I don’t know. I keep waiting for SISTER HYDE to show up on TCM some Halloween, which is when they usually run Hammer marathons, but it doesn’t seem to be in the rotation . . ..

One more oldie: Quentin Collins on the original DARK SHADOWS, who was introduced well after Barnabas, but soon became a Gothic sex symbol in his own right.

Even the tie-novels (by “Marilyn Ross”) went from being all about Barnabas to titles like “Barnabas, Quentin, and Hidden Tomb.”

Ooh, a few days late, but I thought of another one: Emma Peel on THE AVENGERS, who was actually Steed’s THIRD partner on the TV show, but is now the iconic one everyone remembers—and not from the Uma Thurman movie. :)

Granted, this is kind of a special case since, I believe, nobody in the USA had actually seen the…

“Prehistoric Women” has lots of problems, include a dull-as-dirt leading man who drags everything down, and a few too many “tribal dance” sequences to pad things out, but Beswick is amazing in it.

She really throws herself into the role and pretty much devours the entire movie. I can only imagine how much fun she must…

There’s already a sequel out, THE DEVIOUS MISS HYDE, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

If you’ll indulge me another (highly on-topic) plug, NIGHTWISE by R.S.Belcher is another very dark urban-fantasy that creeps right up to the border of horror and maybe a step or two beyond. The anti-hero protagonist is more than competent, but . . . .

Full disclosure: I edited this one, too. I seem to be working this…

If we’re recommending things, I really enjoyed this recent steampunk novel about Dr. Jekyll’s daughter—and her diabolical alter ego.

Plus, Martine Beswick!

Oh, the hell with it. Any movie with Martine Beswick gets my vote automatically. (Trust me on this, she single-handedly makes PREHISTORIC WOMEN worth watching.)

Better than Tim Daly to Tyne Daly . . . :)

I want to vote for the Hammer version on principle, but I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never actually seen any of these.

I admit it took me YEARS to get the Wookiee thing right. :)

Hard to say. He’s not credited as one of the (many) writers on that movie, but the Marx Bros. were famous for ad-libbing AND for having done many of their routines on stage or in vaudeville long before they were immortalized on film. As I recall, they did a touring stage version of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA before they…

Thanks, although most publishers have an Art Director who is charge of the covers and hiring the artists. (Thank you, Irene Gallo at Tor Books, for commissioning that great cover above.)

Good luck with your art!

Good one! Although, to nitpick, it’s actually Chico who delivers the punchline. “There ain’t no Sanity Clause.”

Thanks for citing the XENA episode. I was actually listening to the “Solstice Night” carol from that ep last night. Really.

One nitpick: It’s Santa Claus,” not “Santa CLAUSE.” Ever since that damn Tim Allen movie, people keep making this mistake. That title was a pun, folks, not how the name is actually spelled.…

Don’t know much about “Planet Film” either. I vaguely remembered that “Island of Terror” was not actually a Hammer film, then looked it up . . ..

Hammer’s main rival back in the day was Amicus. Never heard of Planet Film before.

Thanks! As it happens, the LEVERAGE book came out a few years ago, and THE LIBRARIANS book is scheduled for next fall, just in time for Season 3.

Can’t resist showing off the cover, too.

And, yes, DRACULA is definitely more of an adventure story, complete with resourceful heroes banding together to save the day, than, say, FRANKENSTEIN or JEKYLL & HYDE or the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

But you’ll note that in the novel Van Helsing is NOT the main character and only rarely serves as the narrator. Most of the book is told from the POV of Jonathan or Mina or Doctor Seward and the other “civilians” as it were—and Jonathan practically has a nervous breakdown after his harrowing stay at Castle Dracula and…