Looking back
It all started with “quite an outrageous horror film,” says David Kerekes, one of the three original founders and head of Headpress. I am on a zoom call with him and the other core member of the team, press officer Jen Wallis, to discuss the company’s story and its upcoming anniversary.
The film David refers to is Jörg Buttgereit’s Der Todesking, the follow up to the German director’s cult horror Nekromantik. Headpress was founded to release Der Todesking in 1991 and the money it made was put into Headpress magazine. David explains that many horror-film-related things emerged from the video’s nasty furor, including a number of magazines. The founders of Headpress were interested in that progression and keen on anti-censorship. Each of them learnt to write on the job.
The counterculture tone of the magazine steadily established itself, its masthead being ‘sex religion death’. David highlights “the circle of interest was really very strong,” especially pre-internet. “It was a touchstone for a lot of people.”
Jen read Headpress while studying history as an undergraduate at Leeds. She was interested in the “underground culture and alternative press” that the 1990s had produced and volunteered for the company as a proofreader in 2006. By this time magazines like Headpress were mostly in the past but she enjoyed hunting for them on sites like eBay.
Jen now works part-time for Headpress alongside her full-time job as a history lecturer. Headpress magazine eventually ceased, but the publishing arm of Headpress had been established in 1992. David decided to funnel his money and energy into this side of the company instead of the magazine.
Technological advancements
In the 90s, the team was adapting to the rise of the internet. They grappled with PCs that David jokes were the size of “a small house”. He reflects, “I don’t recall when it was that I thought the internet is kind of taking over. […] I suppose it’s insidious, all these kinds of technologies just creep up on you or just appear out of nowhere.”
Jen highlights how the internet is beneficial because it can connect Headpress with new people that might be interested. However, she also points out how it broadens people’s “potential pool of interests”, forcing an indie publisher to fight against “other temptations and shiny things that people are looking at”. Jen talks about the pre-internet excitement of finding like-minded people which allowed committed groups to form. “Now you do that on forums”.
The subject matter of Headpress’ books is wide-ranging and includes things like cult film, pulp literature, fanzines, sex and gender, occult and folklore. The company website acknowledges a shift in attitude over time: “When Headpress first started, much of this was considered the counterculture. Now it is pop culture.” Jen says that the sense of eclecticism that the magazine had is harder to reflect in books, but they try to perpetuate it through their free online blog.
However, the internet and eBooks have not killed off the paper trade. Referring to the rise of Kindle, Jen argues that small, independent publishers may have “benefitted more from peoples’ turn against that kind of stuff,” because Headpress’ audience are usually those that prefer physical to digital media.
Additionally, David highlights how eBooks “generated a second income stream so in that respect it’s good for us, and I don’t think it’s killed anything”. Jen compares the phenomenon to music streaming which has by no means diminished the success of vinyl in recent years. She says that the “collector mentality” maintains the popularity of physical editions: “There is continued renewed interest in this stuff, like it’s never gone away. We think that it would have all been replaced by the internet but it absolutely hasn’t”.
For a previous article David spoke about how AI is affecting Headpress. This time he brings up the possibility of embracing generative AI licensing. This could allow authors and publishers to be paid for the use of their work for AI training rather than having it stolen. David suggests that it might be a way of regaining control, conceding that “it’s unlikely we can stop it so maybe we can use it”, but he is going to look into it more before deciding what to do.
Jen talks about how Adobe’s change of their terms and conditions to enable AI training has “huge implications for publishers in that you’re putting as yet unpublished work into AI models”, which can lead to intellectual property rights issues. As a result of this development Headpress has decided to stop their subscription to Adobe.
35 years of Headpress Books
On 23rd May Headpress is hosting their anniversary extravaganza (tickets here). It will be a day celebrating cult films and TV. Special guest Jörg Buttgereit will be chatting with David; a panel of experts will be discussing Nigel Kneale’s legacy; student short horror film The Shedding will be showcased with a panel; and there will be a musical exploration of the esoteric.
Although neither of them want to single anyone out, David says that he is particularly looking forward to meeting with Jörg Buttgereit as they have only seen each other twice since he was writing a book on the director’s films. Jen is enthused about the panel on Nigel Kneale as “all of the people on it are just such experts” who are bound to be so enthusiastic that it will be “difficult to shut [them] up at the end”.
The extravaganza is especially exciting as Headpress does not host many in-person events. If you are unable to make it you may still have a chance to meet the Headpress team at other events, such as at the Festival of Fantastic Films in October.
When asked to reflect on a highlight of her experiences at Headpress, Jen values how the company is a niche, “cult imprint in the past” for some people. She relates the joy of discovering comments on forums about the company and its books, whether it be “oh, I love that company” or “oh, I didn’t know Headpress was still going!” David chimes in, “that kind of says a lot about the people who are old school” in that they don’t consider Googling things.
Throughout the publishing company’s lifetime David has found it exciting when books published at Headpress get recognition. Recalling pleasant moments, he mentions someone that interviewed him in the 80s telling him years later how “Headpress opened his eyes to a load of kind of alternative writing”, which was sweet to hear. The fact that an upcoming book has an endorsement from William Shatner is equally delightful: “Those kinds of little things make me smile”.
Headpress has published over 70 titles and a greater number of authors. The independent publisher has weathered the emergence and evolution of the internet, eBooks, and is managing the advancement of AI. It is the indie publisher to support if you have a passion for pop and unpop culture.
