Legendary horror periodical ‘FANGORIA MAGAZINE’ has saluted British Horror with a dedicated issue celebrating the very best from the Spectred Isle! It features a cover painted by Carrion Film Director Ashley Thorpe.
“ Now, I love Hammer, but there’s something so unique about Amicus, something that – after a suggestion from three decade FANGORIA vet and Amicus know-it-all Phil Nutman – gave me the urge to use this fine issue of your favourite periodical to explore it and the state of British horror past and present. It just…made sense. And when UK animator Ashley Thorpe offered to dip his brush into oil paints, slapping them to canvas and giving us an exclusive impressionist painting of Peter Cushing as Tales from the Crypt’s undead Grimsdyke…well, here we are, and I hope you’re pleased.” – Chris Alexander.
And as if nabbing the cover art gig wasn’t enough, Issue 305 also features Ashley’s detailed examination of the Victorian Penny Dreadful – ‘Dreadful Pleasures’ or the secret History of British Horror – and their cultural importance, specifically in the development of Horror and popular culture. Here is a brief excerpt:
‘Thanks to the movies, which is to say Universal in the 1930s and Hammer in the 1950s, we tend to think of British horror as defined by the mostly late Victorian likes of Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dorian Gray and the Hound of the Baskervilles (and the pre-Victorian gothic science fiction anomaly of Frankenstein). That’s one story,’ notes novelist and critic Kim Newman. ‘The other is more scurrilous, populist (frankly, working class), socially-aware and unexplored – the penny dreadful relates to Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, Tod Slaughter-style stage melodrama, the prurient crime reporting of the tabloids, urban legends like Sweeney Todd and Spring-Heel’d Jack and the Black Swine in the Sewers of Hampstead. It’s the world of Varney the Vampire, Dick Turpin and the Blue Dwarf, Wagner the Wehr-Wolf, the Face at the Window and the String of Pearls, Captain Kidd hung in chains and the Jack the Ripper letters.’ – Ashley Thorpe / Kim Newman.
Ashley Thorpe interviewing Hammer Director Peter Sasdy at the National Media Museum for an article to appear in a future issue.
Although the Director (an avid reader of the magazine since his school years) has contributed to FANGORIA before – contributing various articles and interviews with British artists such as Les Edwards and Stephen Thrower – this is the first time that Ashley has provided artwork for the legendary magazine.
Established in 1979, Fangoria magazine was not initially conceived to be a Horror periodical. The first issue was designed around the original “fantasy film” concept for the magazine, yet proved to be an abysmal failure, as were several issues that followed, all continuing with the same conceptual approach.
Two phenomena allowed a young Editor Robert ‘Uncle Bob’ Martin to reshape the magazine and bring it back from the abyss of debt. First, was the immensely positive audience response to one of the articles that appeared in the first issue of Fangoria, an article that celebrated the craft of special makeup effects artist Tom Savini, and his splatter effects for Romero’s 1978 film ‘Dawn of the Dead’.
Second was the palpable stench of defeat that was surrounding Fangoria. With its demise all but certain, 
senior employees and the two owners of the publishing firm stood back from the fray and allowed the untried young editor to take the lead, reshaping the entire book according to what he believed would work.
Issue seven, with a cover story on Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen Kings ‘The Shining’, was the first issue of any national magazine to wholly concern itself with horror film as produced in the closing quarter of the 20th Century, with no trace of daintiness about its subject matter. It also was the first issue of Fangoria to achieve a profit. Subsequent issues would sharpen the focus, but by issue twelve, the formula was well-set, and remains largely unchanged to this date. (Ref: Wikipedia).
FANGORIA Issue 305 is on sale now in all good newsagents & comic / cinema stores.
CARRION FILMS TO PLAY ON CON IV
‘Scayrecrow‘ and ‘The Screaming Skull‘ have been selected to be screened at this years ‘PlayOnCon’ in Birmingham Alabama USA. The films will form part of ‘Philip Nutman’s Nightmares‘ – the award winning author / producer’s continuing tour with the films across the United States.
Philip Nutman & Director Ashley Thorpe at the 'Buried Alive! Film Festival' 2010
Play On Con (POC) is a four day fantasy and science fiction fandom convention held each year in Birmingham, Alabama–the Magic City!
The event features Interactive and energetic events that welcome new fans as well as old including Gaming (the best board, rpg, live action,video, and card gaming),Parties ( Nightly and daily!) hospitality events thrown by award-winning party hosts, and award winning films and animation.
Special guests this year include horror’s renaissance man Voltaire – As a musician, he is a songwriter whose music can best be described as a collection of murder ballads, tongue-in-cheek exercises in the macabre, with just enough bawdy songs about Star Trek and Star Wars to keep a convention audience rolling in the aisles. Many know him for his songs “Brains!” and “Land of the Dead” from the Cartoon Network show “The Grim Adventures of Billy And Mandy”.
The fourth annual convention will be held Friday, July 29 – Monday, August 1, 2011 (with bonus events on Thursday before opening and on Monday night after closing)!