It’s hard to define what you would expect from a publication called Scream Magazine. Perhaps a gritty literary arts magazine with comics and a strong political view was on someone’s list. It certainly was for editor Russell Judd Boone and business manager Katie Boone. They went on to create a memorable and highly creative run of the magazine between 1985-1989. But you can look at the parts of the whole that made up each issue, and see that in a lot of ways Russell was using the tools he knew to speak of his core woes, and in doing so brought forward talent that could use his venue to speak of their own anxieties.

What was it about the articles?

Scream Magazine was certainly a visceral response to the Reagan era, but looking at its range of articles, from “Censorship for Dirty Minds” to running excerpts of Ernest Hemingway’s FBI files, it was obvious Russell was mining a culmination of information and frustration that began long before Reagan. He even dug out controversial text like the Gemstone Files and the POW accounts of Lieutenant Charles Frederic Klusman in “The K Files”. In later issues you could also find political satirists William Nealy and Dennis Draughon adding a humorous tone to the magazine’s edge.

But the meat of creative output that defined the tone of Scream Magazine lay from 2 directions: fiction & poetry, and the comix (with an “x”) found in the Rollywood Funny Papers.

Fiction and Poetry Abound

It’s clear from the start that much of the hard work that Russell put into the magazine came from the solicitation and editing of the fiction and poetry found it copious amounts throughout Scream. He had a few favorites like David Weaver, Jim Shell and David Wilson that would appear periodically throughout the run of fiction, but otherwise the authors were often unique to a specific issue. The same selective habit can be said for the impressive range of poetry. While the 10 Women Poets section found in issue 4 was a really standout, it is the poetry of Charles Bukowski found in issues 5 and 6 that defined the success Russell was beginning to have on a national level.

The Rollywood Funny Papers and More

Let’s not short change the strength and impact the comix section the “Rollywood Funny Papers” set for the whole magazine. The scratchy and expressive storytelling of David Larson’s “Mr. Creative,” the elegant sci-fi tainted “The Vacation” by Lillian Jones, the humorous and unapologetic “Gutter Man” by Tim Kearny and Rick Koobs, and the short but wonderful wanderings of Matt Feazell’s various mini comics set an underground tone that would continue to evolve for much of the run. Issues also featured more hardcore punk attitude stories by Errol Engelbrecht and the Michael Moorcock Jerry Cornelius-based stories by Daniel Gallant.

Russell was able to solicit many of the same comic artists to do great accompanying illustrations for most of the literature and articles. David Larson contributed many amazing pieces throughout Scream and could easily be credited for its overall visual impact and tone of the magazine. Other contributors like Gerry Dawson, Errol Engelbrecht, Lillian Jones, Daniel Gallant and a host of others also lent a strong hand in bringing a visual dynamic to the magazine.

But the art didn’t stop there. Each issue sported great cover contributions by many of the same talent, but also included unique contributions by artists like Rob (Zombie) Straker. Another art-related feature outside of the Rollywood Funny Papers were impactful and rebellious quotes by famous authors like Nietzsche, Camus and Baudelaire, all illustrated by David Larson. And adding to that effect were comics adaptations by Tim Kearney of famous short stories by Kafka, Baudelaire and Poe and were primarily illustrated by Rick Koobs.