Shade Rupe

Who is Shade Rupe?

Shade Rupe is an American writer, editor, and filmmaker.

Rupe's publishing efforts have been associated with that loose confederation of extreme writers and artists clustered around such publishing houses as Feral House, Amok, Headpress, FAB Press, Blast Books, among others, and including figures ranging from H.R. Giger, Peter Sotos, Jim Goad, Adam Parfrey, Trevor Brown and Jack Stevenson.

Rupe created the two volumes of Funeral Party in 1995 and 1997. The first volume is edited and designed by Rupe, along with Michael Rorro and Marlene Leach and Volume Two is almost wholly edited by Rupe and defines itself as a "journal of sublime decadence and darkness," and features the work of Trevor Brown, Ulli Lommel, Miguel Ángel Martín, Jack Ketchum, George Kuchar and Mike Kuchar, Milo Sacchi, and Jack Stevenson, among others. In reviewing Volume Two, the cult film magazine Shock Cinema called Funeral Party "a beautiful work, loaded with artwork ... much of which is sure to offend ... and always pushing the envelope in an effort to shed light on the darker niches of human ecstasy."

As a publisher, Rupe issued the two volumes of Funeral Party, and one of the earliest Peter Sotos novels, Special, issued in an edition of 500. A German publisher acquired the rights and published the novel in 2004 in a hardbound German-language edition. As a writer, Rupe contributed over 40 reviews to the Scarecrow Video Guide, wrote articles for various underground and horror publications including Rue Morgue, Screem, Panik and Timeless, and contributed to the French publication Tenebres for its special Stephen King edition.