Video Watchdog Goes Digital

If Trailers From Hell has a literary soul-mate, it must surely be the long-running film magazine, Video Watchdog.

Launched in June of 1990 by Tim and Donna Lucas, the “perfectionist’s guide to fantastic video” has gradually broadened its scope over the length of its 23 year run to focus not just on fantastic film but on movies that are just plain fantastic (or at least  fantastically interesting). You can count on each issue to navigate the rarified air of a De Sica film and the decidedly more pungent Andy Milligan movie with equal aplomb.

Now VW has reached an exciting (and necessary) milestone… with their new issue (175) Video Watchdog is issuing, along with their regular print edition, a digital version. And it’s free.

The digital version of VW features an array of special options that put it apart from its printed incarnation, including video, sound and music clips embedded alongside the text. Of Video Watchdog, you can now safely proclaim, “It’s Alive!”

An equally exciting announcement accompanies this news. Tim and Donna are now offering a digital version of Tim’s award-winning Mario Bava biography, All the Colors of the Dark. Those familiar with this, the ultimate coffee table book (in that it’s big enough to function as an actual coffee table) are thrilled with the idea of a portable version of this massive tome, in Quentin Tarantino’s words, “the best book on films ever written.”

The Bava book has been likewise enhanced for its digital edition with a generous helping of trailers, commercials and short films.

In Tim’s words, “our goal is to make this material available to all formats, but… at the time of this launch, they are available only for Flash (ie., your PC) and Apple products like the iPhone, iPod and (the ideal delivery system, in our opinion) the iPad.”

You can find the new issue here along with a preview of the Bava book and more details about Video Watchdog’s Brave New World.