BBC TV: Dr. Terror’s Vault Of Horror.

I had trouble even remembering his name for a while.
It was so long ago…

I would have been 8 or 9…or maybe even 10. I don’t know but it would have been the 1990’s and almost midnight and I would be awake and glued to the my wee flickery TV with fuzzy reception.
Dr. Terror would appear on the screen to introduce the scary horror film of the evening.

Dr. Terror. That was his name. He was a cartoonishly (That’s a word!) sinister horror host for the BBC. An elegantly scary class act!

Do you remember this guy?

Those were the days.
Back then, there were fields as FAR AS THE EYE COULD SEE…
10 pence. That was a lot of money then y’know!

I remember it all and in those days the BBC would run horror double bills at midnight on Fridays and it really was an education.

The good old Doctor introduced me to the likes of “Child’s Play” (1988), “The People Under The Stairs” (1991), “Sometimes They Come Back” (1991) and obscurities like “The Baby” (1973), “VAMP” (1986) and “House” (1986).

I also grew up watching Hammer Horror flicks and Dr. Terror’s Vault Of Horror re-ran a lot of them.
I have a particularly good memory of being dog tired in my dressing gown, keeping myself awake so I could watch “Scars Of Dracula” (1970) at 2am.

Things haven’t changed much since that’s exactly what I was doing at 2am only two nights ago and I’m 30 years old now!

Anyway, it really was a great time to be young and impressionable and luckily for you and me, a few videos of Dr. Terror exist and here they are:

Abra Cadaver!

Ever used to watch “Tales From The Crypt“?
I loved that show.

I’ve been making my way through it all recently and I’m up to series (Or Season) 3.
It seems like everyone in Hollywood starred in an episode at one point.
Even your old pal Danny Elfman wrote the theme tune!
(Although Danny Elfman writes the theme tunes for everything doesn’t he).

“Tales From The Crypt” is basically a big kids creepy comic book anthology of horror and I loved it at the time and I love it even more these days!
It’s right up there with “The Twilight Zone“.
When it was bad it was terrible but when it was good you’d get episodes like this one…

The Mysterious Bogie Man.

I’ve been writing and illustrating a comic book now for nearly 2 months now.

It’s called Al Cook’s “Necropolis” and that’s because it’s set (and sometimes drawn) in Glasgow’s Necropolis.
You can visit HERE.
It’s early days yet and putting it all together takes a LOT of time but I’m having a ball doing it!

I showed some unfinished storyboards to a pal in work and he asked me if I’d ever heard of “The Bogie Man” comic books by John Wagner, Alan Smith & Robin Smith.
Shame on me.
I hadn’t.

See,
I don’t read comic books.
I don’t really own any either.
Maybe one day I’ll start a collection.

A hobby like that takes time and money and I don’t have either.

But anyways,
This “Bogie Man” series has me intrigued.
From Wikipedia,
Here’s a wee bit about it…

The Bogie Man is a comic book series created by writers John Wagner and Alan Grant and artist Robin Smith. The main character is Francis Forbes Clunie, a Scottish mental patient who suffers from the unusual delusion that he is Humphrey Bogart, or rather a composite of the characters he played in his films. Each story revolves round his construction of a completely fictional story in which he is the hero and only he can solve the “mystery” of his own construction.

A four issue black and white miniseries was published, beginning in 1989 to tie in with Glasgow being the 1990 European City of Culture, in which Clunie, newly escaped from a Glasgow mental hospital, stumbles on an attempt by small-time criminals to fence some stolen turkeys. Associating the “big birds” with The Maltese Falcon, Clunie drags a gullible waitress and the nearest convenient “fat man” into proceedings, until, pursued by the criminals and the police and quoting dialogue from a variety of Bogart films, he demolishes half of Glasgow’s Central Station.

Does that sound great or what!

The covers look like this:

…and somehow, I’m gonna buy all of them.

Oh aye!
It may also interest you to know that “The Bogie Man” was made into a TV film by the BBC in 1992 and it starred the great Robbie Coltrane in the title role.

The film didn’t do so well and it’s only ever been shown once.
There are no plans for a DVD release.
BUT!

We live in good times my friends and “The Bogie Man” is on the tube HERE.

A Town Called Bel Air.

Also,
I hear there’s still plenty of room in at The Hotel California.

Al Cook’s “Necropolis” …Coming Soon…

I’ve been secretly working on a new project for a wee while now.
It’s almost ready.

Bad things are coming.
Shocking & disturbing things.

You’re all invited too.

I’ve set up a brand new blog for this THING and you can find it right HERE.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.