Ok folks there’s a lot to catch up on.

Despite being ill, I had submitted some stories written before 2017 which are now coming to publication.

One story is “Aberration” which is now available to read in the awesome horror magazine, SUBCUTANEOUS. find issues here, http://www.subqmag.com/issues.html remember the story is in issue 3 but I also have 2 stories in issue 2.

Next will be the story, X-Ray Specs in the anthology book, Horror Reincarnate.

There is one story, “Corn on the Macabre” that was planned for release this month, for which I finally sent a notice of withdrawal of submission. I’m going to post the story here on PoH with the details of trying to get it published. The online outlet had the story for over a year and I finally said, Enough is enough…

Later in the year there will be a story called ‘The Tree of Reckoning’ which may remind some of the recent film, VVitch.

A little bit about my health… My biggest disappointment is not being able to see the new King Kong: Skull Island movie which I’ve heard a lot of good things about. The cancer has made my right leg unusable, it has no power in it at all. I had to buy a wheel chair. So it’s a new journey for me. And I don’t mean to be grim but none of the recent cancer treatments seem to be working. If they don’t find something that works I’ll just keep sliding downhill. Eventually it will be, Off to Never, never land.

I’m also gonna’ post about some model kits I had built and never posted up here.

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Kong: Skull Island – 2017 – preface

Hey everyone, did you miss me?

While I’m not feeling so great, I couldn’t let this month go by without expressing my enthusiasm for a new Kong movie. I wasn’t blown away with PJs Kong…there were parts that I thought were exceptional (all the NY scenes) but also a lot I didn’t like about it, most notably the time spent on Skull Island itself.

While I don’t have the concentration to sit and write, I do want to do some commemorative posts about the Kong Movies, mostly in pics and info. I hope to see the new KONG film during it’s first week and possibly do a review, if I can get myself into a mental state that will allow that. As you must know from following PoH, I do love a full-blown Monster Movie!

For now, you can check out my next couple of posts (coming soon) ALL ABOUT KONG…

Three Horned Dinosaur – Aurora Triceratops – model kit

Aurora Prehistoric Scenes Triceratops – model kit
with the Lava Pool Base extention

I finally tackled another model kit build after a short hiatus. This one is an original Aurora Prehistoric Scenes, Three-Horned Dinosaur (aka: Triceratops). Added on to the build is the Lava Pool base extension which lines up with both, the Triceratops and The Allosaurus original base.

I painted the whole dinosaur with a van dyke brown and yellow ochre undercoat before painting layers of Blue, Gray and Black for the skin color. The horns are off-white with some textures. The main modification I made to this dino was turning its head to the left to create a more dynamic pose. I built the figure, cut off the head and repositioned it by building a new neck area to support the head twist.

 

The Lava Pool extention was created/designed by myself. I shaped it to align with the edges of the Trike base and the Allosaurus base which also has the volcanic activity present upon it.

This is another one of my favorite dinosaur model kits and I’m glad to have the opportunity to build this again. The first time I had built it was over 40 years ago!

 

 

A pause in time…

I’m currently ill and unable to continue my reviews and articles at this time. Thank you my friends and readers, for all your comments, discussions, likes and support.

Hope to be back soon…
Mike

 

Verses From A Deeply Darkened Mind – Book Review

Verses From A Deeply Darkened Mind

by Mary Genevieve Fortier
JWK Fiction

I have to confess, I’m not a big fan of traditional poetry. Reason being is most of the symbolism and metaphors are missed by me and in the end, I’m usually left with a bunch of nice sounding words that don’t make much sense (did you ever try reading Milton’s Paradise Lost? Ugh!). That is why I have always liked Edgar Allan Poe. His poems were stories that I could easily digest and understand. Now I can add Mary G Fortier to my ‘poets I love’ list. This collection contains dark, visceral tales of terror with accentuating rhyme, cadence and word crafting, allowing me to truly enjoy the terror spilling from its pages.  

Mystical doorways in the woods, creepy church goers, and macabre figures knocking at your entrance in the deep, dark hours of the night, are reasons to keep me awake and to keep on reading. I chose to read a few each night in order to quench my thirst for the macabre and fulfill my own dark passions. There are several B&W art pieces accompanying select poems throughout the book by a host of fantastic artists. If you’re in need of a haunting experience into the ethereal world of the dead and those left behind to ponder, then “Verses…” is an excellent collection. Those with a proclivity for creepy horror will be thrilled by these rhythmic tales of terror. Read them by firelight or lamplight and enter the oblique nightmare world of this modern poet, a definitive horror poet’s omnibus to add to your reading repertoire.

Traditional Paperback only: https://www.amazon.com/Verses-Deeply-Darkened-Genevieve-Fortier/dp/9492558025

 

Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967) – Movie Review

Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967)

“He drinks oil from a can and eats dirt. He’s Barney, the purple dinosaur’s,
older, meaner cousin, Yongary!”

This is Korea’s foray into the Kaiju Monster film arena. A rocket launch awakens Yongary underground. Scientists track seismic activity until they discover it’s caused by an ancient beast moving underground. Yongary rises from the earth and destroys the city. After a lot of destruction, he needs a drink and finds a full tank of oil. He drinks it and blows flames. Then he drinks some ammonia and it doesn’t agree with him. He gets a tummy ache, dances around and gets angry. He breaks out in a rash and it makes him very irritable. When the scientists discover Yong is allergic to ammonia (it takes a young boy to figure it out), they make some ammonia bombs. They drop some bombs, Yong gets upset and destroys the bridge. Finally, he kicks the bucket.

A low budget makes for less detail in the special FX all around, which in turn makes them not-so-special FX. The Yongary costume has some basic flaws that sometimes makes him look like a guy in a costume at a children’s birthday party. The buildings look like toys in the close-ups because of lack of detail. The plot is simplistic and there’s not much of a human story to it other than the humans fight against Yongary. All this less attention to detail adds up to a film that is more silly than threatening. But it’s not a total loss, there’s some fun Kaiju destruction scenes and Yongary does breathe fire. Good times!

There was a remake of Yongary called Reptilian (2000) but it was a cheap CGI, badly written script, disaster that isn’t even fun to watch in a MST2K way. Stick with the original for some campy Kaiju fun.

 

Godzilla vs Rodan – Famous Monsters issue 114 – model kit

Famous Monsters issue #114 – model kit – kit bash

So, I had the idea to recreate the cover of my favorite movie monster magazine from my youth with model kits. Famous Monsters #114 came out in 1975 and was the definitive authority on Toho Kaiju films at the time. I wanted to create a 3-D rendition of the fantastic cover art by Ken Kelly.

I started with the Aurora Godzilla kit (Polar Lights re-issue) and did many modifications, most notably, re-sculpting the head and hands.

I took a good look at the Aurora Rodan kit and knew it wasn’t going to suit the diorama in regards to the wing positions. I instead used the Polar Light’s Pteranodon. I extended the wings downward and completely removed the head, sculpting my own Rodan head and neck based on the design of the cover art.

 

I molded and sculpted each building separately, closely matching the layout of the cover art. I also sculpted flames to recreate the fire.

I never painted a kit totally based on lighting (as how the cover art was created) so this was a challenge for me to ignore the actual color of the monsters and use the chromatic tawny yellow coloring of the artwork instead.

 

It took me about 5 months to build and paint this and although it’s not an exact match, I’m pleased with the final result.

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View more of my model kit builds:

Individual model kit builds on Parlor of Horror – Monster Model Kits

Model kit Gallery and links – Parlor of Horror’s Model Kits

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Godzilla posts:

Godzilla’s Most Formidable Enemies

Godzilla Thru the Years – the Many Looks of Godzilla

My Top 10 Godzilla Films (1-5)

The Adventure Art of Mort Künstler

 

The Adventure Art of Mort Kunstler

Art by Mort Künstler – Mort began his art career as an illustrator for pulp paperbacks, posters, and men’s magazines. He did some early work for Aurora model kits boxes for their historical kit series, most notably, Raising the Flag a Iwo Jima kit. He did movie posters in the 1970’s for The Poseidon Adventure and The Taking of Pelham 123. He used an alias, ‘Mutz’ to do illustrations for the back of Mad magazine. Later he turned his art talents to American Civil War subject matter and is highly regarded in the field. His painting, ‘The High Water Mark’ was accepted into The Gettysburg National Museum in 1988.

http://www.mortkunstler.com/

Ghostly Art in pulps, comics and paperbacks…

Ghostly Art in pulps, comics and paperbacks…

The Fantastic Art of Rowena Morrill – horror art

The Fantastic Art of Rowena Morrill

Rowena Morrill is a sci-fi, fantasy, and horror artist whose illustrations graced the covers of paperbacks from the 1970’s till today. She was discovered by Ace Books, NY and created stunning book cover art for Lovecraft collections, illustrations for magazines; Heavy Metal, Omni and Playboy. She has several art books featuring her collected works including, The Fantastic Art of Rowena and Imagine. She continued illustrating sci-fi and fantasy for popular anthologies such as, Tomorrow and Beyond and Infinite Worlds. She received the British Fantasy Award in 1984 and after the fall of Saddam Hussein her original paintings, King Dragon and Shadows Out of Hell were found adorning the walls of his home. Here’s a look at some of her well-known work. Her use of vibrant color and glossy overtones makes her work stand out and instantly recognizable to her fans and fantasy art connoisseurs.

Gallery one: paperback cover art

 

Gallery 2: magazines and misc.