When the Famous Monsters Fest takes place this weekend at King of Prussia’s Valley Forge Casino (September 13 through 15) with Star Trek icons William Shatner and George Takei in town as well as actor Jonathan Majors, there is a lot of local history that comes with this science fiction/horror fan convention. Long before the ComiCons of the world and print magazines Cinefantastique and Fangoria celebrated scary monsters and super creeps, and film-centric websites and vlogs devoted their attentions to everything from sci-fi to the terror-driven genre-specifics of body horror and Saw-like reverie, there was Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.
Started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J. Ackerman just outside of Philadelphia, Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine was the only publication dedicated to horror cinema with a sense of empathy and wonder: the silent film fare of Lon Chaney Sr. (his Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame are still the definitive characterizations of each misunderstood creature), the beloved Universal monster movies of the 1930s from Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein and beyond.
Famous Monsters of Filmland took on the kitsch, atomic terror, and bourgeoning space sci-fi of the 1950s, the Hammer Horror ghouls of the early 1960s, and the early splatter gore-schlock meisters of the late 1960s and 70s such as Herschell Gordon Lewis.
If it went “bang” in the night or brought wonder and awe to its viewers, Famous Monsters of Filmland and Forrest J. Ackerman – an easily approachable, readily talkative character in his own right – was your only source of fright-filled information. Also important to Famous Monsters of Filmland’s legend is the fact that Ackerman pushed the glory days of horror filmmaking to a hungry fanbase when many of the older films from the 1930s and 40s fell from grace and weren’t available on television – even UHF.
Famous Monsters of Filmland stopped publishing and disappeared from store shelves in 1983, was resurrected by Ackerman as Monsterland (1984–1987), went out of business completely until its 1993 resurrection by New Jersey photographer and monster movie fan-turned publisher Ray Ferry, then again got resurrected in July 2010 (after Ackerman’s death in 2008) where it re-introduced itself at Comic-Con International in San Diego that year.
And now, along with famous monsters of yore, Captain Kirk, Mr. Sulu, and Lord of the Rings legend Andy Sirkis (Golum) are part of this year’s Famous Monsters MEGA Fest.
Boo.
About Post Author
