Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Barbarella!
Barbarella!
Barbarella!
Who doesn't love Barbarella?
Probably anyone with any taste in movies.
And, yet, it's strangely hard to dislike, being one of those films - like 1980's Flash Gordon - that's probably more fun to remember than it is to actually watch.
"What are you blathering about, you moron?" I hear you cry. "What does this have to do with anything?"
Seemingly nothing.
But, also, everything.
For I can reveal I've been withholding vital information from you.
Recently, I wrote of how, while researching Marvel UK's brand new (in 1982) Monster Monthly, I stumbled across covers for Quasimodo's Monster Magazine and suddenly realised I'd owned a couple of issues of it, back in the 1970s.
Now, I must make a dramatic revelation.
Because, during that research, I didn't unearth just one publication I'd forgotten about. I unearthed two.
The other was a thing called Monster Fantasy. And, at once, I recognised the cover to issue #3, realising it too had once been in my possession.
But how could I have forgotten its existence? After all, it was that very mag which first introduced me to the aforementioned Barbarella. And not only that but, also, the rampant paranoia-fest that is Invaders From Mars.
It also introduced me to the monsters of the Outer Limits and the life stories of Laird Cregan, Lionel Atwill and Alfred Hitchcock.
It seems it gave me info I'd not previously possessed about Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds, Phantom of the Opera, This Island Earth, Quatermass and the Pit and the 1930s Flash Gordon serials.
How could so much awesomeness be crammed into just one magazine?
I've no idea.
How could I have forgotten about its existence?
Easily. As with Quasimodo's mag, I'd always assumed that all the articles I'd remembered from it had been in Atlas/Seaboard's Movie Monsters mag.
What I do have an idea about is the nature of the book. It seems it was a sister mag to Quasimodo's, having also been produced by Mayfair Publications. In fact, so sisterly were the titles that they came out in alternate months, so as not to clash with each other.
Tragically, where the other mag lasted a full eight issues before falling from its bell tower and expiring, Monster Fantasy only endured for four, running from April to August 1975.
Still, despite its short life, it shall never be forgotten.
Except by me.
Except I've now remembered.
But for how long?
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17 comments:
Hmmm. I know I’ve run across scans of MONSTER FANTASY covers before in my internet trawlings, and probably the mags themselves at various comics shops and conventions, but the covers looked just down-market enough that I never paid them much attention. Your article on this one particular issue has gotten me just curious enough to do a deeper dive. Outer Limits, Flash Gordon, Barbarella, Laird Cregar — hell, sign me up!
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any scans of the actual issues anywhere yet. Physical copies on eBay go for prices WAY higher than my level of interest. PD Reprint Publisher Gwandanaland has collected all four issues in a 400 page b/w trade paperback for twenty bucks, but I’m still hesitant to pull the trigger. Guess I’ll keep looking for scans in the meantime.
Odd that the cover artist put a van dyke on Michael Rennie as Klaatu…
b.t.
Spoke too soon! Scans of all 4 issues are at the WORLD OF MONSTERS site (monstermagazineworld.blogspot.com). There’s MY afternoon sorted….
b.t.
Steve- I've no experience with either of your two books. But it did get me thinking about other books I'd forgotten, or were utterly forgettable. As a kid I had a few paperbacks about monsters, aliens, ghosts and such. There was a series of them, but unfortunately I don't recall the name. "Stragely Enough", perhaps? Seems like "Strange " or "Strangely " might have been involved. They were full of short (maybe 4 or 5 pages ) tales af supposedly real supernatural phenomena. I ate it up...
As for forgettable comics? I've read too many. The list is long, but I'll throw out most of Amazing Spider-Man between issues 200 and 225. Very forgettable, imho.
And in my earliest comic reading days I read many Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, etc. stories; but very few stayed with me. Contrast that to the Lee/Romita Spider-Man stories I was also reading. I was able to specifically pin down all of those...
Hope that doesn't veer too far from your topic Steve! I'd add more, but I can't seem to recall...
Steve - Ole Charlie is in the funk
IT's yet another rainy day in Chicago and the Chicago Bulls are taking the gas pipe playing Milwaukee in the playoffs.
Any chance you can post a review of Penthouse Comics or perhaps some Annie Fanny from Playboy?
Cheers!
I think they're a bit out of my wheelhouse, Charlie.
Red, the moment Ross Andru left Spider-Man, the strip died, for me.
When I was buying up old Superman comics, about a decade ago, I found I couldn't recall the contents of any of them, just from looking at the covers. But, the moment I opened them, the stories came flooding back.
Bt, thanks for the WORLD OF MONSTERS link. I see it's got Atlas/Seaboard's Movie Monsters, as well.
Red, I literally came across a reference to those ‘Strange’ paperbacks not twenty minutes ago. Google the words ‘Harry Chester Art Chantry’ or ‘Harry Chester Communication Arts’. Interestingly, the article also touches on Monster Mags as well. It’s all in the zeitgeist….
b.t.
Thanks b.t. - I came here a bit earlier, but after the post about Quasimodo's Monster Mag I had a hunch (sorry) that if I waited a little you'd leave a comment with info on where to find this publication online.
So I checked out Monster Fantasy #3 at that site, which told me it was misnumbered #4 on the contents page. Clearly a high class magazine!
It doesn't seem to have posted the pages about Barbarella... but elsewhere on that blog you can find the Grove Press edition of Jean-Claude Forest's comic in English, published to coincide with the release of the film in 1968.
Although tbh after the film - which I liked, but I'm sure you're right about it not holding up well, Steve - I've always found Forest's Barbarella disappointing. You'd think a series like that would call for a more illustrative approach, the kind of stuff Spanish artists like Jose Gonzalez and Enrique Romero used to do.
Or even better, the sort of full colour work Ron Embleton and Don Lawrence did during the 70s for their comic strips about shapely ladies in er... certain publications for gentlemen (The Trigan Empire never seemed quite the same again).
-sean
B.t.- wow, that could be it!?! Well done Sir!
Steve-
I'd heard of Outer Limits a long time ago, of course (the Twilight Zone's sinister little bastard brother) but I only started watching it a few years back, thanks to a combination of insomnia and an obscure cable channel.
Yeeikes. Unlike the Twilight Zone, the series appears to be straight dystopian science fiction. It doesn't have occasional magical, fantastical, or humorous episodes like the Zone did.
Nope. No happy endings here, just grim warnings.
Ever see The Architects of Fear? I repeat, yikes!
I don't watch that when I'm trying to go to sleep anymore.
...otherwise, a good series.
M.P.
MP, I first saw The Outer Limits when it was shown on BBC2 in 1980. After years of hearing about it but never having seen it, I was excited by its return but quickly found it far too dry for my liking. It did have cool monsters, though.
Sean, Monster Fantasy #3 can be found, in its entirety, here: https://archive.org/search.php?query=monster+fantasy
Thanks Steve. Tbh, I wasn't about to lose any sleep over not getting all the pages at World Of Monsters, but I appreciate the thought.
-sean
Btw, while I'm here, let me just add that I liked your Kaluta Shadow remix, Steve. Especially the tilt.
-sean
Thanks, Sean. I feel the tilt is everything. :)
Barbarella was based on a French comic. The band Duran Duran took their name from a character in the film. The winged angel character was played by John Phillip Law who later played Sinbad in 'The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad'.
But I suppose everyone knows those facts already.
I'll get me coat.
John Philip Law also played the title character in Mario Bava’s deliriously fun DANGER: DIABOLIK , based on the French comic books. With gorgeous Marisa Mell as his lover Eva Kant and an amazing score by Ennio Morricone.
Y’all probably knew this already too, but it’s worth repeating.
b.t.
Actually, I didn't know that, bt.
Colin and Bt, I didn't know either of those facts about John Phillip Law.
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