THE COBWEBBED ROOM

'MONSTERS OF THE MOVIES' & 'HORROR COSTUMES AND DISGUISES' - Carousel Books

2008-09-28T21:32:00.003Z

These 2 books by Carousel with their similiar looking covers are great for the younger readers looking for brief descriptions to some of the famous monsters seen on the silver screeen[Monsters of the movies] or for wanting to turn into a monster for Halloween etc [Horror costumes and disguises]. Both volumes are a little larger than the average paperback but are slim volumes with a page count of just over 100 pages. 'Monsters of the Movies' by Denis Gifford was first published in 1977, the book's contents basically are a whos who of some of the famous and not so famous movie monsters, each monster has a page which tells the reader about that monster in the form of a introduction based on the film in which the monster appears in. The monster introductions are illustrated by a black and white photo of them from the film. There are the more familiar screen monsters here such as The Bride of Frankenstein, Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, Dracula, Frankenstein, King Kong etc, then there are unusual ones such as The Blood Beast terror, The Electric Man from 'Man made Monster', The Manster, The Raven [Boris Karloff as Bateman from 'The Raven' (1935), Zaroff etc. All in all 46 monsters are covered.

"Making Horror costumes and Disguises' with words and pictures by Malcolm Carrick was first published in 1978 is a fun guide for the child who wants to scare their freinds, neighbours etc with their ghoulish make-up and costume creations. The book simply explains what is needed for your costume or disguise and how to make or create it by easy to understand text and drawings. There are some interesting ideas that can be done by using just ordianary things found in the home. Here the book shows you how to make a false head, wigs, noses, teeth, blood, wrinkles etc, sounds like a do it yourself Dr.Frankenstein guide doesn't it? Character costumes and make-up include Dracula, Skeleton, Freakystein, Ghoul, Mummy, Werewolf, Nasty Gnome, Headless ghost, Rasputin, Zombie etc. Here's a good one... what about Mad Mushroom. Yes the book has it all. There are 2 other books in this Carousel series - Science Experiments and Making Magic both by Malcolm Carrick.

'GHOUL' magazine 1976 - New English Library

2008-09-14T22:02:00.003Z

The dissapointing thing about 'Ghoul' magazine was that there was only the first issue published, which is such a shame as it could of been something really great. It reminds me somewhat of the other 1970's horror magazine 'World of Horror', both have a similar feel and style.

As well has the usual horror film features and reviews, 'Ghoul' would have a lighter side with the section Ghoul Gazette which was in the style of a newspaper which contained funny ghoulish stories, adverts and pictures. The cover of the magazine is a close-up of Dracula from the New English Library novel 'Dracula Returns' by Robert Lory and inside is a centre spread of the full picture which was the wraparound painting on the novel, the poster here printed minus the wording. Contents of 'Ghoul' are as follows:

'Beyond Terror' - Staff members telling what phobias, fears, nightmares they have.

'I meet the great Indestructible - Exclusive interview with Count Dracula' by Hans Clutcher - Spoof interview with the Count.

'Things aren't what they used to be!' by Denis Gifford - Horror films of the 1940's

'Horror-Scope' - Monster horoscopes with the birthsigns Suckdritus the Vampire, Fangus the Werewolf, Gnawus the Slime-Beast, and Crushem the Golen.

Christopher Lee - brief description about the actor illustrated with film stills

'Ghoul at Large' by R.Chetwynd-Hayes - Short story by the horror writer

'On the Prowl' - Chilling news from the scream scene.

'Kiss me quick' - funny captions to monsters kissing in films stills.

'Ghoul Gazette' - Spoof 2 page newspaper.

'Masters of Horror - 1.Edgar Alan Poe' by Walter Gillings - Profile of the master horror writer.

'Some new pleasures prove' - by Charles Birkin - Short story

'Celluloid Screams' - Gallery of 4 horror film posters

'Preymate of the month' - in which the readers were invited to send in their ghoulish monster creations, the one featured in this issue was called Octopus Man.

Also featured in this 1st issue were adverts for 'Science Fiction Monthly' magazine and 'The Monster Club' by R.Chetwynd-Hayes and also a competion to win a Mettoy Vampire kite. The back cover as shown above is an advertisement for a number of New English Library Horror titles.

'SCREAM' Comic

2008-08-27T21:39:00.004Z

Before the release of 'Scream' comic in 1984, horror/monster fans hadn't had a children's comic [in the Fleetway style format] that catered for their macabre tastes. There were 2 similiar themed comics aimed at the female readers 'Misty' and 'Spellbound'. There were also the 2 funny horror/monster themed comics 'Monster Fun' and 'Shiver and Shake', but none of these would give the horror fan the serious and sometimes grisly stories and artwork that 'Scream' would provide. Issue 1 of 'Scream' came out on monday 24th march 1984 and with this first issue came a free gift of a pair of plastic fangs, the 2nd issue came with a free plastic spider. Issue 2 also saw the start of a 6 part poster with each section of poster featured on the back of the issue. 'Scream was edited by a sinister cowled figure called Ghastly McNasty whos face was hidden by a hood, a competition was held with a 50 pounds prize for anyone that could draw what they thought Ghastly's face may look like. A number of these attempts were printed in the procceding run of the comic. It wasn't untill the 'Scream Holiday special' in 1986 that Ghastly's face was revealed.

The editorial had 2 fun sections in which the reader could say who they would like to see as Dracula[Dracula Spectacular], which was basically a photo of whom ever they chose with added fangs and widow's peak and the other section was who the reader would like to see chained up in a dungeon [The London Dungeon] this time the person's face and cartoon body in dungeon.

Stories in the first issue were as follows and artists name in brackets : 'The Dracula File' [Eric Bradbury], 'Monster' [Heinzl, Redondo from 2 +], 'The Thirtheenth Floor' [Ortiz], 'Tales from the Grave' [Jim Watson], 'A Ghastly Tale' [artist ?], 'Fiends and Neighbours' which first appeared in?????????, 'Library of Death' [several artists during the comics run - Casanovas, M.Capaldi, Mike Dorey, Steve Dillion, B.McCarthy, J.Cooper, Cam Kennedy, Ron Smith, Vivas, T.Coleman, S.Parkhouse, and Boluda], 'The Terror of the Cats' [Gonzalez, J.Richardson]which finished with issue 6 and was replaced by 'The Nightcomers' [J.Richardson] from issue 7.

'Scream' unfortunatly would end after only 15 issues and would then merge with 'Eagle' comic on monday 1st September 1984 issue 128, this merger was also short lived. Only 2 stories from 'Scream' would be featured 'Monster' and 'The Thirteenth Floor'. Then in 1985 a Scream holiday special was published which would feature familar stories from the comics run such as 'The Dracula File', 'A Ghastly Tale', 'Fiends and Neighbours', 'The Thirteenth Floor' and Library of Death'. as well as the comicstrips there were photo features on Madam Tussards Chamber of Horrors and the London Dungeon, the holiday special also featured a quiz, jokes, Ghastly McNasty gallery, and a game 'Ghastly's House of Horrors'. The following year 1986 another holiday special was published. Some of the familiar stories were featured as well as new ones such as 'Castle of Death', 'The Scream Show', 'Demon of the Deep' etc. 2 more photo features covering Alton Tower's Doom & Sons Haunted House and Disney's Haunted Mansion. Revealed in this issue was the cover of the proposed issue 18 of 'Scream' [what happened to 16 and 17?]. 'Ghastly's Holiday Ghost Hunt was the featured game. One of the original stories 'Monster' would now be published in a story format rather than as a comicstrip. 1987's holiday special had some original and some new strips again, as well as photo features on Thorpe Park - Phantom Fantasia, and The York Dungeon. The game in this issue was called "The Great Escape'. The 'Scream holiday special' for 1988 as the usual mix of old and new comicstrips, no features this time, only a quiz and another game 'Hunt for Dracula'. In 1989 the Scream holiday special came under a different guise as 'Spinechillers Holiday Special', the Scream logo seen above title in small letters. This particular special issue was slimmer than usual and no original stories from Scream were featured, the 7 new stories were all hosted by a character called Ghoul, stories were kind of a similar format to Scream's 'A Ghastly Tale' hosted by Ghastly McNasty in the original comic. Also in this special issue was a photo feature on 'The London Dungeon'. This would be the last of anything more from the creators of this wonderful iconic and cult macabre comic. A dying shame.

Anyone remember the original television adverts for 'Scream'? I remember 1 of them which was quite good although its a bit vague, it shows a boy and girl [I think] sat on a sofa reading the comic and looking over their shoulder from behind are a few ghoulish characters, and spooky music or thunder and lightning are heard and the usual sinister voice over.

Take a look at this wonderful site all about 'Scream' - http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/

SOME OF MY DRAWINGS

2008-08-14T22:47:00.003Z

I am sure there are quite a few of you out there that also used to or maybe still do drawings or paintings of monsters/Horror because of your love of the genre. I used to do quite a few when I had more time on my hands. I've decided to show you some of mine which I did nearly 20 years ago. These are all done in pencil and are drawings that I did from photos/stills from horror films. My favorite of the ones above is the one of Christopher lee as Mr.Blake from 'I Monster', this one came out better than my other attempts, possibly because of the better quality paper that I used, all the others were drawn on the same sort of paper that newspapers are printed on. Its been a long time since I did any artwork and its something that I have been meaning to start up again sometime. I sometimes used to do water colour pictures too, I never used the water colours like you normally do with them, I used to use the paint quite thickly. I did one of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster and one from the film 'Catpeople' (1982). I have always fancied having a go at a painting in the style of the covers of 'Famous Monsters' magazine, like the covers by Basil Gogos, using either oil or acylic paints.

If there is anyone that as any drawings or paintings of Monsters/ Horror and would be willing to show them, then please do.

Bassett's 'HOUSE OF HORROR' cards

2008-08-06T22:25:00.003Z

I have already featured the 'House of Horror' cards from Bassett, but had only managed to include a few of the cards. Here at last is a picture of the full set of 50. This is a wonderful set of cards, the backs of the cards have a description of a character or scene featured on the card front.

Is there anyone that knows who did the art for them?

Thanks to James

'HORROR' - Ian Allan Film Albums - 2

2008-08-03T20:47:00.003Z

I was a bit uncertain to say whether this was a book or magazine, it certainly is the size of a magazine and it has a similar page count, and yet the cover and pages are a little thicker than a magazine. Anyway whatever it really is it is basically 54 pages of mainly black and white photos from the silent horror films up till photos from recent horror films of the time (1971), examples of pages shown above. There are some great pictures from the classic horror films and the descriptions to some of the photos are quite lengthy which helps to pad out the pages a little. The Ian Allan Horror Film album is compiled by Allen Eyles and published by Ian Allan of London. An interesting and entertaining publication which is a great introduction to images from the horror genre. Other film albums in the series included 'Westerns' and 'Cary Grant'.

The Collector - 'Profits of Doom' Photostrip story

2008-07-22T22:31:00.003Z

As you can see above this is not your usual photostrip story, usually these type of stories were in copies of teenage girls magazines and were nearly always about love and relationships, you know all very soppy stuff. So seeing a horror themed photostrip story was wonderful and a refreshing change, not that I read any of these teenage girls mags, honest! but I am sure that many of you will be familar to their concept. The above photo story appeared in a 1982 edition of 'Eagle' comic, one of the best boys comics around at the time. I have another 2 or 3 of these 'The Collector' photostrip stories if you would like to see somemore. I think they work really well and they are a nice edition to the comicstrip style of story telling. I like the use of drawings in this strip, a great way to show special effects in a style that would of been too costly for something like this. I bet these were great fun to be involved with, especially the expressions they had to do for them.

'HORROR MOVIES' & 'MONSTERS AND VAMPIRES' - Alan Frank

2008-07-15T22:31:00.003Z

Here we have 2 wonderful horror film books by Alan Frank, the first one 'HORROR MOVIES - Tales of terror in the cinema' (1974), the second 'MONSTERS AND VAMPIRES - Spinechilling creatures of the cinema' (1976), and both published by Octopus books. Both books come with book jackets, 'Horror Movies' front cover has a scene from 'Dr.Terror's House of Horror' and the back is Christopher Lee from 'The Satanic rites of Dracula'. The 'Monsters and Vampires' front cover shows Christopher Lee as dracula and the back is from 'Frankenstein and the monster from hell'. The book themselves both have a black and white image from a film on the front and repeated on the back [see above]. Both books were later reprinted in softcover and had different cover photos.

These 2 horror film books are wonderfully written and informative as well as both illustrated with fantastic stills in colour and black and white. They are certainly up there with Denis Gifford's 'Pictorial history of horror films' has books that are a joy to read and browse through.

The 'Horror Movies' book chapters are as follows:

Introduction

The Baron

The Count

Back from the dead

Metamorphoses and Masquerades

Meet the Ladies!

Madmen, Demented Doctors and Psychopath Scientists

All creatures great and small

Then there is Acknowlegments, Index of film titles, and General index.

The 'Monsters and Vampires' chapters are as follows:

Introduction

The First Vampires

Dracula is born: Bela Lugosi

The Prince of Darkness: Christopher Lee

A Variety of Vampires

How to make a Monster

The Beauty and the Beast

Monstrous Changes

Terror from another world

And index. The chapter titles speak for themselves.

'Mini HORROR SCRAPERBOARDS'

2008-07-07T22:12:00.003Z

I am not sure when these mini horror scraperboards came out, but they are most likely from the 70's or early 80's at a guess. This originally was a 15 card pack of which only 6 were pictures, the other cards were blank scraperboards that you created your own pictures on. As you can see above is the cover and 4 of the pictures, not sure what the other 2 were. Here we have King Kong, Frankenstein's Monster, Werewolf, and Dracula. Anyone that is familiar with scraperboards will know that the idea was that you scraped off the lines of the picture to reveal the white underneath, as well as making the picture more clear and stand out more, it also was quite skillful in that you needed a good eye and steady hand to scratch off the details of the pictures. The cards above were already done by someone else, but as you can see you can get a good effect by just highlighting some of the picture. These cards measure 4 inches by 2 1/2 inches approx. I have seen a horror scraperboard not so long ago that features Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, Wolfman etc on a 8 by 10 inch picture and when the outline is scraped away it glows in the dark.

MORE 'MONSTER MUNCH' Packets

2008-06-30T22:28:00.002Z

Here we have another 6 different Smiths and Walkers Monster Munch packets, 5 of these are from the 1990's and the last from 2001.

First up is a packet from 1992 in which the front is promoting the 'Monsters Club' in which by sending a cheque or postal order for 1 pound 99p you got Whacky Monster badge and a Mega-Monster board game. The 2nd packet's (1993) promotion is for a Spooky Sound keyring that glows, these came in fluorescent colours and by a press of a button the keyring gives out a different spooky sound and eerie glow. There were 3 monster keyrings to collect - Pink Monster with spooky screech, Blue Monster with a haunting ghost sound and Green Monster with Naughty Giggle, there was also a Witch keyring to collect which was purple and the sound was a wicked cackle. The 3rd packet from 1994 as you can see is just a normal Roast Beef flavor packet. The 4th packet from 1995 has the promotion of the Grippa Clippa which were found in some packets if you were lucky. There were 3 to collect, a pink, a blue, and a orange monster which you gripped onto whatever you could. The 5th packet's 1997 promotion is for Spooky Tazos which were found in some packets, I think there were 10 to collect, also you could also be lucky and find a Tazo that on the back would be a lucky winning one in which you could either win 5 or 10 pounds. Lastly here we have a packet from 2001 for the New Blue pickled onion flavor in which although the snack looked normal, it wasn't untill you started eating it that it made your tongue blue, brilliant gimmick.

'THE DEMON HUNTER'S HANDBOOK'

2008-06-23T22:24:00.003Z

I don't really know much about this superb book apart from as you can see from the pictures that it is printed in the style of a very old journal with handwritten text and accompanying drawings. From the sample scans that were sent to me, there are sections on a particular demon/monster of which the text describes what they look like, their characteristics, how to destroy them etc. It is a beautiful looking book, from the superb cover to the brilliant illustrations of the demons/monsters and the beautifully written text of which is written as though by a real demon hunter whom has seen them and experienced them first hand.

'Palladium Cellars' facebook page

2008-06-19T22:31:00.002Z

Anyone interested in the Palladium Cellars that closed down during the 1980's [see my post on this] are invited to have a look at a new facebook page that will concentrate on this wonderful waxworks attraction, there are a pictures from the brochure and some rare black and white pictures of some of the exhibits. Gavin who began the page very recently will welcome any interesting contributions regarding the Palladium Cellars.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19093407609

'THE WITCH' - Treats Ice-Lolly

2008-06-14T22:21:00.003Z

I came across this wrapper for 'The Witch' Ice-Lolly made by Treats, I have no idea though what year it came out and what other Ice-Lollies Treats made. All I know about 'The Witch' is what it says on the wrapper, Its a fruit flavored Ice Lolly and made by Treat products Ltd of Leeds and manufactured in Ireland. Anyone remember 'The Witch' ice-lolly or know what year it came out?

'DRACULA'S SPINECHILLERS ANNUAL'

2008-06-11T21:38:00.002Z

This annual was published by World International Publishing in 1982, it contains short stories with illustrations, these are 'The Night Creatures', 'The Frightening tale of Jamie McGregor, and 'The Fiery Point Incidents', also the annual reprints the comic adaptations that first appeared in issues of the British horror magazine 'House of Hammer', the first is an adaptation of Hammer film's 'Dracula' a.k.a. Horror of Dracula which first appeared in issue 1 of House of Hammer, the second comic adaptation is of Hammer's 'Twins of Evil' from issue 7 . Rather than sticking to the original black and white originals, the comic adaptations half way through are printed in garish colour, not individual parts of a picture but the whole frame given it a kind of tinted look, which I think kind of spoils the flow. The annual is a slim 64 pages which also has a page about Vampire Lore, macabre miscellany, and a 2 page game called 'Dracula stalks his prey!'

As well as a picture of the cover above, the second picture shows the 1st page of the story 'The Night Creatures', 3rd is a sample picture from the story 'The Frightening tale of Jamie McGregor', next is a few frames from the Dracula comic adaptation, and finally frames from the Twins of evil adaptation.

'HORROR TOP TRUMPS'

2008-06-08T22:25:00.002Z

Top Trumps was and still is I guess a very popular card game, essentially all they are is a set of cards of a certain subject [usually cars, planes, boats, ships, bikes etc] which has a picture of whatever car, plane etc, the name of the subject and a list of categories such as MPH [miles per hour], HP [horse power], etc for cars, then it gives those sums for that category. You deal the cards out among the players who keep just the top card facing up and the first player picks a category and says it out loud to the next player, who ever has the highest wins the other person's card and you just carry on until one person wins all the cards. Simple but addictive, plus you learn something that may or may not impress someone. Whenever we played Top trumps it was always the way you asked if you wanted to play 'Do you wanna game of Top Farts?' or a game of Top [followed by a raspberry noise].

The Horror Top Trumps were 2 sets [Dracula and Devil Priest], obviously the same format as other Top trumps but this time we had cool monsters such as The Fiend, The Beast, Thor, Creature from the Black lagoon, Lizard Man, Death, The Ghoul, Man eating Plant, Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein, Headhunter, Circus of Death, The Risen dead, Maggot, Wolfman etc. Some of the monsters were made up, but others were familiar horror characters or monsters from horror films. Some of the images taken from horror films were sometimes called something else on the cards such as The Reptile from the Hammer film was called here The Freak, or there is an image of Lon Chaney snr as the Vampire from London after midnight, here he his called The Mad Magician, not that it really matters. The categories for the Horror top trumps are Physical strength, fear factor, Killing Power, and Horror Rating.

Above we see the 2 covers of both sets, examples from both sets and the back of a card.

'LYON'S MAID HAUNTED HOUSE' - Ice-Cream Lolly

2008-06-05T22:40:00.004Z

I have a vague memory of these lollys from Lyon's Maid, I seem to remember the pictures that were printed on the actual lolly. The Lyons website [http://www.kzwp.com/lyons/group2.htm] is a wonderful site that covers all products made by the famous company and has some great pictures too. This is the only place that I could find anything on the Haunted House ice-Cream lolly, it says that Haunted House came out in 1973 and was priced 4 pence. The printed pictures on the lolly included Frankenstein's Monster, Spook, Skeleton, Spider and web, Bats, Witch, and A Creature. The pictures were printed in pink, orange, red, green, and blue and were edible. The Pictures above show the Haunted House wrapper and 7 promotional badges, not sure how many there were in a set, but I would guess at least 8 - 10.

'Black plastic coffin and badges'

2008-06-04T22:27:00.003Z

Similiar in a way to the 'Bone Shakers' coffin and candy product that I featured not so long ago, these small black plastic coffins also contained candy/sweets of somekind, can't remember what they were like, all I know is that they were very hard sweets, maybe boneshape? Anyway in each little coffin along with the sweets was a plastic badge which could come either in black on red, black on white, blue on white, or blue on yellow. The examples above show one of the black coffins and the different variations of colours of the characters which include:

from top left to right

Slime monster?

Frankenstein's Monster

Witch

Ghost

Dracula

2 Headed monster

Troll?

Mummy

Viking Ogre?

Hunchback

Headless Skeleton

Not sure of the exact names of some of the characters, just going by what they look like. I have no idea how many different characters there were or how long the coffins/badges were on sale and what sort of packaging they came in. These were available in the shops sometime during the early 1980's.

'A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF HORROR FILMS' - Alan Frank

2008-06-02T22:38:00.004Z

One of the first horror film books I bought was this seminal classic from film critic and writer Alan Franks, this book bought many entertaining hours either reading or just staring at the wonderful stills featured inside, this is one of the attractions of this 216 page large hardback book, it has 350 black and white stills with a further 16 in colour, even the index featured stills.

The text is easy to understand and to take in, none of your analyzing and picking apart;this is just a great book telling the history of the horror film, from the very early silents, classics from Universal Studios, Hammer films, A.I.P., and also covering horror films from around the world. Many rare and forgotten films are also mentioned and illustrated throughout the book.

One of the attractions of the book is the fantastic cover art [see pictures above of front and back] by artist Chantrell [anyone know anything about this artist?] Certainly I think one of the best illustrated covers I have seen for a horror film book, I always prefer this sort of cover compared to a photo cover. The Pictorial History of Horror Movies was first published by Hamlyn in 1973 and reprinted a number of times throughout the 70's and an updated softcover version was published too. As well as the index, there is also an Appendix which lists 'H' certificate films, a filmography listing a range of Super 8 films, and a bibliography covering books and magazines.

Every horror film fan should have this on their shelf [preferably with cover showing]. Sorry my review is the bare bones, I'm not very good at reviewing books basically.

'MONSTER MUNCH' - Pop and Tape

2008-05-31T22:19:00.002Z

Normally you associate Smiths Crisps with...well crisps, but here we have a couple of unusal 'Monster Munch' merchandise from smiths Crisps. First up is a Monster Munch inspired drink called 'Monster Fizz' which was Odd Orangeade flavor, can't remember if there were any other flavors or what the Odd Orangeade tasted like. Monster Fizz came out sometime during the 1980's as far as I'm aware. Anyone else remember this short lived pop drink?

The next item from Smiths Monster munch is a cassette tape called 'Monster Munch Tall Stories'. There is no date on the tape or case but I think this also will be probally from the 1980's. It does say that it was copiled by Nabisco Brands Smiths Division and was produced by the 'V' team for Vinyltone Productions Ltd. Could this tape of been a item that you sent for from packs of Monster Munch or something sold in the shops?

Here is the track listing:

Side 1

[Theme]

The Monster's Bounce

Saving the day

Being Purple

A Song for Space

Missing on the Moon

The TV Film

Side 2

Tall Stories [Theme]

Bounce

Easier said than done

Purple Safari

La, La

Echo

TV Queen

'MONSTERS COLOURING BOOK' Pictures

2008-05-28T22:52:00.003Z

Just like the pictures from the Horror colouring book that I featured on May 14th 2008, there are no pictures that are the same that are featured on the cover. The Monsters colouring book features a Lovecraftian type monster whereas the contents although does feature some weird and strange creatures they are nothing like compared to the monsters on the cover. There are however some nice pictures of strange looking monsters, grisly scenes and a few that represent a monster or scene from a film such as the Mummy one above. How often do you get a child's colouring book that has such pictures in?

'HORROR GRIPPER' Free Gift in Whoopee Comic ad

2008-05-24T22:58:00.003Z

Anyone know if the Horror Gripper that came free with an issue of Whoopee (March 29th 1976) is the same one that Smiths Horror Bags promoted in the above pictures? The picture in the comic ad sure looks like the 'Claws' Horror Gripper featured on the Claws packet. I am hoping to get a photo of one of the Horror Grippers soon from someone who had sent for it from Horror Bags, as soon as I do I'll get it posted here. The whoopee ad was featured in 'Monster Fun' no.43.

'NESQUIK GHOST KITE' Competition ad

2008-05-24T22:38:00.003Z

Here we have an ad that I saw in an issue of 'Monster Fun' no.44 (1976), it is a competition from Nesquick the milk shake people, I remember having these milkshakes when I was a kid and I really loved them, quite a distinctive taste to them, you can still buy them too. Anyway back to the ad, as you can see from the above picture the Ghost Kite looks quite cool and it has 3 special air vents to help the kite to climb higher and higher in the breeze. I'd love to see an actual colour picture of the kite if anyone still has one. Original retail price was 99p.

'Monsters' Junior Observer

2008-05-20T22:49:00.003Z

I came across these while looking through some clippings which I forgot I had, These were featured in the Junior Observer section of The Observer magazine. I thought that they were interesting enough to put on The Cobwebbed Room, especially the artwork you see here on these small peices about monsters, anyone know how many of these there were or does anyone have anymore they could share here? These are from 1977.

'MONSTERS' Colouring Book

2008-05-14T23:10:00.002Z

Here is the 'Monsters' colouring book that I promised to put on awhile ago. This came out the same time as the Horror colouring book that I featured on the post of 8th November 2007. Hoping to get some pictures scanned of some of the inside.

'SHREDDIES SPOOKY SPOONS'

2008-05-10T22:39:00.002Z

It wasn't too long ago that you could collect all sorts of wonderful items from boxes of breakfast cereal, usually found amongst the cereal itself, these free toys etc were probably one of the selling points of which cereal to buy, it certainly was for me. Now there is very rarely anything much you get free except maybe a free book or an offer of some sort. Why did they stop doing these free toys etc? Probably something to do with health and safety.

Anyway here is the front and back of a Shreddies box which came out during the 1990's in which inside each box contained a free plastic spooky spoon which would change colour when put into a hot or cold drink. There was Ghoulish Green which when put into a hot drink would change into Molten Yellow. The Green spoons were Frankenstein and Cyclops. The last two to collect were the Blood-Curdling Blue spoons which turn Spine-Chilling Purple when put into a cold drink. The Blue spoons were Dracula and Skeleton. These were a nice novelty and nice artwork on the back of the box. I used to have all 4 of the Spooky Spoons but I lost one somehow, I'll put the 3 I have on sometime.