Above, cover for PUKE STORIES by Kelly Froh
Zines appear to have become popular again.
As recently as the nineties, I could find zines at many independent video, music, and book stores. When those places started disappearing, so did most of the zines.
These days, the internet seems to have replaced all those stores. In fact, author / artist websites seem to be the only way to get your hands on most zines.
The current crop of zines, seem to cover every topic you can think of.
WARNING... I've noticed an unusual number of MAN-HATERS publishing zines. Most of those hairy-afterbirths can NOT write - or speak - without abusing the word misogyny, or misogynist. These loathsome and colossal hypocrites, see nothing wrong with their misandry.
So be careful, who you give your money to.
Screengrabs of Kelly Froh and her artwork... From a short documentary about her. The film was made by John Kinhart and Richard B. Smith Jr.... I saw it on YOUTUBE.
I've been told that some of the first American zines appeared during the late thirties ( I can NOT confirm this as fact ).
Back in the sixties and seventies, most of the zines I came across, seemed to be focussed on politics, or sex, or drugs.
During the eighties and nineties, the focus appeared to be on movies, television, music, and other pop-culture themes ( such as collecting ).
After all this time, zines still come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and construction methods... From homemade photo copies, stapled on the upper left corner, to professionally printed publications.
Below are links to three major ZINE FESTIVALS that seem to be very popular.
NOTE - I've NEVER attended any of the events listed below, so I can't give you any feedback......
L.A. ZINE FEST
CHICAGO ZINE FEST
BROOKLYN ZINE FEST
FYI - There's a book called XEROX FEROX: THE WILD WORLD OF THE HORROR FILM FANZINE.
BY - John Szpunar
ISBN - 9781909394100
COMPANY - Headpress
SOFTcover
PAGES - 800
MESURMENTS - 5" X 8"
I got most of the information from the AMAZON and HEADPRESS websites.
Apparently, the book's focus is on horror. That's too bad, but it still sounds interesting.
I do NOT own a copy, and I've never seen this book at any of my local stores. I also have never heard of HEADPRESS. So, always remember CAVEAT EMPTOR.....
Last time I got excited about a fanzine was, oh, almost 30 years ago? The crap put out there in zine form now is lame, written by fanboys who seem to think that the "genre" film realm only came into being in the mid-70s or so. Most of the "zines" now revolve around crappy foreign horror films. Too bad nobody seems to give a shit about old "non-genre" exploitation films any longer, unless they shovel buckets of blood and gore onto the screen. Pfft!
ReplyDeleteThere are a few zines, here and there, that are nice.
ReplyDeleteMost of the zines I've seen recently, seem to cover a lot of different subjects.
If you're looking for zines about horror, then yes, I think you're correct.
In my opinion, the horror / sci-fi zines I've come across were NOT good at all....
QUOTE - "fanboys who seem to think that the "genre" film realm only came into being in the mid-70s or so"... Sounds like hipster-doofus Tarantino groupies..... I think, I know what you mean. Look at most of the folks making fake 70s / 80s style exploitation flicks.
I'm NOT saying they're all bad, but lets face it, most of them suck ( in a bad way ).
They're just cheap copies. They couldn't come up with an original idea if their lives depended on it.
There are A TON of flicks from the sixties, that have been forgotten.
"Hipster-doofus Tarantino groupies"...are f-ing IDIOTS! As soon as some twenty-something spouts the "T" name, I walk away from the conversation.
ReplyDeleteAs for zines, I've given up. The last zine I BOUGHT was Shock Cinema, but they got boring. The last zine I really LIKED was Psychotronic Video.
"There are A TON of flicks from the sixties, that have been forgotten."
ReplyDeleteHell, yes!
Lots of low-budget, non-horror "lost" films nobody has or knows about. WTF ever happened to a thing called "The Grass Eater" (1961) starring Rue McClanahan, made by William Norton, Paul Leder, and John Hayes?
THE GRASS EATER really is beyond rare. I think someone had posted a clip of it online, but that was years ago.
ReplyDeleteBelow are my two most wanted titles.....
ANGEL'S FLIGHT by Raymond Nassour, Kenneth W. Richardson, Dean Romano and William Brownell.
Two of the leading ladies are, Indus Arthur ( 1941 - 1984 ), and guess who?... Rue McClanahan.
I saw this on PBS once. I also had a bootleg VHS tape. Grey-market DVDs are the only way you can see this movie - unless someone posts it online.
THE PICK-UP by Lee Frost ( 1935 – 2007 ) and Wes Bishop ( 1932 - 1993 ).
With an appearance by David F. Friedman.
I know SOMETHING WEIRD has a DVD-R of this ( with burned in Danish subtitles ). But I NO longer buy anything from them.
I hope someone finds useable prints for all these flicks, and releases them on proper pressed discs. But, I know that's not likely to happen.
One of the reasons I love MILL CREEK, is the way they've been able to find a lot of rare films that nobody else bothered to put on pressed discs. Now you have a bunch of companies trying to track down rare movies, but they usually charge a lot of money for their discs.
A lot of rare films turn up on YouTube from time to time, but you have to be fast because they usually don't stay up for long. Example: DEMON HUNTER (1965) aka LEGEND OF BLOOD MOUNTAIN.
ReplyDeleteI don't buy from SWV anymore, but I do keep an eye on Sinister Cinema, Mill Creek, as well as the occasional rarity from Alpha Video. I love those Mill Creek box sets. THE PICK-UP sounds interesting. I love the 1975 film also titled THE PICK-UP, on one of the Mill Creek sets.
ANGELS FLIGHT sounds great. Seeing Thourlby's name here reminds me of a film of his I saw on TV in the 70s or 80s, titled VENGEANCE (1964), it was an oddball western. He appeared in the recent THE CREEPING TERROR documentary/recreation, THE CREEP BEHIND THE CAMERA (which took $150 crowd-funding donation money from me and never gave me the promised perks or screen credit).
Another rarity is Gurney's EDGE OF FURY (1950s), which is listed for sale as a DVD-R on Amazon, so I bought it only to find it was a mislabeled martial arts film from the 70s.
BTW, there's a brief clip from THE PICK-UP by Frost and Bishop on YouTube.
For me, there are now only a handful of films left that I want to see.
Best reason to ignore 99.9% of today's zines: the DVD/Blu-ray reviews.
ReplyDelete