In celebration of my 54th birthday, throughout 2024 I will share 54 items from each of my Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla and I Am Legend collections, as all three debuted in 1954 and are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year.
It only took them 55 years, but the Easton Press finally got around to releasing a deluxe edition of I Am Legend in 2009.
It was part of a five-volume, 'Day After Doomsday" collection, which also included Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, On the Beach by Nevil Shute, Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, and Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle. I was frankly not excited about having to buy multiple overpriced volumes just to get the one title I needed, and thankfully my pal and fellow Matheson aficionado Matthew R. Bradley was able to hook me up so I was able to order just the one book I needed.
Each book in the series has an original frontispiece by artist Patrick Jones, who (spoiler alert) we'll be talking about soon enough.
The book block used by the Easton Press edition is identical to the Orb Trade paperback from Tor (albeit on nicer paper with gilded edges and fancy endpapers), which means it also includes a number of Matheson's short stories from that edition.
A nice looking edition on the shelf, and certainly one the Archive wouldn't be complete without.
Be sure to check back next week to see another item from the I Am Legend Archive!
In the earlier '90s, Dark Horse Comics acquired a license to the classic Universal Monsters. Comic adaptations of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and our pal, the Creature were offered — each in nice, single-volume, perfect-bound editions.
Art Adams was responsible for the Creature adaptation, and all things considered, was a good choice for the material. According to Wikipedia, he originally wanted to do a sequel to the film, but Dark Horse (for whom he had previously worked on a Godzilla title) wanted to start with an adaptation. His Creature is spot-on, and though his Kay Lawrence doesn't look exactly like Julia Adams, he does manage to capture her essence.
As in the film, the Creature is off screen (or the page) for a decent chunk of the story, but when he does appear, Adams always seems to make the most of it.
He also takes some nice artistic license, adding interesting hieroglyphics to the Creature's underground lair, where the takes Kay to.
Unfortunately, low sales prevented Dark Horse from following this up with Adams' sequel idea.
Image Comics has since acquired the comics license to the Universal Monsters, and I wish they had opted to bring in Adams to do his original Creature sequel idea. I'll withhold judgement until the full series has been completed, but based on the first issue, things aren't looking good.
Be sure to check back next week for another item from my Creature collection!
In the late '70s, Shogun Warriors were among the coolest Japanese toys to find their way into the American market via Mattel. I still have my 2' tall Great Mazinga with firing rockets. One entry in their large figure line that I didn't have as a kid (but did get later) was Godzilla (with a shooting fist and a — for lack of a better description — flaming tongue). A couple of years later, Mattel surprisingly released a large scale Rodan, with flapping wings, clutching claws, and screeching beak. I did have one of those as a kid (which I loved, and only decided to sell a few years back when someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse).
So when Super7 released a 3-3/4" scale Shogun Rodan (matching the scale of their small-size Shogun Godzilla which they had released a few years earlier), I had to jump on it. It was initially released as a carded figure, and it's impressive how closely it maintains the look (if not the exact functionality) of the original large Mattel figure.
Last year, as a Comic Con exclusive, Super7 released a limited number in a miniature box designed to look like the original Mattel box from 1979. This version touched a nostalgic nerve even greater than the reproduced figure, which is why I chose to highlight it for this entry. So yes, I have both the carded and boxed variants.
Come back next week to see another item from my Godzilla collection.
It was only a matter of time until we arrived at The Omega Man. As an adaptation of Matheson's novel, it's far from faithful, but for fans of similar post-apocalyptic scenarios, it's actually a lot of fun. And one of my favorite things about it is its score by Ron Grainer.
I was familiar with Grainer, as he composed the theme for the British television series, The Prisoner (which was my favorite TV show until Twin Peaks came along to bump it out of the top spot). In fact, if you listen for them, echoes of his Prisoner theme show up in his Omega Man score. (According to the liner notes, the final day of scoring was on Vonna's 10th birthday!)
The movie opens with Robert Neville popping an 8-track into his 1970 Ford XL Convertible. We'll forgive the fact that he pops in a Sinatra 8-track, when the music that plays is in fact Max Steiner's theme from A Summer Place (which I regularly torment Vonna by referring to it as the theme from The Omega Man whenever we hear it), before the film kicks off with Grainer's theme music.
For years I longed for a release of the score, which I assumed would never come. And then in the year 2000, Film Score Monthly released a limited edition CD (which I immediately bought multiple copies of) one to open and listen to, and one to keep sealed.
And then, out of the blue, in 2018, a vinyl release was announced as part of Record Store Day (RSD). Now, if you're not familiar with it, RSD is a day when numerous exclusive releases are released specifically to support independent record stores. That's the cool part. The bad news is that not all stores get all releases, and what they do get is in limited quantity. So people line up in advance, hoping to get their top picks, should they be available at the shop they went to. Frankly, after several instances of disappointment, I stopped going to the stores on RSD altogether, just to avoid disappointment. Oh, and I forgot to mention, The Omega Man was a UK RSD exclusive... so forget lining up somewhere even if I had wanted to.
As is to be expected, copies do turn up online (stores can sell them after some waiting period, plus there are plenty that surface on eBay — often before they have officially gone on sale!). I sourced and purchased two copies of the limited, UK exclusive Record Store Day vinyl soundtrack from two different retailers. I picked up the first on eBay, and then bought an affordable second copy to leave sealed from a store that still had a copy a week later when they could offer them online.
The 2-disc set came in an attractive gatefold sleeve, and I was surprised to see that they were individually numbered (out of 1000).
The specific numbers of limited editions don't really mean a lot to me (sure, it would be cool to get #1, or #1000); I was just happy to get copies without having to pay the premiums that some RSD releases demand. But I was actually shocked when, days apart, my two copies arrived in the mail — from different vendors, mind you — and they were sequentially numbered. 0780 and 0781. Talk about surreal.
In case you've never heard it, here's Grainer's amazing theme for the film.
Come back next week for another item from the I Am Legend Archive!
Much like my Aurora Godzilla Glow box, I always had a nostalgic desire to own an original Aurora Creature Glow box. I already owned several Creature reproduction kits in the tall and skinny box variations (like the earlier original Aurora kits), but since they had never reissued the Creature in the square Aurora-style box, the only way to go was to find an original.
Fortunately, like Godzilla, I found a great deal on a Creature box, along with a built-up, painted kit (in pieces). That's his head up in the top photo.
There have been some recent Aurora reissues with square boxes — the Mummy, the Wolfman, the Phantom, the Forgotten Prisoner, King Kong and Godzilla. And should they get around to reissuing a glow creature in a square box, you can rest assured that I'll add that to the collection too, as I've long wanted to rebuild a glow version of the original creature (almost as much as I'd love to build a glow Aurora Monsters of the Movies creature kit)!
Be sure to check back next week for another item from my Creature collection!
I really enjoyed Godzilla -1.0, and saw it theatrically three times (once in IMAX, once in Dolby Cinema — my preferred presentation — and once, as Godzilla -1.0/C in black and white).
The Godzilla -1.0 design harkened back to my favorites from the Heisei era, so it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I'd be picking up some -1.0 Godzillas. I did start with the standard issue Bandai vinyl figure, but as soon as I caught a glimpse of the theater exclusive, in blue with silver flecks, I had to acquire one of those as well.
Here you can see the comparison of the regular and theater exclusive coloring, side-by-side.
And of course the variation in the ever-present tags (which I rarely remove) for the regular and theater exclusive vinyls.
Check back next week for more from my Godzilla collection!
When I started collecting international editions of I Am Legend, I was working from a list of five books listed in the 1984 booklet Richard Matheson: He Is Legend (which specified two German editions, a Spanish edition from Argentina, and two editions from Japan).The earliest Japanese edition was titled Kyūketsuki (Vampire), translated by Komimasa Tanaka and published by Hayakawa in 1958. Despite that, it also includes the original title in English on the cover, making it easier for Gajin like me to spot. In those pre-internet days, the odds of my finding a Japanese translation were slim to none.
Fortunately, as with Mundo de Vampiros, I was able to acquire one of a handful of hand-signed editions that originated in the collection of Richard Matheson (one of the complimentary copies received from the publisher). This was a particularly rewarding find, given that it was (a) an edition on my want list, and (b) one that I expected would likely be absent from my growing archive.
I thought it was interesting that the three Japanese characters that translate to "vampire" are individually (according to Google's translation) "suck," "blood," and "ghost."
Because this wasn't a retail copy, the book even has the original Hayakawa sales slip in it still. From what I've observed, these tipped in sheets are often removed when the book is sold (there's a handy tab that sticks out at the top for easy removal.
The back cover features a duotone photo of (a well-read copy of) the 1957 2nd printing of the Gold Medal paperback and the Hayakawa book number (3005).
Most of the details on the Gold Medal cover (including the words SECOND BIG PRINTING, printed in black text on a red background) are lost in the reproduction.
This first Japanese edition was reprinted at least twice; on June 25, 1960, and June 30, 1963. (I have a copy of the latter reprint in the archive.)
Check back next week for another item from the I Am Legend Archive!
Going to the library was a favorite pastime growing up. Pretty early on, I discovered there was a tonlot of cool stuff outside the confines of the children's room (where I did find and enjoy the cool picture books on monster movies, as well as the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Aztecs). As soon as I learned the Dewey Decimal System, my regular haunt in the library was scouring the shelves in section 791.437.
But before that time, I, like many a monster kid, would check out a stack of Crestwood House titles in their Monster Series — the first generation of which had matching orange trade dress that I could spot on the shelf from across the room. And of course the Creature from the Black Lagoon volume was my personal favorite.
When I started working for B.Dalton in the summer of 1987, the first book I bought with my employee discount was one that jumped out at me from the dump in the front of the store the day I interviewed for the job, Robert R. McCammon's Swan Song.
But when I found out that one of the things we could do in the store was special order books, the first book I ordered was the Crestwood House Creature from the Black Lagoon. In hindsight, I wish I had gone ahead and ordered the whole series, but I'm thankful I ordered the one I did, even if it was the 1982 reprint.
Historians take note — my pal and Creature expert/aficionado David J. Schow points out that one of the behind the scenes photos in the book is believed to be unpublished elsewhere.
The following photo is a personal favorite of mine — the Creature reaching through the porthole while a terrified Kay Lawrence looks on. But it was early in their relationship. She just hadn't gotten to know him yet.
Gotta love the amazing line-up in the Monster Series. In addition to the all-stars you would suspect, the bench goes pretty deep when you've got The Deadly Mantis on the roster!
Check back next week for more from my Creature collection!
One can never have too may Godzilla figures that offer up his trademark roar, let alone one that lights up as well!
Godzilla was part of a series of figures from DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968), and although a second — KING GHIDORAH — was released, I failed to pick him up when he was available (and affordable). Still, I'm quite satisfied with my DAM Godzilla!
Check out his light and sound feature in action below!
Come back next week for another item from the Godzilla collection!
