When issue 6 of Filament magazine arrived in the mail, Mr Ashbless said to me, "This magazine could have been written for you."
You can see what he means. This "myths and monsters" themed issue features
- an article on Live Action Role Play (well yes, done that for a few years)
- a big interview with Laurell K Hamilton, author of the Anita Blake books, which rather raises her in my estimation
- a feature that has persuaded me to give a zombie flick (Colin) and some zombie graphic novels (The Walking Dead) a shot, even though I'm not a fan of the genre*
- a showcase of work by fantasy artist Nykolai Aleksander
- and a slew of photo features of purty nude men, all with genre themes: elven warrior, vampire, green man, blood-stained revenant (!), werewolf, and a couple of gods. I admit to being crazy for the Erebus pics, even though he's not the sort that appeals to everyone - but one of the joys of Filament is its eclectic and unstereotyped mix of models.
In addition there's an admirably sensible article on sex education and a big feature on Endometriosis (by, um, someone I've shared a hotel room with...) which is a medical condition I knew next to nothing about and now am profoundly grateful not to suffer from. And more - like three short stories.
Filament is certainly value for money and frankly I feel grateful to have such an intelligent, thought-provoking and stimulating magazine available in this day and age. It's a crying shame that it, along with the whole erotica genre, is considered to be on the fringe of normal society. Hey: count me out of "normal" ... along with the LARPers, the werewolves, the fantasy fans, the graphic novel readers, the adults who admit to liking sex...
You can buy Filament here. I'm off to renew my 4-issue subscription now!
:-)
*I don't have a problem with rotting bodies. I have a problem with live people being ripped to pieces. Unless they deserve it, of course.
7 comments:
I'm distracted by how bad the wolf on the cover is though. Why is it so hard to do a good werewolf? (Um. I mean, to create one, with special effects, like... ) Has there ever been one?
I bought an issue of Filament, and it was fine, but, I don't know. It didn't get me enthused, particularly. Not like my hippy mothering magazines did, or you are in this review. Still, it's a good thing.
Each to their own Jo - I'm sure your hippy mothering magazines would squik me out!
But yes, the werewolf head is silly in my opinion too. Given their shoestring budget they might have been better off trying not to do anything so ambitious. But the vampire and the dead guy and the gods were all way more impressive photo-sets.
good werewolfs..yes..in that movie..dogsoldiers..very good:-)
Yeah, Dan, but you know I'm not going to be watching that one.
Janine, heh, I didn't mean to suggest you read the mothering magazines, just considering how each grabs me. I was just thinking I'd written posts about Juno (ahem, on my mommy blog, the way you wrote this one). Or does anyone remember Raygun? American Indie type music magazine?
But maybe I should keep trying. This does sound good.
Oh, I liked Dogsoldiers too! And The Company of Wolves of course - which has a particularly alarming transformation scene - but they tended to use German Shepherds as standins for the wolves.
Holy smokes! All the men in this issue are gorgeous!! Haven't gotten to the articles yet, but I'm sure they're great too. ;)
Seriously though, I'm loving Filament more and more with each issue that comes out.
lol Winter - I don't blame you for starting with the manpics. I bet we all do!
Post a Comment