The Covers of Frankenstein : Famous Monsters, No. 140

A very green Glenn Strange graces the cover of Famous Monsters No. 140, from January 1978.

After twenty years, the popularity of the classic movie monsters that had been the cornerstone of Famous Monsters had waned. Slasher films, never FM’s cup of tea, were entering their golden age and within a year, Fangoria would become the gore go-to magazine for contemporary horror film fans. Famous Monsters took a different angle, latching on to the science-fiction boom ignited by Star Wars.

Beginning with issue 137, in 1977, the Star Wars title began appearing in large letters across the top, with the cover logo displaced and eventually shrunken in size to accommodate such titles as Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Battlestar Galactica and Superman in bold letters. Color photos replaced the traditional painted covers and the magazine’s contents were heavy with cost-conscious reprint material. The issue displayed here was a throwback of sorts, despite the giant STAR WARS overtitle, being one of the last to feature FM’s classic cover design and a painted monster in the Gogos style.

Artist Maelo Cintron’s cover was his only contribution to FM. He was a paperback cover artist and had earlier produced two covers for Calvin Beck’s Castle of Frankenstein, including a Frankenstein-themed illustration for CoF no. 19. Cintron would become a regular at Skywald magazines, and is best remembered for his work on the celebrated Human Gargoyles series he co-created with editor and writer Alan Hewetson.