by: -RoG-
After all these years, any of you who've been a part of I-Mockery's annual "Two Months of Halloween" celebration are well aware that I'm a huge fan of horror-themed stickers and trading cards. From Monstickers and Pepsi Party Monsters, to Weird Wheels and Monster Initial Stickers, if they're in any way related to horror, I've always loved collecting them all. Sure, they don't take up a lot of space, which is an added bonus to a longtime collector who's always trying to squeeze more room out of his shelves, but the horror cards and stickers often feature gorgeous monster artwork that you simply can't find anywhere else.
And that brings me to the subject of today's article: TERROR.
Earlier this year, during one of my random Halloween searches that take me down untold rabbit holes, I discovered a rare sticker album from Venezuela simply called "Terror". Produced sometime in the 1980s by Reyauca, this was an album that you'd fill with 140 collectible horror stickers. Until now, few people have ever seen this album and the stickers that you could collect for it. Well, another thing you know about me, is I love putting the overlooked and unsung oddities of yesteryear in the spotlight for all of you to enjoy. And yes, I managed to get my hands on the album and a box of the stickers, so let's dive into this amazing collection of Terror stickers and see what wonders await!
Beautiful, isn't it? There's a lot going on here, so let's address it one by one. First off, that Terror logo is outstanding. You have a green skull with aberrant fangs and vampire bat wings flying above the bring red letters. Just below the logo, we have some kind of green skull phantom carrying an axe and wearing a fedora to contain his Doc Brown-ish style hair. There's some kind of Wolf-bird hybrid creature on the left with green slime in its hand. Below that you have a cut-out of Dracula carrying off one of his victims to turn her into a vampire. On the opposite side, you have a blend of Catwoman with a face reminiscent of a Kabuki theatre mask. And last but not least, you have a red skull creature with glowing yellow eyes, wearing a baseball cap that it simply couldn't be more excited about.
Folks, this already feels like a genuine Halloween fever dream, and we haven't even seen the stickers yet.
You'll have to forgive me when I say that I'm not going to stick the stickers in this album; the artwork inside is too wonderful to cover up. I'll just showcase the stickers on their own. They may be numbered, but I assure you, there's no real order to the stickers that go in the book.
Now just look at the artwork on there. This may be a very flimsy, old album, but we have some seriously killer original pieces of monster art on these pages. There's a demon being with a skull necklace and an external brain pointing at a spider with a skull on its back inside a big, beautiful web. Down below, looking like something straight out of Creepshow, we have a kid reading through his "Terror Parade" comic book - only it's not a normal kid. It's a skeleton kid with eyes popping out of its ocular cavities, a vampire bat buddy, and a big dragon breathing fire out of its nostrils.
Dear 10-year-old me,
You know all the things you thought were awesome?
You were absolutely right.Sincerely,
-Your Future Self
So you've seen the album, but what about the glorious stickers that were meant to be placed inside of it? As I mentioned earlier, I snagged a box of 150 individually wrapped packets of these Terror stickers. As you can see from the packets themselves, quality control was simply not a thing with Terror. There were countless misprints on the packages, and the stickers themselves often had miscuts, different kinds of paper, and even blurry artwork. Nevertheless, there's something inherently special about these Terror stickers, as you're about to find out.
Each pack contains three stickers... well, except for the ones that were packaged incorrectly - again, zero quality control. Some packs also included bonus temporary tattoos, but they had nothing to do with horror. Illustrations of roses, ships, cartoonish old men on the beach, toy cars, seahorses, rocket ships, and just about anything else you can think of... except horror. Why they were included in random packs, I honestly don't know; I just thought you should know that they were in there, even though there's no need for me to show them.
While I took the time to open all 150 packs, I still didn't manage to collect all of the stickers. You'd think with that many packs, it'd be no problem, but I'm still missing plenty. However, I did collect some amazing horror stickers in these packs, so now I'm going to share some of my favorites with you.
First up, we have the surfing stickers. I don't know why, but there seem to be a LOT of surfing-related horror stickers in this set, even though their numbers are mostly far apart. So what do we have here:
Lethal Surf - No, it's not blurry because of my photograph, it's just a slightly blurrier and darker card than the others. Still, you have a skeleton with a Viking helmet and a surfboard staring directly into your eyes, as if to challenge you to surf on his dangerous waves, so what's not to love?
Wolf Surf - It's a werewolf on a surfboard and its wearing spiky punk wristbands. What's not to love?
Body Board - The Creature from the Black Lagoon is riding a Boogie Board. I repeat: The Creature from the Black Lagoon is riding a Boogie Board! Easily one of my favorite stickers in the entire Terror album set.
Death Surf - A skeleton with a green wetsuit and neon pink hair, riding atop a deadly shark with a spear. If you look up "perfection" in the dictionary, this image should be included as a reference.
Wind Surf #1 - A pink demon lizard with a devil's tail and green spikes running down its back, windsurfing on the high seas.
Wind Surf #2 - A bright orange scarecrow, clinging to its torn Jolly Roger skull & crossbones windsurfing board. He makes it look so effortless.
You're totally on board now, aren't you. I know you are, because I was too the second I opened my first pack of these crazy horror stickers. What I love is that the artwork of each one not only looks great, but it looks like a company logo. Hell, if these had better exposure back in the day, I could see people getting some of these designs as tattoos.
Okay, let's check out some more!
Here we have a set of music-themed horror stickers from the set, and as you can see, they're just as great as the surfing ones. Again, since I don't have all the stickers in the set, it's highly likely there are more music ones to be found. So in this batch, we have the following:
The Song of Death - Believe me, I want to hear this horned skeleton perform the Song of Death on his drum set just as much as you do, but I think we're gonna have to just imagine how amazing it is.
Vampire Music - Who knew that vampires sported such wild orange & yellow neon hairdos? Furthermore, who knew that they had tongues long enough to hit the keys on their piano? The more you know...
Rock - If a sticker ever lived up to its name. We have a dino-lizard creature with a longue tongue and spiked choker collar, absolutely shredding on his axe, and he don't give a fuuuuuck what you think about it.
Piano Killer - This ghoul who looks like a psycho bellhop appears to have snuck away and decided to murder the keys of a piano. Such a dastardly deed!
And here we have a collection of sports-themed horror stickers, and man, are there some incredible examples in this batch.
Karate Killer - A black belt skeleton wearing a proper gi, appears to be having a death punch delivered straight through its chest cavity by a human karate master. Sensei John Kreese will be most displeased.
Box - On the opposite side of things, we have this mutant beast boxer punching a human boxer so hard that his eyes are literally shooting out of his head. Guess it's safe to say he never saw that punch coming.
Polo - Dear god! In the history of the planet, the sport of Polo has NEVER looked so badass! Another personal favorite of mine.
Horror Golf - Not only does this remind me of the amazing Monster Mini Golf excursion I took some years back, but it raises other questions such as: Why is that skeleton golfing with a soccer ball... and how I can join in for a game with him?
Terror Tennis - Say what you will about sports, but if you say you wouldn't want a green punk rock skeleton play terror tennis, you're a goddamned liar.
Foot Skull Foot Skull - The sport so addictive, they had to repeat the title twice on the same sticker, despite the fact that the foot is not, in fact, kicking a skull to help drive the pun home a bit further like I wish it was.
Horror Basketball - I'm guessing most people would be horrified that a green goblin was using a soccer ball to make a slam dunk in a basketball hoop. Monsters must really love soccer, huh?
Deadly Sport - Forget what you thought you knew about ping pong, for it is the deadliest of sports! Just ask this muscular blue demon with a sparkling unicorn man who's ready for a game!
Last Goal - Wanna know if you have a good goalie on your team? See if he/she is willing to die in order to prevent the opposing team from scoring a single goal.
While most of the designs are vertical, I did find this small but memorable set of horizontal stickers amongst all the others:
Wolf - I mean, yeah, it's a scary werewolf and you can have his bone when you pry it from his cold, dead hand.
Killer Gladiator - I mean, wow. WOW. Forget about the vampire bat and strange creature to the right that appears to have sunglasses falling off of its face - this thing is part skeleton, part gladiator, and part RoboCop! I don't know who else is fighting in the event, but my money is on Killer Gladiator.
Hell Escape - Look, if you're a skeleton who's gonna escape from, you better do it on a motorcycle while dressed in an Evel Knievel jumpsuit.
??? - Sometimes you don't need to name a sticker, you just need to appreciate the fact that a floating white skull has befriended twin flying serpents who may or may have not burst out of that volcanic structure in the background. And you know what? I do appreciate it. I really do.
Next, I wanted to share a batch featuring some of my favorite, completely random Terror stickers. There's no theme here, unless the theme is, "I truly want to know: What the hell were the artists on when they came up with some of these!?"
Day of the Dead - I mean, yeah... technically it is a guy dying on a random day, but this is a completely different interpretation of the Day of the Dead that we're all familiar with. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be celebrated so much if it was just everybody cheering and having parades for a guy who was hung from the neck in front of a medieval castle when lightning struck the ground.
GROAR - Maybe it's because the name almost sounds like GWAR, but GROAR would make for one hell of a good band name. Also, I love that GROAR is a cycloptic monster who refuses to let anyone shut the door in its face. And hey, here's a fun Halloween task for you: Try to work the word "GROAR" into your conversations this season and see how people react. Report back to me with your findings.
Punk Vampire - Given that vampires have been around forever, it stands to reason that a fan of punk rock would eventually turned into one of these bloodsuckers. The skull pendant, the mohawk, the spikes... save for the fangs, I'm pretty sure this guy already looked exactly like this before he was turned into a vampire. He's starting up his own punk rock band now called Vampunk. Keep an eye out for it
O.K. Skull - You know what? I really do think this skull guy is O.K.! Sure, he's in a coffin, but he's relaxing in it like its his favorite easy chair. He's giving us a big thumbs up, and why wouldn't he? He's got a snazzy tophat, and completely content with the state of his existence. O.K. Skull, you're AOK in my book.
Death Bed - This guy, on the other hand, isn't doing so well. I mean, he just looks tired, and I honestly can't tell if he's getting out of that coffin, or preparing to lie down for the long nap. But hey, at least this skeleton can take solace in the fact that he shares his name with Death Bed: The Bed That Eats.
Eyes of Death - This could totally be an album or a VHS movie cover. Just imagine a giant set of eyes, hovering over a city, turning people into mindless, undead skulls that seek out blood and/or red gumballs.
Crash - Look, if you put a window or anything else in the way of a punk rock skeleton, it's going to crash its fist straight through it. Why? Because that's what punk rockers do, that's why.
Snake - I would just like to acknowledge that, yes, that is in fact a snake.
Vampire Delta - I used to visit Kill Devil Hills, NC during the summer when I was younger, and they often had hang gliding lessons available on some nearby dunes. I never bothered to try it out, and now, I will forever regret that, because I may have passed up an opportunity to learn from the best. An opportunity to learn from the one and only, Vampire Delta. Also, if you've been trying to settle on a Halloween costume for this year, allow me to suggest you get to work on becoming Vampire Delta.
And here's one more batch of random stickers that are absolutely amazing for a number of reasons.
The Last Moment - Yep, we have a bona fide Jason Voorhees rip-off here, and I couldn't love it more. For starters, he's standing in a window, grabbing a victim by the hair, and about to chop off their head with what appears to be a field hockey stick. Secondly, his hockey mask looks far less threatening than the real Voorhees mask does. And of course, the fact that he's wearing a bright orange t-shirt and appears to have a beer gut makes this one of the greatest bootleg Friday the 13th items I've ever stumbled on.
Happiness - I mean, come on! How can you not love seeing a pirate skeleton who's simply happy to have been unearthed from the treasure chest he was buried in? Or perhaps, he's happy because he's about to be buried? It's hard to say. Whatever the case, I'm just glad he's happy. He should totally hang out with "O.K. Skull" too.
Deadly Football - Yes, this could've gone in the sports section too, but I ran out of room, and I still wanted to call attention to this sticker. You know when soccer (er... football / futball) players pretend to get injured and writhe around on the ground? Well, this skeleton had enough of that shit, and decided to give his opponents something to really cry about. Chopping off your opponents leg is the pinnacle of poor sportsmanship.
The Last Fight Sumo Killer - I wish this was a two-panel sticker, so we could see the scrawny guy's eyeball popping right out of his head, due to the crushing pressure of the Sumo Killer's grip.
Skate - I think they forgot to add in the "Or Die" to this one.
Blood In The Sea - Can't go wrong with an illustration of Poseidon stabbing a diver in the back with his trident.
Lastly, I wanted to call your attention to one of the best stickers in the entire set. A knockoff Freddy Krueger sticker in which he has a yellow razor hand, vampire fangs, and a ponytail. More importantly, he appears to be in deep thought, pondering whether or not he should go ahead and terrorize the people sleeping in that tipi behind him. Or maybe he's just trying to come up with another devilishly creative way to kill them. Either way, it's nice to see Freddy was included in the mix. I just hope the Creature from the Black Lagoon will take him boogie boarding, or Vampire Delta will give him a discount on some hang gliding lessons.
By the way, this Terror horror stickers album was also released in Peru, and I managed to get ahold of the Freddy Krueger sticker from it. It's the same exact design as its Venezuelan counterpart, but there's one thing that makes it even better:
It comes in HOT PINK!
In the end, I collected 72 out of the 140 stickers. Considering I opened 150 packs, that means I got a lot of doubles, triples, quadrupoles, etc. of some designs. I still have a long way to go before I have a complete set, but just look at all of them! They're amazing! It's a totally unique set of art made for this old sticker album, and I love all the designs! I'm tempted to track down more boxes so I can see what other ones I'm missing out on.
Now that you've seen all these vintage Venezuelan horror stickers, which ones from this Terror set are your favorites? Share your thoughts in the comments section below, and maybe GROAR will spare your life!
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