EDitor’s Note: Michael Culhane is the writer who contributed the bulk of the DARK SHADOWS content to our latest issue, 261, including the interview with Jonathan Frid. Michael is a longtime fan of the show and wanted to say a few words regarding the loss of an icon as well as reflections on the man he came to know.

I did the last interview with Jonathan Frid that he’ll ever do — and I did it last month for Famous Monsters. I promised Frid I would mention his website (jonathanfrid.com) so you could all keep up with him, and I didn’t know he had fallen and was declining, so like a lot of us I was taken by surprise. So now that we won’t be hearing directly from Jonathan on his website, I will connect to you to all things Dark Shadows and keep the community alive (or at least undead) which is the best thing we can do. So if you want to know what I, Creepybopper #1 MC and long time friend to Frid thinks, come back here from time-to-time and we’ll tell you.

The good news: there are fresh stories coming in the form of audio dramas from Big Finish, new stories from comics, from novels, and other productions from the original cast. And a great source of connection is through Stuart Manning’s site Collinwood.net. I’m recording a rock album inspired by Dark Shadows, and I will be sharing previews here of that too. All of it will keep it going.

Because ultimately it’s the fans that keep it alive, those who started the festivals and the fansites; so that’s the important thing: check out Shadowgram and the Dark Shadows festival and keep the Creepybopper connection fresh.

I will share something funny—the “news” will say what it says and the fans and contributors to the story of Dark Shadows will share their love and talent. Right now the best tribute I can give it to let you in on Frid’s human side:

I remembered contacting Frid through that website I mentioned and letting him know I was “checking in” as his musical director. This was a favorite joke we liked to toss around. He had dubbed me the musical director at a one-man show when I was helping him with the music, and I said to him after the performance at private party with the crew “thanks for making me your musical director. But why NOW? Aren’t you basically retired? So when’s our next gig?”

That was 2001, but every time I would see him the joke would surface. We had a great rapport in person, even if neither of us was good at writing or keeping it up in between. I would sidle up to him and say “this is your musical director: when are we hitting the road?” And he would at times forget my name and call me “G sharp” referring to the key of one of the songs in his show. I would just reply to him, “So what’ s up for our next gig? No music, no tour, as usual?”

At the end, he did it his way, there was no memorial and it was private. But when he was alive, he connected; he connected to everyone who watched—and that made the world a place where we could connect to each other and that was fun. And we will keep that connection alive.

FM's EDitor heeds Forry's lesson: Make sure you always properly dress-up for special occasions. Preparing for Mil Mascaras' induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.

This past weekend you humble EDitor braved the masses in Miami to see a phenomenon which horror fans already know: That which is dead cannot die.

Yes, on April 1 The Undertaker defeated Triple H for the second straight year. The win moves ‘Taker’s undefeated streak at Wrestlemania to 20-0. While there was much debate amongst the crowd as to the potential outcome, it always felt that The Dead Man was the odds-on favorite to get the ‘W’. The match wasn’t just any match, but the always electric Hell in a Cell steel cage extravaganza. The match was easily one of the two most intense matches of the evening (right up next to Rock v Cena) with much of the crowd not even using their seats for the duration. Both pulled out all the stops as we saw each man’s entire arsenal unloaded on one another, from signature moves and multiple finishers to sledgehammers, chairs, and even some sweet chin-terfernece from guest referee The Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels. But despite the onslaught of Pedigrees and foreign objects, ‘Taker would not be denied his streak, finally putting Vince’s heir apparent down for the final 3-count. And while they may say that “dead men tell no tales”, Undertaker’s story is one of the most compelling in all of sports entertainment history.

And that’s not all. Saturday night was a classy and heartfelt affair at WWE’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony. While it was great to see the likes of the Four Horsemen (WHOO!) inducted by Dusty Rhodes (who lovingly referred to them as the ‘Hossmin’), Ron Simmons, Yokozuna (put in posthumously), Edge (inducted by Christian), and Mike Tyson (with intro speech by DX), it was the induction of luchador extraordinaire and monster slayer Mil Mascaras that was the highlight for me (see picture). From his days of fighting mummies with El Santo to his recent bouts with Aztec deities, Mascaras has always been one of horror’s cult heroes alongside Santo and Blue Demon. Dressed in a tux and sporting one of his most iconic masks, Mascaras delivered a soft-spoken speech (in English) espousing the values of hard work and staying in shape (at over 70, Mascaras could still come off the top rope), being a well-rounded individual with knowledge of other races and cultures, and the benefits of living the good life. For all intents and purposes, he came across as a real-life version of The Most Interesting Man in the World. Regal, dignified, and well-spoken, Mil Mascaras is a true legend who left his mark on the world.

And let’s not forget Kane, who’s love of horror provided WWE an opportunity to pay FM a little homage last year (see the shirt). He stomped out Randy Orton. Not much to say other than that. Pick up the shirt here.

See you next year in NYC!

Famous Monsters. So tell me about I, VAMPIRE. Do think this is the first time DC has ever so prominently featured horror characters in its major titles?

Joshua Hale Fialkov. Well, there’s a rich history of horror at DC, back to the House of Mystery and House of Secrets stuff, which are some of my favorite comics ever published. They’re so wonderful and so much fun. Although wonderful might be a weird word for it.

FM. Hey, wonderful works!

JHF. And then, obviously, all the great Vertigo stuff. So there’s a history of it. And the original I, VAMPIRE—when JM DeMatteis did it—takes place sort of in the DC universe. Andrew Bennett met Batman at one point. I think what’s most exciting about the New 52 is that the comics don’t have to be one genre. Even superheroes can branch out. So having this hard horror book that rubs up against the rest of the DC universe is exciting, and a lot of fun because that’s the stuff that always excited me in pre-“Crisis” DC. It’s great to see it come back around.

FM. I agree about the New 52. A lot of the titles are even ressurecting obscure older characters.

JHF. And even just tonally, the tones of all the books are so wide. You really buy all the stuff exsiting simultanously. Everything is so widespread that it makes it makes more sense and feels more cohesive.

FM. Is this the first DC thing you’ve worked on? After doing ECHOES [Image], TUMOR [Archaia]…

JHF. I did a three issue run of SUPERMAN/BATMAN right at the end, before the relaunch… which I think technically I wrote after I had written I, VAMPIRE. But this is my first big DC thing. I’ve done shotgun shorts for Vertigo, and I’ve worked over at Marvel a bunch.

FM. And Batman made an appearance in I, VAMPIRE recently?

JHF. Yes, we had Batman in Issues 5 and 6. And he sticks around just in time for the Justice League Dark to show up. So we’ll have our first proper crossover between JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK and I, VAMPIRE. At the last of each month will be both parts.

FM. Can you tease us for it?

JHF. I can! At the end of Issue 6, Andrew did not come out so well. He didn’t come out of the book quite so… alive. So in the course of the crossover we get to see what it means to not have the one “good” vampire in the world still around. Which mostly involves a giant, evil, ancient vampire coming back to fight everybody. It actually takes the entire team—both the Justice League Dark and the rest of Andrew Bennett’s team, including his nemesis, Mary—to actually fight this giant monster and not get massacred. It’s pretty brutal.

FM. That sounds awesome. I’m very excited about the whole vampires being actual vampires in the DC universe.

JHF. Yeah, I mean, it’s for a couple reasons. One is that you’ve got [Scott] Snyder doing AMERICAN VAMPIRE, which is a very singular way to deal with one class of vampires. You’ve got 30 DAYS OF NIGHT that Steve Niles is doing over at IDW, which is also a very specific kind of vampire. You have the BUFFY vampires. Out of all the books that are doing vampires, nobody’s actually doing the classic Bram Stoker vampire. I didn’t change too much from what happened in the original series, so we’re pretty close in terms of their power sets and everything. And in DRACULA, Stoker really built a perfect set of powers. They’re really powerful, but they have their limits. It was the best way to make them competitive in the DC universe—for them to be able to fight off the various humans and villains that they go up against.

FM. Sometimes it’s best to go back to the archetype.

JHF. Yeah. They have to be strong enough to be a legitimate threat. And I think they are. Not even John Constantine can handle it.

FM. Love Constantine. He’s so much fun.

JHF. Writing Constantine is going to be great! I was sort of anxious about it, because I started writing the Constantine issues the same time I started writing DOCTOR WHO for IDW.

FM. All right!

JHF. And so I was like, I am writing a lot of British people. This is a lot of Britishness. But the two sort of fed into each other, so it worked out, I think. [laughs] Nobody says “blimey” at all, although there are a bunch of “oy”s. I did what I could to keep it as real as possible. As real as a magic user called the Hellblazer can possibly be.

FM. Obviously. So no sparkling vampires, here.

JHF. Well, they’re pretty.

FM. Vampires have always been pretty.

JHF. That’s the thing people forget. The TWILIGHT backlash made people forget that DRACULA is a love story. DRACULA is about a guy who makes himself handsome because he’s in love with some other dude’s wife! That’s what DRACULA is actually about. A gothic horror story is really about love. That’s what I wanted to focus on in the book—how the relationship between Mary and Andrew is sort of the lynchpin, not just with vampires but with mankind’s relationship to them. I tried to do something that’s a little bit bigger, that has wider implications than just, they’re alone in highschool and they’re in love but they can’t sleep together. Which is cool, I mean. That’s Issue 14! Oh man. “Josh, you’re fired.”

FM. I forgot you were writing DOCTOR WHO! The story arc is a retro one, right?

JHF. Yes. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory decide to go on a vacation. A nice seaside trip. All the classic Doctor Who stories start with them trying to take a vacation.

FM. I’ve noticed. [laughs]

JHF. They decide to go to the tip of Africa, because what nicer place is there in the springtime? Except they end up in the wrong year. It’s 1941, the Nazis are marching in, and there’s a giant epic romance that just happens to be taking place in the background as the Doctor faces off against the Silurians. What’s fun about the Doctor Who comics is that they’re structured like the old show, which I’m a huge fan of, but they feature the new Doctor, who I’m also a huge fan of. Getting to write Doctor Who is like getting to write the best of both worlds. It feels like getting to write one of the classic serial stories, while at the same time I get the awesome, modern, crazy Doctor. Matt Smith is so much fun to write. He’s such a great character.

FM. I love Matt Smith. And I’ve talked to people about how Doctor Who is such a great platform, because you can pretty much do anything.

JHF. Yeah. It’s really wide open. Mine is a four-issue story, and the third part came out this week. Then I wrap up the book next month, and then they relaunch the series. So, much like Superman/Batman, I got to put the nail in the coffin.

FM. [laughs] Is that a good feeling or a bad feeling?

JHF. With Doctor Who it’s a good feeling, because I know I’ll get to do more stuff with them down the road. Andy Diggle is taking over the book, which they announced a couple days ago, and it’s going to be great. I’ve heard about what they’ll be doing, and it’s super, super cool. And they’re doing a STAR TREK crossover! Why don’t I get to write that?

FM. Yes! I heard about that. The Next Generation meets the Doctor! Which cracks me up because at the Doctor Who panel at Comic-Con last year, didn’t Karen [Gillan] say she wanted a Star Trek crossover?

JHF. Yep.

FM. They made it happen! Anything else you have coming that you’d like to talk about?

JHF. Can I talk about LAST OF THE GREATS?

FM. Sure!

JHF. The trade paperback is coming out next week. It’s a superhero story about the last of a family of superbeings who come to Earth, give us everything we want, and then we massacre them all. Just in time for an alien invasion… that they actually came here to protect us from. So we have to go back and beg this hateful, resentful, scornful, ten-foot-tall god to please bail our asses out. And it does not go well for anyone involved.

FM. That’s a little bit true to life, except with aliens.

JHF. Yeah, it works. That’s the first series coming out, with Image. Hopefully we’ll get to do more.

FM. I will definitely check it out.

Famous Monsters. I’d first like to talk about your writing style in general. What I’ve noticed in some comic books is that the prose is forgotten as a sort of afterthought, like it’s only there to drive the action. When reading yours, it’s not like that. You very much pay attention to the actual vocabulary and the words you’re using, and the poetry… I know that you got your first comic book gig from writing a prose short story, and I was wondering what your background was in actual prose writing.

Scott Snyder. Well, my background really is in prose. I actually wanted to be a comic book artist when I was younger, all the way through high school. When I applied to college I had a portfolio with comic book art in it. I had drawings of Batman that I used to post on the internet. But in college I fell more into writing. I majored in writing in college, and then I went to graduate school for it at Columbia. So I graduated from there, and then worked pretty strictly in prose. I love prose.

FM. That explains a lot.

SS. I wrote a short story collection that came out in 2006 called VOODOO HEART, and that’s when I started… I wrote a couple of short stories that had superheroes in them, and it caught the attention of Marvel and DC. They approached me and asked if I liked comics, and I said I did, and I was incredibly excited to get a chance to pitch for tiny little things. Little one-shots and eight-pagers. And I worked my way up from there. But your question is great in the way that one of the things I was worried about missing was the poetry and the prose, as weird as that sounds. Because I spent so many hours, when I did prose, going from sentence to sentence.

FM. Yeah, I feel that in your comics.

SS. Well, thanks. And when you’re doing a character’s voice and narration, there is room for that. I think I was worried that fans wouldn’t respond to it, or think it was nerdy or whatever. But I’ve realized that they respond well because they want the writing to be layered or rich, and it’s been so enthralling and exciting. It’s made comics so creatively fulfilling. It really is important to me to be able to bring a prosaic quality to how I do my storytelling. I appreciate you picking that up.

FM. That’s fantastic. So, are you sick of talking about BATMAN?

SS. No, I’m really not. I’m not there yet. Maybe on Sunday [of WonderCon] I’ll be like, Batman, ugh, no. But right now I’m not.

FM. Well, as far as Batman goes… the crazy layouts that were in Issue 5… I’m sure you’ve talked a lot about that, but I just wanted to touch really quickly on how much of that is your input.

SS. Well, that was Greg [Capullo]’s idea. He’s such an awesome guy to work with in that he’s someone who’s so established, and yet when you work with him, he brings all this passion and fire to it. I brought him the script, and the script really said—in this area, Bruce is so disoriented that if you want, you can make the panels seem shattered, or strange, or upside down. And he came up with the idea of just turning the whole book like that. I thought it was amazing. I was like, let’s do it! DC fought it a little bit. They were really nice, but they did hesitate, because they were like, everyone’s going thing it’s a misprint!

FM. That’s what I thought, at first. [laughs]

SS. I know! And we were like, no they’re not! That’s ridiculous. And then we got our PDF of the file, and it looked great, because when you read a PDF you read it vertically, so you don’t have to actually turn the book from right to left. And then our comps came, and I saw it and went, oh my god, there’s a misprint. Then I saw it wasn’t, and I went on Twitter and was like, “Just so you guys know, everything in Batman #5 is on purpose!” Greg called me up and was like, “Why are you telling them that? If they don’t get it, too bad!” So I deleted the tweet. And about five minutes later, Greg called and was like, “I just got them and there’s a misprint!”

FM. [laughing]

SS. It’s because when we saw it, it was even more radical than we had anticipated, but I think it’s all the better for that. I’m so proud of him for bringing those kinds of ideas to the table. He’s just a powerhouse. I love him.

FM. Definitely. That’s awesome. Are we allowed to talk about SEVERED?

SS. Sure! Anything you want.

FM. That’s a cowrite for Image, right?

SS. Yes.

FM. I loved it, by the way. A seven issue mini-series. How did the genesis of that come about?

SS. Well, the guy I wrote it with [Scott Tuft] is actually wandering around here, somewhere. He’s my oldest and dearest friend from when I was thirteen years old. We’ve been friends since freshman year of high school, when he had blue hair and I was a comic geek. One of the things we bonded over was our love of horror movies. We would rent horror movies, and the two things we really liked were horror and American history. We went on a couple of road trips together, and we used to go to the South all the time. We were fascinated by the idea that all of these things were changing all of a sudden at a particular time period in the early twentieth century. Not only was music evolving, but all these roads were bringing people together who had never met, and you could change your identity, and it was such a fascinating time for all of the exciting and wonderful things that were happening and all the things that were frightening and terrifying to people who were older—electrical lights, highways, cars…

We were actually on a road trip—I remember talking about it at a buffet, a Chinese buffet in some town in Arkansas. We were like, we need to tell a story that takes place in that time period with one character who’s all about the optimism and excitement of the time and one character who represents the scariest stuff ever about the time, and to make it unconventional. So we started writing it then, as a screenplay first. And once I got into comics I said, I think it would make a much better comic. He thought so too. I’m so proud of it. It’s a different sort of book, but…

FM. It’s gorgeous. How’d you hook up with [SEVERED artist] Attila Futaki?

SS. Jeff Lemire!

FM. Oh yeah?

SS. Yeah, [DC author] Jeff Lemire was like, I think this guy’s style might be good. He knew him from some Artist Alley stuff, and he hooked us up with him.

FM. His painting is so intense, and dark.

SS. He’s terrific. I know he’s now looking at stuff with the Big Two. I really think the sky’s the limit for him. He’s great.

FM. He’s awesome. Let’s see… we can talk about SWAMP THING, which is amazing.

SS. Oh, thanks!

FM. It’s also interesting because I feel like in the New 52, DC brought a lot of Vertigo characters over to the main line. Do you feel like that makes you write in a different style for the New 52 than you would for DC before the reboot, when you were doing Detective Comics, for example?

SS. That’s a really good question… I’ve thought about that, because I’ve wondered if I do write differently. But almost all the stuff that I do is like a Vertigo book. I mean, my favorite stories are ones where the characters and the heroes are brought to face their inner demons and worst nightmares. That’s why the Joker is my favourite Batman villain, because to me he represents the darkest reflection of Bruce. So I think that lends itself to the same kind of horror and Vertigo style where characters are facing really dark and serious problems in every storyline. I think I am telling them all in the same way.

FM. Well, the Batman book is so dark, it almost could be a Vertigo book. Swamp Thing, too.

SS. It kind of is horror. It’s like, secretly like a horror story. And it’s wonderful to see people respond, because you worry if it’s too dark. But at the end of the day, we’re not doing anything to make it dark or scary so much as we’re trying to make the stories matter to the characters. If something is scary, it’s because it’s scary to Alec Holland, not because it’s just a big monster, you know? It’s deeply scary to him as a person.

FM. Any Vertigo character that you want to write that you haven’t gotten to write yet?

SS. There are a ton!

FM. Who’s at the top of your list?

SS. Well, I just got to write Animal Man for the first time, because we’re doing that crossover, and he was at the top of my list. I just wrote my first Buddy Baker lines. I’m really thrilled.

FM. Excellent. Oh, we haven’t talked about AMERICAN VAMPIRE! How do you feel about tackling a subject that so many people think is tired?

SS. I feel like vampires have endured this long because deep down, they have the potential to be really scary. I don’t think they endure because they can be heartthrobs or romantic heroes. The reason they’re still around is because when you look at the concept of someone that you love turned into a bloodthirsty thing, back from the grave, trying to turn you into one of them… that’s what’s so scary about zombies, werewolves, and all that stuff. So my approach was to say, let’s do something where you return vampires to those roots, but do a new spin on it where they’re American icons. Things you know in a familiar way, like a cowboy, or a starlet, or a boxer, or a jazz musician… but now we’re turning them into these monsters that are haunting and hunting the American landscape. That was the emphasis for it. I’m very proud of that series, and I’m so happy to be doing it with Rafael [Albuquerque].

FM. The Americana… you mentioned that again. It seems to be a common thread. Where did you grow up?

SS. I grew up in New York City, but I was very close to my grandmother who passed away a couple years ago. We spent a lot of time with her, and she was a very die-hard antiquer. When I was a little kid… she had stuff around her house, and she’d be like, this thing is from 18-whenever, let’s make up a story about it and how it got here. We did that a lot, and I still have a lot of those things from her house. Not to make my house sound super-creepy, with all these weird antiques.

FM. No, it sounds amazing!

SS. And maybe it’s there… I don’t really know where it comes from, except that maybe I’ve always loved the idea of stories that touch on the secret history of everything, from objects that are important to someone to locations and characters. I’ve always loved those elements—the secret stories buried in the history of things.

FM. Are you gonna go see ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER?

SS. Yes! Anything that does something different with vampires, whether it’s my take on it or a TWILIGHT kind of take on it, I’ll always line up just to see someone do something new that seems exciting.

FM. Yeah. This was great. Is there anything else you wanted to say?

SS. Just thanks to you, and to everyone listening to and reading this for picking up the books.

FM. And thanks to you for all your awesome work!

COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN’S HOPE is from SUPER SIZE ME filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, and boasts an impressive line-up of comic notables including Stan Lee (also producing), Kevin Smith, and Eli Roth. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and is headed into homes soon. A trailer, below, is first evidence for audiences at large of this fantastic project, and for the uninitiated, will be a first glimpse into the world of Comic-Con.

Synopsis (courtesy Wrekin Hill Entertainment):
“A behind-the-scenes look at the fans who gather by the thousands each year in San Diego, California to attend Comic-Con, the world’s largest comic book convention.” 

Comic-Con!

Head over HERE to the new forums and join in the fun!

From the We Can Be Heroes website:
Countries in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya) are facing the worst drought in 60 years, causing a severe hunger crisis. According to the U.S. government, the crisis is unlike any other in terms of displacement, death and starvation of the population. More than 13 million people are in need of critical assistance. In Somalia alone, more than 250,000 people face starvation. Hundreds of thousands have fled to refugee camps seeking help. The situation is so critical that the United Nations officially declared famine for the first time in 21 years.

Humanitarian aid organizations are on the ground working to provide much needed relief to the drought and famine-stricken areas. But they need more help. They need our help.

Join the Justice League and DC Entertainment in raising awareness and funds for three nonprofit partners, Save the Children, International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps, who are delivering aid where it is needed most. DC Entertainment will match donations 100%, and 50% of the purchase price from We Can Be Heroes products will go to saving lives.

Tickets and more information can be found at the Riverside Theater website. Get your haunt on!