Last year, we relayed the sad—but not wholly unexpected, given the state of print publishing in general—news that Fangoria magazine as we knew it was dead, felled like so many horny teenagers on the blade of Jason’s machete. Well, according to a press release issued today, the brand has risen from the grave, not unlike Camp Crystal Lake’s own masked madman in Jason Lives: Friday The 13th Part 6 (and Part 7, and Part 8).
The bolt of lighting (or telekinetic teenager, or underwater live wire) in this particular case is Texas-based entertainment company Cinestate—producer of S. Craig Zahler’s Bone Tomahawk and Brawl On Cell Block 99—which bought Fangoria from its previous publisher with an eye on reviving it in print. (Yes, in print! In 2018!) As part of the deal, the company gained access to Fangoria’s back library of more than 300 issues, and is currently in possession of the Fangoria, Starlog, and Gorezone archives; it also plans to produce movies, podcasts, and horror novels under the Fangoria imprint.
Former Birth.Movies.Death editor-at-large Phil Nobile Jr. has been hired as Editor-In-Chief and Creative Director of the revived Fangoria, with longtime contributors Michael Gingold and Tony Timpone brought on as columnists and brand consultants. Director S. Craig Zahler, Shudder’s Samuel Zimmerman, Paperbacks From Hell author Grady Hendrix, former Birth.Movies.Death. editorial director Meredith Borders, and horror historian Rebekah McKendry have all signed on as contributors.
“There needs to be a Fangoria,” Nobile. says in a press release. “The magazine was a constant presence in the genre since 1979 – and then one day it was gone. That felt, to us, tragically incorrect.” He adds, “When I read Fangoria as a kid, it was a special ritual. I had to save up for it, and then I had to find it. And bringing it home ten times a year became a kind of sacrament, poring over every photograph on every page, reading that whole thing front to back, then doing it again … Fangoria is something you hold in your hands, something you spend a bit of time with in the real world. That’s what it was for decades, and that’s what we’re going to make it again.”
The first issue of the new Fangoria is set to hit shelves this fall, just in time for Halloween.