Farewell, Uncle Creepy
Here at 52 Weeks of Horror we hold a special place in our black, shriveled hearts for Dread Central. Like many horror fans we found ourselves drawn to the website’s blood, gore, and over the top personalities. And none inspired us more than website co-founder and writer Steve Barton, better known to fans as Uncle Creepy.This morning, Uncle Creepy announced that he is resigning immediately from the publication he helped to create, citing creative reasons as well as personal ones. While the letter he wrote to fans explaining this doesn’t go into detail, it doesn’t read as a bitter, angry exit piece but as something more peaceful and promising.
Dread Central was born from a failed attempt to start an all horror network and quickly became the leading place for news and information in the genre during the early 2000’s. Where as larger, print contemporaries like Fangoria and Rue Morgue were focused less on the fringe elements of horror, Dread Central was keeping tabs on the indie horror scene and sharing them with readers. Even now I still find myself more interested in what DC has to say than Fango. As Editor-in-Chief at Dread Central, if you read it it was only because Uncle Creepy had made sure it was perfect for the fans.
I’ve never personally met Uncle Creepy or any of the folks at Dread Central but I’ve seen the impact he’s had on the community through so many of the folks I’ve had a chance to work with and interview. Hell, one of my very first assignments for 52 Weeks of Horror was writing up an article in support of Dread Central when they were going through some struggles in 2016. The website’s motto “By fans, for fans” is something we take to heart here as well and with the horror community as close knit and driven to create as it is, Uncle Creepy and the folks at Dread Central have been giving us just what we need in terms of support and exposure for 12 years straight.
You can read Uncle Creepy’s farewell letter below.
Dread Central’s new Editor-in-Chief wrote a very touching farewell to Uncle Creepy here and, of course, there’s the Uncle Creepy archive at DC to rummage through for all his greatest hits.
From all of us here at 52 Weeks of Horror, we just want to say thanks for making that scary, Uncle Creepy.
