A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to FORREST J. ACKERMAN and an issue that was special in more ways than one… By JIM BEARD When I dig into, or dig up in this case, something I love, I always try to start at the beginning. My beginning, that is. I came in late to Warren’s Famous Monsters of Filmland and the wicked genius of Forrest J. Ackerman. It’s not my fault. You see, I was born too late, so blame my parents. My dad was buying me comics at an early age, around 5 years old or so, but it wasn’t until 1975, when I was almost 10, that he bought me my first Famous Monsters. That was #114, cover-dated March 1975. Why so late? I figure it was because, let’s admit it, FM was kind of grown-up compared to most comics of the day. Or at least that’s probably how my dad saw it. Just look at the covers before #114 — some pretty gruesome stuff there, including Linda Blair with the Full Pazuzu in The Exorcist. I sort of don’t blame him for not picking the mag up for me before ’75. I also am very certain exactly why he tossed a copy of #114 to me one fateful day. Godzilla. King of the Monsters. I was already watching Japanese monster movies by that time, either on afternoons after school or on Saturdays with Sir Graves Ghastly. He knew I loved the darn things and probably assumed that an issue of FM featuring “All of Japan’s Monsters!” was pretty safe. How wrong he was. If I wasn’t addicted to giant monsters before that issue, I was most certainly hooked for life from that moment on. Famous Monsters #114 is a mile marker in my pop culture life, and I owe it to Forry that he set it in stone at the side of the road I was traveling on. He, like Stan Lee, had created a house that I felt welcome in and wanted to explore to my heart’s content. He, and Sir Graves, of course, made me into the Monster Kid that still lives in the dungeons in my brain. This is my birthday tribute to the Ackermonster this year, a tour of the magazine that stood out from the others, the one that felt grimy and gritty and...