Friday, February 7, 2025

JOE STATON'S GODS AND MONSTERS (CHAPTER 2)


This is the second of Joe Staton's marvelous three-part sage of the GODS OF MT. OLYMPUS.

See Chapter One HERE.

















Thursday, February 6, 2025

THE PRINCE SIRKI FILES


Readers of the earlier issues of FM may recall that FJA often used the name used by Fredric March in 1934's DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, Prince Sirki, when announcing the passing of a horror actor, director or other genre luminary.

I gathered what I could find here at the Mysterious Mansion of the obituaries that I have been collecting over the years. Most of these clippings are from THE SEATTLE TIMES and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES. I thought it would be a good time to digitize them before they started crumbling into so much mummy dust.











Wednesday, February 5, 2025

FJA IN THE COMIC BUYER'S GUIDE + BONUS


One thing you can say about Forry Ackerman is that, when it came to fan conventions and photo ops, he was ubiquitous. It was not unusual to see pictures of him with any one of a number stars and other luminaries clutching a copy of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND in a clever way of promoting the magazine.

He also was always up for an interview, too, and here he is in a Q&A with Shel Dorf, the founder of the now-legendary San Diego Comic Convention. It appeared in the May 20, 1977 issue of THE BUYER'S GUIDE FOR COMIC FANDOM.

I was a happy subscriber to the "CBG" for many years and even advertised in it a few times, although I can't remember if I sold anything from them or not!











BONUS!

Joseph Koch and his brother were regular advertisers in the CBG for quite a few years. One of their specialties was selling monster magazines; you name it, he probably sold it. Mr. Koch was adept at scraping warehouses clean, especially those that housed the Warren magazine remainders. His prices were more than fair and whenever I ordered from him, the copies always came in the condition described. I owe it to him for being able to build my Warren collection up on a reasonable budget. I read maybe a year or so ago that he finally retired and closed up shop.

Here's one of his full-page ads and you'll see what I mean.