THE BASEMENT BOOKSHELF: “Remember The Future: The Distortions Unlimited Story” by Lee Lambert
In 2015, Lee Lambert released a labor-of-love book on one of the greatest Halloween mask studios of all time, Don Post Studios. The book was huge, was very well received and personally, it’s one of my all time favorite books. I started collecting masks in the mid-1980’s and though I only collected Don Post masks on occasion, I certainly collected a lot of masks by Distortions Unlimited. Lee’s follow-up book, “Remember the Future: The Distortions Unlimited Story,” is on this very company.
“Remember the Future: The Distortions Unlimited Story” was a long time coming (over 3 years). I am not sure of the particulars but the original plan was to release the book through the same company that released the Don Post book. This fell through unfortunately, delaying the release a bit. Thankfully Lee re-acquired the publishing rights to the book and is releasing it on his own. I am happy to say that it is now available from Shrunken Head Publishing directly or through Amazon.
So the question is, is it worth the wait? I can say that without a doubt it is. This book is a very entertaining read on a company that has had its ups and downs. Ed Edmunds, the owner of Distortions, is a character in his own right and it comes through many times while reading. I had the pleasure to talk to Ed not long ago on an article I was writing and the conversation was not only informative, but it was a lot of fun. I found myself laughing a lot and that charm comes through here.
I am so glad that Lee has taken it upon himself to write these books. “Remember the Future: The Distortions Unlimited Story” is so important. Even if you are not a mask collector, what this company has done deserves recognition and it certainly gets it here.
One thing I want to mention is some feedback on this book that came from one buyer, citing issues with the quality, not only of the book itself but of the quality of the photos. He even complained about the black coloring on the cover flaking and coming off. I have not had this problem at all. Though the overall quality may not be on par with the deluxe hard-cover Don Post book it is still a quality book and one definitely worth getting. For anyone complaining about the quality of the photos, take into consideration how old some of these photos are! These are mostly pre-digital so the look of the pictures is going to vary based on age and how good the original photo was. I personally love looking at these old photos, reminding me of what it looks like to go through old family photo albums.
Like the Don Post book, this book is a quick read. One thing I also really enjoyed is that since Distortions is still in business, Lee was able to go there and actually talk and interact with Ed and Marsha, getting a first person account on the history of the company. This was just not possible with the Don Post book as they went out of business in 2012.
The last part I want to mention is the size of this book in comparison to the Don Post edition. There is a volume 2 of this book that has already been written and hopefully sales of volume 1 are so good that volume 2 will not be far off.
I want to personally thank Lee for all of the work he has done. “Remember the Future: The Distortions Unlimited Story” is an amazing book about an amazing company. I can’t imagine it being written by anyone else to be honest and he needs to be commended for doing something that all of us mask collectors have hoped would happen for a very long time. I also want to thank him for being so generous in providing the pictures used in this blog. So Lee, will there be a Be Something Studios book in the future?
Don’t forget to read the other blogs in my BASEMENT BLU-RAY REVIEW series. To order your own copy of this book, just click on the image below.
UP NEXT: my interview with the man himself, Lee Lambert!
~David Albaugh
