Contributors

Taylor White

Taylor White is the owner and founder of Creature Features dating back to its inception in 1977. A Southern California native, White has been witness to nearly five decades of genre history, wearing numerous hats as a soundtrack producer, a make-up effects artist and as a journalist for numerous genre publications, most notably in Cinefantastique from 1987 to 1992.

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Jeff Bond

Jeff is the author of The Music of Star Trek and Danse Macabre: 25 Years of Danny Elfman and Tim Burton. He is also the former editor in chief of Geek Monthly magazine and an editor at CFQ (Cinefantastique) and Film Score Monthly magazines; He is a regular contributor to The Hollywood Reporter.

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William Craft

William Craft has been an avid hobby enthusiast since growing up during the monster boon of the 1960s with the beloved Aurora Plastics Company. In the late 90s, Craft served as head art director and kit reviewer for The Modeler’s Resource magazine, published by Fred DuRuvo. Known throughout the hobby as “Craftbeast,” Bill also served as chief kit builder for Creature Features, assembling and painting over 1,000 models during his seven year reign. A professional graphic designer by trade, Craft remains one of the hobby’s most tireless and gifted artists, fearlessly willing to tackle any vinyl, styrene or resin monstrosity.

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Scott Essman

Scott Essman, 44, has been writing and producing projects about motion picture craftsmanship and Hollywood history since the mid-1980s. In February 1996, Essman and his team documented a weekend-long creature effects film called Wolvy. It was eventually made into a 24-minute documentary. Also in 1996, Essman created his first special live event, a tribute to the greatest living makeup artist, Dick Smith. Events in 1997 (A Tribute to John Chambers and Planet of the Apes) and 1998 (A Tribute to The Wizard of Oz) ensued and doubled each year in attendance. In June 2000, Essman recruited 16 actors plus a team of production designers, lighting designers, makeup artists and costume designers to create Jack Pierce – The Man Behind The Monsters, which was a staged multimedia play accompanied by a 48-page commemorative program. In 2004, Essman created a tribute to silent film star Lon Chaney at Universal Studios’ CityWalk. In 2009, he created a tribute to the Westmores of Hollywood at the Monsterpalooza convention in Burbank, CA. All of the aforementioned items are now available on Amazon.com. In 2008, he won a Rondo Award for Best Feature Film Commentary for work on the Legacy Set of Universal’s The Mummy (1932 version). Additionally, in total, Essman has published over 500 articles about people who work behind-the-scenes in movies.

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Rick Goldschmidt

Rick Goldschmidt is the official historian and biographer for Rankin/Bass Productions and author of the books The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass: A Portfolio and The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Rick’s degree is in Illustration and has been involved with many Rankin/Bass projects on many different levels including designing figurines (Enesco, Round 2, etc.) , Co-Producing CDs and DVDs and even writing and illustrating various things. He is also a musician and works with the multi-platinum selling band Gin Blossoms as well as his own band The Starving Artists. His CD Rick Goldshmidt Sings is available on iTunes, Amazon, etc.

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John Michlig

John Michlig writes about popular culture and conceived the groundbreaking GI Joe Masterpiece Edition book-and-figure package. He’s also the author of It Came From Bob’s Basement: Exploring the Science Fiction and Monster Movie Archive of Bob Burns and GI Joe: The Complete Story of America’s Favorite Man of Action.

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Angie Olson

Angie Olson grew up with monsters in her basement. Literally. As the daughter of a classic horror collector, she developed a deep appreciation and affection for all things spooky. By day, she’s a mild-mannered payroll clerk, but at night she’s, well, a mild-mannered fangirl. She has a journalism degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and has written for Monsters from the Vault and Screem Magazine.

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Craig Reardon

Craig Reardon is a prolific 30-year veteran of make-up whose credits include Poltergeist, The Goonies, Weird Science, The Gate and The Dreamer of OZ. The winner of three prime-time Emmys, Reardon most recently lent his rich history of Hollywood lore to one of 29 audio commentaries on Image Entertainment’s DVD boxed set of Boris Karloff’s Thriller.

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Tyler Rosenberg

Tyler Rosenberg is a freelance writer and musician. He spent years covering the film music scene in Finland before recently moving to Los Angeles. He has composed numerous concert works in the style of Olivier Messiaen and Harry Gregson-Williams.

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Steve Smith

Steve Smith is the former editor of Monsterscene, a popular horror film publication of the 1990s inspired by his experiences growing up a monster kid of the 60s and 70s. He is the author of eight young teen novels, two art books including Star Wars: The Art of Dave Dorman, about his longtime friend and collaborator. He has spent the majority of his career in entertainment licensing and merchandising, but as a writer/producer, he created The Alex Cryss Chronicles, an “edu-tainment” show currently in pre-production at PBS.