Castle of Frankenstein - Contributors

Contributors

In addition to book reviews by Charles Collins and Lin Carter, the list of contributors included Barry Brown, Richard A. Lupoff and William K. Everson.

Inspired by the ratings and reviews of films in Cahiers du Cinéma, 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. Unlike some genre commentators, these reviewers were not limited only to the monster-style films. Instead, the many brief and tightly-written fantasy film reviews per issue also covered experimental films and foreign art films. The capsule review format enforced a brevity and economy to each review that served as an inspiration to many younger writers.

With new art and reprints of vintage fantasy art, the magazine published such artists as Aubrey Beardsley, Hannes Bok, Harry Clarke, Virgil Finlay, Jim Steranko, Wally Wood and Weird Tales illustrator Matt Fox. To cut costs, color photos rather than paintings were used on the covers of issues six through 14. With issue 11's cover photo of Leonard Nimoy, Castle of Frankenstein was the first magazine to feature Star Trek as a major cover story. Other issues displayed cover paintings by Robert Adragna, Marcus Boas, Bok, Frank Brunner, Maelo Cintron, Larry Ivie, Russ Jones, Ken Kelly, Los Angeles painter Tom Maher and Lee Wanagiel. Interior art included graphic stories by Ivie, 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.

Castle of Frankenstein also carried an unusual original comic strip, Baron von Bungle, by Richard Bojarski, who 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. During its primary run of publication, Castle of Frankenstein outlasted the vast majority of monster magazines that filled the market for two decades, with the notable exception of Famous Monsters of Filmland.