Shocktober 10/30/19

Another find from Village Discount Outlet.

Shocktober 10/29/19

Shocktober 10/28/19

Shocktober 10/27/19

A Halloween-themed cupcake at work.

Shocktober 10/26/19

Shocktober 10/25/19

This week's Chicago Reader features a nice cover article on Rich Koz--better known to millions of horror-movie viewers ghost-to-gh...er, coast-to-coast as Svengoolie.

Astonishingly, he's been at this horror-hosting gig for 40 years--more than 10 times longer than his predecessor, the late, great Jerry G. Bishop. And longer, I'd wager, than nearly all of his contemporaries. Even Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, started after Son of Sven.

And may he go for many, many more.

Shocktober 10/24/19

After Dracula and the Wolf Man...er, I mean Werewolf by Night...got their own comic books at Marvel Comics in the early 1970s, it was almost a given that Mary Shelley's famous creation would get his turn. And so he did, in a bimonthly effort originally entitled The Monster of Frankenstein and later retitled The Frankenstein Monster. The title changed made no difference in sales--whatever Marvel chose to call it, they called in "cancelled" after 18 issues (though stories did continue to appear in various Marvel black-and-white horror magazines for a few months more).

That's a shame, because it started with such promise, with writer Gary Freidrich and artist Michael Ploog basically adapting Shelley's novel for the first few issues, then continuing the story as the monster roamed the world, looking at first for revenge on his creator, and then just for some damn peace and quiet. No such luck, though--the Monster not only couldn't rest, he had to face off against Dracula (Marvel's take on the Count, anyway). Then? He got frozen and thawed out in modern times, where he fought/teamed up with the aforementioned Werewolf, as well as Spider-Man and Marvel's other resident lycanthrope, Man-Wolf.

The early issues drawn by Ploog were the best, though. He made the Monster more sympathetic and soulful than subsequent artists could.