Wednesday, June 25, 2025

A GALLERY OF MAD SCIENTISTS


Besides the monsters themselves, the mad scientist or mad doctor is probably the most often-used villain in horror movies. Here's a look at some of these various mad men from over the years.

Lionel Atwill in Man Mad Monster.

Boris Karloff in House of Frankenstein.

Peter Cushing in Curse of Frankenstein.

Bela Lugosi in Bride of the Monster.

Onslow Stevens in House of Dracula.

Colin Clive in Frankenstein.

Henry Hull in Werewolf of London.

Ernest Thesiger in The Bride of Frankenstein.

Basil Rathbone in The Mad Doctor.

Peter Lorre and Frances Drake in Mad Love.


Claude Rains in The Invisible Man.


Boris Karloff in The Invisible Ray.

Vincent Price in The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

Leo G. Carroll in Tarantula.

Keep one of these handy in case you come across one of these characters!

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

IS KONGA FINALLY COMING?


It seems like it's been a year-and-a-half or two since I pre-ordered the Konga model kit. Thus far, just a few irregular notices of delay, but just recently I received a promising message from Steve Iverson at CultTVman that it's supposed to be shipped real soon. It's not his fault, mind you, it's the manufacturer (Monarch Models, who have had problems with solvency in recent years -- maybe somebody bought 'em?). I hope it's worth the wait and it'll be a good, clean build.

Box art and prototype:





In the meantime, let's take a look at Charlton's KONGA comic book adaptation from June 1961. Edited by Pat Masulli, and with a cover by Dick Giordano, the script is written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko. Charlton followed up with a 22-issue series continuing Konga's story.

NOTE: There's a quirky little back-up story in this issue. "The Movies Come of Age", written by (probably) Joe Gill with pencils by Bill Molno and inks by Vince Alascia provides a brief history of cinema on the big screen.