''The Monster Times'' was a

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...

fan magazine A fan magazine is a commercially written and published magazine intended for the amusement of fans of the popular culture subject matter which it covers. It is distinguished from a scholarly, literary or trade magazine on the one hand, by the ta ...

created in 1972. Published by The Monster Times Publishing Co., it was intended as a competitor to ''

Famous Monsters of Filmland ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' is an American genre-specific film magazine, started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman. ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' directly inspired the creation of many other similar publica ...

''. Although the main editorial focus of the magazine was horror media, it also featured articles and reviews of modern and classic

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

films and television series, as well as

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...

. Each issue featured a fold-out

centerfold The centerfold or centrefold of a magazine is the inner pages of the middle sheet, usually containing a portrait, such as a pin-up or a nude. The term can also refer to the model featured in the portrait. In saddle-stitched magazines (as opp ...

poster, usually based on that particular issue's feature story. ''The Monster Times'' was edited at various times in its formative years by Chuck R. McNaughton, Allen Asherman, Joe Brancatelli and Tom Rogers. Joe Kane (who later assumed the ''nom de plume'' The Phantom of the Movies for newspaper columns and books) took over as editor with Issue # 11 (June 14, 1972), and remained in that capacity until the periodical's demise. The publishers were art directors Larry Brill and Les Waldstein, who were the original designers for the

pornographic Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

weekly tabloid ''

Screw A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to ...

'', and also for ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' and other Jim Warren publications in the late 1960s.

Publication history

The first issue is dated January 26, 1972. Printed on

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

-quality paper stock, with a more refined white paper for covers and other content in earlier issues, the magazine was published on a

biweekly A weekly newspaper is a general-news or current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspaper is published once every two weeks. Weekly newsp ...

schedule for its first fourteen issues, then switched to monthly until 1975, at which point it became a bi-monthly publication. In 1973, ''The Monster Times'' conducted a poll to determine the most popular

movie monster A monster movie, monster film, creature feature or giant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally megafauna, large ones. The film may also ...

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produ ...

was voted the most popular movie monster, beating

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some ...

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

Wolf Man In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

The Mummy A mummy is an unusually well preserved corpse. Mummy or The Mummy may also refer to: Places * Mummy Range, a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States * Mummy Cave, a rock shelter and archeological site in P ...

Creature From the Black Lagoon ''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' is a 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold, from a screenplay by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross and a story by Maurice Zimm. It stars ...

, and

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compar ...

. Its final few issues were published erratically, and the title ceased publication in July 1976 with issue # 48. Three ''Monster Times'' special issues were also published: ''Star Trek Lives'' #1, subtitled "Sci-Fi Super TV Special Issue" (1972),'' Star Trek Lives'' #2 (1974) and an untitled all giant monster poster special (1976).

Contributors

Contributing writers and photographers included

Michael Uslan Michael E. Uslan (; born June 2, 1951) is an American lawyer and film producer. Uslan has also dabbled in writing and teaching, he is known for being the first instructor to teach an accredited course on comic book folklore at any university. Ear ...

, Joe Kane, Doug Murray, Allan Asherman, Steve Vertlieb,

Phil Seuling Philip Nicholas Seuling (January 20, 1934 – August 21, 1984) was a comic book fan convention organizer and comics distributor primarily active in the 1970s. Seuling was the organizer of the annual New York Comic Art Convention, originally held i ...

, Buddy Weiss, Frank Verzyl, Dean Latimer,

Edward Summer Edward Summer (March 18, 1946 – November 13, 2014) was an American painter, motion picture director, screenwriter, internet publisher, magazine editor, journalist and science writer, comic book writer, novelist, book designer, actor, cinemato ...

, Joe Brancatelli, Manny Maris, Mark Rainey, Tom Murdock, and Jason Thomas (aka Tom Rogers). Contributing artists included

Gray Morrow Dwight Graydon "Gray" Morrow (March 7, 1934 – November 6, 2001).e., the Gilberton Company, publisher of the ''Classics Illustrated'' comic-book series of literary adaptations], and I was given a script. One thing led to another and I was soo ...

, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Jeff Jones,

Neal Adams Neal Adams (June 15, 1941 – April 28, 2022) was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a Creator ownership, creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and re ...

Bernie Wrightson Bernard Albert Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017), sometimes credited as Bernie Wrightson, was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his adaptation of the novel ''Frankenstein'' illustration work, and for his o ...

and Larry Vincent (aka: Sinister Seymour). In the 1990s, an attempt by Brill and Waldstein to target a similar market resulted in a few issues of '' The Dinosaur Times''. Recently, "Little Shoppe of Horrors" Magazine (#43) published an extremely detailed article on the history of the Monster Times, including numerous in-depth interviews with a number of the people who worked for the publication in its heyday.

References

Monster Magazines - The First Decade
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monster Times 1972 establishments in New York (state) 1976 disestablishments in New York (state) Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Film magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States Speculative fiction magazines published in the United States Biweekly magazines published in the United States Defunct science fiction magazines published in the United States Horror fandom Horror fiction magazines Magazines established in 1972 Magazines disestablished in 1976