Tabard Inn #1 is a new, non-paying zine, tangibly horror but that runs the gamut from hard-boiled gay fiction to speculative work. As Editor/Publisher John Bruni states in the issue’s introduction, the fiction in Tabard Inn is extreme, yet thought-provoking. He doesn’t hide his disdain for what he considers watered-down publications which cater to all ages. I’d say he should pick up an issue of City Slab or Red Scream and still see if that’s how he feels after reading those outstanding publications.
Tabard Inn is strictly no-frills but still looks pretty good. It’s black & white, done on legal-sized paper and folded in half. The full justification gives it a very clean and easy to read look. The main problem with Tabard Inn is that apparently all of the contributors to this issue and friends or acquaintances of the publisher, including the subject of a lengthy interview. Even the cover photo and back cover advertisement was done by a friend of Bruni’s. Unfortunately this gives the overall product a very “fannish” feel.
There is an interview right smack in the center of the issue with a young lady who is employed in a public library. We’re told she has some stories from her workplace that we will find hard to believe. Problem is that we really don’t even get to her stories about the library until about six pages into the nine-page interview. Prior to that we mostly get tales of her, and her friends drunken escapades in clubs and blow-by-blow accounts of strip poker parties, fights with boyfriends, run-ins with her parents, and the thefts of multiple cigarette lighters, ash trays, and bottle openers from a watering holes. When it comes right down to it, there’s nothing all that interesting in her “lurid” accounts that the average twenty-something hasn’t experienced. The interview basically ends up as a couple of friends having a conversation about other people they know and I’m wondering why I should care about them…
The fiction fares a bit better. Sarah Stupegia’s “Bleeding Paisley” is a pedestrian story of a man who has lost his leg at the knee and has become convinced that it is regenerating, leading him to be heavily doped up by his doctors. The story starts off quite well with some vivid imagery as the man dreams of his phantom leg being covered by ants, so real that he claws it to the point of bleeding. I would have liked to see it stay in this psychological realm but it instead meanders off to an unsatisfying conclusion.
“My Dick is Quick” is billed as a Bobby Yandell Mystery, the second in a series by Anthony Haversham. It is a hard-boiled, gay detective drama with nary a mystery in site that abounds with explicit gay sex. When the detective’s stripper lover is killed by the mob, he goes out for revenge. Look, I’m certainly not anti-gay but this story just didn’t do it for me. Taking out the gay sex, the story itself was rather flat and little effort is made in developing the characters. And really, in this day in age, is gay sex all that extreme anyway?
Bruni slaps his own wrist for contributing one of his own stories to the magazine, admitting it to be tacky. But when it comes right down to it, his story called “Slummin’ it” is the best in the issue. Gory, but also with a keen eye on the class system in America and how we casually ignore those poor wretches who find themselves scraping out a life on the streets. Here we have a story of a bum who delights in feeling pain and the extremes he will go to in order to get what he wants. By far the best thing in Tabard Inn #1 and I’d love to see more of Bruni’s work.
Tabard Inn shows some promise and Bruni is obviously dedicated to putting out a good publication but I think he needs to step outside his circle of friends and try to broaden the appeal of his publication in future issues.
– Tim Janson
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
