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Re-introducing a column from 2 years ago. It's good, but will it continue? The beast is out of the gate; history may repeat itself.

Hello from the Castle:

The war is almost over and one of those bunker-busters ripped a huge hole under the castle revealing various crypts,catacombs, and caverns full of the "Knowledge Of The Ages." (And you thought it was located under the Sphinx!!!!) With all of this highly radioactive cultural material available to me I decided it was time to pull out the keyboard and peck away. I had a secret meeting with Nolan some weeks ago and we talked about all kinds of things both new and old. When the meeting was over it was decided that "Creature's Corner" should return to PCR. So here it is. I'm going to keep it short this time around as I am turning it in rather late.

I guess I'm going to talk about all kinds of cultural weirdness that interests me. Hopefully some of it will interest you as well. I have written a few things in the past for PCR but had to stop because some major developments took my life in a very different direction. Even so, I have not forgotten my roots and changed my lifestyle. Instead, I have just enriched myself with new interests to add to the ones which have always guided my life and the things I do. As the weeks go by I'll relate some of the happenings of the last year-and-a-half. Now that I've spent two paragraphs full of disclaimers it's time to relate some info to those of you brave enough to stick around.

Two weekends ago I went to see "The House Of 1,000 Corpses," the "new" Rob Zombie movie. I stress "new" because we should have seen this movie a long time ago except that it was tied up in all kinds of red tape. The movie was worth the wait though it was not a stellar outing. It was pretty much what I expected from Rob though I am surprised that it wasn't a little scarier. I'm sure others will review it so I won't steal their thunder. I would just like to mention that I was mildly entertained by the movie. I especially liked the fact that it was so "Un-Hollywood." I give it a full two screams on the creature scale. By far my favorite character was the crazy carny who owned the cheezy roadside "horror museum" aptly played by character actor Sid Haig. He is really a great actor that I feel never really got the recognition he deserved. He really made the movie enjoyable with all his antics and one-liners. I've enjoyed his work for many years. I especially liked him in two roles which really stand out in my memory. He played the evil "Dragos" on the Saturday morning live-action adventure "Jason Of Star Command." He was also great in the movie "Beyond Atlantis" where he played twin brothers, crime bosses who each run half of an island nation. One of the brothers ends up going to a remote island with a group of pearl hunters to make sure he got his fair share of the treasure, which was all of it. They were drawn to the island by some fishermen who revealed some huge pearls traded to them for supplies by a strange and beautiful girl named Sirene. It turns out that she is from Atlantis. The huge pearls are cultured by the Atlanteans and traded for other goods. Upon revelation of their existence, trouble ensues. I really enjoyed "Beyond Atlantis" and highly regard it as one of the most interesting movies on the subject. Sid was great in it and once again pretty much made the movie. Again I give it a full two screams on the creature scale.

There, that was painless.

Now onto the next tidbit. I've been asked by Nolan to report a little about the comics scene. That's a subject that's gaining a bit of attention of late because of the success of several comic-related movies over the last couple of years. I think we'll only see more of them because they seem to be ensnaring movie-goers as easily as Spider-Man nabs villains with his webs. Hopefully this trend will turn into higher comic book sales as the industry seems to be in a bit of a slump. One wouldn't know it to scan the racks as new titles appear constantly, though not all of them remain successful. May 3, 2003 was national "FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!" I think most comic book stores were involved. The first "Free Comic Book Day" was last year and was well-received nationally. It preceded the release of the movie "Spider-Man." The double-header helped boost sales for the comic industry. They are hoping for a repeat performance this year.

Next week I'll review some of the giveaways from "Free Comic Book Day." Thanx and have a Great Weekend!!!