By special reader request, here from 1970's CREEPY 34 is THE FORGOTTEN PRISONER OF CASTLEMARE, the supposed story behind the FAMOUS MONSTERS tie-in Aurora model from more than five years earlier. Methinks that the folks at Warren just got tired of the questions as to what movie that was from (it wasn't) and decided to finally come up with a backstory to at least vaguely match the model. Art here is by the much-maligned team of Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico (under their joint pseudonym of Tony Williamsune). I never cared for their art back in the day but it's grown on me a lot in recent years looking back through the old comics online and elsewhere. The story is credited to Robert Rosen who may or may not be the reasonably well-known author as he was still in college three years after this came out originally.
God bless you, sir, I've wanted to read that story for years. It seems to be based on Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado - with a few twists. One thing I'm curious about however. The Aurora model was tied in to Famous Monsters Of Filmland (if I remember correctly), having the name of the comic on the side of the box. So why was this story printed in Creepy? And did FMOF print their own version?
ReplyDeleteThanks once again Steve - I hope your lottery numbers come up.
Famous Monsters publisher, Warren Publishing, had made adeal with Aurora regarding cross-promoting their authorized Aurora models in the magazine. As part of that deal, Aurora would promote FM but the only way that they could do that was on a new, non Universal model. Thus was created in 1965 THE FORGOTTEN PRISONER OF CASTLEMARE, a fairly self-contained joke. He's a skeleton...because they forgot to feed him for ages.
ReplyDeleteAs near as I can tell, that's as far as it went at first. I don't recall nor can I find any story in FM. Warren also published CREEPY and apparently was tired of getting questions about the model's story by 1970. Since FM no longer published any type of comics, they assigned someone to create, write and draw it for CREEPY.
Thanks for the info Steve. Just in case you're interested, as far as I can tell, 'Castel Mare' means 'Castle by the Sea'.
ReplyDeleteThanks again.
Really neat find! I've had a soft spot for this model ever since I built mine way back when.
ReplyDeleteLiving in the UK, I was always intrigued by the Aurora Universal Studios Monster kits, I saw advertised in Superman DC comics, handed down to me by my older cousins.
ReplyDeleteEventually I discovered that my local cycle shop had a sideline in model kits, including Aurora monsters!
These retailed at pre-decimal £ prices of 12/6 (GBP0.625) and 17/6 (GBP0.875)!
We had to do long multiplication and division in the ‘Christian Money’; it could be worse if we used Roman numerals, plus they had no zero!
It took a lot of pocket money saving, but I eventually accumulated quite a collection; even The Munsters living room scene, which cost north of 17/6!
I never had the Forgotten Prisoner; I was taking more notice of girls by then! Nevertheless, I was pleased to see the comic in this blog!
Every now and then, I take an interweb trip down the memory lane, of Aurora, Polar Lights, Polaris, Monarch etc., so I’ll add this blog to my list, thank you!