Hasslein Blog: October 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 027—The War Machines

By T. Scott Edwards

And so we reach the end of Season 3, one of the most insanely inconsistent series in the show's history – and what a way to end. The War Machines is a pivotal moment in the show – other than Planet of Giants, we've not visited the present day before, although of course it will become a standard location in the future. Whilst this adventure is certainly not the finest, it has some wonderful moments, says farewell to Dodo and welcomes the adorable Ben and Polly into the TARDIS.

From the opening titles, specially commissioned and wonderfully realised in their bold font, we are aware that something unusual is happening – the Doctor and Dodo step out of the TARDIS, seen materialising from a beautiful panning aerial shot, and Hartnell instantly gets goose-bumps – he senses an evil presence nearby, a feeling not unlike that he feels when near the Daleks. Of course, this is wonderful foreshadowing of a story which is to come in almost a year's time, but set on the same date as The War Machines. It utilises the inherent fear we all have of the dangers of modern technology – artificial intelligence now is something of a cliché, but at the time it is bold and new – WOTAN is terrifying precisely because it is incapable of error.

Quite how the Doctor and Dodo manage to infiltrate Post Office tower with such ease is beyond me. That said, I like that it manages to prevent an awful lot of back-and-forth before we get into the action proper, and takes us straight into the action. Once inside, the Doctor and his assistant are introduced to Professor Brett and his creation, WOTAN. An interesting side-note is the pronunciation of WOTAN, as though it started with a V. WOTAN is an acronym, and yet it is mispronounced by everyone – although, having said that, Wotan is the Germanic name for the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Odin. What's bizarre is how excited Hartnell's Doctor becomes by this machine, able to 'think' and answer a question about 5 times slower than it would have taken to type the question into a calculator. Also, quite how the computer is able to answer Dodo's question is unclear – how has it been programmed to know the answer to a question that no-one on Earth should know?!

Getting Into Character, Part Eight: Acid PopTart

by Rich Handley

Earlier this year, while preparing an article for Bleeding Cool Magazine issue #6, I spoke with eight cosplayers who shared their insights into why they enjoy dressing up, how they craft their creations, the mainstreaming of comic books, and the sexism and negativity that some women face regarding their participation in a once male-dominated hobby. That issue recently hit stands, containing truncated versions of the interviews I conducted with each costumer, in a roundtable format. Now that the article is in print, I thought I'd highlight each cosplayer by presenting his or her unedited answers on this blog. This is the final installment in that series. You can read all of the interviews here.

Cosplayer: Acid PopTart

Web sites: modelmayhem.com/acidpoptart, facebook.com/theacidpoptart

Acid PopTart as the Scarlett Witch (Photo courtesy Lost or Forgotton; MUA: The Painted Magpie)

RICH HANDLEY: How long have you been cosplaying, and what first drew you to the hobby? Do you create your own costumes or purchase them—and if you create them, what goes into making a typical getup?

ACID POPTART: Oh my, here comes the telltale signs of my age. Anyone remember the "bad girl" surge of the early '90s? I came into costuming just about that time. My first costuming venture was my first foray into comics. believe it or not—pr I should say, more mainstream ones. I had ventured into comic shops sure, but just to pick up Love and Rockets and Sandman. It wasn't until I was at MarCon, helping a friend with her booth, watching people walking around like extras out of the Hobbit cartoon, that this guy came up and started talking to me. I'm from the South and had just recently moved, and as I started to converse with him, he just stopped me and said, "Oh my god, you're perfect for Rogue." I said, "Who?" and he replied, "X-Men?" and I again said, "Who?" To make a long story short, the guy was Scott Crawford, and we became friends and he gave me a stack of X-Men comics to learn about Rogue. He begin making the costume and I took care of the wig, and I was one of the first members of his cosplay group. My first wig was this hideous brown thing that looked like some K-Mart blue light special. Thankfully, I had one specially made by the time we did our photo shoot, which landed us the grand prize in the Wizard Guide to Comics annual costume contest.

Reviewers Agree—Back in Time: The Back to the Future Timeline Is Heavy, Doc!

Reviews are showing up for Hasslein Books' second Back to the Future reference guide. Back in Time: The Back to the Future Timeline, by Greg Mitchell and Rich Handley—a follow-up to last year's A Matter of Time: The Back to the Future Lexicon—is currently available as a BTTF.com exclusive, but will also be sold at Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com and BarnesandNoble.com, as well as for resellers, starting in November.

"Your new book is amazing! OK, guys, you get the crown for sure now—I don't think anyone knows more about the BTTF universe than you do! I'm blown away by all of the info—scary that I unleashed all of this! Anyway, I hope you sell lots of copies, and thanks for being such a committed fan! (Let's just hope you aren't committed as a result of all of this!)"
—Bob Gale, Co-writer, Back to the Future Film Trilogy; Author, Retribution High

"Check out the new book from Hasslein Books! These things are so incredible—I wish I could go back in time and give one to my younger self!"
—AJ LoCascio, Voice Actor, Marty McFly, Telltale Games' Back to the Future: The Game

"I can't stress enough how much heart, passion and dedication have gone into these Back to the Future books. As a Back to the Future fan, this book rejuvenates everything I fell in love with about the films growing up and now fills my imagination with not just the events I'm familiar with, but long-forgotten or newly discovered adventures too."—Steve Czarnecki, Beyond the Marquee

"This is such a wonderful project, and these are such well-made books... Buy both books—then go back in time and buy them again! It's a beautiful book! So well written. Can't put it down!"
—Guy Hutchinson, Host, Flux Capaci-cast 12, TheACPN.com

"I found this to be a highly enjoyable read, a trip back to a period where the first sparks of my love for sci-fi and smart plotting erupted. I would recommend the thorough and fun Back in Time: The Back to the Future Chronology to any hardcore fan."—Jamil Scalese, Comics Bulletin

"...a fun read for movie watchers of all ages who can’t get enough of the clock tower and Marvin Berry and Huey Lewis, future skateboards, and Old West steampunk time travel trains. As unauthorized works go, Back in Time is better than the average chronology book, on par with the Star Trek Captain’s Logs series of books."—C.J. Bunce, Borg.com

Labels: AJ LoCascio, Back to the Future, Beyond the Marquee, Bob Gale, Comics Bulletin, Greg Mitchell Jamil Scalese, Guy Hutchinson, reviews, Rich Handley, Steve Czarnecki, Telltale Games, TheACPN.com

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 026—The Savages

By T. Scott Edwards

The Savages is another of those much-maligned serials, tragically, since it is, once again, one which is missing in its entirety. And again, this is a pure travesty. After the questionable validity of some claims that certain serials are brilliant, but with no evidence either for it or to the contrary, comes yet another lost story which, again, sounds fabulous. There are one or two moving moments, but overall this is another audio with a few telesnaps.

The first thing of interest about this serial is the lack of individual episode titles, which is both a good and bad thing – whilst it ensures the audience know exactly what they are watching throughout, and it saves confusion arisen from naming crises such as "which one is The Mutants?", I can't help but feel that it takes a dash of the fun out of the thing in future episodes, where we are consciously aware that it's "a Dalek story!" well in advance of the tin-pot terrors ever turning up. Having said that, the rise in popularity since the show started pretty much guaranteed to ruin any shock factor anyhow, with the Radio Times often featuring them anyhow, and destroying spoilers. But more on that in the future – yes, I'm talking about you, dinosaurs!

The incidental music for this serial is simply magnificent, and the use of strings is wonderful – at times majestic, and often contrasted with a fuller, more melodious tune, it is at its most effective during the Savage attack in episode 1. Throughout, though, Raymond Jones' score complements the serial beautifully.

The stark contrasts are not just on the score, though, and from what we can tell the differences between Savages and Elders is rather striking – against the quarry backdrop which will become such a trademark of Doctor Who in the future, with some wonderful location filming, the Savages look positively horrific, brandishing their spears with gusto and dressed in their finest cloth bags. To juxtapose this, the Elders are dressed wonderfully in magnificently luxurious tunics.

Creature Feature! Part 4: "As the Rain Enters the Soil…"

by Joseph F. Berenato

During the course of this series, I have done my best to take you on a journey through my childhood, and impart upon all of you exactly what it was about each Universal Monster that made me crazy about them. I've given anecdotes about my interests beforehand, and toys that I had, and games that I would play with my Mom, and have woven those together with each week's feature in the hopes that maybe you'd appreciate the Universal Monsters as much as I do.

This week, however, I got nothin'.

There really isn't much from my childhood that initially attracted me to this week's feature. It isn't about my favorite character—though I do like him; it doesn't star my favorite monster movie actor—though I can't picture anyone else in the role; and it isn't my favorite sub-genre of monster movies—though, if done properly, it IS a fun one.

So what's my attraction? It's just a damned good movie.

That doesn't mean that the film didn't have an ex post facto influence on my childhood once I saw it. Out of all my Remco Mini-Monsters, this character is the only action figure still in my possession, and I put him out every year with my Halloween decorations. For months on end I would bay at the full moon. I even once bought a silver wolf-headed sword cane because of this week's feature.

If you haven't figured it out by now, well, then, stay in your seats. The lights are dimming, and it's time to enjoy the show!

The Wolf Man, in THIS writer's opinion, is the quintessential werewolf movie.

New High School Horror Novel by BTTF Co-writer Bob Gale

Retribution High, a new novel by Bob Gale, is now available exclusively in Amazon's Kindle Store for $3.99, and from the Kindle Lending Library. A print version will be available soon. Retribution High is a dark, twisted, horrific tale of high school bullying, subtitled "A Short Violent Novel of Bullying, Revenge, and the Hell known as High School."

16-year-old best friends Mitch Simon and Jordy Hubbard are two of the smallest kids in their suburban high school. All they want to do is hang together, mind their own business and survive their junior year. But their size, their lowly status, and their rumored sexual orientation makes them the targets of "The Syndicate," a group of rich, arrogant kids who take pleasure in relentlessly bullying, tormenting and humiliating them, directly and on the internet. Desperate and powerless, with no one to turn to, Mitch and Jordy fervently pray to heaven for help during a very intense lightning storm. Amazingly, it soon arrives in the form of James Batt, a seemingly clueless kid who immediately becomes the primary focus of The Syndicate. But "J.B." isn't exactly what he seems, and before long, the boys—and everyone else at school—are wondering: just who is this new kid, where is he from, and what's his agenda?

As J.B. says,"Sometimes God answers prayers, and sometimes the devil does."

Getting Into Character, Part Seven: Jean Gomez

by Rich Handley

Earlier this year, while preparing an article for Bleeding Cool Magazine issue #6, I spoke with eight cosplayers who shared their insights into why they enjoy dressing up, how they craft their creations, the mainstreaming of comic books, and the sexism and negativity that some women face regarding their participation in a once male-dominated hobby. That issue recently hit stands, containing truncated versions of the interviews I conducted with each costumer, in a roundtable format. Now that the article is in print, I thought I'd highlight each cosplayer by presenting his or her unedited answers on this blog. You can read the other interviews here.

Cosplayer: Jean Gomez

Web sites: facebook.com/jeangomezcosplay, wondercosplay.tumblr.com

Jean Gomez on the bridge of the Enterprise, mixing the generations.

RICH HANDLEY: How long have you been cosplaying, and what first drew you to the hobby?

JEAN GOMEZ: Ive been cosplaying for several years now, and it all started back when I first attended Comic Con. I was so intrigued seeing all the elaborate costumes that I knew I had to be apart of this world!

Jean as Jessica Rabbit.
She's not bad; she's just drawn that way.

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 025—The Gunfighters

By T. Scott Edwards

It seems fitting that I've reached The Gunfighters just in time for the new episode of the new series, A Town Called Mercy, which sees the 11th incarnation of the Doctor returning to the Wild West. As I mentioned in my last blog, for The Celestial Toymaker, this serial was, for many many years regarded as the worst Doctor Who ever made. In that same blog, I refuted the claims of Loficier and Haining, saying that what they saw as an absolute gem was actually pretty appalling—and here, I'll do the exact opposite. Whilst it isn't my favourite Doctor Who ever, by any means, The Gunfighters is certainly not the worst serial ever produced—it isn't even the worst of Hartnell's tenure. In fact, it's a delight.

Seriously—it is. For one thing, from the very opening, it has Hartnell back centre stage. After weeks and weeks of gradually being written out by the former production team, and being sidelined for no perceivable reason, he is back in the spotlight, and fortunately the serial plays to his greatest strength—comedy. And this is a comedy. A really, really funny one. It was unfairly referred to as Talbot Rothwell comedy at best—but having said that, Rothwell is responsible for what was voted the greatest one-liner of all time, so that isn't really a put-down either. Hartnell is rarely better than when he has some juicy and hilarious dialogue, and here, Cotton has provided joke after joke for his deadpan delivery. He isn't his giggling self here—he's delivering zingers, turbo-charged with comedy—"Doc Holliday's a great friend of mine. He gave me a gun, he extracted my tooth. Good gracious me, what more do you want?" is a wonderful line—and so here we have him at his best.

What's more, Purves too thrives on the chance to do comedy again. After his first appearance in the series as Morton back in The Chase, it's great fun to see him doing his speedy double takes and eye rolling. Even better than Purves, though, is Jackie Lane as Dodo—for the first time, she's proactive and engaged in a storyline, not feeling like a useless spare part. She shines in this serial—sadly it was evidently too little too late, and she'd already been told that she was to be removed within the next two storylines.

Getting Into Character, Part Six: Ryan Espin

by Rich Handley

Earlier this year, while preparing an article for Bleeding Cool Magazine issue #6, I spoke with eight cosplayers who shared their insights into why they enjoy dressing up, how they craft their creations, the mainstreaming of comic books, and the sexism and negativity that some women face regarding their participation in a once male-dominated hobby. That issue recently hit stands, containing truncated versions of the interviews I conducted with each costumer, in a roundtable format. Now that the article is in print, I thought I'd highlight each cosplayer by presenting his or her unedited answers on this blog. You can read the other interviews here.

Cosplayer: Ryan Espin

Web sites: facebook.com/ryan.espin, facebook.com/ghostbustersshadowcast, minionsofgozer.com

RICH HANDLEY: How long have you been cosplaying, and what first drew you to the hobby?

RYAN ESPIN: I've been cosplaying for as long as I've been part of the Minions, which was February 2011. It was a gradual thing. I've always loved being in costume for Halloween, right down to nailing each one of my costumes to a tee, be it the Joker or a zombie JFK. When I found out the Minions of Gozer was happening, I was ecstatic to say the least about an opportunity to reenact my favorite movie of all time. Fortunately, I landed the role of Venkman and have loved every second of it!

Ryan Espin, with Jamaal Stone, Jimmy Roike and Eliko Aharon.
Photo courtesy J.A. Starr Photography and Minions of Gozer.

The Sacred Scrolls: The Planet of the Apes Wikia Page

By Neil Moxham

"The immensely tall, cadaverously lean body is topped by a head discernibly human, though the great aquiline nose suggests an eagle's beak. Even the long fingers are raptorially curved like claws. But the eagle seems blind. Where there should be eyes, there is facial flesh. Then a curious thing happens. Mendez says: 'Let me look at you' and turns slowly into profile to reveal that his eyes are at the sides of his face and not in front. He can, like a great bird, look outwards but not forwards."

These were the wonderfully graphic words writer Paul Dehn used to introduce 'Mendez the twenty-sixth', hereditary leader of a horribly mutated race of people inhabiting a future Earth in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. But as any of you who have seen that 1970 sequel to the record-setting 1968 original film will have noticed, the practicalities of film making prevented Dehn's nightmare from being fully realized, replaced instead by the more familiar mask-wearing monsters. It's only comparatively recently that we can view the original draft script and read passages like this, prior to their distillation through rewrites, directors, producers and editors. The Sacred Scrolls—the Planet of the Apes wikia—is a site dedicated to shining a light into these dark corners of the underground tunnel system that is the Planet of the Apes franchise.

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 024—The Celestial Toymaker

By T. Scott Edwards

The Celestial Toymaker, and for that matter the following story, The Gunfighters, are two oddities within fandom. For years, The Celestial Toymaker was viewed as an absolute classic, the zenith of Doctor Who at its most surreal and brilliant. Opposing this, more of which will be said in the following blog, The Gunfighters was the worst serial the series had ever produced, terrible in every single way. The vast majority of those who raved over Toymaker and spoke disparagingly of Gunfighters had never seen either serial – much of fandom is easily swayed by what is deemed as lore, and Jean-Marc Lofficier's guide, as well as Peter Haining's "A Celebration" were available at such a time when VHS and Target novelisations were largely unavailable, and as such the only way many could experience the stories was from the viewpoint of another. As such, what Haining said went – and fans were dismissive of one whilst craving the other. What is ironic is that whilst The Gunfighters exists in its entirety, and has since been released on VHS and, recently, DVD, The Celestial Toymaker only has one existent episode from the four made (the final part) and so it is only through the novelisation and the soundtrack that we can experience it.

The trouble with that, though, is that this is one which is clearly supposed to be seen. Whilst stories like Marco Polo are a huge loss to the series, they still work on an audio level. The dialogue is rich enough, and with the linking narration it is still utterly magical. This story, however, suffers massively by only being audio. The incidental music is great, jarring nicely between childish and bizarre, but there are too many sections where only physical sections occur, and the dialogue is clunky and uninspiring, so we're left with nothing.

Which brings me to my first bone of contention – the first of many – with this serial. Following on from the cliffhanger of last week's episode, with the Doctor seeming to disappear entirely, under some form of attack, we are welcomed to the Celestial Toyroom, plaything of a demigod who whiles away his time tormenting people with diabolical games for his own entertainment. Hartnell's exposition suggests that he and the Toymaker, played by the wonderful Michael Gough, are old enemies, and have competed before. The Doctor is quickly swept off to another room, and forced to play the Trilogic game whilst Steven and Dodo are forced to play a series of deadly games to recapture the TARDIS. And my issue is this – the Trilogic game is shit. Really, really bad. It's a ridiculous game, played by children all over the country, probably originating in China (which explains to some extent the Toymaker's Mandarin appearance, maybe). However grand the Toymaker's speech – that it is "A game for the mind, Doctor, the developed mind. Difficult for the practiced mind. Dangerous for the mind that has become old, lazy or weak" – it is essentially just a basic board game. There is no threat, no danger.

Hammer Horror: Paranoiac

By Rocko Jerome

1961's Hammer entry Paranoiac doesn't feature a conventional villain at all. In fact, it's a bit hard to determine who's the protagonist and who's the antagonist. Oliver Reed brilliantly plays an angry young man swinging out of control, but it would seem that he could be the (anti)hero of the thing. You don't know for sure until the final real.

Hammer Horror is notable in that it avoids schlock. You would expect elements of camp, which are completely absent from the better ones. That’s certainly true here. Paranoiac deserves to be regarded in the rarefied critical air of Psycho. And like Psycho, the less you know going in, the better.

Rocko Jerome has lived many lives. Right now, he's a writer. You can read Rocko's work at his blog and at Atomic Wanderers.

Labels: Hammer Films, Oliver Reed, Paranoiac, Psycho, Rocko Jerome

The Surreal Reality of This Missing Episode Find

By Greg Bakun

Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World $9.99 (6 episodes)

Doctor Who: The Web of Fear $9.99 (6 episodes)

Released by BBC Home Entertainment on iTunes: October 10, 2013

4:3 Mono black and white

I have been living in a hazy world the last couple of days. I'll tell you a secret. For the last few days, I have been able to watch the lost Doctor Who stories The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear whenever and wherever I want. What? You have been able to do the same thing, too? That's right. We have all been able to do so, in what is one of the greatest moves BBC Worldwide has ever made.

We have entered a new era in how we get to see these missing episodes of Doctor Who. To me, I put my advertising industry hat on and I feel like suddenly the Doctor Who brand is more cohesive than it ever has been before now when it released these stories to us. It's taken us a long time to get to this point, but we are really benefitting from the fruits of the planning it took to get us there.

Getting Into Character, Part Five: Kit Quinn

by Rich Handley

Earlier this year, while preparing an article for Bleeding Cool Magazine issue #6, I spoke with eight cosplayers who shared their insights into why they enjoy dressing up, how they craft their creations, the mainstreaming of comic books, and the sexism and negativity that some women face regarding their participation in a once male-dominated hobby. That issue recently hit stands, containing truncated versions of the interviews I conducted with each costumer, in a roundtable format. Now that the article is in print, I thought I'd highlight each cosplayer by presenting his or her unedited answers on this blog. You can read the other interviews here.

Cosplayer: Kit Quinn

Web sites: facebook.com/misskitquinn, twitter.com/misskitquinn, facebook.com/sweetheartsofthegalaxy

Kit as Watchmen's Silk Spectre
Photo courtesy Jim Blair

Creature Feature! Part 3: We'll See Whether I'm Crazy or Not!

by Joseph F. Berenato

I have mentioned, at some length actually, my mom's influence in my love for the Universal Monsters. As I sit down each week to write these installments, though, the depth of her influence — and the slow, subtle brain-washing — becomes more and more apparent, as memory after memory begins to unfold in my mind.

So much of my childhood was devoted to the monsters, you see. Besides the Remco Mini-Monsters and the Crestwood Monster books, Mom furthered my indoctrination with both the Mighty Men & Monster Maker, and the Pop-O-Matic! game Yipes!.

Those of you who had the MM&MM will instantly remember it, and remember how it worked. For those of you who didn't, a brief run-down: there were a few dozen plates, featuring heads, torsos and legs, some belonging to good guys, and some belonging to bad guys. You could mix and match and make hundreds of combinations. You placed them in the left part of the toy, covered the plates with a sheet of paper, and traced over it with the crayon provided. BOOM: instant mighty man, or monster. I must have made hundreds of these, and our refrigerator was, at one point, absolutely COVERED with them. The most fun, though, was when Mom would decide which plates to use, and she would trace it, and then it was MY job to bring it to life with colored pencils. When I made the monsters, I'd make them as scary and villainous as I possibly could; when Mom did, though, they seemed somehow more human than my creations. More sympathetic.

The complete opposite occurred, though, whenever we played Yipes!. The object of the game was rather simple — much like Trouble!, you popped the bubble in the center, which turned a die and gave you the number of spaces you could move. Your playing piece was a little boy, and you had to beat the other players to the center of the board. Once there, though, you swapped out your piece for the monster, and then you chased the other players back to the beginning of the board. If you passed one, you ate them, and they were out. Points were awarded somehow, and the player with the most points after three rounds won the game. Somehow Mom always ended up being the monster, and she was absolutely merciless. She'd make these loud growling noises with every move, and actually said "Munch munch munch!" whenever she'd pass me.

A lot of that had to do with the way the monster looked, though. It was crudely sculpted, sure, but there was no mistaking who it was patterned after: Frankenstein's monster.

The Alien/Predator Comic Strips, Part One

By Jean-François Boivin

The Aliens and Predator licenses have been held by Dark Horse Comics since 1988 and 1989 (respectively), and several series of each and/or both franchises have been published over the years. But some harder-to-find stories were published outside of the regular comics medium either for promotional reasons, or as crossovers with another publisher, or because magazines are the medium for comic strips in that country. In this series of blogs, I will cover all the Aliens and/or Predator comic strips that were published in various magazines.

HEAVY METAL

The American comic magazine Heavy Metal debuted in April 1977. It was created by the editors of National Lampoon as an English language version of the artistic French publication Métal Hurlant that had started publication more than two years prior. But Heavy Metal Publications, Inc., soon branched out into publishing some original graphic novels as part of a Heavy Metal Presents series* (distributed by Simon & Schuster). In summer of 1979, one of those books was titled Alien: The Illustrated Story, adapted from the 20th Century Fox movie by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Walter Simonson, two giants of the comics industry. The book came out around the same time as the movie, but to give us a taste, "The adult illustrated fantasy magazine" presented a two-part preview of the book at the beginning of their third year of publication, in the May and June 1979 issues of the magazine.

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 023—The Ark

By T. Scott Edwards

"The Ark" is a fascinating example of Doctor Who at its very best. Essentially a warning against taking advantage of others, and the ingrained xenophobia prevalent in much of society, it throws the audience from the relative safety of the 'known'—the Historicals—and the unknown—the sci-fi stories—by suggesting that all that we have seen has been within one particular quadrant of time, and that, instead, we are being thrown into the 57th segment of time. Whilst in the past it has been the purpose of the crew to save the Earth from destruction and invasion, here we are asked to look at a future in which the world has already been destroyed. The remaining humans are travelling through space, in the Ark of the title (as named by Dodo) and are searching for a new home upon which to settle. It is a theme which was touched upon in "Galaxy Four," and one which will be revisited in numerous stories in the future, whether with humans, in stories like "The Ark in Space," or other alien species in tales like "The Horns of Nimon." The very nature of these nomadic people throws the audience, forcing us to question exactly how we would react given the same situation.

Hammer Horror: Curse Of Frankenstein

By Rocko Jerome

Another tremendous Hammer offering was The Curse of Frankenstein. In a bit of role reversal, Christopher Lee played the sympathetic monster and Peter Cushing portrayed Dr.Frankenstein. Unlike Universal's version or even the original novel, Cushing as Frankenstein was an awful, demented bastard. A twist of obvious brilliance, because really, wouldn't it be a pretty ghoulish entity that would stitch corpses together and presume to create life in such a manner?

Every bit of suave sophistication Christopher Lee brought to Dracula was completely absent in the misbegotten creature he portrayed here. The scene in which he has first gotten loose—a stumbling, horrifying thing that looks every bit like you would imagine living death—is one of the most fantastic depictions of a monster you could ever find. Although the make-up is obviously dated, it's all in the way that Lee moves, utilizing his training as a mime.

Rocko Jerome has lived many lives. Right now, he's a writer. You can read Rocko's work at his blog and at Atomic Wanderers.

Labels: Christopher Lee, Dracula, Frankenstein, Hammer Films, Peter Cushing, Rocko Jerome, Universal Monsters

Creature Feature! Part 2: He Went For A Little Walk…

by Joseph F. Berenato

Growing up in my house, we had neither basic cable nor a VCR until 1984, the year I turned six years old. Up until that time, if it didn't come on VHF or UHF, I didn't see it. And even when we got our first VCR, it was a used, top-loading model that seemed about to collapse under the weight of its own craptasticity. But to a six-year-old, that didn't matter. Suddenly whole new worlds of motion picture wonder made themselves available to me, and I took full advantage of them.

So it was around that time — even though it had been released a few years prior — that I finally got to see Raiders of the Lost Ark. It had so much that enthralled me — heroism, mysticism, evil enemies, the list goes on — but one of the things that stuck in my mind the most was the setting — Egypt. Up until that time I had had precious little exposure to anything involving ancient Egypt, and suddenly I wanted more — much more.

Besides the treasures and the kings and the strange gods and practices, what appealed to me most was the written language itself — hieroglyphics. An entire written language consisting solely of pictograph? Now THERE was a language that made SENSE to a six-year-old! As such, for Christmas in my seventh year of life, Santa Claus (in what was surely the strangest item to ever leave his workshop) brought me Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge. Before my parents knew it, I was scrawling scarabs and reeds and ankhs and ibises EVERYWHERE.

But that still wasn't enough.

G.I. Joe #19: "Joe Triumphs!"

By James McFadden

Thirty years ago today, one of the most memorable issues in the early run of Marvel's G.I. Joe comic book series was released. It came with a January 1984 cover date, but in that era of comics, an issue's release date was actually months earlier. G.I. Joe #19 was the culmination of a storyline that began with issue #12; up until then, the series mostly consisted of standalone issues. In the early days, Hasbro's Cobra action figures mostly consisted of faceless henchman, prompting writer Larry Hama to create original villains. Previous stories gave us Kwinn the Eskimo mercenary, and Cobra's original mad scientist, Dr. Venom. Issue #12 introduces the Cobra courier, Scar-face, who runs afoul of G.I. Joe while delivering samples of a virus to Dr. Venom. A small team of Joes tracks Scar-face to the tiny country of Sierra Gordo, but is soon captured by Kwinn. In the end, Cobra's Baroness deems Venom and Kwinn expendable and drops a bomb on an island bunker, seemingly killing the two villains along with Snake-Eyes. Both G.I. Joe and Cobra leave the country, unaware the trio actually survived.

Left to right: Kwinn, Dr. Venom, Scar-face

Bob Gale No Longer Thinks I'm Insane

Last December, I received an e-mail from Back to the Future screenwriter and producer Bob Gale regarding my first BTTF book, A Matter of Time: The Back to the Future Lexicon, which left me grinning wider than Biff Tannen's shoulders. It read:

"Rich, you are certifiably insane! But I'm glad you are! And now YOU are THE authority on all things BTTF! Jeez, there's stuff in here even I didn't know...or didn't want to know...or wanted to forget! (However, I admit that I never played the 8-bit Nintendo game for more than 10 minutes—and if you did, you are either dedicated beyond the pale or a masochist!) Anyway, two gigantic thumbs up from me!"

Great Scott! To say I was excited by such praise, given the source, would be an understatement potentially capable of disrupting the entire space-time continuum. (Click here and you'll see what my dorky reaction was at the time. I'm actually a little embarrassed about it, in retrospect.)

Well, a few days ago, I heard from Bob again, this time regarding Back in Time: The Back to the Future Lexicon, which I co-wrote with Greg Mitchell. And here's what he had to say this time:

"Your new book is amazing! OK, Rich, you get the crown for sure now—I don't think anyone knows more about the BTTF universe than you do! I'm blown away by all of the info—scary that I unleashed all of this! Anyway, I hope you sell lots of copies, and thanks for being such a committed fan! (Let's just hope you aren't committed as a result of all of this!)"

This kind of praise is truly staggering, and I'm humbled. That said, I want to make something clear: I am NOT the greatest expert on Back to the Future—not by a long-shot. People like Greg Mitchell, Stephen Clark, Steven Greenwood and others out-class me by a mile in that regard. In fact, it was Greg's idea to write this book, and he did a fantastic job of penning the first draft, so a lot of Bob's praise should go to him, and not me. But I am certainly among the most OCD-affected, which helps with books like these. Plus, I surround myself with people who ARE experts on the subject, as well as publishing professionals who know what they're doing, which just makes me look good by association (because, hey, I'm not a stupid fellow).

So thanks, Bob, for your amazing praise about our writing, and for giving us something even more amazing to write about in the first place. And thanks to director Robert Zemeckis, as well as the amazing casts, crews and creative teams who brought Back to the Future to life in the films, cartoons, comics and video games. If our books are worth reading, it's primarily due to the efforts of these brilliant individuals.

Thanks also to Paul Giachetti, my Hasslein Books partner and long-time close friend; Pat Carbajal, whose brilliant cover and interior artwork is so phenomenal it defies words; Stephen C. and Steven G., for all of their guidance and support; Dan Madsen, the founder of the original BTTF Fan Club, for writing the timeline book's foreword; Steve Cafarelli, another long-time friend, for building and maintaining this Web site; and Joseph F. Berenato and Paul Simpson, for their invaluable proofreading assistance. This book was truly a collaborative effort, and without the above buttheads, both of our Back to the Future books would have made like a tree and never been published.

Labels: Back to the Future, Bob Gale, Greg Mitchell

Getting Into Character, Part Four: Valerie Perez

by Rich Handley

Earlier this year, while preparing an article for Bleeding Cool Magazine issue #6, I spoke with eight cosplayers who shared their insights into why they enjoy dressing up, how they craft their creations, the mainstreaming of comic books, and the sexism and negativity that some women face regarding their participation in a once male-dominated hobby. That issue recently hit stands, containing truncated versions of the interviews I conducted with each costumer, in a roundtable format. Now that the article is in print, I thought I'd highlight each cosplayer by presenting his or her unedited answers on this blog. You can read the other interviews here.

Cosplayer: Valerie Perez

Web sites: valerieperez.com, facebook.com/officialvalerieperez, twitter.com/valerie_perez

RICH HANDLEY: How long have you been cosplaying, and what first drew you to the hobby?

VALERIE PEREZ: I began cosplaying about seven years ago. There were Lara Croft lookalike contests on the Web, asking fans to submit photos for prizes. I had long admired her character and loved playing in Photoshop, so it seemed like the perfect fun project for me.

In her satin tights, fighting for our rights and the old Red, White and Blue,
Valerie Perez is truly a wonder to behold. Photo courtesy Brent @BattyBlogger

Getting Into Character, Part Three: Darlena Marie Blander

by Rich Handley

Earlier this year, while preparing an article for Bleeding Cool Magazine issue #6, I spoke with eight cosplayers who shared their insights into why they enjoy dressing up, how they craft their creations, the mainstreaming of comic books, and the sexism and negativity that some women face regarding their participation in a once male-dominated hobby. That issue recently hit stands, containing truncated versions of the interviews I conducted with each costumer, in a roundtable format. Now that the article is in print, I thought I'd highlight each cosplayer by presenting his or her unedited answers on this blog. You can read the other interviews here.

Cosplayer: Darlena Marie Blander

Web sites: facebook.com/darlenamariecosplays, facebook.com/nycpn

RICH HANDLEY: How long have you been cosplaying, and what first drew you to the hobby?

DARLENA MARIE BLANDER: I've been costuming for eight years now. I started out with Star Trek and Renaissance, then branched off into steam-punk and comic characters. Since I was in elementary school, I've always been involved in performing in school plays, and then, as I got older, community theatre, so wearing costumes has always been a fun avenue to express creativity and fantasy!

Darlena as The X-men's Storm
(photo courtesy Carlos A. Smith)

Hammer Horror: Horror Of Dracula

By Rocko Jerome

When it comes to classic horror films, some will always swear by Universal. That was the studio that gave us Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster. But for my dime, my heart belongs to Hammer.

The key to Hammer was that they managed to hire great actors, real Shakespearian thespians looking for quick and easy work in the off seasons. To them, the stage was the thing, and anything else was slumming. Movies weren't so interesting to them, but as true dramatic actors, playing literary characters in genre movies was a smooth proposition. That's Christopher Lee as Dracula. True to Bram Stoker’s vision, he played the Count as something of a gentleman, practicing a brand of evil that is almost subliminal.

Although Mr.Lee played the immortal count a number of times, I can only recommend the first Dracula feature, titled Horror of Dracula in the US to avoid copyright issues with Universal. In this relatively loyal retelling of the essence of Bram Stoker's story, Lee faces off against Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, taking turns chowing down on the scenery until their final face-off, which is as memorable a piece of celluloid action as scenes that cost millions more to make.

The trouble with each subsequent Dracula feature was that he was revived and perished again every time out for each cash-grabbing sequel, leading to an impression that he just couldn't get anything right. In my imagination, theres a great unmade Christopher Lee Dracula flick in which the consummate bloodsucker successfully conquered the world, but since it doesn't exist, I just stick to the first one and recommend that you do the same.

Rocko Jerome has lived many lives. Right now, he's a writer. You can read Rocko's work at his blog and at Atomic Wanderers.

Labels: Christopher Lee, Dracula, Guest Blog, Hammer Films, horror, Rocko Jerome

Creature Feature! Part One: "Poor Erik…!"

by Joseph F. Berenato

I have been in love with the Universal Monsters since I was three years old. That year marked the first time (and by no means the last time) I was Dracula for Halloween, the first action figures I can remember owning – Remco's Mini Monsters – and my first major foray into reading, featuring the scholastic tomes you see to the right. There they were, in glorious black and white, ripe for the reading. It was through Crestwood Publishing that I learned all that I needed to know about Frankenstein's monster, Wolf-Man, Dracula and his son, and many, many more.

But I was three, dig? How the hell could I know who they were? Kids don't just magically wake up one day and feel an irresistible impulse to read about dark creatures of the night, unless they're possessed. So where did I learn about these glorious icons of filmdom? Assuming that demoniac possession is taken off the table (and I've got more than a few ex-girlfriends and an ex-wife who wouldn't be so ready to concede that point), I've got my mom to thank.

Getting Into Character, Part Two: The Taffeta Darling

by Rich Handley

Earlier this year, while preparing an article for Bleeding Cool Magazine issue #6, I spoke with eight cosplayers who shared their insights into why they enjoy dressing up, how they craft their creations, the mainstreaming of comic books, and the sexism and negativity that some women face regarding their participation in a once male-dominated hobby. That issue recently hit stands, containing truncated versions of the interviews I conducted with each costumer, in a roundtable format. Now that the article is in print, I thought I'd highlight each cosplayer by presenting his or her unedited answers on this blog. You can read the other interviews here.

Cosplayer: The Taffeta Darling

Web sites: thetaffetadarling.com, curvesandcomics.blogspot.com, facebook.com/taffetadarling

RICH HANDLEY: How long have you been cosplaying, and what first drew you to the hobby?

THE TAFFETA DARLING: Honestly, I've been playing dress-up all my life—starting with my mom's clothes and makeup when I was a youngling, and then in church musicals, which carried on into drama and show choir classes at school. I was heavily involved in theatre throughout junior high and high school. As far as "costuming in public" as various superheros, movie or cartoon characters, since 2009. I started as a pinup/plus-size model in 2008, then made the transition of doing theme shoots in the spring of 2009. My first character was Zatanna, and I started selling prints of myself as Zatanna in early 2010.

The Taffeta Darling, perfectly channeling Kelly LeBrock's Lisa from Weird Science

Still Just a Bill

"I'm just a bill. Yes, I'm only only a bill.
And I've lost my steam on Capitol Hill.
Because a useless bunch of jerkoffs
in the capitol city
let the government shut down,
'cause their attitude is shitty.
Oh, I'd like to be a law someday!
But now there's no damn way that I will.
Yet we pay Congress still.
Makes me ill."

(NOTE: Some people have taken me to task, saying, "Obamacare isn't a bill—it's a law."
Yes, yes, I know. I realize that. I'm referring not to Obamacare, but rather to all the
many other bills that are now stagnating while the U.S. Congress fails to get
anything done due to having utterly failed the American citizens.)

Labels: Congress sucks, government shutdown, I'm just a bill, Schoolhouse Rock

Getting Into Character, Part One: Becka Noel

by Rich Handley

Every year, conventions attract thousands of science fiction, comic book, fantasy, animation, horror and gaming fans. One aspect of this phenomenon that has grown in popularity is a performance art known as costume play, or "cosplaying." Costumers wear outfits and accessories befitting a fictional character, concept, creature or machine. Some incorporate role-playing into the hobby, to not just look the part, but also act and speak like the characters being emulated.

Cosplayers come in all shapes, sizes, ages and ethnicities, and their outfits demonstrate talent, hard work and dedication. Despite the media's tendency to focus on sex appeal (or to mock those not fitting the "sexy" image), there is more to the hobby than exhibitionism—it's about passionate fans expressing enjoyment of their favorite franchises. Cosplaying has provided geek culture with a source of pride, fun and community—both for the costumers and for those admiring their work.

The growing emergence of costuming has helped to usher comics, once stigmatized as a hobby for socially awkward males, into the mainstream. Comic-based blockbuster films have been hugely successful, comic-related series have become a television mainstay, and reading comics has emerged as something the "cool crowd"—and even celebrities—are no longer embarrassed to admit they do. Nicolas Cage, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Patton Oswalt, Wil Wheaton, Kristin Bell, Jerry Seinfeld, Seth Green, Rosario Dawson, Simon Pegg, Patrick Stewart and even Barack Obama are all self-proclaimed comic fans. And these days, they're not afraid to admit it.

Earlier this year, while preparing an article for Bleeding Cool Magazine issue #6, I spoke with eight cosplayers who shared their insights into why they enjoy dressing up, how they craft their creations, the mainstreaming of comic books, and the sexism and negativity that some women face regarding their participation in a once male-dominated hobby. That issue hit stands this past week, containing truncated versions of the interviews I conducted with each costumer, in a roundtable format. Now that the article is in print, I thought I'd highlight each cosplayer by presenting his or her unedited answers on this blog.

Cosplayer: Becka Noel

Web sites: beckanoel.com, facebook.com/OfficialBeckaNoel

RICH HANDLEY: How long have you been cosplaying, and what first drew you to the hobby?

BECKA NOEL: I've only been "cosplaying" for four years but I've been making costumes for much longer. I've always been very artistic, attending Pratt Institute to study art and design and continuing to pursue the arts through sculpture, prop making, and cosplay. I got into costuming when I participated in Pratt's annual fashion show (though I wasn't even a fashion major!). I loved it and was hooked! Gaming culture has been a part of my entire life as I grew up with two older brothers and almost every gaming console you could imagine. As I got older and into things like World of Warcraft, putting the two pastimes together was bound to happen!

Becka Noel as Batman's Harley Quinn
Photo credit: Senén Llanos (SenenCito)

Hasslein Blog

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 027—The War Machines

Monday, October 28, 2013

Getting Into Character, Part Eight: Acid PopTart

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Reviewers Agree—Back in Time: The Back to the Future Timeline Is Heavy, Doc!

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 026—The Savages

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Creature Feature! Part 4: "As the Rain Enters the Soil…"

Friday, October 25, 2013

New High School Horror Novel by BTTF Co-writer Bob Gale

Getting Into Character, Part Seven: Jean Gomez

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 025—The Gunfighters

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Getting Into Character, Part Six: Ryan Espin

The Sacred Scrolls: The Planet of the Apes Wikia Page

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 024—The Celestial Toymaker

Monday, October 21, 2013

Hammer Horror: Paranoiac

Thursday, October 17, 2013

The Surreal Reality of This Missing Episode Find

Getting Into Character, Part Five: Kit Quinn

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Creature Feature! Part 3: We'll See Whether I'm Crazy or Not!

The Alien/Predator Comic Strips, Part One

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 023—The Ark

Monday, October 14, 2013

Hammer Horror: Curse Of Frankenstein

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Creature Feature! Part 2: He Went For A Little Walk…

Friday, October 11, 2013

G.I. Joe #19: "Joe Triumphs!"

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Bob Gale No Longer Thinks I'm Insane

Getting Into Character, Part Four: Valerie Perez

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Getting Into Character, Part Three: Darlena Marie Blander

Friday, October 4, 2013

Hammer Horror: Horror Of Dracula

Creature Feature! Part One: "Poor Erik…!"

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Getting Into Character, Part Two: The Taffeta Darling

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Still Just a Bill

Getting Into Character, Part One: Becka Noel

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