The artist of The Only Living Boy — but also, more appropriately the western werewolf epic High Moon — joins the HALLOWEEN WEEK fray with a list that will make you howl!
Just joining us? Well, check out 13 Great Witches by Scott Snyder and 13 Great Vampires by Mike Huddleston!
By STEVE ELLIS
Ginger Snaps. I really like the connection of the werewolf to the feminine cycle of the moon. It’s a nice change from the usual “I’m so upset about being a werewolf!” trick, and it has a realistic, brutal sensibility about it. The characters are really strong, too.
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Dog Soldiers. It’s an exciting action flick, that just happens to have amazingly well-done werewolves. Anything that might look goofy about the costumes is hidden in the perfect amount of shadows, and it’s actually quite terrifying at times!
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The Monster Squad. It’s a goofy ’80s movie in the vein of Goonies, complete with swearing children. But Stan Winston‘s werewolf make-up is amazing! The character is a generic werewolf from any other movie, but at least he looks great.
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An American Werewolf in London. Probably one of the best werewolf movies ever. Probably one of the best horror movies ever! Scary as hell AND a great story –which is tricky to find in any kind of movie, monster or otherwise!
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Hellboy: Wolves of St. August. As usual for Mignola, the book is gorgeous. The wolves are beautifully drawn, and I like the atmosphere he sets up — it’s more mysterious than most werewolf media.
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Harry Potter: Remus Lupin/Fenrir Greyback. I like the character of Remus because of his inherent sadness, but he’s still a classic unwilling werewolf trope, afraid of his own brutality. The movies even made him look sad as a monster! It permeates his personality. But as a counterpoint, we have Greyback, who has given himself over to the beast. The two act against each other in a really nice way in the wizard world.
Fenrir
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Clemence Housman’s The Were-Wolf. It’s just a beautifully written story, very fun and mysterious. It’s set in an old guild hall from ancient English times. It came out a few years before Dracula, and really set the stage for Stoker to have such success with his vampire story. It established the mythology — but the werewolf is still unlike any of the ones we’ve mentioned! The werewolf that initiates the tradition is arguably the least traditional, which strikes me as funny.
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Being Human (UK). The wolf is so much fun, because he’s a complete sad sack. You love him because he’s pathetic. His werewolf abilities are so cool, but he’s so sad when he turns back that it’s kind of endearing! He’s a lot like Remus Lupin, except softer and weaker. The werewolf is an obvious release for him, even if he doesn’t like it. They really put him through his paces in the story too. He’s just a great character.
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Underworld. I don’t have a huge emotional attachment to Lucian, but I love the way they did the visuals. They were all CGI, and sometimes that failed, but the design and story was very White Wolf inspired, and I loved seeing those ideas that I enjoyed in White Wolf on screen.
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Werewolf: The Apocalypse. It’s an amazing game setting for RPGs, a companion to Vampire: The Masquerade — probably my favorite game setting in the ’90s. They gave werewolves a lot of depth by incorporating tribes with different intertribe relationships, and they established a mythology that’s different from every other movie and game I’ve seen. Where usually the wolves are just beasts, Apocalypse gives them motives, personalities, and even a religious structure.
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Steve Prescott. His work was amazing in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. He just creates awesome werewolves with great personality. Even in wolf form they are just so gorgeous; I especially love his black and white werewolf stuff. He’s one of the best B&W illustrators around, and his new color illustrations for the relaunch of Werewolf by Onyx Path are beautiful too.
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High Moon. Obviously I have to plug High Moon. I learned a lot from White Wolf in terms of black-and-white art and werewolves, and when David Gallaher came to me proposing a werewolf western, I jumped at it. When I started designing these wolves, I didn’t want them to look like the stuff I had just recently been doing for White Wolf. Rather than the giant, muscular Crinos wolves, I went for lanky, thin, bony werewolves that hearkened more to wolf than human anatomy. My favorite is the werewolf holding a six-gun. But David’s complex story-telling makes this tale extra special.
