'Tis the Season

[jfglade]

 Spent the night watching horror movies on Turner Classic Movie last night until very late and enjoyed doing so. I don't know that the horror comics here get extra attention this time of year but recent new donations have included some nice horror issues. I assume that there is some overlap between comic fans and fans of horror and science fiction movies, and I was just wondering which horror/sci-fi/monster films others enjoy most? I particularly fond of The Thing (from another world), I Walked with a Zombie, Tarantula, The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. The first time I saw The Creature from the Black Lagoon it was a free showing on Halloween night when I was nine years old; talk about a real treat.

[Yoc]

Hi Jon,
I too am a big fan of both the original Thing and Carpenter's 80s remake even if I'm not a big gore fan.  I also enjoyed the Alien movies of the 80s-on.  I like to catch as many of the 50s sci-fi/horror stuff as I can.  TCM is one channel I can usually find something worth watching whenever I go looking.

[josemas]

The Lil Missus and I enjoy a lot of the vintage horror films especially the Universal Films (1930-50s), AIP (1950-70s) and Hammer Films (1950-70s).

This October I'm listening to a lot of horror/suspense/mystery/thriller OTR.  Shows like Suspense, The Whistler, Quiet Please, Inner Sanctum, Weird Circle, The Witch's Tale, Creeps By Night, Lights Out, The Sealed Book, The Creaking Door, and this morning The Strange Dr. Weird.

It's easy, listening to these, to see how big an influence they were on the pre-code comics that came along later (for the most part).

Best

Joe

[darkmark (RIP)]

I won't watch the gory crap that passes for "horror" post-Night of the Living Dead, but I do enjoy stuff like Psycho, Night of the Hunter, a few of the Stephen King movies, and some of the classic Universal stuff.  (Though I'll admit it's been years since I watched it.)  In comics, I loved TALES FROM THE TOMB, TOMB OF DRACULA, MAN-THING, and the pre-'68 CREEPY and EERIE.

[jfglade]

The Lil Missus and I enjoy a lot of the vintage horror films especially the Universal Films (1930-50s), AIP (1950-70s) and Hammer Films (1950-70s).

This October I'm listening to a lot of horror/suspense/mystery/thriller OTR.  Shows like Suspense, The Whistler, Quiet Please, Inner Sanctum, Weird Circle, The Witch's Tale, Creeps By Night, Lights Out, The Sealed Book, The Creaking Door, and this morning The Strange Dr. Weird.

It's easy, listening to these, to see how big an influence they were on the pre-code comics that came along later (for the most part).

Best

Joe
 

 Thanks, Joe. I hadn't thought about radio drama in quite awhile. I vaguely remember The Inner Sanctum and Science Fiction theater from the early fifties, and I have listened to some episodes of the Whistler in the past fifteen years, but most of the names you mention are shows I know only by reputation and a few I have never even heard of before. I didn't live in a house with a televison (which came to Wyoming later than most places) until I was eleven so I do remember the dying days of radio drama fairly well. Our local radio stations were still playing older episodes of the Lone Ranger up until 1960 or so, and Johnny Dollar stuck around to the bitter end as the last radio drama featuring new stories until 1962 or whenever the last episode was aired. I do own some casettes of the Shadow radio program (which used to scare me until I was around five) which I used to listen to on long road trips, but I haven't been on one of those in years now; they didn't really engage my imagination during the day, but once the sun went down they were magical.

 You've brought up a lot of old pleasant memories.

 Thanks,
 Jon

[narfstar]

Nice thing about OTR is that most of it is PD and readily available free. My son was young when he got hooked on the Whistler and it remains his favorite. Since most of the single episode mysteries were similar the Whistler must have had some of the best writers. Most or all shows you knew who the guilty person was from the start but wondered how they would get caught.

[josemas]

Nice thing about OTR is that most of it is PD and readily available free. My son was young when he got hooked on the Whistler and it remains his favorite. Since most of the single episode mysteries were similar the Whistler must have had some of the best writers. Most or all shows you knew who the guilty person was from the start but wondered how they would get caught.

I was reading a little about The Strange Dr. Weird after listening to that episode this morning and found out that it was something of a companion show to The Whistler and sometimes recycled scripts from The Whistler (albeit edited down from 30 minutes to fit the 15 minute format of the Dr. Weird show).

Best

Joe

[Yoc]

Shows like Suspense, The Whistler, Quiet Please, Inner Sanctum, Weird Circle, The Witch's Tale, Creeps By Night, Lights Out, The Sealed Book, The Creaking Door, and this morning The Strange Dr. Weird.

Ah yes, I've got a nice collection of most of these shows as well.  Quiet Please is hard to collect as they don't name the stories or anything and some were reused later in the run.  We should remember that EC horrors were very influenced by these OTR shows like The Witch's Tale.  When I first started listening to them I kept thinking 'wow, that was so much like an EC!'