Showing posts with label topps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label topps. Show all posts

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Why DRACULA VS ZORRO?

In 1992, Topps Comics adapted the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula...
...illustrated by the movie's production illustrator and noted comic artist Mike (Hellboy) Mignola!
Both the movie and the adaptation, perhaps the most faithful version of a movie ever, were hits!
With vampires in general a hot commodity in movies, tv, novels, and comics, Topps quickly followed-up with several projects including...
...Dracula: Vlad the Impaler...
...The Frankenstein-Dracula War
(Note: Topps had also adapted the movie Mary Shelley's Frankenstein)...
and Dracula vs Zorro...
Topps had acquired the rights to Zorro and apparently thought a good way to re-introduce the character to the comics audience would be to tie-in with the trendy lord of vampires.
After all, the graphic novel Red Rain, featuring The Batman and Dracula had sold amazingly-well, and Batman was a similar "dark heroic" character to Zorro, so writer Don McGregor and artist Tom Yeates came up with a story that could fit into both characters' continuity with a minimum of fuss.
Both Dracula (in flashback), and his victim, Carmelita, would turn up in the Zorro series (which ran 12 issues) once more.
(We'll present that story next week.)
Carmelita would become a regular in the Zorro spin-off series Lady Rawhide.

Friday, October 13, 2017

Friday Fun DRACULA VS ZORRO!

For the next two weeks, we're running a ghoulish treat...
...over three blogs each Friday!
It'll start here, link to the next part at our "brother" RetroBlog Western Comics Adventures, then conclude (for each week) at RetroBlog Seduction of the Innocent!
Now, to "wet your whistle" for the graphic feast to come, here's a sampling of pages in b/w.
(The complete story is, of course, in full color!)
Be Here Next Friday for the Triple-Blog Treat!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order these Old West/Vampire Movies...
&

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

RIP Earl Norem (1924-2015)

One of the prolific, yet unsung, painters who helped define the visuals of sci-fi/fantasy of the 60s-2000s...
...whose true genius in design and illustration was often obscured by poor design work.
(They really couldn't have put the lightsaber in front of the logo?
The printed cover looks like he's holding up a sign, for chrissakes!)
Besides numerous romance and "mens' adventure" paperback and magazine covers, Earl Norem was one of the mainstays of the Marvel b/w magazine line of the 1970s, doing everything from Planet of the Apes to Savage Sword of Conan to Tales of the Zombie with equal aplomb.
He also did paperback novel covers for DC characters including Batman.
He never achieved the notoriety of fellow cover painters like Boris Vallejo, or Bob Larkin, but we art directors knew of his talent to work from sometimes very rough concepts with minimal reference and ability to meet almost-impossible deadlines.
(I used him on several comics covers for licensed properties, where sometimes nit-picky changes had to be made to get approvals.
He always came through without complaint.)
Though suffering from arthritis, he continued to do occasional projects after most people would have happily retired.
In fact, at the time of his passing, Earl was working on a trading card assignment for Topps' Mars Attacks!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Cover Gallery: DRACULA CHRONICLES

When Marvel reintroduced Dracula as a major character in the mid 1990s...
 ...Topps took one last shot at the character, reprinting their poor-selling 1992 Vlad the Impaler mini-series (which we've been re-presenting on this blog for the past couple of weeks) as Dracula Chronicles with new covers by Joseph Linsner.
It didn't sell any better, and with the phenomenal success of X-Files, Dracula was dropped from Topps' roster.
BTW, for other comic book versions of the legendary vampire, check out...
and

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Reading Room VLAD THE IMPALER "To Rise Again" Conclusion

When Last We Left Vlad the Impaler, he was dead for over a century...
...but, as the cover for Topps' Vlad the Impaler #3 (1993) shows, that's about to change...
It's kool how writer Roy Thomas and artist Esteban Maroto explain why the "historical" Dracula, who's still in his tomb, looks different from the many "vampiric" pop culture incarnations!
BTW, for other comic book versions of the legendary vampire, check out...
and

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Reading Room VLAD THE IMPALER "To Rise Again" Part 2

...but, he does not know the fearful fate that awaits him on the battlefield!
Tomorrow:
We jump ahead a couple of centuries to discover...
Dracula is (Un)Dead!
BTW, for other comic book versions of the legendary vampire, check out...
and