DVDs - The New ‘Zines?
Master of Horror Cartooning Stephen Bissette has written a response (scroll down to the July 25th post) to the Tim Lucas article I linked to yesterday about the gradual supplantation of print ‘zines by blogs. Stephen offers another alternative. What if the release of the films themselves, if not downplaying the need for ‘zines, can be considered the continuation and maturation of the cult movie ‘zine scene?
In fact, many of these releases sport, as extras, nifty and sometimes expansive booklets that are, in fact, l’il fanzines in and of themselves. Add to those print mini-zines the tsunami of DVD bonuses, extras and ‘easter eggs’ we’ve come to take for granted, and you have digital fanzines en masse that clearly are 21st Century kith and kin to their 20th Century precursors, available from far more distribution venues than the mail-order-only-Monster-Kids of the ’60s would have dared to imagine.
There’s plenty more where that came from, and it’s an exhaustive ride. Bissette marries the old and the new in ways that are unexpected yet glaringly obvious in hindsight.
Oh, and Xerox Ferox has got to be one of the coolest names for anything, anywhere.
July 26th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
While I respect Steve Bissette’s opinion on the matter - DVDs are not the new ‘zines, but are rather the ‘pulp magazines’ of this era:
1) Pulps and DVDs both come with bright color covers that stand out on the shelf and are designed to entice the casual browser.
2) They are inexpensively produced and mass marketed.
3) D2DVD movies are written to a formula just as the pulps were.
4) Both feature a main element and then ‘editorial backmatter.’
July 27th, 2006 at 1:30 am
I don’t think your positions are diametrically opposed, Bill. It seems to me that Bissette is referring more to reissues of older films which once could only be enjoyed through reviews in ‘zines, via bootlegs or in the occassional official release. For example, I own The Blind Dead Box Set which comes with all four movies, a booklet detailing the history of the series and an extra disc containing a documentary on Amando de Ossorio. A package like that is almost the promise of the horror ‘zine fufilled.
As you mention in your third point, your focus is on direct-to-DVD films, which are another category altogether. It’s rare that I see any of the first type on the shelves at Blockbuster as they seem to be intended for a less casual type of customer. The Direct-to-DVD faction, on the other hand, seems to be marketed to the widest possible audience.