It Was FATE
I put some old FATE covers online today. It sparked something nostalgic -- I miss working on magazines. FATE was something strange and special too. Or at least it was going to be, until the publisher backed out on the capital investment to relaunch it.
The plan was to re-ignite this 50-year-old rag relic as a strange-and-unusual youth-culture mag. It would utilize pop culture's fascination with vampires (Buffy) and UFOs (X-Files) and Goth (Marilyn Manson), but be neither idolatary nor skeptical nor fanish. Unlike the slew of pro- and anti-paranormal magazines out there, this one would eschew both camps: it would merely be fascinated with the cultures of Loch Ness chasers, conspiracy theorists, real-life vampires, tele-evangelists, and every other weirdo sub-culture out there.
It was a brave idea bound to die. But we got a few funny issues before it did. My favorite stories:
* The polygamy cult in Utah whose prophet was the reincarnation of everyone, including William "Braveheart" Wallace.
* The Loch Ness monster is really an English colonization scheme.
* The investigation of Middle Age art to find secret evidence of UFOs.
* And, of course, my interview with Chris Carter in which he said the words "That's extremely perceptive of you." (I have it on tape!)
