It Came from Larry Buchanan

Thursday March 1, Toronto was buried in a freak snowstorm, coupled with wind and thunder. For this reason, I decided not to check out the U of T screening of Frankenstein on Campus (something I know I'll regret sooner or later) and stayed home to cook pork roast. In the kitchen I had the good old portable DVD going, playing Larry Buchanan's Curse of the Swamp Creature. Those who may be interested to know of our affiliation with the work of director Larry Buchanan can read all about it here.

In brief, it all began in 2002 when Rob Craig offered his services to contribute an article on the seven science fiction-horror films that Mr. Buchanan had made for television in the late 1960's (of which Swamp is one). When he submit this huge article that ran the length of an entire issue of ESR, I opted to publish it in its entirety in a special issue. So, since then, Rob's piece had re-appeared online in the monthly e-zine Horror-wood, and then we were fortunate to have been in contact with Mr. Buchanan before he passed away in December 2004.

In early 2005, Rob and I had been going back and forth about writing a book completely devoted to Mr. Buchanan's films (he'd handle the horror films, I'd handle the conspiracy movies, and so on...), but of course the obvious dilemmas arose.... who knows us? who will publish it? Regardless, the desire outweighed everything else, and Rob e-mailed me a big introductory chapter. I had promised to flesh this introduction out by May 1, 2005, and never did. This was partially due to my emotional meltdown in early 2005, and I completely cracked up over trying to do anything creative. This, and the TV pilot I was also doing, were the most obvious casualties. However, shortly after I received Rob's introduction, the communication had broke down. Yet after watching the Buchanan film, it got me thinking about that book idea all over again, and with a little Googling, I was stunned to find out that Rob is releasing a book on Buchanan this year, published by McFarland (which, by the way, was an intended target in finding a publisher.)



I now realize that Rob probably could do this project a lot more justice than I ever could. Way back in 2000, when I found Rob's writings on the IMDB, and then began exchanging e-mails with him, I knew this guy was something special. When he's in his element, his stuff is dazzling (I still get comments about his "1984" piece that adorned ESR #15), visceral and revolutionary. I can only imagine the caliber that this book is going to be, and so I extend my best wishes to Rob, and come back anytime.

When I was reliving my own memories of Horror-wood, (I had contributed pieces on Coleman Francis and Al Adamson), I saw that the last issue of this monthly e-zine was still at August 2006. I had noticed for a while that it had not been updated, and at first, thought nothing of it, understanding fully how life and work get in the way of labours of love such as this. Then with a little more Googling, I was shocked and saddened to learn that its creator, Joe Meadows, had passed away in September of 2006, after an illness. While we had only communicated via e-mail, I always liked Joe (nicknamed "Renfield") for his energy and encouragement, and even after only dealing with him at this level, I truly feel a loss, and can only imagine that felt by his friends and family. If you're new to Joe's wonderful website, please do check it out while it is still active.