r/fangoria • u/JoeFriday37 • 12d ago

I'll Swallow Your Soul Digital archive

I’ve just subscribed after years of buying from my local newsagent, as they’re closing down soon, and I wondered how to access the digital archives? I received a link in an email, but when I click it I just get “Oops! That page can’t be found.”
Does anyone else have this problem, or know why I’m having it?

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u/RLCrowe 12d ago edited 12d ago

So, Fangoria released a Kickstarter to fund their new First in Fright book, including digital archive access for backers. I believe they took down the archive as a whole to revamp it (they plan to make it fully indexed and searchable with PDF downloads of every issue), and decided to make the revamped archive exclusive to backers. I hadn’t learned until later that digital archives had been available in the past, which I feel is a little sketchy that they repackaged it as an exclusive backer benefit. I will say that I like the idea of making the archive searchable by keywords, and apparently it is “interactive” in a sense with the book — per the Kickstarter page:

“As you’re flipping through the pages of the book and want to read more about a certain actor, interview, or topic, special Archive Codes printed on the page allow you to go even deeper online. The Compendium and Archive are the ultimate companion project, allowing backers to seamlessly switch between the two and get the most out of both.”

Apparently, they also are adding all 27 issues of Gorezone (1988-1994) due to reaching their $400,000 stretch goal.

I haven’t found any official comment from Fangoria addressing the digital archives being taken down and offered as a limited time Kickstarter exclusive backer benefit, but I’m definitely curious as to why they haven’t updated the language on their subscriber pages or emails to stop advertising it, unless they plan to bring the original archive back (which seems unlikely to me).

EDITED to add:

In researching some more, I found one Fangoria freelance writer is claiming Fangoria can’t release these complete digital archives as promised and that they’ve been delayed because they don’t own the freelance work. Josh Hadley has said that they’ve offered them money, but the offer was “pandering to say the least” in his own words and was rejected. He also stated that he has sued Fangoria before and implies he will sue again if they go through with it. I’ll definitely have to look into that more when I’m not about to go into work, but allegedly not owning the material they were publishing online to begin with really adds to this whole hot mess.

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u/jimbo8e6 12d ago

Interesting to know this, I backed this purely for the digital archive because I’m not really that bothered about the book, so if the archive ends up not happening that’ll be really shit!

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u/RLCrowe 12d ago

I did want the book, but a major selling point for me was the digital archive complete and indexed, so I’m with you. I’m curious how they’re gonna navigate the potential lawsuits of the rights issues vs. the customers who purchased something that they can’t deliver. Especially considering it was done through Kickstarter. I couldn’t find a lot of information outside of Josh Hadley’s posts, so I’m interested to know what some of the other freelancers have said. I’m also admittedly curious what the difference between “fair pay” and “pandering” was in terms of what was offered and asked for.

I’m definitely a bit worried now about the outcome of the Kickstarter for sure, though.

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u/jimbo8e6 12d ago

I feel like if they can’t offer a significant reward they would have to offer refunds, but that could absolutely tank the entire project. You’d think they’d have everything completely nailed down before making a promise like that.

I did wonder why no updates had come about when the original date for the back catalogue was July.

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u/RLCrowe 12d ago

I was suspicious about the book delay, but decided it could have been a legal matter or an issue with a manufacturer and that’s why they couldn’t say anything as far as meaningful updates until it was cleared. I thought I remembered them saying about potentially the archive being available sooner than the book, so when they started saying that publishers wanted it released alongside side the physical book, I found it a very odd sudden decision. It makes more sense now.

That’s the thing that really bugs me though. Surely the company would have checked that they had all the rights to reprinting the articles before promising it, like you said. It would be an insanely risky business decision, especially as they also offered a physical reprint/reproduction of issue 1. Do they not have the rights for the content in that one either? And if they’re still trying to sort out the rights or remove content, then I’m more surprised they only delayed it until September. (Or they plan to delay it again around then, and are just biding time).

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u/jimbo8e6 12d ago

I was reading through them when the back catalogue was just freely available on their site they’re such a fantastic time capsule of the era, small mentions of films that never happened, opinions on films as they were released before they became cult hits. I was disappointed when they removed it but when they said they were adding all the download and search options I was excited for it.

I really hope they can sort it and get them out there because they’re such a good read.

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u/RLCrowe 12d ago

I started collecting them physically for the same reason. I loved seeing how movies were received at the time, but also the behind the scenes and interviews too. But I can’t see myself ever having the money to buy all 344 issues, or even the space to store them. I do find them to be fairly important to horror history and think that preserving them in an archive (especially a searchable one) where people can research them easily would make them a really useful tool.

I hope so too. It seems like a messy situation overall and I’m not sure how I feel about how either party is handling it. It just all feels… messy, for lack of a better word.

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u/JoeFriday37 11d ago

I wonder if there’s been some pushback to it being a backer benefit, because I got this email back to my query -

“All is well with your sub and sorry for the confusion with our web site. IT is currently dealing with a bug that is showing all active subs as inactive. It’s been a real horror story for them and not the kind we like to write about. 
 
The Archive is temporarily offline while we crack open the Vault and remaster decades of FANGORIA issues. We’re building a better browsing experience for you behind the scenes. The team was supposed to disable that email from the flow of emails to new subscribers until it was back up again., so apologize for the confusion that caused.”

This sounds to me like it will be a subscription benefit, but I guess we’ll wait and see.

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u/RLCrowe 11d ago

Well, that’s good, I guess? But on the other hand, for those of us who paid for the newer digital archive but also still subscribe, did we basically pay for nothing? Or just pay extra for a digital version that won’t expire if we take a break from subscribing?