GOGOS, VAMPI STAR IN HERITAGE AUCTION

Heritage Auctions has released the catalog for its next Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, to be held May 10-11 in Dallas and online. While there are no monster movie magazines included this time, I'd say there are several items that will be of interest to MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD readers.

Basil Gogos is renowned and beloved for his FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND cover art. The original cover painting for FM #14 of Vincent Price in THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM is up for sale. It measures 8” x 11.5” and is done in acrylics on illustration board. Based on the catalog photo, the painting still looks beautiful after fifty years!

Serious VAMPIRELLA collectors as well as the more casual Vampi fans may want to check out the paintings of Drakulon’s favorite daughter by Enrique Torres (Enric). One is an oil on canvas recreation of Jose Gonzalez’s famous life-sized poster. There is also a slightly smaller pencil illustration of the same picture. The original cover art for VAMPIRELLA #110 is offered, featuring Vampi with Balazaar. In two other gorgeous works of art, Enric paints Vampi from behind, looking over her shoulder at the viewer, as she confronts a panther and a giant, furry monster. Enric painted covers for other Warren magazines, as well. His artwork for CREEPY #115 of an alien carrying a nearly-nude human woman is a striking example.

There are also a couple of copies of VAMPIRELLA #1 in very nice condition up for bid, also. They are CGC-graded and sealed, which is a great selling point, I suppose. I prefer to read my Warren mags instead of sealing them up.

When Orsatti Productions was planning a full-length animated feature of DRACULA in 1975, they commissioned character designs from the great Frank Frazetta. His Dracula and Van Helsing studies are offered in this auction. They are head shots done in watercolor and pencil and the Dracula picture is particularly creepy. If you have Frazetta’s LEGACY book, check out page 112 to see a copy.

Three more of the R. Crumb Monster Card messages from the 1965 Topps series are in this auction. Unlike previous catalogs, this time the catalog writer includes some decent descriptive information about the artwork. The pieces, all 3.5” x 4.75”, lack the photos with the punch line which made these cards funny. Apparently the drawings were placed in an album with black paper pages and have some black residue with small glue stains. Bummer! There is a huge selection of Crumb artwork in this auction and I am wondering if a good portion of it is from his personal collection.

There are at least 29 lots of pulp magazines, including several issues of the classic WEIRD TALES. A number of STRANGE TALES copies from the early 1930s contain stories by fantastic authors Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, and Hugh B. Cave. HORROR STORIES, EERIE, and SPICY ADVENTURE are also represented.

Check out Heritage Auctions’ web site, HA.com, for more information and images. Just to be clear, I am not an employee of the auction house and none of the items mentioned are mine. I enjoy looking at this stuff and making plans for when I hit the Lotto! And I think it is of interest to other readers of MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD.

Read More → GOGOS, VAMPI STAR IN HERITAGE AUCTION

VAMPI AND CRUMB ON THE AUCTION BLOCK

Last month, it was reported here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD of a piece of original art for sale from the Robert Crumb monster card series he created for Topps in the 1960s. The artwork was included in the February Heritage Comics & Comic Art Auction in New York. The piece, "I Love Your Beautiful Eyes," sold for $1912! That price includes the commission. Inflation is not dead in the comic/monster art world! Two similar drawings sold last year for $776 and $1135. The number of bidders for the Crumb drawing also increased, with fifteen individuals bidding for the monster card original.

Also auctioned were two Vampirella paintings by Enrique Torres-Prat, better known to readers of Warren's VAMPIRELLA as "Enric", which commanded prices of $1314 and $1434. Both were listed in "good" condition in the catalogue and both are beautiful.

And you thought there was a recession going on!

Read More → VAMPI AND CRUMB ON THE AUCTION BLOCK

KARLOFF'S LIFE ANNIVERSARY

As with many monster-loving kids growing up in the fifties and sixties, my favorite actor was Boris Karloff. He was an icon to several generations; a regular on screens both large and small. His instantly recognizable voice was imitated by every impressionist and comic in the country (most famously by Bobby Pickett on “The Monster Mash”). Because his fame transcended monster film fandom, Karloff often appeared in periodicals other than FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. It is on one of those magazines that I saw my favorite picture of him.

Over forty years after first seeing it, the cover of LIFE magazine from March 15, 1968, still fascinates and enthralls me. Against a pitch-black background is the face of the 80 year old Boris Karloff, illuminated by 150 candles burning in front of him. His face is tilted slightly downward, eyes looking intently at the reader from below steel-grey eyebrows and a furrowed forehead. The eyes have an air of mystery about them, stern and penetrating, but not threatening. The sternness of the eyes is tempered by Karloff’s mouth, the corners of which are turned slightly upward in a wan smile. The look, perhaps, of a grandfather who has caught a youngster with his hand in the cookie jar, wanting to scold the scofflaw while simultaneously stifling a grin.



Cover of the March 15, 1968 issue of  LIFE magazine,
without the machine-applied subscription address label
so commonly seen on copies for sale today.

The caption explains it all, “Boris Karloff at 80 celebrates an old friend’s birthday.” The magazine commemorates the 150th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN with an article entitled, The Horrible Truth About Frankenstein.

The story is a landmark, as it is probably the first exposure the general reading public had to the details of FRANKENSTEIN’s genesis. Many people at the time were only vaguely aware of the story-telling contest that led to Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, but few knew the salacious details. Samuel Rosenberg, a self-described “literary detective” and contributor to LIFE, explains how a late-night viewing of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN triggered a series of questions in his mind about the historical—the “real”—Mary Shelley and the true origins of her famous creation. Rosenberg “re-constructed, from more than 30 biographical sources,” the events and motives of the participants in the fateful “enchanted summer” of 1816 in Switzerland, which led to the writing of two horror classics: Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN and Polidori’s THE VAMPYRE.

When I begged my parents to shell out the 35 cents for the magazine, I had expected a story of Karloff and the Monster. What I got was an eye-opening history lesson in radical politics, sex, betrayal, scandal, literary history, and more sex. Rosenberg leads the reader through Mary Shelley’s life, starting with her parents, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, both famous radicals. Wollstonecraft died within days of giving birth to her daughter, and it seems that William blamed the child for the death of her mother. To be close to her dead mother, young Mary would read books in the graveyard. From there, we read of Percy Shelley’s seduction of the teen-aged Mary, their “elopement” (Shelley was still married at the time.) and their travels and exploits with friends and lovers alike.

Rosenberg provides biographical accounts of Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, Mary’s half-sister Claire, John Polidori, and their various spouses, ex-spouses, and lovers, paying particular attention to their scandals and sexual escapades. Looking back on the story, I have a hard time believing LIFE included the many details of homosexuality, partner-swapping, ménage a trois, infidelity, and so on. The sexual revolution was in full force in 1968, of course, but LIFE was an establishment bastion! I was not quite thirteen at the time and the article made me MUCH more interested in 19th century writing than I had been up till then.

But the main thrust of Rosenberg’s article is not the sexual adventurism of the historical figures, it is FRANKENSTEIN. He leads us through Byron’s suggestion that each member of the group summering in Switzerland in 1816 devise a ghost story. Mary Shelley had some trouble conceiving of an idea for two days, but after an “excited discussion” of the Prometheus myth between Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, she “saw the pale student of unhallowed arts beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.” That was in June 1816; she began writing the story shortly thereafter. The first edition of FRANKENSTEIN; or THE MODERN PROMETHEUS, was (anonymously) published two years later, in 1818. Shelley's authorship did not become widely known until the French edition of 1823.

Rosenberg analyzes the plot and characters of the novel and delves into its possible autobiographical and psychological underpinnings. These have provided material for many subsequent analysts, both popular and academic. No other study that I have read tells the tale in as fascinating and readable a way as this one, however.

LIFE magazine was a widely-read and hugely popular, over-sized (13 ½” X 10 ¼”), weekly general-interest photo-journalism publication. Together with its competitors, LOOK and the SATURDAY EVENING POST, it provided news of politics, current events, and culture to millions of readers each week for decades. Its circulation peaked at 13.5 million copies. The power and influence of the magazine may be measured in part by the fact that several world leaders like Harry Truman and Winston Churchill serialized their memoirs in it.

Each week LIFE offered a wide-ranging list of contents. The issue with Karloff on the cover contained stories about black athletes boycotting the upcoming Olympics, a Mafia boss, Bill Cosby, Peter Sellers’ movie THE PARTY, and a Senate filibuster.

For monster magazine fans, the magazine played a pivotal role in the launch of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. Shortly after James Warren’s first FM paste-up was rejected by multiple distributors, LIFE’s November 11, 1957 issue featured a two-page story about the expanding science-fiction/horror film fad. It contained photos from current AIP, UA, and Allied Artists horror films. Upon seeing this article, Kable News Company had a change of heart and decided to distribute FM. And thus, history was made!

But no matter how fascinating the Frankenstein article is, and how varied and interesting the contents are, I will cling to this issue of LIFE for the cover. Whenever a conversation turns to Boris Karloff, this is the first image that springs to my mind. Sadly, the great actor died eleven months after the magazine appeared. Thankfully, his memory and legacy live on.

Read More → KARLOFF'S LIFE ANNIVERSARY

HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE EYES . . .

Heritage Auctions has sent out the catalog for its February 22-24 Signature Comic Book Auction to be held in New York. While they are offering an amazing amount of rare vintage comic books, monster magazines and memorabilia are very under-represented this time. One item of interest to MMW readers is the original art for a Topps Monster Greeting Card. Design and artwork are by legendary underground comic artist Robert Crumb. Two of these cards were featured last year in MMW’s Monster Card Monday. The obverse reads “I love your beautiful eyes” and the reverse reads “All four of them.” A lovely sentiment for Valentine’s Day!

Read More → HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE EYES . . .

DOUG'S HALL OF FLAME SHEDS LIGHT ON FAMOUS MONSTERS NO. 259

2011 was an excellent year for monster magazines, both in quantity and quality. My favorite issue of the year was one of the last to hit the stands: FAMOUS MONSTERS 259. The newsstand edition features a fantastic WOLFMAN painting by Rick Baker, one of the best cover depictions of a werewolf I’ve ever seen. The magazine contains two main themes, werewolves and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. I like “themed” issues, as they allow the editor and writers to develop topics more fully and provide more perspectives than normal. It does take some intestinal fortitude on the part of the editor, however, as an unpopular theme could lead to a poor selling issue. That said, I love the two topics in FM 259.

Mark Miller kicks off the were-creature section with an article surveying werewolves in cinema. From the silent movie era to the upcoming sequel to Del Toro’s WOLFMAN, Miller mentions them all. Quite a feat! I was a bit humbled when I realized how many of the films I hadn’t seen. More entries on the DVD wish list, I suppose.

Richard Schellbach provides a personal reminiscence of discovering and watching werewolf movies growing up. His story of studying the TV Guide each week for monster movie listings and then getting up (or staying up) to watch them at 4:00 a.m. brought back memories of own experiences crawling out of bed before dawn to watch WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY and other such cinematic gems. A true monster kid experience!

The highlights of the werewolf section are the first-person article by make-up genius Rick Baker and the fantastic “Monster Master Class” make-up demonstration by Dave Elsey. Twenty years from now, the make-up artists on “WOLFMAN 2032” will say they were inspired by Elsey’s detailed “how to” instructions in FM 259.

Fans of THE TWILIGHT ZONE will enjoy the interviews with Carol Serling, Richard Matheson, Earl Hamner Jr., and George Clayton Johnson. Their comments and memories of working with Rod Serling add new life and warmth to the show and its creator. Mrs. Serling relates some details of her husband’s pre-television life, which may be new to many readers. Peter Martin contributes an excellent article about the late Charles Beaumont, a fantastic writer who died way too young. Justin Beahm discusses the making of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE’s “It’s A Good Life” with director Joe Dante. The entire set of TZ articles is outstanding and a great tribute to a great show.

I am enjoying Kevin Burns’ comic art adaptation of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, part three of which appears in this issue.

The depth and quality of writing and illustration in this issue make FAMOUS MONSTERS 259 one of the best monster magazines of 2011.

Read More → DOUG'S HALL OF FLAME SHEDS LIGHT ON FAMOUS MONSTERS NO. 259

CARL DREADSTONE SPEAKS!

A previous installment of DOUG'S HALL OF FLAME covered the "Carl Dreadstone" line of mass market paperback books from the 1970's. As a part of the "Universal Horror Library", each book was a novelization of a Universal horror picture. Over the years, there were theories on who exactly this Carl Dreadstone fellow was. Various assertions, confessions and revelations have been made, many with the ring of truth to them.

I was excited to hear from one of the Carl Dreadstones himself this morning. World reknown writer (one of my personal favorites is his collection of Lovecrat-inspired horror stories, COLD PRINT) and columnist for VIDEO WATCHDOG, Mr. Campbell commented on THE MYSTERY OF CARL DREADSTONE post back in early October.

Mr. Campbell here has verified, with his personal knowledge, the following:

"I wrote The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula's Daughter and The Wolfman. Walter Harris did The Werewolf of London and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Nobody seems to recall who wrote The Mummy. I also wrote all the introductions."

We'll have to wait and see about the final mystery of who wrote The Mummy. Until then, thank you very much Ramsey Campbell, for taking the time to comment here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD.

Cheers!

Read More → CARL DREADSTONE SPEAKS!

HOUSE OF HORROR NO. 1 ON THE AUCTION BLOCK

I received the catalog for the November Comics and Comic Art Auction by HERITAGE AUCTIONS. One lot may be of particular interest to MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD readers -- a graded & slabbed copy of Warren's rarity, HOUSE of HORROR. Also of interest are some original comic art pages from VAMPIRELLA and CREEPY.

Read More → HOUSE OF HORROR NO. 1 ON THE AUCTION BLOCK

MONSTER CARD MONDAY (SPECIAL EDITION)

Some months ago, I was rummaging through the garage and found a small box of trading cards purchased in the dim, dark past. The box contained an eclectic assortment of cards, SPOOK STORIES, ADDAMS' FAMILY, and two of the strangest cards I had ever seen. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember seeing them before, let alone buying them. As with all monster-related questions, I called upon the editor of this blog to enlighten me as to what the heck they were. John explained that they were from a series of cards designed by the legendary underground comix genius Robert Crumb for Topps in 1965! John later featured the cards in MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD'S MONSTER CARD MONDAY feature.

The original artwork for two of the cards from this series was offered at auction by Heritage in a recent Signature Comics auction. Both pieces measure 3.5” x 5” and are signed by Mr. Crumb. While the catalog entries list the punch line which would have appeared on the card’s reverse side, no photos of that side are shown. That leads me to believe that only the lettered artwork side was in the auction. Fewer than ten people placed bids. The first drawing, “You deserve a big hand,” sold for $776 (base price plus buyer’s commission). “You have a peach of a complexion,” the second piece, sold for $1135! To me that is an astonishing amount of money to pay for such a small work, but given the importance of R. Crumb and the scarcity of original art, perhaps I am off base. After seeing the results form this auction, I have a little higher regard for my two samples of these weird cards now!

Read More → MONSTER CARD MONDAY (SPECIAL EDITION)

A "CREEPY" END TO THE WEEK, BUT NOT AN END TO "A CREEPY WEEK"

He should by now, need no introduction, but I'll go ahead with one, anyway. Doug and I have been best of friends for a loooong time now. Remember me showing you the very first issue of my homemade 'zine called MONSTERS MAGAZINE? He was part of the monster "music group" that was profiled in that issue. You may recall that I mentioned him as "very good at being the Wolf Man" (!). His mag was called HALL OF FLAME, and Doug's guest posts here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD are entitled DOUG'S HALL OF FLAME in honor of his great labor of love, and very esoteric entry into the world of monster fanzines, I might add. Doug's been a long time monster lover and fellow Monsterologist. Like me, he's also a huge fan of  comics artist, Steve Ditko. Read on, and you'll see why . . .

THE CURE FOR "A CREEPY WEEK" WITHDRAWAL

I have been a bit depressed since the end of MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD'S most recent A CREEPY WEEK. CREEPY was always one of my favorite magazines and holds a special place in my (Tell-Tale) heart. It was one of the first magazines I bought off the newsstand as a boy and it was the first magazine that I ever subscribed to. So, it is no surprise that I enjoy MMW’s weeks devoted to Uncle Creepy, Loathsome Lore, the fantastic artwork, and all aspects of Jim Warren’s great comic magazine. An antidote to my post-Creepy week funk showed up in my mail box last week in the form of DITKOMANIA #85.

DITKOMANIA is Rob Imes’s outstanding fanzine devoted to the legendary comic artist Steve Ditko. The theme of the new issue is black and white magazines, focusing primarily on the artist’s work for Warren Publications. Mr. Ditko drew sixteen stories for Warren between 1966 and 1968, appearing in CREEPY 9 through 16 and EERIE 3 through 10. In “Steve Ditko at Warren” Jason Sacks summarizes and comments on each of these stories. He points out Ditko’s art style for each piece (most often an ink wash, used to great effect). Sacks mentions some of the artist’s signature themes and images, such as “fear-filled eyes” or fantastic mystical realms. Ditko’s depictions of other dimensions or internal torment are without equal in comics! As evidence, check out the opening page from “Second Chance,” published in CREEPY #13. Ditko excels at illustrating emotions on character’s faces, especially the emotion of terror, exhibited frequently in the stories done for Warren. Sacks’s article is well-written and superbly illustrated. It inspired me to revisit the early CREEPYs and EERIEs to read these wonderful stories again!

In addition to his work for Warren, Ditko also drew stories for the Mort Todd-edited MONSTERS ATTACK, published by CRACKED publisher Globe Communications from 1989-1990. Though less well-known than the Warren magazines, MONSTERS ATTACK featured work by several outstanding artists, notably John Severin, Gray Morrow, Alex Toth, and Gene Colan. Ditko contributed one story to each of the five issues and this body of work is described in “Ditko’s Little Monsters” by Bob Heer. The illustrations in the article highlight Ditko’s attention to mystic detail, as an illusionist morphs into a demon and his fingers turn into snakes. This article was a revelation to me, as I have not read any issues of MONSTERS ATTACK. I hope to rectify this omission soon!

In addition to the articles on horror comics, there are reviews of Ditko’s latest self-published work and a “lost” Human Torch/Hulk story recently published by Marvel. This is an excellent fanzine for comic fans and issue 85 is especially recommended to all of Uncle Creepy’s followers! For information, contact Rob Imes at robimes@yahoo.com. Please tell him you heard about his ‘zine at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD!



From "Collector's Edition" CREEPY #10, with very
Reed Crandall-esque inking.

  

From "Deep Ruby" EERIE #6


[Not enough creeps for you? Want to read the complete story of "Collector's Edition" from CREEPY #10? How can you do this? Just click on the READ MONSTER COMICS title under the MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD heading at the top of this blog!]

Read More → A "CREEPY" END TO THE WEEK, BUT NOT AN END TO "A CREEPY WEEK"