MST3K is a television show that ran from 1988 to 1999.  It features a man who has been trapped on a ship in space by evil scientists; he builds robots to keep him company.  The evil scientists force them to watch bad b-movies, and so that they stay sane, the man and his robots make fun of the movies as they watch.  It's hilarious!  Rifftrax is essentially the same guys making the same kind of commentary on new movies.  Their motto is "some movies have it coming."

After an afternoon at our local lake, dear husband and I turned on Rifftrax's Plan Nine from Outerspace (1959).  We've had it around for a while, and we've been fans of both MST3K and Rifftrax for years.

But, before you go any farther, watch the trailer:

The movie is horrible.  I cannot put enough superlatives before horrible.  The story jumps, shifts, and moves along in the most bizzare of ways.  It features aliens and "zombies."  It features Vampira and Bela Lugosi.  Almost every scene takes place in the same - clearly cardboard propped - graveyard.    You can sometimes see stage props fall over... it's bad. 

But it's bad in a deliciously campy sort of way.  Kind of like you're rooting for the overweight home team who have no chance against the visiting team with corporate sponsorship, matching uniforms, and talent.

HOWEVER, when you sprinkle on a little Rifftrax commentary for flavor, well then the movie becomes more than palatable; it becomes awesome.  As always with Rifftrax and Co., you feel as though you're watching the movie with your funnier and more movie-cultured friend.  It's great.

Next up, we're going to continue my zombie education with George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).

ai ela começo a fazer umas pequenas magicas....ateh q ela conheceu a Claudia Raia q era uma vampira bruxa...ai ela começo a caçar morcegos pra claudia...
ai meu celular toco e a minah irmã me acordou pra eu atender!
sahusahusahusauhsauhasuhsuahsuausauhas e fim do meu sonho!

Aquest article es podia llegir avui a http://www.elperiodico.cat (per cert on fan referència a Internet ho he posat en cursiva ... )

6/7/2008 UN LLIBRE BASAT EN UN SUCCÉS QUE VA COMMOCIONAR BARCELONA

Una vampira al Raval

1. • El mosso Marc Pastor novel.la el cas d'Enriqueta Martí, que va assassinar desenes de nens a principis del segle passat
2. • 'La mala dona' va guanyar el premi Crims de Tinta

Una psicòpata de llibre, Enriqueta Martí, va explotar sexualment, va assassinar i va descarnar per fabricar ungüents desenes, potser, de nens, alguns de pit, al Raval de principis del segle passat. La història de la vampira del carrer de Ponent, que havia caigut gairebé en l'oblit, ha tornat. Diversos llibres (El diario de Enriqueta Martí, de Pierrot, i El misterio de la calle Poniente, de Fernando Gómez) han rescatat la primera assassina mediàtica de Barcelona, digna competidora de Jack l'esbudellador. El mosso d'esquadra Marc Pastor, en la seva segona incursió en la narrativa, ha convertit aquest "mite de la ciutat", de qui fa quatre anys li va costar trobar informació i que avui bull a internet, en una novel.la, La mala dona (La Magrana) --que va guanyar el premi Crims de Tinta--, centrada en la persecució d'aquesta assassina per dos policies.

Un 'western' barceloní
En el fons, encara que sembli xocant, es tracta d'un western. Cronològicament, només hi ha un petit lapse de temps entre les aventures de xèrifs i bandits a finals del segle XIX i els tirotejos de policies i gàngsters dels anys 20. I la Barcelona de pistolers i terroristes del 1912 queda just al mig. "El western és un gènere amb unes claus que es poden aplicar per narrar qualsevol història", explica Pastor. Pistoles a la cintura, patrulles a cavall, visites al cap del poblat gitano del Morrot --això sí, prenen un cafè de mitjó, no fumen pas una pipa de la pau--, tavernes en un carrer de Balmes polsegós, un duel al sol... "Em vaig posar el vídeo La muerte tenía un precio abans d'escriure una escena", explica l'autor.
No obstant, el regust local està garantit. "Avui no t'atraquen al carrer en català", explica Pastor. Però en aquella Barcelona els xoriços parlaven en català. En un català que avui ja no existeix i que Pastor ha rescatat de les obres de Juli Vallmitjana. "Fins que vaig llegir La xava no vaig aconseguir trobar l'atmosfera", confessa. Hi ha més d'un homenatge al novel.lista dels baixos fons i de la Barcelona gitana d'aquells temps.
La Barcelona del 1912, això sí, era increïblement moderna: "El casino més gran d'Europa, a l'Arrabassada, el Liceu, molta riquesa d'una banda i molta misèria de l'altra, amb gent que dormia a les tavernes, lladregots...". L'entorn ideal perquè una alcavota trastocada robés nens per oferir-los a depravats de l'alta societat. I una ciutat amb la Setmana Tràgica recent, vigilada per una "policia política", incapaç i corrupta, que no va fer res per evitar que l'assassina actués impunement durant anys, va intentar silenciar l'escàndol i mai va arribar a investigar els fets.
Amb la història explicada per altres, Pastor ha preferit inventar-se aquesta investigació que mai va emprendre la policia que dirigia Millán Astray (pare). Els policies protagonistes, Moisès Corvo i Juan Malsano, tenen fusta d'investigadors amb sèrie pròpia de novel.la negra. Però Pastor ha tallat d'arrel aquesta temptació. "Vull desmarcar-me, picotejar en altres gèneres, a més de la novel.la negra: aventura bèl.lica, ciència-ficció...".
Una manera més de separar la vida professional de la literària, de no convertir-se per sempre en el policia que escriu novel.la de crims. Encara que no és tan difícil separar un món i un altre. Els personatges de Pastor, ell mateix membre de la policia científica, manifesten un notable interès pel rigor mortis, els senyals de descomposició, les taules de dissecció... ¿És potser una mica anacrònic aquest to CSI a la Barcelona del 1912? No, respon l'escriptor: "En aquell temps la policia científica estava en plena eclosió. Però els personatges parlen a partir de l'experiència de qui ha vist molts morts, no actuen com a Grishom".

Conversa minha com uma amiga que se recusava a se juntar à massa de desocupados usuários do orkut:

Michele:
Criei um perfil no orkut...

me:
oooo queeeee
quem é vc e oq fez com a Michele?!
*panic*

Michele:
Sim eu fiz
EU tou tão triste por causa disso.
Ainda bem que tenho amigos como você que ainda falam isso
Outros todos falaram: PORQUE VOCÊ NÃO FEZ ANTES?

me:
uhauhauhauha

Michele:
Sim eu sei
Isso é chato
Aliás, eu fiquei tão puta ao fazê-lo ontem que só preenchi o meu país

me:
mas pq diabos vc resolveu fazer?

Michele:
AH CARA
Foi muita indignação
Eu tenho um grupo de teatro
Que esse semestre inteiro ficou me ignorando porque não tenho Orkut

me:
o.o

Michele:
Aí essa semana marcaram de se encontrar e NINGUÉM ME AVISOU NADA ¬¬
Por que não tinha orkut.
E ainda querem estar certos de falar que não me avisaram proque eu não tenho Orkut

me:
uhuhauhauhauh

Michele:
Eu queria era esfregar na cara deles o quanto o google perde com o Orkut e eu não tinha porque sigo minha segunda religião.

me:
me desculpe, mas isso tem q ir pro blog...

Excluir alguém de um grupo social por não ter orkut??? É o cúmulo da futilidade.

É como se eu não conversasse com quem usa o Windows Live Search! Será que alguém usa essa merda?

PS: o "me" é porque copiei a conversa do GTalk. Antes que venham encasquetar comigo....

I don't want to talk about the man behind the candle.  Seriously, don't even look at him, forget he's even there.  And, believe me, I know how hard it is - it's Bela Lugosi, you're thinking, for gum's sake.  Yes, this is true.  The man in the Wayne Newton ruffled shirt and cravat (why don't men in movies wear cravats anymore?) is Bela DRACULA Lugosi himself, in fine post-career-highpoint fettle as Count Mora in Tod Browning's MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935).  It's a neat movie, maybe even classic by now, a remake of Browning's silent (presumed) classic (presumed because nobody alive today has seen it) LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927), which had starred Lon Chaney (penciled in for the lead in DRACULA before cancer took his life in 1930).  Atmospherically shot by future multiple Academy Award nominee and winner James Wong Howe, the movie is only so-so as horripilating entertainment but every frame of it could be hung on a museum wall.  And the jewel in this creepy crown is Carroll Borland, pictured above and slightly behind the guy I would prefer that you ignore for the time being.

Carroll Borland was a 20-year-old Berkley student and movie extra who got her big break in MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, playing Count Mora's daughter Luna.  (Allegedly, the fledgling actress had played a minor role in a stage production of DRACULA starring Lugosi and had impressed herself upon him to the point where he brokered her effective big screen debut.)  In MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, Borland has no dialogue throughout (save for a line at the very end) and limited screen time but remains nonetheless a startling and beguilingly necro-erotic figure in her gauzy burial gown, her complexion the color of milk, with gimlet cat eyes and a disconcertingly lush mouth that draws you in, spider-to-fly-like.  In the role of Luna, she is at once little girl and ancient harridan, part poppy, half harridan, a naif to whom all hooved satyrs knelt.  You see her softness, her plumpness, and yet you sense there are razors within the tulle.  To gaze into her eyes is to know at once she'd slice you to ribbons and laugh at your flesh unraveled into a bloody coil around your ankles.  That's half the attraction, I think... and maybe more than half.

I got to see Carroll Borland in person a few months before her death in February of 1994.  Near the end of her life, she was an amusingly brassy older broad who wasn't trying to play the Lady of Mystery nearly sixty years after the fact.  She was squat and kind of homely and seemed like she knew a lot of dirty jokes.  No longer threatening, you wanted to kiss her on the cheek.  Apparently she made up a lot of stuff about her relationship to Lugosi over the years, claims that were discounted over time.  But I don't hold that against her; she'd had the experience of her lifetime and she wanted to preserve it, compound it, magnify it, re-live it.  Now over 70 years past the making of MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, she is in her own right as legendary as her beloved costar.  They say that cartoonist Charles Addams patterned the character of Morticia Addams after Borland's Luna; years later, another Hollywood hanger-on, Maila Nurmi, went to a costume party dressed as Morticia and wound up becoming the enduring cult figure Vampira, whose interpretation of the character had a lot to do with Carolyn Jones' look in the role on the short-lived but undying ABC sitcom THE ADDAMS FAMILY.  Vampira and Morticia have inspired a lot of Goth makeovers over the years but we have Luna to thank as a sort of undead Germaine Greer, paving the way for her sisters in graveyard earth.  What comes around goes around, I guess.  Especially with vampires. 

In one of the few moves I've ever agreed with by George Bush, he's trying to get national Monument status for the Pearl Harbor region in Hawaii. To date no such thing exists. There is the memorial for the USS Arizona and Ford Island, where several of the Navy's battleships were moored during the attack, is a National Historic Landmark. This would give historic staus to the whole region which would qualify it for preservation and restoration beneifts. A May 29 presidential memo to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said such status could offer the sites additional protection. "These objects of historical and scientific interest may tell the broader story of the war, the sacrifices made by America and its allies, and the heroism and determination that laid the groundwork for victory in the Pacific and triumph in World War II," Bush said. Surely this region deserves the recognition and the protection.  This plan might also include some of the surrounding areas where other World War II conflicts took place like Guam, Wake and Midway. If Bush was looking for something that the American public would approve of this will likely not elicite many arguments. Yes, George, for once you may actually have a good idea. Remembering a war is better than having one. I think I may mark this one on the calendar- Bush has a good idea. I never thought we'd be going there.

USING MARIJUANA AS COMPOST?

Police have arrested a 30-year old man in Iowa for possessing Marijuana with the intent to distribute. He says no. He was going to recycle it. I know I recycle mine. Every chance I get. Yes, according to him, it was for the compost pile. Apparently he'd been smoking some before he handed them that excuse. You gotta hand it to him, it's original. Police say that the several bags he had all held at least a gallon of pot each. That's a lot of compost. I wonder if he was going to mix it with manure, like his story is.  The police wasn't buying it as he now has to post $14,000 for bail. I guess the compost will be a little thin this year.

THE ULTIMATE MOVIE REMAKE - PLAN 9

I admit it, I'm a fan of really bad movies. There are few worse and more hilarious than Ed Wood's classic Plan 9 from Outer Space featuring Tor Johnson and Vampira.  The beauty of this film is its complete ineptitude as a film. Now a company wants to remake the film. Just what we need is a bad remake of a bad film.  Let's see bad story, bad acting and bad effects. Hmm, can't be worse than Spielberg's War of the Worlds. But I think they ought to leave it alone. If they turn it into a good movie, then the beauty is lost, same thing if they try to do a comedy, Plan 9 is unintentionally funny. If I want to watch silly Sci-Fi, I'll catch Tim Burton's Mars Attacks.   Anyway, a tiny little horror production company in Charlottesville, Virginia has announced plans to remake it as titled Plan 9, in participation with Conrad Brooks, the only surviving cast/crew member, aiming for a release date of 9/9/09. Guys if you want to do cheap bad horror/sci-fi try something that hasn't been done. Personally I'm looking forward to Zombie Strippers. Leave great bad classics alone and let Ed Wood rest in his angora film maker deluded peace. Next thing some idiot will want to do a hip-hop version of Rocky Horror. Oops, better keep my mouth shut, somebody will run with that one.

BIG BUCK BUNNY

This thing is too funny. You have to watch it to the very end and bear with the credits. It's worth it.

"Quem não tem Assassin's Creed caça com Oblivion..."

Poxa, como que queria poder rodar AC no meu PC.... :( Acho que vou ter que comprar um XBox 360 mesmo...

O que me lembra de uma frase proferida por um colega de trabalho:

"Depois que eu tive que crackear um jogo original para poder jogar, nunca mais comprei jogos para PC"

Como eu disse, este não é um blog sobre jogo, então fica o gancho para a Vampira.

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I guess that explains why Randy Jackson was yawning when Ryan went to introduce him. That's never a good sign. Then he plugged Paula's new song by working it into a comment. How corny.

As usual, I'll just type what I'm thinking. I do not go back and edit what I wrote (though I do add photos) so I make no guarantee whatsoever that you won't be offended. You have thus been warned.

Amanda "Vampira" Overmyer is up first, singing "Back in the USSR". She sucks so much that I can hear her slurping. I can hear a Janis Joplin impression any Saturday Night in any drunken karaoke bar, and usually a better one than this. Why would they put somebody who is basically an impersonator through to the finals anyway? Randy thought it was pitchy at first. Paula thought her timing was off. Simon called it predictable and a mess at parts. He says she does the same thing week afterweek, so she's getting boring. I agree. Then again, I was bored from the first minute I heard her.

Kristy Lee Cook did "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", says today was the first time she heard it. It sounded like it too. Still, it's better than what she did last week, when she killed John Lennon all over again when she murdered "Eight Days A Week" by turning it into some weird country song. Nevertheless, I'd like for her to hide her song away. Randy didn't like the arrangement, Paula thought it was safe, but liked her dress. Simon thinks she needs "hypnosis", and says she "isn't a good performer". He admitted she was better this week, but it would be almost impossible to be worse.

They did a replay of David Archuletta's giant fuckup, when he forgot the words last week. He's going to sing "The Long And Winding Road", and is hoping he won't forget the words. He was off from literally the very first note, which is not a good sign. This is a horribly boring rendition, it's way too slow. Yeah, I know the original is slow, this is so slow that it's painful. He doesn't seem to be in sync with the music. He hit some nice long notes, but that's the best I can say about it. The crowd is going wild, though. Perhaps they're just glad he didn't fuck it up again. Randy liked it. Paula thought it was "exciting" and "wonderful". Simon said last week was a complete wreck, this week he was amazing. They must be hearing something there that I can't hear here.

Ryan did an i-Phone promotion. He pretended like he got it from someone in the audience. That's not cheesy at all. ;-)

Michael Johns is up now. He's going to sing "A Day In The Life", which he calls Lennon/McCartney's "masterpiece". It starts out well, but I don't know what that one note was supposed to be. I'm pretty sure it's a sound which normally doesn't come from humans. The speaking part wasn't good at all. However, he hit the notes on the "Aaaah" part. Did he just mess up the words? I'm pretty sure he did, he sang "having read the book" twice. Randy says it's not the right song, it wasn't good. Paula said it's not as good as the dress rehearsal, she blamed it on the earpiece. Simon said it was a mess, he didn't hit the right notes, it was all over the place, not good enough. Then it turned out that he wasn't wearing an earpiece, he just sucked. Oops. LOL

There was a commercial with the blonde girl from "Scrubs", she is in a store, bends over then falls down, looks over and sees panties which are "wedgie free". Do woman really have that problem, enough that they need to advertise that their underwear won't give them a wedgie? I never have that problem. Perhaps she needs to buy better underwear. That would be my guess, anyway.

Damn, they just said it's a two-hour show tonight. Dammit. I was planning to do something between Idol and The Office reruns at 10.

Brooke White is on next. She's going to be singing "Here comes The Sun", she says it has "perfect melody". She's wearing all yellow. I'm not sure if she's supposed to be the sun, or a skinny banana. Wow, she's got some seriously skinny legs. The song suits her personality, I think, since she's kind of a hippy, but it really wasn't very good. I've heard much better in karaoke bars. Hell, I've heard better in my own house. It almost sounds like she's turned it into a country song, which was not good. It's a hippy song, not a redneck song. She has pretty hair, it's very long. I wonder if it's real, or if she has extensions? Randy thought it was "awkward", and that she was never connected to the song. Paula thinks she played it safe. Simon said he knew she'd be dressed in yellow when he heard she'd sing this song, the performance was terrible, horrible dancing, lack of conviction, it was forgettable. She's nice, though. Very sweet girl, and cute as a button. She took the criticism well and when the audience started to boo Simon, she interrupted and told them the judges had been really nice to her so far so it was okay. That was cool, even if the performance wasn't good.

Goofy commercial with chocolate bunny and jar of peanut butter, "Let's Get It On" playing in background, then Reese's Easter Egg. I love that candy. Reese Cups and M&Ms. Yum.

The "Rock Star" video game commercial is on, with Slash. I like that commercial. Believe it or not, and I'm not exaggerating, Elf can play guitar like that, and on real guitars, not just on a video game controller shaped like a guitar, LOL. No, he didn't get that talent from me,hehehe.

David Cook is doing "Daytripper", playing electric guitar. Okay, now he's not playing it. Now he's playing it again. I'm beginning to think it's just a prop. He did a pretty good job, I thought. Now he's doing the voicebox thing like Peter Frampton. You don't see that every day, or at least not since the 1970s, LOL. He'd be great fronting a band, but I'm not sure about him as a solo artist. At least he doesn't suck as much as some of the other ones. He just learned to use the voicebox yesterday. Simon thought the coda in the middle was "just stupid", and that he looked smug but wasn't as good as he thought he was. Simon says it's predictable, he didn't like it. I thought he looked smug too, now that I think about it.

Paula is doing the world's worst British accent, saying some kind of crap about Simon.

Carly "Ringer" Smithson is singing "Blackbird". I like this song, Elf plays on the guitar a lot. She has on way, way, WAY too much mascara. maybe so people won't notice that her entire arm is covered in tattoos. That's so incredibly tacky, especially for a woman. She's not getting into the song like she should. Definite disconnect. This should be a simple song, and she made it entirely too complicated. Elf's version kicks her version's ass, and he's just sitting at the house goofing around with it. I hear really loud slurping sounds on this one, she sucks so much. Randy liked it, but he was at the record company which dumped $2 million on her and then she only sold 400 records. Of course he's going to say that. He made up a new word "cooliosis". Paula loved her, but she loves everybody. Simon didn't think the song choice was smart, the song was indulgent, he didn't like it at all. Carly is whining some crap about having a broken wing, I guess since she's the ringer she thinks she should be exempt from criticism.

A really dumb AT&T commercial about a guy in a bar who can't get your cell calls there, so he's not returning your call about Motorhead tickets. Yawn.

Jason Castro is going to sing "Michelle". One of his dreads is sticking out weird while he's doing the cheesy pre-song recorded interview. Cut away, cut back and it's fixed, LOL. No guitar. Boring song, not a good choice. I like this kid, I think because he reminds me of Elf and his buddies for some reason. I still don't like this song choice, though he's a good singer. He could have done so much more with it. This kid really connects with the audience, the girls love him. The song ended on a boring note though, and I guess I just didn't get it. Randy liked the song choice, thought it was too subdued and not connected with the song. Paula said he gets disconnected away from his guitar, and she said it was "awkward". Simon said it's a really weird show tonight and they shouldn't have done Beatles again. Simon said his face sold it, so he's lucky he's on TV and not radio. Simon said Jason's "charming" and that his "goofiness" made it work. Simon also said if he heard it on the radio, he'd turn it off.

Syesha Mercado is going to sing "Yesterday". Gawd, I sucks from the first note. It sounds like a high school talent contest. The slurping sound is almost overwhelming. Why do these people want to change the original songs into something that sounds like Muzak. She's not staying with the music. She did do a cool part in the middle. I bet if Yoko Ono saw her, she'd knock the hell out of her for disrespecting her dead husband. Yoko's tough like that, even though she's now kind of ancient. Randy called it "very very very good". Paula talks about her being vulnerable. Yawn. Paula said she needs to work on connecting with the audience with her eyes. Simon thought it was her best performance so far, which isn't saying much. Then he said it wasn't great, so I guess he agrees with me after all, LOL. She chose the best song, Simon liked the arrangement.

Chikezie is going to play an instrument but doesn't know how to play it? Huh? He's singing "I've Just Seen A Face". When he can choose from the Beatles catalogue, why would he choose such an obscure song? He's turning it into a country song, very weird. He's playing harmonica, even weirder. What the hell is this supposed to be? Gawd, this sucks so much that I think I'm going to call him "Slurpee" from now on. That was a complete mess, worst performance of the night by far. Maybe the worst performance of the year. It might even be the worst performance in the history of the world. Randy said there were good parts and bad parts, he didn't like the slow part, said harmonica was strange, song was strange. Paula said he's showing who he is, which she says to everybody at one time or another. Yawn. Simon thought it started off okay, but the harmonica was "literally atrocious", then he turned it into "Achy Breaky Heart". He said Paula's full of crap.

Ramiele Malubay is singing "I Should Have Known Better". I should have known better than to think her performance might be good. Boring. Boring. It's hard to even watch this tripe. I know she's young, and I know she can sing, but this is just horrible. I've seen better in high school talent contests. Randy wasn't jumping up and down, but he liked it, it was alright. Paula said it's definitely better than last week. Simon said it sounded like Chikezie was on harmonica. He likes her, her personality, but the track sounded terrible and amateurish, and she chose a mediocre song, "it is what it is".

That was painful, and boring. And I wish it had been only one hour, because now I wasted an extra hour on an episode which was terrible. Argh.

High-quality reprints of Herbie are always welcome, but the Dark Horse project that truly has The Keeper rummaging through his wallet is the upcoming Creepy Archives series.

Creepy, for those of you too young to remember the halcyon days of the '60s and '70s, was the black-and-white horror/sci-fi/fantasy magazine. The book - along with its sister publication, Eerie - was the true successor to those legendary EC Comics of the '50s - gruesome, yet often imaginative, tales beautifully illustrated by some of the best artists in the business.

In fact, some of the stories were too gory for the young Fortress Keeper's tastes. Yet the books - produced by the now-defunct Warren Publishing group - were so different from the DC & Marvel fare we usually purchased that we couldn't help but follow the exploits of Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie.

This somewhat unwilling patronage lasted for about a year until our interest in horror comics waned. At that time, the Keeper thought he would finally leave Warren's magazines behind.

However, two distinct events instead transformed us into lifelong fans.

In 1974, Warren published a new title that shone like a beacon from the newsstand: The Spirit Magazine. We had heard of The Spirit through the Steranko History of Comics, but never enjoyed the pleasure of reading a full story.

Suffice to say, we were hooked by the first page of the magazine's first story.

The stupendous art provided the initial attraction, but we were soon equally captivated by the story. Never had we seen a "super-hero" tale that appeared so ... mature.

It was an eye-opening experience that, to be quite honest, has never quite been equaled for our money.

Of course, Will Eisner's brilliance didn't necessarily have much to do with the remainder of Warren's line. Shortly after The Spirit Magazine was published, though, we found another intriguing magazine in the back-issue bins at San Francisco's legendary Comics & Comix.

The book lacked a cover and wasn't in the best of shape, but the splash page promised great things ...

The promise of "Blazing Combat" certainly sounded exciting, and we noticed that Archie Goodwin - who was responsible for the Manhunter revival and some great Batman stories - wrote and edited the entire issue.

We bought the magazine figuring it would at least be as good as Sgt. Rock, then ran smack dab into a story called "Landscape."

Written by Goodwin and drawn by Joe Orlando, "Landscape" is simply one of the most powerful anti-war stories the Keeper has read in any medium. The remainder of the issue was similarly strong, and suddenly your humble host found himself compelled to find out more about Blazing Combat and other Warren magazines.

We learned that Goodwin helmed Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat (which drew a great deal of controversy for its anti-war stance) from about 1965-67.

Those books (many of which featured covers drawn by Frank Frazetta) were legendary for their high standard of quality, which inspired you-know-who to make a candlelight oath and spend the rest of his comics-collecting career tracking down Goodwin's output for Warren.

Years later - through a combination of back-issues and Internet scans - we've come close to achieving our goal but still have a ways to go. Along the way, we've encountered great stories accompanied by eye-popping artwork from the likes of ...

Neal Adams

Steve Ditko

Gray Morrow

Jerry Grandenetti

Reed Crandall

and Tom Sutton (on Vampirella, which started out as campy fun and received a more serious make-over by Goodwin in later issues).

All of these stories hold dear places in the Keeper's four-color heart, so we're quite excited to learn Dark Horse's first Archives edition will reprint issues 1 to 5 of Archie Goodwin's Creepy.

They're great comics, and we hope that Dark Horse eventually gets around to Eerie, Blazing Combat and ... yes ... Vampirella as well.

Then, at last, our long, long quest will finally conclude and your friendly neighborhood Fortress Keeper will rest easy.

At least until the next long, long quest begins.

Cioè ventù hai staccato li chiccò!
Geniali.

Please also remember that death is always tragic, celebrity or not. Please pray for the families & loved ones that have lost someone recently.

Nurmi filed a 10 million dollar lawsuit in 1989, saying that Elvira pirated her character.  Ten  million is quite a lawsuit!  That’s not easy to see someone doing “your character,” and becoming a hit, I’m sure… but I always looked at Elvira as more of a parody of Vampira.

Aside from Elvira and the Robots on Mystery Science Theater, I don’t know of a lot of fun hosts giving commentary on movies that have gotten really big.  Maybe I should give the Sexy VJ Party Girls some fangs and vampire capes instead of letting them run around in their underwear during their reviews… oh well!

I just heard that Fawn and Lindsey reviewed a couple more movies.  They had a movie night watching a drama, and they both fell asleep… the camera got 2 hours of them snoring.  It sounds like they did like “CyberSex Kittens” though, but Fawn always wants more naked guys than girls or she threatens to give it a bad review. 

Just before the holidays, I thought it’d be great to tape an interview with the Sexy VJ Party Girls.  The beach seemed like a perfect setting – calm and serene - to find out more about them… but they ended up singing and dancing the whole time.  Kurt Gallant, my editor at Acevideoediting.com thought he was editing an interview… instead it turned out to be a music video:  http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=26086525

I have to say, those Sexy VJ Girls may not be the most insightful reviewers, but they sure have some talent!