The Santa Cruz Cycle - Chapter 2. The Life and Times of ‘Moondog’ Mendez

 (originally published April 1st, 2019)

(Continued from here)

Part Six. Confessions of a Way-Out Werewolf. (25) 

    Growing up in Santa Cruz in the 50’s, Miguel ‘Mike’ Mendez had two all-consuming passions: surfing and being a movie star. When he wasn’t at the beach or out in the waves, he was sitting enraptured, his eyes glued to the screen at one of the local movie houses. Growing up poor and Mexican, he ran afoul of the law on several occasions for playing truant, sneaking into movies, and violating the then-current ban on rock and roll music. He dreamed of running away to Hollywood and becoming the next big screen idol, but never seemed to be able to scrape together the money. By the early 1960’s, he had several opportunities, with film crews visiting from out of town, to help out. He’d usually just hang around and look for opportunities to help out, carrying, loading, fetching and hauling wherever people needed it in the hopes that he’d be ‘discovered’. He gained a reputation as a hard-worker and even had several roles as a non-speaking extra in small films. In 1965, his persistence paid off when he saved an actor who’d been caught in a dangerous rip tide. As a result, he was offered a job as a body double for the actor in an upcoming film where the actor had to surf. He thought that this was going to be ‘his big break’ and the beginning of his career... and he was right. Just not in the way he thought.

    Mendez accompanied the crew to Hawaii, where the film was being shot. At first, he was thrilled just to be living his dream, but soon the crew experienced a series of baffling accidents which delayed and disrupted filming. Whispers began to circulate that the whole thing was under some sort of curse, which, of course, it was.

    The film’s director was part of a mysterious cult that worshipped the moon, and he’d brought the film on location to Hawaii as a blind for his real mission of recovering a mysterious meteorite which he believed would grant him ultimate power (26). However, he wasn’t the only one and a weird game of pass-the-parcel ensued, with Mike holding the bag at the end and inheriting the power - and its subsequent curse. As its power surged through him, he was transformed into a silver-furred werewolf and fled into the night. (27)

    When he awoke, his clothes in tatters and surrounded by debris, Mike discovered two things: that everyone had left and the production had shut down, and that he’d been fired because everyone assumed he’d just fallen out and gone on a bender. Returning to Santa Cruz, it didn’t take long for him to discover something was very, very wrong with him. He began to investigate the cult, trying desperately to find a cure, while cult members attempted to capture him so they could seize his power for themselves. (28)

    After several near-escapes and adventures, he traced the cult to San Francisco where he discovered the source of their power - a strange young woman known only as ‘The Moonchild’ (29). After freeing her, she was able to use her unearthly powers to help Mike control his abilities, allowing him to transform back and forth into his werewolf form at will, and retain control while changed. With this ability, he decided to become... a big-time Hollywood Celebrity! C’mon, who wouldn’t want a star who can not only do all his own stunts, but can provide his own special effects in the bargain?

    As it turns out, the answer to that is lots of people, especially when the ‘star’ in question has limited acting ability. On the plus side, Mike received lots of offers from film producers looking for someone who could cut their budget on stunt performers, special effects and for whom less than stellar acting chops was no great obstacle. In other words, skinflint fly-by-night cheapskates making Z-Grade schlock on a shoestring budget. Mike made a series of largely forgettable, almost universally terrible films, the best of which was ‘The Wolfman of Waikiki’ (a badly edited and largely fictionalised version of Moondog’s origin with all the names - and many events - changed to avoid legal issues). As a collaborator, he received a script credit (unpaid), however he was largely bilked out of most of the money owed for his acting performance due to fine print on his contract, and was contractually obliged to do the sequel, the vastly inferior ‘The Wolfman Wipes Out’. ‘Dr Goldfoot and the Way-out Werewolf’ a sequel of sorts to two films featuring Vincent Price was a slapped-together piece of nonsense using footage and out-takes from the previous two films (often dubbed over by a Price impersonator) spliced into some hacked-out nonsense about a timid teenager who’s afraid of water who, upon taking an experimental potion, becomes not only a super-cool pro-surfer, but also a literal ‘party animal’. It was worse than it sounds. (30)

    While his film career stalled, Moondog (occasionally assisted by Moonchild) became a kind of off-beat crime-fighter/adventurer. Originally seeing it as a chance to get publicity for his acting career, it turned out that Mendez was a far-better superpowered adventurer than he was an actor. Even though he was far more likely to stumble across crimes, mysteries or sinister plots than he was to seek them out on purpose, and his approach may have been unorthodox at best, he had a surprisingly high success rate, and became something of an oddball West Coast celebrity. (31)

    During this time, he ran across several other West Coast heroes, and battled a number of weird foes, including the eccentric Polynesian-themed villain known as The Freaky Tiki; The Director and his deranged crew of obsessive film-makers who decided that the only way to make true art was for all the drama, danger and above all deaths was also real; Irving ‘Count’ Suckerberg the high priest a coven/talent agency of Vampires starved for novelty, who drained their victims/clients of ideas and inspiration rather than blood; E.V.O.L., a bizarre hippie love cult who all wore ape masks and seeked to poison the reservoir with mind-expanding chemicals in order to hasten the next evolutionary stage; The Iconoclast, a frustrated would-be artist who became obsessed with a young woman he believed was an ‘Earthbound Muse’ (and who may actually HAVE been) and who attempted to sacrifice her thus destroying all beauty on Earth; the Funky and Fearful Roller Boogie-Man, and Mystery Meat, a swollen mass of destructive muscle created when a bodybuilder took part in a failed experimental steroid trial (32).

Interlude. Scary Monsters and Supercreeps.     Moondog wasn’t the only show in town, however, and he encountered several other costumed heroes during this time. Operating mostly out of San Francisco, the mystery-man known as The Hooded Hawk declared war on crime in 1965. Equipped with an array of cutting-edge equipment and accompanied by his beautiful, but dangerous assistant, Tiger, his battle lasted for almost a decade before coming to an abrupt end. While many rumours hint at the fates of the Hawk and Tiger, no evidence has surfaced to confirm any of them (33, for further information, see here).
    Kung Fu Superspy, Johnny Tao was retired for the most part by the mid-70’s, but occasionally popped up throughout the decade if his particular set of talented were needed (see here for more details), and his sometime ally, the crimefighting wrestler, El Aguila Azul was still semi-active, both as a wrestler and a crimefighter, on both sides of the border. One noteworthy villain of the time, who encountered The Hooded Hawk on several occasions was Polynesian-themed criminal, The Freaky Tiki (34). Fully Equipped with an array of thematically appropriate gadgets including artificial volcanoes, jet-propelled limbo poles, coconut grenades, strangling leis that emitted a soporific gas, a flying carpet made of seagrass matting and countless other gimmicks, he was definitely an opponent to be reckoned with, but for all his criminal behaviour, he has a strong code of conduct, tried to avoid harming innocents, and seemed more out to have fun than to commit crimes.

That Polynesian-Themed Purveyor of Peril, The Freaky Tiki!

    Another, more sinister force for evil took the form of a crack team of special ops soldiers. They had been part of an experiment to use genetic engineering to create the ultimate jungle fighters for use in Vietnam - with all the animal senses, stealth and instincts of predatory beats. The experiment was both a success and a terrible failure, as the men, now calling themselves The Pack, almost immediately went AWOL. Returning to the US after the end of the war, they like many other veterans found their place in the culture of outlaw motorcycle gangs, and their gang became one of the fiercest on the West Coast (35). But even with all this activity, the strangeness bubbling beneath the surface of Santa Cruz was not done with Mike Mendez ... and before too long, it would be boiling over!

Part Seven. The Return of the Way-Out Werewolf. 

    During the period where he was tracking down the Moon Cult, Moondog encountered and was advised by several members of the Ring of Solomon (See ‘The Santa Cruz Cycle - History’), and after he had met Moonchild and gained control over his transformations, was contacted by representative of the Ring and asked if he would be willing to take over as the guardian of Santa Cruz. At first, he rejected the offer, not wanting to be tied down with a bunch of stuffy old academics. Eventually, he came to acknowledge the role and appreciate the value of advisers... especially as he was increasingly stumbling across weird threats and villains.
    Despite being courageous, determined and generally pretty selfless, Moondog was never the most academic hero, so having some specialist advisers on hand meant they could handle the heavy bookwork, while he dealt chiefly with dishing out and taking the lumps. The most notable of these advisers was Ring of Solomon member, Professor Oswald Diogenes Dundee (36).
    Unlike most of the other Ring members, Dundee believed in being more active in investigating the strangeness in and around Santa Cruz. Far from being content to sit behind his desk poring over dusty old tomes and hoarding mysterious artefacts, he relished joining Moondog in the field, offering on-the-spot scientific advise and expertise, though there were many times when his unusual inventions or crackpot theories caused as much trouble as they solved. Despite continuing to divide his time between San Francisco, LA and Santa Cruz, Moondog was spending more time in Santa Cruz. Professor Dundee believed the rise in amount of paranormal phenomena was tied to a limited planetary configuration of the outer planets set to align in 1977 (37) but either way, the amount of strange activity in and around Santa Cruz was increasing exponentially as the decade went on. During this time, Moondog encountered the lycanthropic biker gang known as The Pack, a gang of criminal mimes dedicating to wiping out strangeness called The Silent Majority, the Idol Hand, a cult worshipping retired supervillain, The Freaky Tiki and a blood-sucking vampire big rig called Truckula (see here for more details).
    Several of his adventures involved helping Professor Dundee with some of his many experiments. These included experimental moon rockets, underground tunnelling devices and all sorts of useful gadgets to aid them in their fight against the strange and outré threats overrunning the city (and indeed, the greater area) (38). In some cases, these inventions would turn out to be bigger threats than the things they were meant to protect against. In either case, between various weird threats, the Ring of Solomon, Professor Dundee, Moondog was kept pretty busy for most of the 70’s.

Interlude. Professor Odd and his Wondrous Odditoreum. 

    Oswald Diogenes Dundee appeared on the Ring of Solomon’s radar fairly early on. He’d had a brief career as a ‘boy genius’ in the 1950’s in the small town of Davenport, just north of Santa Cruz, solving several minor crimes and producing several useful but eccentric inventions. He and a small group of friends formed the ‘Shark Fin Cove Research and Investigation Bureau’ (39). Several Ring members subsequently and covertly assisted him along, subsidising his education and directing him towards the University of California, Santa Cruz, where his progress could be more easily monitored. His studies showed a curious and insightful, but eclectic mind, with a profound fascination for the strange events and phenomena surrounding Santa Cruz. During this time, he formed several short-lived clubs and societies, and even assisted law-enforcement on several occasions (40).
    By the time he had completed his academic studies and was contacted by the Ring of Solomon, he had not only deduced their existence, but for many years, had been virtually performing the role of a Ring member on his own initiative. From the beginning, Dundee was seen as something of a rogue element. He was far more involved in field work with Moondog Mendez (and others) than other Ring members, and some of his beliefs were seen as ill-advised or even dangerous. The main area of difference was that, while most Ring members were willing to examine, catalogue and advise on weird phenomena, Dundee felt that there must be some way in which it could be harnessed for the benefit of all humanity.

Professor Odd in all his kitschy glory.

    At the latter end of the 1970’s, he embarked on his most ambitious project ever - a vast complex; a combination of funfair, laboratory, mansion, observatory and power-plant. For awhile now, he had taken to the nickname of ‘Professor Odd’ and so, dubbed his project ‘The Odditoreum’, a giant engine designed to harness the powers of strangeness for the benefit and illumination of all mankind. As construction wore on, he became increasingly secretive and hermit-like, vanishing deep into the bowels of the Odditoreum for weeks or even months at a time. After several years, he emerged, wild-eyed, and ready to usher the world into a new age of peace, prosperity and harmony. His scientific advancements, once merely extremely advanced, had become a form of science so strange, and so unlike anything seen before, as to be almost undistinguishable from magic.
    Unfortunately, as his genius had progressed, so had his eccentricity, to the point where all his attempts to help humanity backfired, because he could no longer comprehend the effects of his actions. Despite his good intentions, every attempt to improve the lot of the people of Santa Cruz resulted in disaster. Eventually, disheartened by his continued failures, he vanished into the Odditoreum in 1979, and sealed it behind him (41). He handed the key to Moondog, and appointed him its guardian, just in case anything got out, he’d have the ability to seal it up again.
    In the years since then, the security of the Odditoreum Site has been maintained by A.E.G.I.S., the government law-enforcement agency assigned to dealing with superhuman or paranormal threats. Attempts to send investigators in to examine the site over the years have proved futile, and now, AEGIS chiefly concern themselves with making sure nothing gets in or out. Agents on Site Duty are frequently rotated and scrupulously examined and tested for signs of contamination.

Part Eight. The Way-Out Werewolf Hits The Road. 

    By the end of the 70’s, the lack of success in his acting career and near-constant encounters with uncanny phenomena was beginning to wear on Moondog. In 1977, shortly after battling E.T.A.H (formerly E.V.O.L.), who had rebranded themselves as punk-rock cavemen, bent on sending civilization back to a primitive state without the ‘soft, decadent luxury of modern conveniences’ (This despite largely being made up of the disaffected children of wealthy parents) (42), Moonchild vanished.
    This led to a series of increasingly surreal incidents involving UFOs and the aforementioned planetary conjunction (43). Following a trail of portentious clues and several strange experiences, Moondog joined an eccentric convoy consisting of desert-dwelling hermit/sculptor, a suburban family, an avant-garde musician and his long-suffering technician/assistant (44) and several others on a pilgrimage to the isolated desert butte known as God’s Footstool. As the group reached the summit of the butte, they encountered a massive alien spacecraft. Moondog retains very little memory of what occurred at this point except for snatches of memory and hazy images. When he awoke the following morning, he found himself alone in the desert with no sign of his fellow travellers, the aliens; even the butte itself had vanished. In his hand, he clutched a torn piece of paper with the words, “Don't Call Us... We'll Call You” written on it.
    This unsatisfying experience with the ineffable led to an existential funk and Moondog spent several months aimlessly wandering through the small towns and isolated areas of the Southwestern US. He’d grown tired of monsters and supervillains and mysteries and strangeness, and just wanted to get away from it all and live a normal life (45).
    Unfortunately, life had other plans, and during this time, he met a number of eccentrics and oddballs, and had his second battle against the vampire big-rig, Truckula. Fleeing to Mexico, he wound up teaming up with crimefighting luchador El Aguila Azul to head off a war between werewolf bikers The Pack and a rival all-woman biker gang of demon worshipping cultists, Las Hermanas de Satanás (46). This led to a bond of friendship between the two, with Moondog joining El Aguila in the ring as a sometime tag team partner, in the field as they battled enemies together and even on-screen, with Moondog co-starring in one of El Aguila’s later films, ‘El Aguila Azul Contra Los Lobos Gringos’, based loosely on their fight against the Pack.
    It was at this point that he realized that there was nowhere he could go that the strangeness that haunted him could not follow, and resigned himself to the fact that maybe it was this, and not lycanthropy, which was the real curse. Returning to Santa Cruz, Moondog settled into a kind of semi-retirement. Using contacts in the entertainment industry, he took on a job as a local radio DJ (47).
    While he no longer actively sought out adventure and mysteries, he would still act to protect the city from imminent threats. One such event occurred when he encountered several members of The Deep Six while investigating mysterious happenings aboard the Project Poseidon oceanographic research facility, which turned out to be the doing of old Deep Six foe, Professor Proteus. Oddly enough, it was during this period where he attained his greatest fame. His relaxed, quirky night-shift DJ slot soon developed a cult following of sorts among students at UCSC and he gradually relaxed into his role as a local celebrity.

Part Nine: When The Going Gets Weird, The Weird Turn Pro. 

    During the mid-to-late 1980’s, ‘Moondog’ Mendez begun hanging around with semi-retired fellow locals, Harry Melman (previously the villainous Freaky Tiki) and Jake ‘Typhoon’ Tanner of the Deep Six, forming an informal social group, eventually joined by El Aguila Azul, who was similarly retired, having begun training the student who would later take on the name and identity of El Aguila Azul, Jr. All four men had done well out of their previous career, with Melman owning a popular bar and cocktail lounge, El Aguila still wrestled on occasion, but was mostly active as a trainer and was operating his own gymnasium and school for lucha libre, and Tanner, alongside the other Deep Six members, receiving a substantial payout when, following the defunding of their major government sponsor, W.A.V.E., the Deep Six members, been bought out and ownership of Project Poseidon passed over to its new overseers, The Horizon Corporation. ‘Chip’ Lawson, now going by Charles, had elected to stay on with the new management, and this had caused a rift between the two former teammates.
    Meanwhile, Moondog had parlayed his DJ career and a series of live shows hosting terrible old movies (occasionally showing one of his or El Aguila’s) into a gig as the late-night TV Host of ‘Moondog Mike’s Midnight Monster-Rama’ (48). The other major change had been the sudden appearance of Mendez’ hitherto unknown grand-niece, Michaela (a.k.a. ‘Wireless Mic’). She proved to have an aptitude for technical matters and a surprisingly level headed approach to business which made her a surprisingly insightful and effective business adviser. During a public appearance at a toy fair in 1987, Mike had his third and final encounter with Truckula. He’d still occasionally do the ‘Defender of the City’ bit, but by the late 80’s, he was splitting defender duties with El Aguila and by the time the 90’s rolled around, El Aguila Azul, Sr. had been sworn in by the Ring of Solomon as the official defender of the city.

To be continued... 

* * * * * * * * * *

25) Of all the characters in the SC Cycle, none are more central or emblematic than Mike ‘Moondog’ Mendez, which is kind of ironic, because in terms of the games I’ve played featuring the various elements of the Cycle, few characters are as peripheral. Originally created as a bit of background colour - a local cable TV late-nite horror host a la Elvira or Svengoolie - he gradually began accruing backstory like barnacles until he became what we see here.

(26) Hollywood Cults have long been one of my favourite plot devices, and have made so many appearances, I couldn’t name them all, but some favourites include ‘The Big Fish’ by Kim Newman and ‘Sonambulo: Sleep of the Just’ by Rafael Navarro.

(27) ‘Moondog’ Mendez is my tribute to the Bronze Age of Comics, starting off in the mid-60’s, just as Warren Publishing was producing magazines like ‘Creepy’ and ‘Eerie’ as a way of avoiding the Comics Code, and ramping up by the early 70’s, when the code itself was relaxed to allow for titles like ‘Tomb of Dracula’ to be published under code approval.

(28) The keen-eyed among you will, naturally, have clocked me riffing shamelessly on Marvel Comics’ ‘Werewolf by Night’ (1971) series here.

(29) Moonchild was a combination of Warren Publishing’s ‘Vampirella’ (1969) and Jennifer Kale, a supporting character in Marvel Comics’ ‘Man-Thing’ (1971) series written by Steve Gerber (and this won’t be the last time you hear THAT name!). She also draws on material about The Farsiders, a secret race of superhumans living on the Moon in Green Ronin Games’ Freedom City setting by Steve Kenson for their ‘Mutants & Masterminds’ rpg. (For further information about the Farsiders’ interactions with humanity, see here.)

(30) This is, of course, a reference to American International Pictures’ ‘Dr.Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine’ (1965) and ‘Dr.Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs’ (1966, dir. Mario Bava).

The Posters for 'Dr.Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine' (1965),
and 'Dr.Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs' (1966)

(31) While Moondog draws on any number of influences, at his heart, he’s a cross between two Bronze Age Marvel Comics characters whose greatest adventures were written by the brilliant and eccentric writer, Steve Gerber (I told you we’d get back to him!) - ‘The Man-Thing’ and ‘Howard the Duck’. ‘The Man-Thing’ (1971) was a horror comic who’s main character was a hideous, shambling swamp monster with sub-human intelligence, driven largely by instinct, who lurched and staggered around the Everglades running into weird trouble. ‘Howard the Duck’ (1973) was a satire series about a misanthropic cartoon duck accidentally transported into the Marvel Universe (by none other than The Man-Thing!) who just wanted to be left in peace or go home. Nonetheless, he kept being drawn into increasingly strange adventures with oddball enemies. Howard was largely a mouthpiece for Steve Gerber to make satirical commentary on the issues of the day through the eyes of someone ‘trapped in a world he never made’. The ‘Moondog’ comic series would therefore be made up of equal parts supernatural and horror-based mystery and adventure stories featuring an unwitting protagonist and general satirical content about Californian fads and culture in the 1970’s.

Visionary creator, the late, great Steve Gerber, and two of his most famous
creations - Howard the Duck and the Macabre Man-Thing.

(32) in adventures entitled, ‘The Lethal Luau of the Freaky Tiki’, ‘There’s Madness In Their Method!’, ‘The Vampires of Venice Beach’, ‘All You Need is EVOL’, ‘We Are Not A Muse’, ‘Saturday Fright Fever’, and ‘The Monster of Muscle Beach’ respectively.

(33) The Hooded Hawk and Tiger are my tribute to The Green Hornet and Kato. The ‘Green Hornet’ TV series in the 60’s ran from 1965-1966. The Hooded Hawk’s career lasted a little longer than that.

(34) The Freaky Tiki was an attempt by me to create a character for a proposed villains-only rpg. He’s fuelled by my love of colourful Hawaiian shirts, Tiki Bars, puns, the 1966 ‘Batman’ series and villains who are out to have fun and enjoy being bad guys, not murderous psychopaths.

(35) The Pack were born out of two influences. When I was creating El Aguila Azul, among the archetypes I wanted for his rogue’s gallery were different takes on classic horror movie monsters, with the Pack being my take on the Wolfman. Plus, of course, there was always the classic biker/horror film, ‘Werewolves on Wheels’ (1971).

Werewolves, bikers and the Bride of Satan! Who could resist?

(36) Like many of the characters and events in this series, Professor Dundee was born from a throwaway line. During a session of a role-playing game, a bunch of supervillains had escaped prison. “Which ones?” I asked, to which, my GM frantically replied off the top of his head, “Fab Man, Boil Boy, The Scab, Zabu and Professor Odd”. Later, when I designed and drew these characters, I made Professor Odd a version of Doctor Strange, but where Strange was weird, Odd was more odd, eccentric and kitschy, using a Magic 8-Ball where Dr.Strange would use his Eye of Agamotto. Visually, he was based almost entirely off Russ Tamblyn’s character Dr.Jacoby from ‘Twin Peaks’.

(37) There actually was a limited planetary alignment at this time, which is exactly the kind of weird synchronicity that keeps happening when I’m creating stuff. https://www.space.com/17205-voyager-spacecraft.html

(38) The inspiration for this was all the brave, backyard scientists building rocketships in their back sheds including but not limited to Dr.Hans Zarkov (‘Flash Gordon’), Doc Emmett Brown (‘Back to the Future’), Caractacus Potts (‘Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang’), Professor Roy Hinkley (‘Gilligan’s Island’), Professor Hyatt (‘The Atom’) and Professor Potter (‘Jimmy Olsen’).

(39) I will never NOT be at home to tales of small town kid detectives and, in another of those synchronicities, while looking, I stumbled across a nearby small town of Davenport, situated on Shark Fin Cove that makes for a perfect home town for such a character. Kudos to Donald J. Sobol’s ‘Encyclopaedia Brown’, Kim Newman’s ‘Richard Riddle, Boy Detective’, Edgar Cantero’s ‘Meddling Kids’, Enid Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’ and the ‘Mystery, Inc.’ gang.

(40) This is a tribute to the original comic, the title of which I do not remember, where a club of UCSC students and their professor investigate weird phenomena, which first inspired my fascination with the town.

(41) The Odditoreum is kind of a combination of every creepy abandoned theatre, factory and amusement park in ‘Scooby Doo’, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, ‘Gravity Falls’ Mystery Shack, but mostly, to the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot and the Winchester Mystery House.

(42) In an adventure entitled ‘Give ETAH a Chance!’.

(43) As mentioned earlier, Moondog’s comic series was based heavily on the mix of horror and satire in the comics work of Steve Gerber. This is pretty much the series’ satirical riff on ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ (1977, there’s that synchronity again!) with a little ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968) thrown in.

(44) Moondog’s fellow travellers were a chance for the writer to satirize reclusive artists, auteurist electronic musicians, and American family vacations (alas, my synchronity-sense failed me here as the National Lampoon article upon which ‘Vacation’ was based wouldn’t be published for 2 years).

(45) Moody, self-involved dudes going on an extended walkabout in search of themselves, or America or whatever, was a popular cliche of the time. You can see examples of this in ‘Green Lantern/Green Arrow’s ‘Hard-Travelling Heroes’ arc and even Captain America got into the act. Decades later, Superman’s ‘Grounded’ story arc (2010-2011) was a particularly daft example of this trope.

(46) This is a combination of the original ‘Werewolves on Wheels’ and the vampires from ‘From Dusk Til Dawn’, with maybe a little of the Sons of Anarchy/Mayans into the mix.

(47) This is a reference to the two DJ’s Alan Freed (a.k.a. ‘Moon Dog’) and Robert Weston Smith (a.k.a. Wolfman Jack), who provided inspiration for ‘Moondog’ Mendez.

(48) At last, we get to the point where I created ‘Moondog’ Mike. Like I said earlier, I don’t tend to create in chronological order, but produce stuff as it’s needed and then have to fill in the gaps as required.