BY SARAH KELLY

My Magazine Analysis

Why I’ve chosen these magazines:

I have decided to look at the following horror magazine font covers; ‘Scream’,

‘Fangoria’ and ‘RueMorgue’.

SCREAM is Britain’s premiere Horror Magazine and is published bi-monthly in full bloody colour print! SCREAM is the best source for horror cinema, celebrity and filmmaker interviews, DVD/Blu-rays, on-set exclusives, books, games, film festival reports, comics, graphic novels, dark photography, fashion, reviews, previews and so much more…

The world's scariest publication, SCREAM – Blood, guts, gore & more!

They are international print & digital full colour magazine bringing you everything in the name of horror.

Webpage lin: http://www.screamhorrormag.com/about-scream/

The font design of this magazine I can see is quite specific and unique to the magazine design as it reinforces the horror element of the magazine, the style of the font is as though blood is dripping down the page, the sole image on the magazine is about ‘The walking dread’ film which both the image and the font relate together. As you can clearly see that the title, the image and the effect are all linked together.

Many magazines also use their own and often share the same identifiable features such as the colour of the title and other texts featuring on the magazine font colour. Most other magazines that I researched often featured red and white text, the red text being symbolic to the blood, gore and death a few of the main conventions in the horror genre.

Another thing that I noticed about the horror magazine is the image on the front pretty much takes up the whole page and the audience can see the eyes

The puffs and banners that are placed along the sides and around

the page are also all related and link in with the rest of the ‘horror’ theme

of the magazine.

• FANGORIA was first planned in 1978 under the name FANTASTICA, as a companion to the science fiction media magazine STARLOG. Just as STARLOG covered science fiction films for a primarily teenaged audience, FANTASTICA was intended to cover fantasy films for a similar readership.

• The publishers were anticipating a groundswell of interest in that genre owing to plans, first announced in 1978, to bring Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian to the screen. The CONAN film did not arrive until 1982—and before FANTASTICA was even launched, other factors intervened to change the magazine’s focus and direction.

• Webpage link http://www.fangoria.com/

One of the things that I noticed about this magazine was the cover image also takes up the whole page, furthermore the image on the front is not from its original form, it has been edited to look more scary as the colour in her eyes are red… again symbolising that there may be blood involved in the film. The image on the front is also quite scary and from the previous magazine front covers that I’ve analysed I can see that a main convection of a horror magazine is the main image has to be scary, which must include there eyes, this is to attract the audience more.

The banner at the top of the page placed about ‘Fangoria’ is linked to the main cover image and film as the film is based around a girl that can dance; ‘Darren Abononfsy’s dance of death’- this pun ties into the main image on the font cover.

The title of the film is also features on the front cover in red writing which again matches the aethetics of a horror magazine, this font is also bold and stands out from the rest of the text on the front cover.

The banner also includes information about what is in the magazine:

I may experiment with adding extra images to my horror magazine front cover

too

• Launched in 1997 by Rodrigo Gudiño

• RUE MORGUE is the world's leading horror in culture and entertainment brand, spearheaded by its multiple award-winning magazine 

• Rue Morgue Magazine is issued 11 times per year (March-Jan) and distributed worldwide.

• Website Link: http://www.rue-morgue.com/#!magazine-2/cqhu

Although the font colour on this font cover is different, it still fits in with the theme of the film on the front, so from looking at a lot of horror magazines I can see that it is vital to have colour theme for my magazine, as it will make it loo neat and match to the idea behind my film.

Another scary image is features on the front cover again showing the eyes which will mae the audience feel as though they are staring at them– reinforcing the genre convention of it being a horror

The puffs are also placed around the side of the image so that none of the text distracts the audience from looing at the main image of the magazine.

The puffs are all about other films and directors, therefore this will be something that I will consider when making my own horror magazine front cover as I want it to look as realistic as possible. I will include text about other horror movies not about my own, as the only text (which I’ve seen) to use which is based around my film is the title of the film and perhaps the characters that are involved.

Another convention of a magazine front cover in general not just a horror

magazine is the use of a bar code!

A large title and big picture taking up the whole page:

Magazine Planning- Convention that I will use for my magazine front cover: Large Image showing the main characters eyes A scary image The title of the magazine which relates to the

horror genre at the top of the page Puffs and Banners of extra information inside

the magazine The same colour scheme throughout the

magazine front cover Large font of the main film involved A Bar Code

My M

agazi

ne P

lan

: As I am still at the planning stage of my magazine I still don’t now as of yet which colours to use for my magazine, I have also not taken pictures yet of my character to put on the font cover so I don’t know what sort of theme I’m going for as I don’t know what will be in my horror trailer.

However, as I know the conventions of a magazine quite well I will include a yellow stamp and other text to fill the magazine cover up. The name of my horror trailer will also feature on the front cover as this is an important convention to include so that the consumers now that it this is the main film topic in this feature of ‘Hysteria’ magazine.