FANTASTIC MONSTERS OF THE FILMS
Vol. 1 No. 1
1962
Publisher: Black Shield Productions, Inc.
Editor: Ron Haydock
Editorial Director: Paul Blaisdell
Research Editor: Bob Burns
Associate Editor: Jim Harmon
Cover: Photo cover
Pages: 68
Cover Price: 50 cents
Back in the day, Paul Blaisdell and Bob Burns were bubbling over with imagination like test tubes in a mad scientist's laboratory. Put them together and you had at least double that. That's why it was no surprise that sometime in 1962, they decided to put out their own monster magazine.
And why not? Each had something to contribute and they both had a trove of movie still and other memorabilia that could easily be appropriated for the contents of their 'zine.
The idea was to make a monster mag for "older kids", you know, more mature than the pre-pubescent one reading "kids stuff" like FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. Plus, that Forry Ackerman guy and Blaisdell had a falling out after Paul's first appearance in FJA's publication. FM still showed films that Blaisdell had worked on within the pages of FM, but his name was never mentioned again. Towards the end of his movie career, Blaisdell was dejected and bitter with the Hollywood rat race, and the disagreement with Forry, even back in the late 1950s, might have been the tipping point of his disillusionment.
The working title of Blaisdell and Burns' magazine was originally FANTASTIC FILMS, but ended up deciding on using the longer (and similar sounding title to Forry's FM), FANTASTIC MONSTERS OF THE FILMS. Both versions used the close-up of Chris Lee as Dracula as the cover image.
Original title and cover concept (from MONSTERSCENE #5). |
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