The Start of a Beautiful Friendship

Hello, dear reader, and welcome to what will be a weekly blog section here on REDemption.

Back in the day, I was a super huge devoted fan of the horror movie magazine Fangoria. People thought I was a little odd for this.

Did I say a little odd? Try very. As in they thought I would snap and be the next Jack the Ripper or something. No matter. I learned to ignore what people thought and just enjoy what I enjoyed.

For me horror movies brought joy in two ways. First, the violence was a cathartic experience, especially in the end when the bad guy got what was coming to them. Second, from an artistic point of view I was fascinated with the special effects, how gentlemen like Tom Savini and Rick Baker could make the unreal look real.

In any event, there was always a one-page article in the front of the magazine called “Elegy.” (I think that was the name of it; I don’t have an issue in front of me right now, so I can’t tell.) This was a chance for editor Tony Timpone to wax poetic about a wide variety of topics.

No matter what topic Tony chose to discuss, the results were always interesting. In one issue he wrote about the plethora of “smart serial killer” movies that came out after the release of Seven; in another, he reflected on the backlash that hit the magazine when they featured the movie Jeepers Creepers on the cover. (The controversy stemmed from the fact that the movie’s director, Victor Salva, had been convicted of molesting a 12 year old actor on the set of his  movie Clownhouse.)

When Johnny and I made the choice to release REDemption as a webcomic, I knew that I wanted a section where I could write blogs/articles, similar to what Tony did in Fangoria. And so, my friends, that is what we have here.

I’m not sure what topics I may cover here. All I know is that, while Tony’s articles came monthly, mine will be coming at you weekly. It might not seem possible, but with this wonderful invention called the Internet, there are countless subjects at my fingertips.

This is the beginning of what I hope will be a long, fruitful endeavor.