A Halloween treat for little girls with a twisted sense of humour was the Barbie-and-Ken-as-The Munsters gift set. The dolls were surprisingly faithful recreations of Lily and Herman from the cult 1960s TV show. And if that wasn’t enough, there was always Mezco Toyz’s series of nine-inch Living Dead Dolls complete with their own death certificate!
The Scooby-Doo five-piece bendable gift set included five-inch figures of Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred.
A series of limited-edition retro tin lunch boxes from NECA included designs for Evil Dead and Halloween, each with a free metal thermos and holographically numbered. Stephen King’s 1958 Plymouth Fury Christine turned up as a 1/8th scale die-cast model.
For Christmas trees, Clayburn Moore designed and sculpted a Vampirella Ornament complete with crescent moon and vampire bat.
William Marshall’s Blacula, David Hedison’s The Fly and a Morlock from George Pal’s 1960 movie of The Time Machine were recreated as quarter-scale resin bust kits sculpted by Joe Simon.
Sculpted by Richard Force, the Nosferatu mini resin model kit featured Max Schrek playing with a yo-yo and was limited to just 200 figures. A ten-inch caricature of Boris Karloff from Mad Monster Party? was sculpted by Tony Cipriano and limited to 500 pieces at $100 each.
Lovecraft fans could choose between a ‘Collect Call of Cthulhu’ T-Shirt or a ‘Pokethulu’ T-shirt, while a company called Java’s Crypt offered in sterling silver an Elder Sign Brooch/Pin, an Elder Sign Pendant and Elder Sign earrings. Bad Boy Designs introduced Cthulhu Beer Glasses with four designs — Innsmouth Golden Lager, Ithaqua Ice, Wizard Whateley’s Dunwich Ale and Witch House Dark (‘It’s the beer you’ve been dreaming of’).
Meanwhile, Mythos Books launched its second revised edition of The Lovecraft Tarot, containing twenty new cards and an expanded book by Eric Friedman.
In celebration of the 70th Anniversary of three of Universal’s most famous Classic Monsters, in October Universal Studios Home Video and Madame Tussaud’s-New York unveiled lifelike wax figures of Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and The Mummy to pay tribute to legendary horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
From Giant Manufacturing came a Classic Horror T-shirt depicting Universal’s The Mummy.
The Mummy Returns trading cards featured scenes from the movie or early designs of CGI characters, while the Ghosts of Mars trading cards included plenty of background information and even a limited-edition card signed by director John Carpenter himself.
The 2000 Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement were presented on May 26th at the Horror Writers’ Association Banquet, held in conjunction with the World Horror Convention in Seattle, Washington. The Traveling Vampire Show by late HWA president Richard Laymon predictably won in the Novel category, while Brian A. Hopkins’s The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club was chosen in the First Novel section. Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tern’s chapbook The Man on the Ceiling won for Long Fiction, and Jack Ketchum’s ‘Gone’ (from October Dreams) picked up the award for Short Fiction. Magic Terror: Seven Tales by Peter Straub was the winner in the Fiction Collection category, and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Thirteenth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling won the Anthology award. Stephen King’s autobiographical On Writing was the Non-Fiction winner, Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was voted best Illustrated Narrative, while Steven Katz’s Shadow of the Vampire collected the Screenplay award. Nancy Etchemendy’s The Power of Un won in the Work for Younger Readers category, Tom Piccirilli’s A Student of Hell won in the Poetry Collection section, and Patricia Lee Macomber, Steve Eller, Sandra Kasturi and Brett A. Savory’s web site The Chiaroscuro won the Other Media award. The Specialty Press Award went to William K. Schafer for Subterranean Press, and Nigel Kneale was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Held over July 19th-22nd on the Roger Williams University campus in Bristol, Rhode Island, the guests at the informal Necon XXI were Tim Powers and Elizabeth Massie.
The International Horror Guild’s awards recognizing outstanding achievements in the field of horror and dark fantasy were presented on September 1st during Dragon*”Con in Atlanta, Georgia. Best Novel was Declare by Tim Powers, Adams Fall by Sean Desmond was voted best First Novel, The Man on the Ceiling by Melanie and Steve Rasnic Tem won in the Long Story category, while Steve Duffy’s ‘The Rag-and-Bone Men’ (from Shadows and Silence) won in the Short Story section. I Feel Sick #1–2 by Jhonen Vasquez won the Illustrative Narrative award, and there was a tie for Collection between City Fishing by Steve Rasnic Tem and Ghost Music and Other Tales by Thomas Tessier. Best Anthology went to October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish, At the Foot of the Tree by William Sheehan won in the Non-fiction category, and Paula Guran’s Horror Garage was voted Best Publication. Joel-Peter Witkin won Best Artist, American Psycho was voted Best Film, and Angel picked up the Television award.
The International Horror Guild also presented shock-rock performer Alice Cooper with its Living Legend Award. Cooper also received Dragon*Con’s ‘Julie’ Award — named for science fiction/comic legend Julius Schwartz — which recognizes universal achievement spanning multiple genres.
The 2001 British Fantasy Awards were presented on September 23rd at the British Fantasy Society’s one-day 30th Birthday Bash in London’s West End. The winners of this year’s awards were announced by Guests of Honour Hugh Lamb and Simon Clark: The August Derleth Award for Best Novel went to Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, Hideous Progeny edited by Brian Willis was judged Best Anthology and Kim Newman’s Where the Bodies Are Buried won Best Collection. Tim Lebbon’s zombie novella ‘Naming of Parts’ was voted Best Short Fiction, Best Artist was Jim Burns, and Peter Crowther’s PS Publishing was named Best Small Press. The special Karl Edward Wagner Award was presented to legendary anthologist Peter Haining.
The 2001 World Fantasy Awards were presented on November 4th at the World Fantasy Convention in Montreal, Canada. Guests of Honour were Fred Saberhagen, Joel Champetier, artist Donato Giancola and toastmaster Charles de Lint. The Best Novel result was a tie between Declare by Tim Powers and Galveston by Sean Stewart. Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem’s The Man on the Ceiling picked up yet another award with Best Novella, while ‘The Pottawatomie Giant’ by Andy Duncan was voted Best Short Fiction. Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora edited by Sheree R. Thomas was considered the Best Anthology, Andy Duncan made it a double when his Beluthahatchie and Other Stories won Best Collection, and the artist award went to Australian Shaun Tan. Tom Shippey received the Special Award: Professional for J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, and the Special Award: Non-Professional went to Bill Sheehan for At the Foot of the Story Tree: An Inquiry into the Fiction of Peter Straub. Life Achievement Awards were announced for Philip José Farmer and Frank Frazetta.