Monster! #22: October 2015

by Tim Paxton, John Harrison (Contributor), Brian Harris (Contributor)

Once again, we mix things up a little…actually, a LOT! Some may well be wondering about that cute li’l red dragon/dino on the cover to this ish. To those “in the know” (including MONSTER! founder Tim Paxton), cartoonist Vernon Grant’s slim 1972 softcover comics volume A MONSTER IS LOOSE!—IN TOKYO marked a key point in the understanding and acceptance of Japanese “kaiju eiga” (basically, giant monster movies) here in the West. For this issue, dedicated pop-cultural paleontologist Stephen R. Bissette gives us Part 1 of his two-part personal testimonial to Grant, “the man who introduced ‘kaiju’ to America”, alighting on other aspects of monster/popular culture along the way. Elsewhere, the academically-studious-to-a-fault John L. Vellutini contributes a sequel to his epic article on Indonesian horror cinema, “The Ties That Bind” (which we ran in M! #21); this month John ties-up whatever loose ends of errata/addenda he has unearthed since last month. In addition, the mighty Eric Messina enthusiastically champions the cause of usual puppet master Gerry Anderson’s mid-’90s live-action sci-fi/crime hybrid SPACE PRECINCT, a critter-filled series which is generally – and in Eric’s considered opinion, unfairly – held in low esteem even by the staunchest adherents of Anderson’s canon. With similar enthusiasm, the ever-knowledgeable John Harrison covers a bunch of the more monsterific episodes of the cult ’60s pulp SF show, LOST IN SPACE. For the sake of something “different”, the seemingly tireless and super-prolific Troy Howarth conducts an entertaining interview with up’n’coming young indie/underground moviemaker Joshua Kennedy, whose latest SOV ventures are DRACULA A.D. 2015 and THE VESUVIUS XPERIMENT. Then there’s “How To Make a Monster”, the first instalment of fellow indie filmmaker Mike T. Lyddon’s on-set coverage of his upcoming D.I.Y. creature feature, FIRST MAN ON MARS. Also in this super-stuffed issue, freelance author Stephen D. Sullivan covers a number of the best podcasts out there pertaining to monster movies, while Matthew E. Banks takes a look at massive pop culture icon Bela Lugosi’s forays into vampire cinema, which came fewer and farther between than you might expect, considering his rep. Our larger-than-usual review section includes write-ups on such diverse filmic fare as KIDS VS MONSTERS (2015), DR. ORLOFF’S INVISIBLE MONSTER (1970), MEET THE APPLEGATES (1990), IT! (1967), HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN (1962), DAY OF THE BEAST (2011), the Mexi-monster masterpiece SHIP OF MONSTERS (1960), plus more besides. Oh, and Tim P. covers another clutch of ultra-obscure Hindi horrors, too! As always, in our back pages we provide video availability for many of the films covered herein. This issue’s list of contributors is rounded-out by Sebastien Godin, Keith J. Rainville, Andy Ross, Michael Hauss, Christos Mouroukis, Brian Harris and Steve Fenton.

114 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2015