February 24, 2009

The Covers of Frankenstein : Terror Tales, September 1970


A Frankenstein Monster gets its flat head chopped off — springs and screws flying — on this bracing cover for Terror Tales, one of publisher Myron Fass’ low-rent comics magazines from the early Seventies.

The typically slap-dash, lurid and overloaded composition features a fanged, mechanical Frankenstein Monster in bondage, an axe-wielding, web-footed werewolf, a ripped-dress victim, a skull-headed ghoul of some sort, tombstones, and two severed heads. Curiously enough, this one’s rather tame by Eerie Publications standards!

This illustration could have been used on any of Eerie Publications’ titles, like Tales from the Tomb and Weird. Covers and content were freely interchangeable, the only constant being a commitment to deliver bloody, gross-out horror.

Long regarded as the dregs of the black and white comics magazines, Myron Fass’ horror titles have since acquired their share of admirers and are celebrated as schlock masterpieces.

Stand by for more about Eerie Publications and the inimitable Myron Fass, coming up this week.


2 comments:

rob! said...

But...but...Frankenstein is made from dead people, he's not a robot! This cover makes no sense!

Pierre Fournier said...

Bingo! You get it! You understand the Eerie Publications' cover philosophy. They make no sense, and that's the whole idea!