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COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCTOBER 16th

HEADLINES

West Georgia Wolves BLUENUMBER ONE TAKES A FALL – In NCAA Division Two the 15th ranked UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA WOLVES visited the number 1 team in the nation – the defending champion UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA ARGONAUTS. The Wolves led 17-9 at Halftime but the Argonauts pulled to within 24-23 to end the 3rd Quarter. In the 4th, West Georgia won out 30-26.

Morningside MustangsSPIRIT OF EIGHTY-FOUR – Over in the NAIA the number 3 MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS traveled to take on the BRIAR CLIFF UNIVERSITY CHARGERS. The Mustangs seized a 28-0 lead in the opening Quarter and never looked back from there. When all the dust settled they had folded, spindled and mutilated the Chargers to the tune of EIGHTY-FOUR to SEVEN.

Washburn Ichabods helmetTAKING DOWN NUMBER FOUR – Back to NCAA Division Two for this clash between the WASHBURN UNIVERSITY ICHABODS and the visiting 4th ranked NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS. The 1st Half was a defensive struggle, with the Ichabods on top by just 3-0 at the Half. That became a 10-7 edge in the 3rd Quarter and ultimately a 17-16 Upset triumph in the 4th. Continue reading

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MARVEL’S SIMON GARTH ZOMBIE: MOST HALLOWEENISH COVERS

As Halloween Month continues to unfold, Balladeer’s Blog takes a one-week break from the ongoing review of 1970s Spider-Man stories to do something more seasonal – a look at the Simon Garth zombie covers from Marvel Comics. 

tales of zombie 1TALES OF THE ZOMBIE Vol 1 #1 (July 1973)

Title: Altar of the Damned

Comment: The first Silver Age appearance of the Marvel Comics horror character Simon Garth, a brutal coffee plantation owner who was killed and brought back to life as a zombie by his Haitian workers.

Garth was not your typical mindless zombie wanting to feed on human beings all the time. His stories provided insight into the still-functioning mind of the man trapped in this horrific fate as he battled assorted supernatural menaces, some drawn from VooDoo lore, others created by Marvel.

Simon Garth could be used against his will at times by people in possession of the Amulet of Damballah which controlled him. Continue reading

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HORROR FILM: THE NEST OF THE CUCKOO BIRDS (1965)

nest of the cuckoo birdsTHE NEST OF THE CUCKOO BIRDS (1965) – Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with a review of this low-budget, black & white bomb which played a few theaters in 1965 then was considered lost until 2017. Florida’s Bert Williams produced, wrote, directed and starred in this very strange film which strives for “Psycho Meets Tennessee Williams” levels but falls more into territory occupied by the likes of Spider Baby and Manos, The Hands of Fate.

Williams’ wife Peggy sang the title song, which inspired a later version by the Cramps, believe it or not. Peggy also sang the closing song Lisa.

Our auteur Bert Williams plays Johnson, a Liquor Control Department Agent aka “Revenuer” in the slang of deep south moonshiners. He is sent on an assignment into the Everglades to infiltrate and bring down a violent gang of moonshiners who make their own bootleg whiskey via their still on one of the scattered pieces of solid land found in the swamps of the Florida Everglades.

After an absurdly irrelevant recollection to his chief about a lost love of his from long ago, Agent Johnson departs on his mission. 

masked killer from cuckoosJohnson’s cover is blown, and he flees into the swamplands to escape the bootleggers, who are led by their murderous boss called Doc. Half wading and half swimming, our exhausted protagonist arrives after dark at another isolated and uncharted little “island” amid the Everglades. He is nearly stabbed to death by a naked woman wearing a wig and a bizarre mask, a woman he at first mistakes for a statue.

The Revenue Agent manages to outfight and escape the woman in an utterly ridiculous fast-motion scene which could use the Benny Hill Theme as accompaniment. Johnson stumbles upon the tiny island’s lone structure – a dilapidated hotel called the Cuckoo Bird Inn, run by some of the strangest people this side of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Eaten Alive. Needless to say, the hilarity horror is just beginning. Continue reading

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THE COFFIN (2000) – HALLOWEEN SUPERHERO

Balladeer’s Blog’s 31 Days of Halloween continues with this neglected horror hero.

CoffinTHE COFFIN (2000) – Written by Phil Hester and drawn by Mike Huddleston, The Coffin was originally a four-part serial before being collected into graphic novel format. I’ll provide details below but right up front let me point out that the horrific but intriguing premise is that the Coffin is a dead scientist whose soul is trapped within a polymer techno-suit of his own creation.

Dr Ashar Ahmad, the brilliant scientist in question, is employed by Heller Technologies, whose eponymous owner is a vile and amoral tycoon. Heller himself is a figure straight out of a horror film.

He’s incredibly old and his withered, wrinkled body is still functioning only because of all of the legal and illegal organ transplants he has had. His body is a battleground of scars from all that surgery. Obviously immortality is what our power-mad plutocrat longs for.

Coffin bAnd so Heller Technologies recruited Dr Ahmad to devise strong, lightweight polymers for medical purposes. To that end Ashar has developed polymers that can be used to form an artificial membrane that is perfectly impermeable and incredibly durable.

Extensions of that technology result in masses of polymers – literally thousands of layers – some of them only a few molecules thick. Dr Ahmad has managed to make it so that these polymers react to electronic pulses like the kind from a human brain to its body’s muscles, making the polymer “skin” or membrane expand or contract in response to those electronic pulses. Continue reading

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TWO OVERLOOKED HORROR STORIES FROM JULIAN HAWTHORNE

As Halloween Month rolls along, Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at two horror stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s son, Julian.

mummiesTHE UNSEEN MAN’S STORY (1893) – A needlessly neglected mummy tale. At age twenty-eight, a Frenchman named Carigliano arrives in Egypt on assignment from the French government. He has studied Egyptology and is thrilled with his placement.

Gradually, dreams and waking visions propel him to investigate around Thebes. Once there, he discovers the previously unviolated tomb of Queen Amunuhet. Throughout the tomb’s halls and chambers he encounters reanimated mummies which stalk him, intent on killing him. Continue reading

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MONSTER CEREALS FOR HALLOWEEN

monster crunch gameHalloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with this nostalgic look at the Big Five monster-themed cereals from General Mills.

In a world that has seen an Emoji movie I have no idea why there’s no animated monster rally movie featuring this quintet. Or at the very least maybe some new monster cereals like Banana Witch or Grape Goblin or something. Maybe “Zom-Bea”, a female zombie whose cereal looks like tiny brains.   

count choculaCOUNT CHOCULA

First Appearance: 1971

Voiced like Bela Lugosi, this cartoon vampire preferred his own chocolate-flavored, marshmallow-sprinkled cereal treat over sucking the blood of his victims. “I vunt to eat your cereal!” was, in fact, his tagline in contrast to the cliched vampire declaration “I vunt to suck your blood!”

Count Chocula cereal is still in stores seasonally – September and October.

The cartoon character’s imitation Bela Lugosi voice was a nice nostalgic nod to fans of classic horror films, especially in regard to the Count’s rivalry with another General Mills Monster Cereal Mascot. Continue reading

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCTOBER 9th

HEADLINES

Randolph Macon helmetRANDOLPH-MACON CONQUERS DIVISION TWO – NCAA Division Three’s RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE YELLOW JACKETS borrowed a page from the NAIA by toppling a higher division team yesterday. The Yellow Jackets edged NCAA Division TWO’s EMORY & HENRY COLLEGE WASPS in a 34-31 thriller.

indiana wesleyan helmet faceKNOCKING OFF NUMBER SIX – Up in the NAIA the 14th ranked INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS hosted the number six team in the nation – the MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS. The Wildcats put the Knights on Upset Alert from the beginning, with a 17-0 lead in the opening Quarter. They never looked back from there, ultimately winning a 41-7 blowout.

Bethel (TN) WildcatsNUMBER EIGHT TAKES A FALL – Staying in the NAIA for a moment, the BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS welcomed the 8th ranked GEORGETOWN (KY) COLLEGE TIGERS. A 7-7 1st Quarter tie remained unchanged at Halftime before the Tigers went up 16-7 in the 3rd Quarter. In the explosive 4th Quarter the Wildcats came from behind for a 25-24 triumph. Continue reading

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SPIDER-MAN: 1970s CLASSICS 7 – MORBIUS, MAN-WOLF AND DR STRANGE

Here’s Part Seven of Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE. By sheer coincidence this weekend’s installment fits the Halloween Month theme.

giant size superheroes 1GIANT-SIZE SUPERHEROES Vol 1 #1 (June 1974)

Title: Man-Wolf at Midnight

Villains: Morbius the Living Vampire and the Man-Wolf

NOTE: The Giant-Size comic books were quarterly publications that Marvel Comics briefly experimented with in the 1970s. They came out in addition to the monthly installments of their other titles.

Synopsis: Spider-Man is swinging his way around New York City, reflecting on Liz Allen’s recent return to the lives of Peter Parker and his friends. He also contemplates the Jackal, who is still at large after trying to kill Spider-Man twice – once through an alliance with the Punisher and a second time by maneuvering our hero into the middle of another clash between Dr Octopus and Hammerhead.

On the streets below is former astronaut John Jameson, the son of J Jonah Jameson, owner and publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper. John has been out at a restaurant with his fiancee Kristine Saunders and the sight of Spider-Man swinging along high above calls to mind John’s previous nocturnal transformations into a scientifically based werewolf called the Man-Wolf.

Those transformations were caused by the moon rock which John had been wearing around his neck as a souvenir and which was a dangerous object that rooted itself into John’s neck and throat to prevent him from removing it. Continue reading

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LARAINE NEWMAN’S CANNED FILM FESTIVAL (1986)

ritzTHE CANNED FILM FESTIVAL STARRING LARAINE NEWMAN (1986) – Halloween Month continues at Balladeer’s Blog with this look at a neglected Movie Host show, since Movie Hosts/ Horror Hosts are as associated with Halloween as are monsters and cosplay.

In this post I won’t be covering the entire history of movie hosting and the “So Bad They’re Good” film subculture. For that, there are my many other blog posts covering movie hosting from Vampira and her contemporaries, through Moona Lisa, then Son of Svengoolie, Elvira, and programs like Saturday Night Dead, The Texas 27 Film Vault and MST3K

canned film festival castTHE SHOW: The Canned Film Festival Starring Laraine Newman. From June 21st to September 13th of 1986 this syndicated program sponsored largely by Dr Pepper aired on Saturday nights in various time slots around the United States. Elvira’s show Movie Macabre had run from 1981 to 1986 and was winding down. The Texas 27 Film Vault, which had debuted on February 9th, 1985 was still on the air and would run for roughly two and a half years in Texas and Oklahoma.

Along came The Canned Film Festival, which, with a nationally known name like Laraine Newman attached to it, may well have been the reason that one of the attempted syndication deals for T27FV fell through. Be that as it may, Laraine Newman’s show would – like The Texas 27 Film Vault – show more than just lame horror and sci-fi films and would cover the whole spectrum of bad and/ or campy cinema of the past.

laraine as the usheretteTHE HOSTESS: Laraine Newman may be best known for Saturday Night Live and for her character actress work, but she had been a member of The Groundlings improvisational comedy troupe … As had Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira. Newman was also known as an aficionado of horror and fringe cinema. Continue reading

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NCAA DIVISIONS TWO AND THREE FOOTBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

West Florida Argonauts helmetNCAA DIVISION TWO – 1. UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA ARGONAUTS (Defending National Champions)    ###     2. NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS    ###     3. FERRIS STATE BULLDOGS    ###     4. COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES OREDIGGERS    ###     

Grand Valley State5. GRAND VALLEY STATE LAKERS    ###     6. VALDOSTA STATE BLAZERS    ###     7. UNIVERSITY OF WEST ALABAMA TIGERS    ###     8. HARDING UNIVERSITY BISON    ###      Continue reading

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