Month: April 2011

I am proud to re-offer for sale copies of one of my finest books: Richard Matheson’s Abu & The 7 Marvels.

Abu & The 7 Marvels is Richard Matheson’s only children’s book. For those of you not familiar with Richard’s name, Matheson’s writing credits include 16 of the best Rod Serling Twilight Zone episodes (including my favorite: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet), Steven Spielberg’s first film (Duel), Somewhere In Time, The Incredible Shrinking Man, What Dreams May Come, I Am Legend, The Night Stalker and Trilogy of Terror.

ABU was a Bram Stoker Award and Chesley Award nominee; it won the 2003 Benjamin Franklin Award for Juvenile Fiction and Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles and Spectrum.

This is one of my finest books. It was a long time dream and an honor to work with Richard Matheson. This beautiful volume was a pure labor of love.

Abu & The 7 Marvels is once again available through the William Stout Bazaar on this website.

The book is hardcover with a full color dustjacket stamped with gold foil lettering. There are 8 full page full color illustrations (one shown above) and 19 black & white illustrations within its 135 pages.

I SIGN each copy and include a small ORIGINAL SKETCH on the book’s title page. And HEY — It’s only thirty bucks! Buy now while my stock lasts!

My George Petty-style Easter zombie (to be included in my 2012 ZOMBIES! calendar) is here to inform you that my 2011 ZOMBIES! calendar is SOLD OUT! Thanks to everyone who helped to make this calendar a gigantic bestseller!

Good luck to all my tax-paying friends and fans today!

This last weekend was amazing. I played a suave, sociopathic serial killer in Samantha Holmes’ latest film, Uncle. My mom, Joyce, and my nephew, Michael, got cast as well and they were terrific! Real naturals, both. I am so proud of them! Tonight, my wife, Kent Wilson, has a scene to shoot as well. My beautiful wife was a professionally trained actress for over twenty-five years before she did a complete 180 at age forty and embarked upon her current career in medicine.

I had LOADS of dialogue (this film will be about a 25 minutes in length) this time. I’m happy to say, though, that I came to the set very prepared. Besides acting with two of my family members (although it will look quite the opposite in the finished film, I wasn’t physically in the scene with my wife), the real joy of doing this movie was being able to act with my dear friends from The Return of the Living Dead, Beverly Randolph and Don Calfa, as well as my close friend and talented actor-artist-writer (and fellow Rondo Award recipient) Frank Dietz. I was in heaven working with such wonderful pros!

If you’re on Facebook, there are lots of postings of pictures on the set from the various participants in the film who are also part of Facebook.

Our crew was amazing and included Matthew Renoir, a descendant of both Pierre Auguste Renoir (the world famous Impressionist painter) and Jean Renoir (the magnificent director of such films as The Rules of the Game and Grand Illusion).

We all worked long and hard but I think what Samantha got is pure gold. I can’t wait see it edited. I am so proud of my friend Ms. Holmes. She was incredibly organized and her direction was very precise (she always comes to the set with a very strong vision) — yet she allowed for what I call “happy accidents”. I think she is going to be in that elite group of our next batch of great film makers. If you’d like to meet her, she’ll be hanging out with me at my booth at Comic-Con in San Diego.

Kudos, kisses and love to my great cast and crew! And Brava(!) Samantha!

WOW! Monsterpalooza, in only its third year, hit capacity yesterday afternoon! The Fire Marshall had to close admissions to the event, allowing members of the long line to get in only when other attendees left.

Continuing my “Old Home Week”, old friends Rick Baker, Mick Garris, Jon Favreau, Joe Dante, Richard Jones and many other celebrities of All Things Monster stopped by my booth yesterday. I took a quick break to say “Hi!” to my friends the wonderful Chiodo Brothers.Mike Hill has another amazing display with a gigantic Karloff Frankenstein Monster head, and full-sized figures of Oliver Reed’s werewolf, Henry Hull’s werewolf and Charles Laughton’s Hunchback.

After the show I chatted with Roger Corman (thanking him for buying my first screenplay and for hiring me to do several of his company’s movie posters back in the day) over at the Famous Monsters Film Festival in Beverly Hills. I filled him in on my career; he lit up when I mentioned Pan’s Labyrinth, one of his favorite films of recent times. Samantha Holmes and I had dinner with the charming Lugosi family (not only do they drink wine, Dracula fans, they produce it and sell it) and Carla Laemmle (101 years old and still going strong), who speaks the first line in Dracula and was a ballerina in the Lon Chaney Phantom of the Opera.

If you’re going over to Monsterpalooza today, get there early (open 11:00AM – 6:00 PM)!

Today and tomorrow I’ll be at Monsterpalooza. The show started last night. Yesterday Guillermo del Toro, Jon Favreau, J J Abrams and many other greats in the industry came by my booth (Booth #1) — and that was just a Friday!

I saw castmates from Return of the Living Dead; my director-writer Samantha Holmes was with me the entire time as well. So, come by and say “Hi!”, meet Samantha, talk monsters and have a great time at the most astounding monster show in the world: MONSTERPALOOZA!

(See “Appearances” on this website for the convention’s location address)

…and, as soon as Monsterpalooza is over at 7:00 PM tonight, I’ll be dashing across town to the Famous Monsters convention in Beverly Hills to be with my old friends and moviemakers Roger Corman and Mick Garris!