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Former Editor Says There Will Likely Never Be Another Issue of Fangoria
Print may not yet be dead, but it’s sadly looking like Fangoria is.
*UPDATE: FANGORIA HAS RELEASED AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT ABOUT THEIR FUTURE*
Hanging on a wall in my office is a framed issue of Fangoria Magazine; a destructive Godzilla is on the cover, and most horror fans would immediately recognize it as the historic first issue of the magazine, published in 1979. The influence of Fangoria on several generations of horror fans is undeniable – whether you hungrily ingested the magazine in its heyday or have only heard stories from those who did, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that you, like myself, will forever respect the brand for its game-changing contributions to the genre. Particularly in a pre-internet world, Fangoria was THE source for information on upcoming horror films, its eye-catching covers responsible for tossing countless readers down the proverbial rabbit hole of horror.
But the reality is that here in 2017, magazines are falling by the wayside at an increasingly steady clip. When you can get horror news the instant it breaks on sites like this one and incredibly in-depth analyses of your favorite movies on numerous sites and blogs across the web, well, there’s just not that much incentive to drop nearly $10 on a magazine. And Fangoria has been very publicly going through its own share of troubles in recent years, on top of the inherent issues that come along with trying to run a magazine in an internet-dominated world.
From editors departing to ownership changes and stories of writers being unpaid for their work, Fangoria has been having a rough go at it in recent years; their last print issue hit shelves back in October of 2015, and only a small handful of digital issues have been released since then. You could say the writing has been on the walls for a while, and it seems Fangoria may now be dead.
Ken Hanley, the magazine’s most recent editor-in-chief, took to Twitter last night to break some depressing news. In a series of tweets, Hanley revealed:
Been waiting a long time to say it, but I can finally say: I am no longer involved with FANGORIA. I’ve been on hiatus from the company in mid-December. I’ll always be grateful for the time and opportunity there, so it’s a fucking bummer. For those wondering: there will likely never be another issue of FANGORIA, especially in print, unless there’s new ownership. As for the odds of that happening, there’s a minuscule chance as something was (is?) in the cards, but I’ve personally given up hope.
He added:
I wish for the best for those remaining at FANGO, for however long that may be, especially the Musick team.
We would also like to wish the best of luck to Fangoria and everyone involved with the brand. If this is the end of an era (nothing has been officially reported at this time, so it’s hard to know if it’s truly the end), at least one thing cannot ever be taken away: it was one hell of an era.
Without Fangoria, I’m not sure the horror genre would be as strong as it is today.
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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