I grew up on Forry Ackerman's FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine in the early 60's until its demise. I remember my first issue (#29) and getting it through an Aurora monster model promotion. Many monster fans admit to outgrowing FM and Forry's cringe-worthy puns but what I always loved about the rag and still value today were the huge, sometimes, full-page photos that no other magazine really duplicated or seemd to understand. Yes, more mature, intelligent and color-filled horror mags came upon the scene thereafter but they sort of missed the whole point for me. As I get older (not necessarily more mature, just older), I really miss the photos and care less and less about the personal opinions and 'deep' interpretations of the old classic movies by the current crop of self-proclaimed scholars. Recently FM was legitimately re-launched and after splurging on the first two issues, I just bailed out. The new,"improved" FM is too serious and doesn't capture the reckless energy and passion of the original. The new covers are surprisingly lackluster even when they hire great artists and the new design favors dense text and often-times postage stamp-size photos! For my money, Ray Ferry's FREAKY MONSTERS is a true god-send! This is FM better than I remember it, an actual improvement with high quality stock and photo resolution. Admittedly, while some of Ferry's movie knowledge is a bit askew, this mag still manages to blow away Ferry's previous FM effort and the new official re-launch. The above pictured current issue is killer! Come on, Christopher Lee and Santo?! What more could you ask for?!
But it's Ray Ferry - don't you have a problem with that, considering the history with Forry, now sitting at the table of Prince Sirki?
ReplyDeleteThe whole feud and eventual lawsuit was ridiculous and juvenile and made both parties look like total nuts (fighting over "Dr. Acula?" Ed Wood should have sued from the grave!). As much as I was a total Uncle Forry fan, he had a weak legit basis for his claims. Ray did graciously, publicly apologized to Forry before he died. But this is all irrelevant. FREAKY MONSTERS is like a mouth-watering oasis in a desert of dusty, dry horror publications.
ReplyDeleteFair enough - I admit I only caught the headlines and missed the wrapup of the whole Ferry v Forry thing, so I will check this new Freaky Monsters out! Thanks for the post!
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