I Am Legend (16/54) - Kerry Gammill Hemocyte production art from the unmade Ridley Scott adaptation (Circa 1997)

 

When Ridley Scott took on directing I Am Legend for Warner Brothers in 1997, he was initially working from a Mark Protosevich screenplay (which itself was based on the Corrington's screenplay to The Omega Man). Steve Johnson's effects company had been hired to develop the look of Protosevich's Hemocytes — the creatures that replaced the vampires in Matheson's novel. On his team was comic artist Kerry Gammill.

When Johnson was selling off assets from his XFX company on eBay, I was able to acquire an original Kerry Gammill Hemocyte sketch. I also received a production illustration which appears to be colored and inked from this original drawing. Though not obvious from these illustrations, the Hemocytes were envisioned to be almost translucent, allowing you to see under their skin. Gammill's use of extra teeth did make it into the next stage of the design for the Hemocytes, as evidenced in these make-up tests that Johnson uploaded to YouTube. (I later acquired an original VHS copy of test footage on eBay.)

While I like Gammill's design, and am glad to have pre-production material from the unmade film in the archive, I can't help but believe it's a mistake for the filmmakers to change the vampires in Matheson's story from the familiar (his neighbors and family members) to completely unrecognizable creatures. 

That said, these designs are far superior to the CGI 'Darkseekers' that were ultimately used in the Francis Lawrence film. While it can't be confirmed, I believe the makers of the 2007 film turned to these 1970s rubber jigglers for 'Darkseeker' reference...

 Be sure to check back next week for more from the I Am Legend Archive!

Creature from the Black Lagoon (16/54) - May 1954 Mechanix Illustrated (1954)

Every Creature fan needs at least one copy of Mechanix Illustrated in their collection — the May 1954 issue with a cover story on the newly released film. 

What would Mechanix Illustrated cover about a 50's monster movie, you ask? The How-To-Do magazine features the article, "Science Creates a Monster," detailing the creation of the iconic $18,000 Creature suit.

The article does describe Milicent Patrick as the designer of the Creature (and then goes on to say that those designs were just the first step, and that Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan had the job of creating the Creature suit). 

 Come back next week for another interesting item from my Creature collection!

Godzilla (15/54) - Bandai Theater Exclusive Meltdown Godzilla (1995)

 

If you had asked me growing up if the thought of a Godzilla molded in orange/red was appealing, I think I would have told you that you were crazy. Thanks to this Theater Exclusive (limited to 5,000 copies during the theatrical distribution of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah), this design, and almost thirty years later, every other off-beat color variation of Godzilla, are now among my favorites.

The coloring represents the final stage of Godzilla's nuclear meltdown from the climax of the film.

It was early 1996 when I saw an ad offering this rarity in G-Fan magazine, and I decided I had to acquire one. At the time, this was the most expensive Godzilla I owned. What I could never had imagined is that I was buying it from someone who years later, I would come to know through our shared admiration of Night of the Living Dead!

If I had to pick a favorite Bandai Godzilla, in my collection, this would be the one. My only regret was not picking up a giant, two-foot tall similar color variation...

Be sure to check back week for another item from my Godzilla collection!

I Am Legend (15/54) - Original Eclipse comic adaptation art by Elman Brown (1991)

If memory serves, one day many years ago, I stumbled across an original page of the I Am Legend comic adaptation for sale on eBay. Before jumping on it, I wrote to the seller and asked if they had other pieces available, and it turned out it was Steve Niles, the author of the adaptation selling pages, and he had most of them.

I poured through each issue of the comic to see which pieces resonated with me the most, and I identified four. One of which had the art that had originally attracted me to the adaptation, two made up a two-page spread of Neville bringing the dead vampires to the pit, and the fourth was the final page of the adaptation.

While all four pages were available, the first page didn't actually contain the original portrait of Neville that I was so fond of — it just contained a photostat of the image. As a result, I passed on that one (in retrospect I should have just bought it as well), but I did pick up the other three.

I liked the 'pit' scenes as they showcased Brown's cross-hatching work to great effect, and the dimensionality of the clouds of smoke rising up. The two pages are additionally signed by Brown, and dated '91.

I selected the final page for the obvious reason that it includes the book's title. Spoiler alert.

Check back next week for another item from the I Am Legend archive.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (15/54) - Super7 Super Cyborg Gill-Man (2023)

Turns out that Super7 is getting a lot of coverage on this blog. If only they had some licensed I Am Legend product to complete the trifecta. (I'll have to bug my pal Ashly to get on that!)

So what do we have here, you ask? I like to think of it as an 11" tall representation of what the Gill-Man would see when visiting his primary care physician in the Black Lagoon.

This Japanese-styled toy is pretty darn cool, even inside the confines of his box. 

But he really shines and can only be fully appreciated once freed of the shackles of his packaging. 

That skull! Those teeth! Those eyes!

The coolest Easter Egg is his tummy full of fishbones. No threat to human society here, folks!

And Super7 is kind enough to provide the necessary pieces from keeping him indecently disposed while on display. 

And while his overall articulation is limited, he can definitely strike the official Creature pose!

Be sure to check back next week for something else from my Creature collection!

Godzilla (14/54) - Bootleg color-changing Godzilla bust night light (2021)

When I saw this Heisei-era-styled Godzilla bust night light on Amazon, I immediately added it to my wish list, and my sister was kind enough to get it for me for my birthday this year. 

If you want to track down one of these affordable beasties, you won't find it listed as Godzilla. What we have here is a "Dinosaur Night Light, Color Changing Silicone Night Lights with Touch Sensor, Portable Rechargeable LED Children Adults Lamp for Bedroom, Gaming Room Decor, Monster Gifts for Boys Man." I take offense at the suggestion that this is a gift only for Boys Man. I'll have you know that Vonna is just as big a fan of this as I am. 

Why? Because you can tap on his head to change his color. And if you're really adventurous, he has a color-changing mode, demonstrated in the video below (music courtesy Akira Ifukube).

Come back next week for another item from the Godzilla collection!

I Am Legend (14/54) - Eclipse Comic Adaptation, signed by Richard Matheson and Steve Niles (1991)

In 1989, while flipping through a magazine, I came across this image (which I immediately clipped to save) with an announcement that a comic adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend was forthcoming from Arcane Comix. I was familiar with the company, as they had done work with others I admired, including Clive Barker. While one approaches any potential adaptation with a certain level of trepidation (particularly a comic adaptation, whose success depends greatly on the quality of the art), I was sold based on this rough sketch of Robert Neville by artist Elman Brown, and couldn't wait to see how it turned out.

But wait I did, as it wouldn't appear until 1991, released through Eclipse Comics. 

When I interviewed adapter Steve Niles many years later, I credited him on his decision to faithfully adapt the book almost as an illustrated novel. Nearly all of Matheson's original text is present.

I had Niles sign my copies when he came through San Jose for a comic show. Knowing of his shared fondness for Matheson's novel, I had previously enlisted him to write an afterword for the Gauntlet Publications collection Richard Matheson's Bloodlines (more on that in the future), which included all of Matheson's vampire fiction and screenplays, edited by Mark Dawidziak. 

And years earlier, I had gotten Matheson to sign the first issue during one of his appearances at Tom Lesser's annual paperback show in Mission Hills, California.

At the time of the book's release, I was struck pretty quickly that Elman Brown's portrait of Neville from the announcement wasn't truly representative of the style used in the comic. I assume it was done as a study for the character. That said, his cross-hatch style worked really well on some aspects of the book, including these pages of Neville taking the dead vampires to the pit.

The adaptation was four issues in all, at an (expensive for the time) $5.95 price point for a perfect-bound book (as opposed to a saddle-stitched, stapled comic). 

Many years ago, I came across a proof copy of the cover to Book 2. I would love to find examples of the other three. 

I also liked the overall design of the back covers of each issue, although the color palate used was somewhat random. The green "Come Out, Neville" doesn't pop on the first issue as it does the latter installments. But all in all, I credit Eclipse for doing the book, which was not inexpensive, nor was it a sure thing, even at a time when independent comics were thriving. 

Oh, and about that original image that had caught my eye? It does appear in the book, incongruous as it is with the rest of the art. To this reader, it serves as a reminder of what might have been. 

Be sure to return next week, for more items from my I Am Legend Archive!