Horrorhound Horrorhost article

I've been meaning to mention this here on the blog for a week or so, but never got around to it... so let me remedy that right now! The Jan/Feb 2010 edition of Horrorhound magazine features a really cool horror host article in it.

This article is a retrospective look at horror hosts through the ages, from the first (Vampira and Elvira) to the modern crop of hosts.

There is a double-page spread of horror hosts arranged chronically that is a really visually interesting layout of horror hosting through the decades. You will see quite a variety of appearances in hosts - many differences and some similarities. Very cool - they even feature yours gruely in the article, the only entry from 1999.

Very nicely done. The article was written by Michael Monohan, better known as horror host Dr. Ghoulfinger. I've known Michael for a number of years - he's a really good guy and really knows his stuff when it comes to horror hosts. He also has one of the largest collections of horror host memorabilia and videos in existence. Check out the latest issue of Horrorhound. Good stuff!!

Did you have a Childhood Horror Host?

Were you one of the lucky kids who grew up with a horror host on late night or afternoon television? Many a monster-kid has fond memories of their favorite horror host... and if you're one of them chances are you can find out info on your host with the most here:

http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/tvhorrorhosts/

at Egor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts - this is a fantastic and exhaustive list of hosts from the first hosts (Vampira and Zacherley) to the present day hosts (such as your's truly).

Speaking of Zacherley, the cool Ghoul - he still is active and has a site here:

http://www.zacherley.com/

and he can be seen, along with a host of horror hosts, in the documentary American Scary. I'm proud to say I was one of the hosts interviewed for this documentary - Filmmakers Sandy Clark and John Hudgens did a fantastic job with this documentary. Here are two trailers for it:

Horror Host Podcast

Over at Halloween Haunt they recently posted a really nice podcast about horror hosts - it is an overview of hosts through the years, giving a brief history and mention of various hosts across the country (including yours truly). You can download it here:

http://halloweenhaunt.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/horrifying-and-hilarious-horror-hosts/

Just click the "before there were 2,500 channels and nothing on" link to download it!

Rondo Awards - Best Website

One of the things I like best about the Rondo Awards, besides the acknowledgement of the achievements of the individual candidates, is that it exposes voters to a fantastic array of classic horror material they might not previously have been aware of (and in many cases would likely never know about). All of the categories do an excellent in this respect, but perhaps none more so than the BEST WEBSITE category, which contains a variety of sites that every monster kid should spend some serious time exploring. Just take a look at the entries below.

-- Arbogast on Film (Blog for the love of film)
-- Britishhorrorfilms.co.uk (If CHFB was in England ... )
-- Cinefantastique Online (The magazine continues)
-- Cinema Dave (Quick-footed movie blog)
-- Creepy Classics (Monster Bash and latest product news)
-- The Drunken Severed Head (Max Cheney's unique blog about it all)
-- DVD Beaver (DVD comparisons, shot by shot)
-- DVD Drive-In (news and DVD views)
-- DVD Maniacs (news and DVD views)
-- DVD Savant (news and DVD views)
-- Eccentric-cinema (One of earliest cult sites)
-- E-gor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts (amazingly complete)
-- Film Noir Foundation (For fans of long inky shadows)
-- Frankensteinia (If it didn't exist it would have to be invented)
-- G-Fan.com (John Lees' giant monster army)
-- Groovy Age of Horror (Not for faint-hearted)
-- Horrorhosts.com (Home of the horror host rebirth)
-- Kreepsville Industries (blogs, sounds, guest art)
-- Latarnia: Fantastique International (all things Euro and more)
-- Lugosiphilia Yahoo Group (Bela. Just Bela)
-- The Many Faces of the Frankenstein Monster (like it says)
-- Midnight Marquee online (Editor Gary Svehla's new blog)
-- Mobius Home Video Forum (No detail too small)
-- Monsterama.blogspot.com (Friendly creeps from Jay Stevens)
-- Monster-Maniacs Forum (discussions of monster conventions)
-- Movie Morlocks (TCM blog, many contributors)
-- Scarlet Street (message board to continue)
-- SciFilm.org (Home of Dave Sindelar archives)
-- Secret Fun Spot (Home of Flip! -- and your childhood)
-- Serialsquadron.com (Cliffhangers, restored serials and talk)
-- Solar Guard Academy (Calling all space rangers!)
-- Themonsterclub.com (Still excited about monsters and thrills)
-- Thethunderchild.com (Scifi, fantasy web magazine)
-- Trailers from Hell (Joe Dante, pros comment on trailers)
-- Unimonster's Crypt (Web pioneer John Stevenson reborn)
-- Universal Monster Army (Now a full-fledged message board)
-- Video Watchblog (Tim Lucas goes deeper than even his magazine dares)
-- Zombos' Closet of Horror Blog (John Cozzoli new generation blog)

That list is a collection of websites that are a true celebration of classic horror - and one of the most impressive sites on that list to the demented mind of this southern fried horror host is E-gor's Chamber of TV Horror Movie Hosts.

E-gor's site is run by George Chastain, a lifelong fan of horror hosts. His was one of the first sites I found on the internet about horror hosts, and was probably one of the first ever created. It is, without a doubt, the single greatest collection of data on horror hosts, past and present, that has ever been complied into one archive.

http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/tvhorrorhosts/

There is a terrific book titled Television Horror Movie Hosts: 68 Vampires, Mad Scientists and Other Denizens of the Late Night Airwaves Examined and Interviewed. It was written by Elena Watson, and was one of the first printed reference materials of horror hosts. It chronicles the history of horror hosted movies as well as the careers of the founding fathers and mothers of the genre – hosts such as Zacherley, Vampira, Ghoulardi, and Sir Cecil Creape, my own childhood host. It sports a picture of the greatest host of all time on the cover – the one and only Zacherley.

Elena Watson's book was the blueprint upon which George has built his labor of love. This website is a result of years of research, information gathering, and archiving. Looking through his list of hosts is truly entertaining, as in addition to the information on the hosts and their programs there are also stories and letters from viewers, pictures of many of the hosts, and dates and times they aired.

George has also included samples of his art, and let me tell you, he is one talented guy! http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/


Take a look at the tribute poster below that he did for my pal Bob Burns, below – it's an 11 X 17 serial spoof playing off Bob's Major Mars movie (which we showed at Wonderfest a couple of years ago). It's fantastic! As well as the Zacherley spoof Aurura box - amazing!

George is a talented illustrator with a true flair for graphic design. He also did the cover for last year's Rondo Award winning Zacherley cd.

So for any of you folks looking for an illustrator or graphic designer for your projects, give George a shout. He'll do you proud and who knows, maybe YOUR project will win a Rondo Award too!