Besides helping to launch a pop culture phenomenon with FAMOUS MONSTER OF FILMLAND, Forrest J Ackerman was first and foremost an enthusiast fan of science-fiction. Space travel and futurism fascinated him and he devoured the books and pulp magazines that were available at the time. After seeing KING KONG in 1933, Ackerman also began his love for monsters, which eventually evolved into his famous publication some years later.
In this "Special Outer Space Issue" of the sci-fi digest magazine, GAMMA (February, 1965), Ackerman oddly enough sticks to mostly discussing monsters. He is asked at one time in this interview if he supports comedy in monster movies, to which his answer was, "No". Strange, since a good portion of FM was spent making monster puns!
I always take notice when the Ackermonster's name comes up. I was watching a re-hash of a cheapo movie just yesterday called The Aftermath and Forry shows up in it for a few minutes, and sadly the 30 and 40 somethings watching the flick and commenting on it didn't seem to know who he was. Sigh. Time passes us all by.
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