From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: Return Of The Living Dead (1985)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by bloodlinematt

Happy October 2024! For this one, we will be having a very cool “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update that will be based on one of my favorite 80’s zombie films, a film with an amazing soundtrack, great characters and has scary and yet funny zombies and I am of course talking about the horror comedy film Return Of The Living Dead from 1985! This punk rock Horror fright flick is a staple for many fans of the genre as it not only has creepy moments but it also has some great funny ones highlighted by iconic songs that stick in your brain your whole life. What we will be taking a look at for this review is a graphic novel written by actor Don Calfa who played Mortician Ernie in the film based on his script for the film’s sequel that he wanted to get made way back when. So if you are ready, let’s party with the dead at the local cemetery and see if Trash will take off her cloths again!

The zombies that make up Return Of The Living Dead are super dangerous and could be some of the most dangerous undead we have ever covered here on Rotten Ink! The zombies in this film are mostly pack killers and swarm a victim given a human no place to escape. They come in all types of decay, from the newly dead to the long dead with only a skeleton remaining, and this grizzly appearance they have is enough to scare the life out of their victims and cause extreme panic. The zombies use their teeth and hands to rip and tear human skin and even skulls apart as they eat brains and this is a very painful death for the living. The zombies also can move fast and run as well as can speak and have intelligence that they use to trick and capture their next meal. They are reanimated back to life thanks to Trioxin, a gas created by the government that can also infect the living if exposed direct to it making the infected person slowly die and turn into a brain craver. The zombies also can survive attacks and even removal of body parts, in fact the pieces even try to attack making their danger level even higher for the living as every part of them want to try and make you dead. But while hacking, smashing and shooting don’t seem to work, even if you target the brain they can be stopped by being burnt to ashes and as well being blown to bits thanks to say a massive bomb dropped on them. But even with that, people need to be scared as the smoke from their burning flesh will infect the weather and cause acid rain that once it leaks into the ground at your local cemetery the dead will rise again and this cycle will repeat. I truly think up to this point on a From Horror Movie To Horror Comic update that the zombies from Return Of The Living Dead are the most dangerous ones we have covered, as it seems that only luck can truly stop them from expanding their ever growing army.

Okay, now that we know how the zombie kill and just how dangerous they are to the living in the Return Of The Living Dead universe, let’s now take some time and chat about the iconic film they are from as we head to the party of the living dead! And like always, I will be taking the film’s write up from our friends at IMDB and then after that I will be writing about the film’s production as well as my thoughts on it. So wear a helmet, as these partygoers want brains and be aware they also stink to high heaven!

Return Of The Living Dead (1985)

“When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through Louisville, Kentucky seeking their favorite food, brains.”

Return Of The Living Dead originally was the brainchild of Night Of The Living Dead co-creator John Russo, who, after splitting away from George A. Romero, ended up owning the “Living Dead” aspect of the film. In 1979, he wrote a sequel to the film called “Return Of The Living Dead” as a novel and years down the line producer Tom Fox wanted to bring his novel to the big screen in 3D with Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper at the helm. But after Hooper left the project scriptwriter Dan O’Bannon was brought in to direct as well as rewrite the script as many of the people involved in the film’s production thought that Russo’s draft was weak and slightly cheesy. The film was then cast with such names as Clu Gulager, Don Calfa, James Karen, Thom Mathews, Miguel A. Nunez Jr., Jewel Shepard and Linnea Quigley to name a few making up our human cast and names like Allan Trautman, Jerome Coleman, Terrence Houlihan and David Bond being casted in undead roles. The film was shot in Bakersfield, California and was a stressful experience for the actors and crew as this was O’Bannon’s first film and he and producers seemed to clash over much of the film’s very tight filming schedule. The films music was from such bands as The Cramps, The Damned, SSQ, 45 Grave and Roky Erickson and became truly part of the film’s cult following. The film was released in theaters on August 16, 1985 and did pretty well at the American Box Office bringing in over $14.2 million dollars on a budget of $4 million. And the film was a hit with film critics and fans and would go on to gain even more cult status when released on home media as well as shown on cable TV. The film was released alongside these other classic Horror and Cult films Teen Wolf, A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Fright Night, Weird Science, Friday The 13^th V: A New Beginning, Cat’s Eye, Silver Bullet, Lifeforce, Once Bitten, Godzilla 1985, The Bride, Re-Animator and my favorite Zombie film of all time Day Of The Dead. And for those of you who really want an in-depth look at the making of this film, check out the documentary called “More Brains! A Return To The Living Dead” as it deep dives into the film’s history and showcases it better than I ever could.

Return Of The Living Dead was a film I first saw on VHS when my brother and I rented it from a local video store and it quickly became one of my favorites as everything about it brought me so much joy and entertainment! I can remember loving the looks of the zombies and of course Tarman was the standout of the undead creatures but I also always liked the rotten look of them all as when I think of zombies these mixed with the Romero amd Fulci film versions are what comes to mind. The film also had a kickass soundtrack with lots of super catchy songs with the likes of “Surfin’ Dead” by The Cramps, “Partytime” by 45 Grave, “Dead Beat Dance” by The Damned and “Tonight (We’ll Make Love Until We Die)” by SSQ being some of my favorites, and it was great hearing The Damned on a soundtrack as they were a band I was a big fan of thanks to the BBC show “The Young Ones” were they performed the song Nasty for a Halloween special. Way back before the days of DVD and Blu-Ray, I had to find this film on VHS to own and that was a quest as the film was very hard to find, and when you did finally find it, the tape carried a very high price tag, and when I finally found it at a second had store I felt like I had found one of the holy grails to my collection…now the film is super easy to find on every format, but for that brief time I can remember all my friends who were into Horror always wanted to watch it when they came over. My favorite character in the film was Spider played by one of my favorite genre actors Miguel A. Nunez Jr. as the character is a punk but also seems to truly care about his friends as well as the safety for other people, and of course everybody loves Trash played by Linnea Quigley as what is not to love about a sexy naked punk rock woman who ends up turning into a brain eating zombie! I am sure I am not the only one who is going to say this, but if you love 80’s Horror, Zombie Films and just Horror in general and have not seen this one, make sure to watch Return Of The Living Dead as it is a fun Horror Comedy film that brings the blood splatter and belly laughs. Also do yourself a favor and just buy this film on VHS, DVD or Blu-Ray as it as well as the films soundtrack on Cassette, Vinyl or CD are working owning in your collection.

I love Return Of The Living Dead, as it’s a film that is easily in my Top 5 Favorite Zombie Films of all time and is a film that I think every horror fan should watch as well as own on physical media in their film collections like I have said above. There is something special about the film as all the elements just seem to work perfectly together and that’s from the directing, acting, music, effects and even set design this is just a well made and great Horror Film that deserves all the praise it gets as well as the Cult status it built for itself. We are now at the review part of this update and I would like to first thank Dead Mouse for making this Graphic Novel and making this update possible, I would also like to say Rest In Peace to actors Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Mark Venturini, Cathleen Cordell and any others that passed away as they helped make this film amazing and all did fantastic work in their respected roles. I would also like to remind you all that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story. So if you are ready, let’s head into the cemetery and party with the living dead.

Revenge Of The Living Dead # 1 **
Released in 2019 Cover Price $14.99 Dead Mouse # 1 of 1

The bomb has missed it’s target in Kentucky to contain the zombie outbreak and only wiped out some of them. Tina and Ernie are able to survive in the mortuary while across the street in the warehouse Spider, Casey and Chuck survive but boards have fallen on Burt, and they think he is dead. The groups all meet up at the mortuary and are happy to see some of their friends made it out alive from the undead attack as well as the army bomb attack. And best of all they find that embalming fluid can keep the zombie versions of Frank and Freddy (who both also survived) under control and Ernie comes up with the idea of taking one of the ambulances, loading it with some trioxin from the warehouse and using it as well as the two now controlled zombie to expose what the government is up to! Once back in the warehouse Spider and Ernie take out Tarman who has placed his head back on as zombie Frank and Freddy get the trioxen from the basement and load it, and then the group escape and hide as the army is moving in with foot soldiers and vehicles again and have orders to kill everything in site! Ernie and the others watch as all around them the zombies and soldiers are clashing with both sides losing members. Our heroes end up in a mall parking lot and have to kill a truck driver they saved that got bit before arming themselves and having to fight off the attacking zombies who have even killed the military general! As Tina and Casey move the vehicle away from the battle Ernie, Spider and Chuck armed with tons of firearms start blasting the undead. Ernie and the others are able to escape and get away and come in contact with the military and after a brief standoff Ernie, Tina, Spider, Casey and Chuck are able to trade the remaining trioxen and the dead Frank and Freddy for their freedom. While back with the military, the zombies arrive and both Frank and Freddy as well go on the attack and kill them all as even one of the canisters cracks open and creates a new Tarman. The comic ends with Ernie and the others getting to freedom as back in front of the warehouse Burt is alive and fighting off zombies.

Revenge Of The Living Dead is a pretty entertaining read but is also kind of a letdown on several levels as it does not feel like it even is the same universe as the film its based on and while many of the films characters are around, they seem off and not like they should as it was very clear that Don Calfa was one of the writers as the character he plays Ernie is the main focus and is the main hero with all the other returning characters playing background players to his story of survival. The graphic novel’s plot has the bomb attack by the Government on Kentucky being a failure and with that many of the zombies are still running wild but also Ernie, Spider, Chuck, Tina and Casey also have survived and are trying to find away out of the warzone as now armed soldiers are being sent out to kill anything moving, and a subplot has Ernie figuring out that embalming fluid can help keep the undead under control for a short amount of time and uses it on Freddy and Frank to help him and the others get out alive. Ernie is the hero of this GN as he is the one that gets all the remaining punks together, sets all the plans in motion, finds a possible slowdown for the zombie infection and is the one that uses his mind to get himself and the others out of harm’s way buy bribing the military for their freedom. And Spider, Tina, Casey and Chuck are along for the ride taking orders from Ernie and being background players and only doing something big to help when Ernie commands it…and that is a big disappointment…as is the fact Ernie’s ankle injury seems to vanish really quickly as the story goes on. The GN also spends a lot of time with the military and the Generals arguing and being really bad at their jobs, and this “humor” is a little silly and felt more at place in a Looney Tunes cartoon. The zombies are all around with even Tarman and Trash making appearances and are super hungry for brains and the kills are bloody and gooey, plus we even get to see the body of Suicide still in the basement of the warehouse right were Tarman left it. The cover for this graphic novel is very cool and showcases all the main characters of this book, and Jason Miller is the interior artist who has a cartoonish style that is really good and cool…but not the style I would think of when it comes to Return Of The Living Dead. And that is kind of how I feel about this graphic novel as a whole; while it really is a “unofficial” sequel to the film, nothing about it even feels like the film, again sure characters and locations return but everything just seems off. I am glad I have this GN for my collection and it was a charming read, I sadly have to say I was over all letdown as I was looking for the punk rock charm that the film had in a comic, instead got the character of Ernie trying to be a more with it version of Ash from the Evil Dead films. I think I made my expectations way to high due to my love of the film and the fact Don Calfa wrote it. Check out the artwork below to see the style of Miller in this GN and see if you think it has that ROTLD feel.

I really wanted to like Revenge Of The Living Dead more than I did, I just could not get past some of the flaws that just took me out of it…like the mind controlled Freddy and Frank are dressed in suits and are acting like servants to Ernie, like why was that a thing as Frank burns to death in the film and Freddy was super scary as the blinded by acid zombie who was still trying to charm his girlfriend while talking about eating her brains…here in the GN they are just tools that truly add nothing to the story as the whole can be controlled by the embalming fluid goes nowhere. And sadly I am not the only one in my circle of friends who read Horror Comics that was letdown by this one. But let’s hope that sometime in the future a publisher like Eibon Press, HorrorHound Comics, Dynamite Comics, IDW or even a returning Fangoria Comics get a chance at doing a series based on Return Of The Living Dead and get all the right creators to make it what it should be and that’s a scary funny, brain eating, punk rock, fist shaking great time. With that, let’s leave the world of zombies behind and head into the world of voodoo as the countdown to Halloween 2024 continues and we take a look at Mardi Gras Massacre and the comic book based on it. So until next time, read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Film or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next update for a sleazy good time in the Big Easy.

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: Hillbilly Jim

Posted on November 15, 2023 by bloodlinematt

The doors to the Rotten Ink Arena are open, and today’s “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update is going to be a great one as our main event features a good old country boy who wore a horseshoe on a chain around his neck, would dance around the ring, was great friends with Hulk Hogan and Little Beaver, brought his family into wrestling, would promote the WWF Ice Cream bars, would sing his own iconic theme song and would also become a manager for a pair of hog farmers. And of course, I am talking about the one and only Hillbilly Jim, a true classic wrestler from the 1980’s WWF! So as you can see, they are serving some good old Kentucky Bar-Be-Que sandwiches and coleslaw at the snack bar so go grab yourself some as the matches are about to start.

Hillbilly Jim was trained by Bob Orton and started his pro career in 1975 and would work for Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) as a biker gimmick and went by Harley Davidson and teamed with Dirty Rhodes. He would stay with CWA as well as work for a few other NWA territories until around late 1984 when he would head to WWF and be Big Jim, a fan in the crowd who was a fan of champion Hulk Hogan, and decided that he wanted to be a wrestler and would be “trained” by the Hulkster after he turned down Roddy Piper who offered. And this is when Big Jim would become Hillybilly Jim, a goofy man from Mud Lick, Kentucky who was loved from the start by fans and would even have several tag team matches teaming with Hogan against the companies biggest heels. But Hillbilly Jim would get injured in early 1985 and this would cause him to bring in his family Uncle Elmer, Cousin Luke and Cousin Junior and become their manager while he heeled his messed up knee. Once he returned to in-ring action, he would team with his family members and sometimes Andre The Giant and have matches against the likes of Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy. His big feud at this time was with Mr. Fuji and while a major fan favorite, WWF would keep him out of the title shots as well as would not give him any serious storylines. His Family would seen also disappear from WWF, and he would find himself in a few big matches with one being Wrestlemania II and the other Survivor Series ’88, and while more of a comedy spot wrestler at this time, his fanbase kept growing as young and young at heart loved this dancing Hillbilly. By 1990 Hillbilly Jim’s push in WWF was coming to an end and even he lost a squash match to Earthquake at a Saturday Night’s Main Event, and by mid 1990, he would retire from full time in ring work. During his main WWF run he would have some big matches with names like Iron Sheik, Jesse Ventura, Roddy Piper, Adrian Adonis, Randy Savage and Dino Bravo to name a few. He also was part of the short lived cartoon “Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” as well as did a ton of commercials for stuff like Chevy trucks.

While no longer wrestling, Hillbilly Jim would stick around and would even be a host on the show “WWF Prime Time Wrestling” until the show was cancelled in 1993. He would be gone for a while and would return in 1995 as a special guest referee and then would also become the manager of The Godwinns (Henry O. and Phineas I.) and that was until 1997 when the teamed turned heel and they fired Hillbilly Jim from being their manager. He would then show up in 2001 at WrestleMania X-Seven as he was in the Gimmick Battle Royal, and he lost. From here he would travel around the WWF Axxess and public appearances. And from here Hillbilly Jim would only show up from time to time and was even a cast member of the reality show “WWE Legend’s House” and was put into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2018.

Growing up I can remember being a fan of Hillbilly Jim as were many of the kids at school as almost every kid I knew had the LJN figure of Hillbilly Jim. Being Hulk Hogan’s good friend, he was just a ready to cheer superstar who also was played off as a good hearted person and this made him a draw who never needed to win a title to become a legend and one of the most loved and remembered WWE Superstars. I can always remember that Hillbilly Jim was never an overly flashy wrestler nor did he have a look that set him apart from all the other Hillbilly gimmicks of the 80’s wrestling world, but what made him stand out from the pack was his massive size and just his over all character and attitude as he was always getting fans invested into his matches no matter how limited they were in spots. I also think its great that clearly Vince McMahon loved Hillbilly themed wrestlers as over the years he has created and booked so many, and I am wondering if that love came from the legend Haystacks Calhoun who his father use to book back in the Golden Age. It’s also clear that Hillbilly Jim would wear the horseshoe to pay respects to Haystacks, and as a kid I can always remember him kissing it for good luck. One thing that is crazy to think is that Hillbilly Jim’s career was not that long and that his WWF main run as a wrestler only lasted around six years and that he never even one a single belt during this time. And let’s be honest, out of the Hillbilly stable that was working in WWF in the 1980’s, Jim was the only one that had the talent and persona to pull it off and be remembered. To sum it up, growing up I liked Hillbilly Jim and even in these modern times and long removed from the ring he is remembered and well loved by fans, as he is generally a great person to his fans when they meet him in person.

We are now at the point of this review where we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank Hillbilly Jim for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only chose from Single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready let’s step into the ring with Hillbilly Jim.

Best Of Hillbilly Jim

Match 1: Hillbilly Jim vs. Jim Neidhart

As the bell rings, Hillbilly gets the crowd cheering and even tries to shake Neidhart’s hand, that the he rejects of course. And Neidhart soon learns that Hillbilly is just as strong as he is, and that these two are going to be evenly matched. And it’s a chop to the head that gets the crowd roaring and gets Hillbilly Jim in charge of the match for a second that is until Neidhart takes a cheap shot and the two powerhouses exchange hits and holds. Neidhart shows his power and drops Hillbilly throat first onto the ropes and this takes the breath out of him and allows Neidhart to beat up on him for a bit and even cheats and starts biting him on the face. Hillbilly Jim is able to make a comeback when he is able to big boot the face of Neidhart and then is able to even drop a powerful elbow on him and get a two count from it. Neidhart snaps and starts beating up Hillbilly Jim and also gets rough with the referee that gets him disqualified and gives the win to Hillbilly. After the bell rings Neidhart and Hillbilly keep fighting as the crowd erupts for the action. This is a great hoss fight that has two powerhouses beating the hell out of each other and telling a great story in the ring. Both men do not look weak in the match and both are shown to be super strong and their styles mesh well as both have a brawling mixed with classic style. I also like that both of these guys play off the fans and get them invested into the match and even add a dash of comedy to the match. Big Moves, Big Brawlers make for a fun match that is highly entertaining.

Grade: ***

Match 2: Hillbilly Jim vs. Boris Zhukov

Boris attacks Hillbilly Jim from behind and once for doing so Boris gets mule kicked and rolls out of the ring as Hillbilly gets the fans to cheer USA! The two trade punches and are trying to show that they are not going to go down as both want this win. Throughout the match Hillbilly keeps pulling off classic moves on Boris and the Russian is getting more and more frustrated and even when Boris goes on the attack Hillbilly is able to shrug it off and then starts working on Boris’s leg. And after a big boot to the face Hillbilly Jim is able to get the pin and the win. This match is entertaining and has Hillbilly Jim not only do some power moves but also does so classic movies in order to spice things up, he also adds a touch of comedy to the match and that helps bring the fans alive who really do love him and made him a big Superstar of his time. Boris Zhukov is a pure brawler heel in the match and does a great job off playing off the antics of Jim and while he looses the match and most of the time he is getting thrown around he don’t come off as a complete jobber. Over all the two have pretty good chemistry in the match and while it’s clearly an enhancement match it feels a little bigger then that.

Grade: **1/2

Match 3: Hillbilly Jim vs. One Man Gang

Before the bell rings, Hillbilly Jim has little person wrestler Little Beaver in his corner and they still One Man Gang’s manager Slick’s hat and once the bell rings Gang shows Hillbilly that he is the stronger of the two, but he also comes back to show that he is strong as well! And One Man Gang then goes for a massive headlock and his able to have the hold on for a while as every time Hillbilly is about to escape Gang pulls his hair and back into the lock. Finally Little Beaver has seen enough and comes in and punches Gang and the hold is broken, but this only buys Hillbilly a moment of rest as Gang is back on him with a test of strength that is draining his energy even more. And like before Little Beaver comes in and helps break up the move, Hillbilly makes a small comeback but soon is once more getting beaten up by Gang who is angered over the antics of Little Beaver. As the referee is distracted Slick as well now is cheating and landing cheap shots on the downed Hillbilly Jim. And after a few avalanche splashes and a falling elbow drop Gang goes for the pin, and once more Little Beaver enters the ring and breaks up the pin. Both men find themselves outside the ring fighting and with the help of Little Beaver One Man Gang is counted out and looses the match. After the match Gang beats up Hillbilly and then even big slashes Little Beaver. While this is a fun big man fight it’s also a very slow one as it has many long moments of rest holds and not a lot of even basic wrestling holds. While One Man Gang is shown to be the big threat and has Hillbilly Jim beaten down almost the whole match, it’s the comedy aspect of Little Beaver who keeps entering the ring and cheating right in front of the referee that will annoy almost an wrestling fan, in other words the over use Little Beaver in this already way to long match. While Gang looks good Hillbilly doesn’t, as he needs outside help to stay alive throughout the match. Over all a sluggish match with way to much interference from Little Beaver that brings the star rating down, but I do like in the end when Gang gets his revenge and crushes Little Beaver with a splash.

Grade: **

Match 4: Hillbilly Jim vs. Fuller Stevens

From the start Fuller Stevens tries to tackle Hillbilly Jim and learns that running into him is like hitting a brick wall as he crashes to the mat from the impact. Fuller then tries to body slam Hillbilly and cant, but Hillbilly slams him with ease. And from here on Hillbilly Jim toys with and beats up on Fuller Stevens who is angry that he looks like a total jobber. And after a big boot to the face Fuller falls to the mat and is pinned and this was a easy win for Hillbilly Jim! This is a total squash match as Fuller Stevens can not pull off one move and looks like a total jobber as he is thrown around, booted in the fast and then pinned without Jim even breaking a sweat. Not much to say besides Hillbilly Jim comes off looking great and strong as his opponent Fuller looks like a goof. And yes this match like most of Hillbilly Jim’s matches has a touch of humor.

Grade: **1/2

Hillbilly Jim was a perfect wrestler for the 80’s as he was a great sidekick to Hulk Hogan and was a wrestler that kids loved as he was a jolly mountain of a man who would dance around and do funny spots in his match. And while many of his matches was the same formula and even featured the same spots Hillbilly Jim is a true legend in and out of the sport. But as you can see the Rotten Ink Arena is closing down for the update so it’s our cue to head on out, but before we leave I would like to tell you that our next update will be our big Thanksgiving one and we will be having turkey with that B-Movie icon The Giant Gila Monster! So until next time, read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers. See you next time for some Hot Rods and Big Creatures!

Harland Sanders The Fried Chicken Colonel Of Kentucky

Posted on April 4, 2016 by bloodlinematt

Who doesn’t love some good old greasy fried chicken? Well maybe vegetarians, vegans and people who are watching their weight are not so much fans of this crispy fried death. When I was a youngster, my Grandma Salyers was an amazing cook and made lots of great southern style meals complete with collared greens, green beans with salt pork, fried green tomatoes, green onions and of course fried chicken! I loved eating at my Grandma’s house as her home cooking could not be beat and her fried chicken was at the top of my request list next to her homemade chicken or beef noodles and fried green tomatoes. One of the best parts about the meals also was that all the veggies were picked from their garden. Man, I miss those days and more importantly miss my grandparents who sadly both have passed away. The theme of this update is fried chicken and one man, who along with 11 herb and spices made a recipe that took the United States by storm and gave us the fast food restaurant called Kentucky Fried Chicken. That man is Colonel Sanders! So let’s order a bucket of chicken with some mashed potatoes and gravy and some biscuits with honey and talk about this Kentucky icon.

Harland David Sanders was born on September 9, 1890 in a small house near Henryville, Indiana and was the oldest of three children. He grew up going to church and enjoying a good farm family environment, but things got a little rougher when his father passed away and his mother had to take a job. Harland was forced to act as his siblings’ caretaker, but at this young age he learned to make food and do some creative things with meats, breads and vegetables. At the age of 10, he also took a job as a farmhand for a to help out with money. In 1902, seven years after his father’s death, his mom re-married, and they all moved to Greenwood, Indiana. Harland found himself at odds with his new stepdad, and this lead to him dropping out of school in the 7^th grade and taking lots of jobs in the surrounding towns. At the age of 14, he moved away from his mother with her blessing and lived with his uncle in New Albany, Indiana to work as a steelcar conductor. In 1906 Harland joined the United States Army as a teamster and survived in Cuba until being honorably discharged in 1907 as he lied about is age. He then moved to Alabama where another of his uncles lived and worked for the railway as a blacksmith’s helper and later cleaned ash pans of trains, and at 16 he became a steam engine stoker. While working for the railway of Alabama, he meet Josephine King who he would marry and have one son and two daughters with. Sadly his son Harland Jr. passed away very young from infected tonsils.

The Sanders family would next move to Jackson, Tennessee as Harland took a job for the Ilinois Central Railroad as steam engine stoker and studied law at night via La Salle Extension University. Harland lost his job at the railway when he got into a a brawl with a fellow worker. He found work at another railway company and his law work came to an end when he once more got into a brawl with his own client in court! Harland and his family had a rough time as he floated from job to job and even was fired from selling life insurance for insubordination. Things turned around for him in 1920 when he established a ferry boat company on the Ohio River that operated from Jeffersonville and Louisville. In 1922, he took the job of Chamber of Commerce in Columbus, Indiana but was not very good at the job and left his post less than a year into it. Sanders made a boneheaded move when he sold off his shares in the ferry boat company to open an acetylene lamp manufacturing plant that failed after Delco sold electric lamps on credit. Sanders moved to Winchester, Kentucky to work as a sales person for Michelin Tires but once more was let go after one of their manufacturing plants closed. He then went on to work at a Standard Oil Gas Station as a manager, but it closed during the great depression in 1930 leaving him once more jobless.

But his luck would once more save him as Shell offered him a service station in North Corbin, Kentucky rent free as long as they shared a percentage of sales with them! Sanders started to make good home cooked meals that he would sell at the station like country ham and steaks as well as chicken and would later attach a restaurant to the gas station which became a huge hit with visitors. Sanders did have his enimies at this time as Matt Stewart owned a rival station, and a fight over a street sign lead to Stewart shooting and killing a Shell Oil official and being convicted of murder, eliminating his only competition. In 1935 Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon commissioned Sanders as a Kenticky Colonel as his popularity and reputation of serving great food grew and grew. Over the years Sanders opened more restaurants that were also attached to hotels and motels and would do his part to help during Word War II and the gas shortage. In 1947, Harland divorced Josephine and married his mistress for many years Claudia Ledington-Price in 1949. By this time he had also perfected his fried chicken that was the talk of the town as his 11 secret herbs and spices as well as his style of cooking the chicken became a signature flavor. By 1952, Sanders allowed his “Kentucky Fried Chicken” meals to be franchised to a man named Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah. Pete saw his sales triple, all of it coming from the fried chicken! A fun little fact is that Don Anderson, a sign painter hired by Pete, came up with the name Kentucky Fried Chicken as he used the term to draw people into his restaurant in Utah as the customers loved the southern sound and style of this tasty chicken. Plus, Sanders made .04 off each chicken sold at this location.

But by the age of 65 Sanders sold his restaurant, and he and his wife Claudia opened a new restaurant and headquarters in 1959. Sanders would travel around to places and try to sell the franchise rights to his friend chicken. This would include him making a batch of his famous chicken and having workers eat it, and when they liked it he would work out a deal with the owners on the price of the deal. This was the birth of the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fast food restaurants that are still going strong to this day. Sanders would later just sell all the US rights to the chicken concept but retained the rights in Canada and Englund and would remain the spokesman and mascot for the fast food joint to this day. But Sanders and KFC had feuds over the years as both have slung lawsuits at each other over all types of things such as bad mouthing gravy all the way to misusing Sanders’ image on products. Sadly Sanders’ time came to an end as on December 16 1980 he died of leukemia at the age of 90, but his legacy and chicken still lives on to this day.

Colonel Sanders was known for his white suit, classic southern black bow tie as well as his white goatee. But here are some weird a fun things you might not know about Sanders: at first he treated the whole Kentucky Colonel thing as a joke but later would take it seriously. He was a foul mouthed man when it came to food quality and would visit KFC restaurants in the 70’s and if the meal did not live up to his standards he would cuss and shove the food to the floor! He used his own stock holdings to create the Colonel Sanders trust as well as Colonel Harland Sanders Charitable Organization that were used to aid charities as well as scholarships. Japan’s Hanshin Tigers baseball team has an urban legend called “Curse of the Colonel” that has them performing poorly after some fans in 1985 tossed a statue of Colonel Sanders into a river that lead to the statue being lost. In 2011 in KFC’s archives, a manuscript was found written by Colonel Sanders that had recipes as well as life lessons. They claimed that they were going to try some of these recipes and put the 200 page writings online but to my knowledge they never did. Lee Cummings, the nephew of Colonel Sanders traveled around with his uncle selling the 11 Herd and Spices as well as pressure cookers in 1952 to franchises, and in 1966 Lee made his own recipe that he called his “Famous Recipe.” He is the creator of the chicken restaurant known as “Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken,” one of KFC’s big competitors in the fast food chicken world.

Growing up my parents were not fried chicken eaters, and we would get KFC only time to time as my Dad always thought the buckets cost too much. As I stated before, most of the time we did have it was at my grandparents’ house as my parents would get a big old bucket so my grandma didn’t have to cook as she and my grandpa were big chicken eaters. As I got older, my brother had a KFC kick, and he and I used to go out to eat. Most of the time he chose between Taco Bell and KFC, and now I think he enjoys eating Lee’s more than KFC. At work we seem to eat KFC pretty often as Todd The Fox loves himself some fried chicken or a famous bowl, and Garrison Kane loves his double down sandwich. For those who don’t know what a double down is, it’s two chicken patties that act as the bun to some bacon and cheese…yeah it’s an artery clogger for sure. When I eat at KFC this is my standard order: 3 piece dark meat meal with mash potatoes and green beans with water to drink. So what do you enjoy eating at KFC?

I covered KFC’s birth above, so I figured I would skip the huge history lesson on KFC and what big company owns them and how many times it’s been sold and such and decided to instead cover the classic KFC Commercials that use to air on broadcast TV and can now be found on Youtube. It’s really cool to see these classic commercials from the late 60’s and 70’s and watch Harland Sanders in his white suit and cane prepare chicken or watch cooks make chicken, all the while the catch phrase “It’s Finger Licking Good” is said to highlight just how good the chicken at Kentucky Fried Chicken is thanks to the secret recipe. Also, you can see commercials from the 80’s. 90’s and even the modern stuff with the “fake” Colonel Sanders…we will get into those a little later in the update. It’s really crazy to think that while other fast food joints had more colorful mascots like Ronald McDonald for McDonalds, The Magical Burger King for Burger King and The Noid for Dominos Pizza to name a few, KFC more played up Colonel Sanders, a Southern gentleman who lived the American Dream. So if you’re bored and have a few minutes to kill, check out these commercials on Youtube and learn why the chicken is finger licking good as well as how you can get buckets of chicken to go for that after church dinner!

Over the years besides the two comics we will be diving into on this update, many other great merchandise has been made based around Colonel Sanders that includes Halloween costumes, penny banks, PVC kids meal figures, hand puppets, clocks, t-shirts, vinyl records, bobble head, a Let’s Play At Kentucky Fried Chicken playset and statues to name a few. It’s great to see Colonel Sanders live on with lots of these collectable items, and while I don’t own any of these things besides the comics I have mentioned above I have seen the penny banks at many antique stores and have thought about buying one many times. So if you’re a collector of fast food mascots or just love KFC, you might want to try and track down some of these collectibles for your own collection.

With the original Colonel Sanders passing away in 1980, KFC thought of other ways to use his image like in the late 90’s they had an animated version who was cartoony in nature and was voiced by actor Randy Quaid. In 2015, we had two actors playing the “role” of Colonel Sanders, both former Saturday Night Live actors. The first was played by Darrell Hammond, who had a touch of creepy to his portrayal. This caused a huge backlash on social media from people who found it disrespectful to turn a classy gentlemen into a giggling chicken obsessed freak. I for one enjoyed the silly nature of Hammond’s version of Sanders, and it’s a shame they fired him from the role. During Hammond’s commercials he would sing little songs about fried chicken like “Chicken In The Bucket, Chicken In The Beans” or the classic about the $5.00 Fill Up Meal in which he explains that you not only get taters and gravy but also a big ol cookie! Norm Macdonald took over the role of Sanders and plays him more straight laced, but no matter how much or is it how little he tries, he just sounds like the Norm Macdonald we all grew to love while he was on SNL. During his commercials, Norm also explains that Hammond was an imposter trying to act as if he was the real Colonel Sanders. So will these three be the last to play the gone but not forgotten Colonel of Fried Chicken? Only time will tell. I should also note that it’s nice to see them at least use Colonel Sanders again as sometime in the 2000’s I can remember them wanting to drop his image from their marketing and wanted to embrace the KFC name and phase out that it stood for Kentucky Fried Chicken as health food nuts of the net went on a smear campaign against fast food joints.

For this update, co-workers Stephen Alexander, Garrison Kane and I ordered some food form our nearby KFC, and I wanted to break the meal down and give each food item a grade like on a report card! I ordered a 3 piece meal dark meat (leg, thigh, thigh) with mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans and a lemonade to drink. The meal cost about $8.50, and let’s see if it was worth it! Let’s start with the sides, the green beans were fantastic and had a nice mix of diced onions mixed in, and the flavor was really good. I would get them a B+! The mashed potatoes and gravy were okay. The potatoes tasted great, but the gravy was so-so. I would give them a grade of C. The biscuit was dry and tasteless, and I only ate a small part of it before I gave it to Stephen; I would give it a D. The lemonade was really good and tasted freshly made so I would give it a solid A! The main event was the chicken, and man it was dry. The chicken leg was so small and dry, it was a waste of frying! The two thighs the meal came with were a little more meaty but tasted kind of bland, and I had to use the Finger Licken Good Sauce to make it pop with flavor. I would give the chicken a C – as it was not great but not total garbage. Over all, it was an average meal from KFC that did its job of filling my tummy on a long day of work.

Speaking of eating chicken, while working on this update I thought of yet another idea for a comic book that I would like to see made and that’s one based on a Troma Movie that has a metal teethed maniac who bites the heads off chickens, murders people and can only speak with clucks…that’s right, I am talking about Luther The Geek! This 1990 film was directed by Carlton J. Albright and was about a man named Luther Watts who as a child got his teeth knocked out while at a freak showing watching a geek eat the head off a live chicken. He had his missing teeth replaced with steel ones and became crazed and craved human flesh. After being in prison for twenty years, he is paroled and sets back out biting people’s necks in order to taste their blood, and sadly for Hilary and her daughter Beth, their farmhouse becomes a nightmare as Luther comes to roost. I should also mention Luther does not talk but clucks and crows like a rooster! Luther kills anyone foolish enough to get in his way as his thirst for blood knows no bounds and no age, gender or race is safe from his metal teeth of death. I first saw this film on VHS when my Brother and I rented it from K&L Video, and from that moment on, it became a film that I enjoyed for its over the top nature and creepy killer. I also want to mention that Stacy Haiduk, who played Beth, is a stunning raven haired beauty in this movie and is also helped fuel my like for this film as she has a great shower scene! My idea to make this into a comic would take place after the events of the movie and have Hilary being insane and locked up in an asylum, but little does she know that the body of Luther is missing and he is on the hunt for his “hen” as he thinks that she is now his mate! When Luther sets the crazies of the asylum free to run the nut house, Hilary must gain her wits back in order to survive as Luther is on the prowl and hungry for human blood and flesh. The best part of this comic idea is that Luther, while in the Asylum would also be attacking other inmates as he does not understand friendship. I would also throw in the original geek that inspired him to become one, who would be really old and the end would have the two fighting over Hilary like two roosters. I would love to see Troma make this comic themselves, and if not them, then I would say Blood Shed. From my friends, I think Bruce O’Hughes or Jason Young would do fantastic work making it come alive. Who knows maybe one day this comic idea will come alive!

With all this fried chicken talk, I am sure many of you readers are craving some KFC or some sort of other chicken restaurant like Lee’s, Churches or Popeyes so I am now going to bring out the main course of this review, the comics based on Colonel Sanders! One of them was made by KFC themselves, while the other was made by DC Comics and has Sanders teaming up with The Flash and Green Lantern to stop bogus chicken from being served trying to ruin KFC’s good name. I want to thank both Amazon and Ebay for having these comics in stock and I need to remind you that I grade these comics on a 1-4 star ranking and am looking at how well the comic keeps to the source material, its entertainment value, and its art and story. So let’s bring out a 500pc bucket of Chicken and get looking at the comic adventures of Colonel Sanders!

Colonel’s Adventure # 1 **1/2
Released in 2015 Cover Price FREE KFC # 1 of ???

Colonel Sanders is sitting on a stool and decides to share his life story with the readers. He explains about his childhood, from losing his father at the age of 5 to cooking meals for his siblings when he was only 7. He goes on to tell of his teen years lying about his age and joining the army where he was stationed in Cuba to watch after the donkeys. He then tells of his time working for the railroad as well as later opening and selling a boat company on the Ohio River and losing his money when putting it all into gas lamps. This issue ends with Sanders opening his gas station and restaurant and having a shoot out with his rival who had been painting over his sign, that left one man dead, his rival wounded and sent to jail and Sanders still alive and kicking ready to make some chicken!

This promo comic is fast and straight to the point and is 100% a marketing tool to show the weird and wild life Colonel Sanders lived before and during making his world famous chicken. The story is basic and nothing is really fleshed out as each life event and milestone for him is summed up in a panel or two, and no names are used besides his own. The one nice thing is also you get a mini history lesson as they give you the dates when the phone, jazz music and electric lamps all came into culture during his lifetime. Some things I didn’t know were that he had a terrible car wreck on a bridge when he was selling tires and was lucky to be alive and that he spent time also delivering babies! Also, the father of a new born baby in this comic looks a lot like Don Knotts! The bottom of each page as a tiny adventure of Colonel Sanders going on, and at one point he runs into The Incredible Hulk. Yeah, how weird is that?! The art in the comic is pretty good but has a kind of souless digital look to it and was done by Dan Burke. The cover is pretty kick butt and makes Colonel Sanders look like The Lone Ranger! Over all, this is a cheesy quick read comic used to make one learn and respect Colonel Sanders. Check out some artwork from this comic below.

Now let’s get onto the next comic based on Sanders done by DC Comics that was given away at Comic Con and features some famous superheroes and villains.

Colonel Of Two Worlds # 1 **1/2
Released in 2015 Cover Price FREE DC Comics # 1 of 1

Captain Cold and Mirror Master are sick and tired of being on the losing end of fights with The Flash, and they decide to join forces with Colonel Sunder who came from another dimension called Earth-3. They open a restaurant called Easy Fried Chicken where henchmen go out and rob people to get money to open more of these lousy fried chicken joints, while Mirror Master and Captain Cold serve lousy food for cheap prices to customers. The Flash and Green Lantern stop a bank robbery, and The Flash goes to look into Easy Chicken as crime has went up when they moved into town. As he is about to enter, he runs into Colonel Sanders who is pissed off about this fake looking Colonel making chicken the easy way when the world knows it tastes better when you do it the hard way! Colonel Sanders confronts Sunders, and the pair fight as Sanders mops the ground with not only Sunders, who is using a pink slime gun, but also his henchmen. All the while, Captain Cold and Mirror Master watch in shock as their hope to be crimelords is tossed back into a portal that leads him to Earth-3 where he belongs! In the end The Flash and Green Lantern visit Colonel Sanders at KFC and find out that both Mirror Master and Captain Cold are working there as part of community service as Sanders has taught them that working hard is better than the easy way.

This comic is as silly as the description above sounds. First off, the plot is about another world Colonel Sanders coming to our world and trying to make cheap gross fried chicken restaurants as his way to take over the world and rip people off of money. Along for the ride are two of The Flash’s top bad guys who are forced to work in this gross fast food restaurant as they think this will lead them to world domination! And the kicker is that the real Colonel Sanders is the one who kicks butt as the superheroes just watch in amazement and later offer Sanders a seat in the JLA…yeah, this is truly a strange take of crispy strange goodness. Colonel Sanders is so heated up when he finds out someone looking like him is selling gross friend chicken that he marches down to his restaurant knocks The Flash out of his way and starts to rumble with anyone who stands in his way! Colonel Sanders in this issue is a badass and by the looks of it could have gone toe to toe with Doomsday if he was selling chicken that was not of high standards. While they do stop a robbery, the Flash and Green Lantern are clearly just background players in this silly game of chicken. Colonel Sunder is a black suit wearing lazy Sanders look alike who on Earth-3 is the king of poultry but here is just a no good thief who sells gross food and is such a bum that he won’t even lift a finger to take over the world. I do like how he uses guns that shoot chicken nuggets as well as pink meat slime! Captain Cold and Mirror Master as well just take backseat roles, but they do take a strange role in the end as both work for KFC and seem to enjoy doing so! It also makes the pair of baddies aware that they are looked at as a joke when it comes to super villains. The cover is amazing as it shows the two Sanders clashing as the DC characters watch on in amazement. The art inside looks like most of your modern DC issues and is done by Tom Derenick. While not my favorite style of art, it works well for this promo comic. Man, they should have had Colonel Sanders join the JLA as I would have loved to seen him beat The Joker to death with his cane or even uppercut Darkseid through a window as this issue makes Sanders out to be a ticking timebomb of pride that, if pushed, nothing can stop! Check out a piece of art from the comic below, and if you like weird promo comics featuring mainstream heroes, then make sure to add this to your must-read list!

I hope you enjoyed this deep fried look at Colonel Sanders and his chicken. It was a fun one to write as I always like talking and researching mascots for fast food restaurants. But while many of you might think that KFC’s greasy chicken is scary, our next update will be about that famed haunted house in New York that spawned many movies, books, theories and yes, even a comic. That’,s right be prepared to be scared as we look into The Amityville Horror! So get your nerve of steel as we will enter the house and expose the curse, but until then, read a comic or three, support your local Horror Host and enjoy some fried chicken if you eat meat!