Ladies and gentlemen, and yes, you too, Monster Kids, we have a brand new monster magazine lurking in our midst! Very well known for their quality publications, TwoMorrows Publishing has unleashed the first in which I hope to be a long run of CRYPTOLOGY. I have so much faith in this new venture that I immediately subscribed when I found out about it.
My first impression is that this is one beautiful-looking 'zine. The colors are bright and the image reproduction is impeccable, as it to be expected with any of the TwoMorrows' pubs. And who better to edit this tome of terror than Peter Normanton? By any measure, he can easily be considered The Prince of Pre-Code Horror Comics and the expertise shown in this inaugural issue only further proves my point. What I like best about his writing is his coverage of the minutest of details concerning these rough gems of the 1950's (and later incarnations), as well as his personal observations when discussing any of the countless topics that present themselves from these "horrible" things.
While there is plenty here to satisfy the hungriest appetites for a full-meal deal of horror comics, there's much more to bite into. All manner of movies and other monster memorabilia are explored (see contents below), all presented with an engaging retro spin. As a result, CRYPTOLOGY will appeal to any fan of horror nostalgia, as well as newer readers interested in learning more about just what exactly all the fuss is about. And in case you're reluctant that this is just another re-hash that we've seen many times over, there is plenty of fresh material, including new information and anecdotes unearthed by the various writers.
Click on the cover image on the sidebar to the right for more information and how to order.
Vol. 1 No. 1
-The Addams Family vs. The Munsters
Do you want to know more about Mr. Normanton and why he does all this? The following Q&A was posted well over a decade ago -- way back in January 2011 -- on my blog, MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD, which you know now as WORLD OF MONSTERS. Peter was very gracious in lending his thoughts on his own "world of monsters", including speaking about his too-cool 'zine, FROM THE TOMB, the newest entries of which can be obtained from clicking on the images on the sidebar.
I love horror comics. I can't tell you the thrill that I had when I first spotted Warren's CREEPY #1 on the stands, or, for that matter, EERIE #2 and even VAMPIRELLA #1 (and I can tell ya', that was a different thrill altogether!).
I cut my comics teeth on typical "funny books" of the day. I remember there being a HUGE box of comics in the garage that took just about all of one lazy summer to read. Titles like RICHIE RICH, SAD SACK, SUGAR AND SPIKE, and of course, the Archie line. There were also a few superhero books, too -- mostly DC titles as I recall. I remember particularly enjoying the madcap adventures of SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN, even though he really wasn't a superhero.
It wasn't until later that I was introduced to horror comics, through the Dell and Charlton titles of all things. I don't recall knowing anything about the EC line of comics since they had become extinct the around the time of my birth.
I more than made up for it, though, in later years, when I grabbed up just about everything that I could lay my paws on in the way of EC reprints and the current line of horror comics.
Then, years later, along comes a magazine that specializes in the classic period of horror comics, right up through the Warren years, the Skywald era, and whatever else is worth mentioning about these creepy little historical ephemera. And then, lo and behold, I start a blog dedicated to monster magazines, including vintage and modern horror comics magazines. To top it off, I interview the bloke who publishes the magazine that specializes in the classic period of horror comics, Mr. Peter Normanton!
This is one of my favorite "chats" so far, folks. Peter is one helluva nice guy, and as you can see by the length of his responses, the man is serious into the subject. It's also very cool to learn about some of the Brit perspective on horror comics, monster mags, and monster movies.
Well, enough of my gab, let's listen to Peter Normanton, editor and publisher of FROM THE TOMB.
MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD: Who is Peter Normanton and why does he publish a magazine called FROM THE TOMB?
PETER NORMANTON: Peter Normanton is just an ordinary fellow from the north west of England with a passion for old horror comics. He has been happily married for the last twenty-one years to his wife Mary who has to claim responsibility for getting him into reading Stephen King (tsk, tsk naughty girl!). When he’s working on the Tomb there’s usually the pounding of Hawkwind or Led Zeppelin in the background, or maybe Pat Metheny or Tangerine Dream. When he’s not in the Tomb he can be found reclining (some unkind people call it slobbing) on the sofa reading, at the moment it’s Harlan Coben, or engrossed in a film, not just horror, he loves film noir, the work of David Lean, and both French and modern German cinema – these guys know how to tell stories. In his more energetic moments he enjoys walking the moors which sit right in front of his house, but this he confesses usually involves a pub or two and a decent pint or three of ale. His love of 1970s rock music and off the wall jazz takes him to the rock and jazz venues of Manchester where just now and again the crowd numbers more than 200! He calls it being discerning.
From the Tomb was simply a kid’s dream, never destined to last more than a couple of issues. I had written and drawn my own hand-made comic related magazines as a youngster and then as a teenager and when I was fifteen bought my first fanzine, a UK publication by the name of Comics Unlimited. There and then I was hooked; I wanted my own comic book fanzine. Fifteen years later sprawled in front of the fire one Boxing Day I was pouring over Ernie Gerber’s Photo Journal Guide to Comics. It was on that afternoon the seed for From the Tomb was planted. Initially it was to be an EC tribute, yes another one, but by 1993 it had evolved to become a fanzine dedicated to those esoteric comics of the 1950s. Over an eight or nine year period I built up an extensive collection of notes and accumulated so many comic books along with books and fan related publications given to this decade. It was only when I started writing a piece on the Skywald Horrormood for Calum Iain MacIver’s H.P. Lovecraft ‘zine strange Aeons it finally dawned on me my roots actually lay in the 1970s; poor lad, I’ve always been a little slow on the up take. From the Tomb has been my chance to express my love for those diabolical old comics and their creators.
MMW: How would you describe your magazine to somebody who has never seen it before?
NORMANTON: From the Tomb, I like to feel, is a celebration of the last seventy years of horror, crime, science fiction and odd ball comics. While it is informative it has never dared take itself too seriously and even though it is an amateur publication it has managed to attract contributions from such luminaries as Al Feldstein, Pete Von Sholly, Maelo Cintron, Alan Hewetson, Jamie Delano, Alan Class, P. Craig Russell, Eric Pigors, Joe Sinnott, B.K.Taylor, Terrance Lindall, Gary Reed, Ronn Sutton and The Gurch. Thanks to contributing writers such as Frank Motler and Barry Forshaw, the ‘zine has been able to throw light on a period of comics about which only the few have ever been truly knowledgeable.
MMW: You obviously have a love for the genre, and especially monster and horror comics. Given what you know, would you say there was a “monster craze” in Great Britain in the 60s like in the states?
NORMANTON: There was a monster craze of sorts over here in the UK, but it was by no means anywhere near the scale of that which swept across the United States. Famous Monsters of Filmland was getting into the country, but not on a massive scale, I think there may have been a version published exclusively for the UK. From what I can recall there was only the one shot Certificate X released by a UK based publisher in the mid 1960s, it wasn’t until the 1970s with the advent of World of Horror, Monster Mag and of course House of Hammer the monster craze really got going. Back then we only had three television stations over here, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV; so monster movie showings were few and far between. For the life of me I cannot recall any hosts dedicated purely to monsters or horror. Quatermass and Doctor Who did enjoy huge success across the UK as did the late night showings of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. On the comic front Creepy and Eerie were getting into the country as were certain of the Eerie Pubs and we had our own TV21. Alan Class’s black and white reprint series was going strong reprinting post-Code Atlas, Charlton and ACG stories as were Miller’s titles which gave their young readership a glimpse of what their American counterparts had been subjected to a decade before in the ghastly guise of pre-Code terror. If I cast my mind back there was a fantastic bubble gum card series called Krazy Kreatures From Outer Space around 1968 which generated quite a bit of excitement amongst the kids at school. Both Hammer and Amicus did much for the horror movie genre and should be considered essential viewing, but as the 1960s progressed they became more of a cult phenomenon with box office success gradually proving elusive. There was a fascination with monsters, but never ever on the scale as that witnessed in the U.S.
MMW: What were some of your favorite comics and ‘zines while you were growing up?
NORMANTON: As a kid I was a big fan of TV21, particularly those issues with Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlett and the Zero-X strip. I also loved one of those classic British humour comics of the day – Sparky, Beano, Dandy, Beezer, Topper, Cor, Whizzer and Chips and Knockout were all wonderful reads, usually sent on by friends and neighbours. As early as seven or eight years of age I had a passion for comic books, but living in the north of England I knew precious little about Marvel or DC. I was nine years old when I found a pile of Alan Class reprint comics in a junk shop on a family day out. My Grandma treated me to a couple of them, worrying they’d give me nightmares. I read them and read them again and again; tales of imagination from the post-Code years with art by John Forte, Joe Maneely, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. The nightmares my Grandma feared never came but these two comics left an indelible impression, one that lasts to this very day. Every once in a while an American superhero comic would fall into my hands, maybe a Batman, Superman or Legion of Superheroes. These were like gold dust back in the 1960s and early 1970s and like gold were treasured and hidden away from prying eyes. Towards the end of 1972 Marvel UK came into being. Their debut title was The Mighty World of Marvel, which featured The Incredible Hulk, Spiderman and Fantastic Four. As you can imagine this became a firm favourite. I loved the superhero stuff, but still had a craving for the science fiction and strange tales found in those Alan Class titles. It was on a very warm afternoon in the August of 1974, trying as ever to avoid the neighbourhood thugs, I spied the lurid cover to Nightmare #17. It wasn’t the scantily clad woman that grabbed my attention; rather it was the beast looming in the background. I just had to have it. I scurried home and knew all too well I would have to ask permission to buy this magazine. Thankfully my Mum agreed without too much of a fuss. And that was it, horror became my thing and as the months passed I had the good fortune to pick up a few issues of Monsters Unleashed and Tales of the Zombie. Before the year was out Marvel UK had bestowed upon us Dracula Lives, a black and white title reprinting Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night and the Monster of Frankenstein, and every now and again one of these old monster tales from Marvel’s early sixties catalogue. By the January of 1977 I was spending all of my pocket money on Marvel comics; every last penny of it!
I started reading fanzines in the January of 1977, the Christmas edition of Alan Austin’s Comics Unlimited, number #42. It is hard to describe just what an impact this amateur publication was to have on me; the result was to follow twenty three years later with the appearance of my own malfeasant offspring From the Tomb. Over the next eighteen months I was to discover several other UK fan publications, Fantasy Advertiser, Bemusing and The Panelologist. Each delighted and entertained in their own special way, these were the work of fans not profiteers. So many comic readers are inspired to become pros, me, I wanted to be like these guys scribing away on my own fanzine.
INSIDE THE TOMB: AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER NORMANTON (PART 2)
We continue today with Part 2 of the MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD interview with Peter Normanton, editor of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF HORROR COMICS and the publisher of FROM THE TOMB, deadicated to preservering the history of horror comics from pre-code to the present.
MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD: Favorite monster movies?
PETER NORMANTON: I love the RKO King Kong of 1933, they really don’t come much better than this. If you are looking for atmosphere the 1957 Night of the Demon is a tough one to beat, although I confess to falling into the camp that wished the beast had never made it to the screen. When I was nine years old the 1959 version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth with James Mason was shown on Boxing Day morning; boy did this prove to be a revelation and was probably my first monster movie. Soon after came The Time Machine and Them. Each of these films made such an impression immersing themselves into my subconscious, and then I got to see Hammer’s One Million Years B.C. and for the very first time was exposed to the majesty of Ray Harryhausen. As the years went by I got to see those films for which the kids of the day hankered - The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, It Came From Beneath the Sea, Earth vs. Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth, each and every one of them monster enthusiast’s dream. As an Amicus fan I have a soft spot for The Land That Time Forgot, again crammed chock full of dinosaurs. Maybe I should have been a palaeontologist. As far as the classic monsters go The Wolfman (1941) is an accepted classic, there’s simply no getting away from this and who can forget Hammer’s The Curse of the Werewolf and of course An American Werewolf in London. I haven’t even got to the Frankenstein movies, Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Those monster movies remain firm favourites but the monster that tripped me over the edge at the age of thirteen was Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Psycho.
MMW: Hammer or Universal?
NORMANTON: I have given this question much thought. My sense of personal nostalgia would go for the Hammer films. I started watching these with my Dad from around 1977, late on Saturday nights. It was a very difficult time for him having lost my Mum to cancer only a few months before and his coping with a debilitating illness. These movies gave us a chance to bond and maybe I was showing signs of beginning to mature, just a little. The film buff within me knows only too well the debt the film industry as a whole owes to those bygone Universal terrors. Part of Hammer’s charm will always be derived from their low budget props and special effects, but this lack of funding remains their inherent downfall. Although a small studio at the outset, Universal attracted a remarkable selection of actors, writers, directors, cameraman and technicians. These have each made their mark in cinematic history and bequeathed a legacy which will live on as long as there are people who want to bring life to the silver screen. At the last it is Universal who wins out, but if I was to pick a favourite film from these two companies it would have to be Hammer’s Dracula (1957).
MMW: FROM THE TOMB was on hiatus for a while and now it’s back. What happened?
NORMANTON: From the Tomb has struggled ever since the banks messed the world up in the latter months of 2008. By January 2009 I had been dropped by Diamond, as they were forced to move away from smaller publishers like myself as recession threatened. By the end of the year Borders Books had sadly gone under. This meant I had no distributor on either side of the Atlantic. I tried with Haven, but they could not generate any interest. Thanks to the work of Dan Royer I have been able to get the ‘zine out to people via the website he kindly created; this move has already had some success. At the same time an anonymous benefactor stepped in to fund issue #27, this allowed me to get issue #28 out in its wake. The last six months have been made very difficult because my job was placed under threat by the Tory-Liberal alliance currently in government in this country. The failings of the banks have resulted in unbelievable cuts in public expenditure. Thankfully I have managed to hold on to my job for the next twelve months, after that who knows? This means I can now look to getting issue #29 out; it is about two thirds complete with a really fantastic set of contributions.
MMW: So, is distribution forcing you to consider publishing options (format, schedule, price, etc.)?
NORMANTON: This is the case. The schedule has had to be reduced and I have had to keep the page count to 68. I was running at 72 to 100 pages prior to the credit crisis, which made for the kind of publication I would have sought out. I have kept the colour pages to 36, this I just couldn’t resist. Together with John Anderson of Soaring Penguin I am also considering a hard back From the Tomb Annual, but this like everything else in life is dependent on funding. The print quotes for this venture are surprisingly favourable; I guess we will just have to wait and see what the year brings.
MMW: You offer an electronic version of FROM THE TOMB. Are you testing the waters of maybe going exclusively electronic, or just offering an alternative?
NORMANTON: The electronic version The From the Tomb Archive will hopefully be released in the next few weeks. I have sifted through the very early issues of From the Tomb, selected a few of the old articles and attempted to update them. These are now set alongside some classic pre-Code horror strips from that halcyon period of comic book publishing. Each issue will run to forty colour pages. If things go well it should raise the profile of the ‘zine and allow me to continue with the long standing paper version. It was Sam Park of Bela Lugosi’s Tales From the Grave who made me aware of just how beneficial an on-line version of From the Tomb could be. I am definitely old school in my preference for the paper product; the I-pad will never replace the joy held in the feel of a book, comic book newspaper or magazine. There are generation out there however whose viewpoint is somewhat different.
MMW: Describe for us how a typical issue is produced. What kind of software to you use for page layouts and do you still do any part of your magazine the old-fashioned way – by hand?
NORMANTON: From the Tomb is put together entirely by software; I stopped doing things by hand about twenty-five years ago when I accepted the fact I simply wasn’t capable. I had the vision but my ability just wasn’t its match. Adobe Photoshop is used to create many of the pages, scanning in the images, laying them onto the page and then trying to arrive at something that creates a sense of design. This isn’t always that easy as I have had no formal training in this field, it’s just a case of trial and error – well, too many errors over the years when I think about it! At one time I would have placed each individual image, whether a cover or interior artwork, straight into the Pagemaker document – Pagemaker is the software that allows you to create the actual magazine. These days I create each page in Photoshop with the images and blurbs and then place them directly into the Pagemaker document. It makes things so much easier. I then lay the text onto these pages using the Pagemaker software. Years of experience have taught me just how many words I can fit onto a single page.
It takes a few weeks working with an issue before I know how that particular edition is going to fit together; if I was a pro I’d more than likely know from day one, but I am a long way from being a pro. The cover usually arrives well before the issue is started on the PC; this gives me the time to research the lead article and assess how the issue could come together. It’s not often that I find myself waiting for articles from contributors; mine tend to be the last to be written up, often a little too quickly.
MMW: Are your writers on staff, or do you use unsolicited manuscripts?
In being an amateur publication I don’t have staff writers, but I do have a regular crew of dedicated contributors. A few unsolicited manuscripts do turn up on my doorstep, which tend to be from readers who have an appreciation as to the loathsome nature of From the Tomb. More often than not writers discuss with me their thoughts on these old comic books, often at length, prior to me receiving their work. This approach has resulted in some quite amazing pieces. I suppose have been very fortunate in this respect.
MMW: Do any of your graphics come from original art or is it mainly repros from comics?
NORMANTON: The graphics come from reproductions and scans of these comics.
MMW: What will you do with FROM THE TOMB to keep readers coming back? Special issues? New material? Expanded content?
NORMANTON: I hope to keep readers coming back with some fine articles and images you won’t find anywhere else. If the world economy improves I would love to go for special issues and expand the content. What was so heart breaking for From the Tomb was as Diamond brought down the axe some interesting new horror strips had been promised by some highly capable people. Who knows maybe if things begin to improve we will still get to see some of this work.
MMW: EC or Warren?
NORMANTON: I love Warren, they were the thinking man’s comics of my generation, but it will always be EC. Messrs Gaines and Feldstein put together some memorable stories and they had the finest collective of artists for which any comic publisher could have ever wished.
[Y'all come back tomorraw for the Kongclusion of the MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD interview with Peter Normanton!]
INSIDE THE TOMB: AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER NORMANTON (PART 3)
Today is the conclusion of the MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD interview with Peter Normanton, editor of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF HORROR COMICS and publisher of FROM THE TOMB.
MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD: How would you describe your own monster collection, including comics, magazines, memorabilia, etc.?
PETER NORMANTON: My own collection is mainly comic books, particularly pre-Code, with some film magazines mainly from my childhood. I have shelves full of books on horror movies and comic books with models collected over thirty-five years. I guess this is the doorway to my childhood. Sadly my Aurora glows in the dark figures never survived my teen years but I still have those dinosaur kits the company produced, sadly those wonderful boxes that came with the dinosaurs went years ago.
MMW: Do you have any particular favorites when it comes to horror comics?
NORMANTON: I am a big fan of the pre-Code years, in particular EC. I know it has become a cliché, but these are some of the finest comics to see print, particularly their science fiction titles - Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Weird Science-Fantasy and Incredible Science Fiction. I am also an avid reader of the Atlas horror and fantasy titles. Their covers, even after the introduction of the Comics Code, would have had youngsters across the North American continent willingly shelling out their pocket money. Their titles have such a fine array of creators, Joe Sinnott, Joe Maneely, Matt Fox, Russ Heath, Bill Everett, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko to name but a few. Harvey Comics, often considered the poor man’s EC, were another formidable horror comics publisher from these deranged years. They had penchant for bizarre and bloody deaths.
It’s no big secret, but I am a great admirer of Alan Hewetson’s work at Skywald, it all goes back to that Nightmare #17. There is nothing quite like a vintage Skywald, whether it be Nightmare, Psycho or Scream. Whenever I can I pick up the underground horror comics of the late 1960s and early 1970s, titles such as Skull, Slow Death, Fantagor, Deviant Slice and Slow Death. These are quite bizarre publications, occasionally incomprehensible, but so often they went beyond anything you would ever see in the pages of any horror comic from any era.
MMW: How healthy is the horror comic industry? How well was your book, THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF HORROR COMICS received?
NORMANTON: There’s been a lot of interest in horror comics over the last ten years, although it has to be said it has never been the match of the superhero fare. The publishers have responded with material that ranges from the sublime to the absolutely ridiculous; and every now and again, let’s face it is just plain awful. If horror is to survive it is going to have to stay away from simply re-hashing the mainstream. If the genre is to remain healthy it will need to encourage innovators of the calibre of Steve Niles, Dave Hitchcock and Serena Valentino.
The Mammoth Book seems to have gone down very well. There was no one more surprised than me when the publisher announced it was to go into a second print. The response since its publication in January 2008 has been remarkably favourable and those criticisms that have been made have been quite valid. How can it be the Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics when both EC and Warren are conspicuous by their absence? True, the sad thing is I couldn’t get permission to use these tales. There was one moment that really did bring a smile to my face, and it made all those months of work well and truly worthwhile. I was looking at the bulletin board on a comic book site I can no longer recall and discovered a mailing from a young lad who was so excited about the prospect of receiving the book as a birthday present. This young fellow was really looking forward to tucking into its contents; I only hope it lived up to his expectation and helped make his birthday that special day.
MMW: What are your plans for the future of FROM THE TOMB?
NORMANTON: Well now I am back in work, at least for the foreseeable future, I want to get issue #29 completed and look to getting #30 ready. Issue #30 has been in planning for quite some time. I want to concentrate on some of my favourite artists from the past seventy years. Obviously I couldn’t fit them all in there, but I’d like to do as many as possible of them the justice they deserve. Hopefully the on-line The From the Tomb Archive will take off and generate enough interest to keep The Tomb going for many years to come. The hard back annual edition is an exciting prospect and could be a way of moving forward and getting international distributors back on board. Globally the economic situation isn’t so good, but surely it can’t last forever and when the world improves From the Tomb will be out there once again.
Away from The Tomb I have been asked by the Mammoth Book publishers to produce a Best of Slasher and Splatter Movies, another 500 page bumper edition. This is quite a challenge, but my research has already uncovered some unbelievable movies. If all goes according to plan this might just appear around the middle of next year.
MMW: If you could wave a magic wand, what would be the one thing you would either do or re-do with FROM THE TOMB?
NORMANTON: With all of the delays and problems in getting #28 to the printers I wish I had followed my instincts and sent this issue to the printer who did such a fine job on #27. As ever money was tight and they had increased their prices by quite a substantial amount, we chose not to go with them in the hope of getting #29 out soon after. It didn’t quite work out that way. The missing text on my Marvel piece was soul destroying as was the finish on this issue which wasn’t what I’d hoped for. The material and layouts on this were terrific, they deserved so much more. My aim had been to put it up for review with some of the major horror magazines and let people know we were up there again, I was so confident about the content. The print job never came up to scratch. My readers still disagree with me on this point they feel the print job was fine; it was just a shame about the column of missing text. Maybe I have got too critical in my old age.
MMW: What would be your advice to someone who is interested in starting up a magazine similar to yours?
NORMANTON: Never give up with the dream. It takes quite a bit of planning and you will have more than your fair share of ups and downs but the rewards are amazing. I would never have dreamed I would have had a book on sale in Waterstones. It took over twelve months before sales of each issue got beyond the 100 mark.
The chances are you are not going to make money from such a venture; From the Tomb is deep in the red. The real pleasure comes in the running of a publication of this ilk, this by far outweighs the negative bank balance. Take the time to listen to the advice offered by your readers; it might surprise you to learn many of them have actually done the job. Also, I have learned a good web-site is of tremendous value.
MMW: Any final words of wisdom for the readers of MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD?
NORMANTON: Me, wisdom? Just keep on reading the books and magazines and watching those crazy movies you enjoy, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. And keep your eyes out for those junk shops and second hand book stores, you never know what you might find.
Read more about CRYPTOLOGY on this blog
HERE.