THE OFFICIAL MUNSTERS MAGAZINE NO. 1 (PART 2)

Certainly not rare, but falling somewhere between scarce and uncommon, THE OFFICIAL MUNSTERS MAGAZINE is one of those unique one-offs that defy any kind of reason for being other than to cash in on the subject du jour – in other words it was used exploitatively. Whatever the reason, it is, if not taken seriously, which I’m sure was also the original intent, kind of a fun read.

The first thing the reader may notice is the weird, pinkish, salmon-y hue of the paper it’s printed on. The reason is lost to me, but perhaps it was used to make it stand out amongst the other, pulp newsprint ‘zines that lined the shelves in those days. It may also be just because the printer had a deal on it. I know that some other mags of the day used different color sections occasionally, and I’ll show you an example of this closer to Halloween.

Each of The Munsters – Herman, Lily, Grandpa, and Eddie and Marilyn get their own short bio page. There’s a “Behind the Scenes” article and a story credited to Eando Binder, “The Munsters Go House Haunting”. There is also no shortage of fun stuff, like a Munsters family calendar, a join the Munsters Fan Club page, “Your Own Private Roadmap to Transylvania”, “Win a Phone Call From Herman or Lily Munster” – you get the idea – all done with a comic flair that often comes off quite well considering the absolutely dreadful rag that a funny monster mag could easily become. I suspect it is a result of the higher caliber of writers on the staff. Granted, it might be easier to write monster humor about a topic that was supposed to be humorous rather than trying to make something funny out of a monster that was originally intended to scare the bejeezus out of you.

My personal favorites in the magazine are “Herman Munster Picks His Favorite Horror Films”, in which Herman selects such classics as DRACULA, THE MUMMY, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON and chats them up for a paragraph or two. The other is “On Tour with the Munsters Koach”, the story by George Barris as told to the editor of the magazine, Roger Elwood. Barris is widely known as the “King of Kustomizers”. Among his crown jewels are the Batmobile, Fireball 500, the Monkee-Mobile, and, of course, The Munsters Koach.

There are indications that THE OFFICIAL MUNSTERS MAGAZINE was planned as more than a one-shot. For instance, there was a statement about sending manuscripts for publication consideration in the indicia. Another clue is seen in the Munsters Koach article. At the bottom reads: “PART II – NEXT ISSUE THE FURTHER TRAVELS OF THE MUNSTERS KOACH”. Alas, the second issue never saw print.

THE OFFICIAL MUNSTERS MAGAZINE NO. 1 (Part 1)

THE OFFICIAL MUNSTERS MAGAZINE
No. 1
Editor: Roger Elwood
Publication Date: 1965
Publisher: Twin Hits, Inc.
Color cover/ B&W interior68 ppg. (including covers)
Cover price: 50 cents
Estimated collector’s price: $13.00 to $112.00

Like it’s rival, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, over at ABC, CBS’ THE MUNSTERS ran for two seasons from 1964 to 1966, which was right through the beating heart of the monster craze of the 60s. Consequently, it’s hard to mention one without the other as they both turned out to be surprise TV phenoms. THE ADDAMS FAMILY’s premier broadcast aired a week earlier, effectively making it the first show out of the gate about a dysfunctional, but (sometimes) hilarious family of monsters. THE MUNSTERS ended up the better of the two business-wise, as it finished slightly higher than its competitor in the make-it or break-it Nielson ratings. Coincidently, both shows didn’t last past the two seasons. However, both shows enjoyed “life after death” and continued off and on in the following years with various cartoon shows and feature films which kept them in the pop-culture eye, all the while maintaining a strong and dedicated fan base.

During the 60s, THE MUNSTERS were so popular there were literally hundreds of sideline promotions and gimmicks based on the show. Toys, games, models, comics – there seemed no limit to what you could find with the visage of Herman, Lily, or Grandpa on it.

There was even an OFFICIAL MUNSTERS MAGAZINE. I can’t say if there were any “Unofficial” Munsters Magazines, but this was promoted, as its title implied, as the one and only “Official” Munsters magazine.

The one-shot was edited by Roger Elwood, a writer most remembered for his science-fiction anthologies. He also seemed to find time to edit a couple of wrestling magazines. In other words, he was a working writer. Other staff members included Otto Binder, who contributed nearly a thousand stories (about 8 a month!) to the famed golden age comic book, CAPTAIN MARVEL as well as the other Marvel family titles, and with his brother, Earle (writing as “Eando Binder”), penned the famous science fiction tale, ADAM LINK-ROBOT (seen later as a graphic adaptation written by Binder and illustrated by Joe Orlando in Warren's CREEPY #2). In addition to more work in the comics world for Timely (later known as Marvel), Quality, MLJ, Gold Key and DC, he also edited SPACE WORLD magazine.

Another notable staff member was Chris Steinbrunner. Steinbrunner was an author, broadcaster, and historian whose special field was the detective story. He was also known as a distinguished Sherlock Holmes aficionado. Of interest to Monsterologists is that Steinbrunner is credited along with science fiction and fantasy author Lin Carter for confirming Robert Bloch’s two inspirations for the Norman Bates character in PSYCHO – Ed Gein, the notorious cannibal serial killer of Wisconsin, and … hold on to your pointy hats … Calvin T. Beck, creator of CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN magazine!

(More MUNSTERS tomorrow!)