Ink And Horror: Building Magazines In A Digital Age

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Horror deserves ink you can hold. We sit down with art director and publisher Brian Stewart to chart a wild journey from the first death of Fangoria to launching Phantasm Media and steering Delirium with a fresh design voice. Brian shares how a single-subject magazine strategy—think George Romero, Sid Haig, Italian cinema, Linnea Quigley—creates depth you can’t get from quick-hit feeds, and why making paper in a digital world is more rebellion than nostalgia.

The conversation rocks into music, where KISS served as Brian’s early compass and later creative canvas. From official poster books to tour guitar picks, he shows how rock theatrics and horror imagery fuel each other. We trade Detroit Rock City memories, swap favorite shots, and celebrate that charged moment when a bootleg screening turns a kid into a lifer. Then we map the roots of heavy metal—crowning Black Sabbath, tracing Alice Cooper’s reinventions, and tipping a hat to Rob Zombie’s showmanship—revealing the shared DNA that binds riffs, latex, and late-night double features.

Center stage is a love letter to 1985. We connect the dots across Day of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Lifeforce, Back to the Future, Rocky IV, and Weird Science; then jump to comics with Crisis on Infinite Earths and toys with the second wave of G.I. Joe; and round it out with music sparks from S.O.D. to Dead Milkmen and Samhain’s shift toward Danzig. It’s a curated atlas of a year that rewired genre culture, the kind of deep dive only print can stitch together without losing the thread. We close with Phantasm trivia, Angus Scrimm’s towering illusion, and where to find Delirium and Phantasm’s latest work.

If you love horror, metal, and the smell of fresh ink, hit play, subscribe, and share this with a friend who still files their favorites on a shelf. Leave a review to help more fans find the show and keep print’s pulse strong.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
Brian Stewart on the festival.

SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Well thank you welcome to you as well, although
it's your thing.
I've already wrote it.
Should we do a take test?

SPEAKER_01 (00:10):
No, no.
Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 (00:11):
This is great.
So just expect it to be downhillfrom here.

SPEAKER_01 (00:14):
Right.
Okay.
No, no, uh swim it upstream.

SPEAKER_00 (00:19):
Not a chance for me.

SPEAKER_01 (00:22):
Awesome.
Thank you for taking the time toswim in the bowl with me.

SPEAKER_00 (00:26):
Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Let's talk a little bit aboutDelirium, the other magazines
you have.

SPEAKER_00 (00:34):
Yeah.
Well, um, I can tell you how Igot there.
If that's okay, we'll swimaround and land there.
Exactly.
So a few years ago, well, quitea few years ago now, I was at
Fangoria, and I was there untilit basically Fangoria passed
away the first time.

SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (00:51):
And at that time, Warzone was still a thing as
well.
So I was working on bothmagazines.
And when Fangoria ended, ChrisAlexander and Bill Mahalley and
myself wanted to keep makingpaper in a digital world.
Is make paper when everybodywants digital.
So we did that.
So we launched our company,Phantasm Media, and we launched

(01:12):
with the uh George Romero issue,and George actually helped us
get started.
He was like, hey, make the firstmagazine about me, my films, and
every one of those magazines aresingle subject.
So like when we do any issue,it's not a it's not a you know a
random thing.
It's like the Cid Hag issue,only stuff we did one about
Italian cinema, only Italiancinema.

(01:34):
You know, so things like that.
We've got Linnae Quigley, otherthings like that.
Chris and Bill moved on fromthis company, and so my wife and
I still run Phantasm.
And then Bill actually retiredfrom Delirium.
You know, if you guys aren'tfamiliar, Bill Mahalley was an
amazing designer.
He you know worked on Creepy andEerie and some of those amazing
Warren magazines and designedFangoria for years and was

(01:57):
designing Delirium, and Billretired, and Chris called me and
he's like, hey, so come on, weneed to keep making magazines.

SPEAKER_01 (02:05):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (02:05):
And so I became the art director at Delirium and I
believe issue 32 forward.
So now I'm over at Delirium, andyou know, I I tried to honor
Bill by making my transitionsomething going forward, so Bill
had his thing, and I wasn't justsort of like cannibalizing
Bill's design.
Right.
I tried to make it somethingdifferent, not for any reason

(02:27):
other than to let his moment behis and mine be mine.

SPEAKER_01 (02:31):
Definitely, definitely.
I have to just let you know thisbecause talking about Fangoria.
My very first convention was aFangoria Weekend of Horrors in
Chicago.

SPEAKER_00 (02:44):
How many years ago?

SPEAKER_01 (02:46):
It was my high school graduation present, and
I'm 36.
Yeah.
It was my first like conventionever, you know, and it was the
first time that like I realizedthat I wasn't the only crazy,
you know, horror fan that wasout there, and there were

(03:10):
there's so many people that lovethis stuff that grew up on it,
like you know, you and I.
Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
You know, speaking of Fangoria, there was an early,
like I don't remember the issuenumber, if I say it on the
early.
Uh there was a Gene Simmonsarticle.
I'm a huge KISS fan.
KISS was like uh basicallySuperman for me growing up.

SPEAKER_01 (03:30):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (03:31):
And so I carried this one particular issue all
the time because I was trying todraw the Gene Simmons picture
and the and the monsters.
And so the first thing I got todo for Fangoria was brand member
of KISS back, and that was AceFrightly.
Oh nice.
Yeah, yeah.
Then eventually, actually, my mywife and I, you know, we went on
to do the official KISS posterbook with the band for a few

(03:53):
years up until COVID sort ofruined it.
That was really cool.
And since then I I went on towork for the band designing some
of like all Stanley guitars, allthe guitar picks on this last
tour.
So I'm I'm I'm kind of all overthe place.

SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
Awesome.
Awesome, awesome.
And I'll even say another thingon the subject of Kiss.
My first R-rated movie that Isnuck into was Detroit Rock
City.

SPEAKER_00 (04:17):
Well, what isn't that scene at the end when they
like they shoot out of themouth?
Right.
And that was an insert shot atthe very last moment after they
left.
Yeah.
And that's like one of the bestshots in the film.

SPEAKER_01 (04:29):
Right, right.
The whole the whole movie is, Imean, a couple years ago, Edward
Furlong and I forget his name,James, I forget his last name.
He was the other the one withthe long hair was the stoner.
Is it the DeMarco or something?
Something like that.
Okay.
Something like that, I will say.

(04:49):
I met both of them, and youknow, I got to I got to tell
James, he was like, I said, Ijust want both of you to know
that the first R-rated movie Isnuck into was Detroit Rock
City.
And I couldn't have been happierwith with you know what I saw
and the experience I had.
And I I remember the the theaterclosed down you know a bunch a

(05:13):
good couple years ago now, andit was a piece of my childhood
that you know just like horror,you know, I'm really big in the
music.
I I interview bands and stuff,and obviously, you know, kiss is
up there.
Yeah, Black Sabbath led AliceCooper.
Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 (05:32):
I'm on that team.
I don't think it was LedZeppelin that started.
No, no, no.
Zeppelin's great.
Right.
But Black Sabbath, I believe, iswhere heavy metal was born.

SPEAKER_01 (05:40):
Yes, yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 (05:43):
Right.
That was you know, it washorrible.
Right.
Something so awesome came fromthat.

SPEAKER_01 (05:47):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Black Sabbath, I I will agreewith you, is the definitive
introduction to what heavy metalbecame.
I agree.
You could throw Alice Cooper inthere too.

SPEAKER_00 (05:58):
Yes, I think Alice Cooper Alice Cooper became
something as Alice Cooper band,you know, went away and Alice
Cooper, the individual, wentforward.

SPEAKER_01 (06:10):
Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 (06:12):
Yes.
Exactly timeline there withAlice as well.
But yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 (06:17):
I would say from what is it, Goes to Hell.
The album that came after thatwas like pretty much the
definitive, like I'm trying toremember the chronology on on
camera here.

SPEAKER_00 (06:30):
I think you that that sounds about yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (06:31):
Yeah, go Goes to Hell was like the late 70s, and
that had what was it?
Oh, the song with uh the Flies.

SPEAKER_00 (06:42):
Halo Flies?

SPEAKER_01 (06:43):
Yeah, yeah.
Halo Flies.
It had that song on it.
And and then if you listen towhat came next, like the album
after that, I think the I thinkthat was like 77, 78, something
like that.
And then like the next albumthat came out was like such like
a definitive new sound.

SPEAKER_00 (07:02):
Right.
Alice has had uh so manymoments, you know, like you
think about even like the songClones.

SPEAKER_01 (07:08):
Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 (07:09):
I think that could have almost been a bowie song.

SPEAKER_01 (07:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (07:12):
You know, in the in the particular bowie phase.
Right, right.
You know, and I love that aboutAlice, he's such a chameleon
musically.

SPEAKER_01 (07:19):
Right, right.
And you know, the the onlyperson that's come close to
Alice Cooper and and you know,my my age and I guess our age is
Rob Zombie.
You know.
I I think Rob Zombie is prettymuch like he does his own thing.
And he does his own thing,exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (07:36):
The randomness of it is the fun.

SPEAKER_01 (07:37):
Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 (07:38):
Yeah, we do we're actually, you know, with with
Kiss is over as far as a bookfor us, and unfortunately as a
band, you know, they sold a pophouse.

SPEAKER_01 (07:46):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (07:46):
We're still you know actively doing a lot of stuff.
It's mute we tie music and youknow film together in what the w
how we were able to with print.
Like we're currently working onan issue that's all about the
splendor that is 1985.
You know how many awesome thingshappen in '85.
Oh yeah.
I mean, it was one of those, youknow, online that have those
weird like top nine things, theblah blah blah.

(08:07):
Right.
And I just happened to randomlyread one of those stupid
articles one day, and I waslike, holy crap, all those
movies hit in '85.
And I started digging, and therewere so many more.
I mean, Day of the Dead, Returnof the Living Dead.
You know, it was like, okay,wow.
Life Force, you keep digging.
Right.
Outside of horror, there's Backto the Future.
Right.

(08:29):
Mando.
Right.
It's insane.
Rocky Four.

SPEAKER_01 (08:32):
Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 (08:33):
Weird Science.

SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (08:34):
Vacation 2.
I mean, you know, it just keepsannoying.
Yeah.
And then I got to looking alittle deeper outside of film.
And I was like, wow.
So second wave of G.I.
Joe action figures.
That was Crisis on InfiniteEarth if you were reading
comics.
It was just crazy.
And then we were looking evendeeper, and then we started
looking at music.

(08:55):
That was the year anthrax sideproject SOD happened from Virg.
Yeah, yeah.
That was also what was Among theLiving came out that year.
Right.
First Dead Milkman record.
If you're if you're a weirdopunk.
Definitely.
Um Sam Hain was really, youknow, getting ready to become
something else and begin tomorph what eventually became

(09:16):
Danzig.

SPEAKER_01 (09:17):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (09:17):
So you know there was a lot of stuff happening.
Flute.

SPEAKER_01 (09:21):
Yeah.
Flute?
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (09:22):
Yeah.
So much awesome stuff.
So we're doing a 1985 issue andall the stuff I just mentioned
in it.
See how I was able to wrap thataround yet still promote myself.

SPEAKER_01 (09:32):
Definitely, definitely.
And I'll promote myself herereal quick on the topic of
Anthrax.
I'm supposed to do an interviewwith Anthrax on their new album.

SPEAKER_00 (09:41):
Really?

SPEAKER_01 (09:42):
Yes.
Awesome.
Yeah, I a couple still Citiconsago, that's our big like
Comic-Con here.
Frank Bellow came and then ScottIan came to the next one.
I basically got in touch withtheir publicist who represents
some other major heavy metalbands.
They're great guys.
Yeah.
They said, you know, check backwhen the new album is coming out

(10:04):
and they'll do it.

SPEAKER_00 (10:06):
So around the campfires, they're actively
working on it.

SPEAKER_01 (10:09):
Yeah, yeah.
I think they're fine on Charlie.
Oh, awesome.
Awesome.
I think they might have actuallyreleased a single from it.
I'm not 100% sure.

SPEAKER_00 (10:18):
I know of, but I don't have my finger on the
pulse of everything lately.

SPEAKER_01 (10:23):
Yeah.
I might be wrong about that.
I I I thought I said somethingon Spotify.
I could be wrong, but if if not,everybody who's Anthrax fans,
keep your your ears open.
It's coming out.
Yeah.
But yeah, also I have to say Ilove the name Phantasm.
Thanks.

(10:43):
Obviously, I'm Don Coscarelliand all that.
And I just want to share a shortstory.
A couple years ago, ReggieBannister was at a different
convention that I covered, and Igot to interview him.
And one of the great interview,great guy.
One of the things that I wish Ihad captured on audio when it

(11:05):
happened was when I stood up, hesaid, Man, you're like the spawn
of the tall man or something.

SPEAKER_00 (11:12):
That's great.
So you're basically Angus ScrewJr.

SPEAKER_01 (11:16):
Right.
Well, actually, he said uh hetold a little little trivia for
uh Phantasm fans.
The tall man really wasn't thattall.

SPEAKER_00 (11:25):
No, Angus wasn't a very tall guy.

SPEAKER_01 (11:27):
Yeah, that he said they actually had to give him
platform shoes to wear inPhantasm to make them look.
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (11:34):
But he wasn't, I mean, I I I met him and he
wasn't small.
Right, right.
He wasn't, you know, likeginormous.
Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 (11:41):
And I I I also am proud to say that I have the
NECA tall man Phantasm actionfigure.

SPEAKER_00 (11:48):
Cool.

unknown (11:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (11:49):
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, Brian, it's been apleasure talking with you.
Thank you.
Anything else to promote oranything before we uh I'm always
a big fan of plugs.

SPEAKER_00 (11:59):
You can always grab Delirium Magazine online.
It's you know it's out there,it's available, it's easy to
find.
And our Phantasm Presents stuffis at Phantasmmedia.com.
It's Phantasm with an F,F-A-N-T-A-S-N, M-E-D-I-A.com.
Or you can throw a dash between.
We have both of them.
But yeah, feel free to grab tonsof paper because we all need

(12:22):
more stuff in our house.
Yeah.
Definitely make stuff to clutteryour house.

SPEAKER_01 (12:28):
Definitely, definitely.
Awesome.
Well, Brian, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 (12:32):
Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_01 (12:33):
I hope the time of sure was just right.

SPEAKER_00 (12:35):
We fixed.

SPEAKER_01 (12:37):
Awesome.
Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 (12:38):
Thank you.