I got these two issues of Monster! in the mail the other day, since they looked like things I would love to read about. And they were, mostly! I was also interested in seeing their layout and how they were published, as they have over 70 or so pages in each issue, all for under $6. As I'd like to reduce the price of Xenorama, I was very interested in that from a production standpoint. It's really well put together, with great reproduction of photos, cool artwork and it's on newsprint, which I really love. It feels right. Plus it's chock full of reviews and discussions about movies, both new and old, rare and more common. I'm really happy to see a magazine of this quality out there, with no corporate sponsership at all. Plus the writers know their stuff.
I had a few of the original digest sized versions of this zine back in the day. In fact, it was largely responsible for the creation of my own magazine in the same size format. Did I mention that it's name is Xenorama? I loved the digest size and several issues of the first incarnation of the xine were published that way. Now I have a slightly larger size, but dang I miss the digest.
I also had three issues of Monster! International as well, but the last one featured Coffin Joe and had become a standard sized zine. I don't know if any more issues were published after that, maybe one more? But I wasn't so interested in Coffin Joe, and didn't see any more after a time.
Anyway, these are a lot of fun, especially the kaiju issue, which has some cool stuff in it, with fun review. Stephen Bissette writes extensively about Godzilla vs Megalon, even more than I ever have, and he cover the fact that it was a big hit in America. Somehow the myth that the movie was never shown uncut in the US is still around, which isn't true, since I saw it twice and it featured blood, swearing, kidnapping and toy airplanes to the face.
The dinosaur issue was not exactly what I expected, but still fun. There's so many reviews that I haven't read all of them yet. These are the kind of magazines I really enjoy, despite having different views of the movies here and there.
I had a few of the original digest sized versions of this zine back in the day. In fact, it was largely responsible for the creation of my own magazine in the same size format. Did I mention that it's name is Xenorama? I loved the digest size and several issues of the first incarnation of the xine were published that way. Now I have a slightly larger size, but dang I miss the digest.
I also had three issues of Monster! International as well, but the last one featured Coffin Joe and had become a standard sized zine. I don't know if any more issues were published after that, maybe one more? But I wasn't so interested in Coffin Joe, and didn't see any more after a time.
Anyway, these are a lot of fun, especially the kaiju issue, which has some cool stuff in it, with fun review. Stephen Bissette writes extensively about Godzilla vs Megalon, even more than I ever have, and he cover the fact that it was a big hit in America. Somehow the myth that the movie was never shown uncut in the US is still around, which isn't true, since I saw it twice and it featured blood, swearing, kidnapping and toy airplanes to the face.
The dinosaur issue was not exactly what I expected, but still fun. There's so many reviews that I haven't read all of them yet. These are the kind of magazines I really enjoy, despite having different views of the movies here and there.
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