Cover Art Reference #5

Famous Monsters #18

The mystery was solved many years ago, but I thought you'd like to look at the pictures anyway.

Because the subject of Gogos' painting (with added pointy ears) was misidentified (in this issue, as well as previously in issue #1), it was believed by many to be Frye for some years after.

FM no. 18

Oops!








The man behind the painting was, in fact, Bernard Jukes (1900-1940), who had played "Renfield" in the Hamilton Deane (and John L. Balderston) stage adaption of Dracula, in both the London cast (with Raymond Huntley as "Dracula") and New York cast (with Bela Lugosi).

Jukes on stage as Renfield, with Lugosi. (1927)






When the Universal film adaption was announced (with Lugosi and Edward Van Sloan repeating their roles as "Dracula" and "Van Helsing"), Jukes lobbied hard for the role of "Renfield" and had several photos taken of himself in character (see below), but the part went to Dwight Frye. Jukes continued playing "Renfield" in stage productions of Dracula (some produced by him) until his death in 1940.

The FM cover shot.

Cover Art Reference #4

Number 4 (or 5, or 6, but who's counting?) in an ongoing series.

Famous Monsters No. 40

This Ron Cobb cover was inspired by Jack Davis' poster art for Horror Hotel (aka City of the Dead).

  

One good swipe deserves another! Verne Langdon's "Halloween Spooktacular" LP, that was sold through the Captain Company.

Cover Art Reference #3

Famous Monsters no. 13

That weird looking Gogos Frankenstein! Not from any movie, he was a guy in a Frankie costume used to promote the first issue at a local newsstand. Here are a couple of photos, with Warren on the right in photo number 2.

The cover art reference shot was used in an ad for the FM Club, in early issues.

Basil Gogos' original painting.

Cover Art Reference #2.5

Here's another one of those "What the heck movie is that from?" covers.

Famous Monsters of Filmland No. 45

What is this Ron Cobb cover from?

It's not from "House of Wax".

Could it be "Dr. Blood"?

Or maybe "The Projected Man"?

or
D. None of the above?




It's not from a movie, of course. It's Florida TV "Horror Host" John Burke in one of his many character make-ups (a cryptkeeper type character).

John hosted "Nightmare Theatre" on Channel 38 (WSUN-TV) in Tampa-St. Petersburg in the late '50s and into the '60s. His host character was called "The Outsider" (not shown).

There is a six page article on Burke ("Lurk Burke Lurk") in FM no. 19 which shows several of his character make-ups, including the one above. Fantastic Monsters no. 6 has a four page article on "The Outsider", also with several pics.

John Burke out of character.

Spacemen, again

Speaking of Spacemen no. 1. Here is an early cover mock-up, where the mag is called SPACEMAG and Gogos added a pic of Mickey Mouse on the helmet in his cover art rough.

Spacemen Ad

Sorry for the long lag between posting, but "things happened"!

Let's kill two birds with one post and have a combo monster mag ad and cover art source. In the early days, Warren bought some army surplus stuff to sell in his mags. This "Astronaut Space Helmet" (i.e. ordinary military jet pilot helmet) was used by Basil Gogos for reference for his cover art for Spacemen no. 1.

The Lost Nuetzell

Albert Nuetzell was a client of Forry Ackerman, who brought Al on board as FM cover artist (nos. 4-8) until Basil Gogos was discovered. This is conjecture, but it would appear that this Nuetzell painting was a victim of that discovery. The colors are probably not correct, as this image was produced from a faded photographic negative. Compare the Nuetzell "Phantom" to the one Gogos did for FM no. 16 (obviously done from the same source photo).

Cover Art Reference #1

This is the first in a series showing the reference material (mostly stills) for monster mag cover art. While most cover paintings are copied from very familiar movie stills (and some completely original), there are a number of them that are a bit of a mystery.

FIRST UP IS HORROR MONSTERS No. 7

It's obviously The Phantom of the Opera, but which Phantom is it? Although it says on the cover that it's Lon Chaney, it obviously isn't he. Some have thought it is the James Cagney make-up from the Chaney biopic, but it isn't that, either. What it is, is this guy.

Unfortunately, that doesn't solve the mystery. Is it a guy in a mask? Is it a make-up? Is it from some obscure horror movie? Nobody seems to know! Mask experts don't recognize it as being from any mask line, so it must be a make-up, but for what?

The photo was published in Horror Monsters and was part of a stills set that they sold (see ad), but no other photos of this Phantom have ever turned up and you have to wonder why they would have gone to all the trouble to create this, just for a still, when a Chaney still would have done just as well. If you have the answer to this mystery, please leave a comment.