Steve Fenton

Stephen Bissette

Daniel Best

Tim Paxton

MONSTER! #28/29 Amazon hype Okay, this here's our first ever (and hopefully last!) "double" issue, which has twice as many pages as our usual average-sized ish, hence it must be our... Spring Special! However, rather than come up with a paragraph of sales hype which is twice as long as usual, we're just gonna keep things short (unlike the mag itself!) and sweet. Thanks to our regular reliable roster of talented scribes (and artists) - plus a few new contributors besides - we've got a gigantic grab-bag of monstersome goodness (and BADness) for you: including articles about/reviews of a clutch of HPL-themed movies; Jess Franco's 1970s "monster mash" trilogy; '70s FRANKENSTEIN made-for-TV flicks; a cinema/pop culture career overview of Countess Elizabeth Bathory; Pt.2 of "Australian Gothic," about the 1929 Australian stage tour of the play DRACULA; the obscure 1960s monster mag called SHRIEK!; Mexi-mummy movies featuring the shabby shamble known as Popoca; plus plentiful other features interspersed throughout, of both the written word and visual art kinds. Individual movies covered include DAGON (2001), THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE (2010), CULT OF THE COBRA (1955), IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994), THE PROJECTED MAN (1966), CTHULHU MANSION (1990), HOUSE (1986), THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR (1967), THE PROMISE KEEPER (2006), plus more besides. Our vaster than usual list of writing contribs totals Michael Hauss, Seb Godin, Cédric Monget, Eric Messina, John Harrison, Bill Adcock, Martín Núñez, Troy Howarth, Stephen R. Bissette, Andy Ross, Daniel Best, Christos Mouroukis, Matthew E. Banks, Ian Coleman, John Goodrich, Les Moore, Brian Harris, Tony Strauss, Steve Fenton, and Tim Paxton, plus we have some real snazzy artwork contributions from Matt Bradshaw, Jeff Grimal and Andy Ross. Then there's book and comic reviews, plus a whole whack of info regarding the video availability of specific movie titles covered. Get set for Creature feature overload!

Super Spring Special - Lovecraftian Vampires and More

Monster! #28/29 (Vampire Cover)

It'd be hard to find anyone interested in comic books and their history who hasn't heard of Todd McFarlane's legal woes, but very few outside of McFarlane's immediate circle know just how many legal fights he was facing as the 1990s closed. Virtually all of McFarlane's court cases came down to three decisions, made by him alone. The first was to name a mobster in his Spawn comic after a hockey player, Tony Twist. The second was to hire Neil Gaiman to write a single issue of Spawn and the third came when he decided to buy all the remaining assets from Eclipse Comics at their bankruptcy sale. The first decision led to the Tony Twist trial, last two choices lead to Neil Gaiman filing suit and, ultimately, winning a portion of the Spawn universe and the hotly sought after, by some, character Miracleman.The Tony Twist trial was the beginning of a long, long period of uncertainty for Todd McFarlane and very nearly brought down the empire that he'd worked so hard to build. At its worst point, McFarlane was fighting to save his companies, to keep his characters and simply to survive. He was facing battles from several fronts, from people he did not previously personally know in the form of Tony Twist, to those whom he'd collaborated with, in the form of Neil Gaiman and also in bankruptcy courts. Clearly the fight that cost him the most, in pure financial terms, was that brought against him by Tony Twist. It would take years, and millions of dollars, to finally resolve. But the fight that potentially hurt him the most, both personally and professionally, was the one brought by Gaiman, as it gave the impression that McFarlane had appropriated characters created by Gaiman (albeit within the confines of the Spawn universe, along with Miracleman - but that's a book in itself) without proper accounting, permission or payments. This, to the comic book industry at large, showed McFarlane to be no better than the corporations that he'd spent years rallying against - Marvel and DC Comics. It would take the better part of two decades before McFarlane would emerge free and clear from these fights. He came out of it battered, bruised, facing charges of hypocrisy and with a serious hit to his reputation, but he wasn't totally beaten. Despite those who wished to see McFarlane fall completely from grace, he emerged relatively intact.

The World Vs Todd McFarlane

Okay, just in time for April Fool's Day (not that we're foolin', mind you!), here comes MONSTER! #27... which just happens to be the first of our loose "H.P. Lovecraft" specials (we're doing another one next month, too). In this issue, it's about a 70/30% split, respectively, between HPL-themed material and other stuff. Steve Bissette (with an invaluable assist from Rick Lai) gives us Part 1 of his massive, laboriously-researched two-part analysis of the made-for-TV monster movie DARK INTRUDER (1965), which, while not "officially" derived from any particular HPL written work, is steeped in Lovecraftian lore and atmosphere nonetheless. Our review section reflects the issue's main theme, including coverage - by both long-time Lovecraft devotees and novices - of such cinematic adaptations of his works (both "legit" or only nominal) as CASTLE FREAK (1995), CHILEAN GOTHIC (a.k.a. PICKMAN'S MODEL, 2000), THE CURSE (1987), CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR (1968), THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970), THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963), ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN (1979), NECRONOMICON (1993), THE RESURRECTED (1991), and THE SHUTTERED ROOM (1967). Non-Lovecraft-related material this ish includes the first instalment of another epic historical overview from the scholarly Daniel Best on the subject of vintage horror entertainment Down Under, entitled "Australian Gothic"; this time Daniel covers the 1929 stage production of Bram Stoker's DRACULA which toured Australia's theatre circuit with considerable success in its day, but has since been as-good-as forgotten by history. All this and a bunch more goodies besides! Including: coverage of the PHANTASM movie quadrilogy, a piece about "apocalyptical dino-monsters" in modern popular culture, a review of the newest Karloff biography, Stephen Jacobs' BORIS KARLOFF: MORE THAN A MONSTER, plus, more, more, MORE! Other writing contributors this issue were C. Michael Hall, Christos Mouroukis, Eric Messina, Dennis Capicik, Allen A. Debus, Dawn Dabell, Sebastien Godin, Martín Núñez, Matthew E. Banks, Christopher J. Maurer, Daniel Best, Les Moore, Brian Harris, Steve Fenton, and Tim Paxton. And not only that, but we've also got some stark 'n' stylin' HPL-inspired artwork from Jolyon Yates, Andy Ross, Matt Bradshaw and C. Michael Hall, too! And last but not least, rounding out this super-stuffed 125-pager is our usual listing covering the video availability of titles discussed within.

Lovecraftian Horrors

Monster! #27

Jim Mooney

Gentleman Jim Mooney was written with the direct involvement of Jim Mooney. It features rare and unpublished art, direct from Mooney's files, plus previously unseen personal photos. The book features contributions from Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, Roy Thomas, Joe Sinnott and others, plus all-new art as Sinnott, Norm Breyfogle, Bob Almond, Mark McKenna, Jim Tournas and Bob McLeod exclusively ink previously unpublished Mooney pencils. Also features is Mooney's niece Libby Titus, wife of Steely Dan Founder Donald Fagen plus an introduction by Stan "The Man" Lee. This fully revised and re-edited version of the book is sure to delight all that read it.

Daniel Best

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