Mighty Marvel Monsterbash 2009: Dracula- Sovereign of the Damned (Toei 1980)

When I was a kid, I became a huge fan of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan's amazing Marvel Comics' effort, Tomb of Dracula. It's 70 issue run is considered by myself to be one of the better attempts at the horror genre in sequential art....but...it's anime adaptation? Some of the best unintentional humor on the planet.



From Wikipedia:

In 1980, an animated television movie based on Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula was released. Much of the main plot was condensed and many characters and subplots were truncated or omitted. The film was animated in Japan by Toei and sparsely released on cable TV in North America by Harmony Gold under the title Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned, and has been released on VHS as The Tomb of Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned.




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Part1

Part2

Part3

Part4

Part5

Italian Spiderman (2008)

Figured I'd take a break from the Halloween festivities and share somethings that's been giving me alot of laughs over the last few days....Italian Spiderman!





From Wikipedia:
"Italian Spiderman is a film parody of Italian action–adventure films of the 60s and 70s currently being developed by Alrugo Entertainment, an Australian film-making collective formed by Dario Russo, Tait Wilson, David Ashby, Will Spartalis and Boris Repasky. The film is a reference to foreign movies that misappropriate popular American superheroes such as: the Indian version of Superman (1987), I Fantastici Tre Supermen (3 Fantastic Supermen) (1967) and La Mujer Murcielago (The Batwoman) (1968).


As of 23 July 2008, ten mini-episodes of Italian Spiderman have been released.

• Episode 1

• Episode 2

• Episode 3

• Episode 4:

• Episode 5:

• Episode 6:

• Episode 7:

• Episode 8:

• Episode 9:

• Episode 10
  

Dick Durock R.I.P. (January 18, 1937 – September 17, 2009)

Sadly, I just discovered (about three weeks too late) that veteran stuntman Dick Durock passed away. I came across the information while trying to figure out a way to work a DC property onto the current Mighty Marvel Monsterbash I have going one here and over at our sister blog, Attack of the B-Movie Muzak...I was thinking about doing something along the lines of posting about the odd coincidences surrounding the Marvel character Man-Thing and Swamp Thing...


Here's some info on Dick, courtesy of Wikipedia:


Richard "Dick" Durock (January 18, 1937 – September 17, 2009) was an American stuntman and actor who has appeared in over eighty films and over seven hundred television episodes.

He was known for playing Swamp Thing in both the feature films Swamp Thing and The Return of Swamp Thing and the subsequent television show.
Durock also played a Hulk-like creature on the television series The Incredible Hulk, two part episode titled "The First", where it was revealed that David Banner was not the first man to become a creature; another scientist accidentally created one "about thirty years ago" while similarly seeking a way to use radiation to increase strength. Durock also appeared in the Clint Eastwood films The Enforcer (1976) and Any Which Way You Can (1980) as well as Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975). Durock was born in South Bend, Indiana to Sadie (Medich) and David Durock. He resided in Southern California and appeared at fan conventions. Durock died from pancreatic cancer at his home in Oak Park, California on September 17, 2009. He was a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

Above: Dick Durock - Imperious Leader from the "classic" Battlestar Galactica

Swamp Thing Green Peace PSA (1989)


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Recently, the website Dread Central conducted an audio interview with Dick (around the time the first Swamp Thing TV series season box set hit DVD...you can find that interview here.

Mighty Marvel Mosterbash 2009: Marvel Super Special #1- KISS (1977)

Y'know...whenever I think of the early Halloween "beggar's nights" I participated in during my youth (or at least the part of it spent in the late 1970s), my memories are filled with imagery connected to the band KISS....

Hell, I'm pretty sure that I went dressed as Peter Criss at least twice prior to my seventh birthday....


Anyways, I figured now would be as good a time as any to share scans of one of the more oddball pieces of my comic book collection: Marvel Super Special #1: KISS....

Here's a little background on the book, courtesy of Snopes.com:

Claim: Blood from KISS band members was mixed with the red ink used to print the first KISS comic book.

Status: True

Origins: Given that the concept for the band KISS drew upon comic book superheroes almost as much as upon music itself, they were a natural to feature someday in their very own comic. Sure enough, that came to pass in 1977 when Marvel Comics issued the first Super Special KISS comic book.
Never one to pass up a good marketing opportunity, KISS willingly went along with a promotional gimmick invented to spur sales of the first edition. As Gene Simmons recalled:
As the KISS comic book project moved along, someone came up with the idea of putting real blood in the ink. It wasn't me — maybe it was Bill [Aucoin] or Sean [Delaney]. We got into a DC3, one of those big prop planes, and flew up to Buffalo to Marvel's printing plant, where they pour the ink and make comic books. A notary public actually witnessed the blood being drawn.
Sure enough, KISS members allowed their blood to be drawn during a concert stop, and they later flew up to New York to be photographed adding their vials of donated blood to a barrel of red ink. A notary public duly certified the authenticity of the process, and the notarized document was made available as the "KISS comic book contract":
This is to certify that KISS members, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss, have each donated blood which is being collectively mixed with the red ink to be used for the first issue of the Marvel/KISS comics. The blood was extracted on February 21st, 1977 at Nassau Coliseum and has been under guarded refrigeration until this day when it was delivered to the Borden Ink plant in Depew, New York.

A subsequent rumor maintained that, due to a mix-up at the printers', the batch of red ink containing the blood of KISS members was actually used for a print run of Sports Illustrated magazine and did not end up in the Marvel Comic as intended.

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