"I say to hell with the critics and good taste, let's bathe in the flea-ridden, the cheap and the scummy."
- UNGAWA! editorial
UNGAWA! To readers who are familiar with the exotic-sounding word, they'll recognize it as a command barked out in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films. What may come as a surprise is it did not originate in any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels. Instead, the word was made up by screenwriter Cyril Hume for the first of MGM's Tarzan movies, TARZAN THE APE MAN (1932). Known alternately as "umgawa", according to the ERB FANZINE, It has come to be translated variously into "up", "down", "halt" or "go". There is also some semblance to similar words in Swahili.
Editors Foss Hagman and Cathal Tohill used the unusual word for the title of their four-issue run of a nicely-produced UK fanzine on the topics of cinema and music. They welcomed readers to "the whacked out world of Ungawa!, a world where the exotic is the norm". They went on to write in their editorial, "Notes From the Bunker", from the first issue in 1989, "We are not ashamed to delve into the historical roots of the sleazy, the slimy and the maligned."
Boy, they weren't kidding, either! Shown here today is issue #2, published in 1990 and it's a putrescent panoply of pulchritude from the dregs of pop culture. My main reason for sharing this is because of the nifty little article entitled, "A Short History of Monster Magazines" by Mike Wathen, who does an admirable job of encapsulation the topic in just a few short pages.
Also, don't miss articles "Ed or Edna: The Strange Case of Ed Gein", "The Queen of Curves: Bettie Page", "Murder Can Be Fun With Fredric Brown" (a prolific short story and novel writer) and "An Introduction to Spanish Horror". Includes book reviews of "The Selected Correspondence of James Wayne Gacey", "Satan Wants You" by Arthur Lyons and James Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia". Film reviews include BLOODY PIT OF HORROR and HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN. Much more awaits in this fun-filled romp through the garbage-infested alleys of pop culture.
NOTE: The "Voodoo Doll" advertisement seen in this issue has the address: "Castle Dracula, Topanga Canyon, California". This was the address for actor and special effects man, Paul Blaisdell. He and his partner, Bob Burns, published FANTASTIC MONSTERS OF THE FILMS in the 1960s. It's amazing that the postman knew where to deliver the mail!
