The Masks of Famous Monsters - Issue #4

Welcome to the fourth installment in The Masks of Famous Monsters Series. Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine was an absolute treasure trove of early mask history. By combing through the 191 issues published between 1958-1983, it's possible to gain a good understanding of the decades of evolution and history of Don Post Studios and Topstone monster masks. The eventual goal of this series is to catalog and archive each monster mask appearance in the pages Famous Monsters.

Issue #4 was released back in August 1959. Like issue three before it, the fourth issue debuted several new Topstone monster mask ads and goodies. A whopping five Topstone mask designs appeared in the pages of Famous Monsters for the very first time in issue #4. Just in time for the Halloween season, these new ads were unleashed on unsuspecting monster kids across America!

On page 39, at the end of a four page article titled "Mummys the Word", the Topstone Mummy mask made it's Famous Monster debut with this ad...

On page 51 readers got a glimpse of the Topstone Screaming Skull in action...

On page 53 within the Monster Club Members section, we get a glimpse of Warren Wood wearing a Bayshore Zombie complete with a football helmet...

Page 58 introduced four classic masks to monster kids and horror fans and potentially changed the world of monster-maskdom forever. In my humble opinion, the Shock Monster and Vampire-Girl are in the conversation of top 10 mask designs of all-time...

Topstone Shock Monster Mask Ad

Topstone Girl Vampire Mask Ad

Topstone Teenage Werewolf Mask Ad

One-Eyed Cyclops Mask Ad

Another first would be the use of a Keith Ward mask illustration on a page of Famous Monsters magazine. The Shock Monster would go on to grace hundreds of pages in Warren Publications of the next several decades...

That just about wraps things up, but before we end our look at issue #4, here's a few shots from the issue of some rubber monster masks in the movies...

Hey Creep- did you miss the other "Masks of Famous Monsters" Series? Check out the other posts in the Masks of Famous Monsters Series:
Masks of FM 1
Masks of FM 2
Masks of FM 3