Monster Island News: Vincent Price Presents

Showing posts with label Vincent Price Presents. Show all posts

Rondo Awards Voting To March 27

by Armand Vaquer

Regarding the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, voting continues up to March 27. So if you haven't cast your vote on the Rondos, please take the time to do so.

From the Rondo Awards website:

The Rondos, now in their ninth year, are fandom's only classic horror award, decided by fans, for fans, and dedicated to preserving the undying spirit of monsters past.

Every Rondo nominee below is being recognized for a significant achievement in the genre during the year of 2010. So please take a look at the ballot and let the nominees know how much we appreciate their work by voting.

Be sure to read the directions on how to vote (it's really simple, just copy and paste the ballot onto an email, mark your votes with an 'x' and address it to taraco@aol.com). Be sure you include your name so your ballot is counted!

Above, the masthead for Monster Island News.

Above, Miki Hayashi with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When voting, please vote for Monster Island News* for Best Blog and The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan for Best Book of the Year.

And please consider these friends of Monster Island News...

BEST COMMENTARY

August Ragone, Jason Varney, GAMERA VS. BARUGON

FAVORITE HORROR HOST OF 2010

KARLOS BORLOFF (Monster Madhouse, Washington, DC)
COUNT GORE DE VOL (Creature Feaures)
PENNY DREADFUL (Shilling Shockers, New England)

and ...

MR. LOBO (Cinema Insomnia, California)

BEST HORROR COMIC

BELA LUGOSI'S TALES FROM THE GRAVE (Monsterverse). Colorful and clever anthology features Bela as a very sinister host..

VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS (Bluewater). Anthology includes Witchfinder General tales.

*I am a contributor to Monster Island News.

Vincent Price Presents - A Wonderful Horror Comics Anthology From Bluewater

Written By: Ken Hulsey

Being a writer that focuses on the fantasy entertainment realm isn't all that easy. Once you get established and people get to know about your work things start to find their way into your e-mail box and home mail box. Sometimes a lot of items get thrown at you all at once. It can be hard to keep up with it all, especially if you are easily distracted, like I am.

That leads me to the subject of this article, the really great horror anthology "Vincent Price Presents", which is published by Bluewater Comics. I have been really wanting to sit down and write about these books for several months now, but 'something' always seems to pull me away when I attempt to do so.

But not today.

If you were lucky enough to grow up during the 1970s, like I did, then you were probably a fan of the excellent horror comic books of the day. I personally spent many a day with my face planted in between the pages of Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella and the like. That was truly the golden age of horror and sci fi themed books.

Today the Washington based Bluewater Comics is publishing a new breed of horror and sci fi comics that may re spark the popularity of this genre yet once again.

The company also publishes a series of political based comics about president Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton and even Oprah Winfrey, but I don't want to hold that against the company. Their other stuff is quite good.

On second thought, maybe those are horror titles?

Vincent Price Presents is presented in the same format as Rod Serling's famous television series "Night Gallery", in every issue Price sets the tone for the story, just like Serling did in the TV series.

The works of writer Chad Helder have been featured predominantly throughout the first year of the series. His work is very good, although it seems that he has a fixation on evil k-9's.

Helder's work on the very first issue of "Vincent Price Present's" was what stood out for me. A tale of a ruling class of Vampires who run a Nazi inspired government with camps to contain a constant food supply. Very chilling.

Another thing that helps this series stand out against the other horror comics is the often surreal artwork done by Rey Armenteros and Giovanni Timpano. Actually it is Armenteros who creates the very bizarre and frightening illustrations to go along with the author's stories. Timpano tends to do standard comic book work, that's not to say that the work is not good in it's own right.

I will have to say that it is Armenteros's strange illustrations that are the real backbone of this series. The work is bizarre, surreal and often times, grotesque. A perfect way to illustrate the horrific and macabre themes in the comics.

If you have not been exposed to "Vincent Price Presents" then I suggest you search you local comic book retailer for new and back issues of the comic. You will be transported into the world of the strange and supernatural very much like I was way back in the seventies with my collection of comic books and comic magazines.