Monster! #22: October 2015

By Stephen D. Sullivan and Tim Paxton

Once again, we mix things up a little...actually, a LOT! Some may well be wondering about that cute li'l red dragon/dino on the cover to this ish. To those "in the know" (including MONSTER! founder Tim Paxton), cartoonist Vernon Grant's slim 1972 softcover comics volume A MONSTER IS LOOSE!-IN TOKYO marked a key point in the understanding and acceptance of Japanese "kaiju eiga" (basically, giant monster movies) here in the West. For this issue, dedicated pop-cultural paleontologist Stephen R. Bissette gives us Part 1 of his two-part personal testimonial to Grant, "the man who introduced 'kaiju' to America", alighting on other aspects of monster/popular culture along the way. Elsewhere, the academically-studious-to-a-fault John L. Vellutini contributes a sequel to his epic article on Indonesian horror cinema, "The Ties That Bind" (which we ran in M! #21); this month John ties-up whatever loose ends of errata/addenda he has unearthed since last month. In addition, the mighty Eric Messina enthusiastically champions the cause of usual puppet master Gerry Anderson's mid-'90s live-action sci-fi/crime hybrid SPACE PRECINCT, a critter-filled series which is generally - and in Eric's considered opinion, unfairly - held in low esteem even by the staunchest adherents of Anderson's canon. With similar enthusiasm, the ever-knowledgeable John Harrison covers a bunch of the more monsterific episodes of the cult '60s pulp SF show, LOST IN SPACE. For the sake of something "different", the seemingly tireless and super-prolific Troy Howarth conducts an entertaining interview with up'n'coming young indie/underground moviemaker Joshua Kennedy, whose latest SOV ventures are DRACULA A.D. 2015 and THE VESUVIUS XPERIMENT. Then there's "How To Make a Monster", the first instalment of fellow indie filmmaker Mike T. Lyddon's on-set coverage of his upcoming D.I.Y. creature feature, FIRST MAN ON MARS. Also in this super-stuffed issue, freelance author Stephen D. Sullivan covers a number of the best podcasts out there pertaining to monster movies, while Matthew E. Banks takes a look at massive pop culture icon Bela Lugosi's forays into vampire cinema, which came fewer and farther between than you might expect, considering his rep. Our larger-than-usual review section includes write-ups on such diverse filmic fare as KIDS VS MONSTERS (2015), DR. ORLOFF'S INVISIBLE MONSTER (1970), MEET THE APPLEGATES (1990), IT! (1967), HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN (1962), FRANKENSTEIN: DAY OF THE BEAST (2011), the Mexi-monster masterpiece SHIP OF MONSTERS (1960), plus more besides. Oh, and Tim P. covers another clutch of ultra-obscure Hindi horrors, too! As always, in our back pages we provide video availability for many of the films covered herein. This issue's list of contributors is rounded-out by Sebastien Godin, Keith J. Rainville, Andy Ross, Michael Hauss, Christos Mouroukis, Brian Harris and Steve Fenton.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1518724728
• ISBN13: 9781518724725
• Release Date: October 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 114 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.3" x 5.5"