Time to "Get Hammered"
“He did the Mash (He did the Monster Mash)
(The Monster Mash) It was a Graveyard Smash”
Among my favorite pleasures as a child was growing up in Ottawa, Illinois where Sunday was the best day of the week.
Every Sunday morning my brother, father, and I would rise at 5:30 and deliver Chicago Tribunes and Chicago Sun Times to the East Side of Ottawa. I actually earned about fifteen dollars a week, and for a third grader, that was a great deal of cash. We would then go to the Ottawa News Agency where the owner Russ would give me boxes of free comic books. Following the News Agency, we would go to McDonalds and have an Egg McMuffin—still one of my all-time favorite food choices, although I no longer partake—Weight Watchers, don’t you know. Then we sat in the same pew for 10:30 Mass at St. Pat’s, followed by heading home to watch Bob Luce Wrestling. After Wrestling, my brother and I would watch the Horror Movies on Channel 32 and Channel 44.
As a child, I grew up watching Hammer Horror films and I still feel the love of the classics today—the best being The Horror of Dracula (1958) starring Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Dr.Van Helsing. It was gothic, it was cryptic, and it was kind of scary. Bela Lugosi as Dracula from Universal was cool and the accent was wild, but Christopher Lee’s Dracula was…well…violent and frightening. I mean, one would expect that from Dracula, but Lugosi was corny and this was creepy.
I loved the Curse of the Werewolf with Oliver Reed as well, and I would safely argue it was a more frightening film than Universal’s Wolf-man with Lon Chaney Jr.
Universal’s Frankenstein and Mummy were better, but that is simply because Boris Karloff was the best horror film actor, ever.
The Dracula films kept me as a Hammer fan with The Brides of Dracula, The Scars of Dracula, Taste The Blood Of Dracula, Dracula 1972 A.D., and Satanic Rites of Dracula. I watched them all and I thought they were fantastic.
Marvel Comics began a line of horror comics that I think were more than loosely based on the Hammer films over Universal. The Tomb of Dracula series from Marvel was more akin to Lee than Lugosi; the Werewolf By Night series seemed to draw a more modern edge to the monster like Hammer films--much more so than Universal films. The Living Mummy series was also a bit more Hammer-like; and the Curse of Frankenstein series was probably borrowing little bits from each, as the Monster wasn’t a raving psycho like Universal’s version, however he looked more Karloff like than he looked like the Christopher Lee version.
It is funny how I still derive pleasure from these flights of fancy that I possessed as a child. Marvel Comics has re-published their Monster Series in a series called “Essentials” and have re-printed every Dracula story and the first two years of Werewolf By Night and Curse of Frankenstein. I am hoping for a Living Mummy Series as well.
Hammer films are being re-released on Universal DVD’s—having just acquired the Horror of Dracula volume; I decided to order the others from Amazon.
I wish I could go back in time and relive those Sunday mornings of working hard, being paid with a vast amount of “riches” for a kid, having every comic I ever wanted for the asking, and watching those classic horror films. The kids today do not know what they are missing.
Although I could do without those cold Sunday Mornings with a beater car that barely had heat while we toiled across the East Side…and I suppose I can do without the Egg McMuffins, although I certainly miss them.
(The Monster Mash) It was a Graveyard Smash”
Among my favorite pleasures as a child was growing up in Ottawa, Illinois where Sunday was the best day of the week.
Every Sunday morning my brother, father, and I would rise at 5:30 and deliver Chicago Tribunes and Chicago Sun Times to the East Side of Ottawa. I actually earned about fifteen dollars a week, and for a third grader, that was a great deal of cash. We would then go to the Ottawa News Agency where the owner Russ would give me boxes of free comic books. Following the News Agency, we would go to McDonalds and have an Egg McMuffin—still one of my all-time favorite food choices, although I no longer partake—Weight Watchers, don’t you know. Then we sat in the same pew for 10:30 Mass at St. Pat’s, followed by heading home to watch Bob Luce Wrestling. After Wrestling, my brother and I would watch the Horror Movies on Channel 32 and Channel 44.
As a child, I grew up watching Hammer Horror films and I still feel the love of the classics today—the best being The Horror of Dracula (1958) starring Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Dr.Van Helsing. It was gothic, it was cryptic, and it was kind of scary. Bela Lugosi as Dracula from Universal was cool and the accent was wild, but Christopher Lee’s Dracula was…well…violent and frightening. I mean, one would expect that from Dracula, but Lugosi was corny and this was creepy.
I loved the Curse of the Werewolf with Oliver Reed as well, and I would safely argue it was a more frightening film than Universal’s Wolf-man with Lon Chaney Jr.
Universal’s Frankenstein and Mummy were better, but that is simply because Boris Karloff was the best horror film actor, ever.
The Dracula films kept me as a Hammer fan with The Brides of Dracula, The Scars of Dracula, Taste The Blood Of Dracula, Dracula 1972 A.D., and Satanic Rites of Dracula. I watched them all and I thought they were fantastic.
Marvel Comics began a line of horror comics that I think were more than loosely based on the Hammer films over Universal. The Tomb of Dracula series from Marvel was more akin to Lee than Lugosi; the Werewolf By Night series seemed to draw a more modern edge to the monster like Hammer films--much more so than Universal films. The Living Mummy series was also a bit more Hammer-like; and the Curse of Frankenstein series was probably borrowing little bits from each, as the Monster wasn’t a raving psycho like Universal’s version, however he looked more Karloff like than he looked like the Christopher Lee version.
It is funny how I still derive pleasure from these flights of fancy that I possessed as a child. Marvel Comics has re-published their Monster Series in a series called “Essentials” and have re-printed every Dracula story and the first two years of Werewolf By Night and Curse of Frankenstein. I am hoping for a Living Mummy Series as well.
Hammer films are being re-released on Universal DVD’s—having just acquired the Horror of Dracula volume; I decided to order the others from Amazon.
I wish I could go back in time and relive those Sunday mornings of working hard, being paid with a vast amount of “riches” for a kid, having every comic I ever wanted for the asking, and watching those classic horror films. The kids today do not know what they are missing.
Although I could do without those cold Sunday Mornings with a beater car that barely had heat while we toiled across the East Side…and I suppose I can do without the Egg McMuffins, although I certainly miss them.
posted by Eric Sweetwood at 11:45 PM
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