Strange Change model kit ad

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The "Strange Change" model kit ads
(Click on images to view full size.)

I've been having a blast going through my collection bookcases lately, mining them for material to post on my blogs, here on Sweet Skulls and Monster Memories. Usually, the only time I would get into them very much was when I was packing them up for a move. That was a killer; if you look at them in this picture, you might never guess that they would fill up ten banana boxes each. That's 30 heavy boxes total. I hope I never have to move them again, but that's hoping for too much, I suppose. Otherwise, I only reached into them occasionally as I was looking for something to read on a bathroom visit that threatened to be of extended length. Under such circumstances, you grab what you can off the top of a stack and hoof it!

Now, though, I am seeing things I haven't seen in years, re-discovering items I had forgotten I had. In many cases it's like seeing a friend you haven't come across in years.

Anyway, these ads for the "Strange Change" model kits from the early 70's were something I had forgotten about completely. It must have been well over 30 years since I saw these ads and thought about them! Or course, I never owned one of the kits; if you've read this blog much you know I kept my collecting to things like books, magazines and comics that could fit flat in a drawer, for easy hiding and quick packing. But that didn't keep me from reading and wishing!

"Ah, excuse me, do you have any toilet paper over there? Hello?"

The Vampire was the one I wanted most; I mean, changing from a "living" vampire to a skeleton, and back, how incredibly cool was that? I thought it was the coolest idea in the whole line of hobby kits put out in the MPC line, including the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean kits. It was like a scene from a Hammer Dracula movie!

"Goodbye, I'm off to the age of dinosau....Aaaiieee!"

I always thought it was "strange" that the time machine had the monsters appear inside the craft, but I guess they were taking dramatic license, and assumed that we kids would figure it out that it wasn't merely a fatal design flaw by a careless inventor.

"Close it, close it! Gosh, this is my private time, Mom!"

The Mummy was kind of neat, but he only got a little distressed and dishevelled in his change, not that big a difference. I think the Wolfman would have been a better candidate for a dramatic change. But what would they have put him in? A dog kennel?

If they wanted a truly strange change, they could have made one where Frankenstein's monster changes into the Bride! But that would have been a little ahead of it's time.

Of course, the ultimate would have been to make one with Vampirella; where she changes between slightly dressed and completely undressed! Ah, one can dream...

Don't forget to visit my other blog: Monster Memories!

The Living Skeleton

Today's Skeletal Spotlight shines on:
"The Living Skeleton" story

From Gold Key's "Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery" June, 1970.

(Click image to enlarge.)

If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on the night watchman.

Ooooh, spoooooky!

To get the full effect, this is best read with a flashlight, under the covers, when you are 8 years old. Even then, the most you might get is a slight shiver; this is not the scariest thing ever written. But it's supposed to be a true story, which does make it a little creepy. And after all, we both know that kindly, grandfatherly Boris Karloff or Gold Key Comics wouldn't lie to us kids, would they? Would they?

In the inescapable logic of Criswell...

"Can you prove that it didn't happen?"

I didn't think so.

"Creepers" poster art

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The "Creepers" video release poster
(Click on image to enlarge.)

"Have some bugs, they're rich in protein... mostly mine!"

This is the 1986 promo poster advertising the VHS video debut of Dario Argento's "Creepers," which was the American name of the edited version of "Phenomena." Since I worked in radio, I was able to get on a couple of video release company lists as a reviewer... so they sent me promo material! That was sweet. Between that and getting in good with the local Entertainment Editor at the local newspaper, who gave me their no-longer-needed press kits, I was getting some good stuff. One of the best items was a specially-produced kit for James Cameron's "The Abyss," which was a notebook-bound slick book of stills, behind-the-scenes pics and info, all in a special slipcase. Classy.

I liked "Creepers," being as it was my first exposure to Argento's work, and the art is neat in this version of the poster. Another version (pictured to the right) has star Jennifer Connelly's face, but this one depicts half of it eaten away... which does not happen in the movie, but was probably done to make it appeal to the American gorehounds.

Sporting an atmospheric Goblins score, a sleep-walking psychic heroine, foreboding locations and scenery, bloody decapitations, detective work that involves tailing a fly, a dip in a maggot-and-corpse-filled pool, a Poe-inspired straight-razor-swinging chimp, flesh-eating insect swarms, a murderer stalking students in a female school with a staff featuring detachable blades, it has it all.

Here's a great review by a fellow blogger at the Tomb of the Headless Werewolf that renders any attempt I might make a redundant effort.

The Creeping Flesh

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"The Creeping Flesh" poster
(click on images to view hi-rez.)

The sensationally-titled "The Creeping Flesh" from 1973, starring horror gods Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee is among one of director Freddie Francis' most interesting efforts, standing tall among his already impressive movies. (Here is an insightful review of the film from another site that I think you'll find most interesting.)

"Man, I'm so scary I make my own flesh crawl!"

Turnabout is fair play, as we see from the poster below. This artwork is very unusual in that the poor skeleton is the helpless victim and the monster is a naked, though oddly nipple-less woman.

"He ain't heavy, he's my daddy's skeleton!"

The IMDB synopsis for the 1970 "Blood Mania" reads "A sex-crazed nympho helps speed along her father's death so she can use the inheritance to help out her depraved boyfriend." By most accounts it's a waste of time. But we got an amusing poster out of it! Scary though, it's not.

But, the story is not over... for look at the image used on the DVD release of "The Creeping Flesh!" Yes, the skeleton is being carried by the man. Full circle.

(Which brings up a point; why is it that so many recent DVD horror releases forego using the awesome poster artwork, in favor of a lame screen-capture from the movie? I mean, there's nothing particularly scary about a man carrying around a lifeless skeleton, is there? Makes the skeleton seem harmless. Whereas in the original poster spotlighted this time, the evil skeleton seems anything but harmless. )

"Good grief, you been packing in those fried twinkies lately, haven't you?"
As he stumbled over the threshold with his new bride, his insinuations about her weight got the honeymoon off to a bad start.

And so, as we draw the curtain on the happy couples, we have learned that it matters little who carries whom... as long as they have each other to hold.

Skeletal Cheerleaders

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
Skeletal Cheerleaders

1987, for all of it's other dubious distinctions, gave us two (and really two more than we needed) slasher films about cheerleaders. But even if the films were bad, the posters are cute, upbeat and perky.

When it came to boyfriends, the usually inseperable gal pals found that it was the one thing that could come between them.
(Image Source)

Oh, and don't forget to visit and bookmark my other blog, "Monster Memories!" I have recently disinterred it, winched it up to the roof during a thunderstorm, and brought it back to lumbering life! I'm adding entries about once a week or more, so put it on your list of blogs to check in on regularly. Together we can revive our monster memories!

Scream Issue #6 cover

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:

The Scream cover art from issue #6, June 1974
(Click on images to enlarge.)

"Always after me Lucky Skull!"

In this awesomely rendered cover painting, Dr. Frankenstein looks as if he has fared a bit more worse for the wear than his movie counterpart. Based on a publicity photo of Peter Cushing for "Frankenstein Created Woman," pictured below, the cover art was for the story inside titled "2073: The Death of The Monster."

"A hush falls over the crowd as Dr. Frankenstein concentrates on getting the spare he needs to win this bowling tournament."

In preparing this blog entry, I was a bit conflicted... the cover was right for Sweet Skulls, but the story inside was more suited for Monster Memories. So, with true Solomoniacal wisdom, I decided to split the two up, put them on each blog, and cross promote the two. If I weren't so humble, I'd say I was a genius.

Obviously the standards for attractiveness have changed over the years.

The panel above comes from the story inside, a neat little tale of the Monster's ultimate end. Of course, he's been dead "for good" before, so consider it just another chapter in the life and many deaths of the Creature.

To read and enjoy the whole tale, go to the Monster Memories entry on it!

Psycho #12: Welcome To My Asylum!

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"Welcome To My Asylum" from Psycho #12, May 1973

So, I was digging through some stacks of magazines in one of my collection bookcases last night, scanning in a whole bunch of new old stuff to use on my various blogs. I put stuff that I'd like to share in three stacks; one for Sweet Skulls, one for Monster Memories, and one for Held Over! Movie Ads. Going through my stuff for this is so much fun; because if I didn't have an excuse to actually sit down and do it, I might not see it for a long time otherwise. I'm rediscovering a lot I had forgotten about, or at least hadn't thought about for ages. So, blogging is a good thing! I hope you are enjoying the results of my collection-sifting as much as I am.

I only have a few issues of Skywald's Psycho, and they're all a lot of fun. Since the criteria for being featured in this blog is to have "skull-terior" motives, or containing at least one or more of the calcified cadaverous creeps, this story qualifies.

Here's a brief (and I do mean brief) little tale from Issue #12 that I bought in spring of 1973... it places you in the role of the first person, taking a tour of an infernally bad asylum. Did I say infernally? Well, I meant nothing by it... nothing at all!

The End.

Betcha didn't see that one coming, did ya? You know, how it turned out that you were the new inmate.. and that you were dead and all... and in hell... yep, a real shocker of an ending. A twist, if you will. Totally unexpected, infernally surprising, even. Um... uh... well, see ya next time! (Hurriedly beats it.)