Dedication to Classics Pays Off

Don’t tell Forrest J. Ackerman that “Jurassic Park” is better than “Godzilla.”

Ackerman, the creator and editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, would rather wax nostalgic about Bela Lugosi than Freddy Krueger. Even in 1995, his roughly 80-page magazine is filled with black-and-white stills from such movies as “Queen of Outer Space” and “The Thing.”

Since its creation in 1958, Famous Monsters’ dedication to the classic horror films of the 1930s is what set it apart from the magazines that would follow: Mad Monsters, Horror Monsters, Fantastic Monsters, etc. While the others dropped off newsstands, Famous Monsters, or FM, held on until 1983--25 years longer than it was supposed to.

The first magazine was put out as a “one-shot,” distributed in the New York area and Philadelphia. When the first 125,000 copies sold out, the publisher printed another 75,000. When those sold, FM went into fairly regular publication.

A mint-condition copy of that first 35-cent magazine can now garner $1,000, dealer Steve Dolnick said. An issue in “very fine” condition is worth about $400, he said.

“Just like in any collectible, copies have sold for [$1,000], but you have to know who to sell it to. And they get really picky about the condition,” Dolnick said. “For the people who are paying the big bucks, it has to be close to perfect.”

Make no mistake--Famous Monsters was never designed for a highbrow audience. Ackerman, at home in his living room lined with bizarre and fantastic paintings, explained the original publisher’s approach: Make an 11 1/2-year-old kid laugh.

“The previous publisher was the death of my vocabulary,” said Ackerman. “The current publisher lets me use words with more than two syllables.”

The magazine has consistently been filled with bad puns--an Ackerman specialty. Sections of the magazine are called “Fang Mail” and “You Axed for It.” Captions get special treatment. A picture accompanying an article on Mummy films got this treatment: “Tomb marches on and Lon Chaney Jr. gets a bum wrap in 1944 in Universal’s ‘The Mummy’s Curse.’ ”

But it worked, and the product reached the hands of boys who have come to dominate the sci-fi horror genre. A 14-year-old subscriber named Stephen King submitted one of his stories for publication. Director John Landis counts FM among his early influences.

Landis wasn’t even allowed to have Famous Monsters in the house when he was growing up. His mother found the magazine too frightening.

“There was this photo--and they were all black-and-white, you know--of some woman with a terrible blonde wig and a hatchet in her head. My mom saw it and said, ‘No way are you having that in my house!’ ” Landis said.

Of course, forbidden fruit is the most desirable, and Landis read his cousin’s magazines. He went on to direct “An American Werewolf in London” and last year’s vampire film “Innocent Blood.”

FM stood out among horror magazines, Landis said, because its stories weren’t just about movies, but also about the people who made them. Directors like James Whale. Writers like Ray Bradbury. Makeup artists like Jack Pierce.

“Joe Dante wrote to Famous Monsters. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Carpenter. . . ,” Landis said. “They found it on newsstands or in the grocery store. There’s this whole cult of filmmakers who read Famous Monsters.”

Who knows what future filmmakers are now sending pictures, letters and stories to Ackerman. His 18-room house in Los Feliz contains numerous models that were gifts from fans. In addition, there are more valuable items, such as the original dinosaur miniatures from “King Kong” and the makeup box of Lon (Man of a Thousand Faces) Chaney. There are also 50,000 science fiction and fantasy books and 100,000 movie stills--from which FM draws most of its illustrations. On most Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Ackerman--who is an incredibly youthful 78--gives public tours of his collection, which he calls “Grislyland.” (Call (213) 666-6326 on Friday to check availability.)

In 1993, Ray Ferry and his new North Hollywood-based publishing company, Dynacomm, put out an issue to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the original Famous Monsters. History repeated itself: The magazine sold well, and Dynacomm put it back into regular publication.

The circulation now hovers around 35,000--the bulk of which comes off newsstands. The average reader’s age is 20, not because young adults are reading it, but because there is a split between a new generation of 11 1/2-year-olds and an over-40 nostalgia crowd.

“It’s written for fun, for entertainment,” Ferry said. “Some magazines will cover horror and be very in-depth in any article they run. But Famous Monsters is a magazine you can come back to again and again.”