Tuesday 13 November 2018

SFX Collectors Edition: Vampire Special

2001. Cover price £4.99.
116 pages. Full colour.
Future Publishing.

Edited by Dave Golder.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer cover photo (uncredited).

Contents:

  2 2000 A.D. - Are You One Of Us? advertisement for 2000 A.D.; artwork by Frazer Irving.
  4 Get Your Teeth Into This... contents page; photographs (uncredited).
  6 Blood Heritage London After Midnight movie poster.
  7 Blood Heritage Lust for a Vampire movie poster.
  8 Blood Heritage Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride movie poster.
  9 Blood Heritage The Vampire Lovers movie poster.
 10 Blood Heritage Dracula, Prince of Darness movie poster.
 11 Get Your Teeth Into This! advertisement for Nosferatu the Vampyre DVD.
 12 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time introduction (uncredited).
 14 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) text by Steve O'Brien; photograph (uncredited).
 16 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time Nosferatu (1922) text by Dave Golder; photograph (uncredited).
 18 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time Dracula (1931) text by Nick Setchfield; photograph (uncredited).
 20 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time London After Midnight (1927) text by Dave Golder; photograph (uncredited).
 22 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time Dracula (1958) text by Steve O'Brien; photograph (uncredited).
 24 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time Captain Kronos, Vampire Killer (1973) text by Steve O'Brien; photograph (uncredited).
 26 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time The Lost Boys (1987) text by Phil Millard; photograph (uncredited).
 28 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time Dracula's Daughter (1936) text by Steve O'Brien; photograph (uncredited).
 30 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time Love at First Bite (1979) text by Jayne Dearsley; photograph (uncredited).
 32 The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time Near Dark (1987) text by Phil Millard; photograph (uncredited).
 34 Joss the Vampire Scripter Joss Whedon interview by Ed Gross; photographs (uncredited).
 48 Angel Season Two Overview Tim Minear interview by Ed Gross; photographs (uncredited).
 61 The Greatest Gothic Music Collection advertisement for Live Forever 10-CD Box Set.
 62 Resurrecting Buffy Marti Noxon interview by Ed Gross; photographs (uncredited).
 69 L.A. Streets... Where Other Angels Fear to Tread advertisement for Angel paperback books.
 70 In the Buff text feature by Jayne Dearsley; photographs (uncredited).
 74 Spike or Angel quiz by Jayne Dearsley & Lorraine Brumpton; photographs (uncredited).
 77 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring advertisement for Games Workshop tabletop strategy game.
 78 Resharpened Blade text feature on Blade 2's special effects by Ed Gross.
 85 Ever Met a Half Vampire? Meet One Now... advertisement for Darren Shan's The Vampire Prince.
 86 Bloodthirst Among Sequels text feature on Queen of the Damned by Dave Golder.
 94 Bela Lugosi - A Remembrance Richard Gordon interview by M.J. Simpson; photographs (uncredited).
101 Battling Love, Destiny and Ancient Forces is Hard Work advertisement for Jan Siegel's The Dragon Charmer.
102 Dracula 1979 - Past Perfect text feature by M.J. Simpson; photographs (uncredited).
108 Classifieds
110 Here's a Picture of James Marsters... photograph (uncredited).
111 The Unconventional Convention in-house advertisement for SFX: The Event.
112 So What Kind of Vampire Are You? quiz (uncredited).
114 Don't Quote Us quotations. / Indicia
115 Into the Void advertisement for Buffy the Vampire Slayer memorabilia.
116 Angel @ Blackstar advertisement for Angel Season two DVD Box Set.

The cover should be the big giveaway as to the intentions of this 'bookazine' special - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the show's spin-off Angel are heavily featured, though the front half of the title is, perhaps, more interesting. A far from comprehensive, or great, selection of posters starts the ball rolling, and this is where the warning bells should start ringing for readers. Jumping straight to film appearances of vampires creates the impression that everything before Nosferatu is irrelevant, and undue attention on these appearances dominates the rest of the issue.

What's missing? For starters: There's no feature on Bram Stoker's life and works, Polidori's The Vampyre is absent, and no mention of Arnold Paole is made. One could fill an entire special of this nature with numerous vampire books alone, and still not come close to a complete and detailed history of the genre.

It is particularly annoying that all of the chosen film posters are British and American, ignoring a rich and fascinating history of European and Asian horror film posters. At the very least Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell [吸血鬼ゴケミドロ] should have been represented. This holds largely true for The Ten Best Vampire Movies of All Time, which contains the uneven and poorly-edited Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter instead of the far more entertaining and visually exciting The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.

There's a distasteful air to the title which slips out every so often:
Jackie Onassis She was married to JFK, got brains on her coat and then married a millionaire.
So, for every down, there's an up.
I'm sorry Mr. Golder, but WHAT THE HELL?
Camille Paglia Controversial academic and feminist. A fit bird, though.
If humour is the objective, then print something which is actually funny, instead of... whatever those comments are meant to be.

I think I need a shower now...

It is pointless to criticize something which has no respect for its readers. Even in 2001 there was a (fairly complete) list of Dracula films circulating, but no... We get barbed comments rather than anything which is of actual use to readers interested in either the horror genre in general, of Dracula specifically. If that is asking too much of Future Publishing, I would have settled for a brief overview of 1998's Ultraviolet, or the classic Rankin/Bass cartoon Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters if this title was actually interested in vampires.

Most of my problems with this would have been abated if it was honest about the contents. Calling it a Buffy the Vampire Slayer special rather than a vampire one immediately sets the rest of the coverage as bonus material rather than the greater body of writing about its subject.

Classic radio series are entirely absent, comics are only (sort of) covered by the inclusion of Blade 2, and don't even think about looking for information on either Whitby or Romania. This is not the title for you.

I'm not sure who this title is for.

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