Continuing our look at Stan Lee's obsession...
...with captioning old monster/horror/sci-fi movie and tv show pix with silly word balloons!
..but there's even more next week, boys and ghouls!
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Showing posts with label magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magazine. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2025
Monday, October 6, 2025
Monday Monster Madness MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH "Best of #1"
Let's see how funny the legendary Stan Lee could be...
Now who could argue with that?
...but there's more next week, boy fiends and ghoul friends!
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Monday, September 29, 2025
Monday Monster Madness MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH / MONSTERS UNLIMITED & MONSTER MADNESS
Besides comic books, Marvel made occasional forays into the b/w magazine market...
..with this seven-issue 1965-66 title being their longest-lasting Silver Age series!
(Note: with the second issue, Stan Lee's name was added to the cover as a selling point!)
(Note: with the second issue, Stan Lee's name was added to the cover as a selling point!)
Other mags had used the gimmick of captioning old movie and tv photos for a feature in a magazine...but never an entire magazine!
At this point, the book changed it's title...
...nobody's really sure why, but it seemed to work!
One of the koolest aspects was that Stan Lee wrote the captions...
...bringing the same kitchy vaudville-level humor that he used for decades in Marvel's humor comics!
I'm not sure if declining sales or Stan Lee's increasing workload caused the cancellation!
(Besides his writing/editing duties, he was now the public face of Marvel, giving interviews, making appearances on tv, even touring college campuses where Marvel Comics were the "in" thing!)
In 1973, when Marvel unleashed an entire line of b/w magazines, ranging from horror to kung fu to Planet of the Apes...
(Besides his writing/editing duties, he was now the public face of Marvel, giving interviews, making appearances on tv, even touring college campuses where Marvel Comics were the "in" thing!)
In 1973, when Marvel unleashed an entire line of b/w magazines, ranging from horror to kung fu to Planet of the Apes...
...they revived the concept, still written by Stan Lee!
...but this time, the book was the least-successful of the b/w line!
It was re-tooled into a Famous Monsters of Filmland/Castle of Frankenstein format, adding features about both old and current films and tv shows...
It was re-tooled into a Famous Monsters of Filmland/Castle of Frankenstein format, adding features about both old and current films and tv shows...
...but the alteration didn't help and the book was cancelled.
Marvel tried again, later that year with a Famous Monsters of Filmland/Castle of Frankenstein clone called Monsters of the Movies, which lasted for eight regular issues and an Annual.
Starting next Monday, through the rest of October, you'll be seeing the best (IMHO) of Monsters to Laugh With and Monsters Unlimited!
Don't Miss It!Friday, September 19, 2025
Mort Drucker's "Disguised Humor" and the DC Comic YOU DIDN'T KNOW EXISTED!
Can you name what DC Comic this never-reprinted page appeared in?
Hints:
It was during the period Drucker was also working for MAD!
It was during the Silver Age of Comics!
It was during the period Drucker was also working for MAD!
It was during the Silver Age of Comics!
(I didn't say they were great hints!)
Obvious Trivia: Mort would go on to illustrate a number of the Man of Steel's media incarnations in MAD, including Christopher Reeve's movie version and the tv series Smallville.
The answer is...
DC's Teen Beam #2 (1968)!
Yeah, it doesn't look like a comic, but it was comic-sized, and DC produced it!
From '66-'69 several comics companies took a shot at doing mixed-format comics/teen mag titles...
Tower's Teen-In
Charlton's Go-Go
Harvey's Pop Comics
Warren also tried their hand with two b/w mag titles...
Freak Out, U.S.A.
and
and
Teen Love Stories!
Oddly, Marvel, once noted for their tendency to jump on trends, didn't do one of these!
DC advertised their attempt with this...odd...ad...
...featuring the comic/mag's mascot character Teeny and, presuming it would appeal to the target teenage girl audience, a grungy hippie!
The first issue featured Teeny introducing articles about various heart-throbs...
...but no other comics-type material!
The incredibly-popular mag they based the title on...
...immediately threatened a trademark infringement lawsuit!
So, DC hastily-altered the title in their ads and the book's logo to Teen Beam...
...and added comic pages along with the articles!
It didn't help, since distributors, unwilling to anger the insanely-hot Tiger Beat, refused to rack the title!
(as the ad points out, you had to ask for it, since it was now, as they used to say "under the counter" along with porn magazines!)
The second issue was the last!
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Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Best of Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SPACE CLUSTERS by Arthur Byron Cover & Alex Nino
It's a Time-Lost, Totally-Original, Never-Reprinted Graphic Novel...
by noted sci-fi novelist Arthur Byron Cover and incredibly-unique graphic illustrator Alex Nino, which you've likely never seen!
It's Weird!
It's Wild!
It's the Very Embodiment of a World of Wonder!
So What Are You Waiting for?
Here are the Links...
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Earth Day Reading Room NIGHTMARE "Pollution Monsters!"
"The Devil made it do it!" is given new meaning...
...in this never-reprinted tale from 55 years ago (the year Earth Day was first celebrated) which reads like one of Atlas' (pre-Marvel Comics) late 1950s-early 1960s monster stories!
Before we continue, two points:
1) Penciler Don Heck was one of the primary artists of both Atlas era and Silver Age Marvel comics stories, including numerous giant monster tales.
(Inker Mike Esposito, though he entered the field at the same time as Heck, didn't do much work for Atlas or Marvel until the late 1960s.)
(Inker Mike Esposito, though he entered the field at the same time as Heck, didn't do much work for Atlas or Marvel until the late 1960s.)
2) The story is broken into two parts, even though it's only 10 pages, much like those Atlas Comics stories.
Is it a deliberate homage?
Writer Mike Freidrich was one of the first generation of comic fanboys turned professional creatives, so he was very familiar with the inherent tropes...
Writer Mike Freidrich was one of the first generation of comic fanboys turned professional creatives, so he was very familiar with the inherent tropes...
One big difference between this story and those Atlas-era giant monster stories...we don't win!
We might, but there's no guarantee in this cover-featured tale from Skywald's Nightmare #1 (1970)!
It's over 50 years later...and it's still frightening!
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