In 1976, Necronomicon Press was founded , primarily to publish the works of H. P. Lovecraft and other authors of the horror field. Since that time the Press has issued hundreds of publications covering all aspects of the horror genre, from reprints of old fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, to printing the work of the some of the very best contemporary authors.Into the Future:
The Birth of Necropsy
by Tony Fonseca and June Pulliam
In 1994 and 1996 the Press received the coveted World Fantasy Award for its work in the small press field, and also received the equally prestigious British Fantasy Award for its publication Necrofile: The Review of Horror Fiction (back issues available through Necronomicon Press's catalog) in 1995.
Tony became involved with Necrofile in the fall of 1997, after meeting one of its reviewers at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts. He began writing reviews in that year, and continued until the journal ended its publication run in the Spring of 1999. June began writing reviews for Necrofile in the fall of 1998. We were so impressed with the publication's reviews and its bibliography that we cited it as one of the best horror journals in our readers' guide Hooked on Horror: A Guide to Reading Interests in Horror Fiction, available through Libraries Unlimited.
In 1999, we were informed by Necrofile editor Stefan Dziemianowicz that the journal had plans to go online and become an e-zine. However, unforeseen problems delayed the creation of the e-zine, and eventually Necronomicon Press had to scrap the idea. We were so sorry to see such a fine publication's run end that we offered, despite neither of us ever having had any experience with publishing or web design, to take over the e-zine. Dziemianowicz agreed and after a year of searching for an institution to house an online version of Necrofile, we decided that the e-zine would be best housed at Louisiana State University, in Baton Rouge, where June teaches Horror Literature, Vampire Literature, and Women in Horror.
We originally intended to keep the name Necrofile for our online version, but in deference to Necro Press publisher Marc Marchand's wish to lay the name Necrofile to rest, we came up with an alternative moniker. We then collected a group of reviewers and put together the first issue of Necrofile's sister journal, Necropsy, on July 10, 2001. We hope to continue Necrofile's fine tradition of supplying horror fans, literature aficionados, and library Collection Development Officers with up-to-date reviews and bibliographies in the genre, as well as to break new ground by reviewing gothic and horror films and by showcasing artists of the gothic.
Our intention is to resurrect the spirit of the quarterly journal, beginning with its first regularly timed issue (the second issue overall) on Aug. 2, 2001. This will be followed by a third issue on Halloween. We sincerely hope that the fans of Necrofile, the print journal, will be as excited as we are to see the journal transformed into it's new e-zine form, and we hope to find new fans who will be enticed by Necropsy's look and its contents.
