Headhunted - twice!

I haven't written anything for anybody else for years and years, but then, lo and behold, within a couple of days no less than two different publishers in two different countries asked me if I would like to write for them! I said yes to both. 

One is the Danish comic book fanzine Nørd Nyt. It's a zine that has been going for a very long time. I wrote a piece on them in my first issue of STAY SICK! That was 22 years ago, so yeah they've been at it for a while! 

I recently wrote a review of a comic book that I had planned for the upcoming issue of STAY SICK! (yes, there's finally a new issue on its way but its not due for another three months or so). So I figured I might as well shoot it off in their direction instead. They've already asked for more, so I assume they liked it. Actually, they said they loved it. And they were surprised I had actually bothered to poof read it (yes, that was a joke). I guess not a whole lot of their writers do that. 

The other publisher is a film label in the US called Unearthed Films. I commented on somebody else's (terrible) review of a film that Unearthed Films have recently released. They asked if I was a reviewer. I explained (obviously in excruciating detail) my zine background, after which they sent me a screener of the film. Noice! 

Incidentally, the film in question is from the same country and from the same genre as the films I wrote about in my very first published reviews almost 30 years ago! Those reviews were published in an issue of Bloody Darlings zine in 1993. I won't reveal the titles until the reviews are being published. More about everything at a later stage. 

JACK J i nyt fedt ZINE fra Holland

EDIT (08.08.2022)
ENGLISH: "JACK J in new awesome ZINE from Holland"
I wrote the text for this post for one of my other blogs, and it didn't occur to me that I'd written it in Dutch (or whatever the hell we speak around here) until the next time I checked this blog (which I must confess I don't do very often). Oh well. 
But in short: Hans Minkers in Holland (THEY speak Dutch!) published the first issue of a fanzine called Collector's Collective, and it runs an interview with glorious me. Me and a bunch of other old timers VHS collectors that is. As far as I know you can still order it. Scroll down for link to Hans Minkers on facebook.
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Hold da kæft, det er seks og et halvt år siden, jeg sidst opdaterede denne blog! Oh well, man skal jo heller ikke poste alt muligt unødvendigt lort. Jeg har netop bragt dette indlæg ovre på den danske del af min blog "En lejemorder ser tilbage", og jeg synes ærlig talt, at den vil gøre sig godt her også!

Collector's Collective nr. 1
A5, 40 sider, farve (de første 50 ex, derefter sort-hvid), engelsk tekst
Pris: €5 + porto €4,65 uden for NL / €2,88 i NL
Bestil fra WOOF! på facebook

Hans Minkers, som stod bag det coole hollandske fanzine WOOF!, har nu smækket nr. 1 af et nyt zine sammen, Collector's Collective. WOOF! var stærkt inspireret af Robin Bougies canadiske fanzine Cinema Sewer, som udkom i rigtig mange år (men som lukkede sidste år, se mit indlæg om Robins nye zine ovre på den engelske del af denne blog), i og med at det handlede om genrefilm, men for en stor dels vedkommende var lavet som et tegneserieblad med (af redaktøren) tegnede indlæg. 

Hans Minkers er en af de gamle VHS-samlere på den europæiske scene, som orbiterede rundt om Cinehound forum i gamle dage. Man kender jo sine lus på lugten, eller hvad det nu hedder. Nå, men Minkers har som sagt nu klasket et nyt fanzine sammen, og denne gang er det udelukkende en hyldest til den gamle euro-video-scene og dens samlere. En af de interviewede i det første nummer er denne glade unge mand (læs: mavesure gamle støder) foroven her i indlægget! Fra den gamle danske samlerscene finder vi ud over undertegnede også Diabolik aka Hans-Jørn Reimer. Der er også interview med Dan Kinem, som instruerede den vældig coole dokumentarfilm ADJUST YOUR TRACKING og mange andre navnkundige filmsamlere. Nummmer 2 er på vej. 

Bladet er ikke alt for dyrt, men med det høje portogebyr i tillæg (ja, det hollandske postvæsen er ganske ligesom danske [læs: svenske] PostNord nogle griske ågerkarle) bliver prisen lige over 70 kroner. Men hva' fa'en, du har jo alligevel ikke andet og bruge pengene til. Der er, så vidt jeg ved, stadig farveeksemplarer tilbage. 

Secret Scroll Digest zine

Editor Mike Haushalter asked if I would write a couple of reviews for his long running US based zine Secret Scroll Digest. Long running as in (almost) 15th anniversary issue! The new issue has just been released and it's currently in transit between there and here. I haven't written anything for any (published) publications for quite a while so this is really cool. The new issue is a drive-in special and the films which Mike asked me to review are both classics and faves of mine. I certainly look forward to receiving the mag heaps. Needless to say, a big thank you goes out to Mike.

Obskuriøst #11

I did a (Danish language) review of Obskuriøst #11 here.

New film blog

Now, this isn't a new It's Grim Up North publication as such but I thought I'd just mention that I've just launched a new film blog on trashy war movies from the Philippines entitled When the Vietnam War raged... in the Philippines. It's not least exciting because, as far as I'm aware, this is the ONLY homepage/site/blog devoted to this genre!

Stay Sick! #5

As is the case with Banned in Britain #3 Stay Sick! #5 is also on the way! There's still quite a bit of way to go, not least because in the years that have passed since #4 I have kept changing what I want to include in the mag. Actually, I could easily have put out an issue long ago, that's how much material I've already got lying around in my drawers (well, computerised drawers!). But although I'm working on new issues of both magazines I'm definitely planning on an SS! release first! But hopefully I'll get both mags out before the end of the year. Content wise it'll be a very different magazine to what regular readers are used to. Both in terms of contents and look. I'm going for a professionally printed edition this time! No more home made stuff. No more DIY magazine. No more endless trips to the office supply store to get laserprinter print!! That's for damn sure. I am sooo sick of home made magazines!! My own home made magazines that is. I'm not going to reveal anything about the contents except to say if you're an old reader you might get a surprise. ...and the usual crowd of rabid "Italian cinema is God and new American horror cinema sucks" protesters amongst the Danish film collectors will probably go into a seizure when they see the magazine, hahaha. They might as well start foaming right away, hahaha.

Banned in Britain #3

BiB #3 is definitely on its way! It's been laying low for awhile but now it's on the move! When I originally started the fanzine it was to write about splatter movies. Well, I still love splatter movies but now I'm also totally in love with the wild and crazy movies of The Philippines and Indonesia. Those countries don't really make no-holds-barred movies anymore but they sure did in the 80s and I think it would be a pity to dismiss all these totally entertaining movies just to keep the magazine a kosher soapbox for splatter movie rants. I'll still cover the old genre but as I said it would be a pity to overlook these wild films not least since they're almost overlooked by everyone else! I still haven't found just ONE magazine that for instance covered the over-the-top Filipino war movies. Or did a feature on Barry Prima. Or Eva Arnaz. Or out-of-this-world amazing director Arizal. Well, if that's not reason enough to write about them then how about this: They are awesome!! They're totally crazy and... even more crazy!!! So, there. Decision made: We write about them. LOL. I have no idea when the mag is gonna come out but hopefully sometime this year. I should point out tho that one reviewer who does write (enthusiastically I might add) about these films is Fred Adelman in his eFanzine "Critical Condition". I highly recommend it.