When it comes to vampire movies of the 80s, two titans stand tall above the throat-rending pack...and to pick one or the other as your partorn bloodsucker flick, is to draw battle lines that cut straight to the marrow, etch fightin’ words in stone, and leave life-ending street brawls with friends and loved ones a very, very real possibility, for the rest of your accursed life. I speak, of course, of THE LOST BOYS and FRIGHT NIGHT (and before you come running in here screaming “hah, fuck that - NEAR DARK!!!”, just know that you’re bringin’ the same energy as the guy who says “I don’t HAVE A TV!” when someone asks you what your favorite show is...we get it, Near Dark is awesome and you’re a badass, needle dick.
I go back and forth on the subject - I love both, for very different reasons - but you’ve come to the CASKET for COMICS...and in that fight there is one, very clear winner, …Ladies and Gentlemen, WELCOME TO FRIGHT NIGHT…..FOR REAL!
Published from 1988 to 1993 by the infamous NOW COMICS (home to, among other things, RALPH SNART ADVENTURES, a title you’ll be hearing a LOT more about right here in days to come), FRIGHT NIGHT began as a two-part adaptation of the hit 1985 flick (starring...well come on, you know, if you don’t have the flick within arm’s reach, you’re a pud), before spinning out into a full blown, ongoing sequel.
The first near-year trucked along well enough, with Charley Brewster and Peter Vincent becoming full-fledged monster hunters, fight random beasts like parasitic brain-bats, octopus guys, some big weirdass spider, and yes, some vampires along the way...perfectly serviceable stuff. I could tell you who wrote it, who illustrated, what the hell happened to Amy along the way...but if we’re being perfectly honest with each other, I don’t feel like it. I have just about the entire run in a nice, fat stack right here next to me, all it would take is the slightest effort, but I can’t be bothered. Why? For starters, I’m too sober for that shit (a mistake I will NOT make again), but more importantly, we’re building to something. And that “something”, was and is, NEIL VOKES.
Now Vokes might immediately trip some triggers amongst the...two...three?...of you that read this; the cat has landed gigs at every hut from Comico, to Marvel and DC, to Dark Horse and Image. This guy has been EVERYWHERE in the back issue bins you scumbags regularly haunt, trying to find that reasonably priced copy of Verotika #4 (oh you ARE dirty little kids, aint’cha?). But the only title that can unlock this entire article, is a little something called FLESH AND BLOOD.
Put out by the ill-fated-but-well-intentioned MONSTERVERSE imprint, and written by one Robert Tinnell, “Flesh” is basically a Hammer horror epic told in pulp, blood, tits, and vibes intact. ONE glance at this series, and the canny amongst you will surely say “golly goshes, this fellow would certainly be gangbusters on a FRIGHT NIGHT comic!” And indeed, he VERY much was.
To put it plainly, Neil Vokes brought personality to the series. Measurable, identifiable, feral PERSONALITY to an IP that quite simply DEMANDED it from the outset. Vokes IMMEDIATELY scars Fright Night, just by walking through the front fucking door, and for nine solid issues, Fright Night is not only HIS, but Fright Night is REAL...on your radar, something you wanna read, something that forces itself into your reality as a real-deal sequel, something that is...well...a lot, I say A LOT better than the actual, honest-to-God FRIGHT NIGHT PART II.
Ah, yes. Fright Night PART II. About that. Guess we should get into it.
Unleashed to an appropriately-dismissive reaction that Christmas season, Fright Night PART II was a black eye to mainstream fans, plain and simple. The plot sucked, the payoff sucked, the whole thing was a Johnny-come-TOO-late, unsatisfying sequel that simply checked off too few of the required boxes to justify its existence. We wouldn’t even be talking about it, were it not for the fact that the eventual remake, and the direct-to-DVD “sequel”/remake OF THAT, were so ass-fuckingly insulting, that the OG 80s sequel wound up looking KIND of respectable by comparison. And that, boils and ghouls, can be summed up in five, simple points. So let’s hit ‘em and quit ‘em, gang!
One, it still has a BIT of that cool 80s vibe hovering over it that feels like a warm blanket in a childhood bedroom, so while it’s precious little in the grand scheme of things, it SHOULD be mentioned. Two, it’s got the insanely hot Traci Lind running around in it (again - later, Amy!). Three, the final “boss fight” form of the otherwise ridiculous head vamp Regine (Jerry Dandrige’s sister, for some reason) is an insanely cool Greg Cannom monstrosity that deserves all the love you can hose it with. But MOST importantly, reasons four and five - BOZWORTH and LOUIE (or “Bug Boy and The Wolfman”, as I like to call ‘em) two of Regine’s thugs (played with bottomless wells of charisma and charm by Brian Thompson and Jon Gries, respectively) who steal every scene they’re in.
Alright, enough fuckin’ Fright Night Part II. It may be better than any of the shit flicks that came after it, but as steered by Vokes, the comic book sequel beats its cinematic counterpart’s ass and takes its lunch money.
So…here’s the deal. ( Pregnant cracked knuckled pause) ...EVIL ED IS DEPICTED AS A MAN-BAT ROCKSTAR WITH A HAREM OF VAMPIRE GROUPIES. I could stop this article RIGHT GODDAMN NOW, and I’ll have said the most important thing you’ll hear all week. All that shit I wrote about Fright Night Part II, you can print this article up, rip that section out, crumple it up and throw it at your fuckin’ mom, because at no point in that limp pretender to the throne does it feature EVIL GODDAMNED ED as a man-bat rockstar , so it can piss right off (although Louie was, initially, written as Evil Ed, which is probably why the character is so goddamned freakin’ rad).
Listen, we all know Stephen Geoffries is a rockstar in real life, with such immortal roles as Hoax (976-EVIL) and Sam Ritter (if you know, you know, baby!) under his belt, but Evil Ed is without question the character that firmly places him on Mount Olympus, and he is ALL OVER this thing. His face peers out at you from the covers (in both illustrated and live action form!), his man-bat form lurks up by the little NOW logo, and his rise to power in a (temporarily) Jerry Dandrige-less world is a central through line in the ongoing story. And thank GOD, because if you didn’t pretend you were Evil Ed after watching Fright Night as a kid, you were PROBABLY one of those kids that was, you know...not overly worth playing with. I said what I said.
Oh, if only Vokes had illustrated the whole series. If only there was even MORE Ed. If only the best-written issues were more representative of the series as a whole. If only...if only we could hit reset, and do it perfectly...do it NOW.
Wait, what’s this? Oh...oh, holy shit. HOLY SHIT.
Sometimes, our foul prayers are answered, and this very November, publisher American Mythology is unleashing TOM HOLLAND’S FRIGHT NIGHT, a real-deal canon sequel to the original masterpiece...FINALLY!
Authorized and overseen by Holland himself, and written by American Mythology Pres’ James Kuhoric (who knocked it out of the park with Wildstorm’s FREDDY vs JASON vs ASH some years back), the 1986-set sequel sees the gang return for more vampiric monster slaughter, just as God intended, seems to promise more Ed (how could they not?), and is set to be illustrated by none other than NEIL MUTHAFUCKIN’ VOKES (along with one Cyrus Mesarcia, who appears more than up to the task). This Thanksgiving, the armies of the night are coming...and you will ABSOLUTELY find me on the dancefloor.
