Greetings ghosts and ghoulies and welcome to The Theatre of Terror the home of horror comic news, reviews, classic comic scans and creepy art from around the world. Just remember, it's not for the nervous!
It’s been 2 years since the bizarre take on poor Mr Dumpty was first announced and sounds like it has the potential be a sure fire winner. An insane egg-shaped alien being exacts a brutal and bloody revenge on his mother’s killers.
Synopsis
Conceived in violence, born in shadow and pain…bent on revenge!
Humpty Dumpty is a horrifyingly original new take on an old familiar character! Two backwoods redneck brothers are confronted with a dangerous egg-shaped creature whose mother they torture and kill for fun. Half-human, half-alien, Humpty Dumpty exacts his bloody, murderous rage on the brothers in an unforgettable story of revenge.
A graphic novel version of the upcoming ‘Humpty Dumpty 3D’ is to be published by IDW/Revenger Comics. IDW already publishes many movie and TV related graphic novels such as I Am Legend, 30 Days of Night, Star Trek, Transformers, True Blood and many others. According to the official Humpty Dumpty: The Movie website the graphic novel is on its way and will hit before the film itself. There is also a decent preview of the graphic novel on the site and a trailer composed of pictures taken from it which i’ve included below.
Although this has been kicking around in pre-production for some time, mainly due to director David R. Ellis’s other commitments it seems likely to step up a gear and has all the makings of a cult classic. It seems that re-working old fairy tales is in fashion at the moment. There’s already a big budget production of Red Riding Hood currently at the cinemas AND Hansel and Gretal: Witch Hunters is due for release next year. After these 2 movies it would be at this point i’d usually try and write something amusing like “what a next, a Humpty Dumpty movie, yeah right that would be…oh”
Another rare find from the comics archives. This one page short stort appeared 18th May 1985 in a copy of Eagle and Tiger, named during the merging of the 2 comics which eventually reverted back to just good old Eagle.
As you can see this story has a brief foreword from everyones favourite psychotic computer Max who was the editor of the comic during this time. Enjoy…
An interesting story surfaced on the 1st April regarding a new animated series ‘loosely’ based on the life of screen legend Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was regarded as an amusing April Fools gag but the hype machine just kept on rolling with even Arnie himself later announcing ‘The Governator’ will spawn, comic books, merchandise and eventually even a 3D film.
Points of interest – The Governator operates from a hi-tech bunker called the “Arnold Cave” under his home in Los Angeles and his enemies are a dastardly group of super-villains from an organisation called Gangsters, Imposters, Racketeers, Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons aka The G.I.R.L.I.E Men!
The project is a collaboration between Schwarzenegger, branded entertainment firm A Squared Entertainment, comic books publisher Archie Comics and POW! Entertainment – the company headed by former Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee.
I gotta admit, although it’s a bit of a cheese fest, the trailer looks pretty damn cool!
Arnold starred in some amazing movies back in the day – Predator, Terminator, Running Man etc. These were quite simply amazing films and Arnie has long been held in high regard by pretty much everyone on the planet. His move to cash in on his fame and muscle in to politics was a load of crap and when he left his position as Governor of California earlier this year he was generally regarded by the residents of California as a twat. This new cartoon seems a fairly shrewd move for Arnie as a lot of stupid people have trouble defining the lines between reality and media slush. Even though it’s only a cartoon I can see many people actually believing this is in some way a semi-biographical representation of Schwarzenegger, who does actually fight crime.
Capturing the essence of horror in any medium is a difficult task, however very very old school painter Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 – 1828) was extremely gifted at it as you can tell from the selection of his works below. While some of his more horrific works were influenced by bouts of illness and mental issues his main source of inspiration came from observing the terrible acts people forced upon other people. War, Witches, Barbarism and the treatment of the mentally insane were all topics that Goya addressed in his paintings. Through these observations was able to create some truly disturbing images.
Possibly his most disturbing painting is the mesmerising ‘Saturn devouring his son’ which kicks-off our gallery below. Quite possibly the scariest painting of all time!
It’s award season time in the world of online horror and the result of the Cyber Horror Awards and the more famous Rondo Hatton Awards have been released. If your looking for more horror in your life then these awards are a great way of knowing what you should be looking for.
The Rondo Hatton awards are currently in their ninth year. Nominees for the Rondo are selected from suggestions by horror fans, pros and enthusiasts offered all year at the Classic Horror Film Boards.
Best Film of 2010
THE BLACK SWAN
Runners-up: INCEPTION; THE WOLFMAN
Honorable mention: LET ME IN
Best TV Presentation
THE WALKING DEAD: Days Gone Bye
Runner-up: DOCTOR WHO
Honorable mentions: SHERLOCK; TRUE BLOOD
Best Classic DVD
THE COMPLETE METROPOLIS
Runners-up: KING KONG 1933 (Blu-Ray); THE WOLF MAN SPECIAL EDITION
Honorable mentions: VAMPIRE CIRCUS; NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
Best Classic Horror Collection
THRILLER: THE COMPLETE SERIES
Runner-up: TWILIGHT ZONE (Seasons One and Two; Blu-Ray)
Honorable mentions: DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW; BBC SHERLOCK HOLMES
Best Short Film
UNITED MONSTER TALENT AGENCY (Greg Nicotero)
Runner-up: DREADFUL HALLOWGREEN SPECIAL
Honorable mentions: THE DEVIL AT LOST CREEK; VOLKODLAK
Book of the Year
THE ART OF HAMMER:Posters from the Archives of Hammer Films, by Marcus Hearn
Runner-up: CONFESSIONS OF A SCREAM QUEEN, by Matt Beckoff
Honorable mentions: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever, by Joe Kane, RAY HARRYHAUSEN: Master of the Majicks, Vol. 3, by Mike Hankin, FORRY: The Life of Forrest J Ackerman, by Debbie Painter, HOUSE OF ACKERMAN: A Photographic Tour of the Legendary Ackermansion, by Al Astrella, James Greene
Best Website
DREAD CENTRAL
Runners-up: Trailers from Hell; Fearnet.com; Universal Monster Army
Honorable mentions: Dr. Gangrene’s Chiller Cinema; Count Gore de Vol’s Creature Features; Horrorhost Graveyard
Best Blog
FRANKENSTEINIA
Runners-up: The Drunken Severed Head;
Terror from Beyond the Daves; Video Watchblog
Honorable mentions: The Good, the Bad, and Godzilla; Final Girl; Cinema Suicide; Monster Magazine World
Best Horror Comic Book
THE WALKING DEAD, by Robert Kirkman and Charles Adlard
Runner-up: BELA LUGOSI’S TALES FROM THE GRAVE (Monsterverse)
Honorable mentions: VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS; HELLBOY: DOUBLE FEATURE OF EVIL; AMERICAN VAMPIRE; THE GOON
Best Toy, Model or Collectible
Creature and Julie (Diamond Select)
Runner-up: Karloff bust series (Ray Santoleri)
Honorable mentions: Elvira (Amok Time); Zacherley (Executive Replicas); Psycho Bates Mansion, mother in window included (Round 2/Polar Lights); Twilight Zone Gremlin Bobblehead (Bif!Bang!Pow!)
Cyber Horror Awards 2010
The third annual Cyber Horror Awards are horror film awards decided by the online horror-blogging/writing community. Check out the nominees and WINNERS in each category.
Val Lewton Award for Best Film
WINNER: Black Swan, Fox Searchlight Pictures
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, Agnes b. Productions
Let Me In, Hammer Films
Survival of the Dead, Blank of the Dead Productions
Piranha 3-D, Dimension Films
David Cronenberg Award for Best Director
WINNER:Darren Aronofksy, Black Swan
John Dowdle, Devil
Breck Eisner, The Crazies
Matt Reeves, Let Me In
Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island
Vincent Price Award for Best Actor
Timothy Olyphant, The Crazies
Benicio Del Toro, The Wolfman
Dieter Laser, The Human Centipede
Onni Tommila, Rare Exports
WINNER: Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island
Jamie Lee Curtis Award for Best Actress
WINNER: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Chloe Moretz, Let Me In
Emily Blunt, The Wolfman
Sarah Butler, I Spit on Your Grave
Radha Mitchell, The Crazies
Dwight Frye Award for Best Supporting Actor
Ben Kingsley, Shutter Island
Kenneth Welsh, Survival of the Dead
Jorma Tommila, Rare Exports
Akihiro Kitamura, The Human Centipede
WINNER: Vincent Cassel, Black Swan
Linnea Quigley Award for Best Supporting Actress
Geraldine Chaplin, The Wolfman
WINNER: Delphine Chaneac, Splice
Mila Kunis, Black Swan
Winona Ryder, Black Swan
Danielle Panabaker, The Crazies
Curt Siodmak Award for Best Screenplay
Brian Nelson, Devil
Jalmari Helander, Petri Jokiranta & Sami Parkkinen, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Scott Kosar, The Crazies
Matt Reeves, Let Me In
WINNER: Mark Heyman, Black Swan
Molly Arbuthnot Award for Best Costume Design
Amy Westcott, Black Swan
WINNER: Milena Canonero, The Wolfman
Sandy Powell, Shutter Island
Tom Savini Award for Best Makeup
Manlio Roccheti, Shutter Island
David Ambit, Santiago, Gijon Jiminez, Juan Almo & Paulo Requena, [REC]2
WINNER: Rick Baker, The Wolfman
Ray Harryhausen Award for Best Visual Effects
Shutter Island
WINNER: Black Swan
Wolfman
Albert S. D’Agostino Award for Best Production Design
The horror comic series ‘Chew’ has been green-lighted by American network Showtime for a half hour comedy TV series. The comic book, written by John Layman with artwork by Rob Guillory, has a loyal fan base. The first issue was released in 2009 by Image Comics (Yes, The Walking Dead) and is currently on the 17th issue, no surprise after winning the much coveted Eisner Award for best new series.
Chews tell the story of federal agent Tony Chu who is a ‘cibopath’ able to get psychic impression from the things he eats. This ranges from animals to people so expect some very dark humour and a whole lot of blood. Exactly the sort of thing we appreciate on The Theatre of Terror.
Originally released on the Comic Monsters website the ‘Happy Panda Funtime Show’ is a free horror comic story from the diseased minds of the Brain Food Comic Company.
Millions of children all over the world are mesmerized on a daily basis by the #1 children’s show in the world – Happy Panda Funtime Show. But not everyone feels Happy Panda is a good influence, and one man is about to show the world just how evil he feels the corporate dumbing-down of today’s youth is becoming – by hijacking the show and presenting the studio audience and live viewers a chilling ultimatum; one of the children must kill him on live TV or they ALL die.
HPFS is a short story that is worth a read for any horror comic fans. Daniel Thollin has a great drawing style and writer Stephen Lindsay is clearly unleashing some internal rage against the evils in society, which many people may sympathise with. The Happy Panda costume worn by the villan has such a lovely look on its face which contrasts perfectly with the evil acts it carries out.
Do you want to join the Scream team? We're looking for enthusiastic people to contribute articles on horror or comics here on The Theatre of Terror. Contact me for more info.
It’s been 2 years since the bizarre take on poor Mr Dumpty was first announced and sounds like it has the potential be a sure fire winner. An insane egg-shaped alien being exacts a brutal and bloody revenge on his mother’s killers. 
An interesting story surfaced on the 1st April regarding a new animated series ‘loosely’ based on the life of screen legend Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was regarded as an amusing April Fools gag but the hype machine just kept on rolling with even Arnie himself later announcing ‘The Governator’ will spawn, comic books, merchandise and eventually even a 3D film.
Capturing the essence of horror in any medium is a difficult task, however very very old school painter Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 – 1828) was extremely gifted at it as you can tell from the selection of his works below. While some of his more horrific works were influenced by bouts of illness and mental issues his main source of inspiration came from observing the terrible acts people forced upon other people. War, Witches, Barbarism and the treatment of the mentally insane were all topics that Goya addressed in his paintings. Through these observations was able to create some truly disturbing images.
Latest Posts
