Catacombs Comic LibraryParodies
Catacombs Comic Library
Quasimodo's Monster Magazine was published by Mayfair Publications, with 8 issues from January 1975 to May 1976 (the first two issues were titled "Monster World"). It one of many imitators of Famous Monsters of Filmland, mostly filled with articles on horror films both vintage and recent, printed on cheap newsprint paper. They covered Space: 1999 in issues 4 and 5. In the last issues there was a shift to more humour, apparently trying to bring in more Mad readers, with humorous cover and several satirical comic strips, although the bulk of the content were articles.
The last issue, volume 2 number 8, dated May 1976, has a page-filler article with profiles of the regular cast of Star Trek. At the bottom it reports "the news is that the Gene Roddenberry feature film Star Trek is 90% set. News has also come our way that instead of a few new Star Trek television specials to look forward to -because of the tremendous success of the new syndicated science fiction series Space 1999- we will be seeing a brand new series of Star Trek adventures. This is Trek-iffic."
The strip is written by "Flash Kiernan" with art by "Buck Tallarico" (Tony Tallarico, who was also editor of the magazine). Joe Kiernan and Tony Tallarico had previously written the strip "Star Wreck" in the previous issue, number 7. Tallarico (1933-2022) was a comic artist who had worked for Dell (creating the first African-American comic hero, Lobo), Charlton and Warren's horror comics, before moving into writing and illustrating children's books.
