About Rue Morgue

Rue Morgue

Rue Morgue is a Toronto-based magazine devoted to "horror in culture and entertainment," in print since 1997. Founded by Rodrigo Gudiño, it is a multinational magazine whose content comprises news, reviews, commentary, interviews, and event coverage spanning horror films, books, comic books, video games, and other media. Named for Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," it won the Rondo Award for Best Magazine every year from 2010 to 2016 and published its landmark 200th issue in May 2021. It is published bimonthly in print by Marrs Media Inc. and carries the ISSN 1481-1103.

Overview

Rue Morgue covers horror in all media: films, books, websites, comic books, music, and more. Each issue includes feature stories, opinion columns, and numerous reviews, and the magazine has grown into a leading horror publication with a strong online presence. Its journalistic span encompasses the full horror genre across entertainment media, and its editorial team has included executive editor Andrea Subissati, contributing editor Monica S. Kuebler, online managing editor William J. Wright, music editor Aaron Von Lupton, and games editor Evan Millar. Former editors include founder Rodrigo Gudiño, Dave Alexander, and Jovanka Vuckovic.

The magazine has expanded over time well beyond print: it encompasses a radio station (Rue Morgue Radio, described as the world's original all-horror broadcast, with weekly broadcasts), a book publishing company, and a horror convention — the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear, the country's largest annual horror expo. Additional brand extensions have included Rue Morgue Cinema, an award-winning film production arm; the CineMacabre monthly movie-night series; and a Rue Morgue Finery line of clothing and accessories. The magazine is headquartered in Toronto, with regional offices in various countries throughout North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

History

Rue Morgue was founded in 1997 by Rodrigo Gudiño, its original editor-in-chief, with the first issue appearing in October 1997. The well-known Rue Morgue logo was created by the magazine's art director, Gary Pullin, and first appeared on the cover of the seventh issue. Published every other month for its first years, the magazine secured national distribution in Canada with its fourth issue in July 1998, achieved U.S. distribution in January 1999, and by 2006 had closed a direct distribution deal for Europe; it is also available in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia by import, and finds its way to Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South America.

The distribution history tells the story of a genre magazine building a global niche audience before the internet made such audiences easy to reach. Starting from a Toronto base, Rue Morgue methodically extended its footprint — Canada first, then the United States within fifteen months of launch, then Europe — until it could fairly describe itself as multinational, with regional offices across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

In January 2005, the schedule changed to 11 issues per year, with the exception of February; the magazine later reverted to bimonthly publication. Gudiño handed the editor-in-chief position to Jovanka Vuckovic with the December 2005 issue; in 2010 the reins passed to Dave Alexander. The magazine's 13th year was celebrated at Halloween with the launch of its digital edition, which added bonus features including video Q&As, embedded movie trailers, streaming audio, and sample book chapters — an early multimedia magazine app at a time when most publications were still treating digital as an afterthought. In May 2021, the magazine published its 200th issue, featuring an exclusive interview with Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone — a milestone for an independent genre magazine.

The Rondo Awards — the horror community's fan-voted honours — named Rue Morgue Best Magazine every year from 2010 through 2016, seven consecutive wins that cemented its standing as the pre-eminent horror culture publication. The awards, voted by the genre's fans rather than an industry jury, testified to the magazine's deep roots in the community it covers.

Content

Each issue delivers feature stories, opinion columns, and numerous reviews across horror films, books, comic books, video games, and music. The magazine's interviews bring readers face to face with the directors, writers, actors, and artists shaping the genre, while its commentary and event coverage track horror culture as a living community — festivals, conventions, and scenes. Special features have included guides to the macabre, behind-the-scenes interviews, and explorations of horror's intersections with music and history.

The magazine's editorial sections reflect the breadth of its "horror in culture and entertainment" mandate: film coverage sits alongside books, comics, games, and music, with dedicated editors for online, music, and games content. The executive editor, contributing editor, and section editors form a specialist newsroom unusual for a genre magazine — a sign of how seriously Rue Morgue takes the full spectrum of horror media.

The digital edition extends the print offering with multimedia bonus features: video Q&As with filmmakers, embedded trailers, streaming audio, and sample book chapters. Rue Morgue Radio's weekly broadcasts and the online message board, the Rue Mortuary, give the brand's community daily touchpoints between issues. The CineMacabre monthly movie-night series brings the magazine's curation to theatrical screenings, and Rue Morgue Cinema — the film production arm — has seen its productions selected for the Toronto International Film Festival.

Coverage & Audience

Rue Morgue is a multinational magazine read by horror fans across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Latin America. Its audience is the global horror community — fans, filmmakers, writers, and artists for whom horror is a culture as much as a genre. The Festival of Fear, the country's largest annual horror expo, gathers that community in person, while the magazine, radio station, and online platforms serve it year-round.

The magazine's community is notably active and participatory: the Rue Mortuary message board, the festival, the CineMacabre movie nights, and the radio broadcasts together form an ecosystem in which readers are also collaborators, creators, and celebrants of the genre. The Festival of Fear — the country's largest annual horror expo — is the physical centre of that ecosystem, drawing fans, celebrities, and creators together in a way few genre magazines attempt.

Ownership

Rue Morgue is published by Marrs Media Inc., based in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Rodrigo Gudiño, who serves as publisher and is also a filmmaker — his short films The Eyes of Edward James, The Demonology of Desire, and The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow were selected for the Toronto International Film Festival under the Rue Morgue Cinema umbrella. The current executive editor is Andrea Subissati. The company's expansion from magazine into radio, book publishing, conventions, cinema, and merchandise makes it a horror media group built outward from the magazine's core brand — the ISSN 1481-1103 title at the centre of a diversified genre-media business.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, rue-morgue.com, publishes news, reviews, and features alongside information about subscriptions, the Festival of Fear, and the brand's extensions. The digital edition, launched around the magazine's 13th anniversary, brought multimedia features to the brand's online offering. Its history — from Gudiño's 1997 founding through the editorial successions, the distribution expansion, the 200th issue, and the seven consecutive Rondo wins — is documented in its Wikipedia entry and in genre-press coverage including Bloody Disgusting's report on its digital launch.

Brand Extensions

Beyond the bimonthly print magazine, the Rue Morgue brand spans Rue Morgue TV, the Rue Morgue Library book series, the Frightmare in the Falls horror expo and the monthly CineMacabre Movie Nights series. Its digital edition, RUE MORGUE DIGITAL, has received funding from the Government of Canada, and the title is sold on Zinio in six-issue digital subscriptions.