THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 112
PORK magazine used to be the longest running & most successful project we had running from 2011-2018. By the time we decided to cease publication both of us were tired of it. I had gone through numerous changes in thinking on the magazine, the readership, what I wanted. I know Katie was tired of the cycle of the magazine & how I would get stressed out whenever a deadline approached. I was unable to keep my stress to myself. She would frequently get everyone out of the house to watch a movie or something when I was finishing a magazine. PORK emphasized the combative nature of life, with distribution locations & readership really determining our success or not. Cultural shifts really endangered what we were working on. However, DUNGEON DEGENERATES is at the same seven year mark, but I can see it running much longer. More perspectives keep on opening up to me as I look closer into this world, entities become apparent, connections are made, stories demand to be told. I was looking at the 40+ available characters in anticipating the new 12 & lots more started to make themselves clear to me. As I’ve been working on these new expansion boxes other expansion boxes have distinguished themselves & I’m sure those ones will imply other boxes. I don’t even feel like I have begun to scratch the surface of how expansive the Würstreich is. I’m finding the core themes of corruption, weirdness, bizarre humor & this Germanic dark fantasy to ring truer, stronger the more the bell is sounded. I have changed so much since 2018 & the world has changed just as much if not more & has been going through some shit. I have too.
I remember picking up the first PORK magazine in the Whiteaker. You had old school distribution: I found PORK in one of those plastic bulky newspaper stands, but instead of putting in a quarter, it was free. I took 2 that day, and it's when I first was introduced to your work, and I've been following you ever since.
I was pretty young around that time, around 24 years old. I didn't know who you were and I wasn't in the Eugene scene, as I had just landed to town from the Midwest, but I thought what you were doing was cool as hell and I wanted to be a part of it.
The only thing I've ever known how to do, with any competence, is to write. So at the time, I was working on my first novel, and I shot my shot and got in touch with you to see if you wanted to do my cover. I realized I didn't have the budget and the work wasn't worth your art, to be honest. It wasn't mature, or maybe a better way to say it, is it didn't have the well-formed aesthetic that your work would need.
I moved on from Eugene, and have traveled the world, and have ordered some of my favorite merch. Some of it hangs on walls in Asia, believe it or not.
Just wanted to drop this note from a long time fan.