I picked up my first issue of Rue Morgue six or seven years ago and was immediately blown away by its visual approach, so much so--and unabashed fanboy that I am--that I wrote a letter to then editor Rodrigo Gudino praising the magazine and its look. Since then I've paid careful attention to Art Director Gary Pullin's colorful scheme for the mag (he readily acknowledges the contributions of Graphic Designer Justin Erickson), and it's always a pleasure to run into him at horror conventions, notably the Festival of Fear. Now working closely with current editor Jovanka Vuckovich, Pullin is also preparing for an art show called "I Remember Halloween" at the Gladstone hotel in Toronto on December 20th. We'll be running a gallery of some of his artwork here in the near future as well.


When did your love of horror begin?


Normally I would say it began with watching Universal Monster movies on TV when I was a kid. But, when I really think back on it the earliest memory I have of anything horror related has to be Vincent Price's laughing, floating head in the intro to the Canadian kid's show THE HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN. It was on just before or just after SESAME STREET at 6 in the morning. The show was so bizarre and psychedelic, that I just couldn't turn away. It was like acid for kids. I loved it. My mom was also a fan of horror novels. King, Koontz and Peter Straub books were always lying around, so I would read them and we would talk about the one's that were the scariest.


What was your art training?


Our family priest heard that I liked art, so when I was about six or seven he gave me a giant box of markers. I immediately started drawing monsters and villains and I'm sure he wasn't too crazy about that!

Art and English were my strong points in high school, so after I graduated I went to an art school for two years called H.B. Beal. It covered everything from life drawing, photography to animation. After that, I ended up in a three year Graphic Design and Advertising program at Conestoga College. After graduating, I moved to Toronto and landed a gig working at a packaging design firm designing labels for chocolate bars, golf balls and beverage labels. At the packaging firm you had to work hard, fast and be able to present and articulate several aesthetically different concepts to the clients. I think it really helped me become a more versatile designer.


Who are some of your influences?


My grandfather on my dad's side was an artist but he died years before I was born. I used to see his old paintings of oceans and landscapes in my parents' basement. Those paintings inspired me to draw still life portraits of people or vases with flowers, really basic stuff. Back then I thought if you could draw that, you could draw just about anything. As I grew older I discovered underground comics and magazines - Famous Monsters of Filmland, Mad Magazine, EC comics and Chas. Balun's Deep Red. I became obsessed with all of that stuff. Basil Gogos, Robert Crumb, Charles Burns, Bernie Wrightson, Jack Davis and Joe Coleman have been major inspirations for me. I'm also really into a lot of "low-brow" stuff like Coop, XNO and Todd Schorr.


How did you come to be involved with Rue Morgue?


I met Rodrigo in 1998 at the FanTasia film screening of Fulci's THE BEYOND in Toronto. He was selling the first few issues of Rue Morgue in the lobby of the theater. I had seen issue #3 and I was blown away that it was published here in Toronto. It was academic and pretty slick for a 'zine. Rue Morgue was unlike any other horror magazine I was used to reading. I wanted to get involved and I told Rodrigo that I loved the magazine but it could look a little better. I gave him my number and two days later he called wanting to see my portfolio. We hit it off conceptually and creatively and he was impressed with my knowledge of the horror genre. He started hiring me for little stuff, like redesigning the letters column or the Classic Cut logo.

Around issue #7 I re-designed the Rue Morgue masthead. I started doing the covers starting with issue #11. I would moonlight at my packaging firm job, waiting until the bosses went home so I could use their computers and do the things Rue Morgue needed. Knowing I had become creatively unhappy at work and eager to officially join Rue Morgue, Rodrigo asked me not to accept any other design offers until he could hire me. I was hired full time in September 2001 and I'm glad I waited.


As far back as I can recall, the art direction in the mag has always been an integral part of its success, but it seems to have really evolved the last couple of years.


I'm glad you noticed that. When it comes to anything you are reading or even watching, I believe the artwork and design should be just as strong or as important as the content. I can only hope my work has evolved. When it comes to putting together the magazine, Justin Erickson has been an incredible help and is a very talented designer and illustrator. When we hired Justin, I needed someone who wanted to work hard in a fast paced environment, someone who would produce good work on a constant basis. He has definitely risen to the challenge and consistently produces great layouts. Justin and I have very different illustration styles but I think they compliment each other well and it keeps things fresh. We're both tuned into what's going on with design trends as well, so together we're always trying new things. Having another designer around has also freed me up a bit to focus on the many other aspects of Rue Morgue that require my attention.


What is the general process of designing an issue?


Well, we receive the raw text from the editors, read the article to get a feel for it and then try to establish an appropriate look and feel for the subject. That could mean obtaining movie stills from studios and filmmaker's or using original illustrations for articles in which nothing exists or is unavailable in terms of imagery. Essentially, my job is to communicate the context of the story visually to the reader. You want to draw them in and win their attention. It's through this process, the challenge of making something look retro or contemporary or to mimic design arcs of certain time periods, where we get to stretch our legs graphically and we love that.


Who decides what makes the cover? I was really tickled by the HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN painting.


That was a highlight for me too! What other magazine in the world would ever put Billy Van on their cover?! It's such an obscure show but those are the kinds of things Rue Morgue chooses to celebrate. He was important to the genre and people learned about something new that they may never have been exposed to. It was coming out on DVD so that was notable. We'll put something like that on the cover over any big budget bullshit like THE GRUDGE 2 or the latest SAW installment in a heartbeat.

We have round table editorial meetings and everyone pitches in ideas, but ultimately Jovanka decides on the cover stories. Once that has been established, her and I talk about what we'd like to see in terms of an image. Some are no-brainers. Take the SWEENEY TODD cover, for example. We didn't want to run a shot of Johnny Depp as Sweeney because that's what every other magazine would do but we both loved the shot of his arm holding the straight razor. It had just the right amount of sinister poetry to it, so that was the winner. This was the same thinking behind the HELLBOY 2 issue. Every other magazine ran shot of Ron Perlman. Jovanka felt really strong about using the Angel of Death character because it was a bad ass monster. It just felt natural for us to use that as the cover.

Some covers, like our retrospective features, are far more involved. This is when we really sink our teeth in and try to do something special like use an original illustration. When I started working with Rue Morgue, I wanted to carry on the tradition of using original artwork that Famous Monsters of Filmland, Creepy and Eerie started. I asked Rodrigo if I could use an illustration once in a while, he was all for it and Jovanka sees the value in it as well. In fact I just finished doing one for the December issue on a horror cult icon that I think people will really dig.


The recent Forry Ackerman issue was a real standout, and the Basil Gogos painted cover of Uncle Forry was probably the coolest genre related visual I saw in any medium all year. How did you pull that off?


Everyone at Rue Morgue wanted Basil to do a cover for us. We've talked about it for years. He almost did once a long time ago for issue 21 (our Universal Monster's tribute with THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON on the cover), but back then Rue Morgue was young and couldn't afford him. I talked to Basil at our convention last year after his Q and A and he kept saying "When am I going to do a cover for you?" So, this year marked Famous Monsters' 50th birthday and we thought "What if Basil did a portrait of Forry?!" Jovanka and I convinced Rodrigo to commission him and I really think we made a small slice of horror history with that one. It was such an honour to work with a personal hero like Basil. I think he did a great job and we were all like excited little kids when he agreed to do it.


It seems like the entire RM crew actively participates in Festival of Fear every year, but I've seen you at other events as well, like Rock and Shock with Jovanka and Eerie Horror Film Festival with Rodrigo. I'm guessing it's unusual for a magazine to have a road show.


Basically what it comes down to is that we like to meet our readers. Horror fans and the people we meet at these conventions are like our extended family. It helps that we're all mega-horror fans too. I'm always surprised when you find out that the people running a magazine aren't actually fans of what they're publishing. We are and we're also not shy to admit it. I think people also dig that we are not corporate types and are approachable. It's also no secret that we like to have a good time too! We feel that it's important for us to make appearances at these shows. It's always humbling when people contact us after and say, "Meeting the people behind my favourite magazine was the highlight of my trip!" This Festival of Fear was a bit different for me this year as I had my own booth. It was such a pleasure to meet people that appreciated my artwork. It's really nice to know people are so tapped in to what I'm trying to do.


You obviously worked very closely with Rodrigo developing RM, and then he handed the editorial reins to Jovanka. Did the change impact your process at all?


Jovanka certainly had some big shoes to fill when Rodrigo stepped down, so we all expected an adjustment period. It takes time to grow into a new role. She's gained a lot of experience since her first day and has become a great Editor-In-Chief. We work really well together. I'd say 99.999% of the time we're bang on the same page and she's usually blown away with what we're doing. But when a layout or a cover is proving to be particularly difficult, she's been great to bounce ideas off of until we come up with a solution. She's also not afraid to tackle controversial material in the magazine both personally and editorially either. People say the horror industry is a boy's club, but Jovanka has taken that sentiment and pretty much shoved it up the ass of anyone who thinks differently.


You're so busy with RM, do you ever have time to work on your own projects just for fun?


I love working at Rue Morgue but I also do freelance work through ghoulishgary.com. I'm lucky enough to be in a position now to pick and choose what I want to do in my spare time. This year was particularly busy for me and I do get burned out a bit sometimes. I just keep reminding myself that you do not become successful without some late nights, a bit of suffering and a lot of encouragement. It works on keeping me motivated. Over the past year I've done some illustrations for Revolver and Royal Flush magazine. I worked closely with Anchor Bay Entertainment on their new release of THE HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN DVD. I do gig posters and a lot of artwork for bands.

I also worked up some creature concept art for RM's managing editor Dave Alexander's short film FALLOW. Let me tell you that seeing how the effects guys at Gaslight turned my drawings into living things on screen was very cool. I would love the opportunity to do more of that. Lately, I've been working steadily on my first solo art show which will happen on December 20th at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. It's called "I Remember Halloween." The title is a play on the lyrics from The Misfits song and has a sense of nostalgia and rock and roll. I think it captures where I'm coming from creatively at the moment. Down the road, I'd like to do an animated short film based on a character I have in the attic and publish a coffee table art book.


What's your favorite movie poster?


That's a tough one! They don't make movie posters like the used to, it really is a lost art. I'd say the original HALLOWEEN poster with the pumpkin and the knife is up there. Like many horror fans the word Halloween alone speaks to me. The pumpkin and the knife is so simple in design but so very effective. I also didn't notice "the shape" on the hand until years later and that really creeped me out. I love it when artists subliminally put stuff in to mess with you.

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Visit our Gallery Zone for Gary's work.

Check out Gary's website, www.ghoulishgary.com.

And pick up each issue of Rue Morgue.