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Hercules: The Turkey Day Wars
Happy Thanksgiving readers and friends, and welcome back to another Rotten Ink Turkey Day update all about the one and only mighty hero of Greece, the slayer of the Nemean Lion, the pride of Olympus and the hero who has been a main stay in culture and media as he has muscled his way into books, movies, TV, comics and video games. Of course I am talking about Hercules! Writing about Herc on this holiday as truly become something I look forward to doing; this sword and sandal hero was always one of my favorites growing up as his labors and adventures always captivated me. So while your turkey or ham is cooking and those potatoes are waiting to be mashed, let's take another turkey day adventure with the one and only Hercules and this time the company who has brought us this adventure is Radical. So sit back, hit mute on the football game and get ready to spend some quality time with Herc and me here at Rotten Ink!
As I am sure you readers know what I am about to say and it may come as no shock, but I am going to say it anyway: I am a fan of the legend of Hercules from the myth all the way to cinema and have always enjoyed the fact you could take this hero and place him in any situation and watch as he saves the day. I mean think about classic style films "Hercules Against The Moon Men" and "Hercules Against The Mongols" that took our hero out of his normal settings and had him battle people and things not from his era. Somehow, they just worked. But one of the biggest adventures Hercules has ever had was from the myth and would be his 12 Labors. Ever since I was a kid, one of my favorites of his 12 Labors was when he took on the Nemean Lion, a true battle of man and beast. The Nemean Lion was a massive beast that had super sharp claws and his skin could not be pierced by weapons. He tormented the people of Nemea and was rumored to been created by Typhon and Echidna. King Eurystheus was in charge of giving Hercules his labors, and his first one was to kill Nemean Lion who was a super lion and who was said to be unkillable, Hercules started his journey by buying arrows and talking to locals about the location of the beast, and once he found its cave, he blocked one entrance and forced the lion to fight him in closed combat where he was able to nab the lion into a headlock and choke the life out of it. Once dead, Herc used the animal's own claw to skin it and carried the dead animal back to the kingdom where he both amazed and scared the King who banned him that moment on from entering the Kingdom after his labors. Hercules would go on to wear the hide of the Nemean Lion as part of his armor. I am not sure why I like the first labor as much as I do….I am sure it has to do with the fact I have always liked lions and Hercules and having them fighting each other in a death match is pretty epic. I want to also say that The Nemean Lion, while dead in the mythology world, just might live again in the pages of Sparkle Comics, but you will have to wait and see how and what comic it comes back in. And I want to say this is just the start of Hercules' Labors as we will be taking a bigger look at his labors on another update in the future.
In 2014 Radical Comics was able to have a movie made based on their Thracian Wars comic series thanks to Paramount Pictures who released it worldwide to the joy of modern sword and sandal fans. The film was directed by Brett Ratner and stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Hercules along with such actors as Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell and Reece Ritchie and was a great action film with lots of Hercules moments of power…well sort of. The film is about Hercules and his friends creating a legend about himself that allows them to get paid in order to do amazing things like defeat the undefeatable and wage one man wars, all the while the story goes out about it being Hercules, when in fact it was he and his crew. But they soon find themselves being tested when one kingdom doesn't buy into the stories, and Herc and his crew must fight for their lives. I really do like the twist in this film as it makes you wonder if Hercules really the son of Zeus or is it all made up in order to build his legacy, then at moments he is as great as he says he is…so I think it is really up to the viewer to decide. I saw the movie in the theater when released, and it was fantastic even making the # 5 spot on my "Matt Goes To The Movies 2014" update for Superhero Movies and was one I recommended to friends who ended up seeing it and enjoying it. Oddly enough, in 2014 another Hercules movie was in cinemas called "Legend Of Hercules." While entertaining, it was not in the same league as this one. The film did poorly at the US box office only bringing in $72,688,614.00 on a budget of $100 million and was 46 over all at the cinema. But it did however bring in more than many other cult films released that year like "Purge: Anarchy", "Robocop", "Dracula Untold", "Muppets Most Wanted", "John Wick" and "Birdman" to name a few. So if you like Hercules films or just like fun action films starring The Rock, make sure to check this movie out!
So now that we have chatted a little about Hercules in myth as well as in modern cinema, I think it's time we get to the comic review of the five issue mini series from Radical, because I am sure you are ready for some tasty thanksgiving dinner like I am! So let's get into this one. I want to thank Mavericks Cards And Comics for pulling these comics for me when released. Yep, this is a comic mini series that I made sure to get when released as I worked for Mavericks at the time and had to check out a new Hercules book. I want to also remind you that I grade these issues on a star scale of 1 to 4 and you are looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So if you're ready to join Hercules as he goes to war, we should get to the comic reviews.
Hercules The Thracian Wars # 1 **1/2
Released in 2008 Cover Price $1.00 Radical Comics # 1 of 5
Iolaus and Meneus are traveling to a poor and sloppy kingdom on Amphiaraus' promise of gold and victory as the young King has hired Hercules and his crew to bring Thrace back together by winning a war. But these barbarians of the Kingdom all take turns making fun of Hercules as well as his mother to try and get under the skin of Meneus and Iolaus before Herc arrives. But once Hercules and the rest of his crew show up, their words and mood changes as they see they truly are warriors and can back up their words and Hercules is a man with a loyal & brutal band of friends. But when Hercules is pushed too far by the words of one of the barbarian warriors, he is forced to kill him and orders his friends to kill every man and woman in the throne room and they do just that! Hercules, who was hired to bring Thrace together and train these barbarians to fight, became their Grim Reaper, as he delivered nothing but brutal death. After the slaughter Hercules and his men soon find out that the king and his guards were not the true King and his men as outside is the true King Coyts and his men looking well armed, trained and angry.
This first issue started out a little slow and was worrisome onwhether it would deliver a fun Hercules adventure, and by the end it turned into a bloodbath slaughter that would make Conan The Barbarian happy! The comic's plot is this: Hercules and his crew are hired mercenaries who arrive at a terrible kingdom with a jerk King and a room full of drunken slobs that end up pushing the son of Zeus' buttons that leads to them all getting slaughtered only for Hercules to find out he has been set up as the real King is outside with his massive army! Hercules is very cocky in this issue and partly lazy and is willing to start a war over being insulted. He also very much depends on his crew in order to win battles as well as scout the way of the land before he even arrives. I also like that he is wearing the hide of the Nemean Lion. His crew are loyal to Hercules and are amazing warriors who are brutal and all have their own weirdness from one having visions to another who is a cannibal. The fake King and his drunken goons are rude and crude and all find themselves very dead and have no skills when it comes to battle! While we barely see King Coyts in this issue, you can tell he is going to be one proud and strong fighter. The one thing that I liked in this comic is the fact that while Hercules is our main hero, he is also very arrogant and showcases that he is not fully a good guy. I also really like the fact that this comic is very bloody and had kills that would fit in most Horror Comics! The cover is very cool and very eye catching for fans of Sword and Sandal and Greek Mythology style comics. The interior artwork is done by Admira Wijaya and is pretty great and very fitting for this style of comic. So I will say the first issue is a great set up for this mini series and was a great way to try and bring Hercules back to the world of comic books. So with that let's see how Herc and his crew deals with the army that is waiting for them at the end of this issue.
Hercules and his crew stand their ground as King Coyts and his army order them all to stand down and follow him into the hall where Herc and them slaughtered all those people only to find that King Coyts set them up to test how brutal they were as fighters. Hercules and his crew have now gotten the jobs to train the soldiers for war and Coyts' daughter seems to have taken a liking to Hercules, but our heroes also seem to be very on edge on this job they have taken as things just seem very odd. Plus the army's general Sitaces seems to also to be keeping an eye of Hercules. After months of training, the army is ready for war and they decide that night to kill a young boy to appease their God, and this act sickens Hercules and his crew. Sitaces makes his army and Hercules attack small villages and slaughter all the people they come across, and finally right before the big battle, Sitaces must return to King Coyts and tell him of their victories and as he leaves, it's clear Hercules and his people have been set up as they are attacked by a sky full of arrows!
In this issue Hercules and his band of warriors are paid lots of money, wine and good times in order to train an army of soldiers who are just brawlers, but along the way they soon find that this army are scum and they kill to bully and their general seems to have another mission and that's to ride the world of them! Hercules in this issue is a great teacher of war and seems to be pleased with spending time with the King's daughter as well as have the thrill of battle, but while enjoying it all, he also seems to be on edge and aware. We also get to know female warrior Atalanta who is a lesbian and has a love hate friendship with fellow member Meleager a warrior who was a ladies man and has fallen head over heels in love with her. Sitaces is a very bloodthirsty warrior in King Coyts' army and rocks a wicked scarred face and seems to not value any human life. And as far as King Coyts, he is a man drive by ego who will do what ever it takes to be the ruler. I really like the ending of this one as hundreds of arrows are falling from the sky and could kill not only Hercules and his crew but also any of the army who have been left behind with them. This also makes you wonder if Sitaces set them up or if it the scouts did! The cover is great and eye catching for fans of Hercules and Sword and Sandal and the interior art by Admira Wijaya is great and fitting. Over all a great second issue and one that helps build up this adventure for Hercules. So with that let's see how Hercules escapes this deathtrap.
Hercules and his crew are like lambs to the slaughter as the enemy is all around them and they are stuck in a valley, but like all heroes Hercules pushes back and drives his enemies lead by Lord Rhesus back and now have them on the ropes. Hercules himself, while wanting to end the battle, is also very mad at one of his crew Tydeus, who is bloodthirsty and not listening to orders causing them to be at odds. Hercules and his crew now have Rhesus and his guards backed against a cliff, and it's clear they are not going to just give up and push the fight until only Rhesus is left standing and instead of dying at the hands of Hercules flings himself off the cliff! As Hercules and his crew sit for a while, an arrow comes from nowhere and kills Meneus and this sets Hercules into a rage who rips the attacker apart with his bare hands. Once they bury their friend, they head back to King Coyts with a story of victory and also slightly accuse Sitaces for the set up, but it's quickly smoothed over as Hercules goes off with the King's daughter and a big feast is planned. Later that night after the feast Hercules sneaks up and hears King Coyts praying to his Gods in order to get the power to his newly trained army to attack Greece and Mount Olympus!
Man, this was one pickle that I was sure would leave Hercules injured, but instead sees him win against all odds and end a war with one brutal battle. This issue's plot has Hercules and his crew being set up, and they must fight for their lives in order to escape the valley. Once they do so, they lose one of their own members to a sneak attack and return to employer only to learn he is a scumbag who wants to over throw Greece and kill Zeus on Mount Olympus! Hercules in this issues shows why he is a true iconic fighter as he does not stress over the attack and leads his group to a victory. He also shows he is pure power as he rips a man apart in a bloody gory rage! His crew are all great fighters and sadly their youngest member Meneus is killed with an arrow to the head and Tydeus is out of control and is a warrior who just enjoys killing and eating his victims! King Coyts and Sitaces are pure scum who both crave power and terror as they just used Hercules and his crew to train an army for them that they will in turn be used to attack them and their homelands! What I really like about this comic series is that while Hercules is our "hero," he really is no hero and is just a demi-god doing bad things for others in order to get gold! I also like that his crew, while all warriors, do seem to care about each other, well all but Tydeus who cares about no one but himself even if the others watch out for him. The cover for this issue is great and the red brings out the wicked look of Hercules who clearly is in a rage for war. The interior art once more is done by Admira Wijaya and is good stuff. Over all this is another great issue in this mini series and makes me look forward to reading the final two issues.
Hercules The Thracian Wars # 4 ***
Hercules is talked out of attacking the King in the temple, and this is a bad thing as he finds the tracks of Hercules in the snow and places he and all his crew under arrest until he can figure out a way to kill them all. Hercules tries to use his charm on the King's daughter but soon finds that she has been using him all along and spying for her father and for him escaping and plotting against the King, Hercules is taken and tortured by Sitaces who is taking joy in his evil deed! Sitaces admits that he has been with the King's daughter and he was not the one who set them up, all the while he is whipping and burning Hercules's flesh. But Hercules has had enough and with his power he breaks free and smashes and kills two guards as well as breaks the back of Sitaces and brings the dungeons walls down on top of him! Hercules then rushes to his crew, and they make their escape in a bloody fight that leaves King Coyts in a rage and wants all of them dead! Hercules and his friends regroup around a campfire and decide that they will not run to Greece, and they will bring the fight to Coyts as they want to bring him down.
Wow! This fourth issue is great and showcases just how badass Hercules is as he bashes, smashes and slaughters any and all who get in his way. In fact I would say that this is the best issue this far in the series and is action packed and had a real feeling of dread and danger as the issue's plot has the King and his army holding and bullying Hercules and his friends until they have had enough and push back! I also like the fact that the King's daughter was just a pawn in her dad's game as she in real life hates Hercules and Greece and was only using him to get information. Hercules in the issue really has been pushed as not only does the King plan on attacking his homeland of Greece but he also has been used and now abused and this means war in his eyes. His crew are also being treated like scum and are forced to stay inside a building and are not being feed and bullied into not having weapons and are all marked for death. King Coyts is a ruler who has used and abused his way into being even more powerful and is wanting to bring down Greece and Zeus as he has zero respect for those Gods. His daughter as well is scum as she uses sex in order to try and manipulate her target. And Sitaces the army leader is sadistic and gets what he deserves as he is broken and crushed leaving him a none factor now in the coming blood battle. This issue is filled with lots of action and lots of blood and feels like a true Sword And Sandal film from the 60's with added modern style gore. Plus I really like the cliffhanger of Hercules and friends gearing up for a battle that they are the underdogs in, but they show no fear in the face of death. The cover is great and Admira Wijaya's interior art is as always solid. Over all this issue is a great one to build up to the final in the mini series and is making me really looking forward to see how this adventure comes to an end.
Hercules and his crew sneak back in the kingdom and start their slaughter and take out many of the guards by setting a fire in their quarters while they sleep. Once inside the castle, Hercules and his friends kill even more guards and even ram a spear into the King's Daughter! King Coyts sees that his days are numbered and runs to make his escape as Hercules and friends follow him into a chamber of mazes and traps. But after dodging traps and almost capturing the evil King, Hercules and his crew find themselves trapped in the chamber as Coyts escapes….into the waiting ax of Tydeus who beheads the King and will dine on his brain after he frees his friends. Once free Hercules and pals find the gold room and steal all they can carry and as they leave the castle, they are greeted by Rhesus who they thought was dead and now has a new army and allows Hercules and them to leave with their lives, but not the gold! In the end Hercules and some of his friends sail away on a new adventure as Tydeus and others go their own way ending The Thracian War.
Hercules and his friends have gotten revenge after being set up and have stopped an attack on Greece but as always walked away empty handed when it comes to being paid for training an army to fight. So everything they did in this war really only caused death to people and only made them look like heels in the eyes of the people who witnessed their slaughter and training of a tyrant's army. Hercules in this issue really just wants to end the life of King Coyts and his daughter and wants to stop the planned attack on Greece and while he does get to stop the act of war and gets to kill the daughter of his enemy, he is sadly not the one who gets to kill King Coyts. That honor went to Tydeus who is crazy and is a berserker when it comes to attacking and is really the most scummy of all of Herc's teammates and by all accounts is just a cold blooded murderer. King Coyts is not only scum but also a coward who runs when it comes to battle and the odds are not in his favor. His daughter, on the other hand is a fighter and does not die without putting up a fight. The issue while bloody and filled with action seems to be more of a fast paced issue and the action seems to go by way too fast. But with that said, I will say that I do think Radical Comics really does know how to make a good comic mini series based on Hercules and writer Steve Moore shows he really does understand the world of Sword And Sandal. Plus the art by Admire Wijaya is very fitting and is perfect for this style of comic books. The cover for this issue I have is also very eye catching and reminds me of Frank Frazetta. Over all this is a great mini series and was an enjoyable read and fun review this Thanksgiving update, and I would recommend if you like Hercules to check this series out. Below is some artwork from this series so you can see the style of Wijaya.
Thanks once again for spending a part of your Thanksgiving holiday with me here at Rotten Ink as I am sure you're much like me and are very much looking forward to diving into a tasty dinner and a chatting with family and loved ones. So next year, meet here again and we will once more talk about Hercules and cover another comic adventure of his! But to wrap this up as mashed potatoes are calling my name, make sure to spend some time with your loved ones as the Christmas season is just around the corner. Oh and I must also share with you that my next update will be a "From Horror Movie To Horror Comic" update, and we will be traveling to Skull Island to once more visit Kong! So until next time, read a comic or three, eat a second plate of food and as always support your local Horror Host. See you all back for another tour of Skull Island on our next update.
Posted in Comics, Radical	| Tagged 12 Labors, 2008, Admira Wijaya, Amphiaraus, Atalanta, Comic Mini Series, Corn, Dwayne Johnson, Greece, Greek Mythology, Ham, Hercules, Holiday, Iolaus, King Coyts, King Eurystheus, Lions, Mashed Potatoes, Matt Brassfield, Mavericks Cards and Comics, Meleager, Meneus, Movie, Myth, Nemea, Nemean Lion, Paramount Pictures, Radical Comics, Rhesus, Steve Moore, Sword and Sandal, Thanksgiving, The Rock, Thrace, Thracian Wars, Tydeus, War, WWE, Zeus	| Leave a reply
Land Of The Monster Bash Convention (2018)
Posted on July 14, 2018 by bloodlinematt
Welcome back to Rotten Ink. I hope you have your bag packed already as it's that time of the year once again when you all take a trip with me and Juliet as we head to Monster Bash in Mars, PA for a fun time of celebrating classic monsters and 200 years of Frankenstein's Monster! I have been looking forward to taking time away from work, filming movies and working on comics for some time now, and what better way to do so than to hang out with fellow classic monster lovers as well as my gal pal Juliet in an area that is starting to feel like my home away from home, Cranberry Township. I cannot wait to see what classic monster car is parked up front and what statues await us inside the convention. I do have a feeling that they will be of The Monster through the ages as that seems to make the most sense. Not to mention, I am looking forward to eating at places like Moe's and Eat'n Park plus visiting Evans City Cemetery to soak in all the horror movie magic that was shot there. So lets hop into the Mazda 3 and find some music and podcasts to listen to and make our way to Monster Bash! Oh and for this update, I am sure you guessed it, that we will be taking a look at Land Of The Dead, the fourth film in the Romero Dead series and the IDW comic adaption of it! Let's head out to the highway and have fun along the way.
Juliet and I hit the road on June 21, 2018 and spent most of the drive chatting about comics, music and wrestling and even had to make our way through random rainstorms. As always, we stopped at the Ruby Tuesdays on the border of Ohio and West Virginia where Juliet ate a grilled chicken salad, and I had blackened salmon with rice and a loaded baked potato. It was super tasty! Once back on the road we continued chatting and time seemed to go by fast…that was until we entered Cranberry, and traffic was backed up due to a car on fire! Passing the car that was being surrounded by the fire department, we both hoped the person driving made it out of the car okay. This year we also had to stay at a new hotel as our beloved Comfort Inn was filled, and so we stayed at the fancy Hyatt and man was the room big! After relaxing and watching some TV, we decided to have Eat 'N Park for dinner where I had a hot turkey sandwich with mash potatoes & gravy as well as fried pickles! And of course, I had to have a smile cookie as what is a trip to Eat 'N Park without one? After dinner we watched more TV and planned our next day as it was the first day of Monster Bash!
Waking up in the morning, we got ready for our day as Monster Bash did not open until 3pm so we headed to New Dimension Comics to look around for a few minuets. While there, I found a few comics to read and add to my collection like Web Of Spider-Man # 25 & 35, Hercules # 1,7 & 9 from DC, Where Creatures Roam # 8 and Southern Blood # 0. After comic shopping we headed to lunch at Max & Erma's where I scarfed down a turkey burger with fries, and all the while Juliet and I chatted about our plans for the day. We then went to Barns and Nobles, and I found a really cool Funko Pop Figure of The Mummy based on the 2017 film from Universal. Then we returned to the room and waited for Monster Bash to start! Check out the pics below to see the fun stuff from the morning.
At 3:00pm Juliet and I headed to Monster Bash 2018, and the car outside was not around yet. We got into the line in order to get tickets, and man did it move fast! Once inside, the wonders of all types of classic monsters surrounded us as the amazing statues this year featured Frankenstein's Monster from the ages as full body versions of The Monster were all around, from the classic 1931 Karloff version all the way to the one in Monster Squad and others had busts like the 1910 Edison version…so amazing and all well done! But my favorite one this year was not Frankenstein's Monster at all, but John Carradine as Dracula in House Of Frankenstein! Once inside the dealer room, we saw all types of great stuff like toys, movies, comics, books, soundtracks, posters and art and much of it was really, really cool! We were also happy to see Horror Hosts Janet Decay and Grimm Gorri, who are amazing and wonderful people and are super nice. Also on hand was Son Of Ghoul, a true icon of Horror Hosting. While looking around, we saw some amazing Halloween Masks and even took a walk around a room filled with classic posters and lobby cards. Once we walked around for a while, we bought some amazing stuff and headed back to the hotel to unwind and get ready for our first dinner and a movie night. Check out the pics below to see some of the amazing sights of this first day.
So I am sure you're all wondering what goodies I got on this first day's haul…and man, did I find some cool stuff! For movies I got Attack Of The 50ft. Woman, Phantom Of Hollywood on DVD for $20.00 each and Creature With The Atom Brain for $10.00! Comic wise, I found The Young Witches # 1 for only $2.00! I found an Imperial King Kong for $20.00 and a King Kong windup for $5.00! And for paperback books I got Ben and Freddy vs. Jason for $5.00 each, and for only $1.00 each I got Tales From The Crypt Demon Knight and Dick Tracy: Secret Files. So as you can see, we did really well this first day and I was very pleased with what I was able to get for good prices. Check out the pic down below to see l my haul in all its glory!
We decided that the first night of Monster Bash would be our night to eat Wing Kings and watch a movie on the laptop with the night's feature being Attack Of The 50ft. Woman as it's been one I have wanted to revisit for some time now. So I ordered some Garlic Wings and some fried pickles and a coke to drink! When we are in Cranberry, both Juliet and I look forward to eating at Wing Kings as they have really great wings and we have yet to have a bad meal from them. So huddled by the laptop with our food, we watched a classic science fiction horror film about a massive and mean woman causing mayhem in a city gripped by fear. And after dinner and the movie, we spent the night gearing up for Day 2 and watching New Japan Pro Wrestling and LFA MMA on TV, and I read a some comic book.
Day two started with Juliet and I eating breakfast and then us heading to the Monster Bash! The weather outside was looking like bad storms coming and would make Doctor Frankenstein very happy. To me, this was very fitting weather for this classic monster convention. Once walking in again, a rush of good vibes surrounded me as I saw familiar faces and classic monster movies and memorabilia all around. That's what sets Monster Bash apart from all other Horror Cons, the vibe is so chill and it's all about the movies and monsters and not the parties. After walking around for a bit, we bought some amazing stuff and looked at some cool things and headed out to do some more fun stuff in Cranberry!
I am sure you're also wondering what cool things I ended up getting on Day 2 of Monster Bash. Just like before, I think I found some pretty cool items. I got two wood plaques to hang in my house of King Kong and Gorgo for $25.00 each, a VHS copy of Konga for only $3.00 and a DVD of a documentary called Beast Of Whitehall for $15.00. Plus I got a lot of six Monster In My Pocket figures including werewolf and Lochness for $5.00! Over all another great haul and some very cool items I am looking forward to adding to my collection.
We hit the roads of Cranberry and ended up back at New Dimension Comics where I found 40 dollars books that were sold to me at half price making the whole pile $20.00 plus tax! I found lots of great indie titles as well as a few Avengers comics that I will be reading while here. We then went to Moe's Southwest Grill for lunch, and I had a tasty chicken burrito. After that we had TCBY and chatted about creative ideas. That's the thing about Juliet and I, we talk a lot to each other and mostly about life and creative things…it's nice to have a partner you gel with really well. After spending some time out in the city, we headed back to the hotel to relax and plan our second night of Dinner and a Movie.
For our second dinner and a movie, we chose something more simple and ate Bob Evans takeout where I had roasted chicken with sides, and we watched the 1955 Science Fiction Horror Movie "Creature With The Atom Brain", a pretty cheesy motion picture that features brain-dead reanimated zombies who are being controlled by a crime boss to get revenge on his enemies. The food was pretty good, and the film was okay making for a start to a fun night. For the rest of the night, we read and watched TV and chatted more about creative ideas for future comics that could be in the works for Sparkle Comics.
June 24, 2018 was the final day of Monster Bash and we started our morning by getting breakfast at Pig Iron Public House where I once again had the Chorizo Hash. If you ever find yourself at a Pig Iron for brunch, I recommend it. And once done we made our way to Monster Bash to once more soak it all in and have one last day of shopping. The last day of Monster Bash is always a sad one as the fun weekend is coming to an end, and I know it will be another year before I can do the next convention. When walking in as well we watched for a moment as they broke down the Frankenstein Monster's and took a glance at The Blob for the last time for the weekend. We walked around and had good conversations with Janet Decay and Grimm Gorri as well as with Ken and Pam of Cinema Wasteland. As we made our final rounds, I was on the look out for my pal David "The Rock" Nelson as I wanted to pick up some more of his amazing shot on video films and wanted to chat with him about life in general, and I sent him a message on Facebook the night before that he did not get to read and it looked like we were going to miss him until the monster Gods smiled down on us, and we ran into each other at the place I selected in the message! Once catching up with David and picking up some of his movies, Juliet and I headed out, and that was a wrap for Monster Bash 2018.
The last day's haul were great and all stuff that I wanted and most at fair prices. I got another Imperial Dracula that was in fantastic shape for only $15.00! I also picked up six more Monster In My Pocket figures and paid once more $5.00 for the lot. I got Super Powers Which Way Book 2: Supergirl paperback book for only $2.00! I got issues 1-5 of Escape Of The Living Dead signed by John Russo and released by Avatar for $12.00. And for movies I got Kraa! The Sea Monster on DVD for $8.00, Red Sands DVD for only $1.00 and the best buys of the trip being the three David "The Rock" Nelson film I got for $20.00 each that are "Bigfoot Runs Amok!", "Dinosaur Woman" and "The Giant Horny Toad Monster" all films I very much looking forward to watching. Not a bad year for finds at Monster Bash 2018.
After leaving Monster Bash, we headed to get more bottled water for our stay and while at the store, we also picked up the Universal and Blumhouse film Stephanie. We then made our way to The Snowman where we hung out near the horses and I drank a Yeti Milkshake. As always the shake was fantastic as was the atmosphere around the Snowman as it had just rained before we showed up. We then left and walked around the small cemetery that's connected to the Portersville Bible Church, a very peaceful place with a great view of woods and farmland. Juliet and I walked for a while and looked at the land all around as well as paid our respects to the people buried in the cemetery. Once done we headed back to the Hotel and we read, chatted and watched a little TV until dinner and a movie round 3.
For our third dinner and movie, we chose to once more get take out from Eat 'N Park and the 4hr film "Dinosaur Woman" directed by David Nelson as we are both big fans of his independent shot on video monsta movies. While the food was good, the movie was the best part of the night as watching David's films are an event all to themselves as they are epic and filled with lots of fun and over the top horror and characters. After Dinner and the movie, we ended up watching Kong: Skull Island on HBO and planning our next day of events!
Monday June 25th marked the first day after Monster Bash, and we started our morning by going to Cranberry Cinema and seeing "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom." This is a fun one to see in the theater and as always Cranberry Cinema proved why they are better than most major chains as they gave Juliet and I each a free popcorn to munch on as we watched our movie. After the film we headed back to Moe's for lunch, and we ate and talked about the film as well as the possibility of scientist cloning saber tooth tigers. After lunch we headed back to the hotel and Juliet and I read and played "Super Powers Which Way Book 2: Supergirl" as Juliet read it out loud I had to choose the path of Supergirl! And lucky for me I was able to have Supergirl save the day and make it out of the land of OZ, yep my adventure took me to OZ! After the book adventure I read some more comic books and worked on a few things for Sparkle Comics as well as updates for future Rotten Ink updates. We chose to have Wing Kings again for dinner and watched WWE Monday Night Raw on USA for the evening's entertainment. After Raw I ended up reading a little more and watched a little TV before bed and geared up for Evan City.
We woke up early and checked out of our hotel and hit the road heading toward Mars in order to get a morning cup of coffee from Mars Brew House as they are also a must when we are in Pennsylvania, and as always the coffee was great! We then walked to the UFO in the middle of the small town and chatted for a moment about the second issue of Wolf Hunter that we hope will be released soon from Sparkle Comics, as well as chatted about the amazing small town feel of Mars. Once done chatting we jumped back into the Mazda 3 and headed for Evans City.
After leaving Mars we ended up in Evans City and were sad when we remembered that The Living Dead Museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so we could not go in for a visit. But all was well again once we pulled into Evans City Cemetery, and we walked around once more in the shooting location of Night Of The Living Dead and the atmosphere once more recharged my creative batteries as ideas for comics, movies and blog updates filled my head. This time around we also took time and read tombstones and paid our respects to those buried there, and Juliet and I just talked and enjoyed the sunshine. We spent some time in the cemetery before we headed out and ending our wave 1 of our vacation.
Back home from Monster Bash and Cranberry, I still had a few days left of vacation and so on June 30, 2018 Juliet and I had ourselves a very cool Horror Movie Marathon that was filled with lots of great and independent horror's from our to be watched stack of DVDs. We also loaded up one some great eats like chips and breakfast casserole and decided on buffalo chicken and baked potatoes for dinner. The first movie of the marathon was the 1931 version of "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" that is about a poor doctor who experiment turns him into a sinister foul person who calls himself Hyde. The next film was "The Man With Two Heads" that was cheesy cult director Andy Milligan's version of Jekyll and Hyde that follows William Jekyll and his transformation into Danny Blood. The third chiller feature was the indie horror creature flick called "Cryptid" about a pint sized government made creature on a rampage! Next up we had "Manhater" about a woman whose anger at men becomes a living demon who gets revenge for her. Shot on video film "Cemetery Sisters" was next and was about sisters who married and killed men in order to get money to open a mortuary. We then watched "Phantom Of The Opera" a modern 2014 reimagining of the classic story. The seventh film of the marathon was the spooky found footage film "Hell House LLC". We then viewed "Dark Shade Creek 2" that is an independent slasher film. The cheesy "Ghost Of Camp Blood" was next and has the evil spirit of the clown mask killer looking for revenge. That was followed up by "Monkey Farm" a chilling tale about a research monkey that could possible be more than that. The chilling horror anthology "10/31" was next and delivered some frights. And our final fright flick of the night was "Carnivore: Werewolf Of London" about a couple at a cabin fighting for their lives against a werewolf. What a fun filled day with lots of great Horror Movies and a cool way to relax with Juliet.
The day was filled with some great films and some that were just okay and one that was hands down the Golden Turkey winner for both Juliet and myself and that's Cryptid as this film was terribly paced and had some of the most useless main hero characters I have seen in a film for quit some time. I will say that the creature of the film was cool and well done and shows that this movie could have been something better with a good script. For me picking the top three spots was kind of an easy one with my # 1.) being Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) as this is a great classic monster film that was released the same time as Universal started making their Monster films and was Paramount's way of cashing in, plus the acting is fantastic as is the look of Mr. Hyde. For me # 2.) was 10/31 an amazing modern horror anthology film that has every segment take place on Halloween, I found myself enjoying every segment and the score was top notch, this is one fright flick I think every one should view on Halloween. My # 3.) was a hard one to choose as I enjoyed so many but I had to go with Hell House LLC. as I found it to be one of the better found footage horror flicks I have seen in quite awhile, the mood and feel of the movie is fantastic! I must say that a runner up for 3rd for me was Manhater as I also found it well done and enjoyed the super sexy demon lady. Juliet's top three of the marathon went like this # 1.) 10/31…#2.) Hell House LLC…#3.) Phantom Of The Opera (2014)! As always the Horror Movie Marathon is a great relaxing time and event I look forward to doing multiple times a year.
I am sure you're all wondering what fiend for this Horror Movie Marathon won the Golden Chainsaw award, and I am here to tell you it was the weird small monster from Cryptid! This little guy racked up a body count of 16 people and possibly more…while the movie was not great and was the Golden Turkey for both of us, it still wracked up a body count. His best kill of the film is eating the skin off a woman's face, a brutal and a cool indie effect. So here is to you, Cryptid monster for all your bloodshed.
George A. Romero made a perfect zombie Horror Movie trilogy starting with the 1968 film Night Of The Living Dead and ending with Day of The Dead that was released in 1985. For years afterward, the godfather of zombie films stayed away from the world ruled by the dead he created. But 20 years after his last film, he returned to that world when in 2005 he released Land Of The Dead to moviegoers. So if you're ready to get aboard Dead Reckoning, and go on a supply run for the rich, I think it's time we take a look at Land Of The Dead!
In 2004, Zack Snyder and James Gunn released a remake of Dawn Of The Dead for Universal Studios, and the film sparked interest back in fans and Universal for Horror Movies that featured zombies. While the remake of his film Dawn Of The Dead was in production, George A. Romero was trying to also get a fourth film of his Dead series into production and was dealing with 20th Century Foxfor the film he was calling Twilight Of The Dead as it's working title. Fox wanted him to call the movie "Night Of The Living Dead" as they wanted to own the rights to a new franchise, and even when he said no and wanted to call it "Dead Reckoning," they came back with the title "Night Of The Living Dead: Dead Reckoning" and this greedy nature of Fox made Romero seek a new studio to produce the new film. Enter Universal once more to release a new zombie film for movie goers. The film's script had elements of the original Day Of The Dead script, and the film's title was changed to Land Of The Dead. Universal put lots of money into the film with the rumored budget being $15 million making it the highest budget in the Dead series! While Romero wrote and directed, he hired lots of talented actors in big roles like John Leguizamo, Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento and Tom Savini to name a few and even had such stars as Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Gregory Nicotero cameo as zombies. Filming went well, and it was released in theaters on June, 24 2005 and was meet with mostly positive reviews from both critics and fans and did pretty well at the box office bringing in $46,770,602.00 worldwide and was #112 for the year at the US Box Office. In 2005 these other Horror Movies were released Saw II, The Descent, Devil's Rejects, Ring Two, Wolf Creek, House Of Wax, Cry Wolf, Hellraiser: Deader, The Skeleton Key and Boogeyman to name a few showing that the world of Horror was very much alive and bringing in movie goers and home video watchers. So as you can see, Land Of The Dead might have been lost in the shuffle slightly at the Box Office it still has made it mark on the world of horror and shows that no one knew zombies better than Romero.
As a youngster I was really into music and when moving from Waynesville to Kettering I was the odd Monster Metalhead Kid who had a chip on his shoulder and would spend his time after school listening to the likes of Billy Idol, Alice Cooper and Motley Crue on vinyl and cassette and would call the local radio station The Edge and request songs from the likes of Adam Ant and became friends with the DJ Scott Mallory who ended up years later giving me advanced tickets to see Land Of The Dead in the theater before its release date. I was able to bring many of my friends as going with me was my then girlfriend Misty as well as my brother Bryan and my pals Andy Copp and Josh Weinberg, and I can remember waiting in line and all of us being so excited to see it, and after the movie we all left with the fact we enjoyed it but it seemed a little too polished. And what we all liked is the message of the rich using the poor as at the time that feeling among the hardworking low income was dealing with that in George W. Bush's America. I was also really happy that Asia Argento was in it as she was one of the best foreign genre actresses going at the time. Plus the film's effects were good minus the use of CGI blood in spots as that always looks terrible. The things from the movie that I was not that big of a fan of was the focus of the film being the rolling armored vehicle Dead Reckoning as it was large and silly and seemed like something from a video game. The other thing I was not sold on was the lead zombie Big Daddy who is showing signs of intelligence naturally and felt pain as his fellow zombies were shot and killed. But with these things I didn't like I over all really did enjoy this film and found it to be a great sequel to Night Of The Living Dead and proved that with a budget Romero could make something very special for fans. When the film was released to home media I bought the DVD and still own and watch it from time to time till this day. While this might not be the best in the Dead series it's by no means the worst, as that honor goes to the 6th film in the series "Survival Of The Dead". If you have not seen this film do yourself a favor and watch it late one stormy night and open the windows to allow a breeze to role in and enjoy this zombie filled romp.
Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek handled the score for Land Of The Dead and brought something fresh and new and yet still has a very classic feel to it. The mood of the music is dark when needed and filled with action when moments call for it. While I feel it's not as iconic of a score as the work of Goblin or John Harrison from the past two sequels, I still find it very solid and is worth listening to and even have played it on Alpha Rhythms on WYSO during October. This score can be found on CD and via Digital and was released by Varese Sarabande and is a great release for fans who collect Horror Movie scores.
Like the films in the series before it, Land Of The Dead has had its fair share of merchandise that delivered cool items for the fans. Items like posters, soundtrack, t-shirts, buttons and comics all came out. Action figures were made by Sorta Toys that were highly detailed and figures of almost the all the main zombies were made including Big Daddy and The Butcher. Also made was a Video Game that was exclusive to the original XBOX called "Land Of The Dead: Road To Fiddler's Green" that was a first person shooter that had you trying to fight through hordes of the undead in order to get the promise land of Fiddler's Green, the game was not well rated by fans and critics but still offered something cool for fans of the film. Over the years I have owned the comics, mini poster and soundtrack of this film. So if you love Land Of The Dead, there is lots of cool stuff for you to collect.
As I said one of the biggest pluses for Land Of The Dead for me has to be the fact the very lovely Asia Argento was cast as main character Slack. For those who don't know who Asia is, shame on you as she is the daughter of director Dario Argento and has acted in such classic films as Demons 2, The Church, Phantom Of The Opera, Scarlet Diva, xXx, Mother Of Tears and Dracula 3D to name a few. She also has directed some films like The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things and Misunderstood. Sadly in modern news Asia was one of the victims of the scumbag movie producer Harvey Weinstein and sadly was victim-shamed in her own homeland of Italy causing her to have to move to Germany to escape the media's hurtful words. I for one stand with Asia Argento and hope that Harvey gets what's coming to him, and that Asia after this drama ends returns to making Horror Movies and Cult Films as I for one am looking forward to her future in films. Check out the pictures below to see Asia Argento as Slack from Land of The Dead.
So we are at the electric and guarded gates of Fiddler's Green and that must mean we are at the point of taking a look at the comic adaption of our film of the hour Land Of The Dead that was released by IDW. And while we try and find our way in and get shelter from these terrible flesh-eating zombies I would like to thank Bell Book And Comic and Lone Star Comic for having these issues in stock to make this update possible and I would also like to remind you that I grade these on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, it's entertainment value and it's art and story. So I can hear Big Daddy groaning off in the distance which means that the zombies are on their way so let's get to reading these comics before we all become a snack for them!
Land Of The Dead # 1 ***
Released in 2005 Cover Price $3.99 IDW # 1 of 5
Riley and his crew that include Charlie, Cholo and Pretty Boy (to name a few) control the combat truck called Dead Reckoning and are on a supply run in a small town that is overrun by zombies. Riley is noticing that the zombies seem to be getting smarter and are trying to mimic their old human lives and seem to be communicating with each other now. This is his last night in command of this group, and he wants it to go smoothly but when Cholo goes off track and leads to a rookies death, and one of their biker members is knocked from his motorcycle and eaten by the undead his mission turned sour. The zombies now have seemed to come together and are ready to take the fight to the living. When back safe Riley and Cholo get into it over the antics back in town, and as they separate Riley and Charlie go to find a man named Chihuahua who owns Riley a car at his bar that includes a zombie fight cage! While Cholo is turned away from getting an apartment in the upper class high rise building called Fiddlers Green by the Mr. Kaufman who runs the town. As Cholo is leaving he beats up the security officers who have been told to kill him.
The dead are getting smarter and the living are still fighting among themselves over greed plus power and money! Our story follows the crew of Dead Reckoning and their two men in charge and their lives in a world of corruption and he dead. Our main hero is Riley who is the man in charge of the crew and after their last mission is retiring and is wanting to get a car and leave the area behind him. But sadly for him looks like his money has been taken and his car is just a pipedream and the man he was buying it from is clearly a con man. Charlie is a simple man who has one side of his face burnt and is the closest friend to Riley and is like his right hand man. Cholo is reckless and self-serving but also has most of the crews respect as he gets results, not to mention he also does all the dirty work for Mr. Kaufman and once his rich boss turned on him it's clear there will be hell to pay! Mr. Kaufman is clearly a smug rich man who enjoys his power over others and does not value those who get him his supplies or keep him safe. The world inside Fiddlers Green is posh and filled with shops and restaurants with armed guards while out side the town is kept safe by electric fences and soldiers with the people being poor and fight for the scraps. The zombies are all around the town and are getting smarter and are bounding together and seem to have had enough of the living! Big Daddy in this issue is really downplayed as he takes a back seat to the female athlete zombie who is the one that uses a tool to knock a biker off his bike for them to all snack on. This first issue holds pretty true to the film it was based on and yet holds a feel of its own making it a really good read. The cover for this issue is amazing and is very eye catching and reminds me of a zombie cover that you could have seen on an issue of The Dead or Dead Walkers. The interior art is also well done and is done by Gabriel Rodriguez who also did IDW's "Lock & Key" and "Little Nemo: Return To Slumberland". A very good zombie horror comic first issue that shows he respect to the film and also adds and takes away enough to make it feel like it's own experience. Lets see what issue two has in store for us, shall we?
Land Of The Dead # 2 **1/2
The zombies now being lead by the one called Big Daddy are making their way to the city and are taking the war to the living! Meanwhile Riley and Charlie while waiting on answers about the car watch as a young woman named Slack is thrown into the arena with two spray painted zombies with the crowd voting on what one will get her first. Riley and Charlie make the decision to save Slack and shoot the zombies and even have to kill the little man who was the key to Riley's car and this leads to them all being arrested including Slack. Meanwhile Cholo and his crew steal Dead Reckoning just as the zombies have broken into the outer walls of the city! Cholo calls Mr. Kauffman and wants five million dollars or he will use the guns and missiles from Dead Reckoning to blow up Fiddlers Green. This worries Mr. Kauffman who refuses to pay the money and brings Riley up from jail and demands that he gets Dead Reckoning back and deal with Cholo once and for all.
The corruption of the ones in power is clearly putting the poor and working class at risk as Mr. Kauffman and his power has put everyone in the small secure town at risk no only from the zombies but also the one man he crossed that has the means and anger to do something about it. Kauffman is such a smug and overly confidante man who lives a posh life style and rubs elbows with the rich but also has his fingers in the underbelly of the town's illegal activities. Cholo meanwhile is also a very cold person who really only looks out for himself as he wants his money and walks away from a zombie attack leaving people to die so that he can steal Dead Reckoning, and then once had threatens to blow up the town in order to get money. Riley and Charlie clearly make a great team and while Riley acts tough and cold it's clear he cares about peoples life and that's why he risks it all to save the life of a woman he didn't even know. Slack is that woman who is a skilled fighter, but due to her good looks was forced into being a streetwalker by Kauffman and his crime connections, and once they find she is talking to a group of rebels set on one day fighting the powers that be she is arrested and set to be killed in the zombie arena. This issue has some blood, gore and is building the mood to what is to come, the one thing you will notice is that while the zombies are around they seem to be only a background plot. This issue also shows that Big Daddy is the one who is leading the zombie revelation and he and his fellow undead are attacking smartly and have made their way to the cities outer border. The cover for this issue I have is ok and is just a photo still taken from the film and is nothing special, while the interior art once more was done by Gabriel Rodriguez and is once more great stuff. This second issue is solid and builds the story and brings us to the main meat of the story and that's Riley and crew going out to get Dead Reckoning back. So let's see what issue three has in store for us!
Riley agrees to get back Dead Reckoning on the condition that Charlie and Slack are set free and join him and for a car to leave the city to head north. As Riley and his crew gear up they are forced to also take three soldiers with them that's Motown a tough as nails female, Manolete a prideful soldier who is named after a bullfighter and the massive Samoan Pillsbury who is a mountain of a man. Once out to get supplies needed they also find the aftermath of the last zombie attack and know that the city is in danger multiple ways! While getting ammo and finding a jeep stray zombies are around the leaves Manolete bitten and having to be shot by Slack, and once far away from the city Riley and Charlie pull guns on Motown and Pillsbury and let them know that they are aware that Kauffman has sent them to kill them after they get back Dead Reckoning and give them an option of going along with the plan of Riley taken the massive vehicle or getting out of the jeep and walking back to the city…they decide to go along for the ride. Cholo and his crew load the weapons and are ready to flow Fiddler's Green away as Riley and his crew are trying to catch up with them to stop it. But while they are playing war games Big Daddy and his zombie friends have gotten across the river and are on track to attack the city!
Mr. Kauffman is upping the game against Cholo in this game of power and greed as he sends out his own task force to get his stolen war machine back. Riley clearly only takes the job of getting Dead Reckoning back in order to save the innocent people who will be killed in this little power struggle. Riley while a loner and tough as nails always does what's right and does his best to protect the innocent. Charlie as well is a good guy, who will kill to protect his friends and those who need help he is also very skilled with a gun and always has Riley's back. Slack who only grew up in the city has never seen the outside world and it's clear she don't like what she sees, but she as well is a skilled fighter and has bounded with Riley and Charlie. Motown and Pillsbury are skilled fighters who clearly work for Kauffman and would have killed Riley and his friends when he mission was over, but know that they have to play along or be left for the dead. Cholo really does just want's what's owed to him and does not mind killing to get it! Big Daddy and his zombie horde are causing death and destruction and make meals out of soldiers and any human they come across! This issue also brings the blood and gore and shows that while the world is under attack by greed they are the true threats to mankind. The cover for this issue is pretty great and is eye catching for Horror Comic readers, with the interior art once more being done by Gabriel Rodriguez being solid and great stuff! Over all this third issue is fantastic and is holding true to this George Romero film.
Riley and his crew find Dead Reckoning and Pillsbury knocks out Motown who was planning on turning on the group and Riley and Charlie stand and meet Cholo and his crew who take the pair as hostages as Slack and Pillsbury hide in the shadows armed and ready to fire if things go south. When Riley uses a master control on Dead Reckoning to shut down its weapons Cholo and Riley get into a fight and this leads to the now woken up Motown to try and shoot them and one bullet hits Cholo and this also leads to her death as a zombie bites her and Slack putts a bullet in her brain. While at Fiddlers Green Mr. Kaufmann is stealing the cities money and is about to flee when he gets the call from Riley that Dead Reckoning has been recaptured, but when explosions in the city goes off they find out that the zombies lead by Big Daddy are in the city and want human flesh! Cholo and one of his friends decide to go and travel to Cleveland while Riley and the rest of them travel to the city and see if they can help as the city really is being taken over by the dead.
Things are really heating up as the zombies are in full force and have entered the city and are killing and eating anyone in their way. Riley and Charlie risk their own lives in order to get close to Dead Reckoning and Cholo and are able to pull off stopping the planned attack on the city. Riley once in control of the defense machine makes the decision to return to the city to help anyone he can from the zombies. Mr. Kauffman once more shows that he is a selfish person as when things get bad he tries to flee Fiddlers Green and is taking all the money of his residents! Kauffman really is a terrible person and one as a reader you really do want to see get his. Slack and Pillsbury are great back up for Riley as they watch his back during the stand off with Cholo. Speaking of Cholo that poor guy just can not win as in this issue he does not get his money, he does not get Dead Reckoning and worse gets shot and bite! This issue really has it all hit the fan as zombies are now working together and have gotten smarter and yet still want to eat and kill. The issue has lots of blood and zombie carnage and a pretty cool cover that features Slack who is played by Asia Argento predominately and again Gabriel Rodriguez did the interior art and is great stuff. So as you can see Dead Reckoning is in the hands of Riley who along with his crew are off to try and save the day. A great solid read and makes me look forward to see how the final issue plays out.
Riley and the crew of Dead Reckoning are on their way to try and save the innocent people of the city and they have to get a drawbridge to drop first and once more Riley risks his life in order to do so, and even must come face to face with some zombies! Meanwhile the now bitten and dying Cholo is dropped off near Fiddlers Green as he wants revenge of Mr. Kauffman who is also on the run as Big Daddy and the zombies have entered the building and are eating the rich. After Riley gets the bridge down they rush to the gates and find that many of the people have been killed by the zombies as the now fully dead Cholo has found Mr. Kauffman after he hid in a limo to get away from Big Daddy who had poured gasoline all over the limo and ground. The zombie Cholo attacks Kauffman by the limo and as the two tussle Big Daddy throws a flaming barrel at the limo that is covered in gas blowing up Kauffman and Cholo ending their greed once and for all. Meanwhile Riley is able save many lives when he fires missiles into a horde of zombies, as the survivors figure out what they want to do Riley, Charlie, Slack, Pretty Boy and the rest of the crew of Dead Reckoning all head to Canada as Big Daddy and the zombies head off back to the town they came from as their work and message was sent.
Wow this really was a great Horror Comic that does a great job of adapting the George Romero film and giving fans something more to have based on it. This issue has Riley doing what's right and stopping Cholo from attacking the city, is able to keep onto Dead Reckoning and save lots of innocent lives from a zombie attack. Riley all through this comic mini series has been a real loner but it's also clear he values the friendships he has in a world gone dead, plus it's great that we have a hero in this comic and in the world it created that's a true caring person with a tough edge. Charlie and Slack are as well loners who are looking for their own place in the world and find good friendship with each other as well as with Riley. It's clear that Charlie owes his life to Riley who saved him from a very bad fire that left half his face scared. Slack meanwhile was a good soldier who was forced to be a prostitute who wants something better in life and for trying to better herself is sent to be killed by zombies in a arena cage, before she is rescued by Riley. Cholo is a man who has turned cold due to the world around him going to hell, his goal is to live the good life and once that is taken away from him he will do whatever he can to get his revenge. Mr. Kauffman is a rich scumbag who really only cares about himself and I love how in this comic series they keep his face hidden in shadow making him come off even more evil. Big Daddy and the rest of the zombies are flesh eaters who are adapting and learning and with their new smarts come's skills in killing and eating humans. Land of the Dead is a film that translated really well to comics and IDW did a great job of making it happen and with this and as well as Dawn Of The Dead makes me wish they would have covered more of the films of George Romero like Day Of The Dead and even Survival Of The Dead. I also wish IDW would have made an ongoing comic series of Land as I would like to know what Riley, Charlie, Slack and the rest of Dead Reckoning is up to and what they found in Canada. The cover I have for this issue is fantastic and very eye catching and holds a classic indie zombie comic look, and the interior art by Gabriel Rodriguez is fitting for this title. Over all this is a very solid and good Horror Comic title based on a Horror Movie and is a nice comic series for fans of the film and is worth checking out for fans. Check out the art below to see how it looks in this comic and see the style of Rodriguez.
So as always super sad that our Monster Bash vacation has come to an end as I really do enjoy that Horror Convention and really love Cranberry, Mars and Evan City as they feel like my home away from home! Also sad as this is the last of the adaptation comics of the George A. Romero films based on zombies…I mean there are some more Night Of The Living Dead comics from the likes of Fantaco, Dead Dog and Avatar so who knows what next year will have in store for me to review for my Monster Bash Vacation. But for my next update, I will be leaving the world of Romero's dead behind and once more be entering the world of Atlas Comics as I take a look at masked hero The Destructor! So until next time read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Romero film or two and as always support your local Horror Host. See you next update for a bad guy bashing good time.
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The 9th Wonder Of The World Of Wrestling: Chyna
When I was a kid, 80's pro-wrestling was filled with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Ultimate Warrior, Sting, Lex Luger, Kerry Von Erich, Jerry Lawler and so many other amazing superstars who drew large crowds to the arenas for sold out matches and drove up Pay Per View buy rates. When it came to the female wrestlers, names like Wendi Richter, Fabulous Moolah, Jumping Bomb Angles, Sherri Martel and Rockin' Robin were used as special attractions, and Richter was one of the first non-valets used as eye candy and a role model for young woman around the world as she gave it her all in the squared circle even becoming the Woman's Champion. By the early 90's, female wrestlers in the WWF were becoming respected by the fans. Many amazing talents were competing like Alundra Blayze and Luna Vachon, and they paved the way for the likes of Sable, Lita, Trish Stratus, Ivory and the one who made a major impact in female wrestling, the 9th Wonder Of The World Chyna! Wrestling fans in the Attitude Era enjoyed Chyna as she broke the boundaries of what a female wrestler was supposed to be and even was a manager and a role model for young women the world wide. Love her or hate her, Chyna was a major player for WWE in the Attitude Era, and it's my pleasure to talk about her on this Rotten Ink update. So get a ring side seat as we are going to take a look at the life, career, death and comics of the one and only Joanie "Chyna" Laurer.
Joan Marie Laurer was born on December 27th 1970 in New York and had a rough childhood after her parents separated. Besides moving a bunch, she also had three different stepfathers and no stable life. Joan learned how to play cello and violin and developed an eating disorder as a teen! Joan and her mom had a falling out, and she moved to Spain with her father and finished school there. She went to the University of Tampa and graduated in 1992 and joined the Peace Corps and even was stationed in Guatemala. Back home, she took a few weird jobs like a waitress in a strip club and a phone sex operator for a 900 number line! But in 1995, she found her calling in life, to be a Pro Wrestler. She was trained by the legend Killer Kowalski and started working the independent wrestling scene under the name Joanie Lee. In 1996, while at a independent wrestling event, she met WWF Superstars Triple H and Shawn Michaels who wanted her to come to the WWF and become their bodyguard for DX. At first Vince McMahon was not hip to hiring her until he heard WCW was thinking of bringing her in to be a member of the n.W.o and this made him hire her. She started in 1997 as Triple H's manager and bodyguard before DX was formed. She spent the next years helping HHH and HBK win matches. Her main move was the low blow, and she was the muscle that helped back up DX's mouths. She would be the first woman to enter the Royal Rumble as she drew number 13 in 1999 while in DX. She would later turn on Triple H and DX and join Kane and Vince McMahon who at the time was feuding with DX and would jump back to DX and then turn on them again this time with Triple H as they joined The Corporation a group of "company" guys that was being lead by Vince McMahon.
After a while The Corporation split up, and Chyna went her own way leaving Triple H behind as well. She was the first female to enter the King Of The Ring tournament and also was able to earn a spot for a run at the WWF Championship that she sadly lost when she lost to Mankind. She would go on to a feud with Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental Championship and would also gain a valet Miss Kitty during this time. At No Mercy in 1999, she won the belt form Jarrett and became the first and only woman to win this belt! She would go on to wrestle Chris Jericho to defend the belt and would lose and win back the belt during this feud. At one time, the two had to be shared champions as they both pinned each other at the same time! After losing the belt to Jericho again, she would move onto teaming with Jericho for a short time before moving onto the next chapter of her WWF career.
In 2000 she would go on to manage and team with Eddie Guerrero who would call her his "Mamacita" and the pair would go onto have a weird angle with the Intercontinental Championship after Chyna won it again after beating Val Venis and Trish Stratus in a intergender tag match at SummerSlam. But she would lose the belt two weeks later in a triple threat match against Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle when Eddie picked up the win! The pair split later in 2000 when she caught Eddie in the shower with two other women! From there, she would go onto have a program with Ivory who was a member of the Right To Censor group who were upset over Chyna posing for Playboy Magazine. She would win the Women's Championship from Ivory at Wrestlemania X-Seven and would defend the belt later against Lita. Chyna won the match, but this proved to be her final match in the WW. She vacated the belt after being taken off TV and was later let go from the company after she had a breakdown in her personal life when she found out her boyfriend Triple H was having an affair with the owner's daughter Stephanie McMahon! 2001 was the end of Chyna's WWF run ,and sadly she would never come back to the company and this also was the end of her major wrestling career.
In 2002, Chyna would show back up in wrestling as she appeared in New Japan Pro Wrestling refereeing and even wrestling a few matches including against Masahiro Chono with her final match for that company being a tag match were she and a Fake Great Muta lost to Hiroshi Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenzo Suzuki. She started with them in 2002 and also ended her run in 2002 giving her less than a year with the company. She took many years away from the ring, and in 2011, she showed up in TNA where she was the associate to Kurt Angle and entered one battle royal and only had one major match with them as she teamed with Angle to take on Jeff and Karen Jarrett. Chyna got the win when she made Karen tap out. This was the final match Chyna would ever wrestle and sadly, both runs in New Japan and TNA were both very short and no other federations wanted to take a chance on her like Ring Of Honor. So while her time in the world of Pro Wrestling was pretty short, she was a trend setter as she was the first female to be Intercontinental Championship, be in the Royal Rumble and King of The Ring as well was the WWF Women's Championship showing that she was a true WWF Superstar. Sadly on April 20, 2016 Chyna was found dead in her home in California at the age of 46; the cause of death was an overdose of alcohol and anxiety drugs.
Chyna's biggest Wrestlemania match was at "Wrestlemania X-Seven" where in a squash match she defeated Ivory for the WWF Women's Championship! The lead up for this match has Ivory, who was a member of the group Right To Censor, trashing Chyna for being in Playboy Magazine and even having Ivory beat Chyna at the Royal Rumble as she injured her neck causing her to lose the match. This rematch was hyped as Ivory made Chyna sign that if she hurt her neck again, the 9th Wonder Of The World could not seek legal action and the rest of Right To Censor was banned from ringside. The match would have Chyna dominate Ivory and "Chynabomb" her, only to raise Ivory at the two count to press her over her head with a massive slam and then go for the three count that had Chyna win the WWF Women's Championship! This match showcased that Chyna was a force to be reckoned within the women's division and that she could bounce back from a injury and take the biggest prize in the company for the female wrestlers at the time. This match only also helped seal Chyna's popularity as Ivory was a major heel at the time who was loud and annoying trying to tell the WWF Universe what they should watch and like. While the match was super quick, it just showed you how powerful and popular Chyna was in the WWF.
Besides being a wrestling superstar, Chyna also appeared in TV shows as well as movies! She appeared in such shows as 3rd Rock From The Sun, The Howard Stern Show, Fear Factor, Hollywood Squares, Robot Wars: Grand Champions 2002, The Surreal Life, My Fair Brady, Larry King Live, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew and Celebrity Boxing where she took on Joey Buttafuoco and sadly lost to the scumbag. She also starred in some low budget films like Just Another Romantic Wrestling Comedy, Alien Fury and Illegal Aliens. She was on reality shows like Cristina's Court where she went up against a dog breeder. While Chyna never made it in Hollywood and many of her appearances on TV were in bad lights from Rehab to Boxing a convict for low pay, she will best be known for playing Officer Janice on 3rd Rock From The Sun in a total of 3 episodes. While she made cameo appearances in many other shows, she just never was considered a great actress but she was always well liked by her fellow actors.
2004 marked the downfall of Chyna's wrestling career and the birth of her becoming a full fledged porn actress after Red Light District Video bought the rights and released a homemade porn she had made with her then boyfriend X-Pac that was called "1 Night In Chyna" and this made her become an in-demand actress in such titles as "Another Night In China", "Backdoor To Chyna", "Chyna Is Queen Of The Ring", "Avengers XXX: A Porn Parody" where she played She-Hulk and her last adult film was "She-Hulk XXX that was released in 2013. Many could say that she got her first taste in the world of adult entertainment when she posed nude for Playboy in 2000 and again in 2002. Many people have a theory that her adult film acting is what has kept her from going into the WWE Hall Of Fame, and while this I am sure is partly true, I am sure her odd and erratic behavior, her drug abuse, her outspoken nature and history with Triple H are also major factors on why she is not in. Say what you will, but Chyna should be in the Hall Of Fame as she did lots for the women division in WWE and made her mark on the world of Pro Wrestling. Oh yeah, and do you like the Little Roddy Piper heads I used to cover her naughty bits?
Chyna has had her fair share of amazing merchandise like all great Wrestling Superstars of the past and still to this day have. She has graced T-shirts, posters, mugs, magazines, VHS tapes, books, action figures, video games, DVDs, valentine cards, trading cards, dinner plates, photos, stickers, comic books and so much more! She was one of the first female wrestlers I could think of who had so much merch that she rivaled some of the bigger male superstars in just the sheer amount the WWE made with her image. It's crazy to think about just how much they pushed Chyna and how fast they dropped her and down played her impact in the WWE after she was upset over Triple H and his affair with Stephanie McMahon. After her release no other merchandise was made nor was she signed to a Legends Deal. Growing up a wrestling fan (keep in mind way before the Attitude Era) I did have much of Chyna's merch from DVDs, VHS, magazines, her book and video games, and if your wondering, I did indeed have the Playboy of her in it as a friend of mine got it for me as a gift cause he thought it was funny! So I am sure if you loved wrestling in the late 90's and 2000's you owned something that had Chyna's image.
Speaking of video games, I am a mark for buying wrestling games and have picked up every WWE game when released, many of the times even special ordering it so that I could get it on day of release! Chyna has been in many of the games with her first being "WWF Attitude" that was released for N64, Dreamcast and Playstation in 1999. She would also appear in "WWF Wrestlemania 2000" for the N64 in 1999 putting her in two games in the same year. In 2000, she would be in "WWF Smackdown!" for Playstation as well as "WWF No Mercy" for the N64 with her final game, also released in 2000 when Playstation delivered us gamers ," WWF Smackdown! 2: Know Your Role"! I owned all these games and while she was in them, I never really remember playing her against friends or the computer as while I enjoyed her in ring work, I was still more into playing as wrestlers as The Undertaker, Essa Rios or Bret Hart. I do however remember my friend Jason Gilmore playing as her in No Mercy and Attitude and being pretty good with her tossing opponents around. So did or do you own any of these games, and do you find yourself playing as Chyna?
So as you can see in her short wrestling career that really only lasted from 1995-2002, Chyna made a major impact and broke the mold of what a female wrestler should be as she won belts held by only male wrestlers up to that time, was the first ever female to enter the Royal Rumble and was a role model for young girls who wanted to be a pro wrestler. She was not a "Diva" and while not ground breaking in the ring, she could hold her own with both females and males in matches. She also broke the mold of women wrestlers at the time having to be super model looking and embraced the fact that she was different and sent the message out for anyone to be who they are. I know that she had many surgeries to make her appearance more feminine after "fans" claimed she looked too much like a man, but that was in real life that she felt the need to change for society to accept her, while her character was more confident in who she was. With female wrestling being very big in the WWE right now with talented wrestlers like Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Natalya, Naomi and so many other top notch ladies on the roster, all I am sure look at Chyna, Trish Stratus, Ivory and Lita as the performers who paved the way for "Divas" to become wrestlers.
So now that we chatted a little about Chyna and who she was, I am sure many of you friends and readers are remembering her career in wrestling while others who didn't watch wrestling are learned a little about her and I hope want to learn more. I would suggest reading her autobiography book called "If They Only Knew" if you do want to know more about her. So now it's time to take a look at the comic series of Chyna that was done by Chaos Comics starting in 2000 and had two one shot issues that make up the series. I want to thank Lone Star Comics and Game Swap Kettering for having these issues in stock. The Ref just walked by and wanted to tell us these rules "I grade these on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story." So lets get our ring side seat and see what Chaos Comics has to offer to the legacy of Chyna and her comic book series.
Chyna # 1 **
Released in 2000 Cover Price $2.95 Chaos Comics # 1 of 1
Chyna arrives in Chicago just in time to save Jamie Banks, a young girl who is being kidnapped by masked members of The Death Cult! Chyna uses her fighting ability and takes out the masked goons and meets her father Elliot Banks who wants to hire Chyna as his and his daughter's bodyguard as he claims that he has very powerful enemies. She decides to take the job and becomes close to Jamie but soon finds that Elliot is nothing more than a rich scumbag. The Death Cult leader Kassandra is upset and sends more troops to the Banks Mansion, and while Chyna deals with them, others come in and kidnap Jamie! Elliot orders Chyna to go save his daughter, and Chyna does as she asked not for money but for Jamie and soon finds out that the reason The Death Cult has kidnapped the young girl is because Elliot screwed them on an illegal weapons deal and they have been priming Jamie into being unwilling killer as her Nanny was a part of the cult! Chyna fights tooth and nail as they take Jaimie back to her father who is given a speech to his backers and just as his young daughter is about to stab him Chyna appears beats up Kassandra and saves the day and warns Elliot to get out of the arms business and be a father or she will kick his butt! Chyna then takes Jamie home to put her to bed and so ends this action adventure of Chyna.
This is a fun and yet kind of bland action comic to feature a WWE Superstar that is not a bio comic but an adventure one that takes Chyna out of the ring and into a battle with a cult. The story has Chyna as a bodyguard to a crooked rich man and his daughter who have crossed paths with a evil cult on a deal gone bad. So the cult wants revenge and has a plan to brain wash the daughter into killing her dad, and Chyna must stop this from happing. Chyna comes off cold as ice and uncaring for human life besides that of the young girl whom she has started a bond with. She is skilled in hand to hand combat and seems to have the power and strength of Hercules as she can toss around many grown men at the same time. So her powers are being cold and strong and have no real personality as she is a woman of few words. Elliot Banks is your typical sleazy corrupt businessman who deals in firearms and don't care who he hurts or rips off as he thinks money can buy him out of any trouble. Jamie Banks is just a nice young girl who is stuck with a terrible father and has no one to really watch after and is being used to be a killing machine thanks to a cult…wait, is she the female Michael Myers?! The Death Cult and their leader Kassandra are many but seem to be easily beat by one woman…so how dangerous are they really? This comic is a good read but really does lack a solid plot and at no time did I feel Chyna was in trouble nor did I feel that she was all that likable as a comic hero. The cover I have is a photo one and is cool if you're a fan of Chyna. The interior art is good and done by Eddy Barrows who does his best at trying to capture the look of Chyna. Over all, there's not much to say besides this is a mediocre comic based on a one time super popular wrestler. So let's move on and see what Chyna II has in store for us.
Chyna II # 1 **
Chyna is at a party and saves a woman named Shelly Marko from a hit that was placed on her by a crime lord Nicky Decampo as she is going to testify against him in court. After she saves her, the police hire Chyna to get Marko to the district attorney so that they can bring Decampo down. Chyna and Marko begin their quest and along the way they find out that some of the cops are dirty and been paid off and that they have been tracking them via Marko's cellphone. Once into town and after beating up some bad guys, Chyna soon finds that she has been set up as Marko is really there to kill the district attorney and that she herself is to be killed! After Chyna makes short work out of the assassin she is also able to stop Marko from killing the district attorney as it has been a double cross as Chyna knew she was being set up and was hired by the district attorney who knew the hit has been placed on her.
This is another Chyna is a badass bodyguard comic adventure and this time has her acting as a double agent as the bad guys think they have tricked her into helping them and really she is working with the good guys in order to set up them up! Much like the other issue this comic just really is a basic plot with over the top action and one liners that brings us readers a mediocre adventure. Chyna in this one is snarky and a woman of few words besides some terrible lines she delivers to come off tough. Chyna in this one as well is super powerful, has the skill of s stuntman and the wit and smarts of a trained military leader. Shelly Marko is a sneaky young woman who at first comes off as a scared witness who wants to do the right thing, but really is a cold hearted woman who really wants to help her crime lord friend and is willing to kill many to do it. The rest of the bad guys are useless and get knocked around like a crash test dummy. Sadly I can see why this comic series based on Chyna only lasted two issues with both being first issues as it offered nothing new and really fells like a generic comic that you could have added any character into the role of Chyna and it would not have mattered. The comics didn't capture the nature of Chyna, and I get they were trying to play up on her bodyguard role for Triple H and DX, it's just they didn't get her attitude and over all personality right. The cover on Chyna II that I own is the photo cover and I must say that it looks more like a workout video pose and not a pro wrestler one! Mike Deodato Jr. did the interior art and it's pretty good and in many panels he did a great job of capturing Chyna's look. Over all this wrestling comic series is mediocre at best and while enjoyable for the most part, I really wish they would have brought a little more of a wrestling theme to this comic series and maybe even added Miss Kitty as a sidekick. Check out some art from this comic series to see what Chyna looks like as a comic book character.
So while Chyna's time in the world of comics might not have been as memorable as her time in wrestling, she still was able to get her time at being a comic hero. Cool thing is in the coming years, we will be taking a look at more Chaos! Comics based on WWE wrestlers like The Undertaker, The Rock, Mankind and Stone Cold Steve Austin and we will see if these comics hold up to what I remember or if they will be mediocre adventures like Chyna's was. But our next update will take us out of the ring as we will finally make our way to The Mummy's Tomb and talk all about the Universal Monster series and the Dark Horse Comic adaptation. So until next time read a comic or three, watch a local wrestling match or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next update.
Posted in Chaos Comics, Comics	| Tagged 9th Wonder Of The World, Attitude Era, Chaos Comics, Chyna, D-Generation X, Death Cult, DX, Eddy Barrows, Joan Marie Laurer, Joanie Laurer, Mike Deodato Jr., New Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling, Shawn "HBK" Michaels, Shelly Marko, The Corporation, TNA, Triple H, Wrestlemania X-Seven, WWE, WWF, WWF Intercontinental Championship, WWF Superstar, WWF Women's Championship	| Leave a reply
Kevin Nash The Master Of The Jackknife Powerbomb
Posted on March 23, 2017 by bloodlinematt
Here on Rotten Ink we have covered some big men of the squared circle of Pro Wrestling like Andre The Giant and King Kong Bundy, and now I think it's time we take a look at another as we step into the ring with Kevin Nash who hands down was one of the most popular wrestlers of the late 1990's and through out the 2000's in both WWF and WCW and even made his mark in TNA as being a main-eventer and a wrestler who put asses in the seats. Nash has been a very topical wrestler as some fans, critics and fellow wrestlers don't like him and claim that when he was WWE World Heavyweight Champion, he was not a draw and that he was lazy and only knew a limited move set. Others put him at the top of their favorite wrestlers and find his matches entertaining. Here on this update I will try and cover it all from his biggest match as Wrestlemania XI, to the Finger Poke Of Doom and even ending Goldbreg's winning streak, it will all be covered! So once more lace up your boots and step over the top rope as we take a look at another big man of Pro Wrestling and the Image Comic based on him.
Kevin Scott Nash was born on July 9th, 1959 in Detroit Michigan and had a pretty normal life besides sadly losing his father in 1968 from a heart attacks. Kevin was only 8 years old. Nash was a great student and went to the University Of Tennessee where played center for the basketball team from 1977-1980 even making it to the NCAA Sweet 16, but his prankster attitude and clashes with authority took him out from playing for a fourth year. After moving to Europe and playing pro basketball for many years, he tore his anterior ligament, and this caused him to have to retire. He took many other odd jobs overseas like 202nd Military Police Company where he guarded a NATO facility, and back in the US he managed a strip club and worked for a Ford factory. Nash eventually decided to try and become a Pro Wrestler and was trained by Jody Hamilton aka Assassin # 2, and in 1990 Nash was able to get a job with WCW.
With grease paint on his face and an orange Mohawk, he became Steel and teamed with his partner Iron to become The Master Blasters that would spend a few months feuding with Mike Rotundo and Tim Horner. But Iron was not working out and was replaced by Blade, and the team was undefeated for a time making them a tag team to watch as they had the power and look. Their first loss came by the hands of Tom Zenk and Brian Pillman. Even after the loss, they ended up getting a tag team title shot against The Steiner Brothers and would not be able to take the straps from the champs. By 1991, their push as a tag team came to a end and so did the tag team as Steel would now just be called Master Blaster and would have single matches against the likes of Brian Pillman and Junkyard Dog only to lose.
Master Blaster was gone by February 1991, and Nash would get the second gimmick of his career as he became Oz! As Oz he had a weird old man Halloween mask, silver hair, dressed in green, was managed for a short time by The Great Wizard and was based on the book/movie The Wizard Of Oz. He was a powerhouse of power and made his debut at the 1991 Clash Of The Champions where he started his short undefeated streak…that was until The Great American Bash 1991 when he faced Ron Simmons, and after this loss he became a jobber for the wrestling stars like Dustin Rhodes, Rick Steiner, Bobby Eaton and Bill Kazmaier. And 1991 went that way for Oz, as what was supposed to be a big grand gimmick turned into a cheesy one that was used as enhancement talent. Rumor has it that Oz's push came to an end over money, and it was also said that the whole gimmick was a rib (prank) on Nash to try to get him to quite WCW. I can remember watching that Clash Of The Champions when Oz premiered and thinking just how amazing his entrance theme was…while the gimmick was lame, it still is one I remember.
At the start of 1992, after Oz was sent packing back to the Emerald City, Nash got yet another change this time becoming a wise ass gambling mobster type named Vinnie Vegas who was quickly placed in the A Half-Ton Of Holy Hell stable along side Vader and Mr. Hughes and was managed by Harley Race. But as fast as this stable was created it was also disbanded a month later. Vegas ended up going to the stable The Diamond Mine along with The Diamond Studd (Scott Hall) and Scotty Flamingo (Raven), and their leader was Diamond Dallas Page! This stable lasted for a short while, and after they broke up, DDP and Vegas formed a tag team named The Vegas Connection. This lasted until Page was fired. Vinnie Vegas floated around for a while longer losing matches and being forced into teams with such wrestlers as Big Sky. But his luck was about to change as he had some powerful friends in the WWF, namely Jim Ross and Shawn "HBK" Michaels, and they pulled some strings so Nash was able to get out of his contract and his wrestling career was about to blow up! Kevin Nash's first run for WCW saw him as an orange Mohawked goon named Steel, then the silver haired Oz and ended it being a parody of a mobster named Vinnie Vegas…say what you will about his first run characters, but they are what makes wrestling fun with their cheesy outlandish appearances. Check out below for pictures to see the evolution of Kevin Nash in WCW wave one.
Kevin Nash entered the WWF in 1993. He grew out his hair and dawned black leather and became "Big Daddy Cool" Diesel, the bodyguard for Shawn Michaels. The pair became Two Dudes With Attitudes, and he helped Michaels deal with good guy wrestlers who were looking to beat up on the Heart Break Kid. In the 1994 Royal Rumble, Diesel entered the Rumble at # 7 and lasted for 18 minutes and tossed out seven men that included Owen Hart, Rick Steiner, Bob Backlund and Billy Gunn. Over the months Diesel would win the Intercontinental Championship from Razor Ramon and with Shawn Michaels captured the Tag Team Titles from The Headshrinkers, making Diesel a double champion!! This was a short feat as he would lose the IC belt back to Razor, and after a tag match his partner, HBK landed a super kick to his chin, breaking them up. They forfeited the belts and Disel was no longer his bodyguard. This marked his turn from heel to face as the crowd began cheering Big Daddy Cool. Things were going great for Diesel as he would go on to win the WWF World Heavyweight Champion from Bob Backlund in 8 seconds at Madison Square Garden only three days after breaking away from Shawn Michaels. He would defend his belt and retain it via a draw against Bret "Hitman" Hart at the 1995 Royal Rumble that would see Shawn Michaels winning the Rumble and getting a title match at Wrestlemania XI that we will go more in detail about a little later in this update. Diesel would hold the belt for a little while and would defend it against the likes of Sycho Sid and Mabel. He would also reform his friendship with Shawn Michaels, and they would go on to capture the tag team titles again and with HBK also being the intercontinental champ, the pair held all of the major titles! But this time at the top was coming to an end as he and HBK lost the tag titles to Owen Hart and Yokozuna on a technicality and Diesel would lose the WWF World Heavyweight Champion on November 19 1995 to Bret "The Hitman" Hart as Survivor Series. With this loss, Diesel turned heel again and had matches against the likes of The Undertaker and Bret Hart and would leave the WWF after WrestleMania XII losing to The Undertaker and jobbing at house shows before his contract expired. Kevin Nash's first WWF run lasts from 1993-1996, and while many would say he was a low drawing champion, he certainly made his mark in the promotion's history with multiple title wins and some classic matches as both a face and a heel.
With WWF owning the rights to the in ring name Diesel and not wanting to return as Vinnie Vegas or Oz, Nash made his return to WCW on the June 10, 1996 episode of WCW Monday Night Nitro when he joined his pal Scott Hall (formally Razor Ramon) to form the invading tag team known as The Outsiders and simply went by his real name Kevin Nash! You see WCW was now going head to head with WWF on Monday Nights, and the storyline at first acted as if WWF had sent the pair over to cause chaos and to bully their talent. But after the WWF threatened to sue them, the storyline changed that they were just there to take over WCW and they had a mystery partner waiting to come out and help with the takeover. At the PPV Bash At The Beach, Kevin Nash along with Scott Hall teamed with a mystery partner to take on Sting, Macho Man Randy Savage and Lex Luger, and it was soon revealed that Hulk Hogan was the mystery partner. The world of pro wrestling's biggest face turned heel, and so began The New World Order (n.W.o). Kevin Nash would become one of the biggest draws for the company winning the Tag Team Title as well as the World Heavy Weight Title and would have feuds with the likes of The Giant, Lex Luger, Rey Mysterio Jr., Goldberg. Nash became one of the company's biggest draws and flipped many times from being heel to face and back again. Not only was he a part of The Outsiders and n.W.o but also was the leader of the n.W.o Wolfpac, which had such members as Sting, Lex Luger, Macho Man Randy Savage and Konnan. Nash was a staple of WCW Nitro and Pay Per Views and was always a main event attraction. And unlike his first run with the company, he held the cards and was able to control the creative control of his character and was making the most money of his whole pro wrestling career. But also during this time WCW was beating WWE in the ratings and almost put them out of business. Kevin Nash was one of the pro wrestlers leading the charge of bringing in the ratings, but when the tide turned and the end started to come crashing down on WCW, they ended up the ones being closed and bought out by their rivals, and Nash sat out his contract instead of jumping onboard and joining the WWE for the Invasion storyline. Kevin Nash's second run for WCW was a major success and lasted from 1996-2001. And while this tiny history lesson on his second run for World Championship Wrestling might not be 100% in detail, I suggest you do yourself a favor and get the WWE Network and watch old WCW events and live or in most cases relive the history of his run.
After WCW closed in 2001 and was bought out by WWE, many wrestlers who had long-term contracts with Time Warner had decided to stay home and not sign new contracts to wrestle for WWE during the WCW Invasion angle. Nash decided to stay home and collect his guaranteed money for the remainder of his contract and made his return to WWE in 2002 as part of the n.W.o alongside Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall who were also making their return to the company as part of Vince McMahon's plan to poison his own company because he had to share the power of running it with Ric Flair…or so the storyline went. The n.W.o stayed around for a short time feuding with the likes of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin and even Hulk Hogan as Nash and Hall turned on him after he lost his match at Wrestlemania X8 to The Rock. But a string of injuries left Nash out of action, and by this time Hall was let go from WWE. The n.W.o was no more when he returned, and instead he was put into an angle that had two of his best friends Triple H and Shawn Michaels at odds with each other. This lead to a feud with Triple H that gave him title shots that he was unsuccessful at capturing. His next major feud was with Chris Jericho, and his final match was in an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship against Goldberg, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton and Chris Jericho. Nash was the first to be eliminated, and after neck surgery, the WWE did not renew is contract making his second run with the company lasting from 2002- 2004.
After being let go and healing from his surgery, he went to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and made his debut along side Scott Hall to help Champion Jeff Jarrett retain his title at the 2004 PPV called Victory Road. Nash, Hall and Jarrett called themselves "Kings Of Wrestling" which lasted a short time until Hall left in 2005, and Nash wanted his shot at the title and turned on Jarrett to feud for the title. And just like before, Kevin Nash became a major draw for TNA and had matches against some of the company's top talents like AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Monty Brown and Randy Savage. Nash also not only wrestled for them but also acted as an on-air character delivering comedy bits and showing his joker side. Nash had some solid matches, and his fans stood beside him during his time with the company that seen him as a member of such groups as The Band and Main Event Mafia and would have him in the spotlight in main events as well as helping push younger talent. Kevin Nash's run for TNA was not as iconic as his time with WWE or WCW but it was entertaining and him being with them helped make them seem like a major player in the world of Pro Wrestling. Nash worked for TNA from 2004-2011 and from what Nash has said in interviews, his time there was just not a highlight of his career.
Kevin Nash as Diesel made his return to WWE on January 30, 2011 at the Royal Rumble as a surprise entrant and did not win. Nash was given a WWE Legends Contract and made appearances for the company off and on and had a few matches during his return most notably against Triple H who was feuding with CM Punk at the time. Nash interfered in a match causing Triple H to turn on his friend who was trying to help him win. He would induct Shawn Michaels into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2011, helped in NXT as a guest match commissioner from late 2012 to early 2013, entered the 2014 Royal Rumble and lost again as well as inducted his long time friend Scott Hall as Razor Ramon into the Hall Of Fame and made many more appearances on Monday Night Raw as well as WrestleMania. Kevin Nash himself was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2015, and he still is under a Legends deal with the company as of this update. While his return to WWE might not have had him as a main eventer and had him in very little matches, it is nice that he is home in WWE, a company they he belongs in and who helped make him a household name.
Over his long career as a top draw in the world of Pro Wrestling, Nash has had his share of drama and moments that live on that anger some and entertains others. The first being that he was a member of a backstage group called The Kliq in WWF alongside Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Triple H and 1.2.3 Kid who are said to have bullied talent and manipulated Vince McMahon into big contracts, screwing over other wrestlers like Vader, The Patriot and Shane Douglas, to name a few, from getting their proper pushes. When he left WWF on May 19 1996 at Madison Square Garden, Nash as Diesel on his last match in a steel cage against Shawn Michaels broke character at the end of the match when Diesel and Triple H who were "heels" hugged Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon who were "faces," and this allowed people to see that Pro Wrestling was….you know the F word….I don't want to say it as I have respect for what all wresters do to entertain and much like Horror Hosts I like to have the veil over my eyes. Lots of wrestlers would go on record and claim that he held them back from getting bigger pushes as he was worried about his spot at the top. He is said to have smacked Rowdy Roddy Piper in the face backstage in WCW in front of management and talent causing the legend to back down, breaking his tough guy image…or so Nash says. He is the man who many claim pulled strings to be the first to beat Goldberg in WCW, who was on the worlds longest winning streak in pro wrestling. Nash is the man who in WCW de-masked the luchador legend Rey Mysterio Jr.! Nash was considered to be very lazy by many dirt sheet writers who claimed Nash would put no effort in his matches in WCW and was handed titles due to his high-end contract. Many wrestlers and managers behind the scenes have had very harsh words about Nash and his attitude and ability like Jim Cornette, Matt Bourne, Ricky Morton, Ultimate Warrior and Bob Holly to name a few. But one thing he did in his career has been said to have been the final nail in WCW is the "Finger Poke of Doom" where Kevin Nash oversold a finger poke to the chest by Hulk Hogan to put the belt back on the Hulkster and start up their n.W.o friendship once again. People saw this as once more being a lazy move and storytelling by Nash and the bookers. But say what you want about Nash and his mixed bag of popularity with fellow workers and critics, but this Pro Wrestling fan was always entertained by his matches and gimmicks, below is a gif of the infamous Finger Poke of Doom.
The build up to Kevin Nash's biggest WrestleMania match was played out for almost a year before it happened. It was between him and HBK, and their on and off again friendship had to come to a massive end and this match was to be it. Kevin Nash, as Diesel, had Pamela Anderson in his corner taking on Shawn "HBK" Michaels with Jenny McCarthy and Psycho Sid in his for the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania XI that took place on April 2, 1995 at the Hartford Civic Center in Connecticut. The match's set up was Diesel was the champion, and he had to defend against his one time best friend Shawn for the final match of the feud as HBK had become jealous of the way the crowd was more behind Diesel. He felt that it took the spotlight off him during their friendship. The match was the second main event of the PPV and was a back and fourth match that showcased Diesel as a powerhouse as well as made it clear that Michaels could hang with the bigger wrestlers in top main event matches. The matched ended with Diesel using his finisher the Jackknife power after about a 20 minute match that in the end had Diesel leaving with both Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy and locked in as a true world champion. While this match would never be on anyone's top 5 list of best WrestleMania matches, it still was a good solid match and was Kevin Nash's best at the worlds biggest pro wrestling event.
Besides Pro Wrestling Kevin Nash has also found his calling in acting and has been in a number of TV shows as well as movies. His first movie role came in 1991 when he played Super Shredder in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze", with the next playing Quixo in the 1992 episode This Old House Of Mayan for USA Network show "Swamp Thing"! 1992 also saw him act in the TV show "Super Force" playing the characters Lau and Iau in two episodes. And 1995 saw him play a Male Phone Caller in the made for TV Film "The Weinerville Chanukah Special". In 1997, he had a cameo in a TV Show playing The Giant in the episode The Crucible on "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" and later that year would play Jackhammer Guy in the film "Family Plan" and be an unaccredited character in the Indian film "Aar Ya Paar". Nash played a character named Rocky Williams on a 1998 episode of "Love Boat: The Next Wave" and would follow that up with starring as The Big Easy in two episodes of the show "Nikki" from 2000-2001. One of his biggest roles in a film came in 2004 as The Russian in the comic book flick "The Punisher," and this helped mark him as a true actor as he was praised by fans and critics for this role. This lead to roles in films like "The Longest Yard" 2005 remake, "Grandma's Boy" the 2006 comedy, "DOA: Dead Or Alive" as Bass Armstrong that was as well released in 2006, 2011's "Monster Brawl" and "Rock Of Ages" in 2012 to name a few. His next big role was as well in 2012 as he played the male stripper character Tarzan in the film "Magic Mike" and would reprise the role for its 2015 sequel. And these titles are just a drop in the hat as he has been in many other films as cameos and through out this year of 2017 is also on tap to act in all types of flicks. So not only did Nash conquer the squared circle he also made his mark in acting.
Kevin Nash as well as his ring name Diesel has had much merchandise made in his image and had made it into his fans and collectors hands. He has graced the covers of many magazines from WWF Magazine all the way to Pro Wrestling Illustrated. He has had VHS and DVD's made about him, showcasing his "best" matches. He has had action figures made in his image by such companies as Toy Biz, Mattel and Jakks Pacific as well as has been on Pogs and Slammers, posters, t-shirts, video games and so much more! Growing up, my favorite Nash merchandise I owned was a long sleeve n.W.o Wolfpac shirt that I wore for years until bleach and age caught up to it. So of you're a fan of Nash's lots of great stuff is out in the world to add to your collection.
For as long as I have owned a video game system, some of the must-buy releases for me are wrestling games, and Kevin Nash has made many appearances in them with many companies from WWE all the way to TNA. The first game I can remember him in was "WWF Raw" that came out for Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and a number of handheld systems, all made by Acclaim. I can remember him in two WCW games for the N64 "WCW vs. n.W.o: World Tour" that was released in 1997 and "WCW/n.W.o Revenge" that was released in 1998 and both released by THQ. For the Sony Playstation, I remember him in the 1998 game "WCW Nitro" as well as "WCW Thunder" that was released in 1998 as well, both made by THQ. Later on for Playstation and N64 I remember him in the EA games "WCW Mayhem" from 1999 and "WCW: Backstage Assault" released in 2000. From here Nash would show up in WWE games on the PS2 for the Smackdown series and has made many appearances in the WWE games made by THQ and 2K and has been on systems like Game Cube, WII, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. And he's even in the most modern game WWE 2K17! Nash also was a part of the "TNA Impact!" game made by Midway and released on PS2, PS3, WII and Xbox 360. So as you can see, if you're a gamer and a Nash fan, you can have him in your modern storylines in WWE 2K's Universe Mode and maybe just maybe make him take a fall by the finger poke of doom!
As you can see, Kevin Nash has made his impact in Pro Wrestling, acting, video games and merchandise and even made his leap to comic books, thanks to Image Comics! Back in the late 90's and early 2000's, the wrestling boom caught the eyes of comic companies big and small, and many titles were made based on wrestlers like The Rock, The Road Warriors, King Kong Bundy, The Undertaker and more so why not give Kevin Nash his own comic series that had him act as a vigilante. I want to thank Dark Star and Lobe Star Comics for having these issues in stock, and the referee is wanting me to remind you all that I grade these on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So let's climb into the ring with the man who named himself Big Sexy and see if he can jackknife powerbomb himself into having a solid comic series. I want to also note that Image Comics released a preview issue for Nash that was nothing more than a write up and unfinished pages from issue # 1 so I decided to skip it for this review.
Nash # 1 **1/2
Released in 1999 Cover Price $2.95 Image Comics #1 of 2
The world is coming to an end all thanks for a secret Cabal called The Citadel run by the evil Cyrus Storm who has made the worlds food supply run short and he and his goons are keeping the poor down and wanting them to die off! Citadel driver Seventeen is on a run when he finds some poor starving people and kills off the old woman and is about to kill her grandchild when Nash comes to the youngsters aid and makes a bloody mess of the driver. But even for the rich things are not all that well as Storm is in a power struggle with Minister Parch who's food truck has gone missing! Storms daughter Tara takes the message that Parch and his men are going after the truck and are going to kill Nash who is out in the wasteland with the poor starving people. The Minister sends his right hand man Trax and a fleet of airships and soldiers to kill Nash and this legend of the wasteland fights them all off and just when he thinks he has won the fight someone shoots him several times in the back, ending out first issue on a cliffhanger as the shooter is in the shadows and Nash has been wounded bad.
The first issue of Nash will take you by surprise as not once is it said that he was once a Pro Wrestler and in the comic he is more like Mad Max as he wanders the wasteland and wants to help the weak and poor while sticking it to The Citadel. The underline plot of the comic is a statues war as the rich who are all members of a church have all the water and food while the normal low income people are forced to live in the wasteland a place were no food will grow and water is contaminated. The only hope for the poor is Nash a man whom the powerful fear and the weak idolize. Nash in the comic is a man who is trying to do the right thing but his macho ego still makes it hard for him to connect to those he is helping, he also loves the ladies and seems to 100% knows how to defend himself and will get as brutal as he needs to be. The Citadel clearly are people who crave the power over others and use their God as a way to justify their terrible deeds of killing and looking at the poor not as humans but as bugs that need to be exterminated. I kind of like the fact that they have not touched on the fact Nash is Kevin Nash from WCW and superstar of Pro Wrestling as this makes Nash's violent acts more believable as well as fitting in the world the story has created. Another thing I like about this issue is that it has some bloody moments from an old woman taking a shotgun blast to her guts all the way to Nash blowing up the head of one of his enemies and each kill shows blood and slight gore! The things that don't work for me as a reader is the fact the story seems very cookie cutter and seems like writers Kevin Nash himself and Marat Mychaels rented a bunch of Post Apocalyptic movies from Blockbuster Video and took elements they liked and mashed them together like potatoes on Thanksgiving. The art done by Marat Mychaels is ok but has that 90's dated look and is in the style of early Image Comics. Over all this issue was a fun way to kick off the series and makes me wonder how they are going to wrap it up in one more issue? So with that lets see what they have in store for us in issue # 2 and who the man is that shot Nash in the back.
Nash has a few slugs in his back and it was Trax who shot him and as Nash is about to embrace death his enemy turns on his own men and kills them! Trax tells Nash that he can only die when he allows it and that he himself is trying to gain power and will take down Minister Parch when he is ready. As Trax returns back to the city Nash and the poor come together to become an army and try and fight back against The Citadel and as they are on the move Tara Storm in a warship beams Nash up and informs him that he can end all this fighting and killing if he would just forget about the poor and join them once more and be a warrior for Storm! Nash turns down her offer and once placed back down with the poor people he decides that he needs to have sex with many of the women in the group, only to wake up and find almost all of them dead besides one who is an assassin for Minister Parch and has been hired to kill him! Nash and the female killer fight back and fourth and this leads to the young boy he saved in issue one being killed and Nash in a rage kills the female killer and promises that he is going to bring Minister Parch down once and fore all.
This second issue was suppose to lead to an issue three that never came to the light and left the story of Nash vs. The Citadel unfinished and questions never answered. The story this time around has Nash learning that Trax wants to be a player in ruling this new world as well as finds out that Tara Storm loves him and wants him to rejoin The Citadel and ends the issue having to kill a female killer who has been hired to kill him off in the name of The Minister. Nash in this issue is filled with even more ego and spends more time wanting to bang women than to protect and fight alongside the poor. It's great as Kevin Nash once more was the co-writer and he in both issues has it that he is scoring with women and even that he has made it with Tara Storm the daughter of the series main bad guy! But while this is laughable bad that he would make himself a ladies man, it also is fitting for Nash and his style of humor. The female assassin is cold blooded and not only kills a few women but also kills a young kid all the while doing these acts in a tank top and panties, silly! Trax as well is cold as ice as he guns down his own men in order to fail on his mission on purpose so that he can use Nash as a tool to upset Minister Parch who he wants to overthrow. One odd thing is that Nash is spoken about as if he is a legend and savior but in both issue people die around him and again he seems more interested in scoring than defending. The art is once more done by Marat Mychaels and looks just like last issue with that pure 90's Image cheese look. It's a shame that this series just ended before the full story could have been told as I wonder what Marat Mychaels and Kevin Nash had planned to bring The Citadel down….I am guessing that it just would have had Nash bedding ladies till he finally could power bomb Minister Parch through a table all the while Tara Storm and random women giggled about Nash being a legend in bed. I am sure I am not to far off on my guess, but it really would have been nice for Image and Next Entertainment to have finished the story. This issue as well has some bloody moments and to sum it all up "Mad Nash: Beyond Wasteland Food Shortage Dome" as I have dubbed it was a fun read and took a Pro Wrestler and turned him into a comic book hero. Check out the art below to see the style this comic has to offer, and I would say if you're a fan of Nash and cheesy end of the world comics you might want to give these two issues a read.
So while Kevin Nash might not have taken the comic shelves by storm like he did the world of Pro Wrestling, it's still very cool that he added his touch to series based on wrestlers. But it's time to leave the wrestling ring and step back into the world of Horror Hosts as out next update is one I am super hyped to bring to you. It will be about The Creeper, who hosted Moraine Playhouse Theater here in Dayton, Ohio via public access in the late 80's! Until next time make sure to read a comic or three, watch a movie or two and support your local pro wrestling federation! Next update prepare to meet The Creeper as he is a true favorite Horror Host for this monster kid.
Posted in Comics, Image	| Tagged Big Daddy Cool, Big Lazy, Big Sexy, Curtain Call, Cyrus Storm, Diesel, Eric Bischoff, Finger Poke Of Doom, Hulk Hogan, Image Comics, Jackknife Powerbomb, Jenny McCarthy, Jim Ross, Kevin Nash, Kevin Scott Nash, Magic Mike, Marat Mychaels, Matt Brassfield, Minister Parch, Nash, Next Entertainment, nWo, nWo Wolfpac, Oz, Pamela Anderson, POG Slammer, Pro Wrestling, Scott Hall, Shawn "HBK" Michaels, STEEL, Super Shredder, Tara Storm, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze, The Citadel, The Great Wizard, The Kliq, The Master Blasters, The Outsiders, The Punisher, The Russian, TNA, Trax, Triple H, VHS, Vince McMahon, Vinnie Vegas, WCW, WrestleMania XI, Wrestling, Wrestling Ring, WWE, WWE Hall Of Fame, WWF	| Leave a reply
Pro Wrestling's Master Of The Five Count: King Kong Bundy
Posted on June 21, 2016 by bloodlinematt
When you think of the big men of Pro Wrestling, names like Andre The Giant, Big John Studd, Big Van Vader, Haystacks Calhoun, Kevin Nash, One Man Gang and a small amount of others come to mind, but at the top of that list for any old school wrestling fan has to be the one and only King Kong Bundy! The walking condominium, as Gorilla Monsoon use to call him, has made his mark in the WWF and independent scene throughout the 80's and 90's and was one of the sport's most hated bad guys as his feuds with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Hillbilly Jim and The Undertaker encouraged boos from fans worldwide. For this update, we will take a look at TLW Productions comic based on King Kong Bundy as well as the man himself and his career. So lace up your boots and make sure your tights are on right as we step into the ring with the master of the five count, the man who delivers the most brutal avalanche splash to anyone in his way, the legend of pro wrestling's big men King Kong Bundy who was billed as weighing 458 pounds!
Christopher Alan Pallies was born on November 7, 1957 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and did not start his wrestling career until 1981 when he began working for World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) where he was named Big Daddy Bundy and would wear a rope belt to hold up his blue jean pants. He was a fan favorite who was friends with the Von Erich Family, that was until a dispute broke up the friendship and Bundy began to be managed by Gary Hart and started to wear his signature black singlet and changed his name from Big Daddy to King Kong and went from good to bad in a blink of an eye! During the feud he would loose his hair in a match that would lead to Bundy's final transformation into a monster heel. In 1982, King Kong Bundy was selected to be the final opponent for Fritz Von Erich who was Texas's most iconic wrestler and the owner of World Class. Bundy would travel after leaving World Class and wrestle for the AWA, NWA, Japan and Mid-South where he would start his 5 count request to add heat from fans during matches against jobbers and fan favorites. In 1985, King Kong Bundy would sign to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and be pushed as a giant heel that was managed by Jimmy Hart and would go to the first WrestleMania and defeat veteran S.D. Jones in nine seconds! In late 1985, Jimmy Hart traded King Kong Bundy's contract to Bobby "The Brain" Heenan for both The Missing Link and Adrian Adonis as Heenan wanted Bundy for his stable called The Heenan Family. Bundy began a feud with Andre The Giant that became so heated that Bundy broke Andre's sternum after a series of massive big splashes. This lead to many matches finally settling in a match called "The Colossal Jostle" that saw Andre beating Bundy all during the match until Bundy was saved by fellow Heenan Family member Big John Studd. His next feud was with WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan after Bundy once more used his weight to crush Hogan giving him bruised ribs. They settled the war in a steel cage at WrestleMania II where Hogan defeated his massive opponent. Bundy's next major fight would come at WrestleMania III where Bundy along with midget wrestlers Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo took on Hillbilly Jim and his partners Little Beaver and Haiti Kid. The match would have Bundy and his team losing by disqualification after Bundy body slammed and elbowed Little Beaver causing his own team to even turn on him! In 1987 on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, Bundy would beat Hulk Hogan via count out, but by the rematch in 1988 on the next Saturday Night's Main Event special, Hogan would beat Bundy. This also marked the end of Bundy's in WWF. During this run, Bundy was able to feud with wrestling's top two stars with Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant and was a part of the major boom of pro wrestling in the 80's, Love him or hate him, King Kong Bundy helped put butts in the seats and delivered some fun and entertaining matches.
After leaving pro wrestling behind for about six years, King Kong Bundy would return as part of Ted DiBiase's group called "The Million Dollar Corporation" alongside other wrestlers like Irwin R. Schyster, Bam Bam Bigelow, Tatanka and The Fake Undertaker. His first Pay-Per View match was at Survivor Series where The Million Dollar Team beat the Guts And Glory Team lead by Lex Luger, with Bundy and Bigelow being the only survivors. Bundy would be in the 1995 Royal Rumble, coming in at # 15 and only lasting three minutes after being tossed out by Mabel. After floating around and doing the dirty work of The Million Dollar Corporation, his final WrestleMania was XI where he was defeated by The Undertaker and became number four of the Streak. Bundy's second and final run in the WWF came to an end in late 1995. While his second run was not as impactful, it did introduce him to a new generation of wrestling fans, and he did a great job of putting over younger talent and will forever be on the books for losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania and become a notch on the legendary Streak.
After leaving WWF in 1995, Bundy started working for independent promotions and became an attraction wherever he went! He wrestled for such promotions as USA Power Pro Wrestling, USWF, JCW and NBW, and while at an independent show facing Primo Canera III, the ring broke after he delivered a Bundy Splash! On October 10, 1999 for the Heroes Of Wrestling PPV, King Kong Bundy teamed with Jim Neidhart to defeat Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Yokozuna in an impromptu to tag match after Roberts was in no shape to wrestle. Bundy and Yokozuna came out to try and save the match from stinking up the place. During this independent run, Bundy would feud with the likes of Koszmar Polski, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, Tom Brandi and Doink The Clown. While slowing down nowadays, you can still find Bundy from time to time at wrestling conventions as well as comic and horror ones! At the age of 58, the idea of his return to WWE or even wrestling for TNA is very doubtful, but one thing is for sure, the master of the five count could still pin many of the worlds wrestling stars.
On March 1, 1986 on the fifth Saturday Night's Main Event special Hulk Hogan was defending his WWF Championship against The Magnificent Don Muraco when King Kong Bundy interfered in the match causing Hogan to win by disqualification, but this also lead to Bundy crushing Hogan's ribs and causing the champ some major pain and forcing him to be carried away on a stretcher. This was one of the classic wrestling moments that stuck with me as Hogan was the Real American and the ultimate baby face in wrestling, and watching him get crushed was shocking! This moment lead to the Steel Cage Match at WrestleMania II, where, for the first time, kids of the 80's truly thought that Hogan could lose the WWF Title. I mean Hogan was going in the match with taped up ribs, and Bundy not only had the weight advantage but also had that weasel Bobby Heenan in his corner. It was as if Hogan had the odds against him! Not to mention Bundy was on a 300 win streak that had him pinning people with his trademark 5 count instead of the normal 3. The steel cage was the classic thick blue bars and was not the terrible chain link fence they use now and looked more unforgiving even if it was probably just hollow metal. Calling the match was Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Lord Alfred Hayes and Horror Hostess Elvira Mistress Of The Dark, who was looking as ravishing as ever. Even as a youngster, I always thought Elvira was one hot goth beauty. The match itself was brutal and a blood bath as Bundy was busted open and Hogan was able to get the win after climbing over the top of the cage to the arena floor. The match might not have been one of the best in the history of WrestleMania, but it will forever be one that I remember.
But Bundy was not just a pro wrestler, he was also an actor and in 1988 he starred in "Moving," a comedy starring Richard Pryor where he played moving man Gorgo who is the brute force for the rude movers who in the end gets punked out by Pryor's character after everything goes wrong. Also in 1988, Bundy was on the TV Show "Married With Children" where he played Uncle Irwin, the brother to Peggy Bundy and would later be on an episode where he played himself and wrestled Bud Bundy who was dressed as a bee. Lesser known acting roles are the 2002 short film "Bill's Seat" where he played Big Swede, and in 2008 he was in a film called "Fight The Panda Syndicate" where he played Otto Belmar. Besides acting, he also became a comedian and has tickled the funny bones of all who have seen him. While he might not be box office gold like The Rock, his roles in movies and TV have entertained many, and I must say Moving was a film my brother and I watched a lot.
Vendex Computers with their HeadStart line in the late 1980's hired King Kong Bundy to promote their product in TV Commercials as well as in Print Ads. This is what is said that lead to Bundy leaving the WWF for the first time as Vince McMahon was upset that Bundy made the deal without telling the WWF and therefore, the story goes, he did not get a percent of the money Bundy earned as he was under contract with the WWF. But the argument would go that Bundy being an Independent Contractor could take out sourced jobs like that to make extra money but Vince did not see it that way. Bundy was the face for the computer brand for a short amount of time, but this was the final straw and the WWF and Bundy parted ways all over him make extra money on the side…or as I have said so the story goes. So what do you think should Vince have a right to part of his wrestlers pay for acting and promotion work? Did Bundy do the right thing by leaving the WWF in 1988? Would you have bought a Vendex Computer cause of King Kong Bundy endorse it? Is this even a real drama issue between Bundy and Vince that is said to still burn between the two till this day? Or is this just a wrestling rumor told through the ages? So many questions with so many answers!
Like any wrestling legend Bundy has had his share of merchandise. Some of the most notable include the LJN figure as well as Thumb Wrestler and Bendie and the official WWF Bundy t-shirt. He would appear on trading cards, magazines and VHS tapes. He would have official action figures as of late as well as some none-WWF figures from smaller toy companies. He had a comic book series and video game appearances and posters. Growing up I had both the large and bendie Bundy figures, and me and my friends use to make jokes about how you could kill a person with his figure as it was one wide and heavy piece of rubber. I have lots of memories throwing that Bundy figure around and acting like Hulk Hogan or Andre The Giant were body slamming him. So if you're a Bundy fan, there is stuff in the world that you can get to make your collection complete and show the world you stand with King Kong Bundy.
King Kong Bundy has been in a few video games like Legends Of Wrestling series that had a total of three games that were released for PS2 and Xbox by Acclaim. In WWF/WWE games he has appeared in WWE 2K14 for 2K Sports and Legends Of WrestleMania for THQ both of those games were released for PS3 and Xbox 360. That's right, you can relive King Kong Bundy fighting Hulk Hogan in a steel cage in many of these games or even have him try and Bundy Splash the likes of Ricky Morton, Mil Mascaras or Mike Von Erich in the Legends Of Wrestling Series. So pick up your controller and demand a five count when putting the Smack Down on the computer or a friend.
So I hope you learned a little about King Kong Bundy or even took a trip down memory lane with this update so far as it's been fun looking back and remembering some of these moments in his career. I want to thank Jason Young who gave me issues one and two of this series for Christmas in 2015 and sparked me trying to find the other three issues in the series in order to do this update. I also want to thank TWL for sending me the missing three issues so that this update could happen! So before we get into the ring with the Master of the Five count, I need to remind you all that I grade these issues on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So let's step in the ring with the walking condominium and see what kind of comic adventures he will have.
King Kong Bundy # 1 **1/2
Released in 2001 Cover Price None TLW Productions # 1 of 5
The Iran Sheik is upset that all the kids around the world are cheering for King Kong Bundy, and while Bundy gets the tough fights, the Sheik feels he is getting no real competition. So a match is set up for Bundy to fight the Sheik that has the madman from Iran cheating to try and win by loading his boot, using the ring bell and even knocking out the referee. The Iran Sheik's cheating ways leads to him loosing the match by disqualification. The rest of the comic is filled with short stories like two adventures of Lil' Bundy that has King Kong Bundy as a kid going trick or treating. The second story is him fighting with his teacher that he big splashes! Another story has Bundy at a bar throwing a man who was beating up his girlfriend through the front window for disturbing him while he was drinking! One has him buying a white suit that makes him look like a famed super villain called The Kongpin and being attacked by masked heroes. While another has him accidentally drinking a experimental liquid right before a match that turns him to skin and bones, but even with the weight loss, the master of the five count puts a beat down on his opponent Tang Eater Smith! The final story has Bundy in the main event taking on another big man named The Volcano! The match is heavy handed but in the end Bundy gets the five count!
Wow, this is a mixed bag of comic stories all revolving around King Kong Bundy, and strangely enough they are pretty entertaining and have a true independent comic feel to them. The main stories are the book ends and showcase Bundy in fights with the first being againstThe Iran Sheik, who is the only other real wrestler to appear in one of the stories. The second one has him fighting a parody of The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon) named Volcano who is a big heavy set guy who spits red mist to show the eruption. King Kong Bundy is the star of the comic and is shown in two different lights, one being a good guy who, while edgy, loves his fans. The other side is pure heel with him claiming to be the best wrestler in the world and even chasing off an abused woman all because her fight with her boyfriend annoyed him while he was drinking. Odd to have Bundy shown in a positive light as he has always been a heel when I used to watch WWF as a kid, managed by the likes of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and "Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase. It was nice seeing The Iran Sheik in the issue as he is the perfect bad guy for any wrestler turned comic hero to fight! Plus the issue's other baddies, The Volcano and Tang Eater Smith, are pretty funny generic wrestlers who are just stacked up for Bundy to squash and get the five count on. The part that works the most for me about this comic is for some reason, just as Jason Young said, it reminds me of the old Rock N Roll Comics by Revolutionary Comics with its art style and charm. Plus the cover is fantastic and would be eye catching to any fan of pro wrestling or independent comics. The art is done by Brien Cardello, and one segment is done by Marco Dileonardo. Both are fitting and bring the mood and feel of this wrestling comic alive!One other cool aspect of this comic is there are one page features that breaks down big moments in Bundy's wrestling and acting career complete with art and facts. So sum it up, this first issue is lots of fun, and I am still amazed that this series exists and can't wait to see what issue two has in store for me!
Released in 2002 Cover Price $5.00 TLW Productions # 2 of 5
King Kong Bundy keeps making short work of sleazy manager Herbie Swartz and making his style look cheap and dated. So to get his revenge on Bundy, Swartz finds an old government robot war machine that looks like Bundy and books a match between the two. While at first it looks grim for Bundy, his never give up attitude proves too much for the robot showing the fans that no one can beat Bundy, not even a robot version of himself! Next up Bundy is upset as the crowd is booing him during his last match but soon finds out that the real match is the next day, and he actually beat up Metallica at their very own concert! The next adventure of Lil Bundy has him training Chuck Brown into beating the kids of Family Circus to death! In a quick story Bundy scares everyone out of the ring during a battle royal. The final story has midget wrestlers being mad about the way Bundy treated Little Beaver at WrestleMania III and want him to wrestle Smalley Biggs, a midget wrestler who has never lost. After many sleepless nights of them disrupting his sleep, he and a college professor make a midget clone that is known as Mini-Bundy, and he wrestles the match and wins!
This second issue is much like the first, a fun read about a wrestler who by all accounts is underrated by current fans of the sport. Like the first issue as well, this one is packed with lots of mini stories about Bundy that has him cloning himself into a midget all the way to beating up Metallica at their own concert. King Kong Bundy is still loved by the fans for the most part but does do lots of bad things including, as a youngster, teaching a kid to beat weaker kids to death! But Bundy is the type of character that would pick on the weaker man as he is so powerful and bigger than most that survival of the fittest was his attitude even in WWF, just go ask S.D. Jones. Herbie Swartz is a great low talent manager who I hope shows back up in a future issue as his lame stable of wrestlers could be used more to be a thorn in Bundy's side. Smalley Biggs and his fellow small wrestlers are good at being annoying and keeping the full size Bundy from getting sleep, but are no match for the tiny Bundy clone. My favorite story in this issue has to be the opener called "Enter Mecha-Bundy" as it reminds me of the film King Kong Escapes that pits a Mecha-Kong, a robot version of King Kong, against the real deal and that's what this story is about as well. The cover for this issue is amazing and fitting as it's dedicated to those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks and has Bundy standing tall holding the American flag. The art in this issue is done by many talented artists that include the likes of Andy Macdonald, Lou Platania, Sal Cipriano, Oliver Drac and Brien Cardello, and all do fantastic work on their segments. This issue also does a segment that takes a brief look at wrestler Big John Studd, and this made me wish they also would have done a full comic series based on him! Over all this second issue is just as great as the first, and I can't wait to read issue three and see what its all about.
Captain Bodyslam is stuck in traffic, and this leaves Steve The Promoter without an opponent for King Kong Bundy. But fate is on his side as he finds Frank, a big man who is an elevator mechanic, and offers him the match. Steve tells the Ref not to stop the fight as Frank fights very dirty and during the match Bundy takes a hammer and wrench to the head and finally gets mad when he finds out The Promoter told them not to stop the fight no matter what! By the time Captain Bodyslam shows up for the match, he is crushed in a accident caused by Frank and a counter weight! Bundy, Frank and the crew just walk away and get a beer. The second story has the comic creators trying to explain just how big King Kong Bundy is by comparing him to things ranging from bags of M&Ms all the way to Playboy bunnies. The third and final story has King Kong Bundy being harassed by superheroes like Superman, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Thor and by the end walking away in frustration.
King Kong Bundy is back to bring us readers three stories as well as more moments in his long wrestling career. I am still amazed that this comic series was made and also very happy to see it made as I think more comics about pro wrestlers should make their ways to comic book stores. In this issue Bundy is still well loved by wrestling fans and just looks forward to squashing his opponent in the ring in order to get the five count. Bundy also seems to showcase his short temper and doesn't like it when he feels people disrespect him. He also seems to not be bothered when a fellow wrestler is killed in the ring…oh that Bundy, he so crazy! Captain Bodyslam is so cheesy and reminds of a wrestler that you would see in a match at a high school gym and that's what makes him such a fun ,yet gone-to-soon character. The opening story is my favorite as I like the idea of a crazed normal guy getting into the ring with Bundy and trying his best to cheat to win, but yet still can't. Over all this is another good solid issue and shows that Bundy has more stories to share, and I really like the highlights of his career as this issue breaks down his matches with Razor Ramon (Scott Hall), The Undertaker and Diesel (Kevin Nash), and you can tell that artist and writer Brien Cardello is not a fan of Hall and Nash! Let's see what Bundy has planned next for us, shall we?
King Kong Bundy travels to Japan as he has been challenged by the undefeated Osara, a man that is the size of Bundy and who is filled with honor and the thrill of the fight! The match is sold out, and during the event, the promoters are cheating using robotic machinery to trip and hold Bundy in spot! By the mid-match Osara figures out that cheating has been involved in the match, and he awards Bundy the winner of the match as the crooked promoters run off. Bundy and Osara become friends after the match and enjoy a very healthy dinner of chicken! The second story has ninjas sneaking into Bundy's hotel room with orders to hurt him a little to keep him in Japan so that a rematch can be made between him and Osara. This of course backfires as Bundy thinks they are hotel workers helping him, and in the mayhem, he ends up hurting them badly enough that they quit! The third story takes a look at Bundy's tag team match at the failed Heroes Of Wrestling PPV that had him and Jim Neidhart teaming up against Yokozuna and a trashed Jake Roberts! The fourth and final story has Bundy using puppets to explain why this issue was a year late!
More great stuff that features the squared ring! This time around Bundy travels to Japan to face a challenger who just might have been able to beat him! Three of the four stories are really great in this issue with the fourth story being the weakest – but really it's more of a comedy skit than a wrestling action one. While it's hard to choose, I think my favorite story in this one has to be the Heroes Of Wrestling PPV as the depiction of a drunk Jake Roberts made me laugh as they made him look so rough that I laughed out loud! If you 've ever seen that PPV, you realize that Jake ruined not only his match but also the main event! The comic acts as if Bundy was so mad about Jake's antics that he came out to beat him up and that Yokozuna was bored with not beating anyone up yet and marched down to the ring as well. King Kong Bundy once more has lots of pride and when challenged travels to Japan for honor, yet he also beats up an old lady who is buying chicken for her little dog as he says he needs the protein! I think that's what people should understand about Bundy in this comic, it's his way or no way and he doesn't care to hurt anyone who gets in his way! Osara is a mountain of a man, and by the looks of him, could have given Bundy a ride for his money. But he's also a man of honor; when he finds out cheating was involved, he quickly stops the match. This was a very fun issue and has art done by not only Brien Cardello but also Kris Renkewitz and Tom Lyle, and each gives their own touch to the look and legend of Bundy. The cover is also well done and reminds me of looking at the independent comic boxes at Mavericks Cards And Comics and buying some with the oddest looking covers in the mid 90's. I'm still chuckling over the drawings of the bolding Jake Roberts, fun stuff indeed.
King Kong Bundy is at home watering the flowers in his front lawn when the paperboy throws the paper, hitting Bundy in the head and causing him to turn the hose on the paperboy and knock him into the neighbor's garbage cans! Bundy soon finds out from neighbor and friend Chuck that the paperboy is the son of famed mobster Vito The Cobra! During the weekend poker game, a message of roses and a dead fish is sent to Bundy as a warning. Then, during a TV broadcast at the local college during a battle royal, Bundy is attacked by henchmen in the ring but as always Bundy comes out the winner! In the end Bundy meets Vito, and the pair make peace as it's clear his son in the instigator in the turmoil taking place in the neighborhood. The second story is about King Kong Bundy wrestling Jerry "The King" Lawler in an epic match that has Bundy pinning The King with the help of Rick Rude and Jimmy Hart, and oh yeah, a pair of brass knuckles. The third story has Bundy and his pal, fellow wrestler Warthog, in the costume room trying on all types of outfits making Bundy look like everyone from Hulk Hogan to Wolverine of the X-Men, but in the end Bundy just wants to be Bundy. The fourth and final part has King Kong Bundy answering questions from fan letters and ends up leaving on a date with Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
This was the final issue in the "Worlds Best Wrestling Comic" as the issues say and by all accounts while it might not be the best it sure as hell was one fun of a read! This issue has four stories with the best being the first as Bundy's run in with the mob is a fun adventures that pits the odds against Bundy who never shows fear as his life is on the line. Plus it was cool to see the comic book version of the famous Jerry Lawler vs. Bundy match making this issue another hit with this comic and pro wrestling fan. I have to give major props to TLW Productions, Brien Cardello and all the other artist who worked on this series as they took a heel pro wrestler and turned out a solid well done comic that would please fans of wrestling as well as independent comics. King Kong Bundy through out the series shows many different sides of his personality as he can go from doing the right thing to getting pure joy on hurting people and it seems as if fans in the comic still always cheer him for almost anything he does good or bad. Plus I like that while his attitude might slightly change from story to story, from issue to issue Bundy acts like the same character, and this is the sign of a good character and good writers. In this issue we get to see the likes of Jerry "The King" Lawler, Jimmy Hart and Rick Rude, and throughout the series we also got to see Big John Studd, Iran Sheik, Yokozuna, Jim Neidhart and Jake "The Snake" Roberts all who added to stories and were great to see as comic characters. For some of them, it was the very time they appeared in a comic. Art is by Brien Cardello and looks pretty dang good and has a Box Brown, Chester Brown and Jason Young charm to it. The cover is over done and very pink, but heck it still is eye catching and fun. I would say if you're a fan of pro wrestling from the 80's and early 90's, a fan of King Kong Bundy or just like smaller press comics, check out this series for sure as I am glad I got the chance to review it here on Rotten Ink. Below is some artwork from the series, so give it a look for at least a five count!
Before I wrap this up, while doing some research for this update, I came across this picture of King Kong Bundy with hair and just had to share it with you readers as this is a sight most of us never have seen before. The Bundy many of us know and love or hate was bald, so take a look at this!
So I hoped you enjoyed this look at wrestling legend King Kong Bundy and that you learned something new or some of it triggered your own memories of his matches and career. Now I am sure I left some major things out including feuds and groups he was in, but I tried to focus on the things I remember him for as well as what would be considered his highlights. I want to also thank TLW Productions and Jason Young again for getting me these issues and making this update possible! For our next update we are stepping out of the ring and into the holiday of July 4th for a look at a patriotic superhero named The Shield. So make sure to join me back here for that! Until then, read a comic or three, play a video game or two and support your local wrestling federation. See you back here on July 4th!
On a side note TWL Productions is working on a new King Kong Bundy series that is currently looking for help funding via Kickstarter! The first issue being pitched will also have wrestling legend One Man Gang in it! So if you have a little extra cash and love classic wrestling like I do make sure to give and help it come alive.
Posted in Comics, TLW Productions	| Tagged Andre The Giant, Andy Macdonald, Big Daddy Bundy, Big John Studd, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Brien Cardello, Christopher Alan Pallies, Comics, Gary Hart, Herbie Swartz, Heroes Of Wrestling, Hillbilly Jim, Hulk Hogan, Iran Sheik, Jason Young, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Jimmy Hart, King Kong Bundy, Little Beaver, LJN, Lou Platania, Marco Dileonardo, Married With Children, Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, Moving (1988), Oliver Drac, Pro Wrestling, PS3, Ravishing Rick Rude, Sal Cipriano, The Heenan Family, The Million Dollar Corporation, TWL Productions, Vendex Computers, VHS, Video Games, World Class Championship Wrestling, Wrestling, WWE, WWE 2K14, WWF, WWF Wrestlemania 2	| 1 Reply
The Undead Files: The Dead
What is it about zombies that strike not only fear but also entertainment value with people? TV is filled with shows like The Walking Dead, Z-Nation and iZombie. Video games like Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising and Resident Evil are strong sellers. Not to mention comic book shelves are filled with many undead titles like '68, Walking Dead, Marvel Zombies and many Night Of The Living Dead titles. But what is it that draws us to the notion of the dead coming back to life to eat our brains or flesh? Why are we so obsessed with zombies, and why are they so ingrained into our culture now? In this Undead File Update, we will be taking a look at a comic book series made by Arrow Comics that pushed the envelope of gore and started many comic readers' love for the underground gore comics and a series that inspired many artists and writers to make zombie comics of their own, The Dead. So be prepared to walk among the dead as we talk about this cult comic series among other things of the living dead nature.
The Lane To The Dead is an urban legend around these parts that was brought to the light of day thanks to the book series "Haunted Ohio" written by Chris Woodyard, who did a small write up about it. I also heard other stories from people who claimed they knew about it as well. The story goes that there is abandon graveyard that sits deep in the woods that is walled off with not only brinks but also barbwire and razor wire to keep people out and something in! You see the graveyard in this undisclosed location is said to house zombies that were created by the government during experiments and when they found that they could not kill them…again they trapped them all in this cemetery that acts as a dumping ground for them. It's said that you must walk a long dirt lane that leads to woods and when entering them you must walk miles deep to get to the cemetery, and you know when your close as the moans and noises of the zombies can be heard. When living in Waynesville when I was like in 4th or 5th grade a classmate who's dad worked for the government told him that they have reanimated bodies but that they can only keep it "reanimated" for seconds before they pass again, does this story fit in with The Lane Of The Dead…I doubt it as I don't believe what my classmate told me as almost the whole school watched Night of the Living Dead on TV the weekend before. When I was in my late teens Josh Weinberg and I tired all we could to find the Lane To The Dead and failed, as it's doubtful it's real…but if it is the undead walk among us here in Ohio!!
The Toraja people of Indonesia have a ritual for burial and death, their culture has a fascination with it and can be seen all over their villages. You see they believe in the afterlife and this leads to them the funeral that can some times take place weeks or months after death as all family members must be present. The bodies are stored in the church in limestone caves or even in the house of a loved one, during the wait the corpse is cared for as if it's still alive given baths, groomed, dressed regularly and even offered meals! Once the family is all present and the money raised for burial the funeral starts that can as well last for days as depending on the wealth of the family consists of feasts, mourning the dead and animal sacrifices that they believe the dead animals will help the soul of their loved one cross over to the other side faster. The bodies are placed in a wooden coffin and then placed in a burial chamber carved into the side of a large rock as they think this is the between Heaven and Earth and will help the spirit find its way…but wait this is not the last you will see of your loved one! Once a year in August loved ones will pull out their dead loved ones and wash, groom and dress them, then make repairs to the coffin and then "walk" them to their place of death and than back to their coffin. And this repeats forever no matter how long your loved one died you show them this respect. And some smaller tribes of people claim that the dead are walking themselves, while others claim its all a trick done by the funeral people. Does the dead truly walk or is this all some sort of tradition that we all just don't understand, one things for sure and that these peoples loved ones are never forgotten. Below is some photos of the "walk" of the dead.
I love independent horror films and that's why I have made my own No Budget Epics and have produced Horror Films for such directors as Andy Copp, Henrique Couto and Chris Seaver over the years and that's why I have chosen this zombie film that should and could be made into a comic series called Zombie Chronicles that was released in 2001 and put out by Sterling Films and Brain Damage Films on VHS and DVD. The film is about a reporter who picks up an old man named Ebenezer Jackson who is heading to the same small town as her, along the way they make a stop and he shares some real life zombie stories with her! In the end she finds out he himself is a ghost and she might be the real target of the living dead. The film is as backyard as they come and looks as if it was shot on Super VHS or something along those lines and the effects are pure backyard stuff with some being really good including one woman who's face has been ripped off and she gives her last dying breath. Most of the zombies are in cheap looking masks or terrible Halloween makeup bought on discount from K-Mart. But this could be a great series of comics and follow Ebenezer as he wonders around America finding people on lonely stretches of Highway and tell them chilling stories of the undead, with no budgets holding it back this could be as brutal as any zombie comic in history. Each issue would have a motorist, traveler or drifter coming in contact with Ebenezer who would tell them two to three zombie stories while they traveled the road or even stopped for the night at a rundown motel or camp site aside the road. After each issue the person hearing the stories would be marked in some way from not just physical but mentally as well. This would have to be done as a independent comic in order to truly up the gore and pack in some nudity as well, I would say a company like Rough House Publishing or even Studio Akumakaze would be great companies to make this comic come to bloody life and out of my artist friends that would make this amazing would be Rachael Lare, Damien Brunk or Jeff Potter all who would capture the horror nature of the series. This comic series would never happen sadly as no one remembers it nor when it was released did it come out to major fan fare as it went direct to video and faded away into horror film obscurity. Oh yeah the film was directed by Brad Sykes who made such other low budget films like Camp Blood 1 & 2, Demon's Kiss, Death Factory and Mad Jack to name a few, the film also stars Janet Tracy Keijser who is easy on the eyes even if she is a little off acting in this film. Z-Grade flick check it out of you like your horror with a little cheese.
When WWE bought out ECW and tried to re-launch the brand on the Sci-Fi network in 2006, it was a shell of what it was. Gone were the days of New Jack using a cheese grader on Hack Meyers as blood poured out. Gone were the days of Raven fighting Tommy Dreamer in a barbwire match all for the attention of Beulah, and what we got instead was a watered down version with Big Show being a top star as well as supernatural wrestlers like The Boogeyman, vampire Kevin Thorn and yep, The Zombie! Tim Roberts was the man with the cheesy gimmick who made his debut on the first episode of ECW on the SCI-FI Channel and was quickly beat down by The Sandman and his Singapore cane, you see the network wanted "monsters" added to the roster and this was the WWE's way of saying we will add them and they will be used as jokes and get beat down fast and easy. The Zombie would float around for a short time loosing matches until he quietly disappeared from the company. Roberts was better known under the ring name Tim Arson and was a pretty big attraction in multiple Puerto Rico wrestling federations and won many belts over his career there, he also toured independent federations and even took on Matt Striker under the Arson gimmick that aired on WWE Heat. After becoming The Zombie for ECW he would also take bookings under that gimmick for small wrestling promotions. Sadly on January 7 2015 Roberts died of unknown causes at the age of 38. While he might not have been a household name here in America his fourteen year long wrestling career sported him fans all over the world.
People love zombies so much that Adult XXX films have been made about them! Yeah films that have male and female zombies getting busy with humans and each other have seen the light of day. These kind of Adult Films just shows you how much the American Culture loves Zombies that they want to see them not only eat humans but also do it with them! Many of these films also have a Horror Film nature to them and add gore and twisted storylines to these films, while others have no plots and are just scenes of goofball actors in masks and cheap Halloween makeup doing the deed with females who are there to collect a paycheck. There are parodies of George Romero dead films as well as The Walking Dead and everything in between, so if this is your thing and you find Zombies sexy I am sure one of these odd adult films will be sure to please.
Here in Dayton, Ohio we have lots of Food Trucks and one of the most popular is a gourmet hotdog truck called Zombie Dogz that people line up for rain or shine to get a tasty large sized hotdog! Each hotdog has a horror themed name like "Hunk A Hunk A Rotting Flesh," a tribute to Elvis Presley that is a hotdog with bacon, pan seared bananas flambéed in banana liquor topped with homemade cashew butter. Or you could try "Gem City Slasher" that has the hotdog with avocado salsa, white truffle oil, red onions, bacon bits and cilantro sour cream! My favorite one is called "Calling In Dead" that has truffle oil mac n' cheese and cracker crumbles all placed on top of the hotdog! Besides the Dayton area, you can also find Zombie Dogz as a food vendor at Horror Hound Weekend Convention in Cincinnati, and for comic book readers they are also spotted many Fridays at Bell, Book and Comic. If you're ever in the area and enjoy a good specialty hotdog, check them out as I am sure you will not be disappointed.
Arrow Comics was created by Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr in 1985 and was a black and white independent comic company that the pair started by publishing a magazine called "Fantastic Fanzine." After seeing how much of a hit the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was, they decided to open a comic book branch and gathered local talent like Guy Davis, Susan Van Camp, Randy Zimmerman and Vincent Locke to name a few and Arrow Comics was born! Issues of titles like Deadworld, The Realm, Tales From the Aniverse, System 7, Oz and Nightstreets hit comic shops, but by 1989, they were in trouble due to revenues for some of their top selling titles being tied up, causing them to have to move some of their titles to Caliber Comics. After a few years of silence, they tried to make a comeback in 1993 and released a savage zombie comic called The Dead, but sadly the re-launch was very short lived. In 2008 they made another comeback and started to make webcomics called Spank The Monkey and Rebel Nun and plan on giving many of their titles comebacks in this modern world of comic books. Being a long time comic reader as well as a Monster Kid, I can remember seeing these issues at local comic shops and even had a few of their OZ titles, but never did have any of the zombie ones as I think most of those were behind the counter kind of titles and I was too young to buy them. But while Arrow Comics was never as impactful as many of the other small companies of the time like Malibu, Now or Innovation, they still made huge impacts on their readers who enjoyed something different than Superman or Captain America. I must also state, I love their motto "Our Target Is Entertainment; Our Aim Is Quality".
In 2015 Rough House Publishing, a comic company run by Derek Rook, who was the man behind Xmachina Comics, the company who brought you the "Gates Of Hell", "Halloween: The Return To Haddonfield" and "Phantasm" comics as well as worked on the adaptation of Fulci's "Zombie" graphic novel, released an amazing graphic novel called "The Dead: Omnibus" that collected all issues of the Arrow Comic series and more! It's a must-have comic for fans of horror comics and for those looking for something more brutal than Walking Dead. It's my honor to present to you this 5 Questions with Derek Rook, the man behind Rough House Publishing and the rebirth of The Dead.
Matt: Welcome to Rotten Ink, Derek, and thanks for taking time away from your busy schedule to chat with me. Growing up were you a comic reader, and if so, what comic characters did you like?
Derek: Thank YOU, Matt! I appreciate the opportunity to hang with you. I WAS a giant comic book reader as a child. When I was young, I'd go grocery shopping with my mother and I would always hope that she had a couple bucks to spare so I could grab some comics off the news stand. I wasn't aware of comic book shops at that time, so I'd get mine at grocery and convenience stores and sometimes at a Mom & Pop book corner store. I always loved The Incredible Hulk (especially the adult-oriented Marvel Magazine The Hulk), Rom – The Space Knight, Moon Knight, Conan, Godzilla…I always enjoyed characters that were misunderstood loners as I too was one of those as a child.
Matt: What was the first comic book you ever made of your own, and what was it about?
Derek: The first comic book I ever formally published was called NIGHTFALL. I published it in high school and with the help of my art teacher, Joseph Degnain, The book was standard slasher fare, but was heavily critical of religion, government and of many world views that we are dealing with today. We printed off 50 copies using all of the schools resources and equipment. In some ways, he believed in my dreams more than I did as he was responsible for the entire output process. All he wanted in return was one singular copy. I sold them to students for $1 and sold out in four days.
Matt: You have done some great comics based on such films as Gates of Hell, Zombie, Halloween and the upcoming Nightmare City remake – what has been your favorite one to work on?
Derek: It's popular to answer that question by saying, "it's like picking the favorite of your children"…and that's true, But that's not hard for me. If my books are "children", then some of them were some real fucking bastards (laughs). Thus far my personal favorite as far as just my art would have to be THE GATES OF HELL. That book was a decades long journey through one of the most formative and tumultuous years of my life. I think the determination to complete that project shows in the finished product. It's a great body of work. My favorite publication as a whole would hands down be THE DEAD – OMNIBUS. We all were just an unstoppable freight train during that project. There's so much love and pride there, it's staggering.
Matt: What three horror films would you like to turn into a comic book series or adaptations for Rough House Publishing, and why?
Derek: As we go forward with ROUGH HOUSE, I think you'll be seeing us move away slightly from licensed projects, in lieu of more creator-owned stuff. Licensing is sometimes hard to get with the type of stuff we are interested in making books out of…BUT, if I could magically do three more, I personally would want to do THE BRONX WARRIORS (as a trilogy), the un-filmed original script for George Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD and probably CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. If you ask some of the other Rough House crew, you'd probably have an even bigger list.
Matt: With The Dead: Omnibus being one of your first releases from Rough House Publishing, I would guess you grew up a zombie comic fan. What is some of your favorite zombie or even horror comics going now?
Derek: Sadly, I'm not a fan of most modern comics in general anymore. Most of them lack the spirit and savvy and genius of some of the comics I grew up with. Maybe I'm just bias. The entire institution has become very corporate and are usually a means of advertisement for a much bigger and more profitable franchise. I think Image is publishing some interesting stuff like AIRBOY and BIG MANS PLANS. The original Garth Ennis' CROSSED by Avatar Press was ground-breaking at the time, I loved SATELLITE SAM by Howard Chaykin and Matt Fraction…as you can see, most are not horror. HAUNTED HORROR is the closest ting publishing to my favorite comic book being published today, but those are are all reprinted stories from over 60 years ago…so I guess you can see where my roots are truly planted.
Matts: Thanks, my friend, for taking your time to chat with me!
As always Derek is a class act and a true artist in the world of horror comics and one of my favorite artists going today alongside Javier Trujillo as both capture the true nature of horror. So for about a year now I have been itching to check out The Dead as Rough House Publishing put it on my radar with their release of The Dead: Omnibus. This started my quest to find the single issues that were released just so I could finally read them and cover them for this Undead File update! Thanks to Ebay and Lone Star Comics, I was able to track them down and enjoy them for the first time in all their gore-tastic glory! But before we walk among The Dead, I should remind you that I grade these issues on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So with that out of the way, let's see what all this brain eating and gut munching horror is all about!
The Dead # 1 ***
Released in 1993 Cover Price $2.25 Arrow Comics # 1 of 2
Davey is a young man who is going to be a military man someday soon and is on a camping trip with his family and friends. They are having a good time, and it seems like a perfect trip complete with campfires, fishing and walks in the woods making it seem like nothing could go wrong. As the wives are alone, a knock on the door leads to death as a farmer zombie in overalls and a shotgun blows one of the mom's heads off and then proceeds to eat the breasts off the other! The Zombie Farmer is not alone and as the other zombies start to eat the flesh of the woman, the husbands show up and they as well become lunch as once more the Zombie Farmer uses his shotgun to blow the head off of one of them! Davey is smart enough and gets all the kids into the RV and saves their lives as they head to the nearby town for help they soon find out it has been set on fire.
This is a perfect example of an underground horror comic as it's packed with lots of gore, boobs and monsters and is done in glorious black and white. The story is about two families on a vacation in the woods that are attacked by zombies who seem to not only want to eat them but also get enjoyment from killing humans. The story follows Davey as he tries all he can to save his siblings and young friends from a brutal death, all the while having to come to grips with the fact that his parents are dead. Davey is a interesting character who's young but yet acts mature as his goal in life is to be a military man just like his father. Despite the shock of seeing his parents slaughtered, he is still smart enough to use his brain and get in the RV and get the heck out of dodge as he sees the zombies coming for them. The rest of the kids are your normal generic kids who sneak and smoke pot and act silly and tough when you know without Davey's guidance they would all be zombie lunch. The Zombie Farmer is one twisted sick undead psycho who not only kills his victims but also psychologically tortures them by allowing them to beg for their lives only to kill them with a brutal glee. The things we know about Zombie Farmer: he can use a shotgun and is good with it, he loves female boobs and he cannot die with damage to his body. The rest of the zombies seem to listen to what the Farmer says and are into eating the victims and causing chaos and mayhem. The comic is filled with lots of blood, brains and head exploding, all things that horror comic fans love and crave. The issue's story and plot was done by Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr with art done by Jason Moore that is a very fitting style for a independent horror comic from the 90's. The cover for some reason reminds me of Raiden from Mortal Kombat and is eye catching but in no way warns the reader of just how brutal the comic is! So far I'm very much enjoying this comic and am looking forward to issue two as well as the second volume of The Dead so let's get to issue # 2!
The Dead # 2 **1/2
Davey and the gang watch as the town is burning and come up with a plan to try and get food, medical supplies and weapons from a trading post deep in the woods run by an old man named Zeke. As they start their journey, Zombie Farmer in a pick up truck packed with zombies tries to stop them using firebombs and bricks to slow the kids down, but Davey has a plan that has motor oil being flung onto the windshield of the truck causing the Zombies to crash off a tiny bridge and explode! But before they get to the post, a zombie is able to get into the RV and bite one of the girls on the neck before it can be bashed leaving its brains all over the floor. The group tend to the wounded girl as Davey and the guys go into the post that has been clearly attacked by the undead. They scavenge for food and get 10 boxes worth before Zeke shows up, now a zombie, throwing knives that injure one of the boys' legs before they escape and head back to the road and the unknown! It ends with a naked woman who's a prisoner of zombies who must rat out a location of other humans, and for her help a zombie eats her private parts!
More twisted and gruesome moments are packed into this growing story of Davey and the kids trying to get help and get away from the living dead who are out for blood and guts and a murderous good time. This issue's plot has Davey and the kids trying to get to a safe place to gather supplies all the while dodging zombies who want to stop them and kill them. Throw in a strange zombie at the end who is forcing a living female for information and you have this strange issue summed up. Davey becomes more in charge as it's clear they are being targeted by the zombies. He comes up with the idea to get the Zombie Farmer off his back as well as comes up with where to get the supplies they will need to survive. The rest of the kids are becoming more useful and understand now that they are all in danger and when one of their own is bitten on the neck by a zombie, they know that death could await them at any turn. The zombies are very mean spirited and use bricks, cocktail bombs and knives to attack and they will not stop until the kids can escape them or kill them. Zombie Farmer returns for a short time and is driving a pickup truck and is trying to run the RV off the road, and is only stopped when his truck drives off a bridge and explodes, is he dead or not I cannot say for sure. The issue is packed with more gore that includes a neck bite, knife to the leg and a woman's private parts being eaten by a zombie showing that they were all about the blood. The cover I have to this issue is X-Rated and depicts the poor woman being eaten by the Zombie, and this I am sure was never on the shelf at Mavericks Cards and Comics or The Bookie Parlor. The story and plot was once more done by Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr with Moore doing the art again that is super fitting for a comic of this nature as he understands the style of making a good zombie attack come alive. The downside is that the story is not finished as only two issues were made for Volume 1 so I am hoping that Volume 2 finishes this story or at least tells us the readers what happened to Davey and his siblings and friends. This comic series seems like fans of The Walking Dead could enjoy it if they don't mind crude gore mixed in with their Horror Drama. And yes, the green zombie heads added to the cover was because I had to censor it, sad to say.
So that was volume one of this series so up next lets take a look at the second time around they tried to deliver The Dead to Horror Comic Readers with this 1998 released zombie romp issues! Does this series follow what happened to Davey….I don't know but I hope if not they at least make a small attempt to tell what his the teens fate was, but lets not waste no more time the living dead is starting to crowd around and I don't know about you but I sure don't want to be bitten.
The Dead # 1 **
Jerry, Marcus and Megan are paramedics who are responding to a terrible multiple car wreck in Chicago that has many injured as well as many dead. They rush to the hospital with two survivors but quickly find out that the hospital is a warzone as the dead are coming back to life and eating the living! Just then one of the wreck victims dies and comes back to life and attacks Marcus and this causes Jerry to wreck the ambulance, this leads to Megan being thrown from the wreck and attacked and killed by Marcus who is now a zombie who turns Megan into a zombie who bites Jerry who escapes but is now on the run from his two former partners as well as the two wreck victims who are also flesh eaters! Jerry runs to a nearby gas station and meets a young woman who thinks he's crazy as he rambles on about zombies, but she soon finds out he is no crazy as the zombies come for them and they both must run for their lives. The second story takes place in Michigan and has an old man fishing and drinking beer watching as a young couple is attacked and zombies come from the lake, he rushes to get his guns and warn the couples friends but it might be to late as they think he's crazy and open the door to the living dead.
Right off the top I must say this second series lacks the gore, nudity and characters of the first series and while good felt a little lack luster. Plus this far we get zero follow up on Davey and his crew and instead we are following new characters as they are dealing with the zombie outbreak. The plot is broke into two parts with one following Jerry a paramedic and the other following an old drunk man and his dog as they deal with zombies and the people around them. Jerry is kind of a moron who does not help Megan who is begging for help after her injuries that was caused by his crappy driving, once he let her day I found myself shaking my head and wondering when he would die and hoping it was gruesome. The Old Man who has yet to be named seems ok this far and was just wanting to drink some beer, hang with his old dog and fish, but when the zombies come he at least tries to save others. The zombies are your Italian Zombie movie style who go for neck bites and are slow and only driven by the hunger of flesh. Over all not feeling this first issue as much as I did the 1993 The Dead issue 1 as this one kind of sadly feels generic in some ways, again not terrible just average. The cover is bland and shows the old man with his gun, and the art inside is pretty cool and classic 90's horror comic stuff and is done by Matt Mason. I am hoping that issue two packs a little more blood and gore punch as series one set the bar very high and this issue felt like a light Marvel Zombies issue.
The Old Man who's name is Rick fights off the zombies and pushes them out of the cabin, but not before one boy is bitten by one that snuck into the house via the back window! The Old Man's plan is for them all to load into the van out front and drive into town to get help, but the zombies have other plans as they block the path to the van. Rick sends some of the kids including Jennifer out after they find the keys to a four-wheeler, the injured boy goes with her and they travel to the neighbors house who own a truck. While there the boy turns into a zombies and the neighbors are all ready zombies and Jennifer must blast her way through them to get the truck to pick up the others just in time as the zombies were about to over take them. Now back to Chicago where Jerry and the female gas worker are running the streets for their lives away from the zombies that are all around, the bite on Jerry's arm is getting worse as the pain is becoming unbearable. Meanwhile the Zombies are attacking and killing anyone they come in contact with and a brutish biker saves Jerry and the Clerk from a zombie attack and warns them to leave town and to get away as far as they can! The clerk and Jerry steal a car as his pain is getting worse they soon find themselves in a zombie traffic jam.
This second issue brings back blood and gore and adds enough survival horror drama that you find yourself as the reader being drawn into the plot and wanting to see how any of the survivors will make it out alive. The plot for both stories has our heroes and fellow survivors trying to escape the grips of the living dead and coming up with plans to do so. Jerry this time around while as useless as ever at least saves the clerk from becoming zombie lunch, but does just yell at the zombies instead of fighting them like a man. The Female Gas Station Clerk is by far the bravery of the two and wants to not only find help for Jerry but also get out of town and save her own butt. The Old Man Rick is one bad mofo as he blasts his way through zombies as well as comes up with a plan that works and gets the survivors away from the lake and cabins that are being over run by the undead. Jennifer who is one of the young ladies at the cabin also seems like she could be a player in the survival game as she is very strong willed and understands that she needs to fight to stay alive. The Zombies are as always brutal and craving flesh and will not stop no matter how many gun shots you pump into them, unless you aim for the head. The gore and blood are back and while not as brutal as it was in series one, it still great to see in this series. The cover is better and has zombies eating a man and the art inside is good and done by Matt Mason again. Solid brutal issue with lots of zombie horror fun, looking forward to the third and final issue in this second series and see if it has an ending or if Arrow leaves us hanging again.
The Store Clerk gets Jerry through the zombie roadblock, but Jerry has died and is becoming a zombie! Jerry is not just some ordinary zombie as he can talk and think and wants nothing more than to rape and eat the clerk! He tricks her into stopping at a drug store by saying he needs medication and bandages for his bite wound and then has her follow him into the back storage room as the zombies start to break in. He attacks her and leads her into the zombies who all listen to him. He tells them to eat her and claims he is the King of The Zombies! The second story follows a group of teens at a house babysitting, eating pizza and watching some flicks when a police officer who's the brother of one of the girls shows up and warns them all to stay inside as murders are happing all over. In the end the parents of the young kids show up and are infected, and the teens lock themselves in the house and prepare for a horrific night of terror.
The story of Jerry has an ending as he becomes the first smart and talking zombie of this series, he is so slimy and only wants to feed his urges of human flesh both in a hungry way and a horny way! I 100% hate Jerry and so wanted the Female Store Clerk to survive and blow his brains out….sadly this did not happen as she became zombie dinner. I however must say I did like the journey of Jerry from being an every day guy doing his job to being bite by a zombie to being in pain and dying from said bite to finally becoming a zombie and learning he has powers the others don't like speech and a mind that still works for plotting. The second story is pretty cool and reminds me of my friends and I getting together back in High School and having Horror Movie Marathons in my parent's basement. But while the story on that one was just getting started from all I could gather the 4th issue never came out and left readers hanging once more. The story of Rick and the lake survivors as well did not get a closing as in this issue they are not shown at all. The issue showcases some blood and gore as well as nudity as the Female Gas Station Worker has her top ripped off by the sleazy zombie Jerry. This second series while good failed to capture the raw magic of the first series, and with that said I still enjoyed these three issues and they were well worth tracking down for this update. The cover on issue three is pretty cool and just showcases a zombie and reminds me of pure independent punk rock horror comics, the art inside is Matt again and is good stuff and very fitting for the nature of this series. One thing I should point out about this series that was really cool was that you could pay to put yourself in the comic! You could pay a fee from $250 to $25 and select to be a zombie, a victim or a Zombie Hunter and even pick just how gross your death would be! That's a fantastic gimmick and one that should be in use today, oh wait "We Kill The Dead" the new upcoming Horror Series did do something like this for their Kickstarter…Good Work Guys, as I find this to be an outstanding idea. Over all The Dead's third issue is much like the first two in this series good stuff and worth a read for zombie comic fans like myself. Below is some artwork form this second series.
The Dead is clearly one of the horror comics alongside the George Romero Dead films that inspired The Walking Dead as lots of elements seem to be borrowed from each in the comic as well as the show. If you enjoy your zombies dripping in blood, guts and gore and enjoy a little nudity thrown in for extra sleazy, I would say The Dead is for you, as I found myself loving every black and white page of the undead on a rampage for flesh and glory. Make sure to check out The Dead: Omnibus by Rough House Publishing as they collect all the issues as well as unprinted stories in one glorious book! And keep an eye out for more of their releases as they are the true horror comic fan's outlet for amazing titles. For the next update I am going to try and have a showdown with an NES game that has foiled my attempts to beat it for years, but now I am ready to beat Werewolf: The Last Warrior as well as review the mini comic that came with the game on release! So until next time, avoid the dead, read a comic or three and as always support your local Horror Host!
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Marvel At The Mighty Black Goliath
Posted on January 24, 2016 by bloodlinematt
Welcome back, my friends, to Rotten Ink. It's amazing to think we are in 2016, and my little place on the web has been going for over three years now with my first official update being about The Smurfs and the Marvel Comic series based on those little blue guys back on September 10th 2012. It's grown so much from there and has allowed me to cover such topics as horror hosts, movies and video games as well as talk about my life as a child and adult and cover things from making no budget movies to old school crushes and everything in-between! People have asked me over the years what my favorite update I have ever done is, and while I have enjoyed them all and have put my thoughts and memories into each, I would have to say it was "Start Halloween With The Universal Monsters!" as I got to cover Dell Comics takes on the classic monsters like Dracula and The Wolf Man as well as got to talk about what the Halloween season reminds me of, a great trip down memory lane for sure. Lots of readers and friends have also asked me what my favorite comic company is to cover. That's an easy one as I have to say classic Marvel Comics. While I do love companies like DC, IDW and Dell, Marvel has always been my top choice to read as all my favorite superheroes come from that company: Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Conan and Man-Thing. Another question I get is what horror host am I most looking forward to covering on a Icon update. My top two that I knew that were a must for me, I have already done,Commander USA and Dr. Creep, but as for the ones I have not covered it's a tie between Sammy Terry, Joe Bob Briggs, A. Ghastlee Ghoul and Grandpa Munster, all of whom have influenced me in the world of horror hosting as well as no budget filmmaking. The question that I always look at is what your most read topic is, as of this update, the top three go like this Hellraiser III, Smurfs and Rob Zombie's Bigfoot. One last question I will answer is people ask what of my old media projects would I like to see turned into a comic book series, and while of course the answer is Baron Von Porkchop's Terrifying Tales Of The Macabre that wish could be coming true thanks to my friend Damien Brunk so out of the other stuff I would say my old slasher film The Sadness who is a killer who murders women and video tapes it all the while doing these horrible acts to please his fathers voice that echoes in his brain. So in closing, if you are a long time reader or just discovered me, I want to say thanks for taking the time to check out my little place on the web, and here is looking forward to the next three years and beyond. This update we will take a look at Black Goliath, a classic 70's Marvel Character who was a cash in on the Blaxploitation cinema of the time. So here is looking on to the future and bringing more fun updates to you my friends and readers.
Once many centuries ago, it was believed that giants could have walked among us, even the Bible has Goliath a giant warrior who was killed by a stone from David's slingshot. It's been said that giants even battled early settlers here in America and that when their bones are found, the Smithsonian covers it up! In pop culture giants are among us from pro wrestler Andre The Giant to comic character Giant Man. But one giant that has always peeked my interest is The San Diego Mummy, a giant mummified body that measured 8 foot 4 inches and was found in a cave by prospectors in the early 1900's. It's said that you could see the twisted teeth and giants ribs trough the skin and it looked like the Aztec Mummy from the classic south of the border horror film series to me. The Smithsonian was all over this discovery and even bought the body for a large sum of money. They came and looked at it and were hyped by what they saw, but the story goes that once they tested parts of the giant's skin they found it to be a hoax and made of gelation and claimed the remains were a fake and deposed of it. This is where things get crazy as many people claim that the Smithsonian was on a fever pitch to buy large skeletons and many people claim they claimed hoaxes on many that are believed to be the real deal including the San Diego Giant! The odd thing about San Diego Giant is where is it now? Did they dispose of it? If he is real, why are they storing him and not sharing him with the public? And why are the people of Smithsonian trying to buy and hide all the giant skeletons in the world? So many questions un-answered! On a side note, the body also reminds me of the Atlas Comic character The Brute…could this be the body that inspired that comic series?
WWE 2K16 came out on October 27th 2015, and this year the main attraction was that it had the largest roster in the game's history as well as had a spotlight on the career of Stone Cold Steve Austin, whom I have never been a fan of during his WWF/WWE run but the possibilities of other wrestlers he had faced made for a interesting wait to see who was announced. Plus they added a ton of names from NXT and this as well made me hyped and ready for the game. The downside was the pre-order bonus wrestler, as it was the T-800. Yeah, that's right, a Terminator…a fake movie character who has never been in a WWE ring…Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor who plays the character has and at least would have made a better choice as he is in the WWE Hall Of Fame…yeah, terrible bonus for sure. But terrible bonus and all, this was one game I was super hyped to play as I found that the new additions of Finn Balor and Kalisto and legends like Bret Hart, Sting and Ultimate Warrior made this a must-have video game for me. Plus any wrestling game that sports the largest roster in WWE game history, I had to play!
But like THQ before, 2K has also been snubbing wrestlers that should be showcased in the game! I know that WWE has lots of say on who is in the game and who is left out but so does the company who is distributing the game, and the following 3 wrestlers are my picks of wrestlers who were down right snubbed and should have had a place on the 120 on-disc roster or at least DLC. So sit back and take a look at my picks and in the comments feel free to leave your list of snubbed wrestlers from WWE 2K16!
Let's start off this list with the biggest and most iconic name left out of this game, as well as one wrestler who was slated to be in the game but pulled amidst controversy. First we should talk about why they pulled him from the game; in 2012 Hogan was recorded making dumb and hurtful raciest comments that were centered around his daughter Brooke's personal life and music career. It should be noted that he made these commits at the lowest point in his life when he and his wife were splitting, he was sleeping with one of his best friends wife and he was suicidal. Hogan has done his best to do damage control and clear his name of not being a racist person; wrestlers and stars have come to his aid and yet WWE has washed him from their records and fired from his deal, canceled all his upcoming merchandise and pulled him from WWE 2K16. Now let's look at why Hulk Hogan should have been in the game and the reasons are many! I mean he was a top wrestler not only just in WWF/WWE but also AWA, WCW and TNA as well was an actor in movies and TV. He has been WWF/WWE champion as well as World Heavyweight Champion a number of times, has headlined not only the first Wrestlemania but many more over the years and is one of the biggest icons in the business. While he should have been let go from his WWE contract or even suspended and made to make his dumb decision right, his fans should not be punished by taking him out of the game as he would have been a great grappler to have in the world title mix against the likes of Triple H, Roman Reigns, John Cena and Kevin Owens.
Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka
Jimmy Snuka, much like Hulk Hogan has had a bad 2015 as he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and then picked up on murder charges of his then girlfriend in 1983! While I'm not sure if he was suppose to be in the game, I am sure if he was he was pulled out of the mix pretty quickly. But like all crimes Jimmy is innocent until proven guilty, but to WWE and 2K he is guilty until proven innocent. Jimmy Snuka was one of the biggest wrestlers in the 1980's and was a top draw for WWE over his career and had epic matches against the likes of Don Muraco and Roddy Piper, and even when coming back in 1989 he was a solid mid-card worker who took on the likes of The Honkey Tonk Man, The Undertaker and Rick Rude! Jimmy even had a good run in AWA and WCW and remained a fan favorite. If Jimmy Snuka would have made it into WWE 2K16, I would have put him in NXT and would also use him on the main roster as matches against Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Kalisto and Seth Rollins would be booked for many of my Raw's and PPV's! The sad thing is even if proven not guilty, I see Snuka not being in any upcoming WWE games.
"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan
It's crazy to think that Hacksaw has not been in a WWE main game in years given that during the 80's and 90's he was a huge fan favorite and is on great terms with the company and has had no run ins with the law in decades. Hacksaw had a great run with WWF/WWE from 1987-1993 and had great matches against the likes of King Harley Race, Andre The Giant and Bad News Brown. In 1988, he was even the first winner of the Royal Rumble that aired on the USA Network. When Hacksaw's star started to drop in the WWF, he moved onto WCW and became a major draw once more winning many belts and having matches with the likes of Stunning Steve Austin, Bunkhouse Buck and Diamond Dallas Page. He left WCW in 2002 and worked some independent federations before returning to WWE in 2005 for another short run that would have him being used to put over younger talent. This run ended in 2009 but for many years after, he appeared from time to time one WWE programing. I would love to have Hacksaw as part of my roster and would make a new tag team with him and Jack Swagger that would be trying to win Tag Team Gold! Very disappointing that Hacksaw seems to have been forgotten by not only WWE but also 2K.
It's a shame these legends of wrestling have been left out and only time will tell if any of them will be in WWE 2K17, and I want you all to keep in mind none of these guys made it into the game but the T-800 did…shameful.
So in 2015, four of my favorite artists released new albums and of course I had to buy all three of them on CD from Amazon. So let's start off with the softest artist on the list and one that I have been a huge fan of since the 1995 release of her first album called "Pieces of You." Of course I am talking about Jewel; her new release is called "Picking Up The Pieces" and this her counter piece to her first release. The first thing I noticed after listening for a few minutes is that Jewel's voice is as soothing as ever and made me fall in love with her all over again. The sound was a mix of folk and country and is clearly a record to work out some of her personal issues and as always her heart is in every song. I really enjoyed the whole CD, and I think my two favorite tracks off the disc have to be "Everything Breaks," a song of changing love, and "My Father's Daughter," a sweet song about family that is a duet with Dolly Parton. I also really liked the song "Mercy" and for the most part liked every song on the disc. I cannot praise Jewel enough as I feel she is one of the best singer songwriters of my generation, not to mention she can blend pop, country and folk together so well that it shows just how talented she is. I recommend this CD to fans of hers as well as fans looking for a heartfelt album with outstanding songs. The other artists that we will be covering at a different update are Danzig, W.A.S.P. and Alice Cooper with his all-star band called The Hollywood Vampires! So make sure to check back in and see my thoughts on their newest releases soon.
When I was younger I had lots of Marvel Comics as did my brother Bryan, and I spent lots of late nights reading issues before bed or just kicking back in my room on a rainy day and reading them as the rain hit the widows. One character that I saw a lot of over the years is Black Goliath. I always had this idea that he was good friends with The Thing as I mostly remember his from issues of Marvel Two-In-One that had The Thing of Fantastic Four fame teaming up with a fellow Marvel hero. One other thing I can remember about him was that he was dying from an illness that was caused by his ability to change size and The Thing was really upset by this. But this is all I really knew about the character until I did some research over the years, so here is a quick bio of Black Goliath. Bill Foster is a biochemist who is from Los Angeles California who works for Tony Stark's Plans And Research Division and was Hank Pym's lab assistant who helps Pym turn to normal size when as his alter ego Giant Man he was stuck being a giant. Sometime later, Bill Foster starts taking the formula Hank did so that he as well can grow and takes on the name Black Goliath and teams with the likes of Luke Cage Power Man, The Thing and even Spider-Man to take on and defeat all types of super baddies. Black Goliath even joined the superheroes team The Champions and would later go on to change his name to Giant Man taking over the role from his friend Hank Pym. As Bill Foster, he at one point found himself working in the Savage Land for High Evolutionary and once he figures out that his employer is up to no good he calls in the West Coast Avengers and they put a stop to his evil scheme of a genetic bomb. Sometime later Bill Foster loses the power to grow and becomes a staff member for Centers For Disease Control and lend his brain to The Avengers to stop a bio-weapon. Later he once more regains his growing powers and joins a short lived team alongside Luke Cage, Brother Voodoo, The Falcon and Iron Fist as well as teams with the likes of Spider-Man and The Thing on separate missions. During the Civil War of Superheroes, Black Goliath took the side of Captain America in that heroes should not have to register their identities and during this conflict he is killed by a clone of Thor. His death changes the balance in teams as many leave Iron Man's side to join Captain America's. Up to this point Bill Foster aka Black Goliath is still dead and that's a shame as I feel he is a great classic Marvel Character who had many more adventures to bring us readers. I should note that during the Dark Reign storyline Black Goliath's clavicle bone is stolen by Norman Osborn in hopes to be used to track down Hank Pym and his spirit can be seen in Erebus, a realm in-between life and death alongside Baron Zemo, Jack Of Hearts, Jack O'Lantern, Wasp and even Elvis Presley!
So now I am sure if you didn't know who Black Goliath was, you do now as I hope my little history of the character helped. I really would like to thank Mavericks Cards and Comics who in June 2015 bought a huge comic collection that contained so many amazing issues and full runs from companies like Marvel, DC, Charlton and many more and Black Goliath was one I was lucky to be able to buy for this update! I was lucky enough as my friends Jason Young and Jeremy Hoyt both work for Mavericks and allowed me to go in the back and look through the boxes before they were priced and put out for the masses! I was able not only to get Black Goliath but also issues of Amazing, Spectacular & Web of Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Jungle Action with Black Panther, Master of Kung-Fu and a few other titles. So a big thanks goes to Mavericks and their crew for making this update possible. I should also note that while as I stated before I mostly knew Black Goliath from his appearances in "Marvel Two In One" and "Marvel Team Up", growing up my brother and I did have issue # 3 of this series and I remember very little about it. So let's grab a glass of milk so we can grow up to be big and strong and set out for a five issue adventure with the one and only Black Goliath.
Black Goliath # 1 ***
Released in 1976 Cover Price .25 Marvel Comics #1 of 5
Bill Foster is walking in the rain down a ghetto road in Los Angeles remembering back to the days of his youth growing up in the neighborhood playing baseball in the streets with his friends as well as the old soda shop that he use to buy cokes from for a dime. While wandering the streets, he comes across some punks who try and rob him and turns into Black Goliath and teaches them crime don't pay! Bill goes home and is torn between becoming a full time superhero or only focusing on his scientific career that was given to him by Tony Stark. While trying to come to a decision, he gets a call from Hank Pym who tries to push him into a career into crime fighting. After visiting his assistants called The Whiz Kids, Bill decides to become Black Goliath and stop the next robbery that will be for the lab he works! Atom-Smasher and his goons show up at a warehouse to steal some Radium and take out the two guard posted at the front and to their shock they run into Black Goliath who makes quick work of the goons, but is chopped down by Atom-Smasher who blasts him with a energy beam and is about to finish him off with an even more powerful one as our issue comes to an end!
This first issue is fantastic and captures the 70's Blaxploitation cinema vibe and mixes it very well with the classic 70's Marvel and is very much on par with Luke Cage Power Man! The plot of this issue has Bill Foster having a internal war with himself over becoming a full fledged superhero or being a full fledged scientist! And when robbers keep stealing shipments and breaking into labs, Bill decides that he must embrace his super powers and become Black Goliath to stop these crimes. Black Goliath is a very interesting character as he got his powers from helping Hank Pym when he was stuck as Giant Man and took that formula and improved it. What also makes him stand out is the fact he was once a ircus sideshow performer who lied to his girlfriend by telling her he could not control his size and was beaten up by Luke Cage who in turn walked away with Bill's now ex! Black Goliath is a man who is quick witted and has an edge of take no bull attitude making this issue a fun read as it leaves you wondering what he is going to do. The Whiz Kids (Herbert Bell, Dale West & Talia Kruma) are nice back up characters who a being set up to be inventors of gadgets that Goliath can use in his crime busting. Atom-Smasher is a cheesy yet powerful villain who rocks his bald head and powerful energy well, in fact he seems not to be bothered by the size of Goliath as he fires an energy blast and cuts him down to size. Atom-Smasher can control matter and can use his power to go through walls and even fire powerful blasts from his hands. The cover for this first issue is fantastic and very eye catching. Plus the art inside is well done and is done by the talented George Tuska who does a fantastic job of capturing the mood and vibe of this comic. This first issue makes me hyped to read issue # 2 and see how Goliath gets away from the deadly hands of Atom-Smasher so let's not waste anymore time and get to it!
Black Goliath # 2 **1/2
Black Goliath uses all his strength to dodge a fatal blow by Atom-Smasher and turns the table on the high energy villain! But the fight doesn't stay in Black Goliath's favor for long as once more Atom-Smasher is able to beat him up as well as causes a huge fire that was heading toward the L.A. airport's fuel tanks! As Smasher escapes, poor Goliath is weak and trying his best to not to catch fire or drown in the water from the firefighters' hose, and passes out to wake up in the care of Celia Jackson who was a stewardess for the airport and saved him from being fried to a crisp. Returning home as Bill Foster, he gets The Whiz Kids to create a tracking devise to locate Atom-Smasher. He gets the drop on Smasher and his goons ending his reign of terror, but unknown to Black Goliath, an assassin is watching and getting orders from a hidden in the shadows crime boss to take him out!
This second adventure of Black Goliath is a very good follow up to the first and retains all the wonderful 70's Blaxploitation action and one liners making fans of such films as Hammer and Foxy Brown happy as well as comic readers who enjoyed Power Man. In this issue Black Goliath suffers a terrible defeat, but it does not slow him down as he not only stops the bad guys in the end but also has time to make it with the young woman who saved his life! In this issue Black Goliath at first tries to only depend on his power to bring down the bad guys, but by the end learns that using his power as well as his mind is the best way to get the victory. While at first he does doubts how good of a superhero he will be, he turns it around in the end to embrace that he is new to the crime fighting game and can make mistakes. The Whiz Kids once more are used as helper characters and with their super smarts are able to make a tracking device to hunt down the location of Atom-Smasher. The tricky part is that Bill lied to them and said the device was made for the police. By this point we also are picking up on the personalities of the Whiz Kids with Herbert being the worry wart, Dale being the goofball troublemaker and Talia being the more private one who keeps her private life to herself leaving her open to be the most interesting one of them all. Celia Jackson seems like she could be a new love interest for Bill or could be just a one nightstand as the next panel after he leaves her house, Bill thinks to himself how he "scored" with her. At the warehouse Atom-Smasher puts up a fight that leaves the giant hero on his butt and proves he has power, but in the last battle when taken by surprise he goes down pretty easy as Black Goliath knocks machine parts on him and then bonds him in graphite. The Smasher's men are about as helpful to him as cats would be in a fist fight against ninjas as they are knocked around and run like chickens. The cover is once more very eye catching, and the art done by George Tuska is fantastic. I should also note the story in this issue was done by Chris Claremont who is best known for writing Uncanny X-Men and is the brain behind so many of that series top arcs. So far I'm really liking this series and am looking forward to each issue that follows! Let's see if the third issue can keep up the charm of Black Goliath.
As Black Goliath is about to take Atom-Smasher to the police station, the sniper attacks and grazes Goliath in the forehead causing him to drop Atom-Smasher and try to find cover. Atom-Smasher breaks free from his bonds and tries to escape, but before he can he takes a bullet to the back showing that he was the target. Before Black Goliath can get to the sniper he is gone, but something worse happens as he starts to feel ill and as if he is dying! Meanwhile back at Stark Labs, The Whiz Kids are covering for Bill Foster as he is not at work and a very angry Tony Stark needs to speak to him, and worse a motorcycle gang breaks into the lab and steals a important package and causes mayhem to the workers including Dale and Talia who are injured in the attack. The cops give chase to the gang but soon meet their leader Vulcan, a super strong hunchback with laser shooting wristbands who kills a rookie and injures a veteran female officer. Black Goliath shakes off the sick feeling and goes after the gang to get the package back and makes quick work of the gang, even giving Vulcan a beating, but once more making a rookie mistake he goes for the stolen package and takes a laser blast from the downed Vulcan that causes a building to fall on him and let the bad guy escape. In the end some of the cops are mad about Black Goliath not saving the killed rookie and this makes Goliath mad as he has no plans on stopping being a superhero.
This third issue now adds the motorcycle gang craze of the 70's to the mix and even adds a touch of horror as Vulcan the gang's leader is clearly a weird looking hunchback. The plot of this issue is that someone hired an assassin to kill Atom-Smasher as they looked at him as a loose end. Black Goliath is still a rookie at being a hero and makes some mistakes but during this time he is also having some issues with his powers as he is feeling ill. Throw in a biker gang who has been hired to steal a package from the lab and you have this issue. Black Goliath is getting better at stopping crime and is not backing down from bad guys and will do anything he can to save a life, even if he is always late at doing so. The main question is what is making Black Goliath sick and feeling like he is going to die? My thought on this is that he is straining his body as he is using the powers more often and this is causing his insides to become damaged. The normal Bill Foster part of Goliath's life seems to be spinning out of control as he is neglecting his day job and could be facing a pink slip if he isn't more attentive to his work. The Whiz Kids are pretty helpful in this issue as not only do they try and cover for Bill, but Dale tries his best to fight the biker gang and protect his fellow workers, and we learn that Talia is the way she is cause she left a loved on to die in the jungle to save her own butt! The Sniper and the Shadowy Big Boss are still a mystery as their identities are still unknown, but I am thinking that the big boss could be The Kingpin. Poor Atom-Smasher after being captured tried to run to fight another day, but is killed as I think they felt if the cops got ahold of him he might snitch. Vulcan is a brute, and while he is good at smashing cars and killing cops, he is not so good at fighting people with above average powers as Goliath whoops him pretty good. While he packs some laser wristbands and leads a gang of bikers, he just does not seem like a major threat. I should also mention that Tony Stark who all Marvel Comic readers as well as the movie watchers know is Iron Man comes off as a butthead in this issue as he yells and screams and threatens to fire Bill for missing one day of work, talk about a horrible boss! The cover is once more top notch, and the team of Claremont and Tuska are back and proves that when the right team work on a book no matter how big or small the character is, they can make quality work. So with this let's move onto issue number four.
Black Goliath stops some bank robbers and even breaks a stolen weapon that could kill many innocent people if used, all before heading to work where he gets chewed out by Tony Stark over the stolen package. That leaves the two at odds, and a man named Ballard being odd and wanting to keep what's in the box from Bill. It's clear the two have a past with each other. Bill changes into Black Goliath and heads to the police station where he gets news from Keith who is the nephew of Celia Jackson, the stewardess who Goliath "scored" with that the bank is being robbed. As Black Goliath and the cops arrive, they soon find that the robber is not a common man but the super villain Stilt Man who is mad and wanting to make a statement and does just that as he manhandles Black Goliath and to prove a point uses his new Z-Ray gun on Black Goliath, Keith and Celia making them vanish into thin air as the police look on in horror.
This forth issue is good but I will say slipped a little as I feel with this one they took away the cult feel and made it more of a main stream comic that could have as easy been an issue of Spider-Man or Captain America. The issue's plot has Bill Foster being mad at Tony Stark his boss and goes head to head with a villain who matches him in size and power and by the end uses a ray that turns our hero into nothing as he just disappears. Black Goliath is pretty cocky now at being a superhero and seems not to be bothered by having to choose between it and his career. Plus it looks as if the cops are now on his side and want his help on trying to stop crime. Bill Foster seems to be blowing off his work in this issue and even mouths off and makes his boss Tony Stark wait. The Whiz Kids take a backseat with nothing major to do besides telling Bill that Tony is on the phone for him. Tony Stark is still acting as a terrible boss, but does show that he likes Bill as a person and a friend. Ballard, I am not sure what his deal is, but he seems to have a chip on his shoulder and have a strong dislike for Bill. Celia Jackson and her nephew Keith are clearly fans and friends of Black Goliath and it's nice to see that she is just not a one night stand. Stilt Man is a major threat in L.A. and wants to be that town's crime lord and starts his path of doing so by robbing a bank and beating the city's protector with little to no effort. Stilt Man is proving that he is not a joke and while the likes of Daredevil and Captain America have beaten him, Black Goliath was just out matched. The way this issue ends and with only one issue left in the series it makes me wonder how in the heck are they going to wrap up who the shadow crime boss is, where is Black Goliath at and how will he get back as well as how will he defeat Stilt Man. This issue's cover is great like the others, and while Chris Claremont wrote the script, they changed the artist as the team of R. Buckler and Don Heck take over and do a solid job. Well it's time to move onto the final issue. Let's see how Marvel wraps this one up or will it get the Steel: The Indestructible Man treatment where DC just upped and cancelled it before the story is finished. Well let's see, shall we?
Black Goliath along with Keith and Celia find themselves on another planet called Kirgar, thanks to Stilt Man's Z-Ray Gun that during the day the temperature is so hot and by night it's freezing, leaving them will little hope of survival. One night while they are sleeping, they are visited by a friendly alien named Derath, who gives them clothes that will help with the severely changing weather and together they try to find a shelter area that has parts on it that can send them home! Along the journey they come across a Dune Cat who tries to make Celia lunch but is quickly dealt with thanks to a laser pistol blast from the gun of Derath. Once they make it to the shelter they soon have to tangle with Mortag, a giant of a man monster who is the protector of the shelter and kills Derath with his mighty axe! The murder of his alien friend puts Black Goliath into a rage and the battle leaves Mortag in pieces as they find out that he was a robot. In the end Black Goliath, Celia and Keith use the equipment around to try and get back home.
This final issue of Black Goliath feels like they mixed superheroes with Flash Gordon as it has a very science fiction feel to it. The plot has Black Goliath along with Celia and her nephew being stuck on a planet where they meet an alien who helps them and together they must try and find a way home and battle an ancient guardian who is protecting the only building on the planet that has they stuff to send them home. Black Goliath in this series really grows as a character as he starts off not being too sure of his hero-like abilities and by this issue he is a protector of his friends and ready to fight for what right. I can 100% say that my opinion of this character changed after reading this limited run series as he went from being a cheesy character who was friends with The Thing to being an interesting hero who brought so many genres together from Superhero to Blaxploitation and a little of everything in-between like bikers and sci-fi! Celia is very much like Pam Grier in the way that she is sexy and tough with a touch of gentle. It was cool to see her go from a one nightstand to a full fledged girlfriend for Black Goliath. Keith is kind of just a background player who is used to give Celia a little more depth and draw out that she is just a normal person with a family. The Whiz Kids are really cool background players who start out as bickering co-workers and by their last appearance, it's clear they all are good friends and care about each other. I wish they had a little more to do before this series ended. The worst part of Marvel just pulling the plug on this series is that this issue ends with Black Goliath still on another planet and as he beats his final foe in passing he says something about them getting back home. It's really lame that Marvel at least didn't give this one last issue to really tie it all up. In the letters page in this issue they did have the courtesy to warn the readers that this series was cancelled due to low sales. This final issue's art was done by Keith Pollard, and it looks great and holds up the quality that this series had. Pollard is a fantastic artist who is known for his work on Amazing Spider-Man, The Mighty Thor and Fantastic Four in the 70's and 80's. This issue's story is written by Chris Claremont again, and as always he did a pretty great job of telling a tale of adventure the Marvel way. I should also note that throughout the series Black Goliath tangled with some powerful super villains like Stilt Man, killer robot Mortag, pure power Atom-Smasher and hunchback biker Vulcan each of which you can believe as a threat to our hero. Over all, I can say that I enjoyed this series from the great art, fun stories all the way to the rotten ink smell this was for sure a great way to spend a January day reading. Below is some artwork from issue 4 done by R. Buckler and Don Heck, enjoy!
Black Goliath is a Marvel Character that for the most part is forgotten or even misused and that's a shame as he is a very cool and interesting character who could have held his own with other African American super heroes from Marvel like Luke Cage and Black Panther. But our next update we will be leaving Marvel behind and will be looking at a promo comic based on the 1992 film Dust Devil! So until then read a comic or three, support your local Horror Host and make sure to have a safe and fun February.
Posted in Comics, Marvel	| Tagged "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, 2K Sports, Atom-Smasher, Bill Foster, Black Goliath, CD, Celia Jackson, Chris Claremount, Comic, Dale West, Don Heck, George Tuska, Giant Man, Hank Pym, Herbert Bell, Hulk Hogan, Jewel, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Keith Pollard, Marvel, Matt Brassfield, Mavericks Cards and Comics, Mortag, Music, Picking Up The Pieces, PS4, R. Buckler, Rotten Ink, San Diego Giant, Stark Labs, Stilt Man, Talia Kruma, The Smithsonian, The Thing, The Whiz Kids, Tony Stark, Video Games, Vulcan, WWE, WWE 2K16	| Leave a reply
The Boogieman Of Wooster!
Posted on August 19, 2015 by bloodlinematt
Are you scared of things that go bump in the night? When you were a child did you ever look under your bed to see if monsters were under there waiting to steal your toes? How about your cracked closet door, was an unknown creature in there waiting for you to close your eyes? These type of thoughts and stories have scared children all over the world and are the source of childhood nightmares and sleepless nights for parents. This quick and spooky update is about the king of urban legend fright, the stalker of the night, the creep who terrified kids way before Slender Man and Freddy Kruger, we are talking about the one and only Boogeyman, the true icon of fright! So pull the covers over your head and stay close to the light of your computer screen as we take a trip into a nightmare world of terror!
You're six years old, and it's past your bedtime. You have snuck downstairs and are watching Sammy Terry host King Kong Escapes on Nightmare Theatre. You know you could get in trouble and you don't mind because Sammy is your friend and King Kong is your favorite giant monster. Just as Sammy is talking to his pet spider George, your older brother busts you and tells you that if you don't get to bed The Boogeyman will get you. The name sends shivers down your spine as just last week you heard from a friend that his cousin's neighbor was taken by this evil creature so you rush to jump into bed and pray that The Boogeyman is not under your bed…waiting to take your soul. This is a scenario that I am sure plagued many kids. The Boogeyman is the embodiment of evil and is a mythical creature used around the world to scare bad children into good behavior. He's a tool for kids to stay good or a punishment by the hands of this creature could change them forever by stealing their toes, eyes or some other body part or worse yet could take you away to his dark world. Growing up my parents never used The Boogeyman defense to make me behave, and I can remember my brother mostly using the term when we were really little to get me to leave the basement that was his bedroom. When I was in kindergarten, his name was mentioned almost in a hush like if we didn't talk about him he didn't exist and couldn't haunt your nights. While I never believed in him, the "What If?" question did pop in my mind in my youth. The United States is not the only country who has a Boogeyman as other nations also have their versions like Sack Man from Spain, a creature who carries bad children away in his sack and Egypt's Abu Rigl Maslukha who is a burnt man who kidnaps bad children and cooks and eats them. These two are just a small drop in the hat of all the versions of The Boogeyman that scare children all over the world! While The Boogeyman is still around, he has taken a backseat to the modern generation of kids as Slenderman is now the creature that haunts their dreams, but that creature will be saved for a future update…but I should also say that a comic book called Slenderman vs. The Bogeyman should be made by some company or independent comic maker…IDW? Bruce O' Hughes? Any takers? Whether the Boogeyman is real or fake is a subject that up for debate and all I can say is tonight as you go to bed, you might want to check the closet and look under your bed because you never know.
Like any monster of myth and legend of course Hollywood has to make movies based around it. One of the most popular films based on this legend came out in 1980 called The Boogey Man and was directed by Ulli Lommel. It's a slasher/possession horror film about a brother and sister that are being haunted by a pantyhose faced killer who comes out of mirrors to kill and twist reality. This series sparked 2 sequels The Boogey Man 2 and Return Of The Bo0gey Man and a rumor of a Part 4 or a remake has been floating around for a couple of years now. I love these films, and while they are very low budget and very cheesy, they have a charm that make them entertaining. In 2005, a film called Boogeyman hit theaters, directed by Stephen T. Kay. It's about a man who witnessed a horrible event in his childhood having to go back to the scene of the terror and come face to face with the creature that caused him so much trauma as a child. This series also had two sequels, and while the original is okay, the series got worse over time and is pure direct to video shelf filler. I should also note that a Stephen King short story called The Boogeyman was turned into a film in 1982. Not to even mention that in Halloween Michael Myers is called The Boogeyman as is John Wick in the film of the same name. While the films based on this icon of fright might have slowed down, I am sure his return to film or TV will come to a rise again soon!
I would love to see a comic mini series based on Ulli Lommel's Boogey Man series; this could be a very fun and spooky comic series with atmosphere and bloody kills! The comic series could pick up with Lacey, the survivor of The Boogey Man curse, moving out to the country to get away from all the drama and death that has happened over the years. While in the small country town she finds life to be perfect, that is till a mirror shows up in the town's antique store that holds the spirit of The Boogey Man who uses his evil power to turn the town into killing drones who all want to murder Lacey and put her head on a flag pole. Lacey must hide out in her farm house along with a worker named Mark who was helping fix her barn and the town's 84 year old priest. Together they must fight for their lives as well as come face to face with The Boogey Man with pantyhose on his head and all. This comic series would be a great way to promote the new film coming in the series and could also turn the cheesy aspects of the film into a solid scary blood soaked comic series helping bring the respect to the film series that it deserves. I would love to see IDW tackle this and of my friends I would say Bruce O' Hughes or Eric Shonborn would be great choices as I could see them both capturing the horror and terror of the story I proposed. While I doubt this mini series would ever happen from a major company, who knows, maybe one day I could team up with one of my comic making friends and bring this series to life for Rotten Ink.
The Boogeyman's appearance is up to the imagination of the person telling the story or even what the mind of the terrified child thinks it looks like. When I was a kid I thought of The Bogeyman with a zombie-like face dressed in a Count Dracula-like suit with long sharp fingernails and black stringy hair, but that's just what my young mind thought it looked like. Matchbox, with their very cool toy line Monsters In My Pocket, thought that The Bogeyman looked like slender longhaired and faced freak who wore sandals and had pants pulled up over his belly. WWE's Boogey Man looked like a toothless red-faced muscle bound goon who ate worms, loved clocks and danced like he was having a seizure. And Halloween costume makers Horror Dome think The Boogeyman looks like a red eyed goat with grey and black fur who wears a long coat and has long fingers. Marvel Comic's Boogeyman is a pasty-white skinned large mouthed short man who was once human and is like a shadow now and can posses the likes of Luke Cage and other super heroes. So as you can see, The Boogeyman has no solid look and can be as gross or as human as your imagination allows.
The comic we are going to review today is called The Boogieman, and I know very little about it besides that I have owned it for years and never read it until now. I got it at Mavericks so thanks to them for having it in stock. Nuclear Age Comix appeared to be a very small independent comic company owned by Dan Berger, who was making his books out of Wooster, Ohio and having them printed in Carrollton, Ohio making it one very cool piece of Ohio history. Nuclear only published three issues before closing its doors in 1986. Besides The Boogieman their catalog included two issues of a comic series called Rion 2990 that looked like a Japanimation inspired adventure comic. I'm not sure why Nuclear closed shop as quickly as it started, and I'm not even sure if they continued on by printing their follow up issues on their own. Plus I am pretty sure Dan Berger is also the one that worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures for Archie Comic back in the day! So with all that in your head, I also need to remind you that I'm grading this issue on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So let's go into the world of The Boogieman and see what we can scare up…
The Boogieman # 1 **
Released in 1986 Cover Price $1.50 Nuclear Age Comix #1 of 1
In the back alley of an unforgiving city, a man is about to club and kill an old drunk over a dollar when a werewolf shows up and runs off the attacker saving the drunk's life! The would-be robber runs into a police officer and tells him about the werewolf, and as the cop rushes off, the crook steals his wallet! The werewolf meets up with a masked man who is his friend and tells him to go home as he has a cure for his curse. As the werewolf runs off, the man in the masked called The Boogieman disappears like mist as the cops give chase to the werewolf. The Boogieman visits his friend's wife and tells her the good news that he can cure him this night. As the werewolf is busting his butt to get home, he is shot by the police, and The Boogieman must appear and save him by scaring off the officers. Boogieman gets the werewolf home and cures him of his curse and then goes out and busts the crook from the start of the comic and drops him off right into a jail cell. The second story in this comic is about a character called Pumpkin Head, a vigilante hero who wears a pumpkin mask and has wheels for feet who kills three crooks who did his friend Greg wrong.
This independent comic is not played for scares but is more of a super hero vigilante kind of comic as the monsters are the good guys killing off the scum bag criminals that plague their streets. The Boogieman story is very simple and had him trying to help a werewolf to get home so that he can be cured but thanks to a no good crook, the police are on his tail and The Boogieman must use his power of fright to get them off the trail and end a curse. The odd thing about the end is that it's clear The Boogieman is owed something for curing him, and it sounds like he has the power to turn him into a monster again! With this being the only issue to come out, it leaves the reader wondering what was to come in the series – was The Boogieman getting a team of monsters together? The Boogieman is a man of few words and looks like a film noir trench coat version of The Spirit and a homeless man. He looks like a man and not a monster and wears a mask around his eyes like The Lone Ranger or even Robin and is by no means scary. The Werewolf, whose name is Glen, looks like a bulky version of The Werewolf By Night and for some reason does not have the killer instinct like most comic book werewolves. The crook is just a scumbag who tries to rob an old drunk man and an old woman and is taught a lesson by The Boogieman as he gets a one-way ticket to jail. The art is really good and holds an almost Tick look to it. The artist and creator of the story is Dan Berger who did a fantastic job on both. The second short story in this issue, Pumpkin Head, is interesting and has a pumpkin-masked vigilante hero with wheeled feet killing off the people who murdered his pal. The story is solid and had potential of being a good comic series on its own. The art is not as good as The Boogieman's but holds an independent charm to it and is done by Jim Pallotta who also did the story. It's a shame this only lasted one issue as I would have loved to have seen what else this Wooster, Ohio comic company had in store for the future, but much like Topps, Fangoria and Dead Dog Comics before them, this company came to an end way too soon. Over all while not a horror comic like you would think, this comic was well worth the read. Check out some art below. The first two are from The Boogieman with the last being from Pumpkin Head.
So while The Boogieman in comics didn't chill my bones or scare me into a sleepless night, it did very much entertain me and made me want to track down Rion 2990 and see what that series has to offer. One other thing that I should point out is at the end of this issue, they mention a character called Dog Man a character who looked like a wild man on a chain held by a teen with a shotgun. It looked like it could have been interesting if it would have been made. So for our next update, we will leave The Boogieman behind and hit the open road with the one and only Biker Mice From Mars! So until then, read a comic or three, support your local horror host and try and get a good night's sleep…
Posted in Comics, Nuclear Age Comix	| Tagged Comics, Dan Berger, Fear, Glen The Werewolf, Horror Films, Independent Comic, Jim Pallotta, Matt Brassfield, Mavericks Cards and Comics, Monster Under Your Bed, Myth, Nuclear Age Comix, Ohio, Pumpkin Head, The Bogeyman, The Boogeyman, The Boogieman, Ulli Lommel, Urban Legend, Wooster, WWE	| Leave a reply
The Baseball Hustle Of Pete Rose
Posted on July 4, 2015 by bloodlinematt
Welcome back to the Rotten Ink Ballpark, a place we will be showcasing a comic book that is based on the legend of Cincinnati's Mr. Charlie Hustle himself, Pete Rose of Reds' fame! Baseball is considered America's favorite past time, and while it's still a popular sport, it has slipped quite a bit and has never bounced back after the strike that happened in 1994-1995 when players demanded higher pay and the player pay cap, making many fans upset over the greed and the lack of games because of this strike. My dad has been a baseball fan for a long time and enjoyed listening to the games on the radio, watching them on TV, playing the sport at school and with friends as well as collecting the trading cards (that his parents would later throw in the trash – including cards that became worth lots of money). As he got older got married to my Mom and they had my brother and me, he ended up even taking us to Red games as well as minor league teams like The Columbus Clippers and watched games on TV and even collected Topps cards alongside us. But sadly while it was a fun time bonding with my Dad, I just could not get into baseball and found the game kind of boring and things like comics, horror films and video games more interesting. One thing I will say is that while my Dad is a jock, he never has judged me for not liking sports like he does and even bought me Captain America comics and VHS as well, even horror films like Hellraiser III, when I was a youth. As I've gotten older, my Dad and I watch MMA, boxing and NFL Super Bowl together and have a great time. But back to baseball – when I was a kid, my favorite players were Eric Davis and Barry Larkin, and I can remember trading baseball cards with my neighbor Kelly who was a very cool and sweet person, and going to Bills Baseball Den in Waynesville and Bookie Parlor in Kettering to get cards and packs. It's odd to think that while I barely watched the game, I still spent time and effort collecting cards for sport stars that I knew very little about, but I think that was part of the MLB magic, that it was able to make a strange monster kid like myself want to buy trading cards. Plus I think it came down to trying to fit in with friends and having a good time opening packs with my dad, mom and brother at the kitchen table. This update is for my Dad and friends like Josh Weinberg, Nick Wiget and all the others who love this classic sport and respect all that Pete Rose has done for it. This update will be about Pete Rose, baseball and my ties to this game. So get your ball glove ready and your cap on because we are here till the bottom of the 9th and we are ready to hit a Rotten Ink home-run!
To talk about Pete Rose we must first talk about The Cincinnati Reds, and I am going to do my best to get the facts right and give that ball team the respect it deserves in a quick yet fun manner, so here's a crash course on the history of the Reds! In 1869 a baseball team called the Cincinnati Red Stockings was the team that would morph into the Reds and did so in 1881 and became a American Association team in 1882. In 1890, they joined the National League and became a true pro baseball team. The team has won five World Series in the years 1919, 1940, 1975, 1976 and 1990 and have played in many home town ballparks like Crosley Field, Riverfront Stadium and Great America Ball Park they currently call home. In 1970-1976 under the manager George "Sparky" Anderson, the team went under the nickname The Big Red Machine and had lots of big name ballplayers on the team the included Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver and Lee May to name a few. The team won two World Series and it became one of the biggest most popular times for the team in it's rich history. Another big time for the Reds was in 1990 when they went wire to wire and won the World Series with players like Barry Larkin, Eric Davis, Chris Sabo, Paul O'Neill and the pitching team nicknamed "The Nasty Boys" who were Rob Dibble, Norman Charlton and Randy Myers. This team was managed by Lou Piniella. The Reds are still going strong in 2015, and while they have made it to the play-offs many times over the past few years, they have not been able to make it to the World Series, but if you ask guys like Josh Weinberg they will tell you that this year is the year they will take it all and if not, the next year or maybe the next year…yeah, you get the point. Fans of the Reds are very loyal and have tons of respect for their team even if they do lose. So while this team has such a rich and amazing history, this tiny write up is just some of the highlights. If you want to learn more about The Reds, check out the team's Wikipedia or read a book based on the ball club. I should also note that the team's mascot is Mr. Redlegs who is a baseball headed ball player. For most of his time on the team Mr. Redlegs rocked a mustache, but when I was younger he had none and was a pretty popular mascot at school in Waynesville. Over all while I might not be a big watcher of sports, I can still respect and cheer for our home state teams and hope that sometime very soon The Reds once more become champs!
I am by no means an athlete. When I was younger, I was okay at playing football and basketball, but I could have been the worst of the worst when it came to neighborhood baseball and could have had the worst batting average among my friends! One summer my dad bought us a wiffleball bat and ball. We would play in the backyard, and it would almost always be me and my brother against our parents in a battle of home-runs hit over the roof of the house; we lost almost all the games. In the neighborhood, we would play baseball at Brad Burns' or Mike Cessna's house, and I can remember that being a lot of fun as all the kids from around would come and play, and even Mike's dog Barney would join in on the fun! At my grandparents' house I would play ball with my brother Bryan and cousins Nathan, Stephen and Tony. While some times this was pitching, most of the time it was T-Ball. In school, we played baseball in gym, and I can remember one time we where playing outside and I so wanted to impress the girl I had a crush on my whole tenure in Waynesville and was hit in the head with softball from a pitch thrown by Ryan "The Bull" Jones. The impact made me blackout for a second and I fell to one knee, but I was lucky and was able to shake it off! I should have probably gone to the nurse after it, and for months after I had massive headaches that would come and go, but that didn't bother me as much as the fact I looked foolish in front of her! So as you can see my baseball "career" was very lame and filled with defeat and heartbreak!
So at this time I think I am going to ask one of my best friends and one of the biggest Reds fans I know, Josh Weinberg, 5 questions about his love and respect for the Reds. I have known Josh for so many years now and from the first day I met him, he has always worn Cincinnati Reds and Bengals shirts, hats and jerseys as well as Ohio State gear so when writing about Pete Rose I knew I had to have my pal involved. I mean he is the guy who bought VHS tapes from a Goodwill Outlet that had the Reds winning the 1990 World Series. So here we go, 5 Questions with Josh Weinberg!
Me: Welcome back, Josh, to Rotten Ink. You are a legend among my friends I write about here on my slice of the web. So how long have you been a Cincinnati Reds fan?
Josh: I have been a Reds fan since 1990, the year that they swept the Oakland A's in the World Series. Ever since then I was hooked. I remember being at my dad's shop listening to the games.
Me: Always cool to hear how sports brought families together. Who are your 4 top favorite players for the Reds of all time?
Josh: My top 4 Reds players of all time are simple number 1.) Barry Larkin 2.) Chris Sabo 3.) Jose Rio and (4 Sean Casey.
Me: Barry Larkin and Eric Davis would be two of my favorites too. Did you every play baseball for school or Little League? If not, have you ever thought about it?
Josh: I played little league growing up as well as umpiring for kids' leagues. I had to stop because I could not keep up my grades. Such is life.
Me: Those pesky grades and school standing in your way of being a baseball legend! So how many Reds games have you been to in your lifetime thus far?
Josh: I have probably been to between 20 and 30 games in my lifetime. With many more to come. My ultimate is going to opening day.
Me: That's way more games then I have been to. If I am lucky, I think I have been to 4 or 5. Last question for you Josh, should Pete Rose be in the Baseball Hall Of Fame, and why or why not?
Josh: Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame for one single reason: the hall is about what you did on the field not what you did off the field. He is the hit king, Charley Hustle, and deserves to be in the hall. There are plenty of things other players have done back in the day and are in now. If he had not lied about it, he would be in.
Me: I agree Pete should be in for all he has done for the sport! Thanks Josh! Do you have any closing words for the Rotten Ink readers and fans of the Reds?
Josh: Last thing I have to say is Go Reds! One of these days they will win it all again…hopefully before I die!
While I don't think they will do much this 2015 season, sometime soon I am sure the Reds will rise to be champs again!
Pete Rose has also been involved in another sport, Pro Wrestling, where he had a feud with the Big Red Machine Kane that spanned a few WWE WrestleMania's as well as earned Rose a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame! Pete Rose at WrestleMania XIV was the guest ring announcer for a match between The Undertaker and Kane and for some reason became the target of Kane who gave the ball player a tombstone pile driver before the match even started. The following year at WrestleMania XV, Pete Rose wanted revenge on Kane and dressed as the San Diego Chicken to attack the wrestler from behind. This did not work as once more Rose was knocked out with a tombstone pile driver, and Kane went on to wrestle his match against Triple H. At WrestleMania 2000, Pete Rose once more tried to get the upper hand on Kane and after his tag match against DX, Rose tried to hit Kane with a baseball bat but was choked slammed! After this, Rose did a commercial for WWE No Mercy PPV and was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame by Kane in 2004. Pete Rose in 2010 was a guest host of Monday Night Raw and set a match between Kane and Shawn Michaels, after Kane lost he once more attacked the aging ball player. After this appearance, Rose has been mentioned on air as well as did an interview for WWE.COM on Kane's attacks on him. While Pete Rose never wrestled a match for WWE, during his appearance he made some great moments in wrestling and it was nice to see a baseball player of his caliber not take himself too seriously.
So from the ball field to the wrestling ring, Pete Rose has proven time and time again that the man is a legend and is a very interesting person who has worked for his fame the hard way by given 110% every time. He has also proven that he is a marketing machine as his image has graced the likes of RC Cola cans, collector drinking glasses even one from Gold Star Chili, action figures from the Starting Line-Up a series made by Kenner & Hasbro, comic books, trading cards, collector coins, video game for Atari 2600/7800, TV Commercials, t-shirts among many other products and goods! The ones I remember the most are the video game for Atari 2600 that was a solid cheesy baseball game and the Starting Line Up figures that looked nothing like him and had very little articulation. But if you were a Rose fan, the world is filled with enough collector items to keep you very happy!
As I have stated before, I am a Monster Guy who loves comic books and this year (2015) I have gone through a stage where I am reading lots of 70's, 80's and early 90's Spider-Man comics. I am talking Amazing, Spectacular and Web Of and have gotten issues all over from Mavericks all the way to Lone Star Comics and many of the issues are coming bag and boarded to protect and keep the issue safe. Well one of the WORST places that bag and board their issues has to be Half Price Books as they clearly use the cheapest bags and boards and some of the worst tape in comic collecting history! When trying to open your comic the tape sticks to the plastic bag and rips holes in the bag and can even bend your comic as you try to get it open. This has caused many annoying late night readings of Spidey and lots of curses toward these cheap bags. Also when writing this update, I was listening to Billy Idol's 2014 release "Kings & Queens Of The Underground." It's a pretty solid album. While it's by no means a classic, I still am glad that Billy is making music as he has been one of my favorite music artists sense I was a kid alongside Alice Cooper, Motley Cure, W.A.S.P. and Cinderella. In fact one of the best birthday presents in my adult life that I ever got was from Juliet as she got us close seats to Billy Idol at Fraze Pavilion in Kettering in 2010! The best tracks off this CD are the title track Kings & Queens Of The Underground and Eyes Wide Shut. The odd part about this disc is that almost all of the songs are ballads and not the fist pumping tracks one would expect from Billy Idol. So a special thanks goes to Marvel Comics for Spider-Man and Billy Idol for helping me while writing this update. I should also thank The Angry Video Game Nerd as I had episodes playing on the TV while I wrote and Billy Idol's CD was done. So I think it would be safe to say that Idol and AVGN acted as the soundtrack to this update and Spider-Man entertained my mind before I went to bed almost every night.
It's Masstar Comics turn at bat, and I can't wait to see what this bio Comic is like. I am wondering what direction they will take with his suspension from the sport and what kind of stories off the field they will share. I have never heard of Masstar Comics, and this will be my first read for one of their comics so this should be interesting. I want to thank a vendor at Peddlers' Mall for having this comic at their booth as well as thank Jason Young for taking me there to look around. Oddly during our time at the Peddlers' Mall, Jason and I found lots of Pete Rose merchandise and after that Mavericks even ended up putting out boxes of Rose's ball cards, making me think that it was my calling to do this update. I should also remind you that I grade these issues on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, it's entertainment value and it's art and story. So let's see if Masstar can slide into homebase as they team up with Pete Rose and Rotten Ink to bring you this fun read at the ballpark, oh and um can I get some peanuts and a hotdog…and maybe one of those foam oversized hats?
Pete Rose # 1 **1/2
Released in 1992 Cover Price $2.50 Masstar Comic # 1 of 1
Pete Rose or Pee Wee as his father called him was a young man who grew up in Ohio and was a fan of sports with baseball being his passion with football coming in second. His mother and father encouraged him to try harder at everything he did and thanks to his Uncle who was a baseball talent scout he was able to get a tryout for the Cincinnati Reds in 1960 by being put into the minor leagues and he once more busted his butt in order to impress the scouts and to get better at the game he loved. As he became better and better he finally catches the eye of Reds couch Freddie Hutchinson who hires him as second base man and allows him to prove that he has heart, but this upsets the older players who act as if Pete is not even alive and his only friends on the team are Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson who as well were ignored by teammates cause the color of their skin. Rose was not a super star from the start but season after season he became better and better and even turned up the intensity in the way he played and would go on to win the MVP Award for the year 1973 and in 1975 and 1976 he helped lead them to World Series wins. In 1979 Pete Rose turned down a contract from The Reds and took one from the Philadelphia Phillies and had some solid good seasons with them. Rose returned to The Reds in 1984 after a short time with the Montreal Expos and back with the Reds he broke hitting records and even became the teams Manager. While things looked great for Rose in 1989 it all came crashing down as he was accused of illegally betting on baseball games and the MLB Commissioner banished him from the game he loved.
Pete Rose is a ball player that is beloved by fans and has a mixed reaction from players and higher ups within the MLB all for his gambling issue. But this comic does a great job of making Rose a likable underdog who proved that hard work and support from your loved ones can make you a superstar of whatever your profession is. This bio comic follows Pete Rose from a youngster playing ball with his friends all the way to playing for the Reds coaching them and being banned from the game that he loves. The plus side to this comic is that the story is very fast paced and highlights all the major events in his life without dragging along, but the downside is the fact most major events are done in a couple of panels and don't show much of his friendships nor rivalries with his fellow Reds and that's a letdown. It was interesting to see why Rose left the Reds to play for Philadelphia and even more so how when he first joined the team all the older players didn't like him so they ignored him and treated him like he was a ghost. The comic ends with Rose being suspended from baseball and leaves it making it look like he never bet on baseball when in fact he did and lied about it for years. The cover is pretty eye catching and shows Rose through the years as the art inside is pretty well done and makes Rose look like he should and is done by John Tartaglione who you can tell had fun drawing this comic. Over all this was a fun Unauthorized Bio comic on an iconic baseball player and was well worth the read and purchase. Check out the art below done by Tartaglione.
We made it to home base and scored the winning point thanks to Pete Rose and Masstar Comics, and along the way I found a new respect for baseball and now understand the appeal it has for all its fans, as it's a sport that is filled with a rich history and gives people pride in their favorite team and something to talk about around the water cooler at work. While I may or may not ever go see a Reds game again at the stadium I still have the good memories of going to them with my Dad, brother Bryan and my dad's best friend John in my youth. Well our next update is going to take us out of the ball field and into the world of self-defense as I am going to take a look at an Atlas Comic based around the secret world of the martial arts called The Hands Of The Dragon! So make sure to come back for that one but until then enjoy the summer and read a comic or three.
Posted in Comics, Masstar Comic	| Tagged 14, 2nd Base, America's Pastime, Angry Video Game Nerd, Ball, Ball Game, Barry Larkin, Baseball, Baseball Cards, Baseball Hall Of Fame, Bat, Billy Idol, Brad Burns, Bryan Brassfield, Charlie Hustle, Chris Sabo, Cincinnati Reds, Comics, Dad Brassfield, Eric Davis, George "Sparky" Anderson, Great American Ball Park, Hasbro, Hot Dog, Jason Young, Joe Morgan, John Tartaglione, Johnny Bench, Josh Weinberg, Kane, Kenner, Kings & Queens Of The Underground, Lee May, Lou Piniella, Major League Baseball, Masstar Comics, Matt Brassfield, Mike Cessna, MLB, Mom Brassfield, Mr. Redlegs, MVP, Norman Charlton, Paul O'Neill, Peddler's Mall, Pete Rose, Peter Edward Rose, Pro Wrestling, Randy Myers, Riverfront Stadium, Rob Dibble, Spider-Man, Sports, Starting Lineup, Summer, The Nasty Boys, Tom Seaver, Tony Perez, Topps, Trading Cards, Waynesville, World Series, WWE, WWE Hall Of Fame	| 2 Replies
Return Of The Living Monster Bash Vacation (2015)
Juliet and I headed back to Mars to once more attend the Monster Bash Convention for another adventure filled with monster movies, podcasts and landmarks from George Romero zombie films! This time around we started our quest on Saturday June 20th missing a day of Monster Bash due to her work having a big event on Friday. I can't tell you how much I look forward to these vacations in Pittsburgh and Monster Bash all year long. It's always a fun time hanging out with Juliet with no work worries and knowing that I have time to relax and spend time with all the things I love: my gal and horror films! This year's theme was The Mummy as one of the guests was Ron Chaney, grandson of Lon Chaney Jr. who played the Mummy Kharis for Universal in the films The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost and The Mummy's Curse not to mention he played a Mummy in Face of the Screaming Werewolf! Valerie Leon who was in Hammer's Blood From The Mummy's Tomb was also a guest along with Liesl Ehardt who is an actress who's second cousin is Zita Johann who played Helen Grosvenor in Universal's 1932 shocker The Mummy! Other guests included Conrad Brooks from Plan 9 From Outer Space and other Ed Wood films, Tom Savini the master of gore FX, composer Kevin Slick, The Blob – yep the movie prop that was the jelly alien, Vincent Price's daughter Victoria Price and Night of the Living Dead alumni John Russo, George Kosana and Chilly Billy Cardille who also was a long time horror host in Pittsburgh as he hosted the show Chiller Theatre and is also the father of Laurie Cardille who played Sara in Romero's Day of the Dead. Other horror hosts who attended were Son of Ghoul, Mr. Lobo, The Patient Creatures and the cast of Ghoul A Go-Go! And I must not forget the no budget film maker David "The Rock" Nelson among many other book writers, historians and comedy tribute groups. So pack a bag and come along on our journey as we return to Monster Bash!
Friday (June 20th 2015) before the trip I worked a full shift at work, and Juliet put in a super long day working her job as they had a big station reunion party going on. After work, my cousin Stephen Alexander II and one of my best friends Josh Weinberg got some chicken wings from Frickers and headed to my parents house where we watched Bellator MMA 138 with my dad. The event was a fun one as we all took sides on who was going to win the main event fight between Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice. My dad and Stephen had Kimbo, while Josh and I picked Shamrock. They won as Ken was knocked out in the first round just over two minutes into the fight. While Ken put up a good fight, the stone hands of Kimbo were just too heavy for him. Juliet picked me up a little later, and when we got home, she went to bed and I decided to stay up and pop in a DVD of The Toxic Avenger Part II and have a Troma good time as I drifted into slumber. I was a little bummed we missed the first day of Monster Bash but was really looking forward to the next day's trip and the official start of my vacation! Plus spending time with my Dad as well as Josh and Stephen was a really good time and helped wash away the missing the convention's first day blues.
So bright and early on Saturday June 21st 2015 Juliet and I hit the road to start our trip to Monsterbash. The sky was grey and lots of rain fell from the sky as we made a quick stop to Ghostlight Coffee before setting out on this epic fun trip. My drink of choice was an Italian soda as I felt the need to have a rush of sugar as we left very early in the morning. The first thing we listened to was the first chapter of an audio book called "Marvel Comics The Untold Story" written by Sean Howe and read by Stephen Hoye. This was fantastic as Juliet and I enjoyed the look at the early days of Marvel and how Stan Lee got his job with the company and rose to power. I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but old school comic fans should check this out as it's very enjoyable and shows just how much of a goofball Lee is! We then listened to The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana as he spoke with one of the best big men in the business Vader! While I wished Vader would have spoken more about his time with WWE and WCW, it was still nice to hear him talk about his career in Japan. After Art of Wrestling we listened to the second chapter of Marvel Comics The Untold Story, and Juliet and I had a fun time talking about the stories we heard about comic legends like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Wally Wood. We ate lunch at Max & Ermas and talked about comics and what this trip has in store for us. That's one fun thing I really enjoy, talking comics with Juliet as I think her love for the funny books burns as bright as mine. The drive up was smooth minus the rain and the countryside of hills, cows and horses is pleasing on the eyes and makes me miss growing up in a small town. But let's get to the Bash and all the wonders the first day of this convention had in store for us.
On the first day of Monster Bash I was hyped to relax with classic monsters and to see what statues they had set up this year as I figured the theme would have to have a Mummy. I was right as they had one that looked like Lon Chaney's Kharis character and it was fantastic. They also had one of a female ghost, Forest J. Ackerman as the Frankenstein Monster, Boris Karloff from the film The Raven and the show stealer was the Christopher Lee Dracula, a touching tribute to the late actor. These statues rank among the highlights of the con for me as I always look forward to what they will be from year to year. While walking around, we saw lots of friendly faces and many of the guests like Tom Savini and Chilly Billy seemed in great moods as they spoke to fans. I got so hyped when we found The Blob as it was open and on display and they were allowing people to take pictures of it! I was second in line and after the guy in front of me who took forever to take his picture, I was able to set up my shot and take a picture of one of the worlds greatest monsters from outer space! We shopped and had a good time just looking at all the cool things that vendors had for sale. One thing I really wanted was an action figure of Paul Naschy as the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, but the $100.00 price tag scared me away from it. I saw horror hosts Mr. Lobo and Gruesome Graves wandering around, and while I wanted to chat with them, they both were busy and I didn't want to be that guy who interrupts a conversation. I had a great time walking around for a while, and once we were done for they day Juliet and I headed back to the hotel to relax and plan dinner and the next days' plans.
This first night's dinner had to come from the great Eat'N Park as I truly think whenever Juliet and I are in this area, we have to have this cool diner's food. This night I felt like an old man as I ordered the liver and onions with mashed potatoes and gravy as well as garden rice. For some reason I get cravings for liver…maybe I have an iron deficiency or maybe I was just getting into the mood of zombies, I mean I am in Pittsburgh. My meal came with a roll that was almost like a sticky cinnamon bun and a sugar cookie that still reminds me of the old Monster Candy sticks. Juliet had a buffalo chicken wrap and a chocolate pretzel cookie, and as always we enjoyed the food and had a good time hanging out and chatting. Yeah, I know lots of you are sick of friends posting pictures of food on their Facebook, Blog or Instagram so I will say sorry ahead of time as this blog will have a few of these sections.
So I am sure your wondering what the first day goodies had in store for me. Well, it was a pretty good shopping day as I was able to find some cool stuff from VHS to comics! I got a VHS of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 hosting the film I Accuse My Parents for $5.00 as well as a MST3K Magnet for $3.25 that showcases Joel and the bots! I got The Tomb Of Dracula issues 39, 51, 52, 56 as well as the My Name Is Bruce one shot comic all for $10.00! I also picked up a comic based on the cheesy kids' horror film The Willies for $5.00 as well as a comic based on the Van Damme film Cyborg for only a $1.00, both comics I never even knew they existed. Look for both of these on a future Rotten Ink update! I also found the Mondo Macabro DVD of Mystics In Bali for $10.00, as well as DVDs for $10.00 each of Horror Hostess Vampira on the George Cobel Show from 1955, Elvira Mistress of the Dark hosting MTV and Weird Al hosting the 1984 ABC Saturday Morning Preview Pack. I got a DVD of the Son of Ghoul hosting Dick Tracy for $20.00 and the Marvel Comic of Man-Thing # 5 for $7.00! All the stuff for the first day was pretty cool but I think I am most hyped for The Willies comic as I look forward to reading it and sharing my thoughts here on Rotten Ink!
Sunday June 22nd 2015 was our second and last day of Monster Bash, and we began our morning eating a hearty breakfast from Einstein Bros. As I ate my sausage, egg and cheese sandwich I popped in the DVD of Son of Ghoul hosting Dick Tracy and had a few chuckles. As I finished up my meal, we headed down to the convention! Today they had a specialty car out front, a weird Ghostbusters car that looked nothing like the Ecto-One but at least the people who made the car were getting into the spirit of fun monsters as they wore the busting suits and had big smiles on their faces. This morning was a little slow but made it so much easier to look at all the vendor tables and go shopping. As we walked around we saw no budget filmmaker David "The Rock" Nelson filming himself holding his giant toy rubber ant he calls The Devil Ant attacking The Blob. This put a huge smile on both my and Juliet's face as this was the first time she got to see the man work the crowd. I was going to buy some more shows from The Son of Ghoul but sadly he was not at his table. I looked around for Gruesome Graves but could not find him, but shopping was a lot of fun and just the vibe of this convention is so good as fans talk to each other and almost everyone seems happy! I will say that the rooms this year were a little hot, and I am sure both celebrities and vendors felt at times like they were being steamed like vegetables as it was muggy. After shopping for about two hours, we headed back to the room for a bit to relax and chat about what the rest of the day would hold, as well as watched some TV. We traveled back to Monster Bash for a while and then decided to hit to road and see what was around our location. I must say I really love Monster Bash, and this is one of my favorite conventions to go to every year and I look forward to coming back next year! This year the vendors seemed to be very heavy on DVD, Blu-Ray and posters, and while some places had comics and toys they were not as all stocked, really bummer was the lack of old horror host shows as I was really looking forward to finding old shows of Morgus, Chilly Billy and Sammy Terry but didn't even find a one, but here is hoping I will next year.
The last day of the convention I found a few good treasures as I loaded up on comics and DVDs! On this day I was able to find many Marvel Comics I needed for my collection that included Incredible Hulk # 205 for $5.00, Son of Satan # 6 for $4.00, Master of Kung Fu # 46 for $3.00 and Frankenstein Monster # 17 for only $2.00! I also got a full set of Ultraman comics for $5.00. This is one set that should be a fun read and make for a great update sometime in the future. I got the low budget film Tales Of Dracula for $10.00 and this one peaked my interests as it has not only has Count Dracula in it but also a werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster and it's said to be a tribute of the Universal Horror Pictures. I also found the Paul Naschy flick Werewolf in The Amazon for $15.00, I can never pass on a Naschy film I have not seen! I then also picked up two DVD's of Horror Host Mr. Lobo and his show Cinema Insomnia; one was his Haunted House Special and for the other he hosted the cheesy classic The Atomic Brain and they were $15.00 each. The one from this batch I am most hyped for is watching Mr.Lobo host Atomic Brain as I am sure it will be a fun late night watch.
For lunch, Juliet and I drove around for a little while and found the locations of some areas that we want to visit in the coming days. We decided to eat lunch at Moe's once again, and I can't say enough about how much I enjoy this burrito place and how I miss it being around the Dayton area. While Hothead is good, I still would rather eat Moe's. I had a steak burrito, and it was fantastic as the steak was cooked to perfection and it had an amazing flavor and the chips and queso added to the very good meal. One thing me and Juliet noticed and laughed about is that every woman in there and working was attractive and lovely in their own way, must be in the water we teased. We then went to Target to get bottled water and some snacks and found that the target was even amazing and had a big selection of music, movies and books and every person we came across seemed happy and friendly, making me really love this town! We came back to the hotel and I worked on this update as Juliet played iPad games and read her book. All the while we had Bar Rescue on the TV for background noise. I also read The Incredible Hulk # 205 and found it to be a very great issue. We decided that tonight we were going to watch a movie and eat some local chicken wings, but we will get to that later.
We decided that we wanted to have wings for dinner, and we picked a place called Wing Kings, a local restaurant to order from. We tried to order the food at 7:30 and the phone was busy for several minutes as we tried to call in our order. So Juliet decided at 8pm to just drive to it and order, and she found out the place was closed, and oddly enough it seemed they closed way early as they were suppose to be open till 9pm. For a place voted Best Wings in the Cranberry Journal, this was not a good first impression for us! So we decided on Buffalo Wild Wings instead as they were open and were happy to take our order and money. The food was good, and after eating the relaxing was re-refreshing and helped charge my brain battery that was running low. I also felt the creative bug back inside my soul and many ideas for Baron Von Porkchop episodes as well as comic book issues filled my mind. Over all this second day was a fun one and being around Juliet is always a blast, the only major strike out was Wing Kings failing to rule the last day of Monster Bash.
Monday June 23rd 2015 we started our day off going to the Cranberry Cinema, a locally owned theater to see Jurassic World, and when walking into this theater I was amazed and fell in love with it just by entering the lobby. When we ordered our tickets from the friendly staff and ordered our drinks, they gave us two free small popcorns..yeah what theater in Dayton offers that? When entering the theater they had classic red seats and the atmosphere was top notch and was super clean, and it shows the owners and employees care about this place. The other cool part of the theater is that it had multiple screens and the hallways were filled with upcoming posters for movies as well as cardboard cutouts. Over all this could be my favorite independent movie theater chain as it was an amazing experience that Juliet and I both enjoyed, and next year we will definitely be back to see a movie. Our next stop was New Dimension Comics, a very cool comic shop that is right down the street from our hotel, and just like Cranberry Cinema this comic shop impressed me big time. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by both friendly workers. I noticed many long boxes of old comics for $3.00 each, and I was in Rotten Ink Heaven as I flipped through many comics and finding gems from Marvel, Dell and Gold Key, it was like a overload of superheroes. After buying tons of issues I started to get light headed and we ate something small at Burger King and went back to the Hotel so that I could take a nap. But man I am very impressed with Cranberry Cinema and New Dimension Comics as both of them helped add a layer of greatness to this vacation this year.
On Tuesday June 24th 2015 we started our day by eating another breakfast from Einstein Bros. This time I tried the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, and then we decided it was time to visit the Evans City Cemetery as the weather outside was cloudy and rain was on its way as it was near 80 degrees. When we got to the cemetery we were the only people there as we pulled to the very back and got out to walk around. The sky was grey with thunder echoing off from the distance as sounds of birds, frogs and insects filled the air that smelled like fresh rain. As I walked around I kept thinking about how George Romero and his crew made horror film history in the very spots I was walking around. I thought about Bill Hinzman as the Cemetery Zombie shuffling around trying to capture Judieth O'Deh, and this was inspiring to a one time no budget filmmaker like myself to know that if your heart is into your project you can make some fine horror art. The walk around was super pleasant and the view from the cemetery of trees and farmland was stunning and really made you feel that if indeed the undead would rise it would take you some time to get to shelter. After walking for some time we drove up to the old chapel and peeked inside to see a bare floor with some rotten spots. As we left, I felt like Evans City Cemetery is a place that I would love to be laid to rest in and that any aspiring horror filmmaker should visit this location and just walk around for awhile and allow the peaceful atmosphere inspire you. After we left we stopped back by New Dimension Comics, and I picked up a few more $3.00 Marvel horror comic issues, and we stopped to eat at Moe's once more. During this time there was also a major thunderstorm with flash floods, downpours and lots of lightning so we headed back to the hotel for a bit.
Later in the day Juliet and I traveled to Portersville to a place called The Snowman, a shaved ice parlor that is a giant fiberglass snowman! We learned about this place thanks to Cranberry Cinema as a commercial for it aired during First Look, and we both knew we had to check it out as the said they had a milkshake called The Yeti. The place was about 22 minutes away from our hotel and upon arriving at this roadside attraction it was really cool to find that The Snow Man was in the middle of a farm and surrounded by land with three horses behind fences eating. The place was not super packed but a mother and her kids seemed to be enjoying the treats, and the weather that was now in the lower 80's and sunny. Juliet ordered some shaved ice in the flavor of yellow cake batter, and I got a Yeti Shake that was blue raspberry shaved ice mixed with vanilla ice cream with whip cream and must say it was a very tasty shake. The place was fun to just sit at one of the tables watching the horses and soaking up the farmland around you. Juliet, before we left, went and got t-shirts of the Yeti character, and we both left that place very happy and will go back again when we come to town. On the drive back we found an NPR station with the same frequency 91.3 as WYSO that was called WYEP that sparked fun talk of radio and music in general. As we headed back to the hotel we decided that tonight we would have a movie night in the room and give Wing Kings one last chance not to be closed and be a no show for this year's vacation. Below are some pics of The Snow Man and all that is in its flurry embrace.
So that night we selected Werewolf In The Amazon as we are both fans of the work of Paul Naschy and Wing Kings was open and we placed an order. Juliet got Garlic Parmesan wings and I got just Garlic wings, and we shared some gravy fries. The food was pretty good; the wings had a nice garlic butter taste mixed with a crisp tasting wing, the fries were good but I was not a fan of the gravy. Over all they were a good wing place that had some tasty food for a night of watching a horror flick on our laptop. The film Werewolf in the Amazon on the other hand was pretty cheesy and bad, and it was clear it was made at the tail end of Naschy's career and whoever made it had a good idea but could not put it together to make sense. The film takes place in the Amazon and follows a group of friends who take a trip into the jungle. There is also a werewolf, Amazon warriors and Dr. Moreau…yes, that Moreau, and in the end it's no real shock as to who the werewolf is and who survives the night of terror. This film was really lame, and it's only highlights were Paul Naschy playing Dr. Moreau and the women who are easy on the eyes. The print of the movie was terrible and looked as if it was downloaded off the internet back in the mid 90's and the source was a VHS tape that sat in a car for a week during the summer. After the film we watched WWE Tough Enough on USA Network and planned out next day of vacation.
On Wednesday June 25th 2015 we started our morning by putting on the TV, and as we got ready on HBO 2 Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong was on. I felt it was a fitting end for our stay at this hotel as this extra long weekend was all about Monster Bash and that giant gorilla was a perfect send off. We then decided to go to the heart of Mars so that Juliet could get a cup of coffee from Mars Brew House, and when entering the coffee house I was impressed on how welcoming it was with its tables and chairs as well as a living room area with artwork on the walls. The man working the counter was really nice and gave me a small sample of a frozen coffee that was really tasty! We walked around the small town as she sipped on her cup of joe and we chatted about how cool this small town was, as well as checked out the new aliens in some of the business' windows. We had two hours to fill before one of our top attractions of this years trip opened so we decided to go back to Evans City Cemetery for a while. We listened to more chapters of Marvel Comics The Untold Story and then headed to TCBY Yogurt and enjoyed a frozen treat. I had cookies and cream yogurt with whip cream, sprinkles and hot fudge, it was really good. Then we headed to downtown Evans City for what I would say is the main event of this vacation, something that was really the cherry on this fun and amazing vacation with my # 1 girl!
The Living Dead Museum and Gift Shop is in downtown Evans City and is a business that will catch the eye of any monster kid as the front of the store as a sign with zombie eyes in a dead stare and the windows have fake boards on them to keep out the dead. When we first planned this vacation, besides Monster Bash and the Cemetery, this was on our have to do list. When we first tried to visit it on Monday we found out that it was closed for the day and would open up at noon on Wednesday so we knew before we left that this was our last stop before we made the long trip back to Dayton, and I can 100% say I am glad we did! We came in right as it opened and was greeted by a worker who was super friendly and as she went about her business of opening duties me and Juliet walked around the gift shop looking at t-shirts, comics, toys, cards and DVDs of all thing zombies! I was really drawn in by the T-shirts and bought myself a Return of The Living Dead shirt and got my cousin Stephen a shirt that said Pittsburgh Zombie Capital of the World and while checking out we bought two tickets to the museum, only $3.00 a ticket and I must first start off saying that it was well worth every penny and more! To enter you had to drop the ticket into a booth that housed a zombie who was your gate keeper to the world of the undead. The museum had a screening room as you walked in that was playing a documentary on the making of Night of The Living Dead as you moved deeper the area was plastered with stills, papers and information on Night as well as a statue of the Cemetery Zombie. That was just the beginning as many more zombie films are covered as is a history of zombies in pop culture. The area also had a wall of bloody hand prints that were made and signed by actors in Romero zombie films as well as so much more statues and props used in films like Dawn of The Dead and Day of The Dead. Some of the highlight statues included the cover zombie to Fulci's Zombi 2 and Tor Johnson as the zombie from Plan 9 From Outer Space. I don't want to spoil too much of what treasurers or is that horrors await you when entering The Living Dead as I think if your a fan of Night Of The Living Dead you should do yourself a favor and check out this cool and amazing store and museum. After leaving this amazingly fun Museum we hit the road for home and so ended one heck of a fun time with Juliet and for this year. I say bye to Mars and Cranberry Pennsylvania, but I know that next year I will see you again. Below is some pictures from The Living Dead with one being the cool as hell Cemetery Zombie statue. And I guess as this is Rotten Ink we really should take a look at our comic based on Night of The Living Dead and the people who made horror movie history.
George A. Romero was born in February 4th 1940 in New York and was brought up in the Bronx. His father was a commercial artist and this helped push him to graduate from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and start doing his own short films as well as commercials in and around the Pittburgh area including a segment for the popular kids show Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Doing this helped inspire him to get into the horror film industry and he along with friends opened Ten Productions and in 1968 he directed and co-wrote with John A. Russo one of the most influential zombie horror film of the modern times with "Night Of The Living Dead" and this cult classic pushed Romero as a household name for horror film fans and monster kids of the 60's. Many films followed in the early 70's like romantic comedy "There's Always Vanilla", witchcraft thriller "Season Of The Witch" , bio-nightmare film "The Crazies" and vampire arthouse fright flick "Martin." While these films did okay, his next huge hit came in 1978 with his sequel to Night of the Living Dead with the mall zombie romp "Dawn Of The Dead". His next two films he made were the apocalyptic motorcycle knight film "Knightriders" and the anthology Stephen King team up film "Creepshow," and then in 1985 he made the third in his zombie films and my all time favorite "Day of The Dead" that follows a group stuck underground as the world above belongs to the dead. Many more films followed including "Monkey Shines", "Two Evil Eyes", "Dark Half" and "Bruiser." He also wrote films like "Tales From The Darkside: The Movie", "Creepshow 2" and "Night of The Living Dead," a remake directed by Tom Savani. In 2005 Romero returned to the world of zombies and wrote and directed "Land Of The Dead" and other zombie films followed like "Diary Of The Dead" and "Survival Of The Dead" and while he has slowed down he still is active and even traveling the horror convention scene. I really hope that some time soon Romero returns to the world of the undead and makes a film that has the blood, guts and raw energy of his zombie films of the past. George even in 2015 is working on a comic series called Empire Of The Dead for Marvel and here is hoping that he continues to make groundbreaking entertainment as to me he is one of the best do it yourself filmmakers of all time. This update is in honor of you George and all you have done to entertain us all.
I can remember the first time I saw Night of the Living Dead was when I was a young kid and it was playing on local TV. I lived in Waynesville and my brother Bryan and I were both hyped on watching as the station ran all types of promos for its showing making this monster kid more and more excited to view it. While our parents watched TV in the living room, we plopped into their bedroom with a small bowl of popcorn and watched a film that changed my life as for the first time I had a little bit of fear run down my spine of watching a black and white shocker. The horrors of watching as zombies ate the flesh of characters Tom and Judy who were much like every day people was shocking to me. At this point most of the horror films I had seen were aired on Commander USA's Groovie Movies, Grandpa Munster's Super Scary Saturday and classic Monster movies from Universal on VHS, and while people died in those movies and many of them had killers and monsters, for some reason that night those zombies did their job and made for a chilling night of TV watching. I can remember the next school day many kids who watched the TV airing of Night of The Living Dead were talking about the scary moments and the slow moving zombies. The film has always had a special place in this monster kid's heart! The first time I owned the film was on a VHS copy that was presented by Blockbuster Video, and later I would go on to buy it on DVD from Elite Entertainment as well as the colorized version on DVD put out by Legend Films, not to mention I have many Horror Hosts episodes of them hosting this classic zombie romp. The film remains a staple that I must watch every year around Halloween. Night of The Living Dead is one of those films much like the Universal Monster films that is a good way to introduce youngsters to the world of Horror cause while its creepy and does have gut munching, its by no means as extreme as say showing them The Walking Dead or even some of those made for TV horror films that air on SYFY. For me, Night of the Living Dead is a must see for any true horror fan and is a film that will always have a place in my movie collection.
The Cemetery Zombie played by actor Bill Hinzman is one of the most iconic zombies ever on film and is clearly the grandfather of the undead zombie movie icons. The Cemetery Zombie is the first zombie seen in Night of the Living Dead and is the one to start off our undead nightmare as he is the one who chases Barbra and kills Johnny! Bill would be in many other Romero directed films like The Crazies, Knightriders and There's Always Vanilla. Hinzman would go on to star in many other Horror Films like Legion Of The Night, Santa Claws, Evil Ambitions, The Drunken Dead Guy, Shadow: Dead Riot and River Of Darkness that he stared along side pro wrestlers Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle and Psycho Sid! Bill also directed two films; his first one was the 1988 slasher The Majorettes and then in 1988 he directed and starred as the main killer zombie in Flesheater. Not only was Hinzman an actor and director, he has also produced and written films showing that he was a man of many talents and loved the art of making movies. I had met Bill Hinzman many times during my convention traveling days and he was a staple at Cinema Wasteland. But during Scary Camp, the Dayton Horror Convention put on by A. Ghastlee Ghoul, is when I really got to chat and work with Hinzman who acted in a TV show that my brother was working on called Josh vs. that would have had my close friend Josh Weinberg going up against celebrities in goofy events like 20 yard dashes and paper, rock, scissors and Bill Hinzman in complete Cemetery Zombie makeup gave his prediction on who was going to win between Josh and Sid Haig in a staring contest! I was asked to not only get him on board but also was the one to film and direct him and for sure it was one of the highlights of that weekend. Sadly Bill Hinzman passed away in 2012 at the age of 75 from cancer. I just wanted to take my time here and show respect to Mr. Bill Hinzman who was a great person and gave so much to the world of horror. He is truly missed.
So now that we have talked a little about the film and the people who made it, I think it's time that we travel to Evans City Cemetery and once more read some Night of The Living Dead comics made by FantaCo this time it will be the film adaptation. So make sure to beat them and burn them as we once more take a look at the living dead in the cemetery that is holy ground for horror film freaks like myself as we spend an evening with the living dead. I want to thank Lone Star Comics as well as Amazon and Ebay for having this comic series in stock and as Johnny says "The Comics Are Coming To Get You Matty" ….wait he didn't say that. Let's just get to the comics.
Night Of The Living Dead # 1 ***1/2
Released in 1991 Cover Price $4.95 FantaCo #1 of 4
Barbra and her brother Johnny are heading out to a grave of their father for their mom at a cemetery out in the middle of nowhere. This seems to get on Johnny's nerves, but his sister who is spooked by the cemetery does it out of respect for her mom. As Johnny starts to tease Barbra about being scared he starts to claim that they dead are coming to get her and to her shock she is attacked by a walking corpse who kills Johnny who tries to come to the aid of his sister as he falls and cracks his head open on a tombstone. Barbra runs for her life as the Cemetery Zombie follows looking to eat this young woman. She finds shelter in an old farm house, and as she hides she also meets Ben who has also came to the farmhouse in a old truck that's low on gas and the barn has a locked gas pump. Ben fights off zombies who are trying to enter the house via open doors as Barbra slowly slips into madness and is overcome by fear. As the issue ends, Ben looks outside and sees a horde of zombies heading toward the house looking for flesh to eat.
This is a good solid movie adaptation of Night of The Living Dead that captures the vibe and feel of the film in this first issue and has a very dark brooding mood being set into place as the zombies seem twisted and the main color used in the comic is black. The story so far is that Barbra goes to a small cemetery where she watches her brother get killed by a zombie. She runs to a nearby farm where she finds the bodies of the homes owners who have been eaten and runs into Ben, a man who arrives in a truck who attacks the zombies and the two strangers in the end must find a way to survive as the zombies are now all around the farm house. Barbra who is timid from the start gets even worse. As the threat gets larger, she becomes hysterical it's clear fear has taken her away from reality. Johnny is a smart ass who gets joy in teasing his sister as well as just being a negative person, but when his sister is in danger he snaps into being a hero and dies trying to save her life. Ben at this point is a man with a plan and that's get the gas pump unlocked and his truck filled with fuel and he is going to try and get Barbra and himself to a safe place and figure out what is going on. He also has no fear as he attacks many zombies with a tire iron and bashes in many undead skulls. The Cemetery Zombie is one hungry and motivated flesh eater who uses rocks to break a car window and gives chase like a slow animal stocking its prey. The rest of the zombies are used to get their brains smashed but as more come they become more and more dangerous and the numbers are in their favor. The creepy and helpless vibe so far in the comic is what made the film a classic one, and the art done by Carlos Kastro is well done for this style of book. So far the comic has only made small changes from the film as the comic opens with a zombie eating a bug and watching Barbra and Johnny driving into the cemetery, and I should note the comic is in black and white and this far while violence is happening it not a blood bath like most modern zombie comics. Reading this near the site of opening scene made this even more special and is helping add to my vacation, looking forward to reading part two.
Night Of The Living Dead # 2 ***
Ben sets a fire outside the door, and the zombies seem afraid of it. He rushes back inside and starts to board up the windows and has to be stern with Barbra to get her to help him look for supplies like wood and nails. Ben, as they get one room safe, tells her about how he got the truck and in a flashback a diner he was at is attacked by the living dead and how he took the truck to get away as he watched the zombies attack and kill people all around him. Barbra comes back to reality and talks about the graveyard visit and how she was attacked by The Cemetery Zombie and how she thinks Johnny might still be alive. She gets frantic and smacks Ben who tries to stop her from opening the front door and he in turn smacks her and knocks her out. Ben places her on a couch and sets another fire out front to scare away the approaching zombies and starts to snoop around and turns on the radio to hear the news broadcasts that are reporting mass homicides around the state as well as the fact the killers are eating parts of the victims. During his snooping he finds shoes for Barbra as well as a gun and bullets. As Barbra comes to Ben puts the shoes on her and heads upstairs to get ride of the bodies of the owners of the house who had been attacked and killed, but finds that one has be reanimated and attacks him! Ben bashes its skull in as Barbra lets out a scream downstairs as people have come out of the cellar!
This second issue is the major set up to the story as many pages are about the radio broadcast that tells the story of mass killings, people being eaten and the world not sure of what or who is to blame. The plot is that Ben and Barbra share how they ended up at the farmhouse with Barbra slipping even deeper into madness, Ben figures out the zombies hate fires and uses it to keep them at bay as he finds supplies. When Ben is attacked and kills a zombie, people from the cellar appear and our issue takes the next step. Ben, who's back story is a little more flushed out, is a hitchhiker who stopped at a little greasy spoon dinner for a meal and reacts when we watches the place catch fire and people start to be killed. He is a very much take charge kind of person as from the start he calls the shots to Barbra and has plans to board up windows and doors to make their new base safe. Barbra is a mass of nerves and not much else her mental breakdown is in full swing and she is more like a scared baby rabbit than a human being. The zombies are becoming a horde of killers all around the farmhouse, and while they might be slow moving, their numbers make them a major threat to any living person. This issue is very downbeat as both our survivors at this point have seen death and things that are driving them close to madness. This is a great issue to set the mood for the rest of this adaptation series. The major changes in this issue show Ben's backstory of the attack at the greasy spoon and also has Ben being attacked by the zombie of the house owner up stairs. The artwork is done by Carlos Kastro again and while I really do like the style I should also point out that the quality does change and sometimes the characters look a little deformed and their features don't let them look like the actors who are playing them. But like the first issue I enjoyed this one and look forward to issue three.
Ben meets Harry Cooper and Tom who have been hiding in the the cellar along with Tom's girlfriend Judy and Harry's wife Helen and his injured young daughter Karen. Ben gets a little annoyed that they did not come up earlier and help him secure the house, and worse Cooper and he are going at it to what is the safest place for them to hide as Harry thinks they should all go to the cellar and Ben thinks they should protect the ground floor of the house. When Ben is attacked by a window that a zombie is able to bust through the boards, it's Tom that comes to his aid as Harry watches and finally goes to the cellar after Judy comes up to help them board up the windows better. When he goes back down Harry and Helen fight over them staying in the cellar and not being near a radio to hear the updates of what to do and when help is on it's way. They decide to go up and help. While upstairs they find a TV and hear a news report for help stations as well as that the dead are coming back and eating the living and they think that it's all connected to a satellite that was shot down when it was coming back to Earth as it was covered with radiation. Ben comes up with a plan to get to the gas pump, and he and Tom get to the truck with the help of a torch as Harry throws Molotov cocktails from the upstairs window. As they get to the truck Judy decides that she wants to help as well and jumps into the truck! When they get to the pump an accident happens as the gas and the torch meet and set the truck on fire, in fear Tom and Judy drive the truck away in flames and it blows up killing them both.
The flesh is hitting the fan as Ben and Harry are butting heads and both are on power trips on who is going to be in charge and what and where and who and so on and this is the plot of this issue. Both Ben and Harry are acting like spoiled kids as they both can't work together cause they would have to take orders from the other. The death of Tom and Judy is sad and really brings an emotional touch to the already high dooming mood. Ben and Barbra are pretty much acting the same as they have for the past two issues, and Ben seems to have taken on the role of protector of Barbra as he clearly understands she is not in her right mind. Tom and Judy are sweet silly country youngsters who seem to want to stop the in house fighting, and while they could take charge as the house is owned by Tom's family he still would rather stick together and get the house safe for everyone. Harry Cooper is a pure hotheaded butthole who is clearly un-happy with his life and takes it out not only on his wife but anyone who is around him. Helen is just a normal housewife who loves her daughter but can't stand her husband who bullies her and treats her like dirt. The tension between the characters are adding more danger to the already zombie threat that is surrounding them. And by this point in the story you the reader should be catching on that the story is not so much about the zombies but that of the humans who are all so different and how they must act together to survive the situation. The artwork is done by Carlos Kastro again and is enjoyable and captures the gloom very well again and the zombies look soulless like the way they should. Next up is the final issue, and let's see how this one ends and if it has any changes from the film to comic.
After the truck explodes Ben is left outside with his torch and as he makes his way from the gas pump to the farmhouse, Harry will not open the door leaving him a sitting duck for the zombies who are approaching. Finally Ben kicks open the door, and he also beats up Harry as he almost got him killed. The zombies outside turn their attention to the burned bodies of Tom and Judy and start to rip them apart and eat the pieces. Ben tries to figure out away to get to a new car but Harry's is turned over a mile away and Barbra's is in the cemetery with no keys as Johnny had them on him. After things cool down, the survivors listen to a news broadcast that says the local authorities are out shooting and burning the undead. When the power goes out chaos breaks loose as the zombies start to push their way in, and Harry instead of helping grabs the gun and shoots Ben, who in turn gets the gun back and shoots Harry who stumbles into the cellar. The zombies attack Barbra, Ben and Helen, and they try to fight back the best they can. Helen is able to escape down to the cellar but finds that her daughter Karen is now a zombie and is eating her father's guts and then turns and kills Helen with a spade. Barbra is taken by a horde of zombies as she freezes when her brother Johnny is one of the undead. Ben escapes to the cellar and pushes zombie Karen out the door and bolts himself in and hides. The morning comes and so does the rescue party who by accident shoots and kills Ben as he is about to come outside to get help. In the end Ben's body is thrown into a fire that is roasting the living dead.
This fourth issue is a lot of fun and is chaotic, filled with panic, scares and raw emotion. The plot of this issue is the breakdown of the survivors as Ben and Harry just can't get along and both want to be in charge and both want the power of having the only gun in the household, and when they stop working together they leave themselves open to an all out attack from the zombies who work as one large flesh eating team all in sync and all ready to consume their prizes. Ben, by the end of this adaptation is a very proud man, who tried to come up with ideas to save the group and himself but sadly his idea fails and gets two people killed. The good thing about Ben is that he is not a selfish person as all his ideas are for the best of the group. It's really cool to watch Ben adapt to the situation and become more and more of the story's hero as its goes along. Barbra never does snap back to reality and almost becomes childlike all the way up to her death at the hands of the zombies, but even she snaps to it when the undead are trying to break in and does her best to try and keep them out. With Barbra it's sad to see her slowly slip deeper and deeper into madness as fear takes over her very soul. Harry Cooper is the opposite of Ben and is a bullheaded loud mouth who has his own butt in mind most of the time, but to be fair he also really cares about his sick daughter. Harry is so consumed with people listening to him and his ideas that he risks the life of Ben to try and get that power. He is also a chicken as when the threat is turned up he runs and causes more issues when he shoots Ben and gets himself killed in the process. Helen Cooper is your typical unhappy housewife who only stays with her husband for the sake of their child who she loves with all her heart. Karen who is sick by a bite from a zombie is turned into a flesh eater and kills both of her feuding parents. The zombies in this series start out as slow moving terrors who are easily over powered by the living and by the end are in a frenzy and want to eat some human meat and use their numbers to force their way into the farm house. The thing that sticks out both in this comic adaptation and the film is that while he is the most scummy character Harry Cooper's idea of them hiding in the cellar was the best idea as zombies are unable to get in at the end. This is a great adaptation, and Fantaco did a fantastic job of keeping the story of Night Of The Living Dead going in the 1990's. Carlos Kastro did the artwork again and while it's good I did find this issues art to be a little scattered and almost rushed looking, but even with that said the artwork for this whole series is creepy and holds the vibe of the film. In closing if you're a fan of the film and enjoy reading a good horror comic then check this one out for sure, check out the artwork below of some of the zombies from this series.
This yea'rs vacation was a lot of fun and was packed with many great places and moments and showed me that taking time away from the stresses of the world and relaxing is something that I need to recharge the battery that is my brain. While I am sad to be done with my vacation, in a matter of a day when this is posted as I will miss the hotel room and the wonderful towns all around it I also must say that it's good to be home with my cats Leslie and Streets J and as well as planing a film shoot with Baron Von Porkchop. Evans City is truly the home of zombies but our next update is about a icon of Cincinnati, Ohio and will focus on baseball player Pete Rose! So stop using that ball bat to crush zombie skulls and lets head to the ball field and play some ball. Until then enjoy life, read a comic or three, support your local Horror Host and watch out for the living dead.
Posted in Comics, FantaCo	| Tagged Alpha Rhythms, Amazon, Art Of Wrestling Podcast, Barbra, Barbra Blair, Bellator MMA, Ben, Big Van Vader, Carlos Kastro, Chicken Wings, Colt Cabana, Comics, Cranberry Cinemas, Dad Brassfield, Duane Jones, Eat' N Park, Evans City Cemetery, FantaCo, Frickers, George A. Romero, Ghostlight Coffee, Harry Cooper, Helen Cooper, Horror Films, John A. Russo, Josh Weinberg, Judith O'Dea, Juliet Fromholt, Karl Hardman, Ken Shamrock, Living Dead, Lone Star Comics, Marilyn Eastman, Mars, Mars Brew House, Marvel Comics The Untold Story, Matt Brassfield, Moe's Southwest Grill, Monster Bash Convention, New Dimension Comics, Night Of The Living Dead, Paul Naschy, Pennsylvania, Roger's Basement, Shaved Ice, Stephen Alexander II, TCBY Yogurt, The Blob, The Living Dead Museum and Gift Shop, The Snow Man, The Toxic Avenger Part II, Thunderstorm, Undead, Vader, Werewolf In The Amazon, Wing Kings, WWE, Yeti Milkshake, Zombie	| 1 Reply

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl