BOOKS I WANT ON MY SHELF

New or pending publication are a few books that I'd like to add to my shelf. Check that--my floor; my bookshelves are already brimming to the max and I've resorted to stacks on the floor here in the Mysterious Mansion. Something must be done, but getting rid of any of them is not the solution!

NOTE: One minor gripe -- of all the images available to use for the cover of THE WEREWOLF FILMOGRAPHY, the publisher chose to use what I think is a bit of a cheesy image from MONSTER PARADE #3 (1958).

From the horrific to the heroic, cinematic werewolves are metaphors for our savage nature, symbolizing the secret, bestial side of humanity that hides beneath our civilized veneer. Examining acknowledged classics like The Wolf Man (1941) and The Howling (1981), as well as overlooked gems like Dog Soldiers (2011), this comprehensive filmography covers the highs and lows of the genre. Information is provided on production, cast and filmmakers, along with critical discussion of the tropes and underlying themes that make the werewolf a terrifying but fascinating figure.

In 1932, The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff, introduced another icon to the classic monster pantheon, beginning a journey down the cinematic Nile that has yet to reach its end. Over the past century, movie mummies have met everyone from Abbott and Costello to Tom Cruise, not to mention a myriad of fellow monsters. Horrifying and mysterious, the mummy comes from a different time with uncommon knowledge and unique motivation, offering the lure of the exotic as well as the terrors of the dark.

From obscure no-budgeters to Hollywood blockbusters, the mummy has featured in films from all over the globe, including Brazil, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, and even its fictional home country of Egypt--with each film bringing its own cultural sensibilities. Movie mummies have taken the form of teenagers, superheroes, dwarves, kung fu fighters, Satanists, cannibals and even mummies from outer space. Some can fly, some are sexy, some are scary and some are hilarious, and mummies quickly moved beyond horror cinema and into science fiction, comedy, romance, sexploitation and cartoons. From the Universal classics to the Aztec Mummy series, from Hammer's versions to Mexico's Guanajuato variations, this first-ever comprehensive guide to mummy movies offers in-depth production histories and critical analyses for every feature-length iteration of bandaged horror.

Midnight, 1954. A striking woman in a torn black dress slinks down a cobwebbed, candelabra’d corridor. She stops, shrieks hysterically into the camera, then solemnly says, “Good evening, I am Vampira.”

Her real name is Maila Nurmi and she was the first in a long line of television horror movie hosts, commonly seen on independent stations’ late-night “grade Z” offerings dressed as some zany ghoul or mad scientist.

This book covers the major hosts in detail, along with styles and show themes. Merchandise tie-in and fan reactions are also chronicled. The appendices list film and record credits.

In October 1957, Screen Gems made numerous horror movies available to local television stations around the country as part of a package of films called Shock Theater. These movies became a huge sensation with TV viewers, as did the horror hosts who introduced the films and offered insight--often humorous--into the plots, the actors, and the directors. This history of hosted horror walks readers through the best TV horror films, beginning with the 1930s black-and-white classics from Universal Studios and ending with the grislier color films of the early 1970s. It also covers and explores the horror hosts who presented them, some of whom faded into obscurity while others became iconic within the genre.

What kid doesn’t like dinosaurs? And movies about dinosaurs are even better, as the continuing popularity of the Jurassic Park series proves. In the 1960s the big dinosaur movie was One Million Years B.C. and even bigger than the movie was the leading lady, Raquel Welch. Her famous pose in a fur-skin bikini made her an icon of the decade and an enduring star. Here is the story of the making of One Million Years B.C. and all the caveman vs. dinosaurs movies that came before and after it.

Foreword by Martine Beswick

From 1950 to 1977, the Aurora Plastics company of West Hempstead, NY made and marketed plastic models of just about every subject under the sun. In 1961, the company hit lightning in a bottle with a figure model of Universal Studios’ Frankenstein monster just as the classic horror films were released to television and a new magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland was gathering steam on newsstands all over the country. The kit was a sensation with kids everywhere! More monsters followed, as well as other pop culture figures, spaceships, automobiles, and submarines from films and television. The story of Aurora is the story of American popular culture during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and author Anthony Taylor has finally aggregated the company’s full-color sales catalogs from the two decades of their heyday. Aurora Plastic Models Catalogs Volumes 1 and 2 capture the excitement felt by hobbyists and collectors everywhere for the vintage models.

Volume 1 includes Catalogs from 1960 through 1969 as well as an introduction by Aurora historian Anthony Taylor.