Tag: Hammer Comics

The Vintage Tempest’s Comic Book Picks for All Hallow’s Eve

Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

When Halloween is near, the only thing we have to fear is the cinematic products coming from Hollywood. Not every vision is slick and this year’s offerings feel slim. Of the five movies coming up, only one feels 100% appropriate (Insidious 3) for the season.

I can get more frights in the sequential art world. From this list, I find rereading them far more delightful and usually more frightful (in a good way).

Here are my picks for the season:

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The Mummy. Hammer Comics Gets ‘Fresh.’

Hammer Comics’ The Mummy is looking to bring back the film studio’s trademark style of terror.

184068_1011544_1003By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Hammer Comics’ The Mummy is looking to bring back the film studio’s trademark style of terror. The afterward in the first issue by film historian Marcus Hearn explained executive producer Michael Carreras never lost sight of the fact that The Mummy was aimed squarely at the audience who love X-rated horror. The comic nicely continues in this tradition. While the creative team is cheating by taking cues from the upcoming film of the same name starring Tom Cruise with two sexy mummies causing havoc, I’m okay with that.

Ronilson Freire’s art nicely follows along the style presented from the early Hammer films and the period look is well-researched. Unlike cinematic treatments from classic Hammer era, to create that mystical world of the Duat would only look cheesy. The comic medium is perfect to bring to the Duat (the Egyptian Underworld) to life.

The first issue sets up the situation where Priestess Nebetah is ready to be judged in the weighing of the heart with Osiris presiding. Instead, Anubis intercepts and as for why, the answer will not be immediately known. While the spirit is waiting for a vessel to possess, Angelina Kostenko is not going to be so willing.

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In Defense of The Mummy and the Universal Monsters Reboot

The teaser trailer of The Mummy (with Tom Cruise in the lead) from a few days ago wetted my appetite for a possible Universal Monsters universe.

Universal Monsters Reboot with The Mummy

Should I be angry over the fact Universal Studios wants to reboot their entire monster franchise? I say no. To get a modern update is inevitable and I would rather go with the flow to see how producers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Chris Morgan’s vision are going to put all of them together. The teaser trailer of The Mummy (with Tom Cruise in the lead) from a few days ago wetted my appetite for a Univeral Monsters shared universe.

According to The Collider, a full blown trailer is supposed to be out on Sunday. I suspect it will arrive in the evening, and I will be following up with a shot by shot analysis. I enjoy following The Mummy craze since the opening of King Tut’s tomb fueled my interest. No, I’m not that old, but I love this ancient world and will absorb any kind of treatment into my own Sphinx’s vault of collected treasures. From the Boris Karloff days to Arnold Vosloo, and including ITV’s Tutankhamun, I will want to see or read about it.

I am more disappointed that the prior films, The Wolfman and Dracula Untold are not included. Understandably, they were made before the studio heads may have thought of a shared universe and despite the travesty of the latter film, I appreciated The Wolfman more and want to see him return. Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot/The Wolfman is perfect.

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