I've always wanted to subscribe to a horror magazine, but I honestly have no ideas which one to. I'm on the fence with Rue Morgue, Fangoria (I know this has huge following) and Diabolique. Which is the best one? (or worth it, at least) I'm kinda looking for something that focuses on actually good horror, independent films and not the mainstream annoyingly bad horror movies.
I would say HorrorHound, but it depends what you're into (older, newer, etc). Of the three you mentioned, I would personally go with Fangoria.
I'd say horror hound too but IMO its lost it's way about a year or two back. It's much better than Fango but it's a shell of itself. Issues 1-25 are great!
Agree that HorrorHound lost it's way. Loved their VHS label articles at first but they fizzled out quickly. Plus, I was never a big fan of comics or toys and thought the magazine covered those way too much - more so than actual horror films. I honestly can't recommend ANY horror magazine. The arrival of the internet pretty much negated the usefulness of print media for me.
There are definitely some issues with getting Fangoria in a timely manner some months, but there has been improvement with the last two issues. It is also a lot cheaper than buying them on the stands. I still like Horrorhound, although I do miss their more prevalent earlier VHS coverage. To be fair, I think they did retrospective articles on almost all the labels-so there may not be much left to cover! Rue Morgue also still has some good stuff, although out of the three I like them the least. One major issue for me is that they have drastically reduced page count in the last year or two (by over 20 pages) while raising price. Fango has also raised prices, but has kept a page count of over 80 with each issue. With all that said, I still read each issue of these three-despite the wonders of the internet, I LOVE print media the most-an old school die hard, I suppose.
I'm in agreement with the sentiments regarding Horrorhound. Maybe it's just the old saying about how familiarity breeds contempt, but I'm just not as into it as I used to be. I still buy every issue though.
Probably not most appropriate to post HERE but I also miss the forums from Horrorhound.com; there was one poster in particular who loved to stir stuff up and piss most people off but I found him/her hilarious!
Anyone else heard or read this yet? Just saw an advertisement for it in the latest issue of horrorhound. It's put out by Full Moon. $45 for 6 issues seems kind of steep but maybe its worth it? http://www.deliriummagazine.com/
I haven't picked up an issue of Horrorhound in awhile, but it was definitely a great one to pick up a few years ago. They'd be loaded with pictures, I loved the insane amounts of old memorabilia in their retrospectives, etc. For straight up writing, I'd go with Rue Morgue back when Jovanka Vuckovic was the editor. I was re-reading the issue from 2008 or 2009 with the Pumpkinhead retrospective and it was a great reminder of how amazing that magazine was at the time. It's gone drastically downhill since, unfortunately.
For what it's worth, after a rocky start Famous Monsters has developed into a pretty great magazine since it's revival. However, I stopped buying it because the magazines are pretty thick and I don't really have the time to read them. I wound up getting 3 or 4 issues behind and the same thing is beginning to happen with Horrorhound. The latest issue has been out for over a month and I've barely glanced at it.
They had a big signing event for it at Dark Delicacies. I was in the store when they were setting it up, but the event was happening later in the day and I couldn't stick around for it. I grabbed a flyer with the guest list though. Charles Band, Richard Band, Stuart Gordon, Ted Nicolaou, David DeCoteau, Robin Sydney, Scott King, Bill Lustig, Brinke Stevens, Denise Duff, Jackie Lovell, Michelle Bauer, Linnea Quigley, Ken Hall.
Horrorhound - I don't read every issue, but I pick up every second or third, and it's usually a fun read all the way through. I've stopped trying to read anything else, as it's usually poorly edited or focused on trends that I find embarrassing/boring.
During the 80's and 90's I subscribed to and purchased a lot of horror magazines. Today I was photographing some of the digest size issues. I haven't seen some of these in years. There were a lot of fanzines as well as the professional magazines during that time period. Here are some examples.
Always enjoyed the few issues of Is It Uncut? and Ultra Violent that I picked up but they were ones I didn't see around a lot. It's probably not as old as a lot of the ones you're posting but here's a Shocking Images that I have. It was the current issue when I discovered the magazine but it was also the last.
