I stumbled upon this gem of all gems recently, the unofficial Hungarian comic adaptation of Cobra! It's available in its entirety on cannon.org.uk but here's a page from it. It looks like the artist only had two reference images of Stallone: profile and 3/4 view as evidenced in this page:
The only problem with this comic is it lacks the bitching Cobra soundtrack...
For absolutely no reason other than that I love movie monsters, I am going to ask you, dear readers, to choose your favorite of the "Head" demons, Rawhead Rex and Pumpkinhead. I am assuming everyone has seen and loves these epic monster movies (Darsh, I'm looking at you), but for the uninformed, let us begin the "Two-Headed" debate by first reviewing the trailers:
As you can plainly see, both of these movies rule even from just the trailers alone. I love both for very different reasons, but now, let's review what both have going for them and where they may edge out the other. Both are created by masters in their respective arts. Rawhead Rex comes from a Clive Barker short story (though he has disowned this film) and Pumpkinhead comes from effects genius Stan Winston. Plus for both. With Winston on its side, Pumpkinhead looks way more...finished I guess, but Rawhead seriously rules in a campy way, see below:
Hm, for sheer effects, this one goes to the ole' Pump. Winston, although his handiwork was limited in this film, really does have the more creepy monster. Rawhead is more of a pissed off drinking buddy, the high school jock to Pumpkinhead's goth kid. Don't underestimate the power of a pissed off jock though, because I'm giving extra credit to Rawhead for sheer bad assness. Watch an edited version of his trailer park devastation and then witness the baptism of his disciple Declan O'Brien:
You see?! I would say both have left lasting impressions on horror fans, but Pumpkinhead definitely has left the greater of the two with three sequels, a spot in McFarlane's Movie Monsters toy line and a failed attempt at a comic mini series (only 2 out 4 issues were published). A comic adaptation of Rawhead Rex was also done, but it's based directly on the short story and didn't really come about because of the movie. The movie itself follows the original story almost exactly, but it just loses the terror in favor of wrecking shit up, while we get a bit more creepiness here. The visual representation of Rawhead Rex is vastly different in the comic adaptation, see below, followed by the covers for all 3 pieces we're talking about here. Click further below to get the whole comic.
But hard economic times are upon us all, and even Pumpkinhead (from the 2006 Ashes to Ashes sequel) has been seen taking a second job promoting Raisin Bran Crunch over in the UK. Ah marketing. Anyways, we could do week long posts on both monsters I'm sure, but I'll cut it short here with some extra visual goodness after the Raisin Bran video plus the promotional score to Pumpkinhead by Richard Stone. Thanks to the original person who made that available! And just to prove the rabid fanbase both these films have, we found both Rawhead Rex and Pumpkinhead tattoos!
I warned you about our love for the Ninja Turtles. And this is the perfect endcap for Michael Jackson Rat Month in my opinion (Splinter, duh). Most people who grew up in the '80s and '90s probably had some kind of relationship with the Turtles, and if it wasn't a deep burning love, it was at least on the level of thinking they would be a good date, if not a lasting relationship.
Anyways, Secret of the Ooze was the second feature film in the turtle franchise, not a typical candidate for this site, though to some that’s arguable. Most of you have likely seen it and loved it despite it's divergence from all previous canon. I think most kids were pumped to see Bebop and Rocksteady in rubber suited glory, but disgruntled creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were annoyed with the direction the characters took in the TV show, so they created Tokka and Rahzar, the wolf and snapping turtle mutants. These dudes ruled!
I may be the only person who thought so because they never truly made the transition into lasting roles in the series. They made one appearance on the animated show, and a rather ridiculous one at that, peek the first part of the episode below:
Rahzar sounds waaaay too intelligent to be terrorizing a mall, he should probably be trying to sell the mega-recliners at the center kiosk, explaining all the relaxing features they boast. Tokka can ring customers up.
Here’s the Archie comics adaptation of TMNT2. I don't really remember buying this as a kid, but who knows. It may have been my brother's and came into my possession when he surrendered portions of his comic collection to me. Or maybe he doesn't know I have it...Thanks Chris! This features art by long time turtles artist, Jim Lawson and writer Steve Murphy (aka Dean Clarrain). The scan is only ok, but it should be good enough to satiate the other turtle nerds out there.
My 11-year old mutant love aside, what most people probably remember about this movie is the questionable career move Vanilla Ice made in delivering "Ninja Rap" to the film's soundtrack. His intentions were probably right on, the "movie single" was pretty big in the '90s and his career was pretty hot then and figured he could brush off any ill effects. And he probably could have, but as time proved, he never really made super savvy decisions, Roll 'Em Up, anyone? In context though, "Ninja Rap" really is one of the better tracks, and that's a statement on how ridiculous the rest of the soundtrack is. No other huge names really appeared on the cd, but I think you'll find it fun anyways. Watch Ice and grab the album below!
Now this is WAY off content, apologies, but I’m obsessed...
I also think any video game loving kid of this time also had an appreciation for the turtle games, especially the arcade version. Kids would crowd around that thing for hours and around this time in gaming, the only place you could get real 4-player action was at an arcade, my local one being Alladin’s Castle, man that place ruled! And what better game to have four friends on than one where you can be a Ninja Turtle? This also set the precedent for all future turtle games of that generation following the first TMNT release for NES, which was hard as balls, for younger me anyways. Tokka and Rahzar didn’t hit the game franchise until the NES game TMNT 3 - The Manhattan Project and then reappeared in the SNES follow up TMNT 4 - Turtles in Time.
Keep and eye out for more Ninja Turtles in the future, because really, can you ever get enough? And keep on eye on Ninja Pizza for all things TMNT related!
Wizard World begins tomorrow! Nerds Ahoy! So as promised, to get your engines all revved up, here’s a second helping of movie comic adaptations, or comic sequels to movies, you get the idea.
We first have this Snake Plisskin one shot from Marvel released in 1997. Snake’s adventures here are set after the events in Escape from New York but before Escape from L.A.. This was Marvel’s only Snake Plisskin outing, but in 2003, CrossGen released a 4 part series called John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken Chronicles. I have two friends who used to work for CrossGen’s online comics doing voiceover; CrossGen was the first company to offer such a service. They folded a handful of years ago due to bankruptcy though.
Who doesn’t have a soft spot for Howard the Duck? I firmly believe if his name was anything other than Howard, this series wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. Barry the Duck just doesn’t have the sane ring to it. What’s interesting here is the Dark Overlords in this comic aren’t giant awesome bug monsters, but instead take duck form once it gets out of Jennings’ body. Not nearly as cool!
Here’s the comic adaption of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (based on James Gunn’s 2004 screenplay). This is published by IDW who also put out a good string of other horror movie comics, including Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th series. But fret not, my friends, this is gory, and not just by comic standards! I think the gore is what keeps IDW publishing going, but don’t hold me to that.
I had a huge hard on for Stargate when it was first released in 1994, with its crazy Egyptian space travel. The art changes over the course of these four issues, starting with über-90s over texturization and settling on manga. It’s kind of distracting. But the awesome thing is that this series was edited by none other than Don Chin!..Wait...who? Chin created the great parody series Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, a favorite of mine for a short period growing up. Maybe one day, if the time is right we’ll dig into them as part of TMNT post, but for now you can read the original series online for free! Oh yeah, Stargate!
As we’ve mentioned previously, there’re a couple great events happening in Philly this weekend we think you should check out, so we’re recapping here. First of all, NerdFest, aka Wizard World Philadelphia starts this Friday and runs through Sunday. In addition to the usual comic guests, there will be a bunch of great sci-fi and b-movie actors on hand to sign your crap. Regulars like Lou Ferrigno, Peter Mayhew and Ray Park will be on hand, along with Ted Raimi, Tom Savini, Edward James Olmos, Darcy DeMoss and Max Brooks, author of World War Z. There’ll also be a partnership with the Video Game Expo to doubley nerdify the event this year, with competitions and retro gaming tables all weekend. These events are nuts, so get your tickets early! And if none of this has convinced you yet (what’s wrong with you?!), then maybe the premiere screening of Blood: The Last Vampire on Friday night will!
Secondly, this Saturday night is Kaiju Big Battel’s All Out War 2 at the Trocadero! If you can’t enough monster mayhem on screen, come watch tiny cities crumble live, right before your awe-struck eyes. As if all this wasn’t enough, there’s also the added bonus of the Rigor Mortis Revue Sampler Zombie Burlesque show as part of admission! Can a weekend get any better than this?! NO! Get your tickets now!
We’ll be on hand at both events, naturally, so if you can’t make either for whatever silly reasons, check back here. You can get updates and pretend you were there to impress (or offend) your friends.
Ok, so since I am on a comic kick with Wizard World Philadelphia on the way, I will divert from our normal content for a moment and present to you, dear readers, this first in a series of comic movie adaptations! These are collected from various sources, so thanks to the original scanners across the web, many from "seedy" movie forums. If you're unfamiliar with .cbr and .cbz files, they're archive formats that comic readers use, but are basically .zip and .rar files. You can easily change the extension (cbz -> zip and cbr -> rar) and extract the images and open in any image viewer if you'd prefer that.
First we have the Marvel adaptation of House II, a movie you would think might be passed over for this kind of marketing treatment, but I'm glad it's here. Maybe Marvel saw a franchise opportunity with the lightened tone of this compared the previous House film. Great '80s art with yellowing pages, hot damn! Awesomely enough this adaptation is written by Ralph Macchio! Psych! Well...it is, but not the same Ralph Macchio who starred with Pat Morita in the Karate Kid films.
Fun Fact: I had a major crush on Supergirl when I was a kid. This adaptation has a number of Supergirl pinups in it my young self would have loved immensely. Looking at this now, and maybe it's just me, but the innuendo makes me feel weird...
Next we have the Child's Play 2 3-issue series. Following this adaptation, Innovation (who also published a Quantum Leap series!) began a regular Child's Play series, though it lasted only 5 issues. Love this panel:
Finally, this Dark Horse mini-series actually picks up 24 hours after John Carpenter's The Thing ends, following survivors MacReady and Childs. Good stuff in keeping with the tone of the movie and an awesome cliffhanger. If you dig the movie, you'll dig this. There's also 3 more series that followed this one we'll post in the coming weeks.
Where cult-classic and crap-tastic movies come to make new friends and learn valuable life skills. Got a suggestion, question or comment? Send us an email!
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