Wednesday, 18 May 2016

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #29 - Dracula Pack XV


Welcome dear friends to the penultimate edition of Tomb of the Trumps! Yes, we are down to the last four cards in the second and final pack of vintage Horror Top Trumps, and I'd love to say I've saved the best 'till last but as we've been running through the packs alphabetically that would be a blatant lie! However we do have perhaps one of the odder cards in today's rogue's gallery...


Now a doubled headed gorilla might well suggest a very lazy card creation. Draw an ape, add an extra bonce, chuck in a little bit of blood and a severed limb to keep the kiddies happy, and voilĂ  we have a brand new monster at very notice! Job done! 

However, this card was actually inspired by a real movie. No, honest it is! Have a gander at this still from The Thing With Two Heads from 1972! 


Now if you think that's strange, prepare to be astounded! For this twin noggined primate isn't actually the titular horror in that movie! And while this atrocious ape was an early creation of make-up wizard Rick Baker, this creature is revealed early in the movie as just a dry run for the experiment a less-than-sane doctor is going to perform! Now transplant surgery has been a staple of horror a good while, going all the way back to Frankenstein. However there has never been a movie quite like The Thing With Two Heads... and probably for very good reason... I think I'll just let the poster explain it all...



Directed by Lee Frost, and co-written with Wes Bishop, no one seems entirely sure what the hell this movie is going for... Horror? Comedy? An insanity plea? I'm tempted to say perhaps it was intended as some triple-headed transplant of all three. However I suspect a fourth motive at work, for a year earlier another low budget flick The Incredible 2-Head Transplant (1971) had staggered into theatres. This movie featured a sanity-deficient doc grafted the head of a murderer onto the body of a mentally challenged man. Now details of box office takings for this movie aren't readily available but I'm guessing it made enough for Frost and Bishop to reckon there was gold in them thar two-headed hills!   

Unsurprisingly this flick often features in lists of movies so terrible they are hilarious, or round-ups of the most oddball movies ever made. Certainly it has to be seen to be believed - but I wouldn't necessarily take that as a recommendation! Now then moving swiftly on, for that is perhaps for the best, what's this web-winged horror flapping down from the skies? 


Now at first, judging by the somewhat crude art on this card you may be forgiven for thinking that this was a quick filler sketch. After all, bats are a staple of horror imagery, and this one seems to have been drawn with little or no consultation to what bats actually look like! Indeed from the slap-dash rendering, it's all too easy to imagine our Unknown Artist being fatigued and possibly overcome by paint fumes when he drew it. 

However that said, I always found the fizzog of this particular vampire bat to be strangely familiar! Now then, in previous instalments of our journey through the decks we have discovered that as well as borrowing from film and TV, the world of horror mags and comics has been ransacked for inspiration more than a few times. And I couldn't help noticing while going through my old House of Hammers in search of a Killer Rat that this werewolf rather reminds me of the Vampire Bat...


However looking inside this issue of the classic horror mag (Issue 18 fact fans) we find the comic strip featured on the cover - a one-off strip written and drawn by comic legends Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. This mini-epic features Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and a werewolf all crossing paths, and along the way we find the following panels which look very much like inspiration for our somewhat odd looking flittermouse!




Now there's not an exact match in any of these to be sure, but they are close enough to prove a couple of things. Firstly they are near enough for the old Vampire Bat to seem oddly familiar to me, and secondly, that whatever source image our Unknown Artist was working from, I rather doubt it was a bat! Plus, judging by the lack of detail and the type of lines used, I would put good money on the original image being a small panel in a comic strip. And quite possibly the source being two small frames, one for the bat-wings and one for the bestial face. Perhaps one day, I shall open some old horror comic and find the Vampire Bat's doppelgänger... 

Next week, we reach the final pair of cards in the vaults of the Tomb of the Trumps... 

5 comments:

  1. The Vampire Bat looks like it came out of the same spell of creativity that sired The Gorgon.
    Kudos to the artist for using a similar moon to the Dracula card, thematic continuity if nothing else.
    I'm a bit despondent this blog is drawing to an end, although finally learning who Zetan Warlord is a consolation, its definitely my favourite card.
    I'll probably expire in an Omen style accident before next Wednesday now.
    A Zetan sky to you all.
    ST.CLAIRE

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  2. Zetan Warlord is the pack's piece de resistance. I don't believe for a minute that the guy who penned the Warlord was also responsible for the vampire bat, gorgon etc. Will we ever get to the bottom of the whole HTT thing?

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  3. I've had a few ideas about Zetan Warlords origins but will refrain from sharing them for now, in the unlikely event it turns out to be right. Note how he wears the symbol of a single eye,it must be a part of the Zetan's religion as the Priest is cycloptic too. Does the Warlord answer to the Priests? Does their planet have a sun that looks like an eye, and they sacrifice their victims to it? Was the Priest two eyed and similarly featured to the Warlord but then mutilated his face in order to ascend the priest hierarchy? Why am I thinking about this when I am at work?
    ST.CLAIRE

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  4. I can only answer the last question: it is because you are a true ENTHUSIAST. Which is a relief as I thought it was just me. What happens in a fortnight, that's what I want to know. I'm sure Western Gunfighters is a path best left unfollowed. Obviously out of the scope of this fine blog, also.
    A word of advice: don't get any HTT T-Shirts made: Its a slippery slope. You start with your favourites, then a few near- favourites and before you know it you're wearing the Vampire Bat. But not in public.

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  5. Haha. You wont believe this, but I actually have 4 HTT t-shirts; Zetan Warlord (of course), Prince Of Darkness, The Reptile and Dracula. I also have two Z.W custom figures, both unfinished and unlikely to be finished this year, really. I seen a figure on ebay from Assassins Creed that looked the correct size and shape. The seller congratulated me, telling me it was getting very rare and he was glad it was going to a good home. Little did he know, that within seconds of arriving it was suffering brutal decapitation and dismemberment, before a Frankenstein -style grafting of a gorillas head onto its torso. I wasn't happy with the face and the whole thing ran out of steam, unfortunately.
    ST.CLAIRE

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Let me know what you think!