Chas Balun

Chas Balun was without a doubt a horror fan's horror fan. Renowned for his brutally blunt and profane in-your-face wildman writing style, wholehearted and unapologetic love for hardcore gruesome horror splatter cinema, and, most of all, his trademark savagely witty, sardonic, and unconventional iconoclastic perspective, Chas was a true cult figure of horror journalism with a strong and substantial fan following. Born in 1948 in Compton, California, Balun grew up as a hippie in the 1960s in Southern California.

He wrote his first book "The Connoissseur's Guide to the Contemporary Horror Film" in 1983.

Chas became a regular contributing writer for "Fangoria" magazine in 1987 starting with issue # 62. He achieved his greatest enduring cult fame with his fiercely caustic, outspoken, and opinionated "Piece of Mind" column in the spin-off publication "GoreZone.

" This column ran from 1988 to 1991 and was one of the most popular and beloved features in the magazine. Balun was the founder of his own self-published magazine "Deep Red" and the author of the novel "Ninth and Hell Street. " Among the nonfiction books Chas wrote are "The Gore Score," "More Gore Score," "Horror Holocaust," and "Beyond Horror Holocaust.

" Besides writing, he was also an underground cartoonist, a graphic designer (he designed the monster for the 1991 Fred Olen Ray horror comedy "Evil Toons"), and a t-shirt designer. Balun lived with his wife Pat in his home in Westminster, California.