Fangoria updated their site today to a splash page with a video, promising new copies of the magazine in print. Founded in 1979, the magazine’s last print issue was distributed in October 2015. There is no information regarding when exactly the publication will release its next issue or who is taking the reins as editor.
The video begins ominously with some knocking at a door, while our first person POV is scrolling through the Fangoria site on a cell phone. After we answer the door and see no one, the seventh issue of the classic magazine (featuring The Shining on the cover) slides through the mail slot as a clip of Poltergeist quote, “we’re back,” plays in the background. The text then reads “back in print,” with no details.
Will we get a section of personal ads in the back? Removable centerfolds of Freddy Krueger? Mail order catalogs of back issues? We’re excited for whatever comes our way.
UPDATE—————-2/15/18
More details regarding Fangoria’s print revival have been made public, with answers to many of our questions regarding leadership and funding.
Fangoria was purchased by Cinestate from the Brooklyn Company, the now-previous owner of all publishing and trademark rights. Cinestate’s CEO Dallas Sonnier has produced recent noteworthy genre flicks such as Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99, as well as the upcoming installment in the Puppet Master series.
The Editor-in-Chief a Creative Director posts will be staffed by Phil Nobile Jr., the former Editor-at-Large at Birth.Movies.Death and writer/producer at Stage 3 Productions.
It seems as though Nobile is capable and qualified to fill this highly revered position. His history as a reader with the magazine will hopefully translate into a successful reboot. He offered, “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. We want to restore that analog thrill to readers. We want to duplicate the excitement that I remember bubbling up around a new issue of Fango, put that excitement in an envelope and mail it to our subscribers. Fangoria is not something that competes with online blogs. Fangoria is not an algorithm. 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.”
Other contributors have already been recruited. Among them are previous Fangoria writers Tony Timpone and Michael Gingold, Shudder curator Samuel Zimmerman, and Blumhouse.com Editor-in-Chief Rebekah McKendry.
The next print issue of Fangoria is expected to be released in time for Halloween of this year.