Here are the centerfolds for 47 issues (complete run was 48 plus specials) of The Monster Times magazine from the 1970s. Not familiar with The Monster Times? Read all about it. Issue 23 was not printed in tabloid format but was magazine-sized, so didn’t have a centerfold. Instead, it had three color pages spread throughout the issue. Issue 39 also did not have a centerfold, but focused on the classic monsters. I included the page for Frankenstein’s monster, though it wasn’t in color, as an example. Issue 44 reprinted the centerfold from issue 7. If you’d like to read the issues, you can find them here. Just do a search on them. At one point Fangoria was looking to rekindle the brand name and post the issues, but that never materialized.
I highly recommend Welcome to the Monster Times, another, more insanely organized, archive for TMT. A final note: TMT was printed on newspaper, a cheap and highly acidic medium. Combined with some iffy printing, the images are hard to capture in their original glory. I did work on these to present the best visual quality I could muster without ruining the original vibe, so I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. And if you decide to grab a few issues off of eBay, make sure to hang up the centerfolds in your man cave or she shed or whatever you call your cave. Be cool like a monsterkid.
The Monster Times 1 Bernie Wrightson Frankenstein MonsterThe Monster Times 2 Star Trek Centerfold
Granny Creech with Uncle Edgar’s brain: Wanna touch it?
Greetings, lovers of all things Halloween!
Have you all recovered? Mercy, it has been a week to remember! Everyone here in Squirrel Hollow is still talking about how much fun Halloween was this year and how successful our Monster Bash was.
Let me tell you all about it. It first started with the annual Trick or Treat time in town. All the houses were decorated so lovingly with jack o’lanterns, ghosts, spiders, skeletons and assorted creepy scenes eerily lit to add to the scary mood. At my house I had my usual CD playing various screams, moans and haunted house sound effects to entice the little monsters to my door…if they so dared, and they came in droves.
Once there, I welcomed them with the sad news that Uncle Edgar had died earlier in the week, but that we had his brain preserved and floating in a large jar of formaldehyde. They could touch it if they wanted, and many did. Others said, “No!” (Hee hee). After that my trusted assistant, Creepy, offered them some rubber bugs and worms, and edible treats. Lastly, I offered the female monsters a mouse that I had caught in the basement earlier in the day. Again, many accepted the creepy, wriggling little critters while others shrieked and ran away. It was all fun and exciting.
Uncle Oscar, caretaker of the Witchwood Cemetery.
At midnight, everyone gathered at the Witchwood Cemetery for the Monster Bash. What a time! All the residents turned out for the party, and it was a blast. We had food of all kinds…eyeballs (grapes), veins and arteries (spaghetti), fresh cadaver meat (hamburgers) and finger sandwiches (!), as well as all the Witch’s Brew you wanted. Great Granddaughter Grizelda brought her old cassette player and the 1962 “Monster Mash” album supplied the dance music.
After a while, we had the best costume awards, and then Uncle Oscar, caretaker for the cemetery, entertained everyone with stories of the origin of the cemetery and of its first residents. He concluded with a few short ghost stories and then… it was time for the finale…the best scream contest.
We had thirteen contestants and the winner was Sophronia Hauntshade who let loose with a blood-curdling, mournful wail that seemed to last forever. It was loud enough to wake the dead…if they hadn’t already been awake and partying with us, and it echoed through the countryside. (It was later reported in the newspaper that residents of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs heard it wafting through the Ozarks ‘way over there and wondered who had been murdered).
Winner of the Scream Contest: Sophronia Hauntshade.
After everyone’s ears had stopped ringing, she was awarded the Scream Award Urn for her efforts.
Morning was approaching and everyone bid each other goodbye, the residents of Witchwood returned to their assigned places and we all went home, tired but exhilarated from the day’s events. It was a night to be remembered and talked about for weeks to come.
And, dear children, that is how my Halloween went. It was a night of fun, spooky imaginings, candy, treats, and make believe. I hope yours was equally memorable.
Next week…radio spots for a monstrous double-feature from 1959!
Creepy welcomes visitors to the treat table.
Winners of the various costume contests at the Monster Bash. Photos taken by Big Abner Creech with his vintage Kodak camera.
Longtime ZC reader, West Nelson, sends along this Florida Frontiers Radio Program Number 565 with Ricou Browning. The full show is very interesting, so I recommend you give it a listen. This snippet contains the Ricou Browning segment. In it he talks about the Gill-Man and Flipper. (Thanks, West!)
