Thread by @PulpLibrarian

Today in pulp I look back at a monster of 1970s newsprint: The Monster Times! #SundayThoughts

"The world's first monster newspaper" was launched in January 1972 as a rival to Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazine. It was a good time to launch...

And The Monster Times had a solid team behind it. Publishers Larry Brill and Les Waldstein had previously worked on Famous Monsters Of Filmland, and expectations were high for the new venture.

Printed on newspaper stock, with a thicker white paper for covers and posters, The Monster Times started out as a fortnightly paper, before switching to monthly publishing after issue 14.

Each issue had a feature article on a current or classic horror or sci-fi film, book and film reviews, convention news and a brilliant centerfield poster.

The Monster Times didn't just stick to horror: sci-fi - especially Star Trek - was a mainstay of many issues too.

In tone The Monster Times was a lot hipper than its rivals, and a lot sarkier. It took a tabloid approach to horror movies but still knew its stuff.

Why the magazine failed is anyone's guess. The features were solid and the market was there, but somehow The Monster Times just never clicked with a big enough audience and came to an end in 1976.

Old copies of The Monster Times are still seriously underpriced, and good quality editions can be had for as little as $10 on eBay. That's basically a steal for what was an excellent publication.

So keep an eye out for The Monster Times: it was a unique paper from a unique time!

More monster tales another time...