May 13, 2010

Bigfoot Pummels Both Peter Graves And Mr Lobo

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Source: Mr. Lobo

In monster movies, as well as comic books, eventually the two mightiest characters, or groups of characters, eventually find a way to square off against each other. King Kong fought Godzilla, Alien fought Predator, The Hulk fought The Thing and so on and so on.

Today, I have for you artsy types, an illustration that depicts yet, another, clash of the titans, Sasquatch taking on both the actor, and documentary film host, Peter Graves, and the horror movie host, Mr. Lobo, of the television series “Cinema Insomnia.”

Now, you may ask yourself, “What respectable comic book publisher would dedicate an entire issue to Sasquatch kicking the stuffing out of a deceased actor and a late-night horror host?”

The answer is…..well…..none.

You see, this little gem is not from a comic book, though it certainly looks the bill. In actuality, however, it’s the brand-new cover art for the upcoming Apprehensive Films (Slime Line) DVD release of the Cinema Insomnia episode, “Bigfoot: Mysterious Monster”.

As you have probably guessed, the episode features the 1975 documentary, “Bigfoot: Mysterious Monster”, which was hosted by Graves, with intros and comedy bits performed by Mr. Lobo and local Sacramento, Ca area talent.

So, how is it that a horror host would opt to feature a Bigfoot documentary, instead of a classic, below average, horror movie for his late-night movie program?

Mr. Lobo explains, “I remember “Bigfoot: Mysterious Monster” scaring me as a kid and it sat on the shows pile of ‘To Do’ 16mm film prints. When Ken Waller, our director, would say…’why don’t we do Bigfoot’, I would shake his head and say ‘No, that’s too serious’, let’s do a few others first.

“After we did another very popular episode, ‘In Search Of…Ancient Astronauts’, I was surprised how well the documentary worked on the show and came back to ‘Bigfoot’. I put it on…and laughed myself silly. It played like ‘Waiting for Guffman’ or ‘This is Spinal Tap’. I was inspired and wrote pages of documentary style humor with another writer named Chris Grill. We shot it in many many locations and pulled in a ton of local celebrities and actors to be in the show. It stands as one of my very favorite and most fun episodes.”

Indeed, the episode is a lot of fun to watch. Lobo’s take on the classic documentary is a very ‘tasteful’ spoof of Bigfoot and the people who have devoted their lives to searching for him….it…..them.

Mr Lobo adds, “It is a favorite episode among hardcore Cinema Insomnia fans and ‘Cryptozoology/Unknown/Conspiracy’ buffs. In it Mr. Lobo wraps around the 1975 documentary hosted by the late Peter Graves with some parody documentary footage of interviews with Bigfoot’s prom date, Bigfoot’s 5th grade teacher, Bigfoot’s college roommate, Bigfoot’s hair stylist, etc.”

This is not the first time that episode has been released on DVD, but Mr. Lobo and his distributor, Apprehensive Films, thought that the release needed a face-lift.

“Our New distributor Apprehensive Films, who is putting out the current syndicated series in a set called the SLIME LINE, cut a new DVD version for the release…sweetening audio and video and putting them in store ready, shrink wrapped, bar coded, quality packaged, covers with a film and show synopsis on the back and “Slime Points” inside to mail in for free goodies.”

When it came to designing the new cover for his DVD, Mr. Lobo only needed to look into his own personal comic book collection for what he wanted.

“I had a bolt of inspiration out of the blue a few days after going through some of my old comic books. I thought of MARVEL’S STAR WARS comics–and in particular one where Chewbacca the Wookie goes crazy and attacks everyone. After some research I found that issue that I have in my collection. STAR WARS#13. On the front Chewie is going nuts and is picking up C3PO by the neck and punching out Luke Skywalker. I showed it to my assistant Dixie Dellamorto and asked her what she thought it would look like if Chewie was Bigfoot and C3PO was Me and Luke Was Peter Graves with Miss Mittens (Mr. Lobos plant and co-host) standing in for R2-D2. After laughing like idiots for long long time we knew we had to make this happen in that same style.”

The cover art itself, is the work of a local San Francisco area graphic artist, Elysium Bliss, who’s classic comic book style caught the eye of Mr. Lobo at a convention.

“At Wondercon 2010 I reviewed the portfolio of Elysium Bliss a SF Bay Area artist who had drawn a very “Marvel Comics” style picture of Mr. Lobo and Miss Mittens. I knew that this project was right for this artist and we contacted Miss Bliss with the idea and sent the original comic as inspiration for this parody. Elysium “got it” and after I approved the rough, inked the final art.”

Look for this great piece of art to grace the cover of the “Cinema Insomnia – Bigfoot: Mysterious Monster” DVD starting in June. The DVD can be preordered by contacting Dixie Dellamorto at [email protected]. For anyone who buys one now, Mr Lobo will knock $5 off the $14.99 SRP. That will be $10 plus $3 for shipping!

More of these great comic book style Cinema Insomnia covers can be viewed at – TheGrindhouse.net

More Cinema Insomnia titles can be ordered through Amazon.com

First Spaceship on Venus (Cinema Insomnia Slime Line)
Gamera Super Monster (Cinema Insomnia Slime Lime)
Gappa: Monsters From a Prehistoric Planet (Cinema Insomnia Edition)

Filed under Bigfoot, Comics, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Monster Island News, Movie Monsters, Pop Culture