Joel M. Reed is the man responsible for the notorious grindhouse flick Bloodsucking Freaks (1976), originally titled as The Incredible Torture Show, before Troma re-titled it and released it once again. He also directed a few other titles, such as Night of the Zombies (1981), probably the second most popular of his titles. Now, while I’m not personally a fan of Bloodsucking Freaks, anybody that is able to make a movie like that, and become an icon because of it, in this huge world of cinema, that is pretty impressive. So like it or not, as horror movie fans, we have to get credit where it is due.
Sadly though, Reed recently passed away at the age of 86. But if you are a fan of him and his work, then I would recommend you picking up a copy of John Szpunar’s book on Reed, entitled Bloodsucking Freak! The Life and Films of Joel M. Reed. Szpunar is not only a great writer, he is a huge fan of Reed and is one that can put the proper spotlight on this grindhouse icon.
As many conventions and movie events that I’d go to every year, it was pretty rare when I would see someone wearing a Paul Naschy T-Shirt. For two reasons really. While he had a strong following, it wasn’t as strong as it should be. Plus, even more important, there just hardly any Naschy shirts available. So I decided to try and change that and had my friend and uber talented artist Putrid (aka Matt Carr) do an original Naschy piece for me that I could put on some T-shifts, which is the artwork on the right.
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