Friday, October 10, 2008

Weekly Dose Of Weird!

Ward Burton, possibly?  GHOSTS #111
Ghosts #111 -- The Burton Method? Which Burton? Tim Burton? Corey Burton? Jeff Burton, maybe?

"The Burton Method" -- Psychologist Professor Burton has devised a device which projects a patients deepest barriers and defenses as imagery, allowing them to view the obstacles and overcome them. Showing that his insecurities play out as a sword and sorcery tale, the Professor fends off the criticisms of his colleagues who think he is doing this for personal gain and to make "The Burton Method" famous. The Professor laughs them off, until suddenly the muscle-bound projection of his mind bursts from the view screen and stabs him dead -- a product of Burton's own deep-seated death wish being achieved by overcoming the mental barriers preventing him from doing it himself.

"The Last Kung-Fu Movie" -- Kung-Fu idol Lee Cheng falls to his death from a Hollywood penthouse after drinking a spiked drink, given to him by his producer to help settle his star's nerves. When Cheng's wife begins to ask questions, she too is killed. Missing their star, the producer and his lackey splice outtakes of Cheng together with body doubles to produce more films, all of which are blockbusters. After his sensei sacrifices himself, Cheng's reanimated corpse rises from his grave, takes vengeance on those who killed him, with the producer ending up dead in a noose of his own film.

"Shrieeeeeek!" -- Harland Frigby sets a mousetrap in his house, and ends up catching one in it -- alive. His wife Alice takes pity on the creature, and lets it go outside, but Harland lets the neighbor's cat in the yard to kill it. On his way to meet with his mistress, Harland is visited by the now-literate talking ghost of the mouse, who threatens to terrorize his family unless Harland takes care of the mouse's wife and children. Harland refuses, thinking the ghost will haunt his wife and send her to the nut hatch, allowing him to be with his mistress. But the mouse haunts the mistress instead, who looses control of her car, then hits and kills Harland. With his mistress herself being committed, Harland is left with an eternity of being haunted by the mouse -- a ghost haunting a ghost.

Overall Weird Rating -- 3.5 (out of 5).

A very good issue for the later days of Ghosts (this being the second to last issue). Then again, any comic book which features a kung-fu zombie will get a thumbs-up from most readers, I imagine. Also amusing at the titles of the kung-fu "epics" they produce, including Kung-Fu Krippler, Kung-Fu Rabbi, Kung-Fu Kretin, Kung-Fu Disco, and my favorite, Gidget Goes Kung-Fu. They just don't make em like that anymore!

No comments: