BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer
SCOTT PILLING staff Legends Magazine founder Marcus Pan, of South River, takes a glimpse at an issue. Pan will celebrate the 150th issue of the 15-year-old publication this weekend. SOUTH RIVER — A local “legend” is turning 150 this month.
Issues, that is.
Legends Magazine, a borough-based music and literary magazine, has been steadily producing content over 150 issues and nearly 15 years, a milestone that even founder Marcus Pan, of Main Street, hasn’t quite accepted.
“I’m just so shocked I kept it up this long,” he said.
The music magazine, which boasts a large following from all over the world, has evolved over the years.
A self-professed science fiction, fantasy and horror buff, Pan graduated from high school in 1989 with hopes of publishing his literature, but was coming up empty.
“They were turned down because I was too unknown,” said Pan, 34, “or because they tended to be very macabre.”
Frustrated with the rejection slips, Pan decided to take matters into his own hands, and Legends Magazine was born.
Originally from Linden, Pan said he wasn’t quite like the rest of the children in the neighborhood.
“I tended to like horror,” he said. “The idea of being afraid of something made me interested in it. It’s a feeling you don’t always get.”
In its earlier years, the magazine focused primarily on literature, but eventually began to increase its attention toward music, specifically the genres of punk rock, gothic and trance.
Over the years, Legends Magazine has reviewed and interviewed lesser-known underground acts like Dagnasty and Voltaire, while also getting opportunities to feature more publicly recognized artists like Billy Idol.
The magazine’s motto is “The darker the music, the brighter the mind.”
Pan said the magazine has been able to give valuable attention to bands that have not been covered by mainstream media.
“There was nowhere for new artists to get coverage,” he said. “We still do fiction but there’s more music [in the magazine].”
Not everything is about grim and gore with Pan. Outside of the magazine, he is a computer medical systems analyst for Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, and he is also a youth sports coach in East Brunswick. Since beginning Legends, Pan has gotten married and had three children — Sophia, Felicia and Joshua.
“Felicia and my father [Richard] are my biggest fans,” Pan said.
This Saturday, a special 150th issue celebration party at Club Rare, 14th Street in New York City, will bring out bands from as far as Texas that have been featured in the magazine.
Pan said the party is his way of thanking all the readers, bands and record labels that have given him an opportunity to write.
Although each monthly issue generally costs about $200 to $500 to produce, he noted that some of the costs have been recouped from free merchandise and concerts he has been able to attend as a music writer.
Ultimately though, Pan said he would like Legends Magazine to become a self-sufficient entity with widespread distribution.
“We want to try to grow a distribution network and have it available in many stores,” he said. “My goal is to get it to pay for itself.”
About 25,000 people read the magazine each month either by visiting its Web site or obtaining a hard copy, which costs $3.50. Copies are obtained via mail order and in some small record and book stores.
As its readership continues to grow, Legends Magazine is hoping to prove it is indeed a legend in the making.
“I wasn’t looking to become a writer,” Pan said.
“I was just looking to write and have somebody somewhere read it.”
For more information about the magazine and its 150th issue event, visit www.legendsmagazine.net.