NEWSFLASH! FANGO'S BACK IN PRINT!

At the time it disappeared from magazine racks, FANGORIA was my favorite monster mag. It was a smart 'zine, but it didn't condescend with a high-brow affectation. It wasn't a "chummy" fan mag, either. FANGO just seemed to have the right combination of writing and coverage to slake the thirst of any slavering monster fan. It did me, anyway, and I was sad to see it go.

Well, a recent press release has announced that FANGO will again be in print in time for this Halloween. I can't hope that it will pick up where it left off, though. I'm sure there will be a new spin to the overall vibe, and it may be a good thing. I'm also guessing that since it will be published quarterly, that it will be perfect bound instead of saddle-stapled and have a slightly higher page count to justify a $15 to $16 cover price.

No matter how it serves up its "guts and gravy" this time, I'll be happy to see it back.

Michael Gingold, former Editor-In-Chief of FANGORIA.

Here's the full 411 from IndieWire.com:

After an unofficial two-and-a-half year hiatus from the publication world, beloved horror magazine “Fangoria” is returning to print. Texas-based entertainment company Cinestate has acquired all the assets and trademarks of the Fangoria brand, including the magazine, from The Brooklyn Company, and now intends to begin publishing again, just in time for Halloween. The magazine has also named Birth.Movies.Death. Editor-At-Large Phil Nobile Jr. as the outlet’s Editor-in-Chief, and has revealed a number of plans for further expansion into other areas of entertainment.

The last few years have been complicated ones for the publication, which has not published a full print edition since October 2015 and has been beset by employment changes that impacted even some of its most well-known writers. In June of 2016, long-time writer (and then-Editor-in-Chief) Michael Gingold was fired from the publication after 28 years of employment. Art director Bill Mohalley was also let go at the time. Managing Editor Ken Hanley was then named Editor-in-Chief, but he reportedly left the mag in February of 2017.

Yet, today’s announcement indicates that “Fangoria” is eager to get back into business with some of his biggest stars, as both Gingold and Tony Timpone (also a former editor of the mag) will return to pen new columns for the revived publication. The mag has also announced that it’s locked in “excited commitments from contributors,” including director S. Craig Zahler, plus writers (many of them also former Fango contributors) Ashlee Blackwell, Samuel Zimmerman, Grady Hendrix, Meredith Borders, Rebekah McKendry, and Preston Fassel.

“There needs to be a Fangoria,” said Nobile in an official statement. “The magazine was a constant presence in the genre since 1979 — and then one day it was gone. That felt, to us, tragically incorrect. Fango was, for multiple generations, a privileged window into the world of horror. It gave us access to filmmakers’ processes and secrets, opened our eyes to movies we might have otherwise missed, and nurtured a wave of talent that’s out there driving the genre today. I’m proud and excited to be part of the team that’s bringing this institution back.”

In a post on B.M.D., Nobile also added that the mag “will be reborn later this year as a deluxe quarterly edition, a collectible horror film journal featuring voices both new and familiar…It will present smart, fun, exclusive horror film coverage – all in time for the magazine’s 40th anniversary next year.”

A full staff is in place and operating from the Cinestate offices in Dallas, TX. Zack Parker, formerly of Shudder, joins Fangoria as the Director of Brand Management, along with Jessica Safavimehr as Associate Publisher and Ashley Detmering as Art Director. Nobile will be based out of New Jersey.

As part of the arrangement, Cinestate now “controls all material from over 300 issues of Fangoria Magazine, including articles, photos, and exclusive interviews, spanning the past 39 years. The contents of the now-infamous Fangoria storage unit in New York, a veritable treasure trove of horror history collected over decades by former staff, has arrived at the Cinestate offices to be sorted and cataloged.”

Added Cinestate CEO Dallas Sonnier, “We are fully committed to restoring faith in Fangoria with the horror fan community, so many of whom bought subscriptions, but never received their magazines. We have also been reaching out to previous Fangoria contributors to introduce ourselves and invite them back into the tent for future collaborations. This is a process, but we are confident in our ability to earn back trust and be good partners in a brand that personally means so much to so many awesome people.”

The Fangoria website has not published new material since the end of January, but its full archives are available here.

Per today’s press release, “Sonnier was able to complete the Fangoria asset acquisition and fuel growth in Cinestate by raising over $5 million of investment for his company. The primary investor in Cinestate is a member of a prominent Texas family that wishes to remain anonymous. As part of the deal, Cinestate also acquired the assets and trademarks to out-of-print publications ‘Starlog’ and ‘Gorezone.'”

Additionally, “Cinestate will further develop Fangoria into a brand for producing movies and podcasts, as well as publishing horror novels. Cinestate VP Amanda Presmyk will head up production on a slate of Fangoria-presented horror movies that Sonnier will bring to the table for Cinestate’s new label.”