First Totally Horror-Themed Issue of Fangoria Hits Newsstands, Saving the Magazine From Ending (1980)

Issue number 7 of Fangoria Magazine was the first issue to exclusively feature horror content. The first 6 issues of the magazine were designed around a “fantasy film” concept and proved to be publishing failures.

As described in one history of horror magazines, “The first issue of Fangoria, published in 1979, was an abysmal failure, and subsequent issues did not fare much better. Apparently there was little or no interest in another magazine that did not deviate much from the already established Starlog/Cinefantastique structure.”

But because of great reader interest in an illustrated article on Tom Savini’s gruesome make-up effects for the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead, Fangoria began focusing on “readers’ macabre interest in gory images of monsters and carnage.” With the seventh issue, “with a bold shift to fright flicks by featuring a still from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining on the cover”, the magazine became profitable.

Then “the 1980s gave rise to an endless offering of gory slasher films that Fangoria was more than happy to highlight, turning Freddy Krueger, Leatherface, Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees into unlikely lucrative newsstand idols.”

Fangoria covers primarily commercial studio releases, along with independent and low budget film projects.