The Crypt (Dark Shadows zine)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Crypt |
| Publisher: | Dark Shadows Mascots |
| Editor(s): | Dee Gurnett |
| Type: | newsletter, club zine |
| Date(s): | 1970s |
| Frequency: | bi-monthly |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Dark Shadows |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Crypt was the newsletter for the Dark Shadows Mascots, a Dark Shadows fan club.
From a review in The Collins Mausoleum #3:
"The newsletter featured regular columns “authored” by mascots (role playing characters adopted by each club member): a column with weirdly eccentric advice to the lovelorn, another with gossipy “personals,” and a quasi-society page called “Mascot Meanderings,” that chronicled drunken antics and comic misbehavior." from "How Fans Kept the Torch Burning" by Susan Ramskill.
The review went out to say: "The Crypt... was remarkable at the time for its wit and charm. Its editors understood from the outset that they would never be able to “break” real news of real DS cast doings. They also seemed to eschew the usual newsletter reliance on DS fan fiction or poetry. Instead, the editors opted for a more convivial blend of episode synopses, wry cartoons, and reports of the interactions of the mascots. A newsletter published even at the relatively rapid rate of bi-monthly was considerably dated by the time you got it, rendering daily episode synopses ostensibly moot. The Crypt, however, made episode summaries fun even months after the fact by making sly but affectionate asides about goings-on. For example:"
“We open with Quentin kneeling beside the body of Randall, as if he had never heard of self-incrimination, Q picks up the fatal dagger, just in time to be discovered by nosy Trask, who exclaims that Q is the murderer and whips out a flintlock pistol that has to weigh at least 8 pounds…”
And:
“Melanie sees Justin’s ghost at Collinwood, moaning the lottery must be held again. It would be a rinky-dink curse if they could get out of it this simply.”
And:
“As Morgan returns from trying to force Bramwell to stop seeing Catherine (with no success), however, he does see the woman in white (we don’t – they’re saving $ again).” Pre-dating the earliest Dark Shadows Concordances by nearly two decades, these exquisitely complete (and often exquisitely snarky) episode summaries were a joy. And after the show was cancelled in 1971, re-reading them was a terrific way to re-visit DS in a pre-rerun, pre-VHS world."