DracuLee.

Today, I watched 6 Hammer Horror Dracula movies all featuring Christopher Lee in the eponymous role. Starting, naturally, with Dracula from 1958. I found a Japanese cover to it.

As well as the finale of the revised Blu-Ray and the Japanese version side by side. (It's the finale so DUH>Spoiler Alert.)

 

Next up is Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966). 

Now here's a T-Shirt I'd like to own. Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968).

Unfortunately, the Twitch feed I watched didn't carry the next Lee-Drac, Taste the Blood of Dracula. I think it'd taste salty. But it did show the next one, Scars of Dracula.

The old bloodsucker makes his way to modern day (modern in its day) in Dracula A.D. 1972. This is one of the lowest rated of this series though I found it to be groovy. 

Skip the first 20 seconds of this trailer...

Finally, I also watched The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). Not as good as the others, but keep an eye out for Freddie Jones and a young Joanna Lumley in the cast. It also encouraged me to research the Hawthorne plant and its roots.

Whew, that's a lot of vamping for one day.

Dang it, why won't you upload the original of this Yokai? It only gives me the translation.

Okay, it's the Shunobon, Scarlet Tray Priest. Click the link and you'll find that he's a giant nasty ogre who likes to bop you on the head mess with your head.

Here's some Venomous Captain America for ya.

 

And that's about it for me. Stay tuned tomorrow, it's Thanksgiving!

(In the meantime, surely you can find something at i-mockery to keep you busy.

Happy Sendaiversary.

I spent so much time writing my Spoon post, that I didn't have the time to regale you of my big news. April First, 2020 is the 20th Anniversary of my arrival in Sendai! YAY!! Thanks to Alex Hutton, who dragged me kicking and screaming from the bliss that was NOVA in Tokyo, I first came to Sendai to work at Tokiwagi Gakuen way back in the year 2000!

Here is a picture of me from the 2002 yearbook. Sheesh, what is that orange caterpillar below my lips?

Shortly after that, any tinge of ginger left my hair and quickly went grey. (I blame Soma.) Someone else whose gingerish hair didn't grey but rather disappeared is the aforementioned Alex.

I didn't rate any photos in the yearbook, Alex had three, including his famous grandstanding pose.

The Irish guy was Brian (no pic) and my arch nemesis was Lempi.

I recognized several of the students in the book but alas, I keep in contact with very few. Except for Chiaki who goes under a different name now.

I have to say that my two years at Tokiwagi had been the best job in my life. Unfortunately when Lempi left, the all-girl school was left with no female teacher, so I was axed and replaced by a gal.

Ah well, I'm enjoying my school life now...if it ever recommences.

Since it is April first, here are a few Aprils from calendars I have hanging around.

In honour of Captain America, I wore my Cap undies today.

And a Hydra t-shirt. You can tell that it's from last year. For now, even though they are the epitome of Evil, Hydra practices social distancing and don't congregate in groups. (Hail Hydra!)

Another current calendar is this Star Wars one.

I can't find two of my Godzilla calendars right now, once I do, I'll amend this. So here is the Big G versus Mecha-G.

Oogie Boogie is a good choice for this foolish month.

This one is just rude...

For the most part, I didn't come across too many April Fools gags. The one about Disney buying Toho Studios and making Shin-Godzilla a new Disney princess was a little bit amusing, especially the naive comments. The one about the Queen catching Coronovirus was NOT.

Since there was a ton of bad taste out there today, I didn't read FaceBook as much as usual. But I can't let the day go without a gag, so here is the most famous one ever!



Wow, three blog posts in two days! Does this mean that isolation has spurred me on? Yes, I think it has.

'Nuff Said.

Excelsior!
This is a tough day for comics fans, my Facebook page is flooded with tributes to Stan "The Man" Lee. Others have expressed their thoughts of what Stan means to them far better than I could, so I've just sifted through some of my Japanese Comic reprints* searching for Stan's name. Here comes Thor...
(*Some of these pictures may look familiar from when I wrote about Kirby's 100th or Ditko's Departure)

The cover and/or title page from Mighty Thor #s 158-166.

 

The editor of the Kobunsha books has taken a cue from Stan and added his own Soapbox in which he speaks of the aforementioned Stanley Martin Lieber.

Next up I present Captain America issues 104-109 with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

 

 

Issue 110 introduces artist Jim Steranko.

When the time comes, I'll show off issues 111-139.

I'm cheating a bit here but I don't have any early X-Men issues that Stan wrote. These animated episodes are the closest I have to some Stan Lee scripts.

Besides, he PRESENTS them, so that accounts for something.

Here is a Japanese version of the theme song. It's Metal as f**k.



Let's listen to this instead.



Ahh.

I've love the stickers that come with the book. Rogue looks great as an anime character.

Finally, I have a little bit of Spider-Man thanks to a reprint.

 

Most of these characters were created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

 

Best Rogues Gallery ever!

There's much talk of Stan's cameos in the movies; my personal favourite is when he calls Iron Man, "Tony Stank". I recently learned that his appearance in Avengers 4 has been confirmed with possibly roles in Captain Marvel, the next Spider-Man movie and maybe even the Spidey-animated flick. One can only hope.

Rather than link to all those awesome cameos, here is part of his appearance in Mallrats.



Thanks Stan for helping me learn to read and build my vocabulary. You shall be sorely missed!