Hello and welcome once again to 10 Quick Questions with Dave, I am your host Dave Tallman and in this segment I will be chatting with Robert S. Rhine. Robert is the creative force behind the magazine that is giving a tongue in cheek kick in the arse to the Advertising Industry and Men’s Magazines everywhere, I am of course speaking of The Beauty and The Beast of the publishing world – Girls and Corpses Magazine. And yes, it is exactly what it claims to be!! So brace yourselves kids and get ready to have a disgustingly good time.
Me:
First of all Robert I want to thank you for doing this interview, now let’s get to it:
Robert, thanks for agreeing to this interview, I saw your site and just had to find out more about it and the creative force behind it. Let’s start with the obvious questions first; what is Girls and Corpses and where did you come up with the idea?
R.S Rhine:
Glad to enter your crypt, Dave. Girls and Corpses Magazine is… well… exactly what it sounds like – a magazine that combines beautiful warm females with cold rotting males. It is a spoof of men’s magazines and our advertising industry who place beautiful women next to anything to sell it. The magazine combines horror and humor and is ‘the first comedy magazine about death.’ We gaze at the dark side of humor and the light side of horror --walking a knife blade between the genres of MAXIM and “Dawn Of The Dead” and MAD Magazine. You can check it out online here: http://girlsandcorpses. com/
The idea for Girls and Corpses sprung to my rotting brain after I realized that women have a certain let’s say affinity for old rich guys –- so I just took it a step further. Also, growing up I was a huge fan of MAD Magazine, and I was a writer for Cracked Magazine, so I really missed seeing an irreverent comedy magazine on the newsstands.
Me:
I have to ask the stupid question next, are the corpses real and where do you, pardon the pun, dig them up?
R.S. Rhine:
They sure smell real. The girls are real too, by the way.
Actually, we don't personally 'dig them up.' We're not grave robbers. The corpses are shipped to us from several places --most notably South America, Eastern China and Guam , where the laws are more lenient about intercontinental shipment of cavaders. The corpses are stacked in dry ice and a preserving powder called 'Cureodite' which halts the bodies natural decaying process. Some of the bodies (or as we call them "corpse models") are destined for labs and Universities, but a few "fall off the truck" and we borrow them for a photo shoot and then return them where they are dissected by medical students or wind up being used on shows like CSI. We don't need consent because, technically, we are only 'borrowing' the bodies for the shoot. Once in the states, the corpses are received in our deep freeze storage facility (in an unmarked warehouse in New Jersey) by our corpse stylist, Kevin Klemm, who washes the bodies with a mixture of fructose, Spray and Wash, limestone powder, and Coca Cola (which can be used for dozens of useful things). Then Mr Klemm uses process known as plastination, which replaces the cadavers fat and water with certain plastics. You may be familiar with this process popularized in the the Body Worlds Exhibit and by founder Gunther von Hagens -- who we interviewed for our magazine . Anyhow, the plastination process, sets the bodies in the positions we need them in for the photo shoot and also allows us to work with the corpses without the usual problems of decay, stench and maggots -- which could be a real turnoff for our female models and would create a bio hazard under the hot lights of a photo shoot. Does that explain it?
Me:
I was checking out your Myspace page and your site, and you have some very attractive young women posing with your corpses. Where do you get the girls? Are they friends or from an agency?
R.S. Rhine:
Yes, we have a crazy my space page at: myspace. com/girlsandcorpses
I agree that we do have a lot of beautiful girls in the magazine… and a few handsome corpses. Oddly, we can’t keep the girls away from the stiffs. It’s truly a phenomenon. Girls literally beg to be in the magazine. I get photos sent to me every day from all over the world. Many of them naked – even though we don’t even have nudity in the magazine! Go figure. And not only regular girls – top models and celebrities. Rob Zombie’s wife, actress Sheri Moon Zombie (“Devil’s Rejects”) graced our first cover. Danielle Harris (Halloween 4 & 5 was on our second cover), Scout-Taylor Compton (who has four major films soon to be released and starred in the new Halloween movie) was on our third cover… etc etc.
Me:
Have you ever had a model refuse to do a shoot because of their non-living costar?
R.S. Rhine:
No. Because dead girls tell no tales. They know what they are getting into. I mean, our office is in a morgue.
Me:
Your set-ups seem to be fairly labor intensive, how long does it take to prep a photo shoot?
R.S. Rhine:
You mean like do we have fluffers for the corpses? Actually, from conception to shoot and editing probably two weeks. Girls and Corpses is a quarterly issued magazine and comes out in the Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall, so that gives us plenty of time to get each issue just right… I mean ripe.
Me:
Obviously, doing a magazine of this type requires a great deal of skill in the special effects arena, have you ever worked in FX in another form of the entertainment industry?
R.S. Rhine:
Nope. But I did work as a Unit Publicist for over a decade for Universal Studio and Columbia-Tri-Star Films. I also hire some great makeup people, photographers, wardrobe, etc. We have a lot of fun at our shoots.
Me:
Robert, I have to say that your corpses are, well – damn nasty looking, like they were the main course at Pre-chewed Charlie’s House of Fine Cannibalism and BBQ. Have you always been so vivid in your creative pursuits?
R.S. Rhine:
And to answer your question, I do have a rather dark side, as you can imagine. You can see more about my published books and comic books at my home site here: http://www.robertrhine.com/
Some of my titles include, "My Brain Escapes Me" (Sun Dog Press), "Satan's 3-Ring Circus Of Hell" (Asylum Press) and the comic books: "Selected Reading From Satan's Powder Room," "Satan's Gone Wild," and "Chicken Soap For Satan."
Me:
G&C containing the content that it does, have you ever run into opposition such as protests or legal issues? And what about fans, what kind of following does the Girls and Corpses have?
R.S. Rhine:
We do a lot of parody in the magazine so we are covered by laws protecting satire. No protests yet – except a few corpses -- but we welcome the press. As far as fans – we get all types. From Priests to Rabbis, teachers to students, cops to inmates, musicians to soldiers. Here, for example, are a few of our soldiers in Iraq reading our mags: http://girlsandcorpses. com/print7/military. html
Me:
Do you have articles or short stories in your magazine, and if so who supplies them?
R.S. Rhine:
We aren’t running any fiction right now, but we do take non-fiction submissions, usually as a pitch first and then an assignment. I do a lot of the writing but we do have a some regular contributing writers: Jaye Beldo, Necromagikal, Kevin Klemm, Barry Keating, Eric Pigors, Hollie Stevens , Mo Whelan, David Tamarin, Rev Lust Vegas. I dig the macabre and have done stories and interviews on: Autopsies, body retrieval, cremation, embalming, hitmen, mummification, morticians, etc. But you really need to read the magazine to get an idea of the strange stuff we are looking for and understand the blend of comedy and horror. You can order back issues here to check us out: http://www. girlsandcorpsesstore. com/
Me:
So Robert, what’s next for G&C? Where would you like to go with it?
R.S. Rhine:
Well, currently I’m promoting our latest issue, The Karate Corpse. We have a new calendar for 2009 and some crazy soap and other gifts in our corpsemart store: http://www. girlsandcorpsesstore. com/ I am also working on some major celebrities for our cover in 2009. I would like to see Girls and Corpses rise to even greater prominence as a truly original and unique magazine. Simply put, we want to take over the world… one graveyard at a time.
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