Wednesday, May 11, 2022

MONSTERAMA NO. 1 (PART 1)


MONSTERAMA
Vol. 1, No. 1
May, 1991
Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
Publishers: Gary Groth/Kim Thompson
Editor: Forrest J Ackerman
Cover: Doug Erb
Pages: 68
Cover price: $3.50

After bailing out of his first attempt at resurrecting his monster magazine publishing, Forrest J Ackerman tried again with MONSTERAMA, this time under the bat wing of Fantagraphics. Unfortunately, this title, too made a quick exit after only two issues.

Hardly more than a rehash of FM, Ackerman even used page-layouts, titles and photos from past issues. The "new look" was boosted with illustrations by Al Shamie, whose style was reminiscent of Bill Nelson, among others. Shamie drew psychedelic poster art in the 1970's and contributed artwork to two fanzines, ETCHINGS & ODYSSEYS and THE ARKHAM SAMPLER.

While the issue looked nice, it offered little excitement for monster fans who had already seen much of the material. Instead, the overall effect was just a walk down memory lane.

































No comments: