Top 22 Lost Silent Horror Film Countdown

Welcome back to Rotten Ink.  For this update we will be talking about Silent Horror Cinema and to be more specific we are talking about Lost Silent Horror Cinema, those films that have been lost to time due to poor film preservation, studio vault fires and the greed of private collectors. The sad thing is that many film professors and historians think that over 90% of silent films are lost and many of them we have zero clue of what even was made way back when. So to be more direct we have zero clue on what all Silent Horror Films are lost that did not have remaining posters or stills found to prove its existence so it’s crazy to think that their was films made that no one will ever see again, heartbreaking I know. I grew up a Horror Movie fan from a young age I watched Universal Monsters, King Kong, Godzilla and Hammer Horror and was hooked and Horror Hosts like Commander USA, Grampa Munster, USA Up All Night, Saturday Nightmares and Dr. Creep with their shows introduced me to so many films with Commander really being the one to bring Slasher films into my life. Magazines and Books also showed me a world of so much different Horror Films. And the home media like VHS and Beta played a big part in me discovering Silent Horror Films as I would buy them cheap and hurry home to watch and I would find so many of them at a Dollar Tree in Sugarcreek Township in Ohio and that’s how I first saw the likes of Nosferatu, Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Golem and Phantom Of The Opera to name a few. And for me Silent Horror has always captured my imagination and love for the genre of Horror. And that’s why I feel I need to bring you this list of My Top 20 Lost Silent Horror Films that I want to see!

This list is my personal Top 20 picks of what I would love to see found and I spent so much time going through lists and films that fit in the Horror genre and did research on each film and even followed leads to see if copies are at Film Archives in order to come up with this list, and heck I am sure that many of these if not all of them are and will be on your list as well, as each of these films I choose sound so interesting. So let’s dust off our Silent Horror Film knowledge and get to the theater and talk about these lost gems that we all hope one day are found.

# 22

Wasei Kingu Kongu
Year: 1933       Director: Torajira Saito     Country: Japan

Very little is known about this lost short film from Japan that is one of the nation’s first “giant monster” movies. The movie’s plot is suppose to be about a man named Santa who is a loser who does not have a job and makes all his money finding loose change on the streets of Tokyo. When his girlfriend dumps him and starts dating a new man he does find a job at local theaters as he dresses in a gorilla suit and becomes King Kong to advertise for the film’s Japan release. Well, one night while on stage crushing fake miniature buildings he spots his ex and her new man and decides to go on a rampage of his own chasing after her new man and beating him up.  The crowd loves it as they think it’s apart of the show and this gets Santa a raise and allows him to earn the respect of his former girlfriend and her father and the two love birds get back together. This sounds like it’s a mish-match of film genres that has part of drama, comedy and a hint of horror and that’s why I have this one so low as I feel its very interesting but it not fully a Horror Flick, but keep in mind it is a part of King Kong cinema history so that’s why it has made it to this list. The film is said to star Isamu Yamaguchi, Yasuko Koizumi and Kotaro Sekiguchi and this silent film is said to be lost forever due to the bombings of World War II, as sadly so many of Japan’s cinema was lost due to this.

# 21

The Ghost Breaker
Year: 1922       Director: Alfred E. Green     Country: United States

This Horror Comedy is about Warren Jarvis and his servant friend Rusty Snow escaping a family feud and meeting Maria who owns a her family’s mansion that is haunted by ghosts, and she hires Warren and Rusty to get ride of them! But are the ghosts real or is someone after the gold that is hidden in the mansion? This sounds like it could be a very fun film that mixes in Horror, Mystery and Comedy and starred Wallace Reid as Warren Jarvis, Walter Hiers as Rusty Snow and Lila Lee as Maria Theresa. What makes me want to see this film is I have always been a fan of classic cinema Horror Comedies as they have their own silly nature of classic stage style antics. The one downside to this film but yet sadly was a product of its time is that actor Walter Hiers plays the character Rusty in blackface, and that is not something I enjoy about classic cinema. Also I really would love to know what the ghost effects of this film looked like and I should note that actor Wallace Reid died shortly after the film’s release of withdraws from a drug addiction.

# 20

The Dream Woman
Year: 1914      Director: Alice Guy     Country: United States

This short Horror Drama feature is about a man who is plagued by a recurring dream about a woman in black standing over him while he sleeps and trying to stab him. On his travels he gets lost and stays at an inn were he once more thinks he sees the woman, and this causes him great stress and is a mental drain. Finally he meets a woman named Alice and falls in love with her, but she has a dark side, as she is an alcoholic and after a bad fight she threatens to kill her husband while he sleeps…and after separating Alice ends up finding her one time husband and kills him with a knife. The film’s final is said to take place in the spirit world. Or so it’s rumored that this is the full plot of this missing frighten thriller flick. The film starred Fraunie Fraunholz as Francis Raven the man tormented by his dreams and Claire Whitney played The Woman In Black and Alice Warlock the wife and the knife dream killer. The film sounds really interesting and is based on the novel by Wilkie Collins and I like the idea of a dream world knife swinging Woman In Black being a warning to what the future holds for our doomed lead character. Sounds interesting and I have heard that the film was a super short and as well have read that it was way longer then reported. Let’s hope that this film is found and we can see The Woman In Black for ourselves.

# 19

The Haunted Bedroom
Year: 1919       Director: Fred Niblo     Country: United States

Betsy Thorne is a news reporter from New York that travels down south to look into the case of a man who has gone missing and worse she finds out that all reporters are banned from the area, and Betsy being quick witted scares a newly hired maid and takes her place at the home to get her story. But while there for two nights she sees a ghastly figure creeping around the chapel as well as the family cemetery! Can Besty and solve the crime of who the figure is, can she find the missing man and will she be able to do so with out alerting the police so she can get her big break news story? Well all signs point to yes but sadly this film is one of the many lost Silent Films from the Horror Genre. This Horror Drama sounds like a mystery film that would both scare as well as even have the viewers on the edge of their seats as the lead character Betsy tried to solve this case. The film starred Enid Bennett as Betsy Thorne as well as actors like Dorcas Matthews, Jack Nelson, Lloyd Hughes and Otto Hoffman. I think this one would be a blast to watch and almost feels like the early prototype of the classic Horror Mystery films that followed and even to a point Scooby-Doo. One can hope that this film is found someday as it seems like a really fun Horror Mystery film.

# 18

Alraune
Year: 1919       Director: Michael Curtiz & Edmund Fritz    Country: Hungary

A scientist creates a child from a union between a mandrake root and a woman and the child is very demonic and evil. Not much is known about this film besides a very basic plot and the cast and crew thanks to some surviving posters. Also the release year as been reported as both 1918 and 1919 with many saying they think 1919 is right. This could also be one of the world’s earliest mad scientists films and that makes me really want to see it. Plus I love that it’s a Hungarian Silent Horror Film that has Sci-Fi elements. The film stars Rozsi Szollosi as Alraune as well as other actors like Gyula Gal, Kalman Kormendy and Boske Malatinszky. It makes me wonder just how demonic and evil Alraune is in this lost horror fright flick and if it played more with the Horror or Sci-Fi elements in its production.

# 17

A Son Of Satan
Year: 1924       Director: Oscar Micheaux     Country: United States

A man takes a bet to spend a night in a haunted house that is filled with evil spirits and bad visions. The film is called a “Race” film as its cast and crew were all African Americans and of course due to this the film ran into some distribution issues that lead to many states not playing it and also is what lead to the film being lost now. The censorship board attacked the film for scenes that had a man choking his wife to death, a KKK member being killed and sadly they kill a cat on screen! They claimed all these elements and more that included the name of the film would be “offensive to Southern ladies” and so it was quickly shown and buried with sadly no fan fair. The film was said to star many members of Broadway Musicals with names like Aubrey Lyles, Adelaide Hall and F.E. Miller having parts. Other cast members included Andrew S. Bishop, Lawrence Chenault and Edna Morton. This film sounds very interesting and it would be great to see how well they pulled off a Haunted House and how “brutal” these deaths really are that caused all this drama with the film boards back then. Also it would be amazing to see this Race Film that is a major part of Horror History and more important Black Cinema. The reason it’s so low on my list is if the rumors are true of a cat being killed on screen are true, that element turns my stomach as I am a cat owner. But with that said let’s hope that one day this film is found and we are able to see it.

# 16

The First Men In The Moon
Year: 1919       Director: Bruce Gordon     Country: United Kingdom

Samson Cavor is an old man inventor who created something called Cavorite and along with a man named Rupert Bedford they travel to the moon thanks to his creation that neutralizing the law of gravity! But things go south when Bedford leaves Cavor on the moon and returns home and steals the old mans invention. But thanks to the left behind old man’s niece Susan and a young engineer named Hogben they find away to talk to her Uncle and Susan turns down Bedford’s advances and marries Hogben and together they show the world the Bedford is a fraud! And Samson himself stays on the moon and lives with the Selenites the alien race that inhabits the moon. This film is based on the H.G. Wells novel of the same name and is even on Brittan’s “75 Most Wanted Films” list, and I would love to see the film as its clearly one of cinemas earliest Sci-Fi films as well as the aliens themselves look so cheesy and cheap that I would love to see them in action. With United Kingdom on the hunt for a copy of this film we can hope that it will be found sooner than later.

# 15

Balaoo The Demon Baboon
Year: 1913      Director: Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset     Country: France

Dr. Coriolis has turned an ape almost human by the name of Balaoo the Dr. and his niece Madeleine look after this creature who ends up getting captured in a trap set by the evil poacher named Hubert who ends up using Balaoo to kill off his enemies as well as has him kidnap Madeleine…but can this creature truly be controlled and rampage or will it’s human side make the decision to stop these killings and know right from wrong. This sounds like it could be a very cool film if found as it was based on the story by Phantom Of The Opera writer Gaston Leroux and sadly all he have of this film is about four minutes of footage, posters and some stills. In the film Lucien Bataille played Balaoo and other actors include Camille Bardou, Madeleine Grandjean, Henri Gouget and Josette Andriot. The film sounds like it could have been a early version of Nature Runs Amok Horror and while the look of Balaoo was pretty much done with grease paint this is one film I would love to see in full and lets hope someday the missing footage is found and that we will all be able to see this film in all its glory.

# 14

The Last Moment
Year: 1923       Director: J. Parker Read Jr.     Country: USA

Alice Winthrop is a young woman who has two men trying to win her hand and they are Hercules and Harry and the three make the mistake of going to a waterfront saloon and become the kidnapped victims of the sinister Captain Finn that makes them go to his ship and who himself wants Alice as his mistress and if she refuses she will have to be looked into a cage with a half-man and half-beast monster who ends up escaping and kills the crew and Alice, Hercules and Harry have to fight for their life in order to get ashore and away from the monster on the loose. This film starred Doris Kenyon, Henry Hull, Louis Calhem and Jerry Paterson and sadly the film has been lost for many decades now and what we have are the poster as well as some publicity stills and the monster looks amazing! This sounds like a very interesting early Horror Cinema creature feature that would be a great chilling watch if it could every be found, but as of this update no known copies are in any Film Archive. Let’s hope this film is found in a private collection or in an archive pile of films that have not been checked yet…we Horror Fans need to see this classic creature feature!

# 13

The Hunchback And The Dancer
Year: 1920       Director: F.W. Murnau     Country: Germany

This film’s plot was about a man named James Wilton who has a massive hunchback who is a foul man who ends up becoming rich after finding a diamond mine in Java and he ends up dating a young dancer names Gina who is heartbroken after a bad breakup. But things get worse for her when she decides to leave James and return to her past boyfriend who dies after kissing her…as James has tainted her with a poison that really gives her the kiss of death. Gina once she figures it out tries to find out a way for James to kiss her as she wants revenge and only his life could pay the debit she feels she’s owned. The film starred John Gottowt as the Hunchback James Wilton and Sascha Gura as Gina. This sounds like an interesting Horror Thriller that would be a blast to see as its some early work of F.W. Murnau and seems like it could deliver some spooky moments. The film also stars actors as Paul Biensfeldt, Bella Polini and Anna Von Palen. Makes me wonder just how creepy this film is and how evil the character James Wilton is and just how Gina figures out how to trick him into kissing her to poison him and get her revenge. Let’s hope that this film is found in some film vault or even a private collection soon.

# 12

The Gorilla
Year: 1927       Director: Alfred Santell     Country: United States

A killer wearing a gorilla suit is committing murders and after killing a man his daughter wants to find out who the costumed murder is as she has been blamed for the crime! This Horror film has elements of Crime and Thriller and brings a costume killer to the silver screen and even spawned two remakes one in 1930 and another in 1939! The weird thing about this film is that it also had elements of comedy, as many Horror films did this to bring in a bigger audience and downplay the spooky elements. This film starred Alice Day as Alice Townsend the accused Daughter as well as Charles Murray, Fred Kelsey, Brooks Benedict and Aggie Herring. What makes me want to see this film be found and released so I can see it is that I like the idea of a killer in a massive Gorilla suit causing death and our poor hero having to prove her innocence. But also the deeper you dig into this films history is that many enjoyed the Horror and Mystery aspects of the film…they did not like the silly comedy aspects. Only time will tell if this film will ever be found and how modern Horror Fans will react to this Horror Comedy.

# 11

The Wizard
Year: 1927       Director: Richard Rosson     Country: United States

Professor Paul Coriolos is a man with a plan to get revenge on jury members who sent his son to be hung who he thinks was innocent. In his laboratory he creates a creature that he sends out to kill those he blames, and it’s up to Detective Murphy and reporter Stanley Gordon to uncover and stop the killings as the Judge and his daughter are on the hit list! This creature feature sounds like it would be a fun classic creepy watch that also would have had elements of crime thriller. One major thing I would love to see this film for is the Gorilla Monster in action as from the remaining stills of the film he looks great and he was also played by pro wrestler George Kotsonaros who was killed in a car wreck in 1933 when the car he was driven flipped over. The rest of the cast included Gustav von Seyffertitz as the Professor, Perlie Marchall as Murphy and Leila Hyams as Anne the judges daughter. Sadly the last known print of the film went up in flames in 1931when Fox had a bad studio fire. This film for many fans of Silent Horror is considered one of the most sought after to be found, and here is hoping one day it will be.

# 10

Life Without Soul
Year: 1915       Director: Joseph W. Smiley     Country: United States

Dr. William Frawley created a Brute Man with a fluid who has a twisted mind and on the night of William’s wedding his creation kills the Bride and escapes into the darkness. As Brute Man travels across Europe his creator Dr. Frawley is hunting him and once he finds his creation he ends its life with a bullet, and then dies himself from exhaustion. This is the second film based on Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and The Monster in this version is very toned down and is just a very strange looking man that was played by actor Percy Standing. I should also say that some people who cover this lost film say that Dr. Frawley killed his creation in the room of his dead wife, that Brute Man dies only after his creator does as well as The Monster was called The Creation and not Brute Man and some reports say that it was a statue given life while others say it was a corpse. Every classic Horror fan loves Frankenstein and I know that I am not the only one who would love to see this version be found so we can see how this one did at bringing the classic horror tale to the silver screen. Plus if Brute Man really was a statue to start with this also kind of has a Golem feel to it and that as well really makes me want to see it! Sadly no clips have survived of this film and only some production stills and ads have.

# 9

The Golem And The Dancing Girl
Year: 1917       Director: Rochus Gliese & Paul Wegener     Country: Germany

This film is the second in the Golem trilogy and is also the second one to be lost from the trilogy and is a Horror Comedy that spoofs the original film. The plot for this one is very loose and is pieced together from many sources so we can not 100% be sure that this is really what the film was about. It’s said that in this film actor Paul Wegener plays himself and loves that the character he played The Golem has put fear in the hearts of movie goers and decides to have a little fun as he puts back on the costume and heads to a party in order to charm a young dancer named Helga as well as scare the attendees. This film peeks my interest because I would like to see how The Golem the first monster to have a trilogy of films become a comedy act in one of them. I am not sure how I would feel about this film and that’s why I hope that one day it’s found so I can see it for myself…will it be a great Horror Comedy or would if be a Unfunny mess, lets hope one day this second film in The Golem series is found. Sadly not much remains of this film besides some “Posters” and a promotional shot.

# 8

The Werewolf
Year: 1913       Director: Henry MacRae    Country: United States

The Werewolf is a lost film that needs to be found for a number of reasons like it is the first Werewolf film made and the other is it’s the first Universal Monster film made! The film is about a Native American witch who’s daughter as well gets powers and turns into a wolf in order to get revenge on white settlers and does again 100 years after her death. The film is a short one running about 18 minutes and stars the likes of Phyllis Gordon, Clarence Butyon, Marie Walcamp and William Clifford and the last known copy of the film burned up in the Universal Vault fire of 1924 that sadly destroyed so many classic cinema films. I would be really interested in seeing if this silent film had a werewolf transformation scene and if it did would it be cross dissolve effects, happen off screen or would it be make-up? I am a huge fan of werewolf films and this is one I would love to see as it really is considered the first film to showcase that creature, plus its great that this film had a Native America legend to it. Lets hope that one day Universal finds another copy tucked away in a vault or some private collector comes forward with a copy. Only a “poster” remains for this film.

# 7

A Blind Bargain
Year: 1922       Director: Wallace Worsley     Country: United States

This sadly is one of many of Lon Chaney Sr. Films that are lost to time due to poor film preservation from the silent era and is one that sounds like it would have been lots of spooky fun to see. Failed writer Robert Sandell is down on his luck and has an ill mother and decides to rob someone and chooses Dr. Lamb, but when the Doctor alerts him that he might be able to help his sick mother, and all Robert has to do is volunteer to help him in his experiments and want to become a published author. But soon Robert finds out that Dr. Lamb is a madman and has ruined many peoples life with failed experiments turning them into mindless monsters and in the end Robert must survive Dr. Lamb as well as his twisted creations. This film sounds amazing and had Lon Chaney Sr. playing two roles as he was Dr. Lamb as well as a hunchback assistant who was made that way because of Lamb. The film was rumored to have gotten a standing ovation at its premiere and the effects used for the experimented people looked fantastic with the Ape Man being the standout for me. Sadly the last prints of this film were lost in a vault fire at MGM in 1965 and lets hope one is found so we can all see this Lon Chaney Sr. Horror film. The film also starred Raymond McKee as Robert Sandell, Wallace Beery as Beast Man and Virginia True Boardman as Mrs. Sandell. Only the poster and some promotional shots remain of this film.

# 6

The Monster Of Frankenstein
Year: 1920       Director: Eugenio Testa      Country: Italy

This is a very interesting sounding film as it was one of Italy’s early Horror Films and was made just before that genre was banned from cinema by Mussolini when he raised to power as well is the third film to be based on the Frankenstein story by Marry Shelley! The film also was considered too scary and was censored by many Nation’s as the film would screen in many languages all over the world. The films plot has Dr. Victor Frankenstein creating a life with not soul out of dead body parts and the creatures escapes the lab and goes on a rampage and must be stopped by Victor who confronts his creation in a cave and is forced to destroy it. The film has gone missing after it’s very long run and no print from any Country that showed is knows to have survived and all that we have left is some stills and promotional items. The film starred Luciano Albertini as Victor Frankenstein an actor who sadly ended up in an Asylum in his later years and Umberto Guarracino as The Monster who was not overly made-up like The Monster has been in more modern Frankenstein films. I would love for this film to be found as it being one of Italy’s early horror films as well as the fact it was censored so much due to its scary factor makes this a must. Lets home some day this one is found and is unleashed on viewers once more.

# 5

Das Phantom der Oper
Year: 1916       Director: Ernst Matray     Country: Germany

Das Phantom der Oper is a lost German Silent Horror Movie that is the first film to be based on the novel Phantom Of The Opera by Gaston Leroux and is one that I would love to see found as one of my favorite classic movie monsters is The Phantom and I would love to see how this one compares to the more famous 1925 version that starred Lon Chaney Sr. in the role of The Phantom! This early version has very little knows about it but what has been said is that the film is about up and coming singer Christine Day who is being trained by a mysteries man in the shadows known as The Phantom and when Raoul comes into her life The Phantom is now pleased and sets out to force her hand in marriage as well as end the life of her young suitor. It’s said that at the end of this lost film The Phantom is killed when a boiler explodes and he is caught in the blast. The film was not only screened in Germany and the surrounding areas but also the Netherlands and its during these out of country screenings in 1917 is when it’s believed that the film was lost. The film has actress Aud Egede-Nissen as Christine Daae, Ernst Matray as Raoul and Nils Olaf Chrisander as The Phantom! And I am sure you readers as well would love to see how Nils Olaf Chrisander appearance and performance as The Phantom compares to Lon Chaney Sr.’s version. Let’s hope that this Phantom doesn’t stay lost forever.

# 4

The Head Of Janus
Year: 1920       Director: F.W. Murnau     Country: Germany

The mastermind of German silent Horror films F.W. Murnau who was known for the films Faust and Nosferatu also had his own version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that was called The Head Of Janus, but like with Nosferatu with the novel Dracula by Bram Stocker he did not get permission from Robert Louis Stevenson estate to do the film so many changes was made to the story. The story fallows Dr. Warren a man who bought a statue bust of the Roman god of the doorway Janus as a gift for his lady Jane Lanyon who takes one look at the creepy bust and rejects the gift forcing Dr. Warren to keep it himself. That night the statue turns Dr. Warren into a sinister character that goes by the name Mr. O’Connor and he goes to Jane’s house and kidnaps her and brings her back to the lab, the next morning when he turns back to Dr. Warren he is shocked by his actions and tries to get rid of the statue at an auction and finds himself bidding and buying the statue back showing that it has a hold on him. He once more turns back to Mr. O’Connor and goes and a violent rampage and once the law comes after him the crazed man commits suicide by poison with the curse bust statue in his hands. This sounds like it would be an amazing spooky classic film to see and you know that with F.W. Murnau in the director chair this one would have been a masterpiece. Conrad Veidt who played Cesare in The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari played Dr. Warren and Mr. O’Connor so again you know that he had to have turned in a very amazing performance! Other actors in the film include Margarete Schlegel, Magnus Stiffer and most amazing is Bela Lugosi who played The Butler! This film needs to be found as I am sure that it will be another Silent Horror Classic that will be in the same prestige as Nosferatu, Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Phantom Of The Opera, Haxan and so many more. Let’s hope that its found in out lifetime and is able to be seen my viewers once more. Sadly all we have is a few promotional material for the film as of this update.

# 3

The Golem
Year: 1915       Director: Henrik Galeen & Paul Wegener           Country: Germany

The first film in The Golem trilogy is sadly lost just as the second film is and this one is a film that I would love to be found, in fact I myself have written to film archives all around in order to try and see if a print is locked away in a vault someplace…and sadly at this point besides around 3 minutes of the film nothing has been found. The plot has Troedler an antiques dealer searching an old Jewish temple and finds the clay statue of a Golem that was brought to life by an amulet and helped save Jewish people from persecution, Troedler decides to take the Golem home and use him as a servant but sadly things go wrong when the Golem falls in love with Jessica the dealers daughter and when she does not show back the same affections the Golem goes on a rampage of damage and murder. This sounds like it would have been amazing and when you watch the three minutes of film that was found via YouTube it will really make you want this film to be found as it looks fantastic and super classically spooky. Paul Wegener is one of my favorite Silent Film Horror actors and this being the first in his Golem series makes it a must find and what is crazy so many rumors are around that prints are out in the world in the hands of private collectors who are hording them and not allowing them to be seen by Horror fans, in other words they want to be the only ones with the rare lost films. Let’s hope that one day this film is found or if the rumors are true a private collector lets this film be re-mastered and put back out so the world can see the horror of The Golem once more. The film has some footage and very little promotional material is what we have.

# 2

Dracula’s Death
Year: 1921       Director: Karoly Lajthay           Country: Hungary

This lost Dracula film is not like your normal vampire Dracula fright flick as it plays more on mental illness, power of suggestion as well as a nightmarish dream world. The films plot is about a woman who visits an asylum and meets a man who claims to be Dracula and this torments her, as the man also seems to be in her dreams now causing them to become nightmares. The woman cannot take it anymore and escapes the asylum and later in life gets married and starts a new life…but she cannot escape Dracula in her dreams. And the big question is if that inmate is really Dracula or just a mentally disturbed man in the asylum. I think this film sounds fascinating and I for one would love to see if the man in the asylum was really Dracula and if so why has he targeted this young woman as a person to torment with terrible dreams. Many of rumors are going around about the film with most saying it is 100% lost and a few sources claiming a Hungarian Film Archive has a print in their collection and have never shared it. I reached out the film archive to see if I could get answers and as of this update they have never responded. Let’s hope that they do indeed have a print and one day they let the film see the light of the moon for us Silent Horror fans. As of right now we have a poster and production pictures to show us glimpses of this film.

# 1

London After Midnight
Year: 1927       Director: Tod Browning           Country: United States

I am sure the # 1 spot is not a surprise as London After Midnight really is the Holy Grail of lost Horror films and is one of the worlds most wanted lost film to be found! Over the years so many rumors have circled around the film being found in private collections from all over the world, some even are saying that Cuba has a print in their archives and I tracked this lead and never got a response from the archive. The plot of this film has a man named Sir Roger Balfour being found dead in his home of what is ruled as a self inflected gunshot wound by Inspector Edward C. Burke who is also an amateur hypnotist! Time passes and the new owners of the house are being haunted by a vampire looking man called The Man In The Beaver Hat and a undead looking woman, and the couple calls in Inspector Edward C. Burke who wants to solve the case as he does not think that Balfour killed himself and wants to use his hypnotist powers on the dead mans family members to find out who killed the man who is now missing from his tomb! And who is The Man In The Beaver Hat and his undead female friend and how do they tie into Inspector Edward C. Burke? This sounds like such a fun film and lets be honest all us horror fans love the look of The Man In The Beaver Hat as Lon Chaney Sr. once more designed such a creepy and awesome looking character as the actor played that role as well as Inspector Edward C. Burke. Other actors in this film included Marceline Day, Edna Tichenor, Claude King and Polly Moran. We do know that films poster, promotional stills, the script as well as some still have survived as the films last print is thought to have burned up in the MGM Vault Fire of 1965 along with so many other silent films. London After Midnight is a film that has some many film buffs and historians looking for a print that I think one day we will all be able to see this film again. The film was remade back in 1935 by director Tod Browning and starred Bela Lugosi in the role of the vampire. And TCM also did a fan reproduction of the film using stills from the film and lots of text cards. Lets hope that London After Midnight as well as every film on this list doesn’t always remain lost films.

Well that’s my list of Lost Silent Horror Films that I hope are found sooner then later and that not only I but all you classic horror fans get to see in our lifetime. And to be fair there is a few more films that could have made it to this list with one being the 1913 film called “The Vampire” from England that is about a Vampire Woman who could turn into a giant snake as well as “Robbing Cleopatra’s Tomb” from 1899 about a man who chops up the body of Cleopatra and by doing so brings her back to life and this one was directed by Georges Melies. And I have not given up my own quest to try and track down these films and will do all I can to try and help bring these lost Horrors back to the silver screen and TV screens the world over, and not to even mention the Silent Film Universe comics that we are doing at Blood Scream Comics to keep these films and characters alive. And over the years this far I have been able to find one “Lost” film in a overseas archive and am working on trying to get the film re-mastered and screened at a local Ohio theater and then get it out on home media…that is if I can get the very large amount needed to do so, but keep your eyes open for details of the film found and if I am able to get it saved. And sorry for not sharing yet I just don’t want to jinx myself with this one and I will say this film is not on this list and is a Silent Horror Comedy film. Well sense this is the Countdown To Halloween 2022 season as well as apart of Rotten Ink’s 10-year anniversary we will be sticking with the Horror theme and will be taking a look at another Anniversary that happened way back in 1998 and I am talking about Halloween H20! So until then read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Silent Horror Film or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next update for Michael Myers big 20-Year Anniversary of being one of cinemas biggest horror icons.

Bark At The Moon With Lycanthrope Leo

Welcome back to Rotten Ink my little blog here on the massive world wide net and as you longtime readers and friends know I grew up being a comic book reader and would read comics all the time and would even chat with friends about them on the playground. And of course Marvel and DC Comics was the most popular companies and of course later Image and Malibu Comics was topics. It was not until late High School that Manga became a thing that was on my radar as many of my Skate Boarding friends read them and would pass them around for all of us to read, and to be honest I never really liked the ones that I read and it would not be until I was an adult and was able to find issues of “The Gyver” and “Fist Of The North Star” that I found ones that I really enjoyed. And you readers know that “Tomie” is my all time favorite Manga series as it a great creepy Horror Comic reads. And while searching for Horror Comics I stumbled on an interesting title that’s name and cover art caught my attention as it was called “Lycanthrope Leo” and it was a comic about a teenager that turns into a werewolf and the world showcases other were-animals. So if you are ready lets travel to the world of Manga and see what Leo is all about. Oh and below is a picture of some of the Manga wrack at Mavericks Cards and Comics sent to me by friend Jeremy Hoyt.

When I was really young and before my family moved to Waynesville I spent time growing up in Kettering, Ohio on a street called Muriel Ave and right down the street from were I live was a Asian Market that was ran by a family and stocked all types of stuff from China and other Asia countries like food, movies, toys, comics and candy! I can remember that our neighbors who were from Vietnam use to buy soda pop that were in glass bottles and they were tasty as from time to time the would give me a drink. Sadly I was way to young so really did not get to go into that place often and honestly don’t remember anything about the inside of the place. We moved from Muriel when I was around 5 years old and that meant, as I grew older I was miles and miles away from that Market and never did get to fully shop there. It’s a shame as for some reason that little Asian Market seemed so special to me even though I barely stepped foot in there at a young age. Sadly sometime in the 90’s that small market closed down and in its spot for a while was a Bird shop that sold birds and bird supplies. And sometime in the 2000’s the Bird Shop moved out and the building was torn down and where this Asian Market once stood is now an empty field. While the Dayton, Ohio area does have its fair share of Asian Markets none of them hold that special place in my memories like that little store that was near Muriel, check out the photo bellow that was taken from Google Maps to show you the field that once held the Market.

Loudness is a Hairband from Japan that started in 1981 and was a major force through the 80s and 90s for that music genre. Over the years the band has released over 20 Albums with many being joint releases between Japan and America with their first major American release being the 1985 rocking album “Thunder In The East” and this will be the CD that I will give a quick review to for this update, as you readers know I love my 80’s Hairbands. And over the years Loudness has had its share of band members that have came and went and the lineup for this album is as follows lead vocals is Minoru Niihara, on guitar was Akira Takasaki, Masayoshi Yamashita on bass and Munetaka Higuchi bringing the boom via the drums. The album was released by ATCO and peaked at # 74 on the American Top 100 Charts and the releases biggest single was “Crazy Nights”, and with that lets give a listen to this classic album. This is pure 80’s Hairmetal and has blistering guitars and has an over all loud and that 80’s metal party sound with some of the best songs on this release for me was Like Hell, Run For Your Life, No Way Out and of course Crazy Nights, but to be fair I think this is a very solid release that almost every song on the album is rocking and packs a punch! So if you like 80’s Hairmetal and have not heard this release from Loudness you should check it out as it is really good and the guitar licks by Akira Takasaki are top notch. In other words get Thunder In The East by Loudness and have a rocking good time!

With that I think it’s time for us to dive into Lycanthrope Leo a Horror Manga series that was released in America via VIZ and this is a first time read for me and one I am looking forward to checking out. And who knows maybe this will be the first for more Manga released by VIZ to get the update treatment here at Rotten Ink. I want to thank Lonestar Comics for having these comics in stock and making this update possible. I want to remind you that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, it’s entertainment value and it’s art and story. So with that lets howl at the moon with Leo and see what this werewolf from Japan is all about.

Lycanthrope Leo # 1  ***
Released in 1994     Cover Price $2.95     Viz     # 1 of 7

Leo is a student who is also part of the track team and it’s his 17 year old birthday and is starting to run faster then ever before as well as other changes that seem to be putting him above and beyond normal people. One day after school he events the teams coach his classmate Kyoko Kiriyama only for her to leave once they find out his Cop father is home and does not seem pleased to see his son has a guest. His father starts to give Leo a lecture on how he needs to stop being so good at things and learn to be average and normal, he then also tells him that he wants him to quite track and only focus on his school work! Leo gets upset and storms out of the house and by accident swats at the dog and kills it, as his father tends to the dead animal Leo wonders off to walk the streets and cool off. His father then gets a phone call from an unknown person who tells him that he needs to deal with his son before they do, and says his job is to hunt and destroy and that he knows what has to be done. The next day Leo and his dad make plans to visit the grave of his mother, but instead Leo finds that his dad has taken him to a cabin in the woods and is armed with a crossbow. Leo sits and listens as his father tells him that he is not his real son and that Leo is really what’s known as a Blood Tribe Of The Beasts and that his real mother was one of them as well that he killed, he tells him that he took him in as baby and raised him as his own child. His father then alerts him that he will change and become something not human, and just then Leo turns into a beast that looks like a mix of a werewolf and a lion (Werelion) and has to kill his “father” before he becomes the victim. His fathers dying words warns him that other hunters will be looking for him as he and his kind have to be wiped out in order to balance out the world. Leo stays home the next few days wondering what to do and even is kind of mean to Kyoko when she comes to check on him…but promieses her that he will be at school the next day.

The first issue of Lycanthrope Leo does a fantastic job of introducing us to Leo a young High School Student who is not fully human and is really a half human and half animal person who’s world changes when he turns 17 and he learns that his parents where not his real ones and is forced to kill his “father” before he killed him. Poor Leo also transforms into a Werelion and has not control over his power and rage, so as you can see Leo is having a really bad day! Kyoko Kiriyama who is his classmate clearly has a crush on Leo, but is a little puzzled about his behavior as unknown to her he is a beast that has slaughtered his father in order to save his own life. His father who was a police cop also was apart of a group called The Hunters who are sworn to kill any and all Blood Tribe creatures, and is caught by his group when his adopted son is one and he has not killed him yet, and when he tries he himself becomes the victim and is slaughtered brutally by his “son”. The father tries so hard to try and make his son normal as you can tell he loves him and does not want the change to happen, so by being strict and hard on Leo he was really just trying to help his son. The scary thing for Leo is that he is now having to deal with this major life change on his own and also now has to dodge The Hunters who know where he is at and who he is…and they really want him dead! The comic does truly have a Horror Comic vibe to it and even has a pretty brutal kills as Leo not only kills the family dog by smacking it and snapping its neck, he also slashes his father to death and the blood does splatter. But keep in mind this also has a very classic Manga feel to it and I am sure in no time the Horror Element will go away and it will become more of a coming of age comic built around a Werelion. The cover is pretty cool and is one of the better covers I have seen on a VIZ Comic. The interior art is really good and is done by artist Kenji Okamura and I am a fan of his style and super glad I discovered this series. Over all a good first issue and really does make me want to see what issue two has in store for us.

Lycanthrope Leo # 2  ***
Released in 1994     Cover Price $2.95     Viz     # 2 of 7

Leo Takizawa returns to school and is a nervous wreck as not only does he know it’s a matter of time until the body of his father is found, he also remembers his fathers dying warning that others are out there that know his secrets and it could be someone close to him! Leo starts to think its someone from his school and spaces out in his thoughts and starts to let his imagination run wild making every one a suspect. All the while Kyoko is trying to make sure her crush and friend is ok as she can tell something is very wrong with him, and this worry only gets worse when the police let out that his father is missing. Leo who now owns a cat that is not afraid of him even we he changes into the beast gets a threatening phone message as well as photo at his home causing him to have to calm his nervous, act normal and find out who this other hunter is. After school Leo’s teacher Mr. Okure wants to speak to him as he wanted to talk to him about his missing father, his grades slipping as well as how he feels that he should quit track to focus on school work, and ends the talk very oddly. Leo starts to head out and runs into Kyoko who waited to walk home with him, but before they leave his animal instinct kicks in and he knows that Mr. Okure is a Hunter and he gets Kyoko to leave to school and heads to his teachers office and is proven right as Mr. Okure is waiting for him with a massive automatic crossbow! Mr. Okure takes a few shots at Leo and then informs him that the tea he gave him during their meeting was drugged and this kicks in causing Leo to have to crawl to try and get away as his teacher tracks him through the empty school hallways. As the drug wears off Leo and Mr. Okure are in the school’s library and both know that only one of them will walk out alive as The Hunters and Blood Tribe have been enemies as long as time.

This second issue leaves us on a big cliffhanger as it has our hero Leo being hunted down in the school by his teacher who is a hunter and wants to toy with the high school student before he puts an arrow through his heart. In this issue Leo is a young man who has so much stress going as he knows its only a short amount of time before he is found by a hunter as well as the body of his murdered father is found. He also has the stress of being a were creature, school work as well as Kyoko who he as well clearly likes but is having to kind of miss treat in order to got allow her to get to close to him until he can figure all this out. His new pet cat is a black cat kitten that does not fear him and oddly enough rushes to the school as his owner is being hunted, I think there will be more to this cat then just being a pet. Kyoko is trying so hard in this issue to try and check on and cheer up Leo and each time she tries she is meet with a cold shoulder or an awkward moment. Mr. Okure is a chemistry teacher who is also a Hunter who teaches young minds during the day and at night uses his multi arrow-firing crossbow to kill members of the Blood Tribe. Okure also seems to like to play cat and mouse games with his prey as for him the mind games and the fear he can inflect is just as fun as the killing for him, plus he admits that he has killed other students that were Blood Tribe at that school before! The downside to this issue is that Leo only turns into the Werelion once and for very brief while at home with his new kitten, and it’s a shame as the design is really cool and I would have loved to see the creature in action, but with that said this issue is still really good even with out blood and creature attacks. Leo is a pretty likable hero and the supporting cast around him are interesting even if they are pretty cookie cutter, and The Hunters is as well interesting as it makes you wonder who else will be one and how crazy will they be in their pursuit in killing Leo. The cover is good and showcases Leo as the Werelion and has that VIZ Comic look from the 90’s. The interior art by Kenji Okamura is still great and has that Manga mixed with Horror Comic look. Over all another great issue that leaves me wanting to see what happens next!

Lycanthrope Leo # 3  ***
Released in 1994     Cover Price $2.95     Viz      # 3 of 7

Mr. Okure has Leo in his sights and tells him that the arrows are really made of the bones of killed Blood Tribe members and that their own kind is what can kill them! As he takes aim the black kitten knocks into the teacher and causes him to misfire and gives Leo who is still feeling some effects of the drug a chance to escape. As Leo tries to fight back he fails and Mr. Okure ends up catching him and taking him to the schools screening room that is showing pictures of the Savannah desert as he wants this to be the place that Leo looses his life. All looks bad for Leo as Mr. Okure with his crossbow comes closer, but Leo hears a voice in his head that is coming from his Black Kitten that is telling him to use his beast side to fight back as he is The King of the Blood Tribe and needs to survive! Mr. Okure also can see that the animal is talking to Leo and sadly shoots an arrow killing the kitten but also by doing this he unleashes the beast that is the Werelion and has sealed his own fate. Leo in his Wereline form is massive and is about to kill Mr. Okure when a voice in the hallways echo’s out and its Kyoko who is looking for Leo as she has gotten worried about him! Leo spares his teachers life for the time being and turns back to human and meets his friend in the hallways saying to her he was just running the track for practice and the two walk home, but Mr. Okure looses his life at the hands of another Blood Tribe member that is unknown to him. While back home Leo is deep in thought that he almost killed a second person and this really does make him wonder what his life is becoming as well as who the voice in his head really was coming from. Meanwhile the new Blood Tribe creature is leaving the school holding the bodies of the kitten and the teacher showing that others are watching what is going on with Leo. The next day the school gets word that Mr. Okure is missing and rumors are running wild as Leo acts confused about it all and acts as if he has no clue about the hunter teacher. The new teacher is beautiful and is Mayuko Asuka and all the other boys are drooling over her, as Leo is deep in thought about the hunters and the killing of his father.

This is so great as all three issue this far in the series is fantastic and captures a great mix of Horror, Hero and Manga and delivers a very captivating story that is keeping me very interested in what will happen with the story and characters. Leo in this issue turns from a victim who is trying to fight for his life while drugged to a creature that is now the hunter and puts the fear of god in the heart of the person who was trying to kill him! Leo is also showing that he is starting to have a little control of his creature side and also learns that he can hear voices of other Blood Tribe creatures in his head, his powers and abilities are growing so fast as is his size once turned into the beast and now he is growing to Incredible Hulk size! Kyoko once more is a caring friend and thanks to her caring this allows Leo not to take a second life, and by all accounts this helps him keep his human side alive and his creature side in check. The poor little kitten saves the life of Leo and is killed for trying to deliver mental messages to Leo, like its sad as the cat takes an arrow to the body and is pinned to the wall! So keep that in mind if you are a cat lover as the panels can be upsetting for some I am sure. Mr. Okure is pretty sadistic and really does get joy out of scaring and killing things, and even after having his life spared by Leo he still gloats about killing a kitten, what a scumbag! And lets talk about the other Blood Tribe beast that is running loose at the school it kind of looks like a werewolf or maybe even a werecat? But what we do know is that it’s watching over Leo and takes care of the hunter teacher to clip off that loose end of one that knows what Leo really is. The issue plays up a little more its horror elements and shows Leo as the Werelion in all his glory and shows that he can also grow in size making this beast even more of a threat to mankind! The issue also has a little bit of blood and violence and builds the story even more making me really wanting to see what is coming up next from page to page and issue to issue! Cover is really great for this issue and is a face split of Leo showing his human side as well as his Blood Tribe side for fans of Manga as well as Horror Comics from the 90’s this is very eye catching. And like I have said sense issue one the interior art by Kenji Okamura is really good and the way he draws the Blood Tribe creatures as well as his use of shadows is really cool and reminds me of the Horror Comics that was released by Eternity Comics at the time. Oh and I should also say I wonder what kind of role the hot new teacher Mayuko Asuka will play in the story, and I am going to predict now that she is the other Blood Tribe Creature and is the one who killed Mr. Okure and is also the voice that Leo heard in the screening room at the school. Well lets get to issue four and see if my prediction for the new teacher is right!

Lycanthrope Leo # 4  ***
Released in 1994     Cover Price $2.95     Viz     # 4 of 7

Leo goes to the cabin in the woods to see if anyone has found his fathers body and to his shock not only is his fathers car missing but so is the body, and the cabin is even clear of any blood and gore, its clear someone is covering up the murder. While back at school at track practice his mind is filled with ideas of maybe turning himself into the police in order to maybe get answers of what he really is! While washing up an arrow is fired near him and sticks into the wall and he sees that if came from his new teacher Mayuko Asuka who is holding the crossbows of both his father and teacher and she alerts him that she is from the Blood Tribe as well and has taken care of the bodies to cover the crime and that she is a friend and she then gives Leo a ride home to tell him the truths about The Blood Tribe. While is track mates go in to find him they see that he is gone as he was suppose to get food with them, and once more this hurts the feelings of Kyoko who was very happy to be going out with him. While driving home Mayuko tells him that the Blood Tribe also has their own army of hunters that are called Protectorate that travel around schools and try to save teenagers who are apart of the Tribe from hunters, she tells him that the Tribe is taking care of him money wise and that he need not turn himself in for his fathers death as he was just protecting himself, she also tells him he is from the rare Lion Blood Tribe and then oddly hits on him while the school bully witnesses the affection. The next day in school the bully tells the class that Leo and Mayuko was in a car kissing down by the river and this crushes the heart of Kyoko even more, but Leo denies it and grabs the arm of the bully and squeezes it up to the point of almost breaking it before the teacher enters the classroom and the fights stops. After school Kyoko is trying to ask Leo about the rumor of him with the teacher when they run into the bully and his gang of goons and they beat up Leo and make Mayuko watch as they drag his bloody body to a car and hold him down and are about to burn him with a lit cigarette!

This issue gives us a little more background on the Blood Tribe Of The Beast and show that they are many and walk among normal man, they are have different species of animals that they take after and that they even have their own solider group called The Protectorate that go around and try and save young Tribe members who are being hunted down by The Hunters! We also learn that a very few of them have the telepathic abilities and that Leo is from the Lion Tribe and they as well are a rare breed. Leo in this issue once more has so much stuff thrown at him as he not only still is dealing with the guilt of killing his father, he also is dealing with school work and track, the fact that his new teacher is flirting with him and is a Blood Tribe member as well, that he will be taking care of for life by the Tribe, that one day they will call on his ability and worse he also has gotten himself in trouble with the school bullies who now want to teach him a lesson! Kyoko who is a loyal friend and still can not help herself from crushing on Leo finds herself being in the middle of the bully fight as well as a little sad over the rumors of Leo and the new hot teacher being a thing. The Bullies are just that young punks who are picking on people they out number, I really do hope they get what’s coming to them in the next issue. Mayuko Asuka who is a Blood Tribe member herself is trying her best to try and teach Leo about what they are as well as trying to tell him that his human side is not his real side, she also very oddly tries to make out with him! But I told you that she was one of the Blood Tribe Beasts! The issue is not bloody and have no kills besides what’s shown in flashback of Leo killing his father and is more about building the legend of what The Blood Tribe is and what they are all about. I am digging the story very much still and this far this series has four great issues in a row in my book as the story and characters are all very interesting and yet all so classic feeling. The cover for this issue is ok and I do not think fits the vibe nor feeling of this story and looks more like a generic Martial Arts comic cover. And like a broken record the interior art by Kenji Okamura is top notch and really has made me a fan of his work. With that lets see what Leo does to escape the bullies in the fifth issue of thus series.

Lycanthrope Leo # 5  ***
Released in 1994     Cover Price $2.95     Viz     # 5 of 7

Leo gets burnt by the cigarette and the bullies then set their sites on Kyoko as they rip open her shirt and are talking about assaulting her, and this cause Leo to fight back and makes quick work of four of the bullies in order to save her and the fifth bully who has a knife is taken down by Shunsuke Tatsu who runs the schools Kenpo Club, its clear that Shunsuke knows what Leo is as he walks away with all the bullies badly hurt. The next day word gets out that all the bullies are in the hospital but are not talking about the attack as they know they would be in big trouble, and after class Leo is in more trouble as Mayuko Asuka gives him a lecture about using his powers to beat up the bullies and makes him promise that if he does have a run in with humans again that he will kill them and not let them live! She also once more comes onto Leo and its clear that while he thinks she is hot her actions also creep him out a little. After the lecture Shunsuke finds Leo in the hallways and tells him to join the Kenpo Club as he thinks that he would enjoy it, and after a brief talk with Kyoko about the events and the attack Leo makes up his mind that he will be late to Track and will try Kenpo! At the club Shunsuke has one of his students go full force against Leo and the student uses full power and knocks Leo around and while hurt Shunsuke informs the class that he himself will now face the injured Leo.

The plot thickens in this fifth issue as new questions are coming up that makes you wonder who really is friend and who is foe! But before I get into what I think is going on I would like to say that Leo does a great job in this issue having to try and hide his beast side as he is getting beat up by bullies and its only when they threat the well being of his lady friend that he uses it to make short work of them. He also can take a beating and shake it off and heal fast, he also has self-control as he could very easy kill humans and fights the urges to have relations with his hot teacher. And Kyoko can not win to lose as she not only keeps getting ignored by the boy she likes she also almost gets sexually assaulted by bullies of her crush! She is a great character and one that I find myself feeling sorry for, as she just wants to do the right thing for herself and Leo and always seems to come out on the loosing end. The bullies should have been killed for their actions as they attempt to do some terrible things to both Leo and Kyoko and deserve to be in the hospital or worse. Mayuko Asuka is using her knowledge of the Blood Tribe as well as her sex appeal to try and keep Leo in line, but to me she seems to be very much into the idea of killing humans and makes me wonder if she really is a friend like she claims to be. Shunsuke Tatsu is a high school student who is a martial arts master and who as well seems to have super speed and power, as for me I think he is for sure a Blood Tribe member and not a Hunter like its teased. The issues has some blood and violent acts and has a really mystery feel to it as so much strange things are happing and not only Leo is trying to put it all together me as a reader is as well. The cover for this issue reminds me of a 80’s Hair Metal Cover for like a band called Lion Blood and that makes it awesome in my book! And yep you guessed it the interior art by Kenji Okamura is fantastic and great and at this point I feel like I really am a broken record on praising his art style. Lets see what issue six has in store for us as we are so close to the end of this series so all the answers will be shown soon. And oh yeah I don’t trust Mayuko Asuka anymore as I feel she is using Leo and has her own agenda in all this killing and secret society mess.

Lycanthrope Leo # 6  ***
Released in 1994     Cover Price $2.95     Viz     # 6 of 7

Shunsuke Tatsu beats down Leo with fast kicks as the fellow club members watch in horror as Leo looks as if he is dead! But after some harsh words from Shunsuke the fighting instinct kicks in and Leo is ready to fight and they pair fight hard and fast and just as Leo is about to turn into the Werelion he is punched in the head and knocked out. As Shunsuke Tatsu picks up Leo to take him to the nurses office he runs into Mayuko Asuka who knows that he is a Blood Tribe member now and is snarky to him cause he is from The Mountains and is a none meat eating creature, its clear that they do not like each other and it’s the first time they have met. Leo wakes up in the nurses office and Shunsuke is their and informs him that they are both from The Blood Tribe Of The Beast and that while they are different they are very much the same and also drops hints that he is not a fan of the Protectorate and what they stand for. The next day Leo is once more at the Kenpo Club and after the training he once more blows off Kyoko who wants to talk to him in order this time to hang out with Shunsuke at his home. While hanging out Shunsuke informs him that he and his people only eat vegetation and that the main goal of the Protectorate is to get the Tribe together in order to go to war with humans in order to take over the world as the most powerful species and this news does not settle well with Leo, but he also learns the same voice that saved his life is also why Shunsuke is there to help him. Once back home he gets a call from Kyoko to meet her at the park as she wants to talk about the track team, but once he shows up he finds that it was not his friend that called but was Mayuko who wants to know what Shunsuke told him and then shows him that she has one of the bullies tied up in the park and wants Leo to kill him! And when he says no she gets naked and demands that he kills the bully as he knows way too much about them!

In this issue Leo learns that The Blood Tribe Of The Beast is not all together as its rift into two sides with the meat eating creatures want to kill humans and be the top of the food chain in the world with the vegetarian creatures wanting to be left alone and just live alongside the humans. He also is being torn in all directions, as he does not know if he should trust Mayuko anymore and is clearly following the words of Shunsuke as he thinks he can trust him. And lastly Leo’s human life is falling apart as he is ignoring his friends and is more wrapped up in his Blood Tribe life. And because Leo is being so cold to his friends you can tell its upsetting Kyoko who he seems to not have time for, and she clearly needs to talk to him. Mayuko Asuka is very much into murdering humans and is trying so hard to turn Leo into a cold blooded killer as well and is using her body to get him to fall in line with her and the Protectorate’s agenda. Shunsuke Tatsu seems like he is a good person and is trying to do what is right for Leo, but he also seems to have a darker side as the look on his face when Leo leaves his house after hanging out comes off very menacing. So is he a good guy or is he really another Blood Tribe member with an agenda? With only one issue left in the series it makes me wonder how this all will come to an end as so much is going on and I feel like at this point we are not even close to an ending that would wrap up so many story lines for so many characters. I feel that we will have to have a big fight between Blood Tribe members for this to have an epic ending that it should, and I think Leo needs to stay clear of both Mayuko and Shunsuke and stay true to who he is and not allow them both to fill his head of what they think he should be. The cover for this issue is ok and while not great it does show a werebuffalo so that’s pretty cool. And yeah you know the deal on the art and who did it and how I feel about it so lets just move past that. This issue has some blood in it all via the martial arts fight at the start but does as nudity to the mix now as Mayuko goes topless. Well with another great issue behind us lets see what this final issue in this series has in store for us.

Lycanthrope Leo # 7  ***
Released in 1994     Cover Price $2.95     Viz     # 7 of 7

Mayuko Asuka tries to make out with Leo and the young man pushes her to the ground and this makes her mad and forces her to turn into a Werebat that attacks Leo with her razor sharp claws diving from the sky and tormenting him as he tries to dodge her attack. Meanwhile back at Leo’s house we see that Shunsuke Tatsu is looking for him and picks up his sent to track him down. While at the park the attack on Leo continues as Mayuko keeps using her claws to rip at his flesh and this causes Leo to finally turn into the werelion just as Mayuko turns back human and orders him to kill the bully who has watched this whole thing and is scared to death. Before Leo can make up his mind if he is going to kill the bully Shunsuke shows up and lets it be known that he is not happy at seeing Leo raged out with murder in his eyes. Shunsuke tries all he can to calm Leo down and get him to turn back human he even tries to use Chi power to keep him calm and it all fails as Mayuko mocks that she used a drug that will keep Leo in a rage and this leaves Shunsuke no choice but to turn into a werebuffalo and try and fight his friend all the while trying to talk sense into him. The battle ends and Leo comes to his senses only after biting Shunsuke deep in the shoulder and injuring his friend badly, its at the point Leo understands that while he has these powers he really is human and this shocks Mayuko who looks on in wonder.

This is the final issue in the Viz Comics Lycanthrope Leo series and it was a great read but sadly it ends with no real answers and not closer to the series a volume two was in the works but never was released by Viz who I feel really dropped the ball here. For a comic reader like me who by all accounts is not a big fan of Manga this was a great series to get me interested as if brought a good touch of Horror to that style of comics and reminded me lots of the Indie Horror Comics of the 90’s in tone and even art style to a degree. Plus I have always been a fan of werewolf comics and this pretty much is a werewolf comic series just done with a different style then American comics based on that creature and others like it. Leo is a character that we grow with along this journey that starts as a normal teenager in High School and by the end is a ranging Werelion that must battle is own mind and body on if he wants to live as a human or as a Blood Tribe member! It looks like in the end of this issue he decides to be a human that has a special gift that allows him to turn into a beast. The one thing this issue also shows is that if he is pushed to far the beast comes out and at times he can not control its rage and anger and this could lead to him taking another life even though he swore to himself he never would after killing his father. Mayuko Asuka really is a mad woman who thrives on killing and clearly wants Leo to be just like her when it comes to taking lives, she also seems to enjoy even torturing him while trying to push him to anger and does not even lift a finger when another Blood Tribe member comes to stop and fight him in hand to hand combat or is that teeth, claw and horn combat? Shunsuke Tatsu seems to be a good guy by the end of this issue as he does what he can to try and get Leo not to take another human life and even risks his own health to do so, and when he turns into the Werebuffalo he is pretty cool looking. The major downside to this comic series and how it ends is that we get no answers on who is the voice that is talking to Leo in his head and is help guiding him, what will happen to the Bully who witnessed this all and we never get any payout for Kyoko who does not even appear in this issue. I really wish Viz would have released more issues from this series as I have heard it had more issues in Japan that they just never released here, shame on you Viz for not doing so and letting us readers here in the US never know what happens in the story and to the characters. I have to say that while the series was not a bloodbath it does have its fair share of the red stuff being spilt and has some gruesome deaths and even some nudity thrown in for good measure. The weirdest and more uncomfortable thing about this series was the older teacher trying to have sex with the teenage main character it was very weird and played almost like it was a normal thing. The cover of this final issue is cool but showcases the werebuffalo when it should have shown Leo as he was the main star of this series. The interior art by Kenji Okamura really is great and I love the way he draws the creatures as they look fantastic and spooky. I also should give a shout out to the writer of this series Kengo Kaji who I think wrote a captivating story about a teen dealing with the fact he is a monster on the inside. I would recommend this comic series if you like Horror Comics with a touch of Manga in them and would also say in you like 90’s Indie Horror Comics you might also want to check it out. Take a look at the artwork below to see the style used in this comic series.

After reading Lycanthrope Leo I have figured out that almost all the style of Manga I like have elements of Horror and Sci-Fi to them as this series clearly was very much inspired by the legend of the werewolf and even adds an element of films like “Island Of Lost Souls” and “The Most Dangerous Game” into the mix with the half animal people and the hunters stalking and killing men and women. It’s a shame that Viz did not release the rest of the series and stopped after only releasing the first story arch, as I do feel that this is a great series and I would have loved to see how it all truly ended and all this did is leave me on a cliffhanger and the fate of Leo. But lets not harp on that and lets take a moment and chat what the next update will be all about and it’s a Dell Comic based on the 1960 gladiator film Spartacus! So until next time read a Manga or three, watch a Werewolf Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next update and get ready to yell “I’m Spartacus!” as you know you will want to.

The Wacky Comic World Of Daffy Duck

Welcome back to Rotten Ink and the 10 Year Celebration of this blog! On May 5, 2015 I took a look at Bugs Bunny and called him “The King Of Saturday Morning Cartoons” and pointed out how he was the most popular and recognizable Looney Tune character, but if Bugs is the King then our next character would be the Jester as his antics and crazy nature made him a hit for me and my brother who both loved watching his cartoons…and I am talking about the one and only Daffy Duck! I know that it’s Easter Bunny season and not Duck season, but what better way to celebrate this holiday time than to cover a true icon in the world of classic cartoons and one that will surely make you month a little better. So as you find a comfy place to sit and enjoy this blog update, let’s get crazy with Daffy!

Daffy Duck made his debut in the Porky Pig cartoon “Porky’s Duck Hunt” that was seen on April 17, 1937.  In the toon Daffy was a no-name character but got viewers’ attention as his aggressive and zany attitude brought something fresh and new for the time and he became a favorite of many viewers. Early Daffy Duck was really crazy, a total loon who would bounce off the walls and laugh like a mad man all the while getting laughs from viewers and annoying his target in the toon.  He became the subject of many discussions of viewers and Daffy quickly became one of the top characters in the Looney Tune universe. Over the years Daffy Duck went from crazy to snarky and became very short tempered and would even become a frenemy of Bugs Bunny as who can forget the “Duck Season…Rabbit Season” bit! Warner Brothers knew that Daffy Duck was something special and to this day feature him in many cartoons, merchandise and even feature length movies like Space Jam 2 that was released in 2021. The term “screwball character” was termed after Daffy who was the first of the kind and started a trend of character that followed his personality and tropes. Daffy was so well liked by fans that he became one of the must watch cartoons and would rival the popularity of many other characters of his time like Popeye, Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop. And even in 2019 website ScreenRant ranked Daffy Duck as # 1 in their Top 10 list of Funniest Looney Tune characters. Daffy Duck was created by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett and has had many voice actors as well as cartoon makers help flesh out the character and make him the icon he is to this day. Say what you will, but we all know that Daffy Duck is a true icon of cartoons and over the decades has made so many viewers lived just a little bit more silly and fun.

The main voice of Daffy Duck during my childhood was the iconic voice actor Mel Blanc who created the characters iconic lisp as well as sarcastic tone and line delivery. Mel is considered one of the biggest icons in voice work in the early days of cartoons as he lent his voice to many iconic characters like Looney Tune ones like Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester to name a few. And non-Looney Tunes characters include Flattop, Tom & Jerry, Barney Rubble and Speed Buggy to name a few. Mel would voice Daffy Duck from 1937 to 1989, the year that he passed away. And after Mel’s passing, three different voice actors would voice Daffy off and on through the years during my childhood with one being Jeff Bergman and the other two being Joe Alaskey and at a lesser level Greg Burson. And in modern times Eric Bauza has been the voice behind the Duck. And with all respect to those who followed him, let’s be honest, Mel Blanc is the amazing voice actor who made Daffy Duck the zany character we all love to this day.

Like all great cartoon characters, Daffy Duck has had his fair share of amazing merchandise for fans of all ages to collect and I as a kid was one of those fans who owned lots of cool Daffy stuff! Over the many years of the character, such items as books, comics, shirts, dolls, toys, posters, magazines, statues, trading cards, Music, Home Media, drinking glasses, video games, hats, Shoes, Erasers, Buttons, Pins, Watches, Candy, cups, jars, stamps, socks, towels, Halloween costumes, necklaces, night lights and so much more were made. If you are a Daffy fan and have any need for an item you can find it as there are also Daffy Duck toothbrushes! Growing up some of my favorite things that I owned that featured Daffy Duck besides the comic books was an old plush doll that I had when I was super young, an old Pepsi glass that as a kid I can remember drinking Kool-Aid and chocolate milk from, a McDonalds Happy Meal Toy that had Daffy Duck as Batman and lastly an eraser of Daffy’s head that was for your pencil that I got from school in Waynesville! Daffy is awesome and has some very cool items for fans, and I for one am still a Daffy fan and have many of his items in my collection.

Growing up I would watch Daffy Duck on Saturday Mornings via old reruns of Looney Tunes on TV and also would watch them via home media on Beta and VHS that we would rent from the library or even would buy them from a dollar store that use to stock all types of cheap VHS tapes that featured cartoons as well as silent horror movies. I would raid that section and would buy everything that I would enjoy or ever wanted to see. There was always something very special about watching Looney Tunes and for both my brother and I, some of our favorite ones to view featured Daffy Duck as we loved his crazy laugh, his bouncing around, his sarcastic attitude, his Duck Dogers persona and so much more that made him so fantastic and one of the top cartoon characters in our household. Also we would find ourselves reading Daffy Duck comics and even as a kid I can remember my brother reading the comics out loud to me and even doing goofy voices to go along with it.  It was almost like a story time. But now I am off subject and I really just wanted to share my memories of old Daffy VHS tapes and how when growing up I used to watch them all the time as I would always find myself laughing when watching him act like a total nut job! And I am sure many of you reading this blog have very similar memories of watching your favorite cartoon characters on owned or rented VHS tapes.

One Daffy Duck cartoon that was amazing was from 1988 and was called “The Night Of The Living Duck” that has Daffy reading a horror comic book called Hideous Tales # 176 that ends of a cliffhanger and when he goes to find the next issue a clock falls and hits him in the head, and when knocked out he thinks he is a singer at a club that is filled with many classic monsters like Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Fly, Leatherface, The Mummy, Creature From The Black Lagoon and The Blob to name a few. And after being attacked by the Godzilla inspired Smogzilla in his dream world he wakes up and finds his issue of the horror comic. And for a Monster Kid like myself seeing Daffy Duck sing to many classic monsters of the movies was really awesome to see as who would ever guess that Leatherface of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame would appear in a Looney Tunes cartoon! And seeing the Universal Monsters being sung to by a sauvé Daffy is very surreal and was something that I never would have thought could have happened in the world of Looney Tunes. The animation is great in this episode and really makes me wish that Warner Brothers would have made animated monster movies as it would have been great to see classic monsters get the animated treatment. So if you love classic movie monsters as well as Looney Tunes cartoons make sure to track this one down and give it a watch.

Well now that we have taken a trip down memory lane and talked about Daffy Duck and all the elements that have made him a cartoon icon, I think we are at the point of this review that we take a look at the comics I own of him and have selected the comics from Gold Key and Whitman to cover. I want to thank several stores for having these in stock like Bell, Book and Comic, Game Swap Kettering and Mavericks Cards And Comics as well as Mom Young for having these issues for me to buy and make this update possible. I want to also remind you all that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So if you are ready, let’s get wacky and silly with Daffy Duck!

Daffy Duck # 83  ***
Released in 1973     Cover Price .20     Gold Key    # 83 of 145

“High And Flighty” The Road Runner and his fellow birds are running from Wile E. Coyote and they run through the sidewalk that Daffy Duck was making and the job goes south with footprints and Daffy looses his job. Road Runner feels bad and sets up a new job for Daffy that has him trying to help Wile capture them, and of course all goes wrong. “Ego-Tripped” has Daffy Duck a host of a late night talk show along side Elmer Fudd and they have many guests that night Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester Cat and Petunia Pig and the topic is how after the cartoons end that they are all friends and this turns bad real quick as all of the Looney Tunes characters start arguing over who is the best on their shows and even leads to a end chase of Elmer trying to capture Daffy for his harsh words on the way Elmer speaks. “Dough Nuts” has Daffy Duck owning a bakery and he ends up getting Clovis Cat as a helper who is the cousin of Sylvester and he causes so many issues as he is kind of silly and ruins many orders, but he does end up stopping a robbery. “Stamp Scamp” has Daffy by accident letting one of Elmer Fudds high priced stamp blow out the window and the two have a wild chase to try and get it back, only for it to be a cheap stamp instead as Elmer was wrong on the price.

This issue has lots of guest stars and Daffy while the main attraction can kind of be lost in the shuffle when it comes to each little segments plot as sometimes the likes of Road Runner and other steal a little of the spotlight. And because of the guests and Daffy antics this is a better than average read! All four stories are really good with my favorite one being “Dough Nuts” as I enjoyed the fact that Daffy owned a bakery and was making cakes and hired a goofball cat who stumbles around ruining all his business and making customers mad. When picking my least favorite it was hard but I guess I would have to choose “High And Flighty” as it was just kind of a one joke story that had Daffy always taking a break when trying to capture Road Runner when the Runner would make a whistle noise. But with that said seeing Daffy on the payroll of Wile E. Coyote was really cool. The cover is cool and like a broken record him in the birdbath never happens in the comic. The art by Unknown Artist is really good and I like the way he drew Wile E. Coyote as well as Clovis Cat and of course Daffy and the rest look great. Over all a good read and a cool kids comic based on an amazing cartoon character and series!

Daffy Duck # 86  **1/2
Released in 1974     Cover Price .20     Gold Key    # 86 of 145

“Dr. Elmer And Mr. Fudd” Daffy Duck is babysitting a young duck who wants to hear a spooky story before bed so Daffy makes one up about Elmer Fudd being a mad scientist who makes a formula that turns a mouse into a raging monster and he as well takes the formula and turns into a monster and torments the village and its up to Daffy in the story to save the day when he follows Fudd into a warehouse that the big mouse is in and they two fight. After the story the young duck puts on a Halloween mask and scares Daffy who runs out of the house. “The Duck Who Came To Dinner” The Tasmanian Devil is locked up behind bars at a zoo and Daffy goes to mock him, but soon Taz traps Daffy in the cage and as well when Daffy escapes Taz follows as he wants to eat duck for lunch! Daffy ends up tricking and knocking Taz out and leaves the country quick to be away from Taz once and for all only to find himself stuck in Tasmania! “An Alarm Clock Is A Rooster’s Best Friend” Daffy Duck is jobless and decides that he wants to take the job of Foghorn Leghorn as the rooster of the farm and does his best to set up Foghorn so that the farmer will fire him! Once Foghorn is fired Daffy takes the rooster job, but is soon found out by The Farmer and Foghorn who end up giving Daffy a new job on the far and that’s the top of the weather vein! “Hair Today And Gone Tomorrow” Daffy has made a formula that grows hair and his fellow ducks make fun of him as they doubt that it works, and when Daffy finds Elmer he tries to use the formula on his bold head and Elmer runs away and as Daffy gives chase he is attacked by a hawk it leaves Daffy featherless and when his formula falls on him Daffy becomes a duck covered in hair and must return to the drawing board to make a formula that will grow feathers.

This is an action packed issue when it comes to guest cameos as joining Daffy Duck in this issue is Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, Yosemite Sam, Tasmanian Devil, Foghorn Leghorn and Petunia Pig and each add fun moments to the stories they are in. This issue has the normal four stories and each of them bring their own styles of humor and put Daffy Duck in all types of situations that include him almost being eaten and even being a mad scientist! The kid friendly humor in this issue works really well and the best story for me in this issue is “An Alarm Clock Is A Rooster’s Best Friend” as I like how Daffy is so lazy that he thinks that being a rooster would be easy work and gets Foghorn Leghorn fired, but of course his sneaky tactics blow up in his face. Plus besides Daffy being awesome in the story so is Leghorn who is in my Top 10 favorite Looney Tunes characters. My least favorite story in this issue is “Hair Today And Gone Tomorrow” as I found it very lackluster and the lamest in plot in story, but seeing Daffy covered in hair was a little funny. The cover is awesome and has Daffy lifting weights that are really balloons, and you guessed it this never happens in any of the stories. The artwork is great and is very cartoonish and looks like the cartoon characters on the comic pages and is done by Unknown Artist! A good issue for sure and I am looking forward to read more of these Daffy Duck comics.

Daffy Duck # 92  ***
Released in 1975     Cover Price .25     Gold Key     # 92 of 145

“Duckula” Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are driving a pizza truck and it runs out of gas near a creepy castle as a storm blows in and the two end up having to stay the night in the castle as the owner Count Duckula invites them in, but soon Daffy and Porky find themselves on the dinner menu as Duckula is a vampire and his friend Engelbert is a werewolf! But before Daffy and Porky can be eaten Daffy comes up with a plan the leaves them safe and the two monsters big fans of Pizza. “A Rare Bird” Daffy is in a museum looking at dinosaurs when two professors spot him and see that he is a rare breed of duck and they want to capture him and taxidermy him to place on display! And Daffy must run for his life to escape them and the museum! “Movie Madness” has Daffy Duck trying to get into Warner Brothers Studios to be casted on the new Raquel Robin film that he learned about from Sylvester Cat and Porky Pig! But standing in his way is Elmer Fudd who is the new guard at the studio gate and is told no none employees are allowed in! So Daffy has to use his bag of tricks in order to get in and meet Robin. But Daffy becomes a hero when two cast members try and steal her jewelry and he almost goes into a date with Robin that us until Yosemite Sam scares him off by wearing a monster mask. “Stop, Look, And Duck!” has Daffy faking that he is a traffic officer in order to get into Elmer Fudds house to raid his refrigerator and eat all his food, but Daffy is followed by a hungry bank robber who also breaks in and wants all the food that Daffy is stealing! But thanks to Daffy’s traffic signs and his quick thinking the robber is caught and in the end the Police make him act as a traffic signal for borrowing the signs from the city junkyard.

Wow this was a really fun kids comic and had Daffy Duck in all types of different and zany adventures! Plus like before this issue does a great job of having fellow Looney Tunes characters guest star and that includes Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam and Sylvester Cat and they all play off Daffy very well in each of the segments. And really after reading this issue I had a smile on my face as it was such a silly good time, I mean Warner Brothers Studios even appears and they even make a joke about the MGM lion! And when sitting back and having to pick the best and least favorite story in this issue it was super hard but I would say “Duckula” was my favorite as I love the spooky horror feel of it and it read like a classic kids haunted house with a vampire story. And picking the least is really hard as all the stories were good but I guess I would say “Stop, Look, And Duck!” is the weakest as it’s just a Daffy stops a robber story that we have read before and it seems to be a big idea that the comic makers had when writing Daffy stories. The cover is great and showcases Duckula and shockingly it does tie into a story in the comic and that’s rare! The art is good and done once more and like always when it comes to Gold Key Comics by an Unknown Artist, and like always its very good and the characters look like they should for the most part. To sum it up this is a great issue and one of the best this far I have read of any of the Looney Toon themed comics. So with that lets see what the next issue has in store for us.

Daffy Duck # 98  ***
Released in 1975     Cover Price .25     Whitman     # 98 of 145

“Snowman’s Land” Daffy Duck travels to the Himalayan Mountains in order to find the Abominable Snowman to ask him how often he clips his toenails in order to get $2.00 from Elmer Fudd who asked him that question. But once he finds the Snowman he learns that he has been fired as people do not find him scary so he makes a deal with Daffy if he helps him get his job back he will tell him the answer to the toenail question. And after trying to teach the Snowman to be scary and failing, it’s the rescue of two lost kids that gets the Snowman his job back and also gets Daffy the answer to Fudd’s question and he gets his $2.00 that is owed! “Northern Exposure” Daffy is stuck outside in a blizzard and meets an Eskimo who has been sent out by his wife to hunt a duck so they can have it for dinner, the man has never seen a duck and Daffy leads him in wild goose chases and after the poor guy is almost killed by a whale, Daffy saves him and comes clean that he is a duck and he is instead invited to dinner and they all eat fish. “Rainbow Riot” in this one Daffy is playing in the rain and after the rain stops a rainbow appears and Daffy uses this to his advantage to try and trick a free meal out of Porky Pig by dressing up as a leprechaun and promising a pot of gold to Porky if he can make Daffy happy and makes him a big meal and makes a fool of himself. And after finding out that the leprechaun was really Daffy dressed up he rushes back to the end of the rainbow and shoves a pie in the face of a leprechaun that was not Daffy but a real one!

This is such a fun read and has Daffy Duck meet the Abominable Snowman, Tricking a Duck Hunter and even acting like a leprechaun in order to get a free meal. And this one like the issue before has a Horror Comic element to one of the stories and Daffy even dresses like Count Duckula at one point in order to try and teach Snowman how to be scary. And as I am sure you guessed my favorite story in this issue is Snowman’s Land as how great and silly is it that Daffy tries to teach the Snowman how to scare people in order to find out how often he clips his toenails…and the two become friends. The weakest story of the group is Rainbow Riot as its not a bad story just the weakest of the three as it was just kind of blah as its just Daffy being a terrible friend to Porky Pig who is this issues only Looney Tune cameo. The cover is great and showcases what happens in this comic and that’s a rare thing in these types of comics made by Gold Key/Whitman. The interior art for at least the first story (Snowman’s Land) is done by artist Joe Messerli and is good stuff and I like his kid friendly take on the Abominable Snowman. Over all a solid issue that showcases just how fun these Daffy Duck comics can be for readers of all ages.

Daffy Duck # 104  **1/2
Released in 1976     Cover Price .30     Whitman     # 104 of 145

“Shopping Cart Caper” Art is a man who owns a grocery store who is having an issue with someone stealing all his shopping carts and making him having to buy more of them for his customers. Both Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd end up trying to help Art find who is stealing and after thinking its each other, they end up finding the real thief and it is the man selling Art the carts as he is stealing them with a magnet gun and then sells them back to the store. “Relatively Speaking” Elmer Fudd is really mad at Daffy who eats much of his food acting as a food inspector, and after being chased off Daffy returns to Elmer’s home with a train jumper who looks like Elmer and the two in order to get a free meal and a place to stay lie to Elmer and act as if this guy is a long lost cousin. But when Elmer figures this out as a lie after reading his family tree he chases the two out of his home with a gun and Daffy joins the fraud on rail riding as they jump on a train. “The Broccoli Bungle” Porky Pig is shocked and worried when he finds Daffy Duck talking to a piece of broccoli, and when asked about it Daffy acts as if Porky is rude and this causes Porky to go to the grocery store and buy some broccoli and talk to it! But it was all a big joke as Sylvester Cat bet Daffy that he could not trick Porky into talking to broccoli. In the end Porky is mad and chases Daffy around and the pair run into a cop and both have to serve public serves at a broccoli farm. “The Duck Bunch” Elmer Fudd goes to a cabin by the lake to relax, but soon his peace is shattered when Daffy and his duck friends rent the cabin next door and have a party…after being mad for a bit Elmer ends up partying with Daffy and the ducks.

This is an issue that I almost forgot I owned as I had gotten it from Mavericks Cards And Comics when I worked there and after moving this issue along with other comics was missed boxed and has sat at a friends house for many years, and by luck I found it just in time to be covered…and I have to say the issue is another above average read and brought Daffy Duck into four silly adventures with three of them being alongside Elmer Fudd! And also the issue has Porky Pig and Sylvester both making a cameo in a story making this one feel like a Daffy Team-Up issue, and thinking about it they should have done a DC Comics Presents and had Superman team with Daffy Duck at some point in the 70’s or early 80’s, a wasted opportunity if you ask me. The best story in this issue for me is The Broccoli Bungle as I love the idea of Daffy and Sylvester making a free lunch bet with each other on if they could trick Porky Pig into talking to a piece of Broccoli, like a harmless prank but also poor Porky as he seems to be the butt of the joke. My lest favorite story in this issue is The Duck Bunch, nothing wrong with this one just bland as it has Daffy and fellow ducks harassing Elmer Fudd. The cover is cool but like always has zero to do with the pages inside, speaking of interior pages the art is done by Unknown Artist and is good the only thing really off is the color of Sylvester’s noise that should be red but is blue. Over all a good issue that delivered some cheesy, silly, goofy Daffy Duck comic book laughs.

Daffy Duck # 107  ***
Released in 1977     Cover Price .30     Whitman     # 107 of 145

“Knight For A Night” Daffy Duck is lost flying around and finds an island the rest out and also sees an ad for a Knight wanted at a round table and he rushes to apply for the job as he thinks there will be food on the round table, but soon finds out that the King indeed of the Knight is poor due to an evil knight named Gore Thor who is stealing all his food, and after some tricks Daffy chases off the evil knight and the King’s Kingdom gets its food and knights back. “The High-Flying Queep” Daffy is in the park when a scientist and his henchman grabs Daffy and put a tracker on his leg in order to track were he goes, and Daffy ends up flying away to a western town but his tracker messes with the towns only TV and Radio and causes the sheriff to miss the weather warning of a flash flood, but the flood ends up causing Daffy to find a band of counterfeiters and for his reward the town gives him a reward and Daffy decided to fly on a plan to Hawaii but the tracker is also messing with their radio! “The Mysterious Mr. Big” Daffy Duck gets a job to go to the scary castle of Dr. Frankenfritter with a big check from Mr. Big who wants to buy the doctors new mechanical dog! And after Daffy is chased around the castle by mechanical monsters he makes the deal and takes the dog to Mr. Big who turns out to be a small flea. “The Hitch-Piker” has Daffy Duck trying to get home when he tries to get a ride from Elmer Fudd who is not happy to see him, but after getting tired Fudd ends up allowing Daffy to travel with him and even drive the car. Daffy ends up speeding around the highway and is pulled over and after finding out Daffy does not have a drivers licenses he and Fudd end up in court and Daffy has to pay a fine and work community service for seven days and Fudd must pay a fee.

Another great Daffy Duck comic that has Daffy being crazy and goofy and once more shows that Daffy Duck is great in cartoons as well as comics and in this one he even meets robotic Frankenstein Monster’s as well as takes down a evil knight that has a great name like Gore Thor! And all of the four adventures in this comic is a great read and it will be hard to choose what I think is the best but if I have to I am going to go with The Hitch-Piker as I like the idea of Daffy trying to hitchhike home cause he is to lazy to fly and ends up getting Elmer Fudd into trouble with the law when he makes the mistake of picking up Daffy. And I cannot pick a bad one from this issue as I really did enjoy them all so I am going to select none for this issue! Yeah this will be my only get out of selecting a Bad One card for this update. I mean were else can you read about Daffy busting a counterfeit ring, buy an electric dog for a man named Mr. Big, was rude to a judge and got himself and Elmer in trouble and even becomes a Knight and does battle in order to get a free meal! Great eye catching cover with Daffy making ice cubes and the use of a purple background makes it standout. The interior art is done by Unknown Artist and is great as I like the designs he/they created for side characters like Gore Thor and the robotic monsters. Over all a top notch read and this far is one of the top three best I have read from this Daffy series.

Daffy Duck # 122  **
Released in 1979     Cover Price .40     Gold Key     # 122 of 145

“The Robot Robbery” Armchair Daffy is back on another case and this time while at a science fair a robot steals an invention that takes control of items and allows the person with the invention to control a selected object. And when Armchair Daffy goes after the crook his armchair is thrown around and Daffy uses a bowling ball to bring down the crook and the people at the fair upgrade his armchair to fly. “Ye Olde Time Machine” has Daffy at an amusement park and goes into a funhouse called the Time Machine that really is a time machine and takes him back in medieval times and Daffy as a knight takes down a dragon as well as the Fight Knight before finally being able to go back to his own time, and he runs away from the fun house and then spends his time riding kids rides. “Aerial Grease Monkey” has Daffy becoming an in air mechanic for plans in need, and it’s hard and fast work and after an emergency landing leaves him aching he changes jobs to work as a water mechanic for boats in order to sooth his aching wounds. “Water Follies” Elmer Fudd is getting ready for a bath when he finds that Daffy Duck is in the tub and tells him that he is going to stay awhile as the government is working on the swamp! Elmer chases Daffy our only to find him now soaking in the kitchen sink! Elmer gets Daffy out of his house and ends up sneaking back in and turning Elmer’s basement into a pool and invites other ducks over! In the end Elmer is even more mad when the swamp is moved next door to him and he has to see Daffy more.

In this Daffy Duck comic he has all types of weird adventures from using a bowling ball to bring down a crook, going back in time to bring down a dragon and an evil knight, fixing planes in air and even helping other ducks in a swamp have a place to swim! But while it’s an entertaining issue it’s also very bland and middle of the road compared to other issues we have read this far. While Daffy is as zany and silly as ever he just does not do anything that truly stands out here. The best story is “Ye Olde Time Machine” as I like the idea of Daffy Duck at an amusement park and stumbling into a real life time machine and finding himself in danger in medieval times! Plus his lucky ways of defeating a dragon and an evil knight is pure cartoon/comic book stuff. My lest favorite story in this issue has to be “The Robot Robbery” and that’s sad to say as I think truly it is the weakest of any Armchair Daffy case we have read here this far. It was nice to see Elmer Fudd once more have a cameo and its great as in this issue he truly hates Daffy and it shows. The cover is good and has zero to do with any of the stories and the interior art by Unknown Artist is as good as always and helps add to the silly stories you are reading. Over all a very average read, but still a good one for the most part.

Daffy Duck # 123  **1/2
Released in 1979     Cover Price .40     Whitman     # 123 of 145

“Tin Pan Daffy” Daffy and his trusty horse Deadpan are trying to travel around the Old West to sell pans and by accident they wake up a pair of thieves who steal Deadpan and go and rob the towns bank, but Daffy thinks quick and uses a pan to mock the sound of a rattle snake that scares Deadpan who throws the robbers and Daffy is then able to return the money to the bank. “Rude On The Tube” has Daffy Duck going to a TV station in order to help Petunia Pig on a cooking show, and while at first it goes bad as Daffy ruins the show, but when Petunia switches his role to a taste tester things go smooth. “Big Switcheroo” Armchair Daffy is on the case, but Slippery Sal has messed with the armchair and has switched it out with a fake chair that controlled by a controller. But when Daffy finds Sal’s hideout he is able to get his armchair back and also takes Sal down and brings him to jail. “Hot Tub Snub” Elmer Fudd has belt a hot tub in his backyard on his doctor’s orders in order to relax and like always Daffy Duck ruins it by wanting to also soak in the tub, and after tricking Elmer several times and getting into the tub Elmer ends up turning the tub into a jail cell and traps Daffy in it in order to finally find his peace.

This is another fun comic featuring the zany Looney Tune character Daffy Duck and has him as always annoying the heck out of Elmer Fudd as well as solving crimes in his armchair and selling pans in the west! And in this issue the only two Looney Tune character to appear are Elmer Fudd and Petunia Pig and they both are used well and I really like the idea that Petunia Pig has a TV Cooking Show that has Daffy Duck as her assistant, imagine if this was a real show and Daffy would ruin the recipes as well as just shovel the food into his mouth. The best story in this issue is Rude On The Tube and is for the reasons I mentioned about as it really is a fun silly read. My least favorite is Big Switcheroo just a kind of un-interesting Armchair Daffy case that kind of puts along and has a payout that is kind of bland. The cover is good and has Daffy with pie on his face after he took a bite from one on Elmer’s window seal, and yep this never happens in the comic. The interior art done by Unknown Artist is good and I really like the way whom ever they are draws Daffy as well as Elmer Fudd. So with that let’s take a look at whats next for Daffy Duck in the next comic book.

Daffy Duck # 124  **1/2
Released in 1979     Cover Price .40     Gold Key    # 124 of 145

“Tasters Choice” At a small diner a newspaper editor is worried as his food critic just quit and he notices Daffy Duck eating a ton of food and giving reviews of it to the chef and the editor finds his new critic! Daffy does a great job at the start and travels around eating all types of food, but after awhile Daffy is getting fat and brings in Tasmanian Devil as his assistant to help eat the food and that goes wrong when Taz destroys the dinning room of a restaurant and this causes Daffy to be fired by the paper and chased by Taz who is still hungry and wants to eat Duck! “The Missing “Missing Persons” Person” Daffy as his Armchair Daffy crime solver persona gets a case that takes him to a boarding house to find a missing Officer as well as a boarder of the place, but when he gets there the chair can not enter the haunted room were the people have gone missing from! Once inside Daffy solves the case as the officer and boarder fell into the caller via a loose floorboard. “Duck Calls” Yosemite Sam has decided to give up on sea life and has built a cabin in the woods to get away from stress and sound, but Daffy Duck shows up and makes all types of noise and this causes Sam to try and stop him from doing so. And when his attempts fail to keep Daffy quite Sam just leaves his cabin to return to life at sea, and Daffy takes over the cabin and enjoys the quite life. “Meteor Hunt” a scientist forces Daffy Duck to help him hunt for a fallen meteor and instead of finding the falling space rock, Daffy ends up ruining a group of friends beach clam bake when he thinks it’s the meteor that smoldering in the sand and his chased off by the angry friends.

A solid Daffy Duck kids comic here that brings the reader four tales featuring Daffy being silly, hungry and just plan old crazy! It’s always nice to see a crime being solved by Armchair Daffy and this one is classic Horror Comedy stuff as the missing people have fall through the floor and are stuck in the locked cellar, I mean come on this could be the plot of a Don Knotts film. It also was cool to see other Looney Tune characters like Yosemite Sam and Tasmanian Devil as they help add to the stories they take apart in. My lest favorite story in this issue has to be “Meteor Hunt” as it was just kind of bland and the pay out of Daffy ruining a clambake is kind of just lame even for kid friendly humor. Plus let’s be honest in that story Daffy is kidnapped and forced into help labor by a nut job scientist. But for me I would pick the story “Tasters Choice” as the best as I love the idea of Daffy Duck being a food critic for a big newspaper and eating like a slob and becoming fat and ends up on the dinner menu for Taz who Daffy was silly enough to bring in as his assistant to help eat and review the food. The art is great and like before done by an uncredited artist. The cover is cool and like most Looney Tune comics from Gold Key and Whitman what Daffy Duck is doing on the cover is nothing he does in the issue. Over all another great comic featuring Daffy and is a great read for fans of the character.

Daffy Duck # 126  **1/2
Released in 1979     Cover Price .40     Gold Key    # 126 of 145

“Artsy Daffy” Elmer Fudd is near a pond trying to paint the landscape and Daffy Duck will not leave him alone as he wants to be in the painting, and after harassing Elmer who gives in and paints Daffy who in turn is annoyed by the painting as he thinks its bad. But while walking home a man buys the painting of Daffy from Elmer for $10.00 and claims that paintings of ducks are rare. Daffy says he will let Elmer paint him only if he allows him to eat everything in his fridge, Elmer agrees and after Daffy eats everything Elmer rushes outside to try and sell all his new paintings to people who seem to have no interest. In the end we learn that Daffy Duck paid the guy to buy the painting from Elmer in order to eat all his food. “Breakfast Blahs” Daffy Duck becomes a spokesman for a breakfast cereal and his commercial helps sell the food to the masses, but he is also forced to only eat the cereal for every meal and to make sure he does just that the company even hires a man to follow and watch Daffy to make sure the cereal is his only meals. But Daffy is able to get out of his contract as he finds out the dirty secret of the owner of the cereal company and uses it against him…the secret is that he eats another brand of cereal for breakfast! “Swamp Swap” Daffy is upset as the lake is now filled with swimmers and fishermen and he decides to find a new place to relax and that is a near by swamp. Once at the swamp he finds Elmer Fudd is there and is fishing and the two go back and fourth as Daffy ends up stealing food and now has to work it off by steering the boat, but after an accident the boat sinks and Daffy has to pull Elmer on a raft while he still fishes. “Just Plumb Daffy” A stamp collection worth thousands of dollars is saved by Daffy Duck and his monkey assistant M.W as they are plumbers and by doing this they get a big front page article in the newspaper. A criminal tricks Daffy to help him break into a house and search pipes for a coin collection, but when Daffy figures it out he and M.W alert the homeowner and stop the theft.

Daffy Duck as always brings us four more zany tales of silliness and like all before is a good kid comic read that brings the Looney Tunes world to the comic pages, and I do need to say that I feel as if they do an alright job at doing so…but the characters like Daffy and the others also do not 100% feel and act like the cartoon versions as these ones are way more friendly and Daffy is far less crazy and is really more about eating lots of food. And with this being a kids comic Elmer Fudd does not have his trusty shotgun and does a lot of kicking when it comes to getting Daffy Duck out of his way. And it’s also odd while characters are annoyed with each other they all also come off as if they are friends. And that’s the one thing about these Looney Tunes comics from the 60’s and 70’s they really are good kid friendly reads with characters that most of us grew up watching and while its not 100% like the cartoons they have a very familiar feel that makes them very much enjoyable to read. My lest favorite story in this issue was a hard one to choose as I enjoyed them all but the weakest of the stories is “Breakfast Blahs” as while it is entertaining the payout at the end is weak of the boss eating another brand of cereal is his dark secret. My favorite from this issue is “Swamp Swap” as I like the idea of Daffy and Elmer on a swamp trying to fish and run into issue with a ranger as well as Daffy’s hungry that causes them wreck a boat! The art as always in this series is done by an Unknown Artist and its good classic kids comic art and they character look like they should. The cover is good and has Daffy annoying Elmer and this act at least happens in two of the stories, even if it’s not the same way shown on the cover. Over all a great read and any of these comics are must have stuff for fans of Daffy Duck and Looney Tunes in general.

Daffy Duck # 136  **1/2
Released in 1981      Cover Price .50      Whitman     # 136 of 145

“Demolition Duck” has Daffy Duck working for the demolition track as a janitor and after moping the floors in drivers dressing room the demolition derby champion trips and injures his back and Daffy is forced to take his place in the derby and wins it all. “Super Salesman” has Daffy selling Elmer Fudd a trick door that is suppose to scare unwanted guests away, and when Elmer buys it he chases off a game show worker that could have won him lots of money and of course Elmer is mad at Daffy! “Armchair Daffy’s Dilemma” has Armchair Daffy on a case when a Crime Boss goes after him for getting his gang all locked up, and he even messes with Daffy’s chair in order to get him out of the way so he can try and breakout his gang. But in the end it back fires and the chair ends up capturing Crime Boss and putting him behind bars. “Striking It Rich” Daffy sells out of pans in the Wild West due to a gold rush but a pair of robbers steal all of Daffy’s money as well as his donkey’s gold tooth! And both are not happy and once they find the robbers they get the money back and the donkey strikes gold and becomes super rich as due to his tooth he is sensitive to gold and that allows him to find it easy. “Ambition Nutrition” Daffy Duck is so lazy that his pond land is littered with trash and Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig and Petunia Pig try and ask him to clean it up and they can not get him to do so, the three end up going to a local scientist who makes a salt that will motivate who ever eats it and after tricking Daffy into using the salt on hamburgers he uses to much and is super motivated that he cleans the pond and turns it into a tourist attraction! But it’s noisy and annoying for all the neighbors and once Daffy gets lazy again when the salt wears off and Elmer, Porky and Pentunia decide to clean the pond themselves as a motivated Daffy is dangerous.

Daffy Duck is still going strong as this is another fun issue that as always takes Daffy on so many zany adventures and has him involved in some goofy moments. Plus this issue brings on the cameos from other Looney Tunes characters like Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd and Petunia Pig and they are used well as neighbors and friends of Daffy who are annoyed with his laziness. The best story in this issue is Demolition Duck as I like the idea of Daffy by accident hurting the Demolition Derby champ and having to take his place in order for the fans not to riot and ends up beating a challenger as well as win the event! My least favorite story is sadly Armchair Daffy’s Dilemma as the Crime Boss of Crime Co. is cool but also the story of his capture and being a thorn very briefly in Daffy’s side just is a little weak and I hate that Armchair Daffy is the weakest story again. The cover of Daffy holding onto a flying toy is cool and eye catching but as always has zero to do with any of the stories inside the issue. The Unknown Artist interior art is good and like I have said before captures the characters pretty well. So with that lets get to the next issue and see what Daffy has in store for us.

Daffy Duck # 137  **1/2
Released in 1981     Cover Price .50    Whitman     # 137 of 145

“The Flying Detective” Armchair Daffy is back and this time is on the case of trying to stop a pair of thieves who have a flying car, and sadly the armchair can not keep up! So Daffy adds on wings and makes his armchair fly, but did not count on rain clouds that makes the armchair fall apart, but thanks to the springs from the chair Daffy bounces up and tags a ride with the car. And after shooting the robbers in the eyes with onion juice Daffy delivers them to the police. And in the end uses the reward money to rebuild his armchair this time with wings and an umbrella. “Eskimo Daffy” in this one Daffy is an ice cream man and an accident puts his igloo shaped cart into the water and people of the town think that he is from the North Pole and throw a big feast in his honor, but when his secret is exposed that he is just an ice cream man, Daffy is forced to run out of town and when doing so he and his cart crash into a limo that ends up saving the life of the Mayor as the rail sign was not working and the limo would have been smashed by the train! And Daffy then returns to the town as a hero and is selling tons of ice cream. “The Raindance Kid” has Daffy Duck as a pot and pan salesman in the old west and most towns are mad at him as his wagon makes all kinds of noise, but soon Daffy finds out that his banging of the pans causes rain and while in a town suffering from a drought he makes it rain and it will not stop and now the town wants him dead as the streets are flooding and the roofs are leaking! But when they soon find that the rain is causing gold to come up they forgive Daffy and end up buying all his pots and pans to capture the rain from the leaky roofs and to carry their gold. “Beaver Fever” has Yosemite Sam on the hunt for beavers as if he captures and kills them he can sell the fur for $30.00 each! So he sets some traps and Daffy Duck is here to save them as he uses Sam’s own trap against him and the beavers build a dame that sweeps his house away.

This Daffy Duck has four stories as well as two small one page gags given us a lot of Daffy for very small pocket change! Daffy in this issue once more is a duck of all trades as he is a rainmaker, an animal savior, an ice cream salesmen and a detective! The best story in this batch for me is The Raindance Kid as I like the idea of Daffy in the wild west and with his pans he is able to make it rain, very silly stuff and plus I am a fan of rain so Daffy being the bringer of it is silly funny to me. My least favorite is Beaver Fever just a middle of the road story and pretty gruesome for a kids comic ad Yosemite Sam wants to murder a whole family of beavers to skin them…pretty gross stuff for what is pretty much a light hearted comic issue. I also need to say I do enjoy reading the cases of Armchair Daffy as well as he is like a very lazy version of Sherlock Holmes, but yet is also very inventive when using his chair and making upgrades and repairs to it. Interior art is done by Unknown Artist and is good as always, and the cover is good and kind of at least fits the Wild West feel of one of the stories. Over all a great issue in the Daffy Duck comic series and had many enjoyable tales to share.

Daffy Duck # 139  **1/2
Released in 1982     Cover Price .60      Whitman     # 139 of 145

“The Missing Moosehead” Armchair Daffy gets a case that takes him to a mansion where a mounted moosehead as well as a late night snack has gone missing! And as the owner goes to sleep Daffy sits guard and ends up finding a secret door and that the previous owner of the house is living in the walls as he is sad to have lost him mansion. In the end the new owner allows the old owner to live in the mansion as well and Daffy takes the moose head as payment. “The Clang-Bang Day” Tin Pan Daffy is arrested for all the noise his pots and pans are making as this old west town likes it quite, but also thrown into jail is a banker who has been stealing and hiding money from the safe. A pair of crooks bust Daffy out of jail thinking he is the banker and force him to show them were the money is hidden, and after leading them around he ends up using his pots to capture them and also uses the noise of his wares to annoy the banker who tells them were the money is hidden and leaves the town a hero. “Airmail Mallard” Elmer Fudd hires Daffy to deliver a poem to the wrong lady and after a second try he looses the letter and ends up writing a bad poem that coasts Elmer a date! But it works out for Elmer when he wins a free trip and Daffy is then paid to house sit and while there can eat all the food in the refrigerator. “Migration Tribulation” Daffy is flying across the ocean and is getting tired when he gets involved in hijinks as two pirates are in a sub and Yosemite Sam is on his ship hunting whales. But in the end Daffy gets both ships sunk and uses the sail to glade across the ocean. “Deputy Daffy” in this adventure Daffy becomes a Junior Deputy and annoys the town as well as Elmer Fudd, but when Fudd is robbed its Daffy who stops the crook and by the end Daffy becomes a Detective.

Well this is the final issue of Daffy Duck I have and I must say that this issue as well as all the others covered here on this update are just as fun as I remember them being from my youth growing up reading them. The thing about Daffy Duck as well as all the other Looney Tune characters is that they make great comic book characters as well and that is why they still make comic appearances from time to time as Warner Brothers and DC Comics both seem to agree. In these Gold Key and Whitman Comics they do a pretty good job of capturing the nature of Daffy from the cartoons but they do play down is zany crazy nature and add more of a food obsession to him and I get it as the comics needed to be a little more simple for young readers. And while Daffy is different from cartoon to comic he still is very much fun. The best story in this issue has to be The Missing Moosehead as this Armchair Daffy adventure is silly and has a haunted house feel and seeing the panel of Daffy zooming around the mansion in his armchair was great stuff. My least favorite story in this issue is Migration Tribulation as the story is weak, the payout bland and is a short filler story for sure. The cover is very cool on this issue and has Daffy being fired out of a circus cannon and he is scaring Elmer Fudd who is selling popcorn. The interior art is done by Unknown Artist again and is good stuff and fitting for this comic series and they do a good job of making all the Looney Tune Characters look like they should. Over all these Daffy Duck comics are great reads and if you are a fan of Daffy and enjoy reading comic books you should check these out as they are Daffy adventures that put him into more goofy situations than the cartoons ever did. Checkout the art below to see the work of the Unknown Artist and the style used to bring Daffy alive in these classic comics.

Daffy Duck truly is one of my all time favorite Looney Tunes characters and while his comics are not 100% like the character they are still great reads that really made me flashback to being a kid and reading them when I was a youngster. And while these Daffy Duck comics might not be the most amazing cartoon based comics you will ever read, they are entertaining and bring Daffy into adventures the cartoons would not take him on, in fact almost all of the Dell/Gold Key/Whitman comics based on Looney Tune characters are worth reading. Showcasing Daffy Duck was a great way to spend one of Rotten Ink’s 10 Year Anniversary updates with as Daffy really was a big part of my life growing and needed to be apart of the fun. And our next update takes us into the world of Jack “The King” Kirby and his DC Comics creation The Sandman, one that should be a blast to talk about. So until next time, read a Looney Tune comics or three, watch a cartoon or two and as always support your local Horror Host. See you next time for a chat in the dream world…or is that nightmare world.

The Marvel Adventures Of Doc Savage!

Welcome to Rotten Ink and the first post in our countdown to the Christmas Eve countdown.  It’s crazy to think that we are so close to Christmas 2021, and I for one am looking forward to being around my family to enjoying a good meal with them as well as sharing fun conversations about life and entertainment. And as you friends and readers know, I like to try and cover things in December that brings back memories of not only my youth, but also yours and that’s why I chose to cover classic pulp icon Doc Savage as our first update! Growing up, I can remember Doc Savage not only in the pages of comic books, but also novels that I would pick up at used book stores and garage sales. He was a classic style hero that I liked when I was a kid and unlike Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon and Tarzan for some reason I lost interest in him over the years, and that forgetfulness ends  during this update as I will dive back into my love for Doc Savage and his epic adventures! So sit back, grab a mug of hot coco and let’s chat about the Man Of Bronze.

Clark Savage Jr. aka Doc Savage was the son of an adventurer and and scientist who was trained from birth to become the perfect man with the physic of a bodybuilder and the intelligence of a genius! He was trained in many skills to fit his training of being a perfect man as he learned engineering, chemistry, archeology, electricity and even to be a surgeon. He was trained in fighting, being stealth, disguises, driving and other skills needed to be a master spy and man of action. He can fly planes, drive any kind of land vehicles as well as sail any boat. He can play music, throw his voice, remember anything, has a keen sense of smell and can take high levels of pain. Think about your favorite athletes from every sport and times that by 10 and that is how good Doc Savage really is! He started his life as a crime stopper and true hero after his father was murdered and along with a skilled group he calls The Fabulous Five, they save the day and solve mysteries. For his hero life he also has tons of fleet of vehicles of all types at his finger tips, has a base set in a New York skyscraper and has a company called “The Hidalgo Trading Company” and has a hideaway in the Arctic he calls “The Fortress Of Solitude”! He was given the nickname The Man Of Bronze and in his early days of being a crime fighter, those he would captured would be forced to have a brain operation in order to remove the parts on their minds that caused them to be criminals. Doc Savage is considered a true golden age superhero, and while he is not as popular now, he still has made a massive impact in the world of pulp heroes and beyond.

The first Doc Savage novel was released on 1933 and was called “The Man Of Bronze” and was written by Lester Dent who was one of the creators of the character alongside John L. Nanovic and Henry W. Ralston. And the last novel in the series was released in 2018 as of this writing and was called “The Valley Of Eternity” and get this a total of 203 novels were written about Doc Savages adventures! Doc Savage while he made his way to comic and even cinema was more well known for his novel adventures and this is were he built his loyal fan base and fans that kept coming back for more and more adventures. Growing up I can remember seeing many Doc Savage paperback books at garage sales as well as the antique stores in town, and I know that when I was a kid I bought a few of the books…but I don’t ever remember if I read them or just had them. And I know that I got them because I knew of the popularity of the character and had to have the books just in case I wanted to read them and be hip to what was popular why before my time. And to be honest growing up I always loved many of the classic heroes of movies, TV, novel, radio and comics as Dick Tracy, Lone Ranger, Tarzan, Zorro, The Shadow, Captain Kirk, The Phantom, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes and Flash Gordon where all classic characters I loved and could not get enough of…while Doc Savage was in that category of classic heroes he was always sadly on the bottom of the list. Also growing up I can remember that some relative of mine had a large collection of the Doc Savage books, I want to say on my Mom’s side like maybe my Uncle Thurman or even my Grandma or Grandpa. If I have read a Doc Savage novel in my youth I don’t remember, but I know as I get older and have a little more free time I have plans of picking one up and given it a read. Oh and I should note many of the classic Doc Savage novels have fantastic cover artwork!

Did you know that in 1975 a movie was released based on Doc Savage and was released by Warner Brothers? Did you know that actor Ron Ely played Doc Savage in the film? Did you know that originally back in the 60’s Chuck Connors was casted to play Doc Savage in a film that never was? Well now you do! Lester Dent, who was one of the creators of Doc Savage, owned the radio, film and television rights to the character and wanted to get the character on the big screen so bad, and tried to get Hollywood’s attention for decades…but they just would not bite and Dent went to his grave without being able to get a Doc Savage film off the ground. After his death in 1959, the rights went to his widow Norma Dent who as well tried her hardest to get the film to be made, and she got a bite in, well sort of you see a 1966 film was in the works with Chuck Connors on board to play Savage and producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman were super hyped to develop the film, so hyped that they forgot to secure the rights from Norma and by the time all was worked out, the filmmakers had moved on and made the western film “Ride Beyond Vengeance”. One funny thing about this never made film is that Gold Key Comics in 1966 released what would have been the comic book adaptation! I should also note that Lester did get a very short-lived Doc Savage Radio show off the ground, but sadly it did not have an impact and was canceled.

Years would pass and producer George Pal secured the rights from Norma with the idea of making a massive film series that would rival James Bond in classic spy type action. George wanted Steve Reeves who was known for playing Hercules to play Doc Savage, and while he said yes to the part, a writers strike put the film on hold and with that Reeves left the production. When the dust settled it was George Pal and Joe Morhaim who ended up writing the film and casting started with Ron Ely playing Doc Savage, Paul Wexler as Captain Seas, Pamela Hensley as Mona Flores and even Hills Have Eyes actor Michael Berryman played a small part. Michael Anderson was then selected to direct with Warner Brothers agreeing to disrepute and the film rushed into filming. The film when done went up against Jaws and was buried and bombed and worse critics and fans alike seemed to not like the films forced humor and bland story. But the film did have one major fan and that was Norma Dent who praised Ron Ely’s performance as Savage!

The film was a bomb, and this ended the idea of a film series as the sequel that was to be called “Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy Of Evil” was set with even some press shots even being taken, but that was as far as the film got. The film would end up getting released on VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray later on. And this one 1975 film was the only film version of Doc Savage ever released. It’s a shame that this film had to be released alongside Jaws as that locked the film for failure and this also killed the push for this to become a major film series! It also makes me wonder if Chuck Connors or Steve Reeves would have played Doc Savage in the film would it have done better? Or would it have been doomed to the same fate? I saw the film only once and it was on a bad VHS bootleg some many years back. I do own the Warner Archive DVD and should dust it off and give it a watch sometime soon.

Doc Savage was a mega hit in the world of pulp novels, but failed when it came to radio and film, but he was a semi big hit in the world of comic books as some of the biggest publishers have released issues of Savages adventures! I mean look at these publishers that released comics based on Savage: Marvel, DC, Gold Key, Dynamite, Dark Horse and Millennium all gave fans something to read. Growing up I had the Marvel Comic issues as well as the DC and Millennium ones. It’s crazy that Doc Savage comics are not going still and I would love to see the character return to Marvel Comics as imagine Doc having his own series as well as mixed in with other Marvel series like The Avengers and even Predator!

Doc Savage really is one of those classic characters that to me belongs in the same standing with Tarzan, Zorro, Dick Tracy and James Bond to name a few and I for one am glad that he is finally getting the Rotten Ink treatment. I want to think Ebay and Etsy sellers for having these comics in stock and making this update possible. I want to remind you that I as well grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, it’s entertainment value and it’s art and story. So if you are ready, let’s travel to the Marvel Universe and see what Doc Savage is up to, and I also need to say that I am looking forward to reading many of these issues again, and some for the very first time so also let’s see if they hold up!

Doc Savage # 1  **1/2
Released in 1972     Cover Price .20     Marvel    # 1 of 8

A man dressed in green and yellow climbs a skyscraper that is being built with a sniper rifle in hand, he finds his target window that is the office of one Doc Savage…who happens not to be in at the moment but his five friends are who are all on edge. As Doc Savage arrives at the office he gets some very bad news that while he was away his father has passed away from an unknown sickness. This triggers Doc Savage to go to his fathers hidden safe and finds very important papers and a land grant…but before he can read them all the way through the assassin takes his shot and Doc and his friends hit not only the ground but the lights and start their work of figuring out who has shot at them and from where. The group acts fast and figures out the place the shot came from and as Doc and most of his friends rush off to get the would be killer the groups lawyer Ham Brooks rushes off to get legal papers ready so they can fly out in the morning to the land from the grant. As Doc Savage and his remaining four friends arrive the rush up the to be built skyscraper as their killer is annoyed that Doc Savage still lives and he thought his shot killed him. When the service elevator jams Doc Savage climbs out and makes his way to the gunman all the while dodging laser blasts from his gun, and when Doc Savage reaches him the fight ends fast and Doc alerts his friends that the man is speaking ancient Mayan. The only thing they get from the assassin is that he is a follower of The Son Of The Feathered Serpent and jumps to his death as he would rather die than to speak. Doc Savage and his friend return to the office to find a warning written on the wall from another of the cult members of The Son Of The Feathered Serpent and they swear as a group to get revenge for Doc Savage’s father who they all think now was killed.

The first issue in Marvel Comics Doc Savage is a very fun classic hero read for an aging comic reader like myself who enjoys a slow burn adventures…but I am sure most modern younger comic readers would not enjoy this comic as it really is very “old” in feeling. This issue’s plot has Doc Savage returning home to his office only to find out that hid dad has passed away, he now has a grant for lots of land out of the country and also has someone trying to take his life all this in a matter of minutes! Doc Savage is a hero who shows zero emotion to everything that is going on around him, and uses his skills and training well in order to achieve his goals. We also see that he not only is super strong but is also very skilled in using his brain to win. His friends are called The Fabulous Five and are Ham, Johnny, Monk, Renny and Long Tom all who have skills that help Doc Savage and each other on their world adventures. It’s clear that right now our bad guys are all from The Son Of The Feathered Serpent cult who might even been the ones who infected Savage’s father with the illness and seem to really want the land grant that was left for Doc Savage in his fathers safe. They are dangerous for sure as they do not seem to care about taking another persons life and also seem pretty set on ending their own if it comes down to it. While the plot moves pretty fast and feels like the old novels as well as even a hint of James Bond films the downside is that the comic is very wordy and much of the time the things characters are saying really don’t mean much to the over all story, and while some will find that to be a reason not to read this comic…I found it charming in a old school kind of way. The cover for this first issue is pretty cool and I think captures the elements of Doc Savage while also adding a Marvel Comics touch. The interior art is well done and is done by Ross Andru who is an artist that I feel does not get the recognition he should in these modern times. While not a perfect start for a comic series I do think it’s a good one and I am looking forward to reading the second issue.

Doc Savage # 2  **1/2
Released in 1972     Cover Price .20     Marvel    # 2 of 8

Doc Savage and his five friends are flying above an airfield in South America and are being fired at by enemies of the government that causes them to crash land…and to the government of Hidalgo they are happy to find Doc Savage and crew to be ok and they also give them another plane to use as our heroes fly deep into the jungle to find the location that was left on the land grant. The area they land in is called “The Valley Of The Vanished” and once out of the plane they are attacked by The Son Of The Feathered Serpent cult and as the fight starts to truly break out they are all commanded to stop by King Chaac and Princess Monja who welcome Doc Savage as they knew and respected his father, but this welcoming is not liked by all when the tribe warrior chief Morning Breeze alerts the King that he and his warriors do not like outsiders in their land! The King informs Doc that he was sent to his kingdom in order to be judged as their land has so much gold that they would like to share with him as well as the Hidalgo people…but only if he is deemed worthy in the next 30 days. That night Morning Breeze and his warriors sneak into the sleeping area of The Fabulous Five and kidnap and drop three of them into a deep well, but unknown to the warriors Doc Savage had over heard the plan and hide in the well and saves his friends before they fall to their deaths fully, and he uses parlor magic the next morning to expose Morning Breeze as a would be killer as well Doc makes himself look even more powerful. Looking like a fool Morning Breeze sulks away and meets with a man who is calling himself The Son Of The Feathered Serpent who informs his defeated warrior that he is now going to unleash The Red Death the same illness that took the life of Doc Savage’s dad. The Son Of The Feathered Serpent places the red death into the water supply of the kingdom and so many are fallen ill, and Morning Breeze and Son Of The Feathered Serpent are spreading rumors that its Doc Savage and his men that have brought this deadly illness, while in reality Doc has studied some of the people fallen ill and has made a cure that he is rushing around given to the ill as the warriors following the word of Son Of The Feathered Serpent try and gun him down! In the end Doc Savage saves the lived of all that are infected, is able to kill Son Of The Feathered Serpent by knocking him off a temple, watch as Morning Breeze is gunned down, proves he is worthy of the gold, breaks the heart of the Princess who has fallen in love with him and loads up gold and flies away with his friends.

This second issue cracks the case of what and who killed Doc Savage’s father as well as who is the man who put a hit on Doc was and it was a crazed man who ran a cult that called himself The Son Of The Feathered Serpent who was really a member of the government of Hidalgo who would fly back and fourth from the civil world and the lost Mayan one. Doc Savage is one tough hero who can duke it out with the best of them and can also use his quickness to dodge gun and laser fire…plus he has a rule that he will not kill…well that is unless he can kill you with an accident! One thing that I think Doc does in this issue that is awesome is he uses smoke bombs and his friends with ropes to appear as if he can bring back the dead. I also like that he is willing to risk is own life in order to save the lives of those in need. The Fabulous Five are around and help during the case with even Monk able to fight with some Mayan warriors, but to be honest for the most part in these first two issues you could have cut them and they would not have effected the story all that much. Now I know that sounds like I don’t like The Fabulous Five as I am saying they at this point don’t add much to the comic story, but I do like them and hope they get more to do in the upcoming issues. Morning Breeze is a sneaky warrior who is pure evil that he goes along with a plot the spread a deadly disease into his tribes water supply…what a goon and then tries to run away from battle only to be shot in the back by the one he served. The Son Of The Feathered Serpent is a man with no morals who is ruled by greed and power and who has no issues with killing lots of people to get what he wants, and because of his greed and evil ways he finds himself going splat after falling off a temple. I also like that the cold blooded main killer and villain of this two issue story arch is of course also a member of the nations Government…classic spy stuff. While the pacing is once more semi fast it does also feel like a slow burn like the first issue making it drag a little in spots. The cover is great as is the interior art done Ross Andru again, and with that let’s see what issue three has in store for us.

Doc Savage # 3  **1/2
Released in 1973     Cover Price .20     Marvel    # 3 of 8

Ham and Long Tom and hanging out at Monks house when the office of a cruise ship company is blown up! The three friends rush up to see if they can help and watch as one of the workers is shot in the back with an arrow fired by one of the members of the Silver Death’s Head group…the three friends give chase but are out stepped and worse then they go to call Doc Savage a whole attack armored vehicle filled with members bust in and take them all hostage and then flee the scene. Doc Savage rushes to his friends place only to find them missing and the cops on the scene not having any real answers. Doc Savage decides to go to the docks and snoop around the dead man’s business and finds his secretary Lorna Zane knocked out and another worker Harry Pace hiding the shadows. After a few moments of speaking to them members of the Silver Death’s Head as well as their leader Ull come busting in and want to finish the job of killing Lorna, but Doc Savage just in time hides both workers and takes a beating at the hands of the Silver Death’s Head just so he can fake being knocked out and hear them mention the name of Bedford Burgess Gardner who runs another of the cruise ship companies as well as they are looking for blueprints to something. After the baddies leave, Doc Savage along with Harry and Lorna leave as Doc leaves Lorna at his cousin Pat Savage’s beauty saloon for her safety as he takes Harry with him to find the home of Gardner. Once there they find the butler dead and Gardner is not happen to see them and as Doc Savage searches the house for the killer he is attacked by members of the Silver Death’s Head and in less then a minute he takes them all out and even manages to find a man named Hugh McCoy tied up in the closet who claims Gardner shot his own butler! By the time Doc Savage makes it back to Gardner’s room he finds Harry knocked out and the member of the Silver Death’s Head group swallows a poison capsule. And after all this drama Doc Savage is now really mad and wants his friends back!

This third issue is has a strange story plot that follows two owners of cruise ship companies that has one dying in a terrorist attack and another being accused of killing his own butler we then even have three of The Fabulous Five kidnapped by a group that calls themselves the Silver Death’s Head. Doc Savage in this one starts off just minding his own business at his office when three of his friends drag him into a murder investigation as well as a kidnapping plot as three of his friends end up missing. Doc Savage uses all his skills in this issue as he not only uses his fists he also uses his detective and chemistry skills as well in order to follow the clues to solve the crime as well as save his friends. Poor Monk, Ham and Long Tom are in the wrong place when an explosion goes off a few floors above Monks house and this leads them on the bad side of the issues bad guys. The Silver Death’s Head group wear costumes made of silver dollars and while they are lead by Ull it’s clear that some one else is calling the shots and while this issue wants you too think that its Gardner one of the cruise ship company owners I think that that the shots are being called by Harry Pace a man I just don’t trust at all! I do like also that this issue introduces us to Pat Savage an owner of a beauty shop who is also an adventurer who is the cousin of Doc. The look of the Silver Death’s Head group is really cool and reminds me of bad guys you would see in an issue of Amazing Spider-Man or Captain America at the time of this comics release. This issue has a really fun detective feel to it as I felt as a reader I was along for the ride to solve the case with Doc Savage and I also feel that the stakes are high in this issue as three of his friends lives hang in the balance. Great interior artwork from Ross Andru and a eye catching cover for this issue and I feel like this is the best issue this far in the Doc Savage Marvel Comic series…let’s see if issue four keeps up the good work of making Doc Savage apart of the Marvel Universe.

Doc Savage # 4  **1/2
Released in 1973     Cover Price .20     Marvel    # 4 of 8

Doc Savage along with Harry Pace and Hugh McCoy find an old waterfront warehouse that is being used as a base for members of the Silver Death’s Head and after taking out many of the members and chasing off many others, Doc Savage finds his friends Monk, Long Tom and Ham tied up in a roof and sets them free. And after searching around they find a map that they will follow, and Doc Savage sends Ham to find all he can on Gardner as he has a hunch. Doc Savage and the rest head to the docks and all get aboard his own designed submarine as Doc informs them that he thinks that the Silver Death’s Head have their own and that’s how they get around to commit their crimes as well as avoid the police. And as always Doc was right as their sub is attacked by the Silver Death’s Head groups and when some of their members in scuba gear try and break into Doc’s sub he and his friends are forced to get into gear and fight them under water! Once Doc makes quick work of them he then follows a boat that Ull and the real head of the group are escaping on…he of course grabs a rope that is on the boat and follows them to a secret hideout. Doc busts in and knocks out Ull fast and then takes down the leader who ends up being Hugh McCoy who was also Gardner…you see Hugh created Gardner in order to have a fake face in order to mastermind these crimes.

Ok, Ok I was wrong as I was thinking Harry Pace was the main brains behind the Silver Death’s Head group and it was that slime Hugh McCoy the whole time, but hey Doc Savage didn’t figure it all out until the un-masking either! This issue’s plot has Doc save his friends and then find a map, go underwater to fight goons in scuba gear only to follow the two leaders of the crime group to a hidden hideout to kick them around and solve this case that involved murder and kidnapping! Doc Savage is a man of few words, but a man of action and you can always tell when his mind is working on solving a problem and coming up with a plan to end the issue. Doc Savage also we find out hates when people brag about the things he does as he does them not for the glory but because they are the right thing to do. Glad to see Ham, Long Tom and Monk alright even if as always they really don’t add much to the story and are just around for a reason to fully get Doc involved when they are kidnapped. Well I guess Ham does his job as he does dig up info on “Gardner” and his business that rose to power super fast in the world of shipping and cruise vacations. Hugh McCoy is a mastermind as he uses a fake persona to open a business, murder his computation, work alongside a murderous group and try to match his wits with Doc Savage all in the quest for power and money. Hugh also does a great job of acting friendly with the good guys, all the while playing them for fools. Ull and the Silver Death’s Head group are killers for hire who have the money and power to make people dead, but also wear heavy outfits that make them noisy as well as smell like silver…so stealth they are not. This case aka story arc of Doc Savage is very interesting and had me guessing all along on who the main man calling the shots was, and while I was wrong it made the ending a little more fun! The cover is great and pretty eye catching for the time of release and like before the interior art of Ross Andru is top notch. Another solid issue of Marvel’s Doc Savage, and I cannot wait to see what the next issue has in store for me.

Doc Savage # 5  **1/2
Released in 1973     Cover Price .20     Marvel    # 5 of 8

A hunter is attacked and killed in his cabin and is discovered by his friend, the man’s dying words is for him to track down Doc Savage and hire him to crack this case and avenge him! The other hunter who’s name is Carl MacBride makes his way to New York and while traveling meets Jean Morris a country girl who fills him in on how Doc Savage works and takes cases. But once Carl arrives at Doc Savages office and once there before he can say a word a mobster with a tommy gun comes up the other elevator and blasts the man with gun fore before running away. Doc Savage along with Monk and Ham give chase and find that the shooter runs to a mansion that was is highly protected and find that Jean is also inside as she has a job interview and been hired by a man named Griswold Rock who owns a small railroad in Michigan and before they all know it the floor beneath them gives way and a giant monster appears causing them all to fall to the floor below and as they Doc Savage and his men get to their feet the watch as a red truck speeds off with the monster in the back and the gunman behind the wheel…and oddly enough Jean is also missing. Before the leave they find Griswold Rock locked behind a door who tells them he has been held prisoner by one of his former employees named Pere Teston who forced the man to sell his stock and bonds. Doc Savage along with Ham and Monk call in Long Tom, Renny and Johnny as he is going to need all their help in order to track down this red truck and crack this case. Renny in his plane is the first to spot the red truck, but he is shot down by the tommy gun mad man and taken from the wreckage and kidnapped. Renny watches as the gun man is joined by other hoods and they set a bomb that will blow up the truck, the monster in the back and him! He also sees that they have Jean with them…and as they all leave before the big explosion Doc Savage just in time arrives and saves Renny…but the poor monster is killed. Doc Savage has a hunch now with all the clues he has gathered and wants to solve this case of murder and crime.

This is a very interesting issue as of course it’s an action detective story, but it has a dash of horror added into the mix with monsters and a creepy cabin in the woods. This case has Doc Savage watching a man who was coming to him for help to solve the murder of his friend get gunned down only to follow the killer to a mansion that houses a giant monster and even more questions and no answers…yet. This issue Doc Savage is the hero like always but also seems a little confused by what the giant monster is and why a man was murdered in his office before he could speak. And Renny of The Fabulous Five owes his life to Doc as he was about to be blown sky high, before being rushed out of the way of a car bomb, but to also be fair Renny did a great job of tracking down the truck that the gang was looking for. Who is Jean Morris , Griswold Rock and Pere Teston and can any of them be trusted…only the next issue I am sure will give us that answer. The Monster was massive and looked like something straight out of a 40’s Atomic Age Horror Movie…but for some reason I have a feeling it was not real, as it’s a robot or a prop. The pacing for this issue is a little faster than the others as the killing and then the case really kick in fast and this one also seems a little more confusing as in the case is not as easy to piece together. The cover is pretty cool and looks more like a Marvel Horror cover or even a Doctor Strange one and the interior art once more is done by the underrated and under talked about Ross Andru, another solid issue in the series, and I cannot wait to read the next issue!

Doc Savage # 6  **1/2
Released in 1973     Cover Price .20     Marvel    # 6 of 8

Doc Savage and his two friends Ham and Monk are flying above a lake in Michigan the area that the hunter was killed that started this whole case, but to their horror they are attacked by two massive giants that come out of the lake and if not for Doc Savage’s grenade that scared them off they could have surly all meet their deaths. Doc Savage on the time they bought away from the giants searches the cabins around and finds no clues, and when walking through the woods the tommy gun gunner tries to take them out, but slips and falls into a bog and drowns. Doc Savage uses rope to get the id and body of the man out of the bog and finds a note that says Death Mill! Doc Savage sends Ham and Monk to town and looks into the mill and finds Griswold Rock inside who claims he got a telegram from Savage to meet him there. With all of them back in town they get word that Renny in a helicopter has been shot down and as Doc Savage and Monk rush to his aid…its clear this is a trap as giants and gunmen are all around and Renny is not even there yet! As a gunfight breaks out and the Giants run off into the woods on a mission, the fight is a standstill and the gunmen flee and Monk follows them as Doc Savage hitches a ride with the now arriving Renny back to town as Doc has a bad feeling. Once back in town they find that the giants had attacked the hotel and took away Griswold Rock and left Ham injured! But now Doc Savage has it as he knows that the giants are old prisoners who have been given a chemical to grow that size, he thinks that Pere Teston is apart of these monster attacks in order to get money from towns that he has threatened with attacks and that the murdered hunter stumbled onto their plan and was killed for it. Doc and his crew go and try and solve this case and even along the way save Jean Morris who as well had been captured back at the mansion…but they are all captured by the giants that take them to the criminals base and Doc and his crew are thrown into a hole and left to die. That night Doc Savage has a plan and after making a human ladder he climbs to freedom and gathers papers that prove his chemical made giants theory as well as bugs the office of the main man in charge before sneaking back into the hole. Doc Savage then uses his brain and has the guards turn on each other by informing them that the chemical used will make the prisoners forever giants and that they are being used…this causes the hired guards to be attacked by the prisoner guards! Doc Savage then once more exits the hole during the battle and tosses down a rope for the rest to escape and run down to the water as he wants to bust the boss all his own. But things turn south real fast when a giant busts open a tank filled with very poisonous gas that kills everyone who breaths it in, as Doc Savage and his crew flee they find Pere Teston tied up and rescue him as it was Griswold Rock all along who was the mastermind of the giants.

This is a pretty solid issue that has Doc Savage and his friends heading to the woods of Michigan in order to solve some murders as well as battle giants…but the payout at the end seemed very rush and they could have cut down on the plane attacks and crashes and it would have allowed for more panels to be used for the big ending that seemed very underwhelming. Doc Savage who is a great hero and detective sure did make many mistakes in this one and his plans seemed to almost always lead to danger and even allow the bad guys to hear their plans as he took in the crime families leader on his word that he was kidnapped and held prisoner…you would have thought Doc would have been smarter then that. But I do give Doc credit when it comes to fighting the giants as he knows he is strong, but not match for them…but would die swinging if he had to fight them hand to hand. Being six issues into a only eight issue series its clear that the two main members of The Fabulous Five are Monk and Ham as they seem to be getting more adventures and are clearly the two most important in these comic series, but I will say Renny gets a tiny bit of time to shine in these last two issues. Jean Morris who was a lion tamer is around and really adds nothing to this story besides a female character. The Giants are dangerous as they are just prisoners and criminals who are turned into these monsters and who are being used as test rats by a man who just wanted more and more money and power and that man is the chubby, sweaty looking Griswold Rock who was a small time business man but a large con-artist. The Horror element of the first part of this story arch kind of fades in this second part as it becomes more of a crime adventure thriller. I do like also that this issue takes us out of the big city and takes us into the woods of Michigan and has Doc Savage having to fight in water, woods and even a hidden island. The cover is pretty great and is pure 70’s Marvel style and as always Ross Andru interior art is A+ stuff. The next two issues are the ones that I read in my youth so let’s see how well they hold up.

Doc Savage # 7  ***
Released in 1973     Cover Price .20     Marvel     # 7 of 8

In the Canadian woods on the estate of Alex Savage the uncle of Doc Savage a man transforms into a werewolf and has the want to kill and murder Alex…and he does just that. The next day Doc gets a phone call from his cousin Pat Savage about the attack and murder and this puts Doc into a thinking mood as the murder was said to be very beast like. Doc Savage decides that he is heading to Canada to be with his cousin Pat during her sad time as well as he wants to find out what killed his uncle and why their household seems to be under attack. Doc along with Ham, Monk and Renny take the train to get there and even while ridding gets a fake telegram warning him not to go to his uncles house. As Doc and Renny make their way to the railcar of Ham and Monk they get all types of stares from passengers many who think they are dangerous killers with many having plans to protect themselves. When Doc gets to his friends he finds that he has gotten there just in time as some one has gassed them and left an image of a werewolf on their window. And this same thing was done to El Rabanos and his friends the Ovejas whom all thing Doc Savage and his men are bad people, and worse after the gas clears they find another werewolf image on a window, watch a black painted plane fly away from the train and are forced to a stop as logs now block the train from moving forward! As Doc Savage removes the logs his friends give chase to El Rabanos who runs into the woods, after clearing the way Doc as well gives chase and his jumped by four men with guns…they are no match for Doc who defeats them and rushes to find his friends. Meanwhile Pat Savage is home with her two Native American friends Tiny and her husband Boatface when they hear the howl of the werewolf, Pat grabs her gun to look for the beast only to find nothing and to return home to Tiny and Boatface knocked out from gas and she checks on a ivy cube with a werewolf on it that is very priceless. Unknown to Pat her cubes hiding place was seen by Boatface who steals it and tries to sell it to the werewolf, but the mans greed delivers his death as the werewolf murders him over the price of the cube. Pat and Tiny awake from the sound of a howl from the werewolf and notice Boatface missing so they head into the woods with gun in hand to find him. Meanwhile Doc Savage finds his friends at a tiny airfield in the woods and watch as El Rabanos and his friends make an escape in a plan and even kill one of their own airmen in the leave, before he dies he tells Doc Savage a string of clues. In the end Doc Savage with Monk, Ham and Renny make it to his uncles house to find Pat missing and the body of Boatface now in the living room of the home, Doc orders his friends to stay at the home as he rushes off to find his cousin only to be shot while walking across a rope.

All I can say is 100% this issue held up for me after all these years and has a super classic werewolf horror movie feel to it and that’s why I enjoy it so much! In this issue Doc Savage gets the sad news from his cousin that his uncle has been killed in a savage way and this makes the Doc head to Canada to figure out the murder as well as all the strange things going on around his uncles estate. This issue takes Doc Savage from his city office, to a train traveling across countries, to the snowy woods for Canada all the way to his uncle’s home in the middle of now where, and all the while he had to fight and use his detective skills. Doc Savage and his cousin Pat Savage are going through a very hard time as their loved one has been brutally murdered and all signs point to it being the work of a werewolf, but they also have to deal with shady people as well and thieves who want to steal an ivory cube that the Savage family owns. El Rabanos and his group are very shady and are clearly involved in this killing as they are also trying very hard to spread rumors of Doc Savage himself being a cold blooded killer and a curse to those who see him. As always Monk, Ham and Renny are around, but do very little in the over all story besides their friendship. Pat Savage is a warrior her own self as she along with her trusty gun have zero issues running off into the woods to face the werewolf, as she wants revenge really bad for her fathers death. Tiny is a loyal housekeeper to the Savage family even if her husband was a thief who allowed his own greed lead to his death. And finally The Werewolf is a talking beast who wants the Ivory Cube and who is also savage in his attacks and plans for murder, a classic looking werewolf that reminds me of Jack Russell the Werewolf By Night another Marvel Comics series that was running around the same time. The Werewolf while very beast like in nature and look, also has a human side as well that allows him to talk and plan. One has to wonder who the man beast is and if he is truly a werewolf or just a man in a suit playing a legendary creature. The cover is awesome and eye catching and the interior artwork by Ross is amazing stuff. A great issue and my favorite in the series this far in both art and in story, so let’s see what issue 8 the final issue has in store for us!

Doc Savage # 8  **1/2
Released in 1974     Cover Price .20     Marvel     # 8 of 8

Doc Savage is holding onto the rope when the man fires one more bullet knocking him off and sending him to his death, or so the man thinks as he returns to camp he is meet by the Werewolf who is in charge and is told of the news that Doc Savage is dead and with this the Werewolf is happy as he knows now nothing will stand in his way of entering the Cave Of The Werewolf. Meanwhile in a tent in that very party we find Pat and Tiny tied up and being held captive and when they try to escape the ones holding them captive inform them that they are no longer needed as her cousin is dead so their worth is low, but before Pat and Tiny can be killed Doc Savage rushes to their rescue and after beating down the bad guys the Cousins and Tiny start to head back to the Savage home as Doc Savages is sure that El Rabanos and the Ovejas are involved in this murder and werewolf attacks, as they make their way home Doc Savage is challenged by the Werewolf and after a quick fight the beast is knocked out and his mask taken off to show just a thug in a costume. Once back at the Savage home Pat finds that the cube is missing and just then Senorita Cere Oveja comes busting in screaming that the werewolf is going to kill her father and El Rabanos if Pat does not give him the cube, Cere tells them that the original werewolf was just a nickname for one of her relatives that was a pirate and that the cube holds the location to all his stolen treasure and that she and her father along with El Rabanos was just trying to find it as they think the gold is theirs due to heritage. Doc sends Ham, Monk and Renny to search the pine trees in the area that has a birds nest in it as feathers and needles was found on the body of Boatface. After some time Ham finds the cube in a nest Doc solves the puzzle of it and unlocks the hidden map inside. The werewolf shows up and uses his gas on Pat, Tiny, Monk, Ham and Renny and takes Doc Savage hostage as he informs the hero its been a trick all along and El Rabanos and the Oveja’s are his partners in crime! Doc Savage awakens in a cave with his friends as El Rabanos is bragging to him that he was the mastermind behind this plot all along and killed his Uncle to draw Doc their to figure out the map puzzle, he also says he will turn on the Werewolf and the Oveja’s in order to keep all the treasure for himself! But surprise Doc Savage is free and his friends are not knocked out as Monk made an antidote for the gas and they are ready for a fight. After knocking out El Rabanos with a punch Doc Savage does after the Werewolf as his cousin and his friends go fight with the rest of the gang. Doc Savage out fights the Werewolf and after El Rabanos wakes up and fires his gun the cave collapses with only Doc Savage, Pat Savage, Tiny, Monk, Renny, Ham, The Oveja’s and the treasure escaping…all others are dead. In the end they inform The Oveja’s that they will not get a penny of the treasure and it all will go to build hospitals in Canada and also that Pat Savage is now apart of the group.

This issue holds up as well and while some of the horror elements are gone, by middle of the issue it becomes a crime thriller that has some twists and turns that many of true crime lovers will see coming, but are still super fun to watch unfold. Doc Savage through out this issue as well as the whole series is a man who keeps care of his mind and body and will risk it for good, as he believes that doing the right thing and helping others is very important. He will not kill unless he has no choice and has nerves of steel and is not shaken by anything and that includes near death experiences as well as facing monsters. And one thing about Doc Savage as well is that he is always one step ahead most of the time and has back up plans in order if things go wrong for he and his crew. The Fabulous Five are the best friends of Doc Savage and while around they don’t do much in this series, but with that said I would very much miss them of they were not around as the friendship between Ham and Monk is fun as they poke fun at each other all the time and while Renny, Long Tom and Johnny do very little they are still cool background hero characters. Pat Savage is the touch as nails, sweet and strong cousin of Doc who is an hero in her own right and who rushes into danger to avenge and save the innocent, and after loosing her Father to murder she is ready to join her cousin in the hero business. Tiny who’s husband Boatface was a loser shows that she is close to the Savage family and when all hell breaks loose in the cave she even fights with the hired thugs and bear hugs some of them into submission! The Oveja’s and El Rabanos are slimy and play all sides in order to get what they want and that’s the hidden pirate treasure, and would even turn on each other in order to get it. The werewolf is not a real creature but is a mad man in a costume who seems like he really does think he is one, he as well is motivated by greed but also has pride as he wants to be the man who kills Doc Savage! While he fails and is made quick work of and is later killed in the cave in, I find him to be a cool bad guy who a great classic werewolf look and has a Marvel Horror look. The story of this case is really cool and is set in the woods of Canada with a werewolf on the loose and oddly reminded me of the silent film Wolf Blood from 1925 that is a semi werewolf film set in the snowy woods of Canada. The Doc Savage series from Marvel Comics reminds me why I loved the 70’s era of Marvel as they had some many amazing comics going beyond their Superhero and original Horror lines with titles like Godzilla, Planet Of The Apes, Tarzan Lord Of The Apes, Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica showcasing they knew how to make good comic based on film, novel and TV properties. The cover for this one is eye catching and really cool and again like clock work Ross’s interior art is amazing and he really was one of Marvel’s talented artists of the time that should be way more respect in these modern times. Over all I have to say I enjoyed the Doc Savage comic run at Marvel Comics quite a bit and while Doc Savage is a dated character and even by 1970’s he was a little out of date, they did a great job of bringing the 1930’s into the 70’s and making it seem right at home in the disco era. Check out the artwork below to see the style of Ross and see how this series looked.

But wait there is more as the Doc Savage fun continues, as we will be also taking a look at his two other Marvel appearances that had him teaming with the likes of Spider-Man and The Thing! I also want to say that a Giant Size Doc Savage # 1 was released by Marvel but was just a reprint of the first two issues in the series. It also makes me wonder why Doc Savage only lasted for eight issues, I would guess poor sales…but I could not say for sure. So if you are still up for some classic detective adventure, let’s go on two more adventures with Doc.

Giant Size Spider-Man # 3  **1/2
Released in 1975     Cover Price .50     Marvel    # 3 of 6

Desinna is a strange woman from another world and time who has sent a message to Spider-Man to meet her at an old building in New York that is set to be torn down, and while inside she shows Spidey a look into the past as Doc Savage in the 1930’s also has gotten a message to investigate that very building as something is just not right with it. Back in the 70’s before Desinna can inform Spider-Man on what is going on the ground shakes knocking her out and Spider-Man is faced with a giant goat legged monster that wants him dead! The giant is named Tarros and he is also from the past and his body is made up of an electric field, and Spider-Man out smarts the giant and over loads the field and sends him away. After the fight Desinna wakes back up and once more has Spidey take a look at Doc Savage in the 30’s at this same sight. While Doc and The Fabulous Five are looking around they meet Desinna who informs them that she is from another dimension and that her world they have created a time machine, but something has went wrong and scientist Tarros had his life spirit taken away and now its twisted and evil and is about to run wild in New York, just then the Giant Tarros appears and Doc Savage and his friends spring into action fighting the creature and Doc Savage being the man he is figures out a way to trap Tarros into a dated stone that’s in the building trapping him inside it as long as the building stands. Back to Spider-Man’s time he figures out that Desinna is worried that when the building is demolished the next day the evil will be unleashed again, but Spider-Man has figured it out and Tarros is not the bad guy it’s Desinna who tricked the old man and had him stuck in time! Spider-Man frees the spirit of Tarros and Desinna is sent back to her world to face punishment.

This is a fun idea of a crossover between Spider-Man and Doc Savage that could have been a heck of a lot better as the major downfall for me is that Spidey and Doc never really meet nor do they even really team up! The plot has a lady from another dimension playing victim to heroes from two different decades in order to try and cover up her evil actions in her own world. Desinna is a pretty woman who has a sinister side that is hidden deep in her charm, she is a mastermind that tricked a wise old scientist from her world and is still using her charm to trick heroes into covering up her mistake and doing her dirty work. When she is figured out and sent to face punishment she still tries to use her charm and beauty to save her own hide. The man she tricked is Tarros who’s spirit was stuck in a field of energy and can not speak English and because of his monster look is easily judged by those tricked by Desinna’s charm and words. Doc Savage comes to the aid of a woman in need and battle a massive electric monster to save our world and hers, and uses his brains and strength to bring the creature down, but sadly he was played a fool all that time ago and was tricked into just beating down a victim even more by the one who started the crime. In other words the hero Doc Savage that has always been shown to be a very smart man as well as a great detective was tricked by a pretty face and the old time belief that women cannot be bad. Spider-Man meanwhile has to sit and watch the events of the past and then solve the case that he is about to be made a fool of just like Savage was by a lady who is evil. I like that Spidey quickly figured it all out, and even after fighting with the spirit puts the pieces together to help save him and allow justice to happen in another dimension. Also I get the feeling that Spider-Man knows that Doc Savage really dropped the ball bad, and is in his own way making excuses for him by saying he was a product of his time. While this was a fun way to bring two heroes together from two different periods of time, I felt that it could have been done better like why not have Desinna take Spider-Man back in time to team with Doc Savage in order to bring down her enemy, and have them both figure out she is the real bad one, or even vice versa. The lack of real interaction between Spidey and Doc was a major letdown and much of the issues pages are spent on Desinna’s lies and tricks. But with that said I did enjoy the elements of each hero doing their thing, that’s why I have given it a slightly above average star rating as while flawed it was still a fund read. The cover is pretty cool and reminds me of an old Marvel Team Up cover and the interior art is great as once more Ross Andru shows his talents. Over all a fun issue and a good read for fans of Spider-Man and Doc Savage, just don’t go in thinking you will see them fight the monster together. Check out some artwork below from this Giant Size issue.

Up next let’s see how Doc Savages team up with Fantastic Four member The Thing goes! And again what a strange crossover for our hero of the 1930’s!

Marvel Two-In-One # 21  **1/2
Released in 1976      Cover Price .30     Marvel     # 21 of 100

At the Baxter Building The Thing is working out and The Human Torch goes to the elevator and is greeted by Janice Lightner who faints once she enters, meanwhile in 1936 Mrs. Lightner travels up the elevator and as well faints once hitting the office of Doc Savage! And in both times the Lightner ladies tell the story of abuse, crazy ideas, madness and wasted fortunes and Janice is the daughter of Mrs. Lightner and it seems like the past and present are playing out the same. The ladies asking for help both speak of The Sky Cannon a powerful weapon that pulls down star energy and places it into a human host and in both cases the weapon is about to be used by the males of the family to show that they are not mad and true power is out there and can be placed into one man! All the heroes from both decades rush to the lab and have their flying vehicles struck by The Star Cannon merging both words together so Doc Savage, Renny, Monk, The Thing, Human Torch and Janice Lightner fall from the sky as inside the lab father and son merge into a new super villain named Blacksun. As the heroes shake off the fall and introductions happen Blacksun appears and is ready for a fight using his beams of energy to try and bring down the heroes, Monk and Renny uses their none kill bullet to no effect and an attack by the Human Torch is shrugged off. The Thing is next up and tries to clobber Blacksun only for it also to fail, but Doc Savage is up next and notices that when the clouds black the stars he has a chance to land punches and does just that causing Blacksun to try and run away into space as he wants to enter a black hole. The Thing and Doc Savage hold onto the villain for as long as they can before falling back to solid ground, but Blacksun as well learns that he can not breath in high altitude and falls to Earth hard causing an end to his rampage and also sends Doc Savage and his crew back to the 1930’s. In the end The Thing and Human Torch promise to Janice to get Blacksun (her brother and father as one) the help that he needs.

See this issue of Marvel Two-In-One was done right as Doc Savage comes to the then modern time and fights alongside a Marvel superhero in order to stop a villain from destroying the universe. The plot for this issue has the Lightner family in the 1930’s and the 1970’s following the same path at using a weapon called The Star Cannon in order to draw pure power from the stars and when they fire it up it merges Doc Savage and his crew into the 70’s in order to help The Thing stop the end of the world and light as we know it. The Thing and Human Torch show why they are heroes as these two members of the Fantastic Four rush to aid a woman who needs them to stop her brother from doing something really stupid. The Thing is as strong as ever and tries his best to use his strength to k.o the issues villain as The Human Torch uses his fire blasts, and while they both fail in their attacks when teaming together with Doc Savage they are able to save the day. I also like that The Thing is a fan of Doc Savage and wants his autograph and is even star struck when he sees him! Renny and Monk are apart of Savage’s crew and while they try and help they really are background players. Doc Savage is as always quiet, watching and figuring out how to defeat the bad guy that is in his way! He is the one who figures out the clouds can be used in order to land hits of Blacksun and as well seems to understand that he has time traveled and just rolls with getting help from a man that is one fire and another that is massive and made of orange rocks. Blacksun is a interesting bad guy that is made up of star energy, a living son and the dead spirit of his father and as well almost like the backside of the sun who can fly, shoot energy beams and even has a dark force field around him, but his ego helps bring him down as he tries to fly to space only to blackout and burnout. Again I can not stress that this is a crossover done right as Doc Savage meets The Thing and Human Torch and works alongside them for the greater good of mankind. The cover is amazing and eye catching and has The Thing and Doc Savage rushing to action and the interior art is top notch and done by Ron Wilson. Oh and this issue also has a cameo from Tony Stark (Iron Man) and they mention Donald Blake (Thor) and this is also a part one of a three issue story but this one is the only one to feature Doc Savage as the next two issues has Thor teaming with them. Over all this was a solid and fun read that brings a classic hero together with superheroes and is well worth checking out. Check out the artwork below to see the style of Ron Wilson used in this issue.

As you can see, Marvel Comics did a good job of bringing Doc Savage to the pages of comic books, and while the novels are better, these comics are still a great read for fans of the character. For me it was lots of fun to look back at this character and it was nice to go back to my youth and relive the fandom I had for a character that sadly I have neglected for many years now. Next year 2022 Rotten Ink turns 10 years old, and I am going to cover the whole year stuff I love from comics to movies to horror hosts and will really go back to my youth and the joys of growing up in Waynesville! So for my next update, I will be of course covering a Horror Host to celebrate 10 Years Of The Horror Host Hall Of Fame and our last host for the year will be Ohio’s biggest one, and I am of course talking about Ghoulardi! So until next time, read a Marvel Comic or three, watch a cheesy action film or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next update and remember turn blue!

SOV Flashbacks Classics – A Night Of Total Terror

Welcome back to Rotten Ink. For this update, we will be taking a look at another Shot On Video Film of James Rolfe and his Cinemassacre Productions, and when looking at the DVDs I have of some of his movies I decided to choose his 1996 Silent Film “A Night Of Total Terror” as it’s one that seems to be a one he truly loved making and is a major influence of his creative life that followed. The film was made because of a mix of boredom and creativity and was inspired by “Night Of The Living Dead” and the silent film masterpiece “Nosferatu”! So what awaits you readers on this Night Of Total Terror? Well read on and find out as this SOV Flashback update is going to be a blast, and I hope will inspire some of you to pick up a camera and film your own backyard films.

James Rolfe was hooked on making movies at a very young age and armed with his family’s VHS camera he would write and direct his own fright flicks and would try his best to get his friends to act in them and allow his visions to come alive. In May 1996 James at the age of 15 was itching to make another movie and after two of the SNIX flicks and some shorts were in his past, he knew that getting his friends to be in another was not in the cards so he came up with a Silent Horror Film that he himself could play all the roles! You see James was a big fan of classic Horror with the Universal Monsters being some of his all time favorites and during this boring summer he knew he had to make this film and nothing was going to stand in his way and his dream to make this creepy classic style Silent Horror Film. And it was at that time while bored in his room hearing the lawnmowers of his neighbors going outside that he made the decision that this was the summer he was going to make another film and he was going to give it his all as he was going to be a one man cast and crew! And on that day the shot on video film “A Night Of Total Terror” was born and James’s creative life would forever be changed.

James spent a whole day filming and coming up with the film’s plot on the spot and putting the ideas that would come to his mind onto tape, and thanks to all the Halloween masks and props he had from the haunted house he held every year in the family basement he had all the tools he needed to create his monsters! James played all the parts in the film and would have to set his shots up change into another character then hit record and the camera had a three second delay and he would have to run and be in the spot in order to get his shot. When needed during this day of filming he would ask his younger sister to put on the outfit of one of the ghouls in order to get a certain shot, and once she filled in he would take the role back over. He of course shot the film during the day and knew that by turning the film black and white he could play it off that it was late night. And after a long day of filming and editing James had a very interesting short horror film that he could be proud of…but this first day was not the end of this film!

The second day of filming James ended up showing the first part of the film to some of the neighborhood kids and they loved it and wanted to help make the second part of the film, and this gave James the cast and crew he needed and was able to make the film a little easier for him to pull of shots and his ideas could get a little bigger! Plus he could add more monsters to his story, and that is always a good thing in the world of SOV Horror. And things started to move faster on set as he was able to shoot scenes faster and was able feel that rush of making a film at that age and being creative with his friends. He wanted to make a film that built a spooky atmosphere and for that level of filmmaking he pulled it off! James really was a one man production team as for the most part he not only was the story creator, actor, director, special effects guy he also was the film’s editor that he did all in camera…think about that he edited the film in camera and had to rewind the tape in order to take out bad and messed up takes. He also in order to get the silent and black and white look he wanted he had to play the tape on his VCR and turn the sound and color down on the TV and then use the camcorder to tape the TV Screen! And when this film was done James was proud of it, and this is the film that gave him the encouragement to prose a career in filmmaking.

A Night Of Total Terror is for James what “Werewolf Of Ohio 2: 10 Years Before” was for me that moment of picking up a camera and filing with your friends watching your story and characters come to live, the feeling of knowing you want to make films your life…it’s a feeling that is hard to describe but really does give you that bug to want to film more and get better at all aspects of creating a movie. James was so inspired by this film that he would go on to do a “Making Of Film” did a sequel he called “ An Evening Of Real Supernatural Horror”, at one point was working on a remake and even did a mini version for collage called “A New Night Of Total Terror” and even other films he made have taken elements from this film. So while SNIX and a few other films came before it truly his first film that brought him to the SOV dance was A Total Night Of Terror. The film was mostly seen only by his friends and family and would run around 30 minutes, and in 2006 he recut the film and released a shorten version on the internet…it’s a shame as I for one would have liked to see the original version of the film as to me that also shows the heart of the production as well as the skill of the director. But I must also say at least we get to see the film in some sort of way and for that thanks James for sharing your early creative film works with the world.

So I want to say that for this film I will write about its plot, my thoughts on the film and will in the end give it a Report Card Grade on the classic A-F scale. Now keep in mind it would not be fair to grade SOV films like you would a big budget Hollywood Movie or even a bigger budget Indie Feature, that’s why much like I do for “Fan Films” I will be grading them on its own scale on a scale of true to life backyard cinema the true shot on video warriors of the camcorder days. So grab a flashlight and lets take a spooky journey into a Night Of Total Terror!

A Night Of Total Terror
Starring – James Rolfe & Gina Rolfe       Directed by James Rolfe
1996     Not Rated     10min     Cinemassacre       DVD-R     Full Frame

Movie: A thief breaks into a tomb in order to steal a magic lamp, but unknown to him this has caused ghouls and creatures to track him down as they want back what is theirs! The enter his home and try to scare him with eye balls and hands that they leave around even a rat attacks him and bites his neck causing the thief pain…his defense is to throw it all out the window! But when a hockey mask wearing Creep with a top hat and cane enters his home all hope is lost as the Creep attacks him with his cane causing the thief to fight back and bash the Creep with his fists as well as taking the cane and beating him with it, but before he can truly escape or get help a ghoul as well enters the house and the Creep comes back for more causing him to have to flee his house and run into the near by woods at night and finding shelter with a young man who has a tent up as he is camping. The thief will not give up the lamp and has it with him as he sits in the tent and tells the man that he has it and that’s what they want! Meanwhile outside the monsters are gathering as besides the Creep and Ghoul such monsters as a Dinosaur Man, Vampire, black hooded man, the rat and Werewolf have joined in the stalking! The youngster in the tent takes out a gun opens fire on the ghouls and then the thief as well takes the gun and shoots the ghouls and they hurry back into the tent. Once inside the thief asks the kid if he believes in the curse of the lamp, and before he can fully answer the tent is attacked by the ghouls! When one finally gets in they remove their mask as does all the ghouls outside as they only dressed this way to scare them and take the lamp as they are thieves as well! But the joke is on them as the lamp curse is real and turns the original thief and the tent kid into monsters who kill them in the end.

Thoughts: A Night Of Total Terror is a fun backyard shot horror film that you can tell was very much thought up on the spot and props pulled out of the Halloween boxes from the basement, but because of this is why I think it has a charm of being a early work of a director that went onto bigger and better films and shorts. The film for the most part is a silent horror film all though very little title cards are used to explain the plot, but to be honest it’s very easy to follow. You can tell that James had his heart into the film even with the zero budget and at the start lack of help and you can also see his influences from classic black and white horror films throughout. He also had a nice twist ending that was very popular in classic horror that has not everything you see being what it seems. Plus in the end when the thief who is played by James Rolfe turns into a monster cause of the lamp he transforms into a gorilla creature and this makes me wonder if he does so cause of his love for the film King Kong or because Gorilla’s were super popular in classic horror to be the monster on film? The films effects are super backyard and charming with clearly store bought plastic limbs and eyes being used to pull off the “gore”. Also I am not sure but I think that the magical lamp is a Disney Aladdin toy and that is awesome as kids and teens in their backyard epics use what they have and that’s lots of toys, I mean in Werewolf Of Ohio I used a old Lone Ranger gun as the leads weapon! While A Night Of Total Terror is not super scary nor is it the best film James has made, I will say that holds lots of magic as you can tell it was made with the love of horror cinema and filmmaking. Check it out if you are a fan of silent horror and zero budget backyard films.

Grade: B+

After watching this chopped down version of this film I for one once more must stress that I would have liked to have seen the full 30 minute version and hope that one day James will stop chopping these down and allow us to also see the true original versions, no need to George Lucas these films as those who love SOV films enjoy them no matter how flawed they are. In fact I am hoping that someday a company like SOV Horror get the rights from James and put this film out in a collectors edition DVD as the world needs it! I am having such a great time doing these updates based on Shot On Video Horror Films and I hope you are enjoying reading them, and in 2022 I will be doing a few more so that is something for you to look forward to as one of them will be Werewolf Of Ohio the first film I ever made! But for my next update we are leaving the SOV films behind and will be once more looking at a Horror Host and a very awesome one at that as its time we take a look at Dayton, Ohio’s own Baron Von Porkchop! So until next time make sure to read an indie comic or three, watch a SOV film or two, and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next time for a Terrifying Tale Of The Macabre!

From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: WolfCop (2014)

Halloween is drawing closer, and this countdown to this spooky holiday update will be about the Horror Comedy film WolfCop and the Dynamite Comic series based around it! WolfCop is one of those indie films that I was alerted to early on and knew I needed to see it as I am a mega werewolf fan and also enjoy a good Horror Comedy from time to time. But after a short limited theatrical run and me not liking digital movies, I had to wait a while and finally was able to get it on DVD, and after watching it I was a fan of its fun over the top nature. And when thinking about what film and comic should get the “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update treatment I knew I had to cover WolfCop sooner then later and now here it is, so grab a drink, sit back and relax as we are going on a crazy werewolf crime busting adventure with Sergeant Lou Garou or as we all really know him WolfCop.

Let’s take a look at Sergeant Lou Garou aka The Wolfcop and his way of dealing with criminals that get in his way, as he does not kill the innocent. As human Lou Garou he is an officer of the law who spends more time drinking and getting drunk than busting crime and is over all looked at as a failure and joke. But once he is turned into a werewolf and called WolfCop he is still a drunk but also is some how a better officer! WolfCop can use his super senses like smell and hearing in order to track down his targets as they can run but cannot hide, as he can also move pretty fast for a drunken werewolf. WolfCop is also really strong and can use his strength to toss around as well as rip apart criminals and cult members alike. While WolfCop can use handguns and shotguns to deal death his main tools are his razor sharp teeth and claws that can rip and tear flesh like rice paper. WolfCops can also scare criminals with his appearances as well as his howl that can chill their bones and freeze them with fear. WolfCop is also fearless and will walk into danger and as he is not only has a don’t care attitude but also has liquid courage as he is drunk at all times. WolfCop not only gets his powers from the full moon but also booze and oh yeah he loves doughnuts. It should also be noted that normal bullets and stab wounds does not kill him. WolfCop does have weaknesses as he is human most of the time, and there for can be hurt and killed. Magic and Silver weapons of death can also kill him as again he is a werewolf and he hates silver. WolfCop also cause he is drunk can also be outsmarted and set up allowing his enemies to attack or escape him. WolfCop is a pretty strong killing machine and while he only kills the guilty those on the wrong side of the law have lots to worry about.

So as you can see, WolfCop is one law enforcement killing machine who while a raging beast is still on the side of the law and does what’s right and slaughters the bad people of the world. But now that we have talked about WolfCop the creature we need to now dive into the film that spawned him! I will be taking the films write up from our pals at IMDB after that I will be writing about the film’s production as well as my thoughts of the film. So let’s talk WolfCop the Full Moon Avenger Of Law Enforcement.

WolfCop (2014)

“It’s not unusual for alcoholic cop Lou to black out and wake up in unfamiliar surroundings, but lately things have taken a turn for the strange…and hairy. WolfCop is the story of one cop’s quest to become a better man. One transformation at a time.”

Lowell Dean was coming off his first feature film “13 Eerie” that was released in 2013 and had the bug to make another film. He wanted to make a film that as well did not rely on computer effects and wanted practical and being a horror fan he wanted to stay in that genre but also add in a touch of comedy. The film was shot in the same location area as 13 Eerie and was your typical independent filming production. Lowell did a great job of casting as he hired Leo Fafard to play Lou Garou/ The WolfCop as well as such named as Sarah Lind, Jonathan Cherry and Amy Matysio in supporting roles. He also got the scoring and music skills of Shooting Guns to do the soundtrack. The film was released on June 6, 2014 and was meet with great reviews from horror fans and critics as always was split on it with most given it praise. The film was released along side such films as Dracula Untold, As Above So Below, Last Shift, It Follows, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night and What We Do In The Shadows to name a few. The film would be released on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital and find even more of a following.

WolfCop was a film that I first heard about thanks to Horror Movie websites that I visit all the time sites like Gorezone, Bloody Disgusting and Dread Central to name a few and the coverage they were given it, and then once I seen the trailer I knew I had to see this film as werewolves are my favorite classic monster and the film looked crazy and funny as well. Of course no local theater in my area picked it up when it had its limited run theatrically so I had to wait for home media before I was able to view it and did so at a Horror Movie Marathon and the film was a big hit with everyone in attendance enjoying! And the shocking part for me was that I really liked it and laughed at several of the over the top moments as well as crude gross humor, and that’s shocking as for the most part I am not a mega fan of the more modern Horror Comedy films that was spawned after Shaun Of The Dead. And even more shocking is when the sequel Another WolfCop was released in 2017 I as well really enjoyed that one as well! Besides the gross humor what really worked for me was the look of WolfCop as well as the blood and gore as the film had no CGI effects and the practical effects made the scenes more gruesome and made the humor pop more. Plus you can never go wrong with the films end theme being a rap about the films character, man more movies need to do this. If you like werewolves, dark crude gross humor, indie Horror flicks and cool effects I say make sure to check out WolfCop! Oh and Lowell Dean were is WolfCop 3?

WolfCop is a film that I think every Horror Movie fan with a weird sense of humor should see at least once in their lives as I think much of the over the top goof gore and kills will put a smile on your face. Now it’s time that we take a look at the comics based on this film and I would like to thank Mavericks Cards And Comics for getting me these comics for my pull file and making this long overdue update possible. I would also like to remind you readers that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, its entertainment value and it’s art and story. So if you are ready, let’s go on patrol with WolfCop and see what violent calls we will get while he is on duty.

WolfCop # 1  ***
Released in 2016     Cover Price $3.99   Dynamite     #1 of 3

Just outside the town of Woodhaven, a door-less police car is speeding away from the town and behind the wheel is the drunk Sergeant Lou Garou who is guzzling liquor and with him is his friend Willie Higgins who is a little scared of Lou’s poor drunk driving skills. The car ends up dying and the two are stuck out in the middle of nowhere just in time to be harassed by a motorcycle gang that has two young ladies kidnapped, Lou being an officer of the law tries to save the ladies…but he and Willie are overpowered and are as well taken. While tied up and placed in a cycles sidecar the moon comes out and Lou turns into WolfCop and slaughters all but one biker who ran away and saves the ladies, while one lady runs off if fear the other tells them that the bikers were taken them to a place called The Meat Locker and that many people before them had been taken to it and have never returned. The Meat Locker is ran by a fat cannibal who has the bikers kidnap people and bring them to this place so he can eat them, and once hearing about WolfCop he gets a craving for werewolf meat! WolfCop takes Willie and the woman to the Meat Locker on a stolen bike and rushes in and takes out many of the henchmen and butchers with ease, but he finds that the man in charge is really a monster a giant Boar monster and its strong, real strong and even worse hungry! WolfCop and The Boar Monster clash with WolfCop coming out the winner with a well-placed bullet to the creature’s brain! In the end the young woman frees all the hostages that were to be eaten as Willie and WolfCop ride off on a motorcycle.

This first issue in the WolfCop mini series is a fantastic read that is filled with lots of blood and guts as well as humor and shows that Horror Movie characters like WolfCop are perfect for comic books. The plot has Officer Garou on the run along with his close friend Willie who stumble onto a biker gang who are taking people to a place to be killed and eaten by a man who is really a monster boar, really the plot is that crazy and that fantastic. WolfCop is a werewolf of few words besides when he wants a hard drink and lets his actions speak for themselves, he is not afraid to rush into danger as well as has zero issues with massacring bad guys. As human Lou Garou he is nothing more than a drunk who loves taking a drink one after another. Willie Higgins is a loyal friend to Lou who watches out for his friend not only as a human but also as a werewolf and is willing to risk his own life to help out his pal. The Biker Gang are just evil minions for a Boar Creature who is brutal in nature and loves to eat flesh and is always hungry for blood and meat…he is massive when turned into the creature and all those who were to be eaten have to think WolfCop for coming and saving the day and their lives. The comic is very bloody and has lots of blood splatter and even flesh eating making it truly feel like a horror comic straight of the 90’s indie scene. The pacing of the issue is also really well done and feels like a fast read with lots of action and a cool fight between monsters with a good payout. The cover is really great and super eye catching not only for fans of the WolfCop film but also for fans of Horror Comics! The interior art is done by Arcana Studios and is top-notch work and captures the awesome look of WolfCop really well. This comic is a nice fit and feels like apart of the film universe and shows that Horror Comics based on films can be done right when the right creative team is behind the creative wheel.

WolfCop # 2  ***
Released in 2016     Cover Price $3.99   Dynamite     #2 of 3

Lou and Willie are in a small town trying to get his old beat up police cruiser fix when they meet Madame Faye at a strip club and she invites them to stay at her place for the night while the car is being worked on. They get to her home and see that it’s filled with beautiful women and she also has a mountain of a man named Sammy who acts as the houses security guard even caring a massive sword. As Willie goes off to a room with all the ladies, Lou heads off with Madame Faye and things start to turn bad real bad for the friends! Madame Faye is some sort of witch and uses black magic to bring the werewolf out of Lou as well as keeps him in place with a spell, as poor Willie ends up having to fight for his life as the women he is with are all zombies! After killing all the zombie women Willie makes his way to Lou and finds him stuck and now as WolfCop the beast in mad and wants something hard to drink to try and break the spell, but all they have is a little booze left in a flask. Willie tries his best to free WolfCop but is found out by Madame Faye and Sammy and pays with his life as Sammy cuts Willie’s hand and head off, and this enrages WolfCop who breaks free and kills Sammy in return who can not be kept down as he is some sort of demon, and worse for WolfCop more Zombie woman are around and the house is no on fire! WolfCop is able to get the Sammy Demon outside and finds some booze that he quickly drinks that gives him the power to rip the heart out of Sammy killing the demon. He leaves Madame Faye in the burning house as she is being attacked and killed by her zombie women as the flames close in. WolfCop is upset and gives a call to Sergeant Tina and alerts her that he is coming back home to Woodhaven.

This second issue puts WolfCop into another very dangerous situation as he this time around must fight off an evil powerful Witch, her Demon sidekick and a horde of female zombies hungry for flesh all in a small town at a whorehouse and witnesses his best friend be killed before his eyes! So as you can see this was a really bad night for WolfCop who allows his rage to take over, well as well as lots of booze in order to break a spell he was under and escape and kill those who ruined his night. WolfCop in this issues not only uses his claws and teeth to cause death but also uses his gun to bring down the evil all around him. It always makes me laugh when WolfCop uses his addiction to booze to be more powerful as a werewolf and it works for him as the drunker he is the more skilled he is. Poor Willie who is the babysitter for WolfCop was looking forward to bedding some beautiful women, instead is attacked by them as they turn into zombies and then become the victim of a beheading at the hands of a demon. The Demon Sammy is a killer who listens to his master and uses his sword to deliver death as well as has a burning body that can inflict pain as well. Madame Faye is a witch that uses her black magic to kill people that come to her brothel and control a demon and zombies. She is powerful but also when she gets weakened by a gunshot wound she finds herself the lunch buffet for her own zombie ladies. This issue is lots of fun just like the first one and has a fast paced silly Comedy Horror vibe that captures the film series really well. The comic has blood and guts and even has the death of a character that was a fan favorite for readers and viewers. The cover on this issue is just ok and is a little lacking and while eye catching does not do the issue justice. The interior art is well done and is done by Allan Otero and is well done and his WolfCop drawings are on point. Over all another great issue in this WolfCop mini series and I like that this one ends with him returning home and who knows what creatures he will face in the next and final issue.

WolfCop # 3  **1/2
Released in 2016     Cover Price $3.99   Dynamite     #3 of 3

WolfCop returns to Woodheaven and once out of his car kills off some gang members before entering Willie’s old gun store to find Willie alive inside as he re-spawned after getting his head cut off by Sammy at the brothel. You see Willie who is a shape shifter has an unknown amount of returns in his life. Once inside the shop WolfCop and Willie talk about the curse the witch placed on him that now keeps him stuck as a werewolf! Just then Officer Tina shows up and notices that Willie has all types of illegal guns and warns them both that they need to leave town as they are wanted for many murders. As WolfCop and Willie are heading to the car to once more leave town a sniper using high-powered ammo opens fire on WolfCop who shrugs off the bullets and ends up killing the sniper. A homeless man from nowhere shows up and is upset that the sniper failed and as he keeps getting mad he changes into a monster with a massive mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and many tentacles legs and goes for WolfCop as he wants to drink the werewolves blood. Tina and Willie try and help their friend by shooting at and even hitting the monster with grenades, but while it slows the monster down it does not stop him! WolfCop is loosing as the monster is way to big and strong, but Willie tosses WolfCop a grenade launcher and lycan cop fires right into the monsters mouth and kills it. In the end Willie and WolfCop are leaving town and Tina watches them walk away as WolfCop asks for doughnuts.

The third and final issue of WolfCop has him returning home in order to pick up his friend Willie who has re-spawned back to life their after being killed. Once in town he is attacked by yet another monster and even gets to see is old partner Tina. The Monster in this issue is a weird looking almost H.P. Lovercraft creature that wants to drink the blood of WolfCop and spends his time also talking down to the officer while beating him. The Monster is way to cocky and that’s what leads to him being exploded into pieces is the fact he thinks he is unbeatable. Willie Higgins returns and he is happy to be back to life and is as goofy and gun loving as ever, and because he loves guns and weapons is how they are able to bring down the monster that was attacking and killing his friend WolfCop. It’s also great to see Officer Tina in action as she is a very important character in the films series and plays a smaller role here in the comic, but still great to see her. WolfCop in this issue is stuck being a werewolf and is not drunk enough and is hungry for some good old doughnuts, but even with these cravings he still has the mindset to kill some punks as well as try and fight a monster that was bigger then he was! Through out this whole mini series WolfCop as always backs down from no fight and goes into them with no plan and no fear and always comes out the winner. I mean think about this just in these three issues he has killed a Cannibal Boar Monster, Bikers, A Witch, Female Zombies, a Demon, Punks, A Sniper and a Monster…see WolfCop is a drunken badass! This issue has some blood and violence but is not in the same league as the last two issues that had way more gory deaths. I feel like Dynamite really dropped the ball by not making WolfCop an ongoing series as it would have been awesome to see it continue and even maybe crossover with Army Of Darkness, as who wouldn’t want to see WolfCop team with Ash and fight the deadites! The cover for this third issue is pretty good and shows WolfCop crashing through a window looking very pissed off and ready for a fight. The interior art is done by Allan Otero and like before is very well done, and for those wondering Allan is an artist who has done so much for Zenescope Comics. I really enjoyed the WolfCop mini series and really do feel that more issues should have been made and that a third film should be as well, and I will say if you like WolfCop or Another WolfCop you should give this comic series a read. Check out the artwork below to see the style used in this series.

WolfCop and Dynamite Comics come together to once more prove my point that comics based on Horror Movies are a great way to not only promote the film as this one was a great way to build hype for the sequel Another WolfCop that was coming out soon as well as helps bring readers to the comic company that released it, as fans of WolfCop would go on to see Dynamite release Jeepers Creepers and Pumpkinhead as well as their long running Army Of Darkness series. That is why in my opinion companies like Eibon Press, IDW and Blood Scream Comics are doing it right as they deliver not only great original comics but also amazing must read ones based on Horror Films. But enough of that I don’t need to bring out my soapbox here to talk about Horror Comics, as our patrol with WolfCop has came to an end and I need to alert you all that the next update that will be about the 1996 shot on video film “A Night Of Total Terror” that was directed by James Rolfe! So until next time read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host. Man, I really hope that you readers are ready for a Night that is packed with Total Terror!

From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: The Howling

It’s close to Halloween now, and for this countdown update we are going to once more take a look at a werewolf film that sparked a comic book series. To me along with The Wolf Man (1943) and An American Werewolf In London (1981) it ranks as one of the best werewolf films of all time, and of course I am talking about The Howling. Werewolves have always been my favorite classic monsters of myth and cinema as something about turning into an uncontrollable beast when the moon is full is just kind of cool and sparks a young Monster Kid’s mind like mine into being creative and have helped lead to the creation of Scars, The Carrier, Emo and Werewolf Of Ohio, all film characters that I have played in cheesy shot on video films. So as the full moon rises in the sky and what we hope is the wind howls all around us, it’s going to be an amazing time as I am happy to bring you From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: The Howling! So grab some silver bullets (and I am not talking about the cheap beer) and stay on the path as it’s time to visit The Colony and hope the werewolves stay away.

Before we prowl to deep into the woods around The Colony, we should take a moment and learn about the werewolves that run wild in The Howling. While there are tons of werewolves that are roaming around in this film, we will be taking a look at the Quist siblings who are some of the most blood thirsty of the pack. Eddie Quist is a very violent man who is branded a serial killer, though in reality he is much worse as he is a werewolf! Eddie is very mean spirited and likes to toy with his victims before he murders them in brutal fashion. Eddie also likes to talk very dirty to his female victims before turning into the raging beast to rip them to shreds. Eddie’s sister Marsha Quist is very cunning and uses her sex appeal and stunning exotic looks to draw her prey into a death sentence as brother T.C. Quist is a great tracker and hunter and uses these skills as a man as well as a werewolf. The siblings are the troublemakers of The Colony as they are sick of killing and eating cows and crave the hunt and taste of humans.

As werewolves, they have many tools to get the job done. Let’s start first with their appearance as they are beast-like and strike terror in those who see them. They also have sharp teeth and claws that can slice, rip, tear and mutilate human flesh and can do so fast or even slowly. They are also very fast moving and are excellent hunters and stalkers, and poor humans stand no chance against them. They also have a bone-chilling howl that can freeze people with fear and as well leave them open for an attack. They can also call upon many other werewolves, as they are pack killers as well as solo killers and this makes them very dangerous. As humans and werewolves, they also can shrug off attacks with normal weapons like bullets and none-silver knives. But as you can see, they do have weaknesses as silver bullets and knives can kill them as well as fire. The Quist clan, as well as the rest of the werewolves, are a violent pack of wolves and killers and show that while they can be killed, they are super skilled killing machines.

As you can see, Eddie Quist and the werewolves that make up The Colony are skilled killers, who are true beasts of no mercy. Now let’s take a look at the film they are from, The Howling. As always, I will be taking the film’s write up from our friends at IMDB and after I will write about the film’s production as well as my love for the film.

The Howling (1981)

“In a red light district, newswoman Karen White is bugged by the police, investigating serial killer Eddie Quist, who has been molesting her through phone calls. After police officers find them in a peep-show cabin and shoot Eddie, Karen becomes emotionally disturbed and loses her memory. Hoping to conquer her inner demons, she heads for the Colony, a secluded retreat where the creepy residents are rather too eager to make her feel at home. There also seems to be a bizarre connection between Eddie Quist and this supposedly safe haven. And when, after nights of being tormented by unearthly cries, Karen ventures into the forest and makes a terrifying discovery.”

In 1977 writer Gary Brandner wrote a werewolf novel called The Howling. Embassy Pictures wanted to make a film based on the book and originally hired director Jack Conrad, but after they clashed with him, they let him go. Joe Dante stepped in and brought in writer John Sayles to write the script that only took small elements from the novel it was based on. The script’s tone was horror but also added a dash of satire to make the film feel like Piranha (1978), a film Dante and Sayles worked on together. The film went onto casting, and names like Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan and Christopher Stone were brought in as the main cast with names like Belinda Balaski, Elisabeth Brooks and Robert Picardo rounding out the supporting cast. But what many people enjoy are the cameos from classic genre actors like John Carradine, Roger Corman, Forrest J. Ackerman, Dick Miller, Slim Pickens and Kevin McCarthy, who helped add a level of specialness to the film.

The film’s special effects went to Rob Bottin, who took over for Rick Baker who left the production to help John Landis on his film An American Werewolf In London, and Bottin did an amazing job with his transformation of Eddie Quist that rivaled the work Baker was doing on London. The production was your normal Hollywood shoot with deadlines and stress, and when done the film, it was scored by Pino Donaggio who delivered a great sounding score that helped bring the eeriness of the movie theme to life.

The film hit theaters on March 13, 1981 and was a hit for Embassy Pictures at the US Box Office bringing in a total of $17,985,893.00 on a budget of $1.5 million and ranked # 41 at the American Box Office that year. The year it was released, it came out with such other Horror Films as “An American Werewolf In London”, “The Evil Dead”, “Halloween II”, “Friday The 13^th Part 2”, “My Bloody Valentine” and “House By The Cemetery,” to name a few. The film was well received by horror fans and was met with mix reviews from critics, many of whom kept comparing it to the novel. Even in 2020, the film has a major cult following.

I saw The Howling after I saw An American Werewolf In London, and it was because of my Dad that I was able to watch the film when it aired on a paid cable station like HBO or Cinemax. And after seeing the film, I was hooked and loved every second of it as I found the werewolf design to be badass, the effects were top notch and it was well cast as even as a kid, I marked out for John Carradine in any film. I also loved that the Grandma from Texas Chainsaw Massacre was in the bookstore! And whenever I hear someone say exotic beauty, Marsha Quist (Elisabeth Brooks) comes to mind, as they play that up for her big time in the film.

After seeing this film my brother and I tracked down the paperback novels of The Howling 1-3 written by Gary Brandner, and after reading the books I became more and more obsessed with this film and all the sequels that followed. I would go on to buy the movie on VHS and later on DVD and have also seen the film on the big screen over the years thanks to Horrorama events.

Back in the 2000’s, indie comic company Dead Dog Comics announced that they were doing a comic mini series based on The Howling movies, and I was super hyped as they were one of my favorite comic companies and they were doing comics based on one of my favorite werewolf films…but while the comic mini series was released, the Howling connection was dropped as rights issues kept it from happening…so if you want to check the comic series that was supposed to be The Howling, find the four issues of “Curse Of The Blood Clan” released in 2005. Over the years, I have bought The Howling soundtrack CD, t-shirts and hoodies, Scream Factory’s statue and even an old prism sticker. Say what you will about The Howling, but it’s one of the best werewolf films of the 80’s and is a true rival to An American Werewolf In London in story and effects.

Like all classic movies that spawn a massive cult following and a franchise, a lot of great merchandise was released around The Howling. Besides the film on all types of home media from Beta to Blu-Ray as well as the Space Goat Comic series, it has also had its fair share of shirts, posters, statues, soundtrack releases, a paperback novel with movie poster cover, stickers, fan art, Halloween masks, it’s been featured in many magazines and has had fan made toys! So if you are a fan of The Howling, there is lots of very cool stuff out in the world for you to collect.

The Howling really is a fantastic classic creature feature that helped bring werewolves back to the main stream, and it’s also great that in 2017 they got a chance to bring werewolves back to the world of comic books. I also want to talk about the elephant in the room when you talk about Space Goat, the company who made this comic series and who also did series based on Evil Dead 2. Their comics were great and came out on time and readers enjoyed them as they delivered some great horror comics based on great classic movies…but things got really bad for them when they decided to get into the world of board games and used Kickstarter to get the money to make them. Shon C. Bury was the founder of Space Goat Productions, and he had some big ideas for his company’s board games as he wanted to do one of Evil Dead 2 and The Terminator. Both had very cool game pawns, and both looked great and had gamers very much looking forward to getting them and having epic game nights with friends. The crowd funding goal was blown away on both games and over a million dollars was raised. New perks were added to the campaign, and the buzz for these projects hit a fever pitch! And they even promised that The Howling was going to get the board game treatment…but before they could get that game on Kickstarter, the lies and missed dates from the other two board games started to show through, and it was clear after months and years that Space Goat aka Shon had made promises of these board games that they could not deliver and in fact never did!

So over a million dollars of fans’ money went MIA. Later Shon reached out to backers to try and get more money from them to “make” the board games and help Space Goat stay alive. Also at this time former employees started to speak out about Shon, who they painted out to be a toxic person who treated everyone terribly at the Space Goat office, Shon responded by apologizing and seeking help for his anger issues.

But as time passed and the funds ran dry, Space Goat and Shon disappeared from the world of comic books and board games, and no full board gamers were delivered or made and only some backers got any perks sent to them. Then as quickly as they came, Space Goat Productions was closed and went to the great long box in the sky. It’s a shame that all this drama and board game stuff clouded up their comic branch as I feel that they were shaping up to be a good solid indie company that was delivering original and license issues to readers’ hands.

I am not sure what Shon is up to these days, and I know that for many the wound of not getting what they were owed via the crowd funding board games or even a refund is still raw. But again all drama aside, Evil Dead 2 backers ended up getting a break from another board game company called Jasco who honored their old pledges to right the wrong, and sadly because of this drama, and, for a lack of a better term, scam, the world lost a very promising comic company. And I fear that if Space Goat or Shon every tried to return to the world of comic books, they would be met with lots of anger and bad press for the sins of the past.

Before we move onto the update, I also want to take a moment to say that at time I think about what other cool horror movie themed comics they had in the works before they went under. They had Evil Dead 2 and The Howling with a Terminator series on the horizon…but what else was in the works we didn’t know about? Who knows, maybe one day I can track down Shon and ask him about what comics were to come.

So as you can see, the werewolves that make up The Howling universe are deadly and the film that started it all is a true iconic film of the 80’s! But now it’s time for us to take a look at the four issue mini series released by Space Goat in 2017! I want to remind you all that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. I also want to thank Mavericks Cards And Comics for pulling these issues for my file when they were first released. So with that, let’s travel to The Colony and see what these bloodthirsty werewolves have in store for us comic readers.

The Howling # 1 ***
Released in 2017   Cover Price $3.99     Space Goat   # 1 of 4

Chris Halloran’s life has changed for the worse after he shot his best friend Karen White live on the news as she turned into a werewolf…and even worse, all of his fellow station workers who witnessed the event have had a hard time dealing with it as many have killed themselves over the events. Meanwhile in Santa Cruz, Vera comes home and finds Marsha Quist in her study. She wants to know information about to whom she sold a relic called the Hand Of Akkara. Vera is scared and pulls a gun and shoots Marsha who shrugs off the bullet wound and tells her the name “Joe Valentine” as the buyer. As Marsha starts to transform into a werewolf, Vera runs for her life and finds shelter in a carnival funhouse…but the werewolf Marsha finds her and knocks the woman’s head off! Marsha then howls at the moon as the first issue comes to an end.

The first issue of The Howling is a good solid horror comic that takes place after the events of the movie and has Chris dealing with the after effects of the killing of Karen on live TV and also has werewolf Marsha Quist looking for a relic as well as being still upset about how The Colony tried to change the werewolves and their want to hunt and kill humans. Marsha Quist is still using her looks and sex appeal to get what she wants and has no issues now turning into a werewolf and dealing out death in her quest to feed her hunger and to find a relic that we the reader are just learning about. Chris Halloran is the hero from the movie who thought he killed all the werewolves of The Colony only to find that many are still alive as the body count was low. He is also dealing with the mental strain of having to kill his friend on TV as well as looked at for murder. The story is intriguing right now, and I cannot wait to see what happens next with both Chris and Marsha and you know that more werewolves are on their way. This issue has some great use of blood and gore, and when the character Vera gets her head knocked off, it’s well done and showcases some gruesome great artwork. The cover is very eye catching and reminds me of the Scream Factory DVD. The interior art done by Jason Johnson is great stuff, and I would like to see more Horror Comics done by him! This is a great issue, and I cannot wait to see what issue two has in store.

The Howling # 2  ***
Released in 2017   Cover Price $3.99     Space Goat   # 2 of 4

Marsha Quist shows up at the house of an employee of Joe Valentine and asks were she can find Joe. When he doesn’t answer she rips his penis off and learns that Joe is always at a night club on Friday nights! Meanwhile Chris has started to notice that all the witnesses to Karen’s transformation are dying, and worse, the footage of the event is now missing from the station and his old boss seems to be covering something sinister up as if someone or some group is covering it all up and forever silencing all that saw it. Chris does some digging and finds out details about the murder of Vera and her husband, gets a shotgun from the black market, visits Walter at his book store and buys more books on werewolves and orders more silver bullets.  While leaving the book store, he meets a strange woman who leaves him a note and says she can help him expose the truth! Meanwhile Marsha Quist finds Joe at the club and tricks him into going back to his office with her with the promise of sex and once in the office she uses a sword from his wall to stab his leg and demands the Hand Of Akkara. As Joe opens his safe, a ton of guards come to his aid and they pay for it with their lives as Marsha turns into a werewolf and slaughters them all. Once Joe opens the safe, she also kills him and at the end off the issue she is holding the Hand Of Akkara and she is very pleased by this.

This second issue of The Howling from Space Goat is yet another great read and does a good job of moving the plot along as well as delivering some great werewolf kills! The plot for this issue has Chris uncovering what he thinks is a cover up of the werewolf clan and the killing of Karen. Chris really is digging deeper and deeper into this as he wants to avenge the death of his friend as well as his girlfriend Terry who was killed by a werewolf in the film. I also love that we see bookstore owner Walter back again as he now believes in werewolves and is going to hook Chris up with more silver bullets to protect himself from them if they come calling. It’s also very fishy that the tapes are missing from the TV station and that Chris’s old boss seems to be denying that Karen turned into a werewolf on air! Marsha Quist again turns up her hotness and uses her amazing looks to bait and kill her victims and boy does she have many in this issue. Each one is pretty bloody in nature showing this series is not pulling any gore punches. I also like that Marsha can change from human to werewolf at will and in the end by using her charm and death dealing skills is able to get the Hand Of Akkara that clearly is going to be a relic that will cause an uprising of werewolves. The killing of the office guards is a fun horrific time and her ripping the penis off of a victim is brutal and shows that Marsha is a killing machine. The cover is pretty great and for some reason the way Marsha looks reminds me of the face of the werewolf from the film “Cross Of The 7 Jewels” and its both awesome and also makes me laugh. The interior art by Jason Johnson is really good and once more this guy should be hired to make more comic based on Horror Movies! Another solid issue, and I cannot wait to read issue three now!

The Howling # 3  ***
Released in 2017   Cover Price $3.99     Space Goat   # 3 of 4

An all-woman adult film is being filmed when Marsha Quist shows up and kills both actresses and alerts the cameraman that she is in need of his camera skills very soon. Meanwhile Chris calls his old boss about a big scoop, and soon a man with a gun is sent his way, but this hit will not go off as planned as Chris was waiting for the hitman as was Ruth, the woman he met at the book store. They take the would be killer hostage and plan on getting information from him as they turn him over to a rag tag group of freedom underground hosts. Ruth used to work for the F.B.I. and as she leaves to meet up with her old partner who has proof of werewolves, she tells him she will leave a note with Walter at the bookstore. Time passes and Chris heads to the store and finds the note was left but it was one alerting him that someone has Ruth hostage. Luckily for Chris his silver bullets are in and might help him on his rescue mission. Chris is sent to the Porn Shop where Karen first met Eddie Quist and in a peep booth sees a video that has Marsha with Ruth and she tells him to meet her at the Colony! Chris knows it’s a trap but heads there anyway and with him he brings the Government group that is sending the hitman with the promise they can have the werewolves and brings the Freedom Group to clash with the government group…giving them a better chance of leaving alive. Once Chris frees Ruth, they find a tape that says play me, while outside Marsha Quist calls all the living werewolves to her side and uses the Hand Of Akkara to bring back the dead werewolves as a showdown to the death is on the horizon as the Marsha wants to bring back the rule of the wolf.

This third issue turns up the flame and allows the plot to thicken as Chris and his new partner in finding the truth, Ruth, stop a murder attempt as well as return to the scene of The Colony in order to have a final showdown with Marsha and her army of werewolves. In this issue, Chris is a hero who knows that his life is in danger but will do what he can to expose the truth to the world as well as save the lives of those he can. I also like that while he is our hero, he is also very much a normal guy who has fears of the unknown just like the rest of us. Ruth is a former F.B.I. agent who left her job after her department was shut down and all their data proving werewolves real was taken away. Her partner stayed on and is feeding her information making her a big help to Chris and his cause. Walter the bookstore owner comes through again as he not only delivers a case full of silver bullets, but also acts as the middle man between Chris and Ruth who have to talk in secret at times. The Government Agents and the weird Freedom Fighters are both gun carrying men of America who think their side is right in the cause…what cause you ask, well whatever one they are told is right! Marsha Quist with her Hand Of Akkara relic shows that she really does have the power as she can use it to not only bring the werewolves together but can also bring the dead ones back to life! One very cool part of this issue is that we get two key locations from the movie as we get the Eros Adult Store that starts the film as well as the Doctor’s Cabin at the Colony that was the location of the death of Eddie and Terry, nice touch having them both in this comic. The issue is bloody and filled with some great kills as Marsha has no time to deal with the adult film actresses and massacres them with a fast a brutal manner. The cover on this issue is pretty weak, and the werewolf version of Marsha looks weak and very odd, not an eye-catching cover at all. Jason Johnson’s interior art is well done, and I should also note that the characters that are returning from the film do not look like the actors who played them so for those hoping to see Walter look like Dick Miller…you will be disappointed, but again I have to stress Jason’s artwork is fantastic. Well we only have one issue left in this series and thus far Space Goat has done a great job continuing the story of The Howling, so let’s see what the final issue has in store for us.

The Howling # 4 ***
Released in 2017   Cover Price $3.99     Space Goat   # 4 of 4

Chris and Ruth hit play on the tape, and Marsha informs Chris that Ruth is not who he thinks. She is Donna who is a werewolf who’s loved one was shot and killed by Chris on that frightful night! As Donna transforms, Chris is forced to shoot her with a silver bullet, killing the woman he thought was his only ally. Meanwhile outside Marsha uses the Hand Of Akkara to bring back the dead werewolves that have all lost their human side making them total beast and for all accounts zombies, and they rush the Government Group and the Freedom Fighters and they all soon learn that silver bullets do not work on the undead werewolves unless you shoot them in the head. In the end, the werewolves kill the agents and the fighters with brutal fury and Chris stands alone against Marsha Quist who is joined by the zombie wolf versions of her brothers Eddie and T.C. with other werewolves starting to gather around. Marsha rubs it in that he has failed, and Chris is upset that he knows death is near and that he did not get revenge for Terry and Karen… and with that the werewolves attack and kill Chris. Moments later Marsha is holding the head of Chris and tells the werewolves that their time to rule is at hand once more.

The Howling comic mini series ends with a loud howl at the moon as the werewolves come together both alive and dead ones and they have a new queen with Marsha Quist who wants them all to rise up against humans and rule the world once more. The plot of this issue has Chris thinking he will be a hero and save the life of a newly made friend in his quest to expose the world that werewolves are real only to find out she is one and then must face off with Marsha Quist, the sister of two of the werewolves he killed off in the film. Throughout the series Chris Halloran is a man who is haunted by the past of having to kill his close friend on TV as well of the loss of the love of his life all because of werewolves. He tries his best to uncover why people in Government and his former employer the news station is covering everything up, only to be tricked himself and lead to his death that is very brutal by the hands and fangs of the beasts he wanted to warn the world of. Chris is a hero that the world needed and never got to know that he was around and trying to save them from a doom that is now on its way. Donna aka Ruth is a female werewolf who tricks our hero into thinking she is a former F.B.I. agent who is also trying to expose the world to the facts of that the beasts are real, but really her husband who was also a werewolf was killed by Chris in the film and she wants revenge as well. The Government Agents and the Freedom Fighters are two well armed groups that are at war with each other and both have interest in the werewolves, and while they are ready to protect themselves and have the right tools of the trade to stop the werewolves, they are not ready for the zombie werewolves that make short work of these would be heroes. Marsha Quist is savage and is so filled with revenge that she comes up with a plan that works and also makes it that she is the new Queen of the Werewolves! The comic is as bloody as the others as humans are bit, shot and torn apart and delivers some really good gory moments. The cover for this issue is pretty dang eye catching and shows Marsha and her werewolf brothers looking super deadly, and the interior art done by Jason Johnson is great stuff and he was the right choice to do this comic series. I am very surprised as I find that Space Goat did a great job on bringing The Howling to the world of comic books and delivered a good quick paced story that adds onto the lore of the film. Check out the art below to see the style of Jason Johnson.

The Howling is one of the best werewolf films of the 80s and our next update will showcase one of the best zombie films from the 70s as for the Halloween update we will be taking a look at the Fulci film Zombie 2 and the Eibon Press mini series based on it! I hope these horror themed updates up to this point have help make your 2020 Halloween season a little better as it’s clear that the virus crisis really has put a damper on the year and has stopped many the normal events and activities that take place during this time of the year. I hope The Howling update has you howling at the moon, and until next time, read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next time as we Alert The Crew…The Boat Can Leave Now!

Blah Blah True Blood Comics Blah

Greetings, Inkers! Juliet here, with a look at a show and one of its comics that combines several of my favorite things. Zombies have dominated horror-centric pop culture for the past decade, and while fans’ appetites were already primed for the arrival of the Walking Dead television show in 2010, the years prior to that were devoted to another undead creature: the vampire. The bloodsuckers had already enjoyed quite the pop culture run in the mid to late 1990s with the film versions of Interview With a Vampire and Queen of the Damned and TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, among fan favorites. But after Buffy ended in 2003 and spin-off show Angel in 2004, it seemed that the vampire’s time in the film and television limelight was done.  But several series of books were already waiting for readers and waiting to be adapted by Hollywood, and 2008 and 2009 brought viewers the first film in the Twilight saga, the Vampire Diaries TV show, and the focus of today’s update, True Blood.  So warm up a bottle of your favorite blood type, and get ready to travel to Bon Temps, Louisiana as we talk about the TV show and its prequel comic.

In 2001, author Charlaine Harris began her Southern Vampire Mysteries series (also called The Sookie Stackhouse Novels) with the book Dead Until Dark.  The series, which would go on to have 12 novels total, was narrated by Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps who has telepathic abilities and falls in love with a vampire.  The series was set around the same time each book was published, but in this near-reality world, a synthetic blood beverage called Tru Blood made it possible for vampires to become part of mainstream society.  As the books progressed, werewolves, shapeshifters, faeries, and even a maenad also emerged, among other supernatural creatures.  

The series had been optioned for television twice before 2005, when producer Alan Ball, fresh off Six Feet Under (another of my favorite HBO shows), was embarking on a new deal with HBO to develop new content. Having read the series thus far, the Southern Vampire Mysteries was his first project under the deal, and production on the television show True Blood began.  

Like the novels, True Blood takes place by and large, in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana and begins by focusing on telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, played Anna Paquin, who falls in love with vampire Bill Compton in a world where vampires are “out of the coffin,” and many other supernatural beings emerge.  That’s the simplest possible description I can give for the kickoff of a show that gets very complicated very quickly and stretches for seven (HBO-length) seasons.  As in the books, we meet werewolves, shapeshifters, faeries, a vampire hating mega-church-esque cult, witches, and yes, a maenad. The show is, however, a loose adaptation of the books with some big changes at the start and, like many books turned shows, True Blood’s plot definitely veers completely away from the plot of the book series at a certain point. 

In contrast to its teenage contemporary Twilight, True Blood is overtly sexy and puts sexuality in all of its forms at the forefront.  (Funny enough though, just as Twilight had Team Edward and Team Jacob, True Blood had Team Bill, Team Eric, and eventually Team Alcide.) Some people have chosen to interpret the vampires’ struggle for equality throughout the show as an allegory for the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights, though Alan Ball, who is gay himself, disputes that interpretation as being reductive.

When True Blood premiered in 2008, a service like HBO Go was merely a dream for fans like myself who had been hooked by the premium network’s still relatively new slate of dramas that came to prominence with The Sopranos and the aforementioned Six Feet Under. So that meant that viewers either had to have both cable and HBO to watch a show or wait for each season to come out on DVD. And so it was on DVD that I first saw True Blood.  Admittedly, I was a little uncertain about whether I was even interested; as a lifelong Anne Rice fan, I wasn’t sure anyone could do a Louisiana vampire story to my satisfaction other than her.  It took a combination of Matt buying me the first season on DVD as a gift, and the endorsement of several of my fellow Six Feet Under devotee friends for me to take the plunge.  And of course, it was love at first bite.

I was initially drawn in by the fictional world of Bon Temps, along with the idea of vampires and the world adjusting to each other.  But what kept me coming back season after season was in Shreveport: Eric Northman, Pamela Swynford De Beaufort, and their vampire bar Fangtasia.  I was honestly more invested in them than the main Sookie Stackhouse story, especially after the reveal about Sookie’s origin, which remains for me one of the weakest plot points in the show, and to that end, I should clarify that I was not at all interested in (translation = pretty adamantly against) Eric and Sookie’s romantic storyline.  While at first I loved the slightly kitschy atmosphere of Fangtasia and Pam and Eric’s delightfully snarky banter, it was their unique relationship as century long companions that kept me watching until the very end. 

Eric and Pam are also the reason I chose not to read the Southern Vampire Mystery books.  After watching the few seasons of True Blood, I strongly considered reading the books, but in doing a little research and finding out that their characters and storylines, among others I enjoyed, were very different than those portrayed on the show, I decided, to stick with the TV versions.  I typically don’t have this luxury as I usually end up watching shows based on books I already love and sometimes being disappointed at the translation.  Funny enough, as I was working on this update, AMC announced that they had acquired the TV rights to both the Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches properties.  So I’ll end up having the book to TV experience with a different set of vampires at some point.  

But back to Eric and Pam, or more specifically, back to Pam.  I mentioned before that there became different camps of viewers, and while I suppose I could be Team Eric, I am most definitely Team Pam.  When I start watching a show I really enjoy, there’s usually one character that from their first appearance I can instantly claim as my favorite, and Pamela Swynford De Beaufort is most definitely that character on True Blood.  It’s not a huge surprise as I have a “type” when it comes to favorite characters: sassy, in charge, but still complex and exploring their place in the world.  For me, Pam was also often a sounding board for the viewer (okay, maybe just this viewer), dryly commenting on some of the more ridiculous aspects of the story. And she’s got some of the most memorable lines (and outfits) from the show.  

Before we move on, I should note that while Eric and Pam are my favorite characters/progeny-maker pair/otp/imaginary vampire best friends, in contrast Matt is firmly on Team Bill Compton and Jessica Hamby.  I actually really like Jessica too, but the Bill vs. Eric debate raged on hilariously in our house through the entire run of the show.  

Another memorable thing about True Blood was the show’s use of music.  In addition to the sexy, swampy theme song “Bad Things” performed by Jace Everett, the show is beautifully scored by Nathan Barr.  Also, notably, each episode is named for a song that describes something about the story and appears as part of it, usually as punctuation right as the end credits roll.  These are often classic and new classic songs from the likes of Dr. John, Neko Case and the Talking Heads. Some of these, along with notable other songs from within the episodes appear on 4 soundtrack albums that are still available on CD.

During the height of its popularity, True Blood was known for a ton of merch and some really great marketing, and sometimes those two would go hand in hand.  Shortly after the show began, HBO began marketing bottles of actual, drinkable Tru Blood.  Okay, so it was blood orange soda, but the look and feel of the packaging was authentic to the show making it great for watch parties and collectors.  On the more traditional marketing front, the billboard and print ads for the show were always super distinctive and clever, opting for an attention grabbing image or phrase with the show’s signature red, black and white color scheme.  In the online/tv realm, there were several runs of “minisodes” used to bridge gaps between seasons.  The first was called A Drop of Blood and took place between seasons 2 and 3.  These 3 to 5 minute videos helped give viewers a look at smaller moments between the seasons.  In Eric and Pam’s, which was the first one released, we see them audition new dancers for Fangtastia and land on Yvetta, who we’d meet in season 3.  There was also an ongoing series of short videos that began in 2010 after season 3 and lasted until 2014 featuring Jessica.  These were vlog style videos in which our favorite redhead learned more about life as a vampire with Pam, Tara, Bill, and Ginger among her guests.

Along with the soundtrack albums, the soda and of course DVDs of the seasons, fans of True Blood could take their pick from a slew of official and unofficial merchandise including more shirt designs than I can count, drinking and shots glasses, coffee mugs, a cookbook (which I own), a makeup line from Tarte cosmetics (which I wish I owned), and a line of Funko Pops.  Fun fact: I held off buying Pop figures for quite a long time until they made Eric and Pam, and then the floodgates opened up and I now have entirely too many. 

True Blood also inspired several comic series. In both 2010 and 2012 IDW published comic series simply called True Blood, which were six and 14 issues respectively.  In 2011, there were two miniseries, also from IDW, True Blood: French Quarter and True Blood: Tainted Love, all of which spun off the TV show and used familiar characters.  But before all of that, there was True Blood: The Great Revelation.  This Top Cow comic was released in 2008 at ComicCon as a part of the pre-promotion for the show.  It’s a prequel to the show, and it’s the comic we’re going to look at here on Rotten Ink.

As a reminder, we comics on a scale of 1 to 4 and are looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So get a refill on your Tru Blood (or maybe some New Blood), and get ready to do some bad things.

True Blood: The Great Revelation # 1 ***
Released in 2008     Cover Price: Free    Top Cow     # 1 of 1

A centuries old vampire named Lamar is flying through the night sky on an airplane.  As his journey begins, he reflects on how strange it is for vampires to be out in the open and how Tru Blood is making that happen.  Lamar arrives in the Shinjuku District of Tokyo, recalling his first visit to Japan ages ago as he makes his way to his hotel. There he tells us more about the emergence of Tru Blood that led to the Great Revelation: when a group of Japanese vampires found out that human scientists were close to developing synthetic blood, they bought up the patents, invested in the company, and began to spread the word to vampires around the world.  Even now, however, Lamar isn’t sure that humanity is ready for vampires, and he recalls that his friend Samson was eager for integration between vampires and humans and paid for it with a stake through his heart.  Lamar finally arrives at the headquarters for the Yakonomo Corporation where he’s eager to show them a secret of his own.

The first thing I should tell you about this comic is that the story ends on a cliffhanger that was continued digitally as pre-promotion for the show.  Comic Con attendees in 2008 got the first read, and eventually these pages and the rest of the story were released weekly on HBO’s website to gear up for the show’s premiere.  Unfortunately, after lots of searching and several Wayback Machine fails, I was unable to find the rest of the pages beyond what’s in the physical comic, which is disappointing, but is also worth noting because some of the questions I have about the story may have been answered in those extra pages.  That said, I thought this was a really nice introduction to the larger mythos of True Blood.  I thought it was really smart to create a character that exists outside of the world of the show and to make the setting someplace other than Bon Temps because it didn’t fall into the clumsy trap of some prequel promo comics where the comic and show aren’t being written in sync so the characters feel off.  Lamar is a compelling character and the little glimpses of his backstory we got made me want to spend more time with him, and I definitely want to know more about the weapon he revealed in the last panel.  The backstory about the Great Revelation and origin of Tru Blood also felt really well in line with the show, albeit with a few elements missing – the vampire Kings and Queens are mentioned but the authority isn’t mentioned by name, likewise we only see vampires at the Yakonomo Corporation with no sign of Mr. Gus (or perhaps his father).  It is interesting that we get the name Yakonomo this early in the show’s history, however, as it’s only referred to as “a Japanese Corporation” onscreen until season six. 

The story is primarily told in “voiceover” style, which works nicely for this shorter story, especially since the whole point is to give a lot of background in only a few pages.  Jason Badower’s art is great, and the colors by Blond were particularly great because they captured the mood of the show and all of the early marketing materials ahead of the premiere.  Speaking of, there are several bonus pages that include a two-page interview with Alan Ball and several “ads” that tie into entities in the show and had accompanying web buildouts (some of which you can find on the Wayback Machine – yay!) like the American Vampire League and the Fellowship of the Sun. All told, this is a really great addition to the True Blood story, and fans of the show should have this in their collection.

It’s almost dawn, when, unless you’re Billith, all vampires need to find a place to hide from the sun.  And it’s about time that I hand Rotten Ink back to Matt.  For his next update, he’ll be revisiting the world of horror fan films with another batch of movies to tell you about.  In the meantime, read a comic or two, support your local comic shop and bank blood, and avoid any and all vampire emergencies. 

The Large Howl Of The Werewolf On Halloween Night

The moon is full in the sky, and the urge to roam the nearby dark woods takes hold because Rotten Ink has been cursed by a wolf…a Werewolf! Ever since I was a kid, werewolves have been my favorite classic monster and I could not get enough of them in movies, comics, TV, books and video games! I spent many nights pretending to be a werewolf as we would drive home from our grandparents’ house down country roads imagining myself running as fast as the car was moving stalking and hunting for prey. I was obsessed with watching werewolf films on TV with the 1941 Universal Monster classic The Wolf Man being one of my all time favorite films, and I could not get enough of films like An American Werewolf In London, The Howling, Curse Of The Werewolf and Legend Of The Werewolf to name a few. I was also very much into watching the old FOX and later USA show Werewolf! The first shot on video film I ever directed was Werewolf Of Ohio. Not to mention, I have lots of great memories of sitting in my room reading comics like Werewolf By Night, Howl and Werewolf At Large with the latter being the subject of this Halloween update! So dim the lights crack a window to let a cool breeze in and let’s take a creepy look at some spooky stuff!

In 1987 in San Mateo, California a rash of fires began being set by some one who was angry about new homes being built and wanted the land to be left alone. Messages like “No New Homes” and “ Neighbors Revolt” was left at the scene of the crimes painted on walls and for years the case went unsolved. The fire department knew that they had an arsonist on their hands but had no clues to who was guilty and why the picked the targets they did. But in 1990 a father and son had an issue with their truck of Highway 205 and pulled off the road miles away from San Mateo, as the father went to find a phone his son wondered around the side of the road and found an army jacket with heavy metal cassette tapes, a fake skull and a VHS tape all wrapped up inside it and decided to take the tape home to see what was on it. What they found on the tape was a house burning and an eerie voice bragging about setting it and comparing the fire to Hell and babbles like a generic comic book villain complete with an evil laugh! The father was so creeped out by the video that he turned it over to police and the tape floated from town to town until it finally landed at the police department of San Mateo were they were able to link the tape with one of the early arsonist house fires in 1987. On the tape the eerie voice says a name Omar and the police decided to ask the TV Show Unsolved Mysteries for help and they broadcast it on an episode and they where able to get a hit on a group of teenagers who the people of San Mateo are able to pen point as Omar! Omar claims he was not the one who set the fires and gives them the name and address of his friend who was the one that did this evil deed. The new main suspect’s own garage catches fires and after putting it out the cops and fire department are shocked to what they find as dead animal bodies are all around, large knives and even a Freddy Krueger mask and gloves litter the ground. The cops take the 18 year old into custody and while searching his house they found news paper clippings and VHS tapes of broadcasts of the fires as well as Heavy Metal posters and cassettes, items of devil worship and VHS tapes of the young man dressed as werewolves and vampires talking about killing and acting out violent acts on dummys dressed as people. Once all this was discovered the young man admitted to setting the fires as well as to doing sacrifices to Satan via animals, he was sentenced to a mental help facility to get psychological help and after this the fires stopped. I first seen this case on Unsolved Mysteries when I was a kid and the creepy over the top voice of the young man always stuck with me and over the years when it was solved and was shown on shows like Cold Case Files and Forensic Files and the video of him acting out on camera as monsters made me dub him the Werewolf Arsonist!

The odd thing when I was a kid I enjoyed comic books, horror films, video games, Horror Hosts and rock music and I can remember myself being blamed for slashing tires and setting a fire in a trash can at school! Now while I didn’t do any of those things it goes to show you that if your odd you do get blamed for things you didn’t do and this can cause people to act out and become what they are accused of. While these two young men acted out and did things they shouldn’t have like setting fires and killing animals, I turned my love for monsters and things considered weird into comics and shot on video movies and become a very creative person and I really wished these young guys would have done the same, who knows they could have made a low budget horror classic that all us fans would be talking about to this day if they could have taken that raw teen anger and angst energy and turned it into a creative drive. It would have been nice if their parents, friends and teachers could have seen the troubled path these guys were headed down and took the time to redirect that built up energy and anger into something way more positive for them as young youths looking for their place in the world. I am glad that over the years I have had the pleasure of being able to portray many characters in films from The Wolf Man in “Werewolf of Ohio” to a kickass homeless vet named The Beast in “Fun In The Old Town Tonight”, I have created comic characters like Mr. Emo, Benny The Squirrel and Robo-Raccoon and characters like Baron Von Porkchop, King Kryan and The Sadness in TV and Film. I am sure your wondering why I am talking about all this and what is the connection to the Werewolf Arson well its simple I could have easily headed down a bad path as by the time I was a mid teenager I had a chip on my shoulder and was looking for a reason to explode I was mad that I had to move away from my friends in Waynesville in the 9^th Grade, I was mad that my Mom was battling cancer and I was mad that most of my new teachers in Kettering were judgmental buttholes who treated me like trash cause I had long black hair an ear ring and wore metal and horror film shirts, I was mad they branded me a Satanist, Cultist and a Danger to others. But I didn’t go down that path because of people like my parents and my brother Bryan who stuck by me no matter how stubborn I got. Friends like Josh Weinberg, Matt Hoffman, Dave Wean, Rion Neeley, Linda Webb, Sarah Fix, Jason Gilmore, Andrea Seay, Patrick Neely, Mike Ritchie, Rick Martin, Andy Copp, Henrique Couto, Jason Young, Geoff Burkman, Chris Workman, Barry Hobart, Bob Hinton, Jeremy Hoyt and so many others who helped guide my mind away from anger and towards joy and friendship and were the gateway to new lasting friendships. The good teachers and Principles at Kettering like K.B. and Dr. Shangline who kept me focused in school and showed me how to redirect that anger into making art again. Kenny from K&L Video who would give me pep talks when he seen that at times I was in a foul mood. And I should even thank Horror Hosts Dr. Creep, A. Ghastlee Ghoul, Dr. Freak, The Creeper, Rhonda Shear and Joe Bob Briggs for given me an escape from reality when I needed it when their respected shows were on. I am thankful to all these people and many more for keeping me on track and making me a happy person like I am today with a great girlfriend, a fun job, a TV show, a owner of a Comic Company, making shot on video films again, working for one of the best indie wrestling federations around and enough creative energy to fill the galaxy! And Werewolf Arson where every you are I hope that you found great people to surround yourself with and are happy in life and found a creative outlet for all your ideas. Plus over the years I myself have played werewolves in many no budget films like The Wolfman in Werewolf of Ohio, Scars in one of the Bark At The Moon flicks as well as Emo in Wolf Hunter 2 and The Carrier in Wolf Hunter 3.

So lets get to some things that remind me of Halloween I need to share a memory of when I was in first grade and in my class was one of the best games ever, one that had all types of monsters on the cover like a werewolf and Dracula and was a game called Yipes! So on August 23, 2018 I decided to get some of my friends together to play a couple of games of Yipes! so after a long day at work we all meet up to get our classic board game on. The friends I had over for this spooky time was Natalie Claude, Jeremy Hoyt, Theresa Daniels, Josh Weinberg and my cousin Stephen Alexander all whom were playing this game for the first time! The first game was very fast paced and had all of us rushing to get to the lab in order to be the one who turned into the Monster and eat the other players. While it was a close race Jeremy ended up being the monster and ate Natalie, Josh and Theresa with Stephen and me being the only kids to escape! The second game was more intense as for the longest time Natalie and myself were the ones in the lead to become the Monster but sadly we both got knocked back to the start and the first to reach the lab again was Jeremy but so did Theresa who ended up becoming the Monster! And while we all tried to make it out alive….we did not as Theresa controlling the Monster ate us all! This is such a fun and easy to play game and was a blast to hang with friends and have a good flashback to my youth. So if you want a fun and easy spooky kids game to play this Halloween season and can find a copy of Yipes! for sale give it a shot as its one that might add some chills to your spooky holiday. Below is some pictures I took that day and I do want to say thanks to my friends for coming together and helping me relive my youth.

In 2014 in Brazil, a werewolf was on the loose and attacked locals and even was caught on camera lurking around some ones backyard! The video sparked mixed reactions as many people think that its nothing more than a man in a costume walking on all fours while others think it’s the real deal and shows a real werewolf on the loose. And weird enough Brazil over the years seems to be a hot bed for werewolf sightings and this leaves the world wondering if werewolves are real! Lets look at this sighting as a real werewolf spotting and it makes you wonder just why would it be looking around a backyard and why didn’t it attack the owners of the house if it was looking for food or a kill? I think it could be the fact maybe the werewolf was in fact maybe a neighbor and when they transformed they cut across the backyard to head to woods near by…or maybe the werewolf was scoping out that house to see if their was an easy way in to get a quick meal. Now lets look at this as a hoax and why someone would do this, and this is a easy one in this day and age of the internet lots of people are looking for fame and what better way to get attention than to show the world video of a real life werewolf that is just prowling around your backyard late at night. Plus imagine the news coverage that he could get that could sweep across the nation…in other words if a hoax this would have been done for fame and money. Now for my two cents on the Werewolf Of Brazil on if I feel it’s real or fake…and I hate to say I think the footage is fake as the movement of the werewolf seems like a guy in a suit who has watched one to many Horror Movies and thinks jerking his head around equals scary. Do werewolves walk among us, I can not say but one thing is for sure if they do none of us want to run into one as things would go bad very quickly.

While I know this is not Halloween themed I still would like to take a few moments to talk about Iggy Azalea’s newest released “In My Defense” that was released on August 2, 2019 and is here major full album return to the rap game. As I am sure you readers know I am a fan of Iggy and her style of rapping and enjoy her music videos that often take it a humor or overly sexual tone. So after a wait the CD was release and I would like to share my thoughts of the release with you all real quick. I first want to say that I really enjoyed this release from Iggy as this shows that she really is the queen of the rap game…well at least for me! I also want to say that In My Defense is the perfect soundtrack to any and all strip clubs and most nightclubs. I listened to this CD in my car while driving around and I must say that I enjoyed almost every track on it with my favorites being “Started”, “Sally Walker” and “Freak Of The Week”…but I should also say I really dig “Just Wanna” as the track is sexually charged and is just pure Iggy style. Don’t want to spend to much time talking about In My Defense as it’s not very spooky nor fit for Halloween…so to sum it up this is a great release and if you like Iggy’s music from the past give this one a listen. I for one am looking forward to the next Iggy release, as I am sure it will be fantastic like this release.

So I turned 40 years old this year and decided to hold another Horror Movie Marathon to celebrate this time of my life! So we loaded up on some snack food, drinks and some good meals that included Little Caesars Bacon Wrap Pizza, chicken and breakfast casserole and geared up for a good time hanging with my lady Juliet and watching some amazing horrors that these films had to offer. I started out with a pre-show that was on September 7, 2019 starting at 3pm and kicked off with the 1940 Sci-Fi Horror Comedy “The Invisible Woman” that is about a young model that volunteers to be turned invisible who ends up helping a playboy and a scientist against mobsters. Up next was “Dr. Renault’s Secret” a classic black and white Horror Chiller about a strange servant for a Dr. who acts very animal like and protective over the Dr.’s niece. Third up was “Mad Butcher” about a crazed pork butcher who uses human meat for his sausages! The cult classic “I Dismember Mama” was next and is about a crazed young man with mommy issues and his hatred for women and love for the young. “The Love Butcher” was on tap next about a man whose inner struggle has him dealing with rude and crude women he deems unworthy. Short werewolf film “Howl” was next and has a young lady fighting for her life against a werewolf. And to end the pre-show was “Giant Monster Playset” about a kid’s new toy that comes alive and smashes its way through town. What a fun pre-show this was and a selection of some pretty good and different films. Before I get too much into our top and worst picks I would like to say that Caleb from The Love Butcher had the most kills for the night with six kills!

Now for my Golden Turkey I picked “I Dismember Mama” a film that was a major letdown for me as I can remember seeing it on the shelves at video stores and just now I finally was able to watch it and I was underwhelmed, some creepy moments but over all very blah. Juliet picked “Howl” as she liked it and gives them props for trying, it just did nothing for her. My Top Three films of the night goes as follows #1 goes to Dr. Renault’s Secret a fun classic Horror Chiller that was well acted and holds a real early horror charm. My # 2 was The Invisible Woman as I am a sucker for Universal Monster movies even if the Horror is played way down and its more of a goofy comedy, I still enjoyed it. And my # 3 was Giant Monster Playset a cool 10min short film that brings elements of Kaiju and Alien Invasion together for a good time! Juliet’s went as follows #1 Giant Monster Playset, # 2 The Love Butcher and # 3 was Mad Butcher!

My Birthday Horror Movie Marathon Bash started at 7am on September 8, 2019 and I kicked off the morning right with the Universal Monster classic “The Invisible Man Returns” a film that stars Vincent Price and is about a man framed for a murder who must turn invisible to escape jail and find who really did it before he looses his mind. Next was another Universal Horror “The Black Cat” from 1941 starring Bela Lugosi that is about a family who are trapped in their house during a rain storm and some one is killing people off. Third fright flick of the day was “The Vineyard” about a wine maker who uses human blood to stay young forever whose victims become zombies. Shot on video film “Metal Noir” was next that featured a Dark Metal God tormenting a woman in her new house. “Slice” a film about masked killer murdering attractive young ladies was next up. We then watched “Curse Of The Undead” a 1950’s Western/Horror film about a vampire! ScreamTeam Releasing Horror Comedy flick “Dude Bro Party Massacre III” was next and was about frat boys going up against a female masked killer called MotherFace! Indie slasher film “Curse Of The Slasher Nurse” was next, but sadly we had issues with the DVD and did not get to watch it. Sleazy Horror Thriller “Night Killer” about a masking wearing claw using lady-killer was the next horrors on the TV Screen. The next movie was a recent release and mixed a kid show with horror and was “Banana Splits” about kid show characters on a killing rampage on the studio lot. “Critters Attack” the 5^th film in the series has those killer aliens attacking a young woman and the kids she is babysitting. And the final spooky film of the night was the 1946 shocker “The Flying Serpent” about an Aztec lizard bird that kills all those who get too close to ancient treasure.

This was such a blast and was a fun way to spend my 40^th Birthday, as the food was good, the company was great and the films fun and scary! So my Golden Turkey of the main show went to Black Cat, and it breaks my heart to put a Universal Horror film as the turkey but I had to as the terrible humor through out the film ruined the scary nature. Juliet picked Metal Noir as she found it charming and also slightly boring. Now for my Top Three Films I decided that Juliet and I could add a 4^th for my 40^th so this one became our Top 4! My # 1 was Banana Splits as I was surprised on just how fun and bloody the film was and the evil robotic Splits were fantastic. My # 2 was Dude Bro Party Massacre III a Horror Comedy that worked as it was funny and very bloody with a cool killer with MotherFace. Coming in at # 3 for me was Invisible Man Returns as this direct sequel to the classic Invisible Man was pure Universal Monster gold. And finally my # 4 I would give to Critters Attack as I found it to be a great welcoming back to those little space fur balls! And I must also note that Night Killer almost made it as my # 4. Juliet’s top list went as follows # 1 Banana Splits, # 2 Dude Bro Party Massacre III, # 3 Critters Attack and finally # 4 Night Killer and she wanted me to say Black Cat almost made her Top 4 list. What a fun evening and I very much am looking forward to my next Horror Movie Marathon.

And now its time for the Golden Chainsaw Award this group of killers made the event more gruesome and they had the highest body count going well over 15 kills and this killer group is The Banana Splits! My favorite kill is when they rip a man apart and his bloody limbless torso hits the ground hard. So here is to you Banana Splits my your bloody rampage return for a sequel that I hope gets made.

Before we get to the comic reviews of Werewolf At Large by Eternity Comics I want to take a moment to say that when promoting this comic, they did it right as I find the ad that was placed in comics to be very cool and eye catching and would have made this monster kid and horror comic reader very hyped to track down issues when released. Nowadays I think many comic companies have dropped the ball when it comes to making ads for upcoming titles as Marvel, DC, Image and even Dark Horse I feel could do a better job as they just do not have flashy ads in my eyes. Companies like Eibon Press and Rough House Publishing in my opinion are doing it right as when they have future releases coming out, the ads are very eye catching and show care and respect for the title being showcased. Check out one of the Werewolf At Large ads below.

So with it being Halloween, with a chill in the air and all the ghost & goblins roaming the streets looking for treats or tricks, I think it’s time we dive into the comic series of Werewolf At Large, a weird hybrid of Horror and Superhero comics that is clearly inspired by Marvel’s Werewolf By Night. I want to thank Bookie Parlor and Mavericks Cards And Comics for introducing me to this series all those many years ago, and I want to thank Bell, Book And Comic and Lone Star Comics for having these in stock so I could get them back and make this update possible. So if you are ready to howl at this Halloween moon, let’s take a look at this Werewolf who is at large!

Werewolf At Large # 1  **1/2
Released in 1989     Cover Price $2.25    Eternity Comics     #1 of 3

A young girl has been kidnapped and her abductor is a crazed man with a gun who is keeping the youngster at his home that is in the middle of the woods, but lucky for her a werewolf appears and takes out the sicko and saves her and takes her back home. Meanwhile a satanic cult called The Demon Horde has turned on one of their own for being a snitch and talking to a news reporter and after killing him they set their sights on her. While in town that same reporter named Casey Casternak is working another story about an agency that helps people, and while there she meets Martin Cross a worker who helps people in need. After leaving the agency Casey is attacked by some of the Devil Cult thugs and is saved by the werewolf! As Casey runs away she runs into Martin Cross who takes her to a safe home that is his Grandma’s house who is named Marta Monrovch a woman is very much into helping charities. Once inside Casey tells Marta and Martin about the story she is working on and what has made her a target of The Demon Horde and that her informant has been murdered as seen in the paper, and worse Casey lets them know that the story was being cancelled by the paper so the man died for no reason. Betsy O’Donnell who has pushed the group to do human sacrifices runs the cult and is pure evil. When Marta explains to Casey that the werewolf she seen was in fact Martin and that she is a psychic who can see things, the young reporter runs from the house and is quickly kidnapped by the cult who take her to a room and she is selected to be killed by Betsy who transforms into a demon named Asomodeus King of Demons!

Werewolf At Large issue one is just as I remember it as a kid, as I both enjoy it and also disappointed in it all at the same time! I will get into what I mean by that statement right after I talk about the plot that has a satanic cult targeting a female news reporter for digging to deep into their doings as all the while a werewolf is running the streets and is saving the day for people in need. Now what is cool about this comic and the world this issue is building is that Martin Cross the Werewolf is a good guy, an avenger much like Jack Russell from Marvel Comics Werewolf By Night and even Eric Cord from the TV Show Werewolf and that adds a real classic feel. I also dig the fact that our main bad guys are called The Demon Horde who are a satanic cult that is made up of collage kids. But while I do like the idea of a good werewolf I also feel that this also weakens the series as for a Horror Comic this is bloodless and has no chilling moments and I dislike that the werewolf don’t kill and only beats people up and has 100% control over his beast side. Martin Cross as both man and werewolf just kind of lurks around and watches to see when he is needed, while not a stand out character he for sure is one that has room to grow. Marta Monrovch is a woman who not only has money but also has the ability to see visions that can be very helpful in her plane to help save the innocent, pretty cool character and one that could fit fight in place with Marvel Comics Doctor Strange. Betsy and The Demon Horde are pretty bloodthirsty and have no issues with killing and bringing evil out into the world. As I have stated before this issue is pretty much bloodless but does have a murder depicted and the issue brings no scares as the werewolf is clearly in control and don’t want to kill. The cover is pretty great and does kind of warn the readers that this is not a full fledge werewolf Horror Comic, but is very eye catching. The interior art is done by John Ross and is very cool and is top notch Indie Horror stuff! Over this issue was a fun read and while Horror Comic fans might be disappointed fans of Marvel Horror might really enjoy it. So let’s see how issue two stands up to my childhood memories.

Werewolf At Large # 2  **1/2
Released in 1989     Cover Price $2.25    Eternity Comics     #2 of 3

The werewolf tracks down the Demon Horde and right before Asomodeus can take the life of Casey he attacks the demon and is able to would it by using a cross, but he as well is injured by silver daggers as he tells Casey to get back to Marta’s house. As Casey runs for her life members of the cult with knives in hand give chase, but lucky for her one by one they fail with the last one being hit by a taxi cab letting Casey make it safely to Marta’s house. Meanwhile the werewolf is not doing so well as Asomodeus has the upper hand and even removes the beast from the host and the werewolf has a blood thirst that Martin can supply. As the werewolf is about to attack Martin takes control and merges with the werewolf once more and attacks Asomodeus over powering the demon and killing its host Betsy with a neck break. Martin once transformed again grabs his cloths and the cross he used on the demon and heads back to his home where he and his mother Marta talk to Casey about joining them on their quest to save the innocent, she accepts and as she and Martin have some coco in the kitchen Marta’s uses the cross to truly send the spirit of Asomodeus back to hell as it tried once more to get revenge in the body of Betsy that was rotting away.

In this second issue the story has Martin as the werewolf trying his best to kill the evil demon that has spread its hateful message to its followers and is trying to also rid the world of anyone that will expose its plans, and while this is going on poor journalist Casey is being hunted by the cultist who have the orders of killing her and sending her soul straight to the devil! The stakes in this one seem very high as the odds are against both the werewolf and Casey, but with some luck and inner power they both pull through their battles and end the Demon Horde Cult. Marta Monrovch is the clear brains of this paranormal team as she can use her visions to help plan rescues and has the knowledge and guts to tackle some very evil beings. Martin aka The Werewolf is the muscle of the group as his raw beast power makes him be able to stand toe to tow with any human and clearly most demons! Casey Casternak is a good reporter who digs deep into the stories she is given and clearly is a survivor as she fights for her life when its in danger, plus she makes a great new addition to the team! Plus I love that Marta lives in a big house with her grandson Martin and now Casey. I just really like the idea of theme three in the house doing research on missing persons, unsolved crimes and unnatural beings! The Demon Horde is no more and their members that are just a bunch of collage-aged punks got out smarted and out classed by our heroes. Asomodeus King of Demons is one bad creature of darkness that almost is able to pull off the sacrifice and controlling of the werewolf, and even when defeated Asomodeus tries to drag it’s dying body to get revenge! This issue is filled with elements of horror, action and fantasy and is well done even if there is no blood nor gore and the scares are very limited. The cover of this issue is great and very eye catching, the interior art is once more done by John Ross and is well done. Oh I should note one thing about this series is sometimes the time lapse between panels is a little awkward and come off slightly disjointed. This second issue just like the first held up and is just as I remembered, so lets see if the third one still has the charm.

Werewolf At Large # 2  **1/2
Released in 1989     Cover Price $2.25    Eternity Comics     #3 of 3

The Werewolf is roaming around in the woods loving the fact he is a beast and yet his human side Martin is in control and mixed with feelings for his new housemate Casey. Once Martin heads home he over hears Casey talking on the phone about a man named Reed and also how its been living with Marta and Martin. Meanwhile outside the house Reed along with Conibear The Huntsman are watching and have a plan to kidnap and brainwash Casey who Reed says is his wife. Martin and Casey go and run an errand together on the orders of Marta and while out Casey is kidnapped and Martin is injured trying to save her that leaves him with a broken arm. As Casey is dragged to a cabin in the woods Martin goes back home and has his grandmother use her powers to find the whereabouts of Casey and once they find it he is off and transforms into his werewolf self once in the woods. While inside the cabin Casey tries her best to tell The Huntsman that she is in fact not the wife of Reed and she only went on one date with him and he became obsessed with her, but this does not seem to phase the crazed Huntsman who just admits he will break her will and that the truth does not matter. The werewolf shows up to the cabin and after out smarting the Huntsman he is able to save Casey, beat up the Huntsman and drives Reed crazy with fear. Turning back human Martin and Casey go home and so ends the Werewolf At Large series.

This series clearly while entertaining really was lost in what direction it really wanted to go in as it clearly was meant to be a full fledge Horror Comic and by publish time it was more of a superhero title, and while fun I do really think that this brand confusion is what lead to the series having a very short run. This final issue’s plot has The Werewolf coming to the conclusion he is getting a crush on his new co-worker and roommate Casey and must travel to a cabin in the woods to save her from a crazed ex and his hired gun. Casey in this issue is really liking her new job helping Marta and yet still feels a cold vibe from Martin who she thinks don’t like her. She is such a strong character and even when kidnapped she tries her best to talk reason to her captures and even saves their lives when the Werewolf comes calling. Casey is a pretty good character and she had lots of growth that could have happened if the series would have continued. Marta Monrovch is a woman who loves her community as well as the arts and she is very special as she has the ability to have visions that can help find the missing and injured. Pretty cool character and she has a really low key Master Of The Mystic Arts feel to her. Martin aka The Werewolf is a true hero who through out this series tries to save innocent people and will put himself in harms way to do so. While Martin clearly likes being a werewolf he also does not like knowing that people have seen him transform and that’s some of his oddness with Casey. It’s also clear that at times Martin would love to go full Werewolf but his human side stays in control. Reed is a creep who went on one date with Casey and now thinks she is his property and Conibear The Huntsman was a one time loser who now thinks he is a gun for hire and has respect of people. Over all this series was good reads and held up for me on what I read as a youngster and I do find it a shame that it only lasted three issues as I feel the characters had way more adventures and scumbags to bring down. I would have loved to seen this series dive more into the world of Devil Worship and add in such creatures as vampires or even voodoo cults into the weird mix. The cover for this third and final issue is well done like the others and is super eye catching for Horror Comic readers. The interior artwork is once more done by John Ross and is pretty good and holds a really late 80’s and early 90’s indie comic look. While Werewolf At Large is not a full fledge Horror Comic, it has enough of the elements that will make readers enjoy its story and hero Martin The Werewolf. Check out the art below to see the style of John Ross and to see what The Werewolf looks like.

I hope you enjoyed this look at Werewolf At Large and that you have had a great Halloween this year. If you are like me, Halloween is the true kick off for all the great holidays that are coming in the next few months like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I also want to say thank you for spending a part of your Halloween with me here at Rotten Ink and I hope this update added to your spooky day. I also hope it helped sharpened your senses to beware of the full moon as, who knows, there could be werewolves among us! For our next update, we are leaving the world of Horror Comics behind and will be taking a look at another TMNT knockoff comic team called the Cold Blood Chameleon Commandos, yep this is going to be a fun one. So until next time, read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host. See you next time for a rocking chameleon good time.

From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: Waxwork

Welcome back to our 6^th countdown to Halloween 2017 and another in our “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” series.  This time around we are going to take a look at the underrated and one of my favorite late 80’s horror films Waxwork and the Blackthrone Comic based on it! This Horror film mixes scares and laughs and is packed to the brim with monsters from Dracula all the way to an ax murderer looking lumberjack! This film has so much going for it, and I truly think that it’s an underrated Horror film from the 80’s that has enough blood, guts and gore to make Gorehounds happy and enough humor to make people with dark sense of humors chuckle. So if you’re ready to take a tour of this WaxWorks on a day they are celebrating the theme of From Horror Movie To Horror Comics, then I am 100% ready to as this is an update I have been waiting to do for a very long time.

Before we go on we must first look at the main villain of the film and that’s David Lincoln and his sidekicks Hans and Junior. David Lincoln is an evil man who has not aged in decades due to black magic amulets that hold the spirits of some of the world’s most fearsome and murderous creatures and killers. His hideout is a wax museum in the middle of a neighborhood that he hides the amulets in with the displays of the killers.  His goal is to have innocent people stumble into the displays where they will be killed and their souls taken.  Once he meets his goal of 18 souls, the monsters and killers will once more be freed into our times! David seems to have supernatural powers as he is ageless, can appear and disappear and seems to have control over his butlers Hans and Junior as well as the killers whom he is trying to bring back. David also seems to want the world to be in chaos and wants it to end with humans being killed by monsters. He also can use guns really well and has the gift of talk as he is able to come off as a nice guy even though he has sinister intentions. He is pretty strong and has killed people with his bare hands, and his is very smart making him a very dangerous man. His weakness is the fact that while he does not age, he still can be killed like a normal man.  Hans is one of his butlers who is a little person and has the attitude of a bully while Junior is a very tall man who has the mind of a child.  Both are very loyal to David and his cause of world destruction. While he might not be as unstoppable as some Horror Movie bad guys, David Lincoln is just as dangerous as he has lots of evil talents and friends in very low places.

But while David Lincoln is our main villain, I feel like we should also briefly talk about the fact most of the killing and soul taking is being done by the monsters in the wax museum as they rule their own display and dispatch those silly enough to enter them. Among the madmen that are waiting to rule our world are The Phantom Of The Opera, Frankenstein’s Monster, Alien, Man Eating Planet, Evil Demon Baby, Invisible Man and Jack The Ripper to name a few. Our main killing machines after our cast of characters are the blood sucking Count Dracula and his vampire family, a crazed werewolf, a shuffling head crushing Mummy, flesh eating zombies and the master of erotic murder and torture Marquis de Sade all who take pleasure in killing their targets. Each of these killers and madmen have their own powers and methods of killing making them all very evil and very dangerous! So to sum it up, David’s team is filled with some of the top madmen in cinema.

So now that we are up to date on the villains of WaxWork, we should now dive into the film itself as well as its sequel and see what makes this series tick. As always our good friends at IMDB will supply us with the films write up and I will follow them up with some production notes, film facts as well as chat about my first time seeing them. So let’s take a stroll through this crazy WaxWork and see if we can give ourselves a scare or two…or at least learn a little something about this underrated film series.

Waxwork (1988)

“A waxwork museum comes to town, and a mysterious man invites some teens to come to a special showing at midnight. Once inside, while viewing different exhibits, the scenes come alive and the viewer is sucked into the story being portrayed.”

WaxWorks was limited released in theaters on June 18, 1988 by Vestron Pictures and was been said to be the first self-referential horror film way before Scream and its many clones. The film when released was not a huge Box Office hit in the USA only bringing in $808,114.00 on a $1.5 Million dollar budget and coming in at # 183 for the year. But while it was a limited release, it did however beat out some other cult classics like Maniac Cop, Prison, My Best Friend Is A Vampire and Ghost Town to name a few. Not to mention 1988 was a great year for Horror Movie fans as such films as A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Child’s Play, The Serpent And The Rainbow, Friday The 13^th Part 7: The New Blood, Halloween 4: Return Of Michael Myers, Poltergeist III, They Live, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Return On The Living Dead Part 2, Bad Dreams, The Blob and Phantasm II to name a very few all hit theaters! WaxWorks was met with mixed reviews with critics and fans being split on how much they enjoyed the film or didn’t. The film however did find success on the home video market as the sales for the VHS were solid and helped it get a sequel some years later. The film would also go on to be released on DVD and Blu-Ray and has gained a solid and loyal cult fan base. The film was directed by Anthony Hickox and stars Zach Galligan, Deborah Foreman, Michelle Johnson and Dana Ashbrook as the college kids with John Rhys-Davies, J. Kenneth Campbell and Miles O’Keeffe as the monsters! And David Warner plays the sinister David Lincoln and does a fantastic job at bringing this character to life.

I first saw this film back in my teen years when my brother Bryan and I rented it from K&L Video as it was one that we had heard of thanks to Fangoria Magazine and other horror related books. I can remember it was a day we rented a number of flicks and loaded up on junk food and soda and that night was a mini horror movie marathon.  I would say that WaxWorks was my favorite of the night as I don’t remember the other films we watched that day. After watching it, I ended up buying it on VHS and watched it from time to time as the film was one that was filled with classic monsters and gore and this made it up my ally. As VHS went away, I have gotten it on DVD and still find myself watching it at least once a year, sometimes even more. I also always recommend this film to Horror Movie fans whom have not seen it as it’s entertaining and always is a hit with them when they watch it.

Waxwork II: Lost In Time (1992)

“Mark and Sarah survive to the fire in the wax museum, but Sarah is followed by a severed hand that kills her father. Sarah becomes the prime suspect and goes to trial. Mark and Sarah search evidence to prove her innocence and they go to Sir Wilfred’s house. They find a footage prepared by Sir Wilfred with a puzzle based of the Alice and the Looking Glass. They solve the puzzle and find a compass that opens portals through time. They travel to the most different places in time seeking something to help Sarah in her trial in a dangerous journey.”

This sequel was direct to video and followed up right after the events of the first film. It was released by Electric Pictures on June 16, 1992 and was directed by Anthony Hickox again and starred Zach Galligan, Monika Schnarre and Patrick Macnee as this time around in cameos you have Martin Kemp, Drew Barrymore, Bruce Campbell, Buck Flower and David Carradine! Plus I should note that Godzilla is also in the film in a weird American kind of way. The film never captured the viewers like the first film, and while it’s entertaining, it is lacking a little in the gore and is missing a main villain as David Lincoln does not return. This one focuses way too much on a character called The Master. This was another film I saw via VHS from a rental at K&L Video, and while I enjoy it and it’s an okay sequel, it is lacking the charm on the first film for me. On a side note I want to also say that a clip of this film is used in the film Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth, another film directed by Hickox. This film in 1992 was joined by the following films for Horror Fans to enjoy Candyman, Dead Alive, Dr. Giggles, Army Of Darkness, Dust Devil, Demonic Toys, Stepfather III, Critters 4 and Night Of The Executioner to name a few. So if you enjoyed the first film, this one is worth a watch.

In 1988 when WaxWork was in theaters independent comic company Blackthorne Publishing was trying to lock its place in comic stories, and they did so by offering something different from the other guys and that included 3-D Comics and comics based on Horror, and with this came them doing a comic based on WaxWork! I originally got this comic way back when from Mavericks Cards And Comics and re-bought it years later from Bell Book And Comic so I want to thank them for having it in stock and for reuniting me with many of my comics from the past. So as we enter this WaxWork, I see some rules on the wall about not being late and only one person walking in each display but I also see one that wants me to remind you that I grade these on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story! So with that Hans has allowed us to go in and let’s see what horrors await us, shall we?

WaxWork # 1  **1/2
Released in 1988     Cover Price $2.00     Blackthrone     # 1 of 1

A homeless man is looking through the garbage outside of a Wax Muesum when he sneaks inside and is killed by Jason Voorhees! This traps his soul and allows owner David Lincoln to only need six more people in order to free the world’s worst killers and madmen! The next day Mark along with his friends are walking to school when they are greeted by David Lincoln who invites them all to visit the museum tonight for a private event, and they agree. Later that evening Mark and friends along with Professor Wilfred all attend, and soon many of them fall victim to the monsters in the displays as Dracula, Jack The Ripper, Zombies, The Mummy, a Werewolf and Marquis de Sade all claim victims and open the rift to allow them all to live again! Mark, Sarah and Professor Wilfred figure out what’s going on and set the place on fire all the while trying to defend themselves from the killers! Mark takes down Jason, while Sarah chops off Dracula’s head and before they can escape David Lincoln shoots Professor Wilfred as he stabs David and the WaxWorks falls down around them. In the end Sarah and Mark are greeted by the paramedics and are taken away as a lone Zombie Hand survives the fire.

When I was younger I really enjoyed this comic as it changed the plot and characters and made it a very loose adaptation of the film giving me as a reader and a fan something a little new.  Some of the changes that worked was adding a 80’s slasher killer like Jason Voorhees, but what didn’t work was how fast the story goes and that they take away any and all of the impact of the monsters as well as really downplay David Lincoln.  Also while Junior is around, he is very different and Hans is left out all together leaving grown up me thinking the comic was just okay. The plot is this: a group of college kids and their professor go to a wax museum, and some of the friends die inside the exhibits. After a brief time, they figure out that they have to burn the place down in order to stop the monsters from entering society. That’s the major issue with this comic adaptation, it all happens really quick and fast and besides the exhibit attacks all the horror and scares are gone as is the personalities of the characters, as Mark, China, Sarah and the others just come off as generic friends and villains who lack any real depth and charisma that made them cool characters in the films. Plus characters change roles as Sir Wilfred, who is the great grandfather of Mark in the films, is his professor in the comic, and he no longer leads an army of old timers that are trained to kill the monsters, but instead just figures out that they need to set the Wax Museum ablaze to stop the evil. David Lincoln is a minor role in this comic and barely gets to show off the characters evil side. The comic also cuts back on the gore and blood.  While it’s a little of a letdown, it still has some of the red stuff so it tried to at least please splatter fans. While it sounds like I am down on this comic with pointing out all its flaws and shortcomings, I do want to stress that I still enjoyed this comic after all these years.  I think lots of it has to do with that I am a sucker for Horror Comics based on cult films I love. The cover is pretty cool and is taken from the movie poster and has Hans opening the door to the WaxWorks with evil spirits all around. The interior art is done by Nigel Tully and is solid work.  While most of the characters look nothing like the actors who played them, it still holds a charm of its own. So I think if you enjoy the film and want to read almost a reimagining of the story then check this one out, but for those looking for the humor and gore of the film in these comic pages, I would say you might be disappointed. But while it’s not perfect I will say it’s a fun read and a comic that I enjoy having in my collection. Check out the artwork below to see what the art style is in this comic.

WaxWorks might not be a household name like many of the other 80’s Horror films, but it is one that I do truly think has been overlooked and deserves a cult statues. And it’s a film that mixes classic monsters and splatter effects wrapped around a horror comedy shell and is one of the better Horror Comedy films ever made. But with that we are going to leave the WaxWorks and head to out main attraction for this Countdown to Halloween as we will be playing a game and meeting the killer Jigsaw when we explore the world of SAW! So until then read a comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you on Halloween, boils and ghouls!