Banned in Britain
BANNED IN BRITAIN is an English language horror and splatter movie zine from Denmark (Scandinavia) published by Jack J.
Issues published:
- (32pp, 1994)
- (32pp, 2004)
Published by It's Grim Up North Publishing
The debut issue of Banned in Britain (BiB) was published at the very end of the original splatter movie era. It is maybe the only still surviving splatter film fanzine from that time period. The late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s saw literally tons of fanzines that covered both new and hard to find horror and splatter movies. Many of them came from the UK where the goriest of these films were either censored or right out banned. Editor Jack J discovered horror and splatter movies during a three stint in London, England (1988-91) where he frequented many an all-nighter at the legendary (long gone) Scala Cinema Club. After having returned to Scandinavia he decided to publish his own gore movie fanzine in the vein of UK zines like In the Flesh and Grim Humour. Due to his laziness he has so far (2013) only managed to publish 1 (one) issue per decade. Issue #3 is scheduled for 2014.
BiB issue #1 was published in 1994. The debut issue was Xeroxed late one night at a female film friend's workplace. The friend was credited as co-editor due to photocopying the first run but didn't do any actual work on the zine otherwise. Most of the reviews were written by Jack J. A handful of reviews were submitted by Simon Nielsen, co-editor of the punk & garage-rock fanzine Moshable (1987-2001).
There is a 10 year gab between issue #1 and 2. No. 2 was published in 2004. Again, most of the contents were written by Jack J with submissions by one other writer, comic book artist Lars Kramhøft. Both issues had a print run of approx 150 copies. Approx 50 copies of the cover for #1 were printed in red & white. All other copies were black & white. Both issues are now available online for free (approved by the publisher).
Jack J's zine publications are published on his underground label It's Grim Up North publishing. It is a publishing label in name only. The zines are 100% D.I.Y. publications and Jack J has maintained a "No copyright reserved" policy throughout the zine's existence. Anybody are allowed to print up copies as long as no profit is made from it.
Jack J went on to publish the Danish language fanzine STAY SICK! (1999-) and has contributed to countless other fanzines around the world. However, his most recent publication is STAY SICK! #4 from 2003 and his whereabouts are unknown.
