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Rick wrote:

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Well, okay.  I finally finished reading #30 and I think it stacks up well against previous issues.  I've already expressed, in this thread, my admiration for the Vincent Price testimonials, the Bradbury article, and the Michael Hoey interview.  You can add to that list the entire review section.  David Colton's review of Sixties Shockers made me add it to my list of things to buy whenever I have some money again.  And I had previously thought I could pass on Tom Weaver's The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon since I'd already read so many Gordon interviews, articles, and letters, and also listened to most of the commentaries Mr. Gordon shared with Mr. Weaver...but, Bryan Senn's review has made me seriously reconsider that purchase as well.  Thanks a lot guys.  I'll be the best-read homeless guy in town.

So, all in all, MFTV #30 is top-drawer, full of really great stuff that's well up to the mag's high standards.  But, the news is not all rosy.  The article, "Hammer's New Blood" is just not good.  At all.

I have no objection to a Hammer article in MFTV, a little trek into LSoH territory.  But, in the first place, this one offers nothing new.  It's a very basic look at a couple of late Hammer vampire films which we all know about and almost all of us have seen.  There's no new information, no special insight, no bold "take".  It's just a rehashing of plots, with a little unsurprising background stuff and some personal opinion -- and, while the opinion might have been worth reading in some different format, the whole package hardly warrants all this ink and paper.

Still, if that was all that was wrong with the article it wouldn't be that bad.  It would be simply some empty calories, an unnecessary, but not unpleasant re-visit to some comfortable old faces.  Unfortunately, though, that's not all that's wrong.  The piece is not well-written, and is far, far below the normal standard for this estimable 'zine.

Actually a casual reading, a quick skim, would probably serve the article better than any sort of real, concentrated look at it.  It's not so much that the writer makes mistakes as that much of the writing is so clumsy as to obscure or even alter what he probably intends.  Sometimes it's hard to even understand what he's saying.  So when the reader really pays attention to the words, the clumsiness is all too evident.

I made notes on a few of the problems in the early part of the article (then gave up), but I don't think this is the place to post them.  Certainly there are stretches which avoid the clumsiness, but, too soon, another pothole appears.  There are run-on sentences, problems with tense, and numerous passages which are simply awkward and uncomfortable.

The article is not dumb, and the author, at times, seems to actually have some skill at writing.  But this piece certainly needed another pass or two under a very careful eye, either of author or editor or both.

Sorry.  I hate posting this sort of criticism (and have held off for a few days) because I dearly love MFTV so deeply, and I so deeply honor all of Jim's hard work.  But I think, in all the issues I've read (probably 25 out of 30), this was the most troublesome article.   The thing is, it's not terrible.  And in a lesser publication (I can think of three or four offhand) I'd just shrug it off as typical.  But Monsters from the Vault has always been top of the pile for me and this (the one article, not the whole issue) was a disappointment.

Rick, thanks so much for the honest opinions on the new issue, this is the kind of feedback I love (as I'm sure most publishers/editors of genre magazines do). Lately I've tried to add to our stable of writers, sometimes good (Terry Pace), other times not so good. Originally, the Hammer piece was suppose to be a simple tie-in to the Blu-ray releases of the films, but when Twins of Evil kept getting pushed back I decided to go ahead and run it. Originally, I was suppose to have a Gary Rhodes' article on Francis Dade that got put on hold when he had his annual trip to the US for research got cut short due to a family emergency last summer. Believe it or not, we looked long and hard at Hammer piece (I even had Bryan Senn do some cutting for me, and Dick Klemensen gave it a couple of reads (mainly for factual errors), but alas, it apparently didn't help it much. But at least you enjoyed the rest of the issue.

The good news is Monsters from the Vault #31 is shaping up to be one of our best issues yet! It features the return of Greg Mank and Gary Rhodes, an article by Candace Hilligoss on the making of Carnival of Souls (turning 50 this year), and the addition of two new contributors, John McElwee who runs the great blog, Greenbriar Picture Shows and Dr. Gangrene himself, Larry Underwood. So I think it's going to be great Halloween for our readers.

Finally, I hope to announce a very special project here in the near future, one that readers have been begging for over the last 10 years.

Again, thanks for the honest feedback---it's much appreciated!