Pre-Code Comics: Werewolves of the Rockies

Yet Another Splendid Editorial Interpretation by Alright Owl

Happy blue moon, Wolfketeers! Ready for second place in the pre-Code comics countdown?

Right before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, good American children instead focused on Lars and Fria, an attractive Scandinavian couple en route to an American ski jumping contest!

They didn’t make it. Because werewolves.

Fear not, though: Werewolves of the Rockies has a happy ending anyway.

As with Werewolf Tale to End All Werewolf Tales! and Werewolf Blood on My Hands, web hosting for this story comes courtesy of Karswell at The Horrors of It All.

Check out the werewolf & lycan collections on YourProps.com

Tandye sent me a link to a search results listing of all the werewolf stuff listed on YourProps.com, and I am coveting the hell out of a few entries.

Oz Werewolf Animatronic Head from “Buffy”

Complete screen-used werewolf costume from “Never Cry Werewolf”

Brigitte’s partially-transformed hand from “Ginger Snaps 2”


A similar search for “lycan” yields more noteworthy items, including a dead prop lycan, multiple lycan heads, and ghoulish (but practical!) lycan fingertips.

It makes me happy to know this stuff is all out there somewhere!

Ebay bans “Werewolf Potion” sales, disappointing nobody

photo via snarkattack

As reported by TechCrunch and Slate, perpetual Internet garage sale Ebay will discontinue the Spells & Potions category as part of its 2012 Fall Seller Update. Starting today, no new auctions are permitted in that category (among others), effectively ending the Internet’s trade in little vials of essential oils and food colouring. Among the ersatz conjurations you won’t be able to purchase anymore are potions and incantations promising a real-life (for real and true!) case of lycanthropy, like this one for POWERFUL MAGIC SPELL OF WEREWOLF TRANSFORMATION lycan shapeshift vampire haunted. What a shame.

When asked by Slate to explain its decision, the Ebay PR robot dispensed this non-judgemental pellet:

We want customers to have great experiences on eBay, and we regularly review categories and update policies to deliver the best shopping and selling experience possible. Based on our long-standing policy restricting the sale of intangible items on eBay, we are discontinuing a small number of categories within the Metaphysical category, as transactions in these categories can be difficult to verify and resolve. We believe this update will enhance the experience on eBay and benefit our customers.

Let me summarize that for you: “We’re tired of mediating arguments between snake oil peddlars and fools who have just been parted from their money.”

As someone who has opinions about deliberate charlatanism (and who is open about the unreality of his own “paranormal” wares), I think this is a great move by a company I don’t normally like. Not everyone agrees, though – especially those Ebay sellers who are now scrambling for ways to monetize a guest bedroom full of eyedropper bottles and laser-printed labels. A petition urging Ebay to retract the ban has popped up in the Human Rights (!?) section of GoPetition. I’m not sure how many signatures it’s got, but the number’s probably pretty small, since the “sign petition” button buried at the bottom of a whargarbl stack containing sentences like this:

I am saddened and deeply concerned that eBay’s new policy may appear to some as a form of religious or ideological discrimination against occult and esoteric metaphysical beliefs.

I too am saddened that some people might interpret Ebay’s policy of minimizing bullshit as “religious or ideological discrimination”. I would totally drink a potion to become a werewolf, and I’m not positing or discounting the existence of any particular metaphysical or supernatural phenomenon, but if such things are real, they’re not likely to be forces you can bottle up and sell on Ebay for $25 plus shipping.

Full Moon Features: The Best of El Hombre Lobo

"La Marca del Hombre Lobo," starring Paul Naschy

"La Marca del Hombre Lobo," starring Paul NaschyWhen one thinks of the great big-screen werewolves, the names that spring to mind are likely to include Lon Chaney, Jr., Oliver Reed, Robert Picardo, David Naughton and maybe even Jack Nicholson. Of them, Chaney has the clear advantage since he played the Wolf Man in no fewer than five films, but the most prolific of them all was Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy, who starred in a dozen films as his signature character, the reluctant werewolf Waldemar Daninsky. On top of that, Naschy also wrote most of them (as he did with many of the horror films he made over the course of his decades-long career) and even directed a few, Renaissance man that he was. Through it all, he proved that making horror films wasn’t a means to an end or a stepping stone to other things. Horror was his passion and of all the monsters he played, Waldemar Daninsky was the one that was closest to his heart.

Born Jacinto Molina Alvarez on September 6, 1934, Naschy adopted his stage name when he was pressed into service as the lead in 1968’s La Marca del Hombre Lobo, which he wrote but hadn’t planned on acting in. The title translates to Mark of the Wolf Man, which would have been perfectly serviceable, but it was somewhat nonsensically redubbed Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror when it was released in the States because the American distributor had already promised exhibitors a Frankenstein picture. It might very well have been, though, because the film that inspired Naschy to write the screenplay in the first place was Universal’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, which had made a great impression on him as a child. In this case, though, he pitted his Hombre Lobo against a pair of vampires — and it wouldn’t be for the last time.

There’s a bit of plot before Naschy gets turned into a werewolf, as he stalks a pretty young countess whose would-be fiancé doesn’t take kindly to the interloping nobleman. That all changes when two gypsies take shelter at the Castle of Wolfstein and disturb the tomb of a werewolf which kills them both and goes on a rampage in the village. While out hunting the wolves that are believed to be responsible, Naschy saves his rival, but is unfortunate enough to be bitten by the beast. He thinks he has a few days before the bite takes effect, but before he knows it he’s sprouting fur and fangs and retreats to an abandoned monastery where he can be locked away during the full moon. When the countess tracks him down, she sends for a doctor who supposedly has a cure for lycanthropy, but it soon becomes apparent that he and his wife are vampires whose only interest is in chaining Naschy up and calling on Satan to possess his body. (This is definitely a case where the cure is worse than the disease.) He gets free in time to put a stake in their plans, though, and is himself put down with a silver bullet, but it didn’t take long for him to get back up again.

Aside from Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror, which was restored to its original length for the Shriek Show DVD, few of the later films in the series have been released uncut in the States, and the ones that were have since gone out of print. Good thing the Anchor Bay versions of 1971’s Werewolf Shadow and 1973’s Curse of the Devil can still be readily found. And since there’s no real continuity between them, it’s possible to skip around the series without worrying about getting lost in the plot. It is possible, however, to get lost in all of the alternate titles they’ve gone out under over the years.

Originally called La Noche de Walpurgis (or Walpurgis Night), the film that has variably been released as The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman and Werewolf Shadow finds Waldemar Daninsky living in a remote region of northern France, splitting his time between looking after his mad sister Elizabeth and looking for a cure for his lycanthropy, which he contracted in the Himalayas. Into their lives come a pair of graduate students looking for the final resting place of the notorious Countess Wandesa, who drank the blood of virgins to stay young — until some pesky villagers drove a silver crucifix through her heart, that is. Faster than you can say “I totally saw that coming,” Countess Wandesa’s grave is disturbed, one of the grad students is enslaved to her, and the other finds herself falling in love with Naschy because he co-wrote the script and wants to kiss her hard on the lips and have a look at her breasts. There’s more to their relationship, of course, but that’s the gist.

After his initial werewolf transformation, it’s a while before Naschy wolfs out again, but when he does it’s well worth the wait. (Not since Michael Landon has a werewolf been so prone to drooling as Waldemar Daninsky.) And when he reveals his affliction to his lover, I have to say she takes the news extremely calmly. (I guess that’s what comes of writing your thesis on the study of the black arts.) Naturally, the whole thing reaches its climax on Walpurgis Night, with Waldemar battling multiple female bloodsuckers (as opposed to the single Vampire Woman promised by the public-domain title). At no time, however, does his shadow becomes a plot point, which raises the question of what exactly happens when a werewolf sees its shadow. Does it get six more weeks of rabies shots?

As for Curse of the Devil, it was originally released as El Retorno de Walpurgis (or The Return of Walpurgis), which makes it sound like a direct sequel to La Noche de Walpurgis, but it actually gives Waldemar Daninsky a completely different origin story. Way back in the past, one of his ancestors killed a knight in a duel and then put an entire coven of witches to death, but not before their leader, Elizabeth Bathory, could put an unnecessarily complicated curse on him. Fast forward an unknown number of years and we pick up Waldemar as he’s taking part in a wolf hunt. He shoots the beast, but the body he recovers is that of a man, which enrages the gypsies who come to claim it and conveniently fulfills the first part of Bathory’s curse. Next the gypsies summon a skinny guy in an all-black body stocking (who has an obvious zipper running down his back) who chooses which one of them is going to smuggle a wolf’s skull into Waldemar’s castle, seduce him, spill some of their own blood on the skull and then use it to nip the guy in the chest, thus infecting him with the werewolf’s curse. (Sounds simple enough, right?) And there’s no way to trace her back to the gypsies since the lucky lady who gets the job is killed right after she does the deed by an escaped criminal who’s prowling around the castle grounds.

If that seems like a lot of set-up to get Naschy to turn into El Hombre Lobo, it is (the movie’s nearly half over before he makes his first kill). And if you’re wondering why Naschy felt the need to throw a garden-variety maniac into the mix, that’s probably so the police could have somebody else to pin the murders on while the villagers all mumble about the werewolf they’re convinced is on the loose. Meanwhile, Waldemar makes the acquaintance of an engineer from Budapest and his two daughters — the lovely Kinga and her slutty sister Maria — and you’ll never guess which one becomes werewolf chow and which one gets to stab him in the chest with a silver dagger and end his suffering. (If there’s one detail Naschy picked up from Universal’s Wolf Man and definitely ran with, it was the notion that a person had to love the werewolf to be able to kill him.)

To date, the only Waldemar Daninsky film that has received the Blu-ray treatment is 1980’s El Retorno del Hombre Lobo (or Return of the Wolf Man), which was called The Craving when it first showed up on these shores and was more sensibly retitled The Night of the Werewolf later on. The first film in the series to be directed by Naschy, it opens in 16th-century Hungary with the sentencing and execution of Countess Elisabeth Bathory (yes, her again) and her followers, whose ranks include a relieved Waldemar Daninsky, who was helpless under her power. In fact, he doesn’t mind it one bit when an iron mask is clamped down over his face (shades of Mario Bava’s Black Sunday) and he’s stabbed in the heart with a silver cross. One credit sequence later, we’re in the present day and scientist-turned-Satanist Erika has located where Bathory and company are entombed and plans to sacrifice her traveling companions Karen and Barbara to bring them back to life. Even before they get there, though, two grave robbers choose the night of the full moon to break into Daninsky’s crypt (smart thinking, fellas!) and remove the silver cross from his chest — and he repays them by tearing their throats out. As for the girls, they’re waylaid on the road by bandits who plan to take advantage of them and are all dispatched by a crossbow-bearing stranger who naturally turns out to be Daninsky.

When the girls reach the castle their car breaks down, but that doesn’t trouble Erika since she isn’t planning on leaving. Daninsky and his disfigured servant Mircaya make themselves known (he identifies himself as “Mr. Burko”) and the girls settle in just in time for the full moon, during which Daninsky kills a random couple. On the night of the second moon his transformation is witnessed by Karen, but he’s kept at bay by Mircaya bearing the silver cross and instead kills a random camper and a random girl collecting water from a well. Meanwhile, Erika resurrects Bathory, who immediately puts the bite on her and summons an undead servant just because she can. And because she’s Elisabeth Bathory, the scene where she bathes in someone’s blood is pretty much mandatory, as is the one where she ages rapidly after being vanquished. Daninsky has to wait for the next full moon before that can happen, though, because otherwise he won’t “have enough power to face that demon.” Of course, having seen her in action, I’m pretty sure he could have taken her anytime. I’ll bet he just wanted to be all decked out in fangs and fur when he did the honors.

Coming Soon: The Rest of El Hombre Lobo

Werewolf Wednesday Theme: Fan Art

What time is it? Werewolf Wednesday doodle time! This week’s theme is Fan Art.

Transport your favorite werewolf character into a different TV show, movie or book and draw the results. For example, put Scott McCall from Teen Wolf into an episode of Mad Men (good idea @DFWendi), or show David Kessler from American Werewolf in London as a character from The Incredibles.

For my entry, I’ve chosen to show Alexis the librarian from Andrew’s Wolf-Girls story as a Whywolf from Adventure Time. Bring back your books on time!

Share your werewolf character fan art in the comments below, and on Twitter with the hashtag #WerewolfWednesday.

Live-Tweeted Quasi-Review of “Anathema” issue 2: No sophomore slump for Deering or Mooneyham

The second issue of Rachel Deering’s classic werewolf horror comic Anathema is out, and just as with the first issue, I’ve captured my first read-through as a series of off-the-cuff tweets. Is this a review? Kind of. Is it silly to live-tweet the reading of a comic book? Yes. Did I capture those tweets and re-post them here for your edification and enjoyment? You know it. Does issue 2 live up to the promise of the “cocked and loaded gun” that was issue 1? Read on to find out (spoiler alert: it absolutely lives up to that promise)!

Cover: Wow, Mercy’s got some REACH with those arms. Great composition, and the colours are perfect.

Page 1: This is how you write an opening crawl, Lucasfilm. Also, I know whose eyes thooooose are!

Page 2: Shoulda worn your running shoes, lady.

Page 3: Boy, these colours. It’s like a 60’s horror film, in a GOOD way. Points to that raven for flying out over the cliff for extra height.

Page 4: At least one of these guys is a Kickstarter supporter who paid to be “killed” in this book. Awesome! I love that shadowy Mercy profile.

Page 4, continued: Mercy’s been monologuing for 3 pages, and far from being distracting, it’s a nicely paced parallel to the action.

Page 5: One page, two reactions. 1) FUCK YOU, BIRD 2) The art in the 7th panel makes me want to put Mercy in my pocket.

Page 6: A lot happening on one page, here. It plays well. Not feeling the “jump” lines in the second panel, though. Wonder who hit the roof 1st?

Page 7: Nice beat in the action. Mercy’s crouch makes me want to give her a back rub. I like that her inability to speak isolates her here.

Page 8: Daniel, instead of fucking around with axes & chasing werewolves, maybe go get some Bactine? Or, like, hug your daughter?

Page 9: Holy cow, dude, *relax*. Pick your battles. Mercy’s battle-damage poses are comical+awesome, and that second panel is HEAVY METAL.

Page 10: There’s a fork in the road of Mercy’s character development here. I wonder which way she’ll go.

Page 11: “MISTAKES WERE MADE”

Page 12: I’m not sure if those are leaves or floating ash from the fires in town, but they are a really cunning visual transition detail.

Page 13: Mercy obviously studied at the Underworld school of werewolf wall-climbing. Even in issue 1 she was pulling gecko moves.

Page 14: Nothing good has ever happened in here.

Page 15: So, I was wrong about those eyes earlier. Good to know. Good to know. Also, my new favourite onomatopoeic is “klek”.

Page 15, continued: That question mark in panel 5 gets its own tweet, because it is perfect.

Page 16: OH GOD get your water wings, Mercy

Page 17: Those are… pendulous. Also, Mercy’s really gonna need that back rub now.

Page 18: I love the energy in the lines! Nice character design, too. A LOT of fire came out of that cauldron, boy.

Page 19: More climbing! I think the foreground of the first panel is making a… *point*… of foreshadowing the solution. Great colours, ugly foe!

Page 20: Lovely perspective on that leap! Also, my perception of the foreshadowing on the previous page was… sharp.

Page 21: That looks like the crystal gem apple that Tree Trunks was after in Adventure Time, & we all know what happened to HER. Careful, now.

Page 22: “Yes, bird, I did it.” The writing in this issue SLAYS. And 80% of it is captioned thoughts to which only Mercy & the reader are privy.

Page 23: Those were leaves earlier. Again, gorgeous classic horror movie colours. Of COURSE the **** from earlier is ********* *****. WHAT NEXT?

Verdict: Issue 2 is “The Legend of Korra” to issue 1’s “The Last Airbender”: same heart, soul & style, new setting, pace & thrills.

Deering’s writing is clear and deftly handles the protagonist’s inability to speak. Mooneyham’s art remains strong, coaxing a lot of expression out of Mercy’s lupine form, and new-to-the-series colourist Ian Herring’s work casts the whole book in an exquisite Hammer Horror haze of firelight oranges. I’m no expert on comics as an art form, but I can recognize when the talents of a creative team match their enthusiasm, and that’s exactly what’s happening here.

Anathema‘s second issue is a worthy follow-up to the excellent premiere issue. I highly recommend you pick up a copy from Deering’s store, and let me know what you think – about this issue, the series so far, or the bold claim I make in the Werewolf News ad contained in this issue.

Retro YouTube Gem: Marie Osmond & Jeff Conaway freak the hell out in this werewolf skit

This Marie Osmond and Jeff Conaway skit originally aired on the December 12, 1980 episode of The Marie Show, which means (according to the latest Werewolf News analytics report) you probably weren’t even alive yet. Technically, either was I, but that doesn’t keep me from enjoying the all-out bat-shit crazy contained in this four minutes. Marie’s full-on drooling by 2:20, which seems pretty intense for 1980’s TV. Check it out.

Hat tip: @Werewolf_Guide (who almost certainly does not approve) and @dwlaraway.

Pre-Code Comics: Ghoulash

Another Splendid Editorial Interpretation by Alright Owl

Friday means werewolves!  Or at least, it ought to mean werewolves.  Time for third place in the pre-Code comics countdown.

From June 1954, Ghoulash knows better than to take itself too seriously. Elaine’s the sort of girl who stabs men and stores them in her freezer. What’s such a girl to do when twins take a shine to her? Will she learn to multitask in time?

This story appears at The Time Bullet, the retro blog of Marc Burkhardt. If you like it, leave him a comment!

Wolf-Girls Blog Tour: Sarah Peacock on her story “Exiled”

As part of the ongoing Wolf-Girls Blog Tour, I’m pleased to introduce Sarah Peacock, author of “Exiled” – a tense tale of the violence and isolation that accompanies certain kinds of self-discovery. You can find Sarah’s story in the recently-published Wolf-Girls anthology. I asked Sarah if she would share with us some details pertaining to her writing process, the influence her background in archeology had on her story, and the specific nature of her protagonist’s lycanthropic transformation.

Exiled – Sarah Peacock

The basis of the story ‘Exiled’ began as a scribbled note in my journal during research for a novel I was writing. The novel is partly set in the iron Age and I was doing some research on iron age customs and traditions – I wanted to get a feel for how the characters would think and act, what their philosophy would be, and I happened to find an 11th Century Latin poem – ‘De Mirabulis Hiberniae’ that mentioned how those outlawed from the tribe would assume the form of a wolf. About the same time, I also came across the idea of the exiled ‘Cú Glas’ , which translates as grey wolf, in the stories of Cu Chulainn. The story essentially developed from that idea.

I originally trained in Archaeology and Pre-History – I have a degree in the subject – and although I didn’t end up working in that field it still influences my writing a lot. I naturally look to anthropology, folklore and history for inspiration. My all time favourite writers use the British landscape – it’s history and folklore in their work – writers such as Alan Garner and Robert Holdstock and this influences my writing in the same way. I love their sense of timelessness, of very human centred, character led stories set against a rugged landscape that is full of the traces of its ancestors. This doesn’t come out quite as much in this story but it seems to be an undercurrent in a lot of my other writing. I’m writing a set of four short stories at the moment that I’m publishing on my blog www.sarah-peacock.com that are very much inspired by this, centred around the ideas of air, water, earth and fire.

I’m a little obsessed, with certain themes and the theme of not belonging, of being different, is one of those themes. With the werewolf being a female I also got to explore what it is like to be a woman and be expected to take certain roles, behave in a certain way, and what happens if you don’t. As a teenager Cassie begins to develop her own voice, stand up for herself, refusing to fit in with the small minded expectations that the people around her have. Her anger is unleashed and so she becomes an outsider. Women, especially, aren’t supposed to get angry and, of course, women aren’t supposed to become werewolves so I quite enjoyed writing that in, along with giving her the ASBO.

Reading it now, I can see the influences behind it. I really love Martin Millar’s stuff and particularly enjoyed ‘Lonely Werewolf Girl’ and I’m also a big fan of Jeff Noon’s writing such as ‘Vurt’ so I suppose that’s where the squatting and drugs and counter culture comes in. To be honest, I haven’t really read a huge amount of werewolf fiction – I’ve read a little of kelly Armstrong’s writing and recently read Glenn Duncan’s ‘The Last Werewolf’ which I think was beautifully written.

I realise that the way Cassie transforms into a werewolf isn’t massively clear. She’s not bitten or catches a virus or anything similar so it’s not the traditional route to transformation. The transformation happens because she is different. It’s a change from within, transformed by her anger and alienation. She is exiled so becomes the grey wolf, but perhaps the potential for turning was there already – it’s ambiguous as to whether she is angry and ultimately kills because she has the nature of a werewolf or becomes a wolf as a result of her actions. I quite like that ambiguity.

I knew what the ending would be before I finished the story. I usually start writing with pages of scribbled notes and ideas and the dots get joined as I write. I’m a bit looser with short story writing and don’t plan in detail as much as I do with novel length stuff – the sheer volume of words involved in novels terrifies me so I like to plan the arc of the novel in some detail to make sure I don’t rush through the writing of the thing, and it helps with the scary middle bits. With short stories I always feel I can relax a little and play a bit more although looking back through my journal I see that I had the idea of her running off to join a group of like minded exiles, somewhere remote at the end and envisioned a scene where the exiles watch the city night unfurl before them. I don’t think I put that in in the end but I still like the idea. Re-reading the story I realise I’m still quite interested in what happens to Cassie and the other exiles so I might experiment with writing a follow up story and see where that leads.

Many thanks to Sarah for sharing her time and words with us, and for providing some additional insight into a story that – in spite of its rain-soaked grittiness – made me want to go back and visit England. You can (and should) read “Exiled” by getting a copy of Wolf-Girls, published by Hic Dragones, and stuffed with many more splendid werewolf stories (including one by me). You can read more of Sarah’s writing on her web site.

Skittles invites you to touch a baby werewolf

Tandye found this. I am simultaneously flabbergasted, delighted, a teensy bit uncomfortable, and feeling strangely compelled to buy some Skittles.

I work in the web office of a fairly offbeat company, and our web marketing team is in love with Skittles’ approach to branding and marketing. I have to admit, the unapologetic weirdness appeals to my sensibilities as well.