Anyone remember what this is?

onesecondglance · Jun 21, 2012

For no apparent reason, an image came into my head this morning, and I'm pretty sure it was from a cartoon I saw as a kid, or something like that. Now it's bugging the hell out of me trying to remember what it's from.

All I remember is that there was a giant spider-like thing that sat on this person's head and controlled their mind. It clung on by sticking its legs into the side of their head. It wasn't a hairy spider; it was more smooth and chitinous.

Things I know it is not:
- The bit from The Thing where the decapitated head grows legs
- The headcrabs from Half-Life

Any help would be appreciated!

Kerosene · Jun 21, 2012

Best I can think of is from FLCL episode 3's fight scene.

I bet I didn't help at all.

fireluxlou · Jun 21, 2012

Ask on IMDB they always know everything.

The Message board is 'I Need to Know' they found this obscure fairytale called Ruslan and Ludmila for me when I found a gif.

Jess Haines · Jun 21, 2012

I've seen something like that! Wasn't it some cheesy made-for-TV movie on SciFi back in the day?

me-a-monsteR · Jun 21, 2012

I'm reminded of the film Puppetmasters with Donald Sutherland. Not a cartoon though, but spidery/squidy aliens controlled people. No idea if this helps.

BigWords · Jun 21, 2012

Which era should we be looking at? I was thinking of 80s cartoons and coming up zilch...

maxmordon · Jun 21, 2012

The film Starship Troopers, perhaps?

onesecondglance · Jun 22, 2012

I'm going to check out those suggestions, thanks!

I grew up during the 80s, so any time between then and now...

BigWords · Jun 22, 2012

You may want to look at images of the doctor from Hellraiser 2, and check out the Starship Troopers cartoon as well as the film.

If it is specifically animation you are thinking of, I remember a lot of weird-ass Franco-Japanese stuff appearing in the mid-to-late 80s (seriously screwed up SF/fantasy/horror blends), but nothing with spiders controlling people in that way.

onesecondglance · Aug 25, 2014

Argh! I've remembered it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_the_Lizard_King
http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Gonchong

The old Fighting Fantasy books... there was an article on the BBC about them and it brought it all back...

Rags99 · Aug 26, 2014

I have the first 50 books if you wanted anything specific from them. I loved them as a kid.

These books were also my first introductiuon to RPG's, I would DM for a group of friends.

BabySealWriter · Aug 26, 2014

In DC's Justice League Series, many comics, and later adaptions, Starro is the Justice Society of Americas first big bad guy. They were not spiders but Starfish with one eye that attached themselves to their hosts by wrapping around the head and inserting two of their arms into the ears.

Honest Bill · Aug 26, 2014

Haha i used to have that book, and quite a few others as well. My favourite one was called City of Thieves... I was only a nipper though, and i generally just used to die all the time. Dunno if i ever finished any of them...

There was also a sci-fi one i loved, but i can't remember the name of it.

I checked the Wikipedia list. It was 'The Rings of Kether'

blacbird · Aug 27, 2014

onesecondglance said:
All I remember is that there was a giant spider-like thing that sat on this person's head and controlled their mind.

Rush Limbaugh.

caw

Once! · Aug 27, 2014

I remember those! The trick was to keep your thumb in the previous page so that if you died you could backtrack and try running down the corridor instead of fighting the giant spider.

I gave up on them when I got the impression that some of the decisions were pretty random. If you try to rescue the princess you get insta-killed by the hidden trap that you had no way of spotting. Or maybe that was just me being stoopid.

Rags99 · Aug 27, 2014

Once! said:
I gave up on them when I got the impression that some of the decisions were pretty random. If you try to rescue the princess you get insta-killed by the hidden trap that you had no way of spotting. Or maybe that was just me being stoopid.

No that was how they were. Often doing the smart thing got you killed and running into a gang of T-Rex's got you through....YES thumb on the previous page was the trick.

Deathtrap Dungeon was the one I read the most, took a long time to get through.

Marian Perera · Aug 27, 2014

Rags99 said:
I have the first 50 books if you wanted anything specific from them. I loved them as a kid.

These books were also my first introductiuon to RPG's

Same here. I started a collection and now have the green-spined set of 59 (60 with Bloodbones; maybe some day I'll get Howl of the Werewolf and Night of the Necromancer as well).

onesecondglance · Aug 27, 2014

I read that BBC article and was going through the list of books (saying "read it read it read it" like a frog

) when it came back to me. It's the covers I remember more than anything. Ones that particularly struck a chord were:

The Warlock of Firetrap Mountain (obviously)
Deathtrap Dungeon (obviously)
Island of the Lizard King (as mentioned above)
House of Hell
Sword of the Samurai
Trial of Champions
Creature of Havoc

There was also an SF set one that had aliens using organic binary computers? Might have been Rebel Planet.

I used to actually have a copy of Out Of The Pit (the bestiary for the original series). No idea where it is now. I also distinctly remember trying to copy an illustration of a skeletal Tyrannosaur from one of the Sorcery! books. Basically, my weekly trip to the library when I was younger was me checking out as many of the books as I was allowed and swapping them for different ones the next week. Good times...

onesecondglance · Aug 27, 2014

Once! said:
I remember those! The trick was to keep your thumb in the previous page so that if you died you could backtrack and try running down the corridor instead of fighting the giant spider.

I gave up on them when I got the impression that some of the decisions were pretty random. If you try to rescue the princess you get insta-killed by the hidden trap that you had no way of spotting. Or maybe that was just me being stoopid.

I once started with paragraph 500 (or whatever) and worked backwards, by hunting through the book for whichever paragraph linked to 500, then which one linked to that one, etc. Took ages but I had a "map" by the end of possible routes.

These days you'd stick it on GameFAQs and call it a walkthrough. Then you'd have a goldfish determine dice rolls and put it on Twitch...

Rags99 · Aug 27, 2014

onesecondglance said:
I once started with paragraph 500 (or whatever) and worked backwards, by hunting through the book for whichever paragraph linked to 500, then which one linked to that one, etc. Took ages but I had a "map" by the end of possible routes.

These days you'd stick it on GameFAQs and call it a walkthrough. Then you'd have a goldfish determine dice rolls and put it on Twitch...

I looked it up, Iam McCaig was the artist. His covers stood out. City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon, Forest of Doom, Island of the Lizard King (which shows what the OP was asking about).

Thinking back to these books I was trying to understand why I loved them so much. There were many of this style around but these (to me) are heads and shoulders above the others.

I think it had something to do with the "1 person vs the world" scenario as often you were alone against a world of a-holes. Either they are trying to rob you, kill you, maim you, etc. If really impacted how you made decisions in the books.

Why was everyone such a-holes? Just give me the damn key or clue and let me be on my way....

Rags99 · Aug 27, 2014

onesecondglance said:
These days you'd stick it on GameFAQs and call it a walkthrough. Then you'd have a goldfish determine dice rolls and put it on Twitch...

LOL, it wasnt just you. My brother and I once mapped out the entire Metroid game using graph paper and pencil. We just taped the graphs together and made a huge world map......it was actually alot of fun. This would just not happen nowadays, you can just use your tablet and instantly have the entire map on screen.

Marian Perera · Aug 27, 2014

onesecondglance said:
There was also an SF set one that had aliens using organic binary computers? Might have been Rebel Planet.

Yeah, Rebel Planet was the one where you had to destroy the Arcadian computer in the end.

I used to actually have a copy of Out Of The Pit (the bestiary for the original series).

I have copies of Out of the Pit, Dungeoneer, Blacksand, Allansia and Titan, plus the Sorcery! books, The Trolltooth Wars and three out of the four Zagor Chronicles books. Most are used copies, because they're all out of print now and going for big bucks from third-party sellers on Amazon.

Rags99 · Aug 27, 2014

Queen of Swords said:
Most are used copies, because they're all out of print now and going for big bucks from third-party sellers on Amazon.

WOW, i just looked on amazon for these......the prices are insane! $262.00 for new and $85.00 used.

Time to dig these out of those dusty bins and store them in a bank vault!

Anyone remember what this is?

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