By the early 1970's, us Monster Kids had seen just about everything one could think of with some sort of monster on it -- everything from books, magazines, records, models, toys, playing cards, paint-by-numbers, mugs, shirts, posters, evern bubble bath, fer cryin' out loud!
But here was something different . . . here was a newspaper where monsters were above the fold instead of the Viet Nam war or Watergate, and where even the ads were more thrilling than a full-page spread for Sears, Montgomery Ward's, and Maidenform bras!
Published from January, 1972 until July, 1976, THE MONSTER TIMES ran for 48 regular issues (about one per month) with 3 special issues. The 3rd of these special issues was entitled "The World's Greatest Monsters" and was sold as the "world's BIGGEST Monster Paper!!! Starring a Gruesome gallery of Horror Greats!!"
The "First Giant Collector's Edition" (are you catching on to the promotional emphasis on the paper's size by now?) was 12 pages and featured 10 giant poster-sized monsters, such as Dracula, Godzilla, The Wolf Man -- even Planet of the Apes (!). Included with each image was a capsule summary of the monster's cinematic history. All this for under a buck!
Reading copies of THE MONSTER TIMES are abundant. Collector's copies, however, are a little harder to come by as it was published on newsprint -- a step down from the pulp paper that FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND was published on -- and the quality of printing, including the registry of the color photography was not exactly ESQUIRE, if you catch my drift. Watch for age stress at the fold, too, as this causes easy tearing, expecially of the front page. Copies of this special issue of THE MONSTER TIMES in better shape sell for upwards of $35 or so.
Perhaps the most underrated & under appreciated of all the monster publications. Perhaps because it came so late in the game, some would say even after the "good ol' days"...
ReplyDeleteBut, it was one of my very favorites. I absolutely adored it.
Unfortunately, back when I was in college ( supposedly getting educated & becoming SMARTER LOL )I did a VERY stupid thing. I was in need of some quick cash & since I was by that point enamored of the more "modern" genre magazines that I was reading & collecting at the time FANGORIA & CINEFANTASTIQUE, I thought that I could afford to part with all my old monster magazines. So, like a complete fool, I sold off all the issues of FM, CoF & many others that I'd SO enjoyed & painstakingly collected from the time I was about 6 in 1967 until FM folded in '83. With all my issues ( a near complete run ) of TMT going with the lot, of course.
Needless to say, within a fairly short while I began to regret my decision. A LOT.
But, it was too late to get them back as even then, back in the mid '80s, there was a strong market for them & they disappeared from the shop I'd sold them to quickly. Which, left me rather gutted.
So much so that even though I continued to buy/collect CFTQ & Fango ( the latter of which I still maintain my complete collection of ) I did absolutely nothing about attempting to re-attain any of vintage publications that I'd once owned.
That is until I happened to see some old issues of CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN featured in an online article & it sparked within me a strong desire to begin collecting that title again in 2007. In fact, though it was a total favorite of mine as a kid, I never got my hands on more that a couple/few copies because of it's notorious issues with irregular publication & spotty distribution. So, I decided that I wanted a complete run of Calvin Beck's original run.
Which, I did, in fact, manage to put together in about three years time. I could have done it quicker no doubt had it not been for me losing focus on a few occasions by buying up many issues of FM, as well as Marvel's terrific short foray into monster mags in their MONSTERS OF THE MOVIES.
So, over the past few years I've accomplished a lot as far as reacquiring much of my old collection, even surpassing it with some titles. But...
Even though I came THIS close to the winning bid on a 20 issue collection of THE MONSTER TIMES last year, I've yet to attain a single issue of my old fav.
Something I'd really like to fix sometime soon.
Peace,
Jim
I remember an issue of this mag that had an ad for, what I assumed at the time (as a child),to be a film called "1,000,000 A.D.". It looked like a futuristic Hammer-type film, with what appeared to be a bevy of Amazon-type women.Any info on what this was?
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