As reported by Bleeding Cool, legendary comic artist and illustrator Bernie Wrightson was hospitalized today after suffering “a series of small strokes”. According to his wife, his cognition and his spirits are good, although he’ll likely remain in the hospital for tests and possible surgery. (more…)
Happy Canada Day
My fellow Canadians, today is our day to go out and have some polite, not-too-loud fun in honour of our country’s 147th birthday. But first, enjoy this wonderful VHS artifact unearthed by Lycanthropology 101: A Canadian Werewolf In Hollywood a “Comedy Classic Short” by Canadian (duh) filmmaker Bryan Michael Stoller.
Win a “Wolf-Girls” prize package from Hic Dragones
Want to win some free books? Of course you do! Enter this giveaway from publisher Hic Dragones and you could win paperback copies of The Tattooed Wolf by K. Bannerman, Blood and Water by Beth Daley, and werewolf short story anthology Wolf-Girls, plus a Wolf-Girls tote bag in which to store your winnings. The competition closes on June 30th, and international entries are welcome, so unless you are scared of books or winning, you have no excuse to not enter. (more…)
Full Moon Features: Wolf (1994)
This may come as a shock to those with short memories, but not all summer blockbusters used to be about larger-than-life superheroes, rampaging robots, and radioactive lizards. (more…)
“WolfCop 2” greenlit weeks before “WolfCop” premiere
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, CineCoup has already approved a sequel to WolfCop, despite the fact that the public won’t get to see the first film until June 6th. After “unanimous positive” reactions to the from buyers at Cannes, the Canadian film company has scheduled a Fall 2014 shoot / early 2015 “worldwide” release, with Lowell Dean returning to direct. (more…)
Lance Polland’s “Werewolves In Heat” has Ron Jeremy, no Manischewitz
I recently received an email from Lance Polland, a filmmaker whose two most recent projects were Bloody Bloody Bible Camp (featuring “Sister Mary Chopper”) and Crack Whore (switchblade revenge against rapist hillbillies). His latest film is Werewolves In Heat, which he describes as “‘The Hangover’ meets ‘Werewolves on Wheels’ with a dash of ‘American Pie'”. (more…)
Ask Andronica! Biology of Transformation & Historical Discrimination
Recently I took a short break from my column and went on holiday for the first time in ages. Through my work at MI6, I travel constantly and visit many exotic locations, but my trips abroad are typically combined with murder and mayhem, so they’re usually not very relaxing. (more…)
Is Robert Downey Jr. producing a werewolf movie? The answer is: maybe
Deadline reports that Susan Downey and her somewhat famous husband Robert will be producing “Cloaked”, a “supernatural horror comedy in the vein of An American Werewolf In London”. Dread Central has gone so far as to label the project “a werewolf tale”, but a comparison to AWIL doesn’t necessarily mean werewolves, Mickey Mouse figurines or a decomposing Griffin Dunne. (more…)
“Deadman’s Land” achieves the Nazi Werewolf Singularity
Werewolves and Nazis (or Nazi werewolves) are only one or two rungs up from “lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty” on the well-worn ladder of werewolf tropes. If, like me, you usually cringe at the notion, I want you to stand up straight. Smile and be happy, because Barry Duffield has succeeded where many others have tried and failed (or gave up): he wrote Deadman’s Land, a truly frightening horror story about Nazi werewolves that’s so good that everyone else can stop trying.
Originally conceived as a screenplay and adapted into a graphic novel by Steve Stern, Deadman’s Land works for me regardless of its format because it sidesteps the occult gimmicks and pulpy worship of Nazi iconography I’ve come to expect from this particular sub-genre of werewolf fiction. It’s a lean, mean war story about a group of soldiers who get into some bad “wrong place, wrong time” shit and have to dig their way out with cunning, bravery, and a flamethrower named Bertha.
The characters are a satisfying mixture of genre archetypes, from the hard-bitten sarge to the Hollywood actor who got drafted, but none of them are caricatures, and while the body count is high, the deaths are neither cheap nor gratuitous. The artwork by Tyler Sowles and colours by Alice Baltes-Quist combine for a simple, clean look that reminds me of (period appropriate) 1940’s comic books or a high-budget Saturday morning cartoon, which makes it even more startling when the art depicts someone getting literally torn apart by werewolves, or shot in the head with a .5o cal round.
Right now Deadman’s Land is available exclusively for Amazon Kindle, but it’s worth installing the app for, and based on the reviews it’s getting, I expect it’ll appear in other mediums pretty soon. Nice work, Barry – you’ve achieved the Nazi Werewolf Singularity, and now we can all rest!