and the film quickly ends.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Bill
Starring – Bill Hicks       Not Rated     1994

Host: A. Ghastlee Ghoul is sitting in his home and is ranting about how companies are using music from the likes of John Lennon and Janis Joplin to sell products! He also does a silly musical bit about Seattle as well as talks about his sadness of the passing of Bill Hicks.

Movie: What is shown is the last stand-up act of comedian Bill Hicks in Arkansas.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Chili Cook Off
Starring – Dr. Creep & Dave Sullivan     Not Rated   2002

Host: Ghastlee Ghoul, alongside Jeff McClellan, is heading to an Irish Pub in Brookville to meet with Horror Host Icon Dr. Creep to eat chili at a cook off! Also on hand to eat chili is Wild Man Dave Sullivan of show Media Only. Ghastlee and crew eat chili and rate it and are having a great time do so for charity. In the end, they event takes to long to pick a winner, and Ghastlee lets the viewers know in his book # 28 was the winner.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Coming Around The Mountain
Starring – Dr. Creep        Not Rated       1997

Host: Ghastlee starts the show talking about his show being “TV M” and that people should tune in because boobs. And he takes jabs at the city of Moraine as well as terrible commercials being aired. He then shows the classic “She’ll Be Coming Around The Mountain” skit that has the song mixed with porn clips. And then he talks about his most viewed episode –  of him just starring in the camera the whole episode and the how people complained about it. We then show Ghastlee with Dr. Creep at the Inferno club talking about running for President. And once more he starts up about being TV M and how raunchy he can be now because of it and proceeds to tell dirty jokes.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Community Watch
Starring – A. Ghastlee Ghoul      Not Rated       1993

Host: A. Ghastlee Ghoul is very concerned about the community and wants to talk about censorship of books and how terrible it is that a local church is doing book burnings and how terrible it is that libraries are taking books off shelves. Ghastlee returns to his normal set and talks a little about the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula and says the movie sucks! We are then treated to skits and music montages clipped together in Ghastlee fashion. This episode also shows a live White Zombie video filmed here in Dayton, Ohio. In the end, Ghastlee makes more jokes and thanks viewers for watching.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Death Of A Rude Dude
Starring – Rick Martin & Dr. Creep     Not Rated     1995

Host: On his set Ghastlee tells some jokes and then shows a short film called “Death Of A Really Rude Dude” that ends up just being about him bragging about himself to the female workers of Public Access. And later in his set, Ghastlee starts drinking and being angry with his crew and has a guest named A. Smithee who was flown in from Hollywood. Smithee gets upset when he realizes that Ghastlee has never seen one of his films. After Smithee storms off the set, he plays a few funny spots, and then gets a visit from Dr. Creep minus his makeup who warns him to change his behavior, and after the visit he goes to the control room and gets a package that has a dead rat in it. Once back on his set he talks about boobs on public access and asks viewers if they would like to see them, and once more Dr. Creep visits with a warning, as Ghastlee keeps being rude and crude and his final warning comes while Ghastlee is in the restroom. In the end A. Smithee grabs a knife and stalks Ghastlee down the halls, and finally Smithee with a samurai sword cuts off Ghastlee’s hand and head!

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Elvis Lives
Starring – Lou Vuto     Not Rated     1993

Host: Ghastlee welcomes us to his show while he tells some crude and silly jokes on his set. He also interviews an Elvis impersonator named Lou Vuto and even ends the show lip-synching to an Elvis song.

Movie: The movie section of this episode is clips and music mixed together in a Night Flight kind of way. Also thrown in are some silly skits from Ghastlee and his old comedy troop of friends. Also plays a few Elvis inspired music videos that include the animated “All Dug Up” video of a skeleton Elvis in his coffin.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Episode
Starring – A. Ghastlee Ghoul & Jimmy Hoffa   Not Rated   1991

Host: This starts with Ghastlee doing a skit about hair loss and a hair club that will help you grow hair…because you are a werewolf! Ghastlee Ghoul emerges from a black and red screen and welcomes the viewers to the show and tells some Halloween and Pee-Wee Herman jokes and does a skit about Jeffrey Dahmer. Ghastlee next talks to a chunk of concrete that is Jimmy Hoffa and a filmmaker who claims he has slept with many famous females. Ghastlee then tells some news from the afterlife and then his friends go and share “ghost” stories. Ghastlee returns and has a segment called “Be Funny Or Be Dead” and if they win they get free White Castle burgers for life or die by them; the comedian dies by a giant burger. Ghastlee ends the show dancing and telling the viewers he will see them next week.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Episode 4
Starring – Sock Puppets         Not Rated       1992    

Host: This episode starts with a man being killed with a hammer, and then Ghastlee starts the episode singing the blues with funny lyrics, that then goes into a talk about discrimination against the dead. And then he goes into silly skits about MTV Camera school that teaches you how to film young women. He then shows Night Of The Living Dead done with sock puppets, and Ghastlee is mad as he thought it was the real film! Ghastlee fires his producer and shows cheesy trailers for fake movies, and then reads the plots for some movies that he could possibly show. Ghastlee then just shows some clip style music video he put together.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Episode 18
Starring – A. Ghastlee Ghoul & Angry Neighbors     Not Rated     1993

Host: Ghastlee starts the show off with his set going crazy and then tells some of his normal crude and funny jokes about dead people and Dhamer! And after skits he returns with some more crude jokes and takes us to a segment called “Life’s Eternal Mysteries.” Then he goes to a White Zombie music video and then a skit about an old people stunt school. Back on the set, Ghastlee is visited by two guys that want to throw Ghastlee out of the neighborhood as they think he is causing issues with their TV as well as all the buried skeletons…and a mob is outside waiting to railroad him out of town for good! Ghastlee escapes, and then he shows a few more skits before the show ends.

Note From Matt: This episode is a little rough in quality at the start.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Episode 59
Starring – The Clapper     Not Rated   1999

Host: The episode starts with a Betty Boop cartoon set to music, and then we are treated to clips and music! The clip is from an old Sword and Sandal movie ,and he has a man clap over and over as a man whips a female prisoner as more clips are overlaid with music and voices added.

Note From Matt: This episode was dubbed the “Labor Show”.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Episode 62
Starring – Erin Ghoul & Dave Sullivam           Not Rated           2000

Host: We start with a skit making fun of hillbillies and Kentucky, and then we are treated to some music over clips. Ghastlee is shown dancing around and falls when his daughter Erin shows up and opens the show. He then takes back over and starts his quick-witted jokes once again. And after dancing and falling again, we are shown more clips set to music and sound effects. Then he shows the trailer for the unreleased horror comedy film “Stop It Your Killing Me!” Back to Ghastlee on the set who ends up talking Wild Man Dave Sullivan for public access show “Media Only” and the pair go back and fourth. We then get some music performance by a metal band. Wild Man and Ghastlee once more share shots back and fourth and then talk about how Public Access is Free TV. We then cut to music with clips, and then Erin Ghoul ends the show and tells viewers not to watch her dad’s show as it rots your brain!

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Episode 64
Starring – Uncle Jasper & Lou The XXX-Mas Devil     Not Rated     2000

Host: This episode Ghastlee is on set and is on the phone stretching his leg high up over his head and is shocked when the viewers are there! He then shows some clips from Neon Movies and one of his Ghastlee Night At The Movie events he held in the theater. During this he also shows shout-outs from other horror hosts like The Ghastly One, Count Gore de Vol and Halloween Jack! And then to the Cannibal Harry’s fake commercial along with other odd skits are played. And then there’s more footage from Neon Movies of Uncle Jasper on guitar playing Werewolves Of London as the crowd howls!

Note From Matt: Sadly this episode has a few audio issues from the master tape at the start of the episode.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Episode 70
Starring – Count Gore De Vol     Not Rated     2000 

Host: This episode starts with clips of Ghastlee, almost like a greatest hits package and then shows a vampire girl mixed with weird clips and footage of Blair Witch Project with the song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” playing over it. And then he shows a trailer for a film called “The Devil’s Sex Slave” and then as well shows clip from a SOV horror comedy film. And then once more we go into a crazy music videos of clips from all types of movies, shows and videos set to different music tracks. He plays a fake foul car commercial followed by the zombie Elvis “All Dug Up” animated video. And then we get a quick message from Horror Host Legend Count Gore De Vol about Ghastlee Ghoul. We then go back to the music videos one being the video for “Terror” by the band My Ruin that is mixed with movie clips.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Equinox
Starring – Edward Connell & Barbara Hewitt       Rated PG       1970

Host: A. Ghastlee Ghoul is in the bathtub with the Necronomicon, and horror hostess Madame Mortem reads from the book and finds that a curse has been put into place that has all horror hosts having to host the 1970 film Equinox! The next break we get a visit from Count Gore de Vol who talks about the real equinox. Next up are Remo D and the following Professor Griffin, Dr. Fear, Halloween Jack, Dr. Creep, Dr. Sarcofiguy, Bone Jangler and more with Ghastlee showing up throughout to spread his zany brand of humor and ends the show with a singing SpongeBob SquarePants and the Necronomicon!

Movie: Four teenagers go on a woods hike and encounter a creepy forest ranger and a crazy old man. The old man is a scientist who had found a mysterious book bound in human skin, the Necronomicon, and when he had read its cryptic symbols it conjured monsters into existence. The teenagers keep the book, and are then pursued by monsters, a demonic cult, and the ranger. The ranger turns out to be a red flying devil in human disguise.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Frightvision
Starring – Jeff McClellan & Sleazy P. Martini      Not Rated      2000  

Host: A. Ghastlee Ghoul is at Frightvision Convention and is meeting with his fans and takes a few moments to also chat with his fellow Horror Hosts and celebrities like DJ Neil, Sleazy P. Martini of GWAR, and he is joined by Jeff McClellan, American. Ghastlee also shows off his view from his hotel room and shows Jeff dancing on his bed to the song “Jungle Boogie.” Jeff also wanders around and films the antics of the convention, and Ghastlee at one point walks around and chats with some folks. He also shows a clip of Sleazy P.’s new video at the time.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Get Out Of Hell Card
Starring – A. Ghastlee Ghoul       Not Rated       1992

Host: Ghastlee is on his set and is paranoid about people being after him, and then comes the Ghastlee style quick wit jokes! Ghastlee then does an impersonation of George Takei of Star Trek fame and then tries his best to do a female auction and all the girls tell him NO to being on the show. In-between Ghastlee’s jokes, we are treated to music video set to clips and cartoons. In the end after making some God jokes, he tries to use his Get Out Of Hell Free Card and the set blows up in a ball of fire!

Note From Matt: The end of this episode has lots of bad tracking issues and while you can hear it the picture is gone for long moments. And finally before the episodes over the recording stops.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Giant Gila Monster
Starring – Don Sullivan & Fred Graham         Not Rated           1959

Host: Ghastlee Ghoul decides to host the movie The Giant Gila Monster and puts himself in the motion picture and cuts jokes and delivers snarky remarks. And Ghastlee does this for the whole movie with funny results. We later cut to Ghastlee on his set as he has a guest that was a man who was once eaten by a Gila Monster, but when he finds that his guest was a fraud, he really does feed him to a Gila Monster! Then we go back to the movie, and once more Ghastlee inserts himself into it. At intermission Ghastlee eats something from the bottom of his boot and shows a fake coffee commercial before going back to the movie.

Movie: A couple of teenagers are reported missing in a small Texas town, and it is thought they eloped. Sheriff Jeff turns to his friend Clarence Winstead, a garage mechanic and leader of a hot-rod gang, for help. After a series of tragic motor accidents, it becomes apparent that a giant Gila monster is roaming the area depleting the town of its citizens and visitors, including two hot-rodding teens, and planning to attend the BIG record-hop party.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Ghastlee Yule ‘94
Starring – Scott Huff & Dow Thomas     Not Rated     1994

Host: The episode opens with the song Christmas in Heaven set to all types of clips. Ghastlee on his set is with the body of his dead neighbor as a young woman in a bikini dances around. He then shares more clips and skits including 1800-HiScott about a chubby man who charges you to chat with him as well as Scott’s parade footage, and then Ghastlee on his set again ushers us to more skits including Dow Thomas singing Jingle Bells as Bob Dylan. Dow Thomas then joins Ghastlee on the set and gives Ghastlee a skull for Christmas and then treats the viewers to a couple of songs. Ghastlee breaks down the film “It’s A Wonderful Life” and then we get more skit clips. Ghastlee then talks to a man claiming to be Santa, and then a clip of an elf who is mad about his treatment. Ghastlee next talks to a guy named Bo, who talks about seeing Santa and being kidnapped by him! In the end he ushers the viewers out of the episode with a song by Dow Thomas.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Ghastlee Yule ‘98
Starring – Dow Thomas & Scott Huff     Not Rated     1998

Host: Like always, this Ghastlee Yule starts with some music and clips and we then join Ghastlee in studio covered in Christmas garland and is singing his own Christmas song about getting sex for the holiday. He then tells viewers that as always he will be running reruns and so starts skits from the past Ghastlee Yule specials that include “1900-HiScott”, Dow Thomas singing Christmas songs, Bikini woman dancing and of course Ghastlee talking about Christmas in off the wall ways.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Ghastlee Yule ‘06
Starring – Suspira & Jeff McClellan     Not Rated       2006

Host: A. Ghastlee Ghoul is on his set along with Jeff McClellan, Grimsburger The Doorman and Suspira. While she plays the video 12 Days of Christmas and animated short, Ghastlee leads the guys in carols about William Shatner. Next Suspira and Mayhem Zann of the band Splattertude give a quick gross countdown, and then we are treated to a Christmas Cartoon. Later Ghastlee has a massive joint and then ushers us into a Bob Hope picture being set on fire after he tells some fun jokes. We then are treated to some classic segment from past Ghastlee Yule specials. In the end Ghastlee and his crew wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and he does a William Shatner impersonation on reading the twelve days of Christmas.

Note From Matt: Sadly most of the end credits are missing from this episode

The Ghastlee Movie Show: HorrorFind 2001 Pt. 1
Starring – Bruce Campbell & Michael Berryman    Not Rated     2001

Host: A. Ghastlee Ghoul and Jeff McClellan are at HorrorFind 2001 Convention and are walking around showing the amazing stuff for sale as well as showcase some of the stars on hand at the event. Ghastlee takes a moment and talks to Michael Berryman from the Hills Have Eyes. He next talks to Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell about making movies and the pair zing off each other. Ghastlee next films the costume contest at the event hosted by Count Gore de Vol and Bruce Campbell…in the end after the winner is picked the show ends.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: HorrorFind 2001 Pt. 2
Starring – Edgar Allen Poe & Drew Williams     Not Rated     2001

Host: Ghastlee and Jeff McClellan are still at Horrorfind Weekend, and before they show more convention hijinks they visit the grave of Edgar Allen Poe and Ghastlee reads a passage from one of Poe’s story. Ghastlee then shows a few moments of Horrorfind, and then we join Jeff McClellan at the grave of Poe and he as well reads a passage! Then back to Horrorfind, and then they walk around a haunted house that was apart of the convention! He then has an interview with Phantasm actor Reggie Bannister, and the pair talk trees, politics and guitars. He then interviews special effects god Tom Savini, and they chat all about getting home after a long weekend.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: I’m Sick
Starring – A. Ghastlee Ghoul      Not Rated       1993

Host: The show starts off with clips as Type Of Negative music plays as well as other rock music, and as well as an animated Jerky Boys prank call. We catch up with Ghastlee who is sick in bed and is under covers and whining and farting….but really he is faking it and wants to go out and party! We are then treated to more clips, music and odd skits and even a Type O Negative music video for Black # 1. We next join Ghastlee as he is throwing up in the toilet, and we go to another music video as the show ends.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Jan-Gel
Starring – Conrad Brooks & Dale Clukey       Not Rated      2000

Host: Ghastlee and Jeff McClellan are on set with a VHS copy of the film Jan-Gel made by director/actor Conrad Brooks! They both take shots at the film as well as Conrad Brooks as they are clearly not fans and say that the film is the worst film in history. And of course throughout the film Ghastlee adds in his own edits and sound bits. He comes back and talks to Athens, Ohio Horror Host Lizzy Ax (who as far as I know never did one episode), and they usher us back to the cheesy movie. When we join Ghastlee next he is with his neighbor and they once more poke fun at the film and then take us back to the film. In the end Ghastlee with Lizzy wraps up the episode by showcasing his show and once more trashing the night’s film. And then we are treated to a music video that features clips from Chris Seaver film “Mulva Zombie Ass-Kicker”.

Host: Without doubt, the most intriguing caveman epic of our time. Jan-Gel, thawed from his 50,000 year sleep, dedicates his new life in the present day to mutilating anyone he can find as he roams the hills of Maryland and West Virginia. Dresses in a leopard skin, and not much else, he wreaks havoc and still finds the time to fall in love with young Beth Simmons. However, special agents Conrad Brooks and Gary West are hot on his trail. Can they stop him before he finds his next victim?

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Jeff McClellan
Starring – Jeff McClellan     Not Rated     1999

Host: This episode has A. Ghastlee Ghoul welcoming Dr. Creep back to Horror Hosting with his public access show New Shock Theater! Ghastlee also lets the viewers know that this marks his 10 years on the air and that he is going to start throwing crap at the viewers and see what sticks…but Ghastlee is soon taken off the air when Jeff McClellan American shows up and hijacks the show and answers calls from viewers giving his pro American advice. In the end, Jeff McClellan pulls out a gun and Ghastlee rushes him and the episode ends with a cliffhanger!

Note From Matt: This appears to be the first appearance of the co-host character Jeff McClellan American and makes this a true key episode in the series as Jeff would go on to be the one of the shows most popular co-hosts. This is also episode # 55.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Jeff McClellan Pt. 2
Starring – Jeff McClellan    Not Rated     1999

Host: This episode has Jeff McClellan having a debate on who will be the host of the show with A. Ghastlee Ghoul who is being backed up by Lou The XXX-Mas Devil and as their secret weapon they bring porn clips to try and get the votes. The pair take calls from viewers and give answers to questions that are all off the wall and with the dash of the classic crude humor. The debate ends with a to be continued!

Note From Matt: This is the second appearance of Jeff McClellan and is also episode 56!

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Koala
Starring – Stuffed Animal & Candles       Not Rated      2000

Host: This episode is just a plush toy koala bear sitting on a counter with candles and incense lit as music plays from bands like Type Of Negative, Phish, Journey and Jim Croce. The whole episode goes this way.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Lap Dance Computer
Starring – Corn Dervish       Not Rated      1999

Host: A. Ghastlee Ghoul has gotten himself a Lap Dance Computer and has fun with the machine and even runs around the set naked! He even has a fan join him on the episode named Corn Dervish! Not to mention, Ghastlee as always has his fair share of clips set to music to entertain the late night viewers, and after messing with Corn, he ends the night’s episode with looking on the bright side of life.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Leslie Nielsen
Starring – Leslie Nielsen & Green Jello     Not Rated     1993

Host: Ghastlee is on his set and starts the show off by telling some jokes and is mad that viewers are mad about him showing White Zombie videos and instead shows a video from the band Green Jello that was filmed in Dayton, Ohio. After the video, Ghastlee shows some things that fans have sent him in the mail like a glass, VHS tape and sunglasses. He next shows a segment of Grace Jones reading Little Red Riding to kids that of course ends with her freaking them out. Ghastlee next pops on and chats with Leslie Nielsen, and the interview goes awkward and the man turns out to be a fraud and is really be a human bomb that explodes on set. In the end, we are treated to another Green Jello live shot video from Dayton.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: The Manster
Starring – Peter Dyneley & Jane Hylton       Not Rated         1959

Host: In this episode Ghastlee decides to host the movie Manster and adds a twist as he adds himself into the film as well as gives his own joke remarks during scenes! And I mean really, Ghastlee shows up on screen in the movie and cuts jokes and one-liners! During a break in the movie Ghastlee interviews a drink Doctor and after drinking the powerful drink, he grows another head!! And then back to the movie… Ghastlee ends the show with his second head disappearing and talking to Neal from Public Access’ Metalmania who gives Ghastlee a bomb that blows up.

Movie: An American reporter in Japan is sent to interview an eccentric Japanese scientist working on bizarre experiments in his mountain laboratory. When the doctor realizes that the hapless correspondent is the perfect subject for his next experiment, he drugs the unfortunate man and injects him with a serum that gradually transforms him into a hideous, two-headed monster.

Note From Matt: This is one of my favorite episodes, and many of the jokes in this one crack me up with the “Wish You Were Here Larry” bath scene one for me being the best.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Messiah Of Evil
Starring – Michael Greer & Marianna Hill       Rated R       1973

Host: Live from the Monstercast on the Monster Channel has A. Ghastlee Ghoul and Jeff McClellan hiding under a bed with their Bozo The Clown doll and are chatting about the night’s first film of the evening Dead People aka Messiah Of Evil and are lured out from hiding with a beer by Suspira! But the movie is really scaring them as Suspira and Mayhem Zann are mad about them being scared so they bring in a man’s man in who makes Ghastlee and Jeff eat raw meat! And at one point Lou The XXX-Mas Devil is trying to sleep as Ghastlee and Jeff talk about the night’s second movie Funeral Home.

Movie: Messiah Of Evil A young woman goes searching for her missing artist father. Her journey takes her to a strange Californian seaside town governed by a mysterious undead cult.

Note From Matt: Sadly this is only the first movie of the Monstercast so the rest of the show is not on the disc.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Moving Show
Starring –Baron Von Wolfstein & Grimsburger     Not Rated         2005

Host: Ghastlee is moving and needs to bring down his set and move all his props as he calls this episode “The Ghastlee Moving Show” his only help is Horror Host legend Baron Von Wolfstein and the crazy Grimsburger The Doorman! After feeding Grimsburger some meat and drinking some beers, they start the task. During this time for breaks he shows some clips of Scary Camp, Twisted Nightmare among many other Ghastlee Ghoul related things as well as shows the short movie Joe Nosferatu. In the end Ghastlee and his helpers show the old set that is now barebones. Clips of Conventions and the short film Joe Nosferatu are shown.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Pantomime
Starring – Jeff McClellan & Grimsburger The Doorman     Not Rated     ???

Host: Ghastlee and Jeff McClellan start to show lip-synching to a trailer of the Caddy that has bad words as bloopers. He then shows music montages before we next join Grimsburger The Doorman who is listening to bad music! We then get more lip-synching between our hosts Jeff and Ghastlee to celebrity bloopers, and of course more montages of clips and trailers thrown in for good measure! Jeff then interviews Rosetta Workman who was at Cinema Wasteland working the table for filmmaker Andy Copp and even chats with Dr. Creep for a second about how women make better sales people at conventions.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Prison
Starring – Neal Turpin & Dow Thomas     Not Rated     1992

Host: Ghastlee Ghoul opens the show from a TV Screen and is in jail for giving the finger to a cop when Neal Turpin from a local music show enters the set and takes over the show! Neal spends the time making fun of Ghastlee and showing music videos from bands like Judas Priest. All the while Ghastlee acts as if he is doing a special to show how bad prison is, and he is scared when a creepy prisoner sneaks up behind him! Between the videos he also shows a comedy short done by Shock Theater icon Dow Thomas. Neal starts to give away some of Ghastee’s stuff, and he gets mad about it and once more appears on the set as everyone leaves him all alone.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Psychomania
Starring – Nick Henson & Mary Larkin     PG      1973

Host: Lou The XXX-Mas Devil is in charge of the show and is at the new set with a drunken guy named Matt, and all the while A. Ghastlee Ghoul and Jeff McClellan are in Tennessee with Horror Host Dr. Gangrene of Chiller Cinema on his set as well as a haunted attraction he was part of for Halloween. In the end Lou shows a very shortened and music over dialogue version of the film Psychomania.

Movie: A gang of young people call themselves the Living Dead. They terrorize the population from their small town. After an agreement with the devil, if they kill themselves firmly believing in it, they will survive and gain eternal life. Following their leader, they commit suicide one after the other, but things don’t necessarily turn out as expected.

Note From Matt: This is episode 84 of The Ghastlee Movie Show, and the episode oddly has no end credits.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Scary Camp Preview
Starring – Reverend Zealot & Ken Kish     Not Rated     2004

Host: This episode features Joe Nosferatu Homeless Vampire pushing for viewers to attend Scary Camp, a very cool horror convention in Dayton that was put on by A. Ghastlee Ghoul. Joe then does his best to showcase the guests that include Sid Haig and Tom Sullivan to name a very few. We are also treated to clips of films some of the guests are in as well as clips from films showing at the event. We then are treated to a revival done by Reverend Joe Bob Billy Jean with guests that include New Shock Theater’s Reverend Zealot as they try and save the souls of those horror fans who like CGI effects.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Staring
Starring – A. Ghastlee Ghoul & Candle   Not Rated     1996

Host: A Ghastlee Ghoul starts the episode with no opening credits, but instead starts it off just starring into the camera with a candle lit underneath his face and nature sounds playing in the background almost making its own ambient music. Every once in a while you will hear someone cough in the background adding a new layer off weirdness to the episode. Ghastlee does not speak a word and just stares at the viewer, he struggles not to blink as his eyes even start to tear up. In the end he swirls some incense around, and the episode ends with a message that thanks the viewers for watching this experiment.

Note From Matt: This is one of the most iconic episodes of The Ghastlee Movie Show as viewers truly were confused by what they were watching! This also was his most watched episode and triggered people to write in to the Public Accesses station to complain about how they felt the episode was demonic. True classic Ghastlee at his best, and this is also episode # 38.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Ted V. Mikels
Starring – Ted V. Mikels & Shanti     Not Rated     2000

Host: Ghastlee opens the show letting the viewers know that he and Jeff McClellan have just gotten back from the horror convention Cinema Wasteland and shares Jeff getting beat up by a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle! But the main attraction is Ghastlee interviewing cult film director Ted V. Mikels and actress Shanti about his long history of making classic drive in films like Astro-Zombies, The Corpse Grinders, Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils and is promoting the film The Corpse Grinders 2. Ted and Shanti have a blast talking about the making of the film The Corpse Grinders 2, and it’s clear Ghastlee had a blast chatting with them. Ghastlee ends the show with saying he has to send Ted a copy of this interview and then is amazed that Ted will be watching The Ghastlee Movie Show.

Note From Matt: This is episode 66 of The Ghastlee Movie Show.

The Ghastlee Movie Show: Toxic Zombies
Starring – Charles McCrann & Beverly Shapiro     Not Rated     1980

Host: It’s Ghastlee’s Halloween Special and it starts with Horror Host Remo D wishing us all a happy one! We then show that Ghastlee is hanging out at a haunted attraction with Jeff McClellan and chats with some of the folks going to the haunted path as well as the world’s youngest Horror Host Dr. Freak! Later Ghastlee, Jeff, Dr. Freak and Suspira start to walk around the haunted path and meet some of the creepy monsters and the people who paid to walk it. All the while, Ghastlee breaks the rules and runs wild at the attraction with his band of cohosts. In the end they run into Tommy Gunn of Freakshow Deluxe who tells the haunted history of the land, and they as well see the legend Dr. Creep and they chat about Toxic Zombies!

Movie: After drug crops are sprayed with a chemical by a passing airplane, the growers of the crop are poisoned by the chemical and turn into zombie-like mutants.

A Ghastlee Ghoul is a true legend of Horror Hosting, not only in the state of Ohio, but the world, and any other Host of the past or present cannot match his style and wit. Ghastlee is a host all his own that some have tried to copy, but none have mastered. If you are a fan of Horror Hosts and have never seen an episode of A Ghastlee Movie Show, check out this unique show.

I also hope that Ghastlee himself enjoyed this long overdue Horror Host Icon update as much as I enjoyed writing it. Check back on this update from time to time as I will be adding new episodes from time to time to make this update even more epic!

For our next update, we are walking away from the weird and wild world of Horror Hosts and will be entering the world of Malibu Comics and taking an adventure with the ultra team Exiles! So until next time, read a comic or three, watch a movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host! I will see you next update as I am very much looking forward to writing about Malibu Comics again!

Horror Host Icon: Dr. Creep

Saturday January 1st 1972 might have been New Years Day, but in the Dayton, Ohio area that night belonged to a horror host with vampire fangs (that were dropped from the character pretty quickly thereafter) and white grease paint on his face.  That host was Dr. Creep, and his show Shock Theatre was taking over late Saturday nights on Channel 22. Kids and adults at the time could not get enough of Dr. Creep’s antics and silly skits.  While at first he played the part scary, he quickly changed into a bumbling lovable ghoul. With his popularity high, Dr. Creep also became a co-host of the after school kids show Club House 22 that would feature all types of cartoons and live action kid shows as well as the hosts doing silly skits. In the 1980’s, the show had a name change, and Shock Theatre became Saturday Night Dead.  Sadly by March 1985, the show was cancelled for good on Channel 22. During his long run on TV, Dr. Creep was joined by all types of friends and co-hosts like Uncle Dow Thomas, a comedian good at playing off the wall characters and making up fun songs, and Obieyoyo, a pinheaded puppet and all around goofy guy.  His most popular sidekick was Duffy The Dog, a giant white shaggy dog who would go along with Creep’s ideas, and there were so many more memorable characters that shared the TV Screen with the good Dr.  At one point Spider-Man even appeared on an episode! At the peek of Dr. Creep’s popularity, he made many public appearances while driving around with his hearse and had a heart of gold, as he would do anything for charity and sick children. Creep even opened up his own charity called Project Christmas Smiles that would help get toys for less fortunate kids. Dr. Creep was the biggest celebrity in Dayton and was a household name.  When I was a youngster, I knew the name and even meet him with my parents before I started kindergarten.  While I don’t remember the meeting, my mom does and told me all about it. My first memory of Dr. Creep, as you readers know, came from a story and picture that my brother Bryan told/showed me after meeting him at a movie theater that his school took him to, and this also lead to the first episode I got to watch with my dad and brother. I know that my dad was a Shock Theatre viewer as was my mom from time to time, and this might explain why watching and making my own horror host show is in my blood. So welcome to Horror Host Icon: Dr. Creep, an update I am very proud to bring you!

Dr Creep 1Dr Creep 2Dr Creep 3

Sadly when Shock Theatre started I was not even born yet (as I was born in 1979) so by the time I was old enough to watch it, I only got the tail end of the show before it went off the air. So what I would like to do is have a few of my friends who grew up watching Creep during this time share some of their memories of watching him during his first run. I think that by having them talk about watching him you’ll get a better idea of how much he impacted young lives here in Dayton. I wish my friend Andy Copp was alive to tell you about how Creep brought his family together, how he had homemade Dr. Creep pjs and how he almost drowned at a local pool when he was a kid running to meet Dr. Creep, all great stories and only his own words could do them justice. Up first to share his story of watching Shock Theatre on Channel 22 is a horror host from Dayton, Ohio, a man who I call my second dad and a person I call a close friend, the one and only A. GHASTLEE GHOUL!!

A Ghastlee Ghoul (Bob Hinton)

I was nine years old when the very first episode of Shock Theatre with Dr. Creep aired. It was January 1st, 1972, New Year’s Day evening. That is, the end if the day following New Years Eve. My parents had gone to bed, likely still shaking off hangovers from the night before, while I stayed up flipping through the three local channels we had at that time in search of something to watch. Little did I know what I was about to find, and how it would change my life. On the screen appeared a scary, fanged visage of horror that beckoned to a fledgling monster kid: Dr. Creep, and yes, in the beginning he was SCARY! Far from the loveable character he would eventually evolve into, the one who would later host Clubhouse 22 in the afternoons and have children clamoring after him like a Halloween version of Santa Clause, this Creeper wasn’t here to provide gentle comic relief from the movies he hosted, he was here to usher you into a dungeon of horrors and slam the door tight behind you. He had me at the first “Hoo-Ha-Haaah!”

In all honesty, I only saw about half of that first episode. The Doctor was hosting the classic Italian film Black Sabbath. I made it as far as the scene where the woman’s corpse came back in search of her stolen ring, took one look at the stretched rictus of vengeance on her face, switched off the TV, ran to my room and lay there in terror with the covers pulled tightly over my head. After that I would tune in every week.

As I said, I’d always been kind of a monster kid. I loved the old Universal films, Godzilla, and TV shows like Night Gallery and The Outer Limits. I also had it in my mind that it would be very cool to host your own TV show, but before I saw Shock Theater I really wanted to be Captain Kangaroo or Soupy Sales. That would quickly change once I saw Dr. Creep. I knew I wanted to be THAT guy!

Years would pass before I got to meet the man in person. I was co-chairing the haunted house in Huber Heights and we went on Shock Theater to promote the place and invite him out for a personal appearance. It was so surreal being on the set with him that first time, standing in the “dungeon” with my hero, looking past the cameras at the news set across the studio. He was so kind and funny. I don’t think I said two words. I was in awe and the time flew by like a whirlwind dream. When he made his appearance at the haunt I finally got over being star-struck enough to have real conversations with Barry, and he even gave us an idea for a scene for the house that we built and surprised him with the following year.

Skip ahead another few years, and making a long story a little shorter, I was hosting the first full season of my cable access program The Ghastlee Movie Show. There was an article in the Dayton Daily News about Barry and the sort of sad course his life had been taking since Shock Theater’s cancellation. The article mentioned that a Best of Shock Theater tape was being made available, and had a contact number that turned out to be Rick Martin’s. I called, we talked, and the next thing I knew there he was, Dr. Creep on the set of my silly little cable show! It was very nearly as surreal as that first time I was on his set. We joked and laughed together like old friends, the way Barry made everyone feel, and after that day we truly were close friends for years to come. I called him my “Illegitimate Step-Daddy.” He called me his son. In a way I was, and am, his offspring.

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Great memories from Ghastlee Ghoul and a perfect way to show the impact Creep had on the lives of people in the Dayton area. Creep impacted Ghastlee so much that he went on to make his own show that in turn has sparked another generation to be creative. The next person on the list is a good friend who since 1999 acted as Dr. Creep’s manager and business partner, the one and only Rick Martin.

Rick Martin (Manager)

My first time seeing Dr Creep was, I believe, when I was six or seven and my brother, sister and I were watching Clubhouse 22 in the afternoon. Here, amongst, Malcolme and his puppets, was a bumbling ghoul of a man doing magic tricks. Then I saw him on Shock Theatre. I believe he was showing Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. The Frankenstein monster scared me to death but I loved the Wolf Man. Dr. Creep helped keep it together for me even when the monster was freaken’ me out. When I was 10 or or so, we had a Back Yard Carnival for MD and I got sick that day with the flu. Dr Creep and his assistant gave me autographed 8 1/2 x 11 pictures and wrote for me to get well soon. A few months later I was on Clubhouse 22 and had a chance to meet Dr Creep. After 1985,when his show was cancelled, I met him again working as a guard at the Living Room, a local strip club. We talked and became friends. He came to the first official playtest of a game I wrote with my friend Anthoney Hensely called “Robots and Rockets”. A few years after that, I started a company with Dr Creep aka Barry Hobart and we managed to get the rights back for Barry to once again don the cape of Dr. Creep. He was my friend until his passing. I miss him every day over these many years since he let slip his mortal coil. I love you Doctor Creep…”

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In 1985, when Shock Theatre went off the air, Dr. Creep’s alter ego Barry Hobart stayed on at the station as a master controller for a few years until, with bad blood between them, he left the station for good. For years Hobart was not allowed to wear the Dr. Creep make-up or use the name because Channel 22 “owned” the copyright to his image and name or so they claimed. Barry took assorted jobs like being a bouncer at a strip club and even was a security guard for a while. For 14 long years, Dayton was without Shock Theatre, and A. Ghastlee Ghoul popped up and filled the void, carrying the torch with his show “A. Ghastlee Movie Show” and helped hold the interest of the fans who were looking for the next Dr. Creep to fill their late nights with horrors and laughs. This is a prime example of how much your hometown horror host can mean to your town.  His show was popular, and Dr. Creep was a major celebrity in the area.  I can remember him sharing memories of being booked for store appearances and how much money they would pay him and the lines of people that would come to see him. While the money was nice, Dr. Creep really did it because he loved his fans.  He loved the entertainment he brought to them and the late night chills he gave them. I would be so bold to say that if you lived in Dayton in the 1970’s and 80’s, you probably met Dr. Creep at some department store, school, movie theater or restaurant and you walked away from that meeting filled with joy and the feeling you had just made a new friend. While in this modern time when people are more glued to Netfix and iPhones and not watching local TV as much as they should, the horror host still holds special places in the hearts of those fans who watch them.  Just ask the likes of Baron Von Porkchop and A. Ghastlee Ghoul about the support and love from their fans. Because of this love and respect, the late 80’s and most of the 90’s were really rough on those who loved Dr. Creep and Shock Theatre due to the lack of his presence of on the local airwaves.

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In 1998, thanks to Rick Martin and RMM Agency, fans got a fix of Dr. Creep and Shock Theatre as a “Best of” VHS tape was released, and Barry returned as Dr. Creep for public appearances. Word of the tape and Creep’s return spread quickly throughout the Dayton area, and rumors swirled about a possible return to TV.  The VHS tape was a great seller and would spark a volume 2, and t-shirts were also made to mark the return of Dr. Creep. Many local video rental and media stores booked Dr. Creep to make appearances and to push the sales of his tapes, and the fans came out in full force to meet their horror host idol and gobble up his Best of tapes. I can remember Dr. Creep telling me how he was taken aback at the number of people who during his first return back to the grease paint came out to see him and it touched his heart to see how many people remembered him. I was just out of high school when this happened, and I can remember how much of a buzz was going around about Creep’s return.  I will be honest, I did get a little nostalgic as that old picture of he and my brother popped into my head and the memories of talks about the man echoed in my brain. My brother was also feeling a little nostalgic as he bought the VHS of Volume 1 and the Dr. Creep Lives T-Shirt from local record shop Renaissance Music and wore the shirt proudly.  He would later give me the shirt, and I would also wear it around town with pride. Later, as VHS made way for DVD, both Volume 1 and 2 of the Best Of Shock Theatre made their way to a single DVD release that is still being sold to this day. A major thanks has to go out to Rick Martin for the return of Creep and the wonderful thing that was to happen next!

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Andy Copp was a local film maker here in Dayton, Ohio who had made a film called Mutilation Man and also grew up watching Shock Theatre as a kid.  He pitched the idea of bringing Dr. Creep back to TV for a whole new generation to watch and enjoy to Rick Martin and so spawned the relaunch of Shock Theatre that was now dubbed Shock Theater or better known as New Shock Theater. At first I think the idea was to try and get the show back on Channel 22, but things did not work out so the show found its home on local public access stations MVCC and DATV. I can remember the hype about the first show, and I and my Brother watched it on MVCC while munching on a huge bowl of popcorn.  As the show started, we knew that Dr. Creep really was back! We would try and catch every new episode, and I even found myself watching the reruns and enjoying all the zany new fun. The show was different from the original show and had a storyline that would run throughout the episode at the series start.  Later it would become horror convention interviews and even sit down topic discussions on events. Also missing were classic side characters of the past as it had no Duffy The Dog or Uncle Dow, but there were some great new ones added like Reverand Zealot, a religious cult like leader who loved zany cult films, and Geraldo, a hunchback worm faced mongoloid who loved to have fun. Gone were the lip synch dancing numbers to old tunes but in came Cult Corner hosted by Zealot, a place to showcase films that many viewers may not have known about. One of the biggest changes to the show was the age of Dr. Creep, who, at the time of filming, was in the early stages of very poor health and was having a hell of a time just moving around.  With his limited movement also came a limit in what they were able to pull off for episodes. But even with all these changes, the show was great and showed that Dr. Creep did not miss a step in hosting and once more he was embraced by the viewers. The show was a staple of late night viewing for me, and this marked the true golden age of Dayton area public access as Dr. Creep and other horror hosts like A. Ghastlee Ghoul and Dr. Freak filled the airwaves and entertained. The New Shock Theater had a VHS run of select episodes that was sold at Dr. Creep’s public appearances at Foy’s Halloween Store and charity horror movie event Horrorama as well as conventions like Cinema Wasteland and Fright Vision. When DVDs took over for VHS, Rick and Andy released one DVD-R of the first episode of New Shock Theater. The impact of New Shock Theater is still felt to this day in the Dayton area, and thanks to this show, Dr. Creep was introduced to a whole new group of kids and monster movie fans.

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Dr. Creep even ran for President twice and while he never won his Slumber Party Campaign was classic Horror Host stuff! He first ran in 1980 with his Vice President being Dow Thomas and they spent many episodes campaigning as well as talking to local Dayton residents about voting for Creep. In 2000 Dr. Creep once more put his top hat in the ring and tried once more to become President under the Slumber Party ticket with this time Vice President A. Ghastlee Ghoul! On many episodes of the New Shock Theater the two would have Q&A’s with members of the audience and had such ideas as ban all Disco Music and every American must watch a horror film a week. Both runs for the office Creep also made bumper stickers that had the slogan “Put A Creep In The White House”, and I can remember seeing many Creep and Ghastlee bumper stickers on cars that included one of my very own vehicles! I should also note that many people I knew in 2000 wrote in Dr. Creep’s name but sadly he did not even come close to winning, as George Bush stole the election…as in really stole it…like his brother helped rig it…like yeah. But if Creep would have really ran and won makes you wonder what our country would be like today don’t it?

Put A Creep In The White House Bumper Sticker

In 2001 local Dayton band The Lawn Jockeys released a CD called “Amazing Sounds Of Shock Theatre: Starring Dr. Creep” that was a mix of jam band, horror & cult film clips and of course Dr. Creep! The CD was a pretty big deal when it was released and I can remember my brother going to Renaissance Music to pick up a copy, and us both listening to it and playing name that movie when clips would pop on.It was great to see a local band pay tribute to the king of late night Dayton Horror Hosting and many tracks on the CD are simply fantastic like Creep 303 and The U.F.O.’s Have Landed. From time to time we will also play some tracks off this CD on Alpha Rhythms on WYSO. If your a weird experamental jam band fan or are into Dr. Creep I would say make sure to check this CD out as it can still be bought on Amazon.

Amazing Sounds of Shock Theatre CD

Around the time of New Shock Theater is when I got to know Dr. Creep and got to travel the convention roads with him as the no budget film company me and friends created called Independent B Movie was taking off and selling VHS copies of our movies. You see my brother had became close friends to Andy Copp and from that I got to become good friends with Andy and through him is how I got to become friends with Dr. Creep. I can remember the first convention we ever did was one called Fright Vision and Dr. Creep was nice enough to share part of his table with us and even tried to help sell our films like Werewolf Of Ohio and Suicide 2 as he would shout at people walking by. And that was just the start of our convention journeys as we attended several Cinema Wastelands together as well as other conventions like Scary Camp and Horrorhound Weekend. During this time I was also lucky enough to run camera on some episodes of New Shock Theater and helped set up interviews with celebrities, and was able to pick Creep’s brain about horror hosting and his career as one. Listening to his stories of on set and off set adventures are things I will cherish and always remember from his biker bar fun with a young woman to his chat with Vincent Price all fascinating and enjoyable. Cinema Wasteland use to be the go to convention for Horror Host fans as they had a section of tables that was called “Horror Host Ally” that had the likes of not only Dr. Creep but many others including Son Of Ghoul, The Bone Jangler and Baron Von Wolfstein and they all would sell copies of their shows, t-shirts and mingle with the fans. But being at this convention for years and watching him shine among his people was heart warming and welcoming for a creative person like me who would later go onto film and direct Baron Von Porkchop. While Wasteland no longer does a host gathering fans of this art can go to Horrorhound Weekend every March and find a large amount of Horror Hosts in attendance as well as the Horror Host Hall Of Fame Ceremony. Below is some pictures of Dr. Creep at Cinema Wasteland over the years.

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Speaking of the Horror Host Hall Of Fame Dr. Creep was inducted into the first class in 2011 by A. Ghastlee Ghoul and Andy Copp, Rick Martin and myself accepted the award on behalf of Dr. Creep. That moment I was filled with pride for my friend as I seen all his hard work in hosting paying off and a room full of his peers who all respected what he did and loved him as a part of their family clapping in his honor. I just wish Creep was around to have seen his induction, you see Dr. Creep who’s real name was Barry Hobart passed away early in 2011 from complications from strokes at the age of 69. It was a sad day when I got the phone call from Rick who told me the terrible news, everyone at my work was sadden by the news and in his honor we played episodes of New Shock Theater for two days on the stores TVs. But while Creep was not with us on that day in body he was in spirit and his legacy will live on forever in the Horror Host Hall of Fame! Bellow is some pics of Creep and Reverend Zealot when they attended Horror Hound Weekends at two different times.

Dr Creep Horrorhound Icon 1Horror Host Hall Of Fame Dr Creep 1Reverand Zealot Horrorhound Icon

In 2014 I heard a very interesting rumor about Channel 22 wanting to relaunching Shock Theatre with a new host they would have called Professor Creep who would have had the classic Dr. Creep make-up but would have worn a graduation cap and gown as his outfit. The set was to be green screened and the show would have shown classic horror and science fiction films but would also have been used to promote upcoming events and products for sponsors of the station. I am not sure who they would have casted in the part of Professor Creep but one things for sure and thats Channel 22 must have gotten cold feet as the show never made it past the planning stages. It would have been interesting to see how classic Shock Theatre and Dr. Creep fans would have responded to this suddo “reboot” to the beloved show many of us Dayton folks grew up with, I for one would have welcomed the show as I would love to see another local made Horror Host on Dayton television and it would have been cool to see maybe a cross over with Baron Von Porkchop Dayton’s current Horror Host. Below is a mock up of what the character Professor Creep would have looked like if the show would have been made.

Professor Creep idea

Before we get into the New Shock Theater episodes I really want to take a moment at talk about my friendship with Dr. Creep and the man behind the grease paint Barry Hobart. In my youth as you can see I had meet Dr. Creep and seen his picture when he meet my brother at a movie theater function for his school but I didn’t fully get to meet the man and become his friend till I meet Andy Copp and Rick Martin (thanks to my brother Bryan) who were doing The New Shock Theater for Public Access Television. I want to not get to mushy and talk about how much Barry/Creep meant to me cause if you really know me you know how much I cared for him so in this spot I just want to share some funny stories about my time hanging out and being around him. One of the first times I really got to be around Dr. Creep as he worked and showed why he was an icon of Horror Hosting in Dayton was when I helped on a LIVE episode of New Shock Theater that was airing on MVCC, I played a Mexican Wrestler who ran onto the set and took away Reverand Zealot for “stealing” Mexican Cinema as one of the films they showed that night was The Brainiac. Watching him live answer viewer calls and talk to guests like they were on a talk show was amazing and in between segments Creep would go out of his way to chat with me and all the other people on set, as everyone on set that day was his friend and he knew it as it was a cluster of cool people on set for that show the band The Lawn Jockeys, Horror Host A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Henrique Couto, Andy Copp, Josh Weinberg, Rick Martin, Bryan Brassfield as well as so many others. It was a magical day of TV show making and one I will not ever forget! Another great memory I have of my friendship with Dr. Creep is when he shouted at people to buy my old shot on video film Werewolf of Ohio 2 at Fright Vision as well as many Cinema Wastelands while we both were vending at those events, he use to tell me that it didn’t matter the budget of the films I was making as long as my heart was in the films I made the viewers would see that and be entertained, very wise words and something I always remembered as I made no budget films for Independent B Movie and Bloodline Video. Speaking of Cinema Wasteland I can also remember many of times Dr. Creep would want to go and shoot interviews for his convention specials and Andy Copp would be tied up working his Nightcrew Video table and would ask me to follow Creep around and film and set up the interviews I use to enjoy watching him chat with the likes of Sid Haig and Bill Hinzman, one of the best was watching him deal with adult film actress Marilyn Chambers who he was a big fan of…the icon of Horror Hostsing was so star struck around her it made me chuckle inside. I also was able to film some of his interviews at Dayton’s Scary Camp as well as some others at random conventions, I can remember sitting with him at his table as we talked about the past and his days on Channel 22 as well as funny stories of some of his public appearances, the one story he would tell me a million times was the time he got to meet and interview Vincent Price and how he wished I could find that lost footage of his show Shock Theatre that aired in the 80’s of this meeting. I use to love to sit with him during breaks between movies at Horrorama the charity event that he created with Andy Copp and Rick Martin that they allowed me to help out at and hearing him try and get fans to get him Hot Dogs and Mountain Dews both things he was not allowed to eat! Plus being at the event and hearing him boom out with a silly one liner during the film and the audience laughing always put a smile on my face. Some of my favorite times with Creep was when we would check out ladies together at conventions, yes I would check out women with Dr. Creep who would say lines like “Ohhhhh Would You Look At Her” among other creepy and silly things! Creep loved the ladies and I must say the ladies loved him as well as he had a charm to him that drew them in like humming birds to a flower. One thing that I have always regretted is not filming new episodes of Shock Theater with Dr. Creep in 2009 as we had many ideas planned and this would have given his fans as well as Creep himself new and scripted out adventures to air on DATV and beyond. I find myself like many of his friends thinking about Barry Hobart and his Dr. Creep character all the time as he was a one of a kind person who made everyone feel special and helped teach this strange monster/metal head/comic geek/gammer kid that it was ok to be who you are and to always not let others hold you back. I love ya Barry and this update is for you and to honor what you did for not just me but the millions of others your kindness touched.

Dr. Creep and Me at Foys

Those are just some of the memories I have of my friendship with Dr. Creep and I am sure if you were lucky to be his friend or even ever truly meet the man you have some amazing and fun stories that you could share, and I hope you do so in the comments as I am sure others and myself would love to read them! So it’s at the point in the update were we will take a look at the episodes of Dr. Creep I own and given sadly at this point no known full original aired broadcasts of Shock Theatre or Saturday Night Dead have been unearthed we will take a look at all the episodes of New Shock Theater! The Host Write ups are done by me and the movie write ups are done by IMDB. So lets take a trip down memory lane and take a hosted trip with The Creepster!

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New Shock Theater: Assignment Terror
Starring – Paul Naschy & Michael Rennie     Not Rated    1970

Host: Two brain dead grave robbers are sent to bring Dr. Creep back to life and by doing so they have also brought back SHOCK THEATER! Dr. Creep once more steps into Horror hosting with out even missing a beat and shows Paul Naschey’s classic Monster romp called Assignment Terror, and along this re-birth journey we are treated to Reverand Zealot’s “Cult Corner” were he looks at the Peter Jackson classic “Meet The Feebles”, Get a video postcard from Duffy The Dog and show a “Home Made Shock” that has a killer vacuum cleaner directed by a young Andy Copp all this and fake trailers and PSA’s show the true Icon of Dayton hosting is back! And yes he makes those Grave Robbers pay for waking him from his 14-year sleep.

Movie: Aliens from a dying world plot to conquer earth by praying on man’s superstitions. Bringing two dead scientists back to life, they use their knowledge to re-animate various earth monsters, including the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, Frankenstein’s monster, the mummy Tao-Tet, and the vampire Count de Meirhoff.

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New Shock Theater: Daughter of Horror
Starring – Adrienne Barrett & Ed McMahon    Not Rated    1955

Host: In this second episode Dr. Creep gets a strange package that seems to be crying from the inside! When he reads the note attached it’s from a lady he went on a romantic trip to the Bermuda Triangle with and this opens more questions to what is in that box? Along the way he talks to a drunk Ed McMahon, we see some great movie trailers and get another “Home Made Shock” film called “JUNGLEBORG: Man of Mystery” directed by Joe Mackanzie, we visit Reverand Zealot’s Cult Corner has the master of cult looking at the film “Cannibal Ferox”, and more important we do find out what’s in the box!

Movie: As the narrator invites us to explore the horrors of an insane mind, a young woman wakes from a nightmare in a cheap hotel room. We follow her through the skid-row night and encounters with an abusive husband; a wino; a pimp and the rich man he panders for; a flashback to her traumatic childhood; violence; pursuit through dark streets; dementia. Filmed in film-noir style throughout; only the narrator speaks.

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New Shock Theater: The Killing Of Satan
Starring – Ramon Revilla & Elizabeth Oropesa    Not Rated    1983

Host: Dr. Creep has a visitor it’s a little boy who idolizes Satan and wants nothing more then to be Satan! But the MPA shows up and threatens to take The New Shock Theater off the air! All the while a magic voice is given wrong voiceovers about the events. The strange little Boy will not give up on being evil and wanting to be Satan so its up to Dr. Creep to cure the youth of his sinister ways…and does so but you must watch to see how. Also Reverand Zealot treats us to another “Cult Corner” this time it’s the shot on video horror film called “Original Sin” and we get trailers form other public access shows and horror and cult flicks.

Movie: A man who is chosen by his dead uncle to battle the forces of evil. He fights a being called “The Prince of Magic,” who shoots rays from his hands, makes heads spin around and hypnotizes people. He finally faces Satan himself and engages him in a battle of magic.

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New Shock Theater: Mill Of The Stone Women
Starring – Pierre Brice & Scilia Gabel    Not Rated    1960

Host: A stranger breaks into Creep’s crypt and hides a cursed nose, the Nose just knocks over and over causing Creep and his female fan Guest wonder what is its cause, and worse now Creep has a nasty cold and so does his guest. Reverand Zealot joins in on the search and they find the cursed nose! Can Dr. Creep and Zealot defeat the nose? Who Placed this cursed nose in the crypt? And why is there a “Ghost” child walking around the crypt all those questions and more will be answered in this episode! And also Reverand Zealot’s “Cult Corner” this time showcases Dario Argento’s classic “Suspira”, we get more trailers and vintage commercials.

Movie: Hans arrives in a town near Amsterdam to write a story on the reclusive sculptor, Professor Val, who lives on an island in the old mill house the locals call the Mill of the Stone Women. Hans meets the professor’s beautiful and seductive daughter, and begins feeling passion for her despite his true love for Lisa Lotta. Slowly he becomes aware of the nefarious experiments being conducted by Val and his furtive assistant Dr. Boles, and local women continue to disappear.

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New Shock Theater: Strange Behavior
Starring – Michael Murphy & Fiona Lewis    Rated R    1981

Host: In this episode Dr. Creep is worried about the youth of today with their rap music, and pop culture and remembers back to his time of youth! And when that Strange Satan kid is back, Creep along side is hunchback friend Geraldo decide to turn the strange Kid into a normal kid! And the Geraldo is hit by a car after playing in traffic! The “Cult Corner” returns with Reverand Zealot has the splatter masterpiece “Cat in the Brain” directed by Lucio Fulci as his selected film. But by turning this creepy kid into a normal kid does Creep release something worse on he world..like a young republican!!

Movie: A scientist is experimenting with teenagers and turning them into murderers.

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New Shock Theater: Rat Man
Starring – David Warbeck & Janet Agren    Not Rated    1988

Host: This episode of “The New Shock Theater” is filled with bloopers and outtakes, due to the Good Dr. taken some time off for Easter. And we get a “Homemade Shock” called “No Fun” directed by Andy Valeri just for a little more fun.

Movie: A maniac butchers a fashion model on a Caribbean island and leaves the body to be eaten by rats. The model’s sister suspects something isn’t quite right with the police investigation and decides to go snooping on her own. With her friend, Fred, their investigation lead them to an unknown part of the island where they discover a monstrosity of a rat like man. The creature is killed by Fred, but the true horror of it’s nature is just beginning…

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New Shock Theater: When Women Had Tails
Starring – Senta Berger & Frank Wolff     Rated R     1970

Host: This is a special episode were Dr. Creep sits down with director Andy Copp and producer Rick Martin to talk about the tragic killings at Columbine High School that took place April 20th 1999. This episode is very serious one and really breaks down their thoughts on the massacre and the way the media handled it.

Movie: A bunch of 7 orphan cavemen grow up on a little island all by themselves. After a fire burns all vegetation they set out to find a new place to live. Here, one day they trap a strange animal, looking very similar to them, only softer and with longer hair. She (Filli) feels attracted to one of the brothers (Ulli) and convinces him, that a certain kind of playing with each other is far more satisfying than just eating her. He hides her and serves the other cavemen a goat. Soon Ulli and Filli are playing the Johnson-Game quite frequently. But the others find out about this and want to see what’s so great with “johnsonning”. After they all force Filli to show them the game too, she manages to flee with Ulli. Being pursued by the 6 men of Ulli’s clan, they meet the rest of Filli’s clan: A tribe of about 150 unsatisfied women, who just love to have new men around for playing.

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New Shock Theater: Thing With Two Heads
Starring – Rosey Grier & Ray Milland    Rated PG    1972

Host: Dr. Creep is back and shares his vacation photos with the viewers and his special guest – a real two-headed transplant! Dr. Creep shares a book he’s been reading and everything comes to a head when the two-headed transplant announces it’s desire to marry itself and live in magical Yellow Springs! All this plus trailers and homemade commercials.

Movie: A rich but racist man is dying and hatches an elaborate scheme for transplanting his head onto another man’s body. His health deteriorates rapidly, and doctors are forced to transplant his head onto the only available candidate: a black man from death row.

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New Shock Theater: House Of Exorcism
Starring – Telly Savalas & Elke Sommer     Rated R     1975

Host: Dr. Creep waxes nostalgic for the days of the drive-in theater and shares his memories of the now closed drive-ins around Dayton, Ohio. He shares a Halloween drive-in story about a friend named Trapper John and the pranks they pulled. So come and re-live the great days of the drive-in with Dr. Creep and be treated to trailers and classic drive-in spots!

Movie: A total re-edit of Mario Bava’s gothic classic Lisa and the Devil (1973) for US release in 1975. Cheesy exorcism scenes were shot to try to capitalize on the success of The Exorcist (1973).

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New Shock Theater: Touch Of Satan
Starring – Michael Berry & Emby Mellay     Rated PG     1971

Host: Dr. Creep has invited a group of psychotics from the local insane asylum and wants to know how Satan has touched their lives. He meets the spawn of Satan and his mother, a man who has turned into a monkey, a goofy man-child – all whose lives have been affected by the lord of darkness. Home-made Shock returns with the film “Requiem” directed by Andy Valeri.

Movie: On his way to California, Jodie decides on a whim to make a brief side trip to a farm, where he meets and falls in love with Melissa, the proverbial farmer’s daughter. Or so it seems. In between the overlong dramatic pauses, we learn that Melissa is in fact a 120-year-old witch, and her remarkably spry “great-grandmother,” Lucinda, is actually her sister, who has been pitchforking people to death in her spare time. When Lucinda murders a local policeman, things start to get real complicated for Jodie.

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New Shock Theater: Last Man On Earth
Starring – Vincent Price & Emma Danieli     Not Rated     1964

Host: In this episode Dr. Creep and Geraldo The Hostess Monster have the crypt invaded by a group of monsters that include a mummy, a witch, a werewolf and a monkey man, all running away from normal people. This gives Creep the idea to open his crypt as a Monster Sanctuary and to keep the “Normals” away! Dr. Creep also speaks of his time interviewing Vincent Price on Channel 22, and we are treated to more trailers from classic horror films from years past.

Movie: When a plague devastated life on Earth, the population died or became a sort of zombie living in the dark. Dr. Robert Morgan is the unique healthy survivor on the planet, having a routine life for his own survival: he kills the night creatures along the day and maintains the safety of his house, to be protected along the night. He misses his beloved wife and daughter, consumed by the outbreak, and he fights against his loneliness to maintain mentally sane. When Dr. Morgan finds the contaminated Ruth Collins, he uses his blood to heal her and he becomes the last hope on Earth to help the other contaminated survivors. But the order of this new society is scary.

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New Shock Theater: The Skull
Starring – Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee     Not Rated     1965

Host: Dr. Creep has a guest in the crypt and its The Jewish Stud and they are attacked by The Skull of Drexel! This leads to Dr. Creep sharing true ghost stories and odd going on’s in the state of Ohio, from a headless ghost in Cincinnati to Hamilton Ohio’s Lover Lane skull ghost! And just spends time having fun in his crypt. Cult Corner returns with Reverand Zealot and he speaks to us about Letterboxing compared to Full Frame movies.

Movie: A collector of esoterica, Dr. Maitland, buys an unusual skull from his ordinary source of artifacts. The skull is what remains of marquis De Sade. Much too soon he discovers how the skull affects him: by turning him into a frenzied killer.

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New Shock Theater: Samson In The Wax Museum
Starring – El Santo & Norma Mora     Not Rated     1963

Host: In this episode Dr. Creep visits Cinema Wasteland 2001 in Strongsville Ohio and shows you the fun and good times that was had by all, he also interviews Son of Ghoul, Col. Klink and Cult film Director Andy Copp interviews Kevin Van Hentenryck of Basketcase fame.

Movie: El Santo, the masked Mexican wrestler, investigates a series of kidnappings. He discovers that the mysterious Doctor Caroll is using the victims as part of his experiments to develop an army of monsters. Naturally, El Santo is able to overcome them all – with wrestling!

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New Shock Theater: The Headless Eyes
Starring – Bo Brundin & Kelley Swartz    Rated X    1971

Host: Dr. Creep is back after a battle with sickness and welcomes Reverand Zealot to the crypt and they discuss the film at hand “The Headless Eyes”. Then they talk about films that are so bad that they wish they could remove there own eyes to get out of watching! A tell jokes about what you don’t wanna hear the doctors say during a surgery as written by Shock Theater Icon Dow Thomas, and just some idol chatter among Creep and his guest. On Reverand Zealot’s Cult Corner he showcases the David Cronenberg film “eXistenZ” and along with this we get trailers for other cult films and Public Accuses Shows.

Movie: Poor artist gets eye gouged out while committing a robbery. When his eye heals, he goes on a killing spree and cuts out women’s eyes with a spoon.

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New Shock Theater: Giant Spider Invasion
Starring – Alan Hale Jr. & Steve Brodie     Rated PG     1975

Host: Dr. Creep this time around is being attacked by a giant fly as he tries to host the show, so in order to put a stop to this annoying fly he calls 1470’s and gets a Exterminator that drops off an even bigger spider to capture the fly. Will Creep get ride of the fly or will his own fear of spiders get to him first? And what will happen when Reverand Zealot tries to come to Dr. Creep’s rescue.The Cult Corner with Reverend Zealot he shares an underground film called “Ice From The Sun” directed by Eric Stanze, and as always we are treated to trailers for films and public accuses shows.

Movie: 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.

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New Shock Theater: Goke Body Snatcher From Hell
Starring – Hideo Ko & Tomomi Sato     Rated PG     1968

Host: Put a Creep in the White House! This showcases Dr. Creep’s thoughts on the issues that drive the good old USA. He runs on the Slumber Party ticket with his running mate, A Ghastlee Ghoul. Their platform includes banning nothing (except disco), and requiring that all Americans watch at least one horror film a week. Will this cracker jack candidate team win the White House? Only time and your vote will tell. This episode also includes a variety of trailers.

Movie: The survivors of a plane crash in a remote area are attacked by blob-like alien creatures that turn their victims into blood-thirsty vampires.

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New Shock Theater: I Eat Your Skin
Starring – William Joyce & Matt King    Rated PG   1971

Host: The quest to Put a Creep in the White House continues. Running mates Dr. Creep and A. Ghastlee Ghoul appear on a candidates forum hosted by Reverend Zealot. They’re joined by Andy Valeri of Big Beef records and discuss Dr. Creep’s recent collaboration with the Lawn Jockey’s. They take questions from concerned voters and discuss strategies for moral decency in America. Also included in this episode: trailers and the first appearance of the Hell-O Satan Dancer.

Movie: A cancer researcher on a remote Caribbean island discovers that by treating the natives with snake venom he can turn them into bug-eyed zombies. Uninterested in this information, the unfortunate man is forced by his evil employer to create an army of the creatures in order to conquer the world.

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New Shock Theater: Macumba Love
Starring – Walter Reed & Ziva Rodann     Not Rated     1960

Host: Dr. Creep is once again at Cinema Wasteland 2001 and goes around the convention interviewing the stars such as Ken Kish owner of Cinema Wasteland, Chris Seaver, Teen Ape, Kurvs Girl, Bill Blair from Babylon 5 and Maniac Cop himself Robert Z’Dar! Also filled to the brim with great trailers for other bad cheesy films.

Movie: J. Peter Wells, an expose writer, arrives on an island off the coast of South America (no country identified), to complete a book on voodoo, ju-ju,macumba, mojo and other cult beliefs, which he believes is responsible for unsolved murders on this island. Wealthy land-owner Venis de Vias warns him against stirring up the natives, especially any efforts to lessen the prestige of the reigning VooDoo Queen Mama Rata-loi. The arrival of Wells’ daughter, Sara, and her husband, Warren, on a honeymoon trip, starts the pot to boiling and making the natives restless. Most restless of all is Mama Rata-loi, who asserts her powers and puts a spell on Venus de Viasa. The next thing honeymooner Warren knows is that he is trussed up and about to become the one chosen to die in a voodoo ceremony.

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New Shock Theater: Devils Wedding Night
Starring – Sara Bay & Xiro Papas     Rated R     1973

Host: In this episode of “The New Shock Theater” Dr. Creep is in the studio with Dayton band The Lawn Jockyes as they record the album “The Amazing Sounds of Shock Theater” and shows you all the behind the scenes stuff that lead to one of Ohio’s most popular CD’s! We also get treated to come classic 1993 footage of Dr. Creep at the Neon Movies for the premiere of Peter Jacksons “Dead-Alive”, along for the fun is Independent film icon Jim Van Bebber and Geoff Burkman as zombies wondering the streets of Dayton! Also shown is some classic old trailers.

Movie: The 1800s: scholarly Karl Schiller believes he’s found the ring of the Nibelungen, which holds great power. It’s at Castle Dracula. His twin, Franz, a gambler, asks if vampires frighten Karl; Karl shows him an Egyptian amulet, which may protect him. Franz takes the amulet and sets out ahead of his brother, arriving at the castle first. There he finds a countess who invites him to dine. Later that night, Karl arrives. Coincidently, it’s the Night of the Virgin Moon, a night that falls every fifty years and draws five virgins from the surrounding village to the castle not be heard from again. Can Karl protect his brother, find the ring, and rescue any of the women?

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New Shock Theater: Devil Doll
Starring – Bryant Haliday & Alan Gifford     Not Rated     1964

Host: Dr. Creep goes to “Renaissance Music” to promote the CD “Amazing Sounds of Shock Theater” and chats with the owner Geoff Burkman who played a zombie in “DAY OF THE DEAD” and has been a local legend of film and stage star for many years. The two chat it up over all types of subjects that include Frisbee Golf and even George A Romero! Also includes trailers and a music video for The Lawn Jockyes song “Creep 303”.

Movie: Vorelli is a ventriloquist & hypnotist, with an amazing dummy, Hugo. Vorelli meets and pursues a beautiful heiress (Marianne); he mesmerizes her, and induces a baffling coma. His buxom mistress (Magda) fears he’ll dump her for the younger woman, and threatens to expose him. Vorelli tricks Hugo into killing Magda while he’s safely elsewhere. Marianne’s boyfriend Mark investigates. He discovers another killing in Vorelli’s past, of a man called Hugo. The girl wakes from her coma, and announces she will marry the hypnotist. When the triumphant Vorelli tells Hugo his plans for Marianne and a new, female dummy, a final confrontation yields surprising results.

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New Shock Theater: Attack Of The Beast Creatures
Starring – Robert Nolfi & Julia Rust     Not Rated     1985

Host: Dr. Creep with time invades the horror convention “Fright Vision” in 2002! Dr. Creep once more along with his camera man goes around and gets interviews with guests that include Hayden from Witching Hour Video also known as Horror Host “I, Zombi”, Actress Lilith Stabbs, Horror Host Dr. Shock and the guys of Brains on Film. Also we get trailers and some footage of The Lawn Jockyes playing while Belly Dancers dance taken from a classic “Live” New Shock Theater.

Movie: Survivors of a shipwreck wash up on an island, and run into small vicious creatures.

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New Shock Theater: Ghastlee Wedding Special
Starring – A. Ghastlee Ghoul & Dr. Freak     Not Rated     2003

Host: At Cinema Wasteland October 4th 2003 horror host A. Ghastlee Ghoul married Horror Hostess Suspira in the worlds first and only Horror Host Wedding! Dr. Creep (who’s also the best man) brings The New Shock Theater crew to the event and this you have “Ghastlee’s Wedding Special” so sit back and join in the fun and watch history unfold before your very eyes! Along the way Dr. Creep and film maker Andy Copp talk to people at the convention about the wedding and the event.

Movie: Clips from Cinema Wasteland 2003.

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New Shock Theater: Scary Camp Special
Starring – Tommy Gunn & Conrad Brooks     Not Rated     2004

Host: May 28th -30th 2004 was Ghastlee’s Scary Camp, Dayton, Ohio’s first Horror film convention and Dr. Creep shot a very special edition of New Shock Theater! The show is hosted in the Crypt by Dr. Creep and the Reverand Zealot who show clips from the amazing event. Dr. Creep interviews A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Conrad Brooks (Plan 9 from Outer Space), Joe Estevez, Sid Haig, Make-Up artist Jeff Krodel and Ken Kish of Cinema Wasteland. Also shown is a full “Freakshow Deluxe” performance from Tommy Gunn, a look at the Evil Dead Museum and some weird and wild clips. 

Movie: Clips from Scary Camp 2004.

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New Shock Theater: Eegah
Starring – Arch Hall Jr. & Richard Kiel     Unrated     1962

Host: Dr. Creep and Reverend Zealot have a relaxing time on the set and chat about the nights film as well as the actors who made it come alive.

Movie: While driving through the desert, a teenage girl is frightened by a seven-foot giant which appears in her path. After escaping, she returns to the site with her boyfriend and her father in an attempt to find the giant. They do, and it proceeds to terrorize them and the rest of Palm Springs, California.

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New Shock Theater: Flesh Feast
Starring – Veronica Lake & Doug Foster     Rated R     1970

Host: Dr. Creep and Reverend Zealot are back relaxing on the set of New Shock Theater and chat about the nights film Flesh Feast as well as the actress Veronica Lake. They also chat about Dr. Creep’s uncle Doug Hobart who was a star in many films shot in Florida.

Movie: Dr. Elaine Frederick has just perfected a way of using maggots to make her test subjects not only look younger, but actually become younger. When they hear of the results of her experiments, her first clients, a team of hispanic neo-nazis, are delighted with the news. It seems they have a very elderly VIP in their group who needs to be rejuvenated before he can begin rebuilding his thousand-year reich. As their plan moves toward its completion, Dr. Frederick’s habit of experimenting on stolen corpses begins to attract the attention of an investigative reporter.

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Live New Shock Theater: Impulse & The Flesh Eaters
Starring – William Shatner & Ira Lewis    Rated PG/Not Rated    1974/1964

Host: It’s April Fools Day! Dr. Creep and crew have decided to show a double feature of cheesy films…and they do it all LIVE! It’s The Groovie Shock-A-Thon! This was the first live Shock Theater is nearly 20 years and it’s filled with live calls. Cameos and a live in-house band! Guests featured include The Lawn Jockeys, Reverend Tommy Gunn, Henrique Couto and Andy Copp.

Movies: Impulse – A paranoid, leisure-suit-wearing conman/gigolo named Matt Stone seduces lonely women, bilks them of their savings via an investment scam, then kills them. When he begins seeing an attractive widow, her daughter Tina becomes suspicious of his motives. The Flesh Eaters – An alcoholic actress, her personal assistant, and their pilot are downed on a secluded isle by bad weather, where a renegade Nazi scientist is using ocean life to develop a solvent for human flesh. The tiny flesh-eating sea critters that result certainly give our heroes a run for their money – and lives.

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Live New Shock Theater: Brainiac & Blood Freak
Starring – Steve Hawkes & Abel Salazar     Rated  X/Not Rated     1972/1962

Host: The second live episode of New Shock Theater took place in 2001. Dr. Creep chats with fellow Horror Hosts A. Ghastlee Ghoul and Dr. Freak as well showcases his in house band The Lawn Jockeys.

Movies: Blood FreakA biker comes upon a girl with a flat tire and offers her a ride home. He winds up at a drug party with the girl’s sister, then follows her to a turkey farm owned by her father, a mad scientist. The father turns the biker into a giant turkey monster who goes after drug dealers. The Brainiac – In 1661 Mexico, the Baron Vitelius of Astara is sentenced to be burned alive by the Holy Inquisition of Mexico for witchcraft, necromancy, and other crimes. As he dies, the Baron swears vengeance against the descendants of the Inquisitors. 300 years later, a comet that was passing overhead on the night of the Baron’s execution returns to earth, bringing with it the Baron in the form of a horrible, brain-eating monster that terrorizes the Inquisitor’s descendants.

The One And Only Dr Creep

There is also a lost episode that only aired once; it was a Christmas episode and had Dr. Creep hosting The Deathmaster.  After the original airing, someone at the station stole the tape, or that’s what director Andy Copp told me some years back. It’s also really sad because in the final episode of New Shock Theater (Flesh Feast) Dr. Creep is so happy and gives a list of films that he will be hosting soon.  Sadly he never did get to host them as his health and Andy Copp getting busy with other projects kept the episodes from being shot. On a good note and something that might make fans happy I have come across most the raw footage for this episode and at sometime in the future I might try and recut the episode as the best I can and release it on DVD as well as show it on the Kreepy Kastle online Horror Host station. Dr. Creep impacted the lives of those who watched his show in the 70’s all the way to the 2000’s and still does even to this day and it shows in the shows of the hosts that followed as almost all of them credit him for their interspersion hosts like A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Baron Von Porkchop, Dr. Freak and Iris & Retina all from Dayton who cared on the tradition he started here and all do it with pride and to honor Creep who paved the way for them. This update was a fun one to write and so many great memories came back and flooded my mind about Barry.  Next to Commander USA, this has been my favorite Horror Host Icon update I have written to date! If you have a fun story about Dr. Creep, please share in the comments, and if you have any original broadcast episodes of his Channel 22 days, please contact me as I would love to get a copy from you. To continue the countdown to the Halloween update that will be a surprise custom comic made by my good friend Eric Shonborn, our next update will be about The Fly and IDW’s sequel to the series started by David Cronenberg in 1986. So make sure to come back for that one and bring some Raid and a flyswatter just in case of a infestation..and as always read a comic or three and support your local horror host.

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Horror Host Icon: Dr. Freak

Ohio is a cesspool of creative media and it’s the mecca of horror hosts as the state has showcased such talents as Ghoulardi, Dr. Creep, The Ghoul, The Cool Ghoul, Baron Von Porkchop and so many more. But Ohio also spawned “The Worlds Youngest Horror Host” Dr. Freak! What a great gimmick being the youngest horror host to date, and while many hosts have their kids help on shows, Dr. Freak made and starred in his own show he called “Cult Theater” at the age of 12, and this set him apart from the rest of the youth in hosting at the time. Growing up I watched a lot of public access shows like Moraine Playhouse Theater, A. Ghastlee Movie Show, Media Only, New Shock Theater and Eat More Carp, and I can remember seeing this strange kid with a white lab coat on many of the shows with white grease paint on his face and black grease paint making a thick unibrow.  He even was at many of the Horrorama’s my brother and I attended as well as other events.  If you lived in Dayton in the early 2000’s, than I am sure you had a run in with Dr. Freak! So this update is a quick look at the one and only Horror Host Icon: Dr. Freak.

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Dr. Freak, also known as Freak E. Guy, was a teen ghoul who always wore a lab coat even though viewers never seen him do any thing medical or scientific.  He was a fun loving silly goofball who took joy in hosting cheesy films for the viewers of local access. During his very short time on air hosting Cult Theater, Dr. Freak entertained the masses while hosting some of the best the public domain had to offer and even survived a zombie attack! During this first run Dr. Freak would pop up on other horror hosts shows in the area like Dr. Creep’s New Shock Theater, I, Zombi’s The Witching Hour and A. Ghastlee Ghoul’s Ghastlee Movie Show and spread the word of his Cult Theater.  These appearance helped lock Dr. Freak as a full fledged horror host. I can remember catching his show from time to time and around this time as well I became great friends with the young man behind the grease paint, Henrique Couto, who was a youngster with big ideas and many dreams. Couto, who seems like a little brother to me, around this time also opened up his own film company that he called Couto Films/Freak Productions and began making his own films that he released on DVD and VHS and would sell at horror film conventions. While his first film was called “The Henrique Couto Show Movie,” it was his second feature that would have his film world and his hosting world collide.

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Dr. Freak Vamp Killa was a short 20 minute film made in 2004 that had the young horror host killing a bunch of vampires that were wandering around his hometown causing deaths and destruction because he killed their leader some 5 years back and now the new leader wants this host dead! So armed with wooden stakes and garlic powder cream pies, Dr. Freak swings into action and fumbles and bumbles his way to victory. The film was shot over a weekend and marked Dr. Freak as one of a few horror hosts at the time that were in a film based around them as the character; the other ones that come to mind is Morgus The Magnificent in “The Wacky World Of Dr. Morgus” from 1962 and Elvira Mistress of The Dark in the film of her own name in 1988. The film was put on VHS by Independent B Movie with the DVD-R being made by Dr. Freak in house.  The cover art on the original media release was done by Jason Gilmore and looked pretty dang cool. In an interview some years after the film’s release for Gates Of Gore Dr. Freak talked about two ideas for a possible sequel one that would have him in Da Hood and the other one would have been more of a Kung-Fu film. He also talks about the sales of the film being pretty good.  Sadly the sequel never was in the cards. Dr. Freak also co-starred in a DVD special feature show called “Freak TV” were he went missing and Henrique Couto had to go out and find him. Dr. Freak also had a cameo in the Bob Hinton movie “Joe Nosferatu: Homeless Vampire” where in a graveyard he tries to stake the lead vampire all the while doing a terrible Crocodile Hunter impression. While by no means a movie star, Dr. Freak has made his mark on B-Movie with these appearances.

Dr Freak Vamp Killa

From 2005 on Dr. Freak, while making public appearances and co-starring in others shows from time to time, seemed to be phasing himself out of the world of horror hosting and with only a total of 4 original episodes under his belt.  It became clear that his other side Henrique Couto was wanting to make movies and even music under the name PineappleHead, and by 2006 Dr. Freak was phased out and the character was not seen again….well that is until 2011 when the master of Freak came back to TV to appear on Baron Von Porkchop’s tribute to the late great Dr. Creep, and the one time World Youngest Horror Host shared some stories of working with the Creep and was back home among fellow hosts like A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Baron Von Porkchop and Reverend Zealot. This appearance helped spark the hosting bug once more in Dr. Freak who became the host of an event called “Dayton’s Scare-A-Thon” that aired all over the Dayton area public access in 2011 and marked the first new episode of Cult Theater in over 6 years! Even with the time away from the hosting spotlight Dr. Freak didn’t miss a beat as he brought his silly brand of humor to the viewers of this Halloween season event. Then over the course of the last few years Dr. Freak has became a semi-regular returning guest on Terrifying Tales of the Macabre, and he and Baron Von Porkchop have became hosting pals. The character also at this time has changed his look and no longer has the think black unibrow but instead has went for more of a pale face and crazy facial hair. While only one new Cult Theater episode has been made, I have heard rumors that a new one could be in the works in the near future.

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So next I would like to take a few moments and ask Dr. Freak to answer a few questions for all you fine folks who read Rotten Ink, but I am not going to ask 5 questions but 6 cause why not! So I traveled down to his Crypt hideout and waited for a few hours till finally the man showed up so this is my 6 Questions with the one and only Dr. Freak…

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Me: Welcome, Dr. Freak, to Rotten Ink.  My first question has to be what or who got you into hosting and becoming The World’s Youngest Horror Host?

Freak: Seeing Dr. Creep on the New Shock Theater was my sole inspiration in the beginning, other than USA Up All Night he was the only example of horror hosts I had seen at all at that age.

Me: Dr. Creep, a true legend in the hosting world and has inspired many! So out of your first classic episodes of Cult Theater what is your favorite one?

Freak: I think my favorite episode was Night of the Living Dead, because myself and my camera man at the time James were just such big fans of the film, we really just ran with it and had a really fun time making it.

Me: Truly is a great film and a very fun episode of yours indeed to watch, so there is a rumor of a classic episode that is lost any clues what movie you showed and the wacky adventure you got into?

Freak: As awful as it is, I really can’t remember! I was such a young kid back then and we did all kinds of silly gags and videos they sort of run together, but if I ever find anything I wouldn’t keep it to myself for certain.

Me: You always have been a busy ghoul Dr. Freak, and I hope the episode is found someday. So this brings me to my next question with your last New episode being made in 2011 is there any plans for a new episode in the near future?

Freak: You just never know when Dr. Freak will pop up again, but as of right now he is on indefinite hiatus.

Me: So that’s a warning that he is still out there waiting for the word to return! So if you were to host again and could host any film what would you pick?

Freak: I would love to host the original Dawn of the Dead. That would be a blast to do.

Me: Would be interesting to see what ideas you come up with on that film and a great pick, so this brings us to out last question, do you have any advice to future horror hosts?

Freak: Host movies because you love movies and love being in front of the camera. Find people as passionate as you, and go fourth!

Me: Thanks My Ghoul Friend…Wait that sounds odd..Thanks my Pal!

Freak: Anytime! 

I can remember when I was in my upper teens watching Cult Theater episodes on MVCC and enjoying them.  While they were not as well produced as New Shock Theater with Dr. Creep nor zany and crazy like the Ghastlee Movie Show with A. Ghastlee Ghoul, it was a nice third option to enjoy a horror host program on the Dayton, Ohio airwaves. Plus it was always a treat seeing those three hosts at movie screenings or horror conventions showing the bond between them and once more proving that horror hosting is one big strange dysfunctional family. After the Cult Theater episodes aired, they also made their way to DVD thanks to Freak Productions and can still be ordered on the website as can his comeback episode that is also on sale at Game Swap in Kettering.

Cult Theater DVD Collection

So it’s time to write about the episodes of Cult Theater with Dr. Freak I own. I will not be giving them star ratings like I do the comics, but I will break down what he does for the host segments as well as a write up for the film he is hosting that will be taken from IMDB. I want to thank Henrique Couto and Bryan Brassfield for getting me these episodes over the years, and I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed watching and writing about them. So with no more wait, let’s enter the Cult Theater..

Dr. Freak Zombie 4

Cult Theater:  Zombie 4: After Death
Starring – Jeff Stryker & Candice Daly   Not Rated   1989

Host:  Dr. Freak and A. Ghastlee Ghoul sit down in the studio to watch the film Mystery Science Theater 3000 style and cut wise cracks and jokes all the while. Also from New Shock Theater, Reverend Zealot pops in to share a little information out the night’s movie, and by the end A. Ghastlee Ghoul attacks Dr. Freak with peanut brittle and knocks him out, taking over the show for the rest of the episode! By the end Ghastlee is tormenting the boy and gives him a lobotomy, and they wrap the film heckling up.

Movie: A woman goes back to the island where her parents were killed. They had been working on a cure for cancer and accidentally raised the dead by angering a voodoo priest. With the woman is a group of mercenaries and they meet up with some other researchers. They raise the dead again and all hell breaks loose.

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Cult Theater:  Night of the Living Dead
Starring – Duane Jones & Bill Hinzman   Not Rated   1968

Host: Dr. Freak is out with his friend when they are attacked by a zombie, and Freak and his cameraman must flee and survive the attack and find shelter in a home. They argue about whether they should stay upstairs or go to the basement, and in the end they get stuck in the basement and then decide to go out and fight the zombies where they are attacked and Freak shoots and kills the undead only after his cameraman dies!

Movie: Barbra and her brother Johnny travel by car from Pittsburgh to the countryside to visit the gravestone of their father in the cemetery. Out of the blue, they are attacked by a strange man and Johnny is murdered. Barbra runs and releases the brake of Johnny’s car since the keys are in his pocket, and flees to an isolated farmhouse, where she locks herself inside. Barbra is in shock and soon she finds a man, Ben, who is also escaping from the inhuman creatures and he reinforces the doors, windows and openings in the house. He also finds a shotgun and a radio and they learn that the radiation from a satellite that was returning from Venus has somehow reactivated the brain of the dead. Then they find five humans hidden in the basement: Harry Cooper, his wife Helen and their daughter Karen that is sick; and Tom and his girlfriend Judy. Harry has an argument with Ben, since he believes that the basement is the safest place for them and Harry goes not agree. Along the night, the tension rises. 

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Cult Theater:  I Bury The Living
Starring – Richard Boone & Peggy Maurer   Not Rated   1958 

Host: Dr. Freak is giving a tribute to Albert Band, filmmaker and father to Richard and Charles Band, by showing his film as well as showing Fullmoon Entertainment trailers. This also marks his return to TV after some time off, something like 4 years.  He does some silly stuff like steals a kids bike, plugs websites and gets kidnapped in the end of the episode via a red truck!!

Movie:Through a series of macabre “coincidences,” the newly-elect ed director of a cemetery begins to believe that he can cause the deaths of living owners of burial plots by merely changing the push-pin color from white (living) to black (dead) on a large wall map of the cemetery that notes those plots.

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Cult Theater:  Horror Express
Starring: Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee   Rated R   1972

Host: Dr. Freak returns to TV for the Dayton Scare-A-Thon, a half day Halloween marathon event.  In his new hideout, his crypt hangout, the good Dr. makes a drinking game out of every time you see a shot of the train, take a drink. As the episode goes on, he gets more and more drunk and uses dynamite to fix the bad camera feed and spews out goofy jokes and one liners.

Movie: An English anthropologist has discovered a frozen monster in the frozen wastes of Manchuria which he believes may be the missing link. He brings the creature back to Europe aboard a Trans-Siberian express, but during the trip the monster thaws out and starts to butcher the passengers one by one.

While in Ohio Dr. Freak might not be a household name like Dr. Creep or The Ghoul, he still is one of Dayton Ohio’s originals who has entertained the viewers off and on for many years all the while going from the Worlds Youngest Horror Host to a full fledged adult ghoul whose humor and style have changed along with his appearance. Here is to hoping that a new Cult Theater will grace the TV screens again soon, and I’m crossing my fingers the missing episode will be found for us all to enjoy. Thanks to Dr. Freak for not only being a Horror Host but for also spending some time with us here at Rotten Ink and answering 6 Questions for us.  The next Icon update will be about none other than Dr. Creep! And our next update will be all about Questprobe, the Marvel Comic series based around text video games! So until then, support your local Horror Host and watch a horror film or two.

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Start Halloween with the Universal Monsters!

The late night has a chill, and the leaves are blowing in the air as we approach my favorite month with my favorite holiday that’s filled with ghost, goblins, witches and ghouls.  Of course I am talking about October and Halloween! Growing up, Halloween, also known as beggars night, was always one of the highlights of the year.  Dressing up in whatever costume you or your parents wanted and going around town and getting free candy from neighbors and hearing spooky stories shared amongst friends always seemed like a perfect night. In Waynesville, Halloween always seemed more special as I was younger and enjoyed seeing friends from school walking around town dressed up, getting the free candy and walking around with my brother and his friends. When we moved back to Kettering, I was much older and spent most Halloweens watching horror films on tape or TV or driving around backwoods with Matt Hoffman or Josh Weinberg. One funny story about driving around had Matt Hoffman and I driving late around Bellbrook on Halloween night.  I was dressed up as Jason Voorhees (Friday The 13th), and he was dressed as The Wolf Hunter (a character he played in the movies we made).  We got lost and drove up what we thought was a small road that turned out to be someone’s driveway, and when we got to the house, a group of people were sitting on the porch and one had a shotgun in hand! Hoffman and I saw this, and I rolled down the window in the mask and all and said we were looking for the killer party, and then we quickly backed up and they just stared at us.  In my mind I was hoping they thought that we were real ghouls looking for a secret party. Before we get into the comic reviews on DELL Comics take on Universal Monsters Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolf Man, Mummy and Creature From the Black Lagoon, I am going to share things that I look forward/think about every Halloween season!

The first thing is the Halloween decorations from cheap plastic skeletons to the traditional Jack O Lantern.  They make the season of fall seem so much more magical. Growing up my mom use to let me decorate the living room for Halloween.  It was quickly filled with ceramic painted ghosts and vampires, cardboard skeletons and frankenstein monsters in the windows and Addams Family flashlights of Lurch and Fester on the mantel. I like to drive around and look at Halloween displays people have in their yards and windows like some people do with Christmas decorations. I have seen some really cool stuff in Kettering, Waynesville and Fairborn.

witch halloween Decorationsjack-o-lanternwerewolf halloween Decorations

Another thing that kicks off the fall/Halloween season for me is the Sauerkraut Festival that my hometown Waynesville has put on for 44 years that’s always held of the second full week of October. The event is filled with great food, outdoor vendors that sell homemade crafts and almost all the amazing shops and restaurants are open for business. Over the years I notice the crowds at the event get bigger and bigger and lots of kids come and have fun. One of my best memories is buying ceramic halloween decorations that me and my mom later painted in her craft room that was also taken over as the NES Game Room, and also buying really cool homemade buttons of Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson and Billy Idol. If you have not ever been to this event and are a fan of homemade crafts and food and like the feel and fun of a small town, I would highly recommend you check out this fun festival.

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Of course one of the best parts of Halloween is finding the right costume and dressing up as your favorite hero, fiend or celebrity. Over the years I can remember dressing up as Rell the Cyclops from Krull, Skeletor from Masters of the Universe, Dracula, a Clown, The Wolf Man, Bigfoot, Jason Voorhees, Billy Idol and Alice Cooper. The Rell costume was one that scarred me.  Longtime readers will know the story.  I dressed as The Wolf Man from my own film Werewolf of Ohio for a Halloween party held at my friends’, brother and sister Chris and Rosetta Workman’s old house in Troy. The lamest costume I can remember is being a clown.  My mom was too scared to put the black makeup close to my eyes so she left them bare. I looked like a meth addict clown who just couldn’t get his stuff together for that one last show of the night. One of my favorites was Dracula it was pretty cool putting in the fake teeth and wearing the cape with white grease paint on. But I also loved dressing as Bigfoot for my cousin Steve and his then girlfriend Emily’s Halloween Home Warming Party.  It was great spending a spooky night with friends like Max Ervin, Nate Stevens, Josh Weinberg and all the rest of the gang. Halloween lets anyone feel like a star as they can dress up and act like what ever they want to be.  If you want to be a zombie, then be it.  If you wanna be Lady GaGa, then dress like her! Below are a few pics of me from the ages dressed as all types of ghouls and fools.

me as clownme as draculame as wolfman couto as philme as bigfoot

The main point of Halloween is to go trick or treating, and every kid, with his pillow case, plastic pumpkin or plastic bag, hopes for the good stuff like Snickers, Kit Kats and Milky Ways and dreads candy corn, pennies and taffy. Some of my favorite treats to get were Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  They were and still are my favorite candy to treat my sweet tooth to. I like the old wax type wrapper better then the more lame plastic type. Another favorite was Monster Candy sugar sticks put into boxes that showed Universal Monsters on them. We use to buy these to give out for Halloween by my request and before Halloween I would sneak and eat a few.  I am sure my Mom and Dad knew but didn’t care. One other fun one I use to love was Wax Lips.  Terrible candy, but a fun trick! I remember getting a pair one year that I would wear around and then in a few hours I decided to chew on them and made them into a wax ball….such a lame treat but really fun and lame entertainment. I wonder if I dressed as Bigfoot this year and went door to door here in Dayton, if people would give me candy….hmmm makes me wonder!

wax lipsreeses peanut butter cupmonster candy

Halloween TV Specials were also something I looked forward to and some of my favorites include The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” every year.  They are fun horror themed stories that have The Simpson family in situations that are not in the normal season story arcs. Roseanne had some of the best Halloween episodes on TV.  The Conners understood the spirt of Halloween, and the episodes were done so well and had that blue collar appeal to them that made them over the top yet realistic. As the series went on, they slowly lost some of the charm but Roseanne had some of the best episodes for this holiday. Two specials that used to air when I was younger every Halloween and that I still love to this day are “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” and ” Garfield’s Halloween Adventure.” Both were fun animated family entertainment.  Charlie Brown is the better of the two, and who can forget Chuck’s many holed ghost sheet and the fact he got a rock for a treat, classic stuff. Garfield had that wonderful ghost story meets John Carpenter’s The Fog feel to it, and the creepy old man that tells them the story is great stuff for young ones to get their bones chilled by. Halloween Specials are a fun way for TV Shows to cut loose and have fun and CBS, FOX, ABC and the rest need to look back at the golden age of specials on TV and bring this generation some spooky stuff for their Halloween nights.

The Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror dvdRoseanne Halloween dvdcharlie brown halloween dvdGarfield Halloween Adventure VHS

Speaking of TV, another thing that Halloween Season always makes me think about is Shock Theatre and The New Shock Theater both hosted by the late great Dr. Creep! Late night TV watching in October was always a treat when Dr. Creep and crew would host a terrible b-movie shocker, and the Creeper would be on the screen hamming it up in skits and later interviews with the horror stars of the past and present. Halloween time in Dayton and the surrounding area always belonged to Dr. Creep who will always be the icon of fright to anyone who grew up watching his show. During the holiday time Creep would make many public appearances, one of which was the charity horror film event called Horrorama where films would be shown from 35mm prints and Creep, along side Andy Copp and Rick Martin and later myself, would hold contests and entertain the crowd in between films.  Fall will never be the same without the Creeper who sadly passed away in early 2011, and while he might be gone, he will never be forgotten and his local TV work will forever have a legacy that will entertain generations to come thanks to DVD and VHS.

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This time of year also brings the Halloween Specials of Terrifying Tales of the Macabre to local Dayton airwaves.  These hour long specials are some of my favorite episodes I shoot in a season and are for Dayton’s Scare-A-Thon, a long block of Horror film programing that airs on both DATV and MVCC. Baron Von Porkchop, the host of the show, always seems to get himself into trouble during this time of the year and for the first one The Baron meets the killer The Sadness from the film of the same name at Wright State University during another one of his killing rampages.  The second one had Baron hosting “Werewolf of Ohio” and going trick or treating with his weird hunchback friend Melvin.  They make the mistake of getting the wrath of The Headless Horseman after them! These episodes are so much fun to make and rank always as the top sellers for us at the end of each year. I hope that the fans have as much fun with them as The Baron and I have making them. I am also so glad to have dug up The Baron from his grave and share his silly adventures with the fans, and I hope that The Baron adds to people’s Halloween experience as Dr. Creep did for mine. I should also mention another great Halloween event is Boo-Fest, a Halloween party put on by a friend of the show named Len, that he has Baron Von Porkchop as the guest judge of the costume contest, a fun time with really good people.

Baron Halloween Special 1 DVDBaron Von PorkchopBaron Halloween Special 2 dvd

When I was young, McDonald’s was the cool place to eat for kids, and Happy Meals and the toys inside were things we all collected and traded on the playground. Some years around Halloween time they would also have pumpkin and ghost buckets for sale and when released they were everywhere in kids hands during trick or treat. But another thing I always remember is when the Chicken McNuggets in a commercial dressed as classic monsters.  I mean who can forget the Vampire McNugget or The Mummy McNugget? The commercial had them doing all kinds of silly stuff that all was to make their own dipping sauce.  Later in the short commercial Ronald McDonald just gave them dipping sauce. I don’t know why, but this commercial has always stuck with me and I thought it was even cooler when they gave away McNugget toys in the Happy Meals that had them dressed as the monsters. Fun stuff, and man now I am hungry for McNuggets!

mcnugget monstersMcNugget toysmcnugget dracula

Kids and the young at heart always wish that Halloween Town from Tim Burtons “A Nightmare Before Christmas” was real.  Well here in Ohio, we have something very close with Foy’s Halloween Shop and all of it’s other shops (adult and kids costume stores, a haunted house supply shop, etc) in Fairborn! Foy’s is run by Mike Foy and is a one stop shopping for all your halloween needs they have masks, costumes, candy, decorations, make up, gag gifts and so much more. In October the store really comes alive with a DJ outside that plays music.  When Dr. Creep was with us, he signed autographs and DVDs out front. They have a Batman on top of one of the buildings and lots of animatronics of people puking! The street is filled with people just hanging around and having a good time.  Every year I try and make at least one trip to Foy’s in October because the over all energy of that area is great Halloween fun. If you ever find yourself in Ohio in October, do yourself a favor and check out Foy’s.

foys maskfoys halloween-storefoys puke

Speaking of costumes the older I got, the more I took notice of the sexy halloween costumes that are just wowing. Halloween is one time a year when many hot ladies dress up as French Maids, Sexy Cats, Nurses and Playboy Bunnies and it’s like cosplay for the masses. Don’t want to spend to much time of this one, but I just want to say that women in sexy costumes is another reason I love Halloween! Thoough I will say that my girlfriend Juliet made a good observation that it’s harder for girls to find costumes that don’t have the word sexy associated with them.  Guys can be a scary Freddy Kruger while woman have to be Sexy Freddy Kruger.

sexy nursesexy bunnysexy jazsexy she ra

Halloween time also makes me think of my friend Max Ervin, a guy I knew for over 10 years and a guy that I worked with at two jobs. Max was like me, a big kid at heart and loved to look at Halloween stores and decorate the stores we worked at. His family also used go all out and decorate their house, and this I think always made the holiday special for Max. He also loved dressing up and every year jumped at the chance to come to work in costume. Max and I also loved to go to abandoned houses and root around hoping to find some cool stuff and maybe even get a slight chill. He also worked on many horror films with me and was a fan of cheesy horror like myself. Sadly, the world lost Max this year and I will forever miss his friendship.  He truly was a fun spirit who knew how to make the world around him laugh. Rest In Peace my friend, this Halloween blog is for you. Below are some pics of Max in Halloween costumes and one of him and I at Steve’s Halloween Party.

max and memax as indianmax outlaw

What is Halloween without The Universal Monsters? The answer to the question is a little less fun for me! Growing up I loved the classic black and white horror films.  Every Halloween I use to watch the 1932 Frankenstein on VHS, and as I acquired more of the Universal Monsters VHS releases, they joined in the October must watch list. Besides the fact they are great films, the characters themselves are traditional scary monsters that kids and adult dress up as and all seem to mimic when thinking of that said monster. I can remember a few years back sitting in my darkened room with the TV glow as the only light as a thunderstorm poured down outside as I watched Frankenstein on DVD.  The sensation of watching the classic film on a night like that in mid October made me think of how terrifying this film was for movie goers in the 1930’s.  They must have been in total shock as The Monster, played by Boris Karloff, first appeared on screen with his bolted neck and flat scarred up head. The Universal Monster films are also a fun way to watch “scary” movies with your kids and help add to their Halloween experience.  So this Halloween do me a favor and watch a Universal Monster Classic and enjoy the horror pictures of the past.

Frankensteins Monster Karloffclassic universal logoDracula Bela

Horror films are my favorite kind of films.  Up to 89% of my movie collection is made up of horror movies, and like most people during the fall and October, I watch a lot of them. When thinking of horror films during this time of the year, the series that always pops into my head is “Halloween” with its white masked killer Michael Myers who stalks and kills teens and adult alike on Halloween night. This series happens to be my favorite of the mainstream franchises and is a series one should watch the week of the holiday. Modern horror fans might also think about the “Saw” or “Paranormal Activity” series.  Both that had sequels that came out every October.  While I like the Saw films, the Paranormal Activity series has run its course after the second film. At least one day in October I set some time back and watch mass amounts of them, and this year I watched Hatchet III, Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead (2013), Halloween 5: Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, Cabin In The Woods, Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan, Corpse Eaters, Stephen King’s IT, Demons, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III,  Texas Chainsaw 3D, The Mummy’s Hand, My Bloody Valentine (1981), Venom, Dawn of the Mummy, C.H.U.D., Frankenstein Stalks,  Miss Werewolf, The Wolf Man (1941), Curse of the Werewolf, I, Madman, The Wolf Hunter, Maniac Cop, Dracula (1931), An American Werewolf in Paris, Curse of Frankenstein, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell and so many more! So this holiday season try and watch a film series like Friday The 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Howling, Re-Animator, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Phantasm, Psycho, Tombs of The Blind Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or whatever you choose and have a fun fright filled night, cause Halloween is not complete without the horror films!

friday-the-13th-part-8-jason-takes-manhattan posterTexas Chainsaw Media VHS Adhalloween 6 poster

One film that takes place around Halloween and is one of my favorite cheesy 80’s horror films is a little film called “Trick or Treat” directed by Charles Martin Smith and starring Marc Price as Eddie “Ragman” Weinbauer, Tony Fields as Sammi Curr, Lisa Orgolini as Leslie Graham with cameos from Gene Simmons of Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne. The film is about rockstar Sammi Curr who dies in a hotel fire coming back via a vinyl record.  When his # 1 fan Eddie plays the record backwards he gets messages from Curr on how to get even with the bullies of the school. When Eddie turns against the orders of Curr when people start getting hurt, Curr comes back to life to finish the killing spree he wanted. The film is pure 80’s hair metal horror that has the killer Sammi Curr traveling through electricity and using his guitar to kill teens with bolts of lightning. I first saw the film when I was 10 years old while my brother Bryan and I were being babysat by our older cousin Chris Jones who before this fed us Taco Bell and bought me a Hulk comic off the comic rack at a local convenience store. He and his friend put it on, and I watched it and thought wow this movie is great.  As I started collecting Horror films on VHS, I went out of my way to find a copy of it for sale at all the local video stores and second hand stores. A fun fact: my cat Leslie is named after the love interest of Eddie in this film. If you like 80’s rock, a killer who dances, plays guitar and sings, then this is a film for you. Be warned the film is not a bloodbath slasher film but more of a supernatural film. Also last year’s Horrorama and the last one we were able to show 35mm film prints for, Andy Copp was able to get a print for us to show so that I could see the film the way it was suppose to be seen. The film was also planned to be a franchise with many sequels like A Nightmare on Elm Street, but the it did poorly at the boxoffice and the plans for the series were scrapped. So in the words of Sammi Curr aka Fastway (the band who did the soundtrack) “Knock, Knock. Knockin For A Sweet Surprise..It’s a Trick Or Treat”!

sammi currTrick or Treat PosterSami Curr Lives

When I was younger I use to really want to get a group of my friends together in the woods next to a camp fire and tell scary stories like in the Nickelodeon show “Are You Afraid Of The Dark” but this sadly never came about. But what I did spend a lot of time doing was reading ghost stories from old cheap paperbacks that I would by from the school book fairs. My favorite one to read was “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark” by Alvin Schwartz that had creepy drawings by Stephen Gammell and all that book’s sequels. That series of books had short stories about murders, ghosts, ghouls and pranks gone wrong and each story was well written and had a creepy illustration to accompany it. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark is a book that has a cult following to this day and I know many of people my age and younger that still love reading these creepy stories from time to time. Two other popular series of books that were big when I was younger were both written by R.L. Stine, the geared for kids”Goosebumps” and the geared for teens “Fear Street.” Growing up I read many of these books and for some reason read Goosebumps: The Curse Of The Mummy’s Tomb a lot. Also around this time teen thriller novels based on Michael Myers (Halloween), Jason Voorhees (Friday The 13th) and Freddy Kruger (Nightmare on Elm Street) hit the market, and while they were very cheesy they still were fun.  I remember reading the Friday the 13th ones after I checked them out from the library. One of my favorite books to read were the “Crestwood Monster Series” that were facts, plots and later the novel adaptations of classic horror and sci-fi films.  The series would cover Dracula, Godzilla, The Mummy, King Kong and so many more monsters. I own some of these books that I bought when I was younger from a library sale in Waynesville. More great reads that I learned about in my teens were the “Haunted Ohio” series written by Chris Woodyard.  They are real life tellings of hauntings in the state of Ohio and covers all the famous stories that are said to spook us Ohioans. If you’re a ghost hunter and sprit chaser like myself, these books are worth a read. And of course there are all the classic novels one thinks about around this time like Bram Stokers “Dracula”, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, H.G. Wells “Invisible Man” & “War of The Worlds” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to name a few. Or you could even read novelizations of horror films that flooded the market in the late 70’s and through out the 90’s. Novels are fun ways to work the mind and give yourself a fright this halloween season!

scary stories to tell in the dark bookGoosebumps The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb bookhalloween old myers place bookmonster series mad scientist bookHaunted Ohio booklegend of sleepy hollow book

This time also makes me think of video games and all the horror themed ones that have come out in my generation of being a gamer. I play a lot of video games and have played so many survival horror games that I could write a full blog on just that so I will be brief and only talk about a few. I remember playing “Haunted House” for Atari 2600 at Brad Burns’ house, a neighbor from across the street in Waynesville.  The game is simple and has a pair of eyes looking around a dark maze trying to finds pieces of an urn while dodging bats and spiders. The game was pretty lame but I remember always asking to play it because it was a horror themed game. I also remember Brad making fun of the game. Another game I played a lot was for PC and was on diskettes that he bought from a thrift store called “Isle Of The Dead” when he first bought his own PC. The game had you play a surviver of a plane crash that landed on an island run by a mad scientist and overrun by zombies.  This was a first person shooter that was one on the imitations of Doom. The game was super cheesy and would crash a lot but I remember so hard trying to beat it and not coming close. Another PC game I played a lot was “Waxworks,” a horror game that would send you to different time periods to retrieve stolen goods and kill evil beings. I used to play this game a lot and had fun doing so.  It was pure first person meets point and click game and had a great soundtrack. Lastly I will talk about “The Walking Dead: The Video Game” made by TellTale Games, a point and click adventure that follows Lee who was on his way to prison for murder and escapes when the zombie outbreak happens and comes across a little girl named Clementine who he in turns protects through out this amazing plotted game. This was one of my favorite horror games for the PS3 era of survival horror. But this is just a drop in the hat to all the wonderful horror games out there like the series Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Dead Space, Castlevania, F.E.A.R., Doom and so many more. Horror video games much like the movies, shows and novels go hand and hand with the season, and are worth playing for a bone chilling good time.

Haunted house atariisle of the dead pcWaxWorks pcWalking Dead the video game ps3

One thing I look forward to every Halloween that takes place on the internet is “Monster Madness,” a show done by James Rolfe aka The Angry Video Game Nerd where he talks about horror films and gives mini reviews and facts about the movie he is covering. James knows his stuff, and it’s cool to see that he not only loves video games but also horror films, and he also has a soft spot for the Universal Monster films and holds them in a high respect so he goes up on the cool points in my book. I highly recommend his sequel-a-thon where he covers Universal’s Frankenstein, Hammer’s Dracula, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween series.  It’s a super fun watch and filled with some great opinions and facts. Also his Godzilla series retrospective is an amazing watch and brought back many great memories of the past sitting and watching them on TBS and VHS. Another good watch is his Top Ten Lost Horror Film Countdown.  While not part of Monster Madness, it is still one hell of a good watch, as are his Nerd Halloween specials that cover horror themed games. James Rolfe and his shows are now apart of my holiday tradition and are worth checking out.

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Horrorama is a charity event that happens every Halloween and was started in 1997 by horror host Dr. Creep, filmmaker Andy Copp and Rick Martin and is going strong to this day. I joined the group over 6 years ago and have been helping out ever since, bringing great films to the screen all for charity and for the audience to have a good spooky time. The event has trivia, contests and even one year a Miss Horrorama Pageant that had a young lady named Jesi Witt win for being a female Beetlejuice and let me say the ghost with the most never looked that good. The event is a mainstay here in the Dayton area and I hope it’s something many people look forward to every year.  I will say that the event this year will be a little sadder for me as Andy Copp my friend, film mentor and all around great guy passed away early this year.  I always looked forward to planning this event with him and hearing his ideas and opinions on what films we should show. Andy was the one guy who really pushed me into making films and much like my old media teacher, I think he saw the potential in me. Andy is truly missed, and this year’s Horrorama is for him!

rick martin dr creep andy copp old schoolhorrorama 2011rick martin me andy copp

Dayton’s Scare-A-Thon is a public access marathon of horror films and shows that Terrifying Tales of the Macabre does Halloween Specials for. The event was the brain child of Henrique Couto, a filmmaker who is like a little brother to me, who decided Halloween around here needs a little more. The event aired on both DATV, MVCC and via DVD at Game Swap and also marked the return on Dr. Freak, who at one time was the world’s youngest horror host, as he did a new “Cult Theater” just for this marathon! The event also played many Pop Cinema horror titles and one year had live segments with callers! Overall this block of TV programming is some good stuff and is perfect for the background at any Halloween party. Oh yeah I should also say that during the live segments two years back, I dressed up as Scars, a werewolf I played in the Independent B Movie film “Bark At The Moon: Scars.”  So that was a nice fun tribute to that film. Scare-A-Thon is taking a break this year, but here’s top hopping it makes a return for Halloween 2014.

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I know I’m not alone in knowing that October also brings the breakfast monster cereal back onto shelves as General Mills puts out Count Chockula, Frankenberry and Boo Berry for a limited time, but man it sure does make Halloween even sweeter. The best out of the three is Chockula, and my least favorite is Boo Berry, but mixing Boo Berry with the other flavors is really good and worth trying if you haven’t. Growing up I remember the animated commercials and wishing they would be full cartoons that would have aired on Saturday mornings and sparked toys and comics that I for sure would have bought. I remember growing up when they sold the cereal year round and eating many of boxes for breakfast and snacks over those years. Previously Fruit Brute and the Fruity Yummy Mummy didn’t get re-released because they were shorter lived on store shelves than the rest of the monsters, but this year they’re making an appearance next to the big 3. I have crayons of all the monsters besides Fruit Brute (who was not made) and they are some amazing sculpted prizes that were given away with proof of purchase. The Breakfast Monsters just help add to my Halloween excitement and are something I look forward to every year.

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Those are just a few of the things I remember and look forward to every Halloween time, but now it’s time to get to the comics that are Dell’s take on the classic monsters of Universal films. A total of five comics were made and were released from 1962-63 are were a part of the “Movie Classics” line that was popular for them. It’s a shame that none of these one-shots sparked a full run comic series because I would have loved to have collected a run of comics that told me what The Wolf Man was doing after the films had stopped. The only one of these issues I had ever read was The Wolf Man and that’s been some 8 years ago.  The rest I am going into blind so I am very much looking forward to reading what ideas this comic company had for these classic characters of the silver screen. I just want you all to remember I grade these on a standard 1-4 star rating and base it on entertainment value, quality of the story, the art and how true it stays to the source martial.  So with that, let’s get onto these spooky reviews! Oh yeah and these will have spoilers to the issues so you have been warned. Thanks to Bell Book and Comic, Mavericks Cards and Comics, Ebay and my pal David J. Getz for hooking me up with these comics and making this Halloween update of Rotten Ink possible.

The Mummy 1

The Mummy # 1   * 1/2
Released in 1962   Cover Price .12   DELL Comics   #211 of ?

A unknown tomb is found in Egypt, and when it’s opened The Mummy of Ahmed is set loose.  The Mummy goes out for revenge on the ancestors of those who buried him alive after he was convicted of being a follower of Seth, the God of evil and was left to suffer for generations in a tomb that was hidden away. Ahmed uses his eyes to hypnotize a few men and has them do his bidding, eventually killing themselves in horrific ways. But when Egyptian beauty Kipa gets a scroll that is a death note, her American boyfriend Bart figures out that she is next to be killed and along with the police they are able to capture The Mummy Ahmed.  The Mummy escapes but is killed as he falls from pyramid steps and shatters at the bottom. But Bart and the police chief wonder if The Mummy really gone as his laughter fills the night air.

This is one of the weirdest and dumbest Mummy stories I have ever read! The Mummy Ahmed can talk and uses his eyes to hypnotize people into doing what he wants and worst of all he can run and move fast plus shoots lasers from his eyes.  One of the goofiest things about this Mummy is that when trying to run away he is tackled by the American Bart and then handcuffed and put into the back of a police car….how weird and lame is that? Just think about that image of The Mummy in handcuffs in the back of a cop car.  It’s mind numbing. Plus The Mummy dies after falling down stairs, what a lame way to go.  The heroes of this comic are Bart and the police chief, and both are pretty much a waste and only add a very generic good guy character to this rushed story.  Kipa is also a waste and adds nothing to this story besides being the would-be victim . One funny moment has Kipa showing that she wore special contact lenses to protect her from the stare of Ahmed, and this so reminds me of something you would have seen in a classic Dick Tracy comic strip with BB Eyes or an episode of the 60’s live action Batman TV show. This comic is a pure disappointment and is a bad start for Dell’s Universal Monster comic tie-ins. This comic has nothing to do with the Universal films based on The Mummy and really comes off as a cheesed version of a horror story comic that was written by a 10 year old who likes sci-fi films and thinks lasers are cool. The cover is very well done and by looking so cool helps lead you to the disappointment that is this issue.  The interior artwork is pretty good and The Mummy looks like Kris, played by Lon Chaney Jr. in several of The Mummy sequels. Over all this is a bad start for the Dell series and makes me hope that Dracula will be better.  So with that let’s move onto that issue and the second in this series.

Dracula 1

Dracula # 1   **1/2
Released in 1962   Cover Price .12   DELL Comics   #212 of ?

Basil Shawcross is driving late during a rain storm to get to the home of his close friend Janos Tesla, an expert on myths and folklore. Basil is there to ask about vampires and dismisses everything his friend is telling him as medical issues and nothing more. Janos questions why his friend came on a night like this only to argue about the information he is asking for.  Basil breaks down and tells Janos his son died in Transylvania and how be believes he has been wrongly pronounced dead, especially after his son met a girl in the graveyard named Irina.  Basil wants his friend to travel and get answers with him. The pair travel to Transylvania and only get news that his son’s body is missing and more talk of vampires. Basil still doesn’t want to hear this and late that night he gets a visit from his son, who, along with Irina, takes him to Castle Dracula where Count Dracula tries to bully him into bringing them fresh blood.  Unbeknownst to all, Janos has followed and uses wolfsbane and garlic powder to frighten off the vampires, but its too late for his friend Basil who dies during the commotion. In the end Janos tells the townspeople that he will kill Dracula and the vampires and avenge his friend.

This title is a slow moving classic comic style thriller that has one weak payoff in the Dracula department and in the “final” battle. Most of the issue features Janos Tesla and Basil Shawcross in a den late at night during a rain storm speaking in front of a fire about vampire folklore and about Bruce Shawcross’ odd death in Transylvania. While this aspect is interesting and helps build the scares, the payout is not worth the wait as Dracula only appears in three pages of the comic and when around really adds nothing but a few lines, one a rehash of him talking about not drinking wine. The idea that Dracula really just wants blood delivered to him so that he doesn’t have to go out and kill is something that should have been more of the focus of this comic and maybe had Basil being torn about doing it in hopes this would help his son in some way.  But then again that would have taken away from the den talking. The end makes you think that this comic would have sparked a series based on Janos and his quest to end Dracula but instead it lead to a comic series about a super hero named Dracula who uses bat blood….yeah. This comic has very little to do with the film it was based on, and that’s a shame because I would have loved this to be all about Count Dracula. The cover is great and eye catching and captures the Bela Lugosi Dracula look and mood.  The art inside is okay and looks like most Dell comics from the 60’s, and Dracula inside only slightly looks like Lugosi. While this is not a bad horror comic, it just is a weak comic based on Universal’s Dracula, and would have gotten at least another 1/2 star if it would have not claimed to be connected to the film. Let’s see how the Creature does and if Dell can deliver a solid comic based on these classic cinema monsters.

The Creature 1

The Creature # 1   ***
Released in 1963   Cover Price .12   DELL Comics   # 302 of ?

Scott Warden is a paleontologist who has been sent a hand of some sort of creature that once lived in the deep waters of the Amazon.  When the scientist who sent it goes missing near the site the hand was found, Scott tries to go along on a trip with a rich man named Dudley Gaustad.  At first he wants nothing to do the Scott until his diver Mitch Love and his olympic swim star sister Monica Love convince him it’s a good idea to have him aboard and that he can also help dive and find the treasure that Gaustad is looking for. Upon arriving in the Amazon, they meet the ship captain and against the crew’s wishes Gaustad hires former Nazis as crew members who are clearly helping to gain something in return. When they get to their spot, the weather is super hot and Monica goes for a swim and captures the attention of The Creature who watches her every move.  When Scott and Mitch go for a dive they are not sure but think they might have seen something in the waters. That night The Creature attacks and kills some of the crew and this is when the remaining two Nazi’s make their move and hold the group captive, wanting to use them to find the gold that they think is hidden in the waters below. The next morning Mitch, Scott and Dudley are forced to dive and into the water.  Dudley is attacked by The Creature and then becomes lunch for piranha.  As Scott and Mitch flee, The Creature comes aboard the ship, killing the nazis and flinging them into the piranha feeding frenzy and chasing Monica in the water as she swims to get away. Scott and Mitch see this and come to her aid and kill the Creature with spear guns and take his body back to the USA to be studied as the boat is going away the waters below is shown to house many more Creatures.

This issue starts off very slow and the build up is for the most part boring, but once they get to the Amazon and meet the one time Nazi’s and The Creature shows up this comic starts to become really fun. Scott is your typical smart hero, who while a nerd is still a strong heroic guy who wants to get to the bottom of what The Creature is and when it comes time he deals with him and delivers quick painful death. Mitch Love is just the background friend who adds the extra muscle and filler to make it all connect to Scott as Mitch was once in the navy with him. Monica Love is the beauty for the hero and the monster to both fall in love with and the comic also adds two other sleazy characters to fall for her, making Monica the most powerful character in the comic as she has all the love of the major and minor players. Dudley Gaustad is a rich asshole who is not a total creep but gets the worst death in the whole comic.  It’s pretty messed up how he goes from punching bag to fish food in mere panels. The Nazis are scum as always and are the true bad guys of the comic while The Creature does what he does best:  kill and try to make it with human women. The idea behind the story is pretty good and as I stated while it takes time to really get going, it does have that old horror film charm to it.  I was not too keen on the fact that a whole race of Creatures are living in the waters.  I like the idea of only one being left in the world. Adding the Nazis was a nice touch as well and really gives the reader some characters to hate because let’s be honest, no one reading this comic can truly hate the Creature. The cover is okay and only somewhat looks like The Creature (Gillman).  As for the art inside, I really liked it because it had the EC comic feel and The Creature looked like he should. This comic is a closer to the Universal films based on the character and is a big improvement over The Mummy! Next up is The Frankenstein’s Monster so let’s see what Dell does with him.

Frankenstein 1

Frankenstein # 1   ***
Released in 1963   Cover Price .12   DELL Comics   # 305 of ?

Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant Fritz are creating life in the lab, but things go wrong when Fritz steals a criminal brain and The Monster awakens after being struck by lightning. The Monster stumbles around the room and is angered by Fritz who uses a torch to keep him at bay.  The Monster decides to leave the castle and roam the countryside where he accidentally leads two young teens to their deaths.  The townspeople are furious and burn down Frankenstein’s Castle as The Monster, Fritz and the Dr. hide in a secret bunker.  As days pass, Dr. Frankenstein gets an idea to leave Europe and head to New York to show a group of scientist that he has created life.  Frankenstein uses hypnosis on The Monster to listen to his commands and along with Fritz, the three are smuggled to America, but along the way the Dr. becomes power mad and uses The Monster to kill people that are getting in his way to become the top scientist he thinks he should be. In New York, Dr. Frankenstein speaks to the science community, but Fritz once more screws up and sets The Monster free.  It goes on a rampage and heads back towards the boat that brought him there and makes the mistake of getting on one with explosives and starting a fire! Frankenstein and Fritz try to save The Monster but it’s too late.  As they dive into the waters The Monster is left to burn on the boat.

This is a fun re-imagining of the classic 1932 Universal Frankenstein film and is truly what these comics should have been like! While I would love to have them directly follow the films, I am fine with them taking the characters from the film and proposing a what if world around them. The Monster is very much the confused brute he should be at first and while people die, he does this by accident and feels terrible for what he has done. You really feel for him when Dr. Frankenstein barks orders at him to kill and he must do so against his will. Plus his death is very much in the same vein as how he dies in the film.  Instead of a windmill in Europe, it’s now a boat in New York. Fritz in this comic is a pure dumbass and is the cause of most of the troubles in the issue, from stealing the wrong brain to waking The Monster at the wrong time he is a true moron! And with him being such a pain, it makes you wonder why Dr. Frankenstein would bring him all the way to New York knowing all his mistakes in the past haved caused so much issues. Dr. Frankenstein is a power hungry man that only cares about fame and proving his critics wrong.  The fact he would order his Monster to kill changes him so much from the film that you find yourself disliking him in the comic. He almost feels like the character is only a pinch of Universal Dr. Frankenstein and a whole lot of Hammer Horror Dr. Frankenstein who was way more mean spirited. The plot is well thought out and brings the horror to America and closer to home for the younger readers of 1963.  I am sure this added to the shock and wonder. I for one really enjoyed this issue and would have loved to see this go onto a full series.  This marks the best so far of the Dell Movie Classics Universal Monsters run. So let’s see how the final issue in the series holds up as we take a look at The Wolf Man!

The Wolf Man 1

The Wolf Man # 1   *1/2
Released in 1963   Cover Price .12   DELL Comics   # 308 of ?

Milo Zak has just graduated collage and is now a doctor who wants to return to his hometown, a small village that still cures its sick with an old witch and a gypsy and bases everything off superstition. When returning home he is reunited with his girlfriend Lyana and his aunt & uncle and quickly opens a doctor’s office that does no business.  This makes him want to set out to prove that his medicine is better than any of the old remedies. But his goal to prove superstition and supernatural takes a turn for the worse when he meets Vorcla, a man who can control wolves and uses his power to take money from the villagers.  Milo decides to prove him as a fake and embarrasses him in front of the whole town! The town starts to believe in Milo as the witch and gypsy warn him that his future looks bad.  It indeed turns bad as Vorcla, who has been banned from the town, comes back and kills his aunt and uncle and many of the townspeople and then bites Milo making him a werewolf. Lyana calls for one of Milo’s school buddies who comes to town and kills Vorcla with a silver cane and frees Milo of his curse.

This comic has absolutely nothing to do with the Universal film and should not have The Wolf Man named attached to it.  This comic does not have a single mention of Larry Talbot. Vorcla is the bad guy, and he is only somewhat a werewolf as he walks around even during the day looking like a crazed beast with style in his suit, cape and hat. His only real power is he can control wolves and he can pass on his curse of being whatever he is. Milo Zak, who is the main focus of the comic, is a man who has embraced modern medicine and turned his back on the old ways of his home town, and by doing so he messes with the wrong person and some of his family and friends pay the price as he is also cursed with werewolf meets vampire like powers. Tha’ts the one dumb thing about this comic, the “Werewolf” Vorcla always looks like a hairy freak who walks around and talks like a normal man and controls the minds of wolves.  When he’s passing on the curse, he bites Milo on the neck like a vampire and neither casts a reflection in the mirror….yeah, who ever wrote this mess got the legends of vampires and werewolves mixed up. This is the most disappointing of the Dell Universal Monster Comics for me as The Wolf Man has always been my favorite, and he deserved way better than this mess that only uses his name to try and draw in readers. The art is okay and once more has that classic 60’s horror comic look.  The “werewolf” Vorcla looks more like Jack The Ripper meets Mr. Hyde, and the cover is pretty generic showing the outline of Wolf Man with a snow background.  Much like the name, the cover is misleading as this comic doesn’t have a flake of snow in it. This comic didn’t live up to what it could have been and gets only one and a half star because it’s so far away from the source material that it’s an insult to fans of the film. And that marks the end of the Dell run!

dell mummy artdell DRACULA artdell creature artdell frankenstein artcb wolfman 5

I want to say that these comics are NOT terrible, and while The Mummy and The Wolf Man got low stars it’s because they went way too far away from the source material. This series is very dated and the twists that they took with characters for the most part don’t work! I went in looking at these as re-imaginings of the films, and while I can respect the attempt at reinventing the monsters’ images and stories, I am not sure why some of them lost the very essence of what the monster was. Dracula is the closest one to what he should be followed closely by both Frankenstein’s Monster and The Creature, while The Wolf Man is the farthest away from the source followed by The Mummy. The best drawn of these comic would have to be The Creature followed really closely by Frankenstein.  Both have a great style, and Frankenstein has some amazing panels that use odd colors very well to enhance the chilling factor. Once more The Wolf Man comes in with the worst as his comic is very bland and run of the mill cheap horror comic style, though I will say I do like how they tried to use shadows in many of the panels. Over all I did have a lot of fun reading these comics and did enjoy the fact that Dell tried to update and deliver Universal Monsters to comic readers of the early 60’s and wish more comic companies today would take chances in what they put out besides 7 different books with Wolverine or Batman in them. Our next update will continue the Halloween spirit, and we will take a look at a small company called Northstar as they did a four issue loose comic adaptation of the film “Leatherface: A Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.”  So until then, stay scared!

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