Titans Terrors and Toys

As a devoted genre fan, I've spent plenty of time researching various forms of 20th century horror entertainment. While reading dozens of books and watching dozens of documentaries about horror novels, comic books, movies, TV shows, cartoons, and toys, I noticed occasional mentions of Grand Guignol, a form of live stage horror that was performed in France from the 1890s until the early 1960s. Before Universal created movie monsters ... before EC Comics printed ghoulish tales of terror in full color ... before England compiled its video nasty list ... there was Grand Guignol. The exact details of this kind of horror eluded me for years, until I got my hands on what some consider to be a definitive text on the subject: Theatre of Fear and Horror: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris, 1897-1962 , written by Mel Gordon and published by Feral House.

The 1950s heralded the arrival of two significant things in horror entertainment history: 3D creature features and horror hosts . Even though both of these attractions are well past their golden ages, that didn’t stop Washington DC’s local horror icon Count Gore de Vol from hosting a 3D showing of Creature from the Black Lagoon last Saturday evening at the American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. This event, along with the upcoming release of the Revenge of the Creature sequel on 3D Blu-ray at the end of next month, makes this summer a great time to be a horror movie fan. Read on ....

Thank the maker!

For the last few years, I've been keeping my eyes on the latest developments in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to see how companies are applying these technologies to pique consumer interest in these new technologies. Of the many applications I've seen, one that has just been released by Balti Virtual is something that I never would have expected: AR temporary tattoos, or "HoloTats".

Late film critic Roger Ebert once argued that video games can never be considered art . "No one in or out of the field (of video gaming) has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great poets, filmmakers, novelists and poets," he stated. Whether you agree with Ebert’s reasoning or not, plenty of art has definitely been created over the years to help sell the concept of video games to the general public. Such is the thesis of Art of Atari , which was written by Tim Lapetino and published by Dynamite Entertainment in 2016. Art of Atari begins with an overview of the company’s complete history, followed by more detailed examinations of Atari’s early approaches to its brand identity, its first coin-op arcade cabinets, and its first home consoles. Lapetino devotes most of his book to the art that was produced for the home console games and the artists who contributed their talents to establishing Atari as a pioneering leader in video game entertainment...

It's the middle of summer, so that means that the annual San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) is around the corner. Here's a sneak peak at some of this year's SDCC toy exclusives from Super7 that have caught my attention (all pictures are provided courtesy of Super7):