Atomic Age Cinema Preview

Here's a cool video of Bloomington, Indiana's local Atomic Age Cinema late-night horror show hosts: Doctor Calamari and Baron Mardi. Every Saturday at midnight these two gruesome ghouls appear at The Cinemat to present another cheesy, godawful horror movie. It's a great show and a great deal for only $3 a ticket, sponsored by Cinephile Film Arts, a not-for-profit organization that promotes independent film making here in south-central Indiana, and which also sponsors the ultimate horror film festival, The Dark Carnival.




And for kids of all ages, Atomic Age Cinema also has a 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon matinee of classic cartoons and old-time serials, hosted by The Kick, Bloomington's one-and-only superhero sidekick. This is a really fun show with features like Lancelot Link - Secret Chimp, Betty Boop, Popeye, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Lolick and Bolick (from Poland), and lots more. The popcorn is fresh, the cartoons are wonderful, and going downtown to see the show is always fun!

If you're in Bloomington, don't miss a chance to see the Atomic Age Cinema shows at The Cinemat, 4th St. and Walnut, just south of the downtown square.

D'os Vadanya,

VIKTOR KUPRIN

Technorati tags: movies, Atomic Age Cinema, horror, cartoons, Bloomington, Indiana, Doctor Calamari, Baron Mardi, The Cinemat, Cinephile Film Arts

The Dark Carnival Film Festival

It’s Coming! Get Your Tickets! Don’t Miss It!
It's Ghastly! Horrors and Thrills Beyond Belief!

Bloomington’s own second annual Dark Carnival Film Festival begins next week! If you love vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghouls, ghosts, monsters, and horror films of all types, I hope you may get a chance to attend one of the greatest exhibitions of scary movies ever held in the USA.

I attended all five days of the festival last year, and enjoyed films like the superbly animated, eerie Blood Tea and Red String; the Chinese undead-vs.-chop-socky God of Vampires; cannibalistic white trash in The Blood Shed, plus much, much more. It was wonderfully horrible, and a fantastic show night after night. Emceed by Bloomington’s own Atomic Age horror-show hosts, Doctor Calamari and Baron Mardi, this event is absolutely mind-boggling. During the peak of last year’s festival my own daughter was confronted in front of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater by none other than a chainsaw-wielding Michael Myers from John Carpenter’s Halloween. But this year may be even more special because scheduled to make a guest of honor appearance is none other than Indiana’s most famous horror movie host: Sammy Terry!

I can thank my dear late father for introducing me to the horror movie genre. When Sammy Terry presented the classic Universal monster movies, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, Dad and I stayed up late to watch, and what fun it was. I think one of the first that we saw together was actually the finale of the Frankenstein series, Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein, which despite its lighter, comedy moments had some very frightening Wolfman scenes, including when Lon Chaney Jr. savagely shreds a living room chair in a lycanthropic frenzy as he futilely tries to attack Lou Costello!

And so my personal love of horror continues as I wait with eager anticipation for The Dark Carnival to begin. Blood will flow, women (and men!) will scream, and dark things will walk the streets of Bloomington again, and I will be one very happy guy!

D'os Vadanya ... Viktor Kuprin




The Dark Carnival Film Festival


Technorati tags: Dark Carnival, horror, films, Atomic Age Cinema, Doctor Calamari, Baron Mardi, Bloomington Indiana

Eclipse Comics' Fusion

Every Saturday afternoon Ronnie, my six-year-old son, and I attend the kid's matinee at The Cinemat, Bloomington's great DVD-video rental and screening room. Hosted by The Kick, our town's one-and-only superhero sidekick, the classic cartoons and old-time movie serials are fun for both of us, though Ronnie has a tough time choosing his free toy from The Kick's treasure chest of gifts for the kiddos.

After the show we sometimes have a little time to kill before catching the bus home, so we head down the block to Vintage Phoenix, Bloomington's wonderful comic shop, located just off the downtown square. While browsing through the 25-cent back-issue bins, I found a couple of copies of Eclipse Comics' 1987-89 Fusion, a delightful science-fiction/space opera series that on first reading had some similarities to the popular Firefly TV show except with some funny furry characters as part of the crew.

Science-fiction has always been a tough sell for comics, with superheroes, horror, and comedy being the mainstay. Some notable exceptions would be England's Dan Dare, King Features' outstanding 1960s Flash Gordon series, Gold Key's Magnus Robot Fighter, and sci-fi/superhero hybrids like DC's Adam Strange. I've always thought that much of the popularity and success of Marvel's Fantastic Four, Mighty Thor, Iron Man, and other Silver Age comics stemmed from their distinctive science-fiction elements.

It was a nice surprise to discover Fusion, and I hope that in time I can find the other back issues. While my son prefers the latest publications of Transformers: The Animated Series, I am enjoying the space adventures of the Tsunami crew.




From the Wiki:

Fusion was a comic book published in 1987 by Eclipse Comics, whose creative team included the writer Steven Barnes, the artists Lela Dowling and Steve Gallacci, conceptual editor Lex Nakashima and many more.

The world of Fusion is centuries in our future, when a series of galactic wars have led to a spiraling arms race between "tekkers and splicers" - that is, between those who take a technological and technocratic route to improving humanity, and those who have abandoned humanity altogether through genetic engineering. The story involves the exploits of a group of space mercenaries in an era when humans who have not been enhanced either genetically or cybernetically, are becoming extremely rare.

While the comic book also included inserted comics of some variety, such as Dr. Watchstop, the most frequent insert was Weasel Patrol, a comic stemming from doodles drawn of Tan.

Regular characters
The only recurring characters are the crew of the mercenary spaceship Tsunami.

Indio Tremaine: Captain. Human. Born into the Clan of the Three Suns, of which she is the only survivor.
Dow Cook: Synthetic human bio-engineered invulnerable to shock and trauma and with enhanced self-healing ability. Very insecure about himself.
Tan: A musteliform bred from Terran otter stock. Canadian, an alumnus of Labatt's Tech (a fictitious university named after the beer). An alcoholic mechanical and electronics wizard with a severe gambling problem. Never goes anywhere without his leather pilot cap and goggles.
Beolvoch: A meehook. Something like a dinosaur with feathers. Has an extremely high metabolic rate and thus a voracious appetite for raw meat. Must eat regularly and copiously to stay active. Consequently spends much time in a suspended animation state or complaining that he is hungry. Appears to be a genuine alien species rather than uplifted and genetically engineered earthform.
Alshain: A felinoid; a temperamental and somewhat edgy pilot.
Carz: A leoniform with only one working eye. He is generally a steadying influence, but when he loses it, beware!
Herrick: A hawklike creature, of military caste. Dies very early in the series, in one of many moves which went against formula. Appears in "how we got here" sequences.
Haven: A birdlike creature with well developed nesting instincts. She is a doctor by training.
Eddie: Modelled after some creature with very long ears and a prehensile tail. Likes to hang upside down. A cool dude in shades and khakis or hawaiian shirts. Nothing rattles Eddie. Was a classmate of Tan at Labatt's.

D’os Vadanya,

VIKTOR KUPRIN



Technorati tags: science fiction, sci-fi, sf, comics, Eclipse Comics, Fusion, space opera

Atomic Age Cinema's The Kick Gets BARFed!

I just returned from Armenia, having spent most of the month there on family business. It was just in time for their general election and one of the coldest winters in their history. Votes were being “bought” by the incumbent political party for 5000 drams, about $16 US. The corruption there is simply awful, and makes those of us who follow events in Armenia wonder why they try so hard to be a miserably bad copy of Russia.

While I was there I wanted to get some souvenirs for our friends, including the infamous Atomic Age Cinema crew here in Bloomington. Every Saturday afternoon at The Cinemat, Bloomington’s premiere video rental and digital showplace, the Atomic Age Cinema organization presents a children’s matinee of classic and international cartoons and old-time movie serials. The matinee host is The Kick, a superhero sidekick, assisted by the gargantuan guy-in-a-gorilla-mask, Mogo. Perhaps that stands for “Mo’ Gorilla.”

Of course, one of the most important aspects of being a superhero is personal hygiene, and that includes keeping your superhero costume clean and spiffy. So, Ronnie, my son, and I carefully selected an appropriate souvenir gift for The Kick and presented it to him at last Saturday’s show. The gift: a package of lemon-scented BARF, the leading detergent sold in Armenia! The Kick graciously accepted our present, and will, hopefully, be lemony fresh during future shows. For some reason BARF is not marketed here in the USA.

The Kick and Ronnie (a.k.a. The Crab Man) with BARF from Armenia

The Mighty Mogo received a clutch of Armenian dried persimmons, which he immediately devoured with gusto. Armenia was famous for its fruits and vegetables throughout the Soviet Union, a benefit of its mineral-rich volcanic soil, altitude, and abundant sunshine. Having shaken many a persimmon tree in Indiana during my childhood, I can accurately report that Armenian persimmons are absolutely delicious though their dusty appearance may put off some American fruit lovers. It’s actually natural sugar crystals that form on the fruit’s skin, that’s how sweet and rich they are, somewhat reminiscent of dried dates, but better!

Later I plan to present some other Armenian souvenirs to the hosts of Atomic Age Cinema’s Saturday midnight horror show, to Baron Mardi and Doctor Calamari. More on that later.

Do S'Vadaniya,

Viktor Kuprin

Technorati tags: Atomic Age Cinema, Armenia, The Cinemat, Bloomington, Indiana, Baron Mardi, Doctor Calamari