Saturday, August 6, 2016

Boris From Beyond The Grave!

I'm old, so I'm legally obligated to wonder aloud whether kids today even know who this guy is...

Man, Boris Karloff was the bomb. A sickly British child, he decided to become an actor. He went to Hollywood, and played in dozens of silent films.

And then came his big break--he was cast as The Monster in the 1931 Frankenstein. He rapidly followed that up with the role of Imhotep in The Mummy, and more Frankenstein movies, and soon enough he was a bona fide star, largely in horror and mystery films.

He adapted well to the advent of TV, with dozens of appearances on shows in the 50s and 60s. And, the guy was the Narrator in How The Grinch Stole Christmas!!

And, of course, he wrote comic books.

What? You don't believe he wrote them himself? Then explain this:

See--right there!! Karloff had to have written that, right?!? Otherwise, that would be a lie--and comics never lie to us!

Boris Karloff Thriller also starred Boris, as a Rod Serling-type who would narrate the horror-type stories, introducing them...

...and giving us our conclusion:

And yes, I was quite deliberate in the Rod Serling comparison, as the comic was based on NBC's Twilight Zone knockoff...

It ran for two seasons, and was hosted by Karloff.

Unfortunately, Gold Key's timing was off, and Boris Karloff Thriller the comic came out almost simultaneously with Thriller the show being cancelled. So with issue #3, they retitled the joint Boris Karloff Tales Of Mystery:

Same set-up, though--Boris would introduce and conclude our tales of mystery, horror and the macabre:

Boris Karloff Tales Of Mysteries kept chugging along until issue #97 (1980)...

...with Karloff still guiding us...

WAIT A MINUTE!!!! 

Boris Karloff died in 1969!! How can Boris still be showing us these stories in 1980?!?! AAAGGHHHHHHHHHHHHGHGHGGG!!!!!! He's speaking to us from beyond the grave!!

[Editor's note--snell realizes that Karloff didn't actually write these comics, although as the vast majority of these stories have no writer's credit on GCD, well, he likes to pretend Karloff himself was scripting and narrating tales. PROVE IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!!]

2 comments:

JungGRT said...

"Thriller" and "Twilight Zone" started within an year of each other-did NBC really have time to whip up a rip off of TZ?? Not sure I can buy that.

snell said...

Thriller debuted a full 11 months after Twilight Zone--certainly more than enough time to put together a series, especially if it's just going to be an "anthology" series, with no regular cast or locations. Can't see why it would take longer than hiring a host & optioning a bunch of scripts/short stories.