Maybe you remember reading about John Kenn Mortensen’s Monsters On Post-It Notes before on this blog and maybe you have no idea what I’m talking about.
Monsters.
I’m talking about monsters.
Terrifying Monsters and ghouls drawn on the little yellow post-it notes which most of us use to write down mundane work notes to ourselves and then throw away.
Post-It Note Monsters by John Kenn Mortensen:
For me, John Kenn Mortensen is the new Edward Gorey in town and although I did mention his sinister works before, I wanted to bring them up again because to date, Mortensen has over 250 of these illustrations which sell for upwards of £70 each and I’m constantly impressed by them.
Also, Mortensen has pulled his macabre collection of Post-It Note Monsters together and released a book which looks to be extraordinary!
John Kenn Mortensen doesn’t appear to have an official website and gives next to nothing away on his blogger account:
“Born in Denmark 1978, I write and direct television shows for kids. I have a set of twins and not much time for anything. But when I have time I draw Monsterdrawings on Post-It notes… It is a little window into a different world, made on office supplies.”
Nevermind.
That tells us everything we need to know.
Well, almost everything…
* View every Monster on Post-It Notes drawingHERE. * View and buy the bookHERE. * View the Facebook pageHERE.
Boris Karloff almost always opened “Tales Of The Frightened” with that question.
The way he asked it was always corpse cool and slightly more sinister each time too.
“Tales Of The Frightened” is a 2 volume record collection of short, creepy little horrror tales told by Mr. Halloween himself, Boris Karloff.
It was recorded for the radio in the late 1950’s and released in the early 60’s.
I have a lot of obscure records in my collection but these may be my favourites.
The stories were all written by Michael Avallone and narrated by Karloff.
There was creepy music and amazing sound effects making “Tales Of The Frightened” something pretty special.
And that’s just what it is folks, special.
I once heard a rumour that Karloff did all the sound effects himself-live on “Tales Of The Frightened”. Could that be true?
I have both of these records and I listen to them all the time.
My imagination goes all over the place when I turn the lights down and drop the needle.
I don’t want to completely give the game away but here’s an example of what you can expect:
Last week, I began to wonder if there was ever a 3rd volume in the series and although there never was, I found something just as interesting.
Yep.
“Tales Of The Frightened” has had a makeover with Vernon Wells (Bennett in the classic film “Commando”) taking Boris Karloff’s seat and all new spooky music has been added by Eban Schletter.
Excited?
I bought it straight away and it is very VERY good.
Ideal for scaring the shit outta the kids at Halloween and available on itunes.
Karloff’s original “Tales Of The Frightened” records aren’t as easy to get a hold of these days but MP3 files are out there if you look hard enough.
* EDIT:
After I published this short write up, Mr. David Avallone got in touch. David is the son of Michael Avallone who wrote all of the original “Tales Of The Frightened” stories.
David is also the main man behind the new “Tales Of The Frightened” starring the great cult movie actor Vernon Wells.
I was really curious to know about Michael Avallone’s original stories and how the new and updadted “Tales Of The Frightened” project came about so I emailed and asked Mr. Avallone a few questions and surprisingly, he emailed straight back!
And here it is:
Once upon a time, in 1956, my father, Michael Avallone, edited a magazine called TALES OF THE FRIGHTENED. It was supposed to be a launching point for a radio show of the same name, with Boris Karloff reading dad’s horror short stories.
Unfortunately… radio AND pulp magazines were both dying in popularity at the time. The pulp magazine ran only two issues. So the stories written by my father were recycled as a paperback novel.
The paperback had 26 stories, and was reprinted at least eight times in the US, and several times overseas. The Boris Karloff recordings were recycled as a pair of spoken word albums… stories read by Karloff, set to edited tracks from an early electronic music group called “The Electrosoniks”. Mercury Records released the two LPS in 1961 and I’m sure livened many a swinging sixties Halloween party.
Since my father’s death, I’ve been looking for various ways to keep his work in the public eye, with varying degrees of success. I did a web series based on his last “Ed Noon” detective novel in 1999 (SINCE NOON YESTERDAY) but I think we were a little ahead of our time there. Web series are still a rocky proposition… in 1999 it was positively foolish.
In the summer of 2009, I started thinking about TALES OF THE FRIGHTENED. My family owns the copyright on the stories, but not the music or Karloff’s voice and image. When I mused aloud about redoing the stories, my sister Susan said, “What about your friend Vernon? He has a great voice.”
By “your friend Vernon”, Susan was referring to the great Australian cult film icon Vernon Wells, star of THE ROAD WARRIOR, COMMANDO, INNERSPACE and a million POWER RANGERS episodes. Vernon also starred in a little kick-boxing action movie called KICK OF DEATH, written and directed by yours truly in 1997… and we’d been friends ever since. The idea had passed my mind before, and the timing seemed right. So I called up Vernon and enlisted him to the cause.
The original album gained a large part of its spooky appeal from the (then groundbreaking) electronic music. I needed a composer who understood horror, and could create a sound that was retro without even a hint of kitsch. The obvious choice was another good friend, Eban Schletter. Eban has done music for the tv shows SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, DRAWN TOGETHER, and a feature film remake of THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI. By lucky coincidence, Eban was just wrapping up a Halloween-themed record called THE WITCHING HOUR, which was released last year by Oglio Records.
So in the summer of 2009, Vernon came into the studio and read eight of Dad’s stories. Eban got to work on the music, and we had a demo version of the album available in time for Comic-Con.
Now the album is finished… and last October, TALES OF THE FRIGHTENED 2010, written by Michael Avallone, read by Vernon Wells, music by Eban Schletter hit the shelves (digital and otherwise), released by Oglio. Fifty-four years after the original publication and forty-nine years after the original album.
Hope that enlightens. Thanks again for the kind words. Me and Eban and Vernon are very proud of the album, but it’s such a strange product (who does spoken word albums anymore?) that it’s been slow going publicizing it.
Ain’t that just lovely!
I hope that’s exactly what I’m doing when I’m a corpse.
The artist is Laurie Lipton and it’s part of her “Day Of The Dead” series.
For more great dead things like this:
Guide Price £18,000.
1432, London Road,
Former Belvidere Hospital,
Glasgow,
G31 4LE.
Ain’t she a haunted crumbly old beauty!
As soon as I read the description I knew she had to be mine.
Key features:
Grade B listed building with planning consent for conversion/refurbishment into 6 flats.
Situated amongst Keir Homes ‘Belvidere Village’ Modern Development.
Planning permission for 4 x 2 Bed flats & 2 x 3 bed flats.
Excellent Development/Investment Opportunity.
Full description:
The subjects comprise part of the former Belvidere Hospital building. It is Category B Listed and was designed by John Carrick, a renowned architect within Glasgow. The plan shows the site area which extends to approximately 0.17 hectares (0.43 acres) or thereby. The plot o land is irregularly shaped and bounded by a service road to the southern section with the remaining boundaries to be marked in future by terraced housing as yet to be developed by Keir Homes as part of their overall Belvidere Village project. The subjects lie within the East End of Glasgow, approx 3 miles east of the city centre. The site is incorporated/adjecte to the ‘Belvidere Village’ residential development which has been undertaken by Kier Homes. This development is for a total of 490 units providing a combination of flats, terraced and semi-detached dwellings. The site itself is situated south of London Road off Belvidere Avenue. The subjects have full Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent for conversion, alteration and extension as part of the former hospital building to form 6 flats with associated landscaping and car parking. Listed Planning Consent (08/01344/DC), Planning Permission(08/01343/DC). This property is available for immediate purchase.
The Jesus Frankenstein Intro to this gig was cool as fuck!
The whole thing was brilliant!
One big Rock & Roll Horror Monster Show!
…on fire…
…with tits.
The Unravelling Of Al Cook... 