Mood: caffeinated
Topic: Comic Cons
James Warren At The Comic Con! Part II - Famous Monsters of Filmland As Reported From The 2008 SDCC Comic Con International! I was able to attend the first half of this special program, and started blogging about that in Part I. (Click Here.) Now I continue where James first bought articles from Forrest Ackerman. Forrest had seen James' 'After Hours' Magazine issue #2. He sold a few articles to James as a result of writing to James. As stated in the previous blog post, James ceased publishing the magazine due to authorities enforcing moral standards of the time in Philadelphia. He then flew out to California with his last $400 and went to see Forry for a one-shot magazine that would be written for 'a eleven year old level'. Monsters were coming back to movies and TV in 1958. James stated it was tough for Forrest to write the magazine as he had "a superior mind". James also stated that 99% of what Forry wrote for the next 25 years for the FM magazine was on a level for children. But it was a viable formula and made money! Forry was in his 40's at that time, and James was 28 years old. James stated that with his first visit to Forry, they worked around the clock for three days, and FM issue #1 was the result. James then told us a background story of the cover of issue #1 pictured to the middle right. It was Verne Langdon's (see his photo in Part 1) company that sold the Frankenstein mask to James to use. Additionally the model on the cover agreed to pose for $25 as long as her name wasn't used in the magazine! That magazine is one of the most famous covers in this genre today! By the 4th or 5th issue FM magazine was a success. So he needed more advertisements aimed at boys 9 - 19 yrs of age. Almost all advertisers without exception laughed him out of their offices! So he started his own ads. Then he started his own mail order company to satisfy requests coming in for merchandise. That was 50 years ago! It was 50 years ago this year that Famous Monsters of Filmland first hit the stands! As I was getting ready to leave to go to another program, James brought up the reason for his success. He did it all without 'meetings'! "Meetings destroy creativity and almost everything else" he said! "Meetings are good for consumption of coffee only!" With that, I had to press on... James is a character that I was glad to see in a special program. My thanks to the Comic Con for honoring his 50th Anniversary of the Magazine! Michael | James Warren as he continued telling his story at his 'Spotlight on James Warren' Program at the 2008 SDCC Comic Con International CCI ! For those of you interested in Comic Con promotional items... Just click on the photo to see all of the currently listed Comic Con promo items we brought back to list in our eBay Store! If you know of something that isn't listed... email us, we may have more that hasn't been listed yet! James Warren was behind the Frankenstein mask used on the first issue! Plus the story that James told about the model (retold at the left), put a new spin on the cover for me! For our current HoRRoR & MoNSTeR comics and magazines listings just click on the photo above! Note From Make It So Marketing: Each comic / comics book. Graphic Novels or magazine in our eBay Featured Store is individually graded, inventoried, priced, bagged and boarded, before being listed for sale! We attend several Pop Culture conventions and Comic Cons during the year to replenish our inventory for resale! If you don't see what you are looking for, feel free to email us a 'want list' and if in stock, we'll place it in our eBay Featured Store just for you! Thank YOU for being one of our NOTE: This Blog Post May Not Be Viewed Properly On YOUR Screen Due To the Changes eBay is Making on the Blog Format At this time OR in the Future! Additionally, this blog post is written for IE Browsers. Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently. The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768. All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.
"Hammering Out the Web |