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Magazine Morgue

Cracked’s For Monsters Only
Issue 1, November 1965

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In 1965, the corner store's magazine rack was filled with monster magazines and young monsterkids reaching up to grab them. Gorged on the zany, horror host, hosted Shock! television packages of classic (and spastic) horror and science fiction movies, monsterish humor was all the rage by the middle 1960s. It would take the 1970s and maturing monsterkids to clamor for more sophisticated reading, but until then, blame Forrest J. Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland for making horror movies fun and cool by poking a little fun and a lot of puns their way. Carrying the humor to the extreme was Cracked's For Monsters Only. Cartoons, wacky John Severin drawn comics, and photo-captioned mutants, aliens, monsters, and other assorted nasties went for the readers funny bone instead of his or her jugular vein. Here's issue 1. 

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Cracked’s For Monsters Only
Issue 1, November 1965Read More »

Cracked Collectors’ Edition
Those Cracked Monsters
July 1980

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If you missed the first go-round of Cracked's For Monsters Only, here's your chance to get a taste of the zaniness with the cartoons, funny captioned photos, and monster comics that went for the yucks in those issues. The humor is give or take for me. The artwork is to die for, though, and it captures the monsterkid love with style. 

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Cracked Collectors’ Edition
Those Cracked Monsters
July 1980Read More »

Cracked’s For Monsters Only
Issue 7, April 1969

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Richard Bojarski comes to the rescue again in issue 7 of Cracked's For Monsters Only with Peter Cushing: Monster Fighter and Karloff and Lugosi: The Titans of Terror. Otherwise, it's the usual filler comprised of ad pages, humor pages (which are actually quite funny this time around), and a 16-page comic, The Secret Files of Marc Vangoro, Master of Horror (he appears in another adventure in CFMO No. 8.)

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Cracked’s For Monsters Only
Issue 7, April 1969Read More »

Weird Vol. 9, No. 2
June 1976

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With a cover that's a zoomed in portion of the cover from Tales From the Tomb, May 1974, this issue of Weird, which picks up 15 months after the original magazine's run, "ain't nuthin' but a bunch of reprints. Evidently the kid who picked the stories was a fan of Macagno and Mandrafina, as their artwork takes up over half of the magazine." (from The Weird Indexes of Eerie Publications by Mike Howlett) But, hey, these stories are still chilling when read in the dead of night.

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Weird Vol. 9, No. 2
June 1976Read More »

Tales From The Tomb
Volume 6, No. 5

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I don't know what it is about mummies and barely dressed unconscious women, but you see this kind of thing a lot in horror movies and comics. It's always either a mummy or some monster, corpse, vampire, werewolf, or nasty male creature carrying off a woman. I'd love to see an unconscious naked guy being carried off one of these days. Just once, at least, please. Women in Horror 2015 is coming up and I know for certain this is definitely not the kind of cheap, exploitative image we should perpetuate for modern horror. Sure, it sells comics and movies (or tries to), but it is growing stale. After so many victimizations of poorly dressed women running, feinting, and screaming through the horror of it all, you would think the male-pattern-baldness mentality going on here would get a beating. Before that happens though, I suggest you read why they made this poor guy a living corpse wrapped in rags (and if she catches her death of cold dressed like that).

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Tales From The Tomb
Volume 6, No. 5Read More »

Tales From the Tomb
Vol. 6, Issue 4, July 1974

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If you ever wondered why parents were quick to toss these magazines in the garbage–if they found their kids stash of them–well, here's a good issue to satisfy you: Tales From the Tomb, Volume 6, No. 4. The following information for this issue is taken from the excellent The Weird Indexes of Eerie Publications by Mike Howlett (if you're an Eerie Publications fan you need this book): 

  1. The Demon (redraw of Demon Fiddler from Fantastic Fears #7)
  2. The Skin-Rippers (redraw of Black Death from Fantastic Fears #4)
  3. The Coffin (redraw of I, the Coffin from Fantastic Fears #7)
  4. Heads of Horror (redraw, taken from Voodoo #14)
  5. I Chopped Her Head Off (redraw of I Killed Mary from Weird Mysteries #8)
  6. Satan's Cat (redraw of First Come First Served from Weird Mysteries #2
  7. In the Slime Below (redraw of Les Miserables from Black Cat Mystery #48
  8. The Monster (redraw of Transformation from Witches Tales #14

Enjoy!

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Tales From the Tomb
Vol. 6, Issue 4, July 1974Read More »

Terror Tales
Vol. 2, Issue 5, September 1970

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The most terrifying thing in this issue of Eerie Publications' Terror Tales, September 1970, is that some crazy kid cut out a coupon. A pox on you and your descendents! Luckily it doesn't totally ruin the story panel the coupon clipping took with it. Crazy kid! At least the stories are sufficiently gruesome. And the kid, at least, did show good taste: he clipped a one dollar coupon ("for creepy ghouls only") for 4 back issues. Yes, that's right, a buck back then could get you four issues of terror, horror, and assorted nastiness. Hope he didn't tell his mom. 

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Terror Tales
Vol. 2, Issue 5, September 1970Read More »

The Monster Times Issue 17
November 30,1972

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For The Monster Times issue 17, coverage of Forbidden Planet, Flash Gordon, and science fiction on television joins Amicus Productions' Asylum and the influence of Rod Serling's work for the cinema fantastic on the small and large screens. The 3oth World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles is reported on (seems McDonald's provided cheaper and better food than the banquet event), and Bill Feret's Monster Times Teletype gives the skinny on upcoming and ongoing newsy stuff (something we take for granted today, given the Internet's over abundance of newsy stuff).

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The Monster Times Issue 17
November 30,1972Read More »

Monsters and Heroes Issue 2, 1967

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Larry Ivie passed away this year. His Monsters and Heroes: The Magazine of Pictorial Imagination epitomized the growing fanbase whose interests spanned movies, comic books, and literature and where each intersected. Aside from his own creation, Altron Boy, Larry contributed to Eerie, Creepy, and Marvel Comics. In this issue, The Three Faces of Superman (for 1967, that is), and The Three Faces of Captain America (again, for 1967) appear, as well as "the original Flash Gordon," Siegfried: Son of Odin. A short article on Edgar Rice Burroughs The Monster Men is here to whet your interest, too.

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Monsters and Heroes Issue 2, 1967Read More »

The Monster Times Issue 16
October 1972

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By issue 16 of The Monster Times it was fairly apparent that this tabloid-sized monster magazine was well executed and keeping pace with the monsterkid-now-popular-culture-junkie that prowled the movie theaters and comic book conventions in the 1970s. Showing more editorial and article prowess than most of its brethren on the magazine racks, the first-person articles–written by the monster or pivotal movie character himself (or herself)–took a little getting used to, but it was different. In this issue Mighty Joe Young demands his rights while Godzilla makes it perfectly clear that he's announcing his candidacy for President of the United States. Keeping things a little more traditional is Jim Wnorski, writing on plant-based menaces in The Roots of Evil, and R. Allen Leider satisfying the country's need for a good old-fashioned horror film in Dr. Phibes Rises Again. On the comics front, Michael Uslan convinces us that Comics are Good Learnin! and there's a report on the 3rd San Diego Comic Convention. Highlights were an electrical failure that darkened the dealer's room, and some prankster dumped shark repellent into the swimming pool, turning it bright yellow. Those crazy fanboys! 

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The Monster Times Issue 16
October 1972Read More »

Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine
Issue 5, November 1975
Part 2

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In part 2 of Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine issue 5, Lee Majors gets his closeup as The Six Million Dollar Man, Peter Lorre’s life is revealed by Sharon Phillips in The Lorre Story, and Space 1999 blasts off. The Stepford Wives put in an appearance to. And along with the usual monsterkid mail-order goodies are perfumes, iron-ons, and an imported lock blade stiletto for $2.75 plus 25 cents shipping, and essential to round out your cosplay for West Side Story.

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Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine
Issue 5, November 1975
Part 2Read More »

Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine
Issue 5, November 1975
Part 1

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Go to Part 2

Jekyll and Hyde: Through the Years, by Steve Abrams, kicks off this jam-packed issue 5 of Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine. Ron Weiss’s Heroes of the Horrors gives credit where credit is due as he interviews Calvin Beck, and Judith M. Kass interviews Himan Brown, creator of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Television coverage is provided for The Six Million Dollar Man and Space 1999, and Peter Lorre bio is given by Sharon Phillips. And, of course, the Gone Apes! section provides the gag-captioned photos we’ve come to expect from monster magazines published around this time. All in all, a stellar issue of monster coverage that’s informative as well as entertaining.

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Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine
Issue 5, November 1975
Part 1Read More »