The Monster Times article: The Creature Speaks!

Welcome back! We Monster Kids all went cuckoo for The Monster Times, and to celebrate that fact I have started a new group over on Facebook devoted exclusively to it! Go there now and join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/280642125800013/

One of our members is Gary Gerani, contributor to TMT and a beloved genre author and expert. Here is his first contribution to TMT, which also happened to be his first professional paying gig!

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"Fright Flicks" Trading Cards Post #2

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Some more of the cards in the "Fright Flicks" series from the '80's for your enjoyment, posted in random order since I don't have the whole set.

7 Foot Tall Monster Robot ad

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"TRAGEDY ON WASHINGTON AVE"
The Greeneville Post, Oct. 20, 1974

A 12 year old boy is dead, shot to death by police, and the grieving parents can only wonder how this tragedy could have been averted.

On Sunday afternoon, as the autumn leaves blew down the street of this average suburb, what started out as a young boy's craft project ended up with a terrified neighborhood, stunned police, and a bereaved family mourning for a budding scientist cut down in his youth.

At 6:18 PM on the eve of the 19th, the Greeneville Police Department received a panicked call from Mrs. Crinklecut, the elderly retired schoolmarm beloved by the whole town. Her frantic report of a "monstrous, horrifying mechanical man" terrorizing her and her dog were at first met with disbelief by the dispatcher. But the patrol car sent to calm her down soon reported back a confirmation of the description.

With a request for backup, Lt. Spooner's radio call described a "hulking metal creature" on the rampage down the street. It stood seven feet tall, with "flashing, glowing eyes," with giant-sized arms that defied everything in its path. "It acts just like a creature from outer space" he radioed in, and as soon as the other cars arrived the police surrounded the mysterious being and demanded that it surrender.

Ignoring the commands crackling over the loudspeaker, the menacing metal monster slowly raised its left arm threateningly toward the armed authorities. The command to fire was given in response, and when the smoke cleared the thing lay on its side, blood leaking from holes left in the silver body by the policemen's bullets.

It was with shock and horror that they then discovered that inside the thing was the body of a boy. Identified by a neighborhood friend as Bobby Theakson, the saddened police realized that the "alien creature" had only been a suit made of spray-painted paneling wood and cheap scrap items available anywhere. The inventive young man had apparently tinkered it together in his garage, over the course of several weeks each day after school. He had been controlling it from the inside, via an ingenious series of levers. Plans for building the incredible machine were found in the garage, and were seized by the authorities to be turned over to the F.B.I. for investigation.

Wiping his eyes, Lt. Spooner bemoaned, "I'm sorry that this turned out so badly. When it raised its arm, we could only assume it was about to fire some kind of ray-beam that would turn us all into skeletons."

The tearful parents did not blame the brave police as the ambulance took away the body of the boy. "We never dreamed he was building such a dangerous weapon," sobbed his mother, Helen. "We thought it was a doghouse." "He was too smart for his own good," agreed the father, Bill Theakson, as he held his wife close. "Always reading those comic books. We knew it would get him into trouble one day." Motioning for Bobby's younger brother, he drew him near. "At least we still have Randy, who is on the PeeWee football team, which is more normal and safe."

The machine that caused the horror was burned by the neighbors on a curbside leaf pile, as they gathered that evening to console one another and try to purge the fear that for one brief fall afternoon gripped this quiet town. But few will be able to forget the nightmare that stalked the street with blinking, glowing eyes.

Den Beauvais Monster Art

Today's Monster Memory is brought to life by the extremely talented and prolific Den Beauvais. This faithful adaptation of the Universal classic "Frankenstein" is breathtakingly painted, and each page is worth framing. Visit his site, at http://www.denbeauvais.com/ to see what all he's done and is working on. If you're not a fan already, after visiting his site you will be.

Below are two pages that I scanned in and posted in a large format so you can appreciate the work and talent that went into this.

Below are pages of the artwork found on his site. Just looking at these make me happy for some reason.

To view all the pages of artwork of the ENTIRE comic, without the dialog balloons (and really, who needs 'em?) go here and feast your eyes!

After seeing the work he did on the Frankenstein adaptation, he was contracted to do the model kit box covers for the new Dark Horse versions of the old Aurora models so beloved by Monster Kids everywhere. Beautiful work.

The "Bathroom Buddies" below show his humorous side!

Drac actually coined the term "bloodbath" but few realised he meant it so literally. It was a pleasure also enjoyed by Countess Bathory, a.k.a. "Blood Bathory."

One sniff told him that there was a lycan meeting in the old clearing next Tuesday at 12:30... and that everyone should invite a human friend for after-meeting snacks.

All those brains and no fiber really clog up the old plumbing!

Werewolf? There... wolf!

For a 3D animation the guys will enjoy watching for hours on end, click here. Heck, some girls reading this might enjoy it!

Well, it's good to see someone with such a love for the genre being able to make a good living at it, and making us fellow fans happy as well. Den, we raise our voices in a howl of salute!

All artwork featured in this post is copyright Den Beauvais.

Mad Monster Cartoons

Today's Monster Memories are of:
Those "Mad" Monsters
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When younger, I was always on the lookout for magazines of any kind that contained items of interest. No, I didn't have tunnel-vision toward the monster mag section only; I knew that often other kinds of publications would occasionally feature those things I loved; monsters, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, etc. I would also scan over the teen magazines; movie star mags, tabloids, and the comic satire mags like "Crazy," "Cracked" and of course, the first and best, "Mad."

"Mad" very often lampooned the movies and TV shows I liked, and I have quite a few issues from the early 70's that spoofed my favorites. The earliest I have is one from 1965 that did a terrific take-off on "Lost In Space." Among many others there were a lot of monster comics and gags. Here are a few "Mad" monster laughs for you, and more will be coming in the future! As Criswell says so eloquently; "Remember... future events such as these will affect you... in the future."

Check out the recent posts on a couple of my other blogs: on "My Star Trek Scrapbook" get a good look at some 33-year-old newspaper articles on the then-young fan phenomenon; and on "Held Over!" take a peek at the original TV Guide ads for the legendarily-bad "Star Wars Holiday Special."

Tumbleweeds: Restless Night In The Graveyard

Today's Monster Memories are of:

A"Tumbleweeds" comic strip

"Home Is Where The Crypt Is"

The "Tumbleweeds" newspaper comic strip (Read the Wiki entry) wasn't really a favorite of mine, but I liked this one enough to clip it when it ran in the Sunday funnies on January 27, 1974. Any comic character who sleeps in a vault inside a crypt appeals to my weird sensibilities, so into the monster scrapbook it went. You can see the tape marks that held it on the lined notebook pages.

You can click on any panel ta 'xamine in high rez if you gits the itchin' ta do it.

And that's my kind of bedtime story! One that might give a young feller, as Elvira says, "unpleasant dreams!"

Okay, so it's not the greatest post ever... but I'm going through the Sacred Childhood Scrapbook, and sometimes I taped lame things in there. You want your money back, please go the the window marked "refunds," and take your place in line. Oh, you might want to bring a port-a-potty.

One more item before I go; here's a political cartoon I clipped about the same time that you might enjoy seeing...