MODERN MONSTERS NO. 2 (PART 1)

MODERN MONSTERS
Vol. 1 No. 2
June 1966
Prestige Publications
Publisher: Jim Matthews
Editor: Gunther Collins
Art Director: Tony Stuart
Contributing Artist: Jerry Kay
Pages: 88
Cover price: 50 cents

Overlooked by the praise heaped upon CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN, Jim Matthews' no-nonsense, straight horror coverage has become little more than a footnote in monster magazine history. Densely pack issues of CoF were of course, informative, and presented a more mature view of the subject than "those other 'zines", but nevertheless editor Cal Beck couldn't help throwing in the odd pun or so.

Published out of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Building in Los Angeles, MODERN MONSTERS was devoid of any playful joking (which was so tempting to do with monsters) and stuck to a serious editorial standard.

The first issue of MM's unfortunately short run was the singular, MODERN MONSTER, and I'm wondering if Matthews might have been influenced by the sophistication of his editorial office neighbor. The rest of the issues were titled with the plural, MODERN MONSTERS.

This, the second issue, suffers some from sharing pages that should have been reserved for monsters with then current pop culture phenoms, Batman and James Bond, but does offer some of what the title infers with an article on the still-relevant AIP and an interview with Nick Adams, who was starring in the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired film, DIE MONSTER, DIE!, alongside the venerable Boris Karloff. Included is a "film book" of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and a history of Dracula.