October 29th, 2017

Famous Monsters Changed My Life

by Bannerman, Gradisher, Konar, Lawton, Epstein & Piro

It’s almost Halloween and I always think of Famous Monsters of Film Land Magazine which was all monsters all the time. When I was maybe 7 or so I went to the candy store to buy a comic and instead ran back home to ask my Mom for the unheard of price (if I remember correctly) of 50 cents to buy a magazine I’d never seen before, the first issue of FM! Little did I realize that I was about to have my life changed by its editor Forest J Ackerman! He was a brilliant man who introduced his kid audience to Ray Bradbury and Gaston Leroux, H.P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley and to the world of silent movies, German expressionism as well as all those Universal monsters and creatures of the night. I never got to meet Mr. Ackerman which was a dream I had, like meeting Walt Disney, but I am eternally grateful to him for expanding my appreciation of so many authors, filmmakers and actors.