There was a sort of group think among males growing up in upper Westchester County, N.Y. in the 80s that by age 16 you had to:

1. Drive a Jeep

2. Decorate your bedroom with Sports Illustrated swimsuit pics

At age 18 (1992) I got a 1986 Pontiac Sunbird with 65,000 miles on it. As far as no. 2, I just couldn’t bring myself to insult my mother like that.

So my room was decorated with movie posters and horribly disturbing images from Fangoria and Gorezone magazines.

I knew the mags from neighbor and best friend Brian Spears, whose photo is at the top of this blog. Fango was his Bible.

I remember for one school year the fate of civilization didn’t rest on what would happen after the Berlin Wall fell — it was about “HOW THE HELL COULD THE MPAA REFUSE TO GIVE  A RATING TO “HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER???”

Now, some 20 years later, Spears and his make-up effects partner Pete Gerner are nominated for an award for creating things very much like the weird crap that hung on my wall as a kid.

The G & S Effects make-up work in “I Sell the Dead” has been nominated for a 2011 Chainsaw Award from Fangoria magazine.

The news came out in issue no. 301 of Fangoria, which is on sale now.

It’s a very cool thing. Gerner and Spears work on East Coast indie horror flicks. They’ve gelled with Glass Eye Pix and MPI, the companies behind “I Sell the Dead.”

Their upcoming work will be seen in “Stake Land” and Ti West’s “The Innkeepers.”