Flesh & Blood – The Review

I used to love comic books with a vengeance. And why wouldn't I? They got stories, dialogue, visual effects and cinematic angles just like a movie. In actual fact without real budgetary restraints they could cheaply tell stories that would break many a Hollywood studio's financial back. Given all the technological advances over the last one or two decades there should be a glut of fascinating material out there right now.

Yet for the most part I have given up reading current series.

I was raised with both the US superhero series as well as with a number of European (mainly Franco-Belgian) comic artists. Now that I am living in Ireland I have unfortunately lost track of recent developments “on the Continent” and with regards to the US stuff I have over the years unsubscribed from all of my favourites. Even friendly neighborhood Spiderman doesn't get a look in anymore after “One More Day” too many leaving me with fond memories of Bronze Age comic books that often were far more adult and ground breaking in their approach to story telling than many of the allegedly mature material out there now.

Even more importantly, they did tell stories properly! Little annoys me more in modern comic books than seeing superheroes fight it out over umpteen issues without any proper development. There was a time when it took me a good half an hour to read the 20+ pagers. Now I am glad if I manage five minutes of unimpressive reading time with them.

So have I completely given up on current comics?

Nope, there are some small pockets of resistance around fighting valiantly against the blandness that permeates the industry at large. Chief among them are artist Neil Vokes and writer Robert Tinnell. Then there is also Monsterverse, a new publisher who has recently impressed with his series of Bela Lugosi inspired Tales From the Grave.

With Flesh and Blood the three have now joined forces for what promises to be a very enjoyable Gothic Glamour ride. The first part of the saga is scheduled to be out in the next couple of days. Interviews with the two creators can be read here and here.

When I first heard about Flesh and Blood the idea was presented as a Hammer movie inspired comic book adventure from fans for fans leaving me with an equal amount of anticipation and reluctance. Anticipation because I love all things Hammer. (What a surprise!) Reluctance because Hammer for me is clearly rooted in the past and I don't particular relish the idea of simple rehashes. This is the year 2011. So please give me something that has a similar feel to the classics but with a modern take to it.

I shouldn't have worried.

Flesh and Blood is all that I hoped for and more.

Following the killing of Carmilla Karnstein, a motely crue of heroes and anti-heroes join forces in an epic power struggle against Evil lead by the one and only Prince of Darkness, Dracula.

The comic has all the characters one would expect from a Hammer (or indeed even a Universal) Monster Mash: Carmilla, Dracula, Frankenstein and a Werewolf. Even lesser known characters like General Spielsdorf from The Vampire Lovers are referenced. And, yes, we even get Van Helsing though in a nice twist not in any form you would have come across before.

Yet though aspects of it will feel familiar to Hammer Fans this is a totally independent story that may borrow from the Hammer mythology and imagery but then develops into something completely unique. The closest point of reference would probably be Kill Bill, a movie that was clearly influenced by a number of Tarantino's favourite genres (Martial Arts movies, Spaghetti Western etc) but then created an artistically unique vision of that world. And though it is fun for the hardcore fan to identify all those points of reference, the movie can be enjoyed without having ever seen a single one of those productions.

Same in Flesh and Blood.

As a Hammerhead I rejoice in identifying panels that were inspired by Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell, character names drawn from the Hammer talent pool (Mr Ward-Baker) or lines of dialogue lifted from Hammer movie titles (“Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed”), yet none of that is essential to the enjoyment. The comic lives and breathes on its own. If you like classic horror stories with a modern twist, then this is for you.

The art work is simply stunning. The only other current artist who draws female characters as sensually as Vokes is Bruce Timm. And ironically both are huge Hammer Fans and have contributed to Little Shoppe of Horrors. Just goes to prove what a positive influence these flicks have on an artist's development.

I have rarely ever seen a comic where every single panel is a little masterpiece that I wouldn't mind have hanging on my walls. The imagery is glamorous, voluptious, moody, atmospheric, haunting and drenched in Bava-esque colours. Truly magnificent.

I am reluctant to reveal too much about the story and the teaser panels really speak for themselves. Suffice it to say I am definitely along for the ride. Books like these finally bring that good old comic loving feeling back to me and have me curled up and fully immersed!

It's the first installment in what promises to be an epic adventure with three more volumes following until the conclusion is reached after a total of 320 pages. No doubt Messieurs Vokes and Tinnell have a lot more surprises and gorgeous imagery left in store for us. This is the kind of material that New Hammer should be making if they were really serious about carrying on their tradition.

In the meantime, however, we have Flesh and Blood.

Flesh & Blood – An interview with Robert Tinnell

This is the second part of our Flesh & Blood cover this weekend. The first part, an interview with Neil Vokes, can be found here. A proper review of the comic book is in the works and should show up over the next day or two.

I provided the same questions to Robert Tinnell, the comic's writer.

I also know Bob from round about the same time that I met Neil as those two were hanging out in the same murky corners of the Internet chatting up Hammer, Eurotrash and all things cult.

My first experience with one of his works, however, was way back when I was still living in Germany and saw Surf Nazis Must Die for the first time. He was the producer for this Troma movie and at the time it was still possible to shock some of my German countrymen with the concept of Surfer Nazi Dudes Who Have to Pass Away as that idea was still a wee bit offensive then and some of my folks were still suffering from bouts of collective guilt.

Happy memories.

He also produced the award-winning and David Fincher directed Paula Abdul video for “Straight Up”. A quick look at IMDb reveals his true range. Prior to working as a producer he also was a production manager in some of Fred Olen Ray's movies (The Tomb, Armed Response, Prison Ship) before establishing himself as a writer/director (Frankenstein and Me, Kids of the Round Table). Frankenstein and Me already foreshadowed the Hammer slant that is also dominating Flesh & Blood.

With Neil Vokes he worked together for the Black Forest and Wicked West comics books. Tinnell also wrote Feast of the Seven Fishes which was nominated for the Eisner Award, EZ Street and The Chelation Kid.

Together with artist Ade Salmon he created the amazing The Faceless: A Terry Sharp Story for which he is currently writing a follow-up that I am awaiting probably just as eagerly as the remaining Flesh & Blood parts.

Your new comic book collaboration Flesh & Blood will be out later this month. I know of a bunch of guys who are eagerly awaiting this (myself included) but what would be your elevator speech if you met someone who hadn't yet heard about this?

ROBERT: I think FLESH AND BLOOD is the monster rally fans of ‘50’s/’60’s/’70’s British horror wanted to see and never got. When Universal did their rallies the films were very much rooted in German expressionism and a sort of never-never-land quality. Our approach is more grounded in Gothic literature – in the same way the movies that inspired us were grounded in the same. And of course, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN definitely did not have nudity. Plus we’re doing the book at Monsterverse who are setting themselves up to be a real force in horror comics – which, if you know anything about Kerry Gammill and Sam Park, is a no brainer. They are passionate about the medium and you’ll never meet two bigger monster geeks.

Flesh & Blood is not the first time the two of you have worked together. Previous collaborations include The Black Forest and Wicked West books. Can you describe how the creative process works between the two of you? Are you living relatively close by or in different parts of the States? How often do you get to meet in person during the creation of such a book and what major challenges are involved in this process?

ROBERT: Some years we see each other more than others – and at times we’re on the phone frequently. Although of late, my schedule has been so hectic we don’t get to talk nearly enough. But the thing is – our sensibilities and inspirations are so intertwined that it’s a fairly effortless process as far as collaborating goes. If you read my scripts to Neil, often they’ll digress into “can you draw this like the scene from so-and-so film?” and he’ll know immediately what I mean. But before we start anything we usually get on the phone for hours and riff. The other aspect to our working relationship that makes it successful is that we’ve now done so much work together that I’ve learned to write to Neil’s strengths. When I’m writing FLESH AND BLOOD I’m seeing it laid out as I know Neil will do it. And I’m rarely surprised.

How did the two of you meet for the very first time? And was it love at first sight? ;-)

ROBERT: We met at a Fanex convention many years ago – mid-to-late ‘90’s. But we never discussed collaborating for quite some time – I bet it was a good five-six years before we decided to do The Black Forest. Originally, we were just guys who enjoyed hanging in the bar talking films and comics. It honestly never occurred to me to ask him if he’d work with me. And then he was talking to Todd Livingston and me in the bar at a con one night and we told him about our idea for THE WICKED WEST – and that was originally what we were gonna do first. But then he decided he wanted to do THE BLACK FOREST – which we had written as a screenplay. Neil just does what he wants so - we did that first.

Though Flesh & Blood is an entirely original adventure lots of references to the old Hammer Horror movies can be discovered. In actual fact it often feels that this is the type of story New Hammer should have adapted if they had followed in the footsteps of Terence Fisher & Co. What is your own personal relationship with the Classic Hammer Horrors?

ROBERT: I remember my first exposure to Hammer was when KISS OF THE VAMPIRE was gonna be on TV. My mom wouldn’t let me watch it. And the imagery haunted me. It was a few years later – on a stormy afternoon – my brother and I watched Horror of Dracula – and freaked out. As time went on we started seeing more and more of these films – and I started recognizing the actors – not just Cushing and Christopher Lee but even folks like Michael Ripper and Veronica Carlson – and then eventually the name Hammer. And we started to seek them out. I was particularly inspired by Peter Cushing. As an actor, of course, but more by the types of characters he played. The smart warrior/scientist/monk guy – whether he was Van Helsing or Sherlock Holmes or even – or should I say especially – as Frankenstein in FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN – I particularly loved that take on the character. And, of course, I loved the women in the movies. Why lie? As I got a little older I got into horror movie magazines like THE MONSTER TIMES and fanzines like PHOTON and GORE CREATURES and LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS. Plus David Pirie’s brilliant study A HERITAGE OF HORROR which blew my fourteen-year-old mind and really opened me up to Gothic literature and film criticism and the codes and rituals and themes that ran through these films. Ruined me.

What are your favourite Hammer films and why?

ROBERT: HORROR OF DRACULA is my favorite. The elegance – the economy of storytelling – and the skill that Fisher brings to the direction – married I’m sure to my nostalgia for the way it shot a lightning bolt through my heart – all make it so important to me. A close second would be FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED. It’s a virtuoso piece of filmmaking, in my opinion. Creepy – subversive – Fisher at the peak of his powers. I do like FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN for the reasons mentioned above. BRIDES OF DRACULA is marvellous – and I’ve grown to appreciate DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS more and more through the years – it got some really suspenseful sequences. I love THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and THE VAMPIRE LOVERS. I think THE MUMMY holds up well. Look I love all the good ones! And tolerate many of the bad! And by the way, I haven’t even mentioned the Quatermass stuff – love them. Kneale’s approach was very much on my mind when writing the OPERATION SATAN back-up story that Bob Hall is drawing - the lead character in that will eventually enter the FLESH AND BLOOD storyline…

Any guilty pleasures (with regards to Hammer)?

ROBERT: Of course – LUST FOR A VAMPIRE. In spite of its flaws I think it’s entertaining as hell.

Say Hollywood came calling and Flesh & Blood was going to be adapted who would you like to see star and direct?

ROBERT: I think it would make an awesome mini-series – it’s too epic for one movie. But that being said – Guillermo Del Toro, obviously. Guy Ritchie. Someone who understands the genre but also recognizes our efforts to make characters into something more than cartoons.

I may be oversimplifying but some of the main differences between the US and non-US (in particular European) comic books appear to be that American comics for a large part are geared towards the monthly 20+ page market whereas a lot of the European material is allowed a much larger scope right from the start. I am in particular thinking about the works of Jacques Tardi, Milo Manara, Hugo Pratt etc. When reading your comics I often sense more of an auteur feeling along those lines. Am I talking through my arse? As writer and illustrator what are your influences and are you actually inspired by non-US comic book creators?

ROBERT: Calling myself an auteur would probably result in my getting eviscerated by outraged auteurs everywhere! Now, it is true that some of my films seemed to be better received in Europe – I just don’t want that “we’re huge in Denmark” label, you know? There are comics that have greatly influenced me that originated elsewhere. Lone Wolf and Cub. A lot of stuff Vertigo was putting out in the early ‘90’s that had a decidedly English sensibility. Years ago my buddy, Andy Sands, turned me on to Strontium Dog and it blew my mind. The storytelling is compact yet so evocative. Having said all that – there are themes and ideas I like to explore beyond just being a slave to plot and whiz-bang stuff. God knows I go back to Frankenstein enough. Tim Lucas does a pretty good job of analysing me in the intro to Flesh and Blood and I must admit it gave me pause and some newfound insight into my storytelling.

Writer, Director, Producer. How do you mainly define yourself and are there any special projects you have not yet tackled? What would you rate as your most personal project to date?

ROBERT: I’m actually starting to think of myself as “storyteller” and no longer let any particular medium define me. If anything I’m thinking about other things I’d like to do outside of film and comics. Stuff like installation pieces. I went crazy for vegetable gardening and I kinda view my gardens as art. Which is weird I supposed but it makes sense in my head. A friend recently described my gravitation towards maybe creating some installations as a desire for permanence. Like I have this crazy idea. There’s a tiny creek on my farm and I want to divert a little waterfall there – just long enough to create an Arthurian mosaic of the Lady of the Lake on the bottom. Then restore the flow. And not tell anyone. Just see if they ever see it. And before anyone gets riled up – I am devoted to restoring the ecology on my land – don’t want to trash anything or harm the ecosystem. But I do want to do this one little thing. Don’t know why – it just appeals to me.

As far as super personal? Probably FEAST OF THE SEVEN FISHES and EZ STREET are my two most personal comic works. I know the latter drove my wife crazy. Although in a weird way FLESH AND BLOOD is very personal. In film, both KIDS OF THE ROUND TABLE and FRANKENSTEIN AND ME. But there are bits and pieces of my personality and concerns and interests that run through all my work. Again – I’d defer to Tim Lucas.

Any memorable stories about Surf Nazis Must Die you would like to share?

ROBERT: It all goes back to SURF NAZIS MUST DIE, doesn’t it, Holger? It will be etched on my tombstone. The entire process of making that film was such a happy, positive one. Peter George, the director, remains a good friend as does Jon McCallum, who composed the music. We worked really hard – and probably played a little too hard – and it paid off. When people ask me what I remember I usually go back to Peter wrecking the boat near the end of the shoot or the impromptu football game we had one night after wrap. Lots of aggression got worked out that night…

Last but not least: I hate the term “graphic novel”. What's wrong with calling a comic book a “comic book”? Discuss!

ROBERT: For me, I perceive the term graphic novel as pertaining to length – not quality. That’s not much of an answer, I know, but it’s the way it works in my head. I happily tell people I write comics.

Flesh & Blood – An interview with Neil Vokes

Mark your calendars, folks.

October 19 will see the release of the first part of Neil Vokes' and Robert Tinnell's new 4-part comic book ouevre Flesh & Blood which will be of special interest to all the readers of this blog as this is not just created by two of the biggest Hammer Horror (and Glamour!) Fans in the industry but also because the epic story contains a lot of Hammer related references.

Prior to the book release Neil and Robert have kindly agreed to an interview conducted by email. Both had more or less received the same questions and I had initially planned on posting this Q&A as one long post with both of their replies but plans changed when I received their answers. They simply were far too in-depth and detailed to have appear in just one single post. I therefore decided to release this interview in two parts, one with Neil's answers, the other with Robert's replies. Following that I will also post a review of the actual comic.

But for starters here are Neil's replies.

I first started chatting to Neil Vokes sometime in the early 2000s when I first joined the Eurotrash Paradise. At that time I had no idea who he was and mainly knew him as the witty defender of all things Bava, Hammer and Western.

I finally learned of him as a comic book artist with the release of PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE which incidentally maps the time when he moved from working for The Man and drawing other people's stuff to creating his own Vokesian universe based on characters drawn by him and created by a range of writers, first among those his good buddy Robert Tinnell.

As is often the case when you notice that someone you know socially is actually out there as a creator, I was initially a bit hesitant to approach his work. What if I didn't like it? Would I have to pretend that I did?

But I needn't have feared: PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE and even more so the two BLACK FOREST (for which he and Bob Tinnell won the Rondo Awards) and WICKED WEST books had me hooked as a fan. He also regularly published in “Little Shoppe of Horrors” and provided the chapter illustrations for two film books: IN ALL SINCERITY, PETER CUSHING by Chris Gullo and VINCENT PRICE: THE ART OF FEAR by Denis Meikle.

His style is very distinct, halfway between cartoon and realism, and his female characters just ooze good old fashioned glamour yet with a very modern sensitivity. I have since met him in person (together with Dick Klemensen and a bunch of folks from the ETP) for the last Fanex a couple of years ago and am proud to call him a friend.

Other comics he has drawn include: SUPERMAN ADVENTURES; TARZAN THE WARRIOR; THE ADVENTURES OF THE MASK; UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN: STRANGE ENCOUNTERS; JONNY DEMON; TEENAGENTS; CONGORILLA; NINJAK; TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MEET FLAMING CARROT and of course his first major sojourn into the field EAGLE which has recently been reprinted.

Also look out for his contribution to BELA LUGOSI'S TALES FROM THE GRAVE # 2 and for DR. STRANGE: FROM THE MARVEL VAULT #1 ...and many, many more. He also just finished 50 sketch cards for the Hammer Films Trading Card 2 set and has also done some Iron Man 2 cards.

Your new comic book collaboration Flesh & Blood will be out later this month. I know of a bunch of guys who are eagerly awaiting this (myself included) but what would be your elevator speech if you met someone who hadn't yet heard about this?

NEIL: If you've ever enjoyed the old Universal Pictures monster rallies and /or Hammer Films' classic Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. adaptations, you’ll get a kick out of this new series- we gather together all the legendary characters from horror film and literature and throw them into one storyline where they all clash.

Flesh & Blood is not the first time the two of you have worked together. Previous collaborations include The Black Forest and Wicked West books. Can you describe how the creative process works between the two of you? Are you living relatively close by or in different parts of the States? How often do you get to meet in person during the creation of such a book and what major challenges are involved in this process?

NEIL: Basically Bob tells me what to draw and I draw what I want anyway- but seriously, we work out a story between us, with Bob doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to story construction and dialog. I’ll draw layouts based on his plot/script and work on the visual storytelling-kind of like being the director/art director/photographer/editor- then after I'm done, Bob goes in and adjusts the dialog and adds whatever captions, etc. that it needs. We don't live anywhere near each other-more the shame-but then, if we did, we’d probably get even less work done-lol. So we rarely get together for a face to face and work thru the Net and the phone. This seems to work for us, so far-but I wish we could do more in person.

How did the two of you meet for the very first time? And was it love at first sight? ;-)

NEIL: Pretty much- we met at a horror con thru mutual friends-we hit it off right away mainly because Bob was a filmmaker who loved comic books and I was a comic book artist who loved films. Sometime later we talked about some of his unrealized projects-THE WICKED WEST and THE BLACK FOREST-I thought the BLACK FOREST screenplay would make a very cool comic and Bob let me take a crack at it- the rest is history.

Though Flesh & Blood is an entirely original adventure lots of references to the old Hammer Horror movies can be discovered. In actual fact it often feels that this is the type of story New Hammer should have adapted if they had followed in the footsteps of Terence Fisher & Co. What is your own personal relationship with the Classic Hammer Horrors?

NEIL: I saw my 1st Hammers at a drive in back in 1964 at the impressionable age of ten-the reissue double feature of HORROR OF DRACULA and CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN-I was already a film fan-I watched movies on TV all the time growing up- but horror and westerns are probably my top two favorite genres. Those two films by Terence Fisher with Lee and Cushing just blew me away- the visuals, the colors, the music, the performances, everything made my ten year old heart fall madly in love. I attribute much of my storytelling abilities to film-true I am very influenced by comic books, but when I draw a story I'm making a 2D film on paper-those Hammer classics went a long way to making me the artist I am today.

What are your favourite Hammer films and why?

NEIL: Damn- I pretty much love them all-lol- but I'd put virtually all of Terence Fisher's Hammer films at the top of the list-I'm a Dracula nut-as Bob is a Frankenstein nut-a perfect match. Lee’s performances as the Count are definitive for me-not so much the stories, which diverged from the novel a lot-but his characterization of Dracula is everything I think of when I read that novel or think about him when drawing. The Frankensteins, with Peter Cushing though are the better stories-His character actually has an arc, culminating in my favorite Baron film, FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED- a gripping, taut tale with Cushing's Baron in full on "I'm going to do these horrible things in spite of everyone else's feelings because I'm right and they are all wrong-so get out of the way!" Wonderful film. Then there's THE GORGON,CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF,THE MUMMY,BRIDES OF DRACULA-four of the most beautiful looking Hammers-and...Well, I could do the whole interview on what Hammers I love and why...back to FLESH & BLOOD.

Any guilty pleasures (with regards to Hammer)?

NEIL: Heh...I'll stick to one for now-probably LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES,which I saw in a Times Square theater in the '70s with COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE (or SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA)-GOLDEN VAMPIRES is not a great Hammer-the Kung Fu is poor, the editing a bit awkward, no Lee Dracula (awful!),etc. but it has Cushing's Van Helsing, James Bernard's score and an undeniable charm.

Say Hollywood came calling and Flesh & Blood was going to be adapted who would you like to see star and direct?


NEIL: We talk about films of our books all the time, Bob and I-maybe it will happen someday. But should it actually take place, Guillermo Del Toro is my 1st choice as director-his visual eye is glorious-Fisher meets Bava- the stars...Mark Strong or Jason Issacs as Dracula, maybe Ralph Fiennes or Jeremy Irons as the Baron, Scarlett Johannsen as Carmilla, maybe as the Countess, Eva Green as crazy Katya, Gerard Butler as Horst and Ryan Gosling or Jake Glyllenhaal as Van Helsing...but I'll probably have no say in the matter-lol.

I may be oversimplifying but some of the main differences between the US and non-US (in particular European) comic books appear to be that American comics for a large part are geared towards the monthly 20+ page market whereas a lot of the European material is allowed a much larger scope right from the start. I am in particular thinking about the works of Jacques Tardi, Milo Manara, Hugo Pratt etc. When reading your comics I often sense more of an auteur feeling along those lines. Am I talking through my arse? As writer and illustrator what are your influences and are you actually inspired by non-US comic book creators?

NEIL: As to "auteur”, well, I suppose Bob and I do tend to do certain thematic things in our books-Bob has definitely got a Frankenstein jones-but as we need each other and other collaborators to make our books, I think auteur is a bit much.

My main influences are American comics, but I do enjoy Moebius, Manara and some others- I think my stuff tends to differ from most American artists because of my love of film. Again, when I draw a story, I’m pointing a camera at a set and actors. If anything, my influences are Bava, Fisher, Del Toro, Welles and other visual storytellers in that vein.

Not counting Flesh & Blood what has been your favourite work so far and are there any dream projects you would like to tackle?


NEIL: My favorite creator owned book may very well be EAGLE (which has just been reprinted) because it gave me my first taste of artistic freedom back when I was still figuring out what kind of artist I was-and my fans from those days are still with me, thank goodness-but...it was PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE, which I did with writer Mike Oeming-that truly changed my career around for the better. It got me out of the "work for hire" gutter and brought out my true "voice" (and my love of ink wash)-I was allowed to break out of years of following the guidelines within corporate comics (which is not to say I didn't enjoy working on many of those books)-it lead directly to THE BLACK FOREST, FLESH & BLOOD and an ongoing partnership with Bob Tinnell. If you want to know my favorite work for hire comic then maybe CONGORILLA or TARZAN THE WARRIOR or SUPERMAN ADVENTURES or...heh-I dug a lot of them.

Dream projects? THE VOICE, written by Bob as another screenplay-a dark, goes for the gut horror tale with supernatural undertones-I’ve already laid out 22 pages and hope to finish it someday. EAGLE, of course-I dream of returning to that one all the time- Again I’ve started a new story and my old writing partner, Jack Herman has rejoined me to script it-someday…then there’s that adaptation of DRACULA I hope to do one day-hah-that’ll never happen-and who would want to see it anyway? There are a half dozen “someday” projects I want to do before I’m physically incapable of doing them (including new chapters of BLACK FOREST, WICKED WEST and FLESH & BLOOD) …time will tell.

Last but not least: I hate the term “graphic novel”. What's wrong with calling a comic book a “comic book”? Discuss!

NEIL: No discussion necessary-I agree- when asked by anyone what I do, I say I'm a comic book artist-calling myself a "graphic novelist" is like a garbage man calling himself a "sanitation worker"...nuff said...;o)

Pirates of Blood River (German Film Program)

Scans of the Illustrierte Film-Bühne #6165, dedicated to The Pirates of Blood River (aka Piraten vom Todesfluss). This is a 4-page film program providing a lengthy synopsis amid the credits and a collage of crucial scenes. Scan 1 and 4 are effectively the front and back page, 2 and 3 are the interior pages and should ideally be held next to each other. As is, the text is unfortunately disrupted.

Alas, none of the images can even attempt to properly portray the truly awful faux French accents used by most of the actors (including Christopher Lee).

Bruce G. Hallenbeck: Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Bruce G. Hallenbeck and Hemlock Books have done it again. Following their first publication (The Hammer Vampire: Read my review, buy the book, do it now!) the two have teamed up again and this time focused on Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi.

And just like the previous book this one's a keeper.

For starters: This is the first full length work dedicated to the Hammer Fantasy and Sci-Fi movies. As much as I have enjoyed most of the Hammer books that have come out in the last couple of years, most have covered well trodden grounds and either focus on general Hammer history or more particularly on their Gothic heritage. It's significant that a lot of the last few books about Hammer were very much visual treats. I love a coffee table book just like the next fan but the recent glut of those is symptomatic for the fact that, well, there really is only so much that can be said about them. Very soon we are going to have a situation similar to the Universal industry where writers have to depend on dragging out Dwight Frye's next-door neighbor's second cousin's grandson to come up with anything remotely new.

With Hammer we're luckily not quite there yet and some parts of their filmography are still relative Terra Incognita... or should I say Uncharted Seas? Their Sci-Fi and Fantasy output e.g. was only ever covered in a few articles here or there and even then primarily focused on some of the films individually but was never deemed sufficiently interesting enough to warrant a proper book.

Until now.

Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi is also a beauty to look at. Starting with one of the most stunning looking Hammer book covers I have ever seen it then follows the format of the previous work. It's richly illustrated mainly in black and white but also carries a coloured 8-page section in the middle.

So it's got a relatively unexplored subject matter. It's gorgeous to look at. But is it a good read?

And yes, this was a rhetorical question.

By now we already know that Hallenbeck is one of a handful of Hammer's most important historians. And he certainly hasn't started losing his mojo with this tome.

This is not just a film by film analysis. This is a proper history of those movies. Hallenbeck is not just contend to review the individual movies but also properly places them in a general Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Hammer movie timeline to depict what prior influences resulted in their productions and how they in turn influenced the next films down the line.

As such he bookends the Hammer chapters with a short history of Science Fantasy before and after. For the early years he even manages to draw attention to some films I had never even previously heard of (Verdens Undergang, Just Imagine). In the later chapter he highlights the similarities between James Cameron's Avatar and Hammer's Slave Girls making me for the first time wanting to see it. Avatar that is, not Slave Girls which I have already seen and enjoyed. And raises the possibility again that maybe, just maybe, New Hammer may eventually decide to tackle Quatermass one more time.

At first glance the films discussed in this book of course appear far more disjointed than, say, the Hammer vampire films reviewed in the first oeuvre. Needless to say Hammer's Science Fiction movies predated their Gothic Horrors and Hallenbeck does a great job in establishing a proper historical context for those.

He identifies the Dick Barton movies as the earliest examples of Sci Fi influence with Hammer. These were clearly part of their radio adaptations and quota quickies which led to them being involved with Robert Lippert, primarily in a series of Hammer Noirs though films such as Stolen Face also already displayed more overt Science Fiction elements. TV soon overturned radio as the prime source for entertainment, so Hammer continued the previously established trend to adapt the new medium's stories (The Quatermass Xperiment) which in turn eventually led to Hammer's more famous coloured Gothics. From then....

Ah, who am I fooling? It's all in the book and Hallenbeck narrates the history of events far better and way more in depth than I could ever do.

When it comes to reviews Hallenbeck is no undiscerning fanboy but he is able to see the beauty and fun in films that have often been unfairly relegated to the sidelines: Moon Zero Two, Slave Girls, The Lost Continent et al all get their fair due. When a turd is a turd he lets you know but in all cases he gives a very fair and always highly enjoyable evaluation of the film's merits and also includes references to Sci-Fi elements in their Journey to the Unknown, a TV show I have yet to continue covering to my shame.

Martine Beswicke provides the foreword and dispells the myth that she was one of the dancers in the Dr. No credit sequence, a myth that I was only too happy to embrace when I first came across it and probably did my fair share over the years to distribute further on. At last we can now lay this one to rest.

Denis Meikle is co-author of Chapter 3.

Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi is available through Amazon but I'll be damned if I give you that link as the best offers are directly from Hemlock where right now you can order this as well as The Hammer Vampire (in a new cover: Thanks for listening) for just £26.95.

The ten Hammer films I’m most ashamed never to have seen (not including “Straight On Till Morning”)

In preparation for a forthcoming post on my blog The Dennis Wheatley Project, I watched The Lost Continent for the first time the other night.
I’d owned a copy of it for ages, but I’d been saving it until after I’d read Uncharted Seas, the Dennis Wheatley novel it’s based on. (I’m reading all Wheatley’s novels in order. Don’t ask. It’s a long story.)
As usual when I catch up with a Hammer film I’ve never seen before, I enjoyed every second of it, and was struck again by the fact that there’s just something... some weird, indefinable alchemical something... about Hammer films - all Hammer films - that perfectly suits my cinematic metabolism.

I can see that their best films are their best films, but even the ones that inspire nothing but complete disdain from even sympathetic reviewers – like this one – invariably give me nothing but pleasure.
From the first time I saw Lust For a Vampire I knew that it was a film I would be periodically watching again and again for the rest of my life. Dracula AD 1972 gets better every time I see it. I got The Vengeance of She as part of a box set and didn’t get round to it for over a year, so persuaded was I by its reputation as perhaps the worst of all the major Hammer movies - and when I finally gave it a chance I loved it from the first frame to the last. My most recent viewing was my fourth and it won’t be the last.

The vast majority of the Hammer films I’ve seen, and all the most famous and important ones, I saw between the ages of ten and eighteen, in a lucky, happy time when they seemed hardly ever absent from British tv, on BBC2 on Saturday nights, and ITV in the week.
Heady days they were, and I was able to indulge so regularly and with such repeated pleasure that it’s only comparatively recently that its occurred to me that there are gaps still to plug here. In the last couple of years I've tracked down - and adored - those last few major stragglers, like Captain Clegg, most of those black and white Jimmy Sangsters, and, best of all, The Mummy's Shroud. (Even the fact that those fabulous stills of the mummy looming up behind a négligée-clad Maggie Kimberly turned out to be another case of the Susan Denbergs didn't spoil it for me.)

There remain, however, just a few significant chapters in the Hammer saga that still remain just titles and stills to me.
Here are ten of the most notable – accompanied by my pledge to catch up with all of them over the next year.
Anyone got a copy of The Old Dark House?

1. X- The Unknown
2. The Abominable Snowman
I’ve seen the two black and white Quatermasses, but never did get round to these remaining black and white proto-Hammer horrors, the first written by Sangster in Nigel Kneale mode, the second by Kneale himself and with Peter Cushing in the cast. No excuse, no excuse. I always thought it would have been interesting if Hammer had retained Nigel Kneale as a regular screenwriter and just let him do whatever he wanted: his obviously more cerebral approach would have made for an interesting counterpoint to Sangster and Hinds. I can't see Sir James giving him a free hand, though. Incidentally, my former day job brought me into contact with Judith Kerr, Kneale’s widow, last year, and necessitated me visiting her at their daughter's house - which has the largest tank of tropical fish I’ve ever seen. It all seemed very Quatermass, somehow.

3. Shadow of the Cat
Bit of an interloper this. Nowadays, the is-it-or-isn’t-it-a-true-Hammer-Horror battle is over, and the verdict is yes. But I got into Hammer at a time when nobody had even heard of it, and I lived through those bitter years when the pro- and anti- forces besieged each other. I sided instinctively with the nays, for some reason, despite my love of Barbara and André, and I’ve never really accepted it into the family, certainly not in the blasé way in which it now turns up in all the lists, without even a comment to indicate its mongrel status. But still, there’s no excuse for not ever having seen it.

4. The Damned
I’m beginning to notice a running theme so far: I’ve missed most of the black and white ones.
I’m sure it’s a coincidence (and in any event we’re switching to colour from this point on) but it’s certainly true that colour is, to me, one of the defining features of Hammer. Another is a certain traditional kind of ambiance, even in modern-setting productions. This, I’ll wager lacks the latter every bit as much as the former, and in truth I’m really not in any great hurry to catch up with this. For my money Joseph Losey, like Alan Parker, is one of those names that practically guarantees an infuriating time.

5. Terror of the Tongs
This looks like great fun, rather more so I should think than Stranglers of Bombay, a(nother) black and whiter with which it is invariably if mysteriously paired. Christopher Lee in Fu Manchu rehearsal, the docks of Peking recreated at Bray and the famous bone scraping scene... and all I can do is imagine it.
The same goes for The Scarlet Blade, and for The Devil Ship Pirates, and for...

6. Pirates of Blood River
I’m sure I'd love them all, but Pirates just edges ahead in my wish list because of its rare casting of two of my minor Hammer glamour favourites: Baskerville minx Marla Landi, whose uniquely mangled dialogue is a delight in that movie and I'm sure will be again here, and the incredible Marie Devereux, for whom no justifying comment is necessary.

7. She
8. Slave Girls
There are a few reasons why I really should get around to seeing this. It’s a key Hammer movie, of course, along with One Million Years BC (the closest I've got to a Hammer film I couldn't get all the way through) one of the anomalous smash successes among the studio's sandy adventure films that convinced them there was potential in the subgenre. A score of flops later they were still trying. But this one features both Lee and Cushing – which actually is a rarer event than you might have thought at Hammer – and I have, let’s not forget, seen The Vengeance of She four times, so it feels somewhat perverse to have never watched this.
And Slave Girls just looks like good fun, with Martine Beswick in a scandalously rare swaggering lead, the potential of which just pushes the film ahead of The Viking Queen and Creatures the World Forgot in my ten.

9. The Old Dark House
Can this really be as bad as they all say? Surely not.
I doubt it’s a patch on the 1932 original – few films are – but then, it doesn’t sound like it’s all that similar either. The prospect of William Castle working for Hammer is one to savour, and so is this cast: Janette Scott, Fenella Fielding, Peter Bull, Robert Morley, Joyce Grenfell...
I’m willing to bet that this is a little gem in hiding, desperately long overdue sympathetic re-evaluation. I can't even guess what it's really like. But will we ever get the chance to see it?

10. The Anniversary
I like The Nanny; love Bette Davis… So how come I’ve never made the effort to see this? Search me. Anyway, I promised to limit this list to ten, which means, as predicted, there’s no room for Straight On Till Morning.

What are the most glaring gaps in your circle of Hammer film acquaintances?

RIP, Jimmy Sangster: The man who invented Hammer Horror

“I can remember thirty years ago like it was last week.
Last week I can't remember at all.”
Jimmy Sangster, Inside Hammer

From a lifetime of memories...

Jimmy Sangster, 1927 -2011