REPTILICUS MOVIE ADAPTATION (CHARLTON COMICS)

One of the weirdest giant monster movies ever was washed ashore in the US from -- of all places -- Denmark, in 1962. It was originally filmed in Denmark and released there first in 1961.

REPTILICUS received mostly negative reviews from the critics. If you've ever watched it, you know that the comment is justified. Famed movie critic Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB, the lowest rating that he could give a film. In his review, Maltin wrote that it was "only good for laughs as [the] script hits every conceivable monster-movie cliché, right to the final shot." TV GUIDE similarly "awarded" it only one out of a possible four stars calling it, "a fair-to-poor monster film". Ugh! 

All criticism of the movie aside, the story nevertheless lended itself well to a comic book adaptation, and it was always a good idea to promote movies to kids using the universal language of sequential art. The big boys, Marvel and DC didn't bother much in the way of movie adaptations until the 1970s, mainly because they were too busy taking the world by storm with their superhero titles.

It was up to the little comic book company in Danbury, CT that could -- Charlton. Their optimistic plans for an on-going series lasted for two issues. When the copyright on the film title expired, they brought the monster back to life as the redundantly named, "Reptisaurus", and the revived title petered out after just a few more issues.

The cover for this first issue is by sometimes CREEPY artist Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio. The script is by the prolific Joe Gill. Pencils are by Bill Moino with inks by Vincent Alascia. There is a text story, "Mind Over Matter" (probably written by Gill) and a back-up comic story by Gill and Mastroserio. Enjoy REPTILICUS, lizard warts and all!