Monster Kid: 1971

For those unfamiliar with the term, "Monster Kid" has become something of an official designation for that subset of the post-WWII baby-boomer demographic that consisted of young and adolescent boys who: read and collected science-fiction and fantasy paperbacks and super-hero comic books, assembled plastic models of movie monsters, subscribed to Famous Monsters of Filmland, wheedled their parents into letting them stay up late whenever Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man or The Mummy came on TV and oft-times made their own epics with their dad's 8mm movie camera. My friend and model- and diorama-making collaborator Doug, who I captured on Kodachrome in the kitchen of his folks' home in Ross, California perusing an Edgar Rice Burroughs SF novel, fit that profile and, like many others, never lost the passion. I wasn't an MK myself, but was into models and movies, so we eventually took his dad's camera and experimented with stop-motion depictions of fiery toy car cliff-plunges and the like. Alas, our elaborate c.1964 production of Doctor Faustus has remained an unfinished masterpiece. View full size.