We are talking about books about Comic Books, to be exact, not comedians.  That will be later in the Gift Guide.

Today’s picks are three books that will cover a lot of historically significant details about some of the most interesting comics of the Silver and Bronze Age.

Two of them spotlight publishers, while the third is a great collection of interviews with some of the top creators of comic books in the 1970s and 1980s.

All of these books provide a fascinating insight into the creative process and the lasting influence of these particular comic books. The history is important, because those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it, and nobody wants to repeat Super Green Beret or Pre-Teen Irradiated Samurai Tadpoles.

So here are three books I’ve reviewed over the past eleven months that are entertaining, informative and filled with all sorts of trivia and arcane knowledge about the comic books that a lot of us grew up reading.  Recommended for any comic book fan who is partial to the Silver and Bronze age.

The Charlton Companion
by Jon B. Cooke
TwoMorrows Publishing
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1605491110
$43.95

Charlton Comics, the perennial “also-ran” comic book company that had bursts of creativity and innovation at various times in their history, is a favorite of your humble blogger, and this book is a goodsend for us fans of the plucky little mob-connected publisher from Derby, Connecticut.

In this long-awaited book, Jon B. Cooke expands on his previous efforts, and with the help of many collaborators, puts forth the definitive account of Charleton. He covers the entire bizarre story of Charlton Publications, which was born out of a chance meeting in a county jail, and spent several decades as the nation’s only “all-in-one” magazine publisher, printer and distributor.

The Charlton Companion is an exhaustively-researched slice of manna from heaven for fans of Charlton Comics. In this book we learn how the company grew from publishing HIt Parader magazine to encompass a comic book line, hundreds of magazines and even their time as the original distributor of Hustler, before they finally shut down in 1992.

The focus is mainly on the comics, and this book has the full stories on the different eras, editors and creators that made Charlton, despite their lousy printing and distribution, one of the most interesting comic book companies around. While often derided for publishing substandard comics, the presence of Steve Ditko in their pages put the lie to that idea.

Among the revered comics pros who got their start at Charlton were Dick Giordano, Dennis O’Neal, Jim Aparo, Steve Skeates, Don Newton, Tom Sutton, John Byrne, Joe Staton, Mike Zeck and many others.

The book is profusely illustrated and wondefully laid out, which is pretty ironic, since Charlton was notorious for their low production values.  This book simply looks spectacular.

The Charlton Companion is a must-have for anybody with an interest in Charlton Comics, but the book is really recommended for anyone with an interest in pop culture, publishing, music or the changing face of comics in the Bronze Age. You can order The Charlton Companion directly from the publisher, or from any bookseller, by using the ISBN code.

The Pacific Comics Companion
by Stephan Friedt, edited with additional writing by Jon B. Cooke
TwoMorrows Publishing
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1605491219
$29.95

The early 1980s was a great time to be a comic book fan. Although mainstream comics were disappearing from newsstands, as companies like Gold Key, Charlton and Harvey struggled through their final years, the rise of stores devoted to comic books and the direct market created a demand for more sophisticated storytelling and more creator-friendly contracts for the hottest artists and writers who’d sprung up in the previous decade.

The first company to meet that demand with independently-produced four-color comics in the traditional format was Pacific Comics. The Schanes Brothers, Bill and Steve (along with their eventual editorial director, Dave Scroggy), had been running a successful chain of comic shops and a distributor for the direct market, handling DC and Marvel as well as underground comix and “ground level” publishers like Star Reach and Eclipse, decided to take the plunge into publishing and make their own comic books.

They began by seeking out top-name talent who’d left comics for greener pastures. Their first book published was Captain Victory by Jack Kirby, who had famously been screwed out of full credit and fair pay for essentially creating most of Marvel Comics’ characters. The first artist signed, but the second published was Starslayer by Mike Grell, who had created the successful Warlord for DC, and who had become a fan favorite, but who had moved on to the Tarzan comic strip because the pay was better. By offering contracts where the creators retained ownership of their characters and received a more equitable split of the profits, Pacific Comics changed the way comics publishers did business.

I still remember the excitement of buying the first issues of Captain Victory and Starslayer, and I recall having my mind blown at the awesome artwork of Dave Stevens on The Rocketeer. The Bruce Jones’ books (Alien Worlds and Twisted Tales) remain among the finest anthology comics ever assembled and it’s nice to be reminded that for four brief years, there was one comic book company who was consistently entertaining. Even their missteps were worth looking at. I recommend The Pacific Comics Companion for any comics fan who lived through that era, and any younger fans who want to find out what they missed, and how much of a debt they owe to this company. It’s possible that, without Pacific Comics, we might be stuck with just Marvel, DC and Archie Comics today.

Available from TwoMorrows Pubishing, or from any bookseller by using the ISBN Code.

DIRECT CONVERSATIONS: Talks with Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators
by Paul Kupperberg
Independently published
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8373651769
$16.00

For an aged comic book nerd like me, this book is pure gold. As the title says, it’s a collection of conversations between writer, Paul Kupperberg, and the people he worked with at DC Comics back when he was breaking into the business in the 1970s. This was a crowdfunded project, but it’s now available for general sale while we eagerly await Kupperberg’s next collection of interviews with comic book veterans and legends.

In Direct Conversations Kupperberg engages in trips down memory lane with Howard Chaykin, Jack C. Harris, Tony Isabella, Paul Levitz, Steve Mitchell, Bob Rozakis, Joe Staton, Anthony Tollin, Bob Toomey, and Michael Uslan. These are casual, but very informative chats that serve as a terrific oral history of a pivotal time in the comic book industry, as seen by some of the younger creators of the time.

On the creative side, comics were making the transition from being produced by long-time pros who’d been around almost since the begining of comics to the first generation of comics creators who had grown up as fans. On the business side, comics were changing from a ubiquitous form of cheap, disposable entertainment for kids into a niche market sold in specialty shops aimed at teens to adult readers.

These guys were there for that. Some are still producing great comics, while others have moved on to other pursuits…and Michael Uslan gets a new mansion and yacht every time they make a Batman movie. In Direct Conversations we get treated to the kind of candid exchanges between friends that a hardcore researcher might not elicit.

This book really hits my sweet spot because I’m the perfect age to have lived through this time as an enthusiastic fan, primarily of DC Comics. I already knew all the names of the folks interviewed here. I’m even Facebook friends with more than a few of them. They’re all six to fifteen years or so older than I am, so when I was just getting heavily into collecting comics, they were the fresh new faces behind the scenes. It’s weird to realize, but I’ve been fans of some of their work for damned close to fifty years.

Direct Conversations is a fun read for anybody with an interest in DC Comics of the 1970s, or anyone with an interest in comics, period. You can order it from Amazon, or try using the ISBN code to order it from a local bookstore…or get a signed copy directly from Kupperberg himself (that’s the best option because he has several other great books for sale).

Welcome to the first day of The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide. Every day for the next three weeks we will run the best pop culture gift ideas that we can find for you.

This year we’re cutting back a bit, so that we only suggest the very finest gift ideas, and our weekend selections will be flashbacks to previous years and recommendations of different retailers, both local and online.  On Black Friday we’ll post the Master List, and we’re leaving open the option to do some bonus picks the first week of December.

During the course of our Gift Guide we’ll group our suggestions by themes, types, genre or just random collections of stuff. Today we’re doing Toys, because we always start with toys. You can also expect one or two “Big Ticket Tuesdays” where the gift ideas will exceed the hundred-dollar mark.

All of our regular features will also run during this time, so you’ll have to check PopCult twice as often for the next few weeks.

And now we begin, as always, with this year’s HESS Holiday Truck…

The HESS Holiday Truck: 2023 Police Truck & Cruiser
$42.99
Available exclusively from Hess Toy Truck.com

For the eleventh year in a row, we include the new HESS Holiday Truck in our Gift Guide. This time it’s a bit of an odd choice, a huge pseudo-military police truck, with a little police cruiser inside. I’m a little put off by the fact that it’s a police vehicle, since HESS is an oil company and I didn’t know we had Oil Police, but once you get past that, this is a really cool two-vehicle set.

The 2023 Hess Police Truck and Cruiser is a highly specialized law enforcement response team that will make you wonder why an oil company has a law enforcement team. Still, it looks really cool…

2023 Hess Police Truck & Cruiser! from Hess Toy Truck on Vimeo.

The heavy-duty, dual axle Police Truck is a geared-up, green-colored tactical transport enhanced with bold white striping, emblems, and glistening chrome embellishments, including a fully chromed front end with push bar, cab mounted emergency light bar, bumpers, fuel tanks, mirrors, wheels, and exhaust pipes. Cab top buttons activate 4 realistic sounds (horn, engine start, and traditional and European emergency sirens), each in tandem with a different animated flashing light pattern from an amazing array of 55 brilliant red, white, and blue emergency lights. A switch on the chassis underside enables the lights to operate silently in steady or flashing mode. Clear paneled windows reveal an internally illuminated cargo hold for the Cruiser, accessed via a quick release button that unfolds the dual-purpose rear door into ramp position for loading and unloading.

The Cruiser is a white armored-response vehicle accented with bold green striping, emblems, and chrome embellishments including front and rear window louvers, front bumper, and hubcaps. A total of 19 switch operated red, white, and blue steady-on lights includes 2 spotlights enclosed in a 270˚ rotating roof mounted turret. An under-chassis panel conceals a slide-out battering ram. A speedy ‘rev up and release’ pull back motor propels the Cruiser in either flat or wheelie position for a quick response to any emergency!

Despite HESS Oil recently being bought up and absorbed by Chevron, provisions have been made for the HESS Toy Truck line to continue, with three or four releases each year. I’m hoping that next year we get something a little less police-y, and maybe see them do a cement mixer with a revolving drum, or a working crane, or perhaps an oil tanker. Still, with all the light features and cool extras, plus the fact that batteries and shipping are included,  The 2023 HESS Holiday Truck is still a great gift idea for the collector or toy lover on your shopping list.

GI Joe: The Military Years 1964-1968: The Unauthorized Action Figure and Accessories Checklist
by R.J. Jones
Independently published
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8863087832
$12.99 from Amazon

Full disclosure time here: R.J. is an old friend of mine, and I contributed a back-cover blurb and did a little graphics work on the cover of this book. I was glad to do this because this is a much-needed book for the GI Joe collecting hobby.

In time for the 60th anniversary of GI Joe, this book is a straightforward checklist of all of the figures and accessories of the Military era of the original GI Joe. It’s a handy, portable list for the collector trying to complete their collection.  This checklist breaks down the figures and accessories by the branch of service (with the Soldiers of the World getting their own section) and promises to be the first of several books that will present a detailed list of figures and accessories, complete with their catalog number and a list of all the parts included.

That’s important because some of the accessory sets only included one piece, while others might have a dozen.

Being a checklist, there is no history to interpret or analysis to consider here. That’s refreshing because there have been some very good books already written about the history and creation of the original action figure, GI Joe. There have also been some books that have gotten so many details wrong that they’re basically useless. This book is just the cold, hard facts of what figures and accessory sets were released, and what was in them. And each item has a convenient checkbox next to it so that collectors can keep track of what they have and what they need.

GI Joe: The Military Years 1964-1968: The Unauthorized Action Figure and Accessories Checklist is an invaluable reference work for any vintage toy collector or dealer and would make a great gift for any fan of America’s Moveable Fighting Man.

The Member’s Mark Elite Adventure Corps 4-Action Figure Pack
Exclusive to Sam’s Club
$19.99

I wrote about this cool action figure set and did a photo review less than a month ago, but since then it has become available to order online, and is still a great value, so it lands in our Gift Guide today.  You can check out my earlier review HERE.

Sold under the Sam’s Club brand, Members Mark, this is a set of four 11.5″ action figures: An Outdoor Explorer; An Airborne Ranger; A Fire Fighter; and A Space Explorer. This is a nice return from Lanard Toys who haven’t been quite as visible as they once were of late.  Their signature lines, The C.O.R.P.S. and its 12″ counterpart, Ultra C.O.R.P.S have been a little harder to find, so it was great to see this set show up because it’s such a great value.

The figures themselves are typical of current 1/6 scale action figures aimed at kids. They have eleven points of articulation, molded-on clothes, and not a great range of motion. They are poseable and have lots of play value for kids, but they also have a lot of customizing potential for adult hobbyists who are willing to be creative.  All four figures have gloved, gripping hands which are sturdy and flexible. Each figure also comes with headgear or a helmet, three of which have working visors.  And there are accessories. Each figure gets three or four accessories, which are wrapped in tissue paper, tucked away in a small box in the middle of the packaging, and they are a really nice bonus for the price.

The Member’s Mark Elite Adventure Corps 4-Action Figure Pack is NOT a high-end collectible for adults. It’s a nicely-priced kid’s toy that makes a great gift for kids and for adult collectors who aren’t obsessive about detail, accuracy or articulation.

Above you see a new music video by the group, V Band.  V Band is Jamie Skeen, David Synn, Jason “Roadblock” Robinson, and on video, your humble blogger. My first response on being asked to join the band was, “But I suck at guitar.” However, the invitation was to be the video-making member of the band, and I don’t think I suck at that.

You can watch the video above (with contributions from Frank Panucci and Jamie Skeen) and see for yourself as V Band takes on John Carpenter’s masterful Halloween theme.

It’s our last-minute treat, since you can’t give out candy in a blog.

November first we begin what has become the most anticipated series of posts, our annual Gift Guide.

This year I’m tweaking the format a bit, just to make life a litle easier.

Each weekday you can expect one post with at least three gift suggestions.  On Saturdays I will do a Flashback gift idea, reviving a suggestion or two from previous years. Sunday will feature a retailer spotlight (either online or local to Charleston, WV). Our regular features will continue on their regular days.

The last day for The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide will be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the Master List will appear on Black Friday.  I’m open to the idea of doing some bonus picks the first week of December, but I’m not committing to that yet.

As for what you can expect…our first day will be toys, as always, and our second day will be books about comic book history.  Beyond that you can expect the usual mix of comics, toys, music, video, trinketry, art and apparel. You’ll just have to check every day to see what pops up.

By the time Wednesday rolls around, I will have corrected the year in the graphics that will accompany these posts. It was not until I was sharing this post on social media that I realized it’s not 2024 yet.

Okay, I decided to do one sort of spooky piece of art this year. Departing from my cityscapes, today’s art is an acrylic painting of a sexy zombie. It started out as a pencil doodle on paper for pens, then I decided to paint over it and see how it turned out.

At first I was just trying to go for an abstract color scheme, but then I decided to make the young lady into a zombie. A lot of that had to do with not wanting to bother mixing the paint for regular flesh color. I also didn’t put a lot of time into her legs or hands, but it was a fun painting exercise.

So you can have some cheesecake for Halloween.

To see the painting bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, Our three-day Halloween marathon continues.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

You can hear tons of Halloween programming until Wednesday morning at 9 AM.

Above you see a compilation of (almost) every Halloween episode of Radio Free Charleston’s video show, plus a few other holiday-appropriate clips. You can see the episode we left out of this playlist compilation just below. This year we decided to save all this for one last big Halloween video surprise.

And don’t forget, we still have Halloween programming starting Sunday at 9 AM and running until Wednesday morning on The AIR!

And as an extra Halloween treat, here’s a long-lost documentary about The Braxton County Monster, made by half of the RFC big shots eleven years before the Radio Free Charleston video show. You can read more about it HERE.

This week we flash back to August, 2008 and the fiftieth episode of RADIO FREE CHARLESTON. We pulled out all the stops for this one. Our musical guests were The Late, Great Master of the Hunch, Hasil Adkins and The Concept, who debuted their then-new guitarist, Brian Flowers.

We also had a wild short film from Scott Elkins, which introduced Kitty Killton to the world. Frank Panucci brought us a sneak peek at some test footage from his still-long-gestating feature film, “Repurkussionz.” We also had some cameo appearances by the star of “Repurkussionz,” Mad Man Pondo, along with Survivor’s Jonny Fairplay and a pre-disgraced Unknown Hinson, who introduced Hasil Adkins on the show.

Kevin Pauley from IWA East Coast, The No Pants Players and The American Heart Association then-future Ghostbuster showed up to take umbrage at one of our end-credit gags from episode 49. Wrapping it all up, RFC Big Shot and Resident Diva Melanie Larch was shown singing the National Anthem at Appalachian Power Park over the end credits. You can read the original production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
October 27, 2023

We have some radio notes for you today as we enter the weekend before Halloween. You’ll find info about today’s new afternoon programs below, but I also want to let everybody know that we will take a headfirst leap into the Halloween woodchipper on The AIR starting Sunday morning at 9 AM.  The AIR will be all Halloween specials and shows until Wednesday morning at 9 AM. That’s three full days of Spooky weirdness for you.

You can find all these Halloween editions of our music and comedy specialty programs, plust a boatload of special presentations on The AIR. This afternoon we serve up new episodes of MIRRORBALL and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat! The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

MIRRORBALL

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes a full hour to classic Disco tracks, but alas, there simply weren’t enough Disco Halloween songs left to do a sequel to her 2020 Halloween episode, so this week MIRRORBALL is the kid who shows up without a costume.  Still, the bellbottoms, gold lamé, coke spoons, afro wigs and platForm shoes aren’t exactly strangers to Halloween wear.

Instead Mel just serves up another killer mix of particularly grooving tunes, the likes of which can cause a tectonic-like shift among the gluteous maximi.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 085

Quincy Jones “Razzamatazz”
Tavares “It Only Takes A Minute”
Gwen Guthrie “Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent”
The Floaters “Float On”
Madleen Kane “Rough Diamond”
The Meters “Disco Is The Thing Today”
The Spinners “Are You Ready For Love”
Kool and the Gang “Get Down On It”
The Trammps “Love Epidemic”
Sylvester “Over and Over”
The O’Jays “Love Train”
Parliment “Give Up The Funk”
KC & The Sunshine Band “Shake Your Boogie”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays most weeks  Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM and a mini-marathon Saturday nights at 9 PM. Be sure to check out the Halloween marathon on The AIR because we’ll run the 2020 Halloween episode of MIRRORBALL multiple times, including in the regular replay slots.

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat explores the Roots of Goth

Also on The AIR  at 3 PM (EDT), Sydney Fileen graces us with special mixtape-style new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. This week Sydney surfs into Darkwave and proto-Goth music, which is perfect for this holiday season.  She tells us that this is to celebrate the season and also expose the roots of one of New Wave music’s more distinctive branches.

In this mixtape presentation you’ll hear influential Darkwave artists like Martin Briley, Closed Session, The Bolshoi, Theatre of Hate, Virgin Prunes, The Cult, The Damned, and of course, Joy Division. Sydney also shines the spotlight on some of the bands who were far more influential than they were commercially successful.

This is the music that gave birth to Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Godsmack and the like.  You say they paved the way…a long, dark, spooky alley, to be sure, but these folks paved it nonetheless.

Check out the playlist…

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat 109

Bauhaus “Dark Entries”
X Mal Deutschland “Black Madonna”
28th Day “Dead Sinner”
Closed session “We’ll All Die”
Parade Ground “Cut-Throat Business”
Martin Briley “A Rainy Day In New York City”
Mobiles “Tamarind Mind”
The Bolshoi “Crack In Smile”
Berlin Airlift “I Hate Everything But You”
Jimmy Destri “Under The Ice”
Unlimied Systems “Pale Blue Eyes”
Alexandros “Stress”
Intelligence Dept. “Sleeping City”
Theatre of Hate “Original Sin”
Southern Death Cult “Fat Man”
Virgin Prunes “Baby Turns Blue”
Trisome 21 “Relapse”
Get Smart “Nothing I Can Do”
Trial “Lobotomized Visions”
Virgin Circus “What Simon Says”
The Cult “Spirit Walker”
The Damned “13th Floor Vendetta”
The Creatures “Morning Dawning”
Freur “The Devil and Darkness”
Joy Division “Decades”

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon,  Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday morning at 10 AM.

That’s it for this week’s PopCulteer, check back for all our regular features, with fresh content, every day. Also, tune in for our Halloween marathon on The AIR, and get ready for the start of The 2024 PopCult Gift Guide next Wednesday.  I’ll preview it for you on Tuesday.

We finally arrived at the end of what seems like a long, long journey to the weekend before Halloween, and the calendar is flooded with spooky events sprinkled for you to get into around the Mountain State.  As I have been doing of late, this a good time to remind you that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.

The big event this weekend is the annual Halloween Hootenanny at The Empty Glass.  It happens Friday and Saturday, and here are the graphics with all the details, including performances by several RFC mainstays…

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday Ryan Brandenburg takes the stage. Saturday Soia Copple performs at the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery. Saturday morning, our old friend, Glen Brogan, will be at Taylors at 11 AM, signing copies of his beautifully-illustrated Golden Book adaptation of Disney’s Haunted Mansion.

Aside from the aforementioned Hootenanny, The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about.  Thursday at 5:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin return with Swing for a good cause. Later on Thursday, at 9 PM, Jacob Copeland takes the stage. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour before the Hootenanny takes over.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s still a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, newly-elected insurrectionist House Speakers, evil people who give out candy corn for Trick or Treat, razorblades with apples inside and other damned good reasons to be careful. Many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order, after the jump…

Continue reading

In our week of all-new shows, Halloweenesque programming, we have hit Wednesday afternoon, and The AIR brings you new episodes of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast that attempt to have a scary theme.  You can tune in at the website, or just stay right here and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM (EDT) Beatles Blast brings you a one-hour mixtape of “Dark Beatles.” If you think that The Beatles didn’t do that much dark music, you’d be right. I was able to scrape together some sorta dark-sounding tunes by the group together and solo, with one cover, to attempt to simulate the Halloween spirit. This was the best I could come up with…

Beatles Blast 101
Dark Beatles Mixtape

The Beatles “Helter Skelter”
George Harrison “Beware of Darkness”
Ringo Starr “Spooky Weirdness”
John Lennon “I’m Losing You”
Harry Nilsson and Ringo “Moonbeam”
Paul McCartney “Talk More Talk”
The Beatles “She Said, She Said”
John Lennon “Scared”
Paul McCartney “This Never Happened Before”
George Harrison “The Devil’s Radio”
Ringo Starr “Without Understanding”
George Harrison “Art of Dying”
Wings “Old Siam Sir”
Sonic Youth “Within You, Without You”‘
The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows”

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

At 3 PM (EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch tries to celebrate the macabre season with considerably more success.

Mel serves up an assortment of spooky showtunes from the stage and screen. The shows she samples range from obscure oddities to massive hits, and it’s all great Halloween fun.

Check out this playlist…

Curtain Call 137

“Dude! What Is It-Hold Me, Bat Boy” From Bat Boy
“Do The Necronomicon” from Evil Dead: The Musical
“It’s Alive” and “Zombie Prom” from Zombie Prom
“The Exorcism” from Exorcistic!
“Raise A Little Hell” from Stranger Things: The Unauthorized Musical
“This Is Halloween” and “Oogie Boogie’s Song” from The Nightmare Before Christmas
“Dance With The Devil” from The Witches of Eastwick
“The Witches” “Queen of Dark” and “The Invocation” from Which Witch
“The Nightmare” and “”You Can Get Away With Anything” from The Woman In White
“Evil Fiend” from Frankenstein :The Movie Musical
“Don’t Feed The Plants (Unused movie version)” from Little Shop of Horrors

Mel thought about playing something from Beetlejuice, but she didn’t want to cause any inappropriate touching or vaping among her audience.

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evening starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Also on The AIR, Wednesday at 11 PM,  The Comedy Vault brings you an hour of Halloween Novelty songs.