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.
