ASIAN CULT CINEMA CEASES PUBLICATION

Due to personal circumstances, Thomas Weisser, publisher of ASIAN CULT CINEMA magazine, and his wife, Yuko, are moving to Japan. As a result ACC will cease publcation. This is very unfortunate, as the digest-sized 'zine was one of the very few printed windows to the east where some of the most interesting action, fantasy, horror and monster films are currently being produced.

Many times overlooked as a monster 'zine, ASIAN CULT CINEMA (formerly ASIAN TRASH CINEMA) was published in some form for 18 years and very often included comprehensive coverage on horror and monster movies from all over the east, including Japan, China, Korea and Thailand. It is sad to hear that it is folding and that MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD did not have a chance to properly promote this fine publication. Rest assured, you can plan on seeing reviews of selected monster-filled back issues on an occasional basis right here in the future. Following is the notice from the ACC Newsletter:



A MESSAGE FROM THOMAS WEISSER
"The current issue #64 of Asian Cult Cinema magazine is the last. Effective immediately, I am shutting down publication of ACC magazine. Personal family obligations force me and my wife Yuko to retire from this business and - at least temporarily - to relocate in Japan.


This may be a brief venture. Or Yuko and I could be gone for a much longer period of time. Simply, we are uncertain of our immediate future; however, I have already passed company responsibilities to my assistant, Archie Cole.


Most of you already know Archie. He has managed the Asian Cult Cinema and World Cult Cinema website for the past eight years. Although he does not feel qualified to helm the magazine (see his comments below), Archie Cole is committed to continuing - and excelling with - the ACC E-Commerce website. So, most importantly, you will continue to have access to all the Asian and World Cult DVDs.


I want to personally thank you for your support. It's been a good 18 year run."

ASIAN CULT CINEMA OBITS

It has also been a down time for ACC's staff. Several contributors have passed away recently. Weisser memorialized them in his farewell:
 
"On a particularly sad note, the past year claimed the death of three major Asian Cult Cinema contributors.



As reported in ACC #61, Graham Lewis died from a massive heart attack a few days before Thanksgiving 2008. He was 46 years old.


Ten months later, in October 2009, Jerome C Morris was killed in an auto accident on a Connecticut expressway. At the time, Jerry was working as the news director for a radio station in Maryland. He had conducted some of our best ACC interviews including the one with Tadanobu Asano (Issue #54) and Rinko Kikuchi (Issue #55).


A month later, on November 28, my friend David Aaron Clark died suddenly from a pulmonary embolism. DAC was probably best known as an award-winning director of Adult Films (Asia Noir series, Liliths of Spring, Santeria) and author of the legendary S&M novel Into the Black. He was a constant contributor to Asian Cult Cinema magazine. His writing always made an issue a little bit better. David was 49 when he passed.


I will greatly miss them all."

A MESSAGE FROM ARCHIE COLE

As mentioned, Archie Cole will continue to run the ASIAN CULT CINEMA and WORLD CULT CINEMA website. Here's what the always affable Archie had to say:

"We will all miss Tom Weisser and his direction for ACC. I will probably miss him more than everybody else here. I worked with Tom constantly. He taught me everything about this business.. But - unfortunately - the bastard never taught me how to put together his magazine. There's no reason to bullshit you. I don't have a clue. So I won't even try.



I have no idea about what's going to happen in the future. Maybe he'll be back. Maybe I'll grow a set. Maybe pigs will fly. But I know if I tried to edit a magazine right now nothing else would get done. And I'd only succeed in putting together a crappy version of ACC. So enough already!


Let me get a piece a important stuff out of the way right now... Some of you - many of you - were magazine subscribers. Don't worry. You won't get hurt for bucks. We're putting together credit vouchers and over the next couple weeks you'll be getting a letter explaining how you can claim your money against product. Even though you won't have a new issue of the magazine, you will have some great DVDs to watch. Just give me some time to get all that organized. Also, I will still honor the 10% discount for all current magazine subscribers.


And - oh yeah - I just finished sending the brand new 2010 catalog to the printer. If you want a copy, drop an email my direction: customerservice@asiancult.com."

As a customer of ASIAN CULT CINEMA, I can tell you, you'd have to look for a long while to find a domestic distributor that has such a deep selection of asian horror, action, fantasy and "category III" films, as well as the same from European and other foreign sources, in one place. They ship FAST and have always responded quickly to any questions I have had. So, if you enjoy watching action heroes, outrageous monsters, extreme violence and gore, and smokin' hot babes, then the ACC website is a great place to visit. Just follow the links from the sidebar to the right of this post and tell Archie that MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD sent you.