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By Paula R. Stiles

sumag12Supernatural Magazine. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., 2009. 100pp. US $9.99, CAN $11.99. ISSN: 1752-645X.

Issue #12 is one of the 100-page giant issues of Supernatural Magazine. That means you pay a few dollars more this month. It also means you get more bang with your buck.

Specifically, you get a lot of interviews (not with minor people, either) and a six-page tribute to late director Kim Manners, as well as a bunch of articles and the usual suspects in terms of columns. In addition to the joint interview with Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles (”Blood Brothers”), there are interviews with Eric Kripke (the Kripkeeper himself), Brendan Fletcher (Max in season one’s “Nightmare”), Dameon Clarke (Jack in Manners’ last episode, “Metamorphosis”), Todd Stashwick (Dracula from last season’s “Monster Movie”), Jake Abel (Adam from last season’s “Jump the Shark”), and Kurt Fuller (our favourite Angel We Love to Hate, Zachariah). There’s also an article in the news section, Premonitions, about the direction for season five (”Shout at the Devil”); one about the casting directors (”Casting Spells”); an article/interview (”Good Looks”) with Jeannie Chow and Shannon Coppin, who do hair and makeup on the show; and one about the recent Asylum con in England (”Taking over the Asylum”). There’s also a promotional article for the Supernatural Readers’ Awards. Time to cast your votes, folks.

In the regular columns, the Classic Episode this issue is “Shadow” from season one. The Myths and Legends column covers the Rugaru, Wendigo and Native American legends. The Director’s Cut column is back, this time focusing on Phil Sgriccia. And, as usual, you get the Ask the Winchesters and Return to Sender (letters from fans) sections.

On to what’s actually in the articles. First, there seem to be a lot more “new” photos than an ordinary issue has. Yes, you have the ones everyone has seen a million times, but there are definitely some new ones I’ve never seen on the Internet (or in the magazine) before. Most of these are on-set candids grouped in the tribute to Kim Manners, but a number of official photos are scattered throughout the magazine, as well. Most of them are part of well-known promotional photo series, but with a new pose or angle. Interesting. Note, especially, a large shot of Kurt Fuller from season four finale “Lucifer Rising” on page 44 and one of Padalecki, Ackles and Jake Abel from “Jump the Shark” on page 71.

The Kim Manners tribute was very touching. It consisted of short, one-column reminiscences by Kripke, director Bob Singer, Ackles, Padalecki, Chow, and Sgriccia. Mixed in were 13 shots of Manners on set, alone and with cast and crew. Some of the photos are very familiar (notably the one of Manners directing Ackles in “Scarecrow” while Padalecki pretends to be Swamp Thing behind him), but some look new.

Kripke is pretty cagey about what we can expect from season five. He talks a lot about Lucifer in the Premonitions column, but then tells us we won’t see much of Lucifer (oookay). And you can forget many spoilers in his interview – he mostly talks about directing “Lucifer Rising”.

Fuller gives some nice insight into Zachariah in his interview, though whether his assertion that Zachariah is frantic to get Dean in line because Zachariah’s in the doghouse with Heaven is a spoiler or actor’s speculation remains to be seen. Also intriguing is the introductory blurb that identifies Zachariah as an “archangel”. Zachariah doesn’t seem as impressive and powerful as Raphael in last week’s episode, but that doesn’t automatically mean he’s not from the same class.

Fun for those who like behind-the-scenes stuff is Abel’s interview. Abel discusses in detail the FX behind his appearance (particularly the scene in the crypt). He also talks about how difficult it was to keep the twist of”Jump the Shark” to sumag12-2himself, especially when he had friends who were huge fans of the show. Clarke talks about the “fun” of the burger-binging scene – actually, chicken – in “Metamorphosis” (”I’m…not going to eat raw hambuger meat. That’s how people go to the hospital.”). And Todd Stashwick sounded like he had way more fun than is legal on set. No wonder he was Ackles’ favourite guest star.

Fletcher, meanwhile, gives some quite interesting insights into Max and his motivations (as well as the FX setup of the infamous kitchen knife scene) in his brief interview on page 9. I can never quite reconcile whipped-dog Max with dippy thief Bootsie (Fletcher’s character in Canadian series Intelligence). They look and act so differently. You gotta give Fletcher credit for making an indelible impression, even in his briefer roles.

One of my favourite sections in Supernatural Magazine is always the joint Padalecki-Ackles interview. In this issue, Padalecki talks about how much the season four shoot took out of the cast and crew and how much he enjoys having costars around because he likes the different characters around Sam and Dean, and working with recurring guest stars. Ooops. Guess he’s not one of those who think he’s been shortchanged of screentime in seasons four and five. He also talks about how easily David Mattey (Luther in “Yellow Fever”) threw him around the set, something that Ackles seems to have found greatly entertaining. So, I guess that answers the question of whether Mattey really was that much bigger than Padalecki.

Ackles, meanwhile, praises Mitch Pileggi (Samuel Campbell in “In the Beginning”) up, down and sideways and snarks merrily about Padalecki’s height, especially in comparison to Genevieve Cortese (Ruby) and Misha Collins (Castiel). This somehow leads to a discussion of which MOTW they’d come back as if they could “disguise” themselves. Padalecki says he’d like to play a demon or vampire (”They’ve got the cool teeth and stuff like that”). Ackles also likes the idea of a vampire, but his first choice (intriguingly) is an angel. He quickly notes that he doesn’t expect Dean to become an angel (even if it would be a good balance against Sam’s demon powers), but, “I’d want to be an angel. Those guys are cool.”

Padalecki also discusses doing the sex scene in “Heart” (it wasn’t much fun) and being terrified of the snake in “Yellow Fever” (”I never thought I was afraid of snakes, but I couldn’t shoot the scene with that snake coming over the couch.”). Ackles apparently got his arm sliced up during the gas station scene in “Lazarus Rising” (”I had all this blood coming out of my arm and I thought, ‘Is this normal?’”). Also, we hear that Kim Manners pulled a Hitchcock in “Sex and Violence”, playing a bar patron at the strip club. Padalecki then goes into a long explanation into why he really liked “In the Beginning” the infamous Episode That Sam Was Barely In.

Something to keep in mind is that this issue of Supernatural Magazine was done over the summer hiatus, so there’s really nothing about filming season five in it. If you’re looking for season five stuff, you’ll have to wait for Issue 13, which doesn’t come out until November 24 (December 10 in the UK). But if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll really want this issue. It’s got a lot in it.