Posted in: Comics, Disney+, Marvel, Movies, TV | Tagged: disney, gary friedrich, hulu, Les Ghouls, mcu, roy thomas, Werewolf By Night

Les Ghouls: Roy Thomas Short Film Precursor to Werewolf by Night

Les Ghouls, a 1958 silent home movie by future Marvel editor and writer Roy Thomas, is the untold "secret origin" of MCU's Werewolf by Night!

Every Marvel character has a secret origin, even Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself, and before you watch Werewolf by Night on Halloween, you can catch up with a silent amateur short film from the 1950s called Les Ghouls. Why should you be interested? It was made by and starring two teenagers named Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich. Thomas would become Marvel's second editor-in-chief after Stan Lee stepped down, and Friedrich became one of the major writers at Marvel. Thomas would edit and write nearly every major Marvel title in the mid-1960s and the 1970s. The two would end up writing several major comics and storylines that became MCU lore and co-create major characters like The Vision, Ghost Rider, Carol Danvers, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Man-Thing (who appears in the Werewolf by Night TV movie), and Scarlet Scarab (who appears in the Moon Knight Disney+ series). Yes, Thomas was co-creator of Werewolf by Night, so that's the link to Les Ghouls.

Les Ghouls is a silent short film shot in 1958 when Thomas, Friedrich, and their buddies Ron Lowes, Andy Leonard, Lyle Hutteger, and John Short were teenagers when Short got a new movie camera. They had no sound recording equipment, hence a silent film. It's a goofy comedy homage to characters from the DC Comics humour series Fat and Slat and MAD Magazine, as well as Abbot and Costello and classic monster movies. Guess what? Thomas played the werewolf long before he would create Werewolf by Night at Marvel Comics. It's all slapstick comedy with a bunch of teenagers with a movie camera. Now the POPX! Channel on YouTube, which features videos and interviews with comics creators, has helped clean up and post Les Ghouls online.

Les Ghouls is exactly what you would expect from some kids goofing around making a movie with a home movie camera. Steven Spielberg got his start that way. So did Sam Raimi, who made goofy monster and genre movies with his brother Ted Raimi and buddy Bruce Campbell. These are not masterpieces; they're embryonic works by future major creators. You might not expect the kid who played the werewolf in Les Ghouls to become the guy who wrote, "Even an android can cry!"

Filmmaking has never been easy, but every kid has an entire movie studio's worth of equipment on their smartphones now – camera, sound recording, editing, and postproduction programs like sound editing and colour correction, even programs for creating credits. YouTube is also an outlet for getting work out there for everyone to see. We really should be seeing more kids who are future creators and filmmakers learning their chops these days.

Meanwhile, treat yourself to a goofy Halloween MCU double bill with Les Ghouls and Werewolf by Night on Disney+.

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