As the team continues to work towards the release of the FANGORIA Compendium in July, we wanted to give backers a sneak peek at some of the work that's already underway. The following update offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what Compendium author Meredith Borders has been cooking up with her many interviews for the project.
It’s been about a month since FANGORIA’s intrepid community manager Kimberly Leszak offered an update on the behind-the-scenes goings-on with the archive portion of the Compendium. Now that she’s given y’all a taste of some of the visuals that are to come in the project, she was kind enough to ask me to step in to tease some of the interviews readers can expect from the book.
Oh, and there’s the little tidbit of, as of this writing, the best dang community in the world took this project’s Kickstarter to one million dollars, unlocking our final stretch goal for FANGORIA’s horror comic anthology.
You’ll get more exciting details on that soon! In the meantime, Meredith has been head down for months now, juggling the endless responsibilities that come with putting together something as huge as this Compendium project while also handling her duties for the quarterly magazine and Single Issue Publications. Since she’s been so unfathomably busy, I’ve been lucky enough to act as her Girl Friday, taking on whatever odd task that might make her job just a little bit easier. With that has come the privilege of organizing the horde of discussions with horror legends intrinsically intertwined with FANGORIA’s past, present and future. Over forty transcripts of Meredith’s interviews sit nestled in my inbox, all ready to be meticulously curated into what will eventually become Fango’s biggest print project yet. A sneak peek of some of my personal favorite conversations:
There’s no discussing the history of FANGORIA without a chat with Barbara Crampton. Whether she’s writing her column, hosting the Chainsaw Awards, or performing in or producing her latest entry into the genre, Barbara is as much a part of Fango’s DNA as anyone. In fact, she’s so entrenched here that she’s featured in not one, but two conversations for the Compendium.
On-screen horror has long spilled over into the cultural zeitgeist, extending beyond film to dominate the small screen as well. This means it was essential to sit down with Hannibal’s Bryan Fuller, who hasn’t just been a pillar of horror TV and the writer/director of last year’s gateway horror Dust Bunny, but also a longtime member of the Fango community. From his horror origin story to guest editing Volume 1 Issue 343, Fuller’s words were an essential inclusion in the project.
Many of us have spent our whole lives with FANGORIA, and Devon Sawa is no different. Whether he was your first introduction into horror through Casper or you found him through the likes of Idle Hands, Final Destination, or Chucky, many of us have spent much of our lives with him, too. The actor may not have graced the cover of the magazine until Volume 2, Issue 23 in the spring of 2024, but his nose has been buried in the pages since the Pumpkinhead issue back in ’88.
Meanwhile, horror maestro Mike Flanagan has a different kind of horror origin story – one that you’ll have to check out the Compendium to get the full scoop on – but suffice to say that his relationship with horror has evolved over the years. His love affair with FANGORIA started all the way back in 1984 (much to his parents’ chagrin) and would continue on throughout his journey as the prolific writer and director that he’s become. Flanagan is astutely aware of how journalism and print have changed over the years, making him all the more thankful for the thoughtful approach Fango takes to horror.
And that, my friends, is just a smattering of the folks whose deep-dive insights about horror, Fango and more you can expect to read in the pages of First In Fright: The FANGORIA Compendium. Make sure to stay tuned for more updates; I’m going to go see who I can trick into giving me the scoop on the comic situation!
