KONGA CARDS + BONUS COMIC!

If a monster trading card set could ever be called a "cult classic", Rosan's 1963 Famous Monsters series would be it. File these under so bad they're good, folks. I mean, these cards are excruciatingly hard to take seriously. But still, even though they are passed over by many collectors because they are hard to find in high-grade condition , they command a pretty fair price on the market (currently, a full set is up for grabs on eBay for only $2,500). They're rough, they're tacky, but they're lovable.

Produced by Rosan, the card set is "so crude that it kind of hearkens back to the days when primitive and amateur was good enough to keep us interested," says Kurt Kuersteiner of monsterwax.com. "It definitely captures the frontier days of monster cards."

"Rosan was a company based out of Brooklyn, New York, and they were horrible," adds Marty Quinn. "I don't think they put much thought or any kind of money into producing their card sets. I think their main thing was just trying to catch a little bit of the horror lightning that was going on at the time."

Either Rosan struck a deal with Warren or Warren struck a deal with Rosan, the cards were sold as a set by Captain Company in the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. The 60-card set went for a buck (!) and 25-cents postage. The jokes on the card backs were replaced with images of Warren's other Capt. Company merchandise.

The photos and illos used on the card fronts were mostly from AIP pics and five of them were from KONGA. At the time, AIP was very generous in sharing publicity with anyone who'd promote them. After all photos and pressbooks were really cheap advertising for a studio on a tight budget, and nobody squeaked louder than AIP!

Other than out of the pages of FM, I'm not sure how they were packaged for sale. I don't believe they ever came in standard "wax packs", and I've only read mention of them being sold out of vending machines.

NOTE: The text in today's post has been slightly revised from the original series of posts about the Rosan Famous Monster cards HERE.

BONUS! Charlton's KONGA #2!

KONGA

Vol. 1 No. 2

August 1961

Charlton Comics Group

Editor: Pat Masulli

Cover: Dick Giordano

Script: Joe Gill (?)

Pencils: Charles Nicholas

Inks: Sal Trapani

Pages: 36

Cover price: 10 cents

IS KONGA FINALLY COMING?

It seems like it's been a year-and-a-half or two since I pre-ordered the Konga model kit. Thus far, just a few irregular notices of delay, but just recently I received a promising message from Steve Iverson at CultTVman that it's supposed to be shipped real soon. It's not his fault, mind you, it's the manufacturer (Monarch Models, who have had problems with solvency in recent years -- maybe somebody bought 'em?). I hope it's worth the wait and it'll be a good, clean build.

Box art and prototype:

In the meantime, let's take a look at Charlton's KONGA comic book adaptation from June 1961. Edited by Pat Masulli, and with a cover by Dick Giordano, the script is written by Joe Gill and illustrated by Steve Ditko. Charlton followed up with a 22-issue series continuing Konga's story.

NOTE: There's a quirky little back-up story in this issue. "The Movies Come of Age", written by (probably) Joe Gill with pencils by Bill Molno and inks by Vince Alascia provides a brief history of cinema on the big screen.