1975 Godzilla article from Monsters of the Movies

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Scanned from Monsters of the Movies #5, published Feb. 1975. This was one of the rare times that an American monster magazine devoted a cover, and especially a painted cover, to Godzilla. Bob Larkin's day-glo colors and dynamic composition placed the Big G in an American setting, which was also a first, and seemed to spark a greater interest in Japanese films on this shore. The indepth article by Don Glut certainly examined them in greater detail than most articles before had gone into.

1974 article on "Taste The Blood of Dracula"

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Today's Monster Memory conjures up issue #7 of Marvel's "Dracula Lives!" magazine from July of 1974. I was a tender teen of merely 15 when I bought it, from a convenience store on the walk to school when I lived in Macon, GA. It was always exciting to find these, and they made for some darned good reading during lunch and study hall that day, not to mention that evening back at home once homework was done. The painted covers of these and many of the monster magazines of the time were a large part of what made them so special, and it's not something you see much of any more.

The item I'm featuring from the issue is their article on "Taste The Blood Of Dracula," the fourth installment in Hammer's Dracula movie series with the incomparable Christopher Lee. Still sadly lacking Peter Cushing, his presence was missed greatly, and one wonders why they failed to have him in the later Dracula movies when everyone loved seeing them together. The film is not the best of the series, but not the worst either, and I still put it on and watch it occasionally. The article accurately points out the flaws, as well as the good points. But to me, even a lower-quality Hammer/Lee Dracula film is better than someone else's. Enjoy!

1979 "Cracked" spoof of Alien

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This time, the collection cabinet opens to my copy of Cracked #164, published in November of 1979. As usual with Severin, the art is crisp and clean with an eye toward set and costume accuracy, and the actor likenesses are impeccable; except for the alien, which resembles his "talking blob" character with an extra set of teeth. Enjoy!

You may know about my new blog, "Fantastic Flashbacks," focused on science fiction, as opposed to monsters like this one. Of course there is sometimes a crossover between the genres and it's hard to make a distinction between whether a film item goes in one or the other. This movie is a good example; "Alien" may be science fiction, set in space with ships and such; but it's more about a monster than scientific or speculative fiction. So, I made the decision to put it on My Monster Memories. But both blogs are sheer nostalgic fun, so visit both, okay?