Skeleton Crew

[dem]

Dec 6, 2008 20:20:53 GMT carolinec said:

And wasn't there another glossy one around at about the same time called Skeleton Crew? I seem to remember picking up a copy or two of those too. Or I may be getting confused as I worked with somebody at around that time who was going out with a fella who was in a band called Skeleton Crew.

We got a decent thread out of Skeleton Crew in the past and it's worth reviving on here. It began life as a small press effort before taking the plunge in 1990 and, for what its worth, i prefer it to Fear. Here's a few samples:

Skeleton Crew: Vol 2, Issue 1 (Argus, July, 1990)

John Bolton

The first of the mainstream issues includes a Deaditorial by Dave Hughes outlining the necessity to kill off the fanzine and go professional - he'd be excellent interview material, I'm thinking. The fiction is supplied by Stephen King (The Reploids) and an excellent Mark Morris effort (Playing God). Hughes also interviews cover artist John "Loughville!" Bolton and Peter Straub, Phil Nutman interrogates David Cronenberg, there's a lengthy article on Sandman by the editor's flatmate, news, reviews .....

Skeleton Crew: Sept. 1990

John Bolton

James Herbert on comic books, Brian Lumley story Grotesques Before Nine, Joe Dante on Gremlins, a Swamp Thing feature and Stephen Jones & Jo Fletcher's Talk Of The Devil, a Chetwynd-Hayes interview-cum-career overview. Also features RCH's original short A Walk On The Dark Side: Henry, wheelchair-bound after a previous attempt on his life, drowns when wife Mary pushes him into the river, leaving her free to marry his best friend, Leslie Bromley. in death Henry discovers that he is able to enter each of their minds and control their actions at will. He manipulates Mary into first battering Bromley with the bedside lamp and then telephoning the police to confess to both murders.

[weirdmonger]

This August 1990 edition had two versions, one that was banned and (mainly) destroyed and one that was sold in shops. I own both versions.

Contents later.

[weirdmonger]

Comments and contents soon.
des

[weirdmonger]

CONTENTS OF AUG 90 ISSUE

CREWCIFICTION
10 Soft Centre by Shaun Hutson (illustrated by Kevin A Cullen)
39 The Beast In Beauty by Nicholas Vince (illustration by John Bolton)

MAIN ARTERIES
1 Alien by John Bolton
41 The Beast In Beauty by John Bolton

STRIPPED TO THE BONE
26 Aliens Ate My Comic! by Nick Gillott
32 Do Aliens Dream? by Adrian Rigelsford and Lee Brimmicombe-Wood
37 Organism by Chris Fitzgerald
60 V For Vendetta, Revolver and Hellblazer Volume Four reviewed by James Sewell, Dave Hughes and Nick Gillott

FILM CREW
20 Loving The Alien by Philip Nutman
14 Dead Crewcial: Alien by Brian Blessed
54 Alien III by Adrian Rigelsford
34 Gremlins 2, Robocop 2, Nightbreed and Total Recall reviewed by Adrian Rigelsford, Dave Hughes and Jon Harrison

THE GRIM READER
16 At Home With Stephen Harris by Dave Hughes
46 Cold Storage: Collecting Limited Editions by Seamus A Ryan
58 Lord Horror, Nightbreed: The Making Of The Movie, Goat Dance and Skin of the Soul reviewed by Colin De Suinn, Dave Hughes and Susan Bishop

DICING WITH DEATH
56 Hatching Plots by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood
53 Aliens Expansion by Lee Brimmicombe- Wood

SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK
4 Deaditorial by Dave Hughes
5 Dead Write by Chris Foss
8 Crew'll Lie
49 The Graveyard
13 Dead Giveaway
62 Last Writes
48 Crew Cuts by Jessica Palmer


The final version of that issue (ie the one not banned) had page 4 replaced with an advert.
Page 4 in the banned version has a saucy comic strip and article on censorship that displeased WH Smiths (I seem to recall).
I believe Dave Hughes did get the sack as a result, although he it was who started SKELETON CREW as a small press mag in the late eighties before going professional.

==========
Dave Reeder replaced Dave Hughes and the NOV 90 issue was edited by him
The contents of the Nov 90 issue (the second cover shown above):-

4 Deaditorial- Another month, another nightmare. How's an editor to fill these pages?

6 Killing Note - From the depths of the New York nightmare, our intrepid US correspondent Phil Nutman hangs loose and details yet another slice of the media action

11 Luggage In The Crypt - Suppose you were a well-known humorist? Suppose you also wrote award-winning comics? Even collaborated with real authors? What would you then take with you to the afterlife? Nicholas Vince pins Neil Gaiman to the mortuary slab

18 Those Of Rhenea - When on holiday, we expect to be affected by strange places. Yet not as strange as the setting of Dave Sutton's new short story

24 Making Up Good Tunes - Some might call the work of lain Banks science fiction; some might even consider it mainstream; it just scares the hell out of us. Stan Nicholls interviews the man

27 Portfolio - A major new artistic find graces our pages - step forward, Dean Ormston

33 Clean - Fiction that's anything but antiseptic from Richard Holland

35 Seduction Of The Innocents - Despite the best intentions of the petty-minded moralists of this world, kids love horror. Di Wathen points them in the direction of scary volumes

38 Tiff - Author DF Lewis has been balanced delicately on the edge of amateur/professional status for too long. Fiction like this should push him over the line.

42 Film Crew - Films, doncha love 'em? Our editor does. Sometimes

46 Atrocity On Show - It's this issue's Mr Angry, the talented author Joel Lane, with some thoughts on the current state of horror

48 Amorph - The short horror story can be most effective. Especially in the hands of a talent like Stuart Palmer's

50 Dicing With Death - All this role playing and fantasy stuff looks okay, but where do I begin? Liz Halliday takes the neophyte in hand

54 Last Writes - Another issue past, another vision shared

[weirdmonger]

I've just added those posts above from the old VoE.

I no longer own these editions of the mag.

Nor do I now own any of the Small Press mags that I put on the Small Press Ark.

I'm slimming down to a core library that will do me out.

[dem]

Thanks, Des. In retaliation, a MASSIVE SPOILER for Mark Morris's never trust a man in a bobble hat classic Playing God (July 1990) While he's out watching girls jogging, he meets a young man in a white track suit and somehow gets it into his head that the guy is death personified. This is his chance to be a hero like Sylvester Stallone, because if he kills Death "I'll probly get an OBE or something from her majesty (God bles her). Peple will chere me in the stretes and ask for my ortagraff and all that." After garrotting 'Death' he drags the body home and cuts it into tiny pieces with an axe and saw, leaves it out in bibbags for the dustmen to take away. When he sees The Sun's screaming headline "50 DIE IN PLANECRASH" he begins to worry if something might have gone wrong - so he decides to murder his landlady, Mrs. Miller, to make sure.

Been playing catch up with Mr. Morris ever since i read Immortal in Mammoth Book Of Wolf Men/ Werewolves. Playing God forms part of his Close To The Bone - "A collection of 11 horror tales, each calculated to produce a shudder. These are stories of obsession, human despair, of a world gone mad." - which i've never clapped eyes on, but maybe someone will provide the lowdown?

Mark Morris - Close To The Bone (Piatkus, 1994)

Ken Leeder

Foreword - Ramsey Campbell
Introduction

Green (Blue Motel, 1994)
The Fertilizer Man (Darklands, 1991)
Progeny (Invasion of the Sad Maneating Mushrooms #3, 1992)
Homeward Bound (Dark Dreams #6, 1988)
Birthday (British Fantasy Society Booklet #18, 1992)
Warts and All (Fear, Nov 1990)
Playing God (Skeleton Crew, July 1990)
Down to Earth
New Man (i]Me[/i], 1989)
The Other One (Darklands 2, 1992)
The Chisellers’ Reunion

[carolinec]

"Close To The Bone" is a nice book. I managed to find a copy on eBay I think - got it signed later by Mark at a Doctor Who event. Not many copies about, so worth watching out for.

I remember "Playing God" now you mention it - great story. It's a while since I read the book and I can't remember enough about each story to post comments on them, but "Progeny" particularly sticks in my mind as a very nasty story indeed - dealing with the subject of child abuse. Nasty.

[dem]

Damn, I don't have Progeny - think i'm likely to remember if there were any issues of Invasion of the Sad Maneating Mushrooms among my junk - but have dug out Homeward Bound in Dark Dreams #7 so might give that a whirl later if those Yuppie Slime Barbie Vampires in Suckers get on my tits too much. Also found an old Skeleton Crew. This was the issue immediately prior to the ill-fated attempt at the mainstream. You can see why David Hughes wanted to do it - the format is not so hot for photographs and the magazine would benefit from a splash of color - but it probably lost something of it's intimacy with the switchover.

Dave Hughes (ed.) - Skeleton Crew #5 (Grim Reaper Design, 1989)

London After Midnight by Martin McKenna

Fiction:
Ramsey Campbell - Little Man
Terence Merchant - The Show Must Go On
Brian Lumley - Back Row

Articles:
Clive Barker - Ramsey Campbell: An Appreciation
Simon MacCulloch - We Pass From View: Sin In The Fiction Of Ramsey Campbell
Peter F. Jeffery - In Which I Am Introduced To A New Horror Writer
Peter F. Jeffery - Sacrum Bleu! Poetry in the horror genre
G.M.Dobbs - Ghost Writing
Dave Hughes & James Sewell - Black Orchid: interview with Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean
Dave Hughes & Jeff Snelling - Crews'n: Diary of a Grim Reaper
Clive Barker - Tomes Of Horror: The Books Of Blood Portfolio
Dave Hughes & Caroline Nic Gabhann - Sunday Bloody Sunday: Shock Xpress's Shock Around The Clock film festival
Jim Campbell - Cthulhu Now: A Fairwell To Pseudopods; Horror in role-playing games.

Plus reviews of Stephen Gallagher's Down River and Dark Visions, Kevin Bernal's regular cartoon spot, letters, ads, etc.

Contributors - Dave Hughes, Mick Belcher, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, G. M. Dobbs, James Sewell, Jeff Snelling ,Terence Merchant, Peter F. Jeffery, Caroline Nic Gabhann, Brian Lumley, Simon MacCulloch, Jim Campbell, Dave Hughes, Nick Belcher, Martin McKenna, Mick McGovern
Artists - Martin McKenna, J.K.Potter, Clive Barker, Chris Hulme, Dallas C.Goffin, Dave McKean, Lee Townsend, Dave Carson, Jeffrey Salmon, Phil Parks.
Photographers - Dave Hughes, Jeff Snelling

From the old board ( still don't like what Reeder wrote):

Not knowing the politics of the thing its probably unwise to comment but if I were David Hughes I'd be pretty pissed off with Dave Reeder's Deaditorial in the September 1990 issue - "If you haven't already heard, Dave (launch editor) Hughes has departed to greener fields" and that's his contribution to SK dispensed with. There's gratitude.

As far as I can make out there were six issues of the fanzine (though III/IV was a double issue) but the last date I can find for the glossy is April 1991?

[weirdmonger]

Skeleton Crew #1 (1988)
Editor: Dave Hughes (to be distinguished from Dave W Hughes of 'Works' magazine who added the W to his name for that very purpose!).
It seems I had the only fiction in this first issue!
There were also some articles on Stephen King.
It became a very powerful force at that time in the Small Press horror field.
Cover: Nick McGovern

[dem]

Oct 16, 2009 20:28:21 GMT dem said:

Not knowing the politics of the thing its probably unwise to comment but if I were David Hughes I'd be pretty pissed off with Dave Reeder's Deaditorial in the September 1990 issue - "If you haven't already heard, Dave (launch editor) Hughes has departed to greener fields" and that's his contribution to SK dispensed with. There's gratitude.

I've just enjoyed an interesting exchange of emails with Mr. Dave Reeder, in response to a comment I first made back in September 2007 on Vault Mk I (repeated above), regarding Dave Hughes departure from Skeleton Crew.

by chance i just came across an old thread on vaultofevil discussing the fate of dave hughes and his departure from 'skeleton crew' magazine.

there's a lot i can't tell about the events, even at this distance in time, but the 'banned' issue was only the last of a series of incidents that got argus to ask him to "reconsider his future". basically, he was an enthusiastic guy who was out of his depth when the title shifted from fanzine to the professional market.

after working for argus some years before, i was friends with the group publisher who knew i was freelancing and had a background in horror titles (fantasy macabre and shock xpress as fanzines; halls of horror as a newsstand title) and persuaded me to take over.

the title had almost no budget - my first issue cover was begged from a book publisher contact! - and we were saddled with an ad salesman who didn't understand the market. i didn't fit neatly into argus' more usual hobbyist range and, as i recall, we last six issues before the plug was pulled. i moved on to film monthly...

I wrote back to Mr. Reeder, apologising for any distress caused by the remark and offering to make amends, although "i still feel that one line in the deaditorial doesn't do Dave Hughes's contribution to SK justice, but i should have quit on "Not knowing the politics of the thing its probably unwise to comment ...." ..... if it's any consolation, i think you can tell from the thread that we liked 'Skeleton Crew' and we're sorry it went under.

Mr. Reeder replies, again very reasonably:

no, it didn't upset me. but people who read magazines rarely consider the internal politics of publishers - do you really think argus wanted me to wash dirty linen in an editorial? as far as they were concerned, they wanted hughes whitewashed out of memory...

please quote me if you wish, i've no problem. skeleton crew isn't the magazine i would have done if i'd started it, but i think we did right by a number of british horror essentials like ramsey campbell. i'm currently working abroad and don't have access to my copies, but i remember a great photoset of ghostly buildings also.

i'm happy to try and answer any questions folks may have about my time on skeleton crew, halls of horror or shock xpress...

best,

dave reeder

[Craig Herbertson]

As always its hard enough to remember where I put keys this morning but searching back in the dim past I remember Dave Hughes as the guy that paid me for one of my first stories - 'Soap 7' in Works 7#.

My experience is always coloured by being paid but I recall he was a nice friendly enthusiastic editor who, in contrast to almost everyone else, took a bit of time to encourage me. (I'm thinking here the editor of Interzone of that era who's name I have blotted out due to psychic shock)

Works was a well thought out and tasteful little magazine

[dreeder]

guess i should add that dave hughes was an acquaintance when 'skeleton crew' was still a fanzine. though rather younger than the set i hung around in, we chatted a few times at the british fantasy society's fantasycons, especially in the bar...

to be honest, till i read this thread, i had managed to forget all about 'fear', a title which i think set back the uk pro horror magazine market by a few years. i'm not saying what i did was brilliant, but 'fear' had a slickness and superficiality which i think counted against it being taken seriously by the prod who might otherwise have flocked to it.

at some stage, someone should really do a piece on the influence of the british fantasy sopciety on the uk horror scene!

dave

[Craig Herbertson]

Think there's a Fear thread here somewhere. I still have the first copy buried in the office along with the rejection slips....

[weirdmonger]

Nice to see you here, dreeder.

des

[blackabyss]

October 1990

Deaditorial
Luggage In The Crypt - Ramsey Campbell interview
Stripped To The Bone - Comics in crisis
Fear and Loathing - Making sense of Splatterpunk
Where Horror Began - Poe article
The Poe Gallery - Poe films
Lovecraft Waits Dreaming - Lovecraft article
Portfolio - Artist Dave Carson
The Secret Song - More on Poe
The Black Cat - Poe Tale
Film Crew - On Poe Films
Green For Danger - Roleplaying set in the Rainforest
Last Writes/