SK#5 marks the fifth anniversary of Murder Slim Press. In 2004, I’d left teaching and Richard was unemployed. The day of fanzines had passed and people were infatuated with the ‘net. Terrible literary and poetry websites ruled... they still do. Never mind that writers never got paid. It was a free-for-all which rewarded good and (mostly) bad alike. You too could be “published” in eye-watering hard-to-read vision. Still can.

As egomaniacs, we decided to create a print magazine and stick it to the rest. Initially The Savage Kick also had a bunch of articles because we felt we couldn’t attract leading writers. When Dan Fante agreed, that changed. A superb writer called Mark SaFranko got in touch and... well, you know the rest.

We wanted to do a colour issue, to show off Richard Watts’ artwork. Costings ran at £10-£12 per issue, somewhat prohibitive.... Yeah, we could have printed in black and white but we wanted shiny colour to grab your eyes! So we bought a second-hand colour photocopier from eBay... a temperamental motherfucker at a seemingly cheap £200. We bought toner (£100!) and printed away... in between breakdowns and baffling paper jams.

Eventually ol’ Bertha had a paper jam we couldn’t fix and we switched to a second-hand laser printer. As ever, everything was hand collated, cut on a terrible guillotine (3 sheets a time), and stapled. We grew to despise staplers. Check your early issues and see some of the wonky staples down the side. And that was after multiple tries.... Sorry.

Yet it was – and still is – immense fun.

SK has seen not only Fante and SaFranko, but Lansdale, Goad, Trantino, Joe Matt and – our favourite comedian - Doug Stanhope. SK#2 had a pre-fame, pre-New York Times’ bestselling Tony O’Neill. You SK#2 fans obviously got word around. We also – after going through hundreds of okay and awful submissions – found other more unheralded (but excellent) writers that we hope you’ve enjoyed.

SK#5 marks a change. When the colour copies of SK#1-#4 sell out they’ll be no more bad backs and staplers slammed into the wall. SK#5 is professionally printed and bound. We still miss the colour, even if you don’t. We just wanted to have more pages, which gave a chance for longer stories. We also felt bad for underpaying Richard Watts all these years.

So here it is... Savage Kick #5. Still sticking it to the web. Still trying to prove that paper has got plenty of life left in it.

Enjoy!

Murder Slim Press