How do you determine what goes in the mag anyway? 

Usually, I start with a couple of things I’m interested in already, or maybe a theme that has been suggested to me.  From there things tend to just fall into my lap.

Like me?

You more or less fell into my basement.

So let’s have it then.  Exactly, how did The Voyeur come about?  When I met you, you had already been toying with the idea.  What made you finally do it?

I had always wanted to make my own magazine.  I used to get the Weekly Reader when I was little.  The idea of having a publication delivered every so often was amazing to me.  When I was ten years old I started Detectives Inc. but that never really flew.  My best friend thought being a cop was too dangerous.  I was more interested in the deerstalker hat anyway.

In high school I tried starting my own race with a supplemental publication called The Abstract but the childhood baggage that comes along with the teen years took care of that.  The pecking order was just too dominant, especially when I was ruling the roost.

Then I thought about starting a dance club.   It was 1995 when I moved to Hudson and I had been to a few night clubs.  People seemed to have a good time.  But the clubs all lacked a clear theme.  I was also into large scale sculptures so I decided a wax museum surrounding the dance floor would be something different.  It would be like a peepshow for fashion through the decades.  That’s when I picked out the name ‘The Voyeur.’  Young adults could dance and then rest among the wax figures.

This is starting to sound like one of my dreams.  Only I usually wake up sweating.

Well, I have always been a bit on the dark side.

What made you decide to turn it into a magazine?

I always thought of magazines as printed materials.  I had worked at a printing company and had recently discovered Andy Warhol’s Interview.  I figured a magazine was something that would cost money.  I had made a couple of booklets on the computer but all I had then was a dot matrix printer, which was not in color or even remotely attractive.

I was spending a lot of time on the Short North and trying to figure out how to mass produce newspapers when a friend of mine, Josef Salyer, mentioned why didn’t I start an e-zine.  They were becoming increasingly popular.  Little money with beautiful color, and he happened to know html.

I never really had a need for a computer so I wasn’t convinced right away.  I drew out the basic idea, which has remained the same over the years.  Skeletons, Void, etc.  I had really liked the name ‘The Voyeur’ but I wanted to clarify that it was not porn and give insight to what it contained, which is why I tacked on the subtitle. 

I handed my ideas over to Joe and he come up with some graphics.  Initially, the keyhole logo had boobs showing through it.  Which, if you know me, you can imagine my reaction.

Were they your boobs?

No, they weren’t, Joel.

Bastard…

I can’t remember if it was his suggestion or mine to put your picture in it but it looked nice so we kept it.

You chose me over boobs?  Sweet.