Horror comics that rip off from horror movies, 1950-1980s in Horror Comics and Fantasy Art Forum

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Horror comics that rip off from horror movies, 1950-1980s

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madeleymade	Horror comics that rip off from horror movies, 1950-1980s	Lead	[-]
May 25 12 3:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Are there any comics that rip off or imitate the horror films of the time? I understand the Marvel Monster line were inspiered by classic monsters. Any other?
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madeleymade		#1	[-]
May 26 12 4:19 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Anyone have suuggestions?
Hausenfan		#2	[-]
May 28 12 10:57 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I used to think the Warren mags (Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella) were very original, not having seen too many horror films in the theater. But the video revolution of the 80's, where I caught up with a slew of classics, made me see how derivative they really were. The art was always terrific, but many of the stories were taken from popular films from the 60's & 70's. My favorite Eerie series, Dr Archaeus, was lifted directly from Abominable Dr Phibes. Warren imitated a lot of classics, but it was still the best imitation you could find in comic book form.
ByronOrlok		#3	[-]
May 28 12 1:29 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Marvel's Werewolf By Night clearly owes a debt to I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (in broad strokes at least). DC's I, Vampire series from House of Mystery bears similarities to Dark Shadows. Hausenfan, good call on the Dr. Archaeus / Phibes connection. Spot on -- the big difference between the two, of course, is that the Warren serial is played absolutely straight, without a hint of irony or camp. In fact, it's one of the grimmest, most downbeat things Warren ever published.
Helrunar		#4	[-]
May 30 12 10:58 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tomb of Dracula, if I remember correctly (it's been awhile), had some hints of being at least suggested by the two Hammer Dracula films set in the 1970s--Dracula AD 1972 and Satanic Rites. H.
Wich2		#5	[-]
May 30 12 11:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Drac there was also admitted to be based on Palance's from the Curtis telemovie.
ByronOrlok		#6	[-]
May 31 12 12:14 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Actually, Craig, I'm not sure that's true. I had always assumed that was the case, too, but I seem to recall reading a later interview with Gene Colan where he said that though he did indeed base his version of Dracula on Jack Palance, he wasn't even aware at the time that Palance had actually played the character. He just thought Palance had really strong (and somewhat sinister) facial features and "cast" him accordingly. In fact, now I'm wondering about the timeline -- TOMB debuted in '71, I think, and the Dan Curtis TV movie first aired in '72 or '73 -- right? I think I need to do some quick googling -- be right back!
ByronOrlok		#7	[-]
May 31 12 12:43 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, I got the dates wrong, but I'm still right -- TOD debuted in April of '72, the Curtis TVM first aired in February of '74. So, Colan COULDN'T have used "Drac Palance" for inspiration. Hey, maybe it was the other way around -- maybe Dan Curtis saw a copy of the comic.... And Helrunar -- outside of the basic idea of having Dracula operating in modern times, I don't really think there was much similarity between the comic and the two Hammer movies. DRACULA A.D. 72 doesn't have much in common with the comic at all, and remember, SATANIC RITES didn't even get released in the States until '76 or '77. I thought of another one, though. The short-lived Atlas comic PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES was a blatant mash-up of PLANET OF THE APES and Matheson's I AM LEGEND, basis for THE LAST MAN ON EARTH and THE OMEGA MAN. Kirby's KAMANDI was also very heavily influenced by the POTA films ( though this moves us a bit out of the "horror comic / movie" realm).
madeleymade		#8	[-]
Jun 2 12 4:16 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Any more, what other Warrens?
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Lawrence Fechtenberger		#9	[-]
Jun 5 12 6:55 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	You do like to nag us, don't you? "Mute Witness to Murder!," a Johnny Craig story in THE CRYPT OF TERROR #18 (EC, 1950), is a blatant imitation of the 1946 Vincent Price film SHOCK. I do not use the word "blatant" lightly here--the villain is drawn to look exactly like Price, and the word "shock" (which is used several times) always appears in darker lettering than the surrounding words. Many years later, this story was adapted as an episode of the TALES FROM THE CRYPT television series. As SHOCK had passed into the public domain by then, I suppose that ripping it off was legal at that point, if not ethical.
Lawrence Fechtenberger		#10	[-]
Jun 5 12 7:12 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This is getting away from the precise topic (and if you are anything like the other guy here who demands that we make lists for him, you will take me to task for deviating from my assignment), but as I wrote the last post I was reminded of another story Johnny Craig did for EC, "Murder May Boomerang" in CRIME SUSPENSTORIES #1 (1950). After this was reprinted in the 1990s Gladstone version of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, a letter was published in a subsequent issue from someone who noted how strongly it resembled "Revenge," the first episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. The editor smugly responded by pointing out that the story had originally been published five years before the TV show was aired--very broadly hinting that Hitchcock had ripped EC off. What this editor was careful not to acknowledge was that the Hitchcock show was an authorized adaptation of a short story by Samuel Blas, which had been first published in the 1940s. Incidentally, EC was not the only company to steal this story. Here is a version from WITCHES TALES #21 (1953): http://thehorrorsofitall....com/2009/02/revenge.html Note that this version keeps the original title, and also retains the element of a man avenging the rape of his wife (EC turned that into a man avenging the mugging of his father). Plagiarism is seldom so pure. Last Edited By: Lawrence Fechtenberger Jun 5 12 9:50 AM. Edited 1 times.
Lawrence Fechtenberger		#11	[-]
Jun 5 12 10:07 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Atlas Seaboard was a company that popped up briefly in the mid-1970s, published a large number of comics in a short time, and then disappeared. It was, to put it politely, not a company that was afraid to imitate. Often the greatest source of entertainment to be had from its comics is figuring out which movies, TV shows, and comics were being copied. The single most derivative comic it published was probably TARGITT, the first issue of which blended elements from BULLITT (obviously), THE BIG HEAT, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and DIRTY HARRY. Tied for second place would be PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (the plot was a combination of PLANET OF THE APES and I AM LEGEND, the title was swiped from a Mario Bava film) and MORLOCK 2001 (the title evoked Wells and Clarke, and the story...well, it was about a future society in which books are banned and firemen no longer put out fires but rather burn books instead). Of greatest relevance to this topic is THE BRUTE. Its first issue is virtually a scene by scene adaptation of the film TROG, with the only significant difference being that the caveman survives at the end, to go on to further adventures (well, two more). Atlas also published a "Son of Dracula" series, in which the title character hid his identity under the name "Alucard."
bipolarber		#12	[-]
Jun 6 12 2:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think there's also some prescident for it working the other way around... The original "origin story" for "The Incredible Hulk" was almost a storyboard for "The Amazing Colossal Man"... The Fantastic Four suffered much the same fate as "The First Man into Space". The Flash's beginning seemed to be taken from a swipe file of any number of "science gone wrong" films of the 1950's. Come to think of it, Stan Lee was pretty much just a rip off artist. "[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON
professor liebstrum		#13	[-]
Jun 6 12 3:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	But these days, we're told that Stan didn't actually "write" the books ... I havent actually seen the film so I might be barking up the wrong tree but the Lizard in Spider-Man reminded me of the synopsis I read of the ALLIGATOR PEOPLE. Russ
ByronOrlok		#14	[-]
Jun 6 12 6:20 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Lawrence Fechtenberger wrote: Atlas Seaboard was a company that popped up briefly in the mid-1970s, published a large number of comics in a short time, and then disappeared. It was, to put it politely, not a company that was afraid to imitate. Often the greatest source of entertainment to be had from its comics is figuring out which movies, TV shows, and comics were being copied. The single most derivative comic it published was probably TARGITT, the first issue of which blended elements from BULLITT (obviously), THE BIG HEAT, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and DIRTY HARRY. Tied for second place would be PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (the plot was a combination of PLANET OF THE APES and I AM LEGEND, the title was swiped from a Mario Bava film) and MORLOCK 2001 (the title evoked Wells and Clarke, and the story...well, it was about a future society in which books are banned and firemen no longer put out fires but rather burn books instead). Of greatest relevance to this topic is THE BRUTE. Its first issue is virtually a scene by scene adaptation of the film TROG, with the only significant difference being that the caveman survives at the end, to go on to further adventures (well, two more). Atlas also published a "Son of Dracula" series, in which the title character hid his identity under the name "Alucard." I don't have my copies of the comics in front of me, but I think there's also a heaping helping of Orwell's "1984" in MORLOCK 2001, with paranoid "Big Brother" type imagery and even a version of "newspeak", IIRC. I'd heard about the TROG / BRUTE connection before but it had skipped my mind -- probably because I've never actually seen that movie (and don't plan to, anytime soon). So -- good call. Re: the Atlas SON OF DRACULA -- besides the Lon Chaney Jr. film, I'm wondering if the '70s drive-in fave GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE had any influence. Good excuse to dig up my copy of FRIGHT #1 tonight when I get home... The Son of Satan strip in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT did a two-issue "Exorcist" rip-off -- er, I mean, homage -- in issues 18 and 19. Also, the Gabriel, Devil-Hunter strip in HAUNT OF HORROR was, of course, directly inspired by the same movie.
professor liebstrum		#15	[-]
Jun 7 12 4:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Atlas Seaboard was started up by the original owner of Marvel Comics , Martin Goodman. He'd sold Marvel, on condition they kept his son on, and it didnt work out so he started up Atlas, possibly to give Marvel a kicking. It didn't last long, but for a while he was paying some of the best page rates around and attracted a lot of talent. A few nice books but yes, incredibly derivative Russ
Abin Surly		#16	[-]
Jul 22 12 4:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Lawrence Fechtenberger wrote: it was about a future society in which books are banned and firemen no longer put out fires but rather burn books instead). Atlas also published a "Son of Dracula" series, in which the title character hid his identity under the name "Alucard." The former would be from Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury...and the latter would be in reference to Universal Studio's Son of Dracula (1943) starring Lon Chaney Jr. in which he went by the name Count Alucard.
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Horror comics that rip off from horror movies, 1950-1980s

Horror comics that rip off from horror movies, 1950-1980s