The Great Monster Magazines

This is a critical overview of monster magazines from the 1950s through the 1970s. “Monster magazine” is a blanket term to describe both magazines that focus primarily on popular horror movies and magazines that contain stories featuring monsters, both of which are illustrated in comic book style and printed in black and white.
The book describes the rise and fall of these magazines, examining the contributions of Marvel Comics and several other well-known companies, as well as evaluating the effect of the Comics Code Authority on both present and future efforts in the field. It identifies several sub-genres, including monster movies, zombies, vampires, sword-and-sorcery, and pulp-style fiction. The work includes several indexes and technical credits.

Robert Michael “Bobb” Cotter, a graphic designer, lives in Pittsburgh. In addition to having written several books about comics and film, he writes a monthly column for Creepy Classics.

Robert Michael “Bobb” Cotter
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 238
Bibliographic Info: 30 photos, appendix, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2019 [2008]
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7898-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0487-9
Imprint: McFarland

Preface: Monsters … Unleashed!      1
Introduction: Four-Color Fiends      7

1. Monster Movie Madness      31
2. Creepy Monsters, Eerie Zombies, and Generally Undead No-Goodniks      69
3. Invasion of the Vampires, or Bat’s Entertainment!      99
4. Conan the Franchise: Monsters, Muscles and Maidens      121
5. Thrilling Savage Adventure Tales: The Bloody Pulps      148
6. Crazy Kung Fu Apes Fight Space Wars; or, Jump on In, the Bandwagon’s Fine      173
7. The New Breed: Illustrated Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy      204

Epilogue      221
Appendix: Publications by Category
I. Comic Books      223
II. Movie Monster Magazines      224
III. Black-and-White Magazines      225
Bibliography      227
Index      229

• Honorable Mention, Rondo Hatton Award
• “Lengthy introduction…a nice job…hitting on some of the very insignificant magazines”—Mani.com
• “A vein worth mining”—Scarlet
• “In depth…both an affectionate look back, and a scholarly study, of a period in horror history”—Scary Monsters Magazine
• “Includes all of the Marvel B&W mags”—Famousmonsters of filmland.com.