Sunday, May 20, 2012
Castle Of Frankenstein #18 (1972) With Ken Barr
And we're looking at Castle of Frankenstein #18, from 1972. The front cover painting, "Mad Medico, Maiden & Monster" was painted by Ken Kelly.
Page 2 (the inside front cover) featuress "Barr's Bestiary #1," a new feature for the magazine, by Ken Barr. Doesn't the King Arthur in this painting remind you how how Brian Bolland drew him in Camelot 3000?
And we're at page 3, the table of contents, as well as Calvin Beck's "Editor's Eyrie" column, in which he noted that this issue, the Comix Reviews and the alphabetized SFantasy Film list was squeezed out. The column also talks about how bad things are in the comics scene at the time, saying it's in one of the worst ruts in years. While it may not have been as exciting as the Silver Age, this was the era I really started reading comics a lot, and I found it very exciting!
Anyway... names in the masthead of interest would be Joe Dante, Jr. again (who went on to a successful Hollywood career... and that's about it. Of course, layout maestro Bhob Stewart is still active these days with his own blog, Potzrebie!
I have no idea why that big block is filled with a line drawing of a pointing hand.
Pages 4 and 5 start the "Headitorial," and I have no idea how anything could've been said to be "squeezed out" when so much of these two pages were filled with those pop-art graphics! Anyway, the "Headitorial" talks mostly about the revival movie houses across the country, especially those on the East Coast, where one could see genre movies after they were out of first-run circulation (remember, this was long before the days of home video!).
Likewise, pages 6 and 7, covering "The Mephisto Waltz" (a movie I'd never heard of before) also feel like it was designed to fill two pages.. there's the five stills you can see, a cast listing, and a brief synopsis of the movie.
Castle Of Frankenstein With Lon Chaney Sandra Dee & Vincent Price
"The Haunted Palace", referred to on the poster as being based on Poe, was actually based on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," a Lovecraft tale!
Castle Of Frankenstein With Peter Cushing
Then, starting on page 16, an article about "El Topo," and... I have no idea why that movie is being covered in this magazine.
Anyway, it seems "El Topo" is a weird movie, but a monster/sci-fi/fantasy flick, worthy of coverage in Castle of Frankenstein? I dunno.
Castle Of Frankenstein With John Carradine Boris Karloff & Wally Wood
Either of those pages feels like it's got more content, and more put into it, than the two-page spreads earlier in this issue.
Pages 24 through 27 is an interview with John Carradine, and page 25 features a wonderful drawing of Carradine by Wally Wood!
I'm only finding myself wishing that the interview was longer!
Castle Of Frankenstein With Edgar Burroughs
Page 28 of Castle of Frankenstein #18 features Frankenstein Mini-Reviews, and the movies covered are "Light at the Edge of the World" ("action-filled" Verne adaptation), The Omega Man (rave review, longer than any other review in this issue), "The Return of Count Yorga" ("very good sequel"), "Desperate Characters" ("nightmare horrors"), "Next" ("a real weirdo" Italian-Spanish feature), "Night of Dark Shadows" ("pallid"), "Zacariah" (compared to "El Topo," "it doesn't work"), "Peter Rabbit & The Tales of Beatrix Potter" ("animation would be preferable"), "Get Carter" ("...violence... overload..."), "Supergirl" (not the DC character,this was a German low-budgeter that had been seen on German-French TV), and "Shinbone Alley" (animated version of "Krazy Kat", except without Krazy!).
Pages 29 through 33 cover "Night of the Living Dead," and the movie is given quite in-depth coverage, as it deserves!
And pages 34 and 35, the centerspread, is kind of a fumetti adapation of "His Return to Opar," authorized by ERB!
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