Dr. Gangrene's Cinetarium airs Saturday Nights at 9pm central on Nashville NECAT Arts CH9. It is also simulcast on the NECAT Roku channel (search for Necat). Or click to watch below.

Thursday, February 7

Rondo Awards - Best Website

One of the things I like best about the Rondo Awards, besides the acknowledgement of the achievements of the individual candidates, is that it exposes voters to a fantastic array of classic horror material they might not previously have been aware of (and in many cases would likely never know about). All of the categories do an excellent in this respect, but perhaps none more so than the BEST WEBSITE category, which contains a variety of sites that every monster kid should spend some serious time exploring. Just take a look at the entries below.

-- Arbogast on Film (Blog for the love of film)
-- Britishhorrorfilms.co.uk (If CHFB was in England ... )
-- Cinefantastique Online (The magazine continues)
-- Cinema Dave (Quick-footed movie blog)
-- Creepy Classics (Monster Bash and latest product news)
-- The Drunken Severed Head (Max Cheney's unique blog about it all)
-- DVD Beaver (DVD comparisons, shot by shot)
-- DVD Drive-In (news and DVD views)
-- DVD Maniacs (news and DVD views)
-- DVD Savant (news and DVD views)
-- Eccentric-cinema (One of earliest cult sites)
-- E-gor's Chamber of TV Horror Hosts (amazingly complete)
-- Film Noir Foundation (For fans of long inky shadows)
-- Frankensteinia (If it didn't exist it would have to be invented)
-- G-Fan.com (John Lees' giant monster army)
-- Groovy Age of Horror (Not for faint-hearted)
-- Horrorhosts.com (Home of the horror host rebirth)
-- Kreepsville Industries (blogs, sounds, guest art)
-- Latarnia: Fantastique International (all things Euro and more)
-- Lugosiphilia Yahoo Group (Bela. Just Bela)
-- The Many Faces of the Frankenstein Monster (like it says)
-- Midnight Marquee online (Editor Gary Svehla's new blog)
-- Mobius Home Video Forum (No detail too small)
-- Monsterama.blogspot.com (Friendly creeps from Jay Stevens)
-- Monster-Maniacs Forum (discussions of monster conventions)
-- Movie Morlocks (TCM blog, many contributors)
-- Scarlet Street (message board to continue)
-- SciFilm.org (Home of Dave Sindelar archives)
-- Secret Fun Spot (Home of Flip! -- and your childhood)
-- Serialsquadron.com (Cliffhangers, restored serials and talk)
-- Solar Guard Academy (Calling all space rangers!)
-- Themonsterclub.com (Still excited about monsters and thrills)
-- Thethunderchild.com (Scifi, fantasy web magazine)
-- Trailers from Hell (Joe Dante, pros comment on trailers)
-- Unimonster's Crypt (Web pioneer John Stevenson reborn)
-- Universal Monster Army (Now a full-fledged message board)
-- Video Watchblog (Tim Lucas goes deeper than even his magazine dares)
-- Zombos' Closet of Horror Blog (John Cozzoli new generation blog)


That list is a collection of websites that are a true celebration of classic horror - and one of the most impressive sites on that list to the demented mind of this southern fried horror host is E-gor's Chamber of TV Horror Movie Hosts.


E-gor's site is run by George Chastain, a lifelong fan of horror hosts. His was one of the first sites I found on the internet about horror hosts, and was probably one of the first ever created. It is, without a doubt, the single greatest collection of data on horror hosts, past and present, that has ever been complied into one archive.

http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/tvhorrorhosts/

There is a terrific book titled Television Horror Movie Hosts: 68 Vampires, Mad Scientists and Other Denizens of the Late Night Airwaves Examined and Interviewed. It was written by Elena Watson, and was one of the first printed reference materials of horror hosts. It chronicles the history of horror hosted movies as well as the careers of the founding fathers and mothers of the genre – hosts such as Zacherley, Vampira, Ghoulardi, and Sir Cecil Creape, my own childhood host. It sports a picture of the greatest host of all time on the cover – the one and only Zacherley.

Elena Watson's book was the blueprint upon which George has built his labor of love. This website is a result of years of research, information gathering, and archiving. Looking through his list of hosts is truly entertaining, as in addition to the information on the hosts and their programs there are also stories and letters from viewers, pictures of many of the hosts, and dates and times they aired.

George has also included samples of his art, and let me tell you, he is one talented guy! http://myweb.wvnet.edu/e-gor/


Take a look at the tribute poster below that he did for my pal Bob Burns, below – it's an 11 X 17 serial spoof playing off Bob's Major Mars movie (which we showed at Wonderfest a couple of years ago). It's fantastic! As well as the Zacherley spoof Aurura box - amazing!


George is a talented illustrator with a true flair for graphic design. He also did the cover for last year's Rondo Award winning Zacherley cd.



So for any of you folks looking for an illustrator or graphic designer for your projects, give George a shout. He'll do you proud and who knows, maybe YOUR project will win a Rondo Award too!