Monday, August 15, 2016

CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN NO. 4 (PART 1)


CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Vol. 1 No. 4

1964
Gothic Castle Publishing Company
Managing Editor & Publisher: Calvin Thomas Beck (as Charles F. Kane)
Editorial Assistant: Ken Beale

Assistant Editor: Leroy Kennedy
Cover: Lee Wanagiel

Pages: 68

This issue marks the departure of Larry Ivie from the masthead as Assistant Editor. Still seen throughout are vestiges of his design work for several title pages that were apparently completed before he left.

Also in this issue is the first use of the "gothic castle" background illustration on the contents page. I always thought that this image perfectly imagined the eerie "gothicness" that was the theme of CoF.

The special Vampire Issue is heralded with a cover by elusive artist Lee Wanagiel who here somewhat successfully depicts the Lugosi version of Count Dracula. Wanagiel seems to have come and gone and one wonders what future covers of CoF would look like with his influence. Instead, Beck leaned towards using photographs for his cover images, sometimes good, sometimes hideously bad as we shall see in future installments.






























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