Editor’s Pitch

Individual passion is what drives creativity and is the hallmark of today’s Internet. Long before DVD extras, Star Wars toys and the auction of film posters, one man was building the foundations of today’s science-fiction fantasy fan culture. And it’s so easy to understand Ackerman’s passion – the films and novels being written at the time were hard to ignore. Sometimes lurid and low-budget, sometimes philosophical and highly stylised – these visions of the future mixed with our darkest fears created some of today’s most memorable characters and have informed many of today’s greatest storytellers. Ackerman is a wonderful example of how we all should live passionate, engaged lives.


Meet Forrest J. Ackerman - “Mr Science Fiction”, the man responsible for bringing Hollywood’s sci-fi and horror creations to a mainstream audience.Famous Monster is an affectionate glimpse into the life and long career of who championed the creepy creature rather than the clean-cut hero.

Ackerman was a writer, publisher, agent, journalist and collector, but will be best remembered for founding the seminal magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland - a highly influential horror magazine that prefigured modern zines like Fangoria. It has run almost continuously since its inception in 1958 and was highly influential in establishing the figures of Dracula, Frankenstein and The Werewolf in the public’s consciousness.

Famous primarily celebrated the burgeoning B movie scene, but also nurtured the best in new science fiction and fantasy writing, quickly gaining a devoted cult following. Some of its readers - men like Joe Dante, Roger Corman, Ray Bradbury and John Landis, all of whom are interviewed here, would go on to be leaders of the gene both in print and on screen. The list of artists who quote Ackerman as an influence reads like a who’s who of the genre: Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Stephen King, George Lucas and Frank Darabont are just a few.

In Famous Monster we catch Ackerman in fine form as he reels off a host of fascinating showbiz anecdotes. He relates how when times were tough he sometimes acted as an “illiterary” agent. His clients included the fledgling writer Ray Bradbury, L. Ron Hubbard (later the founder of scientology), and the notoriously bad low budget director Ed Wood. Wood sometimes called Ackerman in the small hours to babble nonsense drunkenly down the phone. Ackerman would be kept up night after night by the demands of the self-destructive filmmaker, but could never find the director much work.

We are allowed intimate access to uncle “Uncle Forry”s memorabilia collection, one of the greatest ever assembled. Until he was forced to sell up, he kept this in a remarkable 18-room home and museum known as The Ackermansion. The Ackermansion contained some 300,000 books and other pieces of movie and science-fiction history,and was kept permanently open for public view. This was the place to go to see Bela Lugosi’s cape or don Lon Chaney's battered top hat from lost silent classic London After Midnight. Indeed, if it had not been for Ackerman’s persistence with studios and prop managers, some of these movie treasures would have been lost forever.

Forrest Ackerman who passed away in 2008, was the ultimate fan-boy and worked tirelessly to ensure that the best artists, writers and directors were given the exposure they deserved. He managed to retain his enthusiasm to the end, even though his last few years were beset by personal troubles. In the 1990s he lost a major lawsuit that forced him to give up the rights to the Famous Monsters magazine. He was also forced to sell off his house and the bulk of his memorabilia collection, then valued at several million dollars. Still, you would never know this to meet him and he remained an inspiration and a hub around which the industry continued to flourish.

Famous Monster is a must-see for anybody interested in the fantasy, horror and sci-fi genres. Ackerman was after all the man who in 1954 coined the term “sci-fi” and any self-respecting geek would do well to watch this warmly nostalgic documentary to discover exactly why we all owe him a huge debt of thanks.