Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula

Witness the rise and fall of a Hollywood movie icon in Lugosi. If you thought you knew the whole story from Tim Burton's Ed Wood bio-pic, guess again! Creator Shadmi Koren dives right into Lugosi's early life in Romania, disappointing his high-brow successful parents with wild dreams of becoming an actor to becoming one of Budapest's greatest actors, only to flee for his life for his failed support of the Communist party. 

An exiled Bela will take the stage in London as Dracula, gaining notoriety before immigrating to the United States in hopes of becoming a star. Unfortunately, his thick accent and lack of mastery of the English language makes roles on Broadway few and far between. But when Bela moves to California to try his hand at Hollywood, the actor will be reunited with Count Dracula, beginning a lifelong connection with the Lord of Vampires that will wrongly typecast Lugosi as just another schlock horror movie actor. 

Shadmi Koren's artwork was fantastic. I felt like both Lugosi and cinematic rival Boris Karloff were alive and well right in front of me. I learned so much about early Hollywood horror and my respect for Ed Wood, based on how above and beyond he would go for his friends and family, has increased exponentially. And I was already a fan of his! Though I felt at times that Koren's personal commentary took over for what was supposed to be a passive narrative voice, I want to read more of his works- especially his graphic novel account of the life of Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling!

Want to capture the Halloween spirit of things without being too scared? The life and times of Bela Lugosi is one way to capture the magic of the season without having to sleep with the lights on!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Boris Karloff's Gold Key Mysteries #1

This revival title is something that was on my pull list as soon as I found out about it earlier this summer. In 1960, Boris Karloff, you know, the guy who played Frankenstein's monster and the Mummy in those old Universal films, hosted a horror anthology series on NBC from 1960-1962 known as Thriller. Gold Key released 2 issues based on Thriller, but it wasn't enough to save the show from cancellation. 

In a strange twist of fate, those 2 issues were big, big hits for Gold Key. Not wanting to let a good thing pass, Gold Key signed an agreement with Karloff to continue to use his name and likeness. Starting with issue #3, the comic became Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery. The anthology ran for an impressive 97 issues, ending in early 1980; 11 years after the death of the film legend!

The Gold Key and Whitman books have a cult following. If there's a comic book based on a TV show or movie from the 1950s-70s, there's a good chance, one of these publishers was behind its release. Reprinted editions have been hot sellers with older collectors and good condition first runs are prized finds that bring about coveted likes and jealous comments on social media. 

Gold Key folded in 1984 after Western Publishing was sold off by Mattel. The only way to get Gold Key comic books now was through searching or revivals of popular titles in which someone still owned a trademark. Public domain titles were brought back to life by indy publishers such as Gwandanaland Comics. Then in 2021, comics creator Robert Willis obtained the copyright to the original Gold Key logo and began to work with talent to bring some of those fan favorite titles back.

Boris Karloff's Gold Key Mysteries is the first title to be released by the revitalized Gold Key publisher. After several months of anticipation, plus an extra week of waiting for my LCS to get my copy in, I must say that I was rather disappointed with the end result. 

The book starts off with a rather boorish agent from some unknown government bureau investigating the appearance of a mysterious house that suddenly appears in the deserts of Arizona. This house was last seen in 1980. Now with its unexpected return, the spook wants to know what's inside this haunted house of legend. But he'll have to hurry as the mansion is known to disappear to parts unknown when the sun rises.

At this point, we are introduced to 2 tales. One about a woman whose plastic surgeries impacts her doppelganger in a way similar to Dorian Gray. Then an up-and-coming chef takes advantage of his mentor's unexpected death to cash in on the celebrity chef's name and reputation to a disastrous opening night bathed in blood. After those two stories, we meet the government guy again who is now in Texas with that mysterious house having appeared just recently. Law enforcement, dressed in tactical gear, search the domicile only to run into Boris Karloff.

End Issue #1 with a dreaded To Be Continued!

I don't mind that this series has a running story. I kinda like the idea of Boris Karloff and his Thriller mansion wandering through time and space. Introducing that agent playing Fox Mulder in search of the secret of the old house is a cool way to frame the disappearance of Tales of Mystery the comic into the real world with its 2023 revival. Elvira's House of Mystery and Vertigo's House of Mystery were both horror anthologies that had running story lines involving the hosts interconnected with various stories. I liked both series and thought that integration was great. My problem is how little Boris Karloff there is for a comic book bearing his name. 

Karloff's character only appears on the last page. He says only a single sentence. Then a 'To Be Continued!' I hate cliffhangers. But I hate a bait-and-switch even more. If Karloff had at least appeared in more pages than he did, I would probably be okay with the cliffhanger. But they don't even have Karloff narrating the stories or introducing them. This was not Boris Karloff's Gold Key Mysteries. Instead, the book should be called The Gold Key Mystery is Where is Boris Karloff?

I want to support the new Gold Key. The storytelling was uneven. The artwork was too dynamic to really understand what was going on. Especially that culinary thriller. Yet I can overlook those sorts of technical flaws you'd expect with a TV pilot. It's just based on how little Boris Karloff was in this issue, I'm not sure I would want to keep getting individual issues. Not for $5.99 each. Now I would still be interested in the collected edition and I'm planning on signing up for Gold Key's newsletter. But in terms of budget, I'm going save my money for one of the rebooted publisher's other revival titles.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.