Vintage Magazine: Famous Monsters of Filmland, Vol. 1, No. 1 (64 - End)

Not a terribly long entry today, just wrapping up the last of the magazine issue before I get to work on finishing up edits for tomorrow's podcast episode. Really wish I had 2 physical copies of this one, just to have one for archiving and one to take out that awesome monster poster towards the end. Is it a crab? Is it a grasshopper? Who knows?!

Vintage Magazine: Famous Monsters of Filmland, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Pg. 31 - 49)

Some like to say the printed word is dying (which I disagree with) and others say that magazines will be a thing of the past in the future. Honestly, that one's harder to argue against. Just a couple of weeks ago I saw a three-pack at the store of Halloween-themed magazines I won't name. I was so excited to get a bunch of fun recipes and pictures and craft ideas, but in actuality all I found were a bunch of ads for junk I'd never buy. That's all magazines are now unless you're paying premium prices. Look back to older publications like this, though, and the ads are few/far-between, and they certainly don't dominate the whole thing. Ah well, rant over. Enjoy these awesome stills, pranks, and fun articles. Bonus points to the awesome 'Mad Magician' page about Vincent Price and his many colorful deaths.

Book of the Week: Goosebumps 25th Anniversary Collection by R. L. Stine

Goosebumps is close to my heart. Funny how you can read a book that you love so much, even reading another copy with a different cover just doesn't seem like an option. Don't get me wrong, the redesigns are cute, and it sort of revives the series in a way for a younger generation. Yet I love the old art here. It's very 90s, and very much a slice of my childhood.

I've always love reading, but when I was 6, learning to actively put a sentence together was hard. I'll save you the whole story of how it suddenly 'clicked' one day, and I could read just about anything. Suffice it to say, the first year I could go to that Scholastics book fair with money in hand and the knowledge that I could read whatever I bought without any help was magical. So I got a VHS of The Haunted Mask (which I still have), and a goosebumps book with a pumpkin book light. I'm not going to lie, the book light was what sold it. I think I bought Welcome to Dead House. It was '97, and Goosebumps was the series that all the kids were reading. The show had just launched, too, and I remember rushing home every day to watch it. There's not usually a huge scare in the Goosebumps books. Most of them have ambiguously an happy ending (yes, the day is saved...but you're a monster, or that sponge is going to wreak havoc when it gets wet again, or your dad might be one of the hundreds of plants in the front yard.) The next dark step up from Goosebumps was Ghosts of Fear Street, and then Fear Street when you were really ready for something 'darker and more mature'. Something for the teenagers.

My point is that I got this collection as a gift, it's amazing, and I'm pretty sure it could all be easily read in the course of a day by anyone of any age, and still feel just as magical as it did to me that day at the book fair when I bought my first Goosebumps.

Drive-in Trailers: Under The Sea

I think we can all agree that the world is a dangerous place, and anyone who steps foot out of their home for anything other than absolute necessities (food, water, bullets, Dolly Parton's latest album) is a fool. That being said, let us make our way back to the topic at hand: oceanic horror. The spooky, the dark, and the non-shark related horror waiting in your swimming pool, bathtub, and not-so-friendly local beach.

Book of the Week: Monster, by A. Lee Martinez

I have read so many of this man's books. For me, his humorous balance in his story is on par with another favorite author of mine, R. Chetwynd-Hayes. I've already recommended one book by A. Lee Martinez in the past, Gil's All Fright Diner, but honestly? I love this one even more. There was a period of time a few years ago where I was pretty much reading at least one of these books a week, and Monster is one of the best.

The story plays with a concept I rarely see done as well as it should be. There are monsters everywhere, and normal people don't know about them. This one adds your typical Martinez guts and gore along with a succubus here and maybe a yeti destroying a grocery store there. A gland in people's brains that lets them see monsters for what they are, and a sort of supernatural police force doing what they can to at least keep things somewhat normal.

What I love about A. Lee Martinez, is that his protagonists are both very normal and very special in so many creative ways. This book was no exception to the rule, and it is very easily a 3-day read if you put your mind to it. Or don't. Just grab a glass of wine (or coffee) and enjoy.

Vintage Comics: The Beyond #2: Valley of the Scaly Monsters, Bubble of Destruction, The Shrieking Terror (Pg. 16- End)

Running behind on some grad school homework, gang, so I figured I'd share the rest of this comic issue before I hide behind the books. Since I usually take undetermined hiatus after October anyway, I didn't want to leave you waiting either. Tomorrow, for Halloween, I'll be featuring a write-up on a very special actor.

Book(s) of the Week: The Monster at the End of this Book

The Monster at the End of this Book, written by Jon Stone

I know sometimes it's a little funny how I'll go from discussing very adult films and books, and then diving in to suggest some children's stories to my readers. Okay, now that I've addressed that, let's move on to the very simple and yet very classic 'The Monster at the End of this Book'.

Horror? Perhaps not to most of you, unless your parents read to you as kids. This book features as one of the favorite stories my mom pulled off the shelf every other night to read for me, not only because of her excellent voice skills (as you've no doubt heard in my podcast episode intro), but because this was a scary book. For a four-year-old.

It's quite short. And based on how the adult reads to the child, can be either very fast...or very slow. The slower the better, because it's a fantastic introduction for the little ones into the world of tension. Each page turned (of course) brings you closer to 'the monster' at the end of the book, hence the title. And each page, Grover, becomes more and more panicked. Did the premise need to be explained? I certainly hope not, because at this point my blog entry has become longer than the actual story.

So in summary, if you're a mom or a dad, please do your kids a favor and read them 'The Monster at the End of this Book', before they're too old to put 2 and 2 together before figuring out the monster's identity by the end.

Drive-in Trailers: Bad Moon, Surprising?

I love werewolves. You love werewolves. We all love werewolves. Anybody who says they don't are either evil incarnate, or dirty little liars. Whether that mysteriously re-occurring midnight shadow is just in our minds or a much more serious issue, lycanthropy is without a doubt one of the most disturbing...yet enjoyable...horror devices out there. In fact, there are so many...this is very likely to be one of multiple future entries featuring these delightfully hairy monsters.

On a side-note, I'd definitely advise against visiting London on the full moon. Just in case...

Book(s) of the Week: Ghost Mansion

Another little novel I found floating around at a library book sale, this story was an enjoyable read. Perhaps enjoyable isn't the right word. It was a disturbing spiral leading the reader witness to an unstoppable descent into death and madness. So that's why it's the book of the week.

The especially intriguing part is how the 'ghosts' in this book are approached. Unique. Disturbing. Unlike anything I have personally read before, and shouldn't think would be allowed on the modern theatrical screen (no matter how modern it gets.) I won't go into any extra details about these gruesome specters, but suffice it to say I'd rather encounter Pezuzu on a bender before I stepped foot into this house. No matter how pretty the interiors are.

This is a book for a couple of quiet and lonely evenings with nothing but a small lamp (or perhaps candle) to illuminate the words. It's a good thing, too, because you're got 5 days until Halloween to go grab this little gem from an obscure backwoods book store.

Fun Photos: Boris Karloff

Today I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures of Boris Karloff (or featuring him in some way), on set, off set, and in his daily life. That wonderful man who inhabited every role with incredible depth, even if the script didn't have any.