monster want

i was always a cartoon/comic/magazine junkie. when i was younger, i had a big thing for Mad magazine and when i was waiting around for the next issue, i often picked up Cracked magazine. i never felt like Cracked was a special needs kid that you felt sorry for, i really did like the cartoons and was entertained.
so, i recall a new magazine nestled in near the Cracked one month WAY WAY WAY back when... it looked like art work that i would find in cracked but only creepy.

when i was a kid i didn't really get turned on by horror movies. even when i was that youthful, it just didn't scare me, just a story that entertained me. errrr i hadn't yet found the ones that DID scare me or the types of horror i like now. the problem was that since i was a budding little psychopath, it just didn't' *hit* me or shake me up. it didn't creep into my mind and stay with me in any way other than ah, that was interesting!.

i wound up picking a copy of this magazine up and what the FUCK!?! it creeped me out. it's only newsprint/black and white... and mostly short comic stories so nothing epic. what i do know is that these stories burned in my mind. i read them many times and would often stop to close my eyes and visually see them play out. even when i put them away for a couple of months, they'd manage to get yanked out and sat open on my bedroom floor for extended stays.

a couple of months ago i got a complete bug up my twat about this mag. i could see the covers/the stories, but for the life of me didn't know what the name was. i googled Cracked and Horror to no avail...or maybe i just didn't look hard enough? i pinned down the name of it after i begged friends on the intrawebz to help me out. sure enough, thar she blow:


There's one missing from the image... which is one that i want along with the Jason cover the most. I was scratching my head wondering why i only bought a few of these... but after a little reading saw that only 5 issues came out. Mort Todd who was working at Cracked slipped this mag into the printing press without any approval. After one came out with critical praise he managed to churn out 4 more, but it went bust after he left Cracked.



the one story that is seared into my mind is from the Frankenstein cover that entices you to buy the magazine with the promise of reading about Deadly Slime... actual title of the story: "Cellar Jelly". while i reiterate over and over that little traumatized me in terms of fiction, THIS STORY SCARED THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT OF ME. i never looked at preserves the same way again. ever. EVER! the graphic panels of horror in it is still with me and the words "clack clack" are tangible in my mind now as i see a viscous-coated skeleton beat a death rattle on a cellar floor.

{shudder}

i really find it delightful to find things that creep me out past or present!

thank the gods there's only a few to pick up... i will save up my pennies to get these and take a ton of pictures of the frames.

anyone else out there remember this mag?!