CGC Collectorverse 101 with Mark Sielski

In this all-new series, we talk with comic afficionados about the titles they know best in a fun and informative Q&A session! First up is Mark Sielski, longtime CGC Comics Registry member and collector of Famous Monsters of Filmland, who shared his wealth of knowledge about this magnificent monster mag!

Dive into Mark's spooky collection of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines, and you'll see his passion for classic monster movies and the macabre is on full display, with each issue serving as a nostalgic homage to the golden age of horror. For Mark, collecting these iconic magazines isn’t just a pastime; it’s a way to preserve and celebrate the eerie excitement that has captivated horror fans for generations.

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Q&A with Mark Sielski

It’s the perfect time of year to talk about Famous Monsters of Filmland. You’re a longtime collector of this awesome magazine. For those reading who aren’t familiar with Famous Monsters, tell us all about it and what you know about its history.

Famous Monsters of Filmland (or FM, as longtime fans affectionally refer to it) was launched by a young up-and-coming publisher, James Warren, in February 1958. Mr. Warren had previously dabbled in publishing with a men’s type magazine called After Hours, which had a brief three- or four-issue run. He was looking for something new. At the time, old 1930s and 1940s monster movies were being reintroduced to the public through an emerging new technology — television! Warren connected with Forry Ackerman, who had a wealth of knowledge and photographs. The two of them worked on crafting the feel of this new, never-before-tried publication: the “monster magazine.” Its target was kids, ages seven or eight, and up into the teens.

FM was all about unbelievably great painted covers and production art layout, so that it jumped off the newsstand, grabbed your mind, your dreams, your attention. Basil Gogos was probably FM’s most prominent cover artist, but Ron Cobb, Vic Prizio, Ken Kelly and Albert Nuetzell all made their mark, just to name a few. Inside the magazine, FM was loaded with great photographs of classic Universal horror films and some new movies of the time. This was well before VHS, Blu-ray or streaming. So, a periodical with monsters jumping off every page, whether it was Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman or the Mummy, was essentially Halloween 365 days a year!

FM hit the newsstands of Philadelphia and New York during a great Northeast snowstorm, but despite this, it caught on quickly, and the cultural phenomenon that has lasted more than 60 years was born!

How did you discover Famous Monsters? Did you start collecting it immediately or was there an evolution?

I discovered Famous Monsters through a friend of mine up the street. He had a treasure trove of maybe a dozen issues spread out across the kitchen table. He had picked them up in a flea market in South New Jersey — this was back in 1969 or 1970, so FM had been around for more than a decade by then. Once I saw them, I had to get my very own copy. We didn’t know where to get them locally, so my friend ripped out the back issue section of one of the magazines so that I could use the mail-order coupon.

The back issue prices ran anywhere from $1.50, the oldest issue available, to 70 cents, the most recent issue. I could not come up with a whole dollar, and asked my parents for 70 cents, but they didn’t have the spare money. My aunt came to my rescue and gave me the 70 cents! I taped two quarters and two dimes to the coupon and sent my order into Captain Company, Warren’s merchandise arm. Some months later, (yep, you heard right, months!) I received Famous Monsters of Filmland #56 — which was the Boris Karloff memorial issue (Boris had passed away in 1969). FM #56 had a great painting of Boris as The Frankenstein Monster by Basil Gogos. The painting is unbelievable and, I was recently told, has been getting offers of up to half a million dollars!

Just a quick jump to a sidecar story about FM issue #56. In the late 1990s, I met FM cover artist great Basil Gogos. We got together for breakfast a few times at a lovely Greek diner in NYC (Basil was Greek and emigrated to the USA). We often talked about his Warren years and new work he was doing. I asked him about revisiting his original FM #56 cover and painting it for me as a commission piece. He eventually agreed to paint FM #56 again without the candle burning in the background. He told me that he had added the candle for Boris Karloff’s passing, so he would not do that part again, but what he painted for me, it is a beautiful piece. I’m very thankful and grateful. It’s a very important part of my FM collecting story.

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Now, back to the early days… Most FM collectors didn’t buy FM to read. Maybe some did, but I just looked at the pictures, read the photo caption puns — written by Forry Ackerman — drooled over the advertising section of Aurora models, Castle Films 8mm reels, Don Post Masks for a whopping $34.95 — possibly an entire week’s paycheck — and Warren Magazine back issues — it was the Amazon of its day for kids who loved monsters. FM was also the Facebook of its day. Within each issue there was a fan mail section called “Fang Mail,” and a letters page where I soon learned (and took comfort in, as an emerging teenager) that there were other weird and awkward kids just like me who loved monsters and felt sorry for them. The monsters weren’t scary; many of them were just lost souls. That was always my view, anyway.

The collecting evolved over the years, as you can imagine. Over time, perfection became important; I wanted the best copies possible. When CGC came about and started grading magazines, I thought the CGC holder was the best vehicle for preservation and documentation of super-nice FM copies.

You started adding entries to your first Famous Monsters Registry set more than 15 years ago. Tell us about the journey trying to fill out your collection.

As I mentioned before, my original CGC grading intent was to preserve my copies through the CGC holder process, document the quality of my collection and have a record in one place — the CGC Comics Registry — of Famous Monsters of Filmland hopefully for posterity.

FM #1 was always a favorite of mine. I guess a beautiful girl walking arm-in-arm with a guy, who perhaps is a little insecure with his looks, so much insecure, that he dons a Frankenstein mask to cover up his inner self — well, that is just priceless. I’ve probably owned a dozen FM #1s over the years, finally settling on my final copy, which CGC graded as 9.4. The first 30 issues have always been fan-favorites, but for some reason I loved FMs from about issue #33 up to FM #135 or so. Most of these had great paintings on their covers. I’m still looking for a CGC 9.8 grade on #56, because I’m stuck at a 9.6!

FM #6 with the MT Graves Sticker was a legendary find. Only four or five copies are out there. They are always in rough shape. FM #4 is always a tough issue to find in high grade due to its black cover and even harder to find in a high CGC grade due to the paper quality of that issue. The Famous Monsters 1965 Yearbook, with a great Frankenstein cover by James Bama has always been hard to find in very high grade and is very popular with collectors. For most of my CGC collection, some were purchased directly by me from newsstands, some from other FM collectors via trades, some from dealers, many copies were bought “raw,” but some I had to buy already graded by CGC.

There’s a global Famous Monsters community. Do you do anything within the FM community outside of the CGC Comics Registry?

I stay connected with other collectors though meet-ups, phone calls or just email — we all share similar stories, we discuss our favorites issues, our favorite artwork, our favorite monster movies, although we’re getting older, we’re still the “Monster Kid Generation.” Conventions, and that means any type of convention, comics, horror, sci-fi, whatever, are a big part of the FM community. FM fans seem to be able to find each other, usually around a dealer table!

I’m excited about the CGC Registry and the recent changes around the Famous Monsters of Filmland sets. FM collectors can now see FM with all its variants, FM – All Yearbooks and FM – All One shots. I’m eager to see the latter, there were many FM spin-offs; who knows what may turn up. I’d like to see what other collectors have had graded by CGC.

FM never fit into the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. We had maybe four or five Monster Magazine guidebooks over the past 40 years; some guidebooks were more complete than others. I hope the CGC Comics Registry can become the modern-day guidebook for FM collectors. I’m eventually going to photograph and submit pictures to the Registry for my complete collection. I think that will be a great resource for FM collectors in the future.

Famous Monsters of Filmland in CGC grades 8.5 or higher are very undervalued in comparison to most comics. Famous Monsters is still accelerating in appreciating in collectability and desirability. Its ceiling is much higher than where we are today. In FM parlance, the “Beast is Yet to Come”!

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The reach of Famous Monsters of Filmland is broad. Stephen King, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have all cited Famous Monsters’ influence in their creative works. Where do you see that influence in pop culture today? 

Ah … yes, the big three — King, Lucas, Spielberg, but let’s not forget Joe Dante (“Gremlins”), John Landis (Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” Video), Guillermo Del Toro (“Hellboy”), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Greg Nicotero (“Walking Dead”). If the “Walking Dead” wasn’t an influence on pop culture, I don’t know what is! I don’t see the Walking Dead being what it is today without Famous Monsters keeping classic horror alive. Every time I see Greg Nicotero interviewed wearing one his Famous Monsters of Filmland shirts, I just could not be happier!

Without Famous Monsters of Filmland, there wouldn’t have been Creepy, Eerie or Vampirella. FM funded the publication and launch of those magazines. Creepy and Eerie enabled a new generation to rediscover the talents of the great 1950s EC artists and writers. Warren Magazines, in my opinion, really propelled Frank Frazetta’s career and fandom awareness of Frank’s body of work. Without FM, would we have that iconic Frazetta cover painting of Vampirella #1? It’s doubtful. Frazetta artwork is in the highest demand. FM’s offspring Creepy and Eerie launched and furthered careers of many other artists and writers too, such as Rich Corben, who later went on to even greater fame with Heavy Metal.

FM was launched at a time when the old Universal horror and fantasy movies were being re-released by studios. Famous Monsters of Filmland kept the interest alive in the old movies and helped pave the way for George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise, Spielberg’s broad work, including Jaws — which made me afraid to go into the water back in 1975, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind — which made me keep watching the skies. FM kept the door open so creative folks took a chance and made Friday the 13^th, Halloween and so on.

Monsters and Horror are alive and well in 2024. I recently learned that Universal Studios in Florida is going to have an entire Theme Park built around the Classic Universal Monsters — it's even going to have the burning windmill from the climatic ending of Universal’s 1931 Frankenstein classic film. I’d say FM’s reach into pop culture promoting monsters is alive and well. Or, as Colin Clive said, “It’s Alive!!!” We FM fans have waited for decades to see something like this experience being created by Universal. I can’t wait. The future is so bright for fans of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Another thought I’d very much like to share with comics fandom reading this, and not just the FM community, is how fortunate fans are to have James Warren as a publisher in this field. I recently saw Mr. Warren at a Famous Monsters Convention in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. He’s in his 90s now. I made it a point to thank him for his creativity, for his entrepreneurship and tenacity in keeping FM and Warren magazines going for so long. He made an impact on a lot of fans, writers and artists. I recall reading years ago that Jim Warren felt the average reader stayed with the magazine for two and a half years. Multiplying average FM readership, number of Warren FM companion magazines, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella and so forth, readership was in the millions. There’s a whole universe of fans out there!

About CGC

Since revolutionizing comic book grading in 2000, CGC has grown to include certification services for a vast variety of pop culture collectibles. These divisions include CGC Cards, CGC Video Games and CGC Home Video. CGC Cards provides expert card grading for TCGs, sports cards and non-sports cards. CGC Video Games is dedicated to video game grading for the most popular consoles, including Nintendo, Sega, Atari, PlayStation and more. The newest division of CGC, CGC Home Video, provides expert VHS grading in addition to other types of home media, including Betamax tapes, DVDs and Blu-ray discs.