Classic Monsters Unleashed edited by James Aquilone
Page 32
Publication Date: 2022 - Kickstarter Exclusive Hardcover
Happy Halloween, readers and lovers of classic frights! If you appreciate the old Universal Monster movies of yesteryear, and yearn for more tales that take you back to this simpler time and place, then you probably need to add this monstrous anthology to your bookshelves.
Conceived and edited by James Aquilone, Classic Monsters Unleashed contains over two dozen tales of the macabre that may cause you to leave on your bedside lamp…at least until you’re once again able to settle your nerves.
Monster Kids, take a good look at the back cover image below and feast your eyes on what you can expect to find between the pages of this gem of horrors, including the names of many of the top writers in the field, such as Ramsay Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, and Jonathan Maberry.
Aquilone is fast becoming one of my favorite anthologists out there, using the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform (and Classic Monsters Unleashed broke several Kickstarter records!) to bring us this and other interesting works such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker - 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel and Shakespeare Unleashed – A Horror Anthology & Comic Book.
There’s no doubt that I have a love for the old Universal Studios monsters (notice some of my fun Universal Monster items pictured), but I’m also a fan of other disturbing literature, such as The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells, and Classic Monsters Unleashed gives us a strong, related story that Wells would be proud of, along with other neat surprises that wait for you between the covers (perhaps as you’re hiding under your own covers!) of this anthology.
The writing is excellent, and Aquilone did a fantastic job in both selecting and editing the stories. A sample from one of my favorites is below:
THE NIGHTMARE AGAIN.
I almost dread falling asleep. Always the same, and yet never quite the same. The events differ dream to dream, yet always I am in a stranger’s body—a huge, monstrous, patchwork contraption that reels through the darkness in such ungainly fashion. It’s always dark in the dream, for I seem to be a creature of the night, forever in hiding.
And I can’t remember my name.
— the opening lines from Dreams by F. Paul Wilson
After whetting your appetite for Classic Monsters Unleashed and telling you I attained it via Kickstarter, how can you get your hands on a copy? There’s no need to fret, friends, because it’s available, and in multiple formats, at many online retailers, and possibly at a bookstore near you! If you want to see what the reading public has to say, you can visit the Amazon page (yes, just click it and be transported) and look over the reviews.
While not every story in Classic Monsters Unleashed satisfied my craving for creepy tales, plenty of them made this an anthology worth the price.
Stay tuned for Page 33!
From the excitement of buying shiny new comic books to collecting older issues for those nostalgic leanings of yesteryear, my weekly blog Cool Comics In My Collection showcases something for everyone at edgosney.com.