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T-shirt # 222: Vampires by Robert LewisBOO!
Trying to be scary this week with Halloween approaching on Thursday.
This is another shirt by Robert Lewis, who was at one time a Kalamazoo resident. I have lost track of him despite owning three T-shirts of his art work. This is his vampires shirt.
I previously featured one of Robert's shirts in T-shirt #134: Explore the Secrets of Balloon Anatomy.
Today is somewhat of a quickie as I am behind the eight ball. The AQUAMAN ENTRY: T-shirt #221 took me three days to complete. It seems like the cards were against my posting of the Aquaman entry much like Aquaman himself is a toxic Internet search and much maligned and ridiculed by the public at large. Last night, still not finished, I decided to post what I had completed and go to bed. But checking my blog while in bed, via my tablet, I discovered that I had not published the blog, only saved it. So I published from my tablet. This morning, Tuesday October 29th, I started to work on it, to finish it, but I converted it to draft as I did, which unpublished it, meaning I do not have a blog published for yesterday. I may have a couple of other gaps in my publication history because of this lateness and delay and then converting to draft. But now I know, and I will not make the same mistake in the future.
Anyway, I am still scurrying to finish today's and get ahead on the week. I am planning to feature Halloween related content all week, though Aquaman was not really part of that theme.
Today's theme is dedicated to VAMPIRES. Following are five of my favorite vampires. Not ranked. I did not put a lot of thought into this. I just went with the first five vampires of my life. There are a couple of important omissions, which may be featured in the days to come. But for now, I share five of my favorite vampires, arranged chronologically both in my life and as they popped into my head when I thought about vampires.
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
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1. BARNABAS COLLINS - JONATHAN FRID
I am a child of the 1960s-1970s, and as such, I was an avid viewer of Dark Shadows, a daily soap opera featuring an actual vampire along with ghosts and werewolves and witches and time travel that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971.
Awesome. Jonathan Frid was the first vampire in my life. I saw his work before even Bela Lugosi's Dracula, though Lugosi's predates Frid's.
Have you not heard of this? DARK SHADOWS WIKI.
2. TOMB OF DRACULA FROM MARVEL COMICS
From 1972-1979, Marvel Comics published The Tomb of Dracula comic book, which is one of the best comics in its genre of all time and definitely one of my TOP TEN COMIC BOOKS OF ALL TIME if I were to make a list (and expect a list before the end of my T-shirt year).
The comic was originally conceived and written by Gerry Conway, but the writer that distinguished himself best with the work and made the comic such a blockbuster success and a stunning read was Marv Wolfman.
The artist for the entire run of 70 issues was Gene Colan, who is one of my favorite 1970s artists and one of my favorite comic book artists of all time.
Here's just a taste with four images, two covers. I recently bought a TOMB OF DRACULA t-shirt (and may get a second one before my year is done). This shirt would be the perfect feature for Halloween, but I am not going to be able to write the love letter to that comic and to the great Gene Colan by Thursday, so I will have to feature the shirt another time.
TOMB OF DRACULA WIKI
Even the collected black & white volumes are well worth the investment and perusal.
3. BELA LUGOSI AS DRACULA
This is a classic. 1931 epic from Universal. But I came late to the party. I did not first see this stunning film until my teenage years, long after I was an ardent Dark Shadows and Tomb of Dracula fan. But still, I give Bela the edge in Dracula portrayal over my notable omissions, Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman.
4. NOSFERATU - Werner Herzog film 1979 - played by Klaus Kinski
Once again, I saw Herzog's Nosferatu long before I saw the original film from 1922. Though the original, NOSFERATU 1922 WIKI, is frightening, I give the edge to Herzog's Nosferatu, possibly and simply because I saw it first.
It's still one of the most frightening films I have ever seen.
5. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER VAMPIRES - ANGEL AND SPIKE
Knowing that I am a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- and if you don't know that, then check out
T-shirt #170. But there's no way I make a short list of favorite vampires without Angel and Spike. And there's no choosing between them. Angel and Spike. Tie for fifth in today's list.
I will probably need to expand on why these two characters are so awesome at some point, but maybe I will save that for the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer t-shirt as I own another.
For now, these are my final images of the day.
- chris tower - 1310.29 - 16:02
