We mentioned this upcoming book by Jonathan Rigby sometime ago but it apparently had run into some delays. But now, according to the author, it has now gone to press over across the pond. It still isn’t showing available through Amazon over here, but you can pre-ordered it through Amazon.UK, which has a price of £19.98. I’m sure at some point, it will be available here, but no idea when. The UK edition is said to be coming out at the end of this October.
Sunday July 10th
Sundays at a convention tend to be a sobering wake-up call. And that has nothing to do with alcohol, but just the fact that the weekend is almost over and soon we’ll be packing up, loading the van back up, and hitting the road. And when you have an eight our ride looming over you, it makes it even more daunting. Plus, it also means that we’ll all soon have to go back to reality, leaving our monstrous weekend behind. What makes it even more difficult is when you’ve had such a great time these last few days at a show like Monster Bash. It really does make you start counting the days until the next one.
Artist Jack Davis passed away on Wednesday at the age of 91, due to complications of a stroke, according to his son. If you don’t know the name of Jack Davis, you most likely know his work. You don’t even need to be a horror fan to recognize it, since it has been on everything from movie posters, TV Guide, Time Magazine, and of course, Mad Magazine.
After doing little jobs here and there early in his career, he started working for E.C. Comics near the end of 1950, with the story The Living Mummy, which appeared in the fourth issue of Haunt of Fear. E.C. owner Bill Gaines said that not only was Davis talented, but also very fast, something that really helps in the comic business. “He could turn out a seven-to-eight page story in two to three days if he really wanted to.”
With the recent announcement from Scream Factory about some upcoming titles that will get blu-ray releases later this year, most of them being collector’s edition, there is a lot for us horror fans to be excited about. Willard is finally getting a legit release, as well as the film Dreamscape, and of course, how can you not be excited about more of Cronenberg’s films getting a special edition, right?
But there were a couple of titles listed that I think are getting lost in the shuffle and need a little bit more attention. The first one was last on the list, Dead of Winter, a 1987 film from director Arthur Penn, starring Mary Steenburgen and Roddy McDowall. I had first seen this film back when it first hit VHS back in the day and was blown away by it. It is a great little thriller that has an amazing score by Richard Einhorn. It’s a shame that we couldn’t get more than just a standard release for this, but at this point, I’m thrilled that it is coming out and hope newer fans take a chance on this one.
Welcome to Monday! And that must mean another Mystery Photo, right? At least, I didn’t forget this time. But before we get to this week’s photo, let’s review our one from last week. It seemed this one stumped most of you. That is, all but Dustin Moravick, who was able to recognize this little French classic. It is from Jean Rollin’s 1978 film Les raisins de la mort, better known to us in the states as The Grapes of Death. So congrats out to Dustin for this one!
This week’s photo is another title that more people should know about, since it has an amazing cast. But we’ll get more into that next week. Take a look at the photo and see what you can come up with. Don’t stare too long…you just might get drowsy. Good luck.
And as always, please don’t post your answers here, but send us an email to jon@kitleyskrypt.com.
For our second day at the Bash, when I wasn’t running around hanging out with authors and getting my books signed, I was working behind our table. Well…most of the time. Lucky for me, my partner-in-crime/wife Dawn was there to take charge. In fact, the way her tote bags and pillows were flying off the table, I was starting to think that the Krypt might soon to be a subsidiary of her business Horror Slave! Everyone seems to love our poster prints that we’ve come up with, and seeing a bunch of people walking around the show with one of her tote bags is pretty cool.
Setting up at a con for three days can sometimes throw you a variety of…challenges. Sometimes your table might not be in the best spot in the dealer room. But even in choice spots, one thing that can really drag down the show is your dealer neighbors. Since you’ll be spending the next three days next to them, it can make those drag like weeks if your neighbors might be…shall we say…”difficult”. But lucky for us, we had none of that here. In fact, we had great neighbors! To the right of us was Steve “the t-shirt guy”, which we’ve known for years from doing shows. I can’t think of another guy that has the selection that he does. You can always find something cool in his t-shirt cave!
We are huge fans of Peveril Publishing and have several of their titles in our library. They consistently put out amazing editions that not only look gorgeous, but are filled with a ton of information. And across the pond, one of the biggest authorities on Hammer Films is Wayne Kinsey. So anything with his name on it, is well worth the money. Peveril announced some time ago that they were working on their latest volume, The Hammer Dracula Scrapbook and it is close enough to being completely that they have released the final cover, as you can see below.
One of the great things I loved about Monster Bash is the presence of not only books but authors as well. Last year, I got over dozen books signed by a few different authors that were there. And it didn’t cost a penny! It would have been a lot more books but author Tom Weaver wasn’t able to make it to the show. But this year he was, and I was prepared for his return to the Bash, bringing well over a dozen of his books alone for him to sign. Weaver is a deity when it comes to horror history, spending his time seeking out and interviewing stars of the movies we love, both bigger names and not-so-bigger names, and getting their stories and memories down in print for us monster fans to read and learn even more about them.
In about two weeks, we’ll be hitting our next stop on our 2016 Kryptic World Tour, at the annual Flashback Weekend in Rosemont, IL, taking place on Aug. 5th-7th. We’ve been to everyone of these shows since they started way back in 2002, and this one will be no different. They’ve got a huge list of guests as always, plenty of great dealers, and is just always a fun time. If you’re coming out to the show, make sure you stop by our table and say hello!
Friday, July 8th
After dealing with our auto repair issues and while my traveling companions struggle to get out of bed, I head downstairs to start getting our table set up. At first, getting it organized by myself seems a daunting task, since I usually have my wife Dawn and my son Nick there to help, but I seem to manage pretty well on my own. Or at least I didn’t destroy anything, or get injured. Always a plus.
