Category: Books & Comics

Werewolves set in type and inked in panels.

SHIFT: The Werewolf Collaborative

SHIFT is a werewolf-themed zine put together by Sarah Mason, Sketchbook and FeatheryFlukes featuring 18 artists. I pledged on Kickstarter to get a physical copy as a collector’s item, but PDFs are still available. At A5 size, it’s small but packed with skilled imagery – a perfect haiku of lycanthropic goodness. 

Each artist gets a two-page spread, and the imagery ranges from cartoony and cute to vicious and gory to abstract and eerie. Particular favorites are WolfSkullJack’s wild-maned, fiercely snarling figure in stark red, grey and black, Mx. Morgan G. Roble’s frenzied pack with their tortured expressions and exposed rib cages, and Dominique Ramsey’s colorful, vividly stylized beast who has a complete nighttime woods incorporated into its fur. 

Honestly, there’s not a single dud in the bunch, and you’re certain to find something to your taste. My only critique is that all the werewolves adhere to the basic design of fully lupine head, legs, tail and fur, and human torso and arms. It would have been nice to see more variety, anything from feral monster quadrupeds to more humanoid, or more depictions of transformation, otherwise, it risks being indistinguishable from furry art. 

This was the first venture for the Werewolf Collaborative, and as it was a howling success, I’m looking forward to more volumes from them in the future.

Purchase the PDF on Gumroad.

“It” director Andrés Muschietti to adapt “The Howling” for Netflix

Via an exclusive report from That Hashtag Show:

Muschietti was on hand in Hollywood last night to moderate a panel with the cast of Underwater following a press screening of the film. In speaking directly with That Hashtag Show, he confirmed that he will indeed be working on the upcoming Flash movie for DC in 2020… The big news, however, is that after Flash, he teams up with Netflix for a new adaptation of The Howling. (He had previously indicated a desire to do a remake of the horror classic; he’s now confirmed that he will.)

Muschietti put together a far better adaptation of It than I thought possible, even if Chapter 2 got a little goofy at times. I would love to see his take on The Howling, which is a classic werewolf novel and a film franchise with great roots and a dog shit legacy. Netflix has shown that they can field some great fantasy/horror adaptation series (I’m partway through The Witcher and loving it) – here’s hoping they give Muschietti the space he needs to effectively revive the Colony and its lycanthropic denizens.

Oh, and Andrés? If you’re looking for a creature fx shop to handle your werewolves, may I recommend Adrien Morot and his team? He was handcuffed to a weird creature design during Howling Reborn back in 2012, but if you look at the work he wanted to do, I think you’ll agree he deserves another shot.

FrightFest Guide to Werewolf Movies

Since 2000, FrightFest has become the UK’s largest and most respected horror movie festival, and are now venturing into publishing with their Dark Heart of Cinema series of movie guides. Werewolf Movies is the fourth (after Ghost, Monster, and Exploitation movies, and I for one am happy werewolves were featured before those limelight-hogging vampires or zombies), and proves to be as helpful as that one smart but weird friend of yours who’s seen every horror movie ever produced when it comes to sorting the mongrels from the Best in Show. And even if you are that weird friend, you’re liable to discover some rarities you’ve never heard of before.

After an introduction from Neil Marshall, director of the fan-favorite gorefest Dog Soldiers, author Gavin Baddeley gives us an intro to cinematic lycanthropy, and then a lengthy essay on the history of the werewolf. This is where most authors trip up, repeating error-ridden nth-hand versions of stories or blatantly making shit up, but this is practically worth the price of admission alone. Comprehensive and accurate, he explains how the concept of werewolves has been influenced by politics, religion, the natural world as it evolves over time. For a general public that is often familiar with only the most overused tropes (silver bullets and full moons are extremely recent additions to werewolf lore), this is an excellent introduction. This is followed by a chapter on non-lupine shapeshifters, and speculation on why movie werewolves are so often the “underdogs” compared to other monsters.

The special effects budget required to put even a minimal werewolf onscreen is a hurdle for entry-level filmmakers, and even big-budget productions can struggle to produce a convincing beast, so there are far fewer films featuring them than lesser monsters like vampires, zombies, ghosts or nominally human slashers. We’re lucky to get one or two new werewolf flicks a year; hoping that they’re worthy of intense analysis or anything more than popcorn fodder is almost too much to ask for. Nevertheless, over the years there’s been a couple of solid genre classics amid the pack, and even the most incompetent, incoherent or downright goofy werewolf flick can be enjoyable if you’re in the right frame of mind. A werewolf movie guide doesn’t suffer quite the same rapid obsolescence as another subject might, but they also require an author with insight, a clever turn of phrase and a vast tolerance for cheese to tackle the roughly 200 entries.

Baddeley isn’t just some rando with an opinion. A journalist and fiction author with decades of experience and an admirable infatuation with lupine cinema. His skill shows in how he doesn’t fall victim to the tired trope of snarking the many awful films he must have sat through, which can get juvenile and tiresome to read. Even without the use of a cutesy rating system like “three out of five full moons”, he gives a concise recap and fair evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses which runs from a paragraph to two pages, depending on the meatiness of the entry. Each review is illustrated with large stills, posters, and other art which considering the full-color printing on heavyweight, slick paper, gives the book as a whole a heft and expensive feel. 

As always, there are a few errors and quibbles – for example, Stan Winston’s work on The Monster Squad is incorrectly attributed to Rick Baker, the generally well-liked Bad Moon (the first werewolf film to use computer morphing effects in its transformation scene) is overlooked, and Baddeley uses “Oriental” rather than Asian, a term considered offensive when applied to people, although this may be a British quirk that sounds off to an American reader. 

You can purchase a hardcover or signed version directly from the publisher’s website, or a paperback from Amazon.

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!

“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.

“Update On Werewolves” by Margaret Atwood

This morning I noticed that one of the most popular posts on this site is, oddly, about a poem. That got me thinking about werewolves in verse, which sent me back to a poem by acclaimed writer, teacher and essayist Margaret Atwood, whose work you may have most recently seen adapted on Hulu.

Update On Werewolves
Margaret Atwood

In the old days, all werewolves were male.
They burst through their bluejean clothing
as well as their own split skins,
exposed themselves in parks,
howled at the moonshine.
Those things frat boys do.

Went too far with the pigtail yanking –
growled down into the pink and wriggling
females, who cried Wee wee
wee all the way to the bone.
Heck, it was only flirting,
plus a canid sense of fun:
See Jane run!

But now it’s different.
Now it’s a global threat.
Long-legged women sprint through ravines
in furry warmups, a pack of kinky
models in sado French Vogue getups
and airbrushed short-term memories,
bent on no-penalties rampage.

Look at their red-rimmed paws!
Look at their gnashing eyeballs!
Look at the backlit gauze
of their full-moon subversive haloes!
Hairy all over, this belle dame,
and it’s not a sweater.

O freedom, freedom and power!
they sing as they lope over bridges,
bums to the wind, ripping out throats
on footpaths, pissing off brokers.

Tomorrow they’ll be back
in their middle-management black
and Jimmy Choos
with hours they can’t account for
and first dates’ blood on the stairs.
They’ll make some calls: Goodbye.
It isn’t you. I can’t say why.
They’ll dream of sprouting tails
at sales meetings,
right in the audiovisuals.
They’ll have addictive hangovers
and ruined nails.

“Update On Werewolves” was first published in 2012 on Atwood’s Wattpad site, and has circulated since. I’m taking the liberty of reposting the whole poem here because I want some of its powerful, sneering, Jimmy-Choo-and-blood energy to permeate this site.

“Joe Dante’s The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film” & “The Complete History of the Howling”, reviewed

Horror fans rightly consider The Howling one of the defining films of the werewolf genre. The practical transformation sequences put the most up to date CGI to shame – they’re visceral, organic and intense, and originated tropes that filmmakers still slavishly imitate. In fact, the design of the werewolves almost single-handedly redefined the look of the creature for the modern audience. Whereas the default werewolf used to be Jack Pierce’s Wolf Man, nowadays ask anyone what a werewolf looks like and you’ll get a description of Rob Bottin and his crew’s creation: a shaggy grey beast towering upright on doglike legs, with a muscular humanoid torso,  clawed hands, and a demonically snarling lupine head. But The Howling was more than just an FX spectacular, with solid performances, stylish direction, a distinct and unforgettable score, and quirky, memorable characters populating an unusually smart script. It also boasts the dubious honor of having spawned seven sequels that, while distinctly less competently made, often have their own offbeat charms.

Front and back cover art for “Joe Dante’s The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film”, via Facebook

“Joe Dante’s The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film” by Lee Gambin (Centipede Press) focuses entirely on the original movie. Each chapter takes a scene and recaps it, with relevant snippets of interviews with the cast and crew, and explores the deeper thematic elements. Compared the shallow hack ‘n slash plots of most lower tier werewolf movies, The Howling’s clever, complex script truly deserves this in-depth treatment. Some of the insider stories  – like the fate of the “rocket wolf” effects and the stop motion version of the fully transformed beasts – are known via DVD extras, but much of it is new and interesting even to hardcore fans.

More supplemental artwork by Richard Hescox

At a chunky 351 pages in a 6×9 format, it’s packed with tons of behind the scenes photographs and illustrations. The drawings by Richard Hescox that flash by almost too quick to see as Eddie Quist’s art in the film are a special treat, especially considering their powerful impact on the popular concept of werewolves. It’s also amusing to spot details such as the sketches of skulls in mid-shift labeled “Larry Talbot syndrome”. The only thing lacking is a table of contents, and perhaps an index to the interviews, which would make navigating the book a bit easier for those who haven’t memorized the plot.

Front and back cover art for “The Complete History of the Howling”

“The Complete History of the Howling” by Bryn Curt James Hammond (Miami Fox Publishing), by contrast, covers every single movie in the franchise. It runs 128 pages in 9×12 format, is also richly illustrated by stills and behind the scenes photos including full-page illustrations, and has text arranged in a two-column format that recalls magazines like Fangoria.

Currently film series are Serious Business, with studios competing to create merchandise-ready “universes” composed of interlocking high budget offerings, with varying degrees of success (compare the money-making juggernaut of the Marvel comics films to Universal’s stillborn “Dark Universe”). The Howling sequels were . . . not that. Right out of the gate, the second movie, Phillipe Mora’s “The Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf” aka “Stirba: Werewolf Bitch” utterly fails as a horror movie but succeeds as a bizarro comedy. The third movie, by the same director, was even stranger, featuring were-thylacines complete with a marsupial birth scene. It’s easy to sneer at Mora’s attempt, but “The Complete History” describes working conditions that would tax any director, such as shooting with Czech film crews that didn’t speak English, being assigned an Assistant Director who was a KGB spy, and having to make do with secondhand monkey suits to serve for werewolves! In fact, the stories behind the sequels are far more entertaining than the movies themselves.

The rest of the series are a mangy collection of mutts including a low-budget reboot shot in South Africa, a murder mystery in which the actual werewolf appeared for about 5 seconds on screen, a romance set in a freak show which introduced vampires into the mythology, a whole-movie clip show padded with endless country music and line dancing scenes, and the most recent, another reboot that disappointingly attempted to appeal to the Twilight crowd. Werewolf fans, well aware that Sturgeon’s Law applies heavily to our favorite genre, have the choice to either turn their noses up at them or turn off their critical facilities, pop some popcorn and enjoy them for what they are. Hammond gives all The Howling sequels the same fair, detailed, lavishly-illustrated coverage, reminding us that even the most hilariously inept flick had at least a few passionate artists behind it.

Both books are perfect complements to each other’s strengths and must-haves for the library of werewolf enthusiasts. Gambin’s is an informative, meticulous exploration of the crafting of an enduring classic. Hammond’s book is an entertaining, open-minded and fascinating perspective on the low-budget shenanigans behind the wonderful weirdness of the obscure sequels. Hopefully we’ll see similar books in the future showcasing An American Werewolf in London, Ginger Snaps, and other outstanding lycanthro-pics!

Werewolf News editor’s 2012 short story “The Librarian” now available as a PDF

Hi, werewolf pals! My 2012 short story “The Librarian” is now available as an e-book. For $2, you can read about Alexis LaPierre, a murderous werewolf who tries hard to be a good person, and succeeds… for a while.

Reformed werewolf Alexis LaPierre is doing her best to make a normal life for herself. She has a good job, a comfortable apartment, and a fridge full of raw steak. She has a friend, some reasonable hobbies, and she hardly feels like killing anyone anymore.

Then she meets Rick, and her normal life begins to unravel.

This 5,000-word short story was originally published in the Hic Dragones anthology “Wolf-Girls”, and is presented here as a PDF e-book, with exclusive cover and endpaper illustrations by Tandye Rowe.

A deep dive into the Colony with “The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film”

“The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film” by Lee Gambin looks like a must-have book for anyone interested in the seminal 1981 werewolf movie.

Author and editor Lee Gambin has written the definitive story of the making of The Howling, complete with an insightful plot synopsis and complete critical analysis, behind the scenes information, and a slew of interviews with cast and crew. Rounding out the book are nearly 150 stills of the movie, ranging from individual frame enlargements to rare, never-before-published behind the scenes photographs.

Over 350 pages, this handsome sewn paperback offers everything you need to know about one of the 1980’s greatest horror films, and is a welcome addition of the Centipede Press Studies in the Horror Film series.

I’ve been squinting at the text visible in some of these spreads and I’ve already learned things I never knew about a film as old as I am.

Eddie Quist’s sketches depicting other residents of the Colony were actually done by Richard Hescox

More supplemental artwork by Richard Hescox

You can order this book today from Centipede Press.

The Wolf Clan of Erin: A Saga of Ireland’s Legendary Tribe of Werewolves

Last month I shared journalist J.D. Thompson’s short film Hunting the Hound of Cold Hollow. Now the novel based in part on the research he did for that documentary is available for pre-order at a nice discount in advance of its October 31st release.

The Wolf Clan of Erin: A Saga of Ireland’s Legendary Tribe of Werewolves

In days when heathen gods were honoured and the old ways were still held in the hearts and minds of the native folk. In a time when fairies, wights and even werewolves were not just the things of fantasy.

Follow Maewyn as he discovers the truth about an ancient tribe said to be shapeshifting “Wolf
Men”. With his faith in the One True god to guide him he embarks on a journey to crush whatever evil he may find, but with his mysterious companion Elcmar by his side he may discover more than he had ever imagined.

Full disclosure: I’ve been sent a copy of this book, which I have not yet read. I enjoyed the documentary, and I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of story Thompson can weave out of his research.