Horror Zines are they still relevant?

Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Reading

Greetings and Salutations.

Last year I decided to subscribe to in my opinion, two of the premiere horror zines Fangoria and Rue Morgue. As someone who enjoys the smell of freshly printed books a little too much, someone who enjoys the tactile sensation of new paper ( I would roll around in it if it weren’t for the paper cuts!), someone who would die before owning a device such as the Kindle, I felt subscribing was a good idea.

Each month I sashayed out to the letter box to get my copy of Fangoria, alas the tyranny of distance left me infuriated by Rue Morgue’s delivery rate which was disappointing as this as my preferred zine of the two (I only just received the December edition!), I enjoyed leafing through my special deliveries. However I found that a lot of the info I had already come across on the net via sites like Bloody Disgusting, FearNet or Shock Til You Drop. Now don’t get me wrong, the zines still provide very detailed information and the feature articles surpass the bites of info you get on blogs etc. However combined with the recent rumours of Fangoria’s demise I have been given pause to reflect are horror zines still relevant?

There is a voice echoing through the Harker household, that is not an auditory hallucination but JH saying ‘I told you so’, having pointed out to me when I subscribed that the internet has surpassed any need to have print media, print media’s days are numbered. But like I said I am a tactile woman at heart. I have to admit I have decided not to renew my subscriptions, however am curious as to whether others have made the same decision, or is there still a fierce following of horror zines in print?

Ms Harker

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Permalink | February 21st, 2010

8 Responses to “Horror Zines are they still relevant?”

  1. Marc Patterson Says:
    February 21st, 2010 at 8:58 am

    I think Horror Zines are more relevant than ever. Much to the dismay of the naysayers, Print is not dead. But it does need to re-think it’s purpose. In the world of print the focus falls upon quality long journalism, and depth of coverage you can’t get in 500 words on the internet. Yes, the Bloody Disgusting’s of the world superficially appear to be print killers, but in reality they are not. I’ve said it before, but those three big sites are great sources of reliable news, but otherwise provide little else of quality content. If you’re a niche publisher there is a place for you in this post-internet world. You need to be smarter though. Ad sales exec’s also need to be smarter, after all… it’s their revenue streams that keep the publishing titles alive. If you’re an independent or hobbyist - then the argument changes. Has Blogger and other similar sites pushed aside the cut and paste zerox machine creatives? Sadly, yes. But on the same note… art school creatives with a passion for print have more room to flex those creative muscles and produce beautiful pieces of work that will find the ability to cut through the crap. Lunchmeat Magazine as a perfect example. Rue Morgue in particular is a good example of a publishing title that is a “grown up” zine. You just can’t get the quality layout, artwork, and insightful coverage on the web and there is, and always will be, value in that.

  2. Ms Harker Says:
    February 21st, 2010 at 9:07 am

    You make some great point Marc, especially in regards to artwork within print. Your point about the zines needing to be smarter in how they position themselves, also market themselves is very true and if not done well may see zines disappear into obscurity.

  3. mlle. ghoul Says:
    February 21st, 2010 at 11:02 am

    You know this is really interesting, and I never even thought about this. I have been subscribing to Rue Morgue for 3 years now, and honestly it’s the FIRST place I read about much of the upcoming things. I guess that’s because - as much time as I spend on the internet - I never find myself browsing horror forums or horror news related sites! Perhaps to get your more bang for your buck (should you decide to re-subscribe) you’ll need to declare a moratorium on perusing these internet horror news sites :P

  4. jmcozzoli Says:
    February 21st, 2010 at 11:14 am

    Marc makes a valid point and an important one. Much of what appears online, so far, has been primarily lighter weight info-chunks. While you can drill down through various sites for more in-depth coverage, printed material has traditionally allowed for more thoughtful and professionally-rendered (researched) articles. So basically, while the shift online is to cover the news-bytes, magazines/books must and should focus on thought-provoking and deeply informative articles, especially in covering less mainstream and historical subjects.

    But now the real question is when the transition from paper to digital publishing will overtake the printed format in magazines? I will say soon enough for newspapers and magazines like Time, Newsweek, etc., and in time, although it will take longer, more niche magazines like Rue Morgue will have to go digital and offer copy in both e-reader and print formats. And those print formats will become increasingly specialized runs to make them collectible items.

  5. Ms Harker Says:
    February 21st, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    But I can’t wait that long for horror treats!

  6. EmilyI Says:
    February 27th, 2010 at 2:51 am

    I recently subscribed to Fangoria for the first time ever (although as a child, I often stole my brother’s issues) and about a month later, all the Fang-gate gossip started floating around. Having thumbed through my first issue, I would say yes, they’re still relevant for a few reasons.

    -Longetivity: It kills me that everything I write on my blog has no real hard existence, much like digital photos that I never print. I had talked about this a while back with Christine over at Paracinema (a great genre film zine, and not just cause I contributed to the last issue) and we both agreed that holding something in your hands still matters. I bought a few older Fangoria issues at a yard sale over the summer, and aside fromthe fact that they may indeed be collector’s items, I simply love being able to hold history.

    -Profiles and on-set stuff: Yes, news websites still do this and maybe this is just my own nostalgia, but reading Fangoria, I was brought back to getting EXCITED about upcoming movies based on these kind of at-the-moment-of-shooting interviews and observations.

    -Convenience: I commute to work, and having a magazine in my hand makes those 30 minutes a day go by much faster.

  7. The Film Reel Says:
    March 1st, 2010 at 1:32 am

    I never get any information from online media. I read some blogs to hear opinions about the latest movies or for some articles about peoples thoughts on certain subjects. That right there is why I still read the magazines.

    I usually end up skipping the articles about upcoming movies and prefer to find the ones about retrospectives. A perfect example was the last issue of HorrorHound I have. It’s got a great article about the history of the werewolf and the merchandise that was eventually spawned by the Universal feature as well as an article about the history of the Horror Host.

    It’s these types of articles that keep me reading since I never really see them on the online news sites. I just prefer to head into the store each month and get my hands on the latest copy of Fangoria, Rue Morgue or whatever mag happens to catch my eye. It’s just more fun to curl up on the couch and get absorbed into a great story than to sit in my hard computer chair, straining my eyes at a screen!

  8. Rod Williams Says:
    March 3rd, 2010 at 8:04 pm

    Yes they are. Besides, it’a bit difficult sufring the web while you’re sitting on the throne if you don’t have a portable kompootar. Maybe the answer is portalooz?

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