Press release: 'Monster Mag' #2 - Relaunched in English - Go buy a copy

The original horror films poster mag is back!

...Even better, it’s relaunching with a limited edition of the most scarce film magazine in the entire world...

MONSTER MAG #2

This is a digitally remastered limited edition – a faithful printing of the original, differing only in credits on the editorial page and the Quality cover symbol replacing the 1973 Warner Bros one – to avoid any passing off.

Ebay/Paypal users can order it now from: tiny.cc/MM-2.
Or check our website: http://dezskinn.com/quality-shop-1/

MONSTER MAG OVERVIEW

Long before video nasties, DVDs and downloads, MONSTER MAG ruled! The original horror films poster mag, it was launched in 1973 by prolific Dr Who scripter Roger Noel Cook and ran for 14 issues. Following a short absence it was revived by Dez Skinn in 1976 for a further three issues before morphing into The House of Hammer.
Outside of its high profile for gory content making it highly collectable among young teenagers at the time, with back issues regularly now selling for £20/$30, it has a far greater claim to fame... By accident, its second issue has become the world's most scarce film magazine.
While French and German editions can sometimes be found on eBay - where they sell for as high as $1250 - there are no copies in existence of the 1973 English language number 2, having all been destroyed by HM Customs on arrival from its Italian printer, deemed unsuitable for an all-age market. A “For Adults Only” band was added to covers from issue 3 and stickered for a rereleased issue 1.
Another frustration for collectors is that in vol 2 #3 (issue 17) editor Dez Skinn promised that the next issue would be a "Double X" Special. But it never happened. Instead the legendary House of Hammer was launched.
With Roger Cook and Dez Skinn both working together again, there's some long-overdue tidying up they're promising to prioritise...

On this revival, Skinn commented, “I must admit feeling a great debt to Monster Mag. Without it, I certainly wouldn’t have gone on to producing House of Hammer, or Starburst. And without those, there’d have been no Doctor Who Weekly, Warrior, V for Vendetta, Miracleman or any of the rest that have kept me busy these last forty odd years.

MONSTER MAG CREATOR & ORIGINAL EDITOR: ROGER NOEL COOK

Eager to gain magazine experience and contacts, Roger landed his first job with the world’s biggest publishing company, IPC Magazines... as a teaboy.

Within a year, by this time aged 18, Cook was hired by IPC rival Polystyle Publications to be in-house staff script-writer on such series as Popeye and Tom & Jerry for the weekly TV Comic. His work proved popular enough for him to be given the weekly Doctor Who scriptwriting job. Over the next few years he wrote over 200 stories, making him the most prolific Doctor Who writer in any medium.

But restless in a sea of anonymous contributors, he left the comics industry and across the next decade he burned a trail of daring and innovative products in the UK and America, his publishing ideas making millions for Warner Bros, Paul Raymond, Hugh Hefner, Felix Dennis and Richard Desmond.

Now based in Marbella, Spain, and following a 35-year break from music, Cook has returned to his first love. With over 50 million units of his songs from the last three decades in circulation, he recently signed an agreement with the Russian Music Box TV network for his material to be aired to their 80 million Pan-European viewers.

And in partnership with his old IPC colleague, ex-head of Marvel UK Dez Skinn, Cook has recently been commissioned to develop a range of film and TV production concepts for the Asian film market, Hollywood and, for European TV, a new crime thriller series.

MONSTER MAG REVIVAL EDITOR (1975 and now, 2014): DEZ SKINN

Over the last 45 years, Skinn has made a career of creating innovative new entertainment concepts and characters for and from print and screen. Having developed over 70 adventure magazines and comics he has influenced generations of teenagers, earning him the title of “The British Stan Lee”.

Despite initially being a research chemist, following a quick change to journalism for Yorkshire Newspapers’ DONCASTER EVENING POST, Skinn moved to London in 1970 to work at IPC Magazines, writing and editing for children’s weekly comics including WHIZZER & CHIPS, COR!! and BUSTER as well as for TV’s The Two Ronnies.

In 1975 he left IPC for the publishing side of Warner Bros where he ran MAD MAGAZINE, TARZAN and a range of teen titles. It was here, a few months after reviving Roger Cook’s 1973-launched MONSTER MAG that he created the award-winning HOUSE OF HAMMER magazine, licensed from the renowned horror film company.

Leaving Warner Bros in 1977, he created STARBURST as a cult entertainment magazine which he then sold to MARVEL COMICS when headhunted to revitalise the company’s UK publishing. As their editorial director he was responsible for the future of such characters as SPIDER-MAN, THE AVENGERS and THE INCREDIBLE HULK. At the suggestion of his immediate superior, Stan Lee, he began writing a weekly editorial SEZ DEZ which appeared in the full line of Marvel titles, giving his column an audience of over half a million readers. It was also for Marvel that he created and launched the DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE, recently winning him a Guinness World Record for the world’s longest-running TV tie-in title. Timeslip, a 2-issue serial he wrote as a fill-in for the weekly has become the most reprinted Doctor Who story ever.

Going independent once again in 1982, he launched WARRIOR as a nationally-distributed comic magazine anthology. This title was the birthplace for then new writer Alan Moore’s assigned V FOR VENDETTA, later sold to Warner Bros as a graphic novel and live action feature film and MARVELMAN, recently acquired by Disney for their Marvel line.

In 1990 he launched COMICS INTERNATIONAL as an industry trade magazine, which he published and edited for 200 issues before selling the title and moving into a partnership with Roger Noel Cook, to create new ideas for film and TV.

Skinn is also author of several books, including 2003’s Harper Collins hardback COMIX: THE UNDERGROUND REVOLUTION, which was awarded Book of the Week by The Guardian newspaper.

A comment from his mentor explains his never-ending drive: Stan Lee had once said that he felt Skinn’s greatest strength was in producing new ideas and that as soon as he had them fully developed he should pass them on to others so he could move on to creating more.

In constant demand on the lecture circuit, because of his outspoken passion for and belief in education through entertainment, Skinn, whose name was an answer to a BBC-tv Mastermind question. was invited to Abu Dhabi in 2012 to chair a University of New York sponsored debate on LITERACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE 21st CENTURY.

A highly self-critical perfectionist, Skinn’s personal motto as well as his continuing goal has always been: GOOD, BETTER, BEST... BETTERED.

While Cook is busy refreshing his sun tan, Skinn is available for interviews. Please email to arrange such.

'COUNT DRACULA FAN CLUB'

Run by John Raven, 'The Count Dracula Fan Club' was one of many horror themed fan clubs that came out during the 70's and 80's. The great thing about fan clubs is that they of course cater for the fan who wants to read and learn about a particular subject, actor, film, book, charactor, etc. Once becoming a member they receive such things as a membership card, newsletters or magazine in which they can read about their favorite subject, contribute artwork, stories, articles etc. The fan club is a great way of bringing like-minded people together, forming freindships, and bringing out your creative side.

I have been a member of a few fanclubs/societies and have always found them to be freindly, fun, and informative about the subject. When I sent my money off to join 'The Count Dracula fan club' back in the early 1980's, I received a letter from John Raven saying that the club had finished, which was a little disapointing;but he said that he still had the 4 issues of the official fan club magazine 'The Vampire' which I could buy also a number of books etc that were available to members to purchase via Halloween enterprises, the clubs mailorder service. So I bought what I could afford at the time [I was still at school] which included 3 masks, a few books, a Dracula cloak and some photos. He was selling them off cheap because of the fan club closing down.

The official magazine of The Count Dracula Fan Club' The Vampire was a large format magazine that had photocopied pages[ but on good paper] apart from the covers. The magazine was also only printed on one side, but you expect this with fan produced magazines. Most of the articles, stories, reviews, and art work were by John Raven and Sharon Raven. What was great about the magazine was that it covered a lot of the latest horror books, theatre productions, audio tapes, etc that came out at the time here in England. The reviews covered such items as 'I am the doorway and 'One for the road' audio tape read by Ed Bishop, 'Dracula' audio tape read by Anthony Valentine, More Death and horror sound effects, 'The Reluctant Vampire' by Eric Morcambe, Theatre production of 'Sweeny Todd' starring Brian Murphy and Liz Frazer, 'Bats out of hell' by Guy N. Smith, Waddington's Game of Dracula, The Vampire bedside companion, The Beaver book of horror, and other books, tapes etc. The magazine featured articles on actors that have played Dracula, Bram Stoker, Highgate cemetary, Borley rectory, stories, jokes, Dracula in the media, fanclub/society reviews, amoung many other items.

All in all 'The Count Dracula Fan Club' seemed to be a freindly and fun fanclub to become a member of. The pictures show the 4 'The Vampire' magazines and a flyer explaining what the fanclub is all about.

FORREST J ACKERMAN - 1916-2008

On December 4th of this year Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy fans have lost the most influential person within the genre, Forrest J Ackerman. Also known as Uncle Forry, Mr.Sci-Fi, Mr.Monster, 4E, FJA, Dr.Acula, etc. For those not familiar with the name [shame on you] Forrest Ackerman had been a life long fan, editor, writer, agent, archivist, actor, collector, etc, etc of all things horror, science fiction and fantasy. He saw is first fantasy film 'One Glorious Day' when he was 6 year old and began collecting fantastic memorabilia soon after which he continued untill the end. Through out his incredible life he has seen just about every genre film including the now lost Lon Chaney snr film 'London after Midnight' [Forry also had the Beaver hat and the teeth that Chaney wore in the film, as well has owning Chaney's make-up kit]. Forry discovered Ray Bradbury, was friends with Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Angus Scrimm, Robert Bloch, Peter Jackson, Steven Speilberg, Joe Dante, Ray Harryhausen, Tobe Hooper, Ed Wood jnr, Elsa Lanchester the list goes on and on. Many of these famous actors, directers, make-up people were inspired to become what they are by reading a monster magazine that came out in 1958. This the first of it's kind was called 'Famous Monsters of Filmland' and was edited by Forrest Ackerman and published by James Warren. The magazine in its original run lasted for 191 issues of which Forry edited 190 issues. The magazine was aimed at the 11 to 13 age group and the magazine was full of fasinating articles and photos from the great monster films, most of the stills seen in Famous Monsters were from Forry's collection. Forry's freindly approach to the magazine with his puns, humour was a hit with the kids, but the magazine also had its serious side too with wonderful features on wonderful horror/monster films as well as on the actors, directers, make-up men, writers, etc. A section called The Graveyard Examiner would feature horror/monster fans writing about their collections, monster make-ups, or super 8 film making. Forry made monsters fun, interesting and made fans of the genre realise that there is no harm in liking monsters. As well has editing Famous Monsters, Forry also edited 'Monster World', 'Spacemen', 'Monsterland', 'Wonderama', etc. He invented the Vampirella comic character also published by Jim Warren, coined the term 'Sci-Fi', appeared in films such as 'Amazon Women on the Moon, Schlock, Innocent Blood, Brain Dead, Return of the Living Dead pt2, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Beverley Hills cop 3, Mausoleum, Dracula vs Frankenstein etc, etc.

Forry's vast collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Monster memorabilia was housed in his 17 room 3 garage residence which was termed The Ackermansion. The incredible collection included over 50,000 books, tens of thousand stills, one of Bela Lugosi's Dracula capes, Lugosi's dracula ring, Boris Karloff's Mummy ring, Dinosaur models made by Ray Harryhausen, Original head of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Don Post masks, thousands of pulp magazines, over 250 different editions of Dracula and Frankenstein, model kits, autographs from the likes of Lugosi, Karloff, Chaney, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Vincent Price, in fact probally all of those involved within the genre of Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy, original props, models etc from films and Television such as King Kong, Gremlins, Frankenstein, War of the Worlds, Picture of Dorian Gray, The Outer Limits, Forbidden Planet, etc etc. Then there are original paintings by Bok, Virgil Finley, Basil Gogos and many others, I could go on and on. Anyway you can probally understand why Forrest Ackerman was and is still a very important man for what he did for the genre in so many ways as well has being a wonderful, kind, funny, inteligent man. R.I.P.

The first and only time I met Forrest Ackerman was March 1991 at the Scala Cinema in London, he was guest at a small event called 'The Famous Monsters of Filmland Festival', also there that day were Ray Harryhausen and Johnny Legend. I was in total awe of Forry, I at last was meeting the man I read so much about and read so much about his collection, He was very likable, who shook your hand, smiled and signed any books, issues of Famous Monsters etc. He always had so much time for fans and enjoyed talking about the genre and had so many interesting stories to tell about his life, the people he met, the films he appeared in, his collection etc. Forry was wearing the famous Bela Lugosi Dracula ring and the Boris Karloff Mummy ring and behind him was sat the Horror Hall of Fame Grim Reaper statue that he was presented with. I chatted with Forry and showed him some photos of my collection of Horror memorabilia and photos of Bram Stoker's urn at Golders Green in London, I said that he could have any of the photos to keep if he wanted and he chose one of me when I was much younger holding a copy of House Of Hammer magazine and rubber bats hanging from my ears, a year or 2 later my picture was included in 'Wanted more readers like...' in 'Monsterama' no.2. I feel so honoured to have met such an amazing person, my regret was that I never got to see the Ackermansion in Hollywood. Thank goodness there are many photos and footage of the Ackermansion and Forry to enjoy.

'MONSTER MAG' - Top Sellars Ltd

Now what teenage horror film fan could'nt resist a poster magazine containing gruesome and blood curdling photos, articles on horror films, stars, and real life horrors such as torture etc and of course a large full colour poster of a fiendish monster to put on their bedroom wall or to take to school and show their mates? That is if the newsagent would sell you one or an adult would buy you a copy, after all issues of 'Monster Mag' were For adults only, as it is written on the cover. This is forbidden fruit for the youngsters as is the girlie mags on the top shelf but this also makes it all the more reason for some of them to want to check them out, you know just for curiosity's sake. I should Imagine some of them that did manage to get copies of Monster Mag maybe weren't allowed to put their posters on the wall, not that they were too gruesome or gory but for the 1970's these were the sort of thing not usually covered in any of the genre magazines of the time, especially in full colour. 'Monster Mag' was possibly the first of its kind, many years before America's gory 'Fangoria' magazine came out during 1979. Now 'Monster Mag' is pretty tame to what we have these days, but during the 70's they were the horror/monster fans mag to have.

'Monster Mag' was published by Top Sellars Ltd of London between 1973 and 1976, a total of 17 issues were published. The first few issues were printed in Italy which brings me to issue #2 which has become the issue most talked about, why? Well because the issues were printed in Italy and shipped to the UK, they of course had to go through customs and checked, Issue 1 got through ok but for some reason #2 never made it and all issues were destroyed, although there are german and french editions of the first 4 issues that can on occasions still be found on places like ebay. So really the only way to see that 2nd issue is by buying one of the german or french issues, not much use if you can't read their language but who cares about that the language when you have the gory pictures to look at. Still its a shame that #2 never made it to these shores for us British fans to enjoy and to make our own minds up. Mind you I have heard that the issue in questions may see a reprint. Would be nice to see 'Monster Mag' return again with all new issues starting with that 2nd issue and then publishing the Double X issue which was due after #17, I guess many fans were waiting in anticipation for that issue, me included. I think eventually 'Monster Mag' was printed in the UK probally from issue 5 at a guess, as there are no german or french editions afterwards, and maybe Top Sellars thought it would be a lot easier to get it printed here rather than risk loseing issues through customs. Editor of the first 4 issues was Roger Cook, then from #5 to #14 editorial would be taken over by Rodgers wife Jan Cook. From issue 15 which became Vol.2#1, editorial duties were taken over by Dez Skinn, whom would bring a touch of ghoulish humour to his editorial. Dez would later on publish 'House of Hammer' magazine as well as many many more genre magazines, comics etc. A small advert hinting at the new 'House of Hammer' magazine was printed on the editorial page and a another issue featured the cover of the first issue in black and white on the back of 'Monster Mag'. To end I thought, well still do that 'Monster Mag' was a great publication with its interesting articles, stunning photos and surperb posters especially for Hammer horror fans as most of these posters were from some of the great Hammer films such as 'Curse of Frankenstein', 'Twins of Evil', 'Frankenstein and the monster from hell', 'Vampire Circus' etc. There was a nice one of the poster artwork from Amicus film's 'From beyond the grave' too. In issue Vol.2#2 the poster featured the 1958 Hammer 'Dracula' poster artwork and the other 2 issues had posters featuring 2 seperate photos split into the one poster. For those of you who would like to get your claws onto issues of 'Monster Mag' then like I say do check out Ebay, although it can be difficult at times to find a perfect issue of one as many do have pin holes or cellotape marks where they were obviously put on the wall. Or there is also a disc that is sometimes on ebay which has all pages, including posters of each issue nicely photographed and in PDF format, which also Includes issue #2 and a photocopy of a feature about issue #2 which was first published in a fanzine called 'Magazine of the movies'. Please check out the wonderful and Informative website of Dez Skinn where you can read about his other publications and enjoy rare pictures and artwork from 'House of Hammer' magazine etc.

http://dezskinn.com/

'GHOUL' magazine 1976 - New English Library

The dissapointing thing about 'Ghoul' magazine was that there was only the first issue published, which is such a shame as it could of been something really great. It reminds me somewhat of the other 1970's horror magazine 'World of Horror', both have a similar feel and style.

As well has the usual horror film features and reviews, 'Ghoul' would have a lighter side with the section Ghoul Gazette which was in the style of a newspaper which contained funny ghoulish stories, adverts and pictures. The cover of the magazine is a close-up of Dracula from the New English Library novel 'Dracula Returns' by Robert Lory and inside is a centre spread of the full picture which was the wraparound painting on the novel, the poster here printed minus the wording. Contents of 'Ghoul' are as follows:

'Beyond Terror' - Staff members telling what phobias, fears, nightmares they have.

'I meet the great Indestructible - Exclusive interview with Count Dracula' by Hans Clutcher - Spoof interview with the Count.

'Things aren't what they used to be!' by Denis Gifford - Horror films of the 1940's

'Horror-Scope' - Monster horoscopes with the birthsigns Suckdritus the Vampire, Fangus the Werewolf, Gnawus the Slime-Beast, and Crushem the Golen.

Christopher Lee - brief description about the actor illustrated with film stills

'Ghoul at Large' by R.Chetwynd-Hayes - Short story by the horror writer

'On the Prowl' - Chilling news from the scream scene.

'Kiss me quick' - funny captions to monsters kissing in films stills.

'Ghoul Gazette' - Spoof 2 page newspaper.

'Masters of Horror - 1.Edgar Alan Poe' by Walter Gillings - Profile of the master horror writer.

'Some new pleasures prove' - by Charles Birkin - Short story

'Celluloid Screams' - Gallery of 4 horror film posters

'Preymate of the month' - in which the readers were invited to send in their ghoulish monster creations, the one featured in this issue was called Octopus Man.

Also featured in this 1st issue were adverts for 'Science Fiction Monthly' magazine and 'The Monster Club' by R.Chetwynd-Hayes and also a competion to win a Mettoy Vampire kite. The back cover as shown above is an advertisement for a number of New English Library Horror titles.

'LEGEND HORROR CLASSICS' Poster magazine

The short lived and unusual title of 'Legend Horror Classics' (1974/75) only lasted for 13 issues was similar in format to the more well known title 'Monster Mag'. Legend Horror Classics contained a comic adaptation usually of a classic Horror story. The first issue would feature Dracula, the second issue Frankenstein...These comicstrip stories were drawn by Kevin O'Neil and were usually in 3 colours [see scan above]. The magazine of course contained a wonderful colour horror poster of a still from a British horror film. These posters were usually about 4 A4 page size. It was a little unusual to have a comic adaptation in a poster magazine format, which I suppose sets it apart from other similar formats. The Comics would be dropped from issue 11 when Legend Horror Classics format was revamped and now would contain colour features on a particular monster from films, issue 11 would concentrate on Vampires, issue 12 Werewolves, and issue 13 on Frankenstein. this change of format would now give it a closer feel to 'Monster Mag' although Legend Horror Classics's features and posters were not so gory and as big as those covered in Monster Mag. Legend would also contain a portrait of a classic film star such as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchecster, Peter Cushing etc in a famous characterisation. These wonderful peices of artwork were created using the dotting process, I forget what this process is called, but it is very effective [see scan above]. All in all Legend Horror Classics although short lived was a nice addition to British horror collectables and the posters sure would look great on the wall.

'HORROR' - Ian Allan Film Albums - 2

I was a bit uncertain to say whether this was a book or magazine, it certainly is the size of a magazine and it has a similar page count, and yet the cover and pages are a little thicker than a magazine. Anyway whatever it really is it is basically 54 pages of mainly black and white photos from the silent horror films up till photos from recent horror films of the time (1971), examples of pages shown above. There are some great pictures from the classic horror films and the descriptions to some of the photos are quite lengthy which helps to pad out the pages a little. The Ian Allan Horror Film album is compiled by Allen Eyles and published by Ian Allan of London. An interesting and entertaining publication which is a great introduction to images from the horror genre. Other film albums in the series included 'Westerns' and 'Cary Grant'.

'TARGET' magazine for boys

The weekly 'Target' magazine began in the early 1970's and was aimed at boys with a varied range of interests. Published by New English Library, the issues would cover what you probally would expect of a boys magazine such as: Sport, the natural world, stories of war and bravery, cars etc. Other subjects included Pop music, boys fashion, profiles of film stars and films etc. Two regular comic strips were 'Bovver Boy' basically a boy skinhead, and Carrington- Crimebuster.

Dave Lee Travis hosted a regular colemn about pop music and would you belive the actor Christopher Lee also had a regular colemn called World of Cinema and TV, which was basically a platform to talk about his current activities in the film and TV world. Target would also do features on horror films and effects in horror films as well as profiles on their stars. An average issue would run to about 32 pages, a lot of which were in colour, sometimes a double spread poster was also included. I am not sure how many issues were published, certainly into the 50s.

As you can see above are 2 issues that have a horror themed cover and the Christopher lee colemn from those issues.

'THE BLACK BOX CLUB' audio magazine

Here is a great item that came out during the 1980's - A audio magazine on cassette. This was made and produced by Mark Phelps who also used to publish a Peter Cushing fanzine. 'The Black box club' was a very well put together audio magazine that mainly concentrated on Hammer and Amicus films and their makers. The first copy of the cassettes featured such items as an interview with 'Legend of the Werewolf' star David Rintoul, part 1 of a comedy story called "Attack of the killer wardrobe', 'Dr.Bedlam's bedtime terror tales', video Reviews, news, jingles, well wishes from famous people such as Geoffrey Bayldon, etc. The Black box club kind of had a feel of a radio show, very entertaining, and Mark Phelps was enthusiastic and funny, the black box club had a feel good feel to it, besides being informative. I only ever got round to buying this first issue, but years later when I wrote to Mark again, he sent me lots of flyers about other issues that he had made and he said that the quality was alot better this time. Take alook at the flyer above which tells you about the other editions of the Black box club that were available. Unfortunately I nether got round to ordering the rest of them and I lost contact with Mark.
Is there anyone else that remembers The Black Box Club? I would love to hear from you.

'World of Horror' magazine 'Horror bags' peice

Here is a small peice that tells about the new creepy corn snack, that is 'Horror bags'. This appeared in an issue of the British horror magazine 'World of Horror' in 1974. I know the picture isn't too clear, but you can probally make out some of the creepy advertising images for Horror bags, including the top hatted vampire boards, a mask, the bags and boxes themselves.

'THE BLACK BOX CLUB' -Network video magazine article

I did a post sometime ago regarding the audio cassette magazine 'The Black Box Club' of which I still have been unable to find anywhere that as any copies of the tapes that were made during the 1980's, there also doesn't seem to be anywhere on the net that has anything about this either. Surely there must be someone who remembers the Black Box Club besides myself. Anyway here is a short article that appeared in the newspaper style publication 'Network Video' that came out during the late 1980's/early 1990's regarding the Black Box Club.

'LOOK-IN' Monster cover 1981

One of the most popular and long running children's magazines was the slim but informative and fun weekly 'Look-in' [junior TV Times] which ran from 1971 up untill 1994. The magazine covered anything from a TV series, films, pop stars, sport stars, jokes, competitions, comicstrips of popular TV series of the time, etc. I think certainly the 1970's was the best period for the magazine, because of the wonderful painted covers, quality comicstrips, and because I am biased towards that decade as I belive the programmes were better and certainly more memorable and had good storylines and good character actors, which I don't think you get so much these days; but this is of course my own opinion.

Anyway here is an issue of Look-in from the week ending 30 May 1981, which as you can see has a monster themed cover featuring Star Wars Chewbacci, Frankenstein's monster, Sweetums from the Muppet show, and Vincent Price from The Monster Club. 1981 was the year that Amicus films realeased The Monster Club, another of their popular series of films featuring 3 or 4 different short films with a wrap around story in-between. This particular film was aimed at the older children. Featuring a wonderful cast such as Vincent Price, John Carradine, Britt Eckland, Donald Pleasance, Patrick Magee, among many other classic stars. Music was provided by The Pretty Things, B.A.Robinson, UB40, etc. I am hoping to do a bigger feature on some of The Monster Club collectables sometime, so I shall tell you a little more about the contents of this issue of Look-in relevant to The Cobwebbed Room. First up there is a 4 page feature called 'Enough to make you scream' which talks about horror films in general and The Monster Club, and there was a fantastic competition to win one of the actual masks used in the nightclub scenes of The Monster Club. 6 masks were up to grabs and you just had to answer 5 monster based questions. I wonder if these are still around?

'DRACULA T-SHIRT' magazine ad

I used to love seeing this advert for a Christopher Lee Dracula T-Shirt that was usually in issues of House of hammer, Worlds of Horror, and possibly Starburst during the 1970's. The photo of the woman wearing sunglasses and the t-shirt made it all the more cool to want this, but as usual I never saw this ad untill the magazine was years out of print. I'd still love to find one of these Dracula t-shirts. Is there anyone reading this that did buy one back in the 70's?

Thanks to Rich

'FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND FESTIVAL' - Scala Cinema 1991

I first learned of Forrest J Ackerman through reading a softcover book that I had seen in a local comic book sometime in the early to mid-1980's. The title was 'Mr.Monster's Movie Gold' by Forrest Ackerman, as well as rare horror, science fiction and fantasy stills all of which came from Ackerman's collection, there were also photos of himself and his vast collection at the Ackermansion in Hollywood. I was fascinated by this man whom had for decades been such a big fan and collector, who was a literary agent for some of the top science fiction authors, had cameos in many genre films, termed the word Sci-Fi, invented Vampirella, was Friends with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, John Landis, Joe Dante etc and edited the first ever monster film magazine Famous Monsters of filmland;these are just touching on the surface of the achievements of Forrest Ackerman. The photos in Mr.Monster's Movie gold inspired me to become more of a genre fan especially a horror fan, the photos of Forry's collection also made me want to become a collector myself, although of course I knew I would never have anything like the incredible things that he had collected. I should think that most fans had heard about Forry from reading 'Famous Monsters' which he edited for 190 issues from 1958 to 1983. I was aware of the magazine and probably had at the time a few of the later issues, but I didn't really know anything much about it's editor until that book I saw in the comic shop. After buying and reading the book I was determined to try and find out more about Forry and the Ackermansion, mainly through genre books and magazines. Years later I wrote to Forry, just to basically tell him what an inspiration he has been on my interest in horror, science fiction films, books etc. I forget how long it took for me to get a reply but when I did I was over the [full] moon. I think it was sometime during 1990 that I got a reply back. The letter basically stated that he was coming to the UK and will be appearing at the Scala cinema in London, and also would be hoping to visit the final resting places of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, H.G.Wells etc. He even mentioned what hotel he would be staying at in London. This was fantastic news, I would now have the opportunity to meet the great man himself. As the letter was a little sketchy I had to ring the Scala up for more information regarding the event. A good friend of mine agreed to accompany me to London, we both excited and so looking forward to 'The Famous Monsters of filmland festival'. I had never been to anything like this before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Anyway to cut a long story short, the day had arrived and we turned up at the Scala cinema in King's Cross. The Scala is known for showings of all manner of cult and sleazy classics, as well as Exploitation, horror/sci-fi classics, Hong Kong cinema, grindhouse etc.

Although a Little rough around the edges the cinema was an impressive place and quite large, the roughness kind of added to its charm. Upon entering you climb some stairs that led to a large open lobby adorned with film posters of all kinds. Here in the lobby were a number of stalls selling an assortment of videos, books, magazines etc and on one of the walls were some of the original 'Famous Monsters' cover posters that could be sent for from Famous Monsters mail order company 'Captain Company' the only one I can remember was the Vincent Price 'Madhouse' cover or was it Dr.Phibes? I forget now. The doors opened at 12.30pm and at 12.45 the first of the 5 films was shown, it says in the programme [see above] that 'Return of the Apeman' would be shown in place of 'Bride of Frankenstein', this was not the case in the end as a copy of 'Bride' was shown which really pleased me as it was a firm favorite of mine and to see it on the big screen was amazing. Following this at 2.15pm was 'I was a teenage Frankenstein' and then at 3.45 'The Tomb of Liega' which my friend and I never got to see all of. My friend agreed to loan me some money so that I could buy a copy of the video 'Hooray for Horrorwood' which was on sale in the lobby by Forry's associate and publisher at the time Ray Ferry [For those that don't know Ray Ferry would take over as publisher on the new revived issues of Famous Monsters beginning with issue #200 and Forry was back as editor, unfortunately big disagreements and a bust up ensued between Forry and Ferry and it all ended up in a court battle - read online for the whole story]. Anyway we had to find a cash machine and when we did eventually find one there was scaffolding on the banks wall and tape in front of the cash machine, my friend risked it and went under the tape and lost his card in the machine, so that was that. What a downer and on top of that my camera decided not to work. At 5.15pm 'How to make a monster' was shown followed by a Ray Harryhausen Showreel and at 7.15pm Forry and Ray appeared on stage to a captive audience, I forget what they both spoke about but they basically both spoke of how they both became long time friends and about their interest and careers within the genre.At 8.15pm the Last film of the night was a film that Harryhausen's dynamation effects could be seen to great effect, 'Mysterious Island'. At 10pm Forry and Ray appeared in the cinema's lobby to meet fans and sign what ever fans wanted signing. I didn't realise that it was so late in the day that fans got to meet the two of them until I re-looked at the souvenir programme [as seen above]. Anyway Forry was sat at a table and behind him was a TV showing the 'Horray for Horrorwood' video and next to that was Forry's award from the 'Horror Hall of Fame' that he was presented with that year. While queueing up to meet the great man the chap in front of me was talking to Forry and asking him if he could look at Lugosi's Dracula ring and Karloff's Mummy ring, so I got a chance to see these 2 fantastic iconic items. I never thought to ask myself to see them, so thank goodness someone did. When it was my turn Forry smiled and we shook hands, I placed the things on the table for him to sign which were about 4 books written by Forry as well as the biographical 'Amazing Forries'. He responded by saying "Arrgghh you have all the best books". I forget what else was said to each other but he signed by books and handed me a keyring that said upon it "Remember me with every key...4E 4E 4E 4E 4E" and a badge of Forry's face made up like Dracula. I thanked him and went to meet and get Ray Harryhausen's autograph, for some reason I never said anything really to him [I think I wanted to ask him something different instead of what he probably gets asked alot, but I couldn't think of anything] Ray signed the back of my souvenir programme and for some reason my friend asked him to sign a couple of 'King Kong' comics??? Later before the end of the festival I got to speak with Forry for a little longer and I let him look at a few photos of my tiny horror collection and photos of Bram Stoker's urn at Golder's Green Crematorium, London. I said that if he wanted any of the photos he was quite welcome to them, he just chose one which was of myself taken during the early 1980's. A year or so later I was surprised to discover that Forry had printed my picture on the page 'Wanted more readers like...' in the second issue of 'Monsterama' boy was I pleased. So that was my sketchy memories of 'The Famous Monsters of Filmland festival' in London on march 16th 1991, it was such a memorable experience to me that I shall always look back on it with great fondness. One of my biggest regrets was never getting the opportunity [money more like] to go to Hollywood and see Forry and his collection, still I feel very honoured to have met him.

Contents of the souvenir brochure as seen above are as follows:

Itinerary of the day.

Introduction.'Famous Monsters of filmland story' - re-printed from 'Pure Images' #1vol.2 by Greg Theakson [This is only part of what was a much longer article with more photos and text.

Ray Harryhausen interview - re-printed from 'Imaginator' by Ken Miller.

'The House that Ack built' by Greg Theakson

Adverts for The Festival of Fantastic Films and Psychomania Videos, London.

Picture of Forrest Ackerman and Rayharryhausen [back page]

Later that night, not long after the Famous Monsters festival had finished an all night B-movie Marathon was held at the Scala and hosted by Johnny Legend [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Legend Also www.myspace.com/rockabillyjohnnylegend The event was named 'Johnny Legend's Rock & Roll Outerspace Delinquents All Night Show' Films shown during the night were:

'The Corpsegrinders' (1971)

'I Drink your Blood' (1971)

'Brides of Blood' (1968)

'Monster of the Peidras Blancas' (1959)

'Teenagers from Outer Space' (1959)

Plus rare trailers and surprises

I forget what trailers and surprises there were, but I do remember Johnny Legend on stage with I think the manager of the Scala cinema at some point doing a B-movie quiz, I answered a question about 'The Beast of Yucca Flats' and won a signed photo of Johnny's cameo appearance in 'Re-animator 2' and a 45 single of Johnny singing a song called 'House of Frankenstein' and on the B side was his rendition of a song featured on Hershall Gordon Lewis's '2000 Maniacs' All in all the whole day was fantastic, I just wish I knew some others who also went to the events and took some photos which I could share here.

'Observer' magazine 'Terror in the cinema'

Here we have an Interesting article from the week of the 7th July 1968 issue of 'The Observer' magazine by Kingsley Amis called 'Terror in the cinema'. Hope that you can read it all as the pages are slightly bigger than my scanner. Love the cover on this issue.