ANOTHER NEW 'ZINE!

It seems like for every stateside monster mag that gets in publishing trouble, two more new titles are announced by the UK. The Brits have something of a mini monster craze going on and websites like HEMLOCK BOOKS are teeming with chewy monster goodness.

Hemlock has recently been promoting the latest in their magazine line, THE FANTASTIC FIFTIES. Looking to be a title much like CINEMA RETRO where a specific timeline of movies is covered, TFF has some quality writers on staff and is edited by the renown and respected Denis Meikle. My next order from Hemlock will be including this brand new 'zine!

CINEMA RETRO'S NEW MOVIE STORE

The folks at CINEMA RETRO magazine have just announced their new "Cinema Retro Movie Store", a DVD supermarket powered by Movie Zyng. It appears that many of the discs they sell are MOD, or "Made On Demand", a kind of DVD version of Amazon's CreateSpace for publishing.

The discs are listed by genre or manufacturer with familiar titles by big box distributors like HBO, MGM and Universal, as well as "indie" companies such as Full Moon, Midnight Releasing and Brain Damage.

I wonder of the wisdom of this move since there are so many other outlets available to buy these kinds of DVDs. The prices are competitive and they do offer a flat rate shipping cost of only $1.00. All I can say at this point is: Best of luck, guys.

You can browse CINEMA RETRO's Movie Store by clicking the blog title image above.

CINEMA RETRO NO. 27 NOW SHIPPING!

Now available for ordering (and showing up soon in your local comic shop's box if you ordered from Diamond Previews oh-so-many months ago) is the latest issue of CINEMA RETRO. This issue promises to have much more monster goodness than the previous couple of issues -- perhaps because of the Halloween season?

Here is the lineup from the CINEMA RETRO website:

HIGHLIGHTS OF ISSUE #27 INCLUDE:

• Don L. Stradley examines the dramatic life and career of Lolita star Sue Lyon
• John Exshaw's unpublished interview with screen legend Peter Cushing
• Adrian Smith interviews Hugh Hudson, director of Revolution and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
• Dean Brierly looks at classic Japanese crime movies
• Stephen C. Jilks celebrates the British werewolf films.
• David Savage examines Liz Taylor's little-seen, late career bizarro cult movie The Driver's Seat
• Howard Hughes continues his history of Oakmont Productions with Submarine X-1 starring James Caan and reviews the long-forgotten electric rock Western Zachariah
• Paul Thomson provides in-depth coverage of the Amicus Edgar Rice Burroughs film adaptations The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth's Core and The People That Time Forgot 
• Remembering  Ray Harryhausen: a personal tribute by Mark Mawston
• Raymond Benson's top ten films of 1986
• Lee Pfeiffer's Take Two column looks back on The Valachi Papers starring Charles Bronson
• Burt Reynolds underrated dark comedy The End is re-evaluated by Tim Greaves
• Gareth Owen's Pinewood Past column features Reach for the Sky starring Kenneth More
• Plus the latest film book, soundtrack and DVD reviews

And here are a few page samples. To order or subscribe to CINEMA RETRO, just click on the cover image on the sidebar to the right of this blogroll.

MONSTERS UNLEASHED! NEW AND RECENTLY RELEASED

CINEMA RETRO MOVES AHEAD WITH "SEASON 8"

CINEMA RETRO magazine specializes in covering only movies from the 60s and 70s. Since this was a rich period of filmmaking around the world, there is no shortage of material from which to draw.

I have described CR as a sort of "hybrid" monster magazine because, while it generally includes monster movies from its specialized era in each issue, it also covers other genre films, such as spy, western, etc. The mag has a real international feel to it and that makes it unique among other film magazines currently available.

Co-publishers Dave Worrall and Lee Pfeiffer recently sent out a notice announcing the start of their eighth year of publishing, or, as they so charmingly put it, "8th season".

Here are excerpts from the newsletter:

"As we enter our 8th year of publishing, we'd like to thank each of our loyal readers for helping us keep the dream alive. It's not easy maintaining a magazine in the age of the internet, but we continue to thrive thanks to our many readers throughout the world. A very special thanks to those of you who subscribe to Cinema Retro. Frankly, there is no greater way of helping us out (unless you have a few million bucks laying around that you'd like to donate). Every subscription goes a long way to ensuring that we'll be able to maintain the high standards you've come to expect- with a minimum amount of advertising. We've also been able to maintain our pricing without a single increase in eight years, despite soaring costs for printing and mailing.

Every issue will continue to be a limited edition collector's item. In fact with the closing of Borders stores in the USA, readers have even more reason to subscribe. Not only does this limit the number of venues you can buy Cinema Retro from, but we've also adjusted our print runs accordingly, meaning that every issue is more limited than ever since we are no longer supplying Borders.So thanks to all our subscribers- especially those who have so promptly renewed their subscriptions! By doing so, you have ensured you won't have to pay the sky high prices that sold out issues of Cinema Retro have been commanding on eBay (up to $150 in some cases!)

There is plenty of excitement in store for season 8 of Cinema Retro beginning with our eye-popping cover girl for issue #22, Sybil Danning. As usual, this issue will be eclectic in terms of content: major examinations of Jack Cardiff's great adventure film Dark of the Sun (aka The Mercenaries) and special features on two Cinerama epics: Krakatoa, East of Java and Sir Christopher Frayling's magnificent study of the making of How the West Was Won. In the next twelve months, other major features will include John Boorman's Deliverance, the films of Elvis Presley, the history of movie comic book tie-ins and rare back lot photos from the James Bond films.

So get on board the Cinema Retro bandwagon and enjoy the most unique film magazine in the world- dedicated to the celebration of films from the 1960s and 1970s."

Closing Channel D . . .

INTL MONSTER MAGAZINES WEEK: MONSTER MAG MELANGE



METALUNA (France)


Other British and European monster magazine titles have been mentioned previously here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD. Access to more information, including purchasing instructions can be found by going to the website for each title from the links provided on the sidebar to the right of this blogroll.

Here are a few cover images to help readers re-introduce themselves to the wealth of monster magazine offerings that extend beyond the U.S.

SHOCK-HORROR (Great Britain)



SCREAM (Great Britain)



ATOMOVISION (France)



CINEMA RETRO (USA/Great Britain)



MONSTERS UNLEASHED! NEW AND RECENTLY RELEASED

MONSTERS UNLEASHED: NEW AND RECENTLY RELEASED

CINEMA RETRO NO. 19 PREVIEW

Now shipping in Europe and the UK (and soon thereafter to the States) is the latest issue of CINEMA RETRO, The Essential Guide to Movies of the 60s & 70s. As I mentioned yesterday, CR is fast becoming one of my favorite 'zines. Of particular interest was the PSYCHO special in the previous issue. A lengthy article with plenty of sidebars and tons of production and behind the scenes information made it seem like a meaty condensed version of an entire book on the subject.

Now in it's seventh year of publication, CINEMA RETRO is beginning what it calls its newest "season", as each year's worth of issues is termed. There is much to discover in this "genre hybrid" 'zine -- spies, spoofs, super-guys, gunslingers, including a heapin' dollup of retro cheesecake filling!

Here’s the highlights from Issue #19:

• The Blu-ray release of The Exorcist with Matthew R. Bradley and Gilbert Colon's in-depth interview with author William Peter Blatty, who discusses some fascinating aspects about the making of the classic movie. There's also an abundance of facts and rare photos including a cover photo that is bound to give you the creeps.
• Todd Garbarini has an exclusive interview with the original cougar, Angie Dickinson, who discusses Roger Vadim's quirky sex comedy/murder mystery Pretty Maids All in a Row, with Rock Hudson as a horndog high school counselor- who might also be a serial killer.
• Lee Pfeiffer celebrates the 45th anniversary of the film version of The Sound of Music by visiting the famed Von Trapp Lodge in Vermont, where he met with Johannes Von Trapp, son of Captain and Maria.
• Steve Saragossi presents an in-depth look at the career of an under-rated leading man of 60s and 70s cinema: Rod Taylor.
• In part two of Matthew Field's interview with Lewis Gilbert, the famed director looks back on his "personal" films including the classic Alfie.
• Dave Worrall takes you behind the scenes at the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 auction in London
• Tim Greaves examines the off-beat 60s sex comedy Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush
• Phil Gavin looks back on the history of classic Hammer horror film posters.
• John Surles recalls his meeting with actor/singer Jimmy Dean and his role as Willard Whyte in Diamonds Are Forever.
• Famed character actor Shane Rimmer's new autobiography S.O.S Film Industry - Gary McMahon culls comments from famed filmmakers who take issue with the direction of today's motion picture industry.
• Adrian Smith covers Brian Clemens, director of many classic episodes of The Avengers, at his BFI tribute in London.
• Matthew Field covers Sean Connery's appearance at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and gets to meet the Great Scot, who introduced a screening of The Man Who Would Be King.
• More on the world of 007 in this Bond-heavy issue: Gareth Owen and Dave Worrall spend a day with director Guy Hamilton and accompany him to an outdoor London screening of Goldfinger.
• Raymond Benson provides us with his choices of the ten best films of 1978.
• Darren Allison covers the latest soundtracks on CD
• Plus extensive DVD and film book reviews

CINEMA RETRO, GENRE HYBRID 'ZINE

This exceptional magazine of film review and comment has been around for a while, but I didn’t give it much attention until just recently. Man, am I glad I did! CINEMA RETRO, The Essential Guide to Movies of the 60s & 70s, is fast becoming a favorite of mine. Not a monster mag in the truest sense, CR is what I would call a “genre hybrid” publication, one that focuses on genre cinema, but appears by all accounts to have a soft spot for spy movies, westerns, and horror films, all served up with a healthy serving of honest-to-goodness cheescake. Not a bad mix for this monster kid!

Tune in to tomorrow’s MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD, where I'll have a preview of the latest issue.

HARRYHAUSEN'S KING KONG

"Crap to you is film history to others" - Tony Dalton to Ray Harryhausen about his early efforts at model-making

Ray Harryhausen will tell you that it was the 1933 RKO Pictures giant monster flick, KING KONG, that sparked his interest in making monsters, and, in particular, bringing them to life. His first attempt was to make his own version of King Kong . . . as a marionette puppet! The 13-year old Harryhausen made the King of Skull Island's head out of papier-mache, his mom made the fur body, and voila! a genius of monster making was born!

An image of the finished product (as it looks 77 years later) is shown below as a part of a fanatastic article in CINEMA RETRO #17 about Ray Harryhausen's "crap" that was resurrected by Tony Dalton, author of several books about Harryhausen.

MONSTERS UNLEASHED: NEW 'ZINES THIS WEEK