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The Rock River Times. October 20, 2021
ROCKFORD ROCKED INTERVIEWS
Wormwood Chronicles unveils new site BY GARY HILL CONTRIBUTOR
You might know him as Mike Korn. Perhaps you know of his alter-ego, Dr. Abner Mality. Maybe you remember the print fanzine of Wormwood Chronicles, or his column in RAM Magazine that preceded it. Mike Korn reveals the secrets of his pseudonym, Wormwood movie nights and Wormwood Chronicles in this interview with Rockford Rocked Interviews. Gary Hill: It seems like a lot of people know you as “Dr. Abner Mality.” Beyond the dark pun, is there another reason you chose that name for your alter-ego? Mike Korn: The dark pun was the biggest reason for sure. It just stuck in my head. I actually started using the name for my psychotronic film column in RAM magazine. I can’t totally take responsibility for coming up with it, though. In the early 90s, I was reading an old “Alley Oop” comic strip, and there was a character called “Abner Malady.” The name kind of struck me like a thunderbolt, so I changed it a bit and added the “Doctor” tag. I almost used “Professor” but “Doctor” just sounded better. It was a moment of inspiration that came out of the blue, just like the name “Wormwood Chronicles”. I actually had some other names for the magazine I considered before, but when I came up with Wormwood Chronicles, I immediately stopped. That was the only choice for it. GH: Wormwood Chronicles has been on the internet for a very long time, but a lot of people probably remember when it was a physical fanzine they could pick up around town. Can you talk a little bit about those early days and how the project came about? MK: I was a writer for the old RAM magazine and I talked to local hard rock and metal
bands and also did a column about weird movies. I always liked the concept of a free, advertiser-supported magazine. By 95 it was pretty obvious RAM was dying a slow death...it was getting smaller and smaller with less content. It also started to lose the independence it used to have. I thought, “let’s try to do a real fanzine kind of like the old punk and metal zines.” It took a year of planning before the first issue came out. I assembled a group of friends who would provide some extra content. I never wanted this thing to be a one-man-band. I knew zero about graphic design so I got help with that... Scary Dan Gildea (from Pinewood Box and Scaryhouse Studios), Sam Cornn and John Hardt helped a lot with that. The first issue was printed up at O�ce Depot and was 100 copies. I literally stapled them all together in my bedroom. The first issue was ridiculously primitive, like most first issues are. But when it finally came out, and I distributed them at various places around Rockford, and even in Madison, they disappeared almost overnight. From there, each issue got a little bigger and better looking. More people jumped on board...a lot of musicians, artists and talented people contributed. The last print issue was five times the size of the first issue, was a lot more professional looking although still pretty “homemade” and came out in just shy of 1000 copies. GH: When did you make the transition to the internet and what prompted that? MK: Despite being a mad scientist on the cutting edge of technology, I was slow to the internet. I always prefer physical media to online stu� because nothing substitutes for having something in your hands. There’s nothing collectible about an online zine. But there was definitely a period when we still were putting out the paper zine, and there
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was also an online presence. Scaryhouse and the folks I mentioned before were a big part of that. I mean, I had dial-up until probably 2001, 2002 or so. But I think we finally put the paper version to bed about 2001. Some of the advertising dried up,and it took a lot of driving around and pounding the pavement to get it. I had a full-time job, my Dad was very sick and disabled and it was wearying. Sometimes I’d drive 10 times to that same business and still never get a commitment. I also drove to Madison, Janesville, Chicago and elsewhere to get advertising and drop copies o�. I did try to find someone who could help get advertising, but it never worked out. “If you wanna do something right, you usually gotta do it yourself.” It was sad to give up the paper version, especially since we got the later issues looking good and we had great content I could have never dreamed of when the first issue came out. There was nothing like dropping o� a stack of Wormwoods at the Irish Rose and seeing them literally disappear right before your eyes. But we got a website up with the help of Scaryhouse, and eventually I saw that this was the way to go. I owe a lot to Mike Heitzman (aka Sgt. Deth), who helped put up content for a long time. Eventually I was able to update the Wormwood website myself, and that was a real breakthrough. Things really speeded up and took o�. Eventually we had over 5000 CD reviews, (which is almost unprecedented for a small “personal” website), plus over 500 interviews, 150 concert reviews and lots of miscellaneous content. GH: The site has just been revamped. What can you tell us about that - di�erences from the old site, how that came about? MK: The most immediate change is visual. It looks better, more modern...I have to say the image around the title is a lot cooler than anything we’ve done before. Unfortunately, due to the way Google Sites now works, the old material will be in a separate archive that you can access from the new site. Nothing will be lost. All the old stu� will still be there. I wasn’t going to jettison 20-years worth of work. We’ll also be able to have a few more bells and whistles. We can have videos now, whereas before we couldn’t have them at all. GH: What have been some of your favorite moments around the local scene as it pertains to Wormwood? MK: There have been plenty. I’ll never forget racing around one of the old On The Waterfront festivals, desperately trying to get a face-to-face interview with Blue Öyster Cult. I wasn’t sure I was going to get it, but at the last moment, things all clicked - very cool going backstage to interview musical heroes of mine in my hometown. I remember wearing a Godzilla T-shirt to the interview and guitarist Buck Dharma told me, “that’s a pretty cool shirt”. I also remember trying to get an interview with Burton C. Bell from Fear Factory when they played the old Times Theater years ago. The band management
were real jerks and made it pretty clear I wasn’t getting anything and should be just glad to be there. After the show. I met Burton out by the tour bus and told him about it. He said, “You’re getting your interview right now” - another memorable moment. Talking to Joey Belladonna of Anthrax in the Metro Centre dressing room was cool, too. Back in the print days, I thought it was important to talk about the local scene, such as it was. For a while, we had a column all about local bands. I look back now at old articles and see the names of a lot of bands I haven’t heard in a while - The Heavils, Vigilance, L.O.C. The ironic thing is, in the 90s and early 2000s, people complained about how the local rock scene had declined. Compared to the way things are now, it was a golden age, with lots of places to play that have since been torn down or closed. GH: You also ran a Wormwood movie event at one time. Can you tell the readers something about that experience? MK: Yes, Wormwood Movie Night. It jumped around from place to place, depending on the circumstances, and some venues were better than others. It started at the old Divine Cup on Madison Street, which was maybe the best venue to have it - lots of room and a big screen. That’s one of the many music/cultural venues that have ceased to exist. From there, it moved to the old Spin City record store, which was located in a couple of di�erent places. The final venue was Mary’s Place bar, where a lot of people saw it, but in retrospect, was probably not the best venue... too much racket. I tried to have a wide variety of cult and non-mainstream movies, from all time periods - everything from “Plan 9 From Outer Space” to “Tombs of the Blind Dead” to “Candy.” The movie that really threw people for a loop was “Incubus,” an arty horror film from the 60s with William Shatner. The dialogue was entirely in the artificial language of Esperanto, and it was really avant-garde - had a lot of people scratching their heads. I showed some episodes of the old “Night Stalker” TV show, and those went over great. The crowds could vary from just three or four people to virtually a whole bar at Mary’s Place. I’d like to do something like that again...I’ve got way more strange movies now than I ever had back then. GH: Where can people find out more about your various endeavors? MK: Most of my Wormwood activities are covered at the Wormwood Facebook page, which you can find at www.facebook.com/ wormwood.chronicles. I also have a lot of written material up at the Music Street Journal website, which is the other great local music website. I write about o� the wall horror movies for RavenousMonster. com, a killer horror website run by Jason Thorson who used to be in Stone Fury and Fogcrawler, and who now plays in Irritable Discontent, among others. I may possibly be doing some work for a national magazine soon, but we have to see how that plays out.