Gothique

Back in the mid sixties I was starting to get into fantasy, SF and horror. I already regularly bought copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland, which whetted my appetite. Then I saw an ad somewhere (I can't remember where but it could have been in Books & Bookmen) for a magazine dedicated to horror, printed and published in the UK. This was Gothique - and it was my introduction to the world of fanzines - most of which in those days were produced by enthusiasts on hand cranked gestetner duplicators. Gothique was a revelation to me, and from then on I eagerly looked forward to the next issue arriving through the post. It also led to me buying Dave Sutton's landmark Shadow magazine, which was the first devoted entirely to literary horror. Gothique, though, was my initiation.

The first issue I bought:

Looking at them now, the articles were far less in depth than I seemed to feel they were at the time. And the printing was certainly primitive compared to what would be expected today, but there was a charm and vibrancy to these then which stirred the blood for me anyway.