ARCHIE'S WEIRD MYSTERIES!!!

So what's your favorite scary-silly comic book series?

Back in December I did a post about a book collection of some of the "Archie's Weird Mysteries" comic book stories I wrote. If you want to re-read that post, you can do so by clicking here.

But... you don’t really need to because I’m going to repeat most of the same information here.

Here’s the deal: last time I wrote about how you can pre-order the book from Amazon and that it’s due to hit in mid August. Well...

It seems that the book will actually be released earlier to comic shops, which is great news. It’s due to hit those comic shops in mid-July. So NOW is the time to go visit your LCS (that’s comic industry jargon for “local comic shop”) and tell them you want a copy of ARCHIE & FRIENDS ALL-STARS: ARCHIE’S WEIRD MYSTERIES.

Now... there still may be some of you out there wondering what I’m talking about so I’ll repeat the following from the earlier post to fill you in: "Archie's Weird Mysteries" was an animated series based on the long-running comic book series about small-town high school teens... except with the added overlay of weird phenomena like ghosts, monsters and aliens being thrown into the mix!



Of course, flip-about is fair play, so it wasn't long before the TV cartoon show based on the comic book series spun off a comic book series based on the TV cartoon show based on the comic book series! While I wasn't the only writer (artist Fernando Ruiz contributed a few scripts of his own), I'm proud to say I wrote stories that appeared in all 24 issues (plus the additional 10 that followed when the series dropped the "Weird" to become simply "Archie's Mysteries"). You can learn more about the comic series by reading a 2009 interview intrepid reporter Billie Rae Bates did with me by clicking here.

Writing the "Archie's Weird Mysteries" comics was one of the highlights of my career, not just because I got to combine horror and comedy in ways that paid tribute to everything from "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" to "Kolchak the Night Stalker" to "Night of the Creeps;" (which I still say is the closest anyone's ever come to capturing Archie in live-action) but also because the amazing array of artistic talent contributing to the series included such top-notch folks as the aforementioned Fernando Ruiz plus Bill Golliher, Rich Koslowski, Stephanie Vozzo, Rick Taylor and Vicki Williams (hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone).

So again, I wanted to give all "Scared Silly" fans a head's up on this book's pending release. To reiterate, it will be in comic shops in July and available from online retailers in August. Please consider ordering it in advance from your local comic shop (to find the comic shop nearest you use the Comic Shop Locator Service). Or you can preorder it from Amazon. Here’s what the cover looks like so you can easily spot it:



Now here’s the coolest part: good sales for this book could possibly make this just the first in a series of paperback reprints of my “Archie’s Weird Mysteries” stories. Of course, I would love that. The editor has told me he would love it, too. And I know Fernando the artist would also love it. And it could very well possibly lead to some new stories from us, too! The best way you can do your part to help us is to support the project – so if you have any interest in "Archie's Weird Mysteries" at all I'd truly appreciate you placing an order with your local comic shop or Amazon or wherever you can find someone selling the book. Much thanks!

A SHORT BREAK FOR A QUICK TAKE

Greetings Scared Silly fans! I'm resurfacing briefly because I stumbled upon something really cool. A person that goes by the moniker "tapthatt2012" has started a YouTube channel where they recreate promo's and bumpers similar to those originally broadcast by independent New York City TV stations in the 1970s and '80s.

This brief clip is a "pre-fab" promo for the movie "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein." As far as I can tell (having communicated with the person that put it together) it was made using a promo for the Abbott & Costello Show with a clip from "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" and the words "Meet Frankenstein" added to the text. Pretty nifty, huh? Take a look... and I promise to have some new reviews up soon.

GONE FISHIN'

Archie as a fish? Well, this is a blog about horror-comedy!

Greetings Scared Silly fans! I thought I'd emerge to just say "hello" and thank you for your patience. I'm in one of those super-busy periods right now where my paying gigs have me jumping through hoops. It's been tough to complete reviews and I don't want to post any that may be sub-par so I hope you'll bear with me just a bit longer. I do have some time coming off this spring that should enable me to make some headway, so there's something to look forward to.

Until then, I'm putting up the "Gone Fishin'" sign... even though I'm busy working and not fishing!

Now enjoy Bing Crosby usually seen cavorting with Bob Hope but here marking time with the legendary Louis Armstrong.

A CLASSIC CLOWN MEETS CLASSIC CREEPS!

Last week I noted the anniversary of Stan Laurel’s passing 46 years ago on February 23, 1965.

I must say I am remiss to not have done the same for Lou Costello this past week. We lost Lou 52 years ago on March 3rd, 1959.

Thankfully history... and the calendar... allow me to make quick amends and pay tribute to Lou as well as it was 105 years ago today that Costello was born, on March 6, 1906.

While Stan Laurel is my favorite movie comedian of all time (and Laurel & Hardy my all-time favorite comedy team), within the realm of the "horror-comedy" genre, Abbott & Costello are the undisputed champs. A big reason for that is few comics could wring as much laughter out of being scared as Lou Costello.

Of course, Costello had the very good fortune to perfect his "scared routine" at the best possible studio: under contract to the "House of Horror" Universal Pictures, Lou got to cavort with such monster legends as Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Frankenstein Monster and the Mummy, plus a spin-off of the Invisible Man that was more mystery than horror, but still a nice nod to James Whales’ classic. As was "Hold That Ghost" with its "old dark house" (a la Whales’ "The Old Dark House"), phony ghosts and secret passageways.

Additional horror paces the studio put Costello through included nods to movie history in the form of the studio’s chief boogeyman Boris Karloff playing Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde as well as a mysterious "swami" character in "Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff" that resembled some of Karloff’s sinister mad doctor roles; and Margaret Hamilton matching wits with Costello as she played... what else?... a witch in "Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain!"

Here’s Lou at work in some hysterical outtakes from "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein." Pay particular attention to the sequence wherein Costello’s antics crack up cowboy-star-turned-monster Glenn Strange, made up as the Frankenstein Monster but unable to contain himself... and revealing his deep southern drawl of a laugh in the process! Here’s to you, Lou!

A TIP OF THE BOWLER TO A COMEDY GENIUS

Today marks 46 years since the passing of Stan Laurel. If you’ve been reading this blog with any regularity, you know I consider Laurel the single greatest comedy mind ever. That’s high praise indeed considering the massive talents of Chaplin, Keaton, Fields and several others, but when you know Laurel’s background it makes sense. This man ate, drank and slept comedy. He was always working out “bits of business” – he wasn’t just a performer but also a writer, gagman, scenarist and director.

Chaplin and Keaton of course were also amazing comedy architects, but with them I was often aware of "the performance" - I could see the technique at work. For me, watching Laurel is like watching someone that is the subject of a documentary. It really feels like someone took their camera outside and started filming this real, flesh and blood person named Stanley. You get a lot of that same cineme verite feel with Fields, who I also love but ultimately Stan's endearing, childlike humanity wins out for me.

Laurel & Hardy made their fair share of horror-comedies, all of which will ultimately be explored on the Scared Silly blog and the eventual accompanying book. But it went a little deeper than that. It was well-known that Stan had a fondness for black humor. Brilliant tactical artist that he was, he used black humor sparingly. He knew it lacked its punch if overused.

Laurel was famous for his “shock endings.” These were gags that had an edge, a bite to them that was often macabre or just plain bizarre and unsettling. The type of gags that would populate an entire half hour episode of “The Addams Family” but which just appeared suddenly in Laurel & Hardy films to finish off the proceedings with a(n often horrific) bang. Such endings included a blood transfusion that makes Ollie thin and Stan fat in “Thicker than Water,” Stan and Ollie tortured resulting in Ollie stretched on the rack and Stan shrunk in a compressor at the finish of “The Bohemian Girl,” and the duo skinned alive (their intact heads atop dangling marionette-like skeletons) in their final Hollywood film, “The Bullfighters.”

Among Laurel & Hardy fans the most legendary “shock ending” is one that never saw the light of day (indeed, there is some debate over whether it truly is “legend” and was never actually conceived/considered in the first place). In the film “Blockheads,” Laurel & Hardy find themselves facing the ire of jealous husband and master big game hunter Billy Gilbert (I’ll allow you the wonderful privilege of seeking out the film to find out just how they incurred his wrath).

According to the legend, the original ending Laurel conceived faded on the boys’ mounted heads, Ollie bemoaning his familiar, “here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into” lament as punctuation.

All of this is to underscore that Laurel understood that line where laughing and being scared meets, overlaps and ultimately blends together. And that’s really what “Scared Silly” is all about, isn’t it? Facing the fear of death and the unknown head-on, with laughter. Thanks for all the laughs, Stan!

ROUND AND RONDO...

Well here’s a nice surprise. While reviewing stats on my aggregator I noticed that a few folks had been referred to the “Scared Silly” blog via a link on the current Rondo Awards site. Yes, it appears that for the second year in a row “Scared Silly” has been nominated for a Rondo award! I want to thank whoever recommended “Scared Silly” for the nomination – I truly appreciate it!

The Rondo Awards are named after Rondo Hatton (you can learn more about Rondo when you click here) and are awards given to those who in some way are keeping the love for and appreciation of classic horror alive. You can learn more details about the awards and view this year's ballot by clicking here.

"Scared Silly" has been nominated in the "best blog" category, and it is my hope that if you like this blog, you will vote for it.

Of course, "Scared Silly" isn't the only reason to vote. There are so many great nominees in so many categories, including several friends of "Scared Silly." Among them are the gang from Trailers From Hell in the “Best Website” category as well as "Zombo's Closet of Horror," and "Frankensteinia" and the irrepressible “Drunken Severed Head” rubbing shoulders with “Scared Silly” in the “Best Blog” category. Not to mention Gary J. Svehla of Midnight Marquee Press to whom I am quite grateful – a few years back he and wife Sue invited me to contribute an essay on the Vincent Price/Peter Lorre horror-comedies to the Vincent Price edition of their “Actors” series of books. Gary has a blog called “Mad About Movies.”

There are a few other nominations that will be of interest to “Scared Silly” fans as well – here’s a handy checklist:

• In the “Best Classic DVD Collection” category, the WARNER BROS. HORROR/MYSTERY DVD set is nominated. This is the set that includes the classic Hugh Herbert-Allen Jenkins horror-comedy, “Sh! The Octopus!”

• Nominated in the “Best Restoration” category is Bob Hope’s classic horror-comedy, “The Cat & the Canary,” released on DVD as part of a recent Bob Hope Collection.

• In the “Best Independent Film or Documentary” category not one but two of Larry Blamire's films featuring his own brand of horror-comedy (namely spoofery) in the form of “The Lost Skeleton Returns Again” and “A Dark & Stormy Night” get a nod while our friends at Trailers From Hell get additional recognition for their collection of commentaries on “The Best of Trailers From Hell Volume 1.”

• “Mystery Movie Series of 1940s Hollywood” is a book I haven’t read yet but as many of the mystery series mixed in laughs and scares (Charlie Chan entries like “Dark Alibi” and “Meeting at Midnight” come to mind) it is apropos to mention here. (Plus since originally posting this entry I've learned it includes the Red Skelton "Whistling" series of which "Whistling in the Dark" is a horror-comedy). Naturally, it’s nominated in the “Book of the Year” category.

• Speaking of Larry Blamire, Martin Arlt interviewed the filmmaker in “Mad Scientist Magazine #22” and his efforts netted him a “Best Interview” nomination.

• Other “Best Blog” nominees that I feel “Scared Silly” fans will enjoy greatly include award-winning sci-fi author August Ragone’s “The Good, the Bad & the Godzilla,” “Monster Island News” and the “Secret Fun Blog.”

…and “Best Toy, Model or Collectible?” Well, really, who could resist Funko’s Universal Monster Plushies?



I can’t… can you?!

So that’s the skinny. You can vote for as few or as many categories as you like. I encourage you to take a good look at the ballot, and once you make your choices, email your votes to taraco@aol.com and be sure to include your name (the awards has a one vote per person rule) by Midnight, March 27, 2011.

Meanwhile, here's a nice montage of Rondo Hatton movie posters:

RIP KENNETH MARS

One of the most hilarious character actors ever has left us. Kenneth Mars is one of those performers that appeared in many projects and was always excellent, but had he done nothing else but his two most famous roles, his place in comedy history would be ensured.

Those roles? Misguided playwright Franz Liebkind from one of the funniest (if not the funniest) films of all time, Mel Brooks' "The Producers." Brooks also provided Mars with his other most famous role, that of Inspector Kemp in the 1970s horror-comedy homage to Universal monster movies, "Young Frankenstein."

Mars did a myriad of other work (many fans cite "What's Up Doc" as another Mars highlight), including several genre and fantasy shows like "Get Smart" and "The Ghost of Mrs. Muir" but his only other forays into horror comedy were doing voices for Scooby Doo and Teen Wolf cartoons. His performances were always top-notch and professional even when the scripts and productions he appeared in weren't.

Here then is a clip from "Young Frankenstein" with Mars spoofing the clueless inspector roles that often populated the Universal monster films. Rest in peace, funny man!