Another killer issue!

I can't believe print magazines still exist!  I thought everything would be digital by now but I'm actually finding myself buying, as in 'purchasing' and exchanging money for, magazines printed on paper and bound by staples.  Who would have thought this possible in 2012?  Anyway, UNDYING MONSTERS #3 is a powerhouse issue and like FREAKY MONSTERS, this mag is giving the new FM a run for its money.  I'm all for supporting magazines that focus on quality, hi-rez stills on nice paper stock and that truly bring back the glory days of the old school 60's-style monster magazine!  Kick-ass cover!

Coming March 27th! Be very afraid...

http://www.facebook.com/meshuggah?ref=ts

Track listing:

01 – I Am Colossus

02 – The Demon’s Name Is Surveillance

03 – Do Not Look Down

04 – Behind The Sun

05 – The Hurt That Finds You First

06 – Marrow

07 – Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion

08 – Swarm

09 – Demiurge

10 – The Last Vigil

The North American deluxe digi-pak version of KOLOSS will include a bonus DVD.

Hammer in HD! Yeah, Baby!

Another incredible scoop from the fine folks at blu-ray.com:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dracula-Prince-of-Darkness-Blu-ray/33720/
Plans include the full restoration of HORROR OF DRACULA including the extra shots of the climactic disintegration scene that were long rumored to be in Japanese version.  Hopefully, there will be a Christopher Lee commentary!  Keep abreast of Hammer HD news at: http://blog.hammerfilms.com/

A must read! Eddie Deezen's heartfelt tribute to 'Curly' Howard!

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/113919 
Deezen also previously wrote some nice things about Shemp Howard:  http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/108888   Recently, I've been watching a lot of Shemp Stooges shorts and I find some of them vastly underrated!  Some of the prime Shemp entries are actually the best written and produced shorts of the Stooges' massive output.  I consider it their 'noir' period where the material was darker and more adult.  Shemp often played a greasy, womanizing, hardcore alcoholic and could be downright frightening at times!  Not kiddie stuff!  Check out the definitive Sony chronological volumes of all the Stooges Columbia studio shorts that even includes the few Shemp 3-D shorts (with glasses)!  Now, it's time to delve back into the Besser years (widescreen no less!).

Shivers!  It's Shemp!

I Gotta Add This To My Reading List!

I always was and still am obsessed with mail order ads especially from old comic books and monster magazines!  This book, MAIL ORDER MYSTERIES by Kirk Demarais promises to delve into that wacky world of deceptive ads and chintzy novelties squarely aimed at separating unsuspecting kids from their hard-earned piggy bank change.  I'm still blown away by the fact that you could actually order live monkeys through the mail!  I wanted a monkey so bad but my parents would never consent.  Even stranger, cult leader/psycho Jim Jones was a door-to-door monkey salesman in his pre-suicide cult days!  As a kid, I would have gladly joined his cult if he showed up at my door with a sack of squirming monkeys!

Here's a link to purchase the book:  http://www.amazon.com/Mail-Order-Mysteries-Real-Stuff-Comic/dp/160887026X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326467086&sr=1-1

Back in the day, these were steep prices for a kid!  There are some amazing blogs out there with first-hand, "I lived to tell it" type stories from the brave souls who ordered the mini-simians and received the shock of their lives!  These stories are funny, shocking and sad.

Finally, Famous Monsters is really back!

I grew up on Forry Ackerman's FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine in the early 60's until its demise.  I remember my first issue (#29) and getting it through an Aurora monster model promotion.  Many monster fans admit to outgrowing FM and Forry's cringe-worthy puns but what I always loved about the rag and still value today were the huge, sometimes, full-page photos that no other magazine really duplicated or seemd to understand.  Yes, more mature, intelligent and color-filled horror mags came upon the scene thereafter but they sort of missed the whole point for me.  As I get older (not necessarily more mature, just older), I really miss the photos and care less and less about the personal opinions and 'deep' interpretations  of the old classic movies by the current crop of self-proclaimed scholars.  Recently FM was legitimately re-launched and after splurging on the first two issues, I just bailed out.  The new,"improved" FM is too serious and doesn't capture the reckless energy and passion of the original.  The new covers are surprisingly lackluster even when they hire great artists and the new design favors dense text and often-times postage stamp-size photos!  For my money, Ray Ferry's FREAKY MONSTERS is a true god-send!  This is FM better than I remember it, an actual improvement with high quality stock and photo resolution.  Admittedly, while some of Ferry's movie knowledge is a bit askew, this mag still manages to blow away Ferry's previous FM effort and the new official re-launch.  The above pictured current issue is killer!  Come on, Christopher Lee and Santo?!  What more could you ask for?!

Something To Scream About! Universal Monsters Lumber Toward BD!

It looks (or sounds) like some of the Universal Monster classics are finally coming to blu-ray (fingers crossed)!  My all-time favorite, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, will hopefully be a priority.  Some limited digital theatrical exposure wouldn't be a bad thing either!  Check out Universal Pictures' announcement at the consistently excellent blu-ray.com site!  http://www.blu-ray.com/news/id=8012

My kind of horror comic!

Hopefully you will be able to find this new comic at your local comic shop.  In these politically correct days, I'm not so sure.  Anyway, AC Comics is to be commended for reprinting and carrying on the lurid tradition of Eerie Publications's magazine size (to avoid the code) illustrated abominations!  I really hope to see this type of comic book horror imagery translated to the big screen someday!  This standard comic book-size collector's issue focuses on Dick Ayers' work for Eerie  The book is pricey but worth checking out!

For die-hards, you must grab a copy of:

Available at Amazon and some of the dwindling Barnes & Noble brick & mortar dives.

Hugo 3-D! Scorsese and Lee together at last!

Martin Scorsese's HUGO 3-D was a pleasant surprise.  After see the misleading, dull trailer a number of times it was still a foregone conclusion that I had to see this film on the big screen for the simple reason that two icons of cinema- Martin Scorsese and Christopher Lee were working together for the first time (I actually rushed to see the first STAR WARS in '77 primarily because it was a new 'Peter Cushing' movie!).  At the heart of HUGO is a fictional juvenile drama of a boy's (Asa Butterfield) quest to repair a mysterious automaton that his deceased father (Jude Law) was obsessed with.  For me, the real central theme of the film was a celebration to the director's passion for and preservaton of cinema and how the birth of the soul of cinema modern film was spawned by the real life, cosmic imagination of a French magician, Georges Melies (1861-1938), portrayed by Ben Kingsley, who was determined to put dreams on celluloid.  Kingsley's Melies pronounces that movies are 'a new kind of magic!' and I couldn't agree more.  There is a stunning array of clips from some of the great silent films (INTOLERANCE, THE GENERAL, SAFETY LAST, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY and others!) and who would ever have thought this could happen today in a commercial film aimed at young teens?  Some original clips from A TRIP TO THE MOON are even rendered in 3D!  I've always believed that pure cinema owed much more to magic and the art of illusions than it ever did to literature or theater and Scorsese's new film makes the case definitively.  Also, to be commended is Scorsese's unique approach to the often overly-gimmicky digital 3D process.  Scorsese brings the action and the performance literally OUT OF THE SCREEN and into the open space between you and the screen, practically in your lap!  You forget the boundaries of the screen and the characters actually speak to you and practically touch noses!  It's so intimate that you feel you can almost interact with the small ensemble cast of humans and canines!  A great achievement, a mezmerizing experience and undoubtedly one of Scorsese's most personal films. Be sure to check it out in 3D at your local theater!