CLASSIC MONSTERS BY MODERN ARTISTS

Newly published by Insight Editions, Anthony Taylor's book, CLASSIC MONSTERS, MODERN ART is a look at 20th century horror by 21st century illustrators.

Available for purchase HERE.

Preface by David Dastmalchian. By Anthony Taylor. Art by Doug P’Gosh, Bob Eggleton, Mitch O’Connell, Gregory Manchess, Mike Hoffman et al. From Frankenstein’s monster to Count Dracula, Elvira to Godzilla, King Kong to Freddy Kruger, this is the definitive visual compendium of the greatest movie monsters, featuring exclusive artwork from more than 65 artists accompanied by a richly detailed chronicle from genre expert Anthony Taylor, who brings together the canonical and the contemporary, creating a riveting journey through the history of film’s most iconic monsters by way of modern art.

From the publisher:

What we now know as horror was born on a rainy night in 1816, when a candle-lit writing contest between famous friends spawned Frankenstein... and eventually grew into an international genre and film sensation! Classic Monsters, Modern Art documents and reimagines the trajectory of Gothic horror––from film’s silent era all the way to the turn of the millennium.

Featuring exclusive artwork from more than 45 artists and a richly detailed chronicle from genre expert Anthony Taylor, this incredible volume brings together the canonical and the contemporary to create a truly original, timeless experience: a riveting journey through the history of film’s most iconic monsters by way of modern art.

ICONIC MONSTERS: From Frankenstein’s monster to Count Dracula, Elvira to Godzilla, King Kong to Freddy Kruger, this is the definitive visual compendium of the greatest movie monsters.

45+ ARTISTS: This book breathes new life into beloved classics, featuring exclusive artwork from more than 45 contemporary illustrators, cartoonists, and painters.

TIMELESS QUALITY: This hardcover volume provides a deluxe experience, with full-color artwork of the highest caliber and a design firmly entrenched in the genre that inspired it. A gorgeous coffee-table book that will stand the test of time.

Format: Hardcover

Publication Date: 2/10/2026

ISBN: 9798886637366

Pages: 184

Trim Size: 9.25 x 11

Retail price: $39.99

About the author:

Anthony Taylor, Author: Anthony Taylor is a writer and the organizer of Monsterama, an Atlanta retro horror and science fiction convention. His articles have appeared in Famous Monsters of Filmland, Fangoria, Screem, Horror Hound, Retro Fan, SFX, Video WatcH*Dog, FilmFax and many other magazines. His books include The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim, Arctic Adventure! An Official Thunderbirds™ novel, and The Art of George Wilson. In June 2024, he was inducted into the Rondo Hattan Classic Horror Awards Monster Kid Hall of Fame.

R.I.P. MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS

Hello, monster kids! I'm back from a much-needed vacation (what vacation isn't?). My wife and I flew down to Los Angeles and took a Princess Cruise to Mexico with stops at Cabo San Lucas (home to the Tijuana Cartel), Mazatlan (home to the Sinaloa Cartel) and Puerto Vallarta (home to the Jalisco Cartel). No obvious signs of any criminal activity, but it was a little startling to see Mexican marines on guard at Cabo armed with automatic rifles. Still, it wasn't enough to make me fearful.

I met four family members on board and had a great time. Mexico wasn't my first choice for a cruise, but my sister-in-law had it planned way ahead of time. In any event, it was good to get out of the northwest freezing weather and someplace where it was in the 80's. Of course, when we landed at SeaTac it was raining (no surprise there). Got back in time to watch the Seahawks win spectacularly in the Super Bowl. I hope you enjoyed Weird Comics Week in the meantime.

Now, on to my latest rant.

I've lived long enough to see a lot of changes in the book industry, some of them good, some not so good and some that are just tragic. Let me elaborate . . .

Well, here goes another beloved tradition down the toilet. The glory days of the mass market paperback will soon fade into memory sometime this year. You may notice in the following article that they were "designed with affordability in mind". Now I can only say that they are designed with higher profits in mind. Even though trade paperbacks are made with a considerably higher amount of better quality paper, I don't see that the move is value added for consumers. I also attribute the decision to the rise of Kindle and other e-formats as described below.

I will miss these handy little books as much as I've missed everything else that has disappeared into obsolescence. One thing for sure, you won't be able to call paperbacks "pocket books" anymore.

Mass Market Paperbacks are discontinued

Publishers Weekly last month reported that ReaderLink, the largest full-service distributor of hardcover, trade, and paperback books to booksellers in North America, stopped distributing mass market paperbacks at the end of 2025.

By Michael Kozlowski | January 25, 2026 | Goodreader.com

Mass market paperback books are being phased out and will soon be discontinued. Publishers Weekly reported that ReaderLink, the largest distributor of hardcover, trade, and paperback books to booksellers in North America stopped distributing mass market paperbacks at the end of 2025.

Mass-market paperbacks are usually about 5-by-7 inches, printed on lower-quality materials, and designed with affordability in mind. Trade paperbacks, on the other hand, are a bit larger and use higher-quality paper, making them more durable.

The apex of mass market paperback adoption was the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. With a lower price point, sales of mass market paperbacks “easily dwarfed” those of hardcover and trade paperbacks. Mass-market paperbacks were popular in stores like K-Mart, airports, big-box retailers, and grocery stores, where they normally retailed for $5 to $7 and got people into reading.

“Those who were deeply involved with the boom years of mass market paperbacks consider that period an important one for publishing and reading,” Esther Margolis, a former Bantam executive, said in the story. “I believe that mass market paperbacks democratized America. Books and reading became popular in a way never before seen.

There are a few reasons mass-market paperbacks are no longer being published.  The first is the gradual disappearance of paperback racks and other displays in drugstores and supermarkets, and the explosive growth of chain bookstores whose bookshelves are devoted to hardcovers and paperbacks.

The second is the decline of book departments at big-box stores like Walmart and Costco, where mass-market paperbacks failed to be profitable.

Finally, e-books have been popular for over 15 years, and they are released on the same day as a hardcover edition, so digital readers don’t have to wait over a year to save some money.

You only have to look at the overall publishing market in the United States in 2025. In the first eleven months of the year, Mass Market sales were down 26.2% and totaled $81 million. At the same time, normal paperback novel sales were $2.9 billion in revenue.

Do you have any fond memories of mass market paperbacks? I remember being at Safeway in the 90’s and them having a large selection of Hardy Boys and science fiction in mass-market paperbacks. Since they were so inexpensive, I would normally get a few books and devour them. The quality wasn’t good in the long term; books tended to yellow within a few years, whereas traditional paperbacks remained pristine over a decade.

MONSTER MOVIE TIE-IN BOOKS

Among the promotional gimmicks that studios would use to coincide with the opening of a film was to publish a movie tie-in novel. Likely inspired by the Photoplay novels that had been published since the 20's, some were the original stories, such as Bran Stoker's "Dracula", H. Rider Haggard's "She" and Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera", but others were work-for-hire by any author willing to spend a week or two banging one out, most likely for cheap. They were published by both U.S. and U.K. imprints.

Some writers cranked more than one out: one example is Dean Owen, (Dudley Dean McGaughy, b. 1909, d. 1996) who penned "The Brides of Dracula", "End of the World" (aka "Panic in the Year Zero"), "Konga" and "Reptilicus". He also wrote a truckload of western novels and pulp fiction during his career.

Some of the images shown here are from my private collection and some have been harvested from the web.

NOTE: As a point of clarification, some of the books shown here, such as "Psycho" and "Burn, Witch, Burn" were original novels that were adapted into movies.

STILL SCREAMING AFTER 40 YEARS

Last week in this slot I posted the first issue of the UK's SCREAM! horror comic magazine from the 1980's. Well, it seems like it has garnered a cult following as just this last May a collection of all the issues (15) was published, titled 40 YEARS OF SCREAM! Here in the States it was listed for pre-order by PREVIEWS WORLD back in February for $61.99. Like so many other reprinted collections of fan favorites from the past, the print edition is already sold out (one greedy bookseller has it up for sale at Amazon for 400 bucks)! A digital edition has been made available from the publisher (see below). Who would'a thought?

From the publisher:

Beginning with introductions by editors Ian Rimmer and Barrie Tomlinson, this gorgeous archival collection reprints the strips and covers from each issue in order, as well as extras such as unpublished pages and a gallery of Ghastly McNasty images.

Not for the nervous! Celebrating 40 years since IPC launched the UK's most iconic "horror" anthology, this single volume collects all of the strips included in the 15-issue run of Scream! Produced "from the depths" of King's Reach Tower by the mysterious "undead" editor Ghastly McNasty, the first issue of Scream! was unleashed on March 24, 1984. More tongue-in-cheek than horrific, the comic was an immediate hit with younger fans as it included a pair of fake vampire fangs attached to the cover and a number of fantastic new strips from such talents as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Jose Ortiz, Cam Kennedy, Tom Tully, Alan Grant, and Eric Bradbury.

[SOURCE: Previews World.]

Order the 40 YEARS OF SCREAM! digital edition HERE.

FJA, THE ORIGINAL MONSTER KID (PART 2)