If I had kept it together for a few more issues, this piece would've done us some good. Instead, I had to refund all of the new subscription money a few months later when I failed to get issue #25 together (more on that later in the weekend) and decided to close the Temple doors.
Of all the fanzines profiled in this article, only Shock Cinema, Little Shoppe of Horrors and Video Watchdog are still being published today, nearly 20 years later.
Two of the most popular 'zines of the day, Psychotronic Video and The Gore Gazette, didn't make it into this article; GG's Rick Sullivan was purposely excluded at the request of Fangoria/Gorezone editor Tony Timpone, who Sullivan regularly antagonized in the pages of his 'zine in the wake of their controversial appearance together on the infamous anti-slasher episode of The Morton Downey Jr. Show two years earlier, while Michael J. Weldon of PV simply failed to return the questionnaire that Gingold had sent out to all of the editors.
Before he started the Psychotronic Video in 1989, Weldon wrote a column in High Times that often mentioned the do-it-yourself 'zines; the plug he gave Temple of Schlock in 1988 brought us more subscribers than we got from any other source except Factsheet Five, the 'zine of 'zines (also now defunct).
Looking over this article now, I don't know what surprises me more: that I referred to MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER as "schlock" or the fact that I never saw a single issue of Killer Kung-Fu Enema Nurses on Crack!
4 comments:
yay, my kinda article, thanks!
& love live Subhuman, et al.! ;-)
I miss the zine wars of the early 90s!
GG vs Fangoria
The Video Drive-In vs Slimetime
Rod Sims vs Everyone
World of Fandom vs Me
Grindhouse vs computers
Nick the Yak vs Horror when he became born again
I think I ended up meeting more editors than most as I travelled quite extensively.. meeting many Aussie, UK, US and Canada eds eventually.
Doing an off the beaten path mission to see Michael Weldon when he lived in the burbs. I also remember walking into his shop he had one day on 13th st? and meeting him and Mia for the first time. Just a cool couple all round.
And finally hanging with Bill Landis in SF and NYC was really memorable even though it all went a little pear shaped near the end.
I even finally hooked up with Greg Goodsell in Bakersfield for an outdoor screening of North by Northwest we were doing.
Caught up with Jim Morton in SF as well... I felt TRASHOLA really captured the spirit, it was one of the first to talk about cinemas themselves which Ioved reading about. CHICAGO SHIVERS did that as well..
Other people I wish I had met were David Williams and Cecil Doyle. (and of course Kris and you guys)
I tried to meet Steve Puchalski a couple of times but it never worked out for some reason or another.
Would love to see a where they are now article and how many actually parlayed their film interest into a career of sorts.
Someone contacted me a decade or more ago about a book they were writing on the whole scene... but it went nowhere.
cheers
Ant
Oh, man, I remember this article. At the time I felt slighted (one quick mention, and none of my comments were used) because my zine wasn't "sleazy" enough, but in retrospect, it's amazing Mike was able to get this published at all. And I can't believe it ends with an comment from Al Shevy, publisher of one of the worst fanzines that ever walked the Earth. I have good words to say about almost all my fellow fan-eds from back in the day, but WORLD OF FANDOM was just worthless crap. :)
"Nick the Yak vs Horror when he became born again"
LOL!
This is Nick the Yak here, and I can't thank the TEMPLE OF SCHLOCK site enough for posting this article---I went nuts looking for it. I had a novel published in 2009, and now my publisher discovered my fanzine past and wants to do a non-fiction history of my zines and my more recent book reviews. SO glad to see TOS going strong---been visiting this site often the past few months.
ANONYMOUS: I'm still a Christian (always will be), but over the years I've found a nice balance between my faith and my "hobby."
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