Brutarian

Brutarian is a pseudo-quarterly print magazine dedicated to the tenets of art brut as defined by Jean Dubuffet. The focus of the magazine has primarily been fringe culture, frequently featuring interviews with rock and punk music bands at all levels of recognition, from virtually unknown to internationally famous.

History
In 1991 Dominick J. Salemi, at the suggestion of his wife, Sandra Smiroldo, launched Brutarian along with noted New York artist Jarrett Huddleston. Salemi, the editor and publisher, intended to produce an off-the-wall, off-color magazine featuring interviews with rock and punk bands and other noted pop culture or fringe culture individuals. Strongly featured has been single-panel cartoons, comic strips, and multi-page comics done in a comic book or graphic novel way, very often with very mature or adult themes.

The first issue was published in June 1991. During the first year, Salemi purchased a mailing list and distributed 1,500 copies per issue free, and Brutarian found its niche. The magazine was quickly picked up by several major distributors, such as Tower Records, Desert Moon, and Ubiquity.

Initially, Huddleston jokingly dubbed the venture a production of Odium Entertainment, although no legal business of that entity ever existed. Huddleston’s work was through issue #21, but long before that, Salemi had exercised full editorial control of the magazine, which he published and paid for continuously from the first issue. Meanwhile, Smiroldo contributed to, and was a galvanizing force of, the magazine for just the first 14 issues. At that time, she and Salemi separated (and would ultimately divorce).

Brutarian became something of a fixture on the music scene in Washington, D.C., being found at most of the major music venues there. Today, many of the well-known alternative places such as Black Cat, Velvet Lounge, Ottobar, and Sidebar feature Brutarian.

Big Names
Despite its small press status and limited circulation and retail venues, Brutarian frequently highlights very famous people, usually with interviews done in a Q&A format, with frank questions and direct answers. Brutarian is known for featuring truly unknown musical names, but has also featured some very big music names, such as punk legend metal band Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, Lemmy from Motörhead, rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins, Sonny Rollins, and Kiss.

Aside from music, Brutarian has featured other big names, including interviews with famous director John Carpenter, splatter film director Herschell Gordeon Lewis, transgressive cult film director John Waters, horror diva Elvira, fantasy author Michael Moorcock, and horror fiction author Clive Barker.

Fiction
Brutarian features fiction in nearly every issue. Over the years, Brutarian has featured writers such as Dennis Etchison, Graham Joyce, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Dedman, Jack Ketchum, David M. Fitzpatrick, and Bentley Little.

Payment
Brutarian is known in the small press world for consistently paying the highest rates, particularly for a magazine with a circulation of less than 10,000. As of 2007, Brutarian pays five to 10 cents per word. For fiction, this is far above even the biggest professional speculative fiction magazines.

Salemi’s purpose with Brutarian was not to “get rich quick” or even to make money. As a trademark attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, money wasn’t a consideration and Salemi did the magazine as a labor of love. He often didn’t know where the magazine ended up, and was frequently surprised to receive mail from all over the world.

The Art Brut Approach
From Brutarian's "Statement of Purpose" from its former Web site, as of November 2001:

"Brutarian" comes from Jean Dubuffet and his coined term "art brut" -- "raw art." Art made by the innocent, the naive, the hopelessly insane. Idiots, madmen, and geniuses compelled to unloose their visions on an unsuspecting and uncaring world. And we, in our humble little publication, intend to let our readers (if any) know about these visionaries, in all fields -- art, music, literature, etc. Plus throw in coverage of whatever strikes our fancy. Our goal is to entertain and to inform and to strive never to care WHAT YOU THINK! Or what our advertisers or subscribers think. Man is born free and everywhere in chains. We at Brutarian are chained to our caprice and therefore constitutionally incapable of becoming slaves to fashion. Read us. Don't read us. It's all one and the same.

And Brutarian's long-time fiction submission guidelines state:

We publish short stories and poetry. The subject matter of the fiction or the poetry matters not a whit to us. We are looking for beautifully written material. Or crudely penned submissions that overwhelm us with their primitive sensibilities. We tend to prefer dark fantasy and horror, but any speculative fiction which keeps us turning the pages, has a few felicitous turns of phrases, and has an interesting theme or subtext intertwined within the narrative will do nicely. Impress us! Amaze us! Astound us! Offend us! Any of these reactions are what we like to see.

Troubles through the Years
Since its inception, Brutarian has been plagued by many challenges. The most notable is its erratic publishing schedule; originally conceived as a quarterly publication, the magazine has often published only three issues per year. For instance, its tenth anniversary issue, which should have been #40 (at four per year for ten years), was only #34. The problems in publishing have stemmed mostly from delays in contract freelancers to delays in layout to delays in printing.

Press Coverage
Brutarian has been reviewed in countless underground magazines, but has also received some mainstream coverage, including an extremely positive review in the Washington Post in 1993. Shortly after that, Brutarian was given a similarly positive review in Joe Bob Briggs’ newsletter.

Brutarian Records
In the early 1990s, Brutarian featured an included vinyl record that could be detached from the pages and played on a record player, making that issue something of a collector’s item. In recent years, Brutarian Records has released four CD albums from various artists, including a compilation CD.

Online Presence
Brutarian has always had a sporadic and inconsistent Web presence. In 2000, Brutarian launched a Web site at brutarian.com, but a few years later the domain name lapsed and Brutarian no longer owns it. Salemi maintains a MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/brutarian.

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