KONGA CARDS + BONUS COMIC!

If a monster trading card set could ever be called a "cult classic", Rosan's 1963 Famous Monsters series would be it. File these under so bad they're good, folks. I mean, these cards are excruciatingly hard to take seriously. But still, even though they are passed over by many collectors because they are hard to find in high-grade condition , they command a pretty fair price on the market (currently, a full set is up for grabs on eBay for only $2,500). They're rough, they're tacky, but they're lovable.

Produced by Rosan, the card set is "so crude that it kind of hearkens back to the days when primitive and amateur was good enough to keep us interested," says Kurt Kuersteiner of monsterwax.com. "It definitely captures the frontier days of monster cards."

"Rosan was a company based out of Brooklyn, New York, and they were horrible," adds Marty Quinn. "I don't think they put much thought or any kind of money into producing their card sets. I think their main thing was just trying to catch a little bit of the horror lightning that was going on at the time."

Either Rosan struck a deal with Warren or Warren struck a deal with Rosan, the cards were sold as a set by Captain Company in the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. The 60-card set went for a buck (!) and 25-cents postage. The jokes on the card backs were replaced with images of Warren's other Capt. Company merchandise.

The photos and illos used on the card fronts were mostly from AIP pics and five of them were from KONGA. At the time, AIP was very generous in sharing publicity with anyone who'd promote them. After all photos and pressbooks were really cheap advertising for a studio on a tight budget, and nobody squeaked louder than AIP!

Other than out of the pages of FM, I'm not sure how they were packaged for sale. I don't believe they ever came in standard "wax packs", and I've only read mention of them being sold out of vending machines.

NOTE: The text in today's post has been slightly revised from the original series of posts about the Rosan Famous Monster cards HERE.

BONUS! Charlton's KONGA #2!

KONGA

Vol. 1 No. 2

August 1961

Charlton Comics Group

Editor: Pat Masulli

Cover: Dick Giordano

Script: Joe Gill (?)

Pencils: Charles Nicholas

Inks: Sal Trapani

Pages: 36

Cover price: 10 cents

SINISTER SIMULACRA

Image swipes of famous monsters sometimes show up in the unlikeliest of places, such as in this three-quarter-page filler from CRIME AND PUNISHMENT #16 (Lev Gleason, July 1949), Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera is clearly seen as the "ghost" that haunted a killer.

BOGART'S BOGEY MAN

When it comes to horror films, the name Humphrey Bogart rarely -- if ever -- comes to mind. Instead, when you hear his name, characters like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe and films like THE MALTESE FALCON and THE BIG SLEEP are more likely to be imagined.

But before Bogie came to legendary status, he starred in a rather obscure 1939 horror film by Warner Bros. called THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X, directed by Vincent Sherman. Bogie was in six other films that year, but this is the one he said that audiences should just as well forget.

“This is one of the pictures that made me want to march to Jack Warner and ask for more money again,” he said. “You can’t believe what this one was like. I had a part that somebody like Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff should have played.”

Bogart was intended to be the name draw for this film, but he took third billing in the credits after Wayne Morris and Rosemary Lane! As Maurice Xavier, Bogart plays a murderous mad doctor who kills his victims with his blood type to keep himself alive

Bogie did maintain a bit of humor when he said about his character, “The only thing that nourished this poor bastard was blood,” he quipped. “If it had been Jack Warner’s blood, maybe I wouldn’t have minded as much. The trouble was, they were drinking mine, and I was making this rotten movie.”

Mexican lobby card.

One sheet release poster.

TRAILER:

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THE MONSTER TIMES NO. 16

For reasons unknown, after a short hiatus, the world's only monster newspaper returned in October 1972. The featured article in this issue is on MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, written in the first person! News on DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN and THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA, part two of a look at plant monsters, and Michael Uslan shares his thoughts on the first-ever University course on comics!

THE MONSTER TIMES

Vol. 1 No. 16

October 18, 1972

The Monster Times Publishing Company, Inc.

Publishers: Larry Brill; Les Waldstein

Editor: Joe Kane

Managing editor: Joe Brancatelli

Copy editor: Allan Asherman

Assistant to the Editor: Myron Berger

Associate editors: Mark Frank; Phil Seuling; Steve Vertlieb; Jim Wnoroski

Cover: Images from the pressbook of Dr. Phibes Rises Again

Inside front cover: Return of Count Yorga

Centerspread poster: Godzilla for President

Pages: 32

Cover price: 50 cents