Pete Emslie just wrote in to remind me that there's a book out on Basil Gogos, the cover artist for "Famous Monsters of Filmland." magazine. Mike F reminded me that he showed it to me a while back. The offset reproduction is only OK, but it's handy to have all those cool pictures in one place. If you're not familiar with Gogos then check out these samples (above and below). Click to enlarge.
This one (above) isn't by Gogos, but I couldn't resist throwing it in. Ackerman (the editor of Famous Monsters) had good taste in his choice of artists and designers.
That's all I have to say about Gogos for now, but just for the heck of it, I think I'll add some vintage horror posters, artists unknown. Check these (below) out! Isn't Halloween a great holiday!?
13 comments:
That could be YOU holding the test tube in front of bandaged Claude Rains.
I never thought that late FM Karloff Fez Mummy was Gogos. Its relatively smooth textured.
Anon: The Karloff is somewhat different than the others. I guessed Gogos but maybe I'm wrong. It's one of the best FM covers and contains the yellow outline around the word "Monsters," which is the best way to set off that title.
The Karloff Mummy portrait was by Ken Kelly, who did several covers for FM.
John A: Ken Kelly! Thanks for the info! He's good. I'll have to find out more about him!
Sorry link from previous post didn't work.
Try this.
MORE MORE MORE!!! It's great!!
You've seen the Gogos book, Eddie - you held it in your hands. I showed it to you months ago.
We talked about what an outrage it was to have the talentless Rob Zombie write the (moronic) introduction - and read parts of it out loud, laughing at Zombie's inarticulate stupidity. Don't you remember that?
Mike: Yes, you're right! The reference to Rob Zombie brought it all back. The book was worth getting but wasn't exactly a must-have. It was printed on heavy, glossy paper but they used a normal offset process that didn't show the pictures to best advantage.
Anyone who has original magazines will find these reproductions lacking, but it's still handy to have all that good stuff between 2 covers.
I'm surprised to hear you're not a fan of Rob Zombie, Mike. Isn't his whole persona sort of based on the classic 1930s-1960s sci-fi and horror culture? Isn't his art inspired by Basil Wolverton and other grotesque artists? I've seen some Rob Zombie drawings that look like the drawings Eddie did for Go Go Gypergrind, except nowhere near as good or professional.
I'm not a fan of his music (although I hear it all the time at work) and I've never seen his movies, since I don't like horror movies made after the 60s, but to me, he's one of the few entertainers left who appreciates and is influenced by the 40s and 50s. Him and Martin Scorsese. And Matthew Weiner.
Jorge, try sitting through "House Of 1000 Corpses", written and directed by Zombie. See if you don't agree with me that he's an idiot and his ideas are drivel.
(I AM a fan of his wife, however - Sheri Moon Zombie - especially from the waist down. Now THAT'S what I call talent...)
Ken Kelly was/is pretty awesome, one of those that successfully fulfilled the Frazetta stylism market, as one might argue Jeff Jones did as well. Kelly stayed a bit more available on the commercial market . I framed a cover fragment he did for a 3rd tier monster mag on one of Harryhausens 70s Sinbad movies, Golden Voyage I think.
Oh, another top of the head -famous- Ken Kelly Painting? The cover of Kiss Destroyer.
Gogo's paintings almost never got pulled into that graphic design of the latter issues of FM, where an illustration might be stripped in, they were almost always painted to the proportions of the cover without the type.
I read sometime in the past year on the guy who did all the display lettering for the majority of Warren Publishings mags, but I cannot recall his name.
Anon: Warren had a great letter designer. I'd love to know who invented those typefaces.
Hmm, what I remember about Warren Magazines interior Display lettering was that it was done by Hand-- so they weren't typefaces per se. There were more such titles in Famous Monsters actually.
I read something recently on this , but recent googling cannot nail down the facts...
Possiblilities credited with the brushed lettering I am thinking of.include Ben Oda (who I think worked with Eisner and Walt Kelly) Gaspar Saladino (most Silver Age comics, officially for DC, Ghosting for Marvel, Shelly Lefferman (lefermann) and James Warren himself.
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