From Zombos' Closet

The Monster Times Issue 5 March 29, 1972

The Creature from the Black Lagoon makes a splash in issue 5 of The Monster Times, dated March 29, 1972. This is the first issue that starts an odd but noteworthy article style that would devour the later issues: a first person narrative by the issue's featured-creature. In this one, The Memoirs of Gilbert "Gill" Gillman come right from his gills. It's a bit fishy, but still informative. More MPOVs (monster point of views) would be written, but this first one is perhaps the best. On the comics end, Joe Kubert is interviewed regarding DC's Tarzan of the Apes and Esquire magazine goes for the throat with monster comix. And for Humphrey Bogart fans (like me!) there's coverage on the only horror film he starred in, The Return of Doctor X.

The Monster Times Issue 4 March 15, 1972

In this 4th issue of The Monster Times, March 15th 1972, the Monster Market provides a "reliable market-test to rely upon before sending money..." for the 7-foot tall Frankenstein Monster from Honor House. I'm sure their advertisers loved this new feature of TMT. The review was not positive by the way, but what do you expect for a buck and 25 cents postage? On a more positive note, The Bride of Frankenstein is led down the isle of fandom, Roger Corman Meets Edgar Allan Poe, and The Pulps get their comeuppance. The usual centerfold poster is replaced in this issue by A Gnawing Obsession by Jeff Jones. The Monster Times Teletype, Con-Calendar, and the Monster Fan-Fair classifieds keep the fan news going, too.

The Monster Times Issue 3 March 1, 1972

With issue 3 of The Monster Times (March 1972), bugs in movies and buggy superheroes in comic books get the magnifying glass treatment. So does King Kong with part 2 of The Men Who Saved Kong. Them gets a lengthy article. It's not a review but more like a storyline of the movie, including the dialog and events, all very literary--and boring if you've seen the movie. H.G. Wells Empire of the Ants also gets this treatment; the book, not the movie. Dare see the movie only if you want your brain to turn to jelly as Joan Collins screams in terror from the awful special effects. On another note, of particular interest is Dean Latimer's lambasting of A Marvelous Evening with Stan Lee, which took place at Carnegie Hall, 4 dollars and fifty cents a ticket. "The audience left in stunned silence, after often yawning louder than the fabulously fraught festivities."

The Monster Times Issue 2 February 16, 1972

The passing of Leonard Nimoy rekindled a lot of fond memories of my growing up with Star Trek. While most of the male kids at school wanted to be like Captain Kirk, I wanted most to be like Mr. Spock. I groked Spock. I still do. He was the most fascinating and fun thing about Star Trek. Well, at least Classic Trek, that is. Issue 2 of The Monster Times was devoted to all things Trek, which was indeed "the TV show that will not die!"

The Monster Times Issue 1 January 26, 1972

The 1970s was a transitional time for many horror fans. Vampira, Forrest J. Ackerman and Famous Monsters of Filmland, and the multitude of horror hosts screening movies of the fantastic (and bombastic) to anyone's rabbit-eared television set, had opened the doors to a wealth of multi-genre popular culture to be experienced. Comic book conventions, science fiction conventions, horror conventions, and fanzines spread that wealth among fans. It was fun, it was new, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to be there when you could buy The Uncanny X-Men No. 1 for 50 cents (which I did), and meet and greet the titans of horror and comics easily, in panel rooms that weren't the size of football fields.

The shift from the mostly monster photos and gags-filled magazine format to a more genre-diverse and informative coverage was inevitable and hit a high mark with The Monster Times. I discovered and rediscovered TMT when it originally launched in 1972, and again in 1981 when I began working at the Magic Towne House in New York City. I manned the small magic shop during the weekdays and did the kids magic shows on the weekends. I fondly remember using an Osborne 1 computer while working there, my first taste of computing. One day I was asked to ship hundreds of copies of The Monster Times, various issues, to the same address. I don't recall why. I paused now and then to peruse the issues I was stuffing into the shipping boxes and became a fan all over again. I wonder what happened to all those copies I shipped?

Quasimodo's Monster Magazine Issue 3, July 1975 Part 2

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Ron Weiss contributes more articles to this issue with The Great Ghoul of Great Britain...Christopher Lee, The Monster Explosion, and Earthquake, while Don Wiegel (sounds like a pseudonym to me!) adds What's Flash Gordon Doing in Monster Magazine? and a Two New Monster Books review. The Monster Explosion is a wonderful nostalgic trip for those who attended the comic conventions in the 1970s, and the Flash Gordon serials went through a revival in the 1970s, as did much of classic fantasy movie fare, as horror fans matured into exploring other realms of the fantastic. 

Quasimodo's Monster Magazine Issue 3, July 1975 Part 1

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Issue 3 of Quasimodo's Monster Magazine was cheaply printed, with a poor layout to boot, but filled with articles on new and old horrors. Notable here is Lugosi, The Man and the Vampyre by Ron Weiss, which references Arthur Lennig's The Count: The Life and Films of Bela (Dracula) Lugosi. The sci-fi horror Phase IV is also reviewed. 

Shock: Chilling Tales of Horror and Suspense Vol.1 No.1, May 1969

Here's the entire first issue of Shock: Chilling Tales of Horror and Suspense from Stanley Publications. If you can shed any light on the artists and writers of these stories, please do so. Unlike Eerie Publications, or Skywald, Stanley doesn't get as much love.  And with such a nice assortment of death and mayhem in this issue, too: The Gossips wag their tongues a little too often; Voodoo Dolls needle people the wrong way; a professor puts his mind to a gruesome end in Eternal Death; a dinner guest splatters all over the room in Last Supper; and a small town gets ripped apart in the Premonition.

Cracked's For Monsters Only Issue 6, January 1969

A super issue 6 for Cracked's For Monsters Only has it all: Vic Martin's groovy monster mobile cut-out (I did cut it out way back when and hung it up!); Jerry Grandenetti's poetic, kinetic art in The Secret Files of Marc Vangoro, Frankenstein '68 (with story by Otter Binder?); Richard Bojarski's articles on John Carradine and Lionell Atwill; and must-have items like the miniature secret spy camera (yes, I bought it!) and the Monster Size Glow in the Dark  Skeleton (ditto!) in the ad pages. I also bought the x-ray binocular specs but I still couldn't see through walls or clothes. Damn.

Cracked's For Monsters Only Issue 1, November 1965

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. 

Cracked Collectors' Edition Those Cracked Monsters July 1980

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. 

Cracked's For Monsters Only Issue 7, April 1969

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.)