HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2011!!!

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: A Monster of a Good Time!

It's not exactly the perfect Halloween weekend here in CT since we were hit with a freak snow storm yesterday. However, that doesn't mean the fun can't continue here at the World of Wonder. Today we have a triple dose of fun for you all. Monsters in print, monsters in song and monsters in breakfast cereal! First up is a great issue of the classic magazine, "Famous Monsters of Flmland". I have a few issues of this great magazine but the reason I chose this one to share is the super cool cover! Next up is a Dickie Goodman album entitled, "The Monster Album in Stereo". Goodman was most famous for a series of "break-in" records he created from 1956 to 1986. His two biggest hits were "The Flying Saucer" and "Mr. Jaws". In between, in 1964, he managed to deviate from his formula and put together this collection of ditties. And finally, fans of the 1970s cereal monsters can rejoice in the sounds of their favorites, Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry as they listen to their adventures. These are from two cardboard records that came on the backs of the cereal back in the 70s. Enjoy!


Famous Monsters of Filmland Issue #3

Dickie Goodman - The Monster Album in Stereo

Cereal Monsters Cardboard Records

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: Betty Boop's Halloween Party.

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: That's Fronkensteen!

Mel Brooks has created some of the greatest comedies of all time but "Young Frankenstein" stands out as a work of art above all others (at least in my humble opinion). Gene Wilder wrote it but Mel gave it the direction it needed and together they created a masterpiece of cinema. The genius of Brooks is shown through the use of not only the same scenery as the original Frankenstein but the same camera angles as well. The film is quoted more and more through the years and I don't know anyone who has ever said "I don't like Young Frankenstein". As with other Brooks films, a soundtrack album was released that contained not just the great music from the film, but also contained dialogue from some of the best scenes as well. Here is that soundtrack album for you to listen to and add a pinch of humor to your Halloween festivities! Enjoy!

Young Frankenstein OST

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: Readings From The Count (Dracula/Dooku)

Christopher Lee brought the Hammer Film's version of Dracula to life and in one of the few strokes of genius that George Lucas showed in his Star Wars Prequels, Lee appeared as Count Dooku, an evil Sith Lord. He also brought his fiendish talents to the role of the villian Saruman in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. His creepiness remains intact and he can still send a chill up my spine. Here are two collections of Lee reading from various Horror writings. The first is a collection of Edgar Allen Poe's works and the second a collection of various writers that is referred to as "Fireside Tales". The collection of Poe's tales were released as an audio book in the mid 80s while the "Fireside Tales" were originally broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on December 30th, 2004. Here they are for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Christopher Lee Reads Tales of Horror

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: A Double Shot of The Addams Family in Print

You can't celebrate Halloween without the Addams Family. Whether you are a fan of the TV show, the original Charles Addams comics, the movies, the cartoon or the Broadway show, you have to include them somehow. I've been watching the first season of the tv show all month and am loving it. To me, that's the true Addams Family. I love the original comics but have no time for the films. I originally wanted to see the Broadway show but the more I hear about it, the less I want to go. (if you want to go, you should go soon. It's closing at the end of the year). Today I bring you the original television line-up in an article from Monster World Magazine. It's from 1966 and features a great cover story on the show. It also features an awesome photo-comic version of the Hammer "Horror of Dracula" (that's better than the story on the Addams Family in my opinion). In addition, you get the 80s sticker book from the cartoon of the Addams Family. Though I was never a big fan of the cartoon, this is a pretty cool sticker book. It comes complete with paper dolls of Wednesday and Pugsly. It has the original look of the family from the Charles Addams' comic. Here they are for you as part of Halloween-A-Thon 2011. Enjoy!

Monster World Issue #9

The Addams Family Sticker Book

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (re-post)

1981 was the year of the werewolf. Along with this classic, The Howling and Wolfen also saw the light of day. The make-up effects for this film were groundbreaking and still hold up to this day and you can't beat any film that features Jenny Agutter! Elmer Bernstein wrote the music for the film but the studio never released an official soundtrack. Instead, they asked MECO to give the world his interpretation and thus we have this!

An American Werewolf in London OST

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: Scrappy's Ghost Story

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: The Voices of Horror (re-up)

As a kid, I was drawn to story albums and spoken word recordings. As you can tell by a lot of my posts, I still am. One of the ones that always caught my eye as a kid was a 1963 Wonderland Records release entitled, "Famous Monsters Speak". I would see it at the store and in ads in my comic books but alas, never obtained it in my youth. It would take me until the 21st Century (2003 to be exact) to obtain a copy for myself. It was well worth the wait! Voiced by former Dead End Kid, Gabriel Dell, the album consists of two tracks. The first (side 1) deals with the invention of a recording device that allows us to hear the thoughts of Frankenstein's Monster and the second (side 2) tells the tale of a reporter who has been entrapped in Dracula's Castle. The stories are real works of art in that they maintain an integrity not often found in children's records. They hold up well to this day and actually give great side stories to the original film versions of both characters. The Frankenstein story is very interesting in that it deals with the Monster's feelings towards his creator and his life, a side of the story that was included in the original Mary Shelley novel, but not portrayed in the Universal film version. I can't say enough great things about this album so I'll just say, here it is for your fright filled October enjoyment! Here's "Famous Monsters Speak". Enjoy!

Famous Monsters Speak

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: Dracula Under Glass

When the classic Bela Lugosi Dracula film was first released in 1930, talkies were still something new. As a result, the men behind the film made it so that it could be shown to audiences both as a silent movie and as a talkie, though conversation was limited to basic narrative elements. Unusually, it did not have a specific score and only two pieces of music on its soundtrack: Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake during the opening credits, and the overture of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg during a scene at an opera. That's the way the film remained until 1999 when Philip Glass was commissioned to write the score by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, which released the movie with the Glass-soundtrack on VHS and DVD. According to Glass, the choice of chamber music played by a string quartet rather than an orchestral score followed from the movie's setting, "libraries and drawing rooms and gardens." The string quartet that Glass hired to perform his score was the great, Kronos Quartet. Kronos (accompanied by Glass on piano) performed the score during viewings of the movie across the United States in 1999 and 2000 to promote the album. The soundtrack and the performances thereof have received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weekly was very positive, praising the "hypnotic new score," while The Essential Monster Movie Guide calls the score "unnecessary," and a Lugosi-biography calls it "ill-considered." Being a fan of all three components, I was excited to see the collaboration and enjoyed it thorougly. I hope you do as well when you listen to the soundtrack that Glass wrote those twelve years ago. Here is "Dracula" by Philip Glass. Enjoy!

Dracula Soundtrack - Philip Glass & Kronos Quartet

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: Drac Goes Dancing

Aside from Christmas, no other holiday has inspired more strange disco novelties than Halloween. Needless to say, today's sharity is a disco album. The band behind the Halloween of disco is a rather anonymous German disco group, featuring a number of notable Munich session players under the name of Hot Blood. The record is so anonymous in fact, that the production credit is given as "Produced by Hot Blood". The major track on the record, "Soul Dracula" has every cliché one would expect from a novelty 'dracula' track: maniacal laughing drrrracu-la with exaggerated Bela Lugosi-esque accent, catchy/annoying background gimmicks that drill themselves into your head, cheesy sexual overtones, not to mention a bit of pointless appropriation in the song title. Still though, cliché's aside, this ain't that bad. Judge for yourself when you disco down to Hot Blood and "Disco Dracula". Enjoy!

Hot Blood - Disco Dracula

Halloween-A-Thon 2011: When Michael Comes Slashing Home Again, Hurrah, Hurrah

In 1978, John Carpenter released what many, including myself, feel is the greatest horror film of them all. He took a self-penned screenplay, added virtually no budget and an up and coming actress who happened to be the daughter of two gigantic film stars (including the original slasher chick, Janet Leigh!) and turned it into the greatest horror franchise the world had seen up to that point. Of course I am talking about Halloween. It was great when it first came out and to this day. The sequels don't hold up to the original. There are really only two that matter. The second one as it is the continuation of the first film and the seventh which brought back the original character of Lori Strode played by the pre-Activia Jamie Lee Curtis. The great thing about Halloween H2O (the seventh film in the series) is that it acts as if Halloween 3 through 6 doesn't even exist. (In my mind, they don't).

I was hopeful that the series would end with H2O but unfortunately, the greed train pulled in and another sequel was made followed by a "re-imagination" (I hate that term) of the original by Rob Zombie. I've only seen a tad of that film and I really can't say anything too bad because my good friend and boss, Micky Dolenz was part of it. I can say that it is not the original. There will never be another "Halloween". For today's treat I bring you the soundtracks to Halloween and HalloweenH2O. The music for the original was written by John Carpenter on a little Casio keyboard and is legendary. It's minimalism at its finest! Here is the 20th anniversary edition of that soundtrack that was released in 1998, the same year H20 was released. Enjoy!

Halloween OST

Halloween H2O OST

Halloween-A-Thon 2011 Begins!

It's October and that means blogs all over the internet are counting down the days until Halloween! We here at the World of Wonder are no exception. Seeing as how a lot of the back pages of the blog have been wiped away or a lot of my sharities have been removed by the facist rapidshare corporation, I've decided to mix some old with some new this year. Some of the Halloween goodies I will be sending your way have never appeared on the World of Wonder before, while others will make a very welcome return. The first post of "Halloween-A-Thon 2011" is an old friend that has been wiped off of the blog. We are pleased to welcome back Paul Lynde's Halloween Special!


I know that over the last few years this has been a hot commodity that almost every blog has posted it so I figured I would keep the tradition going by posting it here. If you have never seen the special, you need to run out to the store and get your copy right now. It is a classic and features a list of guest stars that would rival any episode of The Love Boat! It's also historic in that it features the first television appearance of the band, KISS. Here is the original television soundtrack to "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special". Enjoy!

Paul Lynde Halloween Special OST

The Last of the Hulk Cards

Here are the last five packs of the Incredible Hulk series of trading cards from 1979. I was going to space them out over a few more posts but October is upon us and I want to get into the usual Halloween theme here at the World of Wonder. So, without further ado, the remaining packs of this great series of cards (plus a few bonus items) are presented for your pleasure. Enjoy!

The Incredible Hulk Trading Cards Packs 9 & 10

The Incredible Hulk Trading Cards Packs 11, 12 & 13

"HULK TRADE CARDS!"

Here are the next two packs of Hulk trading cards. I hope you are enjoying the way I have it set up so that if feels like you are actually getting the old packs and finding the cards that you need to complete the set. Of course, it would be much easier for me to post the whole set as one big download but where's the fun in that?! The other upside is that you don't have to worry about getting any doubles. And if you want to trade with someone, you can just copy the file and send it rather than give away your prized possession. Here are packs 7 & 8.

The Incredible Hulk Trading Cards Packs 7 & 8