HORROR MONSTERS NO. 9 (PART 1)

HORROR MONSTERS
Vol. 3 No. 9
Fall 1964
Charlton Publications Inc.
Editor: "Sanzar Quasatoad"
 
I have mentioned that I consider the two twin tomes of terrible terror -- MAD MONSTERS and HORROR MONSTERS -- as possessing a sort of "rough charm". Published in Derby, CT by Charlton Publications Inc. the same outfit that gave us the line of comics with the pages of out-of-registry color that popped up frequently, the two titles were published alternately, each for 10 issues, to act as each others' placeholder on the newsstands.

Edited by the unlikely name of "Sanzar Quasatoad" -- and any number of anagrams -- they could be considered the hasty pudding of monster magazines. Containing the requisite pages of photo-captioned humor, pin-ups and tersely-written articles, they also included a version of the "filmbook" popularized by the leading competitor, FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, using a slightly more wordy version to a series of the aforementioned photo-captions to simulate a narrative.

Scrolling through the pages of this, a typical example, one will find the immediacy of humor and the prevalence of a forked tongue planted firmly in cheek. The thrills came from some of the garish stills garnered from the promotion departments of the various film studios, in particular, American International Pictures. A letters page and the "Cult of Horror" fan club gave readers the semblance of camaraderie that was an integral part of the Warren line of horror magazines.

Looking back, it was one of these Charlton titles that was my introduction to the imaginative world of monster magazines. With page after page of ugly mugs and creepy critters, I was spellbound, and, since I'm talking about them over 50 years later, I must be still.