El Retorno del Año del Lobo

 

Well I'll be a son of a wolf bitch -- I missed a big werewolf movie from 1981.  Granted, it's not a big budget American feature, but Paul Naschy, El Hombre Lobo himself, is nothing to sneeze at.

FILM:


Night of the Werewolf - 1981
Written & Directed by Paul Naschy

Back in May when I did my feature on the Monster Mash-ups, I devoted an entire entry to El Hombre Lobo, Spanish actor and sometime writer & director Paul Naschy who played a werewolf in more than a dozen films.  His work was a new discovery for me at the time and I was only able to watch one of his films before finishing the feature.  Since that time, from the reading I'd done, I've suspected that he, to one extent or another, had made the same movie (albeit remixed) several times throughout his career.  That would appear to have been a somewhat accurate impression.

Naschy almost always played the character of Waldemar Daninsky in the Hombre Lobo films, although there was little-to-no continuity between them, and as far as I know, none were direct sequels to any others.  He frequently comes into conflict with the vampire witch Elizabeth Bathory (who is served by a skeletal knight) and in the ones that I've seen, he has a doomed female servant and falls in love with one of the college girls that show up to serve as a conduit for the story taking place.  Those elements all come into play here, although in a somewhat remixed form from what I saw in Noche de Walpurgis AKA The Werewolf Vs The Vampire Woman.  Granted, this is an acknowledged remake, but many of those elements do seem to recur in Naschy's Lobo films.

The film opens in the Middle Ages, during the sentencing phase of a trial for witchcraft.  This was, of course, the most popular phase of Medieval trials, and constituted the greatest effort on everyone's part.  The condemned is Countess Elizabeth Bathory and her cohorts who have been found guilty of murder and witchcraft.  Bathory, owing to her status, will not be executed, but confined to her quarters to live out the rest of her days, at which time she will be burned.  Her handmaidens will be imprisoned with her, because she certainly can't be expected to take care of herself, and various other accomplices witll be executed in a variety of ways.  It's good to see that the double-dealing judicial system enjoys such a grand heritage.  After one brusque beheading, it's the silent and brooding Waldemar Daninsky who faces his fate.  Convicted of devil-worship and murder by dint of being a werewolf, he neither cries foul nor curses his executors.  An iron mask is clamped over his face and a silver cruciform dagger driven through his heart.  The the frame freezes and we simply stare at him while some rockin' boogie music plays, eventually turning into the opening credits.  Seriously, we look at the mask with blood pouring out of the mouth for an awfully long time.

Centuries later, in the "now" of three decades ago, three foxy Spanish grad students (one who has devoted herself to Satan, 'cause, you know, those Liberal college professors) believe that they have found the location of Bathory's tomb and set out to find it, although one has a more detailed plan than the others are aware of.  Meanwhile, a pair of bumbling grave robbers find the crypt of Daninsky and immediately bull the silver dagger from his heart, waking him instantly, causing their own eternal slumber.  In no time, Daninsky is back to pouting about his fully furnished castle in velvet tunics that totally didn't get eaten by moths in the past 800 years.  His lovely but auto-de-fe-scarred friend and servant Mircaya is by his side to deliver exposition unbecoming his station.

Daninsky rescues the women from some swarthy robbers/rapists and grants them shelter in his castle.  One will fall in love with Waldemar.  One will raise Elizabeth Bathory and become a vampire herself, and one, well, it takes blood to raise the countess, so...

Meanwhile, Waldemar can't help but roam around the countryside mauling anyone he finds by the light of the full moon.  He doesn't even eat them, just kills on sight.  While he frequently advises his beloved to lock herself in on the nights of the full moon, it seems a little irresponsible that he isn't locking himself in.  He at least made a token effort toward this in the previous version.

It turns out that Daninsky was enslaved to Bathory through witchcraft, all those centuries ago, and she manipulated him to kill on her behalf -- although it seems that he was still a werewolf, so he was going to be killing anyway.  At any rate, he's free of her now and determined to prevent her from coming into her full power again, which evidently would unleash Hell on Earth.  However, to finally be freed of his curse, he will need someone who loves him to kill him with the silver dagger, thus assuring that he will not rise again.  Much of the werewolf lore is fairly faithful to the extended lore built up for Lon Chaney's Wolf Man, and indeed Naschy's Hombre Lobo makeup strongly resembles the hairy human face approach taken by the 1941 original.  Naschy, however, plays him much snarlier with considerable commitment, and drools water like a six-month-old.

Kill-kill-kill, fight-fight-fight, burn-burn-burn; die... The End.

For as much action as there is, there's still a lot of time in the first couple acts where not enough is happening.  The story could be greatly streamlined, which would actually make it more effective.  I am, however, forced to recognize that my expectations as a 21st century moviegoer are considerably less patient and more demanding of gratification than Naschy's audience.  It's really pretty satisfying in terms of creepy cool monster moments in a pre-Howling/American Werewolf sort of way.  The coolest monster is neither the wolf nor the vampires, but Bathory's skeletal knight bodyguard who gets more screen time here than he did in Noche de Walpurgis, but still gets hustled in and out far too quickly for my tastes.  The final fight between Bathory and Daninsky mostly involves a lot of pushing and shoving, about which I really don't have a point other than that I'm already imagining how I would retell this story in a film with all the modern conveniences.

Night of the Werewolf is really a pretty good b-flick.  I feel a little bit bad even calling it a b-movie when it comes from a different cultural context, although that's how it would have been released stateside.  While I don't recommend it for everyone, it's really not a bad time at all for someone interested in going a little deeper into cinematic werewolf lore or the scope of horror history.

Late Night Clubbing -- REALLY Late

FILM:

The Monster Club - 1981
Written by Edward & Valerie Abraham
from the Book by R Chetwynd-Hayes
Directed by Roy Ward Baker

It's interesting to me that The Monster Club was released only a year before Creepshow, because they're a generation apart in terms of presentation -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing for one or the other.

While not a Hammer Films production itself, it comes from production companies that did work with Hammer in the past, and falls at the end of the British horror arc defined by Hammer through the 60s and in-decline throughout the 70s, so that's the tradition of which it is a part.  As if in tribute to that history, it brings horror legends Vincent Price and John Carradine together as the vampire Erasmus and his (ahem) dinner guest, writer R Chetwynd Hayes, respectively.  Erasmus snacks on Hayes, but not enough to kill him or turn him, and then takes him out to The Monster Club to see how the night creatures enjoy the night life.  Curiously, in all of Vincent Price's career, this is the only time he ever played a vampire, and he was getting a little, shall we say... long in the tooth himself.

At the club, Erasmus delivers what initially appears to be a "chalice from the palace" schtick, explaining the hierarchy of the monster family tree, which turns out to actually be important to the three tales that are about to be told.  And therein lies the movie's main structure.  Price gets two outstanding monologues bookending three tales, each followed by a stage show at The Monster Club.

Erasmus' first tale is about a Shadmock, which evidently is not a very highly regarded crossbreed of monster.  Where "Vampires suck, Werewolves hunt and Ghouls tear" a Shadmock whistles, but "they don't do it very often," and so we will hear the story of what happens when one does.  The Shadmock in question is named Raven -- picture Javier Bardem in ghoulish stage make-up.  He has, seemingly despite his circumstances, made something of himself and lives alone in his mansion.  Having advertised for an assistant to alleviate his loneliness, he hires the beautiful young Angela, unaware that she is only there to case the joint so she and her loutish boyfriend can loot the place later.  With the soul of a poet but the face of a butt, Raven falls in love with Angela, and Angela is torn by conflicted feelings.  Somehow you just know that it's not going to end well for her ...when the Shadmock whistles.

The next story concerns an actual vampire and features actual Donald Pleasence as a by-the-book vampire hunter.  It's shown, however, from the perspective of a young boy who doesn't understand why his father sleeps all day and can't be around to play with him.  Bullied at school, he thinks he's found a sympathetic ear in the mild-mannered priest who's suddenly taken an interest in his home life.  Now granted, the sudden interest of a priest in a young boy is scary enough, but this isn't that kind of horror.  Sure enough, Dad's a vampire, and the priest is hunting him.  Will his businesslike approach to monster hunting be enough to save him?  And what of the boy?  Wha-a-at?

Getting back to the twisted genealogy of monsters, the final tale concerns a Humegoo, which is the result of a human mating with a ghoul.  An illustrated sequence (by John Bolton!) of the most action-packed part of the story explains how this came to be.  A Humegoo doesn't have any particular talents and really must lead a rather tragic life, trapped in the world of ghouls (essentially zombies in our modern context).  A film director was scouting locations when he found the most perfectly creepy isolated village, somewhere in the English countryside.  It wasn't until he decided that he needed to leave that he found out how creepy and isolated.  It turns out the village is largely populated by corpse-eating ghouls, who having cleaned out the graveyard, aren't too picky about making their own fresh corpses, given a chance.  He meets a young girl who speaks in Tonto-like broken English.  She's a Humegoo, and while she certainly has a taste for meat from the earth, she's not so sure about the killing.  Can the two of them, together, outwit a village full of ghouls?  Probably not.

Throughout the framing sequences, I kept expecting the monsters to chow down on Hayes at the end, so it came as a pleasant surprise when, in the most unexpected twist in the film, that the monsters had decided to offer him membership in the club.  This is where Price delivers his second great monologue, explaining that Man is the greatest monster of them all, with far more brutal sins to his credit than any old creatures of the night.  And thus, Hayes is inducted into their club and we get our last musical number.

Comparisons to Creepshow seem unavoidable, given their relative history and their contrasting approaches to story and humor (and that I watched Creepshow the night before).  The make-up and effects are a world apart, but where I found those to be the most redeeming factor of Creepshow, I wasn't really bothered by the antiquated stage make-up techniques and (really) old-fashioned effects in The Monster Club because the storytelling was so much better.  SO much better.

Make no mistake, The Monster Club IS still corny and the product of another time, but it manages to feel more classic in 2014 (not counting the musical numbers), where Creepshow just seems dated to me.  That being said, The Monster Club cares much, much more about storytelling and characterization.  The music is creepy and orchestral, creating classically ominous moods.  The tales have structure to them, allowing for a beginning, middle and end rather than just a set-up and a telegraphed twist.  Heck, the characters actually get just a little development, and although it's not strictly scary, it's a little bit sad when the Shadmock's heart breaks, or the boy Lintom is shoved around at school, or we recognize the loneliness of Luna the Humegoo.

While the stories tend to end as they must, they're not as blatantly predictable as Creepshow's obligatory "shock" endings.  The three tales show more variety as well, each playing on its own scale, relative to the characters involved rather than their ultimate fate.  The whole thing is just more human, more personal.

I certainly wouldn't make The Monster Club the staple of your Halloween night horror-fest, unless you're entertaining third-graders that you don't want to get overly jaded just yet.  But if you're hanging around in sweats some lazy gray Saturday afternoon, you could do a heck of a lot worse than to pass a hundred minutes with The Monster Club.

The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 10: El Hombre Lobo Appendix

FILM:

After having published all the monster mash-up movies I'd been able to find, I had moved on to a new, short piece about recent films with vampire women. That was how I stumbled across mention of a movie called The Werewolf vs The Vampire Women (AKA La Noche de Walpurgis) from 1970/71.  This led me to Spanish actor Paul Naschy, which would in short order reveal to me an entire series of films -- TWELVE of them! -- in which he starred as Waldemar Daninsky, El Hombre Lobo, and that virtually ALL of those films were monster mash-ups.  I haven't finished digging through all the information yet, but he may have even had others outside of the series.

Rather than rushing to cram a bunch of "This exists but I haven't seen it" listings into the preceding article, I'm just going to list them here, and then move them into the main article once I get a chance to see them.  I'll be honest with you; it seems unlikely that I will get to that many of them unless I really enjoy the first couple that I see, or I get an offer to expand The Monster Mash-Ups into a book  I'd watch everything if I got a book offer -- including Twilight, Monster Mash and (mwulf) Monster High -- so consider that a dare, book publishers.  Make me really suffer for my art.

Per the nature of grindhouse cinema, many of these were given altered names for American theaters and/or video releases.  As in Godzilla movies, continuity is of only the most marginal importance.  Sometimes there's a reason El Hombre Lobo is back from the dead, and sometimes there isn't.  Sometimes he's already a werewolf, and sometimes he becomes a werewolf all over again.  Don't worry about it.  If they were in business to make sense, they'd open a bank.

Mark of the Wolf Man - 1968
AKA Frankenstein's Bloody Terror
AKA La Marca del Hombre Lobo
Written by Paul Naschy
Directed by Enrique Eguiluz

Featuring: werewolves and vampires

Despite the American retitling of "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror," there is no Frankenstein in this film.

The Monsters of Terror - 1970
AKA Assignment Terror
AKA Dracula vs Frankenstein
AKA Reincarnator
AKA Los Monstruos del Terror

Written by Paul Naschy
Directed by Tulio Demicheli

Featuring: aliens, a werewolf, a mummy, a vampire and Frankenstein's monster

Aliens from space, using a carnival as a front, revive the monsters to better understand human fear in a bid to conquer Earth.

The Fury of the Wolfman - 1972
AKA The Wolfman Never Sleeps
AKA La Furia del Hombre Lobo

Written by Paul Naschy
Directed by JM Zabalza

Featuring: werewolves, a yeti, assorted living dead

Though originally made for a 1970 release, it didn't come out due to a lack of funding and poor quality.  Naschy hated it and blamed director Zabalza.

The Werewolf vs The Vampire Woman - 1971
AKA Walpurgis Night
AKA The Werewolf's Shadow
AKA La Noche de Walpurgis

Written by Paul Naschy & Hans Munkel
Directed by Leon Klimovsky

Featuring: a werewolf, vampires and a skeletal knight

This opens with a medical examiner removing two silver bullets from the heart of the late Waldemar Daninsky, just to prove that he wasn't a werewolf.  You can imagine how that turns out for him and his associate.

Then we join Elvira and Genevieve, a couple college girls on a trip to a fairly isolated village in France where they intend to research the notorious Countess Wandessa.  The Countess was found guilty of murder and witchcraft during medieval times and rumored to be a vampire.  When they get lost ('cause, you know, girls) they stumble upon moody loner Waldemar Daninsky who offers them a place to stay and assistance with their research, whatever it is.  He becomes eerily silent when they specifically mention the Countess over dinner.  It turns out that he's not as much of a loner as he appeared when his mentally unbalanced "sister" appears in the girls' bedroom at night, threatening Elvira.  When Waldemar shows up in their room, all of Elvira's misgivings about his strange behavior suddenly go away, despite the fact that they were largely on-point.

The next day they find the countess' unmarked grave, which is marked with a massive slab of marble engraved with specific instructions to stay the hell out.  Naturally they open it.  At that point Elvira decides she's had enough and heads to the ruined abbey to wait for the others while Waldemar and Genevieve go right ahead and open the coffin.  In absolutely no time, Genevieve has removed the silver cross from the skeletal remains, accidentally cut herself, and bled into the mouth of the corpse.  If only she'd been warned!  Meanwhile at the abbey, Elvira is chased in slow motion by a skeletal corpse in knight's robes, and Waldemar shows up just in time to knock it down.

You can pretty much guess most of the rest.  Naturally the more obvious party girl of the pair (as evidenced by her funky hat, ultra sheer babydoll nightie for a research trip and general fun-loving attitude) gets bit by the Countess that night.  She menaces Elvira on subsequent nights.  You probably weren't expecting Elvira to get kidnapped by the village pervert, but that happens.  And then, of course, we've got a full moon every night, so Waldemar is out getting himself into trouble.

It's about what I should have expected from a partly arty, partly exploitation 1970s European horror movie.  Everyone is deeply serious and emotionally intense.  There's both too much and not enough explanation of certain events; deaths in particular.  But there is a nice spookiness to things.  Director Klimovsky uses frequent slow-motion, particularly in vampire sequences, which gives them an unearthly sense.  Unfortunately he uses it so much that it's hard to tell the dreams from the actual events, and I was surprised to figure out after the fact that one scene portrayed real events, when another one just like it had merely been a nightmare.  On the one hand, it contributes to an overall spooky unease, but on the other, don't go into it with high expectations for clarity.  Also lending some nice creepiness are the authentic old ruins, rather than sound stage sets.  To Naschy's credit, despite werewolf make-up not all that much more advanced than Lon Chaney's, he does a pretty good job at selling the ferocity, and I suppose that's why he WAS el hombre lobo.

Naschy considered this one of his favorite Hombre Lobo films and Klimovsky one of his best directors.  It's going to be pretty interesting comparing this with some of the others.

Dr Jekyll & the Wolfman - 1972
AKA Dr Jekyll & the Werewolf
AKA Dr Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo

Written by Paul Naschy
Directed by Leon Klimovsky

Featuring: the werewolf and Mr Hyde

Waldemar Daninsky seeks out Dr Jekyll to find a way to control his lycanthropy.  This seems like a good idea to no one but him.

The Return of Walpurgis - 1973
AKA Curse of the Devil
AKA The Black Harvest of Countess Dracula
AKA El Retorno de Walpurgis

Written by Paul Naschy
Directed by Carlos Aured

Featuring: werewolves, witches

As far as I can tell, despite being released under the title of The Black Harvest of Countess Dracula at one time, there are no vampires in this film.  Also, despite the original Spanish "Walpurgis" title, it's a completely different continuity from La Noche del Walpurgis.  Go fig.

The Curse of the Beast - 1975
AKA Night of the Howling Beast
AKA The Werewolf and the Yeti
AKA Hall of the Mountain King
AKA La Madicion de la Bestia

Written by Paul Naschy
Directed by Miguel Iglesias

Featuring: werewolf, vampires and a yeti

Despite the ever-changing continuity and origins, Naschy continues to play a character named Count Waldemar Daninsky in all the Hombre Lobo films.  In Fury of the Wolfman, it was a yeti's bite that transformed him into a wolfman.  Although he's in Tibet again, seeking the yeti, this time it's a couple of vampire women that turn him.  However that works.

Return of the Wolfman - 1981
AKA Night of the Werewolf
AKA The Craving
AKA El Retorno del Hombre Lobo

Written & Directed by Paul Naschy

Featuring: werewolf, witches, vampires

Essentially a remake of La Noche de Walpurgis, Naschy considered this the best of his Hombre Lobo films.  Some jobs you just gotta do yourself.

The Beast and the Magic Sword - 1983
AKA La Bestia y la Espada Magica

Written & Directed by Paul Naschy

Featuring: werewolf, witches

Notice how this one doesn't have a bunch of extra titles?  That's because it's never been released in English, or indeed anywhere outside of Spain.

Tomb of the Werewolf - 2004

Written & Directed by Fred Olen Ray

Featuring: werewolf, vampire/witch

This final appearance of Naschy as Count Daninsky was produced in Hollywood from a non-Naschy script.  It was intended as a comeback for Naschy (like the non-monster mash-up Licantropo before it), but by most reports, it was essentially softcore porn.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.



Outside of the Count Waldemar Daninsky/El Hombre Lobo films, Naschy made other monster mash-up appearances.

Buenas Noches, Señor Monstruo - 1982

Featuring: werewolf, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster & Quasimodo

This was a Spanish children's special in which he played a non-specific werewolf and took home a paycheck.  Never exported.

El Aullido del Diablo - 1987

Written & Directed by Paul Naschy

Featuring: a werewolf, vampire, zombie, Frankenstein's monster, Mr Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, Quasimodo and the Devil

Naschy made this film for Spanish television, starring in multiple roles as multiple monsters.  It actually sounds pretty brutal and perverse for TV, but then the Inquisition has been over for much longer in Spain than it has in the United States.  Never officially exported.

Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina Alvarez) wrote, directed and appeared in numerous horror films in his career, playing virtually every classic monster in one form or another (okay, not Godzilla).  On the one hand, I'm appalled that I didn't come across his films until I had almost finished publishing The Monster Mash-Ups.  On the other hand, however, it seems apt that I should find myself giving him his own entry.  His films embody the spirit of the monster mash-up.  HE embodied the spirit of fun, cheap thrills, goofy seriousness and serious goofiness and of course, buxom damsels in distress.  He may not have been proud of Buenas Noches, Señor Monstruo but I love that it's part of his body of work, because it's clear to me now that cornball monsters for kids are part of the history of monster mash-ups.  This guy WAS Señor Monstruo and I can't think of a better way to cap the series than this.

Come back tomorrow and... read something else on Media Bliss!  There are no more parts to this series, but that doesn't mean there isn't... more!  And consider becoming a follower.  I'm planning more original content for the future and I promise NEVER to care who got pregnant in Hollywood unless I did the impregnating!

Of course if you missed anything, you can read all 10 parts of The Monster Mash-Ups starting from The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 1: the 1940s & 50s!

The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 9: Comics Appendix

COMIC BOOKS:

Okay, I said I wasn't going to do this, but here I am doing this.  The thing of it is; monster mash-ups in comic books went some truly crazy places, and I'd just feel like I'd done an incomplete job if I didn't at least try to drive past that cemetery on our way home.  I'm still going to do an incomplete job, but you'll have some kind of idea what has been going on out there.

Casper the Friendly Ghost & Friends
Harvey Comics - 1952

Casper began life (so to speak) as a cartoon from Famous Studios, and he was, in fact, first introduced to comic books in 1949, but it's his association with Harvey Comics that is best known.  In the 30 years that Harvey published Casper, his cast expanded to include friends like Spooky the Tough Little Ghost, the Ghostly Trio, Hot Stuff the Little Devil and Wendy the Good Little Witch.  Now that I'm reminded of them, it's startling to consider that they may have been a large influence on me as a young child.  And believe me, that's the only startling thing about these ghosts.

Creepy
Eerie
Vampirella
Warren Publications - 1964, 66 & 70, respectively

In the 60s, publisher Jim Warren took the idea employed by Mad Magazine -- publish magazine sized comics in black & white for the newsstand rather than the comics rack, thus escaping the scrutiny of the Comics Code Authority -- and applied it to horror comics.  These tended to be more monster oriented than the EC comics which inspired them.  With the addition of Vampirella to the line-up, the "host" character moved into the spotlight, and Vampirella had her own adventures which strayed, on occasion, into the other titles.  More than a mere vampire, Vampirella came from Drakulon, a planet of vampires where the rivers flowed with blood.  The character gained her own cast of characters, including ties to Dracula and Lilith, mother of demons.  She has also crossed over with other comics LIKE CRAZY.  There's a movie too, but you didn't hear that from me.

Frankenstein
Dracula
Werewolf
Dell Comics - 1966

Amid the monster craze of the late 60s, Dell Comics tried to get in on the action with three interrelated monster-themed superheroes based on the Universal Monsters.  They each lasted only 3 issues, across which the same creative team was spread.

The Frankenstein character had a sidekick named Miss Ann Thrope.  That should give you some clue what we're dealing with here.  Frankenstein ranked "highly" in the World's Worst Comics Awards.

You know, I'm honestly not sure that they even lasted long enough to meet each other, but it seems pretty evident that they were intended to form a team.  A terrible, terrible team.

Swamp Thing
Created by Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson
DC Comics - 1971

Swamp Thing was first introduced in DC's horror anthology House of Secrets, then moved to his own title in short order.  While the character (in its original incarnation) owed elements of story and tone to Gothic horror like Frankenstein, the character was an original creation.  Nevertheless, he would soon encounter a Patchwork Man, werewolves and much more as he went about his life of existential torment.  The character has gone through many changes over the past 40 years, but he remains the DC Universe's central figure in matters of supernatural horror.  Yes, Marvel's Man-Thing (obligatory snicker) predated it by a few months, but that character was never as well developed as Swamp Thing.  Then again, with Alan Moore delivering a large part of his narrative in the 80s, very little else comes close.

Tomb of Dracula
Werewolf by Night 
Monster of Frankenstein /Frankenstein's Monster
The Living Mummy (in Supernatural Thrillers)

Marvel Comics - 1972

In the early 70s, the Comics Code Authority loosened some of its restrictions (which were arbitrary and self-imposed in the first place) on what comics could depict, and Marvel took full advantage of their new freedom by introducing a whole line of comics based on classic monsters.  Not only did these monsters then cross over with each other, but they were considered part of the greater Marvel continuity, and crossed over with everyone from the X-men to Spider-man.  As a matter of fact, Marvel's first significant film success came from the Blade, a character that first appeared in Tomb of Dracula #10.

I've only read a couple issues of these, but I'd really like to read more.  It's my understanding that some of the comics are really pretty good.  Tomb of Dracula has some pretty extraordinary art from the legendary Gene Colan, and the great Mike Ploog took turns on both the Frankenstein and Werewolf titles.

Marvel's Man-Thing (which I was shocked to learn, predated DC's Swamp Thing by months) also crossed over heavily with the rest of their supernatural horror line.

Godzilla: the King of Monsters
Marvel Comics - 1977

Godzilla has been licensed to a number of comics companies over the years, but naturally it was during his two-year stint with Marvel that he did most of his crossing-over.  He mostly encountered super-teams like the Avengers (sadly the Hulk was not with the team at the time) and the Fantastic Four (so at least he met the Thing), but he did also clash with Marvel's own Godzilla knock-off, Devil Dinosaur.  Marvel created the Ren Ronin character for the comic.  Ronin was a Mazinger-like giant robot who would then filter back into the periphery of the Marvel Universe after the Toho license expired.  The greatest missed opportunity was that Marvel's publication of Shogun Warriors overlapped with Godzilla, and despite planning a crossover, they didn't get it together before the license ended.

In the 90s, Dark Horse published a one-shot called Godzilla vs Barkley featuring basketball star Charles Barkley.  Despite some super-growth, Barkley isn't strictly a monster.  Now, if it was Shaq...

Creature Commandos
DC Comics - 1980
Created by JM DeMatteis

The Creature Commandos were a special ops type unit during WWII.  They made their debut in DC's Weird War Tales anthology title in 1980.  The team included a vampire (named -- I kid thee not -- Velcro), a Frankenstein's monster, a werewolf, a gorgon (Medusa, for our less literate friends) and a normal human leader (such bigotry!).  Oh, sometimes a robot.  They were originally introduced into DC's Weird War Tales shortly before the "DC Implosion" when the publisher scrapped a bunch of titles and fired a bunch of talent.  Despite this, and at least 2 universal reboots, DC actually brought the concept BACK in 2000 and again within the past year in Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

Doc Stearn... Mr Monster
Created by Michael T Gilbert - 1984

Though loosely based on a twice-published 1940s Canadian comics character of the same name, Michael T Gilbert's Mr Monster is his own character.  He's a superhero, albeit one strongly influenced by the pulp heroes of the 30s and 40s.  He fights all manner of monsters with blazing pistols in both tribute to, and satire of superheroes and the monster movies of the 30s, 40s and 50s.

The books don't seem to have gained traction with readers, although more 10 publishers have been willing to present Mr Monster's adventure across that past 30 years.  You have to admire Gilbert's tenacity and commitment to a vision. 

It just seems bizarre to me that Mr Monster and Hellboy haven't had a crossover.

Aliens vs Predator
Dark Horse Comics - 1991

Once Dark Horse had acquired both the Aliens and Predator licenses for publication, it was only a matter of time before they figured out that the should meet... and kill each other.  The core premise is that Predators are the ultimate hunters in the galaxy, and Aliens are the most deadly game, so there's an honor principle at stake for the Predators.  The combination proved so popular that numerous miniseries have been published to date, also spawning a video game and returning the concept to movies.  While the comics occupy a future continuity that makes sense in the context of the original films, the movies based on the comics based on the movies have been set in contemporary times -- one presumes to reign in costs, since a future setting would cost more to design and build, taking away from the monsters budget.  Comic books cost the same to produce, no matter where and when they are set, nor how large the explosions or rampaging creature hordes.

The rivalry has spilled over into crossovers with Top Cow Comics' Witchblade & The Darkness, DC Comics' Superman & Batman, and The Terminator, also licensed to Dark Horse.  Both Aliens and Predators have crossed over with Judge Dredd in comics as well.



 
The Terminator
Dark Horse Comics - 1991

Comics based on the Terminator films had been done before, but it was when Dark Horse started buying up licensing rights in the late 80s and experienced success with the Aliens vs Predator crossover that things really got rolling.  In addition to crossovers with AvP, Terminators have had miniseries meet-ups with the RoboCop (also published by Dark Horse) franchise and DC's Superman.  After all, what is RoboCop if not a Frankenstein in armor?  RoboCop vs Terminator also spawned a video game.

Hellboy
Dark Horse Comics - 1993
Created by Mike Mignola

The comic upon which the movies are based.  I love the movies but the comics are even better.  They're such a pure expression of Mignola's creative vision, combining Lovecraftian mythos, legends and folklore from around the world, re-imagined Universal Monsters and good ol' silver age face punchin', all told in his oft-imitated yet inimitable graphic arts style.

For an hilarious variation on the whole Hellboy thing, seek out the Hellboy Junior specials which put a Mad-Magazine-but-more-gross spin on the character, thanks to Bill Wray and other extraordinary talents.

Wetworks
Image/Wildstorm - 1994
Created by Whilce Portacio & Brandon Choi

When comics readers razzed Image Comics for struggling with schedules in their early years, they were mostly talking about Wetworks.  It wasn't the only one that struggled, but it was the longest delayed, and nobody really cared if Rob Liefeld wasn't taking a steaming dump on the comic racks for another week.  When the comic DID finally come out, it was about a black ops team (because ALL the image books were about black ops teams) that were armored with golden symbiotes.  Two members of the team were werewolves, and many of their foes were updated versions of classic monsters.  I know there was a pretty cool Frankenstein's monster in there, because I have the action figure and the head broke off.  Crap was always breaking off on those cheap/expensive McFarlane toys.  Oh yeah, Wetworks also had a crossover with Vampirella (but then who hasn't; you know what I'm sayin'?).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8
Dark Horse Comics - 2007-continuing

A few years after the seven season run of the TV series, many of the writing talents behind the show got together to create a new "season 8" in comics.  Each writer took an arc within the greater "season" telling a story that built up to a whole.  There had been Buffy comics before, but excepting a few instances, they had been made by comic writers meddling within the established chronology.  Season 8, however, was considered new canon.  The transition to comics allowed the series to deal with all variety of monster madness on the much larger scale (think: Tokyo) that the narrative development really demanded.  The Season 8 arc has concluded, and the series has continued into Season 9.  With the success of the Buffy continuations, Whedon & Co have also been producing Angel and Spike comics which serve to continue from the end of the Angel series as well as bridging with Buffy.

What I read of Buffy was (mostly) good, but I must admit, I have considerable catching up to do.

Frank Frazetta's Dracula Meets the Wolfman
Image Comics - 2008

There aren't too many people in comics who can get their name above the title without actually doing anything, but Frank Frazetta is one of them.  Frazetta painted the image for the cover of Creepy in 1966, and then 42 years later someone else wrote and drew a comic book based on it, and he still got paid.  THAT is what you call solid brass BALLS, my friend.  What's more, it's not even the first time he's done it.  His Death Dealer painting spawned TWO comics series, in addition to being the main reason anyone ever bought a Molly Hatchett album.  You can also buy a statuette of the Wolfman wailing on Dracula for $225.

BALLS.








And with that, I can't think of a more appropriate bookend to an article that began with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.  Thanks for hanging in there, monsterphiles.  It was a gas, gas, gas.

Okay, so the facts have made me a fibber once again.  This was intended to be the final entry in the series, but new information has necessitated one more Appendix, so READ ON, dear reader for the FINAL final chapter, The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 10: El Hombre Lobo Appendix!

Or take it from the top, which is actually on the bottom, with The Monster Mash-Ups - Part 1: the 1940s & 50s!