ABOUT

(The writer as a young monster)

My name is John Navroth and I am a writer, musician and graphic designer. I was born and raised in the Los Angeles area of California and have lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1990. I have many interests, but writing has been my focus over the last few years. Although I do write short fiction, my primary expertise is non-fiction, especially on films and pop culture, including comic books. If you are an editor or publisher and have an assignment that you'd like to discuss, please contact me using the Contact Form on the sidebar.

Here are some of my writing credits:

• Black Infinity #10 - "The Famous Monsters Story: How a Movie Monster Magazine Became A Pop Culture Phenomenon".
• Castle of Frankenstein #36 = "The 100-Year Heresy of Haxan"; "In the Land of Fantoms: A Century of Nosferatu".
• Castle of Frankenstein #37 - "Hollywood Grotesque: Lon Chaney and the Making of The Hunchback of Notre Dame".
• Castle of Frankenstein #39 (Spring 2024) - "He Filmed Frankenstein: The Cinematography of Arthur Edeson".
• Castle of Frankenstein #40 (Fall 2024) - "The Architecture of Evil: Power and Perversity in Universal’s The Black Cat" (Coming this Fall!}
• Dead Reckonings #6 (Fall 2009) - "Of Fishmen and Lovecraftian Place-Names".
• Famous Monsters of Filmland - "Memories of Famous Monsters".
• Fate - "What Fate Means to Me".
• G-Fan #96 (Summer 2011) - Famous Monsters #251 "Colossal Kaiju Invasion" review.
• Lovecraft Annual,The #3 (2009) - "Lovecraft and the Polar Myth".
• Mad Scientist #30 - "Curse of the Shrunken Heads! The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake".
• Men's Adventure Magazines Blog - "When Shrunken Heads Were Big" (guest post) .
• Monsters From the Vault - "Vincent Price and the Voice of Terror".
• Nightmare Abbey #4 - "Fear in Four Colors: The Hideous History of American Horror Comics Part 1, Precursors and Premonitions".
• Nightmare Abbey #5 - "Fear in Four Colors: The Hideous History of American Horror Comics Part 2, "The Pre-Code Plague".
• Nightmare Abbey #6 - "Fear in Four Colors: The Hideous History of American Horror Comics Part 3, "A Flood of Blood and Corpses!"
• Prehistoric Times #147 - "The Lost World: Cinema's First Great Dinosaur Movie" (nominated for a Rondo Award for 2023).
• Prehistoric Times #150 - "The Eighth Wonder of the World: The Making of King Kong".
• Scary Monsters #121 - "Lon Chaney vs. Jack Pierce: The Men and Their Makeups" (co-authored with Doug Brown)
• Scary Monsters #127 - "The Monster in Dressing Room No. 5" (nominated for a Rondo Award for 2022).
• Warren Companion, The (TwoMorrows, 2001. Out-of-print).
• We Belong Dead #12 - "Jack P. Pierce: Making the World's Most Famous Monsters".

Here are some comments about my work:

"The article on the history of horror comics was enlightening and fun, whether you enjoyed them as a kid or are too young to have lived in those glorious days of perusing through gruesome tales and gory illustrations." - Amazon Customer Review.

"It was also a pleasure to read John Navroth’s account of the filming of 'The Lost World', the cinematic adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel of the same name. Any article featuring an image of stop motion pioneer Willis O’Brien is fine by us." - EverythingDinosaur.com.

"John M. Navroth had provided a most informative piece documenting the film “The Lost World” in an earlier edition of the magazine.  He repeats the feat in this issue, this time focusing on the “King Kong” movie premiered in 1933.  He provides a fascinating insight into one of the most influential monster movies of all time." - EverythingDinosaur.com.

“'He Filmed Frankenstein' - fascinating, in-depth again. Loved it." - Castle of Frankenstein reader

"I especially liked . . . the scholarly report on Frankenstein cinematographer Arthur Edeson." - Castle of Frankenstein reader

You can view my Amazon Author's Page HERE.

For a more comprehensive listing of my fiction, poetry, essays and the magazines I have edited and published over the years click HERE.

More to come later this year!