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Entries from March 2019
James Warren: Empire of Monsters
Just finished Bill Schelly's James Warren: Empire of Monsters. Let me put it this way. There are books I tend to dawdle over and books I have trouble putting down, once I start reading them, because something about them, maybe it's the style or the content or it's just the nature of the beast, so to speak, keeps my eyes glued to their pages. Schelly's book reached out and glued my eyes to its pages.
At 300-plus of those pages (though I wish there were more pictures), it flew by in a good way, a wonderful way. Schelly is not the kind of author who's better to read a Kindle edition of his book because you spend a lot of time looking up ten dollar words when a buck's worth would have sufficed--which I find very annoying (but enlightening, of course)--and his sentence structures aren't the academic jargonese, dog-eat-tail variety that takes turns scratching your head for you as you try to understand what the author is saying. Empire of Monsters leaves those complications for its subject matter: James Warren and the creative people he alternated between loving and hating and loving again, and the influential magazines they created.
James Warren is a very complicated guy, and the numerous quotes from those who worked with him (sometimes against him) to produce the monsterkid's wet dreams of Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, Blazing Combat, Captain Company merchandise, and the icing on the cake, Famous Monsters of Filmland, are captured here in a way that presents a fascinating, perplexing, and, when all summed up, more than a snapshot's worth of the publishing versus creation versus mixed-bag personalities that came and went to nurture and sustain a growing fandom. And all this while still trying to make a buck and act like Hugh Hefner, a man whose larger than life appetites Warren wanted desperately to emulate. Hell, wouldn't we all!
This is where James Warren appears his most scrutiny-resistant. Aviation buff (complete with a yellow--his favorite color--Sopwith Camel replica in his front yard), purveyor of the excessive and quirky life (complete with Long Island party-hardy getaway and unabashed skinning dipping among his peers), and a personality that shifted between yelling not telling or nice guy to work with or not so nice guy to work with. Schelly keeps the level of narrative balanced and pretty neutral, presenting Warren's lovers and haters in equal measure through their quotes and interactions with him as he struggled to keep his publishing mini-empire running during both the gravy times and the threadbare ones, fighting for rack space against the likes of Marvel and Skywald. What you won't find here is a lot of attention paid to Forrest J Ackerman and the Warren relationship. Some juicy tidbits you will find, but this is a book about Warren and his needs and dreams.
Depending on where you are coming from, whether you're a monsterkid who grew up with Warren's magazines on the racks or someone who's curiosity was piqued after reading a Creepy or Eerie archive edition, this book is for you. It's funny, but after watching Netflix's Love, Death & Robots, I couldn't help but think of these magazines. That illustrated short story format with a kicker ending was the hallmark of Warren Publishing's storytellers and illustrators. And don't get me started on Captain Company. That's one for us monsterkids to memory-drool over. You wouldn't think selling merchandise would be such a big deal, but as Schelly illuminates, it was a key player for Warren. Captain Company's merchandise profits kept underperforming magazines on the racks and paid for a lot of that wild life-style.
There's triumph and tragedy here, a lot of history and personalities too, that all came together to create the monsters we still embrace today. Victor Frankenstein had an easier time of it but Warren Publishing did it best.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 in Books (Non-fiction) | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Monster Times Issue 34, 1974
The Time Machine kicks off issue 34 of The Monster Times, with It Came From Out of the Underground (comix, that is), and Star Trek Lives! By 1979, Star Trek fandom would get their fix with Star Trek the Motion Picture (well, okay, sort of), and more ST to follow on the big screen. William Shatner also gives TMT a lengthy interview, too. Doug Murray pours over the slimy monsters to be found in comics, and a pondering over Zardoz ponders some more. Ladies of Fright explores female terrors in film beginning with Freaks, but of course needs to be added to by now, and a preview of Madhouse with Vincent Price is tossed in for good measure. Of special nostalgic and historical interest, you'll find on page 27, a half-page rundown on all the cool happenings planned for the 1974 New York Comic Art Convention, where fans mingled with the greats. Sadly, I didn't take pictures when I attended--I know, how stupid of me! But I was there, although my memories are more foggy than clear about the whole thing, but I swear, I wasn't doing drugs. I wasn't!
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Monday, March 25, 2019 in Magazine Morgue | Permalink | Comments (0)
In issue 26 of The Monster Times, Destroy All Monsters brings out the big guns, Metropolis, Illinois, gets super coverage, Richard Bojarski tells us all about Rondo Hatton in Horrorwood, and Star Trek lives! -- as a Saturday morning cartoon (which was pretty good, actually). Also not to be glossed over is the Ghoulie Glossies, wherein Gary Gerani reveals the dark side of movie stills traded on the hot convention circuit. Pressbooks are briefly mentioned in the article as "these are sent directly to the theater managers who in turn usually send them directly into the garbage can..." Bite your tongue! On the plus side, there's coverage (albeit too brief) of the 1973 New York Comic Art Convention, Ah, those were the days! Conventions were so much cooler back then. I wonder whatever happened to Heidi Saha?
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Friday, March 22, 2019 in Magazine Morgue | Permalink | Comments (0)
An all-Frankenstein (really they meant The Monster, for you purists) issue of The Monster Times, for number 21, makes for stellar reading. A Glenn Strange interview, Frankenstein in the Comics, Frankenstein's Castle, The Decline of Frankenstein (bite your electrode!), Frankenstein's Bloody Terror, and the usual TMT stuff to keep you busy. Whew!
Thursday, March 21, 2019 in Magazine Morgue | Permalink | Comments (0)
Issue 41 of The Monster Times has some monstrous coverage to sink your teeth into. There's the wonderful low-budget It! The Terror From Beyond Space, Werewolf comic books are howled at, Six Versions of Frankenstein (up till then, of course) are counted, a mostly I'm-disappointed review of Young Frankenstein (now generally considered a comedy-horror classic), and How to Make a Mummy for Fun and Profit (which, disappointingly, is actually about the actual mummification process). The best part is Looking Back With Zach: An Interview With John Zacherly. One annoyance though: during the interview they showed Zackerly a photo of him with a very young Richard Thomas, taken out on Long Island, New York. "They" didn't bother to actually include the photo, although Zacherly explains it. I'd love to have seen THE PHOTO. Space:1999 and How to Make a Monster Movie round out the issue.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2019 in Magazine Morgue | Permalink | Comments (0)
Rebecca (1940) Mexican Lobby card
The old dark house trope as done by Alfred Hitchcock--and quite a movie it is. This Mexican lobby card does the movie justice. Well, except for the typo.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019 in Azteca/Mexican Lobby Cards | Permalink | Comments (0)
I'll Get You for This (1951) Pressbook
Here's the British pressbook for I'll Get You for This. I was never a big George Raft fan, but you can tell by the poster art how they played off his onscreen persona as a tough guy with a nasty temper. Wikipedia says that Peter Lorre was supposed to appear in the movie but his role was played by someone else. That's a shame. I'm a big fan of Peter Lorre. I'll watch Peter Lorre in anything.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2019 in Pressbooks (Non-Horror) | Permalink | Comments (0)
Neutron Mexican Lobby Card
Here's the Mexican lobby card for Neutron contra los Asesinos del Karate (1964). At first glance it looks like a simple layout, but look deeper. The inset scene and text are given dynamism by being slanted short of the diagonal, allowing the proscenium illustration to show the story's key themes. Notice the careful balance of the woman at bottom left, perfectly positioned along the slanting text and scene, as she looks to left and upward, while Neutron looks toward left (ostensibly towards her).
Freaks (1932) Re-Release Pressbook
Tod Browning's Freaks remains still freaky after all these years. Here's the 1949 re-release pressbook. I'm surprised the studio had enough gumption to make audiences again squirm in their seats with another showing. This movie works its black magic by turning the monstrous, like a reflection in a mirror, back to the viewers. Browning made us uncomfortable because of our limitations, not those of the circus performers considered freaks because of their physical differences. A truly amazing movie, whose awkwardness from silent movie conventions and melodramatic performances only heightens its unnerving effect one feels after watching it.
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Monday, March 18, 2019 in Pressbooks (Horror, Sci Fi, Fantasy) | Permalink | Comments (1)
Quasimodo's Monster Magazine
In Quasimodo's Monster Magazine issue 4 you have a whopping 100 pages of monster goodness. Roger Corman, Lon Chaney, Jr., Space 1999, classic horrors, Doug McClure and The Land That Time Forgot, and enough bloody merchandise to scream about--oodles of monsterkid goodness. You can find more of the Quasimodo issues in my magazine morgue too!
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Issue 4, 1975" »
Island at the Top of the World (1974) Pressbook
A lost viking civilization in the Arctic provides the theme for this fantasy film with David Hartman. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too was the other part of the double bill theater showing. Some critics at the time liked Winnie and Tigger more than Hartman. Island's pressbook, as usual, throws everything into promotion. Did you know that toothsome means attractive? Agneta Eckemyr is described as "toothsome enough to make a mummy drool." As usual with many pressbooks, female actors were often treated as mostly eye-candy fluff and glamour objects.
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Wednesday, March 06, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Strawberry Roan (1948) Pressbook
Gene Autry sets his mind to tame a wild horse after it throws a boy and paralyzes him. Autry sings inbetween the taming and the Western drama. This is Pat Buttram's first movie, although he's probably more remembered for the Green Acres sitcom with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor.
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Stolen Identity (1953) Pressbook
In this Austrian movie, a cab driver dreams of going to America and steals the identity of a murdered man. Love triangle motivations complicate things.
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West of Rainbow's End (1938) Pressbook
Tim McCoy goes looking for the killer of his friend in this Monogram Westerner. He had the best scarf in the West.
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Monday, March 04, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tron (1982) Pressbook
A Disney pressbook is always a tutorial on what movie promotion was all about in the decades before the internet and social media news. Disney, especially, went all out for tie-ins. This Tron pressbook is no exception when it comes to those tie-ins and promotions. There is also an interesting vibe in the articles regarding computer imagery: it's so 1980s. " The computer plays a major role in Tron, and, indeed, is playing a greater and greater role in our everyday lives. The use of the computer by the average person, while not yet commonplace, is growing phenomenally, and you should capitalize on this new interest..." For those of you who grew up during the birth of the home computer age, this pressbook provides a lot of nostalgia too.
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