TOPSTONE TUESDAY

Topstone's "Horrible Melting Man" mask was used as a Phantom of the Opera character in this edition of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND's feature, "Graveyard Examiner" in issue #23 (June 1963).

GRAVEYARD EXAMINER DEAD AND BURIED

The relaunched GRAVEYARD EXAMINER, the "new and improved" weekly e-newsletter from FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, for all intents and purposes looks dead again after lasting only 5 issues.

Available by email subscription or by browsing at their website the newsletter was a promising entry into the world of instant media. Loaded with all sorts of up-to-the-minute news and reviews, it gave readers a regular monster fix between issues of FAMOUS MONSTERS. Alas, the final issue was back in April.

Since its resurrection, FAMOUS MONSTERS has gone through some growing pains. Marred by irregular publishing, a revolving editor's door, as well as failed experiments such as the companion magazine FAMOUS MONSTERS UNDERGROUND and a shot at a film festival, owner and publisher Philip Kim has nevertheless maintained a presence in the field.

After reporting last week about editor and publisher Dave Davey's troubles with his magazine, UNDYING MONSTERS, let's hope that FM is not the next to walk the plank.

RELAUNCHED GRAVEYARD EXAMINER BREAKING GROUND

The weekly FAMOUS MONSTERS e-newletter GRAVEYARD EXAMINER has been relaunced. Gone is the cartoony masthead -- it is replaced by a faux tombstone logo (shown above). The content looks mostly the same with news and reviews of current horror happenings. Here's the spiel from the FM newsletter:

"Bigger and better than before, it's the GRAVEYARD EXAMINER! Your online noosepaper for all things horror, sci-fi, and fantasy-now with 40% more Monsters! Coming to you every two weeks, GE will feature all the best in movies, comics, video games, books, TV and more, while also featuring exclusive articles, interviews, and even contests where we'll be giving away some of the most envied prizes in the Monsterverse. But you can't win if you don't read! With further ado, here is - THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER!"

LATEST NOOSE: GRAVEYARD EXAMINER BURIED . . . THEN EXHUMED

According to the FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND newsletter, the online weekly newsletter, THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER has been remastered and is now ready for relaunch. Here is the notice:

"Last year's launch of our all-digital magazine THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER was more successful than we could have imagined. Due to the demand we decided to go in and make some changes to make it even better. The entire thing has been rebuilt from the ground up. And now it is time to release our noosepaper upon the world, new and improved. GE returns February 7th bigger and better than before. Featuring more reviews, more original content, and more-well-everything! Stay tuned as we'll be giving some amazing prizes away in this issue. You can't win if you don't read!"

GRAVEYARD EXAMINER - THE EARLY YEARS

THE GRAVEYARD EXMINER, "The Official Newspaper of the Famous Monsters Club" had it's first appearance in FAMOUS MONSTERS #13. Nineteen Sixties Rock n' Roll star and later cult figure Ron Haydock was selected as the editor of the two-page-spread newsletter. He is pictured here in the second installment as it was seen in FAMOUS MONSTERS #14 (Vol. 3 No. 5, October 1961), wearing a monster mask and holding a guitar. Could it get any cooler than that?

Note: Apoligies, but this is the largest I can get the image. Blogger has decided once again to use their unwelcomed picture browser that will not enlarge an image. I suggest saving the pic to your drive and view it in a program such as Windows Photo Gallery or the Quck Time Photo Viewer. Sorry about that.

GRAVEYARD EXAMINER (OCT 3-8, 2011)

The latest edition of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND'S online newsletter is now availabe for viewing. Click HERE to view.

GRAVEYARD EXAMINER -- THE EARLY YEARS

We saw this past week that the newest incarnation of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND has relaunched THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER as a regular newsletter to supplement its print publication. Monsterologists and regular readers of MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD will know that the original run of this feature appeared during the Warren/Ackerman FAMOUS MONSTERS years.

THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER made its first appearance in FAMOUS MONSTERS #13 (Vol. 3, No. 4, August 1961). GE was the logical progression of a feature that began as early as FM #3, which focused on the acitivities of the FAMOUS MONSTERS CLUB. It was content like this that by reaching out interactively to fans, gave FM its legendary sense of community that few, if any, competitors ever achieved.

GE was edited by Ron Haydock, who was also credited on the masthead on the FM contents page as editor of "Special Materials". Haydock was a multi-talented individual. He is best known to the world as the lead singer in the rock n' roll band Ron Haydock & The Boppers, and, when he cruised the streets of Hollywood with his guitar as "Lonnie Lord", was sometimes compared to Elvis Presley! He also acted and wrote novels (under another one of his pseudonyms, Vin Saxon). He also happened to be a big fan of horror and monster movies. He worked for Warren for a time, then went on to edit his own monster 'zine, FANTASTIC MONSTERS OF THE FILMS, with Paul Blaisdell, Bob Burns, and Jim Harmon.

And that will be another story to tell here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD. In the meantime, here is the first "Dead Letter Edition" of THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER.

STOP THE PRESSES! THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER IS BACK!

In some ways, the original run of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND was like having your own, neighborhood monster club magazine. The easy-going banter and Forry Ackerman's alliterative puns all gave the sense that this was, indeed, the monster mag for us Monster Kids. In other words, it's voice was universal and it belonged to us. One feature, THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER, even had pictures, want ads, fan drawings and other stuff both for and by FM's predominantly young readership.

Now, THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER is back, this time as a digital newsletter to supplement the print edition of the latest incarnation of FAMOUS MONSTERS. And, while today it lacks the "monster club" feel of fan comraderie, it instead offers up plenty of the latest info on DVD's, comics, collectibles and more monster goodness. Click HERE to view the first issue at YUDU (hey, isn't that where MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD's Archives are, too?).

Here are a couple of sample pages to whet your appetite:

FAMOUS MONSTERS No. 258 SNEAK PEEK

[Source: GRAVEYARD EXAMINER Sept. 26-30, 2011]