Headpress Books Established 1991

About

What is Headpress?

Who We Are

Headpress was founded in Manchester, England, in 1991, ostensibly to release a film by cult German director Jörg Buttgereit on VHS. With revenue from the sales of that film (Der Todesking, limited to 500 copies), the publication of a magazine soon followed.

ebb & flow

The long-running Headpress journal covered a variety of topics, which contitute, it might be said, the ebb and flow of the counterculture in the last decade of the twentieth century. Early issues were produced using the tried and tested cut and paste method.

Book Publishing

The book publishing arm of Headpress commenced in 1992 and continues to this day. Subject matter of Headpress books is wide-ranging and includes cult film, strange music, pulp literature, fanzines, conspiracy theories, sex and gender, occult and folklore, true crime, and pop culture in general.

Today

Today, Headpress is run by David Kerekes, one of the three original founders.

Why Headpress?

If you’ve ever seen the original Mad Max movie you might recall the scene where a mechanic is tuning the vehicle that the titular Max will soon be driving. “Last of the V8s,” he purrs with the engine. Headpress is not unlike that engine in a world gone mad. It’s independent. It’s ravaged by landscape, But it motors on, one of a kind, like the last of the V8s. With Headpress you are on that journey.

Cover art: Nils Brakchi, Antonio Ghura, Juliet Sugg, Rik Rawling

Antonio Ghura line art

Three decades is a long time, especially in the world of publishing. As an independent book publisher for almost three decades, Headpress is something of an anomaly.

From the Vaults

Early reviews of Headpress journal for you to cut out and keep

Outré, outlandish, funny, unnerving and odd
Lightspeed
I’m running out of superlatives with which to praise Headpress
The DarkSide
Absolutely essential
Fortean Times
This journal of freaky popular culture is inimitable
City Life
Get real, start living... Get Headpress!
Prism
This journal of freaky popular culture is inimitable
City Life
Intense, cool and enthusiastic… essential reading
Bizarre
An entirely healthy interest in violent death & deviant sex
i-D
Outrageous … our favourite grotesque magazine
Forum
The merely curious are advised to steer well clear
Rock Power
The top-dog, the main man and is unbeatable
The British Fantasy Society
Excellent
Film Threat
Delivers on all counts
Fatal Visions
Unmissable and then some
The Empty Quarter
Quite filthy and nasty
Factsheet 5
Pushing the right buttons on the wrong people
Dazed and Confused
Increasingly slick, sick zine
Screw
Headpress remains one of the best, if not the best, publishing ventures we know of
Compulsion
Possibly the only totally essential periodical in print
Flesh & Blood
Genuinely thought provoking, intelligent analysis
Samhain
Particularly bizarre … disturbing and sometimes delightful
Time Out
Essential … you can’t go wrong with Headpress
Grim Humour
Well researched and presented… compelling
Big Cheese?
The ultimate expression of the transgressive ethic
Speak Magazine

—SHIPPING—

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