I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my brand-new publication: Shadow Zine! Each month I’ll bring you some of the brightest voices from the fringe. We’ll cover topics like the paranormal, UFOs/UAPs, cryptids, and the just plain weird. (You know, the kinds of subjects you’ve come to expect from me.) For those of you old enough to remember the 1990s and early 2000s, “zine” is short for magazine. They were everywhere back then. Desktop publishing was exploding. People with a little technical know-how and a voice were able to express themselves and get their work out there by hustling. Some zines were professionally printed and full of art. Others were literally typed with a typewriter or hand-written then photocopied. All of them were underground. That’s where those of us interested in the weird and unusual found our tribe. These zines weren’t available in stores. You had to know someone to buy one. Raw. Gritty. In the shadows. Zines were a direct response to the media being controlled by a handful of people. There were only a few television networks back then, major newspapers were controlled by a handful of companies, and the local independent publications rarely covered the fringe. So we made zines. Then something amazing happened in the early 2000s. The internet exploded. Suddenly everyone could have a voice. Newspapers faded away and zine publishers took to the web. There were no print costs, and your message could travel worldwide at the speed of light. I started my website Ghostvillage.com back in 1999. That online community grew to epic proportions fueled by our massive message board system. In short, that website launched my career—leading to book deals, in-person appearances, and television work. Back then our voices could be heard on a global stage. We pushed the subject out into the light and let people know they weren’t alone in their experiences. Everyday people like me were gaining a big voice online on the subjects we loved. But then something else happened to the internet. It happened so slowly we hardly noticed it. In the early 2010s, social media really took off. I mean, of course it did. If we could all get into the same system, how wonderful would that be? Now you don’t need to know HTML or understand web hosting (or print, for that matter) to use your voice. Over time, social media killed online message boards like the one I had on Ghostvillage.com. Everyone moved to MySpace, then Facebook to have those online discussions. Still, these online communities were democracies at first. People could get their work and message out there. Cream could still rise to the top. Fast-forward to today and we’ve stopped browsing the web looking for independent voices. We got lazy thinking social media is a place for the free flow of information. We demand our content in nibble-sized bites. Tl;dr (too long, didn’t read). 30-second videos fronted by attractive people who will get views. I’d argue that most people spend 90% of their time online on social media platforms like: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (which I’ll forever call Twitter), Truth Social, Bluesky, Reddit, and YouTube (owned by Google). That’s a small handful of people who control 90% of what you see. They can throttle up or throttle down the tone of their platform based on their politics. They can (and do) manipulate us however they see fit. So while others are going AI, attempting to make more 30-second viral videos, doing everything virtual and digital, I’m taking Shadow Zine in the opposite direction: print. Online content can be edited, suppressed, deleted, and scrubbed from the web. When you purchase a print publication, it’s yours forever. It’s final. It’s tangible. It can be shared, doesn’t require batteries, wifi, or 5G networks. If TV networks and social media platforms are moving on from the popularity of paranormal topics and the fringe, I say: Good! I’ll help take it back into the shadows where it started. Where we had the time and space to dive deep. Today I’m excited to launch Issue 1 of Shadow Zine. This issue was written entirely by me and is called: “Mysteries of the Bridgewater Triangle.” In this 28-page, full-color, glossy publication, I cover 200 square miles of southeastern Massachusetts weirdness. From haunted places to cult murders, bizarre beasts, pukwudgies, ancient mysteries, UFOs, Bigfoot, and a forgotten war that has forever haunted this land. Each month’s issue will be written by a single author (I already have the next several authors lined up) and will cover a single story in-depth. Each issue is free of AI. The photos and art are created by real human beings. There will be no digital copies. The only way to get one is through my website or from me (or the other authors) in person. Shadow Zine is a revolution. It’s for the connoisseur of content. Our authors and artists are professionals and will be paid for their work. With your help, we’ll take back control of our favorite subjects. We’ll remain fiercely independent, and we’ll take a deeper dive into this very strange world that exists in the Shadow. You can buy the first issue on our website here: https://shadowzine.com/ The adventure starts now!
