Film

This Day in Werewolf History: Astounding Wolf-Man and Jack Pierce Share A Birthday

The Astounding Wolf-Man

The werewolf superhero comic The Astounding Wolf-Man—from Image Comics—turns 7 today at the anniversary of its first issue publication as a 2007 Free Comic Book Day exclusive. (Not a bad way to garner interest in a new series!) The Astounding Wolf-Man ran from 2007 to its conclusion in 2010, and was created by author Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) and artist Jason Howard (Super Dinosaur). While not a typical werewolf story—the comic follows a plotline much closer to superhero comics rather than horror—it still remains one of the most widely-recognized and widely-distributed modern werewolf comics published.

 

Jack Pierce with Lon Chaney, Jr.Sharing a birthday with this comic is makeup artist Jack Pierce, known for designing the makeup for a wolf man of his own. Pierce would be turning 125 this year. Pierce was a renowned makeup artist of his time, known best for his work in the Universal Studios monster makeup design. For the purposes of this blog, he is notable for his makeup effects and work in the films Werewolf of London, The Wolf Man, She-Wolf of London, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, and House of Frankenstein. Pierce’s work helped to inspire other makeup artists such as Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, The Wolfman) and Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow).

ICYMI: Three Opportunities to Ruin Yourself Financially

If you’re following Lycanthropology 101 on Twitter (@lycans101) (#SelfPromo) you’ve already noticed my moaning about my lack of funds to properly ruin my finances with because there are three separate werewolf crowdfunding video projects going on this month and I can’t afford any of them.

So I’m going to make all of you bemoan your own finances with me.

 

WolfCop Universe Expansion

If you’ve been a werewolf fan since 2013 you have undoubtedly heard the buzz surrounding the Canadian Cinecoup winning horror-comedy film WolfCop. (In fact, many of you also recall running around doing all the Cinecoup tasks in order to rack up as many votes as possible to shove at WolfCop.)

Well, the film is set to drop in two months—and now the filmmakers are looking to expand the franchise with your help.

First on the agenda is the 7.5″ tall WolfCop action figure.

I want four.

For $70 you can get one of these guys for your own: a 7.5″ vinyl action figure with 16 points points of articulation and a removable gun accessory. Or, for the die-hard collector, for $200 you can get one of the only 100 collector’s edition figures, with a pewter gun, electric plated gold badge, and signed by the artist.

Other franchise expansions available for preorder are the first volume of the WolfCop graphic novel, DVDs and Blu-Rays, posters, shirts, collector’s cards, and even a personal WolfCop SFX transformation by the makeup artist, professional photoshoot included—if you’ve got an extra $10,000 handy. (Be warned—you’ll probably have to fight Werewolf News’ own Andrew Quinton for that last one.)

The campaign is 86% funded as of my writing this, and has been up about a week, so I think we’re pretty positive that WolfCop’s expansions are a done deal.

Check it out here! (more…)