COMICS SUCK! - Strange Suspense Stories #75 (June 1965)

50 YEARS AGO - June 1965

STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #75 (Charlton Comics)

"Introducing Captain Atom"

By Joe Gill (w); Steve Ditko (a) & William Anderson & Pat J. Masulli (e)

It's unusual to profile a reprint here, but this issue announced the return of Steve Ditko to Charlton Comics, a getaway vehicle of sorts for the troubled genius artist.

After a dozen years of slaving in the thankless comics industry, Steve Ditko knew who he was. After the success of Spider-Man and discovering the ideas of Ayn Rand he became acutely aware of his own value within his industry, even if his full-time employer Marvel Comics refused to acknowledge it. While working for the burgeoning publishing titan he went back to competitor Charlton looking to scrounge up a little extra work. They didn't pay as much as Marvel, but they allowed him more creative control and would credit his full contributions. A dispute about who got the writing credit on the Spider-Man comic (ultimately it would be Stan Lee) became a sticking point that would eventually end in a sudden split with the company. But Steve Ditko already had his exit strategy in place.

Charlton ran out the clock on the sci-fi anthology Strange Suspense Stories and built up a little buzz for the artist's return to the character Captain Atom by reprinting his old Ditko-drawn adventures while Ditko worked on new tales behind the scenes. The title would be re-branded Captain Atom and feature new Ditko-created adventures by the end of the year. The title ran concurrently with Marvel's Spider-Man for half a year after Ditko had already left Marvel because he'd been so far ahead on the title, a testament to the man's work ethic.

Aside from Captain Atom, Ditko also re-vamped Blue Beetle and created The Question for Charlton. He would later create The Creeper, Hawk & Dove and Shade the Changing Man for DC Comics before returning to Marvel at the tail end of the 1970's. Though Ditko's post-Marvel creations would never enjoy the same level of success as Spider-Man, his Charlton creations helped inspire Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons hugely successful The Watchmen series for DC. Captain Atom is the basis for the character of Dr. Manhattan.

***

MUSIC SUCKS!

THE YARDBIRDS

"For Your Love"

This is one of the most important songs in the history of rock music. If it weren't for this song there might never have been a Led Zeppelin. Pissy, heroin-addled, mega-diva Eric Clapton left the group after the release of this song because he saw the slight departure in sound as a "betrayal" of the band's blues roots. Ironically, the change in sound was far less pronounced here than it was on the first single from Clapton's next (and more successful) band Cream, called "Wrapping Paper". Nobody, but nobody expected the brand new British blues supergroup to sound like that! (listen to it here)

But with a pinch of hindsight it isn't too far fetched to see "For Your Love" as a doom metal prototype. The song was relatively dirge-like and though it fit neatly into a pop single structure, it was atypical of radio fare due its dark tone. Ultimately, The Yardbirds had begun to take the same approach to songwriting that Black Sabbath would 5 years later, namely: darkening and messing around with traditional blues structures.

The experimentation wouldn't end there. The very next month the Yardbirds would issue their other signature tune (and first with guitarist Jeff Beck), "Heart Full of Soul". The story goes that Clapton left when the group recorded the original version of "Heart" with a sitar. After the "betrayal" of "For Your Love", there was no redeeming the group in Clapton's eyes after the sitar incident. But if Clapton had never left, they might never have drafted in the talents of Jimmy Page, who might never have cobbled together the New Yardbirds in the wake of the original band's implosion and the New Yardbirds might never have become Led Zeppelin.

***

MOVIES SUCK!

REPULSION 
(Review by Tony Maim)
Directed by Roman Polanski
Cast - Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Patrick Wymark and Yvonne Furneaux.

From the opening shot of the credits being projected onto an extreme close up of an eyeball to the stark ending devoid of any real hope, this film delivers a gripping study of obsession and paranoia. Catherine Deneuve plays the lead as a manicurist sleepwalking through life, sharing a London flat with her overpowering sister.

With her radiant beauty stealing scenes throughout, the mystery is why she has such an aversion to any type of male contact. When the sister goes on holiday, Deneuve spends more time numbly going through the motions, spending more and more time locked in the flat. While being pursed by various interested suitors, the flat starts to mirror the state of Deneuves’s fragile mind. Cracks appear in the walls, paint is flaking off surfaces, noises are amplified and OCD seems to be taking over her personality.

All through this, the camera shots linger on her face in long, close-up takes which shows the blank wild stare becoming ever more vacant, yet more desperate at the same time.

A casual visit by an interested admirer brings the paranoia to an all time high, ending with a murderous attack leading to a bloody corpse in the hallway. Deneuve spends more time slowly becoming more zombie-like, sleeping on the floor, staring at plates of rotting food,
only moving when her delusions bring arms punching through walls or clever camera angles make hallways stretch into the horizon.

Her lecherous landlord forces his way into the fetid flat only to be stabbed in a frenzied attack when our heroine/villainess is roused into action. The police are called and as she is lead away, the last shot is of an old family snapshot, showing the two sisters being stared at by a father/uncle/relative in a way that does not bring images of a happy childhood.

Hey stop reading this and watch the whole thing here:

COMICS SUCK! - Blue Beetle #5 (April 1965)

50 YEARS AGO - April 1965

BLUE BEETLE #5 (Charlton Comics)

"The Red Knight"

By Joe Gill (w); Bill Fracchio(p); Tony Tallarico (i) & Pat J. Masulli (e)

This was the final appearance of the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett. The character had been around since 1939 when he first appeared in Fox Feature Syndicate's Mystery Men Comics #1. Like all other costumed heroes aside from Superman, Batman and to a lesser degree Wonder Woman, the character eventually fell out of popularity with the rise of the fright rags which began to dominate comics newsstands in the 1950's. Blue Beetle was revived only months prior to this issue by Charlton Comics in Blue Beetle #2, with new powers and a new origin (also a new spelling of his last name, adding a second 't' to Garrett). Arguably, it's a different character altogether, but at the pace with which comics companies and now even film studios revamp, revise, re-tool and retcon established characters, which is the "real" version of any character?

The stories and art on this Blue Beetle series (4 issues) are of relatively poor quality. 50 years ago, Marvel and DC Comics had very little competition in the superhero game. There was Archie Comics "Red Circle" line of heroes led by The Fly and The Jaguar who were later joined by The Mighty Crusaders and there was Charlton (Tower Comics had yet to join the fray with Wally Wood's THUNDER Agents). Charlton's Captain Atom and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt were minor draws, but Charlton's version of the Dan Garrett Blue Beetle never truly found his audience.

The main story in this issue, "The Red Knight" moves at a brisk pace, arguably too brisk a pace as in the space of two pages we're introduced to Garrett's chess buddy, physicist Lew Coll and his experimental rocket, then he takes off in that rocket and heads to Saturn even as he's just showing Garrett the rocket. From panel to panel it's "hey, check out my new rocket" and then "so long, bitches, I'm going to Saturn!" By the time he comes back he's a changed man. He tells his fiancee to go away and she does so without argument. This is the mark of the rushed story, things just sort of happen and are taken for granted by the writer. The characters are not living, breathing, feeling, thinking individuals, each of their actions serves a story purpose and nothing else. There isn't much for the reader to latch onto with a set-up like that and thus, the short four issue run.

When the villain of the piece finally emerges, he does so fully realized. He goes from a normal man with no powers to riding a flying horse that travels at 600 knots from page to page. His only special attribute, as it's explained is his access to the impenetrable Siliconium, which he finds on Saturn to make a suit out of. Why and how is his horse flying though? It's a question that the creators didn't care enough to answer.

Ultimately, Blue Beetle is interrupted and upstaged in his own book by a Frank McLaughlin short called "Nightmare", which appeared between parts II and III of the main story. It's a three-page sci-fi piece about a man falling into the clutches of demonic-looking aliens, but are they really what they seem? It's not a great short, but the storytelling is a step up.

This issue also had a fan letter from future comics artist Alan Weiss with the added bonus of his re-designed costume / Blue Beetle pin-up. A decade later Weiss would become on of the best cover artists in the comics business. He's one of the finest artists all around, but was mostly a fill-in artist, never lasting on a book for more than two or three issues at a stretch. But in 1965, he was a Blue Beetle fan, one of the few.

Blue Beetle would be revived again by Charlton, this time with some serious gusto by comics legend Steve Ditko, fresh off his storm-out from Marvel. In Ditko's iteration of the character, Garrett has died between issues and Ted Kord has taken up the mantle, with a new, improved costume. This would be the character that was brought over to DC when the publishing titan bought the rights to the Charlton heroes back in 1983. He was also the inspiration for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Nite Owl character from their critical darling Watchmen (Did you know that all of the costumed heroes in Watchmen were based on DC's recently purchased line of Charlton heroes? DC wouldn't let the creators use the Charlton characters so they invented their own interpretations).

DC has since re-vamped the character one final time, in what is arguably the most popular version of the character as young Jaime Reyes. His resemblance to Spider-Man, both in attitude and costume is probably neither accidental nor incidental considering Reyes's mentor Ted Kord was created by Spider-Man co-creator Ditko, but that's some pure speculation right there.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After putting the final issue of Blue Beetle aside and either forgetting about it for all time or simply burning it, it was time for a complete artistic reversal. It was time to check out the latest album from one of the most challenging, but finest artists of theirs or any era:


Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues - HQ from Noisefield on Vimeo.

BOB DYLAN - BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME
Bob Dylan is one of the most successful recording artists of the 20th century, in terms of sales, artistic quality and influence. The man is a legend. He became that way by challenging his audience in a seemingly impulsive fashion. His artist growth was rapid, he left many in his dust. 50 years ago, he broke all his own rules.

He started out in high school as a Little Richard / Jerry Lee Lewis type piano-rocker but eschewed all rock & roll adornment upon his discovery of folk-singer Woody Guthrie. He drove to New York where he was "discovered" and signed by John Hammond who earlier re-discovered Robert Johnson and would later "discover" Bruce Springsteen. Dylan's first four records were mostly acoustic folk, but a limited band was introduced on a couple tunes on the 'Another Side' album released in '64. The change from protest songs to rockers shocked and stung the folk community, many turned their backs on Dylan for good, swearing off the artist forever. But Dylan always had his roots in rock & roll. His first single "Mixed Up Confusion" is a high energy honky-tonker and there's even a version of Dylan's "House of the Rising Sun" with drums long before The Animals recorded their version. The idea of bringing in a band had always been floating around for Dylan.

He let it all come out on 'Bringing It All Back Home'. No matter how virulent the negative reaction to it was by the hardcore folk contingent, the influence of this album was sweeping. Not only did it inspire a generation of garage rockers, the impact was felt by successful, mainstream bands like The Beatles and The Byrds.

The above video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is also, arguably, the first true promo video, for good or ill. And yes, that rabbinical, bearded figure in the background is legendary beat poet Allen Ginsberg.

Another rule breaking artist with a new project out and about at that time was filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis with his bold Color Me Blood Red, circulating in theaters.

As is to be expected from Lewis, this movie is pure sleaze and that's why I love it. It's about a temperamental artist who finds a new material to paint with. I think that says it all. Color Me Blood Red was written and directed by Lewis and stars Don Joseph, Candi Conder, Elyn Warner, Patricia Lee and Jerome Eden. Watch it here:

Color Me Blood Red (1965) - Feature by FilmGorillas

COMICS SUCK! - Fantastic Four #36 (March 1965)

50 YEARS AGO - March 1965

Cover artwork by Jack Kirby

FANTASTIC FOUR #36 (Marvel Comics)

"The Frightful Four"

By Stan Lee (w,e); Jack Kirby (p); Chic Stone (i) & Artie Simek (l)

The crisp bold line at the top of the cover reads "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" and for four or five years, it was true.

This issue marks the beginning of the greatest sequence of issues in superhero comics history. The standard of excellence established by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby on this peak era has never been matched. This is the issue where the Fantastic Four first meets Medusa the Inhuman, as a member of the team's newest, truest rivals, the Frightful Four. As plots and subplots develop, Medusa leads to the discovery of the Inhumans, which leads into Silver Surfer and the Galactus saga, which leads to Wakanda and the Black Panther, all three of which, it's worth pointing out have been or are being developed for the silver screen. The reign of excellence continued for another 50 issues after that, but this particular period is the one everybody remembers. This is where it started really cooking.

Medusa's First Appearance.

Jack Kirby transcends the medium of comics. Even non-comic book fans have come across his creations if not his artwork, there's just no getting around it. All comic fans know what Kirby hands are, what a Kirby crackle looks like and what Kirby-esque feels like. He's the greatest storyteller in superhero comics, this run on Fantastic Four is his finest hour and this issue begins his absolute pinnacle. Though he'd been Fantastic Four artist since issue #1, it took him about two years to truly find his voice on the book. There's no shame in it, it was a new series with a new approach to characters at what was essentially an all-new publisher (of superhero comics). It wasn't until around about this issue or just a couple issues before it that The Thing really starts to look like The Thing the way we remember him today. He'd gone through several "drafts" of doughy, craggy and angular before Kirby finally settled on the distinctive look he still carries to this day. Kirby's trademark Manhattan backgrounds started to look like Kirby backgrounds, detailed with clean lines (see bottom left corner of cover image above). It seemed that after three years of playing wait-and-see, it was safe to consider Fantastic Four a success and therefore, something to invest the full power of his talent into.

The Frightful Four.

In this story we meet the Frightful Four, a motley crew of chagrined and defeated villains from F.F. member Human Torch's solo adventures in Strange Tales magazine, opportunistic crooks and a mysterious new female baddie on the scene. Attention to detail in the continuity between issues is something that Marvel fans have always loved about the publisher, they were the first to take it seriously. One of the joys of reading Marvel comics was watching characters develop over the course of years and eventually, generations. When I was very, very young there was a comic called Marvel Saga which retold the whole history of Marvel Comics from the 1960's, issue by issue, including this one. So it took me years, decades even to trust Medusa as the heroine she has become. She was just so thoroughly evil in her early appearances. I guess first impressions really are important. I mean, she ran with a group called the Frightful Four, they knew who and what they were, they were the bad guys and proud of it. Strangely, Frightful Four member Sandman would go through a similar switch in allegiance, albeit much later.

After the Frightful Four crash the Fantastic Four's headquarters, the Baxter Building, a battle royal ensues. The action is intense, the wide-angle staging is classic Kirby and the bad guys nearly win. In the grand early Marvel style, only an incredible effort saves Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny from certain death, when they turn the tables the bad guys, they escape cleanly to return but two issues later and three issues after that for what would be the team's greatest story yet up to that point. The Thing, feeling depressed about his appearance quits the team and ends up a member of the Frightful Four. The fact that his conversion continues for more than one issue is a perfect example of what made Marvel great in those early years, readers truly didn't know what to expect, but the seeds had been planted for them expect any changes to be long term.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After being blown away by Stan and Jack the hipper of British audiences didn't walk, but ran to pick up the debut album of a band that were to the Rolling Stones, what the Rolling Stones were to the Beatles in terms of raunchiness:



THE PRETTY THINGS - SELF-TITLED
If you have the world's most impressive memory or something close to it, you'll notice that both albums from 1965 featured in Comics Suck! so far (the first was The Zombies 'Begin Here') have kicked off with a cover of the Bo Diddley classic "Roadrunner". The difference is The Zombies album landed on shelves then sunk like a stone in their home territory while The Pretties debut placed a tidy #6 on the album chart.

Pretty Things on tour in New Zealand 1965 [Source]

I have an idea of why that may be. By the end of 1964 The Rolling Stones had established themselves as a dominant force in British music. Blues guitar standout Eric Clapton and his band The Yardbirds were making a name for themselves with a "heavier", rawer style of pop music, their seminal "For Your Love" was also released this month (more on that on a future edition). The world of British pop music was beginning to cycle in a gravitationally challenged direction. The Zombies, as high quality as their album was, represented old news. Those early Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Dave Clark Five sounds were so last year's scene.

For one shining, brilliant moment the rough and ready Pretty Things were on the cutting edge.

But they would never enjoy the same level of chart success in their careers again. Unlike most of their early peers however, they're still going. It was only two years ago that they appeared at the massive Roadburn Festival. Listen to the album above and re-discover why buzz remains so high for this band 50 years on.

But after devouring the Fantastic Four and Pretty Things it was time for some real gone retinal input, it was time for Die, Die My Darling.

I know the title from the Metallica song, which was a cover of a Misfits song, which was taken from this movie. Actually, the film was originally titled Fanatic in the UK, but given the campier title for the U.S. audience. The film was part of Hammer Films seeming monopoly on British horror of the time (Amicus was only just emerging and Tigon was years away from appearing on the scene). It was directed by Silvio Narizzano and starred Tallulah Bankhead in an unforgettable performance as the fantical Mrs. Trefoile buffeted and abetted by the equally wonderful performance of Stefanie Powers as Patricia Carroll. It also co-stars a young Donald Sutherland (that's two 1965 films in a row co-starring Sutherland, including the Amicus Productions's Dr. Terror's House of Horrors from last month) as the simple-minded Joseph.

In it, Patricia visits the mother of her now deceased former boyfriend (Steven Trefoile) against her current fiancee's wishes. Upon arrival she finds Mrs. Trefoile to be a critical, dogmatic tyrant. Mrs. Trefoile does her best to "correct" Ms. Carroll's behavior because she considers her to be Steven's wife and can't stand the thought of his memory being tainted. When Patricia has finally had enough and decides to leave, Mrs. Trefoile produces a gun and locks her in the attic.

It's an excellent film that captured the zeitgeist of the times swiftly a-changing and inter-generational tension, although it can be a tad preachy in its own right. You can watch it in all its over-zealous glory below:


Die Die My Darling aka Fanatic 1965 full movie by ursula-strauss

COMICS SUCK! - Tales of Suspense #62 (February 1965)

50 YEARS AGO - February 1965

TALES OF SUSPENSE #62 (Marvel Comics)

Cover art by Jack Kirby

"The Origin of the Mandarin"
By Stan Lee (w, e); Don Heck (p); Dick Ayers (i) & Sam Rosen (l)
Before he became a cinematic punching bag played by Ben Kingsley (wha..?), the Mandarin was Iron Man's deadliest foe. A petty tyrant without title, a descendant of Genghis Khan who stumbled upon ten rings of terrible power. This is the story that tells how the Mandarin found those rings and helped to establish the buck-toothed (as drawn by Don Heck) post-WWII Asian stereotype as one of the top shelf villains in the nascent Marvel universe.

Stan Lee, in one of his famous and wonderful asides on the story's splashpage (in the Mighty Marvel Manner!) wrote: "Note: This tale was specially produced by mighty Marvel in answer to more than 500 requests for Mandy's origin!" Lee, Heck and company delivered and then some. Raised as a peasant, though of noble blood the young Mandarin travels to the dreaded Valley of Spirits against the dire warnings of his fellow peasants. His arrogance is already in fine form at such a young age: "Ignorant peasant! Know you that the Mandarin fears nothing!" There he finds the fossilized remains of an ancient dragon.

Startled, the Mandarin falls into a thickly forested valley where he discovers an awesome secret. It turns out the dragon wasn't a dragon at all, but Axon-Karr a Makluan who came to earth centuries ago in a spaceship. Mandy discovers the ship was fueled by ... ten powerful and conveniently human sized rings. He quickly dons the rings and proceeds to conquer the peasantry in his village.

Stan Lee displays his unceasing sense of fun by pointing out the obvious when Iron Man says to himself: "First, there's the problem of finding that imitation Fu Manchu!" and then two panels later, "that's one of the hazards of being a lone-wolf type of adventurer! After a while, you begin to talk to yourself!"

Stan Lee states it plainly: The Mandarin was the "yellow peril" embodied in a petty tyrant using advanced and unfamiliar technology to subjugate a complacent populace. This fear was borne of the cold war, the fear that foreign powers may surpass American weapons advancements secretly and under cover of iron curtained darkness to use them in a sneak attack.

It was a fear the British had felt some 50 years earlier and immortalized by British pulp author Sax Rhomer in the form of the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu. It's no coincidence that The Mandarin was invented and popularized at a time when the character of Fu Manchu was experiencing a resurgence in popularity of his own. In August of 1965 Hallam Productions (UK) and Constantin Film (DE) would release The Face of Fu Manchu, directed by Don Sharp and starring the immortal Christopher Lee in the titular role. The film was a mild success, but enough of one to spawn four sequels.

"Break-Out in Cell Block 10!"
By Stan Lee (w, e); Jack Kirby (p); Chic Stone (i) & Artie Simek (l)
In the second story, Captain America goes back in time to the same plot scenario from issue #60. It seems prolific production doesn't always lead to the most dynamic stories. As in issue #60, Cap thinks he's putting on a demonstration of his battle prowess, in this case for a prison warden. Little does he know he's really battling a cell block full of escaping prisoners, huh-ho!

"By the way," Cap says to the warden, "if I dind't know better, I'd swear these guns had been firing live ammo!"

To his credit, Stan Lee, did make mention of the similarities on the story's splash page: "Remember ish #60 when Cap thought he was giving a physical demonstration and didn't suspect he was really fighting a bunch of assassins? Well, some guys always learn the hard way!" If nothing else, it's proof of Stan Lee's method of writing during the "Marvel Age", that is, let the artist do all the work. If and when Lee caught them repeating themselves, point it out! With Lee's wry sense of observation, he could always make it look like the House of Ideas knew what it was doing. Really, Kirby was just drawing page after page of brawling because that's what he felt like doing. Stan Lee was famous for submitting plots to his artists that consisted of a single sentence on a post-it note: "Spider-Man fights Electro". It was up to Kirby or Steve Ditko or Don Heck to create not just the pacing and layout but also the plot itself. Kirby and Ditko mastered the technique in seemingly never-ending epics that would stretch for a year or longer. In this early Captain America story (just the third solo segment starring the Star Spangled Avenger), Kirby's just enjoying himself and getting his legs under him. Just four issues later, he would re-introduce his own creation from the Golden Age, the Red Skull and his new weapon, the Cosmic Cube. Fans of the Marvel film universe will be familiar with this, no doubt.

WHAT ELSE WERE THE KIDS UP TO BACK THEN?
After reading this issue and having a good snicker, the comics loving youth of England no doubt hit up the local record store and noticed this long-playing gem:

THE ZOMBIES - BEGIN HERE

Representing the harder edge of the wimpier side of the British Invasion, there was a brief period that The Zombies enjoyed sustained chart action. This album was released at the crest of their wave. With "Tell Her No" spinning incessantly on pop radio and reaching #6 on the Billboard chart, Decca Records released The Zombies debut full-length album titled 'Begin Here'. Ironically, this was the beginning of the end for the group.

The album didn't fare as well as expected, hitting only #39 on Billboard's album charts, this at a time when 7" singles dominated record sales and albums were still seen as something of an overpriced novelty. It didn't register at all on the charts back home in the UK. There no telling today why that was. It's a great record, surprisingly tough in places for the normally silky-smooth quintet, while maintaining their signature pop sound. Essentially it gave record buying audiences what they might have come to expect by then: a mixed bag of cover songs and group compositions but it provides a solid listen from needle drop to run-off groove. Considering what the band and label might have expected given their success in the singles market, the album was a colossal flop.

The Zombies trucked on, releasing 10 more singles at home and abroad over the next two and a half years. All of them flopped, only one, "I Want You Back Again" charted at #95 on Billboard. It was the first single release after the album and it was the last time the record buying public at large was caught thinking about them. The band broke up in late 1967.

But that's not the end of the story.

True to their name, The Zombies had a second life when new label CBS Records posthumously released their second and final album, 'Odessey & Oracle', It's one of my all-time favorites, I recommend anybody with just an inkling for 1960's pop records should drop what they're doing and go listen to it. Anyway, The Zombies hadn't been a thing for over a year, but that didn't stop their newly released single "Time of the Season" from rising, and rising, and rising in the charts all the way to #3, making it the second biggest hit single of their careers after "She's Not There" which was famously covered by the band Santana in the 1970's. [Sharp intake of breath] So in Spring of 1969 the band re-formed and released two more singles. Both of them flopped. The group disbanded and some of the members formed the progressively inclined Argent, who you might remember from the song, "Hold Your Head Up".

But in spite of all that, The Zombies's legacy is intact. "Time of the Season" is a classic, highly regarded in a wide-range of music circles, from classic rock fans to DJs, one of whom recently sampled the memorable bassline to score a hit pop single. The fact that the band's name so closely resembles the shape of their careers is skin-crawlingly eerie to me.

So, after the youth of Britain were finished devouring the latest imported issue of Tales of Suspense and utterly ignoring The Zombies new record, they found time to hit the cinema where they surely watched Amicus Productions's Dr. Terror's House of Horror anthology film. And you can too, right here, right now. Enjoy and thanks for reading:

PS: don't mind the subtitles, the film is in English. It was directed by Freddie Francis and stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. You can find out more about it at this location.