October 2020 | Otaku No Culture |

A Halloween Guide to Ancient Aliens

This program is going on 15 seasons strong and it’s showing no signs of stopping. It may slow down as it’s running out of ideas, but for Halloween time, I thought it’d be fun to glance back at those episodes that truly have a paranormal theme.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Usually Ancient Aliens and the supernatural (ghost busting) do not go hand in hand. When they do, it’s mostly about parallel universes, how entities can travel about interdimensionally (wormhole travel), or why certain classes of angels and demons are actually aliens in disguise. However far-fetched the hypotheses are, they are just that until proven by some grandiose revelation that convinces everyone to believe. That means that the entity is tired of hiding and has finally revealed him or herself to the world.

In this age of the Internet, the alternative is to find overwhelming testimonies from many witnesses of varying occupations to say, “oh my gosh, this (fill in the blank) is real.”

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LEGO’s Hidden Side Revealed on TV with Night of the Harbinger

Unless you’ve been playing with LEGO’s Hidden Side product line, the series (available online) can easily be missed. To have a debut on television with a Halloween special (“Night of the Harbinger”) is a surprise; newcomers will be scratching their heads.

Ancient Aliens By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Please check local listings for broadcast times in the UK, USA and elsewhere.
Played on YTV in Canada, Oct 30, 4:00pm PST

Spoiler Alert

Unless you’ve been avoiding going to the toy stores and have not been playing with LEGO’s Hidden Side product line, the cartoon series (available online) can easily be missed. To have a debut on television with a Halloween special (“Night of the Harbinger”) is a surprise; newcomers will be scratching their heads.

Jumping into this special is not as understandable as going back to fond franchises–Legends of Chima or Ninjago. At least with these older properties, it’s easy to tell one is an anthropomorphic King Arthur style fantasy and the other about Ninjas kicking butt Power Rangers’ style. Both were designed to help sell the toys, and the world building was fantastic. Hidden Side is essentially Ghostbusters the animated series, but with fancier tech. The products are cool because there’s an augmented reality component.

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Hellboy! Where to Begin, What to Read with the 2021 Universe Essentials Collection…

The HELLBOY UNIVERSE ESSENTIALS line debuts in July 2021 with HELLBOY UNIVERSE ESSENTIALS: HELLBOY. Priced at $14.99, the trade paperback will collect these iconic stories: The Chained Coffin, The Third Wish, Pancakes, The Nature of the Beast, The Corpse, The Baba Yaga, A Christmas Underground, The Ghoul, and The Troll Witch.

Ancient Aliens Don’t know where to begin with Dark Horse Comics’ seminal mascot? The stories from the Hellboy Universe are some of the most celebrated and beloved in comics fandom. Blending folklore, horror, mythology, action, and adventure, legendary creator Mike Mignola and a host of celebrated writers and artists have chronicled the adventures of Hellboy, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Lobster Johnson, and Sir Edward Grey for more than two decades. Beginning in 2021, Dark Horse Books will publish four volumes of essential Hellboy Universe stories, all selected by Mike Mignola, each featuring all new covers by him and award-winning colorist Dave Stewart.

“In some cases—B.P.R.D. and Witchfinder—it was pretty easy to select the one “essential” book,” said Mignola. “Hellboy was more complicated, as there is so much ground to cover. In the end we chose to go with a collection of short stories rather than a single graphic novel, to give more of an overview of the character. We chose certain stories that say important things about his background, but also some that just show what he does and how he does it. A couple of stories are in there just because they are my favorites.”

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Dracula’s Legendary Comics Life is Classic

Most readers know the origins and this adaptation offers enough material to recount that history, say the blood is life and make the vampire omnipresent. To have snippets of Stoker’s novel in this book in the dialogue and narrative is simply tops.

Bela Lugosi to Star in 'Bram Stoker's DRACULA' Graphic Novel from Legendary Comics – Jimmy Star's World — **Available to pre-order on Amazon USA**

By Ed Sum
|(The Vintage Tempest)

Release Date: Nov 3, 2020

By Hunter’s Moon, ask any cineaste who the best actor was to play Dracula, it’s reasonably safe to say Bela Lugosi tops the list. He’s appeared in the classic film that started it all and also the horror-comedy Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein that cemented his status. To this day, I still get goosebumps. I remember my babysitter letting me watch that film and his entrance. As a seven-year-old, I ran screaming from his home back to mine! Somehow, all that helped kindle my interest in the supernatural and horror. Learning how genre movies were made decades ago helped lessen the scars.

Legendary Comics graphic novel release of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (starring Bela Lugosi) shows Halloween won’t be over. He’s on the prowl, and this publication faithfully adapts the seminal book, brings some of that cinematic prowess from Francis Ford Coppola‘s adaptation, and bridges all those letters, journals and recordings into a solid tale where you don’t notice it’s being told from multiple perspectives. Robert Napton made the transitions between these products unnoticeable.

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Which Scooby-Doo Are You on Halloween?

Long time fans may well feel jaded Scooby-Doo and gang doesn’t get the love during Samhain. We’re going to highlight the best moments though!

Scooby-Doo Curiously, despite the Scooby Doo franchise being over 50 years old, there aren’t that many releases featuring the gang in Halloween-specific adventures. Although there’s a handful of works released during the month of October, they honestly don’t count.

I can only name two–Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School from (1988) and Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020). This romp marks Warner Brothers’s foray into uniting all their franchises by bringing in The Scarecrow from Batman. However, his warning to the gang, “You’re in over your head in this one,” goes unheeded.

They try to figure out what’s going on in this latest crime caper and meet Elvira. Her appearances with this franchise is synonymous with the season. Her appearance here felt more of an obligatory inclusion than anything else. I’d rather return to seeing the gang deal with their usual problem solving from the televised series.

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Stranger Things Halloween Special in Stores Now!

Will’s story about the Child-Eater of Hawkins sounds genuine enough.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Dark Horse Comics
Available Now

Netflix’s Stranger Things may well be part of your All Hallows’s Eve ritual with this one-off comic book special. This yarn written by Michael Moreci has all the hallmarks of a classic campfire story setup. The air is chilly, and Will’s idea is the type you’d expect to have a clever jump scare. Todor Hristov‘s art sets the tone for that, and Chris O’Halloran‘s colours draw you into the tale within a tale.

The lads are introduced to doing what they do best, goofing off and playing games. No, it’s not Dungeons and Dragons (that release is next week). They’re enjoying the night at the woods, trying to scare each other. Will’s story about the Child-Eater of Hawkins sounds genuine enough. I can hear Noah Schnapp’s voice as he tells this gently spooky legend. It doesn’t get too wildly nasty like the events leading up to their encounter with the Demogorgon–this story takes place before season one–but instead dulls the terror down to the level of Stephen King.

The terror takes place in the late 60s, when Beth Baker disappeared. Other kids–Alex, Bobby, Angela and a quickly taken fourth wheel are involved this time, and are trying to figure out why four children went missing over the years. The concept in this tale is well thought out, suggesting the entire town is in on some terrible secret.

I surmise the real world connections are just that. Specific folks in Hawkins know more than anyone else realizes. Maybe this Halloween special foreshadows an event still to come, but we’ll never know…