Castle of Frankenstein

Castle of Frankenstein was a fantasy film magazine, distributed by Kable News and published in New Jersey from 1962 to 1975 by Calvin Thomas Beck's Gothic Castle Publishing Company. The first three issues were edited by Larry Ivie and Ken Beale. From 1963 and into the early 1970s, the magazine was edited by the writer-artist Bhob Stewart. Although promoted and sold as a "monster magazine," the readers were aware that Castle of Frankenstein, at the time, was the only nationally distributed magazine devoted to a legitimate and serious coverage of B movies.

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Calvin Beck entered the monster magazine arena in 1959 with the one-shot, Journal of Frankenstein, which had only a small circulation. As an experiment, Beck printed part of the run on slick paper. After a hiatus and a title change, Beck returned with the debut issue of Castle of Frankenstein in 1962. In addition to the central focus on classic and current horror films, Castle of Frankenstein also devoted pages to fanzine reviews, book reviews and fantasy art, including work by Wally Wood and Weird Tales illustrators Hannes Bok and Matt Fox.

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Inspired by the ratings and reviews of films in Cahiers du Cinema, Stewart introduced a similar rating system with the "Comic Book Council," the first critical coverage of comic books to appear in a national magazine. Commentary and ratings of underground comics were juxtaposed with reviews of mainstream comics. Another key feature was the "Frankenstein Movieguide," an attempt to document all fantastic films seen on television with short "mini-reviews" written by Joe Dante and Stewart.

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Color photos were used on the covers of issues 8 through 14. The other issues displayed cover paintings by Robert Adragna, Marcus Boas, Frank Brunner, Maelo Cintron, Larry Ivie, Russ Jones, Ken Kelly, Los Angeles painter Bill Maher and Lee Wanagiel. Interior art included graphic stories by Brunner, Bernie Wrightson and the team of Marv Wolfman and Len Wein, plus the first published comics page by Marvel artist-writer-editor Larry Hama.

Related Topics:
Frank Brunner - Russ Jones - Bernie Wrightson - Marv Wolfman - Len Wein - Larry Hama

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Castle of Frankenstein also carried an original comic strip, Baron von Bungle, by Richard Bojarski, which gave a humorous twist to the world depicted in Universal horror films. The magazine had a run of 25 issues, plus one annual (the 1967 "Fearbook"), and the final issue was published in 1975. The title was revived in 1999 by publisher Dennis Druktenis. Beck cancelled his magazine not because of poor sales but because he wanted to devote his energy to writing books.

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Beck's paperback anthology, The Frankenstein Reader (Ballantine Books, 1962) included stories by E.F. Benson, Ambrose Bierce, Robert W. Chambers, Ralph Adams Cram, Charles Dickens, Amelia B. Edwards, Katharine Fullerton Gerould, Richard Middleton, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Robert Louis Stevenson and H.G. Wells.

Related Topics:
Ambrose Bierce - Charles Dickens

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In 1975, Beck wrote Heroes of the Horrors (Macmillan), illustrated biographies of the six leading horror film stars (Lon Chaney, Sr., Lon Chaney, Jr., Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price). The book reworked much information previously unearthed for Castle of Frankenstein articles. Bhob Stewart and Beck then collaborated on a companion book, Scream Queens: Heroines of the Horrors (Macmillan, 1978), illustrated biographical profiles of 29 fantasy film actresses and directors. The book included one article by the actor Barry Brown, plus research by Drew Simels, author of the TV movie entries in early editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide series. With articles on Alice Guy-Blache, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Veronica Lake, Elsa Lanchester, Agnes Moorehead, Mary Philbin, Barbara Steele, Vampira, Fay Wray and others, Scream Queens: Heroines of the Horrors also incorporated much material from the Castle of Frankenstein files of manuscripts and still photographs.

Related Topics:
Lon Chaney, Sr. - Bela Lugosi - Barry Brown - Leonard Maltin - Alice Guy-Blache - Bette Davis - Elsa Lanchester - Vampira - Fay Wray

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