TMM - A Brief History (in Banner Form)

A while ago someone mentioned that I should do a post with all of the banners I've used on the site. While I think it's a great idea, at first I thought it might seem a tad masturbatory and self-indulgent - sort of like I was patting myself on the back or something. Not sure how exactly, it just felt a bit cocky. Perhaps, but I thought it would be fun, since I have changed the banner several times since I started (I'd even forgotten some of these), so here are the banners of yesteryear (and a half).

The very first banner of The Manchester Morgue. While I think the idea of Bub the Zombie listening to music on headphones works perfectly for the site, I gotta say it wasn't a particularly eye-catching design. Maybe if I had used Bub in a different way, with a better font, and gotten rid of that insipid little white dot about an inch under the logo, it would've been better off. But I was very new at the whole concept of designing things, so I guess I can't be too hard on it.

I don't really have anything to say on this one. I love the artwork I found for it (can't remember the movie it was from) but it's just sort of thrown up there, with a seemingly randomly located logo. It's so-so.

One of my favorite examples of a movie poster that is way better than the film it advertised, Astro Zombies. I think this one was a step in the right direction. I also changed the template for the site, which I think makes it look more professional. Unfortunately I had a weird line down the middle of the page that it took me a while to fix. Man, I hated that line. And here it is again. Haunting me.

Nothing much to say about this one, just experimenting with different brushes, kinda liked it, so I used it. At least I got rid of that line.

My attempt at mixing Frankenhooker art with the font used for The Godfather didn't quite work out. I still love that poster art though. I'll have framed versions of that poster and the Astro Zombies poster hanging up somewhere in my house once I move. Or I'll die trying. And that picture of Steve Martin on the Grand Canyon cover still cracks me up.

This one was barely on the site before I changed it. The art is from the New Zealand sheep-run-amok film Black Sheep. I liked the movie (sheep fart jokes aside) so I wanted to advertise it's brief US theatrical run on the site. This also marks the first appearance of the Shaun of the Dead font that I've used on other banners and several of my compilations since. Hell of a font, that.

Taking the Shaun of the Dead thing a step further on this one by using not only the font, but Shaun poster art as well. I thought this one was pretty fitting, British corpses, Manchester Morgue...

And that brings us up to the current banner. Sure, you could just hit Home and shoot back up to the top of the page and see it, but I'll save you the trouble. Using the top half of a Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell poster, my trusty SOTD font and some root brush I found online somewhere (whoever made that, thank you, I forgot where I found it) I whipped up what I think is my personal favorite. I'm probably sticking with this one for a while since I've actually gotten a few compliments on it. Also, changing them up is a major pain in the ass.

Well, I think that's it. I could've sworn I had a few more that I had used, but I don't see them saved in my archives anywhere, so I guess that's all. I hope you've all enjoyed this brief, occasionally bad design work filled visual history of the site. If all goes according to plan I should have something Michael J. Nelson-ey in store for you guys this weekend. I'll see you then. But not really.

CREEPY - Chillingly Illustrated Horror Classics!

Time for more Creepy, this latest set includes issue #62, 63, 64, 66, 67 and 68. Sorry, I don't have issue #65, but my staff is working overtime to track down that issue.

As you can see, yet another cover featuring a homicidal Saint Nick. At least this one is extra demented, what with the Elves of Doom decorating someone's home with entrails and all. Plus Santa seems to be a little otherworldly, perhaps an alien of some sort, I guess. A Killer Klaus From Outer Space, if you will. Anyway, enjoy:

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I've managed to get issue #65, so click here to grab that issue. Thanks to Anubis for leaving the link in the comments!

Pantera - I Am The Night

Pantera's 1985 album I Am The Night. This album features Terrence "Glaze" Lee on vocals, Phil Anselmo didn't join the band until 1988's Power Metal album. Most fans of Pantera's later sound detest their earlier albums, but if you enjoy "Glam" metal (whatever the hell that even means) this is actually quite good. Goofy "evil-disco" album cover aside, the vocals and guitar work are pretty good at the very least.

I do wonder how many fans of "Cowboys" and beyond Pantera have actually heard any of their earlier albums. I'm sure at least a few of the negative comments come from people who haven't bothered to listen to the music and just think their 80's look was ridiculous. Which it was, of course, but every band looked like that back then, not really their fault.

Anyway, I think if you like stuff like Dokken or Ratt you should enjoy this album. Don't quote me on that though.

1 Hot and Heavy 4:08
2 I Am the Night 4:29
3 Onward We Rock 3:58
4 D*G*T*T*M 1:45
5 Daughters of the Queen 4:20
6 Down Below 2:41
7 Come-On Eyes 4:15
8 Right on the Edge 4:08
9 Valhalla 4:07
10 Forever Tonight 4:09

Prepare to Rock Onward!

Kaiju Valentine's Day

I hope everyone is having (or ends up having) a nice Valentine's Day. To celebrate this completely made up holiday I thought I'd share some pictures of the best V-Day cards $0.14 can buy.

I found these ridiculous Godzilla themed Valentines at K-Mart a few years ago marked down like 90%, and I just couldn't leave the store without them. Nothing says "Happy Valentine's Day" like giant monsters and screaming Japanese women.

Of course, being a grown man I have absolutely no use for them, but come on, it was Godzilla. You would've done the same thing.

EERIE - Cringe in Fear! Scream in Terror!

Man, it feels like I just posted some Warren comics yesterday. As you've noticed, no posts for about a week. I had a friend visiting from out of state so I was actually pretty busy for a change. But, I am back and ready for action. So, 8 new issues of Eerie for you this dreadfully cold Warren Wednesday. Seriously, it's like 14° outside. What's that about?

So this set includes issues #74, 75, 76, 77, 80, 81, 82, and 83. I don't have 78 or 79, so I'll be on the lookout for those in the future.

You know what they say, the only thing better than a big ass monkey wreaking havoc atop a building is a big ass naked woman wreaking havoc atop a building.

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CREEPY - All New Stories and Art! Plus COLOR!

Welcome to Warren Thursday. I was out most of the day yesterday and completely forgot to put up any new comics. When I realized this I promptly smacked myself on the forehead, yelled "Oh!" (partly because of the sudden realization, partly because the head smack kind of hurt.). So, instead of waiting till the next Wednesday to put them up, I'll break tradition and put them up today. So here are 6 new issues of Creepy. For those of you not keeping track, this set includes issue #56-61.

Issue #59 features what has to be one of like a hundred killer Santa stories I've seen. What I want to know, where's the murderous Easter Bunny at? Or some dude dressed up like Abe Lincoln or Christopher Columbus offing people on their respective holidays? These lunatics escape from the wacko basket and the best they can do is dress up like Santa prior to/during their rampage? Seems so obvious, doesn't it?

Well, here are the links, 3 parts on Sharebee. Enjoy!

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Marvel Zombies - Fan Made Trailer

Check out this video: MARVEL ZOMBIES THE MOVIE

Thought I'd share this surprisingly impressive fan made trailer for the fictional Marvel Zombies movie. I know there is no chance of this movie happening, but I'd be ther first in line to see it if it actually got made. I really love the way the Hulk looks, quite badass in my opinion; better than that awful looking 30-foot tall Ang Lee Hulk. Don't get me wrong, I actually didn't think that Hulk was all that bad of a movie, but I hated the CGI Hulk design. Very cartoon-y, I personally thought it looked even sillier than the spray-painted Lou Ferrigno of the 70's. But then again I also hate the way Gollum looks in LOTR, and that was considered a massive achievement, so maybe I just have a strong dislike for CGI rendered characters. Anyway, I'm starting to ramble a bit here, enjoy the trailer, and stop back later on for some new music.

April Fool's Day Remake - No Thanks!

visit videodetective.com for more info

April Fool's Day is the next film we get to see a remake of (March 25th, beating Prom Night by a couple of weeks) and the trailer (which I just found on Arrow In The Head) can be seen above. I personally love the original April Fool's Day, and like every one of these things they're putting out lately, this particular remake looks incredibly mediocre. Not awful on a Terror Toons kind of level (my go-to choice for worst movie I've ever seen), it just seems kind of boring. The trailer kind of reminds of the movie The In-Crowd for some reason. Anyone else getting that? For some reason this one didn't get to go theatrical, so look for the DVD towards the end of March. This is actually quite a mind-boggling release date as April 1st, the actual April Fool's Day falls on a Tuesday this year. Why they didn't just wait a week to release it? It probably would've helped to boost sales, at least a little bit. Way to plan guys!

I say No Biff, No Deborah Foreman, No Sale.

EERIE - Out of a Land of Magic and Dreams

Here are 8 more issues of EERIE for everyone. This set contains issue #64, #65, #66, #68, #69, #71 and #72. I don't have #67 or #70, sorry about that, but I'll post them if I find them. I hope you are all fans of Hunter II and Exterminator because they show up in most of these issues.

I would've had these up sooner but I had to take in a viewing of Rambo earlier, which turned out to be rather awesome actually. Insanely violent and gory and possibly the loudest movie I've ever seen, my ears were actually ringing a bit afterwards. That probably had something to do with the 7-minute stretch with almost continuous machine gun fire. 300+ Dead bodies. Machine gun decapitation. Bow and arrow De-Eyeballization. Dalton-esque throat ripping. Canine collateral damage. Amputee summer camp. Gratuitous Michael Moriarty look-a-like. 3 and a Half Stars, Phelpster says check it out.

Anyway, your links. Split over 3 parts, you'll need all to view the issues:

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Goblin - Buio Omega

Goblin's score from the 1979 film Buio Omega. You might be more familiar with the title Beyond the Darkness, as it's called on the Shriek Show DVD, it's also known as Buried Alive (which doesn't make any sense) and my personal favorite Blue Holocaust.

It's one of 200 films J D'Amato (aka Steven Benson / Anna Bergman / John Bird / Jim Black / Alexandre Borski / Alexandre Borsky / James Burke / Lee Castle / Lynn Clark / O.J. Clarke / Hugo Clevers / Joe Damato / Joe De Mato / Raf De Palma / Michael Di Caprio / Paolo Dominici / Dario Donati / Raf Donato / Romano Gastaldi / John Gelardi / Richard Haller / David Hills / Igor Horwess / George Hudson / Gerry Lively / Kevin Mancuso / A. Massaccesi / Aristice Massaccesi / Aristide Massaccesi / Aristide Massaccessi / Aristede Massacesi / Arizona Massachuset / Andrea Massai / J. Metheus / Peter Newton / Una Pierre / Zak Roberts / Joan Russel / Tom Salima / John Shadow / Fred Sloniscko Jr. / Federico Slonisco / Frederick Slonisco / Fédérico Slonisco / Federico Slonisko Jr. / Frederico Slonisko Jr. / Dan Slonisko / Federico Slonisko / Federiko Slonisko / Frederico Slonisko / Frederic Slonisko / Frederiko Slonisko / Fred Slonisko / Chana Lee Sun / Chang Lee Sun / Michael Wotruba / Robert Yip / Sarah Asproon / Donna Aubert) directed before his death in 1999 and one of my favorite of his that I've actually seen. But even though I think it's a good film (damn good, in fact), it's not one I find myself wanting to see again anytime soon due to the fact that it's a rather depressing - not to mention really gross - little movie, what with the necrophilia and cannibalism and all.

By the way, Cinzia Monreale (perhaps better known for her role as Emily in Fulci's The Beyond), who plays the corpse-ified Anna in the film has aged wonderfully as seen in the DVD interview she did a few years back. I know, that image is small, but check out the DVD if you can, she really looks amazing, for a non-horror fan, at least.

Anyway, here's your tracklist/link

1. Buio Omega (Main Titles) (02:52)
2. Quiet Drops (04:31)
3. Strive After Dark (02:30)
4. Pillage (02:20)
5. Rush (04:13)
6. Keen (04:02)
7. Ghost Vest (02:56)
8. Bikini Island (04:02)
9. Buio Omega (Suite 1) (02:56)
10. Quiet Drops (Film Version) (03:48)
11. Strive After Dark (Suite) (03:00)
12. Buio Omega (Alternate Version) (01:40)
13. Strive After Dark (Alternate Version) (03:00)
14. Buio Omega (Synth Effect-Alternate Takes Suite) (02:23)
15. Buio Omega Theme (Reprise) (03:30)

CREEPY - First and Best in Illustrated Horror Still!

Well, once again I'm barely getting this up in time, but I just made it. Of course if I missed Wednesday I could've just put them up the next day, wouldn't have been a huge deal. I do like getting them up the same day each week though. Here's a new set of Creepy for you all to enjoy. This latest set includes issues #50-#55.

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Sorry about another lack of updates lately. I've been feeling a bit rough lately so I haven't really had the energy to do much recently, even something as relatively simple as updating the site. I'll try and pick up the pace a bit both here and over on Space Bastard, which is pretty much getting an update every 6-10 days at this point. I've got some cool stuff lined up for both sites as soon as I overcome this sudden laziness I've been struck with.

EERIE - All New Stories And Art!

I'm just barely getting these up in time today, sorry for not having them up sooner. This is the latest set of EERIE. There are 8 issues in this set, #56, #57, #58, #59, #60, #61, #62, and #63. As always I want to give credit to the original scanner(s). Be sure to check over on Space Bastard later on tonight, I'll be posting some new stuff there soon.

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Death By Metal - A Manchester Moruge Compilation

I planned on doing a "My favorite albums of 2007" post like I did last year, but that ended up taking a long time for me to do last time and I didn't really like the way it looked once it was done. So I thought I'd put together a compilation instead, featuring some of my favorite metal songs of the year. I call it Death By Metal. The compilation started off as a collection of Death Metal songs with the word Death in the title, but that ended up being more difficult to put together than you would think, so I thought it might be better as a year end type thing. Plus, this way I was able to mix it up and have an assortment of different metallic subgenres, a little something for everybody. I might do a non-metal compilation after this, for the anti-metal people out there but I haven't decided yet. I do get pretty bored pretty frequently, so I probably will.

Anyway, here's the tracklist for Death By Metal:

1. Lizzy Borden – Appointment With Death
2. Arch Enemy – The Last Enemy
3. Dark Tranquillity – The Mundane and the Magic
4. Novembre – Cobalt of March
5. The Duskfall – Deep In Your World
6. The Black Dahlia Murder – I Worship Only What You Bleed
7. Dawn of Tears - Blaspheme Natured Messiah
8. 3 Headed Monster – The Beast of Odo Island
9. Machine Men – Ghost of the Seasons
10. Darkest Hour – Demon(s)
11. Skeletonwitch – Fire From The Sky
12. Eldritch – Silent Flame
13. Scariot – Slaves
14. King Diamond – The Girl In The Bloody Dress
15. Dekapitator – Deathstrike Command
16. Nightmare – A Thrill of Death
17. Blood Tsunami – Rampage of Revenge

I put together a back cover for this one. The decapitated bear image is from an old poster from Who Slew Auntie Roo? (in case you're wondering) and Psychosis Records is something I just made up because I'm the type of guy who would make up a record label name for no good reason. Ignore all the fine print at the bottom, I just copied that more or less from something while making a CD cover template. Oh, and don't call that number unless you need to get in touch with Copasetik Recordings in London, four years ago.

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2007 was an atrocious year for radio friendly music (Nickelback, Finger Eleven, any rap songs) but it was a great year for non-radio friendly music. Here's a very small list of some of the other music I enjoyed this year (that wasn't on the compilation already):

After Forever - After Forever
Agua De Annique - Air (Anneke van Giersbergen's new band)
Alcest - Souvenirs d'un autre monde
The Birthday Massacre - Walking With Strangers
Candlemass - King of the Grey Islands
Deathspell Omega - Fas-Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
Dødheimsgard - Supervillain Outcast
Echoes of Eternity - The Forgotten Goddess
Epica - The Divine Conspiracy
God is an Astronaut - Far From Refuge
Hearts of Black Science - The Ghost You Left Behind
Indica - Kadonnut Puutarha
Neurosis - Given to the Rising
Shels - Sea of the Dying Dhow
Tristania - Illumination (Last album with Vibeke. Their new female vocalist, uh, not good.)
Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters

That's just stuff I can think of off the top of my head, there were a lot of great albums in the past 12 months, and I haven't even heard half of what I would've liked to. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me some music that you enjoyed that I might've overlooked.

While I'm here, I don't really like to call anything "the Worst" of anything, but I had to do just one; Worst Song of the Year: Soldja Boy - Crank That. I want to punch this guy in the nuts every time I hear this song, which, thanks to my job is pretty much every day. Of course, I'm a pacifist (not a hippy, just non-violent) and I believe punching someone in the nuts would be very un-pacifist-like of me. But seriously, after you've had a guy go "Ohh!" over 50 times in your song you'd think you'd tell him to shut the hell up. Easily the worst song I've heard since Gwen Stefani gave us Hollaback Girl. But of course it's one of the most popular songs of the year, but a long shot. Go figure.

Vampirella - Yet Even More Illustrated Tales to Bewitch and Bedevil You!

It's been a month since the last Vampirella post, so today's Warren post will consist of 6 issues of the adventures of Drakulon's finest. I managed to find a few more early issues, so this set includes issue #2, #4, #5, #6, #7, and #9. Issues #1, #3 and #8 were already posted before, just click on the label at the bottom of the page to find those if you missed them before.

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CREEPY - Ring in the New Year With the First and Best in Illustrated Horror!

Well, it's 2008, and what better way to celebrate (a day or two late) with some more Creepy? I've got 7 new issues today, issue #43, #44, #45, #46, #47, #48 and #49. You may have noticed that I'm getting these up pretty early this time, it's only been Wednesday for a few hours, but I couldn't sleep so I had two options - Lay there like an idiot staring at the ceiling, or find something productive to do. So I chose this.

Split over 4 parts on Sharebee. You need all 4 parts to read the issues. Credit goes out to those who took the time to scan these in.

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