Guestbook of a sort *

Yep, thanks to the powers of Blogspot we now have some sort of a "guestbook". It might not seem like much but it's the best way I think for you to have your say on Duckyboos until I'm smart enough to build a proper guestbook. Whether you just want us to know what you think of the site or maybe a few suggestions, it's right there, but please read the rules carefully before posting.

I've also put the second season episode guide online [no pretty screenshots at the moment I'm afraid], and managed to fix a few bugs that were driving me insane! There's probably a few more that might drive me potty as I do more work.

A Christmas Quacker

Count Duckula wishes you all a very merry Christmas!

And as a bonus, Duckyboos is now back online! There's still some things to fix and build as I've been working very hard, but I hope you all enjoy the new layout!

Internet Explorer users, please be aware that the shortened menuhead is a known issue that I might not be able to fix. If there's anything majorly wrong, please tell me!

No more Splash page *

Been a while since I last updated the site, and yes, sorry for the shutdown. I decided to get rid of the splash page [aka Enter] because I felt that it was getting in the way of actually entering the site. I also got rid of the previous news for good because to me it sounded rather hyper and rushed...if you catch my drift! XD!

But man, have I been busy or what? I've been pimping up the likes of the header, the side menu and some pages, although most other pages are still under construction. Stay tuned is all I can say

We also wish with a Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

[UK] Season 2 is coming!

It looks like us lucky Brits will see the second season of Count Duckula on DVD on the 19th February 2007, as it apparently says on UK-based shopping site Play.com. I believe this might be the doing of FremantleMedia, who already released the British version of the first season release back in July. Nothing like special features are announced at the moment, neither there is an image of the set. All I can do for the moment is just wait for things to develop, but my spirits are high this time because whatever Play places in its Coming Soon area is very likely to be coming soon.

I can't wait! :}

Update 29/DEC/2006: Uh oh...the release date's been pushed to the 26th March 2007 now. Cheeky little...

Sacre bleu!

I found Count Duckula's theme in French! But all I can say is...very weird, especially the way the song is sung... Duckula's voice en frencais ain't too bad, but still.

There's also this video. Check out the alternative logos!


And also a VHS cover. I've love to see a full episode in French, since that and Spanish are the only languages I ever had the chance to learn back in school. It kind of chills me whenever I hear or read French that I could understand some of it!

Mexican/Spanish DVD Releases...?

It's come to my attention that apparently the Count Duckula First Season is now available in Spanish!

I was looking around on eBay when I first of all found this in the Buy It Now section. I wasn't too sure if this one was official even though it says in the listing that they "don't sell bootlegs, copies or anything illegal". It looks like a nice cover though, much better than the British versions. I then looked for "conde patula dvd" in Google for a bigger version of that cover, and I ended up finding two links to what looks like the first season:

ZonaDVD and MixUp Music Store, which both seem to be Mexican, so the DVD is in Region 4.

Well I must say, these are REALLY nice renditions of that one picture of Duckula they use on every release. I don't speak much Spanish, but even if I did I still wouldn't be able to tell which one's a mock-up or which one's commercial. If anyone out there in South America has bought this DVD, I'd be VERY obliged if you guys can help me out.

What I can make out of this Spanish is that apparently the release has a photo gallery, 30 episodes [as opposed to the usual 26 on the American and British releases], tracks in both Spanish AND English, interactive menu, episode selection and a total of 600 minutes. But that doesn't make sense! If the English version is 675 minutes and has 26 episode, how can the Latin American one have 600 mins and 30 episodes?

I'll be really grateful if anyone who's bought the DVD can send me in some scans or something.

I hate being unsure of things like this...

"I'm more famous than all of you!"

[Extremely sorry for the low quality here!]

On the 7th November, or this Tuesday evening, to be precise, there was a documentary on ITV Granada where they take a look at how Cosgrove Hall, those very people behind Count Duckula, came to be one of the most well known animation studios in the UK. However, ITV Granada is a regional version of ITV [one of our main channels here], and is only shown in the North-West of England.

Most thankfully though, I happened to have a friend who lives in Liverpool, and was able to capture the programme from ITV Grandada on his PC. I've only got the first part so far, as transfering the 230MB DivX file with MSN Messenger was a pain in the arse. But the wait was so worth it!

The first part of the documentary covered the earlier works of Cosgrove Hall, such as Chorlton and the Wheelies, Jamie and the Magic Torch, and Dangermouse. I expect Duckula will be featured in the second part which I should get from my friend tomorrow.

Update
Well, I got the second part of Cartoon Kings just now, and well, very good. This part does cover Duckula, but also the more recent of Cosgrove Hall's work. However, I don't think 30 minutes is enough for such a prolific animation studio. Maybe perhaps an hour would do nicely. But anyways, it was worth documenting, because ever since I read about in a Wikipedia article, I always wanted to hear David Jason do all the voices of Duckyboos and ol' DM!

Many thanks go out to Psyke for taking the time to record it for me.

Meanwhile, today I had a muck around with Fimo clay...

Heh, I suck.

Small edit: I just found out that Toonhound's linked to my blog! LOL!

How bloody confusing...

Just a few days ago I was in sky high spirits, because I was looking around in Wikipedia and found this on the Count Duckula article:

Airing History [United Kingdom]:

• ITV1
• The Children's Channel
• Nickelodeon
• Sky One
• Boomerang [TBA]

That shot me up so high I couldn't sleep that night. The cartoon was last seen on UK TV on Sky One in 1996, so to me it was a miracle. I didn't like Boomerang for the sole fact that they dedicated an entire six weeks of summer to Scooby Doo cartoons, which I really can't stand, but I started to like the channel when they started showing another classic, The Raccoons recently.

However, today I got really mixed up. Count Duckula seemed to have disappeared from a list of cartoons that were supposed to be airing soon on Boomerang UK, and it had me really pissed off, because later on I found that the cartoon is definately on air in Central and Eastern Europe. I also found a copy of the cartoon introduction which had been recorded in the Netherlands, with Dutch subtitles and the Boomerang logo, as you can see below.



What's more, I've been looking up the schedules for all the areas they have this channel, and I found that in the east and central European versions of the channel there's going to be a Duckula marathon on the 29th October. This schedule is in ENGLISH for crying out loud!

I wasn't too sure anyway, so the other day I sent Turner Media an email making an inquiry about the cartoon being aired. No word yet, sadly. Perhaps I should write to Ofcom? After all, if they could do so much for that one person who complained about smoking in Tom & Jerry cartoons, they could change something for one Count Duckula fan?

However, all I can do is keep on hoping, rather than venting my spleen over Scooby Doo. Boomerang pops their cartoons in very, VERY randomly, as do most of our other channels here. Until then, I'll carry on searching for VHS of beyond-season-one episodes, or downloads of episodes I haven't got.

Duckyboos is here!

7/SEP/2006: Really sorry guys, but I had to take most of the pages down...there's this damn table bug that I can't seem to fix and it's doing my head in!

I'll let you know when it's up and running again.

----
I'm very happy to announce that my Count Duckula fansite, which shares the name of this blog, is online!

http://duckyboos.fateback.com

There's not a lot going on here, but it'll build up in time. Many, many thanks to Kroc for helping me out!

Count Duckula in Other Languages

Thought I'd like to make a post about what Duckula sounds like in other languages.

In Spanish [Conde Patula]


We also have an episode in Spanish too.


Over at Duckula Online you can download the theme in German [Graf Duckula]

There was also an Italian theme on Youtube which was totally different. I would share this, but it sadly got flagged months ago. In Italy he is known as 'Conte Dacula'

Do you have an opening theme in a language other than those shown here? If so, I'd love to hear from you!

New DVD Releases

Just to let everyone know that in the past month, the world has seen not one, but two new Count Duckula releases on DVD.

In Germany there is now a seven disc box set with 52 episodes [However, contrary to what it says on the box, it's actually not complete, as it's missing the last 13 episodes], which must be excellent news for German fans! However there are no special features from what I've gathered, and the picture quality doesn't seem to be as good as the US release...

And in the United Kindgom, the first season has been released over here at last. From what I've seen it has the same special features as the US release, and has a totally different cover art, which I personally find better than the US one. I saw them being on sale in Virgin Megastores the other day at the price of £15.99, which is much worth it. I wonder what the menu graphics will look like in this version - as I said in a much earlier post, those in the US version were terrible.

I Should Be So Ducky!

Oh lordy! I don't know where to begin!

This morning I received a package. One that I'd been expecting since last weekend. It was full of Count Duckula books, comics and a few other things. It was all there - the books that I'd been meaning to bid for on eBay! I just couldn't contain myself the moment I opened up the box. I ended up running up and down the stairs shouting out my joy, discarding the newspaper and making sure my dog didn't do anything to it.

Here's a list of what was in that box.

Seven 'Bastei' comics
This is the German version of the Duckula comics, containing various stories from all three - Marvel, Celebrity and SOR Fleetway - English comics. I personally speak very little German as I never studied it at school, but I do know how all the letters are pronounced, as well as a few words I learnt in my own time. Perhaps I could learn a bit more German though these comics, since I have a couple of the stories in English as well!

The first seven - at least - issues used covers from the Marvel comics , and from then on, those from the Celebrity comics were used. The Marvel comic stories were all crammed into the first four issues at least. I only had the first Marvel comic, so I'm not sure which story appeared in which, as these German comics were in different issue numbers - 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 16.

The stories that were extracted from the Marvels have better colours in them - none of the messy screentones - but it's still not very good colouring, sometimes it can be pale while certain objects like Igor's jacket are printed indark colours. I like how the issues are in A4 this time, as opposed to the smaller size of the American versions. I supposed it gave the colourist more room to colour.

After the Marvel stories were republished into the Basteis, the stories from the British comics were used. Thankfully these were left as is, no bad recolouring and such. However, if there's anything in the entirety of this comic series that isn't so aethetically pleasing, it's the lettering. It's been typed with a non-comic like font, and I personally think that it somewhat spoils the feel of it being a comic. But then, at least it has been translated for German and German-speaking readers.

Below are some samples.

One Marvel comic
Issue seven I believe. Unlike some of the other issues, this one contains a full story of Dangermouse, which was just as well inked, but it kind of freaks me out, as does the Duckula story there. In this, it shows Duckula topless and with...manboobs... and Igor without his trousers on...well, that's just a personal thing... It's still an OK story but it's just the way it was drawn that's all.

Seven birthday cards
These I've never seen before, possible due to me being a baby at the time these were probably out. I'm not sure who made these, but the logo looks like a W-shaped crown with a star on top. Three of them are embossed have a peel-off badge which is probably used to stick on shirts, while the other four just have artwork on.

1990 Annual
Much like the 1991 annual I talked about a while back, this annual was published by World, with the same artist working on the lovely illustrations and comics.

1989 Annual
This one is very different to the World published annuals, for one, it was published by Marvel comics! But not to worry, it's not at all like the American publications, is has the same share of comic strips and prose format stories, it's just with different artists [some from the Celebrity comics].

4 Celebrity comics
As I may have said, I personally like these ones better than the other two versions. The issues I have here are 8, 10, 15 and 26. One of them - Issue 26 - has kiddie fanart in...bless!

SOR Comic
Now this one just baffles me. It says Issue 6 on this, but it was published in 1990, while the Fleetway issue I had was Issue 2 and published in 1992. It has the same artists within as well. Sadly this one has only two Duckula stories, for there's also a totally unrelated story in [I hate it when you buy a comic and there's a story inside that has nothing to do with the charaters the whole issue is about]. But then I read the smallprint inside and it said 'London Editions Magazines, an Egmont company', so I guess it's still related to Fleetway. I'm still not sure what SOR stands for.

Count Duckula Storybooks
Published by Carnival, these are basically novelised versions of a number of Duckula scripts, with screenshots from the cartoon. There is a big one with four stories, and I have here three small ones.

Count Duckula Novels
Also published by Carnival, but these are apparently brand new stories. These aren't illustrated within, apart from the Joke Book, but I suppose they serve as good things to read. The stories are as follows

• Joke Book
• Duckula and the Haunted House
• Duckula on Treasure Island
• Duckula's Holiday Camp Adventure
• Duckula and the Ghost Train Mystery

Waddingtons Card game
I'm not sure what this exactly is, but I'm guessing that it's a bit like Snap. These are quite big cards, and the characters appear more than once.

German colouring book
This seems to be published by something called 'Xenos'. Some of the ink in the lineart has faded over time, but it's still drawn pretty good. It seems kind of different compared to most colouring books I've scribbled in in the past - it's like a mix of a story [based on the episodes] and random shots...maybe it's just me...

Two smaller Marvel Books
By the kind of Marvel that published the 1989 annual, these contain a mix of prose and comic strips in a way that there's a strip on one page, and when you turn it over, it's prose, then a strip etc. It has some nice artwork in it, but there aren't no true names mentioned, just 'Primary Design'. The two titles are 'Duckula on Broadway' and 'Duckula in Trouble'.

Mug
A black mug with Duckula on and text saying 'Drinkyboos for Duckyboos!'. I actually quite like how this one looks, despite the colours being behind a black background.

And here it is [sorry about the mess]!

Many, MANY thanks go out to Jano, the webmaster of www.duckula.de for his generousity. I never felt this happy in long time! Now for the figurines and plushes...

Comics and Annuals

I strongly apologise for the size of the images in the following post [when you click on them that is], I had to make sure that the scans were readable.

Over the past few months, I've been a regular searcher for Count Duckula items on eBay, meaning that I've always been looking him up to see if there's any nice items on there for auction. Some things I could get straight away by the click of the 'buy it now' link, while others I had to fight for. The first piece of merchandise I believe to have bought on eBay was my favourite bendy doll, which costed me a shocking £14.50 all simply because of other bidders. The same happened to the most recent Duckula merchendise I bought - a comic - which I had to pay £8.00 for the same cause as the doll.

And this is what this post is about. Count Duckula comics and annuals.

So far from my eBay hunting, I've discovered three kinds of Duckula comics, not counting the kind known as 'Look In', which was apparently an 80's magazine featuring pop stars of that era. The first is the Marvel Comics, which were made in America and was published every two months. Of this kind, I only have the first issue.

My only problem with the Marvel comics is that inside the colours are very badly applied, most possible because they apparently used coloured screentones. I'm guessing that to make the colour green Duckula's feathers for example, a 'light blue' - which is basically blue dots, is applied over solid yellow. Now, I've never applied screentones ever as of now, but this could have seriously done with some work, especially on smaller areas which looked like they were coloured the wrong coloured. There are also a number of annoying adverts inbetween stories that advertise cereals and other comics...maybe that's just me. Other than that, I think the comic is fine...well, this issue. I've heard that some of the other comics contain dreadful art, but that I'll have to find out myself. The stories are quite fine as it happens, much like in the cartoon.

Here is a sample of a story page.

The next comic type is one I call 'Fleetway' - which is apparently the same publishers who made the UK Sonic the Hedgehog comics known as 'Sonic the Comic', which I was a fan of back in those days. Unlike the Marvel comics, this one has five stories altogether as opposed to the only two in Marvel, as well as some inbetween puzzles and how-to-draws, and that it is published every 'quarter' - three months. It is also much better printed, and has some lovely traditionally made art. I have so far what appears to be the second issue which dates back to 1992. Thankfully I was the only bidder for this one, so this was easy to get.

The comic art differs from one artist to another. I could be wrong, but the art in the first story of this issue reminds me a lot of the art of Nigel Kitching, an artist for Sonic the Comic. But I'm not sure because for this one there are no credits or signatures. The rest of the art in the issue I'm not familiar with, but as a fan of traditional art, I do like that of an artist known as J.J, who made the art of the how-to-draws and puzzles, and 'Mike Kazibrid', who made the art of the second story. Here are two scans of different stories below.

• Igor wishes to be back in Transylvania...
• While Nanny follows a cry for help.

Lastly, there is this comic that arrived to me on the 3rd June, the one I paid £8.00 for. This kind is known as 'Celebrity', and was published weekly from the 12th July 1989. My copy has a bit of cellotape from where a free gift was attached, in this case a Duckula branded chew bar, which is advertised at the back of the issue.

It has quickly become my favourite kind so far, much due to the fact that some of the artwork inside combines the work of Alan Case, who illustrates the entire 1991 annual that I'll be showing in a minute, and the colouring of John Burns, a name I definately recognise from Sonic the Comic. It is also lettered by Ellita Fell, who also letters these Sonic comics. I personally love these artist's works, so that's a treat for my eyes. There are only two stories that are in comic format, while the rest of this issue contains a cut-out, a puzzle, a letters page, an advertisement for Duckula toys and a story that is printed in prose format. The art in that story isn't as nice as the comic story, but it's OK I guess, I've seen much worse comic art in my time. Sampled below is:

• Duckula finds a huge bone in his garden...
• And wants to know where it comes from...

So that's it with the comics, now for the 1991 annual. It is published by a company called 'World', which is related to Egmont, a name I associate with Fleetway. Like the Fleetway comic featured here, this was also easy for me to get, though I do believe that someone else bidded. So far this is the only annual of about three that I have, but I am aiming to get the other two someday.

Like I may have said, this is fully illustrated by Alan Case, who made some lovely traditional art in this. There are lots of stories in this, four of them being in comic format while another four are printed in illustrated prose, along with puzzles and 'make and dos' in between. The prose stories are rather simple to read, but I'm guessing that's just where it's been targeted at children [my copy used to belong to a girl who was 12 years old at the time]. Of these, I quite like the first story, which is about sleepwalking, while of the comics, I like the third one, which is about the Castle being a part of a fairground. And yes, I have two samples from this as well.

• Ducky looks so cute when he's sleepwalking...
• And here's some chaos going on from the Crow brothers.

I'm afraid that's all I have to show from my personal collection, but I hope for it to build up as I find them from eBay or perhaps second hand sales if I'm very lucky.

Any contributions [scans] from my fellow Duckula fans would be very much welcome!

May the 4th be with you!

I've been waiting to make a title based on the quote from 'The Vampire Strikes Back'.

Now, this here is the post with all the best Count Duckula links. This is because Blogspot wouldn't let me have more than eight links in the sidebar. I know what it is now, I'm not aligning my HTML properly! All this Blogger code is rather mind boggling if you as me!

Fansites

• Duckula Online - A big fansite containing scans, photos and a lot of information...only that it's in German. Contains interviews with the German voice actors, info about what channels the German versions are on, and of a lot of merchandise!
  
• Cosgrove Hall Ate My Brain - Although this site is about Cosgrove Hall's productions altogether, this site has some great info about Count Duckula, in fact, some that I never knew before I first checked it out. If you look around outside this part of the site, you'll find concept art and even pictures from a Cosgrove Hall exhibition!
  
• Graf Duckula - Also in German, not as big as Duckula online, but has a few small scans that are not present there. It also has a 'shop' which apparently sells a few episodes from the German version on VHS.
  
• Castle Duckula - This site is under construction and has been for a while. Nice layout though, and there is an accompaining Livejournal to go along.
• Count Duckula DeviantART club - A 'club' that was set up by a fellow Duckula fan on the artists' community site DeviantART. Contains two fanarts and a fan fiction at the moment, needs more members.
• Sailor Comet's Sound Vault - Contains a number of WAV sound files, mostly quotes and themes.
• Livejournal community - This I made myself [I'm Robocoddess], will need more frequent posting and members!
• Duckula's Corner - Moved to a new host. Still underconstruction but getting better ;)
• 14/JUN/2007: Crazy About Count Duckula - Another blog that has apparently just started out. This one makes use of the new Videoroll thing Blogspot put on.
  

Information sites

• Toonhound - If you want the best info on British animation, then look no further than Toonhound! May be a bit simple, but still good info...
• Duckula DVD - Some info on the first season DVD, as well as downloadable wallpapers and a Flash game!
• IMDB - Contains some info on the voices, episodes and has user opinions.
• Wikipedia - Wikipedia article.
• Jedi's Paradise [unavailable to me right now] - General information, but with a checklist to see how many episodes you have.
• Episode Guide - exactly what it says on the tin.
• Duckula on KIKA.de - Once again this is in German, but has a nice episode guide with nice screenshots, and contains a short video from 'Vampire Vacation' in German [damn it's rather freaky]. KIKA seems to be a German childrens' channel.
  

Company sites

• Cosgrove Hall Films - The site itself is under construction apart from news and links, but the Count Duckula page is still accessable if you click here.
• Capital Entertainment - The ones who released the first season on DVD

Buying

• Amazon [USA] - Sells the First Season DVD
• Amazon [UK] - Sells the Vampire Vacation release as well as [though limited] a number of VHSs and books.
• eBay - A WIDE variety of stuff - mostly second hand, but be careful!

More links will be available as soon as I find, or am shown them.

"You were tremendous, Tremendous!"

Also thanks to Shychick for letting me know about this.

"Ok, good news... I hope, unless they decide to cancel it for whatever reason in the near future. I got word from Scott of Capital Entertainment- that last guy I emailed, who was more specific in his reply to my inqury. I got an email from him tonight- short and sweet, but still very encouraging:

"I've gotten word from First Look Studios, who now owns Capital
Entertainment, that they still plan on putting out the remaining seasons
of Count Duckula on DVD."

Scott Mayle
Online Coordinator
Capital Entertainment Enterprises
[link]
smayle@capitalent.com
480-633-6862


So, for now it looks like they are still planning on releasing the rest of the series after all. Let's still keep our fingers crossed, just in case, because I have learned not to have *too* much faith in people over the years."

You know what I say to that? TREMENDOUS! I'll be keeping my fingers crosses as well, because I just have this great faith that the other seasons will be on DVD, over time.

No more DVDs?

A friend of mine from DA named Shychick allowed me to post some big news into my blog, so here it is.

"Bad news. I noticed that nobody had replied to that topic on Capital Entertainment for awhile- I think the last post was sometime in March, or something. Now, I've been fucked over with so-called upcoming DVD releases before: a box-set of Sonic-SatAM was supposed to have been released by DiC a few years back, but SEGA basically canceled that altogether (LONG and extremely complex story story; refer to FUS for more details if you are interested) and Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet" keeps getting postponed and put on hiatus by Warner Brothers, so the actual release date for that is still up in the air (thank God I own the VHS, though!). Anyway, I wanted to be absolutely sure of what was going on with the rest of the Count Duckula series, because I'm tired of getting my hopes up for my most beloved shows and movies to come to DVD, and then getting my hopes dashed; I'm sick of feeling deceived and lied to by these companies. I emailed the guy who originally began that topic concerning the rest of the CD series- Spacekicker, he was called, who was apparently a staff member at Capital Entertainment- and asked him if there was still plans to release the rest of the series. And he simply replied (I still have the message in my inbox, so I'll copy and paste it here):

"I'm not sure. I left the company awhile ago. I don' t believe there are any plans to release the rest of the seasons."


This made no sense to me whatsoever. I mean, he was the one who made that topic in the first place, asking us for ideas on what we would like to see for special features. Now, all of a sudden, he's saying there are no plans to release the rest of the series after all, and with NO explanation at that (ok, maybe he did leave the company, so he wouldn't know what's going on with that anymore, but then what made him say that he doesn't think there are any plans if he's so clueless? If he knows or even suspects that much, then why wouldn't he know whatever reason mught be behind it? I mean, I hate it when people just ASSUME shit, and that's what it sounded like he was doing. Either knows, or he doesn't know; I'm sure he must've found out sometime before he left. I guess what I'm saying is, basically, what exactly does he base that statement on? You know what I mean?)

So, I emailed another CE employee who had actually posted in that topic, named Scot, who is apparently an Online Coordinator and an Admin, who had said in that topic, "Great ideas, guys; the developers will see all of them, you can bet on that!" Or something among those lines. Anyway, I told him the situation, expressed my confusion and frustration in a polite, but firm way, told him how deceived and in the dark I felt, and posed my original query about the so-called upcoming seasons of the show, asking him if he knew anything about it and said I'd be grateful for any details he could share. Again, I will c/p his exact words:

"I honestly don't know. At the time the intentions were to of course
continue coming out with the seasons, but there is something you have
to understand. It's not just that Spacekicker no longer works for the
company, but 90% of those who did no longer do as well. We were bought out and merged into First Look Media. So it was a pretty big change. I will however find out as much as I can about the fate of Count Duckula and let you know as soon as I do."

Well, he's not really sure either, but at least he was far more specific, unlike that other guy. So, I guess it's up in the air as of now, so all we can do is hope. I just hope the guy will actually get back to me, like he said he was going to. At this point, we don't know if it's been canceled altogether, simply postponed for the time being, or plain forgotten about. So, keep your fingers crossed, guys. I'll keep you posted."

I certainly hope so too. For one, there have been episodes that were never released even on VHS [about seven of them], let alone on DVD. Seriously, if people were to just make EVERYTHING available on DVD, regardless of rights and shit, then companies would stop whining about people 'stealing their shows' through downloading. Simple as.

It greatly sucks that Capital changed like this all so suddenly. It was like when Disney bought out DiC and refuse to release Sonic SatAM on DVD, thus resulting in many bootlegs and illegal shit.

As for Count Duckula, the only way in which I can back up my personal hopes for more releases is this piece of news from Duckula Online:

"The international version will be online within the next weeks. I'm currently scanning and photographing Duckula items as bonus material for the upcoming DVD season sets produced by Capital Entertainment."

Mind you, this dated back to October. All we can do is just wait. Who knows, there could be some big 20-year celebration in 2008!

The Complete First Season

No fangirly blog would be complete without a mention to one of the big moves made for a classic 80's cartoon - the 2005 release of Count Duckula: The Complete First Season on DVD in the United States. It was released by Capital Entertainment, a company which I haven't heard of before, on the 4th October 2005, and contains the first 26 episodes of the show, which make up the first season. There are also a few special features to go along. This will be available in the United Kingdom - where I'm from - in July.

But I don't have to wait for that.

In March this year I bought a copy of the USA version from an eBay shop. It costed me nearly £15, including postage and packaging, and only took twelve days to come all the way from the US to my doorstep. This was really good considering the distance, as the user sent me an email after I paid saying that the shipping would take as much as 3 weeks!

When it came, I was lovestruck. What made this even better was that it worked well on the DVD player in my parents' bedroom, where I like to retreat if my sister's on MSN. It didn't work well on my PS2, but that didn't really matter because I had my PC's DVD player as well. So there was in this room, eagarly waiting to watch the DVD.

Now, this is the ONLY problem with this box set. I was presented with DREADFUL menu graphics - graphics that are so badly drawn that they look like a child's gone and drawn them. This comes along with some VERY cheesy music that isn't at all related to the show, which is merged with voice clips from the episodes. Well, I certainly hope that the next season DVD [yes, there WILL be one] will have better menu art. The ones for the subtitle menus and the episode menus are worse...making the Legend of Zelda CD-i FMVs look like the Lion King!

That aside, it's a very good DVD. It's a good value for money - £12 [what I paid] for 26 episodes, whereas the existing Prism Leisure release of only six episodes over here costs £5.99 at most! It also comes with subtitles, which is a good thing as I can now spell some of the additional characters' names, like Hezekiah for example, and just make out what they say sometimes. It's also good because I'm partially deaf...

After all, it's the episodes we all want really, but we do like a few special features. Alas, these range from somewhat mediocre to quite good. There's...

• An interview with Brian Cosgrove
• Interview with Jon Doyle, background artist of some episodes
• 'How to draw Duckula', where an artist called Mike Whaite draws Duckula step by step.
  
• Photo Gallery - basically some cels, paint guides and other pieces of artwork related to the cartoon.
  
• 'Restoring Duckula' - this is what they call a split screen test comparing the difference between the original footage and the restored version. It doesn't really show much difference when seen on a TV, but you can judge for yourselves below.

The features aren't too bad I suppose, but I hope they do better for the next DVD set. The interview with John Doyle however is interesting, saying that he gets his inspiration from the Disney film 101 Dalmations. This pretty much explains the beautiful style of some of the backgrounds. In Brian Cosgrove's interview, he explains how the concept came about since Dangermouse to point out one of the answers. The How to draw was interesting as well, as it starts with the shapes I use [after following other drawing guides of course] in the blueline and then pencil. And I thought it was a lovely drawing...

If you Count Duckula fans haven't got this DVD set yet, I suggest that you do so whenever you can. Those who live outside the USA, be aware that you'll need to have a DVD player or computer that can play Region 1 DVDs. This shouldn't be a problem for the UK in July, I'm pretty sure £20 wouldn't do much harm for 26 episodes. Despite the bad menu graphics et all, it's much worth it.

Really can't wait for the next sets.

Transylvanian Roxy Here I Come!

Castle Duckula, home for many centuries to a dreadful dynasty of vicious vampire ducks. The counts of...

DUCKULA!

On 6th September 1988, I was a one-year-old, unaware of a new cartoon that was aired on CITV. That show was none other than Count Duckula, one of the better productions of the British studio Cosgrove Hall, most famous for the earlier work Dangermouse. Count Duckula was once a villain in that cartoon who appeared in only 4 episodes. He looked and sounded MUCH more different back then, and he had a lisp. But despite being a villain, he wanted to be a star...

And that's where it all begins.

I first became a fan of the show in 1995. It was at a time when the house just about had cable, and I was glued to Nickelodean all the time. I'd throw tantrums if I missed certain shows, Duckula being one of them. But when Nickelodean became the fagboys that they are today and took the show off...

How could I have forgotten him since the show was on Sky One?

Well, I didn't after all. I found a site called TV Ark, which has a vast amount of video clips from all sorts of British television. One of which was the introduction to Count Duckula. I kept watching it over and over, until came a point that I became totally obsessed. In kind of obsessed in which I just couldn't get it out of my head. I wanted to watch more episodes...

Over a period of time I downloaded a 12GB torrent containing more than 50 episodes. Some were great, others failed in life, and I managed to find the ones I did watch in 1995. Some were well animated yet the story was bad, while others were poorly animated yet they were really funny. Nonetheless, it was a great cartoon.

And this is what this blog is about. Praise for this little guy and his show. I'll be writing articles in the future, reviewing certain things, and just sharing the experience!