The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson

 

(pb; 1976)

From the back cover

“When Captain Carlsen entered the vast derelict spaceship, he was stunned by its awesome splendor—and shaken by the discovery of its immobilized humanoid passengers.

“Later, after three of those strange aliens had been transported to Earth, his foreboding was more than justified. The creatures were energy vampires whose seductive embraces were fatal, whose lust for vitality was boundless. As they took over the willing bodies of their victims and sexual murders spread terror throughout the land, Carlsen worked toward their destruction—even though he was erotically drawn to the most beautiful vampire of all!”

 

Review

Space is an excellent science fiction/horror novel that deftly balances the older style of classic science fiction novels of the 1950s (with its emphasis on focused and intense scientific explanations, sometimes delivered by talkative aliens), earthier pulpy thrills (R-rated sex, terror, heroes and antagonists who aren’t binary good-or-bad), and classic horror/vampiric tropes and framing. It’s a streamlined, burn-through, real-world believable and sometimes cliffhanger-ish read, one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year. Worth owning, this.

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The resulting R rated film, titled Lifeforce, was released stateside on June 21, 1985. Tobe Hooper directed it, from a screenplay by Dan O’Bannon and Don Jakoby.

The Killer Condom by Ralf König

 

(pb; 1988. Translated from the German by Jim Steakley.)

 

From the back cover

“It looks like a condom.

“It feels like a condom.

“It fits like a condom.

“But it’s no ordinary condom—it’s a killer!”

 

Review

In New York City, at the sleazy Hotel Quickie—where police detective (Macaroni, no first name given) has sexual encounters with his rent boys—twelve men, during trysts, had their penes bitten off by a creature (or creatures) that look like safe-sex rubbers. Macaroni doesn’t believe this until his right testicle is chomped off, and his investigation becomes personal. Macaroni is aided by his latest lust-struck size-king rent boy (whose name is not given) who’s gone sweet on the gruff inspector.

König’s milestone work is presented as “A Ralf König Film. . . presented by Twentieth Century Fux,” its writing and tone dead-on hard-boiled and double-entendre hilarious, its framing and art appropriately cinematic, a veritable stick-to-it blueprint for any film that might result from it (one did). A sly skewering of human relations, mostly sexual, underlines the fast-moving, crisply edited proceedings, and König’s artwork, while sexually explicit at times (with plenty of male and female frontal nudity), is often Mad magazine hyperbolic, general (e.g., no extreme closeup “money shots”) and frenetic, an imaginative, topline masterwork that rises well above the level of mere porn.

Killer is one of my all-time favorite graphic novel reads, one that mixes unapologetic smut with pun-intended, often risible cleverness and a genuine, well-executed love of tough-guy pulp. Worth owning, this, if you enjoy Mad magazine-style artwork, and are good with its aforementioned qualities and aren’t heterophobic or homophobic.

Followed by another graphic novel, Ralf König’s Down to the Bone.

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The resulting film, which includes select plot elements from Down to the Bone, was released in Germany on August 29, 1996, and made its stateside debut at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1997. Martin Walz directed and co-scripted it with Mario Kramp.

 

Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin

 

(hb; 1997: sequel to Rosemary’sBaby)

From the inside flap

“Son of Rosemary opens at the dawn of the new millennium—a time when human hope is shadowed by growing fear and uncertainty, and the world is in greatest need of a savior. It is here—against the glittering backdrop of New York City in 1999—that Rosemary is reunited with her son. It is also here that the battle between good and evil will be played out on a global scale—a struggle that will have frightening, far-reaching consequences, not only for Rosemary and her son but for all of humanity.”

 

Review

Son, like Rosemary’s Baby, is a hard-to-set-down, clever, and satirically devilish read. Thirty years have passed since the events of Rosemary’s, and Rosemary Reilly—then Rosemary Woodhouse—has spent twenty-seven of them in a Bramford cult-induced coma. Then the last member of the cult dies, just as Rosemary wakes, shortly to be reunited with her thirty-three-old son (Andy Castevet), head of God’s Children, a globally popular Christian peace movement. Andy and Rosemary’s coming-together is joyous, with Andy breaking with His father’s plans, something that didn’t sit well with Satan. Setpiece-sly murders begin, the smell of tannis—like that preceded the horrors of the previous novel—seeps into Rosemary’s investigations, and she begins to suspect something’s not right with Andy and his organization. . .

Levin, with his usual economical prose, keeps the thematic connective tissue taut and intriguing, maintaining the visual and plot cues of Rosemary’s. Son’s tone is updated and different than Rosemary’s, but it feels like a natural continuation of the first book, with an effective multi-twist finish that, with a lesser writer, might’ve galled me as a cheat ending, but with Son feels right. Worth reading, this.

"Werewolf By Night" Omnibus by various writers and artists (Part 2 of 2)

 

(over-sized hb; 2015: graphic novel)

From the inside flap

“From the streets of Los Angeles, across Europe and into unnamed worlds, Transylvanian-American Jack Russell turned his curse into a blessing for others. During his quest for control or cure, he met many of Marvel’s mightiest monsters as allies, enemies or either—including John Blaze, Brother Voodoo, the Man-Thing, Morbius the Living Vampire, and even Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster! His clashes with two very different vigilantes made him an opponent of the heinous Hangman and a friend with ex-mercenary Moon Knight, commissioned by the cryptic Committee to tame him!

“Bound body and soul to the gruesome grimoire called the Darkhold, the Werewolf and his friends—mortal and otherwise—found themselves at the center of sorcery spanning the centuries: Aelfric the Mad Monk, Marcosa the Soul-Eater, the terrible Taboo and the modern era’s Moondark the Magician! Threats ranging from such mortal monstrosities as Half-man and DePrayve to the all-but-omnipotent forces of Doctor Glitternight and the Starseed harried the hairy hero, who inevitably rose—triumphant—even more steadily than the full moon!

“Featuring the Army of Terror, the Brotherhood of Baal, the Hellrunners and the hordes of Hydra! Demons and androids, Hollywood vampires and zombie police officers, mad scientists, madder monsters, and more! Guest-starring Spider-Man and Iron Man, and featuring the origin of Tigra of the Avengers!”

 

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review. Part 1 of the review is here.

Werewolf is a fun, well-written and excellently illustrated comic book, with main characters that, within the comic book genre, are relatively smart and consistent in their characterizations—though Jack Russell’s occasional young-man-oblivious sexism and verbal cultural appropriation (when dealing with people of color), e.g., “speaking through his Afro” and “hand-jive,” might upset some modern-day readers unable to process that those in the past weren’t sensitive to some future readers’ outrage-archeologist sensibilities. That minor quibble aside, Werewolf is mostly a slice-of-1970s-monster blast-read, an Old School joy ride down memory lane for those who thrill to such things. Worth owning, this.

 

Review, issue by issue

Werewolf By Night: “Giant-Size Werewolf By Night” (#2) – “The Frankenstein Monster Meets Werewolf By Night”: Frankenstein’s Monster, trying to have his soul migrated into a less monster-iconic body, seeks out a Los Angeles-based cult (Brotherhood of Baal, led by Danton Vayla), who, coincidentally, has kidnapped Lissa, Jack’s Russell’s sister. The Brotherhood of Baal intend to sacrifice her to bring Satan’s spirit into Frankenstein’s Monster’s body.

This issue is especially cartoon-cheesy with otherwise smart characters (e.g., Lissa) putting themselves and others into easily avoided dodgy situations. Yes, it’s a comic book, but it’s even-for-comics-cheesy. Buck Cowan, Los Angeles reporter and friend of the Russells, makes an appearance in this issue.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Face of the Fiend!” (#22): Jack Russell finds himself—in his fanged, furry-furious form—fighting a murderous muscleman in Greek attire (Atlas, a.k.a. Steve Rand) who’s killing Hollywood-types responsible for his facial disfiguration. . . and now he’s trying to kill Jack!

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Murderer is a Maniac!” (#23): Buck Cowan fills Jack Russell in about Atlas/Steve Rand’s history, one connected to Cowan’s screenwriting past. Jack and Atlas have a rematch in Mann’s Chinese Theater.

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Dark Side of Evil!” (#24): Winston Redditch, a mild-mannered scientist, might have a cure for Jack Russell’s lycanthropy—unfortunately, Redditch, after a beaker mix-up, transforms into Deprayve, a Mr. Hyde-esque mad man, intent on murder and evil. Jack discovers this in a hard-fought way.

Meanwhile, Vic Northrup, fellow cop and friend of LAPD Lieutenant Lou Hackett, gets a big lead in his werewolf-related investigation of Hackett’s death. (Hackett, a “cop-turned-werewolf,” died in issue 21.)

Also: Jack is evicted from the Colden House apartment complex by his landlady, Sandy. Seems there’s been too many supernatural attacks against Jack and his neighbors, and too much property damage resulting from them. Because of this, Jack moves into Buck Cowan’s house.

 

Werewolf By Night: “An Eclipse of Evil!” (#25): Jack Russell and Winston Redditch (who’d chemically pursued his “Jekyll-Hyde Theory”) recover from their public scrap-up (in the previous issue), reverting  back to his non-Deprayve self.

LAPD Detective Northrup continues hounding Jack about his lycanthropy (which Northrup has gleaned) and Lou Hackett’s death (Werewolf By Night issue 21). A surprise villain makes a shocking appearance!

 

Werewolf By Night: “A Crusade of Murder” (#26): The Hangman (last seen in issues 11 and 12) tries to kill Jack Russell, then kidnaps a bed-ridden Winston Redditch (who inevitably becomes his alter-ego, Deprayve). A three-way battle ensues.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Giant-Size Werewolf (#3) – “Castle Curse!”: Jack Russell, his sister Lissa, and Buck Cowan return to Transylvania (the last time was there was Tomb of Dracula #18 and Werewolf By Night #15) to rescue Topaz from a “band of gypsies” who ransacked the Russells’ family home (Gregory Russoff’s Manor) while looking for a copy of the Darkhold (Gregory’s warlock spellbook).

Also: a spate of murders is taking place in his family’s in ancestral village. Jack, in lycanthropic form, deals with vigilante villagers and a gypsy woman with a mysterious grudge against Jack and the villagers.

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Amazing Dr. Glitternight” (#27): A month after returning from Transylvania, a malevolent sorcerer (Glitternight) and his tentacled “yecch-monster” stalk Topaz from a nearby cave.

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Darkness from Glitternight” (#28): Dr. Glitternight—not believing that Taboo, Topaz’s stepfather, is dead (Werewolf By Night #14)—torments her, Jack Russell, his sister Lissa, and Buck Cowan in order to discover the dead sorcerer’s whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Lissa’s eighteenth birthday, the night of her first lycanthropic shift, rapidly approaches, worsening the Taboo situation.

 

Werewolf By Night: “A Sister of Hell” (#29): Lissa Russell, transformed into a weredemon by Dr. Glitternight, engages in a fierce battle with her lycanthropic sibling, Jack, in their “ancestral castle, reconstructed on an island off the coast of Malibu”. Meanwhile, Topaz, her stepfather (“a solidification of Taboo’s dead soul”) and Buck Cowan try to stop Glitternight from completely killing Taboo, who wronged the malevolent magic-wielder in the past.

All this happens while LAPD Detective Vic Northrup and a fellow cop (Eddie) go to the Colden House apartment complex, looking for Jack as well as Raymond Coker, who taken a trip to Haiti in order to lift his shapeshifter affliction—he hopes a local voodoo priestess (“Jeessala of de thousand years”), in the heart of the jungle, will help him with this.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Red Slash Across Midnight” (#30): Jack Russell and his sister, Lissa, fight anew on her second-full-moon-night transformation (again, her werewolfery is mutated by Dr. Glitternight’s magickal interference). The stakes are higher this time: Glitternight, watching, has claimed her soul, which he intends to use to further his mass destruction plans.

Topaz, Buck Cowan and Taboo (as a fleshless soul essence) seek a way to save Lissa, and, again, the world. Like the previous issue, this is an especially action-frenetic read.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Giant-Size Werewolf” (#4) – “A Meeting of Blood”/”When the Moon Dripped Blood”—

 “A Meeting of Blood”: Michael Morbius (“the living vampire”) is reunited with his amnesiac fiancée, Martine, who may lead him to more than love, when a wolf-mode Jack Russell crosses their path and attacks them, possibly undoing Morbius and Martine’s shot at a sweet new life.

“When the Moon Dripped Blood”: A too-good-to-be-true film shoot with famous stuntman Brad Wrangle leads Jack Russell, his ex-neighbor Clary Winters (a.k.a. Melody Tune), and reporter/screenwriter Buck Cowan into a Lovecraftian, mountainous nightmare. Despite some heavy-handed dialogue, When is a creepy, over-the-top and fun ride.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Giant-Size Werewolf By Night” (#5) --“The Plunder of Paingloss”: A satanic priest (Joaquin Zairre) kidnaps Jack Russell so that Jack (in werewolf form) might be sacrificed for an increase in Zairre’s power. Unfortunately for Zairre, Buck Cowan comes along for the ride, and a fanged and furry Jack is cast into an alternate realm (Biphasia), with its 24/7 benighted Shadow-Realm, and 24/7 daylit side, Searland.

Russell is forced to fight in a supernatural war between two insane foes (Delandra, the “yin-yang half-queen of Biphasia,” and Sardanus, a black-armored warlord whose bellicose designs include Russell’s—our—world.

Ambitious, complex (for a comic book) and wild-with-its-ideas-and-creatures issue, one of my favorite Werewolf By Night storylines thus far.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Death in White” (#31): Jack Russell’s ski vacation with his friends, including a newly met widow (Elaine Marston) and her seven-year-old daughter (Buttons), goes horribly awry when Buttons sneaks out while Jack, in fur and fang form, runs wild in a blizzard. Meanwhile, L.A. detective Vic Northrup heads to Haiti to hunt down Raymond Carver, whom he thinks had something to do with his friend’s (Det. Lou Hackett) murder (see issue 21).

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Stalker Called Moon Knight” (#32): While Buck Cowan—seriously hurt in issue 31—fights for his life in a L.A. hospital, Jack Russell, moon-transformed, fights for his life after The Committee hires a mercenary (Marc Spector, a.k.a. Moon Knight) to bring Jack Russell, of course in werewolf form, to them. In Haiti, Raymond Coker (last seen in issue 21) gets bad news from “Jeesal of de thousand years”.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Wolf-Beast s. Moon Knight” (#33):Jack Russell’s full-moon battle with Moon Knight continues. L.A. detective Vic Northrup lands in Haiti, continuing his search for Raymond Coker, who tells “Jeesala of de thousand years” about an undead threat that killed his aunt and uncle “in a small village north of Mirebalais” and terrorized his seven-year-old cousin (Banita).

 

Marvel Premiere featuring: The Legion of Monsters—“There’s a Mountain on Sunset Boulevard!” (#28): After a mountain rips through Sunset Boulevard, Jack Russell (moon-transformed), Ghost Rider, Morbius the Living Vampire, and Man-Thing find themselves fighting for or against a golden alien warrior (Starseed), in a conflict that’ll cost them plenty. Palpable sense of comic book-y heartbreak in this issue. One of my favorite Werewolf By Night issues.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Not All the Shades of Death Nor Evil’s Majesty” (#34): A moon-changed Jack Russell, his sister (Lissa), Topaz and Elaine Marston (introduced in issue 31) investigate the haunted Marcosa House (once owned by evil supernatural enthusiast Belaric Marcosa “nearly a century” before). They do this for multiple reasons, not the least of which is to save Buck Cowan’s life (issues 31-32), find out what happened to Elaine’s fellow paranormal investigators (including her husband Steven).

While effectively heavy on atmospheric dread and horror, the plot that leads them there is thin and forced, even for a comic book. Its storyline recalls Shirley Jackson’s 1959 gothic horror novel The Haunting of Hill House and Richard Matheson’s 1971 novel Hell House. Still, this issue is a fun, spooky and above-average horror read.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Evil in Every Stone No Longer Hiding” (#35): Wild, malefic hallucinations (or are they?) manifest themselves with Jack Russell (who, in human form, must fend off a lycanthropic attack), Elaine Marston (volatile and kill-crazy), Lissa and Topaz in Belaric Marcosa’s hellish house.

Intense, relentless in its terror scenarios, above average issue, like the issue that preceded it and the two issues that follow it.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Marcosa in Death” (#36): Still trapped in Belarus Marcosa’s malefic, spirit-infested death abode, Jack Russell and his friends try to suss out their (and Elaine Marston’s) escape, a plan that unveils further mysteries and monstrous visions/attacks.

 

Werewolf By Night: [no story title] (#37): The four-issue Marcosa House arc wraps up as Jack Russell and his family (blood kin and extended) mount a desperate, zombie- and hallucination-bashing offensive against the evil manse-master, Belarus Marcosa. Solid, milestone-for-Jack-Russell finish.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Rebirth Also Kills” (#38): A supernatural trio (The Three who Are All)—“the Cowled One, burning snake, and goat child”—appear to various Werewolf By Night characters, including Jack Russell, to bring them together for a pivotal conflict with a common foe. Not a lot happens in this issue, but it’s a set-up for the next issue.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Some Are Born to the Night” (#39): Jack Russell and his friends (including the unexpected Brother Voodoo, a.k.a. Jericho Drumm) battle zuvembies (“dead men who’ve lost their souls. . . and serve the very person  preventing their eternal rest”) in the Devil’s Grotto in Haiti.

 

Werewolf by Night: “Souls in Darkness” (#40): Still battling the zuvembies, Jack Russell and his friends now have to contend with the supposedly dead Dr. Glitternight (last seen in issues 27-30), master of the zuvembies. Also: Dr. Glitternight’s past is revealed, The Three Who Are All make an appearance as does LAPD Detective Vic Northrup.

 

Werewolf By Night: “. . . And Death Shall Be the Change!” (#41): The conflict between Jack Russell (and his friends) and Dr. Glitternight intensifies made more wild by a revelation and a task put out by The Three Who Are All. Conclusion of the story arc begun in issue 38 (“Rebirth Also Kills”).

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Marauder and the Man of Iron” (#42): Jack Russell, now able to control his lycanthropic transformations, interrupts a four-man burglary, led by the Marauder (last seen in Iron Man issues 60 and 61). Iron Man shows up, and after the obligatory mistaken-intentions fight between Russell and Iron Man, they try to stop the Marauder and his henchmen.

Excellent issue! I love that Jack, one issue away from the end of the original run of Werewolf, is finally able to control his familial curse. Also: his interaction with Jarvis, The Avengers’ manservant, are warm and hilarious.

 

Werewolf by Night: “Terrible Threat of the Tri-Animan” (#43): In a warehouse on Houtson and Mottle Streets in LA, Iron Man and Jack Russell (of course in werewolf form) face off against the Marauder’s latest mutation-cyborg, Tri-Animan (who has the “strength of a gorilla, the speed and agility of a cheetah, and the raw savagery of an alligator”). After their building-smashing fisticuffs spill out onto the streets, things spiral further out of control.

This final issue of the original Werewolf By Night run is mostly fun and all-around excellent for an series-ending work, but I’m guessing its writers didn’t get a lot of warning (if any) about Werewolf’s demise because of a dangling Story B thread where Buck Cowan was dramatically kidnapped by a terrifying, mysterious someone (at the end of issue 42). In issue 43, Buck’s still missing, news that has to reach Jack Russell. Still, this is a minor, beyond-the-creators’-control element. I’ve little doubt they probably would’ve tied up that loose end if Marvel had given them the chance. Great finish.

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

 

(hb; 1967)

From the inside flap

“Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse were delighted at the chance to move into the Bramford, one of Manhattan’s oldest and most celebrated apartment houses. Their friend Hutch urged them not to; he knew of too many shadows in the Bramford’s past—unsavory tenants like Adrian Marcato, who had practiced witchcraft, and the monstrous Trench sisters. But Rosemary and Guy were clear-thinking and not at all superstitious. They dismissed Hutch’s warnings and moved in.

“At first they were completely happy. Rosemary hung curtains and planned a nursery for the baby she hoped to have some day. Guy pursued his career as a stage and television actor. They met their neighbors, who were friendly and unintrusive. But then, one day when Rosemary was down in the basement laundry room, a girl her own age came in. . .”

 

Review

Set in Manhattan, New York between 1965 and 1966, Ira Levin’s clever, satiric and tightly written devilish thriller is excellent, cinematic in its representation of Rosemary’s victimization and sometimes-disturbing resilience (or breakdown, depending on how you look at it) while maintaining a this-is-a-major-novel feel with its hyper-focused eye for detail, sly real-world references, occurrences and details (which reinforce the personalities of ex-Catholic Rosemary and those around her) and foreshadow the horrors that the expectant mother has yet to fully realize and battle, if she is to survive her ordeal. 

Great, non-gory and one of the all-time best horror novels I’ve read, this—I particularly appreciate how deftly Levin’s prose slips in and out of Rosemary’s stream-of-consciousness observations and fears within a third-person point of view, something a lot of authors seem unable to seamlessly pull off. This is how you construct slow-build paranoia and horror within the fabric of a written and cinematic framework—something more folk horror authors and filmmakers (though Rosemary isn’t folk horror) ought to study and utilize!

Followed by Son of Rosemary.

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The resulting film was released stateside on June 12, 1968. Roman Polanski directed and wrote the screenplay for it. Further details about the film and its noteworthy, excellent players can be found on IMDb and other places.