Monsters Unleashed

Monsters Unleashed was a black-and-white magazine published by Curtis Magazines (an imprint of Marvel Comics) from 1973-1975. The focus of Monsters Unleashed was on Marvel's own monsters: Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, and Frankenstein's monster. (Each issue featured Frankenstein in the upper left corner, reading a book with the title "Marvel Monster Group.")

The title was an attempt by Marvel to compete with Warren Publishing's successful monster magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland (FMOF), but with the addition of comics. Simultaneously they were publishing Monsters of the Movies, which also emulated FMOF but did not include comics — only articles and photo features.

Typically, each issue of Monsters Unleashed featured a Man-Thing story, a handful of original horror tales, some pre-Comics Code horror reprints, and possibly an article about monster movies and television shows. The comics were dominant, but each issue provided a more-or-less complete monster-fan experience.

Monsters Unleashed was edited by Roy Thomas for the first six issues, succeeded by Tony Isabella, and then Don McGregor for the last two issues. The painted covers were illustrated by the likes of Gray Morrow, Boris Vallejo, Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, Bob Larkin, Richard Hescox, Earl Norem, and Jose Antonio Domingo. The title lasted eleven issues, with one annual (as with the other series, the annual contained no new material, only reprints of stories from the regular issues).

References