MONSTER! #30 is the better part of 164 pages thick, and just as chock-a-block with monstrous goodness as ever. As for the contents, it’s the usual unusual mash-up of more modern and vintage monster material; a tasty smorgasbord/cornucopia of the old, the new and the not-quite-so-old-or-new. As per our hunky three-eyed cover boy (the title critter from his newest movie TRICLOPS!), we’ve got lashings of loving reportage on the DIY-with-TLC creature features of regional American filmmaker Brett Piper, one of whose many specialties in practical special effects is stop-motion animation (forget CGI!). In addition, we have an in-depth essay on the early works of David Cronenberg, with an especial focus on his still-disturbingly-effective 1979 “monster kid†shocker THE BROOD. Also in this issue, by way of a moving and touching Special Tribute/Remembrance by someone who knew him, we pay our last respects to the much-loved and sadly recently late Vince Rotolo, “King of the Monster Podcasters†and a MonsterBash regular who shall be sorely missed. We’ve also got the second and final part of our feature article “Bathed in Bloodâ€, covering the cinematic excesses of notorious vampiristic aristocrat Countess Elizabeth Báthory. In addition to all this, we’ve got oodles of creature feature reviews and eye-catching original artwork besides. Just for the record, our roster of talent for MONSTER! #30 is: Stephen D. Sullivan, Eric Messina, Michael Hauss, Dennis Capicik, Christos Mouroukis, Stephen R. Bissette, C. Michael Hall, Andy Ross, MartÃn Núñez, Kinshuk Gaur, Salvatore Tarantola, Tony Strauss, Brian Harris, Steve Fenton, and Tim Paxton. Detailed video availability (most of it correct, as per usual, we hope!) rounds things out. Enjoy!