Monster World mag comes to life

[scarey1scd]

   Like most collectors, condition aids in my decision to buy, sell, keep or destroy. I love my toys still in boxes, and my mags as close to mint as possible.
I just picked up some issues of Monster World and my first impression with MW #6 was "this is trashed, Im going to get the pics out of it that I need and trash the rest...



As I was flipping through it, picking and choosing, I started to run across "x"s, and check marks, and a filled out order form...



   Then it hit me like, wow, this issue had a life. It didn't get pulled off a rack and stuck in a sleeve. I picture "Bonnies" parents buying it for her, watching her read it front to back because it was one of the few ways to learn about the movies then. I see it getting passed around, borrowed, rolled up in pockets, torn and taped again & again. I see forms being filled out with the hope that Dad will front the money so she can read more. This issue did exactly what it was intended to do, bring happiness and a little escape to some ones life. It helped create a monster kid. For how long who knows, but definitely at that time!
   Ive decided to keep this issue. Im going to read it front to back and "escape" into its world for a little while. Im sure there are tons of these out there each with a different story, but this one continues with me, and after that... who knows?!?

   Ok stop looking at me like Im crazy. Like you've never had this happen!

[ChrisW]

I like the way you are thinking. I have a few old FMoF that have filled out (but never mailed) order forms...and I remember doing that as a kid as well! For me it was almost a dream wish... "If I had enough money, these are the back date mags I would buy to fill out my cool collection!" I even love the "cipherin'" at the bottom of the page to figure out the shipping cost! I applaude your decision to preserve it!

BTWQ...how friggin col is it that it was a girl that was reading it!?!?!?! Nowadays it's a given, but back in the 60s, what is the liklihood that she would have been ostrasized by other girls in her class if they knew she read monster mags instead of "Teen Beat or "16"? We can only hope that at some point Bonnie Riggs stumbled across this site and got some warm nostalgic feelings...

[Mord]

 I agree, the magazine has a "lived in" look that brings back the whole Monsterkid era. I'm glad you decided to leave it as is. As for Bonnie...I never knew any "MonsterGirls" in my childhood. That in itself is special.

[Dr Wolfenstein]

 I agree as well.In the late eighties I bought 8 or 9 built and painted Aurora kits from a comic book store that has since closed down.There were two wolf man kits,I removed the paint from one of them,I wanted these kits since I was a kid,so that I could repaint it.I was going to do the same to the others then realised the same thing,that some kid in the 70's had painted these so I left the others alone and now display them in my monster room.Looking at them now he or she did a pretty good job.Luckily all these kits have since been rereleased.

[mjaycox]

I don't think you are crazy... It is exactly the way I feel. This is why I collect "reader" copies. They can put you in the mind of the former owner, and for a moment you are connected across distance and time by a common experience.

[ChrisW]

I don't think you are crazy... It is exactly the way I feel. This is why I collect "reader" copies. They can put you in the mind of the former owner, and for a moment you are connected across distance and time by a common experience.

And...you're not afraid to pull out the magazines every once in a while and go on a little trip down the river nostalgia! I enjoy reading an old FMoF while eating lunch on a Saturday afternoon. God forbid getting mustard or grease on a pristine copy, but they only add to the reader copy's patina!

[Wich2]

I'm with Mr. Matt.

A slabbed/antiseptically locked in a storage bin thingie is essentially dead; they're apart from the world, like the poor denizens of The Island of Misfit Toys.

Read the book. Spin the record. Play with the toy.

Give them life! If not, they're just so much wood pulp and petro by-product.

-Craig

[scarey1scd]

Thanks for all the responses! Nice to know others can feel the same connection.

Funny, this thread just reminded me of another "connection" I kind of forgot about. Heres the story:

  About a year and a half ago I was at a convention and bought a number of schoolbooks from a guy who lives in Deleware. A couple of them were obviously owned by "Amber" who proudly wrote her name in the front. Heres one of them:





   Moving forward about 6-8 months I was on Ebay and picked up a copy of The Wolf Man fairly cheap, the seller was from Washington state. Its clear that its been read hard:



   Imagine my surprise when I opened it up





   I got these books from opposite ends of the country at different times. Apparently they were supposed to be together, maybe so Amber could have her collection back together.  And again, its a girl. Anyway they all live happily together in my collection. Glad I get to be part of her world!

[Dr Wolfenstein]

This is very cool and kinda spooky!

[Wich2]

SO cool - there is a destiny that shapes our ends...

From Aljean Harmetz's THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ:

What definitely did occur on The Wizard of Oz — perhaps the most astonishing thing that did occur — was dismissed as a publicity stunt. Yet it is vouched for by [cinematographer] Hal Rosson and his niece Helene Bowman and by Mary Mayer, who served briefly as the unit publicist on the picture. "For Professor Marvel's coat," says Mary Mayer, "they wanted grandeur gone to seed. A nice-looking coat but very tattered. So the wardrobe department went down to an old second-hand store on Main Street and bought a whole rack of coats. And Frank Morgan and the wardrobe man and [director] Victor Fleming got together and chose one. It was kind of a Prince Albert coat. It was black broadcloth and it had a velvet collar, but the nap was all worn off the velvet." Helene Bowman recalls the coat as "ratty with age, a Prince Albert jacket with a green look."

The coat fitted Morgan and had the right look of shabby gentility, and one hot afternoon Frank Morgan turned out the pocket. Inside was the name "L. Frank Baum."

"We wired the tailor in Chicago," says Mary Mayer, "and sent pictures. And the tailor sent back a notarized letter saying that the coat had been made for Frank Baum. Baum's widow identified the coat, too, and after the picture was finished we presented it to her. But I could never get anyone to believe the story."

[ChrisW]

scarey1scd - that is a fantastic coincidence and great story.
Wich2, I think I've heard that story before, but the only Oz book I have is "Down the Yellow Brick Road" by doug McCelland and I don't think it is in there. In any event, a great chance of fate.

[Wicked Lester]

WOW! Scary1. Great story. What are the odds? So did you go out and play the lottery after that?

[scarey1scd]

Awesome story Wich2! Never heard that before.

No lottery for me WL. Not much of a gambler, my luck doesnt extend that far.Id buy a $10 scratch off, lose, then kick myself thinking of the cool monster toy I couldve put that money towards lol.