THE RETURN OF THE BRAVE GHOULS!

Well, fellow monster humor lovers, I guess I should continue with a series of posts that I started way back in 2011! Those of you who are familiar with the earlier issues of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND and especially those that scrutinized the Captain Company ads will remember this for sale. For a measly buck you could get a hardback -- that's right, a hardback -- book filled to the brim of the cauldron with monster photo-jokes. You can't even come near buying a comic book these days at that price!

I landed a copy (on eBay, as I remember) about a dozen years or so ago in my attempt to buy some of the odder stuff that was sold in the usual 15-20+ page Captain Company "catalog" found in the back pages of every issue of FM. I had absolutely zero idea on what to expect and when I opened up the package I realized I was holding an early monster joke book -- from 1960 no less. As I mentioned back then:

With a publication date of 1960, THE BRAVE GHOULS, however, beat Marvel to the punch(line), as it predates MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH by four years. One might even surmise that the idea for MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH (1964) and its progeny, MONSTERS UNLIMITED (1965) and MONSTER MADNESS (1972) was drawn, not entirely obliquely, from its predecessor. Another magazine with funny captions on film and TV photos that has been covered here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD was TALKING PICTURES, published in 1964 and 1965.

So, finally, here are a few more pages of puns penned by Bob Reisner.

See more of THE BRAVE GHOULS HERE.

AMAZING! THE BRAVE GHOULS

Ubiquitous on the back pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, and found among numerous other examples of reoccurring merchandise for sale from the legendary -- and some say, infamous -- CAPTAIN COMPANY, was a curious item that remained a bit mysterious to me . . . enough so that years later I sought out and bought a copy so that my curiosity could be at last sated.

From FAMOUS MONSTERS #21

This mysterious CAPTAIN COMPANY curio was a book entitled THE BRAVE GHOULS. Although I wasn't completely sure at the time, it appeared by the cover image to be a monster joke book of some sort, much like the type in the tradition of monster jokes of the day that put a gagline caption on a monster movie film still. This type of monster humor was thought to be so popular at the time that even mighty Marvel Comics published a couple of magazines devoted to monster photos with punchlines attributed to the man who never seemed to run out of words -- and a master of the word balloon in his own right -- Stan "The Man" Lee.

With a publication date of 1960, THE BRAVE GHOULS, however, beat Marvel to the punch(line), as it predates MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH by four years. One might even surmise that the idea for MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH (1964) and its progeny, MONSTERS UNLIMITED (1965) and MONSTER MADNESS (1972) was drawn, not entirely obliquely, from its predecessor. Another magazine with funny captions on film and TV photos that has been covered here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD was TALKING PICTURES, published in 1964 and 1965 (see sidebar for links to these posts).

Interestingly enough, THE BRAVE GHOULS schtick was not the use of word balloons on photos at all. Instead, the writer, Bob Reisner, had his gags placed as captions under each film photo. The jokes, and I am being kind here, ran the usual gamut of wince-inducing statements from the mouths of monsters from such studios as 20th Century Fox, AIP, Warner Bros., and RKO Radio Pictures. There were even some from Universal, although oddly, they are not credited.


From FAMOUS MONSTERS #24

Robert Reisner was a humor writer, popular at the time for his other series of joke books, CAPTIONS COURAGEOUS. The title THE BRAVE GHOULS, frankly, is lost on me as I write this. Perhaps it references some popular saying of the time, or it is in relation to the statement made in the introduction that in this book the monsters are speaking their innermost thoughts (in which case we have nothing to fear from them!).



THE BRAVE GHOULS seems to have first appeared for sale in FAMOUS MONSTERS  in Issue #21, dated February 1963, three years after it was originally published. It was sold as a "rib-tickling comic captioned collection of outlandish stills from 30 years of horror movies", and declared "One of the best novelty books in years!"

Well, I'll let you decide for yourself after you read the first page offerings from my 1960 First Edition copy of THE BRAVE GHOULS!

TALKING PICTURES NO. 2 (PART 2)

Today we conclude our look at TALKING PICTURES magazine, published in 1964, by Herald House, Inc. As you can see, the gags still run a little hot and cold. However, I gotta tell ya', it's hard to beat the "Who says I can't hold a candle to Liz Taylor -- I just did" and "Hand over the dough" jokes from yesterday. I'm still rocking from those. But then again, it doesn't take much for me. Anyway, enough of the banter. There's not a whole heckuva lot more to discuss here other than to --like the 'zine's title says -- let the pictures do the talking!

TALKING PICTURES NO. 2 (PART 1)

 

TALKING PICTURES
No. 2
Writer: Alan Riefe (pseudonym of Barbara Riefe)
Publication Date: 1964
Publisher: Herald House, Inc., New York
Color front cover/ B&W interior
76 ppg. (including covers/no pagination)
Cover price: 50 cents
Estimated collector’s price: $23.00 to $35.00
 
This is the special THE ADDAMS FAMILY and THE MUNSTERS issue. It also contains numerous stills from the TV shows BEWITCHED, BONANZA, GOMER PYLE U.S.M.C., and MY FAVORITE MARTIAN.
 
With gag captions still penned by Alan/Barabara Riefe (one could even say with confidence that the magazine was "Riefe" with humor), the jokes run from cold to hot as in any attempt at a humor magazine of this type and scope. It reminds me of what’s best and worse in monster magazines: nearly all of them tried their hand at humor – I’m surmising this was done so as not to be too “horrible” for the younger strata of the intended reading audience, as well as showing any overly-concerned parent that these monster books were really just another form of “funny” books … you know, nothing serious – and virtually all of them failed miserable at any kind of sustainable humor.
 
Lots of gags, not only in this magazine but in many other humor publications, took their cue from the comedy and variety (remember those?) shows of the day in which current ads, fads and other easily-recognizable pop culture subjects were simple prey for lame humor. It always seemed to get a laugh from the audience, though. You have to remember, this was the era where The Smothers Brothers and Dan Rowan and Dick Martin shared the crown as the kings of comedy and genius talent like Lenny Bruce and Shel Silverstein were “underground” and definitely verboten from being allowed too much media exposure.
 
This post is here by request from (the mysteriously silent) Mike Scott over at MONSTER MAGAZINES. I finally got it posted, Mike! Deadication also goes to Prof. Grewbeard at MAGIC CARPET BURN. Here's s'more wallpapers for ya, Prof!