2016 Comic Challenge 260 Earth 4 #02

TITLE-Earth 4 #02
Publisher-Continuity Comics

No real clue where in the Deathwatch 2000 crossover this issue falls. Mostly cause I haven't read much of the Deathwatch 2000 crossover. Really outside of Crazyman I haven't read much from Continuity. I remember seeing them on every newstand in the late 80s and early 90s. But they were always priced way higher than the stuff from Archie,Marvel and DC. So I never bought them. But now that I find them for a buck or less I have been slowly building up a nice stack of random issues from various Continuity series.

Earth 4 are a team of elementals. Urth is a rock looking guy that is somehow now infected with radiation. Him and the rest of the team are at a nuclear power plant that has started melting down. They somehow stop it,really I had no clue what was going on half the time.Between the nice looking but very low on story telling style art and the feeling that I just got dropped into part 20 of a 24 part movie serial.

Aron Weisenfeld handles the pencils.Richard Bennett does the inks,and Tom Roberts does the color. The color was always so good at Continuity. So bright and not muddy like the color at the big 2.The art is pretty but has a bunch of flaws that I bet are cause of the lack of experience from the penciler and inker.

On the other side,Neal Adams gets credited for plot.Peter Stone gets story credit. I do wonder if this issue would make anymore sense after reading the previous issues and crossovers cause of Deathwatch 2000.

For the 50 cents to a buck I paid for the issue...it was worth that price for the art and that super busy cover.

Earth 4 #02 gets a borrow.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 30 Dracula Unleashed DVD game

Title-Dracula Unleashed
Source-Interactive DVD Game

Somehow this FMV game passed me by until about a week ago.I owned a Sega CD back in the day,but had never heard of this game until someone supplied me with a rip of the DVD release.

Using FMV and onscreen choices this game tells the story of Alexander Morris. As he comes to London to investigate the death,that happened 10 years ago,of his brother Quincy. By choosing the right things at the right time you can manage to defeat Dracula and win the game.

The acting is pretty decent compared to other FMV games of the era. The interface is well done. And overall the game isn't bad. I doubt I play it more than once a year. But it is a nice way to kill time.

Dracula Unleashed DVD game gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 29 Psycho IV

Title-Psycho IV
Source-DVD

Pretty sure I have seen this installment of the Psycho franchise more times that any other film in the series. It  went straight to cable. And I caught it's first airing on Showtime. For years I had a VHS with Psycho IV and Meridian AKA Kiss of the Beast.

Norman is out and free. He is married. He calls into a talk radio show,hosted by CCH Pounder. And started to tell all his history. So we get to see how Norman was as a child and teen. All the torture his mother did to him. Plus why he killed her.

Thru out the film Norman hints he is ready to kill again. With CCH and the rest of the radio station crew trying their best to talk him out of this. And the reveal as to why he wants to kill again is a big shocker.

Since this installment in the franchise went straight to cable it isn't as well known as the other 3.For a long time it was hard to find the VHS and wasn't out on DVD. I was pleasantly surprised when I found the above pictured DVD set for $5 a few years ago.

Psycho IV gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 28 Svengoolie MeTV airing of SSSSSSSs

Title-Sssssss
Source-Svengoolie airing on MeTV

Since I have to wait on someone to upload the episodes I am way behind on Svengoolie.So when I got home earlier tonight I was looking for something to watch,and something that while I had seen it before it had been a long time. Saw the dvd-r of the Svengoolie's recent airing of this show and threw it into the blu ray player.

Dirk Benedict becomes the local snake expert's lad assistant. The Doctor starts shooting him up with chemicals,saying they are to help if he gets bit by a snake. Of course we know this will cause Dirk to transform into a snakeman.

Lots of real snakes in this.According to one of Sven's segments there is only one scene with a fake snake.The acting is pretty good. And over all it is a fun way to waste 2 hours. The only big fault with the film is the non-ending.

Sssssssssss gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 27 Pop Punk Zombies

Title-Pop Punk Zombies
Source-Kings of Horror Youtube stream of Pop Punk Zombies

Last year I got clued in on the Kings of Horror Youtube Channel. They post at least 3 indy horror movies a week. And it is thanks to their service that I have gotten more people to see the "greatness" that is Vampeggedon.

Earlier I was wondering what I was gonna watch for today. Found a flash drive that I had filled up months back with various horror films off the Kings of Horror channel. Realizing I haven't watched a zombie movie in a good bit I started Pop Punk Zombies.

The film starts with our very Clerks-like leads eating lunch. The twitchy,I am guessing he is suppose to be on speed ,waiter sells them two tickets to the upcoming Vicious Vegans show.They end up going to the show and surprise the bands gimmick of being zombies isn't a gimmick. It is real they are zombies.

Going into the film I kept in mind this was a low budget film. The acting was a bit better than I usually get in indy horror. The effects are decent.And the film moves at a decent pace and never gets boring.

Pop Punk Zombies gets a B.

2016 Comic Challenge 259 Tales from the Darkside #02

TITLE-Tales from the Darkside #02
PUBLISHER-IDW

Found issues 2 and 3 today.Which works out nice cause it a two part story.Same creative team as issue 4 also.

The schlub of man has since a young age had odd things happen to and around him fairly often. When we meet him he is getting fired from his current job. On his way home  his car breaks down. But he gets offered a ride.

Seems there is a connection between some experimental pregnancy drugs from the 70s and a bunch of now adults who randomly warp reality while having a seizure.And this man driving the car offers our lead a chance to stop the seizures.

The lead of course takes the offer to stop all the craziness.Goes to the foundations main office.But as he is getting put to sleep there is a hint that maybe he was lied to. And maybe this "dark version" of himself that he sees while in the seizures will instead be in control all the time.

Yep this is a damn good horror comic.The art is good and adds to the story instead of distracting from it. The writing and dialogue are also pretty good.

Tales fro the Darkside #02 gets a Buy!

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 26 Doctor Death Seeker of Souls

Title-Doctor Death Seeker of Souls
Source-Scorpion DVD

This is one of those early 70s horror films I had read about for decades. Seeing short reviews of it in piles of horror cinema reference books I owned/read.But I never saw the VHS,if it got a release on VHS,for rent at any store. It wasn't until a few years back when Scorpion Releasing put it out on DVD that I finally got a chance to see a film I had been curious about for years and years.

And well... I was kind of disappointed. It is kind of your typical early 70s supernatural horror film. Something that you would see second or third bill at the drive-in. Speaking of the drive-in the kill at the drive-in in this film is the best part of the entire film.

Doctor Death Seeker of Souls gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 25 Swamp Thing

Title-Swamp Thing
Source-Uncut first release MGM DVD

Yeah I know the cover above isn't the cover on the DVD,but it looks so much better. I got lucky 6 years ago and got the uncut first release of the film for $5. The first DVD release in the States was of the R rated cut,which mostly got the R cause of a few instances of nudity. Some parent complained,cause the back of the DVD case said PG.

Alec Holland is a scientist way out in the swamps of Louisiana. And he is working on a top secret new chemical. He finishes it about the time Alice Cable comes to visit. When Anton Arcane shows up. He wants the formula. A fight breaks out and Alec ends up covered in the new chemical and out in the swamp. And it is assumed he has died.

But he didn't. He comes back as the plant creature Swamp Thing. The rest of the film is Arcane trying to capture Swamp Thing,and Swamp Thing and Alice falling in love.

Now I remember this film kind of bombing,but it did good enough to get a sequel years later, Then a TV series that lasted 3 or 4 years on USA. One good thing that came out of this film was with a Swamp Thing film in theaters DC wanted a Swamp Thing comic on the stands. So the Saga of Swamp Thing title started. Which in a bit less than 2 years later got taken over by Alan Moore and became one of the best comics to come out from the big 2 in the 80s.

Swamp Thing gets a B-

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 24 Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery

Title-Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery
Source-VHS rip

As far as I know this is the only Tiny Toons special to never get released on DVD.I never saw it back when it came out so getting a decent looking VHS rip of it was a nice find.

The Night Ghoulery title should let you know that this is a homage/parody of the old Rod Serling Night Gallery show. So this is an anthology. With a bunch of short stories with the various Tiny Toons characters showing up.

The stories are fun.The animation looks great. And over all it is funny.

Tiny Toons Night Ghoulery gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 23 Stephen King's It

Title-Stephen King's It
Source-VHS

Recently started going thru my stacks of VHS. Some of them are labeled some are not. So been kind of interesting seeing what is on these various tapes. On one tape was a recording of when some channel aired the tv mini series Stephen King's It a few years ago.

Ahh It,this was one of my most anticipated adaptation of a King novel. Maybe 2 years before the mini series premiered I had read the novel. And was wondering how they would be able to keep it true to the novel and still air it on broadcast TV.

Set in the town of Derry Maine,It is about an evil entity that feeds on children. Every so many years It kills a few children then disappears again. Until it meets up with a special group of children. This group is made up of all the outcasts at the local elementary school. And thru the bond they share they managed to kill It. Or so they thought.

They grow up and one by one move away from Derry. With only one of them staying behind.Now they are approaching middle age and find out that It is back. So can this gang of now adults manage to stop It?

This aired over 2 nights. Each night it was 2 hours with commercials. The first night covered the half of the story when they were kids. And the next night covered the last half when they are adults. It is surprisingly gory for a network TV mini series. And thanks to the great acting from Tim Curry It is packed with scary moments. Even having to tone down some parts of the novel didn't hurt the mini series too much.

What hurt it was how they handled the final battle with It. In the novel it gets very metaphysical. And has a bunch of connections to King's Dark Tower series of novels. In the mini series It is revealed to be a giant spider. Which our gang defeats. Yep a giant spider. I get that it would have been hard to recreate the battle from the novel. But they could have done something better than Hey it is is a giant spider.

Stephen King's It gets a C+.