1948 – 2009
One more to add to our 2009 obituary.
Fangoria reports Chas. Balun passed away on December 18 at the age of 61. He was battling cancer.
Chas. (Charlie) was a multi-hyphenate in the horror biz. An artist, a journalist and a fiction writer, he contributed to the likes of “Fangoria” and “Gorezone” magazines as well as the t-shirt company Rotten Cotton. His books on genre films enlightened readers, steering us clear from the detritus that polluted the horror landscape and pointing us to the meaty, more satisfying entries that, more often than not, shed the red, so to speak.
“Horror Holocaust,” “Beyond Horror Holocaust,” “The Gore Score,” and “More Gore Score” featured his acerbic wit and scathing criticism. The man told it like it is and we loved him for it.
Chas. was a cool cat; I grew up reading his articles and, later, got to know him when I first met the man at a horror convention here in Los Angeles. We didn’t see eye to eye on some films, however, we shared a mutual love for Lucio Fulci’s Zombie. I got quite a thrill when he e-mailed me enthusiastically one day in response to my review of “Beyond Horror Holocaust” when it was first published. Someone I looked up to as a writer was telling me he was a fan of my work.
A bold voice in horror has been taken from us and he will be missed.
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
