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Johnny Butane

Co-Founder DreadCentral.com/News Editor
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Johnny Butane, better known to friends and family as mild-mannered Joshua Siebalt, has been working with horror online in one form or another for more than half a decade. Originally he and former partner, now Fangoria writer, Ryan "Rotten" Turek worked for the monstrous Creature Corner, giving the site a name and identity that most fans still remember to this day.

Moving from there to Dread Central was no easy task, as many years worth of news, interviews, and reviews were lost to the ether, but the duo persevered, just like Johnny continued to when Ryan took the chance of a lifetime to work for the horror magazine we all grew up on. Now that Dread Central is its own independent perversion of science, Johnny and the DC crew have got all the freedom in the world to make sure you get the most informed, opinionated, and heartfelt horror-loving site you could ask for.

If you ever run into Johnny at a convention or screening, a quick way to make sure he stays your friend forever is to offer him either a beer or a joint; offering both may result in marriage proposals which should not not be taken seriously seeing as how he's happily married to writer/photographer Michelle Lee, who is likely hotter than you anyway.

Johnny Butane Fun Fact™ #7: Butane prays only to Crom.




Uncle Creepy

Co-Founder DreadCentral.com/Editor-In-Chief DreadCentral.com
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Uncle Creepy was born the son of a circus magician and lived a life of hardship amongst the carny freaks. After a brief stint as a knife thrower, he was forced to run away from the circus due to frequent violent confrontations with the Lobster Boy.

Once on the road at the age of 6, he was taken in by a clan of Aboriginal tribesmen and forced to run with a pack of wolves in order to hone his killer instincts. At the age of 7 Creepy decided to leave his pack and head to LA to find his fortune. Once there he landed a gig as an actor and was a frequent extra on Starsky & Hutch, playing the role of Huggie Bear's adopted son, Lil' White Foo'. After the show was cancelled, Creepy moved to New York City, where he got his first real break into the American workforce as a gravedigger. Not having enough cash to afford a car just yet, he had to resort to getting around on his Schwinn unicycle. One day after getting pulled over for speeding and resisting arrest, NY's finest beat Creepy down ala Rodney King and locked him up for 2 years. While in jail Creepy became a tattoo artist and master whittler. To this day, a collection of tiny wooden ducks and a bust of Little Richard stand on display in the recreation area at Riker's Island, a reminder of his amazing craftsmanship.

Upon being paroled, he went back to his roots as a carny and landed a job at the Big Apple Circus as a fire eater. Being the humanitarian that he is, Creepy thought it was quite cruel to leave the lions caged up like that, so he freed them in the name of Mandela. This resulted in the deaths of 6 clowns, the ringmaster, and Jed, the ferris wheel operator. As you can imagine, this did not go over too well with the higher-ups, and he was soon out on his ass. With plenty of free time on his hands, he took up yodeling and the polka. An avid polka dancer, Creepy quickly rose to stardom as "The Polka King," a name given to him by his many fans.

Uncle Creepy appeared numerous times on Arsenio in his trademark fez and kilt. While on the show for the umpteenth time, he met Minnie Pearl, who was there to promote her new cookbook Cajun Cookin' with Minnie, and old UC fell in love for the first time in his life. He and Minnie began a 4-year relationship, in which he taught her the nuances of polka and she enlightened him to the joys of hillbilly humor. Even though life was swell, eventually Minnie's Cajun cooking triggered a severe gastrointestinal disorder in his bowels, and now it's rumored that he lives on a strict diet of woodshavings, carrot juice, anchovies, and sangria.

The discomfort of his disease had conjured up haunting memories of his hellish tour of duty in 'Nam. He tried to put the painful memories of 'Nam behind, but their icy cold grip kept pulling the poor soul back in! Within a few months of his illness, Creepy was chugging sangria like a fish and was too depressed to polka. And the worst part was that his dear Minnie (oh, how he loved her so) finally saw him for the regretful drunkard that he had become. Fed up with his physical abuse toward her and unreasonable insistence about being referred to as "Big Poppa", Minnie dropped him like a hot potato and ran into the waiting arms of Ernest Borgnine.

At this point a burning hatred for humanity had enveloped Creepy's heart and soul. He tried to reconcile his being by joining the church of Satan. Unfortunately, those black-hooded poseurs weren't cutting it in the hatred department. After realizing that nothing could ever quell his fury toward the human race, Creepy grew his hair and beard long and took to the streets as a naysayer/prophet of doom. For years he could be found strolling through the streets of lower Manhattan while wearing his trusty sandwich board with the words "The end is near" scrawled upon the front in his own blood.

Years later Uncle Creepy found his true calling -- becoming a pop culture icon. He can now be found writing for the world's most hardcore horror website DreadCentral.com. There's is no word on when or if he will ever polka again.




Jon "value" Condit

Co-Founder DreadCentral.com/Developer
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Ill write a bio when Im done ruining people with a kick ass site.




Melissa Bostaph

Contributing writer
Contact Melissa Bostaph

Bio to be completed.




The Foywonder

B-movie specialist/Contributing writer
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The enigma continues . . .




Bill Johnson

Contributing Graphic Designer
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Bill "Splat" Johnson has been working in the film industry for over 20 years. He began his make up skills working in super eight features back in the late seventies. He then moved on to creating effects for student films at UGA.

After graduating from college with a BFA in graphic design, he was accepted in Dick Smith's Advanced Professional Make Up Course. It was during his enrollment that he got his first major make up effects job, doing Sleepaway Camps 2 & 3.

He has now worked on over 30 movies including The Patriot, Eight Legged Freaks, Hoodlum, In Dreams, Madea's Family Reunion and October Sky.

Aside from his Make Up Effects duties, he is also a graphic designer, writer, and director.

Make sure to visit Bill online at his official website right Lone Wolf FX.




Scott A. Johnson

Paranormal Studies Editor
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Scott A. Johnson is a paranormal investigator and the author of novels such as An American Haunting, Deadlands, and Cane River: A Ghost Story.

He also writes the Mayor's Guide series of books, about haunted places in cities such as Augusta, GA, and Austin, TX.

Having grown up in a town overflowing with ghost stories, it's little wonder that horror is his chosen genre.

Thanks to this crazy thing known as The Web, Scott found a website filled with the types of lunatics he feels comfortable with. No easy task mind you. Truth be told, until now no one else other than his wife and kids were able to put up with not only his his other worldly interests, but his penchant for running about with a white sheet over his head and screaming BOO.

Make sure to check out Cold Spots and then visit Scott online at his official website American Horror Writer.




Andrew Kasch

Videographer/Film editor/Field correspondent
Contact Buz Wallick

Andrew Kasch is an editor and independent filmmaker, having co-directed the television series Horror’s Hallowed Grounds as well as the acclaimed festival short, The Fall.

Spending the first part of his life in a Florida religious commune, Andrew was attracted to horror at a young age and now works in the industry as a journalist and director.

He is known for his expertise on Asian cult cinema and currently resides in Hollywood, CA.

Andrew is also said to have a thing for the spectres of Asian women who dress in white and have really long black hair.

He's actively been seeking help for this obsession, but has said that their bent-up, bone-cracking gyrations are just too much for him to resist.




Buz Wallick

Videographer/Film editor/Field correspondent
Contact Andrew Kasch

After converting a small town to Buddism on my way through Utah, and battling a fierce sworm of raptors in New Mexico, I finally made it to sunny San Diego. I now reside there, retired from my days as a traveling minstreal, just watching movies, kicking back, and enjoying things as they are.

I also decided to take up school again so I started attending San Diego State University where I am involved in multiple Kick Boxing courses and a few film classes in order to become a filmmaker at some point down the line. I also am taking a marine biology class in the hopes that one day I'll run into that one eyed Great White, just so that I can stare him down and let him know that all is forgiven.




Joe Knetter

Contributing writer
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Joe Knetter hails from Rochester Minnesota. He writes sick and twisted horror stories. In early 2005 Joe released the collection Twisted Loneliness, which featured an introduction by Sid Haig, who is also going to be recording the audiobook. Joe's next books are his debut novel, the much talked about Zombie Bukkake and the short story collection Sick Decrees of Evisceration.

He writes for Cryptic magazine and now for Dread Central, has been mentioned in many magazines and also on Rob Zombie's weekly radio show as well as numerous sites all over the internet. He attends many conventions and book signings all over the US and always leaves an impression on everyone he meets.

He can also be seen acting in a number of independent horror films and sharing his knowledge of the genre in documentaries.

He is most known for having his face tattooed on his ass.

Joe loves horror and looks forward to working in all aspects of the genre. If you see Joe at a show be sure to stop and say Hi. He loves meeting and talking to other horror fans.

His drink of choice....rum and coke.

Make sure to visit Joe online at his official website JoeKnetter.com. Joe Knetter, saving our world, one ass-cheek at a time.




Dave Manack

Music Editor/Contributing writer
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"Manic Dave" aka Dave Manack is a connoisseur of all things horror. And no, he isn't fond of Mondays.

To be more specific, Dave has interviewed hundreds of bands for various magazines around the country since 1992. The vast majority of these bands are on the "heavy" end of the musical spectrum. Thus, it made perfect sense when he hooked up with Dread Central over two years ago when the site was seeking someone to cover "horror music."

Since then, Dave has produced interviews, reviews and news items for DC on bands that fit the "horror music" criteria; that is, bands that incorporate horror themes into their music, lyrics and overall presention. Thus far, this coverage has included feature interviews with such acts as Rob Zombie, Six Feet Under, Aiden, the Bronx Casket Co., Himsa, Zombi and more.

With "Radio 666" --the music section of Dread Central-- Dave will be delivering coverage of "horror" bands, of all styles, to the DC table. Remember, true horror comes in many forms.




Debi Moore

Content Editor/Contributing Writer
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Debi Moore is a Tennessee native who developed a love for horror at an early age. During her formative years she and her mother spent nearly every Saturday night watching their local "Shock Theatre" on TV. Movies like the original Frankenstein, The Mummy, and especially Dracula were significant influences. She credits Alfred Hitchcock with providing her the biggest scare of her life via The Birds.

It wasn't until she was in her 30's that she was able to even attempt watching it again!

Throughout high school writing was a major passion of hers -- both short stories and poems. After graduating, Debi moved to Boston for a few years, but following the Blizzard of '78, she relocated to the warmer climes of Southern California. Somehow her fondness for horror and her writing activities got pushed aside, but after meeting up with like-minded individuals on the Internet and subsequently moving to Southwest Florida in 2001, she found her enthusiasm for both rekindled.

With the caring and fervent support of these newfound friends, who are now like members of her family, Debi took the plunge and began writing again, only this time for public consumption. Out of this endeavor was born The Woman In Black, an everywoman of sorts who resides in the shadows and is drawn to the darker realms of the genre.

You can expect to see more from The Woman on DreadCentral.com and her MySpace page. In the meantime, enjoy the reviews and other articles written by Debi, who, as a tribute to the one and only Uwe Boll, will forever be known in our forums as the Dread Central Thrall.




Paul Nomad

Media Relations/Toy and Collectible Connoisseur/Maestro of the Live Event
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Born Paul Louis Nicholasi in Brooklyn, NY, in 1973, Paul was a child right when the world transitioned from the creepiness of the 70's into the terror known as...the Disco era. This could be pointed to as the reason Paul's mind is so warped today. Paul attended John Dewey High School looking much like an extra from The Lost Boys, where he developed an interest in music, art, and all things horror. Every weekend he would walk the 30 or so blocks up to his favorite video store, rent two horrible horror movies, and take them home with the hope that there would be at least one scene with nudity.

When not sitting on his ass waiting for a nipple shot, Paul spent a lot of time at Lamour, a rock club in Brooklyn where he got drunk with the likes of Sabastian Bach, Nuno Bettencourt, and Type O Negative and taught his friends how to differentiate the women in lycra pants from the men in lycra pants.

At the age of 18 Paul moved with his family to Randolph, NJ, a quiet lake community where his mother hoped he could keep out of trouble. With his long hair, ripped jeans, and Die Yuppy Scum t-shirt, this was sure to not be the best place to start a new life. Salvation was found, to an extent, at County College of Morris, where he started participating in student activity planning. Further salvation was found within a group of punks, skins, and hardcore kids who all had no place in particular to be most of the time. Transferring to Montclair State University, Paul quickly found that the teachers cared more about getting a paycheck then actually teaching something that could transfer into a paycheck, so he volunteered with Class 1 Concerts, where he learned about booking, promotion, and the ins and outs of the music business. This lead to an eight-year career in the music business working with bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Violent Femmes, Live, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and more...which ultimately taught him that people in the music business suck. Spiraling down from national concerts to the local punk scene, Paul exited the music business a little jaded but with knowledge of how to get a pop radio station like Z100 to announce a Broken Heroes or Blanks 77 show.

It was at this time that an interest in action figures was re-sparked. Forging credentials, Paul attended the 2001 International Toyfair in New York City. When he found out his favorite toy news site was not attending the show, he decided to take camera in hand and cover some of the companies on their behalf. With a slow, ancient digital camera and not much know-how, Paul managed to scoop Toyfare magazine. The next year Paul returned to the show as part of the website Ring of Collectors, bringing fans all the angles and close-ups he'd always hoped to see before. As things soured with ROC, Paul accepted an invitation from British toy enthusiast Adrian Faulkner to join his site, Action-Figure.com, and take it global. The pairing was a fantastic move, and the site's traffic began to double every six months. Today Action-Figure.com gets up to 15 million hits a day.

Feeling A-F should cater to "all things geek," Paul and Adrian began to explore relationships with movie companies. While reading one such movie-focused site, Paul met Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton and asked if he would like someone covering horror toys. The answer was a resounding "hell, yes!" and the rest is history. Expanding his focus into promotions, networking, field ops, interviews, and movie reviews, Paul now enjoys an exciting life within DreadCentral.com and Action-Figure.com simultaneously. While the pace is blistering and the work load enough for five people, life is seldom boring.

Paul says, "While friends of mine watched The A-Team and dreamed of being Mr.T or crazy-ass Murdock, I always wanted to be Face Man. To hook things up and be able to make just about anything happen. I love the challenge. Of course, it doesn't hurt that you meet women at the same time." Today Paul resides in central New Jersey, where he hopes to raise his nephew to appreciate everything weird in the world and break his streak of dating completely insane women. The safe money says to bet against him on that one.




Morgan Ploutz

Literary Editor
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Morgan Ploutz was born in a small town in Upstate New York, the youngest child in an unusual family. Her father is a contractor, cook and long-time musician who in the past has played venues like CBGB’s with some big names (before they were big) and currently does gigs all over with The Kane Brothers Blues Band; he is descended from a Duke of Cornwall. Her mother works with an HMO and has in the past been a home health care aide and a professional house cleaner… and also went to her prom a week after being hit by a car, hitchhiked across the country with her best friend at 17 (and got arrested for it when they made it to California), chained herself to fences at protests in the 60’s, and went back to college in her 30’s as a mother of four. She’s also descended from author Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Morgan got more than just her features from these two characters. She also gained a love for literature early in life while wiling away frigid winter hours in the bookshelf lined family room… an eclectic taste in music founded on a childhood of listening to everything from old wax cylinders of blues played on a phonograph, to The Doors to Elvis Costello, Blondie, Simon & Garfunkel and Metallica … and a talent for writing that can be attributed to both parents, as her father has written songs for his bands in the past and her mother has a penchant for writing poetry that she has not really pursued, despite admonishments from all her college professors.

Until very recently, Morgan always attributed her love of horror to an incident when she was 7 or 8 years old and stumbled across a copy of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary on the shelves in the family room and decided to read it because of the kitty on the cover, but recently it has come to light during a conversation with her father that her exposure to horror may have come even a year or so earlier than that. According to the story, she couldn’t sleep one night and wandered into the living room where her father was awake watching a movie. He allowed her to stay up and watch it with him, which apparently caused quite a row when her mother learned about it… since the movie was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Despite having no memory of this event, Morgan now believes this explains a great deal about her and the fact that very little (aside from spiders and tornadoes and antique wheelchairs) scares her now.

Though at times her great love of horror and desire to share the twisted stories in her head has been a cause for worry - not for herself or her parents, but for certain school officials who didn’t think doing a book report on Stephen King’s Misery in the 3rd grade was healthy and certain classmates who thought that her penchant for scary movies and books meant she was a vampire (literally… kids are pretty dumb sometimes) – she has not regretted it once since. After graduating high school and flirting with college for a year, Morgan spent several years working in a firehouse themed restaurant and writing poetry, short stories, one more than likely doomed romance novel, and several horror scripts. None of which have made her any money… yet.

Within in the last couple of years, and after much loss, betrayal, heartache and sundry other experiences both good and bad, Morgan met the man of her dreams. She relocated to Savannah, Georgia and has been working on a series of zombie short stories, as well as continuing work on her scripts and poetry and writing reviews and interviews pertaining to her favorite subject – horror. She believes it was her unique upbringing and the abundance of material gleaned from her life and the lives of her friends and family (aside from her parents, Morgan has two sisters, two brothers, four nephews and one niece as well as a vast number of extended family and friends who might as well be family) that has made her the writer she is today.




Kryten Syxx

News Editor/Midget porn enthusiast
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Kryten Syxx has led a full life. Do you consider getting shot by farmers, flipping a truck in the mud and delivering a baby upside down in a carnie ride "full?"

Little Syxx started out innocent enough as the half deaf son of a Grizzly Adams and his bear “Ben.” During his time in the cabin Syxx learned the valuable art of making foot stools for the rich and popular, but he dreamed of so much more. He dreamed of Krispy Kremes, action figures and his own website that no one would ever read.

At the age of 18 Kryten moved on to the big city of Tampa. Here he learned about a whole new world he had been shielded from. He loved the colorful new language of racial slurs, Ebonics and gang signs.

Then came the day he found true love. During is visit to a carnival in the middle of the woods he met the most beautiful albino midget stripper this side of the Gulf. A love affair started instantly after a lovely dinner at the funnel cake stand.

They were married in the spring but quickly divorced when he found that her genitals were both male and LARGER than his. No one knows what happened to Minney Tits the albino midget stripper but it is rumored she married Paul Rubens in a fit of rage sparked by the re-election of George W. Bush.

Heartbroken and with a slightly sore ass Kryten started over again by going door to door looking for anyone that could use his great skills in absolute laziness. He was soon employed by Dread Central after Syxx heroically threw himself in front of a rabid possum to save Uncle Creepy.

Now Kryten Syxx is living the high life . . . watching DVDs, scratching himself and occasionally sniffing his finger.