Detail of the cover for issue #16. Art by Gil Kane, Joe Sinnott and John Costanza
Marvel’s horror/fantasy anthology comic book Tower of Shadows was not very successful, selling pretty poorly, so it was renamed Creatures on the Loose starting with issue #10 (in March 1971).
This iteration featured a seven-page King Kull sword and sorcery story by Roy Thomas and artist Bernie Wrightson and other new stories, by artists Herb Trimpe, Syd Shores and Reed Crandall, but then its contents became all-reprint until issue #16 (in March 1972). Now we got the interplanetary swashbuckler hero Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars and then, in March 1973, the sword and sorcery hero Thongor graced the pages of the comic.
Man-Wolf, the werewolf son of J. Jonah Jameson, took centre stage next. His lycanthropic stories ran from issue #30 to #37.
Here are just some of the Creatures on the Loose covers…
Sword versus tentacles! Cover art by Herb Trimpe, Marie Severin and Morrie Kuramoto
‘Moomba is here!’ Art by Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Marie Severin and Artie Simek
It’s comin’ at ya through the television! Art by Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Marie Severin and Artie Simek
OMG! That hill is alive! Art by Gil Kane, Joe Sinnott, Marie Severin and Sam Rosen
Introducing Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars! I liked these stories! Art by Gil Kane, Bill Everett and Artie Simek
‘Slaves of the Spider Swarm!’ Art by Gil Kane, Vincente Alcazar and John Costanza
Art by Gil Kane and Morrie Kuramoto
Art by the awesome Jim Steranko
Thongor! Sword and sorcery wonderfulness by Jim Steranko
Lizard-Hawks attack! Art by John Romita, Ernie Chan and Morrie Kuramoto
‘Sword vs sorcery in the land that time forgot!!!’ I like the sound of that! Art by John Romita, Tony Mortellaro and Danny Crespi
It’s Man-Wolf! Woot! Art by Gil Kane, John Romita and Gaspar Saladino
This cover is great! Art by Gil Kane
Art by Gil Kane, Klaus Janson and George Roussos
A pretty eye-catching cover! Art by George Pérez, John Romita and Tony Mortellaro
I have this issue stored away somewhere. Art by Gil Kane, Tom Palmer and George Roussos
Stupendously amazing cover art by Gil Kane, Klaus Janson and Gaspar Saladino
‘Frenzy in freefall!’ Art by Gil Kane and Tom Palmer
The last issue of Creatures on the Loose (number #37) was published in September 1975.
To finish, here’s the interior splash page art from issue #18. It’s bloody awesome! Feast your eyes…
Huge, aquatic monster alert! Art by Ross Andru and Sam Grainger
Directed by Eugène Lourié, starring Bill Travers, William (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) Sylvester, Vincent Winter, Christopher Rhodes, Martin (THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER) Benson and Joseph (THE GORGON) O’Conor. A King Brothers production.
The towering titan approaches Piccadilly Circus in London…
…and wrecks the ‘Gorgo’ signage!
Captain Joe Ryan (Travers), his First Officer buddy Sam Slade (Sylvester) and his crew discover and capture a gigantic prehistoric creature off the coast of Ireland after an underwater earthquake releases it.
Some weird, dead sea creatures are discovered before Gorgo makes its appearance
Accompanied by an orphan called Sean (Winter), Joe and Sam take the large beast to London, where it is put on public display. But then… the critter’s even bigger mother arrives and demolishes the capital city in search of her offspring!
The captured baby Gorgo is driven through London
US three sheet poster
From the director of THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) and BEHEMOTH THE SEA MONSTER (1959), this giant monster movie stands out for several reasons.
The British man-in-suit monster marvel!
Firstly, the film really makes an effort to show the effects of the parent creature’s attack on the inhabitants of the city, with the streets jammed with fleeing crowds, many of whom are engulfed in falling masonry.
A wall topples towards panic-stricken Londoners
Bashing Big Ben!
Trashing Tower Bridge!
Secondly, the central idea of the story is really cool: Gorgo, the monster on show at a London circus, is only an infant… and its huge mother goes on the rampage to save the youngster!
In fact, it was such a good idea the story was ‘borrowed’ for the Japanese film GAPPA THE TRIPHIBIAN MONSTER (1967).
Young Gorgo is put on display in London…
…and mummy monster comes to get her offspring back, wrecking lots of buildings in the process!
Momma Gorgo gets to wreck such famous landmarks as Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus and Tower Bridge, plus a rollercoaster and a Royal Navy frigate.
A Royal Navy ship gets totalled!
This colourful creature feature eschews the need for a tacked-on love interest subplot, and the movie finishes with a happy ending… for the monsters! Hooray!
Check out some Gorgo-tastic posters…
Belgian poster
US six sheet poster
Turkish poster
Spanish one sheet poster
French poster
US half sheet poster
UK quad poster
US one sheet
French poster
Italian poster
US insert poster
Thai poster
Danish poster
Australian daybill poster
German A1 poster
Israeli one sheet poster
French Grande poster
Here’s an example of original poster artwork by Joseph Smith for GORGO. Joseph did another concept for the film that was actually used on all the posters, but he personally considered this design to be far superior…
This illustration was 19″ X 24″
Francisco Fernández Zarza (aka Jano) created this gouache and tempera rendition of the Gorgo monster… making the critter look just like Japanese kaiju turtle-beast Gamera! It is a nicely painted poster, nonetheless…
It’s Gamera! Er, I mean: it’s Gorgo!
The GORGO pressbook…
Cover
Page 2
Page 5
The cover for issue #11 of Famous Monsters of Filmland…
Gorgo illustration by the awesome Basil Gogos
Some covers and interior art for the Gorgo comic book series from Charlton Comics…
‘Monster against spaceship’
‘The creature from beyond!’
Getting licked by a ‘Venusian terror’
‘The capture of Gorgo’
‘…Only this fantastic monster could decide the fate of humanity!’
‘The return of Gorgo’
Art by the great Steve Ditko
Monster mom and baby drawn by the legendary Ditko
A behind the scenes pic of the monster suit under construction…
Those dots in the neck are presumably the holes that the suit actor peered through?
Starring Charlie Cho, Shing Fui-On, Dick Wei, Emily Chu and Wu Ma, directed by Wong Ying, produced by Charles Heung and Wong Ying.
I don’t think Rick Baker worked on this werewolf makeup…
Only a person born in the ‘Hoi’ year, month and day can get the treasure hidden in the hands of a certain Buddha statue. But it’s all an evil trick to enable a superhuman, soul-sucking character known as the Monster to escape from the statue in which it is trapped.
Chinese poster
Shing Fui-On’s character is big, tough and somewhat stupid, while Dick Wei plays the scabby-faced, brain-sucking villain as a real ass-kicker, in a movie that’s generally a surface-deep excuse for loosely-connected scenes involving spells, a female ghost, zombies, dog piss-drinking and fights.
Don’t mess with this bad guy
A lynching torture is treated as an opportunity for comedic acrobatics, a boulder is revealed to have a pulsing central core, broken eggs are used to age a spell-making Master (who also turns into a fun weredog), and a blue-lit cavern houses a large wheel on which zombies toil. There’s also a network of tunnels set in the rock walls of the cavern, from which the zombies shoot out if a bell is rung. These zombies have a needle in the centre of their heads: pull it out and they die.
Were-dude!
RETURN OF THE DEMON is an enjoyable, though lightweight, serving of relentless Hong Kong action-horror goofiness.
Starring Eddie Chan, Leung San, Lau Dan and Au-Yang Sha-Fei, directed by Liu Hung-Chuen, produced by Lo Wei, with action choreography by Mai Kei.
I’ve got a splitting headache!
If somebody is lit by a green light, it means they’re evil, right?
Possessions, supernatural occurrences and death await a rich family following the purchase of a jade vase.
You aways get priests in this kind of film
Maggot-face
The somewhat phallic-looking ornament, which is smashed early on in the movie, is really just an excuse for a string of occult happenings, including levitation, the vomiting of birthday cake and worms, the eating of a recently exhumed dog’s guts, and rape by a white haired, slimy demon. As the title suggests, there is the brief shot of a green fetus-thingy bursting from a dead woman’s stomach, plus a face-ripping that reveals maggots beneath the flesh, and the bravura on-screen head-crushing of one of the characters trapped in a shrinking room.
Assaulted by a white-haired monster
Splattered head!
The standard of the special FX varies: a shot of a holy man, who is twisted into the earth by grasping hands, is achieved simply by using double-exposed images, as are shots of the possessed younger son gliding about the place. However, the scene of the son splitting in two down the middle, as a demon bursts out of him, is a novel effect. This devil critter is beheaded almost immediately and, in a show-stopping example of Hong Kong weirdness, a succession of human heads on long necks streak from a severed neck, followed by a fountain of fluid! After an Evil Dead-style shot of the demon head decomposing (via jerky animation), the toothy skull zips toward the camera for a freeze-frame ending!
The severed monster’s head…
…zooms toward the camera!
Making little sense, this film becomes more and more ludicrous, but it remains an enjoyable spectacle throughout, eschewing the usual Hong Kong filmmaker’s tendency to include comedic interludes.
Starring Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi, Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng, Lee Kim-Sang, Chang Fu-Chien and Wang Quen, directed by Chang Cheh for Chang He Film Company.
Thai poster
Joey (Tien-Chi) does a deal with the Black Prince of Hell, allowing nine demons into his body in exchange for the chance to save his friend Gary and avenge himself against those behind the violent takeover of family estates. Gaining a fancy caped costume, Joey uses the demons, who take the form of either nine small skulls or eight acrobatic kids & a woman, to destroy all his enemies, which include various uncles and cousins conspiring against him.
The rather flamboyant Black Prince of Hell
One of the demons is an attractive she-vamp!
Those skulls hanging around his neck are the demons
Unfortunately for Joey, these nine demons must drink human blood every day, so he becomes a compromised character, seeking righteous revenge but also needing victims to feed his demons.
Sometimes, to appease the skull-demons, Joey allows them to feed on himself
When the skulls feed on victims, red veins rapidly appear
The many studio sets help give the production a Shaw Brothers vibe. The movie is sometimes garishly-lit with reds and greens, and its bizarre ingredients include floating, smoking (obviously plastic) skulls zipping about the place and smiling demon-kids, all dressed in traditional Thai-style garb, chowing down on people’s throats.
The demon kids
The adult female demon
Additionally, this crazy fantasy-horror-actioner culminates in an unconventional battle between Joey and warriors wearing mini water skis. These guys nimbly scoot around the surface of a shallow pool, until Joey uses his powers to freeze the water, prompting his opponents to use long lengths of bamboo to create a framework above the ice, allowing the fight to continue, with Joey letting loose his demons once again and his adversaries brandishing flaming torch weapons against him. Ultimately, the power of Buddhism prevails, Joey rids himself of the demons and promptly explodes, freeing his spirit to be reincarnated.
This film stars Donnie Yen, Pauline Yeung, Ben Lam, Chui Hei-Man, Kathy Chow, Ken Lo and Sibelle Hu, is directed by Lu Chin-Ku, with action choreography by Tsui Fat. It is a Cheung Yau Martial Arts Direction Company/Chung Ngai Movie Production.
Donnie Yen with a gun!
In modern day Hong Kong, a teacher’s female student guests are all murdered by an evil Cambodian being called the Moon Monster (Lo), who is a long-haired dude similar to Dick Wei’s character in Return of the Demon (1987). The teacher, played by Donnie Yen, is suspected of the murders at first, until the Moon Monster assaults a policeman’s wife and receives several bullets in the torso before being electrocuted. After pulling out the guts of a mortuary attendant, the undead Monster returns to Cambodia, followed by Yen, his brother, a policeman and his wife…
The Moon Monster tears out the mortuary attendant’s intestines
Poster
Blu-ray slipcase cover from 88 Films
This diverting movie mixes supernatural shenanigans with gun action and some good fisticuffs from Yen, who was at the start of his career here, long before starring in IP MAN and JOHN WICK 4.
DVD cover
A Cambodian princess (Yeung) of the High Wind Tribe is introduced halfway into the film. She is able to fly and helps the protagonists with her magical sword that can fire yellow lightning!
Don’t mess with this princess!
Poster
In the fun climax, machine gun action mingles with magical mayhem, as the Monster suffers from a bad case of facial blisters when the sword is driven into the top of his head.
Okay, so the film doesn’t have that extra something to allow it to live up to the promise of the title, but it’s worth a watch.
Directed by Nathan (THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) Juran, starring Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries, Martha Hyer, Miles Malleson and an uncredited cameo by Peter Finch.
US one sheet poster
When a team of astronauts land on the moon, they discover an old Union Jack flag and a document, which states that the moon has already been claimed… for Queen Victoria!
Cavor with his Cavorite
Back on Earth, an investigation team locates the last of the original Victorian crew, a very old Arnold Bedford (Judd), who tells them the story of how he and his girlfriend Katherine (Hyer) met up with an idiosyncratic inventor called Joseph Cavor (Jeffries). As the story unfolds, we see that Cavor has invented a gravity-defying substance called Cavorite, which allows them to fly a sphere all the way to the moon. Once there, the intrepid trio discovers a lunar civilisation composed of various types of intelligent, insect-like beings, referred to as selenites…
A stop-motion selenite looks on
This light, comedic slice of Victorian-era science fiction, shot in Panavision, features fine performances from Lionel Jeffries and Edward Judd. I think Jeffries is especially good as Cavor, who is the standout character in a script written by Nigel (THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT) Kneale. The story is, of course, an adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel.
Lionel Jeffries is wonderful as Cavor
Together with this film, Edward Judd was in several other sci-fi flicks that I like: THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, INVASION and ISLAND OF TERROR
Selenite versus human!
The Grand Lunar and several higher-status selenites are stop-motion creations courtesy of Ray Harryhausen, while the worker selenites are children in costumes, which I think works okay as they aren’t focused on in detail.
Worker selenites (kids in costumes) dismantle the sphere
A worker selenite
The stop-motion Grand Lunar: leader of the selenites
The giant mooncalf is also created via stop-motion by Ray Harryhausen: its attack on the heroes is my favourite moment in the movie.
The giant, caterpillar-like mooncalf is ace!
Bedford is attacked by the mooncalf!
The movie boasts some pleasing moonscape sets, subterranean vistas, plus a clever modern day wraparound plot device, which all add to the enjoyment of the viewing experience.
One of the cool underground vistas
One of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion selenites
Cavor prepares to meet the Grand Lunar
Some posters for the movie…
UK quad poster
French poster
US one sheet poster
West German poster
Turkish poster
US insert poster
West German poster
Italian poster
US half sheet poster
Here are some Italian Fotobustas (lobby cards)…
Fotobusta
Fotobusta
Fotobusta
Fotobusta
Cover for the Gold Key comic adaptation…
Comic book cover
Some colourful art…
Illustration by Daryl Joyce
Okay, let’s focus on the lovely mooncalf…
In the movie the mooncalf gets zapped!
The selenites strip the mooncalf of its flesh, leaving a skeleton
The special visual effects for the film were provided by Ray Harryhausen, who worked alongside British special effects expert Les Bowie at his Slough studio to produce the complicated travelling matte sequences that combined live action footage with the miniatures. Ian Scoones, who frequently collaborated with Bowie, drew the concept artwork for the mooncalf skeleton. Here you can see Scoones’ skeleton drawing on the top right, next to Ray’s initial concepts for the look of the mooncalf stop-motion model’s face and body…
Cool concept work
Finally, here’s a publicity shot of Martha Hyer…
Martha also appeared in the killer bear movie NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY
This Basque-language horror-fantasy movie is directed by Paul Urkijo Alijo, written by Paul Urkijo Alijo and Asier Guerricaechebarría, and stars Kandido Uranga, Uma Bracaglia and Eneko Sagardoy.
Poster
ERREMENTARI: THE BLACKSMITH AND THE DEVIL is a re-telling of an old fable, set in the Basque area of Spain, after the First Carlist War. We follow little orphan Usue, who ends up in the home of feared local blacksmith Patxi, who has made the demon Sartael his prisoner…
Don’t let Sartael out of his cage!
This is a great-looking film, with a fine feel for the period, featuring lots of shots of muddy roads, dingy homes and dirty-faced people. The cinematography and lighting is very good.
I like the look of the film
Some soldiers
The demons in the movie are really well-done: they are old-school medieval-style beings, mainly created practically, via make-up, costumes & prosthetics, with nice CGI touches (their pointy tails.)
A stout, toothy demon
I like the look of this devil!
The captured demon Sartael is a wonderful, memorable character and the other demons seen later in the story, when the protagonists find themselves heading to the gates of hell, are nicely executed.
Huge demon!
A demon’s ass with a face on it…
Big-eyed demon
Pointy-nosed demon
Also known simply as ERREMENTARI, this was the first full-length movie by director Paul Urkijo Alijo, and it is a top-notch Spanish horror fable worth seeking out.
Starring Yu Lung, Ching Li, Tina Chin Fei, An Ping, Wei Hung and Chen Hung Lieh, directed by Tetsuya Yamanouchi for Shaw Brothers and Jih Mao Film Company.
Poster
At one point Na Cha grows multiple arms!
After eating a sacred peach and accidentally knocking the other seven peaches down to the mortal world, young Na Cha must deal with the human-looking devils that have appeared on Earth after various animals have chowed down on the mystical fruit.
A toad eats one of the sacred peaches
This seems like a kids fantasy film to begin with, but soon we’re presented with shots of groping couples making out and scenes of folks being killed by the devils, who have a penchant for turning themselves into the likenesses of loved ones.
A dragon looms up above a village…
…and the beast starts burning down the place!
There’s a decent kaiju moment when a giant dragon burns down a village, plus a subplot involving the devils attempting to prevent a military fleet from setting sail, and an airborne skirmish between Na Cha, a devil eagle and the dragon. To even the odds in this fight with the puppet predators, Na Cha grows in size and becomes multi-armed for a while!
Na Cha throws a sword into the devil eagle’s wing
Goat dude
NA CHA AND THE SEVEN DEVILS is a watchable Hong Kong-Taiwanese fantasy adventure coproduction that, just like similar mythical tales, continually introduces extra characters as the story progresses, including a snake dude, a bull dude and a goat dude, plus an immortal hero with a third eye called Yang Jian, who is aided by Celestial Dog: a canine companion wearing its own natty yellow costume!
Starring Stephen Fung, Sam Lee, Alice Chan, Chan Wai Ming, Benny Lai, and Frankie Ng Chi-Hung, directed by Steve Cheng.
Nom, nom, nom…
Dr Harry (Lai) smuggles a sample of weaponised virus from a lab that’s attempting to create ‘painless warriors’, but he is bitten by one of the test subjects (Jude Poyer) and slowly turns into a zombie-like being, triggering an outbreak of the undead at a rural Hong Kong police station.
Green gunk dribbles from Dr Harry’s mouth during sex…
There’s too much extraneous chat and a string of pointless scenes padding out the beginning of this movie, but matters become more interesting once Harry starts drooling green gunk during sex, rips apart the occupants of a police cell and then becomes a super-strong, scabby-faced ‘New Human’, who can bend bars.
Harry gets pretty strong
Could’ve been better…
Instead of being a super-soldier thriller, as suggested by the opening sequence, BIO-COPS evolves into a zombie outbreak flick and is really rather silly. Quite a few zombies seem to like to hide in lockers, a cop gets his arse bitten by petty hoodlum Cheap (Lee), who’s just pretending to be a zombie, and Frankie Ng Chi-Hung simply looks embarrassed playing zombified Hung Hing triad gang boss Kow.
For a ‘zombie’, Harry talks quite a bit
Reminiscent of BIO-ZOMBIE (1998) in some ways, this film is nowhere near as good as that flick, though the diverting latter zombie siege moments, involving submachine guns and pump-action shotguns, do enliven the story, but the finale lacks fizz, turning into a talky confrontation between cop hero Marco (Fung), his girlfriend May (Wai Ming) and Harry, but at least it ends with Harry having a grenade shoved into his mouth. Boom!
Eat lead, zombies!
Chomp!
She’s going to ram a grenade into his mouth!
Devoted to every kind of movie and TV monster, from King Kong to Godzilla, from the Blob to Alien. Plus monsters from other media too, including books and comics.
Monster Zone 