Bava Book Receives Rondo Award for Best Book

"Nurse Moan-eek" (Linda Wylie) and David Colton present Tim Lucas with the Rondo Award at Wonderfest 2008. Photo by Eileen Colton.

Can it already be one week ago that the 6th annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Film Awards were held at Wonderfest in Louisville, Kentucky?

I am grateful to have won two Rondos this year, one for Best Book (MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK) and another for Best Writer. In my acceptance speech for the Bava book, I naturally thanked Donna for her selfless contribution to the project, and also everyone who pre-ordered the book and helped to make it a reality. I sincerely believe that, despite all the warning signs, we are not witnessing the end of printed matter -- just the elimination of extraneous printed matter, of which the desktop publishing movement of the late '80s and early '90s brought us in quantity too great to collect over so long a period of time. The success of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK proves that there is still an audience out there that is interested in reading about interesting pop cultural and historical topics in depth, not merely glancing at factoids as they scroll past. And that audience is prepared to not only support but enable publication, if they have to.

One thing I meant to say while accepting the Best Book award is that my feelings about it differ from the way I feel about all the other Rondos we've been fortunate enough to acquire over the past six years. The others represent work done in a single year, but this one represents to Donna and me the work of a lifetime shared together. My thanks to David Colton for making this award, and its attendant recognitions, possible -- and my congratulations to the publishers and editorial staff of RUE MORGUE, who won the Best Magazine award this year, breaking VIDEO WATCHDOG's five-year winning streak.