Horror Reanimated… the home of Bloody Books

Interview with Johnny Mains by JD’L

July 6th, 2010

Many of you will be familiar with our guest today, Johnny Mains. His mission to resurrect The Pan Book of Horror Stories has made him an instant legend in the horror community. As I said to him in a recent Facebook exchange, he is at the forefront of Horror Reanimation.

I invited Johnny to join us here in the Hell-realms of Horror Reanimated where we could interrogate him properly – a chat on Facebook never quite satisfies, does it? At least down here, where the walls drip pus-thick sulphur and our interrogation equipment never fails, we could get to know each other…more intimately. He could barely wait to get his genitals through our mini-guillotine!

Unfortunately, Johnny pressed the wrong button in the lift (B is for Blowtorch not Basement!) and got a bit of a roasting.

Joseph D’Lacey: Hi, Johnny. Thanks for riding the elevator down to Satan’s crypt – where the resident bloggers are enslaved for all eternity. You’re looking a little crispy but I’m sure we can soon excise the excess dermis. Anyway, we’re delighted to have you here – Mathew’s been blunting his razors in anticipation.

Johnny Mains: Afternoon Joseph, and in honour of my recent holiday to Portugal, I shall call you ‘Senhor Slicer Pênis Pequeno.’

And Mathew needs to use those razors on his beard, or he needs to grow it out a bit. It looks like a snail with a bad belly has been

running all over his manly jaw. But it’s good to be at HR and thanks for inviting me!
 
JD’L: You must have a soul-level connection with the genre to be involved with it so deeply. Were your first feelings of horror caused by something in real life or by something from the world of entertainment? What got you hooked?

JM :  When I was a child I lived not too far from an area where there used to be a Roman Fort called Trimontium. But even closer to me were the remains of a Roman Marching Camp – something I didn’t find out about until I was in my twenties. So, when I was around eight years old I was ill in bed, it was a Saturday afternoon and I heard what I believed to be the sounds of a deafening Roman Legion trample through my farmhouse bedroom. Scared the absolute shit out of me. The braying of hundreds of horses, clanking of light and heavy metals; (I hid under the covers as it was scaring me) people talking in a deep raucous foreign language.

For the obvious reasons I never told my parents, and as I grew up I truly believed that the ghosts of these Romans had walked through the house. Then one Christmas I was given an Armada Ghost Book and the connection with my experience and ghosts in these stories was made. I recieved many of these books and each story in their own way reminded me of my experience in which the terror I had felt duly morphed with time into a delicious thrill. I continued to be a fan of the ghostly tale until I discovered Stephen King (Carrie) at the age of twelve and the Pan Book of Horror Stories at the age of thirteen. Then that’s when my love of horror truly began.

JD’L: Horror is often described not as a genre but as a sensation or experience. This may make it harder to categorise but it strikes me as a useful distinction. As someone who’s involved so fundamentally, what are your thoughts on defining the genre?

JM: Something I might find frightening might be laughable to someone else, and this, while amusingly ironic, is the definition of the genre. Individual perceptions make it (horror) what it is.

JD’: Why do we have horror in the first place? Surely in a sane world, people wouldn’t want to be any more frightened than they already are. What’s the use of it, do you think, and why does it endure?

JM: As a collector of ghost/horror anthologies I am truly staggered at the books I come across that were published in the years immediately and following the First and Second World Wars. You would have thought that books of this kind would be almost impossible to track down – after the aftermath of millions of soldiers butchered on the battlefields, the traumas of the blitz, the understanding of what the Final Solution meant – would you want to read a horror story when there was this terrifying legacy to deal and to live with?

It goes to show that even though we may face real life horrors – sadly as relevant today as they were back then, we still like to be thrilled with the horror we can stop at will, the terrifying that we are in complete charge of. In this regard horror will always be with us, and that we can choose to be a part of it, or not.

JD’L: Has horror changed much or are we merely seeing the same old stories told in slightly different ways? I suppose what I’m wondering is, have the archetypes of horror developed or altered in response to changes in society?

JM:  There are bound to be homages, rip-offs, re-treads, call them what you will of the core ideas, myths, and legends of the genre that are out there – but on that flip side there are startling new voices and even people who are firmly established – like say for instance Nicholas Royle who is always there with his new exciting spins on the genre. Stories for instance like Unfollow (marvellous Twitter inspired short story), The Children (a very creepy take on the package holiday) and others continue to prove that he is on top of his game.

JD’L: Film, literature, art, music and video games are all viable media for presenting Horror. There are probably many others I haven’t thought of. Which do you think has the greatest potential to scare people?

JM: I think literature, for me is the one that is scariest. Sitting on your own, late at night, reading a suitably creepy short story or novel…and the house starts settling down, making it’s noises, creaks and groans… something outside makes a noise, a twig snaps…
Most of all I miss being a kid and telling the most goriest stories while being on overnight excursions or hearing stories from other countries while on exchange. Each storyteller would try to outballs the latter one.

So yeah, Literature first, spoken word second, music third.

JD’L: Can you tell us a little about what prompted you to bring back The Pan Books of Horror Stories?

JM: I’ve been a fan of it since I was 13 years old and a few years ago I was looking for information on one of the authors to my favourite short story from the Pans and couldn’t find anything on him at all! So I started a research kick, with the aims of bringing out a history book of the Pan Horrors. I got sidetracked by several of the authors I got in touch with saying they had nice new unpublished stories. The book is now an anthology with a bit of history in it – I’ve been the first person to seriously look into the world of Herbert van Thal, the series’ original editor. He didn’t disappoint!

JD’L: What kind of experience has that turned out to be?

JM: Tiring, exhilarating, mindblowing. I’ve been in touch with around 40 odd authors, can now call quite a few of them friends, as a fan it’s been great because I now have every book from 4 – 30 signed! But it all culminated at the World Horror Convention with the Pan Horror panel which I fronted, a moment I will treasure for the rest of my life. And it’s ongoing, still uncovering facts, secrets and new (old) authors!

JD’L: Well, I and many others thank you for your perseverance and hard work, Johnny. I mean that very sincerely.

I recently read an article about Cory Doctorow’s approach to marketing his fiction. He’s big into making his work available for free on the internet as well as selling hardcopy. What are your thoughts about the future of publishing – particularly Horror publishing – with regard to the online/dead-tree split?

JM: Publishers are rightly shitting themselves, books can be produced cheaper now than they ever were. Of course, you have to wade through more crap to find the nuggets more than ever, but I think the small press (to a certain degree – see below) is in a healthy place. I think if you can afford to give out your stuff for free on the internet – then good for you, but why would I want to pay for something that you’ve already given me yesterday for nothing? You’re not a drug dealer, you’ve not got me hooked – I’ll just find someone else who is punting out free stuff and go and read them.

JD’L: In the UK, Horror literature appeared to go through a long slump between the 80’s and the turn of the millennium. Now, however, fans and authors alike are hopeful of a renaissance in the popularity and quality of horror fiction. Recent novels such as The Birthing House, Let the Right One in, Apartment 16 and The Leaping seem to point the way. Do you think such hopes are well-founded?

JM: Out there in mainstream land, I’m very happy with what’s happening – currently reading Tom Fletcher’s excellent THE LEAPING, love Lindqvist’s stuff and eagerly awaiting his third, I’m project editor on the Pan Horror 1959 re-issue which is going to be brilliant in terms of getting more anthologies out there, and I’ve also finished STORIES, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sorontonio – a knock out anthology which really took my breath away with how brilliant it is.

JD’L: What’s next for Johnny Mains? Will you always be a compiler and editor or do you have more personal creative projects lined up?

JM: I want to create books which will make people glad they put their hands in their pocket to buy them. Quality anthologies, quality collections with established authors, new discoveries and hopefully be able to be given the chance to write a few short stories myself.

JD’L: Visitors to Horror Reanimated are always encouraged to make two awards: The Sword of the Ultimate Darkness goes to the work of Horror in any medium which you consider to be a timeless classic. You may also banish to the Plague Pits the most astounding flop in Horror history. Go for it, sir!

JM:  Right, the Sword shall go to…Dawn of the Dead – THE greatest film I’ve ever had the pleasure to see. Now have it on bluray – and my god it’s like watching it for the first time. I think the messages and themes weaved into a ‘shoot ‘em in the head’ movie are still as valid and as urgent as they were back then.

The Plague Pits…any of the SAW films after the first instalment. Or Pet Sematary 2. That stank.

JD’L: Worthy choices!

Johnny, it’s been an enlightening experience to have you strapped to a rusty iron chair while we show you how all our instruments work. You’ve been a real gentlemen about it. While we’ve been talking, Mathew has had your manly bits encased in Perspex as a Horror Reanimated souvenir for you. I hope you’ll display them prominently on the mantelpiece of your living room.

In the meantime, we wish you the very best of good fortune with all your dark endeavours!

JM: Much obliged, it’s been a pleasure and I’ve really enjoyed my time with you. Now give me my bits back. I have a buyer for them!

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