Three “Wayne The Werewolf” (+ his family) posters from “Hotel Transylvania”

Steve Buscemi‘s turn as Wayne the Werewolf is pretty much the only reason the animated film Hotel Transylvania is on my radar. The combined presences of Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Andy Samberg on a single project is more than an effete geek like me can stand, but I like the movie’s art direction and character design.

Courtesy of The Hollywood News (and @viergacht, who linked me), here are three posters (one in English, two in Spanish) showing Wayne and the rest of his werewolf family. I love the hat, the expression of perpetual exhaustion, and those kids!

Hotel Transylvania hits theatres September 20.

Aug. 15th 2012

Werewolf Wednesday theme: Femme Fatale

It’s Werewolf Wednesday again, and that means a new doodle theme! Last week’s theme was cute, so let’s make things a little more “adult” with today’s theme: Femme Fatale. Share your drawings of dangerous werewolf ladies in the comments below, and on Twitter with the hashtag #WerewolfWednesday!

Aug. 15th 2012

Tim Burton put a werewolf in his “Frankenweenie” remake, and this is what it looks like

I stopped paying attention to Tim Burton’s output after Corpse Bride, but my interest in the remake of his own 1984 short film Frankenweenie has been piqued by the photo set Bloody Disgusting just posted. The first two photos are of Sparky, the titular re-animated dog, and the third shows Edgar “E.” Gore and someone who might be Elsa van Helsing reacting to a werewolf at a carnival. The werewolf looks like a feral descendent of the Wolfman from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and although he’s unlikely to play a major role, his appearance has significantly increased my interest in seeing Frankenweenie when it comes out October 5th.

Aug. 13th 2012

Pre-Code Comics: Werewolf Tale to End All Werewolf Tales!

Editorial Interpretation by Alright Owl

Few today associate the Truman administration years with werewolves, but the late forties and early fifties saw the rise of “mystery” comics. These were about monsters, not detective work, and their rather sudden popularity led to ghouls, vampires, werewolves, and zombies being banned from comic books. By 1955, drier science fiction had replaced them.

Ever since, these comics by and large have languished in obscurity. Tales from the Crypt enjoyed new life as an HBO series, but few have heard of Mister Mystery, Skeleton Hand, or This Magazine Is Haunted. Even fewer can pay premium every time they want to peruse the fragile pages themselves.

Karswell launched The Horrors of It All in 2007 and has shared over 1500 of these stories no longer under copyright. Obviously, not all the stories are about werewolves, and not all the werewolves are even recognizable as such. Andrew asked for five of my favorites, so for five weeks, my aim is to work up to what I believe is the best.

Fifth place is dumb but fun: a honeymoon “way up north in the forest” of Canada. What could go wrong? From July 1954, Werewolf Tale to End All Werewolf Tales! Please let me know what you think, but more important, let Karswell know what you think, since he did all the hard work.

Aug. 10th 2012

Check out these killer werewolf illustrations from CGHUB Drawing Jam 78

The denizens of CGHUB.com host bi-weekly 2D Drawing Jams in their forum, and the topic for the current jam, number 78, is “The Werewolf”. Guilty confession: when I discovered this, I said “Aw yeah, that’s my jam” out loud. To myself. In an empty room. Anyway. There are two threads for you to peruse: the art jam itself, where CGHUB users post their works in progress, and the poll thread, where artists submit their completed work and registered users can vote for their favourite until just after 5:30 PM, August 12th.



Because I’m not a traffic-stealing, content-poaching jerk, I’m not going to re-host the artwork here, but I will post thumbnails that link to four of my favourite entries. I encourage you to browse the jam and poll threads to see all the entries for yourself – there’s some good stuff in there!

Aug. 9th 2012

Werewolf Wednesday theme: Lollipops & Lycans

Starting today, Tandye Rowe – my wife and partner in weirdness – will be posting a new doodle theme for every Werewolf Wednesday. We encourage you to draw something inspired by the theme, and share it in the comments below, and on Twitter with the hashtag #WerewolfWednesday.

Hi everyone! Tandye here, bringing you an inspirational theme for this week’s Werewolf Wednesday. Today’s theme is: Lollipops & Lycans Let’s see what you can do!

Aug. 8th 2012

Vote on the first Werewolf News T-Shirt Design!

Updated 10:41 PM

Okay, the votes are in, and United We Change won! Buy it now (as a shirt or a postcard) and help support Werewolf News. Thanks!

 

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Aug. 7th 2012

“Game Of Werewolves” Creature Effects Photos & Horror 101 Review

Juan Martinez Moreno’s Game of Werewolves is one of those movies I keep hearing good things about, which is why I keep posting about it, but I have no way of seeing it. The Spanish horror / dark comedy film has been screened at a few festivals – most recently Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival – but it hasn’t been picked up for North American distribution yet. Film guru and Werewolf News contributor Craig J. Clark sent me a link to this review by Horror 101’s Aaron Christensen, posted last week. I encourage you to read the review on Aaron’s site, but I can’t resist quoting this line:

I’ve seen the film twice this year already (once in Belgium at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, once Stateside at the Chicago Latino Film Festival) and am gearing up to watch it again this Friday at Fantasia in Montreal.

Film’s so good, dude saw it three times. If you’ve seen it, I’d love to know what you thought! The more people talk about it, the more likely it is that someone here on our big dumb continent will pick it up for distribution.

The film’s appearance at Fantasia has shaken loose a few new photos of the film’s numerous werewolves, and I’m happy to share them here. I’ve seen folks on other sites post the usual “I hate CG but these suits are dumb” comments about these werewolves, but I like ’em a lot!

From Dread Central:

From RTVE.es:

Aug. 5th 2012

Exclusive 5-page preview of Anathema issue 2 – “I kill for love.”

Direct from creator/writer/letterer Rachel Deering and artist Chris Mooneyham, here’s an exclusive look at the first five pages of Anathema issue 2! Mercy’s pondering the moral implications of her quest for vengeance, but that’s not stopping her from kicking some raven ass. I know it’s only five pages, but I’d say this issue is definitely living up to the promise of the first issue. The full issue will drop later this summer – for now, enjoy!

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Aug. 2nd 2012

“Mrs. Peterson and the Wolf”: a ‘screw you, nosy kid’ comic by Rachel Deering & Glen Ostrander

Every creative person cringes when they see / hear / read their first widely-exposed creation. My wife Tandye does it with her early art, my friend Colin does it with the early incarnations of his music, I did with with my first published story, and Rachel Deering does it with her early work in comics. “You gotta start somewhere”, Rachel tweeted yesterday, along with a link to Mrs. Peterson and the Wolf – her “first attempt at writing AND lettering”.

Illustrated and coloured by Glen Ostrander and originally published in Nix Comics Quarterly #3, “Mrs. Peterson” is like a Tales from the Crypt episode condensed into five pages: smart alec kid sticks his nose where he shouldn’t, smart alex kid gets fucked up. It’s fun in a way that makes me want to high-five someone and then play Rob Zombie really loudly. You can read the first two pages below, then visit Rachel’s site to read the whole thing (or buy Nix Quarterly #3, loaded with lots of other comics too and a steal at five bucks).


Given my mandate of only sharing werewolf stuff I like, “Mrs. Peterson and the Wolf” is certainly worth posting about on its own merits. However, I particularly wanted to share it with Werewolf News readers because I think Rachel’s feelings about it are a prime example of the self-critical tunnel vision that afflicts creative people.

This is Rachel’s first published writing and lettering job, so all she can see are its flaws. I can totally relate to that. I can’t read my own story in Wolf-Girls without cringing at what I perceive to be sloppy mistakes and missed opportunities. Nevertheless, I think creative types (including myself) would do well to remember that audiences won’t notice 99% of the flaws we see in our own work. We’re too close to be objective, and so over-exposed to the thing, whatever it is, that even the subtlest nuance seems hamfisted and strident. Irrelevant. As creators, we must be kind to our first creations. If anyone likes it, we have succeeded, and the fact that we made and finished a thing at all is something to celebrate.

And of course, when we’re done celebrating, we can always go and make something new.

Aug. 2nd 2012