Monster Club Genealogy Chart Preliminary Art

Featured is the original preliminary art for the 1981 cult Amicus-style horror classic. The Monster Club. The pages were sketched by artist John Bolton after visiting the the film set and discussing with makers ideas. He then used these drawing as reference to finalise the Monster Genealogy Chart back at his studio. And in The film the Monster Genealogy Chart is visible in the scene where we see Vampire Erasmus talk to writer Chetwynd-Hayes at a table in the Monster Club bar area, who after pleasantries explains the various strains & backstories of the Monsters that featured on the poster.

(See the actual photo of John Bolton working on the art in question. It was kindly provided to me by John's wife Liliana.)

History of how I obtained these. They were sourced from John's wife/business manager Liliana Bolton over a six month period directly from the John Bolton studio. They were rediscovered by her in his archive after I purchased my first piece of Bolton art.

Each page featured measures 17x14cm and show subtle differences to the final images used of the chart. An example is the Hum-Ghoul called Luna (played by actress Lesley Dunlop) in the preliminary art her mouth shape is different to the final chart image in which we see her smile. And other monsters drafted show slight changes too, with some identical to the final genealogy chart Monster images. I find it fascinating to see their development.

And out of the 14 images drafted only two never made the final cut. I've isolated them at the top of the photo. And since I sourced the pages, all have subsequently been inscribed in pencil by the great man himself John Bolton. Both John & Liliana Bolton are the most kind & generous people I've had the pleasure to deal with.


Update: Info about the newly added images:

My original 1981 30x40 British Monster Club Quad poster. It's currently in storage (located in my large storage clip frame) pending final framing.

An original John Bolton owned Monster Club script that was given to him by makers of the film. It was generously gifted to me both Liliana & John Bolton after she found it in his archive and kindly sent it to me with a lovely note.

Also, featured is my Australian day bill film poster that featured John Bolton's preliminary art monsters. And for some reason only 9 out of the 12 Monsters feature, but this likely down to the standardised size of their day bill posters, being around 14x30 ins.

And finally. My ultra-rare Monster Club promo magazine. It was released by the late American writer & producer Milton Subotski for the 1980 Cannes Film Festival to promote the premise of the Monster Club film to possible investors. The magazine itself only had a print run of 1000 issues and is as rare as hen's teeth. And in 2018 due to a call by fans made a reprint of the magazine which was signed & numbered by the great Dez Skinn limited to only 100 copies in the world, which I also have in my possession.

PS. Thought I'd add one prelim art image of a Vampire, to show it up close. The combined image above featuring all the monsters I find is a little pixelated and hard to see their true detail.

Update 18/09/2025: Newly added are four rare large production used photos given to me by Liliana & John Bolton as a gift from their archive. They were given to John Bolton by film makers showing the set under construction as inspiration when drawing the village, villagers, and Ghoul dancing sequence. I love the signs saying, " keep off the polyethene" clearly visible in the foreground. It has, Ref JB, written on them meaning reference John Bolton. All have been kindly signed too.