Mexican Lobby Card: King Kong Escapes (1967)
Once you get past the goofy look on King Kong's face, this isn't all too bad of a movie. Mostly.
Mexican Lobby Card:
It Conquered the World (1956)
This Mexican lobby card for El Conquistador Del Espacio (It Conquered the World) shows a keen eye for focal structure in its layout. With the monster from Venus glaring out from center, the terrorized woman on left in close-up, and a movie scene with menace an arm's reach away, your eyes are drawn to the title and the creature (which looks much more terrifying here than in the movie) embracing the width of the lobby.
Mexican Lobby Card:
Un Viaje A Venus
First Spaceship on Venus (1960)
I often wonder why some Mexican lobby cards, instead of showing a scene from the movie, use a comic illustration instead. This one for First Spaceship on Venus is a futuristic dreamscape with mesmerizing alien colors and rocketships blazing across the void. I’m still on the fence deciding if the inset “scene” illustration detracts from the lobby’s overall effect. Perhaps stills from the movie weren’t available for inclusion on the card. Or perhaps using a comic book panel-styled scene was thought to be more dramatic. (Which wouldn’t say much for the movie, then, if that were the case.)
Mexican Lobby Card:
Monstruos De Piedra (1957)
A better than average B movie, Monstruos De Piedra (The Monolith Monsters) has a simple plot device: meteoric crystals that keep growing on contact with water provide a straightforward adventure with fairly well-integrated stock footage and bargain special effects (miniatures) that work well for the budget given. By this time Universal was looking to keep things as cheap as possible, but its later movies would suffer far worse at the hands of cost-cutting number crunchers. This movie would make a terrific remake. Just add suped up action, and killer special effects, and it would be a natural for a summer blockbuster.
Avon Theater Street Scene
The Mummy’s Hand
Here's a nostalgic scene I first saw on Facebook. I imagine the Avon Theater marquee must have looked sparkling at night.
Monsters and Heroes Issue 2, 1967
Larry Ivie passed away this year. His Monsters and Heroes: The Magazine of Pictorial Imagination epitomized the growing fanbase whose interests spanned movies, comic books, and literature and where each intersected. Aside from his own creation, Altron Boy, Larry contributed to Eerie, Creepy, and Marvel Comics. In this issue, The Three Faces of Superman (for 1967, that is), and The Three Faces of Captain America (again, for 1967) appear, as well as "the original Flash Gordon," Siegfried: Son of Odin. A short article on Edgar Rice Burroughs The Monster Men is here to whet your interest, too.
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Dr. Silkini’s Asylum of Horrors
Dr. Silkini's Asylum of Horrors with the Frankenstein Monster really packed them in.
The Monster Times Issue 16
October 1972
By issue 16 of The Monster Times it was fairly apparent that this tabloid-sized monster magazine was well executed and keeping pace with the monsterkid-now-popular-culture-junkie that prowled the movie theaters and comic book conventions in the 1970s. Showing more editorial and article prowess than most of its brethren on the magazine racks, the first-person articles–written by the monster or pivotal movie character himself (or herself)–took a little getting used to, but it was different. In this issue Mighty Joe Young demands his rights while Godzilla makes it perfectly clear that he's announcing his candidacy for President of the United States. Keeping things a little more traditional is Jim Wnorski, writing on plant-based menaces in The Roots of Evil, and R. Allen Leider satisfying the country's need for a good old-fashioned horror film in Dr. Phibes Rises Again. On the comics front, Michael Uslan convinces us that Comics are Good Learnin! and there's a report on the 3rd San Diego Comic Convention. Highlights were an electrical failure that darkened the dealer's room, and some prankster dumped shark repellent into the swimming pool, turning it bright yellow. Those crazy fanboys!
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Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine
Issue 5, November 1975
Part 2
In part 2 of Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine issue 5, Lee Majors gets his closeup as The Six Million Dollar Man, Peter Lorre’s life is revealed by Sharon Phillips in The Lorre Story, and Space 1999 blasts off. The Stepford Wives put in an appearance to. And along with the usual monsterkid mail-order goodies are perfumes, iron-ons, and an imported lock blade stiletto for $2.75 plus 25 cents shipping, and essential to round out your cosplay for West Side Story.
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Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine
Issue 5, November 1975
Part 2Read More »
Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine
Issue 5, November 1975
Part 1
Jekyll and Hyde: Through the Years, by Steve Abrams, kicks off this jam-packed issue 5 of Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine. Ron Weiss’s Heroes of the Horrors gives credit where credit is due as he interviews Calvin Beck, and Judith M. Kass interviews Himan Brown, creator of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Television coverage is provided for The Six Million Dollar Man and Space 1999, and Peter Lorre bio is given by Sharon Phillips. And, of course, the Gone Apes! section provides the gag-captioned photos we’ve come to expect from monster magazines published around this time. All in all, a stellar issue of monster coverage that’s informative as well as entertaining.
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Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine
Issue 5, November 1975
Part 1Read More »