By the 10's: Tomb of Dracula!

OK, so we're done with Charlton's horror titles... let's take a look at Marvel's major monster title, shall we? Now, I'll be the first to admit, I was never a fan of Tomb of Dracula during its original run, and I've probably only read a handful of issues in the past 20 years or so, but it is definitely a classic, and one of these days, I should track down the Essentials that've come out!


Issue 10


Issue 20


Issue 30


Issue 40 - Anyone know why the logo got changed?


Issue 50 - A rare appearance in TOD by a Marvel Super-Hero!


Issue 60 - I think this may be one of the few issues I've actually read!


Issue 70

And issue 70 ended the series! Looks like this entire series is available in Essentials format, so I don't have much of an excuse not to find them, do I?

Jon

Movie of the Week: "The Deadly Mantis"!

Here's one of those Google videos that may no longer be available when you try to look at it, followed by a slideshow of collectibles!




Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Cool Stuff: Shazam! Stuff - Or, If You Prefer, Original Captain Marvel Stuff!

What the heck, I'm easy... of course, you know that "Shazam!" became what the Original Captain Marvel could be referred to as in various media and licensed products starting in the 1970s when DC revived Cap after years out of circulation (all thanks to Marvel's own Captain Marvel character taking over the trademark)...

So, here's some cool stuff featuring the good Captain and his compatriots!



1944 Pinback Button!



Book Cover!



Flying "Buzzbomb" cardboard toy from the 1940s!



A different Capt. Marvel Club Pin!



Corgi die-cast car that's freaking me out, man!



Really modern, but too cool to pass up, drinking cup, probably from the Warner Brothers Studio Stores or Six Flags.



Filmation model sheets!



Laserdisc of the Filmation episodes!



Storybook!



1978 Pepsi Glass!



Artwork used for the Pepsi glasses!



Shazam! Superbaby mistakenly put in a Captain America Superbaby box! Yes, all the Superbaby dolls (at least, the male ones) appear to have blonde hair, if you've been paying attention!



Viewmaster Set, again based on the Filmation cartoons!

Next time around: Would you believe the Shogun Warriors?!?

Jon

Monster Mondays on Friday!

Time for another bonus Monster Mondays posting! And we continue looking at some King Kong stuff, beginning with Toho's Kong!



First up is this group of German lobby cards from King Kong Escapes! Now, you may completely hate the Toho Kong (I prefer to think of the RKO and Toho Kongs as being two entirely different beings, with the second one merely named after the first), but these German lobby cards are nothing but wonderful, if you ask me! Nice large full color stills, with the movie title in fairly small print... compare that to other lobby cards, where the photo is pretty small, overshadowed by the framing format...



Here's a better look at one of them... yeah, "Frankenstein's Son" was the subtitle for Germany... it seems that "Frankenstein" was pretty much universally used in Germany as a synonym for "Monster" -- or perhaps in the dubbing, Toho's Kong is supposed to have been a product of Dr. Frankenstein somehow! (Maybe it's considered another sequel to "Frankenstein Conquers the World"?)



Here's the Italian poster for the same movie... I like it! If I'm translating the title correctly, it's "King Kong, Eighth Wonder of the World."



Compare it to the US poster, which kept the look of Mechani-Kong, but made the Toho Kong look more like a regular gorilla!



Here's the US Pressbook.



Here's a Mexican poster, perhaps a half-sheet... "no ha muerto" translates to "it has not died," if you're curious! (Thank you, BabelFish!)

Now, for the prequel to King Kong Escapes... King Kong Vs. Godzilla!



And we start with this lobby card, and check out those garish colors!



Here's a Mexican lobby card for the movie... note that the framing art bears little resemblance to Kong or Godzilla!



Here's a still from one of the silliest scenes in the movie!

Next up, we're out of Kong (I know, I'm sorry)... but there's always Konga!



What a still, eh? I think at this point, Konga had just grown too big to be contained by the lab, and he's breaking loose.



Another still here... I don't know for sure what's happening in this scene, because I haven't seen Konga since I was a kid!



Obviously, this still is from the very end of the movie!

And that's all the giant ape stuff from this volume of my Flickr monster files... next time, we look at some stuff starting with "L", on Monday!

Jon

Children's Book Theatre: Creature From The Black Lagoon Part 4!

Let's see how far we get in this installment!








You'd think this would be the end of the book... but you're wrong!

Jon

Give-A-Show Fridays: Fury and Deputy Dawg!

By the 10's: Strange Suspense Stories!

A short one this time around! Although the story of this title is far from short, I'm afraid! Fawcett Comics did the first series of Strange Suspense Stories, which only lasted four issues, in 1952. Then, Charlton had their Lawbreakers Suspense Stories...



...which ran to issue 15, becoming Strange Suspense Stories with 16!



But as you can see, by issue 20 (with this Ditko cover), it was Strange Suspense Stories! Don't worry, the elements should get more monstrous as we go!

Strange Suspense Stories lasted as a title until issue 22, and with 23 it became "This is Suspense," but it changed back with issue 26 to "Strange Suspense Stories!"



Told ya! Here's issue 30, and it's kind of neat how it's left to your imagination what's in that trunk!



Issue 40's cover could almost have been the cover for an Indiana Jones comic, couldn't it?



By issue 50, the title definitely got more horrific!



OK, so issue 60's cover is more goofy than horrific...



Here's issue 70, with a Giant Ghost on the cover!

The title lasted until 77 in the original series... but Charlton revived it in 1967, but that started with a new number 1, and only lasted nine issues!

The original numbering, starting with issue 78, was taken up by Captain Atom, if you can believe that!

Jon