Sitting in the Editor-in-Chief chair (which feels suspiciously similar to the desk chair in my room) is weird. It’s exhilarating, exciting, stressful, and…weird. People are looking to me. My phone is buzzing with texts asking, “Helen, I can only upload x amount of video to Vimeo per week, what do I do?!” and “Helen, how can I contact the author of this article?” and “Helen, what picture should I use for my article?” People are turning to me for guidance, because this semester’s staff is completely, totally fresh. Almost everyone is new to Loco, though all of them have previous experience. When I saw the list of staff we have for these next few issues, I was a little nervous. I’m new at being EIC, they’re new to Loco… It would be rough sailing.
And honestly, it hasn’t been easy, but it hasn’t been all bad. We quickly pinned down a solid theme, Of Monsters and Masks, in honor of our publication date being shortly before Halloween. We would fill the issue with all things spooky – but as young adults, our fears have grown from when we were children. Most of us wish that the scariest thing we face on a daily basis would be the monster under our beds. Now, we have to grapple with roommates, loans, and jobs, oh my!
Doing something new is scary, so it’s only appropriate that all of us have faced a difficult situation while putting together this issue: figuring out how to run a magazine. Fortunately we have predecessors who helped us along the way, and whose work we could look back on for inspiration. I want to thank Bri Wink and Frances Dumlao for giving me a pile of resources to draw from as EIC, as well as Michael Dwyer for dealing with all things technological. I also want to thank our wonderful contributors, many of whom returned this issue to continue submitting their amazing work.
Mostly, though, I want to thank our staff. Among my biggest nightmares this Halloween season was that I would be the only one writing, submitting, and editing articles for this issue, and that it would end up being a ghost town with a few articles floating around along with a couple of tumbleweeds. But those dreams have been proven to be pure fantasy – everyone contributed their best work, and made sure that this issue is packed with really great content we can be proud of!
So sit back and read about a ghost that’s more of a pest than a problem, a reflection on horror movies and their merit, interviews, scary roommate stories, reviews of new films, movies, and TV shows, and more!
