TIP OF THE BRAINPAN

Tip of the hat, really, to Pierre Fournier proprietor of http://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/ for doing running the Boris Karloff Blogathon. He made it effortless for those of us who participated and made it look effortless to run one of these things (and I know it was effortful).

It was a ball to look into the life and times of Boris and his career and impact on our pop culture. I'm sure I speak for a lot of us participating when I say I wish I'd had time to post more this week than I did. But there's always next time. And there are still plenty of participating sites that I have yet to visit. I watched three Karloff films during the course of this week and discovered more about the man than I'd known before.

So thanks, Pierre, for focusing our attention on the life of a legend.

G.

MORE TALES OF MYSTERY

Covers from BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY:

The really neat thing, looking back on them now is the painted covers, a fairly common practice at Gold Key in these days and Dell before it. These images just dare the potential reader to open it up. I mean, what the heck is going on on these covers is just too interesting to ignore!






































Images from, a great site for some nifty cover art: http://www.coverbrowser.com/

TWO NOIR

BLAMING BORIS

I guess I can blame Boris Karloff.

I say this as I stare at the cover to BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #33 from Gold Key Comics, which features a huge monster with glowing yellow hypnotic eyes lumbering toward the diminutive humans below who are fleeing in horror. And, as ever, looking on in a little photo at the top near the 15 cents price is a close-up of a distinguished gentleman who seems as calm as ever. As if he’s saying to the reader “I’m not afraid to read this comic book, child, why should you be?”.

I blame him because I recently learned from my older brother that it is the first comic book he ever purchased (or persuaded our mom to buy for him). You see, he wasn’t that interested in superheroes back then, it was more the scary stuff that he liked. But you see, it was his gateway drug into the world of comics. He would grow to love all kinds of comics and since most comics being made in the late 60’s through the mid 70’s were superhero based, he began collecting.

Me being his little brother, I kind of inherited the love of comics. Kind of is an understatement. You see, I’m an addict. I love sequential art. I’ve been buying regularly since I could beg some change from my mom’s purse--a little over thirty years. It’s led to a love of drawing and just plain old popular culture stuff that seems boundless. Hell, it even led to my carreer as a comic book seller.

And now I know that I can blame it all on that one issue of BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY. Which, in turn, means that I can blame it all on Boris’ show THRILLER which was what this comic book series was originally titled and based on.

In a very real way, Karloff shaped my life. Just that one little comic is all it took. I guess it’s too late to thank him for it.

HALLOWEEN SKETCHES

This year I decided to do some seasonal sketches leading up to Halloween and, well, better late than never:

Monsters in the Mighty Marvel Manner

This is my idea of a panel from a typical battle between the Marvel heroes' greatest modern monsters, the Thing and the Hulk.

These two are, creations of the Lee/Kirby partnership created when Marvel was transitioning from the typical 50's style monster comics to the renewed popularity of adventurers and super-heroes. Great monsters because of their designs, great characters because of their personalities.

Characters copyright Marvel Comics. Piece of art created by me during my spare moments at home and work on a piece of packing cardboard using Sharpies and ink pens.

THOR AND ME

Me and the Mego Thor Action Figure. This picture was taken by my Aunt Sandra at her home, probably her son’s birthday party (my cousin David is seated to the right). It was some time after 1976 (as they released Mego Thor that year and I was older than 4 here) and my family was in the local JC Penny when we came upon this Thor action figure. Trouble was, there was also a Mego Conan. I’d never seen either of them before in all my visits to local department stores and here there were the two that I wanted the most. Spider-Man was a dime a dozen, Capain America was as common as clay, Batman and Superman were like glass. And both Thor and Conan were as hard to find as gold. I could only get one. At the time, I remember being torn about the decision. I really did like Thor more, so it wasn’t that hard a decision to make, but I do regret having to leave behind the barbarian. Crom frowned upon me that day. However, Odin smiled. As did I.

KARLOFF BLOGATHON

Boris Karloff will be celebrated on the blogosphere later this month through a series of blogs that will focus their attention on this actor's work in film, television, comics, magazines and all of pop culture for nearly all of the last century.

For all of the information about the blogathon, it's participants and how to join in, check out the following link:







G.