At this week’s Horror Roundtable, I find myself unwittingly joining an unlikely mass movement in favor of releasing a certain child-of-the-’80s cult classic on DVD. (Seriously, four of us? Kinda random, isn’t it?) But as Horror Blog proprietor Steven Wintle pointed out to me when he first received my suggestion, that very film is indeed on its way to an official DVD release near you!

I can’t watch this again because her gills trigger a minor phobia I have about growths (scary and phobia are two different things), but here’s video footage of that deep-sea frilled shark. This is why the ocean is frightening.

Someone should come up with a name for this Quentin Tarantino rip-off subgenre of action films, and it should be something that takes into account the fact that there have been good ones (Bound, Go, Snatch, Amores Perros), as well as bad ones (Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, 2 Days in the Valley, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, Knockaround Guys). It should also take into account that these films have kept coming more than a decade past the original — much longer even than the Star Wars knockoffs lasted. In the past year or two, we’ve seen Domino, Running Scared, Lucky Number Slevin and now Smokin’ Aces, from director Joe Carnahan.

–Jeffrey M. Anderson, Cinematical

In addition to the strangely fascinating He-Man gallery I talk about below, the good people at Wizard Entertainment have put up a lot of pieces you might be interested in reading.

First and foremost, there’s my colleague Andy Serwin’s interview with Battlestar Galactica‘s Edward James Olmos, who reveals some details about this upcoming Sunday’s episode (which he directed) and delves into the state of sci-fi in general.

Next, you may not be aware of this, but I help write ToyFare‘s beloved parody comic feature “Twisted ToyFare Theatre.” It has an undeserved reputation for just being toys with word balloons over their heads making fart jokes, but when I first started reading it I found myself laughing out loud again and again and again (and that was before I started working on it; now, of course, it’s a Pythonesque masterpiece); my guess is that if you are even a little bit of a nerd, the same thing will happen to you. Anyway, the website currently features my favorite of all the TTT episodes I’ve worked on thus far, a G.I. Joe parody I was fairly intimiately involved with, and I invite you to read and enjoy. And if you like it, there’s more where that came from: the Twisted ToyFare Theatre Vol. 8 collection, in which you’ll find quite a few strips with my stamp on them, is on sale now.

And as (almost) always, I’m part of this week’s Thursday Morning Quarterback crew; my opinions on Wednesday’s issues of Doctor Strange: The Oath, Silent War, 52, Cold Heat (yes, you read that right), Criminal, Eternals, and Wolverine are yours for the perusing.

A while back I wrote about the primal influence exerted by He-Man on my imagination to this day. There’s something about its everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to constructing genre entertainment for children that makes me think “Why can’t genre entertainment for grown-ups be like that, too?” Its magpie aesthetic is reflected in a lot of the art I enjoy these days, from David Bowie to Grant Morrison.

Anyway, over at the day job, ToyFare has posted a selection of He-Man pin-up posters created by various comic book artists for a He-Man DVD release–such as the portrait of Skeletor and his minions by Dan Brereton you see above–and immediately upon seeing them I was reminded of just how much I dig Eternia. Go check it out.

Wow, that’s delightfully creepy.

Lots, lots more where that came from at the site of artist Jon Beinart.

(Hat tip: Ken.)

Two human heads sawn in half were found in fridge-freezers used to store pork at the home of suspected serial killer Robert Pickton.

—Horror at ‘mass murderer’ farm,” Emily Smith, The Sun

(Hat tip: The Daily Gut.)

That is one scary water monster.

It’s a frilled shark, and it’s rarely seen alive. A Japanese marine park captured it after it was spotted by a fisherman. And it’s SCARY AS HELL.

More here. Hat tip: Ken.

This gentleman is my hero.

LIMA, Peru – Few would even dare swim the Amazon river bank to bank but Slovenian Martin Strel plans to swim 3,375 miles down the world

Best t-shirt ever?

FREE GAIUS: So say we all!

Support the best character on Battlestar Galactica by purchasing this t-shirt (for a measly $9.99!) at Hobocamp Crafts. (More good stuff here.)

“Body parts everywhere, many bodies charred; it was horrible,” the official said.

—“Car bombings kill 75 in Baghdad,” CNN.com

Count the TOTALLY AWESOME hollow-earth genre tropes in this Dodge Nitro commercial.

The second my friend Zach Oat told me he’d made this t-shirt, I knew people were just gonna flip out.

Men’s and women’s versions on sale here. For more fine products from Zach and his missus Melissa, visit Hobocamp Crafts.

Learn the identity of my favorite horror sub-genre at this week’s Horror Roundtable.

Learn my opinions on this week’s issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, Green Lantern, 52, Battlestar Galactica, Conan and the Midnight God, Girls, Marvel Adventures Avengers, and Ultimate X-Men at the latest installment of Thursday Morning Quarterback.

Don’t you feel smarter already?

Go read Bill Sherman’s great review of Ross Campbell’s frightening, bloody, erotic, queer-friendly zombie graphic novel The Abandoned.

I remember babysitting about 15 years ago for a couple of younger kids and watching some of the early animation and in the middle of it one of the kids standing up and holding his hands up like Jackie Mason and proclaiming to heaven, “Why, oh why can’t somebody be his friend?”

Tom Spurgeon on Casper the Friendly Ghost

“The reign of terror has ended. The quest for justice has just begun,” prosecutor Andrew Thomas said.

—“Suspected ‘Baseline Killer’ indicted on 74 charges,” AP, CNN.com