Tangents Magazine started the way that many great literary endeavors began, with scribbled notes and phone numbers on napkins, and assorted scraps of paper. Founded by former UNC Charlotte student media staffers Carl Fulmer, Cindy Sites and Dann Dunn in late 1994, the idea for Tangents evolved over a series of months. Dunn soon exited, but writer and designer Lewd soon took his place. On September 8, 1995, the first issue was unleashed on Charlotte.

Its core of writers, photographers and artists soon took shape. Sites, Daniel Coston, Melanie (not the 60s singer, but a cooler version of her), Jessica Deltac, E. Ross, Chainsaw (not the metallic object, although he did wear a lot of metal) and others wrote feature articles, while Erin Hubbs, Nancy Homs and Coston contributed photography. Humor came from Jason Jenks, Pithy (not his real name, but it sounded cooler than Ben Robinson) and me, J.F. Keaton.

The “face” of the magazine was Dickie Typoe, a tycoon of topless Swedish “dinner theaters,” who often railed about the world, and his visions of grandeur. Typoe was rarely seen or photographed. Did he actually exist? The truth couldn’t be handled by the outside world, and questions still linger.

Tangents soon set itself up as an alternative to the Charlotte Observer, Creative Loafing, and other zines of the time. The magazine was aptly named. Every issue was a jumble of art, music, politics, and whatever else the staffers were into at the time. The magazine was the first media venture for much of us, and we let loose like kids out on the weekend. It was a lot of work, full of caffeine and sleep deprivation, but it was very often a lot of fun.

One of the most outrageous themes appeared in the November 1996 edition. The front page took on the look of a daily newspaper, and all of the stories were about Charlotte/Mecklenburg seceding from the state of North Carolina, complete with a militia, a moat and a canal leading to Charleston, S.C.. The 1998 April Fool’s edition was done in the style of the Weekly World News. In it, the mayor was haunted by the ghost of Fred Kirby and members of the county commission turned into disco-dancing machines.

The most popular section was the annual Charlotte Rocks insert which listed nearly all of the local bands complete with information on the type of music they played, where they played and how to contact them. The magazine also featured national interviews, ranging from Marilyn Manson (the band, thankfully) to members of the Velvet Underground, and legendary writer Douglas Adams.

Tangents also established itself as a haven for local artists and poets. Among many others, Tangents published short stories by David Childers, John Schacht, Lawrence Woody, Cynnamon Hoyle, and D.G.K. Goldberg. Featured artists included Skeet, Jim Nicholson, Raid Ahmad, Clay Durkin, Scott Partridge, Mark Hamilton, Brad Thomas, Montgomery Borror, Riva Stump, and Duy Huynh. Contributing poets included M. Scott Douglass, Joseph Semenovich, John Grey, David Hunter Southerland, Todd Dills, Tomani Lewis, and M. Tryke.

After a while, more readers began to take the magazine seriously. Even the staffers began to take the magazine seriously. In September 1997, the editors arranged to produce WEND FM’s program for their annual Weenie Roast outdoor daylong concert and distribute it in that month’s edition of Tangents. The staff was also responsible for handing out programs at the event. WEND and the program design won a PICA award from The Printing Industry of the Carolinas, Inc. Tangents also won awards from the N.C. Press Club and the National Federation of Press Women.

But by the summer of 1998, the magazine began to change. Key staffers left. A new design was implemented, but a new lease of life wasn’t to come. By the fall of 1998, Tangents had called it a day, and apart from getting to tick off Creative Loafing’s editor one last time (you’ll have to ask Coston about that one), old copies were filed away in broom closets and sadly became a nice memory for those us that were involved with it.

In December of 2009, a reunion party was arranged for the Tangents staffers. Somewhere during the evening, the question was asked. Why not start the magazine again? And for those of us that put our lives into the magazine, the answer presented itself. Why not?

So here we are again. Much of the original staff- Fulmer, Sites, Lewd, Hubbs, Coston, Melanie, Chainsaw and others- are back again to finish the original story of Tangents, and in turn rewrite it all again. For many of us involved with the magazine, this was like our first band, our first foray into the world of creative media. Since our departure, no one has stepped in to fill the void of covering arts, music and culture in the Southeast. We’re back again to fill that void, to write about what we’re into, and to take Tangents to places we just started to reach the first time around.

Want to write or photograph for Tangents? Have an idea for a story? Email us and let us know. If you were a fan of Tangents the first time around, welcome back. We’ve missed you. If you’re new to Tangents, stick around. We’re back again, for the first time…

J. F. Keaton (with help from Lewd)

June 30, 2010