31 Days of Halloween - Day 11 - Movie

After running a Frankenstein week during the countdown for two years in a row, I felt it was time for a change of pace. It came to my attention that I had only ever seen the first two "A Nightmare On Elm Street" movies. While I'm not big on the so-called "icons of horror" from the 1980s, I remember enjoying these movies and decided that this year I'd watch the entire series (minus the "Freddy vs Jason" installments). I may be in for a long week full of regret, but here goes.

"A Nightmare On Elm Street" (1984) is really an inaccurate title. There are numerous nightmares happening on this particular street, all being had by a group of four teenagers, and all the dreams centering on a badly burned man in a green and red striped sweater wearing a glove with razor blade covered finger tips. This burned man, it turns out is a dead child murderer named Fred Krueger, and he can now kill people in their dreams, killing them in the real world as well. After a desperate seven day attempt at going without sleep, one of the teenagers played by Heather Langenkamp decides to fight back so she can get some sleep without fear.

The movie is filled with dreams that don't ever really feel like actual dreams, but have some inventive imagery, which extends over into the real world as well as we watch Freddy Krueger's powers extend into the waking world. The special effects are pretty well done as well. The cast is able, but without any real standout performances, not even by Johnny Depp and his big 1984 hair and accompanying wardrobe. The film does boast John Saxon as Langenkamp's policeman father, who is always a welcome sight.

The movie does have some serious lapses in logic and believability, the most noteworthy being when Langenkamp pleads with her father to come to her aid in twenty minutes time. After he agrees, we watch a montage of her rigging some really sophisticated booby traps (meant to trap Fred Krueger when she pulls him into the waking world, never mind the fact that her mother is in the house, and her father soon will be. What happens if they stumble upon one of these death traps?) then has a heartfelt talk with her mother before going up to bed, successfully falling asleep (acceptable since she's been up for seven days, although a seven day sleep deprivation period devoid of the usual hallucinations) and dreaming during that twenty minute time period. Even better though, is after her father agrees to come to her, he starts up the stairs to investigate a crime scene, and she's finished her booby traps before he reaches the top.

I found the movie to be an okay diverting experience, but nothing great. I also found the character of Fred Krueger to be a one note unfrightening boogey man with absolutely no personality or even charisma. He was simply a delivery system to get to the special effects and nothing more, at least in this first film.

Tomorrow we'll find out what happens next, and I shall reveal my own bloody encounter with Fred Krueger. The blood was all mine, too.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11 Riddle

What is a zombie's favorite kind of tree?




Answer to yesterday's riddle: Ghoulashes.



Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11

Today's collage portrait is Pazuzu (aka Captain Howdy) played by Eileen Dietz in THE EXORCIST (1973). The make-up for this fleetingly seen face was created by Dick Smith.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10 - Movie

In "It Came From Outer Space" (1953), astronomer, Richard Carlson sees a meteor crash in the desert. When he investigates he finds what he believes is a spaceship, but before he can examine it, a rockslide buries it under tons of debris. No one believes him. As more strange things start to occur his attempts to convince the authorities that his tale of buried aliens only makes him look like more of a crackpot. His continued attempts to convince everyone of the truth finally pay off, only to endanger the lives of the townspeople, and the aliens, who are only trying to get off earth.

In spite of its title, this is one of the flying saucer eras more serious films about the earth being visited by aliens from another world. Because of this, it tends to lack a lot of the sensationalism that other period alien movies had. It develops slowly, with a number of pauses to allow character reflection along the way, but ultimately ends up being a very good movie, while perhaps not as riveting as other movies from the same time period such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "War of the Worlds" or even "This Island Earth."

The movie was developed from a film treatment by Ray Bradbury, and you can hear his voice in much of the dialogue throughout, particularly the scene with the lineman, Frank as he expounds on the desert. The design of the alien xenomorphs is like something Paul Blaisdell would have created for one of his low-budget Roger Corman movies, only with a bigger budget. Every effort was made to make it look as unearthly as possible. Details such as the trail the aliens leave on the ground as they move about, and the pov shots through their throbbing eyes, add to their alienness.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10 Riddle

What do ghosts wear on their feet when it rains?







Answer to yesterday's riddle: Lazy bones.










Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 10

Today's collage portrait is one of the titular creatures from INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN (1957). The make-up was created by Paul Blaisdell

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9 - Movie

Need a nap? Watch "The Mad Monster" (1942). This poorly made, repetitive, formulaic low, low budget quickie features insane scientist, George Zucco, and his plot to create an army of werewolves to use as soldiers, and as tools of revenge on the legitimate scientists who ridiculed him and his ideas. Glenn Strange gets to channel Lon Chaney Jr.'s two most celebrated roles, Lennie from "Of Mice and Men" (1939) and "The Wolf man" (1941) as the simpleton handyman on whom Zucco experiments. Transformed into a goofy looking werewolf in bib overalls, Strange plods around what are actually pretty nice swamp sets, as the world's slowest monster. There's also a subplot involving Zucco's daughter and an irritating reporter, but it adds nothing to the movie except running time on what is already an excruciating 77 minute long movie.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9 Riddle

What do you call a skeleton who refuses to work?






Answer to yesterday's riddle: Because everyone was a goblin.




Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 9

Today's Collage Portrait is Bela Lugosi as DRACULA (1931). The make-up was created by Jack Pierce. This collage is about seven years old, and compared to more recent work looks pretty shabby. At some point I'll get around to recreating this one.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8 - Movie

The gem, so far, in this season's viewing is "Let The Right One In" (2008). I've been wanting to watch it for what seems ages, but decided to hold off for this year's countdown. This is an absolutely beautiful movie and I can't recommend it enough.

Oskar (Kare Hedebrant), a bullied 12-year old boy finds salvation, and friendship in the seemingly 12-year old girl, Eli (Lina Leanersson) who moves in next door. Part pre-pubescent coming of age tale, as Oskar develops a heavy crush on Eli with whom he can never have a romantic relationship, and part horror movie as vampire, Eli does what she needs to to exist. Interestingly, the movie really is more of the former, than the latter. While there is plenty of blood, and Eli's interaction with others ends with horrible results for the others, I never looked at Eli as a monster, though she clearly is one. This is an interesting relationship story with a lot of depth to it, and both young leads are excellent.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8 Riddle

Why wasn't there any food left after the monster party?






Answer to yesterday's riddle: Take away the w.




Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 8

Today's collage portrait is Sally, voiced by Catherine O'Hara in the stop-motion animated feature film THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993).

31 Days of Halloween - Day 7 - Movie

It's difficult to discuss "The Sentinel" (1977) without giving the whole thing away. Pretty much all I can tell you is that pretty Christina Raines, not ready to commit to marriage with Chris Sarandon decides to move into her own apartment. When she's in her new place things start to get weird, then scary, then disturbing. This is one of those movies where things seem convoluted and arbitrary until very near the end when everything is suddenly revealed and makes sense, mostly. Many characters and plot threads simply fizzle away and disappear without resolution. There's also one scene that defies plausibility in which Raines, spooked by activity in the allegedly empty apartment above her goes to investigate, barefoot, in her skimpy negligee and a flashlight. I understand that this was to make her appear more vulnerable, and because she is such eye candy, but she would have put some clothes on first I would think. The key to this movie is to just sit back and let the movie unfold without trying to puzzle anything out.

The movie starts out looking very much like a montage from "Charlie's Angels" as we watch Christina Raines working as a model, looking very much like Kate Jackson, but quickly becomes darker as it progresses. There are a lot of unsettling moments and imagery as the movie unfolds. The sets are well utilized and Dick Smith provides some haunting make-up effects, amplified by people with actual severe physical and facial deformities, which seems a lot more exploitive here than it ever did in "Freaks." There are some interesting parallels here when we first meet the other residents of the apartment building, to "Coraline" (both the movie and the novel by Neil Gaiman).

The movie is very effective, only hampered by the distraction of noting how notable the cast is as each actor appears. Included are John Carradine, Jose Ferrer, Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Martin Balsam, Eli Wallach, Jerry Orbach, Sylvia Miles, William Hickey, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, Nana Visitor, Beverly D'Angelo, and Richard Dreyfuss among many others. It's like an entire season of "The Love Boat" mixed together with a handful of rising stars all in one movie.

This is well worth watching, especially if you've just moved into a new home, and you are alone.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 7 Riddle

How can you make a witch scratch?







Answer to yesterday's riddle: A sheet of ice.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 7

Today's collage portrait is Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). The make-up was created by Jack Pierce.

This is an older collage, from around 2002, or thereabouts, before I really knew what I was doing. At some point I realized that I wasn't going to be able to create a full 31 new collages for this countdown, and accepted that I'd have to pad it out with a few older ones.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 6 - Movie 2

It's been a long time since I've watched "Son of Kong" (1933), long enough to forget how bad it is. It's really obvious that this sequel was rushed through production to cash in on the success of "King Kong" released earlier that same year. The premise that gets the action under way is actually a good starting point, with Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) being inundated by lawsuits for all of the deaths and property damage caused by Kong's rampage through New York City. Running from his obligations, he finds himself back on Skull Island, with another pretty actress in tow, this time in search of treasure. They find this and a smaller, gentler, paler, version of Kong who helps them out and tags along like a big puppy. Little Kong comes across as a mugging version of the abominable snowman from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1964) with Chewbacca's voice. Even though the bulk of the movie doesn't contain stop motion animation, the stop motion and the models themselves which were built for this production are sloppy, and cartoony looking. You can see that the animators didn't even have time to repair the models as they began to fall apart. Little Kong's fingers are evidence of this wear and tear. In many scenes you can see tears in the rubber.

Kids may like this movie if they can get through the long set-up before the arrival on Skull Island, but adults should stay away.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 6 - Movie 1

I picked up "Rogue" (2007) on a whim, aware that the stigma against straight-to-video movies was slowly going away, but still knowing that good straight-to-video movies were the exception to the rule. Fortunately this movie turned out to be one of the exceptions, a big exception.

"Rogue" has the simplest of plots. An Australian wildlife river boat tour investigates distress flares and finds itself attacked by an enormous crocodile. Their boat sunk, and trapped on an island as both darkness and the tide come in shrinking their land, the survivors try to survive and get to land.

The movie, very well written, produced, and directed by Greg McLean does a great job of setting things up, and fleshing out the characters instead of populating the boat with the time worn cliché disaster movie types. Everyone feels, and looks like a real person and not a type. There's beautiful cinematography by Will Gibson and the whole movie looks much more expensive than must have been. The filmmakers are also wise enough to keep the crocodile mostly unseen, and take advantage of the nighttime lighting to suggest it, more than show it. The special effects never look cheap or phony. The action and situations are played with naturalism rather than sensation making this movie feel a lot more real, and the victims are picked off in a very democratic fashion defying expectations.

So far, "Rogue" is my surprise find for this Halloween season. I highly recommend it.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 6 Riddle

What do you get if you cross a ghost with a refrigerator?





Answer to yesterday's riddle: Because bats are used for decorations.



Image source

31 Days of Halloween - Day 6

Today's collage portrait is Graf Orlok as played by Max Schreck in NOSFERATU (1922). The make-up was most likely the creation of the film's art director, Albin Grau.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5 - Movie 2

If there's one movie I remember terrifying me as a kid, it was "The Skull"(1965). Contrary to what you'd think, even though this movie scared me to death and gave me nightmares, I still scoured the pages of TV Guide hoping to see that it would be on again. It no longer scares me, but I find it to be very eerie and full of atmosphere and an excellent score that amplifies the feeling of dread that powers this movie.

Occult collector and scholar, Peter Cushing is contacted by his dealer with an offer to purchase the skull of the Marquis de Sade. Cushing is suspicious of the skull's authenticity, but his friend and fellow collector, Christopher Lee, confirms the skull's authenticity, adding that it had been stolen from him and that he is glad, and that Cushing should stay away from it. Of course Cushing doesn't listen, and finds himself driven to possess this skull, then finds the skull trying to possess him, exerting it's evil influence over him, trying to make him do its malicious bidding. The skull doesn't need Cushing to do its work for it, it's perfectly willing and capable of murdering on its own.

There are a lot of parallels between "The Skull" and last night's movie, "The Mask" right down to a hallucinatory dream sequence. "The Skull" is full of good performances, and it's a pleasant change of pace to see Cushing and Lee playing friends in a movie. The sets are magnificent and chock full of weird occult items. "The Skull" is based on the Robert Bloch short story, "The Skull of the Marquis De Sade."

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5 - Movie 1

The last time I saw "The Gorgon" (1964) was on glorious, snowy. pre-cable UHF. I didn't remember too much about it. It turns out this is a pretty cool, and different Hammer production. Starring Christopher Lee in the academically heroic role (he doesn't appear until almost halfway through the movie, Peter Cushing as the cold, almost villainous doctor, and Barbara Shelley as the beauty, "The Gorgon" is the story of a town plagued by mysterious murders and a widespread conspiracy to keep them hushed up. When a family of outsiders falls victim to the murderer, they decide to look beyond what the police reports say and uncover the truth. The truth involves victims turned to stone, a ruined castle, and the 2000 year old surviving sister of Medusa. The movie does drag a bit in places, but is on par with other Hammer movies such as "The Reptile" (1966) and "The Plague of Zombies" (1966).

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5 Riddle

Why do baseball players like Halloween?






Answer to yesterday's riddle: Lunch and dinner.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5

Today's collage portrait is the skeleton creature from THE CREEPING FLESH (1973). The make-up was designed by Roy Ashton.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 4 - Movie

No, tonight's movie was not "They Live" (that comes later in the month. "The Mask" (1961) is a decent diversion. A disturbed young archeologist tells his psychiatrist that he thinks he may have committed murder, driven to kill by a mask which has hypnotic powers over him. The mask soon finds itself in the hands of the skeptical psychiatrist, but once he puts it on and finds himself confronted with 3-D hallucinatory horror imagery of disfigured cloaked figures, spiders, snakes, skeletons and mist shrouded bogs, believes that the mask is giving him insight into the workings of the human mind. The mask possesses him like a drug, driving away his loved ones and friends, and putting him on a path into insanity and murder, or is it?

I'm a sucker for cursed occult object stories and Paul Stevens as the tormented psychiatrist gives a good performance, but the movie feels like an overlong "Twilight Zone" episode. If it had been made now, it would no doubt have been the first movie in a franchise series.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 4 Riddle

What are two things Frankenstein's monster can't have for breakfast?






Answer to yesterday's riddle: Kittens.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 4

Today's collage portrait is the titular creature from THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951) played by James Arness. The make-up was created by Lee Greenway.

I wanted to depict the Thing in a manner that wasn't based on this overly familiar publicity photo, but no real alternative pictures seem to exist, and searching for an image to grab from the movie only made me discover that you never get a clear view of the creature in the movie, which I think works to the movie's benefit.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 3 - Movie

As an eleven year old I was completely won over by "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1977). I often find that revisiting movies that you loved as a kid is a really bad idea. They almost never hold up when viewed through adult eyes. I managed to go through a lot of time before finally breaking down to watch this again. The verdict? It was much better than I expected it would be. It's no "Island of Lost Souls" , but it was an entertaining, loose adaptation of the novel by H.G. Wells starring Michael York as the shipwrecked sailor, Burt Lancaster as Dr. Moreau, Richard Basehart as the Sayer of the Law, and Barbera Carrera as the babe. The real star though are the humanimals. In the movie, they are creations of Moreau, but their make-ups were created by Daniel C. Striepeke, John Chambers, and Tom Burman witha slew of assistants. The actors playing the humanimals also did a good job channeling the animal they were meant to be genetically developed from.

The movie develops nicely, maintaining the mystery of what's on the island and what Moreau is up to, with a slow build to the reveal of the humanimals. Unfortunately, the movie comes to a pretty sudden stop with the climactic fire, with York and Carrera witnessing the action from a safe distance. Lancaster, usually an outstanding actor, doesn't convey the drive and madness required. He's too matter of fact. They also seem to ignore Maria's origin, while alluding to it. If you're familiar with the story it seems obvious what it is, but since it never actually comes out in this movie, it's possible it was dropped altogether. I've heard there was an alternate ending filmed, which may have contained the payoff for this character's story, but in the version as is, it's as if it were never meant to be there at all.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 3 - Spooky Bonus

I would like to thank the folks at TCM's Movie Morlocks for giving me a nice plug for this countdown. Congratulations to everyone else selected as well. It was nice to find myself in such distinguished company, doubly so since my plug really concerned the countdown as a whole including everyone else participating.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 3 Riddle

What do witches call little black cats?





Answer to yesterday's riddle: One is all grown. The other is all groan.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 3

Today's collage portrait is Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animated Cyclops from THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958). I love this movie, and the cyclops is easily one of the five best monster designs of all time.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2 - Movie 2

If you're the sort of person who won't watch a horror movie made before John Carpenter's "Halloween," prefers the slasher sub-genre, and mainly watches a horror movie for the extremely realistic, yet over the top bloodbath special effects, then "Laid To Rest" (2009) is for you. If you're the kind of person who cares about things like plot, suspense, and decent characters then you should avoid this movie.

"Laid To Rest" is about a young woman who wakes up in a coffin in a mortuary with no memory of who she is, or how she got there. She quickly finds herself on the run from a serial killer who calls himself ChromeSkull, because he wears a chrome skull mask glued to his face. He also wears a video camera on his shoulder and is fond of really big serrated bowie knives. As the woman searches for help, and finds it, she brings everyone she encounters to ChromeSkull's murderous attentions, leading to one specatacular gory death after another.

This movie has no suspense whatsoever and actors trying their best with no characters to work with, meaning we don't care about any of them. I was never interested in who this woman was, or where she came from, nor were the filmmakers, since the reveal didn't matter to the story one bit. To top it off, ChromeSkull is a lame monster/killer. He's tall, and that's about it. He's not at all menacing, pretty clumsy, and with the director's lack of skill at building suspense, never much of a threat.

The special effects by Almost Human, Inc. are pretty impressive, if you can admire someone having their face sawed away from the rest of their head. A combination of practical make-up effects and CGI, there are only a few brief moments where they are less than convincing and the CGI is too obvious.

"Laid To Rest" really feels like a demo real for these effects, like one of those infomercials with Lorenzo Lamas where a rudimentary plot is tacked on to a demonstration of the BowFlex exercising system. This comes as no surprise since the movie's writer/director is Robert Hall, founder of Almost Human Inc.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2 - Movie 1

Roy Scheider makes his feature film debut in "The Curse of the Living Corpse" (1964). The movie was written, directed, and produced by Del Tenney, the same man who brought the world "The Horror of Party Beach" . The movie starts off with some nice imagery and a good premise. After the much loathed family patriarch dies, his will is read to his greedy never-do-well heirs and servants. The patriarch, who had a paralyzing degenerative muscular disorder and a phobia about being buried alive had stipulated that torches be kept lit in his vault and that the door remain unlocked, just in case he weren't really dead. If these terms were not met, he'd return from the grave to make sure that each of his heirs died truly horrible deaths based upon their own phobias. Soon enough, activity begins at the crypt and the bodies start piling up.

This movie has its moments, but lacks a sense of real dread during the key moments where it really needs to be making the audience squirm in their seats. The murders are also filmed in the most lackluster manner, and the lurking murderer on screen is a less than menacing cloaked figure wearing a hat and mask, as if Lamont Cranston, the Shadow had stepped out of the noirish pulp magazines that spawned him and into someone's brightly lighted back yard.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2 Riddle

What's the difference between an adult and a ghost?




Answer to yesterday's riddle: The light's witch.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2

Today's collage portrait is Gina (Andree Melly) from BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960). This is my favorite Hammer movie for a number of reasons, which I will get into during next year's countdown.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 1 - Movie

To set the mood for this year's month long marathon of horror movies, I played it a bit safe by choosing a great one. "The Haunting" (1963), based on Shirley Jackson's great novel, "The Haunting of Hill House" remains one of the best haunted house movies of all time, and it does it with a very sparing use of music, and even less in the way of special effects. Sure, everyone talks about the doors, but this movie's most chilling moments come purely through the power of suggestion. Few movies can top that hand holding sequence for sending chills down the viewer's spine. While the cast is all quite good in this movie, it's Hill House which is the real star, and director Robert Wise and his team of cinematographers, art directors, set decorators and carpenters that bring it to life. And this house seems very much alive, like a shifting, enclosing trap.

If you've never seen this movie before, you are missing out on one of the true classics of the horror film.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 1 Riddle

What turns off the lights on Halloween?


Come back tomorrow for the answer.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 1

Today's Collage Portrait is Lon Chaney, Jr. as THE WOLF MAN (1941). The Wolf Man's make-up was created and applied by Jack Pierce.

31 Days of Halloween - The Participants

If you want to know which houses are giving out the good candy this year, then look no further than the list below. Remember when you stop by to say thank you by leaving them a comment for all the hard work they've put into making Halloween the greatest holiday of the year.

All sites are listed alphabetically. This list is also posted at the official Countdown to Halloween blog (available also by clicking on the button with the jack o'lantern at the upper right of this blog) where it will be updated regularly. Keep checking back there all month long. It's never too late to join in. Just let us know, at the Countdown to Halloween blog who would like to be included and send us a link.


All Eyes And Ears

Arbogast on Film

Armagideon Time

Art By Bubba Shelby

AtomicFox

Azathoth's Abode on the Plateau of Leng

Azathoth's Abode on the Plateau of Leng: The Dungeon

Bliss Massacre

Bogleech

Branded In The 80s

Caffeinated Joe

The Captain's Ramblings

Cavalcade of Awesome

Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom

Cool-Mo-Dee

Crafty Lady Abby

Creepy LA

Dave Lowe Design

The Davis House News

demonals.com

Distinctly Jamaican Sounds

Diversions of the Groovy Kind

Doo Wacka Doodles

Dr. K's 100 Page Super Spectacular

Draculand

The Drunken Severed Head

Filmkunst

The Fin Tank

Frankensteinia

Freddy In Space

Frog on the Pumpkin

The Gallows

Geek Orthodox

Geektarded

The Ghosts of Halloween Past

The Gothic Tea Society

Halloween Addict

Halloween Hooplah

The Halloween Tree

Haunt Style

The Holiday Queen

Hooked on Hypnocil

Horror Host Graveyard

The Horrors Of It All

John Rozum.com

Life as an Ewok

Macabre Drive-In Theater

Magic Carpet Burn

Magikal Seasons

Mark Harvey's World

Me, You, and a Blog Named Boo

The Metal Misfit

Mr. Macabre's Hallowe'en Celebrations

Monsters Cereals

Monster Crazy

Monster Movie Music

Monster Rally

Moongem Comics

Mother Firefly's Faster Pussycats

Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else

Musty TV

My Ghoul Friday

My Monster Memories

My Two Yen Worth

Neato Coolville

Negative Pleasure

Negative Pleasure 2

Oh! So Spooky. Oh! So Scary

Orange and Black - The Spirit of Halloween

Para Abnormal

PeanutGnome's World

Peter's Choice Awards

Plaid Stallions

Plastic Pumpkins

Pumpkinrot

Puppatoons

Random Acts of Geekery

Retrospace

Scary Salt Lake

The Sexy Armpit

Sexy Witch

Skull A Day

Spooky Laboratory

Strange Kids Club

Super Blogliness!

Ténèbres à la lumière

The Surfing Pizza

That Is So Queer

13 Visions

Tiki Ranch

Trixie's Treats

Vanessa-Oxygenvalve

Vinnie Ratolle's

Weird Hollow

Whatever I Think Of

The Windesphere Witch

Wonderful Wonderblog

Work of My Hands

31 Days of Halloween - Welcome

Welcome to the 4th annual Halloween Countdown . Everyday for the month of October, I will be posting various tricks and treats for your enjoyment. As with the past two years there will be a daily Halloween riddle with the answer being provided the following day. There will also be a daily movie, and periodic musings, photos, and links to other sites. The big candy bar which I'll be dropping into your Halloween bucket each day is a collage portrait of a movie monster. These portraits are made entirely out of cut paper. The selection of the monsters was pretty much random in nature, and as there are only 31 days in the month, I will obviously be missing many, many favorites, of mine as well as yours. I'm aware of this, there's no need to point it out, though I'm open to requests for the future. If you like these portraits remember them when the Rondo Awards begin next February and you're filling in that blank space for Artist of the Year.

If you click on the Halloween Countdown button at the top right, you will be directed to the Halloween Countdown home page, created for this year by Shawn Robare as a home base to start out from in order to visit the almost 100 (so far) blogs participating in the Halloween Countdown this year. Everyone puts a lot of hard work into their own personal countdowns, so make sure that you drop the some appreciative comments as you stop by and hit them up for tricks and treats.


This brings me to one last item regarding my own Halloween Countdown. I am having a contest. What do you have to do? Not a whole lot. This year's contest is based entirely on participation. As I stated, a lot of hard work goes into these countdowns, and I am very grateful to all the people who have left comments in the past, participated in the riddles, etc. For each comment a person leaves, I putting their name into hat -- a moldy hat taken from the severed head of a rotting corpse. I'd prefer that the comments be a little more well thought out than simply "Cool!" I also recognize that there are dozens of other blogs for you to check out each day, so I don't expect in depth analysis each and every time either. I just want to know what people think so that I can make it even better next year. So what do you win? In the spirit of Halloween, I will just say that it will be more of a treat than a trick. I will drop a random item into five people's Halloween buckets at the end of the month, announcing the winners on October 31.

For newcomers, here are the Halloween Countdowns I ran for the years 2006 , 2007 , and 2008 . Enjoy!



Image source

THE WEB #1 Alternate Cover

Here's the variant cover to THE WEB #1 featuring artwork by JG Jones depicting the Hangman.

Available For Pre-order

Coming in December and available to pre-order now at your local comic book store are the following comic books which contain stories I wrote.





















CARTOON ACTION PACK #44 - Available December 2. The Secret Saturdays investigate a possible cryptid dinosaur and find more than they were looking for. Art by Scott Jeralds. Cover by Jay Stephens.


















SCOOBY-DOO #151 - Available December 9. A reporter tags along with Mystery Inc. hoping for a story . He lucks out as he finds himself tagging along as the gang investigates a mystery involving a strange painting and an even stranger creature bent on stealing it. Art by Fabio Laguna.



















THE WEB #4 - Available December 23. In the second of two parts, THE HANGMAN's investigation into a human trafficking ring brings him face to face with an Umi-bozu, a powerful supernatural being with a secret tie to the traffickers. Art by Tom Derenick and Bill Sienkiewicz.

In Comic Book Stores Today

THE WEB #1 hits comic book stores today. The lead feature begins the ongoing adventures of the selfish rich-boy hero, the Web. Written by Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S., THE L WORD, HERBIE - FULLY LOADED) with art by Roger Robinson and Hilary Barta.

The co-feature follows the continuing adventures of the noirish supernatural hero, the Hangman. This portion of the comic book was written by me with some great art by Tom Derenick and Bill Sienkiewicz, and Guy Major and Travis Lanham.

THE WEB is published by DC Comics.

Ahoy, Mateys!

"Greetin's, buckos! Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day. Reckon t' conduct all o' yerr affairs o' t' day, be they business, or social in t' appropriate manner o' speech, that bein' of a seafarin' hearty. "

The Hangman - Script

My last 2 posts showed the same comic book page in it's pencilled form, and in it's later inked and lettered form. Shawn Robare requested that I also post the first part of the process, the script. After failed attempts to figure out a way to attach a text document to a blog post, I decided just to copy and paste the text itself into this entry.

The following is the page of written script for the same comic book page in the previous two entries. You'll notice it's not pretty. With a comic book script, no one will ever read it (usually) beyond the editor, and artists involved in putting that comic book story together into its final comic book form. With this in mind, it's more important to make sure that the artist knows what you want visually put on the page. By artist I mean everyone involved; penciller, inker, letterer, colorist. I often use short cuts by sending them visual reference, or referring to a scene in a movie that evokes the same mood, or physical sense of place. The script is not meant to contain literary flourishes with its description. My scripts vary in length quite a bit. I've written scripts for a 22 page comic that were nearly 40 pages long. For this story, I think things came in at about a page and a half of script in most places to a page of finished comic book art. For this particular page, it was a page of script to a page of art.



Page 6, panel 1
THE HANGMAN STANDS ON A DOCK BY THE FERRY BUILDING. HE HOLDS A NEARLY UNCONSCIOUS TEENAGER BY THE LAPELS OF HIS JACKET. WE CAN SEE THE RED-PURPLE NOOSE BRUISE AROUND THE BOY’S NECK. FOG SWIRLS AROUND THE HANGMAN, SEEMINGLY TAKING ON SPECTRAL SHAPES OF ANGRY GHOSTS PREPARED TO BACK HIM UP.

Hangman Caption: When they do, they’ll find me waiting and know that nothing passes beneath my notice.

Hangman: This will be the only warning given by me, the only chance.

Page 6, panel 2
FROM BEHIND THE HANGMAN AS HE TURNS HIS HEAD AND LOOKS UP AT THE CLOCK ON THE TOWER ABOVE THE FERRY BUILDING. THE HANDS ARE AT 5:20.

Hangman: Change...

Hangman:...or else.

Page 6, panel 3
AGAIN, SHADOWS AND FOG SWIRL AROUND THE HANGMAN.

Hangman Caption: In minutes, dawn will be upon the city. My work this night is through.

Hangman Caption: I call the fog and the darkness to me, shape it...

Page 6, panel 4
WE ARE INSIDE THE BEDROOM OF SOMEONE WITH A LOT OF MONEY, BUT RESTRAINT IN HOW THEY SPEND IT. THE FURNISHINGS ARE ALL OF HIGH QUALITY, BUT NOT SHOWY. AMONG THE DECOR OF DICKERING’S HOME ARE PAINTINGS, SMALL BRONZE STATUES, AND A FEW ARTIFACTS OF THE AMERICAN WEST. THROUGH THE GAP OF A SLIGHTLY OPEN WINDOW, THE FOG AND DARKNESS POUR INTO THE ROOM...

Hangman Caption: ...and use it to transport me across the city, unseen, unnoticed.

Page 6, panel 5
...AND FROM IT EMERGES THE HANGMAN, AS THE FOG AND DARKNESS BEGIN TO WITHDRAW.

Hangman Caption: The night was a busy one. Twenty-six guilty individuals had to answer to me. All received their one and only warnings from me.

Hangman Caption: None required my delivering final justice upon them.





The above script page is for THE HANGMAN #1, which appears as the co-feature in THE WEB #1, which goes on sale next Wednesday.

Not Just Tracing

For anyone who still thinks that inkers are merely tracers, I invite you to compare the above page taken from the forthcoming first THE HANGMAN story appearing in THE WEB, published by DC Comics, with the exact same page as posted sans inks, yesterday.


The inking was provided by one of my favorite illustrators of all time, Bill Sienkiewicz . I was privileged to get to spend a bit of time around Bill back in my early days at Marvel when he was working on ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN. Now, I'm even more excited to have him contributing to something I'm writing. You can see that he's really taken Tom Derenick's pencils and made them into something that really melds both their abilities, and is surprising and exciting. I'm impressed by Tom's ability to anticipate some of what Bill brings to the page by leaving a lot of open areas for Bill to drop in shadows and highlights. This work really suits the mood of the series to a t.

The fine lettering is by Travis Lanham. Guy Major will be providing colors, the only step I haven't seen yet.

I'm very proud of how this series is coming along, and really looking forward to the next batch of artwork to make its way to me. THE HANGMAN is the regular backup feature in THE WEB. The first issue goes on sale September 23rd at a comic book shop near you.

The Hangman - Pencil Preview

Here's a look at a sample page of the detailed pencil work that artist Tom Derenick has put into THE HANGMAN. I'm very excited to be working on this project. There's a lot of pleasure to be had in shaping a new character from the ground up. I'm also feeling a lot of gratification as the pages of artwork come across my desktop.

THE HANGMAN appears monthly as the back-up feature in THE WEB, starting on September 23rd. Drop in tomorrow to see what the above page looks like inked and lettered.

Halloween Countdown 2009

There are now less than 20 days left before this year's Halloween Countdown begins. If you're planning to participate, and haven't contacted me yet, please do so. I'm putting together this year's link list to participants.

To make things easier this year, Shawn Robare put together a Countdown to Halloween launch page. The purpose for this page is to give people a starting point to visit all of the wonderful blogs and websites which will be delivering fantastically horrible tricks and treats throughout October.

Bookmark that site now, and visit it often between now and October 31st.

At midnight on October 1st I will post the list of links to participants there (and here). If the last two years are any indication, more blogs and websites will join the festivities as the month progresses. I will update the list as often as necessary until Halloween is behind us. The past three years were a lot of fun, and I expect even greater things from everyone this year.

Random Objects in My Office

Big Changes at DC Comics

Hot on the heels of last week's announcement that Disney was acquiring Marvel Entertainment, some big changes have been announced today for DC Comics as well. You can read Heidi MacDonald's article on the developments at DC here .

How any of this will affect me personally is probably at a minimum, though the article does mention "Midnight,Mass." as one of the projects currently in development for television. As many of you know, this was a series I created for DCs Vertigo imprint a few years back (which, incidentally, Heidi MacDonald was the editor on).