Monday, October 5, 2026
CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN #44: HYDE, KHARIS, ZOMBIES, OBSESSION & SAGEBRUSH SCARES
Wow, oh wow! Castle of Frankenstein #44 is packed with eerie wonderment and all in time for Halloween.
Curry Barker's love-gone-wrong hit, Obsession, is the headliner this time around, with an insightful essay that tells how this innovative venture eclipsed Hollywood's inflated competition.
In addition, there's an outstanding article chronicling television's sagebrush scares, including episodes from The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Wagon Train, Have Gun - Will Travel, Cimmaron Strip, The High Chaparral, The Big Valley, Yancy Derringer, Bronco, Cheyenne, Lawman, Black Saddle, The Alaskans and Death Valley Days.
Readers are also treated to a rundown on the cinematic children of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde; character actor Darby (I Walked with a Zombie) Jones; an overview of creepy, Spanish chillers; Universal's eternal, Kharis series; Jack Kirby's influence on Full Moon Features; Umberto Lenzi's zombie-fied Nightmare City (City of the Walking Dead); the uproarious, Bela Lugosi/Darby Jones team-up (with Alan Carney & Wally Brown), Zombies on Broadway; Peter Bogdanovich's conscientious, Boris Karloff classic, Targets; and the 1970s, drive-in/UHF staple, Track of the Moon Beast.
As supplements, there's a Valentina von Frankenstein comic strip and a mountain of movie and book reviews.
This 130-pg extravaganza has a bit of everything for everyone ... that is, if one happens to be an ardent, horror fan.
One can purchase Castle of Frankenstein #44 via the below link:
https://www.mymoviemonsters.com/
I SAW LANTERNS
"Evil cannot create anything new; they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made."
Inspired by Tolkien's Middle Earth Lore
The season is done, though my interest in James Gunn/Chris Mundy's Lanterns pretty much died after Episode 3. (Yeah, Episode 4, the "weenie" one, was a decent bump up, but the putridity of the prior installment was so strong, so cutting, that it eclipsed the rebound's potential.)
The season started off as subdued as I suspected, but (surprise surprise) entrenched with Hal Jordan left shot-in-the-head dead. We then got the flashback (time-tripping) thing to fill in the gaps, wrapped in a confined, DC blanket, in sync with the gentle-flowing Smallville, enhanced by a Streets of San Francisco/The Greatest American Hero/Wonder Man teacher/friend/mentor bent. Okay, fine. Swell. This would pave the way for John Stewart's ascent, I presumed, but it didn't take long before things had to go and get cute, and nothing was quite the same after that, no matter how earnest, offbeat, consoling or noble the murder mystery got.
The big snag struck when Stewart's dad lost his ring-bearing chance by confessing his fear, and that admittance was twisted into another big-time, self-righteous blame game, which under any other circumstances may have been acceptable, maybe even identifiable, but for Lanterns, it was nothin' short of blabberin', myth-bustin' bull. (The down-the-line "reconciliation" between Hal and John's mother, was, well, nice in an unforeseen way, but never detailed as well as it could've been to patch the wound.)
Stewart Sr. should've rebutted Laura Linney's Guardian Liana (i.e. her haughty rejection of his fear) by declaring that fear can be a means to an end, as long as one saddles up and gets the job done. It's something John Wayne once said, you know, and it makes sense, but instead we were dealt all this boo-hoo lament, laden with a shameless, Fear Strikes Out steal, as opposed to a lesson that weak-knees could savor.
It's a shame things swerved the way they did, since the casting here (in my humble estimation) hit the mark. Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan (whether accepted as genuine, a decoy or Automan ghost) and Aaron Pierre's Stewart Jr. (and his protective, uber-expensive, forty-arks proposal) felt right, even if the show's leads weren't all-the-way faithful to their traditional, comic-book counterparts.
And then we had Nathan Fillion/Guy Gardner's guest spots (still worth a mention, even if some will say they're not) and Ulrich Thomsen's Arkham-ish-imprisoned Sinestro, though the series needed more of both wayward personas to make their insertions count.
Sinestro, in particular, should've been at the constant, adversarial hub, instead of all that misdirecting, non-Martian Manhunters teasing, which to a degree was compelling, but alas, little was clarified or cemented to resonate at full throttle, even with Cary Christopher's big, Noah reveal and prior to such, Porna Jagannathan's Zoe swaggering in to rescue Kelly MacDonald's Kerry Kane. I mean, in a mere blink, even that strident turn went ka-boom! So much for the tiering clues and melodramatic motivation that would press a staggering finale, not to mention who the hell's good or bad, and damn it, folks, which end is up.
Ah, well. So comes and goes another controversial, live-action, DC ride and as luck would have it, right on the heels of the ill-fated Supergirl (2026). For now, I've no more to say on Lanterns, so I'll let the shrewd JesterBell (aka Female Bilbo Baggins) pick up the reins with one of her early, though still relevant, denouncements. Yep, she sure tells it like it is.🏮
Sunday, October 4, 2026
GOODBYE, JERRY GOLOD
Inspired by Creepshow, you pitched Tales from the Darkside to George A. Romero and Richard Rubinstein, and the rest is history.
In addition to being the series' mastermind and perennial producer, you also revived Sid & Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost in the 1990s and spearheaded the nostalgic Return to Green Acres, the Bond-ish Adderly and the telefilms, Brass, with Carroll O'Connor, the android-based Condor and the thrill-ride pilot, Scary Tales: Night Elevator.
Your persistence to render gleeful and thought-provoking material was demonstrated often during your time as a CBS and NBC executive. Without question, you were one of those few honchos who did know his stuff.
Because of your caring shares, we owe you much thanks, for without your contributions, we'd have been deprived of some of the best escapism television has ever dealt.
R.I.P. MARJOE GORTNER
You hit the spiritual scene as a child evangelist and in later years exposed its foibles in the Oscar-winning documentary, Marjoe.
You thereafter became a familiar face on the silver screen with a wide range of roles, playing both hero and villain.
The Food of the Gods covered the former and paved the way for your role in the sexy cult classic, Starcrash. On the other end, Bobby Jo and the Outlaw gave audiences a modern take on Bonnie and Clyde, buffered by a string of such notable titles as Earthquake, Mausoleum, The Marcus-Nelson Murders (the Kojak pilot), Viva Knievel!, Mayday at 40,000 Feet!, Sidewinder 1, When You Comin Back, Red Ryder?, Acapulco Gold, The Czar of Brazil (aka Jungle Warriors), Hellhole, American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt, The Survivalist, Pray for the Wildcats, The Gun and the Pulpit, Wild Bill and Fire, Ice and Dynamite.
You were a consistent, television presence, as well, thanks to Circus of the Stars, ABC Late Night, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Alan Thicke Show, Break the Bank, Barnaby Jones, Matt Houston, T.J. Hooker, The A-Team, Whiz Kids, Medical Center, Nakia, Fantasy Island, Otherworld, Airwolf, Street Hawk, Medical Center, Half Nelson, Falcon Crest, Hotel and Speak Up, America.
And let's not forget your exemplary, singing skills and your wonderful, psychedelic, country-fied album, Bad But Not Evil. The link is below:
You covered so much, and much of its was all through your extraordinary life, which you were generous enough to share. Thank you for the memories and the inspiration, Mr. Gortner. You were truly an influential one of a kind.
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