Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Anybody else remember these books with hardcovers that would focus on a single movie monster like Dracula, Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and of course Godzilla? I used to check these out of the library constantly when I was little kind in the early 80's. What were they called and who published them?

I always loved this picture.

When I was in 2nd grade, I checked this book out from the library so much that my grandparents photocopied the whole book and made me my own copy, which I still have.

And how did this guy write a whole book on the Deadly Mantis?

I have The Blob, The Deadly Mantis, and Godzilla somewhere at my dad's house. I effectively just stole them from my Library. I loved those things.

The Ian Thorne books were amazing.

I loved that series as a kid... I ended up working at the library in 1998 or so and searched the basement of withdrawn books (because I hadn't seen them on the main floor in years) but alas I couldn't find them, or the purple ones.

I have been meaning to try to pick up those books when I have the chance... some of them go fairly cheap on ebay, but of course I REALLY want the Godzilla one and that one tends to cost more.

As has been said, a lot of the information in the book about Godzilla was wrong, but a longtime friend of mine and I were talking about those books and it occurred to us... back in the late 70's when that was written, how much information would Ian Thorne have even had access to? I'm assuming the book wasn't written in conjunction with Toho (although it did have some neat behind the scenes photos), and if that's the case his information would have been limited. Not to mention he couldn't just pop in a VHS of the films to get a better idea of what was going on, although I'd assume if he was really trying to write that series he had access to film reels or something, not just going off his memory.

Then again, as accurate as they were, maybe he WAS just going from memory.

This pic was posted up at the Classic Horror and Sci Fi Movie Books Facebook page (a great page). I think this is the box they came in when libraries got them.




Anyone else see the Nintendo Nerd's video tribute to these books?

http://cinemassacre.com/2010/09/12/the- ... er-series/

Brings back a lot of memories.