Angela Quinton

The Underworld Lycan Vinyl Statue from Star Ace Toys has tons of detail, great butt

I kind of liked the werewolf designs in the Underworld movie series. The designs have changed somewhat as the series continues its slide towards direct-to-digital purgatory, but they’ve remained consistently monstrous in a way I find appealing. I know that puts me in the minority, but I’m going to stand in my truth: you don’t need a hairy chest, a classically lupine head, or a tail in order to be a badass-looking werewolf.

Collectible company Star Ace Toys has got a new addition to its “super-vinyl” series (which I originally read as “super-villainy”) that will interest my fellow Lycan-enjoyers: a 32cm soft vinyl Lycan statue based on the creature design from Underworld: Evolution. It’s a super-detailed rendition that captures the vascular, gangly Lycan look, and which includes a curious mixture of modelled hair and fluffy synthetic hair. And, like, not to objectify monsters or anything, but this Lycan has a great ass.

Here’s the product copy from Star Ace’s site:

In the “Underworld” movie series a war rages in the darkness where humans cannot go. The vampires battle the werewolves or Lycans in a centuries-old war. The Lycans can transform from human to a fierce snarling beast, but still retain their human reasoning. This 32cm tall vinyl figure represents a Lycan ready to go into battle, his mouth wide open showing his sharp teeth and his claws out, ready to rip apart his vampire foe. This figure features synthetic hair attached to the head sculpt to better represent the look of the Lycan.

As of this post, Star Ace lists the statue as a pre-order product, due out “4th Quarter 2019”. If you’re in North America, you can put in your pre-order with BigBadToyStore, who list the Deluxe edition (which includes a more detailed base) for a very reasonable $189.99. I imagine other online retailers will have it soon, and for true good karma, you can always check your local comic shop to see if they’ll order it for you.

Angela Quinton Aug. 23rd 2019

Help turn the first 5 issues of WEREWOLVES VERSUS into a book!

You may not know that in addition to running Werewolf News, I’m the editor of WEREWOLVES VERSUS, a (previously) digital-only anthology project that collects art, comics, stories and all kinds of other great content about werewolves. We’ve done seven issues so far, with another four on the way, and I’m proud to announce that we’ve teamed up with Make That Thing and launched a Kickstarter to turn the first five issues into a giant 780-page book!

Here’s the campaign video:

This book has been four years in the making, and it shows off the incredible work of literally dozens of amazing creators. I’m thrilled at the chance to put it on shelves! Here’s a mockup of what the final book will look like:

That’s a Photoshop render, but if you want to see how big this monster really is, check out the “blank” the printing company sent me as a proof. This has all the properties of the final book – page count, dimensions, and stock. It’s huge.

Three inches thick, six inches wide, nine inches tall! AirPods case for scale.

In addition to the book, backers will also receive some rad rewards created especially for this campaign by WEREWOLVES VERSUS contributors. We’ve got stickers, an enamel pin, a bandana, a new and extremely rowdy song by Colin Janz, and a print of the amazing cover art by John Keogh (whose work you may remember from this stunning poster he did for The Mountain Goats). Have a look at these rewards:

I’ve worked harder on the contents of this book than just about anything else in my life. It’s absorbed a lot of my attention (including time I would have otherwise spent posting stuff here!), and I’m incredibly proud of it. If you like WEREWOLVES VERSUS or just want more great werewolf content in your life, consider checking out the campaign. If you’re not in a position to make a pledge, even just sharing the link is a huge help. Thanks so much!

Angela Quinton Jul. 17th 2019

Award-winning short “The Hunted” brings a ghost, a werewolf & a monster hunter together

Today’s “I wanna watch this but I don’t know how” werewolf short film is 2018’s The Hunted, from writer/director Giancarlo Orellana.

Luke is a paranormal hunter who is able to communicate with the spirits of the undead. Claire is a recently turned lycanthrope on the run from the wolves who took away her humanity. And a vengeful spirit named Karen makes these two cross paths.

Based on that synopsis and the trailer, I’d give this a few bucks and ten to twenty minutes of my attention! I’m not likely to get a chance soon, though – The Hunted is currently winning awards on the festival circuit, popping up as recently as March 2019 at NJ Horror Con, with future screenings planned this summer at Indie Horror Film Festival in DeKalb and Reels of the Dead in Las Vegas. Unless they show up at VIFF this autumn, I’ll have to wait until GORE Pictures puts it up online somewhere. Find more information on upcoming screenings at the film’s Facebook page.

For a look at the film’s distinctive (and award-winning) werewolf makeup, check out the Instagram page of makeup artist Alexa Branco. She has a few photos of actress Liz Meinders (who also won awards for this film!) as Claire in (possibly partially-transformed) werewolf mode.

Angela Quinton May. 30th 2019

A Brief Visit to Chicago’s Werewolf Coffee Bar

After several days spent traipsing around Lake Michigan and Lake Huron on a top-secret mission (during which Tandye won first prize at a monster costume contest), it was time to begin our three-day drive back home to Vancouver, BC. Our route took us from northern Indiana through Illinois. On a day when we planned to drive for twelve hours, we’d generally try to avoid travelling through a metro area like Chicago, but on this Saturday morning, traffic was relatively light, and we had a little spare time, so we took a brief detour off I-94 to Werewolf Coffee Bar.

Like so much of the lycanthropic ephemera I experience, I learned about Werewolf from a passing reference on a podcast. Two of the hosts of Do By Friday, Max and Alex, record in Chicago, at the Lincoln Park headquarters of Cards Against Humanity. Sometime last year, Max made a passing reference to the nearby coffee shop, and a small portion of my brain became forever dedicated to knowing that there was a caffeine retailer called “Werewolf” a mere 2,200 miles from my home.

The front of the former Wonder Bread delivery truck that put the “bar” in Werewolf Coffee Bar.

Werewolf is a truck inside a building, parked by the entrance to a space with high ceilings, plenty of seating, and a design aesthetic that’s much more Glass Walker than Uktena. This quiet, airy space is ostensibly for customers of the coffee bar, although it also seems to serve as a hang-out space for other tenants of the building. We only visited long enough to get our drinks and snap some photos, but I could easily imagine hanging out there for hours.

In addition to coffee and tea, they offer a narrow range of snack food, but I skipped over that to zero in on their merch zone, where they sell t-shirts and patches emblazoned with their logo. Those items – and the signage out front – are the only things that reference werewolves, which is fine, because most of their customers probably aren’t utter fanatics like me. I bought a t-shirt and a patch. Like a fanatic.

This patch has a date with a denim vest.

Coffee is an essential component of any road trip, and in that context, I am not particularly picky about quality – although I will gladly suffer a withdrawal headache rather than drink Tim Horton’s hot brown water. Werewolf’s coffee menu, however, is calibrated to satisfy people who know about things like Chemex ratios and “bloom”, and their barista provided Tandye and me with the best mocha and Americano of the entire trip.

If one were so inclined, one could probably spend years driving around America, visiting coffee bars and restaurants and nail salons with werewolf-related names. I think the overall experience of such a pilgrimage would be fairly middling – the inclusion of a werewolf theme in an enterprise is no indicator of quality, as werewolf movies have taught us – but perhaps the standout locations would make the effort memorable. Werewolf Coffee Bar certainly rose to the occasion. If you live in the Chicagoland area or are even just passing through, it’s worth stopping by! Just remember to be patient with the parking, and bring an extra fifteen bucks for a t-shirt.

Werewolf Coffee Bar is located at 1765 N. Elston Ave in Chicago, and is open Mon-Fri 6am-4pm, and Saturday 8am-3pm.

Angela Quinton May. 28th 2019

Polymer Clay Werewolf Sculpture by Ace of Clay

I’m on a cross-country road trip without my computer, so it’s tricky to post, but after seeing this video in the Werewolf News Slack group, I figured it was worth trying to navigate the process through my phone.

Sculptor and YouTuber “Ace of Clay” recently accepted a viewer request to create a werewolf, and the result, rendered in polymer clay and acrylic paint, is fantastic. Enjoy this nearly 30-minute time-lapse video of the process!

You can see more of his work on Instagram and Twitter.

Angela Quinton May. 22nd 2019

Nightmare Force’s DemonDawg Mask is a Real Monster

Looking like a cross between a classic short-muzzled wolfman, a scorched demon, and Rawhead Rex, the DemonDawg is a great option if you want a mask that says “I have just killed so, so, so many people who thought silver bullets would work, and you’re next” while repping a lycanthropic style. It’s available from Nightmare Force for a surprisingly modest fee in both “wearable” and “display” variants.

My thanks to collector Andrew James (nuclear.satan on Instagram) for making this mask known to me, and for taking the fantastic photo featured at the top of this post. The product photos on Nightmare Force’s site are adequate, but Andrew’s photo makes this mask look like it costs a hell of a lot more than $165 USD!

The product photos from Nightmare Force really show off that Rawhead Rex dome! (via Nightmare Force)

Angela Quinton May. 16th 2019

“Ask the Werewolves” Is Back!

After a brief hiatus, JD Laclede’s comic Ask the Werewolves has returned with a new site on a new platform, bringing with it the promise of new comics and more werewolf Q&As.

Following the veritable collapse of Tumblr as a place to maintain an audience (or functional platform), JDL began porting over the content, collected comic volumes and “Ask” functionality of ATW. That work was completed today.

Ask The Werewolves has been answering viewer questions about the lives of a young werewolf couple since 2015. Originally on Tumblr, this blog was relocated to its own site at the tail end of 2018. The comic book series has taken things toward an ongoing narrative, while blog questions are answered as best as these two werewolves can.

I’ve been a fan of JDL’s work since I discovered Ask the Werewolves in late 2015. I’ve since devoured the whole series to date, plus his other stellar comic, El-Indon, and we’ve been helping each other with various projects since 2016. I’m very happy to see Blackbird and Duran return to the web, and I look forward to more questions, answers, and irresponsible behaviour from both of them.

Angela Quinton May. 13th 2019

Jordu Schell Werewolf Mask

Another cool find from the Latex Mask Central Facebook group! A group member posted an unboxing video for a Jordu Schell werewolf mask, which immediately sent me into a panic as I tried to learn who is Jordu Schell and where can I get one of these masks?

Schell is a sculptor and concept artist who’s responsible for many iconic film creatures, including the distinctive Predator design from Predator 2 and the Na’vi from Avatar.

This fantastic wolfman-style werewolf mask was available from the Schell Sculpture Studio store at a sale price of $1,400 USD, but the limited edition run already sold out.

…Each mask was sculpted by Jordu Schell, and is painted by him personally, bringing his highly unique and individual sense of quality to every mask that is sold. Jordu’s passion for the craft is evident in the incredibly lifelike eyes, glistening fangs and singly-punched hairs that adorn these fine creations, making these pieces far more than a disposable Halloween novelty*, but singular works of art unmatched in their design, paintwork, finishing and overall quality.
*These masks are NOT wearable.

For me, the knowledge that this is a display-only mask takes the sting out of its sold-out status. I don’t currently have $1,400 USD laying around to spend on a functional creature mask, much less a collectable art object. Given the detail of the finished result and the sheer effort required to make each one, I think the price is more than fair, but if I can’t wear it, I’m happy to save some money and simply appreciate some JPGs of the incredible design. I’ve included a few below, and you can see many more on the Schell Sculpture Studio web site.

All images via Schell Sculpture Studio.

Angela Quinton May. 12th 2019

Is There a Werewolf in Netflix’s “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”? [Spoilers]

In late 2018 Netflix released the first ten episodes of a new live-action show called Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, based on the young witch character who inhabits the Archie comics universe. The show was originally conceived as a companion piece to The CW’s Riverdale, a previously-established series based on the core roster of Archie characters. Sabrina was bounced to Netflix before production began, and a 20-episode first season was shot in and around Vancouver, BC, with the same crew as Riverdale.

Despite the shared crew and adjoining production schedules, the move dissolved any initial plans there might have been to set up crossovers between the two series, which was just as well. Riverdale is a teen drama that, despite its surprisingly noir style, is grounded in the real world. Sabrina is named after a teenage witch who contends with demons, casts spells that can cure alcoholism and turn people into basketball pros, and she lives with her Satan-worshipping aunts. No longer obligated to maintain bridges with the more square world of Riverdale, the first season of Sabrina – split into two 10-episode chunks because why not – was free to populate its episodes with supernatural creatures that would send Archie into the fetal position.

The first 10 episodes included a variety of creatures, including grotesque demons, avian psychopomps, zombies, ghosts, and an impressive goat-beast rendition of Satan. The trailer for part two arrived in Spring 2019 and featured glimpses of more horrific creatures, including a tantalizingly lupine muzzle that had me wondering which character from the previous episodes might possibly have some lycanthropy in their future.

So when my wife and I sat down to watch Chilling Adventures of Sabrina part two, shortly after its April 5th debut, I had only two questions on my mind: will I ever get used to the weird way all the characters pronounce the phrase “The Dark Lord”? And, more importantly, have they managed to work a werewolf into the smirking, baroque mythology of this show?

Spoilers Follow

Angela Quinton May. 11th 2019

Under a Blood Red Moon

Under A Blood Red Moon by Sweden’s Black Eye Media AB isn’t a real film – the Vimeo page for the clip says “is NOT based on a real existing film, therefore it is not a commercial product”. It’s described as a pilot, a trailer, and a short film within the space of three sentences. Whatever it is, this clip has many of the werewolf movie tropes we all know and love: casual transformation, a dire warning, some internet research, some overt sexuality, and of course, running through the woods.

I like the lead actress and the werewolf effects quite a bit, and the detective in the interrogation room has a flustered charm I enjoy. It’s a shame this trailer isn’t really for anything… it’s three years old, and if it was going to become something more, it probably would have happened by now. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see some of these classic werewolf movie bits done with some real proficiency.

Angela Quinton May. 10th 2019