Started
by Lou Goncey and Dan Taylor (that's me),
ER debuted in the fall of 1986 with tons
of reviews and an interview with the legendary
John Waters. (You can read
that first interview here on our site.)
Unknown to us, there was an entire drive-in
film zine movement afoot and we quickly
became familiar with publications like Steve
Puchalski's great SLIMETIME, Craig Ledbetter's
influential EUROPEAN TRASH CINEMA, Jeff
Smith's brilliant WET PAINT and other great
examples of B-movie fandom.
Originally intended as a quarterly
publication, ER made the jump to a more
frequent distribution schedule with issue
#3. The review zine format stuck and though
not published as often as I would have liked,
ER did make it into the hands of our subscribers
on a regular basis.
By the mid-1990s, the drive-ins
we frequented were gone and it was getting
harder and harder to find diamonds in the
cinematic rough. We'd tackled such weighty
issues as The Guide to Klaus Kinski (also
reprinted here), Women in Prison Films,
and other junk film topics, but found the
zine drifting into offbeat pop culture coverage
(like horror movies made into Atari 2600
games) as well as music reviews. Subscribers
were often confused about the publications
direction, especially those who had loyally
followed the zine since its blood-spattered
debut.
When I moved to Pittsburgh
in the fall of 1995 I figured on putting
ER to rest, at least as a print publication.
This web site had been launched that spring
and the idea of being able to distribute
via the Web became more attractive financially
and personally.
But some zines refuse to die.
Friends and felow publishers Larry Kay and
Leslie Goldman approached me with an offer
that I couldn't refuse. For as long as I
wanted, they would publish ER as a supplement
to their excellent art/music/smut/westling
mag CARBON
14. That arrangement stuck for seven
more issues and the decision was finally
made to let ER go. Issue #50 marked its
final installment as a print-based publication.
With nearly 20 years of b-movie
coverage under my belt, I'm proud to say
that ER attracts more and more visitors
each month. We've added some new contributors,
the Kinski
Guide grows bigger and better all the
time, and it's safe to say that my love
for junk cinema will never end.
Thanks for visiting and remember,
pain is temporary, but film is forever.
How to Contact the ER
Staff
Comments, complaints, criticisms,
Web addresses, etc. can be directed to:
Dan Taylor (editor@dantenet.com)
Videos, DVDs, CDs, magazines
and other items for review should be mailed
to:
Dan Taylor
PO Box 5531
Lutherville, MD 21094-5531
