TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #16 - Devil Priest Pack Part XVI

Welcome dear guys and ghouls, to the benighted world of Tomb of the Trumps! And I'm afraid my dearios, we are now reaching the end of this particular vault, with a pair of very bizarre characters brought to you by the letter Z! 

Now then, you would be forgiven for thinking that this particular card is merely the result of a nervous breakdown on the part of a rushed artist overcome by the fumes from his own magic markers. And indeed, many Horror Top Trumpologists have conclude that this is indeed the most likely explanation for the Zetan Priest! I mean, a cyclopean horror in a purple and orange cape made seemingly from the finest eye-ball searing 1970s wallpaper and wearing a nice lacy bonnet! Surely this clear evidence of an over-wrought mind affected by hallucinogen art materials! 

However as regular visitors to this den of terrible old tat know, unusual ocular features are a clear clue that this is in fact a disguised rip-off! And as it turns out, this alleged "Zetan Priest" is actually another denizen of the Doctor Who universe. It appears in the Third Doctor story Colony in Space which aired back in 1971, and  he/she/it is an alien from the planet Uxarieus in the year 2472, and surprisingly this walnut-bonced chap is actually a priest too. I particularly like the way that the Unknown Artist has turned the head ridges into lacy crinkles, and how if you look closely there's every indication he was going to do this fella with two eyes and then thought "sod it, let's go cyclops again!". 

Of course, we have no clue as to what all this Zetan business was all about, but in the companion deck it would crop up again... But more of that another another day. Meanwhile however we have the second half of our Z pair coming up next!  

Now then, as you may remember, a while back we encountered a similarly seemingly made-up for this deck clerical horror figure, the High Priestess of Zoltan (see here) and now, we have the lad himself! Quite why this green-faced, spikey-headed google-eyed freak warranted a High Priestess is sadly some thing I'm guess not even the deck's designers knew. However like his priestess, old Zoltan has his origins in demented early '70s horror. For as you can see, "Zoltan" is very obviously this creation from the 1971 Italian horror flick Lady Frankenstein.  

Now under all that latex is a Mr Peter Whiteman and, as far as I can tell, this was his only role. Funny that... Anyhow, this odd little movie introduces us to Baron Frankenstein's daughter Tania, played by Rosalba Neri, and this plot sees her returning from college to help out dear old dad, played by Joseph Cotton, with his notorious experiments. Of course, the first monster they make promptly runs amuck and escapes, and Tania continues her experiments by planning to transplant her lover's brain into a new younger body. Needless to say it all ends in tears, with a pitchfork wielding mob of villagers deciding they had enough of the Frankensteins' shit. 

Some have seen this movie as an attempt to put a feminist slant on the Frankenstein mythos, but I fear more have seen it as a chance to ogle Miss Neri with her kit off... It's a fine line between sexual liberation and sexploitation... But anyhow, Zoltan brings us to the end of the Devil Priest pack, but fear not dear friends, for our investigations will be continuing with the second deck, the Dracula pack, very very soon!