1958 – 1968
History
From 1958 through the 1960s Warren published a number of movie related photo magazines, the most renowned being the trend setting ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’. Warren was a great publisher, but his initial success was fuelled by his association with legendary film historian and collector Forrest J. Ackerman, who edited ‘Famous Monsters’. The magazine was ostensibly aimed at a younger audience, and the writing is often jokey and uncritical, but the sheer passion, knowledge and unrivalled archive of Forrey Ackerman, meant that from the start it was an unequalled cornucopia of serious information both textual and photographic of the horror sub-genre that had never been taken seriously before, and as such is a major milestone in film studies. It also belied its younger audience credentials with its stunning painted covers, including some of the best work of the now legendary artist Basil Gogos.
It ran for 191 issues until 1983, but during the 1970s a lot of material was reprinted, including some cover art. It still had some fine issues, and more great Gogos covers, but My collection, as pictured here, only embraces the first fifty numbers. It was revived in 1993, briefly with Ackerman, but was never the same magazine, and expired in 2008, embroiled in legal dispues
Famous Monsters of Filmland
Fearbooks
The first issue is not dated on the cover, but was published in 1962 – there is no 1963 yearbook
