Mary Shelley Overdrive Unveils Full-Length Debut

Back in July I made a post featuring a free EP download from a group of very cool guys known collectively as Mary Shelley Overdrive. Since that post a couple of guys from the band have been nice enough to keep me updated with the various goings-on that are, uh, going on with them. Well today they let me know that their first full-length album is officially available for purchase. You can buy the album at Createspace, or you can download the MP3s from Amazon or Snocap if you prefer. If that cover doesn't scream out "Buy Me!" I don't know what does. For more info on the album and the band check out their site. You can also hear a lot of samples of their music on their MySpace page (see the Snocap link above). If you like what you hear, I urge you to buy the album. Hell, buy two, they're cool guys.

That's not the only reason I'm posting though, today I am proud to debut a couple of songs from their upcoming EP entitled Bride of Shock Theatre, that were sent to me by Simon (he's in the band!). One is a cover of New Math's song They Walk Among You, the second is a MSO original called The Lament of Janos Skorzeny. You can check both of those tracks out exclusively-ish (I think) at the link below. The EP will be available as a free download on their site starting October 4th.

The aforementioned "link below"

Also, before I go, I'd like to wish a Happy Birthday to both Simon (see above) from Mary Shelley Overdrive and my best-friend-since-I-was-9, better known as David.

Friday the 13th

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! It turns out I've got nothing going on today except for some major lounging around I've gotta take care of later. So here is Wildstorm's 6-issue Friday the 13th series. I don't know if it's the same artist, but it looks very similar to the art from the F:The13th Bloodbath series I posted here before. Ridiculously gory death scenes and women with breasts literally the size of watermelons. I mean, most comics overdo the curves on the female characters, but these are ridiculous. As an artist myself I understand this practice. If you draw a woman who is lacking up top a lot of the time it ends up looking like you've drawn an 11-year old girl, even if the character you're doing is supposed to be a grown woman. At least in my experience that is. Not to say that an actual woman who is lacking up top looks like a little girl, this really only applies to comic book style art.

Things To Watch For:
Rooftop Fisticuffs
Tongue-Fu
Dial AAA For Murder
Issue 4, Page 17. Gross.
Gay Bashing?
She's Gotta Split
Denogginized!
Zombie Noogie
He's Unarmed!
Zombie Archery

Phelpster's Narcissistic Birthday Post

Just a quick post to mention to everyone that it's my birthday today, so I don't know if I'll post anything over the next couple of days due to the immense amount of partying down I will surely be partaking in. That's right, Phelpster has hit the big 2-7. Just think, two years ago I was finally old enough to rent a car. Of course, I've never had a reason to rent a car, but it's nice to have the option.

Of course, we all know the real reason anyone posts anything regarding their Birthday is to shamelessly force people to have to give them Happy Birthday greetings, so feel free to do those here, if you are so inclined. But you are under no obligation, of course.

Oh, and sorry to anyone who saw the Bloody Birthday picture and assumed this was a soundtrack to that film. I'm diabolical.

Tom Holland's Child's Play Audio Commentary

Here's a little treat I just came across for any of you who picked up the new Child's Play DVD and were saddened by the lack of participation from the film's director. Apparently there is some bad blood between director Tom Holland and producer David Kirschner and Tom was not asked to participate in any of the features. The guys over at Icons of Fright didn't think that leaving a willing participant like Tom out was very cool, so they contacted him and he agreed to do a commentary for them. The track features Tom Holland and moderator Tim Sullivan (Director of 2001 Maniacs). Those of you interested should head on over to this page here to download the commentary. It's about 122 MB when all is said and done.

Sure it's not as cool as having it included on the DVD, but it's free and if you've got the right programs you can easily add the commentary on there yourself with a little tweaking. Not unlike syncing up a Rifftrax to a DVD.

Phelpster's Custom Covers : Volume 3

I thought it was time to post a few more of my custom covers. Like last time I have linked the images to my DeviantArt pages, so if you want to see one larger just click on the link, then click on the image on DeviantArt.

First up is Child's Play. A new DVD of the first Child's Play just came out a few days ago. I think the new cover is pretty cool, but my idea was to try and design the case after the Good Guys box. If I were working for MGM and had final say in the packaging, the idea was to have there be a slip sleeve with a hole in it where Chucky appears on the front. Then put some clear plastic on the slip sleeve to make it look like Chucky was still packaged up, waiting to get out. Maybe if Universal ever gets the rights to the first movie they could make a box set using a similar design. This one, as you can see, is not complete. But until I find a scan of the back of the Good Guy dolls box I'm just keeping it incomplete.

Next up is my experimental Army of Darkness cover. You may remember a while back I posted an image of the Japanese Army of Darkness poster. I've tried to use that and work it into DVD form. The back was done by me, but I couldn't even attempt to match up the cluttered chaos of the front on the back. And I hate the Special Features box on the back, but I couldn't come up with anything better than what I have there already.

Here is my cover for The Incredible Shrinking Man. Universal released it in a Classic Sci-Fi Collection, but I found an old cover from Richard Matheson's box and just had to use it for something. So I've made Shrinking Man his own cover, based on the basic template used for a lot of Universal's classic titles like Rear Window or Vertigo.

This is from the 1968 film The Green Slime. I used a very cool poster I found for the front and kind of improvised on the back. Someone suggested I change the font color to green for the title, but I couldn't find a green I liked for it.

Someone over on the HorrorDVDs forum requested a cover for unbelievably bizarre TerrorVision (starring Bud The CHUD!), here's what I came up with. This one was kind of a pain in the ass because the front image came from a Dutch VHS, so I had to remove the tagline and do an English one over the front. I think it worked out okay, but I need to fix the spine a bit, the title looks a bit weird there.

Double Dragon - Now A Minor Motion Picture

I had never actually seen Double Dragon until today. I think it sort of feels like the kind of movie Troma would've made if their Toxic Crusaders cartoon experiment would've been successful. It's hard to explain, but the low budget corny humor featured throughout and the Tromaville-esque New Angeles setting just make it feel kind of like a family friendly Troma movie. That said, it's a pretty fun movie, the cast seemed to be enjoying themselves and that kind of shows through, elevating the material a tiny bit. But even if you don't find the movie entertaining the heckling potential is almost endless. Scott Wolff's poor martial arts skills, Robert Patrick's hair, the effects, Robert Patrick's hair, Abobo, Robert Patrick's hair...

Feeling like a Troma movie isn't the only crime this movie is guilty of committing. They've also managed to make Alyssa Milano - one of the most strikingly beautiful women ever made - look weird and kind of boylike. Most of the movie she has this ridiculous short blond haircut that just does not work. I wasn't sure it was possible to make her not attractive*, but Double Dragon has proven me wrong. Well played Double Dragon, well played. In fact I think her odd appearance in this movie put her into a pretty deep depression, immediately after she went on to seemingly attempt to prove her attractiveness by appearing nude in 4 different things (3 movies, 1 Outer Limits episode) in 2 years. Much to the delight of nudity fans everywhere.

Things to watch for:

Kogo Shuko - Wears his sunglasses at night.
House Jacking
The Ancient Art of Noogie
Robert Patrick is "The Shadow"
Andy Dick, one of the most disappointed groan inducing performers of our generation. (How does this guy get work?)
Take That, Madonna!
The Japanese Yamaka
Jaws: The "Ride"
Spray Cheese May Contain Nitrous
Necksticles
The Articulate Zombie
Take That, Post Office Of the Future
Extreme Loitering!
I'd Like To Download Her Mainframe

A Common Reaction To The Final Level of Double Dragon

*Okay, she's still kinda cute.

Stay Tuned - Review

 

The 1992 film Stay Tuned, probably the oddest film the late John Ritter ever appeared in. Still feels so weird saying "late" in front of his name, doesn't it? Anyway, John is Roy Knable, on-the-verge-of-being-divorced father of two and devout television (and fencing) fanatic. One night after a trophy related mishap his beloved TV becomes smashed. As luck would have it late-night door to door television salesman Spike arrives at his door - almost immediately after his old TV (let's call her Lucille) bites it - with the bitchin-est TV and massive satellite dish 1992 had to offer, at an unbeatable price. On the house.

Of course Spike is no ordinary late-night door to door television salesman, he's actually the Unlord Almighty. Or Satan, if you will. And this is no ordinary television, it's a....telEVILision (right?) featuring 666 cable channels from hell. 666, The Number of Channels of The Beast. Through a series of wacky shenanigans Roy and his wife Helen end up sucked into the massive satellite dish, right into the very programs that are airing. All live, all the time, apparently. They have to survive 24 hours bouncing from evil TV show to evil TV show or they have to surrender their eternal souls to Spike. It's kind of like Pleasantville, only with more Satan. And wrestlers. In addition to Ritter the film also stars Jeffrey Jones as Spike (aka Lucifer), Eugene Levy as Crowley (Evil!) and the legendary Don Calfa as Wetzel.

It's a pretty weird movie and one I wouldn't mind seeing remade. It's a decent enough movie, but some of the humor falls pretty flat, especially now, over 15 years later with dated Northern Exposure or Wayne's World references. Of course now it'd probably look a lot like those mercilessly horrible "________ Movies" they are churning out twice a year now. I think someone like Michael Gondry or God-willing, Terry Gilliam might be able to have a decent go at it.

Set phasers to... Torture!

Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos - The Animated Series!

I've seen Karate Kommandos, now you will hear about it. All 5 episodes that aired back in 1986.

The set-up is pretty much like any standard 80s Action-Toon with a message; G.I. Joe, Mister T, Magnum P.I., etc. Chuck and his Karate Kommandos must fight off countless evil henchmen sent by the even eviler Klaw (no, not this guy) - leader of some sort of notorious evildoing organization. Klaw and his Kronies use everything from parachuting ninjas to the walking dead to stop the CNKK, but as you'd imagine Chuck and the gang are an unstoppable force of asswhoopery.

In addition to Norris (pronounced "NOORRRRIISSS!!", apparently - you'll see), The Karate Kommando troupe includes:

• Pepper (no, not her) , a technology expert and mechanic - She's the hot one
• Reed, Chuck's young apprentice and Pepper's brother - He's totally unremarkable
• Kimo, a samurai - He farts in evil's general direction
• Tabe, a sumo champion - He's the fat one.
• Too Much - Chuck's young ward. He's an idiot.

In addition to roughly 20 minutes of white-knuckle animated action, each episode contains a live-action intro by Chuck (seemingly on the set of the Total Gym infomercial) where he sets up the episode. Sometimes shirtless. Then at the end of the episodes Charles gives us a morality briefing. Sometimes shirtless. Sort of like a non-undead (or "living"), occasionally shirtless Cryptkeeper.

Things to Watch For: (sure this is a ripoff of Joe Bob's thing, but it's fun to do, so I'll probably do this more often with stuff I post)

• Sealab 1986
• NORRRISSS!!
• Manned Torpedoes
• Headlock At 17,000 Feet
• The Laser Robot
• Voodoo Induced Owie
• Mmmm...Barbecue Chuck Norris
• Trains That Lose And Gain Cars At Will
• Parachute Ninjas Of Perpetual Doom
• Tough Actin' Tanaka
• Thelma and Louise-ing It
• Jet Propelled Hang Gliders

Go Kommando

Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos - It's Not A Comic, It's A Graphic Novel

I found this the other day and felt it was ridiculous enough to share. This is Star Comics' (an imprint of Marvel) short-lived series based on the short-lived cartoon Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos. The 4 issues that complete the series credit Jo Duffy and Steve Ditko with the writing and art (respectively) but come on, we all know Chuck made these damn things himself. Every page some sort self-congratulatory "Man, Chuck Norris is one bad dude!" "Yeah, and what an ass!" dialog. And look at the size of his name compared to the Karate Kommandos in the title. He clearly doesn't fully respect his associates in this little Karate Force he has assembled.

Things to watch for:

• Self-congratulatory "Man, Chuck Norris is one bad dude!" "Yeah, and what an ass!" dialog
• The rarely used contraction "Chuck'll"
• Ninja One calling Master Ninja
• A classroom full of boys with man crushes on Chuck Norris
• A "SUPER NINJA" who doesn't know what Nunchucks are
• Awkwardly drawn cats
• Sumo Wrestler in wetsuit
• Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus Vengeance,
• Adolescent homosexual crushes based on a shared spelling expertise.

FWAP!

 

For more Chuck fun, check out the Flash game Chuck Norris Attack of the Massacre Ninjas

Brad Fiedel - Fright Night II

Here's the soundtrack from Fright Night's frightful sequel Fright Night II. A film directed by Tommy Lee Wallace of Halloween III and IT fame (the clown movie, not the Information Technology industry). In addition to HIII, he also directed a sequel to another John Carpenter film, the Bon Jovian Tex Mex bloodsucker epic we like to call Vampires Los Muertos.

This unofficial (or "bootleg") soundtrack features several tracks by Brad Fiedel, along with tracks by Wilson Pickett and T-Bone Burnett among others. I was shocked to discover that T-Bone Burnett was not a grizzled old black bluesman. I had never heard one of his songs before and just assumed, I guess. Maybe I thought him and T-Bone Walker were the same guy? But then while T-B Walker could be considered a black bluesman he wasn't really grizzled either. Does one particular industry (in this case, the music industry) need more than one guy called T-Bone? Anyway enough about that, tracklist:

Brad Fiedel - Come To Me (Insturmental Version 1)
Brad Fiedel - Regine's Dance Of Blood
Brad Fiedel - Come To Me (Insturmental Version 2)
Wilson Pickett - In The Midnight Hour
Deborah Holland - Come To Me
Richard Berry - Louie, Louie
Brad Fiedel - Come To Me (Vocals)
T-Bone Burnett - You Could Look It Up

You might've noticed that I've added Netflix to my Affiliates list on the sidebar. So if you happen to be interested in signing up and want to help a Phelpster out, you know what to do. While I'm here, I do want to make it clear that I know nobody likes when a site they visit starts putting ads up, but I'm tanking here so I'm trying to get any additional income I can whatsoever. No one is under any obligation to click them or anything, and I'll try not to push them on anyone. And I will keep them out of the way on the sidebar there and I won't have any page you have to skip to get back to your content, or those IMDB style movie ads that are impossible to close.