The Grim Gallery Enters Its Tenth Year

My companion blog, The Grim Gallery, devoted to monsters and horror is now entering it's tenth year of daily posts. If you like images of monsters of every kind you out to yourself to check it out. You can do so by visiting here.

Bloody Disgusting Names Xombi In Their Must Read List

The horror media culture site Bloody Disgusting has included Xombi on their binge-worthy reading list of dark titles published by DC Comics. You can see what other titles are on the list, and find links to begin reading them here.

Recent Commission

Squid. 3-D cut paper. 2019. 

Ask Me Anything #64

With the new year I thought it might be worth putting up another Ask Me Anything Post. It's been a while since I've done one, and I have no idea if there's still any interest, or if anyone even looks at this blog anymore.

Blogging seeming to be on the wane as other, more immediately gratifying, forms of social media have taken people's fancy, and readership has shifted elsewhere. Meaning that my own posting efforts, just like most people's, have shifted elsewhere more and more as well.

I've always preferred Blogger over other forms simply because it allows me to cover things more in depth than other delivery services, and to delve into somethings that I wouldn't really think felt at home on say, Facebook, or certainly Instagram.

This blog was set up primarily as a means of promoting my work, share some of my process and inspirations and, hopefully, steer people towards some things of interest and enjoyment I've found along the way. For the past few years I've broken away from monthly comics and have been working on longer range projects that I can't share yet, which means that this blog has not really had the content is was designed for.

So, while "Ask Me Anything" is meant for you to ask anything you are curious about regarding my work, inspirations, opinions on anything, or pretty much any other thing you may want to know from me, I'd like to also start by asking you what sort of content you'd like to see here so that it's not months of empty space, and returns to something worth checking in on. Certainly feel free to ask me anything as well.

Questions can be posted in the comments section below, and I'll either answer them there, or in a separate post sometime later in the month.

I've been asked a lot of good, thought provoking questions in the past as well as some really banal ones, all of which I tried to answer. You can see the previous questions by visiting Ask Me Anything  #1, #2 ,  #3, #4, #5, #6 , #7 , #8, #9,  #10,  #11,  #12 , #13, #14,  #15 , #16, #17 , #18 , #19,  #20,  #21, #22,  #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35, #36, #37, #38, #39, #40, #41, #42,  #43, #44, #45,  #46, #47,  #48, #49,  #50,  #51, #52 , #53, #54, #55, #56,  #57,  #58,  #59, and #60 , #61, #62 and #63

Answers not found following the questions can be found in the archives section for each associated month under Ask Me Anything.

Now ask away. 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 31 - Movie

Emma Larsimon, a successful French horror novelist, ends her bestselling series of books and announces that she's going to write non-horror fiction from now on. A visit from an old school friend and some unpleasant dreams force her home instead where she learns that the villain of her books, a demonic witch named Marianne, may not be fiction and is not happy that she's stopped writing about her.

Marianne (2019) an original 8-part series made for Netflix, may be the best Netflix original anything I've seen. It succeeds unlike every horror tv series they've tried and far better than most movies, Netflix produced, or otherwise, with an intensity not seen since Hereditary (2018). A French production, the cast was uniformly excellent, with great chemistry between them, and genuine believabilty. The direction, writing, cinematography, sound design, music, make-up, were also all top notch, and the location added so much to the sense of dread that infused this series. This was just overall outstanding on every level and easily the best thing I watched for this Countdown.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 30 - Movie

A child killing terror, which most often appears in the form of a clown named Pennywise, fights a group of youngsters in 1960. Thirty years later, when new murders begin, the youngsters, now adults, reband to attempt defeating Pennywise once and for all.

When I read Stephen King's novel It back in 1986 when it was first published, I loved it, and could not put it down. It remains one of my favorite novels of his. When I saw It (1990), the two part miniseries, based on the novel, when it debuted I was really let down.  Coming across it in the $5.00 bin at Walmart around the time the new movie adaptation came out, I thought I'd give it another look, something I ended up putting off until now.

I still don't like it. The cast is fine, but this mini-series lacks any bite and because of its length and the way the book is broken down into vignettes focusing on each character as a child, and as and adult, not only does the plot feel simultaneously simple and disjointed, but the relationships between the characters lacks the depth and the strength that really powered the novel. Without it, I just didn't care about what happened to any of them. I had no stakes in their winning over this clown which was presented as something somewhere between Caesar Romero's Joker if he were a drunk, carnival clown with an unhealthy interest in children, and Krusty on the Simpsons. He wasn't scary like a monstrous cyclical, unstoppable evil. He was mildly disturbing in a drunken relative has invited himself into my house and I can't get him to leave kind of way. One of the big disappointments, too, was that when we get to see Pennywise in his true form it's as some sort of big spider. Yawn.

I know a lot of people love this mini-series, and I suspect those that do were significantly younger than I was when they first saw it, and I get that changes things. You are welcome to keep this version of It warm in your hearts. I'll stick with the book.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 29 - Movie

The Prince of a South Seas island is murdered in a power grab, but allegedly for befriending the American Scientists whose vaccines they fear. Having vowed to return for vengeance, he comes back as the nearly indestructabe tree creature, Tabonga.

I don't think I've actually ever seen From Hell It Came (1957) before, and after this viewing I expect I probably never will again. Sure, the tree monster suit is not exactly chilling, but that's the least of this movie's problems. Wooden acting (and not by Tabonga), over acting, clumsy writing, and poor direction all combine into a boring mess that drags on for what seems like hours longer than its running time.

If you still feel compelled to watch it, here's a link:

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Movie

Seventeen years after being raped by a strange creature, a woman's son starts transforming into a similar creature. Seemingly possessed by his progenitor, the son seeks vengeance against the enemies of his inhuman father, then as his own lifecycle nears its end, he rapes the one girl he's been trying to protect in order to bring the next generation of his kind into being.

The Beast Within (1982) received a lot of press as it was originally released, but has mostly fallen into obscurity since. While the notion of a creature with a seventeen year life-cycle, like a cicada, is a good one, the ugliness of its reproduction through rape, while keeping with the dark nature of horror, is pretty distasteful. The filmmakers did try and make these scenes as discrete as possible without diminishing their ugliness. The film itself seems to meander around more than build. There's what is meant to be a showstopper transformation scene - all the rage following Altered States, An American Werewolf in London, and The Howling - which goes too far in it's latex rubber and air bladder stretchiness and makes the viewer all too aware that what they are watching is a bunch of inflated pulsating rubber. I didn't care for this movie when I saw it on the big screen way back when, and my opinion of it now is really one of indifference. It wasn't as bad as I remembered it, but it wasn't really entertaining now either. It's just sort of there.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie

Blade (Wesley Snipes) joins a group of young vampire hunters seeking to destroy Dracula, and all vampires.

Blade: Trinity (2004) written and directed by David S. Goyer, who has given himself the worst script to give lackluster direction to. Strangely considering that he wrote all three, this story, which essentially puts Blade in a barely involved supporting role, doesn't feel at all like it was written by the same writer. Blade's character sometimes acts uncharacteristically, the continuity is sloppy, especially regarding the vampire physiology, there's too much inspiration from the Matrix films, and the new characters are really uninteresting, as is the story in general. It's dull.

The new pack of vampire hunters, the Nightstalkers, are really poorly defined. Ryan Reynolds plays the same character he does in every movie/ Jessica Biel says little, prefers hunting with a bow and arrow and showing off her stomach. Patton Oswalt plays a geek, and Natasha Lyon a blind biologist with a young daughter that I can't remember whether or not gets rescued from the vampires at the end of the movie. There are a few other people, I think, but they are wallpaper.

The bad guys don't fare much better. Parker Posey is bad and annoying as their leader. Dominic Purcell as Drake, amy be the screen's least interesting, or intimidating Dracula, and the others are cypher strongman, and cackling toady types.

This was just a bad bad movie. Do not watch it.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie

Blade (Wesley Snipes) is recruited by the vampires to help stop a new mutated breed of vampires, the Reapers, who threaten the existence of both vampire and human populations.

Blade II (2002) written by David S. Goyer and directed by Guillermo Del Toro is a major step up from the original film. While the screenplay was written by Goyer (based on characters created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan for Marvel's Tomb of Dracula), Del Toro's fingerprints are all over the storytelling, from his use of color, to a more biological approach to the vampires and reapers, and the increased amount of elaborate technologic weapons. The characters are also richer and more dimensional with a more romantic and tragic feel to the entire film.

Blade II would be the highpoint for the series and allowed Del Toro to try and succeed at grafting an action movie onto the genre he loves best.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 25 - Movie

A half-human, half-vampire, who has all of a vampire's strengths and none of their weaknesses, hunts vampires while searching for a way to make himself human.

Blade (1998), directed by Stephen Norrington, and written by David S. Goyer is the movie which really allowed the current cinematic Marvel universe, and the Underworld franchise to happen. Adapted from the Marvel comics starring a character who made his debut in Tomb of Dracula, this movie takes its subject matter seriously and gives it a polished look with plenty of action and horror. Wesley Snipes' Blade is a real badass, but with a guarded human core.

There are only a couple of things detrimental to this film. The CGI effects are pretty abysmal. This gives the film an unfortunate dated feel, especially in the climactic scene right out of the climactic scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which would have been a visual showstopper if not for the limitations of the special effects. Also Stephen Dorff as the villain is pretty pathetic rather than intimidating.

It's an above average vampire action film with a lot of promise which would be delivered in its first sequel.

The Art of Little Shoppe of Horrors

I've been providing illustrations for Little Shoppe of Horrors, the excellent magazine devoted the the films produced by Hammer Studios, periodically for the past few years. I'm humbled bight company I keep, both in the outstanding artists (see list below) and in the incredible journalists and scholars who write the articles, and in Richard Klemensen whose been keeping this publication going for nearly 50 years.

Now there is a book that contains all of the cover art and much of the interior art from its entire history, including something by me.

Following is the solicitation information for the publication. You can order a copy here.

       Little Shoppe of Horrors arrived on the horror film scene in 1972 as a general interest monster-zine. But with the legendary Issue #4 in 1978, it morphed into covering Hammer Films and other British Horrors.

Starting with issue #10/11, in 1990, the covers began featuring the fabulous color artwork of many of the best artists working today. From Steve Karchin's gorgeous 'Kiss of the Vampire' in that seminal issue - We've expanded to four color covers each issue - all of them dazzling. Now-Here they are in all their original text free form. Assemble all together in one place.

Artist-Shana Bilbrey, David Brooks, Norm Bryn, Veronica Carlson, Lee Copeland, Frank Dietz, Kayla Free, Dan Gallagher jr., the Gurch, Tim Hammell, Chantal Handley, Mike Hill, Alistair Hughes, Steve Karchin, Bob Lizarraga, Ron Lizorty, Mark Maddox, Stewart McKissick, Shane Ivan Oakley, Dean Ormston, Jeff Preston, David Robinson, John Rozum, Adrian Salmon, Jim Salvati, Mike Schneider, William Stout, Bruce Timm, Neil D. Vokes and Paul Watts.

8-1/2" x 11" softbound book

170 pages - full color

31 Days of Halloween - Day 24 - Movie

Two twin brothers, whose mother has her face covered in bandages after reconstructive surgery, begin to suspect that she's not actually their mother.

Goodnight Mommy (2014) is a slow burn movie. Strange, haunting, and with no score, their is a feeling of dread insinuating the film from the very beginning. The film is full of characters with odd behavior, and blurred artwork on the walls reinforcing the idea of unfocused identity. The movie comes with a twist, and plenty of clues leading up to it, The observant viewer should see it coming from early on. The performances are all spot on, and the stark scenery beautiful.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 23 - Movie

June (Coleen Gray), suffering an unhappy marriage because her endocrinologist husband (Phillip Terry), ten years her junior, feels contempt now that she's aging. When a 150 year old African woman  shows them the secret of eternal youth, June turns on her husband, and seeks the attentions of a younger man (Grant Williams) while committing murders in order to stay young.

The Leech Woman (1960) ended Universal's second cycle of classic horror and science fiction films, and is actually a pretty decent film with social commentary on how society, particularly men, toss aside women as they age. It has a good cast, but suffers from some lackluster direction and some really bad make-up effects. Malla (Estelle Hemsley), a slight woman, who was 73 at the time of filming, fairs pretty well made up to be a near mummy of 150, but Coleen Grays make-ups are really shoddy.

Coleen Gray is also able to transition between being a sympathetic character and a despicable one.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 22 - Movie

A group of clerics acting as exorcists, who live sinful depraved lives so that is they encounter demons they can't drive back to Hell, they can invite them into their own bodies and commit suicide dragging the demons to hell with them. In their latest case they must stop Surtr, the Norse figure who will bring about Ragnorok and kill God.

Hellbenders (2012) starring Clancy Brown, Clifton Collins, Jr., Andre Royo, Robyn Rikoon, Maxon Blair and Larry Fessenden, is a comedy and somewhat structured like a filthy version of Ghostbusters, with a representative of the Catholic Church closing them down because of their excessively sinful lifestyle, and reinstating them once they save the world. It's pretty low brow, but often clever, and made for a fun viewing experience, but it's not quite successful in what it sets out to do.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 21 - Movie

Cursed to live for all eternity as a vampire, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), is released from the coffin prison which held him for nearly two centuries, and is determined to help his ancestors rise again to affluence. His plans meet opposition from Angelique (Eva Green), the witch who cursed him for spurning her love, whois still alive, and still determined to destroy the Collins family.

Based on the soap opera of the early 1970s, Tim Burton's Dark Shadows (2012) is a loose tribute to the show that inspired it. The gothic trappings are all there, and suitably punched up since this is, after all, a Tim Burton movie, but there's far more humor, which no doubt contributed to many fans finding the movie irreverent.

I liked the first two thirds of this movie far more than I expected to, but felt like the climax was lazy and uninspired, as well as uninspiring. There were a lot of loose ends, particularly involving Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote) who enters the film as a character of importance then disappears for most of the rest of it. The cast was uniformly pretty great, and Depp's Barnabas Collins was handled nicely and without any real goofiness.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 20 - Movie

When his brother goes missing, Robert Manning (Mark Eden) travels the remote country has that he was last heard from. No one claims to know who his brother was, but evidence suggests otherwise, and further digging leads him to secret passages and a cult of witchcraft.

Curse of the Crimson Altar / The Crimson Cult (1968), despite starring Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Michael Gough and Barabara Steele is not a very good movie. It is pretty fun though, with an opening, that had that tone been sustained throughout would have elevated this film to, at least, cult classic status. Most of the movie is bogged down with repetitive inquiries, walking the corridors of the manor, and trying to bed Christopher Lee's niece (Virginia Wetherell). There's also a boggling amount of generous hospitality and cooperation on the part of the same people who are trying to hide the truth from Manning, removing tension, and making things seem less sinister in the process, which is a big no-no when it comes to this type of film.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 19 - Movie

In The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (2009), the original cast is joined by new characters in a search for a new element that can be found only in the Valley of Monsters where it is guarded by a lost civilization.

Less mired in replicating the look and feel of low budget science fiction movies circa 1958, this sequel is still filled with humor, though of a different style. The names of the new characters are more onomatopoeiac versions of name types than actual real names. Half of the film is in color this time and the score suggests Bernard Hermann's scores for Ray Harryhausen films. There are plenty of great extras on the new blu ray. If you enjoyed the first movie, you should certainly grab a copy of this one, too. You can order a copy here, or if you want the plain old dvd, look below.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 18 - Movie

Three different parties are in such of the rare radioactive element, Atmospherium. Dr. Paul Armstrong (Larry Blamire) and his wife Betty (Fay Masterson) because it could mean real advances in the field of science; Dr. Roger Fleming (Brian Howe) because it's necessary to resurrect the lost skeleton of Cadavra, with him he hopes to rule the world; and to Kro-Bar (Andrew Parks) and his wife Lattis (Susan McConnell), aliens from the planet Marva, because it will allow them to return home. Along the way they are also joined by Animala (Jennifer Blaire), a woman created from four different forest animals, Ranger Brad (Dan Conroy) and an escaped mutant (Darrin Read).

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001) is Larry Blamire's hilarious tribute to science fiction movies circa 1958. Made with loving affection and played straight, the movie gets just about everything right and has probably the most quotable lines of any movie ever made. It is not to be missed, and does not lose its effectiveness through multiple viewings.

As a bonus, all of the bonus features are almost equally entertaining.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 17 - Movie

In The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967), Count Regula is quartered for murdering twelve young women (of thirteen intended victims) in a bid for immortality. He vows he will return for vengeance. Thirty-five years later Roger, a lawyer is invited to the castle of Count Regula where he will be given information about his past. Along with a thief posing as a monk, a baroness and her maid, Roger visits the castle to discover it is a death trap full of torture devices, and that the undead Count Regula plans to finish what he started 35 years ago.

Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" this movie is full of atmosphere, and  more garish haunted castle decor than the entire run of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?. It's an entertaining, minor, Christopher Lee starring film. Perfect for the middle of the night, or a rainy afternoon.