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Remember, when young, you'd think back 3 or 4 years and it seemed like forever? As you get older, it seems to work in reverse. Think back 50 years and it seems like only a few years ago, if not months. Can never get my head around that.
Anyway, today's post is yet another which is sure to bring in a deluge of comments (ever the optimist, despite evidence to the contrary with the last three entries) as we focus on a mag that was published in 1975 and lasted, as far as I know, for only four issues. Movie Monsters (by Atlas/Seaboard) was devoted to (you mean I actually gotta tell you?) monsters from the movies and it was a mixed bag affair.
Some nice photos, though sometimes wrongly attributed, and loads of typos, spelling mistakes, and words that made me think I had dyslexia. I can only conclude it was produced in a hurry and the editor and proof-reader were too busy 'goofing off' playing poker to pay proper attention to what they were doing. However, if you could overlook such irksome obstacles it actually wasn't a bad wee publication.
I've just purchased all four mags, two of which have arrived, the other two I'm still waiting for. I was reminded, while leafing through #2, that I still have a couple of articles I clipped from my original issue way back when, so now I have the complete contents again. I'm not exactly sure I had all four of them at the time - maybe only two, possibly three, but 50 years on I have the full set (unless there was a #5).
Did any of you buy this title back in the day? What are your memories of it, effendis? (Like, did the last two covers give you nightmares?)
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19 comments:
I vividly remember when I started in the Upper 6th Form in September 1983 and I exclaimed to anyone who'd listen "Can you believe it's TEN YEARS since we began Junior School??" - being only 17 at the time, ten years seemed like a geological epoch but now it seems like nothing at all.
Nowadays, CJ, to me 10 years is over faster than a fart from The Flash (to use my patented catchphrase.) And as life seems to go by faster as we get older, 30 years from now will feel as if it's passed faster than the last 5 years just gone.
I had every Atlas/Seaboard magazine and comic at the time with the exception of Vicki #3 & 4 which I picked up in the 80s, and Gothic Romance which I recently saw but was not paying the money asked. I don't really have many memories of this title other than I bought them all in Rutherglen (the newsagents has long gone) after school . I no longer have these or many of my Atlas comics as they were sacrificed during the great comics purge of 2010.
Ah, the great comics purge of 2010 - I remember it not at all, actually, 'cos I wasn't there. I've got a few Atlas colour comics (replacements) which I've had for years (probably around 30 at least) and today I purchased Thrilling Adventure Stories #1 - just 'cos I had it back in the day.
I have seen a lot of full runs of Atlas comics in back issue bins in Glasgow most for £1 each recently. I was tempted to pick up a few of them but resisted. I did manage to pick up 2 volumes (vols 1&2) of the Rebellion Steele Claw reprint books in mint condition on Friday for £15. They have a few others titles that I might pick up if they aren't snagged .
Thrilling Adventure Stories is a nice book, especially issue 2.
I've got The Steel Claw and The Spider reprint books by Rebellion, McS, and the next one I'm going to get is The Legend Testers from Smash! I only remember having #1 of Thrilling Adventure Stories, but I think I'll get #2 as well.
I'm interested in picking up the Legend Testers as well .
You can pre-order it, McS - I think it comes out in January.
I picked up issues two to four (maybe I'll track down issue one to complete the set) and still have them. Not sure how I came by them but they managed to escape the clipping phase I went through back then and so their contents are intact. Brings back memories seeing those covers again , if not the memory of how they came into my possession. Though I suspect I may have picked them up from one of the two second-hand shops in our town now I come to think of it.
Just got an email saying that #s 1 & 4 are due to be delivered today, PC. I doubt I'll read them all the way through, I'll just cherry-pick. I really only want them to re-own something I had 50 years ago - nostalgia, basically.
Nostalgia comes at a cost I just found out as I did a search for issue one and am definitely not prepared to pay the asking price that some sellers over here have put on issue one. My searches are usually confined to this country as the postage to bring things in from outside of Australia is not worth selling a kidney for!
I was lucky in that I got mine for a decent price, but I saw the same issues going for astronomical asking prices, PC. I doubt the sellers will ever get what they're looking for.
Some black and white mags seem to be selling for ridiculous prices this weather . I saw several early Savage Sword of Conan mags ( issues 30 and above) selling for £40 upwards and they weren't in good condition. And then there are the Alan Class comics at just silly prices
Apologies for delay in replying, McS, was out at the dentist's and barber's, just back. The Alan Class mags are a mystery to me when it comes to the asking prices, though I've paid over-the-odds for a couple only recently, but that'll be a one-off (bought the pair together from the same seller) as I had them when I was younger. However, when it comes to asking prices of £1,000-plus for Creepy Worlds reprint of FF #1, then the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
The only monster mag I picked up regularly wasn't really short-lived, since THE MONSTER TIMES lasted four years. The moment I saw it in a grocery store, I subscribed and bought back issues. But since it was a sort of "foldover newspaper" format, I don't know if it would have been distributed in its original form to your shores. Ever seen an issue?
To bring this into the Memory Lane Department, I must have had some rush of endorphins at my first sight of the mag. I still have a quasi-memory of the experience, though not detailed enough to tell me things I would have experienced at the time: name of the store, which issue I found, etc. I think such memories get stored when they're unexpected, since I don't have many such recollections about just picking up expected purchases. What's your take?
I don't think I've ever seen or heard of The Monster Times, GP - at least, not that I recall. There's always a chance I saw it referred to somewhere in passing, but I doubt it would have registered with me unless I already knew what it was.
My take on your last part is that you're probably right when it comes to automatic regular purchases, though I'd say there are bound to be exceptions when an 'expected purchase' has something memorable about it that makes an impression on you. Then you tend to remember where you bought it and even who was with you at the time.
I had a few issues of the Monster Times back in the day. The whole newspaper format did make them difficult to keep tidy and undamaged. At some point over the years I managed to part company with the issues that I had. As I have lived in eight different houses between my family home and where I am now I guess that's a lot a chances for things to go missing in transit. Every now and then I consider buying a few copies just to have back in the collection but as mentioned above...those prices!
Prices to and from America can be prohibitive, PC, sure enough. I often see items, the cost of which are dwarfed by the p&p costs. There's no need for it as some items from the US are more reasonable. Sellers just being greedy? Probably.
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