I must admit, I went into this one with reasonably high hopes — an Italian Kung Fu movie directed by Antonio Margheriti (aka Anthony M. Dawson, director of Cannibal Apocalypse)? Unfortunately, those hopes faded fast. As Mr. Hercules Against Karate (Shiaffoni E Karate) opens, we find our heroes, Danny and Percy (the titular Mr. Hercules, although he’s never referred to …
Cool Actor of the Week – Clint Walker
Our pick for Cool Actor of the Week this time around is one of the biggest, manliest dudes ever to stalk across the TV screen — Norman Eugene “Clint” Walker. Born in Hartford Illinois, Walker worked in a factory and on a river boat before joining the Merchant Marine at the age of 17, near the end of WWII. How …
Blood Castle (1970)
(I’m still playing catch-up around here, so here’s a review from my book, Unsafe On Any Screen. This one originally appeared at MonstersAtPlay.com). Once again, the fabulous folks at Retromedia bring us the kind of sleazy entertainment that one once had to scan the TV Guide for and stay up into the wee hours in order to see — unless, …
Star Magazine, 1973
Star may look, feel, smell, even taste like a magazine. But it isn’t! It really isn’t! Star is a 76-page bulletin board of what’s going down for ladies with style, ladies with warm hearts, ladies with the magic to make it all happen — the Foxy Ladies of 1973! So begins the introduction to the first issue of Star Magazine, …
Classic Rock Sunday: The Stray Cats
The Stray Cats were formed in 1980 to play good old fashioned rockabilly in the Eddie Cochran style, which if you remember 1980 wasn’t exactly what everyone else was doing. They were popular in the New York City scene but weren’t able to break through to the airwaves. At the time there was a revival of the Teddy Boy scene …
The Chain Story: They Don’t Drive Cars
I’m honored to take part in The Chain Story, a series of short stories by various authors, linked through the members of The Wanderers’ Club, spinners of tall tales one and all. Thanks to Michael Stackpole for sponsoring the whole thing, and to Bob Vardeman for bringing me on board. I’m in the company of some pretty outstanding writers here, …
John Jos. Miller’s CREATURE FEATURE
Pulp Cover Friday Today I thought we’d take a quick look at the Hero Pulps; specifically, the triumvirate of great pulp heroes, Doc Savage, The Shadow, and The Spider. The Shadow may be arguably the most popular of the three, but my favorite is Doc Savage, and he’s the one whom I’m most familiar with, having read well over a …
John Jos. Miller’s CREATURE FEATURE
My Year in Movies Part 2: The Horror! The Horror! If there weren’t any bad movies, you couldn’t tell how good the good ones are, so I suppose they have a purpose. I don’t have the stamina to go over my 50 worst (most of them would be mediocre, anyway, and it’s difficult to find anything interesting to say about …
10% Discount on Squirrel Eyes
In honor of the upcoming Albuquerque Comic Con, I’m offering a 10% discount on the ePub version of my new novel Squirrel Eyes — just visit this page (Bob Vardeman’s online store, if you’re nervous about clicking links) and add the book to your cart. Then enter the code ComicCon11 and take the discount. You can read the first chapter …
Cool Actor of the Week: Gene Wilder
This week I’m going with one of my all time favorite actors: Gene Wilder. Starting with his breakthrough role in the 1968 Mel Brooks comedy The Producers, he rattled off a string of some of the most iconic roles in the greatest comedies of the 70’s. He was The Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles, Dr. Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein and …
Albuquerque Comic Con – January 15-16
The Albuquerque Comic Con is coming up on January 15th and 16th, and at least a couple of the Cheese Magneteers will be there — Tanzi’s flying into town, and I’ll be a guest at the show. Other guests include Peter “Chewbacca” Mayhew, Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery, Gene Ha, Lou Ferrigno, Deep Roy, Brian Pulido, Andy Kuhn, Dickey Beer, …
John Jos. Miller’s CREATURE FEATURE
My Year In Movies I’m going to heavy on text this time around to try to cram this all into one post. I may have to cut it into two parts, but we’ll see. 2010 was a pretty good year for movies for me although I did fall a tad short for the movie-viewing goal that I set for myself …
John Jos Miller’s CREATURE FEATURE
Pulp Cover Friday What a week. I didn’t think I was going to make even this short post, but shouldering the awesome responsibilities of being a blogger, I have dragged myself to my office and put together this brief Pulp Cover Friday so that all you cheese consumers will know that I’m still alive. Earlier this week I did something …