"Enter If You Dare!" plus...

The Disney book 'Enter If You Dare,' Scary Tales From The Haunted Mansion, was published on Halloween in 1995. The spooky stories inside are geared toward the pre-teen audience who devoured the "Goosebumps" series, was written by Nicholas Stephens, with about a half-dozen black-and-white illustrations inside by Sergio Martinez.

The tales are basically generic ghost stories that happen to take place in or around the Haunted Mansion, which even in the cover art seems to be "a" Haunted Mansion" rather than "the" Haunted Mansion. Instead of being the backgrounds of the various inhabitants we are familiar with, or adventures of those that come into contact with them, the stories could really be about any haunted house. One feels that the Haunted Mansion title was bestowed simply to help sell it. It's not that it's a bad book by any means; it's just not something that a true HM fan will feel connects with their much-loved manse of familiar spooks.

The best thing about it is the cover art and the sparse illustrations inside, and if you don't have the book I know you will enjoy seeing some of the art here.

And for your enjoyment, here is an illustration from a 1984 issue of Monsterland. Elvira and the classic monsters are like peanut butter and chocolate; they're even better together! I wish she could make one more movie using all of them in it, before she's too old. Wouldn't it be a hoot?

This is the front and back of my favorite-ever Halloween card that I've received, all of which I have saved over the years. I display this on a table-top each October.

Haunted Mansion Hobby Kit Ad

Today's Monster Memories are of:
The Haunted Mansion Hobby Kits
(click on images to view full size)

In the early to mid 70's, the ads in the comics for the model kits and such were as interesting and entertaining to me as the comics themselves. And although I was never fortunate enough to own one of these, the ads themselves bring back a lot of fond memories of those times. I remember reading the ads for the first time on a rainy wintery day when it was too cold and wet to go outside. So now when I see them I get the mental impression of clouds and rain. It's funny how circumstances of the time can influence your current perceptions!

Disney's Haunted Mansion seemed to represent a physical location that Monster Kids could aspire to actually visit, and be in amongst the spooky environment that otherwise only existed in the movies and our imaginations. And model kits like this promised to let you bring a little of that place into your own room, as a visual accompaniment to the audio atmosphere created by the two records, which I was lucky enough to have. The pictures of them here are scans of my own copies.

Years later, I did get to visit Disney World and the Haunted Mansion was my main destination there. After all the years reading about it, and listening to the sound effects LPs, the actual experience was very fulfilling, and no disappointment; even though it was over in just a few minutes, I came out a bigger fan than when I went in. I'm one of the few people I know that actually enjoys the movie; I put it on quite often and watch it.

While going through some old comics last night, I found this two-page advertisement for the kits, and scanned them in to post here. If you haven't seen them for awhile, I hope they bring back some good memories of your own!

Here is an ad from Famous Monsters for the kits that I found last night also. Click on it to view biggie size!