Halloween 'Zines: Haunt

I'm adding a new feature to my October blogging this year: Halloween 'zine reviews!! Growing up as a punk rock kid, I collected many a fanzine through the years. Small, DIY handmade photocopied, low-budget mini magazines that covered all aspects of the music genre, created and produced by the very participants within that scene. There's just something about holding a small magazine that was created and assembled by hand that always felt so tactile and genuine to me. And when I later became a home haunter, I discovered the same medium and immediately began collecting them.

First up is GroovyDoom's Haunt 'zine series. I ended up picking up the entire 10-issue series from the Etsy store and I'm so glad I did. Haunt absolutely nails the Halloween nostalgia in each issue, with pages crammed full of black-and-white Halloween ads, photos and article clippings from the 70's and 80's (my wheelhouse!).

As I flipped through each issue, I was transported back to those magical October days of my youth when I would race home from school and grab the Friday magazine insert from the newspaper, quickly scanning newsprint page after newsprint page of local haunted house ads (which in Northeast Ohio there were tons!) until my fingers were black from the ink. And then at dinner, I would BEG my parents to take me and my friends to each of them.

And while each issue of Haunt is a quick read, there is still enough old Halloween fun to keep me greedily grabbing for the next issue.

The entire Haunt 'zine series is a must-have, with super-cool illustrated covers and loads of old Halloween and haunted house ads. Each issue is a total blast to flip through and is a welcome slice of Halloweens past. And the photocopied black-and-white pages take me back to being a punk rock kid again.

Issue 11 is dropping now and all issues are available at the GroovyDoom Etsy store. Get it now!