This episode combines two of the DDG's favorite things: the genre character sculptures of artist Mike Hill and our combined love for werewolves in the movies!

Mike Hill is an English artist and sculptor who is literally a monster maker. His life-size figures of movie characters including Lon Chaney as The Wolf Man, Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein creature and many more have been featured displays on horror conventions and are prized collectibles by genre devotees including Guillermo del Toro.

The painstaking attention to detail and character Mike puts into his life-size figures brilliantly capture the likeness of his famous film subjects as well as those iconic movie moments that reside indelibly in the minds of monster kids like us. We discuss with Mike how he accomplishes sculpting and recreating these characters from classic films like FRANKENSTEIN, THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, recently I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF at Monsterpalooza, plus Mike's stunning adaptation of the classic Aurora Wolf Man model kit in life-size form! Hill is also famous for his realistic figures of real world monster makers including Ray Harryhausen and Jack Pierce.

The DDG and Mike also delve once again into a favorite topic of film werewolves, a subject that launched Hill's fascination with genre films, model making and art. A lively discussion ensues about how the underlying concept of dual personalities and repressed human impulses has remained a relevant theme in genre movies and literature for over a century.

Enjoy our howling good Damn Dirty Geeks podcast with artist Mike Hill and be sure to visit our website for a photo gallery of Mike's sculptures to fully appreciate his amazing talents and love for monsters! 

If you're a fan of werewolves too, be sure to check out the DDG's episode devoted to lycanthropes in film, literature and pop culture as well.

Though a couple of our Geeks weren't available for this episode, Jack, Scott and Frank Woodward recently gathered to share our appreciation for director John Carpenter, who has created at least two classics in his varied career yet remains an unsung director by the Hollywood studio system.

Thankfully, being overlooked and undervalued didn't stop Carpenter from creating some of our favorite films including HALLOWEEN, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING, CHRISTINE, STARMAN, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and THEY LIVE, among others we discuss and evaluate in this episode.

We also discuss the creative crossover between Carpenter as a director and as a musician beyond the fact that he often composed original scores for his own films, in light of Woodward's recent viewing of Carpenter's live concert.

While the film industry fails to appreciate John Carpenter's work, there is no doubt that the director's legacy from the 1970s to today and beyond continues to inspire artists and audiences alike.

The Damn Dirty Geeks hope this episode inspires our listeners to watch more Carpenter films or re-evaluate them if you're already familiar with his work, and share them with others to recruit new fans to express their appreciation for John Carpenter.