WHAT MR. POTTER IS READING 7-28-10

Jim Henson's "Return to the Labyrinth" by Jake T. Forbes, art by Chris Lie.

Book # 3 of 4 in the Return to the Labyrinth series. Toby the stolen infant brother of Sarah from the original story has now become heir to Jareth the goblin king's throne and he's trying to learn to control his powers to protect the kingdom from other characters who have misled and tricked him since he returned to the Labyrinth. That's the quick description.
There is quite a bit more to the story with great art in the style of the TokyoPop graphic novel. All kinds of new characters along with the classic creatures from the Labyrinth movie. It would make a great sequel as a movie in my opinion. It's a little bit darker at times and has some moments of sick humor.



"Ghost Hunter" by Hans Holzer.
Famous ghost hunter Hans Holzer begins the book with the story of how he started investigating spirits and uses a lot of tools and mediums to try and solve hauntings. I'm not really digging the whole seance/medium style investigation with the first few stories but I plan on sticking it out and finishing the book just to see if it's worth reading the other half-a-dozen Holzer books I have.

GREASER GREG LOST HIS HEAD AND THE REBIRTH OF HOGGLE

I always seize an opportunity to squeeze a couple of my many interests into one post, and today I have just the thing...

As a big Garbage Pail Kid nut I often surf Ebay on the lookout for things to add to my collection. A few years ago I came across a peculiar post for Greaser Greg's head? I took a look and sure enough someone was selling the prop head of Greaser Greg from the Garbage Pail Kids Movie!





For those of you who never had the pleasure of viewing this film it is important to know that it's rated as one of the worst movies of all time. So bad it's good it has become a cult classic.
A lot of Garbage Pail Kids fans scoff at this movie, along with the never aired Saturday morning cartoon and consider it a disgrace. Kind of like the Star Wars nerds and the "holiday special".



Personally I love the movie and cartoon but that's just me.

Anyway, to get back to the story...
the midgets (or vertically challenged to be politically correct) wear full head masks in the film as the Garbage Pail Kids. The actor who played Greaser Greg was Phil Fondacaro who has played small roles (ha ha get it... SMALL roles!!!) in quite a few movies like Willow and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Ewok).



Like a lot of movie prosthetics, they are really only built to last throughout the duration of filming and Greg's head had taken a turn for the worse.
The Garbage Pail Kids in the movie already looked creepy enough to begin with but years of wear and storage had damaged the original mask and I found myself genuinely creeped out by the Ebay photos.


scene from the film with Greaser Greg in the lower left

Here are the photos from Ebay:











The original post on Ebay is long gone but if I remember correctly the seller had not hesitated to describe it's foul condition in his description. I think he had even stated that it smelled bad.
God knows who bought it or for how much, I was lucky enough to snag the photos before it was gone.

To be perfectly honest if I could have bought it back then I probably would have. I probably would have stored it in a large jar like a Silence of the Lambs thing.

This leads me to the second portion of the post. If you think Greg aged badly, consider the unfortunate case of Hoggle...

For those of you who haven't read previous posts I am also a big fan of the Jim Henson movie Labyrinth.
Hoggle, one of the main characters in the film (also played by a midget) in the same style never made it home after filming. Instead he was packed in abandoned luggage and eventually stored in an unclaimed baggage center until some poor sap discovered him. I guess the guy got quite a scare. It took a bit for them to figure out who or what they had found but when they did, they displayed his rotting remains at the unclaimed baggage center which is a thrift store/tourist trap in Scotsboro, Alabama.

Here are some photos of the before and after Hoggle:













Pretty gross. But the story sort of has a happy ending because a guy who does restoration on dolls decided to take on a restoration of the full costume. I have some photos of the restoration process and him posing with the full restored Hoggle. He even got some of the animatronics working again.

















I read a few articles online regarding the restoration. I found the whole thing kind of creepy but interesing. In one of the interviews with the guy who brought Hoggle back to life, he comments on how Hoggle talked to him guiding him through the process (Twilight Zone music cued).

LABYRINTH TOYS

I was looking for some gift items at Entertainment Earth and I ran across these new Labyrinth collectibles. Dang I would love these.


This is a plush replica of one of the door knockers. It would be a lot cooler if it wasn't a glorified stuffed animal, and if they made the other one for a pair.


These are the Jareth and Hoggle action figures that come together as a set. Fricken' awesome!


This is the 12" Jareth the Goblin King figure, it comes with additional hand holding a crystal ball, and it talks!! Here is a list of the crap it says:

"Go back to your room. Play with your toys and your costumes."

"I've brought you a gift; it's a crystal, nothing more. But if you turn it this way and look into it, it'll show you your dreams."

"But this is not a gift for an ordinary girl."

"Do you want it?"

"Don't defy me."

"You have 13 hours in which to solve the labyrinth."

"It's further than you think. Time is short."


This is the 9" plush talking Ludo that says, "Smells baaaad!" and "Sara friend?". I wish they would have made an action figure instead of a dumb stuffed animal. I guess I should be glad they made Labyrinth collectibles at all.
Also they have a replica of the bracelet that Sara gives Hoggle but last I checked it was all sold out.

RETURN TO THE LABYRINTH

I got this new book because I'm a big fan of the movie Labyrinth and I wanted to see what happens after the movie. There's a part 1 and 2 out right now and part three is supposed to come out in November. I heard that they are actually going to have to extend it to four parts eventually.

This comic starts out giving a brief rundown of what happened in the movie.
Sarah a spoiled teenage girl who lives in her own princess and fairies fantasy world has to babysit her baby brother Toby while her father and stepmother go out for the evening. She becomes frustrated with the crying baby and wishes the goblin king Jareth would send his goblins to take Toby away and keep him in a castle at the center of a labyrinth where he will stay and eventually be turned into a goblin.
When the wish comes true Sara begs Jareth to give Toby back and Jareth (who has fallen in love with her) gives her a chance to save him by solving the labyrinth in 13 hours.
While in the confusing and nonsensical labyrinth Sara along with friends she meets along the way solves riddles and clues and eventually saves Toby.

So the book starts out 15 years later when Toby is a teenager and has been being watched secretly over the years by Jareth. Jareth intends to hand his kingdom over to Toby and retire or whatever.
I read the book and it was nice to see some of the old characters like Hoggle and Luto again and I'll probably buy the other books even though the artwork is kind of shitty. One of the nice things about the story though is that it has a lot of opportunities for spin off stories with the characters. It kind of makes me want to write one myself.