Featured image is from halloween 2012 at the McHenry theater, in McHenry Illinois, when we got them to to show the 1931 Version of Dracula and our table of mags. The article picture is my current monster room. Yes, I look a little unhappy.
Today was a rough day here at Monsters After Midnight. I know that things are rough all over for people throughout the world. The last few weeks have tried the patience of many.
I have never posted anything personal on this blog. But today, I am compelled to speak out. My classic monsters blog originally started out in 2012 as a hard copy magazine, it was solely my creation. The magazine saw some limited success and good reviews by my fellow monster kids.
Most of those people in the early days really helped me out by writing articles and donating their art work, people like Dave Snyder, Paul Spatola and Gary Castleberry who showed me great support. A fact for which I am both proud, and eternally grateful for. As time went on, the magazine for many reasons, most of which was deeply personal went to the wayside. I went through many big life changes. But I was always a monster kid at heart, so it was a foregone conclusion that I wanted to continue Monsters After Midnight. So around 2015, I decided to recreate the mag into an online blog.
I only wrote articles periodically and, I did it for my own release and contributions to the classic horror genre. The blog sometimes saw only three or four hundred visitors a year. Then in 2018, I decided that I wanted the blog to be bigger and better than anything I had ever done in the past. So thanks to social media, I was able to reach out to old monster kid friends and new monster kids all over the globe. My old friends, people like close internet friend and monster artist Paul Spatola, and multiple others once again stepped up to donate art, write articles and allow me to repost and showcase their own hard work on Monsters After Midnight. In 2019, my little monster ezine, went to a few hundred hits to over ten thousand last year and I expect to double that number in 2020. I was able to increase these numbers by using facebook to share our writers, artists, our movie channel, a modelers corners, our collectors corner and our ongoing dedication to classic monsters and horror. We even decided to create the Classic Monsters Awards, in which we gave out three awards for the best Classic Monster Writer, Artist and Podcaster. Then Monsters After Midnight was nominated for a Rondo Award. This was a dream come true.
But like all good things and good people, we must suffer at the hands of those who would do it damage. Much like the evil doers of horror, the internet, via social media is filled with those who would do harm to others for no reason, except to do harm. Today… was one of those days.
This morning when I checked my facebook page, I found that several of my posts had been rejected for reasons of what was described as “abuse”. I attempted to find out what this abuse was, but I could only determine that a set of community standards were violated, none of which described the nature of the blog or its intent. Not to mention that the contents of Monsters After Midnight has NEVER been anything BUT G-RATED and family friendly. My Ezine, has never NEVER had a nude photo, any profanity and has ALWAYS been politically neutral. WE have strived to keep our content aligned with the interests of people who would share this information with loved ones INCLUDING CHILDREN.. At no time as Editor, have I or any of my staff abused or harassed anyone. NOW to add insult to injury. Facebook completely banned me from posting any article, artwork or page from this blog. So I was forced to purchase additional resources to slightly change the URL of Monsters After Midnight to http://www.classic-monsters.blog . I don’t mind doing this. In fact, I will do it as many times as necessary to ensure that this blog continues on.
I will not bend to the will of evil people intent on harming anyone. I promise you, that Monsters After Midnight will go on no matter what. I wish all of our supporters, readers and contributors well in this tough time in the world. And Monsters After Midnight has readership from nearly every country in the world.
Thank You
Gene Editor and Vicki Stevens Chief Content Editor
Monsters After Midnight 