I was looking for some inspiration tonight, so I dug out my copy of the first issue of SPACEMEN magazine, and inspire me it did. Covers painted by Basil Gogos have a tendency to have that effect on you. SPACEMEN was the third movie magazine put out by James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman in 1961 after their first publication FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND became so popular, and that magazine probably has more to do with why we do this than anything else.
The first issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND CAME OUT IN 1958, and I'm not completely positive, but I think the first issue I got at the newsstand was this one which was # 9 that
came out in 1960. After that, we tried to buy them all as they came out, and ordered as many back issues as we could afford, which wasn't many.
In 1962 Warren Publishing came out with SCREEN THRILLS ILLUSTRATED, which was a great magazine that covered serials and movies that didn't fall into the 'Monster' category, but it never really seemed to take off, and folded after ten issues. To this day, nobody seems much interested in this magazine, and I think I still have all my copies.
Other purveyors to the crown were the magazines CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and........
These two magazines I actually liked, but they still just did not not compare to
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND! The bar was just raised too high!
We always thought HORROR MONSTERS was a joke. Their covers were so bad compared to those of FAMOUS MONSTERS!
And HORROR MONSTERS sister publication titled MAD MONSTERS wasn't much better at all! The Creature looks like he's about three feet tall on this cover!
MAD MONSTERS, HORROR MONSTERS, and this one shot from 1962 titled WEREWOVES AND VAMPIRES, were all Charlton publications. The price was only thirty-five cents, but they still didn't seem to be worth that much to us.
There were a few more entrants into to the monster magazine race like this MONSTER PARADE from 1958, and ........
..................This MONSTER MANIA from 1967. Take note of the scary fonts they came up with for the word monster.
in 1964 Warren tried to reinvent themselves and came out with MONSTER WORLD, but it wasn't even good enough to compete with the original, and paled in comparison to FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, and because of that, it only lasted for ten issues.
In more modern times, SCREEM was the only magazine that came close to being what FAMOUS MONSTERS was. One of the main reasons SCREEM was good is because frequent Dungeon contributor Greg Goodsell was also writing reviews and interviews for them!
Well, that's my personal journey through the world of monster magazines, and I'll leave you where I started with another issue of SPACEMEN. This 1965 Yearbook has a very cool cover done by comic artistes Russ Jones and the beyond phenomenal Wally Wood.
While doing this, I stumbled on a blog that hasn't had a new post since 2010, but is a complete list of all the monster magazines of the 60's and more, and it's all lined out in a clear and concise manner, so if you'd like to see more of these fabulous covers, then head on over to the
MONSTER MAGAZINES blog. It's very well done!
My childhood right there. All I had were some ratty copies of Famous Monsters and some Star Wars figures and old Halloween decorations. But it got me through the long winters, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. #TheOctoberCountry 🎃
ReplyDeleteI started out with FM and some of the other monster magazines, but after seeing movies like Ib Melchior's THE TIME TRAVELERS, JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET, ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS, and PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (aka THE DEMON PLANET), I found myself to be more into sci-fi, thus primarily a "Cosmic Kid" rather than a "Monster Kid." So I was delighted to find that SPACEMEN 1965 Yearbook, a real revelation (with awesome cover art)! Then, the various sci-fi comic books and digest-sized sf pulp magazines, which became my main forte. Love it all!
ReplyDeleteForry's writing style: Very informative, funny, and polite.
ReplyDeleteBeing a teen in the 70s I couldn't have been handed better reading material.
WHAT a gold mine of old sci-fi / horror publicity photos!
All the studios took a liking to Forry...then again I think the world did.
No shortage of rare sci-fi movies too.
Movies like:
Just Imagine (1930)
Island Of Lost Souls (1932)
Son Of Kong* (1933)
Freaks (1933)
Things To Come (1936)
EQUINOX (1972)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1958)
The Twilight People (1972)
or even Metropolis (1927)
rarely or never aired on Boston TV in the 70s.
Famous Monsters Of Filmland was perfect. I really liked it.
I got a kick out of Forry's writing too, especially some of the photo captions! My favorite issue of FM was #26 with the scary OUTER LIMITS cover.
ReplyDeleteForry also wrote a column for the sci-fi digest magazine Imaginative Tales (1954 to 1958) called Scientifilm Marquee. I have most of the issues (in varying quality), but he contributed great info on upcoming sci-fi movies of the day (although without photos as I recall, without digging out my copies to check).
Here's a Wikipedia link for info on the magazine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginative_Tales
And a gallery of their cover art:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Imaginative_Tales
(The early issue covers with sexy art of "ladies in distress" etc. are generally harder to find in the wild, and more expensive to buy.)
Otherwise, a pretty cool magazine of awesome SF Pulp.
Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteI just looked back at issue #26 it has a nice article about Outer Limits
and I just learned that Devil-Doll (1936) was Sammy Davis Jr.'s favorite movie!
I a kiddo of 8 or 9 in the early '60s, so OUTER LIMITS seemed other-worldly (especially the various creatures!), that I had somehow convinced myself back then, what with the "Control Voice" introducing the show and all, and that the premiere episode was telecast on September 16, 1963, the show must have been created by and transmitted to Earth from an alien planet! (LOL)
ReplyDeleteIn those innocent, pre-JFK assassination days (after which the world became for many of us a darker, more cynical place where it has remained in large part since), dreaming of alien beings visiting the Earth was likely more commonplace. At least it was for a kid like me.
Between the 1962 or '63 television premiere of the original THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and great shows like THE TWILIGHT ZONE and THE OUTER LIMITS, movies and tv fired my imagination, big time.
I still have some of my original 1960s Outer Limits bubble gum cards.
Excuse the ramble!
SPACEMEN 1965 YEARBOOK (PDF on Internet Archive)!
ReplyDeleteRead it online or download!
https://archive.org/details/Spacemen_1965_Yearbook/mode/2up
The archive is a good place to donate ten or twenty bucks because they deserve it, and they have better programming than Netflix, except it's free!
ReplyDeleteI give them a sawbuck or two every end-of-year.
ReplyDeleteHello. Not sure if this is aloud. We have a bunch of Famous Monster magazines. They are in our online auction. These were really fun to go through.
ReplyDeleteAdvertising is not aloud in our comments section Brianna, but it is allowed when you're selling something as cools as Famous Monsters magazines. Those are some great issues you have, and great prices too. I'd buy some except I don't want to join another site.
ReplyDelete