Let's Hear It for the Munsters

Yep, we've been so busy this Blog-o-Ween that we're overdue for some more pages from my 1964 Whitman Munsters coloring book.

Here are pages 103-104-105.

Semi-normal Marilyn Munster and her date are prowling around the family attic for some silly reason.  Look at the page above.  What do you suppose a "vampire kit" comprises?

Note the barrel of "toxic leaves" next to the mummy case.  D'you suppose this was the artist's attempt at the phrase "Tana leaves"?

See you back here on Sunday, the 31st, for a re-post of an old music comp, cleaned up a bit.  Until then, don't get spooked!

  

Why UFOs? You Tell Me!

 

Scary Books, Kiddies!

Why UFOs.  By John Keel.  Manor Books, 1976.  Published as UFOs:  Operation Trojan Horse in 1970 by Putnam.  No cover credit.

             As touted in the cover blurb:  “First time in paperback – the book that answer’s von Däniken's questions.”

            Keel’s answer:  Yes, we have indeed been visited by entities from elsewhere.  But, if only it were as simple as advanced aliens crossbreeding with dumb aborigines!

            No.  While not claiming absolute knowledge, Keel remorselessly lays out evidence for his theory—that the whole ET foofaraw is much too simplistic.  These “things” phase in and out of objective existence; they reappear over the same areas across hundreds of years; they utter the same sorts of nonsense across generations; and anything they say which can be objectively measured is nearly always incorrect.

            These phenomena, to Keel, suggest a kind of long-range programming system of rewards and aversions, of slaps and caresses.  To what end?

            That’s the scary question!  I urge you to read Keel’s work for yourself.  Yes, it’s dramatically written and at times alarmist, but his analyses ring true.

Will you heed this warning?  Only time will tell!

            Scared enough, kiddies?  See you on Thursday!

  

Bite the Bullet!

When I went to see the 1985 film Silver Bullet, there was a handout.

It's a letter-size glossy piece of card stock.  This was only one of dozens of films seen at OKC's now-vanished Almonte Theatre 6.  Some my reminiscences about the place are here.

See you on Monday with another Scary Book -- more chilling because it's true!  It's all true, I tell you!

By the way, this is the 1518th post on the Super Blog.  Sorry I missed bragging about #1500!

Frankenstein Got Rivals!

 

The Rivals of Frankenstein:  A Gallery of Monsters.  Edited by Michael Parry.  Barnes & Noble, 1980.  Copyright 1977.

The contents are:

· Introduction - Michel Parry

· Clark Ashton Smith - The Colossus Of Ylourgne

· Arnold Harvey - The Last Of The Daubeny-Fitzalans

· Jerome K. Jerome - The Dancing Partner

· Ambrose Bierce - Moxon's Master

· Donald F. Glut - Dr. Karnstein's Creation

· Robert Bloch - Almost Human

· D. Scott-Moncrieff - Count Szolnok's Robots

· H. P. Lovecraft - Herbert West: Reanimator

· Manly Wade Wellman - Pithecanthropus Rejectus

· Fritz Leiber - The Dead Man

· Eando Binder - The Iron Man

            This is a really hotch-potch anthology, from the high fantasy of Smith to the self-indulgence of ol’ Aich-Pee Ell and the sarcasm of Jerome.  For me the high point is Leiber’s “The Dead Man,” because it was adapted as a very creepy Night Gallery segment. 

See you on Thursday with a movie handout from a classically cheesy 1980s flick!
  

We Love You, Vincent! O Yes We Do!

And so did Newsweek, in its June 14, 1971 issue.  The Abominable Dr. Phibes had just been released in the USA.

Why this column didn't use the complete name of the film, who knows?  They only call it Dr Phibes.  Toward the end of this piece, Price shows a lot of sense in acknowledging the presence of evil, and of evil folks.  Bad things aren't always done by folks with bad wiring in their heads.  Some people choose to do bad things.

But don't you be bad -- come back on Monday for a look at another scary book!  Until then, remember, the (Vincent) Price is always right!

 

More Scary Books, Kiddies!

 

Scary Books, Kiddies!

 Whispers.  Edited by Stuart David Schiff.  Jove, 1979.  Copyright 1977.  Cover art by Rowena.

The creepy contents are:

· Introduction Stuart David Schiff
· Sticks * Karl Edward Wagner
· The Barrow Troll * David Drake
· The Glove * Fritz Leiber
· The Closer of the Way * Robert Bloch
· Dark Winner * William F. Nolan
· Ladies in Waiting * Hugh B. Cave
· White Moon Rising * Dennis Etchison
· Graduation * Richard Christian Matheson
· Mirror, Mirror * Ray Russell
· The House of Cthulhu * Brian Lumley
· Antiquities * John Crowley
· A Weather Report from the Top of the Stairs * James Sallis & David Lunde
· The Scallion Stone * Basil A. Smith
· The Inglorious Rise of the Catsmeat Man * Robin Smyth
· The Pawnshop * Charles E. Fritch
· Le Miroir * Robert Aickman
· The Willow Platform * Joseph Payne Brennan
· The Dakwa [*Lee Cobbett] * Manly Wade Wellman
· Goat * David Campton
· The Chimney
· Afterword * Stuart David Schiff

The tales are firmly in the pulp tradition. Nothing thrilled me, but that feminine thing on the front cover is really disgusting ...

Note the back-cover blurb misspells the name of the Fritz Leiber story as “The Grove.”

            The “Weather Report from the Top of the Stairs” is very reminiscent of an old Gahan Wilson cartoon, probably first printed in Playboy.  This single-panel gem was also featured as the cover of a 1978 Wilson collection.

            So, yes, the cartoon was around before the story.

            That’s all!   See you Thursday!

  

Only a Son of Frankenstein Could Love?

 This is from the January 9, 1939 issue of Life magazine, clipped by my sweaty paws in about 1973.

Bela Lugosi Jr isn't the only Monster Kid to be unimpressed by a make-up job.

Here's our own home-grown critter at the age of two, similarly unimpressed by a Man Monster.

See you on Monday for a Scary Book, Kiddies!

  

WELCOME TO BLOG-O-WEEN 2021! MA-163 - 80s Atrocities

Yes, my little maggots, we’ll start off this creepiest, crawliest time of the year with a new Halloween anthology.  These songs all began their journey to ruin in the 1980s.

01 - Everybody Wears a Mask - Jem and the Holograms - 1987   (1:30)

02 - Wherewolf - Seditionaries - 1982   (2:43)

03 - Seventh Victim - Go Four 3 - 1987   (3:28)

04 - The World's Most Gruesome Monster - Victor Banana - 1989   (1:57)

05 - Violence & Passion (live) - Malice in Wonderland - 1984   (4:49)

06 - Movies - Big Boys - 1980   (2:18)

07 - Live with the Dead - Voo-Doo Church - 1982   (2:47)

08 - I Was a Teenage Zombie - The Fleshtones - 1987   (2:20)

09 - Lullabye - The Evolution Control Committee - 1989   (1:42)

10 - Hydro-Head - The Ejectors - 1981   (3:18)

11 - Diary of a Mad Werrwöulf - Fang - 1983   (2:42)

12 - (I Was There at) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Ambient Noise - 1980   (3:35)

13 - Spiders in My Sink - Thee Fourgiven - 1985   (2:48)

14 - Monster Movie - Richard Bone - 1983   (5:33)

15 - King Kong - Bow Wow Wow - 1981   (2:18)

16 - Night of the Living Dead - Sickidz! - 1984   (4:49)

17 - Leper Colony - The Last - 1982   (2:30)

18 - Terrorvision - The Fibonaccis - 1986   (3:28)

19 - All Black and Hairy - The Gravedigger V - 1984   (2:37)

20 - Gravedigger Rock - The Polecats - 1981   (2:43)

21 - Room 502 - Cursory Glances - 1985   (3:02)

22 - The Twilight Zone - Rusty Egan - 1983   (5:27)

23 - Tonight (We Make Love Until We Die) - SSQ - 1986   (3:33)

24 - Halloween - Scary Thieves - 1984   (3:01)

25 - Texas Chainsaw Baby - The Chrysalids - 1986   (3:54)

https://www.filefactory.com/file/6nppk2p34goe/MA-163.rar

 Well, don’t just sit there decaying, start listening!  See you on Thursday with something putrid!