Vintage Magazine: Famous Monsters of Filmland, Vol. 1, No. 1 (50 - 63)

Not much to say this issue except - I wonder how that voodoo snake ring works? It's gotta be a good deal at only $1...unless they cut off right before '+ shipping and soul handling'.

Vintage Comics - Black Magic, Issue #2: I've Seen You Before, Yesterday You Died (Pg. 27 - End)

This first story in the final portion of this Black Magic issue reminds me of a Hammer Mummy movie, with its tendency to give innocent characters the darker fates that they don't quite deserve. It's fantastic, actually. One of my favorites I've shared so far. The second is oddly reminiscent of an old radio show I can't quite recall the name of, with the singular reminder that one can never truly escape or prevent their fates (or the grisly future of another.)

Horror Flick of the Week: 'Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)'

I feel like maybe a lot of people would disagree about this, but honestly...I enjoyed this movie a lot more than Creepshow. Don't get me wrong, Creepshow is awesome, and the framing structure with the animations were pretty freaking cool. Yet...as a kid...Creepshow didn't put me through the roller coaster ride of emotions this movie did. Each story really does have its own awesome appeal, the cast is great, the writers are awesome...

https://youtu.be/R9lVoUKk-8Y

The fact that the framing story to this is a Hansel and Gretel-esque tale with a witch preparing to cook a little boy to serve at her supper party makes this an absolutely delicious watch for the Halloween season, and I think it does the series it's associated more than justice (in fact, it's actually considered a spiritual successor to Creepshow, too.) I can't praise this movie enough. For the love of god, if you haven't seen it yet, watch it this year as soon as humanly possible.

Book(s) Of the Week: Monster Road

Back in the 90s, I was wild for books. I still am, but the point here is that I devoured every book fair that came to school. Especially when it came to book lights and horror stories. Monster Road was one of my favorites. Perhaps it was the cover that drew me to it, or the fact that I'd run out of Goosebumps books, but this one was pretty easy to miss tucked back at the bottom 'L' shelf.

Written by David Lubar, Monster Road tells the story of Kevin taking a road trip with his eccentric scientist Uncle. Eccentric and wildly naive, every single monster Kevin's uncle meets on the trip strikes him as something absolutely mundane and non-supernatural in any way. What's more, he seems to come up with a solution for most of their problems in the process.

My old copy I had of Monster Road sadly fell to pieces, but that's the sign of a well-loved book. At least for a kid. Monster Road is a great little story to read with your kid, or to just let them read on their own, lying in the somewhat sketchy area of 2nd grade - 4th grade reading level.

Vintage Comics: Midnight, Issue #2: The Promise, Fortune or Fate pt. 1, The Gateway to Yesterday (Cover - Pg. 13 )

It's a breath of fresh air to see a story about a man who DOESN'T want to kill his wife in a horror comic, once in awhile. But it stops short of horror...I mean really short. As in: okay a photographic miracle, but why on earth is that scary? Oh well. That's the charm in vintage comics, they're hit and miss. The beginning of 'Fortune or Fate' is also surprisingly progressive. Elephant hunting out-of-season wrong? MADNESS! ...And why is it all bombshells from the 1940s and 50s end up looking like Egyptian princesses?

Monster Cereals, Part 2: The Return of the Yummy Mummy and the Fruit Brute

So, just to spite me for telling you guys that they were both discontinued, the Yummy Mummy and the Fruit Brute have been brought back. But they're not the same, my friends, not the same at all...

The Fruit Brute is no longer a general fruity flavor, but cherry. It makes sense, since he's hairy. Hairy rhymes with cherry...let's just be happy they didn't change the name of his cereal, or it wouldn't stick around for much longer. But don't get me wrong, I enjoyed fruit brute. The great thing about all of the monster cereals is their resistance to sogginess, while still absorbing enough milk to get cool and refreshing.

Yummy Mummy is the one that really threw me for a loop. It tasted like Frankenberry, though much weaker...but then the after-taste hit me, which was really strange. I don't think I've ever had cereal with an aftertaste. It was like pineapple or a fruit roll-up.

It was good, actually. But the back comic kind of threw me off. He said his spoon was dusty. You would think Yummy Mummy, of all the monsters, would have been chowing down on his cereal for years and laughing at all of us foolish humans, satisfying our taste buds with 3 mere flavors, but never quite knowing the joy of a really Yummy Mummy.

Vintage Comics: Beyond - The Phantom Puppet and The Mummy's Curse (Pages 19-27)

Okay, so I've seen a lot of puppet movies and read a lot of puppet stories. They usually don't go much further than the puppet murdering other people, the puppet being all in the ventriloquist's head, or the puppet being shifted off to another owner. This one took a cool turn by actually having the puppet onstage in legitimate plays with other real actors. Anyway, it's a pretty cool twist. I wonder why it hasn't been done again...


On another note, if you find the text on the last two pages is just too small, being an actual written story, let me know, and I'll transcribe it in another post.