"Famous Monsters" Magazine

tomanderson · Post by **tomanderson** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:46 am

This was mentioned in another thread and I chimed in a little--and on reflection, I think it deserves its own thread for a moment. The original run of this magazine ended in the mid 1980s, and many people are not aware of the magazine; but it inspired Starlog, Fangoria and all the other science fiction and horror media magazines. It was basically the first. Famous Monsters was not technically a "Halloween" magazine, but its love of monsters and all things icky was year-round, and it had tremendous atmosphere. Most of the earlier issues had really beautiful cover paintings.

Here is a scan of the cover of Issue #36 (December 1965). Beautiful cover...

Here's an Ebay search you can go to...you can look at lots of covers here and even grab an issue if you like!

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... s+monsters

uncletor · Post by **uncletor** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:02 pm

I always love looking at those covers, Tom, thanks. By the way, the guy who painted those has a book of his own now. They've been collected and they look better then ever and are guaranteed to take you back to your mis spent youth at the drug store, going;"Oooooh.." When you saw them. Those were part of the Warren magazine empire, which of course featured EERIE and CREEPY and were sold along with HOT ROD, the black and white comics I wasn't allowed to buy.

Celtic Ghoul · Post by **Celtic Ghoul** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 7:52 pm

Hey, uncletor, do you know his name or the name of the book? I'd love to check that out!

BTW - I bought one issue of Vampirella when I was a kid way back in the 70's and mom found it. That was it, no more EERIE or any of those black and white comics any more. I guess mom did not want me exposed to any more scantily-clad vampire girls.

Obviously that one issue warped me for life...

uncletor · Post by **uncletor** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:34 pm

the book is called:

FAMOUS MONSTER MOVIE ART OF BASIL GOGOS

Vanguard, 2006. 160 pg. 25 bucks.

Even features some of his work on men's adventure mags..

Try a guy in the states called Bud Plant. Just about the best mail order comic book dude their IS..ships world wide, and has SUCH an amazing catalog..get it, but carve out an afternoon for yourself..it's color now and you will just love everything in it. You will be a 10 year old kid with your mouth open and seeing stuff you never knew you wanted but nevertheless must have now..
he's on the web, just look for Bud Plant out of Grass Valley.
okay, here's his email and on line catalog:

http://www.budplant.com

tomanderson · Post by **tomanderson** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:45 am

Ah yes...Basil Gogos! I don't own the book but I have seen it, and it's every bit as wonderful as you say.

I was at a convention a couple of months ago and he was there signing things--I was there to do something else and hadn't brought anything for Gogos to sign, but I soon regretted that. It was such an odd thing to be standing there thinking, "That guy at the table there, he painted all those wonderful covers!" I kept looking over there, and it just looked like some ordinary person. Weird!

Weird because when I was a kid, the Famous Monsters covers Gogos painted were powerfully haunting with their strange saturated color schemes. They couldn't have been painted by a mere human. People have tried to duplicate his style and recreate these splashes of unlikely, vivid colors. I haven't seen a "Gogosesque" painting yet that really looked like the real thing.