10/09/2014 - Dick Briefer's Frankenstein

With this being the Halloween season, I thought I would sneak in the blog some interesting material perfect for my favorite holiday. Let's start with Dick Briefer's Frankenstein.

Some time back I had posted an article of what was the first horror comics series with an ongoing main character. It was Frankenstein done by artist/writer Dick Briefer. For Halloween, I'm going to show you two stories from the pages of Prize Comics, specifically the first story culled from Prize Comics #7, the infamous story in which the rather pathetic super-heroes of Prize Comics come together to take on the monster (from Prize Comics #24) and, in a big switch, from Frankenstein Comics #1, a new origin of the monster in Briefer's great humor style.

Let me know what you think. I will also be posting some of the material from the return of the character to straight horror, which started in Frankenstein Comics #18. Dick Briefer's Frankenstein are believed to be in the public domain. You can read or even download almost all of them by going to the Comic Books Plus website (http://www.comicbooksplus.com).

As usual, click on the image to see a larger version. There are even smaller versions of the pages that you can use to read these stories in order.

THE ORIGIN OF THE MONSTER

 

THE PRIZE HEROES GO AFTER FRANKENSTEIN

 

THE NEW ORIGIN OF FRANKENSTEIN

10/05/2014: This Week's Creepsville Page Plus King-Cat Comics John Porcellino the DVD

October... and Halloween is upon us. I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that Halloween is my favorite holiday. As it came into view, I started getting grandiose ideas for an all-new big Halloween story for this blog. Honestly, though I would dearly like to do that, the timing is too late. Add to that the Herculean task of the Creepsville Collected book. That must be my main focus now (reminded Frank to himself, pounding his fragile skull).  So, I'll hold onto those story ideas until the summer (possibly earlier) and have it ready to go next year, after the book is done.

Whew! That was close. Anyways... here's this week's Creepsville page. Click on the image to see a larger version. Meanwhile, I'm still going to get the decorations out and get some scary Halloween stuff up at the Laughing Reindeer ranch. I will still have some stuff up here, too.

 

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE DEPT: This is a rarity for me, posting an updated Laughing Reindeer blog, but I just have to alert all of you that Dan Stafford's documentary, Root Hog Or Die, about John Porcellino and King-Cat Comics is out on DVD. It's an eye opening look at John's life, creatively, philosophically and surviving illnesses, among other things and how they all came together in King-Cat Comics. There's so much I didn't know about John, who turned up at my comic book store in St Charles, IL, back in the late 80s with his photocopied comic (he still photocopies it, but collections are in trade paperback or even hardcover). I liked it from the giddyup and encouraged my customers to try it out. I'm actually in the documentary for a short time, too. In making this movie, filmmaker Dan Stafford joined John on a coast to coast self-propelled tour, wherein Stafford had a chance to talk to a good number of folks who know John. The DVD (which includes the 104 minute documentary, 40 minutes of bonus features, and a new 8-page comic about John and Dan on the road) is available now from Kilgore Books (http://KilgoreBooks.com) for only $15.00. I still can happily encourage everyone to read King-Cat... and get this DVD.

 



09/28/2014: This Week's Creepsville Page... Is That Really Percy?

This week's page from the first issue of Creepsville appears to be the first appearance of Rat's best friend, Percy. Ah, but looks can be deceiving. Click on the image to see a larger version. October kicks in this week, which means Halloween at my house. See you next week. Have a great one, kiddies...



9/21/2014: This Week's Creepsville Page

As promised, here is the 4th page of the 1st issue of Creepsville. Click on the image to see a larger version. As Betty Malone says, y'all have a great weekend!



09/14/2014: This Week's Creepsville Page

As promised, while I continue working on the Collected Creepsville book, I'll post pages in order of the issues they were published in. This week has the next page (3) after last week's post culled from the first issue of my Creepsville comic book series. As always, click on the picture to see the larger version.

 

The artwork pretty much speaks for itself. My future postings may require some annotations, which I will do at that time. I can hardly wait until we get to Rugface...

Meanwhile, you kids get outside! It's a nice day out!

Welcome to Creepsville

I'm still at work on the Collected Creepsville book, but while that happens, I had also always intended to show bits and pieces of work along the way. It also occurred to me that a great deal of you who are reading this probably never saw the comic series.

Given that, I have decided to post at least a page a week (life permitting) of the Creepsville comic series that will be presented in its entirety in the book collection. That will also include 2 stories that have never been published.

Please allow me to provide some notes on the 3 pieces posted here.

The first piece, in color, was not done by me. On what was the cover for the first issue of the original Creepsville series was a gorgeous piece of art by Dave Dorman. Dave is a very good friend who is probably best known as the most popular Star Wars artist on the planet. His work on that cultural phenomenon has been on loads of comic books, novels, and prints. George Lucas likes Dave's work so much that he has bought many of the original paintings for himself through the years. I wouldn't be surprised if some of Dave's paintings appear in Lucas' coming museum of commercial art in Chicago.

To say the least, I was thrilled that Dave did this for me! I really love his take on Paul Blaisedell's Saucer Men.

This issue featured a parody of the classic AIP drive-in movie, Invasion of the Saucer-Men, but before that I did a short take on the cult classic Robot Monster. The title creature, whose name is Ro-Man, was played by a man in a gorilla suit wearing a space helmet. This particular story is the only time I used the actual title of the film I was taking loving jabs at in one of my Creepsville stories.

The reader is also introduced to the Malone family, who live in a town called Creepsville where all those goofy monsters from the movies actually existed.

Looking at this first issue, I noticed that Specs Malone is very prominent in introducing the family. I had created Specs before any of the other characters years ago while living in Los Angeles. The Collected Creepsville book will print some of the Specs solo stuff I did.

It becomes very obvious that the stand out stars of the series were the unlikely pair of Rat Malone and his buddy Percy... who is an homage to Ro-Man. As an artist looking at this for the first time in years, these first few pages feel primitive. With the Saucer-Men story in this same issue, I could see that I had quickly relaxed and was becoming quickly comfortable with how to present the characters. You'll see what I mean in the weeks ahead.

So, for those of you who wonder what I had been working on through the years in comics or what that Creepsville thing I'm always talking about is, here is the beginning. Much more to come in the weeks ahead.

Click on the images below to see larger versions.

Visual Non Sequitur: Stupid Foolish Scientists... and a Master Criminal?

This is a further obsessive follow-up to last week's rather weak posting of a frame grabbed from a movie which showed a man emptying his pipe into a handy ashtray. On Facebook, I gave a big hint on why the photo of the pipe was so important to the filmmaker (questionable and only using the word as a generic term) by revealing that person's name. It is Jerry Warren.

Well, here's 3 frame grabs from later in that spectacular movie.

I think I'm done with this movie, for now. Anyone who has been around me long enough may have been forced to actually sit and watch this flick. No, there is no woman disguised as a flying mouse.

Here are three more moments of zen... well, maybe just two. Have a good weekend, true believers.