From Zombos' Closet

Mexican Lobby Card: Muertos De Miedo

Not a horror movie, but what caught my interest in this Mexican lobby card is the cigar smoking skull and the lively and stylish execution.

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) Mexican Lobby Card

At a budget of around $12,000 and a shooting schedule of six days, and with Bela Lugosi ill and addicted to morphine, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla had more action off the screen. The Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin look-alike  duo of Petrillo and Mitchell caused a lot of cursing and threats of lawsuits before this turkey was basted. Bela deserved better.

 

Mexican Lobby Card: The Hand of Night

The Hand of Night (aka Beast of Morocco), 1968

Mexican Lobby Card: Santo Contra La Hija De Frankenstein

Graphic Book Review: Dresden Files, Ghoul Goblin

Zombos Says: Very Good

A family curse begun in Cairo, Egypt, in 1917 leads wizard Harry Dresden away from his stomping grounds in Chicago to Missouri, to face even worse danger than the sea creature in Lake Michigan that was aiming to make sushi out of him.

Writers Jim Butcher and Mark Powers complicate things nicely, cast spells neatly, and charge Dresden up with enough cold and flu medications to make his job suitably trenchcoat miserable--or rather I should make that 'inverness coat' difficult, since Dresden likes to dress old school.

With a little help from Bob the talking skull--who's a little snippy after being stuffed in a trunk for so long--and much hurting by flippant creatures vacationing from the Nevernever, the story (note for steadfast fans: it's set between Fool Moon and Grave Peril) takes turns that are bigger than those of the "ginormous" snake god that Dresden summons to provide enough cryptic information to make his job even tougher.

In between the ever explored human versus darker things versus deity indifference with the perennial battle between the two, Dresden is properly burdened with enough sweet and sour memories and good intentions to make us root for him to whip evil's ass and beat those darker things' butts good and plenty. Keeping him a few spells short of being a truly mighty wizard allows his humanity to come through as much as his bruises.

Butcher and Powers' balance of dry humor, bloody encounters, and dramatic surprises is well served by Joseph Cooper's art, which provides enough gritty detail with it's thick lines to carry the storyline to its climax. Deputy Sheriff Prescott, the cursed Talbot family, the town's mayor, the reluctant sheriff (there's always one, at least) who wants Dresden to drive his beat up Volkswagon Beetle far away in the opposite direction, and a very competitive ghoul and goblin, all of them through their characterizations, dialog, and revealed motivations and secrets make this tale a little more sophisticated in plotting and unfolding than the usual comic book series expends energy on.

Now that's quite a well casted spell, indeed.

This graphic book will be released on November 26th.

Movie Pressbook: This is Cinerama

Movie Herald: Smalley's Theater, Hensonville

I found this theater herald, for Smalley's in Hensonville, in an antique store in Windham, New York. Note the six digit phone number. It's an 8.5 x 11 inches sheet that when opened shows the Cry Wolf ad.

SilverHawks Sky-Shadow An Adventure to Color Part 3

Part 1, Part 2

Mexican Lobby Card: Frankenstein El Vampiro Y Compania

SilverHawks Sky-Shadow An Adventure to Color Part 2

Part 1

Part 3

Movie Pressbook: The House in Nightmare Park

Mexican Lobby Card: Museo Del Horror