BILLY/JACK

RIP to a couple of big names in the macabre: William “Chilly Billy” Cardille, passed on at 87, and Jack Davis, passed on at 91.

Chilly Billy was the revered host of Chiller Theatre on Pittsburgh’s WIIC/WPXI, and played the reporter in the final minutes of the original Night of the Living Dead.

 He also hosted a kid show, Tip-Top Merry-Go-Round, on WICU in my beloved hometown of Erie, PA.

Davis, of course, was the legendary EC Comics and MAD Magazine artist who drew, among many, many other credits… 

Monster-of-the-Week: …this week’s honoree, the magnificent “Giant Life Size Frankenstein Pin-Up” (OVER 6 FEET TALL!), available in the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland for a mere two bucks…

I checked eBay; he sells for a lot more now…

SPIDER, MAN

With Captain America: The Winter Soldier number one at the box office this past weekend, I'd happened upon a copy, at a used bookstore, of a book I’d loved as a kid: 1967’s The MAD Adventures of Captain Klutz, the chronicles of MAD’s own version of Captain America, as drawn by the great Don Martin…

Rereading it, I was jolted by some of the ugly epithets it threw around, but it was a blast from the past to revisit anyway. So…

Monster-of-the-Week: …let’s give the honor to Gorgonzola, a massive arachnid which Klutz—the secret identity of down-on-his-luck comic-book lover Ringo Fonebone—must confront.

Note the always-evocative Martin sound effect...