SOME HORROR COMICS OF MINE

Here are the covers of some horror comics I have. I have more somewhere. If I find them before tomorrow, I will post them. Click on them to enlarge.

CARNIVAL OF SOULS GIF

Because you need this! Can't wait to watch this movie again this year.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN GREETING CARD 2

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Another vintage Halloween greeting card from Tumblr. This one is actually kind of cool because of the ghost and witch. Not sure who the guy behind the ghost is. he kind of looks like the guy from the Pringles can.

70s HORROR COMICS

I bought these 70s horror comics last month, but thought I would wait until Halloween to share them with you (Sorry, I'm a few hours late).

GHOST THE GAME

I found this photo on another website of a Ghost game. Ghost is a word game. I had heard of Ghost because of a trivia book I had as a child. That book spawned my interest in trivia. There was a section of trivia having to do with ghost. It mentioned a TV game show called Super Ghost, hosted by someone name Bergen Evans. I did some quick research on line about both after seeing this game.

Here is the best explanation I could find of how to play Ghost and Super Ghost. From some other photos I've seen, this came with letters and score cards.

There is wealth of information about Dr. Bergen Evans (above). He was a professor of English at Northwestern University. He hosted another game show called Down You Go, as well as two other shows called Of Many Things and The Last Word. He also wrote several popular reference books and newspaper columns, many aimed at increasing peoples vocabulary. While you can find information about Dr. Evans, two other things are hard too find: a photo of Bergen Evans with out a watermark and video of his TV shows. I managed to swipe this photo and enlarge it. Archive-dot-org has one of the only known copies of Down You Go in existence.

Ghost has gone modern too. You can find Ghost game apps on Google Play and online.

DESDINOVA's HALLOWEEN PODCAST 4: THE FINAL CHAPTER

The final Halloween podcast of 2016. I've had fun doing these and hope to do more next year. I've been considering writing a book on the subject of Halloween music.

DESDINOVA'S HALLOWEEN PODCAST 2

Here it is! Halloween podcast number 2 with more creepy musical favorites including:

• Til The Following Night- Lord Sutch
• Voodoo Walk-  Cindy & Misty with Sonny Richard's Panics
• Mr. Ghost Goes To Town - The 5 Jones Boys
• Soul Dracula - Hot Blood
• Frankenstein's Den - The Hollywood Flames
• Season of the Witch - Donovan
• Bark At The Moon - Ozzy Osbourne
• The Munsters Theme - The Comateens

TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE or MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING - A MOVIE REVIEW

William Castle was known for his horror films with gimmicks in the theater to engage the audience. A few producers jumped on the bandwagon. Most notably, Alfred Hitchcock asked theaters to for a "No Late Admissions" policy on the movie PSYCHO and even used this in promotions for the film. It worked, both increasing ticket sales and the shock value of the movie.

On the other hand, some promotional gimmicks failed. One of those was Psycho-rama and a film called TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE or MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING. To go into to much detail on this film isn't worth it, because unlike William Castle, the producers of this film didn't even attempt to make a great film. They thought their gimmick "Psycho-rama" would cover their shoddy workmanship. All you need to know is a woman has recurring nightmares about the attic of an old empty house. Her new husband takes her to the house on their honeymoon.

"Psycho-rama" was a series of "subliminal messages and images" that were added to the film to "heighten the terror." Subliminal messages are supposed to be hidden, so as to only be recognized by the subconscious. The "Psycho-rama" images appear as a sudden flash that blots out the action on screen for about two seconds. The other problem is the images they chose to use to "heighten the terror." If the producers had any sense, they would have used a photo of a skull, an angry dog or a gruesome corpse. The images the producers used were a cartoon drawing of a bald guy with thick glasses eating a mouse and a devil sticking his tongue out (above). After a while, these start to get annoying because they seem to pop-up at random.

Add to this the story writing on the story is cliched and rather bland. Also several typical continuity errors, such as the story taking place late at night, yet when characters walk outside, it is daylight. Also the cars seem to change the direction they are parked mid-scene.

This film also waste two very talented people: Actress Cathy O'Donnell, who appeared in the movies BEN HUR and THE BEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and Gerald Mohr, who was the star of the TV series, Foreign Intrigue, narrator of The Lone Ranger TV series, and the original cartoon voices of Green Lantern and Mr. Fantastic Reed Richards. I notice they even spell Ms. O'Donnell's name wrong on the poster.

It is interesting to watch once for the novelty, but you probably won't watch it over again like many of the great horror films and even a few of the bad ones.


 

DOCTOR GRAVES MAGIC BOOK

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I'm not sure how old I was when I got this book through a book club at school. Dr. Graves was the narrator of a horror comic anthology entitled The Many Ghost of Dr. Graves. It was published by Charlton Comics from 1967 - 1982. Many great comic book artist worked on this book over the years including Steve Ditko, Jim Aparo, John Byrne and Pat Boyette. Looking at the artwork, I'm guessing this is Jim Aparo's work. The text and magic tricks are by D.J. Arneson.

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When I was younger, I wanted to be a magician, which explains why I ordered this book. Each story revolves around a story and magic trick to go with it. I decided to post one involving Halloween.

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SELECTIONS FROM THE HAUNTED HOUSE AND OTHER SPOOKY POEMS AND TALES

A co-worker gave me this Scholastic Records EP from 1970 entitled Selections from the Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales. The stories and poems are read by Paul Hecht and Carol Danell.
The back cover list the selections on the record.

Someone has uploaded both sides to You Tube. "The Velvet Ribbon" is my favorite.

BEST OF DESDINOVA: HALLOWEEN MOVIE SUGGESTIONS

Desdinova - Super Villain of the Ozarks: HALLOWEEN MOVIE SUGGESTIONS

REMEMBER KY 3's "NIGHT DIARY" SPECIAL

On Halloween 1990, KYTV aired a great TV special called "Night Diary." It was hosted by the late Fred Schweitzer. For those who don't remember Fred Schweitzer, he was a commercial producer at KYTV. He also was an actor and writer. Many remember his portrayal of Wild Bill Hickok on the Park Central Square. His other famous character was a vampire named Robert Barlow. It was this persona that he used when hosting "Night Diary." Sadly, Schweitzer died suddenly in 1996. "Night Diary" was a collection of spooky legends and ghost stories from the Ozarks. It was apparently quite popular, because KY 3 rerun the special in October of 1993 and October of 1995. According to this website, there was a "Night Diary 2" that aired on Halloween 1994. I wish KYTV would either rerun these TV specials or post them on You Tube. It would be great if another generation could see these superb local productions.

PS: For those of you who don't remember Fred Schweitzer, there is a photo of him and his oddly decorated office on the KY3 Website.