Monster Mag was a British horror magazine published between 1974 and 1976. It achieved notoriety due to the gory images it reveled in publishing.

Published by Top Sellers, Monster Mag was originally edited by Roger Cook, with his wife Jan taking over after the first few issues. It was originally priced at 15p, with the final issues selling for twice that. The magazine was an early ‘poster mag’ with a mere eight pages of actual content that opened out into a huge ‘pin-up’ poster – more often than not a bloody image from a Hammer film: “Open it out if you dare!!” was the mag’s tagline.

Unlike most monster magazines of the time, Monster Mag was in full colour and placed an emphasis on the goriest images the editors could find, making it a forerunner of later magazines such as the US-published Fangoria. These provocative images were often run with the flimsiest of excuses, with a vague article tying them together at best. Sometimes, the magazine simply collected a bunch of gory images together and cheerfully admitted to not even knowing which films they came from!

This pioneering exploitation spirit would get the mag into trouble early on. Published overseas and imported back into the UK, issue 2 fell foul of British customs, who seized and destroyed the whole run, making this issue one of the most sought-after and unobtainable magazines of all time. Monster Mag then took to splashing ‘for sale to adults only’ across the masthead, though how seriously they took that was perhaps revealed by the article  on horror make-up in No.11, which suggests using “some grey and red make-up borrowed from Mum”. However, the allegedly forbidden nature of the magazine ensured that it was catnip for some school kids, who would eagerly pour over its gruesome delights in school cloakrooms and playgrounds.

The size of the magazine varied considerably during the initial run. The early issues were an oversized 24.5cm x 33.5cm (approx), promising a poster that was ‘over 2 feet by 3 feet’ on the cover. ‘Paper costs’ (according to the issue 11 editorial) saw the size drop to under A4 for a few issues before increasing  – but not to the original size – again with No.11.

The magazine was cancelled after issue 14, but revived in 1976 with Dez Skinn  at the helm, practicing for the upcoming House of Hammer. The three issues produced by Skinn (numbered as Vol. 2. No. 1 – 3) placed more emphasis on text, with contributions from John Brosnan and Barrie Pattison amongst others, and so had a great deal more substance, if a little less blood. This is despite one of the eight content pages now being given over to an editorial and adverts for back issues. The exception to this might be the final issue, which also has a full page ad for the new House of Hammer and two pages of photos from Scars of Dracula. This issue also tantalisingly advertised a “Double X” issue, to be devoted to Euro horror. But Skinn’s involvement with HoH meant that this was quickly forgotten. Skinn also varied the poster format, using two images (rather less satisfying than one when pinned to the bedroom wall) and a reproduction of the 1958 Hammer Dracula poster in issue 2/2.

Revolutionary stuff at the time, with its coverage of the obscure, gory movies that other magazines ignored, Monster Mag was a seminal publication for the Video Nasty generation of British horror fans who were growing up in the 1970s. Given the fact that kids still love to decorate their bedrooms with posters today, it seems strange that no-one has seen this as a format worth reviving to combat the decline in print sales. Monster Mag Volume 3, anyone?

Dez Skinn comments on Monster Mag

Post by David Flint

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Fangoria is multi-media organisation specializing in horror, slasher, splatter and exploitation films. Their seminal magazine has been in regular publication since 1979.

Fangoria was first planned in 1978 under the name Fantastica as a companion to the science fiction media magazine Starlog; just as Starlog covered science fiction films for a primarily teenaged audience. The first issue was entirely designed around the original “fantasy film” concept for the magazine, and proved to be an abysmal failure, as were several issues that followed, all continuing with the same conceptual approach.

The first issue was entirely designed around the original “fantasy film” concept for the magazine, and proved to be an abysmal failure, as were several issues that followed, all continuing with the same conceptual approach. By the time that issue number four was on the stand and number six was in preparation, the publisher confided to editor Robert “Bob” Martin that the magazine was losing approximately $20,000 per issue.

Two phenomena allowed Martin to reshape the magazine and bring it back from the abyss of debt. First, was the immensely positive audience response to one of the articles that appeared in the first issue of Fangoria, an article that celebrated the craft of special makeup effects artist Tom Savini, and his gory special effects for the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead.

Second was the palpable stench of defeat that was surrounding Fangoria. With its demise all but certain, senior employees and the two owners of the publishing firm stood back from the fray and allowed the untried young editor to take the lead, reshaping the entire book according to what he believed would work.

Issue seven, with a cover story on Stanley Kubrick‘s adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Shining, was the first issue of any national magazine to wholly concern itself with horror film as produced in the closing quarter of the 20th Century, with no trace of daintiness about its subject matter. It also was the first issue of Fangoria to achieve a profit.

Subsequent issues would sharpen the focus, but by issue twelve, the formula was well-set, and remains largely unchanged to this date. Martin continued as editor to 1986, with co-editor David Everitt added in the early 1980s, and after leaving Fangoria worked with film director Frank Henenlotter on the screenplays for Frankenhooker and Basket Case 3: The Progeny. Everitt left the magazine shortly after Martin’s departure, and was eventualy replaced by  longtime editor Tony Timpone.

In the late 1980s and early 90s, Fangoria tested numerous international horror markets, releasing issues of the magazine modified for various foreign languages. These publishings (released in Italy, Japan, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere) lasted only a handful of editions before being discontinued.

In 1990, Timpone brought current managing editor Michael Gingold on board, having been previously introduced to his horror-themed fanzine, Scareaphenalia.

In February 2010, Chris Alexander, a Toronto-based former writer for Rue Morgue, succeeded Tony Timpone as Fangoria’s new editor. Under his management, the magazine altered its image again, reverting to a layout similar to what it had in the early 1990s. The cover’s layout was again altered (this time by graphic artist Jason Beam) – keeping the new logo, but honoring reader requests to bring back the embedded photos and a horizontal “film strip.” In 2011, Alexander resurrected the original logo, presenting a classic Fangoria look, coupled with illustrated covers and a bottom page filmstrip that Alexander freely admitted to “borrowing” from long defunct monster magazine Castle of Frankenstein. The new covers often feature original painted portrait artwork from filmmakers and artists like Marvel Comics’ Nick Percival, impressionist UK animator Ashley Thorpe and Australian artist Michael Broom. The changes reflect Alexander’s editorial focus on horror history as well as a more experimental aesthetic.

Starting in 1985, Fangoria has sponsored annual horror movie conventions known as the Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Chicago (with Austin, Texas added in 2008). These conventions were later known as ”Trinity of Terrors.”

In 1990, Fangoria created Fangoria Films, with the goal of financing one feature film a year under this banner. The first film was 1990′s Mindwarp, starring Bruce Campbell. They created Children of the Night in 1991 and Severed Ties in 1992 before ceasing production. In 1996, Fangoria Films re-emerged as a distribution company, occasionally using their “Gore Zone” label, to release twenty low-budget horror features over the next ten years.

From 1999 to 2003, they partnered with Bedford Entertainment to attain wider releases of certain Fangoria titles  Movies released during this time included I, Zombie: A Chronicle of Pain, The Last Horror Movie, Slashers, and Dead Meat. In 2004/2005, Fangoria Films produced and distributed Fangoria’s Blood Drive, two DVD compilations of award-winning short horror films. The first volume was hosted by musician-turned-filmmaker Rob Zombie.

In March 2013, Fangoria‘s website was re-vamped and re-launched.

Wikipedia | Fangoria.com

Buy Fangoria subscription from Amazon.com

Classic horror fanzine We Belong Dead has returned with its first issue in sixteen years! WBD 9 is out now, with 80 pages of articles on Hammer’s Dracula series, Barbara Shelley and Jean Rollin interviewed, Peter Cushing, Salem’s Lot, Witchfinder General and more! You can snap up one of the limited editions for just £5, plus £2 UK / £3 international postage. Pay via paypal to wbdmagazine@yahoo.co.uk, and don’t forget to tell them that Horrorpedia sent you!

Posted by DF

Castle of Frankenstein was a US horror, science fiction and fantasy film magazine, distributed by Kable News and published in New Jersey from 1962 to 1975 by Calvin Thomas Beck’s Gothic Castle Publishing Company. Although promoted and sold as a “monster magazine,” the readers were aware that Castle of Frankenstein, at the time, was the only nationally distributed magazine devoted to a legitimate and serious coverage of B movies.

Following employment as an editor for publisher Joe Weider, Calvin Beck (1929–1989) entered the monster magazine arena in 1959 with his one-shot Journal of Frankenstein, which had only a small circulation. As an experiment, Beck printed part of the run on slick paper. After a hiatus and a title change, Beck returned with the debut issue of Castle of Frankenstein in 1962.

Beck claimed that since his magazine carried no outside advertising, there was no need for any standardized schedule, so issues were published whenever they were completed, leading to an erratic, irregular schedule. Distribution of issues also varied; while many well-stocked periodical outlets did not carry the magazine, some less-likely outlets (such as grocery stores) had copies available. In addition to its central focus on classic and current horror films, Castle of Frankenstein also devoted pages to amateur filmmakers and a coverage of fanzines. Its advertising pages sold full-length silent feature films such as The Lost World and The Golem.

Inspired by the ratings and reviews of films in Cahiers du Cinéma, CoF introduced a similar rating system with the “Comic Book Council,” the first critical coverage of comic books to appear in a national magazine. Commentary and ratings of underground comics were juxtaposed with reviews of mainstream comics. Another key feature was the “Frankenstein Movieguide,” an attempt to document all fantastic films seen on television with short “mini-reviews” written by Joe Dante (Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins). Unlike some genre commentators, these reviewers were not limited only to the monster-style films. Instead, the many brief and tightly-written fantasy film reviews per issue also covered experimental films and foreign art films. The capsule review format enforced a brevity and economy to each review that served as an inspiration to many younger writers.

With new art and reprints of vintage fantasy art, the magazine published such artists as Aubrey Beardsley, Hannes Bok, Harry Clarke, Virgil Finlay, Jim Steranko, Wally Wood and Weird Tales illustrator Matt Fox. To cut costs, colour photos rather than paintings were used on the covers of issues six through 14. With issue 11′s cover photo of Leonard Nimoy, Castle of Frankenstein was the first magazine to feature Star Trek as a major cover story.

The magazine had a run of 25 issues, plus one annual (the 1967 “Fearbook”), and the final issue was published in 1975. Beck cancelled his magazine not because of poor sales but because he wanted to devote his energy to writing books. During its primary run of publication, Castle of Frankenstein outlasted the vast majority of monster magazines that filled the market for two decades, with the notable exception of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Wikipedia

Tales of the Frightened comprises two volumes of spoken-word vinyl recordings, based on the writings of Michael Avallone. They were both released on the Mercury Records label in 1963. All the stories are read by Boris Karloff and feature subtle but sinister music and sound effects.

The 1950′s and 1960′s saw the release of many vinyl recordings of short, chilling tales, often featuring the ghoulish tones of horror stars of the silver screen; the two most prolific being Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, as not only were they well-know but also in possession of immediately recognisable voices.

Originally written in 1956 by Michael Avallone for a series of pulp magazines, Tales of the Frightened sadly only ran for two issues, but there was enough demand for the twenty-six stories to be collected into a paperback shortly afterwards. These were then presented to Karloff to record for radio broadcast (simply titled The Frightened, they are now believed lost) and were extremely popular. Mercury Records seized upon this and re-recorded thirteen of them across two vinyl records with musical atmospherics provided by early electronic music experimentalists, Tom Dissvelt and Kid Baltan who recorded under the name The Electrosoniks.

Michael Avallone was a prolific writer of what can easily be judged as throwaway chaff but is immensely readable; his works include his film tie-in novelisations of Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Friday 13th Part 3.

Each tale is introduced with typical Karloff faux-gravitas – “Are you one of the frightened?” and each lasts approximately five minutes, not allowing for any thumb-twiddling or kettle-boiling on the part of the listener. The language is deliriously rich and perhaps a little silly in retrospect but this undoubtedly adds to the charm “Do you whistle past the graveyard?”

Humbly marketed as “one of the most gripping narrative performances in the history of spoken word recording”, these recordings have never made their way onto CD and can be tricky to find in their original form.

Have a glass of port…

Daz Lawrence

Terror Tales was the name of two American publications: a pulp magazine of the weird menace genre, and a horror comic in the 1960s and 1970s.

Terror Tales was originally published by Popular Publications. The first issue was published in September 1934. One of the most successful horror magazines, it was joined shortly afterwards (1935) with its sister horror pulp, Horror Stories, also from the same publisher. Some of the writers whose work appeared in Terror Tales included E. Hoffmann Price, Wayne Rogers, Wyatt Blassingame, Ray Cummings, Paul Ernst, Arthur Leo Zagat and Arthur J. Burks. Rudolph Belarski provided several covers for the magazine. Terror Tales ceased publication in March 1941.

A later publication of the same name was a black-and-white horror-comics magazine. Terror Tales was published by Eerie Publications from 1969 to 1979.

Wikipedia

Images courtesy of coverbrowser.com

Posted by Adrian J. Smith using information via Wikipedia which is freely and legally available to share and remix under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Horrorpedia supports the sharing of information and opinions with the wider horror community.

Legend Horror Classics was a British magazine published by Legend Publishing and which ran for thirteen issues between 1974 and 1975.

The magazine was very much a second fiddle imitation of Monster Mag, being a format that opened out to feature a large horror “pin-up” poster. Interestingly though, it arguably predicted Monster Mag follow-up House of Hammer, having a mix of comic strips and film features. The comic strips were usually four page adaptations of famous horror stories – the first issue featuring Dracula (the 1973 film rather than the novel), the second Frankenstein (based around the 1931 film) etc. Kevin O’Neill illustrated many of the comic strips and served as art editor, later becoming editor.

Other films adapted included The 7th Voyage of Sinbad in issue 3 and Hammer’s Dracula in issue 5, while more original stories include Blood Lust of the Zombies in issue 4 (which featured a gory cover still from Death Line), Terror from Space in issue 6, Killer Jaws (a shark story, predictably) in issue 8 and The Jokers in issue 9. The magazine also adapted Beowulf in issue 7.

From issue 11, the comic strips were dropped and the final issues were ‘themed’, concentrating on Dracula, werewolves and Frankenstein.

Although not particularly well distributed or popular (certainly in comparison to Monster Mag), Legend Horror Classics remains an interesting, oddball entry in the history of both horror movie magazines and British comic books, and copies are now highly collectable.

David Flint, Horrorpedia

The Haunt of Horror is a American horror magazine published by Curtis Magazines – an imprint of Marvel Comics – that lasted just five issues from May 1974 until January 1975. It was co-edited by Roy Thomas (issues 1 and 2), Marv Wolfman (2 to 4), Tony Isabella (3 and 4), David Anthony Kraft (5), and Don McGregor (5).

Having attempted to launch a digest-sized prose horror anthology in 1973 with no success (just two issues were published as a prose digest with some spot and full-page illustrations, edited by Gerry Conway), Marvel Comics revamped The Haunt of Horror into a black-and-white addition to their roster of horror comics. Marvel characters such as Satana the Devil’s Daughter and Gabriel the Devil-Hunter were featured alongside short story adaptations, reprints of old Atlas comics stories, prose stories and articles. As The Exorcist was still shocking the world, possession and exorcism themes were prevalent.

We are most grateful to Comic Vine for some information and images.

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Monsters to Laugh With and Monsters Unlimited was a magazine published by Marvel Comics between 1964 and 1966. It was edited by Stan Lee.

The magazine’s content consisted entirely of full page black and white images of classic movie monsters, mostly from Universal films, plus supposedly amusing captions that were mainly supplied by Stan Lee. It ran for just seven issues and, perhaps as an example of its lack of direction and that perhaps horror fans didn’t like their icons mocked, changed its title from Monsters To Laugh With to Monsters Unlimited.

Despite its short run, the magazine was revived in 1972 as Monsters Madness (co-published with Curtis) but this version lasted just three issues!

We are indebted to Monster Magazines and Mania Beyond Entertainment for info and images for this posting.

Fear was a British full-colour magazine published by Newsfield between 1988 and 1991. It was edited by John Gilbert and as well as covering just horror films, it also provided a showcase for both established authors and first-timers with a section dedicated to short fiction.

Gilbert was formally deputy editor of the home computer magazine Sinclair User but as the console market was starting to leave behind the age of rubber keys and unreliable cassettes, he was keen to find a new niche in the magazine marketplace in which to set-up shop. Horror was to provide this and the first issue was a mix of both horror film and book reviews, news of forthcoming genre activity and a section towards the middle of horror, science fiction and fantasy fiction from a variety of writers.

Whilst this was a period when many of the more unusual, European or unreleased/banned films were receiving attention from a myriad of self-published fanzines, Fear provided information for eager horror fans to find out more about their passion on a monthly basis in many newsagents and shops on the high street. Sales were unremarkable but strong enough to ensure the magazine survived for the period Newsfield was operating. The equal coverage the magazine gave to authors was well-received by both readers and writers and the first works by the likes of Peter F. Hamilton sat alongside established masters of the art such as Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, James Herbert and Clive Barker (who, towards the end of the magazine’s life appeared with head-spinning regularity throughout).

So successful was the literary section that a spin-off magazine appeared, Frighteners, which solely served this purpose. Sadly, its success was short-lived; the first issue featured a story by Graham Masterton entitled, ‘Eric the Pie’ which saw a young chap discovering his fondness for eating live animals descending into more cannibalistic behaviour, all of which was a bit too much for newsagent chain WH Smith who pulled it from their shelves. Given that one issue of Fear had covered the cannibal genre, specifically cannibals in films, in some depth, you can understand the disappointment of both fans, author and publisher. The sticking point was the lack of any warning that the magazine was intended for an adult audience – such was the power of WH Smith at the time that this was financially ruinous for Newsfield who had little option to accept the first issue was a huge loss.

The covers to the magazine featured the stunning artwork of Oliver Frey, whose painted designs were often worthy of purchasing the magazine in themselves. Only a couple of issues featured images from films in lieu of his work. Oliver and his brother, Franco, as well as mutual friend Roger Kean, were actually the founders of Newsfield and had developed it to provide a platform for their ZX Spectrum magazine, Crash and later, Sinclair User. Crash also used Frey’s distinctive artwork on the cover. The ‘Eric the Pie’ fiasco naturally affected both magazines due to the financial impact of the magazines withdrawal, indeed the liquidators for Newsfield also pointed out that the other major national magazine retailer, John Menzies, had too refused to stock the magazine, after a customer complained about the content. In the face of adversity, a spirited defence was launched, with issue 33 of Fear (August, 1991) published an article supporting both the story and the decision to publish it, whilst a second issue of Frighteners also appeared, though now with the missing warning in place. Readers were invited to purchase the banned issue direct from the supplier for the cover price alone in an attempt to repair the damage but sadly, the end was nigh and only issues 2 and 3 of Frighteners appeared with issue 33 being the final issue of Fear.

Fear‘s piece on the incident reveals Frighteners as being “withdrawn from sale after legal advice” and Fear editor, Gilbert, spoke to author Graham Masterton who describes ‘Eric the Pie’ as: “a satire to show the grisly realities of the human diet”, whilst going on to clarify that the tale, “is no more disturbing than the meat counter at Sainsbury’s”. Describing the story’s strongest scene featuring a still (not for long) breathing calf, Masterton says, “There is nothing in the scene that tends to deprave or corrupt, but it should rightly evoke outrage. ‘Eric the Pie’ is a serious story with a serious purpose. I hope very much that it will be taken as such.” He has since admitted it may have been a bit strong for many audiences.

As well as many of the authors who appeared within the pages, others, such as regular reviewer, Mark Kermode, went on to achieve great success after the magazine’s closure. Fortunately, Gilbert has remained determined to resurrect the hugely-missed magazine and a relaunch is planned at some point in 2015…

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Famous Monsters of Filmland is a horror genre-specific film magazine started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman.

Famous Monsters of Filmland inspired the creation of many other horror-themed publications, including Castle of Frankenstein, Fangoria and The Monster Times.

Famous Monsters of Filmland was originally conceived as a one-shot publication by Warren and Ackerman, published in the wake of the widespread success of the package of old horror movies syndicated to American television in 1957. But the first issue, published in February 1958, was so successful that it required a second printing to fulfil public demand. The success prompted spinoff Warren magazines such as Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella.

Famous Monsters offered brief articles, well-illustrated with publicity stills and graphic artwork, on horror movies from the silent era to the current date of publication, their stars and filmmakers. Warren and Ackerman decided to aim the text at late pre-adolescents and young teenagers. Unfortunately, in doing so, he also elected to add supposedly amusing juvenile captions to the images and thereby denigrated the horror genre for fans and its detractors.

Forrest J Ackerman promoted the memory of Lon Chaney, Sr., whose silent works were mostly beyond the accessibility of fans for most of the magazine’s life, but were a great influence on his own childhood. He also introduced film fans to science fiction fandom through direct references, first-person experiences, and adoption of fandom terms and customs. The magazine regularly published photos from King Kong (1933), including one from the film’s infamous “spider pit sequence”, featured in Issue #108 (1974) that, until Ackerman discovered a photo of a spider in the cavern setting, had never been proven definitively to have actually been filmed.

FM‘s peak years were from its first issues through the late 1960s, when the disappearance of the older films from television and the decline of talent in the imaginative film industry left it with a dearth of subject matter acceptable to both editor and fan.

Bizarrely, Warren and Ackerman created a jump in issue numbering from issue 69, which was printed in September 1970, to issue 80 in October 1970. They did this (according to their editorial in issue 80) because it brought them closer to issue 100, justifying the numerical jump because of the publishing of ten issues of the short-lived companion magazine Monster World as issues that “would have been” Famous Monsters issues. Lazily, during the 1970s, the magazine came to rely heavily on reprints of articles from the 1960s.

In November 1974 and November 1975, New York City was host to the “Famous Monsters Convention,” a fan convention centered on FM, which featured such guests as Forrest J Ackerman, Verne Langdon, James Warren, Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt, Barbara Leigh, Catherine Lorre, Cal Floyd, and Sam Sherman.

In the early 1980s, the magazine folded after Warren became ill and unable to carry on as publisher, and Ackerman resigned as editor in the face of the increasing disorganisation within the Warren Publishing Company. The magazine stopped publication in 1983 after a run of 191 issues.

Famous Monsters of Filmland was resurrected in 1993 by New Jersey portrait photographer and monster movie fan Ray Ferry. After finding that the Famous Monsters of Filmland title had not been “maintained” under law, Ferry filed for “intent to use” for the magazine’s trademark, unbeknownst to Ackerman or the trademark’s owner and creator, Jim Warren. Ferry, poised to restart publication of FM on a quarterly basis, offered Ackerman the position of editor-in-chief for a fee of $2,500 per issue, which he accepted. Starting at issue #200, the new Famous Monsters acquired subscribers and over-the-counter buyers who believed they would be reunited with Ackerman in print. While Ferry tried to maintain Ackerman’s style in his own writings, he apparently heavily edited and rejected contributions from the man himself.

In an effort to help Ferry finance his full-time efforts, Ackerman agreed to a reduced editor’s fee of $1,500 per issue. With four consecutive unpaid issues and a continued rejection of his work, Ackerman resigned from his position. Aside from removing Ackerman’s name from the masthead, Ferry did not inform FM readers that they were no longer reading material by, or authorised by, Ackerman. Instead, Ferry infused his writing with Ackerman’s trademark puns, and mimicked his writing style, which led to legal action brought forth by Ackerman.

In 1997, Ackerman filed a civil lawsuit against Ferry for libel, breach of contract, and misrepresentation; Ferry had publicly claimed that Ackerman’s only connection with the new FM was as a hired hand and that Ferry “had to let Forry go” because he was no longer writing or editing for the magazine. Ferry also claimed rights to pen names and other personal properties of Ackerman. On May 11, 2000, the Los Angeles Superior Court jury decided in Ackerman’s favour and awarded him $382,500 in compensatory damages and $342,000 in punitive damages.

As of mid-2007, Ferry had been allowed to continue to publish issues of FM due to lack of efforts on the part of bankruptcy trustees and Ackerman’s lawyers to force the sale of the trademark or personal assets attached to his income. Ferry had also failed to pay any of the $720,000-plus cash judgment against him.

In late 2007, Philip Kim, an entrepreneur and a private equity investor, purchased the rights to the logo and title, entering into an agreement with Ackerman to use his trademarks to retain the magazine’s original look and feel. The new Famous Monsters of Filmland website was launched in May 2008 and on December 7, 2009, Kim announced the magazine’s return to print.

Ackerman died just before midnight on Thursday, December 4, 2008.

The revival of the classic horror magazine came in July 2010, with the publication of Famous Monsters of Filmland #251 at the Famous Monster Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The success of the print magazine at the Famous Monster Convention and Comic-Con International in San Diego yielded the announcement of the magazine’s expansion in distribution and circulation into major bookstore chains and independent retailers throughout North America and select markets in the US, Canada, and UK. Publisher Movieland Classics, LLC announced concurrently that the magazine would be entering into a bi-monthly publication schedule to meet the significant increase in requests from captivated readers beginning with Issue 253.

Writer and filmmaker Jason V Brock created The Ackermonster Chronicles!, a 2012 documentary about Ackerman. The movie is billed as the definitive film about Ackerman’s life and cultural influence, and features in-depth interviews with Ackerman, Ray Bradbury, John Landis, Greg Bear, Richard Matheson, Dan O’Bannon, Ray Harryhausen, David J. Skal, and others…

Wikipedia | Image thanks: CoverBrowser.com

Skywald Publications was a 1970s American publisher of black-and-white comic magazines, primarily the horror anthologies Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream.

Skywald’s first publication was Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). The company lasted until early 1975, with Psycho #24 (March 1975) being its final publication. Nightmare published 23 issues and Scream put out 11 issues.

The company name is a combination of those of its founders, former Marvel Comics production manager Sol Brodsky (“Sky”) and low-budget entrepreneur Israel Waldman (“wald”), whose I. W. Publications (also known as Super Comics) in the late 1950s and early 1960s published comic book reprints for sale through grocery and discount stores. Skywald was based in New York City.

Brodsky, who also served as editor, brought in Al Hewetson — briefly an assistant to Marvel chief Stan Lee and a freelancer for the Warren Publishing horror magazines and others — as a freelance writer. “Archaic Al”, as he later jokingly called himself in print, quickly became the associate editor, and when Brodsky returned to Marvel after a few months, Hewetson succeeded him as editor. Hewetson, aiming at a more literary bent than the work of industry leader Warren Publishing, developed what he called “the Horror-Mood” and sought to evoke the feel of such writers as Poe, H. P. Lovecraft and Kafka.

Comics professionals who produced work for the Skywald magazines include writers T. Casey Brennan, Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Gardner Fox, Doug Moench, Dave Sim, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman, and artists Rich Buckler, Gene Day Vince Colletta, Bill Everett, Bruce Jones, Pablo Marcos, Syd Shores, Chic Stone, and Tom Sutton. Many who also contributed to rival Warren employed pseudonyms. Future industry star John Byrne published his first professional story, a two-pager written by editor Hewetson, in Skywald’s Nightmare #20 (Aug. 1974).

Editor Al Hewetson, in an interview given shortly before his death of a heart attack on Jan. 6, 2004, asserted the demise of Skywald was caused by:

“…Marvel’s distributor. Our issues were selling well, and some sold out. Such returns as we received were shipped overseas, mainly to England, where they sold out completely… When Marvel entered the game with countless [black-and-white horror] titles gutting [sic] the newsstand, their distributor was so powerful they denied Skywald access to all but the very largest newsstands, so our presence was minimal and fans and readers simply couldn’t find us…”

Buy Skywald: The Complete Illustrated History of the Horror-Mood from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | Image credits: Comic Vine | Pinterest

‘Horror guaranteed to shock you dead or your life refunded!’

Fantastic Monsters of the Films was a 1962 – 1963 American horror magazine published by Black Shield Productions.

The mag was the brainchild of movie archivist/actor Bob Burns and make-up and special effects creator Paul Blaisdell (his monsters graced the covers of issues 2 to 6). Burns and Blaisdell hired editors Jim Harmon (also editor of Monsters of the Movies in the mid-seventies) and actor/writer Ron Haydock to write provide the text.

Blaisdell contributed special effects articles under the banner “The Devil’s Workshop” and each issue included a “Monster of the Month” colour fold-out poster. Artist Larry Byrd drew a special Son of Frankenstein wraparound cover for no. 7.

A planned issue no. 8 never materialised, apparently due to a fire at the printers and the magazine folded thereafter.

Buy Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Bob Burns website | We are grateful to Monster Magazines for background information

In the 1960s, ads appeared in US comics and magazines for “Monster Briefs in Color!” for the “guy who has everything!” Everything but a girlfriend, perhaps?

The garish men’s undies were adorned with reproductions of covers from Creepy, Eerie and Famous Monsters of Filmland and made from “100% stretchable nylon”. So, presumably the guy who has “everything” also had sweaty, itchy tackle. Surely, another guaranteed way to attract the opposite sex?

Still, “a fashionable monster wouldn’t be caught dead without them”…

Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

‘Tales to give you nightmares!’

Monster Parade was an American horror magazine issued by Irwin Stein’s Magnum Publications in 1958 and 1959. It was an attempt to cash-in on the success of Warren’s Famous Monsters of Filmland but its mix of original horror fiction and comics (reprints of pre-code horror comics), articles, pin-ups and movie coverage didn’t gel with fans and it ran for just four issues.

We are grateful to Monster Magazines for info.

In the wake of the phenomenal box office success of Jaws and Jaws 2 a worldwide fascination with sharks developed rapidly. Whilst Universal Pictures lawyers’ made sure that many cinematic Jaws pretenders – such as Italian copy Great White – were soon legally dead in the water, they couldn’t prevent a plethora of media interest in sharks in general via newspaper articles, books, and magazines.

Lurid and grisly accounts of attacks by the “blood-thirsty demons” (yes, sharks), plus masses of “explicit pictures of murderous sharks” were the mainstay of many of the publications that infested magazine racks. The following are just some of the many sharksploitation mags that proliferated in the late 70s and early 80s:

Shark films on Horrorpedia

We are indebted to Spoiler II for inspiring this post via the Horror Films Books and & Magazines forum,

70s Monster Memories is a 2015 British book from the writers of We Belong Dead magazine.

The 400 page full colour soft back book contains over seventy chapters covering nearly every aspect of 1970s horror fandom – books, mags, posters, trading cards, TV, model kits, comics, movie tie-ins, super 8 and much more.

Contents:

Foreword by Dez Skinn

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of by Eric McNaughton

For The Love Of Print and Paper by Vincent Simonelli

The Most Important Decade of My Life by John Llewellyn Probert

Zoinks!! (Or How I Would Have Got Away With It, If It Wasn’t for You Meddling Kids!) by Steve Gerrard

Horror Film Books of the 70s by Ian Taylor

The World of Horror by Cranston Macmillan

Aurora – The Golden Age of Monster Models by Robert Morganbesser

BBC Death & Horror Sound Effects LP by Daz Lawrence

He Was A Teenage Movie Critic: David Pirie by Darrell Buxton

Fanzines of the 70s by Richard Klemensen

A Time It Was: Dez Skinn Interviewed on House of Hammer by Tony Earnshaw

Something In The Night: The BBC Christmas Ghost Stories by Matthew E. Banks

Super 8mm – A Personal Journey Through The History of Horror At Home by Darren Allinson

Famous Monsters A Go-Go. An Interview With The Legendary Basil Gogos by Ernie Magnotta

Horror On Vinyl by Daz Lawrence

A New World of Gods & Monsters – The Books of Denis Gifford by Tom Woodger

The Monster Times For Changing Times by J.M. Cozzoli

An Invitation To Scaryland: The Horror Film Books of Alan Frank by Tony Earnshaw

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires LP by David Flint

Dave Swift, Memories of a Monster (Toy Collector) by Stephen Jacobs

The 70s Works of Nigel Kneale Graham Payne

Remembering Famous Monsters by Jim Knusch

Horror in the Cinema: Ivan Butler by Stephen Mosley

The Price of Fear…Brought To You by Vincent Price Peter Fuller

King Kong in Birmingham! by Dave Swift

Horrors From Screen to Scream by Paul Sparrow-Clarke

La Cabina: Allegory of an Era by Daniel Arana Garcia de Leaniz

Softly, Softly Catchy Ripper. Barlow & Watt and the Investigation of the Whitechapel Murders by Clare Smith

Scary Humour with Cracked’s For Monsters Only by J.M. Cozzoli

Monster Movie Reference Books:The 1970s Explosion by Dustin Jablonski

“Our Latest Diversification….” Hammer Presents Dracula by Tom Woodger

When A Ten Year Old Boy Met the Universal Monsters by David Brilliance

Horror Food by Daz Lawrence

Lorrimer Publishing. Cinema of Terror, Catastrophe, Kung Fu, Freaks, Vampires, Mystery & Monkeys! by Darrell Buxton

Poster Magazines by Richard Gladman

Memories of the Loch Ness Monster by Timothy Mitchell

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films: An Appreciation by Darrell Buxton

The Books That Made Us Scream – An a-Z Guide to 70s Tie-Ins by Dawn and Jonathon Dabell

Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine by Cranston Macmillan

I Was A Teenage Monster Kid by Tony M. Clarke

Public Information Horror by Daz Lawrence

Tele-Horrors of the 70’s:Fearsome Highlights by Troy Howarth

“You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Wallet!” by Steven West

1970’s Horror Vinyl:Releases in the U.S. by Ryan Brennan

The House of Hammer – A Personal Journey by Tim Greaves

Memories of A Pictorial History of Horror Movies by Peter Benassi

Marvel Comics & the Monsters by Moonlight by Martin Dallard

Memoirs of a 70’s Monster-Kid by Ernie Magnotta

Peter Underwood:The Legendary Ghost Hunter Who Wrote the First Biography of Boris Karloff by Ben Underwood

Cinefantastique – The Most Fantastic Magazine of All Time by Robert Morganbesser

Thriller by Brian Clemens by Perry Thomas

Horror Top Trumps by Daz Lawrence

My Journey Beyond the Vincent Price Screen Adventures by Peter Fuller

The Books of Calvin T. Beck by Douglas Whitenack

Legend Horror Classics by Cranston Macmillan

Horror Double-Bills by Neil Ogley

Monsterkid Models of the 70’s by Eric McNaughton

Horror in Four-Colours by Jules Boyle

The Film Classics Library by Eric McNaughton

Movie Monsters: The Magazine with a Mortality by Rate Darren Allinson

But Was It Aaaaaarrrt?! by David A. Brooks

The New Avengers. The Acceptable Face of 70’s Horror by Cleaver Patterson

Collecting Movie Posters by David McConkey

Mego Mad Monsters by Michael Hauss

The Horror People by Stephen Mosley

For Adults Only! by Cranston Macmillan

Terror on the Tube: American TV Horror Movies of the 1970’s by Steven West

Dracula Paperbacks by Eric McNaughton

No Cure for Crabs (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Enjoy the Pulp Paperbacks of the 1970’s) by Steven West

The Thirteen Monsters of Aurora by Martin Cage

The Dark Shadows Paperbacks by Eric McNaughton

Monsters of the Movies Magazine by R. Bruce Crelin

Monsters of the Movies – The Mystery of Issue 2 Cover by Pierre Fournier

Shock Theatre Cards by David Flint

Creature Feature Cards by Eric McNaughton

Appointment With Fear by Wayne Kinsey

Afterword by Alan Frank

Publication date is 20th December. The book can be ordered via this link:

http://webelongdead.co.uk/product/70s-monster-memories/

Modern Monsters is a 1966 American magazine that ran for for four issues in 1966 (the first issue was named Modern Monster). It was published by Prestige Publications and edited by Jim Matthews, with Gunther Collins and Don Glut as assistant editors.

Cover art was by Larry Byrd or Jerry Kay and contents of each issue included the usual mix of profiles of new releases (such as The Beast of Yucca Flats), interviews with stars such as Nick Adams and Glenn Strange, retrospective pieces on classic horror movies (such as King Kong, Murders in the Rue Morgue), plus lots of images.

Each issue included a colour fold-out poster. Ads included items such as a two disc album of Christopher Lee reading Dracula, monster masks, hands and feet, a Shrunken Head and I-Scream Spoons.

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Image credits: Monster Magazines

‘Horrific! Scarifying!’

3-D Monsters is a 1964 one-off American magazine from Fair Publishing. It featured ten pages of blurry movie stills and images of Aurora model kits. The remainder consisted of a few short articles. A pair of “free magic glasses” was included.

Fair Publishing was a Myron Fass imprint; his other horror-related publications included Horror Tales (1969–1979), Thriller (three issues, 1962), Tales from the Tomb (1969–1975), Tales of Voodoo (1968–1974), Terror Tales (1969 – 1979), Weird (1966–1981), Witches’ Tales (1969–1975).

Sources: Monster Magazines | Myron Fass on Wikipedia