SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2013

     The latest San Diego Comic Con (AKA Comic Con International) will be happening next month.
     For the first time since 1975 I will not be going.
     It has become almost imposible to get a ticket to the event. I use to stand in line to buy a pass at the door with hundreds of others. It was unthinkable that there would be no more tickets at anypoint.
     It has also become almost impossible to get a cheap place to stay in San Diego during the Con. When I first started to go to the Con you could rent a room for yourself at the host hotels (Which were nice places) for under 20 dollars a night. Later on when the rooms got a little more costly a group of say 8 to 10 people would rent a room for say four people and then all cram into it. I did not mind sleeping on the floor. I was younger and I only slept for a few hours before going off to a movie in the middle of the night at the Con all night film screenings.
    The Comic Con use to be a nerd event for nerds by nerds. Things changed as the general public took notice of the Con. This was because a lot of the big Hollywood studios took notice of the Con and started to stage panels and host big name stars at the Con.
     The Comic Con became a cool event to go to and be seen. Tickets to the con now disappear in a few minutes once they are offtered online.
     Last year I got to go for one day. I spent the day inside the Convention Center and got to see a few panels and go to the World's Worst Cartoon Show.
     The next day I hung around outside the Convention Center and watched the people wandering around in cosplay costumes.
     If I still lived in San Diego I would still hang around outside the Convention Center to watch the crowds outside. I now live too far from San Diego to just go up to watch the crowds.
     But this year I will not even be going to the Con to do that.
     I will be watching videos of the Con on You Tube shot by others tho.  Not the same as being there but I will get to see what is going on over there.
     Good luck to all you who did get a ticket and a room. Be sure to upload your videos to You Tube.
    

THE WEREWOLF OF EGYPT

          This is a screen capture from the Egyptian movie HARAM ALEK aka SHAME ON YOU, HAVE MERCY, ISMAIL YASSIN MEET FRANKENSTEIN and ISMAIL AND ABDEL MEET FRANKENSTEIN. This film was a copy of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEETS FRANKENSTEIN.
          For years I heard of this film and I figured that I would never get to see it. Then came along home video recorders, cheap DVDs and You Tube. Now you can find rare movies like this if you keep looking around for it.
          Happy hunting rare film fans.

WHAT HAPPEN TO THE GRINDHOUSE THEATERS?

The CASINO THEATER now an ice cream and candy shop.

     In the mid 1980's I use to go to some old movie theaters in downtown San Diego. I got to see the last of the grindhouse movies as they call them now. Back then they were just trashy movies.
     A theater I went to a lot was the CASINO on 5th. It was a run down theater. I saw movies there like THE ZOMBIE ISLAND MASSACRE, BLOOD HOOK, CREEPOZOIDS, THE HOWLING PART 2, and GODZILLA 1985.
    A cross the street from the Casino was the Bijou and couple stores over from the Casino was the Azteca which showed adult movies. The Plaza Theater was a few blocks away where the Horton Plaza Mall now stands. The Plaza was sandwiched between two other rundown theaters. I do not remember the names of those theaters. Down the block from the Plaza was a theater that was open for only a few weeks that ran Chinese movies.
      There was a handful of other theaters around the area. One theater was open every night till 5AM in the morning. I am sure the homeless of downtown slept there. Cheap grindhouses often double as motels for the homeless. At one 24 hour adult theater the snack bar sold soup. I'll sure it was for the homeless so that they could get something better than snackbar junk food to eat.
     The home video recorder was the coffin nail for the grindhouse movie theaters.  People stayed home to watch sleazy movies instead of going to rundown theaters in unsafe parts of town.
     Last week I was in downtown San Diego and wandered around for awhile. I stopped off at an ice cream place that use to be the Casino theater. What use to be a rundown theater that showed trashy movies now sold tasty ice cream sundaes and candies. I had a sundae and enjoyed it.
     I asked the hostess there if anyone ever asked for the old movie theater. She was surprised when I told her that I use to go there to watch 3rd rate movies.
    

FRANKENSTEINS KUNG FU MONSTER

     I am a sucker for movies with odd titles. (I.E.) GORE MET ZOMBIE CHEF FROM HELL, BILLY THE KID  VS DRACULA, I WAS A ZOMBIE FOR THE FBI.
     So when I read somewhere that there was a movie called FRANKENSTEINS KUNG FU MONSTER I had to seek it out.
     I had trouble finding information about the movie at first. It made me think that it was a fake title. I then spotted a copy of the poster I have posted above.
    I finally found the movie under that title on You Tube. It seem to be a Japanese TV action show that was re edited into a movie and dubbed in German,
    I was disappointed that it was not a trashfest that I thought it was going to be. You imagine with a title like that it would feature a flat headed maniac beating people with kung fu.
    Another exsample of a exploitation film that can not live up to it's title.

THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW Chapter 20

THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW.

Copyright 2013 By Teel.

This is a roughdraft of an novel in progress.

Please do not re print or re post without premission.

-20-

After Kaligari dropped off Alan he took the quickest road out of the city.

As he drove he passed a few police cars and they made him paranoid. He believed that the police and the government made want to take the body of the creature away from him now that people seen it walking around alive.

He remembered years ago seeing on television film of an autopsy being done on an alien body. Many people said that it was a fake film but Karligari was not so sure at this point.

He did not like the idea of someone cutting apart the creature.

Kaligari drove out of the city and for a few hours drove down a major highway. Every highway patrol car made him nervous. With the large sideshow sign painted on the side of his truck he knew he would be easy to spot if the order was made from someone to take the creature away from him.

He tried to remember if the shotgun hidden behind his car seat was loaded.

He drove the truck off the highway and for many hours he drove along the back roads passing small towns and old shacks in the middle of nowhere.

Out in the desert just before nightfall Kaligari parked the truck behind an old gasoline station that had been abandon about 20 years earlier when the new highway was open up and by passed it.

The owner of the gas station was a cousin twice removed from Kaligari. The cousin took his life savings after closing the gas station business and started over again in the East coast with a small taco joint.

Kaligari made a mental note to himself to visit his cousin next time he was out East.

Kaligari was very tired after his long drive and wrapped himself up in his blanket and went right to sleep in the cad of his truck. He would not awake until dawn the next morning.

The next morning Kaligari ate a can of beans straight from the can. After he did so he got out a shovel from the back of the truck and went to work digging a large hole in the ground behind the station.

He had a hard time dragging the creature out of the truck by himself. Also the ice had melted and now the poor animal smelled quite bad by now.

After dragging it into the grave he placed an old army blanket over the body of the creature and buried it over.

He took two pieces of boards he found and tied them together with a bit of twine to form a cross to mark the grave with.

He had second thoughts about marking the grave with a cross. He was not sure if aliens from space would know about God and Jesus. But finally he decided that he himself believed in God so that was the only reason he needed to place the cross there.

After he finished he looked over the grave and made a short prayer for the creature. Once again he was not sure it was the right thing to do. But it made him feel better to do it.

Kaligari drove his truck toward the East coast. He had plans to go visit his family and repaint his truck.

On the way to the East he also wanted to see a farmer he once met. The farmer told him that he had a two headed cow that had just died and was having it stuffed at the taxidermist.

Kaligari thought he made be able to make it into a new sideshow attraction.

THE END.

THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW.

Copyright 2012 Teel

Roughdraft of a novel in progress.

Please do not reprint or repost without permission.

-18-

It was feeling very sick. The stuff it ate out of the metal box made it sick.

All it's joints hurt and it's eyes were becoming watery. It could hardly see.

It stood up from behind the trash bin and started to walk.

It hurt but it knew it had leave it's hiding place.

It had to find help somewhere from someone.

Cathy Johnson was getting ready to take her dog for a walk. She put on the tightest pair of shorts she had and a small shirt to show off her cleavage. Every day when she walked the dog they would run into a handsome tall man who would pet the dog on the head and tell them to have a good day.

Cathy wanted him to pay attention to her this time. She wanted him to pet her head and tell the dog to have a good day.

Frank the dog sat down by the door and was waiting for Cathy to take him for a walk. The shaggy dog always look forward to these walks. He was too big a dog for living in an apartment and liked walking in the park near the apartment.

It was standing near the opening of the alley way. It wanted to leave the alley and try to find someone to help it.

But it was afraid to walk out into the open. It could see the cars driving back and fore and people walking here and there along the sidewalk.

It wondered if it should just walk up to someone and try to get help.

Cathy was half way to the park with Frank when Frank started to bark. She had to hang on tight to his collar to keep him from trying to run off.

It saw the woman and her animal. It held it's arms up so that she could see that he was carrying no weapon. It walked toward her.

Cathy scream and let go of Frank's leash. The barking dog up to the green creature and attacked it.

It howled in pain as the animal attacked it. In blind fear it stuck out. It lifted the animal by the neck and threw it against a wall.

It stagger around for a few moments. It was in total pain and blood was flowing out of the wounds the animal made.

People were screaming on the street.

It fell to the sidewalk.

It tried to get up but could not do it.

A group of people surrounded the dying monster. They had their camera phones out and were taking pictures.

The first few times the creature tried to get up the crowd back off. But now it was obvious that the strange beast could not get up.

After a few minutes it stop trying. A by stander with a stick poked at the creature to see if he could make it move some more.

“Leave him a lone!” Yelled Kaligari to the man with the stick. He walked to the man and pushed him away from the creature.

“Who the hell do you...” The man's words were cut off when Kaligari punched him in the face so hard that the man almost fell backwards. Blood flowed out of his nose.

“Anyone else got a problem with me!” Yelled Kaligari to the crowd. People back away but no one left and the people with the camera still kept taking pictures.

Alan joined Kaligari. Kaligari got down on one knee next to the creature.

“He's badly hurt.” Stated Alan. “What can we do for him?”

“I don't know. I have no idea how to help him.”

The creature moved it's head slightly and looked up at Kaligari.

It looked up at the hairy being kneeing down by it. It was saying something. It seem to know the voice but did not know from where.

It wondered if this being would help it. The hairy being seem to be the only one there that seem to care.

It's vision became blurry.

All became dark and it could not see anymore.

The eyes of the monster turned pale. It stopped all attempt to move.

“Help me move him into the truck.”

Kaligari and Alan dragged the creature to the truck. As they dragged it away there was a trail of a greenish slime left behind from the wounds of the the dead monster. It had started to smell worst.

As they dragged it to the truck people fallowed behind them watching and some were still taking photos with their camera phones and some with small digital cameras.

They lifted the creature into the back of Kaligari's truck with the help of a husky young man who walked up and helped them lift the heavy monster.

The husky man got green slime on his white tee shirt and later on sold the shirt on Ebay for twenty five dollars.

-19-

“Where are we going to go?” Asked Alan.

“I want to get some ice. I don't want the poor thing to rot away like an old piece of meat.'

They drove to the Wal Mart and got two carts filled with ice cubes.

Once they got back to the truck they piled the bags of ice over the body of the creature.

Then Alan's cell phone rang.

It was Fred.

“Alan you and Kaligari are all over the web.”

“How can that be... Oh yeah there was a lot of people snapping pictures of us.”

“Are you guys sure it's dead? Kaligari was fooled before.”

“It seems dead. We're packing the body in ice right now.”

As Alan talked on the phone Kaligari was finishing the job of packing bags of ice over the creature. He then sat down next to it and looked very sad.

“Fred I'll get back to you later. I have to get off the phone right now.”

Kaligari looked down on the dead creature and spoke to Alan.

“That poor monster. I wished I had known it was alive. I would have treated him...it better. It's awful that it died like that. All alone with a bunch of asses poking you with a stick.”

“What are you going to do with it now?”

“I don't know. I guess I could go on showing him at sideshows like I have been doing. But I just don't have the heart to do it anymore.”

Kaligari stood up.

“Thanks for the help. I'll drop you off at home and I'm going to hit the road. I want to get far away from this city. I want to go away and to some thinking.”

THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW Chapter 17

THE BEAST FROM THE SIDESHOW.

Copyright 2012 By Teel.

This is a roughdraft of a novel in progress. 

Please do not reprint or repost without permission.                        

                         

                          -17-

The big beat up couch in Alan and Fred's apartment was covered over with a large off white sheet. They found the couch in a vacant lot. They bought the sheet from a yard sale for two dollars.

Kaligari was sitting in the middle of the couch drinking a beer. Alan was sitting at his left eating a slice of pizza that had been sitting in the icebox for a week and a half and Fred was sitting on the other end of the couch and wondering if it was a good idea to bring Kaligari over to their apartment.

An old sci fi B movie was playing on television in front of them.

“It's almost six o'clock.” Stated Alan. They were walking for the six o'clock news to come on so that they could see Kaligari's interview on the news.

At six o'clock the local news started. For about ten minutes they ran the usual sound bites of national and international news.

When they returned from the first commercial break they cut to newsman Tom Cellar standing in front of Kaligari's trunk. Kaligari was standing there with him.

Tom Cellar talked directly to the camera...

“For the last few days there have been rumors of a strange alien creature wandering around the south side of the downtown area. A witness to this strange being has claimed that this creature came from the sideshow of Don Kaligari. Mr Kaligari what can you tell us about this monster?”

“Well I would not call it a monster...”

That that moment a shot from an old black and white movie appeared. In the shot a young woman is screaming in terror.

“...I believe the creature came from outer space...”

Then a shot of flying saucers appeared. Fred who watched a lot of old sci fi movies knew it was footage from the movie TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE.

“...Thousands of people saw it in my sideshow...”

They then clipped in a shot of Japanese people running in terror from an old Godzilla movie.

The whole interview Kaligari did was re edited for laughs with footage from various old sci fi movies of the fifties.

When the interview was over the three of them just sat there for a minute.

“Well I guess the joke is on me.” Said Kaligari. “I have been trying for years to get someone to listen to me about the creature.”

“They're bound to find that thing soon. Where could it hide in this city? Then people will know you were telling the truth.” Said Fred.

Kaligari stood up.

“Well I'm not going to wait for someone else to find it. I'll getting into my truck and look around for it.”

“I'll go along with you.” Said Alan. “How about you Fred? You want to go along?”

“No I think I'll just stay here. Give me a call if you find the creature.”