TWO THEMES FOR THE PRICE OF NONE
There is no overall unifying theme to this in-betweener issue … and then again there are two noose-like threads of similarity which tie the articles together. One theme is Melodramatic Soap Operatics; and there’s a rather vague theme of Re-doing Things.
For instance, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN was a sequel, trying to do over the success of FRANKENSTEIN … and yet though it left a lump in throat, it left a lump in the heart, too, what with Boris Karloff’s sensitive, pathetic portrayal of The Monster – and it also resulted in a large lump in the producers’ wallets.
Then there’s the 7-foot tall FRANKENSTEIN poster, which is product-tested … its artist was trying to re-do the FRANKENSTEIN monster but the result, sadly, looks as if the demented Monster was forced to watch 48 hours of continuous soap operas. Check it out on page 6, and see if you don’t agree!
The people who put out the book, THE PULPS, to cash in on the Nostalgia Market, were in a sense trying to re-do something – they wanted to do over the success of stories when they first appeared, in thud-and-blunder pulp magazines. As the book, originally $15.00, is now being remaindered in bookstores for $6.95, we have our doubts if they succeeded.
Then there’s the new GREEN LANTERN-GREEN ARROW paperback book; a slight revision of the original comic book stories was made … re-writing and re-drawing the panels, to make two comic books read smoothly as one comix novel. And anyone who’s ever read the Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams classic-in-the-making, knows that this is about the only series in which people act with human motivations and emotions. The states South of the Mason-Dixon line, incidentally, would not distribute GREEN LANTERN-GREEN ARROW comics – seems they heard comics exposed the subversive, radical or just plain un-Southern sentiments of such Dixie-born and bred radicals as Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, among others. This hurt one-quarter of the sales, and the series (due to financial difficulties) was first canceled. But now, as THE MONSTER TIMES goes to press, we’ve learned that G.L.-G.A. LIVES!… in the back of THE FLASH comix. Not a book of its own, but 12 good G.L., G.A. pages are better’n’nothing.
Now we come to the great Re-Doer of all time, ROGER CORMAN, who made EDGAR ALLEN POE a household name … if you happen to live in the household of a movie theater projectionist. Rollem-out-in-a-day Roger, the corrosive Corman, churned out 3/4 of a dozen near-great and not-so-near-great films based on titles of Poe stories, if nothing else. And good gosh! did the stories ever resemble TV soap operas! – a person who’d never read Poe, on seeing these films, would think that all the Olde Master of Terror ever wrote about was the loathsome sin of adultery. Corman’s Poe audiences must have been in two camps … those who went on to become monster film buffs, and those who went on to watch Peyton Place. Horror of HORRORS!
Chuck
CHUCK R. McNAUGHTON Almighty Editor JOE KANE Managing Editor. ALLAN ASHERMAN. PHIL SEULING STEVE VERTLIEB: Associate Editors BRILL AND WALDSTEIN Art Direction BILL FERET. DENNY O’NEIL. CM RICHARDS Columnists ALLAN ASHERMAN, JESSICA CLERK DAVE IZZO, DEAN ALPREOUS LATIMER, ED NANA, CM RICHARDS STEVE VERTLIEB. JIM WNOROSKI Contributing Writers. JACK JACKSON Contributing Photographer, LARRY WALDSTEIN West Coast Correspondent. JESSICA CLERK European Corresponden RICH BUCKLER. ERNIE COLON, CARLOS GARZON. DAN GREEN, STEVE HICKMAN. JIMMY JANES, JEFF JONES. MIKE KALUTA GRAY MORROW, B.B. SAMS, LARRY TODD. BERNI WRIGHTSON Contributing Artists
1 THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN:
The tale of woe of one monster maker’s family.
6 THE MONSTER MARKET:
Product test of a testy product. A monster!
7 THE PULPS-A REVIEW:
They were grand and glorious where modern writings are bland and boring.
10 THE HERO-PULP INDEX – ANOTHER REVIEW:
a book that lists titles of stories and authors that appeared in THE PULPS.
11 GREEN-LANTERN-GREEN ARROW BOOK NO. 1:
Yet another book review – of a comix paperback that is more “Literature’than the other two books reviewed
15 ROGER CORMAN MEETS EDGAR ALLEN POE!
The battle of the century! Poe lives again, sort of. Roger Corman lives yet – very well, too.
16 GNAWING OBSESSION, PART ONE:
A special Corman-esque, Poe-esque color comic strip by Jeff Jones.
20 THE 10 CRUMBIEST HORROR FILMS OF 1971:
The awards are dubious achievements, definitely, but everyone seems to be competing for them.
22 MAIL DEPARTMENT:
Learn what we did right, as we learn what we did wrong, from the readers’ points of view.
23 DRACULA GOES TO COURT: The world’s greatest and most authoritative version of DRACULA … and we may never see it! Why?
24 MONSTER TIMES TELETYPE: L Who needs Variety anymore, now that you have us to report on Monst-Bix?!
26 TALES FROM THE CRYPT: A shriek preview of the film of the year. to EC comix fans, sure to make gains for Gaines.
THIS ISSUE’S COVER: Elsa Lanchester & Boris Karloff in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Still collectors may not recognize this particular shot, which is a prized result of our art department layout wizards Brill & Waldstein, who also created and Publish THE MONSTER TIMES Yay Bosses! They also concocted the first page, a mini color poster.
THE MONSTER TIMES, No. 4, March 15th, 1972 published every two weeks by The Monster Times Publishing Company. P.O. Box 595, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. 10011. Subscriptions in U.S.A.: $ 6.00 for 13 issues, outside U.S.A.: $10.00 for 26 issues. Second-class mail privileges authorized at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. Contributions are invited provided return postage is enclosed; however, no responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited material. Entire contents copyrighted (c) 1972, by The Monster Times Publishing company. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Subscriber change of address: give 8 weeks notice. Send an address imprint from recent issue or state exactly how label is addressed.
Printed in U.S.A.