Physical Media Booklet Essay is the brainchild of Sean Abley, whom I have known since we were 20something actors running from blackbox theatre to storefront theatre and back up and down the stores of Lake Michigan. He had a theatre company back then and was also a playwright, and his ambition was very PRO-active then, something that really stood out because when you’re “just” an actor you can feel at the mercy of forces beyond your control. At any rate, here we still are, doing our thing, where I interview him about his book Queer Horror: A Film Guide, and Sean is still making stuff – plays and essays and all the rest – plus creating (designing, editing, producing) zines like Physical Media Booklet Essay, which he very kindly asked me to contribute to.
The zine’s concept is not easily put into words, and we have been holding back in our descriptions, hopefully to add to the fun and anticipation.
Suffice it to say: the essays included are written by Sean, myself, Calpernia Addams, Rich Newby, Michael Varrati, Sarah Stubbs, Heather Petrocelli, Julieann Stipidis, and Dave White. Each is about 2,000 words long, typically the length of any booklet essays, the type of which accompanies all 4k re-releases on DVD/Blu-ray of classic films (like the ones Criterion specializes in). A “physical media booklet essay” is always a plum assignment for any film/culture writer – monetarily but also creatively. Physical media is part of this equation because … of course … they exist in the real, not just virtual world.
And with AI looming, being forced upon us, in the year of our Lord 2026 where commencement speakers have been rolling out their AI endorsements (almost like they all agreed upon it beforehand) – and, beautifully, blessedly, looking totally baffled when all of the graduates start booing them as one … making real stuff which exists in the real world – stuff we can touch, stuff we can own – feels more important than ever now. Like Guillermo del Toro has been saying about Frankenstein: “art about humans made by humans.”
What are the Physical Media Booklet Essay essays about?
Films that have not been released due to … reasons, but not the reasons you might suspect. I don’t mean to be coy. Sean will be releasing interviews with each of us on his podcast, where we will discuss the movie we wrote about, letting the cat out of the bag. For now … I wrote about a low-budget (on the verge of no-budget) mid-90s film … seen by no one. Not really. I mean, you sort of have, in a way, but it’s complicated.
Purchase the zine – on Sean’s store – it will also be available on Amazon, and there are also international options for purchase.
