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Post by helrunar on Dec 6, 2020 4:51:16 GMT
I come here in these nights of the waning year seeking the solace that only no-holds-barred DIY vampirology can bring.
Children of the night... What music they make.
H.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 7, 2020 2:46:33 GMT
So many treasures... the Count Ken biography deserves special mention for a certain je ne sais quoi.
Love those Poison Coffin covers. I looked up Princess Risborough as I thought it was likely the name of a drag queen but it turns out to be a village in Buckinghamshire around 9 km northwest of High Wycombe (if I'm remembering what the internet said about it).
The posts from "Des" are fascinatingly cryptic since I had no knowledge of any of it. Fab covers!
H.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 7, 2020 7:02:25 GMT
When vampires ruled the world (continued) Mirror, 29th Oct. 1993 Vault of the Vampire (London, c 1994) A slight case of overbombing, etc.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 7, 2020 14:11:36 GMT
My day immediately improved upon seeing a photo of the World's Most Famous Hammer Vampire captioned "SUCKER: Lee as Dracula" (thanks, Brit tabloids, once again for beaconing taste and elegance into the world) and reading notes from Lady Juliette and Countess Mallory.
There can NEVER EVER BE too many vampyre zine covers, calling cards, gum wrappers, fang keychains, etc.
cheers, H.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 8, 2020 16:48:07 GMT
Check out page 3 of this thread for some gorgeous scans from Mausoleum, Dem's harrowing account of his rendezvous with the Skeleton Girls and the Spider Princess, a Hallo from Chad Savage (can't possibly have been his real name?--Chad, by the way, in the US now denotes the stereotypical slick dude on the make with all the chicks; he has a female counterpart but can't recall her name except it definitely is NOT Karen). And so much more.
I keep wondering if VAT was an acronym and what the letters would have stood for if so. Vampyre Absolute Temptation... Vicious Acrobatic Tarts... Violent Arthurian Tulips ... Vaguely Anodyne Thesis... the possibilities go on and on.
H.
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Post by Anthony Hogg on Dec 27, 2020 16:28:07 GMT
Learning about these publications in J. Gordon Melton's The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1994) when I was a kid would eventually lead me to creating my own... Journal of Vampire Studies 1, no. 1 (2020) Martin V. Riccardo ( Journal of Vampirism) wrote the foreword to the first issue and serves as a member of the journal's advisory board (along with Melton). It's available on Amazon among other outlets, but I prefer to point interested persons to Bookshop, as items purchased through them help fund local independent bookshops.
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Post by Anthony Hogg on Dec 27, 2020 16:31:31 GMT
I keep wondering if VAT was an acronym and what the letters would have stood for if so. Vampyre Absolute Temptation... Vicious Acrobatic Tarts... Violent Arthurian Tulips ... Vaguely Anodyne Thesis... the possibilities go on and on. My understanding is that it was Vampire Art Terror, or something like that.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 27, 2020 18:37:17 GMT
Welcome to the Vault, Anthony! Your Journal sounds very interesting. Even if I can't help feeling disappointed that there's no drawing of a well-upholstered Goth lady in yards of eyeliner and a low-cut crushed velvet frock on the cover.
I wish you all the best with your project.
Helrunar
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Post by Anthony Hogg on Dec 28, 2020 1:47:32 GMT
Thank you for your kind words, Helrunar. If it's any consolation, I was originally going to feature Montague Summers on the front cover, but he would have been decidedly less fetching in fishnets. My particular interest in these publications, apart from their influence on my own project, is twofold: 1) I like to collect them (I recently managed to score the complete print run of Journal of the Dark and 2) I've long desired to create a database or index from their contents. See: www.academia.edu/9372519/A_Vampiric_Proposal
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Post by helrunar on Dec 28, 2020 5:16:45 GMT
Interesting article, Anthony. I wish you all the best with the database project.
Are you familiar with QZAP, the queer zine archive project? Website here: qzap.org
It might be an interesting example to look at if you're thinking about the logistics of setting up some kind of online archive (if that is your intention).
cheers, Helrunar
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Post by Anthony Hogg on Dec 28, 2020 13:49:20 GMT
I had no idea about it, no, but it does look similar to something I envisioned with this thing. Alternatively, I am also considering publishing indexes in the journal as "raw data" for an actual database of some sort. Ideally, it would be something like JSTOR, with articles that could be downloaded, but then you'd have the nightmare of copyright to contend with.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 28, 2020 19:09:38 GMT
Hi Anthony, That all sounds quite worthwhile, to attempt to document the zines in some way. I don't know anything about the vampire scene; my appreciation of the covers and what Dem has shared from his collection is mostly about the aesthetics and my own warped sense of camp. One of my favorite old TV shows, Forever Knight, produced between 1992 and 1995, did some stories about people who were obsessed with the vampire subculture during that period. It's strange how long ago it seems now.
I've wondered if there are zine libraries in the UK (which I presume is where you live). We have a few here in the US but they are almost all privately operated, and I wonder just what will happen with the collections if the people who run them out of their love for the subcultures and the format aren't around any longer. There have been initiatives at a couple of institutions--Radcliffe and Cornell, I believe, are two--to collect at least some zines over here.
It's hard for me to enjoy a digitized version of a zine. I appreciate the ones the QZAP curators have posted since it is at least possible to get the chance to read what was written and see art that often has an only intermittent reference, if any at all, to mainstream media.
cheers, H.
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Post by Anthony Hogg on Dec 31, 2020 16:15:01 GMT
I love it all. The aesthetics, the creativity, although I've admittedly gone for a much more minimalist look with my own:
But I also like them as obscurities to dig gems from. For instance, the Journal of Vampirism featured an early contribution from Jan L. Perkowski, author of The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism (1989). For some vampire academics, these zines were either where they got their start or were early publishers of their work.
The vampire subculture certainly left a massive imprint on these zines and that subculture still thrives today.
I'm in Australia, so getting these zines is very hard to do. I actually located one set, a zine dedicated to Buffy, in the State Library of Victoria. But otherwise, tracking down these works is quite tricky. I wish I had Dem's vamp zine collection! At the very least so I could catalogue it.
Your other remark touches on preservation; that crosses over into my "database" ideal. Because if the zines themselves have no home, it would be nice to know, at least, what was in them. I'm also a sucker for primary source material, which I believe can be found in these publications.
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Post by dem bones on May 22, 2021 7:54:32 GMT
As I type, the Spring 2020 issue of Voices from the Vaults is available as a free download from the Dracula Society Includes: Julia Kruk on Denis Miekle's Mr. Murder: The Life & Times of Tod Slaughter, Katherine Lines on Fiona Subotsky's non-fict Dracula For Doctors, Sue Gedge on Laura Purcell's Bone China and Alison Littlewood's Mistletoe, Fiona Subotsky herself on Mary Fortune's The White Maniac, and Barry McCann's appreciation of Theodore Gautier's 'La Morte Amoureuse,' Also News, Society chat, Villa Diodati for sale, and a very generous two contributions from poet in residence, Matt Thomsitt ("Nice girls like Abba, and dressing in pink/ But what if her clothes are all blacker than ink ..."). Download
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 24, 2021 12:09:03 GMT
As I type, the Spring 2020 issue of Voices from the Vaults is available as a free download from the Dracula Society Includes: Julia Kruk on Denis Miekle's Mr. Murder: The Life & Times of Tod Slaughter, Katherine Lines on Fiona Subotsky's non-fict Dracula For Doctors, Sue Gedge on Laura Purcell's Bone China and Alison Littlewood's Mistletoe, Fiona Subotsky herself on Mary Fortune's The White Maniac, and Barry McCann's appreciation of Theodore Gautier's 'La Morte Amoureuse,' Also News, Society chat, Villa Diodati for sale, and a very generous two contributions from poet in residence, Matt Thomsitt ("Nice girls like Abba, and dressing in pink/ But what if her clothes are all blacker than ink ..."). DownloadOoh I just noticed the Tod Slaughter reference. I will download this. Thank you!
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