Fangoria

0

Thanks a lot DiceX.

Wonder if anyone knows anything about what happened since that Starlog-Fangoria warehouse burned down.

Are there any other warehouses with file copies back issues ?

Did they have some sort of redundancy plan or backup media files ?

Or are they really all gone and all thats left are collector's collections around the world ?

I read this was all a financial trouble- insurance scam thing.

I understand that the issues are gone, but-- There are so many mags that had already been unleashed onto the market since they we're published added to the fact most people who had bought Fangos and starlogs through them, probably already did-- I suspect those books would have just sat and rotted for many years to come before something like this happened anyway.

Just my 2 cents. There are a number of dealers like Neat Stuff who have pallets of Starlog related magazines to make up for this loss.

Wow. Talk about chagrined.

I've been frequenting this site for over two years now ( ever since I got back into comic collecting after a "brief" 30 year hiatus following my brilliant decision to quit & then sell off my collection before college at 18 in 1980 ), but never thought to venture outside of the General Comics Discussion area until about an hour ago. And it's great. Especially this thread.

Having been born in 1961, I guess I'm among the "second wave" of Monster Kids.

From my very earliest memories I had a fascination for all things monsters & spooky. With THE MUNSTERS & THE ADDAMS FAMILY being right up there as my favorite TV shows, with only BATMAN & THE INVADERS rivaling them for my attention. And, the VERY first movie that I can actually recall watching in it's entirety was a late night showing of Bava's classic BLACK SUNDAY that i stayed up & watched with my parents when I was a lad of just five years. It was one of many, many more thrillers & chillers that I spent the next several years watching at 11:30 every Friday night on our local ( Buffalo, NY area ) channel 7's FRIGHT NIGHT THEATRE.

Anyhow, being such a thorough Monster Kid, I, of course, made certain that my Mom bought me every issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS that I could find as well as a plethora of all sorts of comics & magazines like CREEPY, EERIE, VAMPIRELLA, HOUSE OF MYSTERY, HOUSE OF SECRETS, MONSTERS ON THE PROWL, CREATURES ON THE LOOSE & so on & so forth.

This all led me into expanding my interests to include superhero titles as well & becoming a serious comic book collector by the time I was ten. But, in doing so, my interest in monsters & horror never wavered.

Fast forward to 1979 when FANGORIA #1 hit the newsstands & it was, of course, love at first sight. Actually, I'd been waiting months & months for it as it was announced as forthcoming in the pages of STARLOG. Only ( something that no one seems to recall & it isn't even mentioned in Fango's own official history, but I SWEAR it's true & that it can be verified in those old issues of STARLOG ) back then, it was announced under the title MONSTER INVASION. And then, the date of publication came & went with no such magazine ever arriving on the shelves & after a while ANOTHER ad appeared in STARLOG for FANTASTICA. Complete with a full mock up of that iconic image of Godzilla on the cover. And, then THAT date that was listed came & went, with no such magazine...

Finally, one Saturday afternoon that summer when I went to pick up that week's comics at the shop, there it was. Only now, it was under some new, strange title that I wasn't even sure how to pronounce at first.

So, about a year later when I'd decided to sell off my comic collection, I also made the decision to part with my entire monster magazine collection as well. All my old ones that is.

Since I was so "cool & mature" now ( ), I decided that the only genre magazines that I needed to keep were my current favorites at that time CINEFANTASTIQUE & Fango. So, I sold off my FAMOUS MONSTERS, CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEINS, THE MONSTER TIMES etc..

Again, my interest & love for horror never wavered though & I continued buying/collecting FANGORIA from that summer of '79 right up until... well, now.

I never stopped & my complete collection of Fango is one of my prized possessions.

Oh, I won't lie. There were some periods of time when I came PRETTY close to stopping. In fact, the time when I came closest was only fairly recently, during a couple of year stretch from about 2006 - 2009 when I wasn't even bothering to read the issues when I purchased them. I'd just bag 'em, board 'em & put 'em away.

I just didn't enjoy the magazine anymore & only kept up the collection 'cause #300 was approaching fast. I figured that would be my jumping off point.

A funny thing happened on the way though.

Chris Alexander took over as editor & I saw some interesting things on the cover & a new approach that piqued my interest enough to begin reading it again & I haven't stopped. I'm actually back to looking forward to each new issue again.

HORRORHOUND had become my new favorite genre magazine & remained in that position for a couple/three years running. But, Fango has improved so much now that they're really running neck & neck these days with me not being able to choose between the two of them. They're BOTH #1 to me.

Peace.

- Jim

Hey Jim--

Thanks for the wonderful post. I love reading about others memories of this mag.

I actually only caught up with cinefantastique in the 90's and 00's and I was blown away by it in every way. I imagine if I was older when it came out it might have been the only mag I would have bought, seriously great stuff.

Oh yeah, it was seriously in depth stuff for a genre movie magazine.

I know a lot of folks from that era actually found CFTQ a bit "stuffy". And, I can definitely see why. It, as a whole, could be pretty pretentious in that they'd often devote an entire massive DOUBLE issue to a film, covering it's production in seemingly every possible detail, only to tear that very same film to shreds in a review in the very next issue. LMAO.

I, however, loved to immerse myself in the minute details of the films that I enjoyed. And, no one came close to offering that. Not to mention that their retrospective were often awesome things to behold.

So, after getting my hands on my first couple of issues, I made sure that I asked my Mom for a subscription to it. Something that she made sure to keep up for me in the form of birthday gifts right up through into my 20s.

And, I kept up with it right up until it changed format into that damned generic, mass market appeal format that it took at the end of it's run. Once it adopted that, I was done with it.

Anyhow, hey, thanks for the warm welcome here.

- Jim

Its funny- for me I got into cinefantastique in '89 or so and it was basically amazing, i had a few back issues from a cousin or something and they we're as good as it got for a film mag. Then '90 hit and the entire mag turned into a cheap and sh%$'y mag that just couldn't keep up. Right down to the horrible printing. Just terrible.

I have an entire run of Cinefantastique leather bound in my office library cause it still inspires me to work harder every time I look through those amazing issues from '75 though '89. That era just hit me in a big way.

I am nearly down with a raw run in, I am pretty sure 9.6 to 9.8 cause I am borderline asbergers haha!

Nice to meet others who enjoyed this mag as well.

Hey, let's hear it for the Aspergers folks in the house!

Seriously. I went undiagnosed for fourty some odd years & then when my youngest daughter Autumn Myst was diagnosed, I was tested & suddenly EVERYTHING made sense. My frequent stoicism, my OCD, my ADD, my legion of eccentricities ... You name it.

Luckily, her & I are very high functioning Aspergers.

And...

I just rambled on about it to probably discover that you were only joking about yourself, right? If so, no worries. Neither my daughter nor myself are the least bit sensitive about it & ( contrary to the "humorless" stereotype that Aspergers folks often get labeled with ) are the always first ones to be self deprecating about it.

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand.

Big kudos to you for assembling the complete runs of Cinefantastique.

I'd love to put together one myself, but man, I've got so many different collections going between my comics, my magazines, my books, my Blu Rays... All, on a budget that'd be lucky to support one decent collection, much less several. But, I get by JUST enough to satisfy my needs ( or, at least enough to keep that insatiably hungry maw known as my Desire For More Stuff fed enough to keep me sane... ). In doing so, I have to make compromises that I can live with.

Now, a couple of years ago, I COULDN'T live without assembling a complete collection of all the issues of Calvin Beck's original run of CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN. It was a magazine that I'd loved as a kid, but due to it's wacky schedule & spotty at best distribution,, I only ever got my hands on a grand total of ONE issue back then.

So, when my midlife crisis hit me a couple of years back & I made the decision to forgo all the usual boring stuff like having an affair with a younger woman & buying a sports car, I figured I'd REALLY go nuts instead by beginning to collect some of the stuff that I'd enjoyed so much in my youth. Like, monster magazines & comic books.

With my quest for said run of CoF starting things off.

At first, I'd hoped to complete it in a year or so, but it wound up taking me closer to three because I was picky about what I paid for each issue & I got sidetracked by some really nice deals on several issues of FAMOUS MONSTERS & then, comics. But, no matter, I accomplished what I set out to do. Which was cool.

As for Cinefantastique, I have the issues that I collected years ago of course, but there are still several issues that I'd like to ad to my collection. Like THE EXORCIST issue & a few others. But, especially that one. It was one that I'd always meant to order from the back issue archives, but never got 'round to.

OK, I suppose I've gone on & on quite enough for now.

Peace.

- Jim

Hey jim-- Please feel free to go on and on... The magazine forum needs it. Badly. A little mag talk is never a bad thing.

About the asbergers... I have never been told by a doctor I had it, but then again if they did tell I did I would not be surprised. Its insanely common these days.

Oh, the exorcist cine issue. Thats a mega cool mag. Love that cover. So many amazing covers in that run. Makes me want to collect them all over again in 9.8 just to re-discover them!

I would say, none are really tough in the true sense, but some are tough in nice shape (Mostly the darker covered issues of #1-30), and relative to the rest of the run, several are without a doubt harder to find. In all honesty the toughest ones are probably in the 200s because of circulation at the time, but I don't know enough about that era.

 

In tiers, I would say tier 1 toughest is

15, 18, 22, 27

 

tier 2

20, 23, 32, 37, 40, 66

 

tier 3

 

8, 9, 10, 14, 36, 43, 64, 65

 

I think That #9 is technically in shorter supply than say, 66, but there is a lot more motivation to offer #9 for sale, so it is available more often.

I have all of these apart from 20, 36, 65, and 66. Used to collect them religiously when I was a kid. I'd read them once then they'd go straight in a plastic bag and have been there ever since apart from the odd occassion when I'd get nostalgic and flip through one. I'm keen to know exactly what they might be worth - anyone?

At the time of the fire, (to the best of my knowledge, a legit fire loss and no scam) there was whatever they had laying about the New York office, and that's about it.

Before the fire, our inventory was never kept reliably, which is why we had issues "sell out" when there were still lots of the particular issue around. Then we'd locate copies, but the prices had become artificially inflated because we had thought we were really down to the last issues. When more copies were located, it was easier to maintain the "sold out" fiction than to say, sorry we are insufficiently_thoughtful_persons who can't keep track of our back issues. The fire produced our first legit (and much smaller) inventory numbers on back issues.

https://www.facebook.com/UncleBob.Martin

Oh man, the zombi (2) cover. beautiful.is that an image of your copy or is that a grab from online?

BTW- seeing where you're from... i used to grab the odd issue from the banker boxes under the comics aisle at ABC Book and Comic Emporium back when it was open. Did you buy any copies from there?

I had the same feeling w Fangoria, where I just lost interest in mid 2000s, and I havent gone back yet. Just found i wasn't very excited with the coverage (alot of mainstream horror movies or uninspired indy flicks when i wish they would maybe try and delve into the classic movies/directors and do interesting reappraisals, contrast comparisons or cover entire bodies of work of the filmmakers who put out great stuff).

So, I got my horror/exploitation/eurotrash/arthouse horror etc fix from other mags like Shock Cinema, Ultraviolent, Screem and back issues of other similar genre mags that were discontinued even.

but was wondering, what's changed about Fango with the new editor that got you back into it?

If anyone is interested there is an incredible book that came out about a year back called 'Xerox-Ferox'. It is a massive 800 page history (in interview format) of all the great horror fanzines and magazines.

It really woke me to how cool Fango's and other horror zines we're and are. Any fan should snap a copy up if they can find it.

Sleazoid Express anyone?

Sleazoids are insane, Both good and bad-- I imagine trying to put together a high grade run would near impossible.

Sleazoids are insane, Both good and bad-- I imagine trying to put together a high grade run would near impossible.

I have worked on putting a run together since 1985, when Landis and McDonough stopped publishing it. At this point I'm only missing one issue. I could literally write a book about the experience and the characters I have met along the way, including the principle players.

I have it on good authority that film maker Nicolas Winding Refn wants to put out a book reprinting all issues of SE from 1980 - 1985. However, I double this will come to pass as someone who retains 50% (but claims 100%) of the rights to the material is out of their f#cking mind.

Weird, weird, weird….

Fangoria Print Magazine to Return at Halloween

Fangoria was a very popular horror publication during the ’80s and ’90s, featuring content on contemporary horror movies and directors, plus pinup posters of the scary villains like Freddy. The publication switched to website-based content, but now it’s coming back to print.

In 1979 Fangoria began as a fantasy film magazine known as Fantastica. But the fantasy publication was unsuccessful and needed revamping to continue. In the first issue an article about special makeup artist Tom Savini and his work on Dawn of the Dead was a favored piece. Based on that feedback, editor Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin reshaped the magazine as Fangoria (nicknamed Fango by readers) to provide news on horror cinema, mainly current projects.

As the 1980s cranked out successful horror franchises and virtually un-killable villains, Fango had an endless supply of material. Building on that success, Fangoria started hosting horror cons, created awards and a hall of fame, a website was developed, and some “best of” special editions and licensed tie-in magazines for individual films were printed. The magazine company has also produced some movies and distributed foreign and indie films. In more recent times the magazine covers both current projects and horror history.

The return to print will be a quarterly publication with the first issue publishing at Halloween time. This news came after Cinestate finished a deal to acquire all assets and trademarks for Fangoria from the Brooklyn Company. Cinestate CEO Dallas Sonnier hired writer-producer Phil Nobile Jr. to serve as editor in chief and creative director.

“There needs to be a Fangoria,” said Nobile. “The magazine was a constant presence in the genre since 1979 – and then one day it was gone. That felt, to us, tragically incorrect. Fango was, for multiple generations, a privileged window into the world of horror. It gave us access to filmmakers’ processes and secrets, opened our eyes to movies we might have otherwise missed, and nurtured a wave of talent that’s out there driving the genre today. I’m proud and excited to be part of the team that’s bringing this institution back.”

Cinestate now controls all material from the over 300 issues of Fangoria, the material of which is now moving to their offices. Cinestate will also develop Fangoria further with movie, podcast, and horror novel projects.

Fangoria was a great magazine and I have every issue they ever printed until their last 344 Elvira cover this issue is proving to be one of the rarest issues along with some of the one off specials . It's nice to hear it will return from the dead so to speak.