Hellsing Ultimate, a new animated adaptation that adheres closer to the manga it is based on, has been running since 2006. There are currently nine episodes released as OVAs, but all good things must come to an end. On December 26, the tenth and final episode will be released in Japan, concluding the story. From the looks of the trailer below, it’s going to be an explosive finish, but what else would you expect from an anime about nazi vampires? Read more…
I was skeptical when a movie adaption of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter was announced. Sure, it made for a fun book, but let’s face it, so much gets lost in translation when most books hop over to the big screen. I’m honestly surprised this film got much of a budget at all, given how terrified many studios seem to be of new ideas. Why make something original (well, an adaption of something original) when you can churn out another sequel? The answer is simple, I think: vampires. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 10, 2011 in Cinema, Horror
The New York Timesrecently released this photo of the upcoming film Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter — a film I still can’t believe is actually in production. I have yet to actually sit down and read the novel its based on. The concept for the film just seems so far fetched, not that it isn’t the least bit awesome. Imagining Abraham Lincoln waging war on the South while taking the occasional sabbatical to axe a few vampires sounds pretty cool, and the trailer for the novel did a great job of selling it. I just hope the film lives up to the hype.
The image of a vampire licking their blood stain lips after feeding, or bearing their fangs may or may not send a shiver up your spine, but for viewers these are possibly a quintessential appearance of a vampire. Vampires was first mentioned in literature around the 1700’s, but until Bran Stroker’s Dracula was published around 1897, the other vampire works weren’t as definitive or influential. Now the usage of vampires is a very common tool. Viewers can easily see vampires in contemporary series like Twilight, True Blood, or The Vampire Diaries. But consider these vampires in three different categories, Movies; Television; Comics, and see if you want to be bitten, if they have their focuses on you. Read more…
So, all of you know who Richard Belzer is. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, try Detective Munch, or “the skinny paranoid cop on Law and Order: SVU who used to be on Homicide: Life on the Street” (the latter clause only if you’re a true obsessive when it comes to crime TV, or are over the age of 30).
But did you know that long before he played one of the most crossed-over, spun-off characters on television, Belzer was a stand-up comedian? And did you know that he’s apparently returning to the stage…digitally? Pop Eater has just debuted Belzer’s new video, an homage to vampires…who love the ladies. Read more…
If you were a fanboy child of the 70s you’ll well remember the Mego Star Trek action figures. Of course there was Kirk, Spock and McCoy but sadly if if you wanted that one other character you had to * gasp * use your imagination! Well progress being what it is there is an entire series of all of those other characters you wanted to play with in the backyard but who never were (except on the small screen). Shown above is the Captain Pike action figure which is a nice tribute to actor Jeffrey Hunter who passed on the role of captain in 1965 in favor of a film career — and sadly he passed away in 1969. And on the silly side is the Salt Vampire whose proper name is the now extinct M-113 creature from the episode The Man Trap: Read more…
HBO’s True Blood has been a huge success, no doubt due in part to the Vampire craze that’s plagued the nation since Twilight hit the scene. It might be slightly more overplayed than mixing zombies with our favorite Sci-Fi series, but that certainly won’t stop anyone from watching the show — or, reading the comic. That’s right, IDW has picked up the license to the hit show and will now be publishing the True Blood comics. The first issue should be available in stores now, but a special edition is available at San Diego Comic Con with a limited edition wrap-around cover. The comic should continue the on-going adventures of Sookie Stackhouse and her lover Bill. No word on if the series will actually feature any cannon storylines, but I imagine it won’t unless the producers get involved.
Apparently tired of their own boring and ubiquitous banner ads, Ancestry.com decided to try a more novel approach to publicity, more in the time-honored tradition of tabloids and Perez Hilton: release interesting information about celebrities. Rather than go about peeping in windows, however, Ancestry.com used its own database to discover that Robert Pattinson, aka “that guy who plays the vampire in Twilight, the book/movie franchise designed to sexually arouse 13-year-old girls,” is in fact related to Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Bram Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula.
The funny part, of course, being that anyone who has the slightest understanding of genealogy or of how long ago ol’ Vladdie lived knows that you might be too! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 4, 2010 in Comic Books
I can just see the meeting where the demography folks break out their PowerPoint and announce that “if we want to gain a female readership we gotta have vampires!” And to be fair women love vampires — so how can you go wrong? Well looking at the above cover of the Marvel one shot Death of Dracula you can drive a stake through its heart. Clearly what the art director didn’t get is that vampires are really all about romance, yet what you’ve got here looks like a bad parody of a 50s pulp magazine. But wait it gets worse, here are the character designs by the talented Marko Djurdjevic who seems to be channeling the worse elements of Elfquest and DEVO: Read more…
I must admit that I’m not exactly a historical fiction buff, but when I heard about Seth Grahame-Smith’s recently released novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I must admit that the concept piqued my interest. Of course, it wasn’t until I stumbled across this amazing trailer for the novel that I found myself compelled to buy a copy. I’m still in the process of reading it, so I can’t comment too much on the content, aside from my assurance that it isn’t Twilight. Read more…
There’s always been something very haunting about the eyes of Blythe dolls so it’s highly appropriate that we’d see a vampire Blythe sooner or later. Although what I didn’t expect to see were these two Disney Blythes which celebrate the classic films Dumbo and Pinocchio: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 2, 2010 in Comic Books
Being a manga fanboy the release of Devil #1 immediately caught my eye: “Manga artist Torajiro Kishi (Maka-Maka) and blockbuster anime studio Madhouse (Trigun, Paprika, Ninja Scroll) love comics. So much so that they’ve decided to publish an original, Western-style comic exclusively with Dark Horse! Enter Devil, a thrilling, sci-fi take on the vampire genre.” Read more…
This film looks silly, stupid and dumb — but I’ve got to see it! Yeah sure the plot reminds me a bit too much of Buffy meets The Lost Boys but that passes with me if you do it with a good sense of humor, and seeing John C. Reilly on the screen makes me feel sort of happy from the get go. And then add Salma Hayek doing her goth thing and we know we’re going to have some fun here. The Vampire’s Assistant opens on October 23rd.
On this day in 1960 the British film The Brides of Dracula made it’s American debut. The film was produced by the beloved Hammer Film Productions which did some amazing horror and science fiction work in the 50s with films like The Quatermass Xperiment and The Curse of Frankenstein. Although by 1959 they started to revert to sequels and by 1974 had produced a total of 9 Dracula flicks. Of course in this case the Dracula title is slightly dishonest as the lead vampire Baron Meinster (played by handsome David Peel) was in fact just a mere disciple of Count Dracula as seen in this trailer: Read more…
The most depressing thing about this trailer is that awful cover version of a Kate Bush song that kicks in about a minute and a half into this trailer! Until that point I was willing to give yet another vampire flick a chance, but ruining a musical icon ruins everything for me. Well in any case Daybreakers will come out in January 2010 so perhaps they’ll have time to fix the soundtrack. Here’s an overview of the plot: Read more…
