December 12–19, 1996

hit and run

Scary Stuff

, the Philly advertising/graphics team of D.P. Wyatt Perko and Rhonda Chamberlain, is getting riskier with each endeavor. Responsible for ad campaigns ranging from national corporate stuff like Phillip Morris and Lipton Tea to local bars the Continental and Jake & Oliver's, the team (which Perko cheekily refers to as "visual pioneers with binoculars soldered onto their foreheads") has blossomed into full-fledged full-color fashionably fun publishers with the release of the sixth issue of their self-titled titillating quarterly.

Now up to 64 pages, the nationally distributed Fright X (which can be found here at AstroPop) gushes over with lively color photos from the likes of Jim Graham, bold fonts and kitschy design concepts (like the kooky beat fashion spread by Retroactive).

By going all out with pictorial reviews of national musical acts (even though the magazine purposely has very little advertising), books and interactive CD-ROM games, the magazine has a strange grainy voyeuristic quality; a marvelous sensual sex drive that piques the imagination with quirky nudity (mostly from CD-ROMs, though some are local models, actresses and waitresses) which has pissed off more prurient types.

"This mag is my baby," says art director Chamberlain. "As a woman, I can tell you that the nudity is not meant to be in-your-face, tasteless or disgusting. Rather, it's all part of the design. It makes the difference. After doing advertising for over 10 years, we wanted to do and show something fun, something we thought the public should be seeing. Wow, it's not Penthouse. It's all part of the fun."

— a.d. amorosi