Meet Artist BECCA WHITTAKER

Check out this cool portrait of one inebriated lopped-off noggin by cartoonist Becca Whitaker:

This scene inspired by my blog, Shakespeare and old monster movies is her work, too (click to enlarge it):

Franky has apparently come to bury me, not praise me. (Yeah, I know--wrong play.)

A monster and fairy tale mashup:

Becca's the creative force behind the blog No Smoking in the Skull Cave. (As well as the less splashily named blogs Sketches, Becca's Art, Color Art, and Wink Studios Photography.) I've long admired her skill with a pen, and I commissioned her to do a few drawings. I also like her takes on horror and overlooked genre films, and her appreciation for la femme magnifique.

So not only did I pass an award onto her last month, I decided to interview her, too! And she let me! (Foolish artist!) So here is the Q and A, along with pics borrowed from her sites to randomly illustrate what she can do. Enjoy!
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Becca, who are your favorite cartoonists or caricaturists?

I've never been super interested in caricaturists but I love cartoonists. My absolute favorite cartoonist is Chris Sanders. He worked at Disney for a number of years and is best known for creating Lilo and Stitch, but his non-Disney work is very cool; sexy Hawaiian pin-up girls and cute animals. He also did a pretty funny comic for a while called Kiskaloo which you can read online and I highly recommend. I'm also a pretty big fan of Dan DeCarlo, Dean Yeagle and Jeff Smith.

Who would you say influenced your style?

This might sound weird, but the biggest influence on my style is pin-up model Bettie Page and filmmaker/photographer Russ Meyer. Obviously neither of these two painted or drew, but the style, humor and emotion of their images has really influenced what I put onto paper.

Ever woo anyone with your art?

Ha. No, I have given friends and family little drawings to make them laugh or cheer them up but I haven't used my art to pitch woo.


Did your art ever get you in trouble in school?

Not exactly. Luckily I had very liberal art teachers who were willing to let me express myself in my own way...even if it was drawings of girls in latex or creating pin-up girl paintings. I didn't ever get much hung in the classrooms, for obvious reasons.

You do photography and pen and ink artwork. Have you used your models in your drawings?

Usually I get poses and inspiration from old girlie magazines but I have done a few pieces based on photographs I've taken. I'm actually discussing a possible partnership with a model now, but nothing is final so I don't want to jinx it.


You get to have anyone, including people who have passed on, pose live for you to draw. Name one or two.

Oh, wow. Wouldn't that be cool? I would have to say 1950's Bettie Page; I don't think there has been a better model to this day. She could be so expressive and you just don't see that very often. Runners up: Aria Giovanni--she's like the living version of one of my curvy pin-up drawings--or Vixen! era Erica Gavin; in my mind she is the ultimate Russ Meyer girl and it would be a dream to draw her.

Name three strange objects you own.

1. A coin that my grandfather kept in his pocket during his service in WWII. He told me he would rub it with his fingers whenever things got tough and by the time he ended his tour of duty he had rubbed the image just about clean off. He was very important to me and it's like having a little piece of him around to this day.

2. A set of miniature plastic U.S. President figures through Kennedy I discovered when cleaning out an old attic. I keep my favorites on display, the rest in a box. Poor Millard Fillmore.

3. My collection of songs recorded by celebrities. I have the obvious ones, like Shatner and Nimoy, but I also have some weirder ones like "Boy Wonder I Love You" performed by Burt Ward and produced by Frank Zappa...yes, that Frank Zappa. Pure rotten gold.


Five favorite movies.

This is a hard question to answer! These are not the 5 greatest films ever made but probably my 5 favorite to watch over and over.

1. Barbarella (I never stop talking about my love of this movie. Someone once called me a Barbarella apologist which I thought was pretty funny)
2. Tommy
3. Big Trouble in Little China
4. Labyrinth
5. Death Proof


I offer you something to drink before you draw me. I've got everything. Would you want something with caffeine, alcohol, both, or neither?

Probably caffeine, I drink way too much coffee.


Name one OVERrated artist and one UNDERrated artist.

Rob Liefeld is pretty overrated, his comic characters have too many muscles, too many lines. They just kind of hurt my eyes to look at. Most underrated would probably be Burne Hogarth. He's an amazing artist who drew the Tarzan comic strip for years as well as writing a series of books on drawing. His stuff is awesome, but he doesn't get mentioned very often. Maybe Liefeld should read some of Hogarth's anatomy books and scale back on some of those insane muscles.

Photographic self portrait of the artist as a young woman...holding paper.

Thanks for the interview, Becca.

Cool questions. Thanks!

Frankensteinia Punks The Drunken Severed Head!

Some time back, I bet comic book artist/writer and eminent doctor of monsterology Pierre Fournier of Frankensteinia that he couldn't compose a meaningful post on the subject "The Toenails of Frankenstein." (Although he'd managed to write about other seemingly unrelated or trivial subjects and connect them to Frankenstein in a meaningful, interesting way.) We were both laughing it up and I thought that Pierre wouldn't take the bait. But to my utter surprise, he said he'd do it sometime.

In fact, I thought he sounded (in between chuckles and snorts) just a wee bit cocky about it. Not that Pierre is immodest, but...

Yeah, yeah, I thought. SURE you will!

Enough time went by that I got comfortably smug about it. I even taunted Pierre!

BIG mistake.

He DID IT!

Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, click to see the superior brain of Mssr. Fournier at work:

Frankenstein Stomps the Box Office

Y'know, Pierre reminds me of science historian and television host James Burke. Burke hosted one of my favorite programs, Connections, which entertainingly and impressively connected seemingly disparate historical events. Like Burke, Pierre is noted for his breadth of knowledge, quiet enthusiasm, dry good humor, and intelligence. I salute him. Being a severed head, that means I stick my tongue out at him.

P.S. I was gonna end my post with my salute comment, but I just got a photo from Pierre in my e-mail that I hafta add:





Original image of statue foot found at jcolman's Flickr photos, a detail of sculpture "The Awakening."

FRANKENSTEINIA nominated for an award!

...as well as several very worthy blogs in LOTTD, the horror blog guild I'm proud to be a member of! The award is Bloody-Disgusting's Horror Blogger Award, which will be awarded next month, following online voting. You can register to vote at the Bloody-Disgusting site.

Frankensteinia has always been a special source of tremendous reading pleasure for me (given my fascination with Frankenstein in all media), and blogger Pierre Fournier is a friend. But so many outstanding blogs are nominated I can't make one clear recommendation to get your vote, but I hope you DO vote.

I don't see how any ONE winner can be picked, since comparing Arbogast on Film to Frankensteinia to Kindertrauma makes little sense. They're all equally impressive but have such differing areas of focus. But I am glad to see all the nominees getting attention and respect, which is really the point of it. Good for Bloody-Disgusting.

The marvelous blogs of the LOTTD include Day of the Woman, Dinner with Max Jenke, Evil On Two Legs, Fascination With Fear, Final Girl, Freddy in Space, Heart in a Jar, I Love Horror, Kindertrauma, Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire, Monster Land, Vault of Horror and Zombos' Closet of Horror. (Not in LOTTD but another blog I like is The Lightning Bug's Lair.)

Good luck to all the nominees!

So long, Conan! Farewell, Frankenstein!

Conan O' Brien stepped down as host of The Tonight Show with grace and wit tonight, and provided a memorably energetic, fun final episode for viewers. It was a bittersweet end to a stupid screw-up by NBC, and a fine farewell to his fans.

I'll miss him. No past host of any late night talk show has been red-haired AND featured Frankenstein as a recurring character! And no future host is ever likely to be a fellow "carrot-top" and Frankie fan!

Frankenstein (actually, his Monster, of course) would usually appear in a repeat bit called Frankenstein Wastes a Minute of Our Time. Frankie was enthusiastically played by comedy writer Brian Stack as a big smiling man-child with a childlike fascination with trivial things around him. (Hey--that kinda describes me and my blog!)

Stack describes the creation of the repeating bit in this video round table of comedy writers. He also relates a funny encounter while in the monster makeup with legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite!

Image source here.

Image source here.

This bottom pic of Stack as the Monster comes from "The Ten Greatest Conan O'Brien Characters of All Time" at the site Manofest.com. On the same page you can watch one of the Frankenstein Wastes a Minute of Our Time segments from O'Brien's earlier program, Late Night With Conan O'Brien.

As Conan mockingly says in the clip about the show (and it applies to his Tonight Show as well), "When you got Frankenstein, you know you got the goods." How right you were, Conan!

Thanks for all the laughs, Conan. Good luck to you and all your writers and staff.

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Related Link: A podcast of Stack discussing his career, and the characters he's played--including Frankenstein--can be heard or downloaded here.

My cool new banner!

My new banner was made by my friend Bobby Beeman, from stickers that he scanned from his collection. These stickers were part of the 1974 Topps Monster Initials series of trading cards. Like me, Bobby is a fellow soldier in the Universal Monster Army, a gathering place for collectors of vintage movie monster memorabilia and fans of classic monster movies. I recommend you enlist there.

I also recommending visiting the website I-Mockery, a very entertaining place full of articles, trivia, cartoons, games and even a forum. They even have a monster initial generator so YOU can spell out your initials with ones from the trading card series! Ain't that swell?

I know you're headed over there now, so I might as well just end this post here.

Lindsay Lohan

Here's two great pics of a nice, matched set..of, um...cool spider jewelry pieces! Ooooooh! Yeah!


Put your cursor on 'em and click to make 'em much, much bigger. (I mean the pictures!)

Wow. Creepy AND cute, huh? (I mean the jewelry!)

I think I better go now...



Images found HERE.

Po' Poe--His To' No Mo'!

Okay, if "to'" is read as short for "toast," then you CAN make sense of the subject line! (It certainly has nothing to do with his toe!)

Today is Poe's birthday. And an unknown watercolor portrait (by one A.C. Smith) of a younger, less melancholy Poe has just surfaced (see right). It should be a happy day for his unhappy spirit. But I suspect it's not because of the news about his annual toast.

Someone, dressed in dark clothes with their face hidden, has visited Poe's grave between midnight and dawn each year on Poe's birthday, to leave roses and cognac as a toast to the great writer's memory.


This did not happen today, according to the Associated Press. Perhaps Edgar Allan himself communicated in some way to the toaster* to tell him/her that the tribute was no longer needed. Maybe Poe is at last at rest...



But Happy Birthday, E. A., anyway! Wherever you are!









*And why not? I talk to my toaster! However, I'm no longer on speaking terms with my mixer, ever since it grabbed my tongue and yanked it. Couldn't speak to order a drink for more than a week!


Images copyright Associated Press.

The latest addition to my back yard

When the snow falls heavily and covers the ground well , I feel afraid of what might lie beneath it, lurking. Well, the snow got pretty deep in places in here in Pittsburgh this month--a pretty, silent, white blanket piled up over everything. It was so beautiful and picturesque that it seemed to make the outdoors seem so, well...safe.

But hoo boy, was I wrong!

By late last Saturday afternoon, the top few inches of snow had melted away. As the sun started to sink below the horizon, I began hearing faint "crrr crrr" sounds in my back yard. What was it, I wondered? Hibernating groundhogs stirring? (I have seen a few here last Spring.)

But then I began hearing what sounded like soft chuckles--

I called for my wife Jane to protect me, of course. (A severed head has no choice but to be a coward, being defenseless.) Thank Cthulhu she knows powerful voodoo!

She went to investigate. Fortunately, she took our camera, and so was able to capture a rare picture of a Fossor Non Mortuis (or "ghoul clown," as some of the locals around here call the murderous pests) as it was breaking free of the snow:

She quickly hexed the hell out of it (with a charm involving circus peanuts, seltzer water, and eye of newt), and it died before getting free of its confinement in the cold, crusty cover.

The thing's still out back, and I'm leaving it there as a pleasant yard decoration. I'm sure the littlest youngsters in the neighborhood will get a kick out of its festive face. I know I do, now that it can't won't eat me! I sure I hope it doesn't start stinking anytime soon. (I'd have to douse it with alcohol, and I don't wanna share.)

It lifts my spirits to see it there--now I'm whistling John Phillips Sousa tunes around the house!

Hey, wait-- something just occurred to me: can dead ghoul clowns become zombies?

An awkward family photo

My head spun after seeing this:



Full image found here: Bedtime Stories 2

Haiti, Horror, a Dittohead, and Boris Karloff

"The horror! The horror!" Those are the final words spoken by the cruel, powerful character "Mr. Kurtz" in Joseph Conrad's book, Heart of Darkness. I've been thinking of this line lately, having recently watched a dvd of movie bogeyman Boris Karloff playing Kurtz in a 1950s TV adaptation of the novel. (And because I've been working on a review of that performance for a coming post.)

But today I'm reminded of the line because of the words coming out of the mouth of a contemporary Kurtz of the airwaves. A man who also has a horrible influence, and like Kurtz, he revels in his lack of compassion, and wants to corrupt others to be like himself.

Today I am so confounded and distressed by this man that I can't post something that's written solely for laughs. Ironically, though, I am referring to a guy who works as an entertainer, a clown. Nowadays, of course, clowns are seen as more frightening than foolish, but this clown is both:

Image source HERE.

Yeah, him.

I may describe this bozo as a clown, but he isn't a good one. A good clown should be silly. This man is sickeningly absurd.

Let me reassure my regular readers--I dislike having political topics here at TDSH. I prefer to focus on anything else. I'd far rather talk about and share the uncanny, the strange, and the kooky here. And the scary.

But--but but BUT--the following statements (on aid to the Haitian earthquake victims) have gone so far below the bar of common civility--a bar none too high already-- that I'm actually afraid of what awaits our country in the future:

"...President Obama speaking about Haiti this morning in Washington at the White House. He held a press conference. Now, I want you to remember, it took him three days to respond to the Christmas Day Fruit of Kaboom Bomber, three days. And when he came out after those three days, he was clearly irritated that he had to do it. He didn't want to do it. He comes out here in less than 24 hours to speak about Haiti.

"Oh, this is what he lives for. He lives for serving those in misery."

"So the country that he runs around the world apologizing for, the country that he has chip on his shoulder about, he now turns to as its president and asks people who have lost their jobs because of his policies to donate to WhiteHouse.gov to the people of Haiti, and we will do it."

"This will play right into Obama's hands. He's humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, 'credibility' with the black community -- in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made-to-order for them. That's why he couldn't wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there."

"If I want to donate money to the Red Cross, why do I need to go to the WhiteHouse.gov page...your name is going to end up on a mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes.

"Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the US income tax."

Have we become so divided politically, so afraid of trusting others, that no amount of cynicism, or callousness in the face of suffering, is too shameful to share in public? Is the spirit of commonality that we felt in the wake of our own suffering on 9/11/2001 so forgotten that it can't share it when disaster strikes outside our borders? Is that where we are headed?

To attack the President in his capacity as a politician is perfectly fair; it can even be a civic good. But to attack our chosen leader for leading our country's humanitarian response to a disaster is monstrous. (That's an adjective normally used in a positive way at TDSH.)

Boris Karloff, the man I grew up thinking of as the "King of Horror," hated the use of the word "horror" to describe frightening movies and books of the day. In his introduction to his 1943 anthology Tales of Terror, "Horror carries with it a connotation of revulsion which has nothing to do with clean terror." He was right. The political comments I quoted above actually horrify me, more than they frighten me. But because they reflect more than the feelings of a few fringe radio ranters, I'm scared as well as disgusted!

Some today denounce depictions of realistic suffering in so-called "torture porn" films like the Saw and Hostel movies as desensitizing, and for glorifying cruelty. There may be something to that. But no one anywhere watched those films and thought what they were seeing was real, or that they presented examples to copy.Like all movies, we know they're all pretend, all put-on. But rather than "realistic," the views expressed by the broadcasting boor pictured above are, unhappily, too, too real.

Well, if you've made it this far through this post, you deserve a cheap laugh. So here's photos of a boob and a poo:





















Above to the left, we see a boob...and Lindsay Lohan standing next to that boob. The second picture, on the right, shows the only TV character with less dignity than that boob. (But not much less!)

You'll notice I've never said the name of the celebrity commentator I'm criticizing anywhere in this post. That is because names are said to have power and influence, and this scary character (no resemblance to a real person, living or dead) doesn't deserve to have any, any longer.

Ubermilf Meets the Drunken Severed Head

Have you heard of her? The blogosphere's queen of cute crankiness, Her Highness of Humorous Hopelessness, UBERMILF (sorry I can't type in one those "oom-lout" things), is one of my favorite bloggers, always exploring the border area between banality and madness in her than ever before. One of the most interesting and amusing "irritable" bloggers since James Lileks, (but more progressive than he is), she has decided to interview Yers Grue-ly.

Ubermilf (whose secret identity when not fighting crimes of stupidity is Susie McCormick Carroll) grilled me with the kinda queries readers have long been asking me. But I've always been too shy to answer them, until Ubermilf pointed her cupcakes at me and I was putty in her inquiring hands. (Yes, inquiring hands--she speaks sign language, you know.)

So I decided to interview her right back! Below is what I put to her! (No, I mean questions, perv!)

Please read her queries and my highly important nonsense responses HERE. Now, let's meet Ubermilf!
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What puts the "uber" in "Ubermilf"?

Short answer: It's sure as hell not a Brazilian bikini wax.

Long answer: I began blogging just as the whole "milf" thing came along and I was totally mystified by it. Was it some riff on the whole Madonna/whore thing? I found both the attention-whore, largely self-proclaimed "milfs" and their emotionally-stunted admirers to be off-putting, to say the least. So the "Ubermilf" moniker was me rolling my eyes, saying to the world, "Yeah, right. That's me."

Do you get to wear a cape or utility belt?

Only when I'm in super-heroine persona, the Tongue-Lasher. I also had a whip. She had a blog, too, but I think that died off in 2005.

What famous man would you consider the "uberdilf"? (After your hubby, of course.)

I don't think famous people in general make very good parents. Most famous people got that way by single-mindedly chasing a goal, and that goal was not family life. But if I had to choose, it would be someone who fiercely protects his family's privacy, like Matt Damon.

Who did your striking blog banner? I like it very much.

It was a birthday present from my husband from Blog Togs. There's a link to it on my sidebar.

Ever hear from your former oppressors in corporate America?

No, not even a little.

If I bought you a drink, what would I buy?

Where are we? An Irish bar? Guinness. Italian? Probably a limoncello. I also like the classic pink lady made with gin and cream and grenadine, like from the Topper movies. Also, something called the Barbarella made with white sambuca and cointreau. Or a gin and tonic.

What is the strangest item you own?

This is difficult. What springs to mind is an item that looks like a classic fire alarm pull from elementary school -- you know the red rectangle with the white writing that says "in case of emergency, pull down?" But when you pull it it starts yodeling. It's in my kitchen.

Do you ever eat snow?

I have. How recently are you talking?

You have three blogs. What would happen to you if you had to stop all of them?

I would go back to my spiral notebook.

Have you found a herd of licorice cows in the blogosphere? Or just sheep?

Both. And some wolves, too.

Are you a passive, assertive or aggressive person? Do you ever resort to use of the Black Arts? If so, what do you charge to cast a hex or two?

In high school, a teacher described me as "gently assertive." It's true! I'm not passive, although I will attempt to compromise. And I rarely attack first. Does that mean I'm not aggressive? Please describe "black arts." I do not conjure up spirits to do my dirty work; I do not like sharing credit. However, I have been known to facilitate the downfall of a deserving villain.

What size cupcakes do you wear? Do they chafe?

My cupcakes are the perfect size and they are pillowy soft.

Do you like regular cake? What kind would you have others eat, and why?

I do like regular cake. Cupcakes are good for children because no one can claim anyone else got a bigger piece and they can be distributed without a knife. But any kind of cake is wonderful. I tend to like fudge cake with vanilla frosting or yellow cake with fudge frosting -- but I do not look askance at other combinations.

Oscar Mayer or Oscar de la Renta? Coco Chanel or Coco Puffs?

Oscar Mayer and Coco Chanel.

Name a favorite movie and/or kitchen appliance.

The Blues Brothers for capturing a Chicago I knew and loved growing up.

Kitchen appliance... I like my stand mixer. I like my food processor, too, but he can be difficult to put together/take apart. It has to be done JUST SO or he won't work.

What blog inspired you, or is one that you would compare yours to?

The first blog I ever read (dating back to the ancient days of yore -- 2001) was my friend B.A.'s (link here) but that doesn't necessarily compare to mine. Another blogger who encouraged me (but who has since disappeared) was Dash Bradley of Dash Bradley is Dancing Madly.

What's something about you that would come as a complete surprise to your readers?

I'm not at all combative in person. Some might even call me sweet. Or perchance bubbly.

What question didn't I ask that you wanted asked, and what's the answer?

What's the best song ever written, and the answer is "The Fanny Shake Polka."

Thank you, Ubermilf--and good luck.

Vote for Forry Ackerman's last project!

The site Critter Writer's Workshop has an annual "Preditors [sic] and Editors Reader's Poll", honoring print and electronic publications. The current calendar's crop of nominees includes the last project of Famous Monsters editor Forry Ackerman, Forrest J Ackerman's ANTHOLOGY OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Forry's friend (and mine) Joe Moe has a story in it, "A Hiccup. A Remedy".

If you'd like to vote for this book (as I did), click on this link:

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/antho.shtml

It only takes one click and one confirmation via e-mail - and you're done! But HURRY! You only have through tomorrow, Jan. 14!

Good luck, Forry, wherever you are, and good luck Joe!

P.S. You can view the anthology here:

http://www.amazon.com/Forrest-Ackermans-Anthology-Living-Dead/dp/0984213619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263326585&sr=8-1

From the Bizarro film universe

Card #58 from "Jim Henson's MUPPET TRADING CARDS" from the CARDZ company.

Would you have sex with a ghost?

Art by Andrew Joynes; image source here.


Recently, in a Richard Armour book titled Nothing Risque, Nothing Gained, I read this joke:

Did you hear about the woman who had sex with a ghost?
She didn't know she had it in her!

Then, at the site Sodahead, I saw the poll question "Would you ever have sex with a ghost?"

That's a poser. I haven't made up my mind whether I would or not--sure it would be "spiritual" sex, but I think you'd be unsatisfied. Anyway, if you register at the site, you can answer the poll question yourself, and then read the 116 comments the poll provoked. (Or you could answer the question here by leaving a comment.)

Also found at the site was this ghost cartoon (click to enlarge, the text is tiny):


So, I've been goin' around tellin' Armour's "ghost sex" joke everywhere, and most people seem to like it--I get more smiles and laughs than groans or eyerolls.

But it would flop in Japan, where they have public competitions of what appears to be "doin' the nasty"with a ghost. Because there they have air sex contests. That's right, a cross between sex and "air guitar"--and it looks like nothing so much as poking a spook.

The link above will take you to the site Tofugu, which has a video of this "intimacy with the invisible" sport. Aw, go ahead, it's good for an "oh good gawd" sort of laugh!

One Lovely Blog (Yes, ME!), Part 2

I'm spreadin' the love that was given to me! Passin' my passion for weird, fantastic, and horrorific blogs around--and there are so many that the first half of my recipients of the One Lovely Blog award can be found at this post. Now let's get to these excellent examples of psycho-blog-onic psychotronics!

(Oh, they're supposed to pass the award to ten other blogs and link back to this post, but I say they should do what they will, they desrve recognition with no strings attached!)

The Action Effect (N. L. Sayers) For his detailed, thoughtful reviews of modern action movies.

Branded in the '80s (Shawn Robare) For his loving documentation of '80s pop culture.

Slasher Speak (Vince Liaguno) For making the slasher genre interesting to even non-fans, and for his thoughtful and fresh appreciation of its canon.

My Monster Memories (Frederick) For his warm, detailed Monster Kid nostalgia.

The Moon Is a Dead World (Ryne Barber) Does this man never sleep? You'll swear he doesn't if you keep tabs with this fine, inventive horror blog.

Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Movies (Vicar of VHS/Duke of DVD) I don't know who these guys are, but they sure have fun sharing their love of horror film, and they make me laugh with their wit.

Obscure Hollow (Kerry Kate, Mica Michelle, Rebecca, and an anonymous blogger) An increasingly recognized, unique blog showcasing "Haunted and vintage aesthetics in films, photography of home collections and other strange discoveries of old time past."

The Tainted Archive
(Gary Dobbs) Novelist Gary Dobbs free-ranging looks at pop culture and pop culture history in the UK and the US. Always a good read.

Dinner with Max Jenke
Great film reviews and previews with a guy named Max. (Actually, experienced and honored writer Jeff Allard.)

Zaius Nation (Dr. Zaius, gave me the One Lovely Blog award) For the best use of Photoshop, his humor, and for having best political slant of any genre blog.Yeah, he's got one already, but I want to praise his fine, inhuman blog here anyway.

The Horror Effect (Rebecca Sayers) AS good a blog on the horror genre as it gets. Also, I think Becky is the wife of the guy behind The Action Effect. A power couple!

Day of the Woman (Brittney-Jade Colangelo) Women are increasingly the very best observers of the horror genre. DOTW is more proof of this.

John Rozum THE blog of collage genre art. Also features posts of some of the most talented Halloween crafting out there.

Killer Kittens From Beyond the Grave (Kitty LeClaw) If you like excellent comic sharity site The Horrors of It All, you'll also really enjoy KKFBTG! A blog that is not recognized enough, it features comic sharity, movie reviews and more.

Wouldn't You Like to See Something Strange? (Diane) Diane digs up more weird stuff to gaze on and ponder over than anybody. This blog is a must for seekers of the strange.

Orange and Black (Halloween Spirit) For eloquence on all things that go bump in the night (esp. the sorts of things that haunt the Samhain season!)
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There are many other equally great horror blogs out there, of course, (I'm looking at you, Richard Harland Smith of Movie Morlocks, and you, Stacie Ponder of Final Girl) and many I've recommended here. But if you haven't checked out the blogs above, please do us both a favor and take a look!

And no praise of any section of the blogosphere is complete without including the superlative Frankensteinia, and Zombos' Closet of Horror. And for a comprehensive site on the history of horror films, I recommend Nate Yapp's Classic-Horror.

Hafta share this late Christmas gift!

This video, just posted elsewhere on the net is an 8 minute condensed version of Dicken's immortal "A Christmas Carol," as assembled by my friend Craig Wichman and edited by Jay Stern. I just had to re-share it here:

Seen here as Ebeneezer Scrooge--from various film and television adaptations--are Sir Seymour Hicks, Reginald Owen, Alastair Sim, Basil Rathbone, Frederic March, Mr. Magoo (as voiced by Jim Backus), Albert Finney, Michael Caine, Patrick Stewart and Kelsey Grammer.

I've always loved this sometimes dark, sometimes sad, sometimes spooky holiday tale. And this condensed Christmas Carol is no humbug!

I almost married this gal...

...but she drank like a fish!


Ad from Cavalier, 1966.

The Department of Mad Science

Seen at the NPR website, from the program Talk of the Nation:

"What happens when scientific research borders on science fiction? Michael Belfiore, author of the new book The Department of Mad Scientists, talks about the bizarre projects happening behind the scenes at DARPA — the secretive research arm of the Department of Defense."

Hear an interview with Belfiore about things like robot cars and insects, and other oddities from a secret section of the military intelligence establishment here.

Buy the book at this page of Barnes and Noble's website.

Snow time like the New Year

Click on the pic above to enlarge and read it.