[Phantom Stranger]

I am currently reading The Monster Mash: The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze in America 1957-1972.

I'm strongly considering a full review of this book. So far, this has been a wonderful book that perfectly encapsulates the feel of that era. It starts off with the Author's personal experiences with his love and introduction to Horror, then swings into something of a general area, focusing on a few large parts that ultimately both lead to and continued the growing power Monsters had in the early 60s. It covers early horror comics and the CCA, Horror Hosts, the creation and success of Famous Monsters of Film Land, the popularity of cheesy drive-in movies to teens, rock 'n roll, Aurora model kits. All of which has very good information and interviews with people involved.

It's a great start, covering a wide range of finely detailed topics in around the first 47 pages. It transports you into that time. The point being that Monsters were everywhere. Once it accomplishes this, the book focuses on more specific areas for extended periods. One section is about Boris Karloff, another is all the general monster merchandise like Mars Attack cards, Ugly Stickers, Old Maid Monster themed cards by MB, the various Masks and companies that made them, etc. That's followed by segments and interviews about the Addams Family and the Munsters, which is where I am at now.

It also features some wonderful, wonderful high quality images of all sorts of books, posters, magazines, toys, trading cards, and of course actors and monster, other POI. It is gorgeous to look at. The paper also surprised me, because I was expecting something slick like Eji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters, but it's actually rough like newspaper. I don't really have any issue with this one way or the other, I would be perfectly fine with either or. But I do think that in a way the rougher paper adds a certain charm to the whole package, its like an old comics book or something, and it works really well. I'll likely be coming back to this after I read more.