Monster! #23: - The Zombified Issue

by Tim Paxton, Steve Fenton, Betsy Grant

Informally dubbed our “Post-Halloween Quasi-Zombie Special”, MONSTER! #23 is our biggest issue to date, with over 130 pages of essential creature feature stuff that is guaranteed to bring out your monstrous side, albeit in the nicest way. And, yes, as per Jolyon Yates’ beautifully hideous, eyeball-grabbing cover art, we’ve got lotsa zombie-related material for you herein. Troy Howarth discusses Jess Franco’s much-mangled-and-maligned but in its optimal form nonetheless sublime horrotica classic A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1973). We also present “A Monster is Loose! – in Tokyo”, Pt. 2 of Steve Bissette’s testimonial to cartoonist / comics artists Vernon Grant, “the Man "Who Introduced ‘Kaiju’ to America"; in Pt. 2 of his on-set report covering the production of his latest opus FIRST MAN ON MARS (due in 2016), indie moviemaker Mike T. Lyddon tells us more about “How To Make a Monster”; Dawn Dabell gives us (and you) “Flying Monsters Attack New York!” with the assistance of THE GIANT CLAW (1957) and THE WINGED SERPENT (1982); even more weirdo and obscure Bollywood monster flicks (including some recent ones with zombies in!) are reviewed by Tim Paxton; there’s also John Harrison’s piece “When Famous Monsters Gave in To The Dark Side”, about the decline and fall of the great monster mag during the initial STAR WARS era…and much, much more! Our chockablock review section includes write-ups of DOCTOR BLOOD’S COFFIN (1961), THE INVASION OF THE ZOMBIES (1961), THE INVASION OF THE DEAD (1973), ICE SPIDERS (2007), C.H.U.D. (1984), DRACULA, THE DIRTY OLD MAN (1969), CEMETERY OF TERROR (1985), RE-KILL (2015), MUTANT (1984), BLOOD THIRST (1971), LA HORDE (2009), SANTO CONTRA LA MAGIA NEGRA (1973), MAGGIE (2015), and more! In addition to those already mentioned, the other writing and/or artwork contributors for M! #23 were Christian Colbert, Dennis Capicik, Jeff Goodhartz, Eric Messina, Michael Elvidge, Andy Ross, Christos Mouroukis, Michael Hauss, Les Moore, Brian Harris, Steve Fenton. As in every issue, we round out this XL number with in-depth video availability information pertaining to films covered in the text. You know you want it…so what you waitin’ for!

134 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2015