Sunday, October 26, 2008

Check Out MONDO CULT Magazine!

For those of us who found time to learn how to read while growing up watching monster flicks, listening to freaky music, and generally frolicking through a wonderland of kooky cultural goodness, MONDO CULT comes as a cool breeze of giddy literary fun.

Buddy Barnett (print publisher), Jessie Lilley (editor), and Brad Linaweaver (writer) head up the sizeable stable of talented writers, photographers, and artists who have assembled two awesome issues of MONDO CULT magazine so far, while also offering lots of cool content on their website at my favorite price, free.

Issue #1 is of special interest to KING KONG fans. In addition to a heartfelt poem about the big, lovable lug by Ray Bradbury himself, it also features 96-year-old Fay Wray's final interview in "Whatever Happened to Fay Wray?" by Terry Pace. Readers are treated to the priceless recollections of this Old Hollywood star who made her debut in Erich von Stroheim's THE WEDDING MARCH and went on to become the greatest scream queen of them all. If you love KING KONG or any of Fay Wray's other classics--such as THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, DR. X., MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, and THE VAMPIRE BAT--you'll want to read her vivid memories of them in an interview that encompasses her entire extraordinary career as both an actress and a playwright.

Continuing the KONG theme--Uncle Forry himself, Forrest J. Ackerman, tells of the time he actually saw the fabled "Spider Pit" sequence, and Brad Linaweaver weighs in on the '76 Dino De Laurentiis remake.

MONDO CULT also features a wealth of movie reviews--everything from ZONTAR, THING FROM VENUS to GORGO to THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION and more. Jessie Lilley's account of attending a special screening of the original GODZILLA with Forrest J. Ackerman is both informative and colorful.

Scads of book and CD reviews are also included, covering both the well-known and the more obscure. Max Steiner's music for KING KONG is discussed, of course, as well as the scores for THE INCREDIBLES and THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, plus Jeff Wayne's rock opera WAR OF THE WORLDS. Rock, soul, jazz, and just about everything else is thrown in as well. Book reviews include "Kong: King of Skull Island" by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland and "Anarquia: An Alternate History of the Spanish Civil War" by Brad Linaweaver and J. Kent Hastings. Jessie Lilley's reading list proves to be decidedly morbid of late--she checks out stuff like E.J. Fleming's "Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites" and David K. Frasier's "Suicide in the Entertainment Industry."

If this sounds like your cup of tanna-leaf tea, swing by http://www.mondocult.com/ for ordering info on issues #1 and #2. Your inner Monster Kid will freak out!

1 comment:

  1. Hey! Our newly redisgned website features a blog, discussion forums and new articles. PLease come by and visit at http://www.mondocult.com and thanks so much for the lovely comments.

    Jessie Lilley
    Editor-in-chief
    Mondo Cult

    ReplyDelete