Friday, August 6, 2021

MORE TEEVEE JEEBIES


The humorist Shel Silverstein's first publication of his satirical captioned stills from movies was in the July, 1959 issue of PLAYBOY. It wasn't until the August, 1962 issue that readers saw the first use of stills from horror movies in his two-page featurette, "Teevee Jeebies Meets the Wolfman". This was about two years before Stan Lee's MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH where Lee used fumetti word balloons instead of captions.

However, Silverstein can't be named as the first to use captions for monster movies in the mainstream media; that honor must be given to Bob Reisner's THE BRAVE GHOULS (1960), which was an entire book devoted to the humorous device. While I haven't as yet come across any evidence, I believe it's entirely possible that Lee, or someone in his office, came up with MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH after seeing one or both of these other sources.

In any event, here are a few more of Shel Silverstein's Teevee Jeebies.




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