The Gogos

Just a little Basil art.

Creepy No. 30

FM No. 83

Famous Monsters Scrap Book

I'm sure most of you have one of these '60s FM scrapbooks. No? Well, maybe that's because it was never produced. However, you can still enjoy the cover art (by Walt Howarth) that would have been on it, if it had been.

FM Scrapbook

Free Movies!

I thought I'd pass along this list of 100 horror/sci-fi movies that you can watch for free online.

FM #251, Again

Here's the forth and final (thank God!) cover for FM #251. I like it! A fitting cover for an updated FM. Now, just try and get your paws on one for less than 4 times the cover price! (Unless you're going to the FM convention.)

No. 251
Cover by Vince Evans

Movie Action Magazine

This was a short lived (6 issues, Nov. '35 - June '36) pulp from publisher Street & Smith. The editor was John L. Nanovic and it featured prose adaptions of the movie scripts. I wish it had lasted longer, if only to get more covers like the two below!

Jan. 1936

June 1936

Paramount Exhibitor Book

Kind of an orphan.

Obviously early enough in the proceedings that the makeup had not been designed.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1932)
















After posting almost every day for the last two weeks, I'm going to take a little break. Thanks for tuning in!

Universal Exhibitor Books

Here are some pages from various Universal Exhibitor Books. Several of these have been published, in Graven Images for instance. Some are early announcements, made before final casting and some were never made.

Cagliostro (c. 1932) was to be a vehicle for Karloff. The property eventually morphed into The Mummy.

Old Dark House (1932)

Early announcement of The Invisible Man (1933) that was to star Karloff.

Dracula's Daughter (1936) was originally going to co-star Lugosi.

The Invisible Ray (1936)

The Invisible Woman (1940)

The Monster of Zombor (c. 1940-1) was a would be follow-up to The Black Cat (1940).

RKO REDO

I added one photo to the previous post. More Hunchback art from the Exhibitor Book.

RKO Exhibitor Books

Continuing with the trade publications, when I think of RKO I think of the Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack (and sometimes Willis O'Brien) productions, the Laughton Hunchback and the Val Lewton movies. Some really nice art, including that wild Son of Kong!

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

King Kong (1933)

Son of Kong (1933)

SHE (1935)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

Cat People (1942)

The Leopard Man (1943)

I Walked With A Zombie (1943)

The 7th Victim (1943)

Universal Weekly

Universal Weekly was a 32 pg publication sent to theater owners, keeping them informed of what's coming up from Universal Studios. One of the big titles for 1935 was, of course, The Bride of Frankenstein and there were, at least, two covers of UW (and some interior pages) featuring The Bride.

Feb. 23, 1935

March 2, 1935

April 6, 1935

Aurora/FM Coupon

Aurora and FM had an ongoing relationship for many years and during the mid '60s this coupon could be found in the boxes of their monster models. It offered a free copy (i.e., random back issue) of FM if you sent in the coupon with 25¢ for shipping. Probably not a lot of these have survived, as they would have been used. These coupons have also been found in the SPP monster wallets.

From the Richard Olson collection.

Front and Back

Inside

HELP!

I never bought/read an issue of Warren's (and Kurtzman's) HELP!, but if you want to see all 26 covers (click for large view and TOC), click this link.

Before FM pt. 5

Creature From The Black Lagoon

This movie certainly got a lot of press (including some from Marilyn Monroe, who discusses the movie with Tom Ewell after a screening in The Seven Year Itch), but not very many magazine articles. Here are a couple, one fairly common and one very rare.

Mechanix Illustrated

May 1954

The Skin Diver

Aug. 1954

The Swipe File

Here's a fun game you can play! It's called Spot the Swipe. All you have to do is spot a piece of art that has been copied from another source (a photograph, another painting). This will usually be just a face, or a pose. For our purposes, these should be swipes from classic horror/sci-fi/fantasy flims. Could be from an old pulp, paperback, or just about anywhere.

Here's one sent in by John from Monster Magazine World. It's from an old (1946) paperback called Spawn of the Vampire and it's pretty obvious that the head was swiped from this photo from The Mummy (1932).

Email your swipes to me and keep your eyes open!

Ackerman Science Fiction Agency

Here's a pre-FM ad showing what Forry was up to just before he teamed up with Jim Warren. It has the names of many of the clients he represented, or did other work for.

Monster Mags Theater "FM Covers: Part Deux"

Same thing, different music. A promo for the new FM 251.

FanMo ProMo

Here's a rare promotional flyer announcing the upcoming first issue of Fantastic Monsters of the Films from distributor AADC. 8.5x11 unfolded.

From the John Ballentine collection.

Front

Back

Monster Mags Theater "FM Covers"

I thought this was kind of fun!

Before FM Cover Gallery

Here are a few favorite pieces of movie monster/sci-fi art from the covers of a wide variety of pre-1958 magazines.

This Jan. 1934 issue of Ten Dectective Aces has an obvious swipe of Chaney's "Phantom" face. Not sure what story is being illustrated, but it's not one by Gaston Leroux.

Jan. 1934

















And speaking of Lon Chaney, here's a nice portrait (sans makeup) from the June 1930 issue of Movie Monthly.

June 1930

















This cover of Thrilling Wonder Stories, by pulp legend Howard V. Brown, illustrates the movie version of the Henry Kuttner story. One of my favorites!

June 1940

















Sci-Fi Time! Destination Moon probably got more press than any other '50s sci-fi movie and the May 1950 issue of Popular Mechanics has one of the best covers.

May 1950

















Ziff-Davis Published a special issue of Amazing Stories with a novelization (by Henry Slesar) of Columbia Pictures' 20 Million Miles To Earth.

1957