Boo!

Halloween is looming, so I thought I'd (a) actually post something on the blog and (b) keep it in the spirit of the season. So, to kick things off, here's a swell bit of vintage trick or treat cheesecake, featuring forgotten starlet Grace Bradley. Take it away, Grace...

Nice, eh? Gotta love those shadows. There's more of the same at Skylighters, which though it proclaims itself "the Web site of the 225 AAA Searchlight Battalion, obviously has a healthy interest in vintage WWII pop culture. So thanks for the pinups, guys -- and thanks for beating the Nazis, too.

If you're looking for some spooky sounds, this season -- and you'd prefer them to be free -- swing over to the excellent blog Scar Stuff. Jason, the guy who runs the place, has posted dozens of Halloween-themed records, everything from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" to "Alfred Hitchcock's Music to Be Murdered By" to "A Christian Perspective on Halloween." This link will take you to the lion's share, but our buddy Jason is still updating, so check out the main site link to get the latest stuff.

Confession time: When I was a seven years old, I saw "Sounds to Make You Shiver" at some local store and bugged my mom over and over to get it for me. When she finally brought it home and popped it on the turntable, I was instantly terrified and demanded she turn it off. Never listened to it again (and I remember mom being pretty annoyed about that), though I've always wanted to give it a spin in the years since. And now, thanks to public domain copyright laws and MP3 technology, I can. And you know what? It's still pretty damned freaky. And that cover still rules. Frankenstein, Dracula, some ghost, the Wolf Man and some one-eyed thing in the tower. No wonder I wanted it so badly.

Did you know cartoonist extraordinaire Jay Stephens, creator of THE LAND OF NOD, JET CAT and other wonders, has a very cool blog devoted to monsters in pop culture? Well, he does!

The fine folks at RetroCrush have a huge lineup of Halloween-related pop culture debris posted (scroll down), including the complete run of the legendary 1962 Topps "Mars Attacks!" cards. Sure, these days if your average Jane or Joe knows about them at all, they know them as the basis for the campy Tim Burton movie. But back in '62 (five years before I was born, dammit!), these were just another set of trading cards sold to kids. Naturally, a bunch of nosy do-gooders had to ruin everything and they were yanked off the market, but they're still pretty impressive more than 40 years later.

Topps did release a sort-of sequel in 1988 called "Dinosaurs Attack!," and I'm proud to say I'm the complete owner of a whole set of those (being a pop culture geek does occasionally have its advantages.) There's even a tribute to that notorious "Destroying a Dog" card called "Crushing a Canine." Nice to see Topps has a sense of history.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence...

Don't forget -- at 2 a.m. (Eastern) Saturday morning, TCM is showing Russ Meyer's classic FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! followed by Meyer's MUDHONEY at 3:30. It's all part of the cable channel's new TCM Underground series, hosted by none other than Rob Zombie.

I've never seen MUDHONEY (though you can bet my DVR has been set for weeks), but I have seen FASTER, PUSSYCAT several times and boy oh boy my friends, is it a wild ride. Full of senseless violence, outrageous dialogue and some truly amazing women. I don't think it's EVER been on TV before, and even getting a decent DVD version of it is a pain in the ass, so don't miss your chance to watch it for FREE this weekend.

Get well, Dan Clowes!

Just read over at the Fantagraphics blog that cartoonist Dan Clowes is recovering from open-heart surgery to repair a defective valve. Apparently, he had the operation last week and is doing fine, cracking jokes, etc., but I still wanted to send best wishes his way and encourage the rest of you to do the same.

Ever since the days of Lloyd Llewellen I've been a fan of his work, and with each project -- LIKE A VELVET GLOVE, PUSSEY!, GHOST WORLD, DAVID BORING, ICE HAVEN, THE DEATH RAY -- he's pushed himself and what comics can be a crucial step farther. I waver between my favorite Clowes work -- sometimes it's THE DEATH RAY, sometimes it's the hilarious PUSSEY!, sometimes it's the short stories, like a CARICATURE or LIKE A WEED, JOE, and sometimes (mostly, in fact), it's the amazing DAVID BORING, but you really can't go wrong. It's all good. Why not pick up a Clowes book here? If you're a newcomer, I'd recommend either the CARICATURE collection (with his more serious short pieces) or, if you're in the mood for a laugh, TWENTIETH CENTURY EIGHTBALL.

You could also rent the GHOST WORLD or ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL DVDs, both co-written by Clowes and based on his comics work. GHOST WORLD is a fine film, and though I haven't seen ART SCHOOL yet, I really got a bang out of the screenplay. Funny stuff. (Heck, you can even listen to an interview with Clowes about ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL here. Ain't the internet amazing?)

Before he moved out of Chicago in the early '90s, I used to see Clowes fairly often at the old pre-Wizard World Chicago cons . He was always very friendly and pleasant, even to a slavish fanboy like myself, and encouraged the crude attempts I make at mini-comics. Here's a postcard he sent me in 1995, in response to some issue of VIOLENT MAN I'd sent him. To say I was excited to find this in the mail would be a bit of an understatement...

Great artist, nice guy -- let's hope he gets back to the drawing board soon!

Buy my comics, make me rich: CATWOMAN #60

Well, at least I think CATWOMAN #60 is arriving on Wednesday. Haven't got my box of comp copies yet, but that's happened before. It's part two of the Film Freak arc, "It's Only a Movie," and features more of that big ape we caught a glimpse of last issue, plus plenty of movie references and more on the sad state of Slam Bradley. All wrapped up in this lovely Adam Hughes cover...

As always, any comments, questions, criticisms -- civil and intelligently worded, por favor -- are welcome here. Really.

'This video is no longer available'

... that's what you're going to see if you try and click on the link to the GRINDHOUSE trailer in the posting below. Too bad. It's a wonderfully concentrated blast of faux '70s sleaze, complete with vintage lettering, black bars over the naughty parts and plenty of fake scratches on the film. It's no substitute, but here's one of the posters, which emphasizes the Robert Rodriguez half of the flick, PLANET TERROR ...

Snazzy, huh? I mean, it makes absolutely no sense, but it's a hell of an image. The trailer actually featured a clip of Ms. McGowan using that leg cannon, then blowing smoke off the barrel. Tragically, you can't see that now.

There's also going to be a GRINDHOUSE book that covers the history of grindhouse cinema. I'm dying to see it, but it'll have to be pretty amazing to top this book, also titled GRINDHOUSE. Or, for that matter, this book, which only features the word "grindhouse" in the subhead, but seems a bit more in the direction of what the movie is going to be. (These are two of my all-time favorite film books, incidentally, and both come highly recommended.)

By the way, does anyone remember that KILL BILL novel Quentin was supposedly working on? Whatever happened to that? And whatever happened to the all-encompassing KILL BILL DVD set? Shouldn't that be sitting on my shelf by now?

All this, and "Machete" too?

Forget all the Oscar bait due to arrive in theaters over the next couple of months. The movie I'm dying to see won't arrive until April, but if this recently released trailer is any indication, it's gonna be worth the wait:

Hey lady! Set your TIVO now!

It's rare these days that Jerry Lewis graces our television sets with his presence, and it's even rarer when he's not selling a book, hyping his telethon or shooting the breeze with Larry King. But Tuesday night, Jerry will be stretching his dramatic muscles on (what's sure to be) a Very Special Episode of LAW AND ORDER: SVU.

Jerry plays Munch's senile, homeless uncle who might have a clue to (what else on SVU?) a brutal rape/murder. According to the press material, "This powerful episode deals with many societal issues including the treatment of the mentally ill and the aged. " Let's hope Jerry gets the chance to do a little of his classic "sad clown" schtick in between all the drama.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed by this publicity shot, though. Used to be, back in the days when he was a major star, that Jerry wouldn't take the rings off no matter what sort of character he was playing -- errand boy, nutty professor, delicate delinquent, disorderly orderly -- you name it. I sorta hoped he would've kept that old Hollywood tradition alive.

Oh well. Now that he's on LAW AND ORDER: SVU maybe they'll finally make a Muppet version of him!

Look at him go!

Let's take a break from the comic book talk for a moment and enjoy what might be the greatest bit of video ever seen on the Web. In fact, it might be the reason the Internet was invented in the first place. You might have seen this before (it's been floating around a lot lately), but how can you resist watching it again?