We’re almost in the home stretch, Halloween is just around the corner; what better time to summon everyone’s favorite bio-exterminator, Beetlejuice!
“Though I know I should be wary,
Still I venture someplace scary;
Ghostly hauntings I turn loose …
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!”
Werewolves are scary. REAL Werewolves, not that Twilight garbage. Hundreds of werewolf stories have been told over the years, and the lycanthropic fiends are a key plot point in any monster movie, show, comic book, etc. I could probably spend all month talking about all the different versions of the werewolf tale, but instead I’m going to focus on some of the best cinematic examples of the most popular character in the werewolf mythology. Of course, I can only be talking about the Wolfman.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Only this and nothing more.”
This was the poem that started it all. In January of 1845, American writer Edgar Allan Poe published his narrative poem, The Raven. The physical embodiment of the Raven has remained an eerie manifestation referenced in writing, film, television, and comics ever since. For this reason, it deservingly sits at #16 on the Grizzly Bomb Countdown to Halloween.
Continue reading Countdown to Halloween #16: Poe’s ‘The Raven’
I’m sure nobody is at all surprised that Eric Draven has made it into our Countdown to Halloween. The Crow was a critical success and a fan favorite with a pretty huge cult following. But that isn’t where the story begins. The Crow started life as a comic book created by James O. Barr, and was an even darker and grittier story than the movie.
Continue reading Countdown to Halloween #17: Eric Draven, The Crow
From comic books to television to movies – The Cryptkeeper has been a constant in the genre for over 60 years. Originating in EC’s Crime Patrol #15 in 1949, the Cryptkeeper would become the most famous of EC Comic’s ghoulish trio of hosts (with The Vault-Keeper and The Old Witch) as he would go on to star in their Tales from the Crypt comics for the next few years following his debut. That was until 1954 upon the release of The Seduction of the Innocent. A true study in 1950s paranoia, the book chronicles psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s assertion that near all delinquent behavior in America could be traced back to the evil that was comic books. The stir caused by this book resulted in the industry’s self-imposed ‘Comics Code Authority‘ which essentially de-toothed comics, turning Batman from a creature of the night into a glorified boy scout, and all but killing EC Comics and their horror themed books.
Continue reading Countdown to Halloween #18: The Cryptkeeper
You may not have heard of all of the characters in our Halloween countdown this year, and that’s okay. We hope the articles have been enlightening if that’s the case. But our next character is certainly one that everyone is well acquainted with, unless for some reason you’ve been living under a rock your entire life.
Continue reading Countdown to Halloween #19: Dr. Frankenstein and His Monster
Grizzly Bomb 