Sunday, October 2, 2011

GRAVEYARD EXAMINER -- THE EARLY YEARS

We saw this past week that the newest incarnation of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND has relaunched THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER as a regular newsletter to supplement its print publication. Monsterologists and regular readers of MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD will know that the original run of this feature appeared during the Warren/Ackerman FAMOUS MONSTERS years.

THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER made its first appearance in FAMOUS MONSTERS #13 (Vol. 3, No. 4, August 1961). GE was the logical progression of a feature that began as early as FM #3, which focused on the acitivities of the FAMOUS MONSTERS CLUB. It was content like this that by reaching out interactively to fans, gave FM its legendary sense of community that few, if any, competitors ever achieved.

GE was edited by Ron Haydock, who was also credited on the masthead on the FM contents page as editor of "Special Materials". Haydock was a multi-talented individual. He is best known to the world as the lead singer in the rock n' roll band Ron Haydock & The Boppers, and, when he cruised the streets of Hollywood with his guitar as "Lonnie Lord", was sometimes compared to Elvis Presley! He also acted and wrote novels (under another one of his pseudonyms, Vin Saxon). He also happened to be a big fan of horror and monster movies. He worked for Warren for a time, then went on to edit his own monster 'zine, FANTASTIC MONSTERS OF THE FILMS, with Paul Blaisdell, Bob Burns, and Jim Harmon.

And that will be another story to tell here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD. In the meantime, here is the first "Dead Letter Edition" of THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER.


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