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Magazine Morgue

Monster Times Issue 43
September 1975

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Issue 43 of The Monster Times looks at demons and devils in movies and comics. The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, Night of the Demon, Haxan, and a lot of lesser demons and devils get face time. Those Lousy Lovecraft Films ponders why demons leave home, and Ban It Yourself Exorcism Products takes a page or two out of Cracked's For Monsters Only book of zany. Even Captain Kirk gets into the action (he always did, didn't he?) with a rundown on all the devils banished in Star Trek. A first rate TMT issue, entertaining and informative, all around. By 1975, the monsterkid craze was a fond memory, but it had mutated into something greater: now it was the time of the monsterteens, who gobbled up everything on comics and contemporary horror movies they could sink their teeth into.

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Monster Times Issue 43
September 1975Read More »

Monster Times Issue 19
February 1973

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Some caustic comments direct towards Hercules in the comic books, mention of horror host The Creep's return to Creature Features on Channel 5 in NYC (I loved The Creep!), and another horror host, Doctor Shock, gets his due. By 1973, the monster kid era was waning, so it's great to see coverage of the horror hosts who still carried the burning torch for monsters. Interestingly enough, horror on television was exploding, and this issue of Monster Times covers Gargoyles (with wonderful creature makeup by Stan Winston and Ellis Burman). Closer to my own collecting passion, there's Is This Any Way to Sell a Movie!?! Being a collector of pressbooks and movie promotion material, I only wish the article was longer; but it's a fun read.

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Monster Times Issue 19
February 1973Read More »

Shock Vol. 2 Issue 2
May 1970

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A slick gruesome cover helps to make this issue of Shock: Chilling Tales of Horror and Suspense sizzle. Did you know that salt extracted from Caribbean kelp can kill an unstoppable zombie? Or sharing your brain with others isn't all that hard to do? (How many of you give a piece of your mind to somebody every day?) Or that mummies have good harmony? "We have no grave, we have no bier. But let two mortals enter here, they'll end the curse with human breath, and doom this atmosphere of death!" Enter if you dare, I dare you.

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Shock Vol. 2 Issue 2
May 1970Read More »

The Monster Times Issue 38
January 1975

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The Golden Voyage of Sinbad gets the filmbook treatment in issue 38 of The Monster Times. At least it adds a few pre-production sketches of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects for the models. Marvel's handling of Conan the Barbarian is examined (thank the lord for those black and white magazines that escaped the dreaded comics code, especially here), and Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. blabs about The Blob in a great interview. Interestingly, he relates how the blob's color was dyed deeper shades of red as the film progressed. "Since the creature devours some fifty people by the end of the film, it was a logical thing to do." Yeaworth also confirms the multiple titles for the movie before release: The Molten Meteor, The Glob, and Night of the Creeping Dread. He notes Steve McQueen suggest using "The Blob" one day during shooting. Bless you, Steve. Last but not least for this issue, TMT praises The Mad Ghoul for B-ing a movie above the rest.

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The Monster Times Issue 38
January 1975Read More »

Psycho Issue 15, November 1973
All Ghoul Horror Issue

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The cover art by Vincent Segrelles is fantastic, but doesn't seem to have much to do with this special all ghoul issue of Skywald's Psycho, issue 15. The stories are ghoulish enough, though. My favorite is The 13 Dead Things. The editor, Al Hewetson, is quoted as saying the glut of Marvel black and white magazines forced Skywald off the newsstands, otherwise their horror-mood brand of illustrated terror was selling well. (I came across this complete checklist of Skywald magazines on the Wayback Machine website. I converted the information to PDF, so you can Download Complete-Skywald-Checklist.)

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Psycho Issue 15, November 1973
All Ghoul Horror IssueRead More »

The Monster Times Issue 7
April 26, 1972

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In this issue 7 of The Monster Times, Gary Gerani's Hot Prints Anyone? explains "how you  too can own and show your favorite monster movie in your own home!" Imagine that. Viewing a complete feature film in the privacy of your own home, with or without buttered popcorn, any time you like. Wild. At the end of the article, Gerani peers into the future: "We of The Monster Times see a day when the studios change the law, allowing distribution of their product to private homes…" Quite a blast from the past for monster kids, right? How many of you remember scouting around at conventions and other places for illegal full-length prints of your favorite horror films? If it wasn't for VHS, we'd all be in jail by now. Oh, wait, some of us did go to jail over VHS. Nevermind that. Anyway, other notable articles in this issue include the Would you buy a used car from this Gorilla?, which wonders why the monster-sized Volkswagen 411 car model television spot featuring King Kong came and went in the blink of an eye, and The Monster Market's Godzilla Aurora Kit review (costing a whopping $1.94 in U.S. currency). The reviewer wasn't too happy with its glow in the dark parts, the King of Monsters claws looking like Mickey Mouse gloves, and the weak stickiness of the model glue used for assembly because of too many snifflers getting cheap highs back then. Now, of course, you can just go to Colorado. 

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The Monster Times Issue 7
April 26, 1972Read More »

The Dinosaur Times Issue 1
Summer 1993

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The publishers of The Monster Times tried their hand at The Dinosaur Times in the 1990s, using the same format. It lasted for a few issues before going extinct. This first issue covers Jurassic Park, Godzilla movies, dinosaurs in the movies, and even The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in-between the more fact-based and academic stuff. And, of course, there's the centerfold poster to leave tape marks up on your walls with, too. Parents everywhere hated those centerfolds, I'm sure.

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The Dinosaur Times Issue 1
Summer 1993Read More »

Monster Times Issue 15
September 6, 1972

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An underwhelming writing exercise for The Valley of Gwangi (a storyline for the movie, not a review or analysis), but an informative article on Vampires in the Comics, takes over issue 15 of The Monster Times. By now it's obvious that TMT is stronger when discussing comic books than classic movies. While comic book articles receive more devoted attention, genre movies were given the usual let's write out the movie's story for you to read brush-offs. While I didn't much notice this when I originally read TMT, now–and of course given the Internet's glut of information, and the easy availability of movies today–it's irksome to read. Yes, it was a different take on covering the movies, but not anywhere near fun to read as the other, more lively, articles in TMT. Alfred Hitchcock is also interviewed, and Gary Brown gives love to HLP. The Roots of Evil: The Carrot That Conquered the World by Jim Winoroski, and Joe Kane's article on Blacula, shows how much more TMT could do with writing about genre movies when given a mind to.

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Monster Times Issue 15
September 6, 1972Read More »

Horror Tales Vol. 5 Issue 5
October 1973

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According to the Weird Indexes of Eerie Publications by Mike Howlett, this volume 5, issue 5 of Horror Tales is the second volume 5, issue 5 to hit the newsstands in 1973. The first one is dated June 1973, and appears to be actually isssue 3, but was given the right volume but wrong issue number. As you get later into the issues, more and more stories from earlier issues reappear. Some wonderful artwork in this issue.

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Horror Tales Vol. 5 Issue 5
October 1973Read More »