[crabapple]

I recommend the curious go on Ebay and check out some issues of FM's original run (#1 through #191...1958 to 1983!). You can find stores selling copies of Famous Monsters, and with a mouseclick or two, you can own an issue or three of this legendary magazine, a work right from the hands of our "Uncle Forry."

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The younger folk around HDC, people who don't remember the days when Famous Monsters magazine was being published, have many wonderful things today which are an outgrowth on what Famous Monsters did. Forrest J Ackerman probably did the most to shape what this magazine was, and he spoke through this magazine, to the fans, with every issue. And he infused his writings was so many jokes--truth be told, many bad jokes, but good-hearted and harmless. This joking was in a spirit of fun, to make sure that with every paragraph, the reader understood the heart of it all: We're here to have fun, and this is a wonderful thing, so let's enjoy it. Let's enjoy these endless shelves of wonders and mysteries, together.

Imagine a time before HDC, Fangoria, the Internet, or even Night of the Living Dead were around.

He impressed upon everyone, in these early days of fandom, that there was so much to be aware of...he told us about movies we'd never seen and showed us rare photos from these movies. In those days, if you wanted to find out of a certain movie existed the best you could do was maybe to go to the local library and flip through the pages of stacks of books. Famous Monsters brought so much information to the fans, and encouraged them to be good, energetic, enthusiastic fans. Famous Monsters did its best to help the "monster scene" happen, to stimulate the popularity of monsters and fantasy and science fiction. And then it would send people out to "cover the scene" and tell us exactly what was happening. Did you know that in the mid-60's, "horror nightclubs" were sprouting up all over the USA? That William Castle was preparing some new diabolical trick to play on audiences with his next movie? This magazine was there to tell us about all of it. It made fandom acceptable, really, and enhanced its nature as a social experience.

You may never have met FJA during that time...you might have been stuck in suburbia or up in the hills somewhere or in a forest. But if you could find your way to a half-decent newsstand and plunk down your 50 cents or 75 cents, you could spend some time with "Uncle Forry" and hear his tales.

Forry Ackerman, a great man who did so many wonderful things, a man who was "friend" to so many, is now gone.