COF #23 Apes Article

When I was 15 years old in 1974, I was living near Macon, GA at the time, and one weekend as usual I was spending the night at my Grandma's house. These trips were like a taste of freedom given to a prisoner, in that I was allowed to be myself there, and buy what I wanted. I made my trip to Chi-Chesters Pharmacy on Vineville Ave, to see what magazines, comics or paperback I could find... and this time I hit the goldmine: the following issue, #23, of the awesome magazine "Castle of Frankenstein." The issue was electrifying to me as I snatched it from the magazine rack in an instant and feasted my eyes on the Apes cover art! I was a rabid Apes fan by then (an interest that was second only to my fever for Star Trek), and this was just before the first issue of the Marvel Apes magazine had come out. Below is the art for the wraparound cover, and the main Apes article inside. I still remember reading the article as I walked back home to Grandma's house, and how excited I was.

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Zaius: "I'm tickling her underarm! Tickle, tickle, tickle!"

Bonus: the cover art without the text! Found online.

Space: 1999 Premiere Article

Clipped from the TV Preview section of the Miami Herald on Sunday, August 17th, 1975, comes this big article on the upcoming series Space: 1999. Featuring the show's stars Martin Landau and wife/co-star Barbara Bain, the interview was conducted when they were in Miami on a tour to promote the show. As in every single article and interview about the new show,"Star Trek" is of course brought up, which is significant in that the series had been seen only in re-runs for seven years by that time. Landau, in drawing a distinction between the shows, goofs when he claims that Star Trek had been set "a thousand years later" than their series.

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Bonus: Below, a clipping from one of the tabloids, possibly the Globe (I didn't include the paper name or date when clipping it) featuring Joan Collins in a role on Space:1999. Once again, "Trek" is brought up, but the writer completely misses the connection that Joan had a guest-starring role in that show as well. Claiming the shows to be "similar" also reveals how little the writer knew about either one.

Batman Magic Photo Kit

From one of the late 1960's comics in my collection, comes this ad for a mysterious "something" that makes photos. For years I wondered what it could be... it surely wasn't a camera.

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Some of the mystery may now finally be dispelled, at least for me, as in researching this item I found this comment on another blog that featured the same ad...

Andy Vaughn on August 23rd, 2007
I had the Batman Photo kit in the younger days. It consisted of 6 negatives with scenes from various Batman stories of the day (I remember a couple of them were Batman fighting the Bouncer). Several pieces of photo paper, and a hard plastic sheath were also included. You would take the photo paper, and place a negative over it, then place both in the plastic sheath which you would then hold up to a light source for 5 minutes. After that, a picture would appear from the negative onto the paper. It was really neat, and I remember playing with it for hours. However it was lost somewhere in time. Sure which I would have kept up with it!

And there you have it.

1978 "Incredible Hulk" TV Series Article

From July 1978 comes this "Us" magazine cover article on "The Incredible Hulk" TV series. After it is a small feature on Stan Lee. Enjoy!

(Click on images to view larger Hulk-sized images!
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1967 Promotional Art for Jonny Quest

From the 1967 Castle of Frankenstein yearbook (or "Fearbook" as it was called) comes this full-page image of some promotional artwork for the then-new animated series "Jonny Quest." The inset review, although somewhat negative, did manage to deliver some backhanded compliments. Today, we recognize just how groundbreaking the show was. I have great memories of summer evenings at my Grandma's house hurrying inside to catch the show.

(Click on image to enlarge.)