The Great Monster Magazines: A Critical Study of the Black and White Publications of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s

by Robert Michael "Bobb" Cotter

Honorable Mention, Rondo Hatton Award
This is a critical overview of monster magazines from the 1950s through the 1970s. "Monster magazine" is a blanket term to describe both magazines that focus primarily on popular horror movies and magazines that contain stories featuring monsters, both of which are illustrated in comic book style and printed in black and white.
The book describes the rise and fall of these magazines, examining the contributions of Marvel Comics and several other well-known companies, as well as evaluating the effect of the Comics Code Authority on both present and future efforts in the field. It identifies several sub-genres, including monster movies, zombies, vampires, sword-and-sorcery, and pulp-style fiction. The work includes several indexes and technical credits.

Genres: Horror

238 pages, Hardcover

First published June 13, 2008

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haven't seen a better overview on all the monster magazines, comics and weird stuff ever. From Monsters Unleashed, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Scream, The House of Hammer, Tales of the Zombies, Conan the Franchise to the bloody pulps, Kung Fu, The Six Million Dollar Man to a new breed like Heavy Metal or Epic. What a summing up. With examplary covers of all major magazines in black and white. Highly recommended!

[Radclyffe U-Haul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much broader than just what I would call "monster" mags and sort of just a catalogue of magazines but I enjoyed it

[Nik Havert · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not a bad book, but it's not quite what I expected either. The title's a bit misleading, as the book covers not only monster magazines, but also sic-fi and sword and sorcery magazines. There's an entire chapter on Conan and his ilk. It also covers monster magazines beyond the decades listed in the title. The last chapter mentions several magazines currently in publication.

The chapters have some interesting information, but are mostly selected choices from each magazine's run with the table of comments listed and sometimes commentary from the author. Some magazines with ten issues or less have all of their issues covered. There aren't as many cover photos as I'd hoped there would be, but the choices are excellent.

There's some odd filler. One chapter refers to pop culture trends that influenced black and white monster magazines. The first trend listed is "rock and roll" and goes into great detail about various monster-themed bands and songs that emerged during the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's...but there are no magazines listed or shown that reflect this influence. It's just a list of cool bands and nothing else.

I was glad to see the chapter on the "Planet of the Apes" magazine, and had no idea so many were published. I learned of a couple others I hadn't heard of before, so I'm happy for that.

It's not the best guide to the monster magazines, but there's some fun information in it if you love classic comics and monsters.

[McFarland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an incredibly detailed account of the evolution of Comics, Monster Magazines, and Films during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It covers both well known publications such as Dracula and obscure works such as The Forever People. The collection is extremely comprehensive. This book contains a plethora of information about the development of these medias, the authors and artists, and the fan base of these publications. This book is also contains the cover art of many magazines. These priceless images capture an amazing era of Monster Magazines.