horror bound book's celebration of the addams family

Check out my older brother Steve's homage to the classic TV series The Addam's family on his own blog Horror Bound Books.

https://horrorboundbooks.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/mysterious-and-spooky/#comments

Leave Steve a comment why don't ya!

hop frog: leaping into halloween

When I was a wee lad in the Sixties I was monsterized.

While playing with my Project SWORD, Major Mat Mason, Lite Brite, Action Man and Glow Globs, my older brothers were fully immersed in the monster craze and used to read the brilliant Creepy and Eerie Comics by Warren publishing. 

This came into its own during the dark season starting at Halloween and peaking at Christmas, when new comics arrived as if by magic!

I was hooked!

When I was old enough to go up town on Saturday I continued where they'd left off, buying back issues and new ones from a fabulous comic stall on Preston market. 

But it was my Brothers' earlier copies that have stuck in my mind to this day, as the stories were so genuinely scary and the illustrations out of this world.

One such dastardly tale was Hop Frog. It was originally penned by Edgar Alan Poe and adapted for Creepy. Like the similar Cask of Amontillado [check back here tomorrow for Celtica Radio's Halloween reading of this] it scared me to death! 

You can find it in full online either as Poe's grim original from 1850 or if you have Warren's Creepy comic Issue 11 check out Reed Crandall/ Archie Goodwin's comic-strip masterpiece.

Better still, get hold of an old book of Poe's works, settle in your favourite armchair and read the 'old fashioned' way in front of a roaring fire!

But be warned! Hop Frog, a classic tale of tyranny and revenge, is not for the squeamish or easily offended. 

However, if like me, you like the dark matter of Sixties monster comics, Hop Frog is dripping with gothic grue and ideal for a dark night''s reading this ghostly season.

Hop Frog got another chance to shine, this time in the Roger Cormen 1964 movie masterpiece, Poe's Masque of the Red Death, in which the diminutive jester Hop Toad is superbly played by the talented Skip Martin, pictured below.

Not for the faint hearted, Masque is a tale of love, wrath and grisly revenge in the court of Prince Prospero played exquisitely by Vincent Price.

What will you be reading, watching or listening to this Halloween?

Mark J's ricardos and the middle aged frankensteins

This was a gig we did a few years ago, notice the family portraits behind us as we played!!!

Halloween Regards 

Mark J

*

For a taste of the Ricardo's slick Rockabilly try
A Wild Saturday night on Earth!
Woodsy

brian meets don post junior

The leaves are changing color at last.The impending full moon inspired me to dig out this Don Post Wolfman mask I've had for 40 years.

A few years ago I brought it to Mask a Palooza con and showed it to Don Post Jr. He was nice enough to pose for a pic with me! 

Awooooo!

Brian, New Jersey

*

Post Mortem

Don Post, master monster mask maker, has been called the Godfather of Halloween.

You can catch an exclusive interview with Don Post Studios's on the iconic Famous Monsters website from 2016.

https://www.famousmonsters.com/exclusive-a-history-of-don-post-studios/

SHADO IN THE WOODS

A few old shots of my Product Enterprise UFO

A spin in the country...!

It's coming... it's in the trees... oops, wrong film!

Ufo in your area...keep a sharp look out!

"The early Egyptians called them skyballs or skybolts...fireballs!" 

Cut!... there's always someone to ruin your shot! 

two giants by kevin d

Here are two major influences on my life meeting! 

Either Doctor Who & Star Trek 

Or Dinky & Corgi

Depends how you look at it! 

The Police Box is a Dinky one and, since it pre-dates Doctor Who, it is a Police Box and not a Tardis. The Enterprise is a much more modern Corgi one and isn't at all bad.

Take care,

Kevin

it's nearly time!

fangs for the memories

Its good to put some vampire teeth in on Halloween.

There's a long tradition.

One of the earliest monster fangs I remember were these red lipped sets with the distinctive flared-outwards shape.

They were mostly party favours and vending machine treats along with other plastic icons like the peeping skeleton, which sat in your top pocket!

The flared toy fangs may have been influenced by B-movie monster flicks like I was A Teenage Werewolf .....

...and How To Make a Monster.

Another style of chomper was the sabre-tooth. Gone are the flares in favour of two long straight incisors, appearing at the mouth's sides as in the vampire section of Vault of Horror, Midnight Mess....

... or together in the middle as in Salem's Lot.

Such incisors featured in toys such as the Thingmaker Fright Factory, which are basically tusks! ....

... and these Ghoulish/ Ghoul Teeth, which featured plastic gums and press-on fangs, which I assume you could position how you wanted.

But I suppose the most common gnashers worn every Halloween are the classic hinged pair, usually in white, but my faves have to be these red Werewolf Teeth with the best blister card art this side of a full moon!

Will you be putting your teeth in this Halloween?