The 30 Greatest Fangoria Covers of all Time Pt. 1, 30 - 21

The recently released Fangoria Cover to Cover book (the signing of which I attended on Thurs) has made me think about the best covers Fango has had. This three part series has me picking out the very best covers this world renown horror mag has had. The movies or TV shows featured on the cover may range in quality, but the eye catch ability of all of them is why they are here. These are some of the coolest, bloodiest, most beautiful, and, in some cases, even sexy covers the mag has had in its' 35 year run. Let know what you think about my picks! Anyway, let's get this countdown started already!

30. Fangoria #84- Tales from the Crypt- HBO's groundbreaking horror anthology series pops on the cover as the killer Santa takes center stage. This is one of the earliest issues that I ever bought. I think I recall the cover causing some controversy, too. The Ghostbusters II insignia being on the corner is an added bonus, even if the movie itself isn't all that...

29. Fangoria #83- Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th Pt. VII: The New Blood- The best looking Jason Voorhees (the first time the real Jason appeared on the cover, by the way) gets the cover here. This issue which interviewed the first half of the final girls of the slasher franchise is when I started to collect the mag and read it religiously. The combo of their sexy presence and Jason being on the cover made me decide that I NEED to own it!

28. Fangoria #88- Halloween 5:The Revenge of Michael Myers- Yeah, this era of Fango covers was really special to me, cause I was so into reading and collecting it,at this point. This is the best cover featuring Michael Myers by and far, I think. Even if the sequel itself is just OK and the Myers mask is actually one of the worst ones in the series. That fellow slasher icons Freddy and Leatherface are in the side filmstrip are icing on the bloody cake.






27. Fangoria #19- Poltergeist- Tobe Hooper's Steven Spielberg produced classic is featured. That the corpses are said to be real only adds a certain morbid coolness to it.

26. Fangoria #299- Black Swan- A beautiful and eye-catching cover has the psychological horror flick take the main place. I remember that I would stare at this cover every time I saw it for sale at a comic shop or bookstore. 

25. Fangoria #153- The Craft- I remember getting this cover in the mail (I was subcribed back then) and drooling over the girls on it. Especially Fairuza Balk, who I was totally in love with when I was in college. You can say this cover put a spell on me! To paraphrase ZZ Top, they got legs and know how to use them!

24. Fangoria #25- Videodrome- The first gore cover to make this list is from one of the David Cronenberg's finest movies, as a TV barfs some intestines. A cover with guts! Literally!

23. Fangoria #89- Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III- A touching and heartwarming picture of Leatherface and his family adorns this one. You know this proves it. Leatherface is a wonderful uncle!

21. Fangoria #127- The Beyond- Instead of featuring a current a movie, a trend the magazine had kinda slumped in at this point, it goes retro and features Fulci's finest movie. It was being re-released by Tarantino, at the time. The image is of the little zombie girl who gets her brains blown out thanks to a gunshot blast. It's a gore highlight in an ubber-gory classick and as such really stands out amongst Fango covers.

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RIP For the Last Month of 2009

This last month of the year has had so many sad and tragic deaths (beginning with one of the saddest, Kerri Lee Tucker), that I felt compelled to write this blog. I consider myself a fan of all of the following people. May they all RIP and God bless them.

Dan O'Bannon (September 30, 1946 – December 17, 2009) - O'Bannon was an undeniable talent in the world of horror and sci-fi. The man wrote many great scripts, including the classic Alein, movie whose influence on horror and sci-fi is inarguable. Aside from many other genre scripts, he also wrote the second best Arnie movie ever, in the form of Total Recall, which has just about everything you could ever want in a film. He also directed The Resurrected and one of my personal favorite movies, The Return of the Living Dead , a movie that only gets better with age and viewings. Here is the trailer:


Brittany Murphy (November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) - The lovely Ms. Murphy's death shocked me to the core, so young, beautiful, and talented. Like many, I first remember her from Clueless. She went on to do lots of other films, but my fav role of hers remains to be her role of a virgin in the reverse (by reverse I mean that it is virgins, who get killed in this one), underrated slasher flick Cherry Falls. It was one of her, if not her, sexiest role. Here is the trailer to it:

My favorite movie she stared in has to be Sin City, one of the finest movies ever to be inspired by a comic book.

James Owen "The Rev" Sullivan (February 10, 1981 – December 28, 2009) - This one made me quite sad, as I am a huge fan of hard rock/ heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. I had the pleasure of seeing them live at an Ozzfest a few years. The fact that he died so young, makes the death that much more tragic. He was a solid, highly talented drummer in a band that is technically sound and plays some of the best rock in the biz, right now. Here is my absolute fav video they ever did:


"Dr. Death" Steven Williams (May 14, 1960 – December 29, 2009) - I only really know him for his short tenures in the WWE, when JR bought him in and WCW when he was with JR parody Oklahoma. Regardless, I did like the guy. He sub came to cancer, sadly. Here is a clip of him and JR on Raw:



Chas. Balun (1948- December 29, 2009) - Out of of these deaths I think this one hit me the hardest. Chas. was important to me growing up. He introduced me, and many other fellow gorehounds, to a lot of the hardcore splatter and gore movies, we so love, including foreign classics, many of which he was the first to champion, like Shogun Assassin, The Beyond, Cannibal Holocaust, and many more. I loved reading his stuff in Fangoria and Gorezone magazines, as well his classic books like the Gore Score and More Gore Score, books that, I still, to this very day, read over and over again. He was funny and highly opinionated. I cannot even begin to tell you how much his style is a direct influential to my own style of reviewing movies. He was also an artist and made the designs for many a rotten cotton T-shirt and wrote linear notes on some DVDs. He had been battling cancer and lost last night. Here is the trailer for one of his favorite movies, The Beyond:


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Now playing: Avenged Sevenfold - M.I.A.
via FoxyTunes

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Chiller Theater- April 18, 2009

This was to be the biggest group we have ever had going to Chiller. Though, at first it was only my friends Alan, Aisha, and myself headed out to Chiller. We got there early and checked in. By 11:30 AM we were inside the con. One of the first things we noticed is that it was not horribly crowded where we could not even move. Instead, we had breathing room, and we went off to meet celebs.

The first person I went up to was still lovely Cinizia Monreale form Lucio Fulci's masterpiece The Beyond. She played the blind chick in that classic. She still looks great! She asked me if was Italian. I told her my dad was from Sicily. Anyways, she signed my copy of The Beyond.

Next, we went to tent. There I went up to the lovely April Hunter. Goddamn! She is so hot! She was also really friendly, and at 10 bucks for an 8x10 and 10 more for a pic with her, I felt she had nice little deal going.

Next up, we went inside and got it in the pit! Man, we never been in the pit this early in the day! I think it is great that they only sold tickets online. It helped keep the crowds from being a nightmare. Anyways, I had wanted to meet Edward James Olmos, but at 50 bucks, plus 20 more if you wanted a pic with him, I was like, "No way!" My friend Alan went up to him, though. I opted to go up to another Battlestar Galatica actor, the pretty Luciana Carro. She played Kat on BSG. I told her when her character died, I actually cried! She was very nice and, of course, asked if I was Italian. When I told her that I was, she told me she was, too. She signed my copy of the first season of BSG.

As we walked through the dealer's room, we noticed that Jasmine Mai was there! I totally flipped out! While, I seen her before, I never got her autograph or anything of the sort. She was really friendly and sweet in person. She has a great personality and talked to me for a while, which was a really pleasant surprise! I got a magazine filled with pics of her and other models inside, which she had presigned but then personalized it for me. It came a bunch of pics and a poster, all signed! Plus, a free 8x10 personalized. And, I get a pic with her, all for 20 bucks! Deal of the day! Overall, she was just so awesome, that she is definitely my favorite celeb I went up to at this Chiller.

Soon, we met up with Jon, Kim, Matt, and Rachel. We decided to get some lunch. Yay! It's the Chiller Menu!

As is always the case with Chiller, there were people in some cool costumes. These were some of my favs:

In the dealer's room, I saw Ruby LaRoca. Like I have said before, I know Ruby for quite some time now. She is always such a cool chick in person. You just gotta love her!

In the dealer's room I got a bunch of cool stuff. They included an action figure of Terry Funk as Chainsaw Charlie and four Japanese movie DVDs: The Angel Collection, Tokyo Gore Police, Flower & Snake II, and Assault! Jack the Ripper. We saw some statues that had rubber duckies. We thought that that was so cute!

Afterward, we finally met up with Pat and Freddie, and later, new comers to Chiller: Rollie and Rachel. The entourage is finally complete!

Since Rollie, wanted to meet Demolition, we went back to the tent. Cynthia Myers of Russ Meyer's classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls pointed at us, and I soon was surprised that she wanted to talk to me! Turns out her son is a huge Metallica fan, and she wanted to know where to get the T-shirt, I was wearing. I told her to go to hottopic.com

We would eventually get some pizza for dinner, and the all of, and I do mean all of us, got together. Pat and Jon got stuck in the elevator, but thankfully, nothing happened, and soon they, too, joined us. We had a moment of silence for the late, great Marilyn Chambers. I had the pleasure of meeting her a few years ago at Chiller, and it is really a shame that she passed away, so recently. God bless her and may she R.I.P.

Anyways, when we were done we went to the Chiller party! It took them some time to set up, but when they did, holy shit was it was awesome! As they were setting up celebs were getting ready to jam, including Rugrats voice and The Devil's Rejects star, the pretty E.G. Daily.

The Dead Elvi began the fun. Throughout the whole night they played a KILLER set!

As is the usual, lovely ladies joined them on stage.

It should be noted that they had a new signer, and he was awesome! I love his raspy voice!

Pop signer Taylor Dane had the most surreal moment of the night, as she played with zombies, in front of a sea of metalheads, and STILL bought the house down! She had an awesome set and looked great to boot!

If you are wondering the chick in blue is a hottie who played the keyboards, on this night.

Mark Slaughter, who the audience was chanting for, went on next. But, he needed a drum to play, and since he did not have one, we think he should have done an acoustic set. He was way off tune, and did not even finish his best, most famous, and the one this crowd was begging for, the song: Up All Night.

But, thank God E.G. Daily joined him in a duet for a kick ass cover of Helter Skelter! Now, that was awesome!

Micky Dolenz then totally rocked the house with really, really killer tunes!

But, it did not stop there! The surprise of the night was the awesomeness of Richie Scarlett, who has played with Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, and Ace Frehley. He fucking rocked so hard that he just fucking killed!!!!! Many were like who is that guy?! But, at that point, it did not mattered cause he fucking owned it! There was a point where he got off the stage and played in the middle of the audience! Like I told a girl that I was talking to, I been to Chiller for years, and I never seen anyone do anything like that! Kick ass!

Next, Dale Bozzio and her band Missing Persons further kicked the audience's asses! People were totally rocking out!

As always, Chiller is filled with crazy shit going on. Throughout the night these blow dolls rocked out, too!

This chick, whoever she was, has a smoking hot body.

I seen the lovely Sky for the past 2 years or so at Chiller, but I finally got a pic with her. She is just so hot and sexy!

The next band to play was Pat Horgan and Thunder Road . They were great, too! Shit even Austin Powers rocked out to them. But, by this point I was fucking dead tired. I mean I had not been feeling so good all week (in fact as I type this I am finally getting over this slight cold), and when exhaustion hit, we just had to call it a night. Although, Rollie, Rachel, Matt, and I tried to stay as long as we could.

The next day we said bye to our friends and off we went for pncakes and BACON!! An awesome breakfast later, we headed our seprate ways, as we await the next Chiller!

Here is to the best Chiller, yet, and to many more to come. Chiller fucking rules!!!!!!!!! All hail!

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Now playing: Cradle Of Filth - Filthy Little Secret
via FoxyTunes

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