Nuet-zell, Nuet-zell!

An FM Christmas card by cover artist Al Nuetzell (circa 1960) for Forry Ackerman, who was his agent and friend.

Monster Mags Theater "Deluge"

For the first installment of MMT, we refer back to the Modern Mechanix article on movie spfx in this post.

"Deluge" (1933 RKO) was an early disaster film with some of the best miniature effects seen up to that time. It was often mentioned (usually accompanied by stills) in FM and other monster mags. The film was thought "lost", for many decades, until an Italian dubbed print turned up in the 1980s. The disaster footage had been available because of it's reuse in several serials.

Shock! Gems pt. 1

Ad Mat

Trade Ad

Trades Story

KTLA Ad

Before FM pt. 3

Makeup and SPFX

Before the invention of the monster magazine, you got your fantasy film coverage wherever you could find it. Modern Mechanix & Inventions was one of those places.

First up is Makeup Secrets of Movie Horror Pictures, featuring Karloff and Jack Pierce.

Feb. 1933

And some movie magic with Filming Tabletop Earthquakes, featuring Willis O'Brien's spfx for Last Days of Pompeii and Ned Mann and the miniatures crew of Deluge.

Dec. 1935

Rarest Warrens pt. 2

Bestsellers

In June 1964, the publishers trade journal Bestsellers profiled Jim Warren and the monster phenomenon started (in part) by Famous Monsters of Filmland. Naturally, these were never kept and have become quite scarce and are now an FM collector "holy grail".

James Warren Original Cover Art

Jim Warren's only cover painting was for FM no. 3 (later reused on the cover of FM no. 102). After the first two campy cover photos (featuring Warren in monster masks), Jim sets the tone for future FM cover art with this portrait of Lon Chaney as "The Phantom".

Cover Source

Rarest Warrens pt. 1

Eerie No. 1

The Eerie "ashcan" edition of no. 1 (5 1/4" x 7 1/4" b/w cover, 24 pgs.) was put together, virtually overnite, to establish Warren's ownership of the title. (Myron Fass was, apparently, going to use the title on a mag, but was left with only the company name, Eerie Publications).

The issue was made up of stories and features from back numbers of Creepy and was dated Sep. 1965. Only 200 copies were printed and the mag was not officially distributed. Some Jack Davis art from Creepy no. 2 was used for the cover. Here are some sample pages:

Pg. 1

Pg. 2

Pg. 3

Pg. 10

Pg. 16

Pg. 23

I like how they used
the Shock Monster
as a substitute Cousin
Eerie, before he was
created.

Pg. 24

In 1978, a bootleg edition of Eerie no. 1 was released into the fan market. Warren ran this ad which offered a $500.00 reward for the arrest of the perpetrators, but they were never caught.

From Creepy No. 81