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Today — A clutch of catch-up curios today, all monster-related, with lots of eye-candy-filled links! Here we go:

A Welcome Blast from the Past:

Have a look at the comments on this 2007 Halloween post of mine (a fun gallery of Pre-Code covers)

and the comments stream on my earlier Dragon Wars review,

and check out who’s paid the SpiderBaby online venue a visit.

Yep, Mike Kaluta just popped into the Myrant archives, appropriately enough weighing in on the infamous Pre-Code Tales of Horror giant snake imagery.

Mike Kaluta is, of course, among the great fantasy illustrators and cartoonists of all time, beloved to my generation of comics creators for his work on The Shadow and as part of The Studio (with compatriots Berni Wrightson, Barry Windsor Smith, and Jeff Jones). FYI, Mike and I first met back in ‘77, when I was a student at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art and he was a guest artist; he turned us on to the novel The Horse’s Mouth, which is a must-read for any and all artists. I was thinking of Mike and revisited his work back in the spring, after our mutual friend Charles Vess visited CCS. Like Charles, Mike is as sweet a fellow as he is an artist, and it’s great to wake up today to find Mike out-of-the-blue visiting (and sweeter still to find an old horror comicbook prompts the visit).

A big hello to you, Mike, and let’s get in touch in real time and space, shall we?

Another Welcome Blast from the Past:I used to see Tony Isabella annually in the ’80s, back in the daze when John Totleben and I were cranking on Saga of the Swamp Thing regularly guesting and raising funds for The American Cancer Society via the November Mid-Ohio Con. I think Tony and I last crossed paths at the final Capital City and Diamond trade shows in the mid-1990s. I particularly recall a party Tony threw at his house, which was big fun.

Anyhoot, sharing links around on the Charlton yahoo group (to my recent two-part Reptilicus / Reptisaurus essay) prompted Tony to share and share alike, and I’ll pass on the courtesy. The following are links to Tony’s Online Tips blog extension of his most venerable The Comic Buyer’s Guide column, which has been ongoing for, what, over 30 years now?

Tony was posting on the least-beloved of all Charlton monster comics three years ago:

Tony begins, properly enough, with his snapshot of Reptilicus #1,

which also provides a quick refresher to the lineage we’re revisiting today via these images and links.

That little jaunt down memory lane led smack-dab into

Tony’s overview of the second issue of Reptilicus — Charlton’s first (and last) original tale featuring the Danish saurian — in which Tony includes my favorite panel from the comic, in which Reptilicus joins his cinematic brethren Rodan the Flying Monster and The Beast of Hollow Mountain by snuffing it in a patch of soggy geology. Have a good look: it’s the last we ever saw of Reptilicus, folks.

Tony winds up his trio of links with one more gem:

this moving valentine to Reptisaurus #4, in which the classic “Reptisaurus Meets His Mate” introduced the concept of Reptisaurus’s love life to the pantheon of primordial page-turners, establishing the real tenor of their brand-new spin-off monster comic.

Yep, Reptisaurus was most definitely the first comic dedicated to the love life of a giant monster — its super-sized saurian hero was quite a Romeo, and had no less than three different mates in the short run of his solo title!

Tony provides a no-longer-functioning link to the great Scott Shaw! Oddball Comics site, so I’ll update that minor frustration with fresh links here and now to the relevant posts on Scott’s stellar (and venerable) website, which is well worth your exploring with any free time you’ve got on your hands.

Scott, of course, beat us all to the punch by eons, having covered all manner of Charlton monster meat and minutiae loooooooong before anyone else, and did so with the love and affection Reptisaurus reserved for his paramours and mates.

Scott’s threnody to Reptilicus #2, the death-of-Denmark’s-dino issue, is an ideal intro to Scott’s take on these grand early 1960s Charlton wonders. Give it a read (here)

before savoring Scott’s analysis of Reptisaurus the Terrible #5’s scandalous tale of the really red reptile’s lust for a Red Chinese communist dragon robot (a remarkably sophisticated slice of technology to gussy up a mere parade) — yep, its male monster meat meets machine, lovingly crafted by layabouts Joe Gill, Art Capello and Vince Colletta! Scott relates the whole affair here, give it a read and have a chuckle.

Fickle Flying Freak-Fucker that he was, Reptisaurus was soon soaring to new sexual conquests, and by his 7th issue was shown flagrantly flaunting his affections with a female of — gasp! — another species!

Reptisaurus precursor Reptilicus may have recreated the death throes of Rodan (in a fiery sulphur pit instead of the volcanic magma that claimed Rodan and his mate in the 1957 Toho movie classic), but Reptisaurus rekindled Rodanic romance by successfully mating with a pteranodon, and there was nothing Platonic about it: eggs were laid, folks.

But don’t take my word for it, here’s Scott Shaw’s detailed voyeur’s view of Reptisaurus the Terrible #7, in which Reptisaurus and his mate nest in Africa, only to have their eggs smashed and one snatched by scientists and — well, Scott will explain. It took one more issue to sort out this saga, and with that, the title folded (save for one special issue in ‘63 and a cameo in Gorgo #12).

Scott also dedicates a fantastic archived post — with a meaty art gallery, for you Steve Ditko fans out there! — to the classic Fantastic Giants all-Ditko giant-sized Charlton treasure, which reprinted the wellspring for all the Charlton monster comics, Ditko’s sterling adaptations of Gorgo and Konga; herein, Scott also provides a concise overview of the Charlton comics series those seminal monster movie comics spawned. Give Scott’s generous showcase a gander, Gorgo-lovers!

Scott also spotlights one of my all-time favorite issues of Konga, #8’s extravaganza “The Land Of The Frozen Giants!” by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko,

and that rarest-of-the-rare Charlton monster comicbook curios, The Fightin’ 5 #41 (January, 1967), featuring the final Charlton appearance of Gorgo — though the monster is never named as such, it’s most definitely Gorgo in his swansong cameo, compliments of vet Charlton monster creators Joe Gill, Bill Montes and Ernie Bache. Check it out!

That rarity is little-known even among die-hard Charlton monster buffs, in part due to the fact Gorgo doesn’t appear on the cover, but beyond that, few monster comic buffs ever scoured the The Fightin’ 5 back issue bargain bins when these Charlton gems could still be found at affordable prices.

That’s all I’ve got today on Charlton Comics monsters, but don’t think for a nanosecond I’ve exhausted this rich vein of four-color paleontology. That said, I’ll take a break from this nonsense and get back to posting some of my recent art and feed your monster jones that way.

And finally — this just in from Mark Masztal, posted here verbatim and without comment, make of it what you will –
_______________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 12, 2008
BIGFOOT BODY FOUND

DNA evidence and photo evidence to be presented at a PRESS CONFERENCE to be held on
Date: Friday, August 15, 2008
Time: From 12 Noon – 1:00 pm
Place: Cabana Hotel-Palo Alto (A Crown Plaza Resort) 4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, California 94306

Searching for Bigfoot, Inc.
Menlo Park, California
Tom Biscardi, CEO

BIGFOOT BODY FOUND – EVIDENCE AND DNA DETAILS TO BE PRESENTED AT A PRESS CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 15th FROM 12 N00N TO 1:00PM AT THE CABANA HOTEL-PALO ALTO IN PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

A body that may very well be the body of the creature commonly known as “Bigfoot” has been found in the woods in northern Georgia.

DNA evidence and photo evidence of the creature will be presented in a press conference on Friday, August 15th from 12 Noon to 1:00pm at the Cabana Hotel-Palo Alto at 4290 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, California, 94306. The press conference will not be open to the public. It will only be open to credentialed members of the press.

Here are some of the vital statistics on the “Bigfoot” body:

*The creature is seven feet seven inches tall.

*It weighs over five hundred pounds.

*The creature looks like it is part human and part ape-like.

*It is male.*It has reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.

*It has two arms and two legs, and five fingers on each hand andfive toes on each foot.

*The feet are flat and similar to human feet.

*Its footprint is sixteen and three-quarters inches long and five and three-quarters inches wide at the heel.

*From the palm of the hand to the tip of the middle finger, its hands are eleven and three-quarters inches long and six and one-quarter inches wide.

*The creatures walk upright. (Several of them were sighted on the same day that the body was found.)

*The teeth are more human-like than ape-like.

*DNA tests are currently being done and the current DNA and photo evidence will be presented at the press conference on Friday, August 15th.

The creature was found by Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer (residents of Georgia) in the woods in northern Georgia. (The exact location is being kept secret to protect the creatures.)

Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer will be flying in from Georgia to be at the press conference. Also present at the press conference will be Tom Biscardi, CEO of Searching for Bigfoot, Inc.

Whitton is a Clayton County, Georgia, police officer, who is currently on administrative leave after being wounded in the course of duty pursuing an alleged felon. Dyer is a former correctional officer. Whitton and Dyer are co-owners of

bigfoottracker.com

and Bigfoot Global LLC., a company that offers Bigfoot expeditions. Whitton and Dyer are working with Bigfoot hunter, Tom Biscardi, and Biscardi’s Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., to present and conduct the scientific study of the evidence and information on this body.

A few weeks ago, Whitton and Dyer announced the finding of the body on the “Squatch Detective” radio show, an internet based radio show hosted by Steve Kulls. While on that show, the commentator asked Rick Dyer “Would you allow one of our people to come down and verify the body?” Dyer replied, “The only person we would allow to come down and verify the body was ‘the real Bigfoot Hunter,’ Tom Biscardi.” The next day, the producer of the Squatch Detective show contacted Biscardi with pertinent information on how to contact Dyer and Whitton.

Extensive scientific studies will be done on the body by a team of scientists including a molecular biologist, an anthropologist, a paleontologist and other scientists over the next few months at an undisclosed location. The studies will be carefully documented and the findings will be released to the world, according to Biscardi.

Biscardi is known as “the real Bigfoot Hunter” because of his extensive investigations out in the field. He has been searching for Bigfoot since 1971 and over the past several years, he has been criss-crossing the United States and Canada tracking down the hottest leads on Bigfoot sightings.

Videography on the studies will be done under the supervision of Scott Davis, an independent producer and owner of TV Biz Productions in Phoenix, Arizona.

Currently, Tom Biscardi and his Searching for Bigfoot Team, in conjunction with Bigfoot Global LLC., are preparing to capture another of these creatures alive. That expedition will start very soon. The dates and the locations are being kept confidential.

The body that is currently being studied is being referred to as the “RICKMAT” creature, a name derived from the names of Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton. [Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman recommends the term “Georgia Gorilla” be used to remove any taint of ego from the discovery, and so the general public, media, and science will have a comfortable moniker until a formal zoological name may be bestowed.]

Last year, a film that Biscardi produced about his investigations, called “Bigfoot Lives,” won first place in the Documentary category at the Pocono Mountains Film Festival. Biscardi also hosts a Bigfoot oriented internet radio show that can be heard on Wednesday nights from 7:00pm to 8:00pm PDT

here.

The show is heard in over thirty countries.

Searching for Bigfoot, Inc. has exclusive rights to all publishing rights, photo rights, television and film rights, production and distribution rights and other commercial opportunities related to the discovery and findings regarding this body and these creatures.

Interested parties may contact Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., in writing, at their mailing address, 1134 Crane St., Suite 216, Menlo Park, California 94025.
________________________________________________________

And that, Myranters, is absolutely all the monster news I could pack into a single morning’s post.