by Неизвестный
Gordon Van Gelder’s bi-monthly The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction entered its 65th year of publication with a wide variety of short stories and novelettes by, amongst many others, David Gerrold, Dale Bailey, Albert E. Cowdrey, Michael Reaves, Steven Utley, Joe Haldeman, Ted White, Tim Sullivan, Rachel Pollack, Susan Palwick, Marc Laidlaw, James Morrow, Geoff Ryman, Michael Blumlein and James Patrick Kelly.
There were the usual reviews and commentary by Charles de Lint, Elizabeth Hand, Michelle West, James Sallis, Chris Moriarty, Paul Di Filippo, Lucius Shepard, Kathi Maio and others, along with the “Curiosities” columns by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Richard A. Lupoff, Anatoly Belilovsky, Mark Esping and Douglas A. Anderson.
The six issues of Black Static from TTA Press featured fiction from Ray Cluley, Lavie Tidhar, Steve Rasnic Tem, Andrew Hook, Gary McMahon, Michael Kelly, Nina Allan, Joel Lane, Daniel Mills, Tim Waggoner and others. Peter Tennant’s excellent book review section included interviews with Tem, Allan, S. P. Miskowski and Mark Morris; Mike O’Driscoll looked at TV; and Tony Lee discussed the latest DVD releases. Stephen Volk continued his opinion column while, from issue #34 onwards, the busy Lynda E. Rucker took over Christopher Fowler’s commentary spot, due to the latter’s work commitments.
It would seem that the new Weird Tales team only managed to get a single issue out in 2013. The themed “Fairy Tales” edition included stories by Peter S. Beagle, Tanith Lee, Morgan Llywelyn, Jane Yolen and others. Darrell Schweitzer contributed an article on “Ninety Years of Weird Tales”, while Tessa Farmer was interviewed about her fairytale photos and J. David Spurlock was interviewed about his book on WT artist Margaret Brundage. Ramsey Campbell, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Elizabeth Bear and Orrin Grey all contributed short interviews about the issue’s theme.
The January issue of Fortean Times (#296) included a feature on the unusual life and career of Robert E. Howard, while the March issue looked at the work of Badger Books author Lionel Fanthorpe.
The May/June issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland (#267) featured articles on “The Creation of Cthulhu” and “The New Mythos Writers” by S. T. Joshi, “Lovecraft’s Acolytes” by Robert M. Price, and “The Eldritch Providence” by Bob Eggleton, who not only painted the cover for that edition, but also for #269, which was another Japanese kaij special.
Canada’s glossy Rue Morgue magazine included features on Arthur Machen (with commentary by John Carpenter, Ramsey Campbell and S. T. Joshi), British Horror Movies, 50 Years of Gore and the 40th anniversary of The Exorcist. There were interviews with John Connolly, Brian Clemens, Don Coscarelli, Robin Hardy, Sir Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, Claire Bloom, James Wan, Guillermo del Toro, Philip Kaufman, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Dario Argento, Tom Savini, David Cronenberg, William Friedkin and Wes Craven, along with numerous reviews.
There were more reviews in the special Rue Morgue Magazine’s 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See edited by Rodrigo Gudiño and Dave Alexander.
Quentin Tarantino chose his “Top 50 Best Sequels” for Video WatcHDog. There was also a feature on Universal Classic Monsters and tributes to Gerry Anderson, Ray Harryhausen and Jesús Franco, along with the usual reviews, columns and letters.
The September 13 issue of Entertainment Weekly included an excerpt from Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep.
Locus featured interviews with Lavie Tidhar, Tim Powers, Tanya Huff and the inevitable Neil Gaiman, and there was a shorter “Spotlight” conversation with artist Caniglia. Amongst the special features was a welcome look at the small and independent genre presses.
The British Fantasy Society’s BFS Journal continued to play musical chairs with its editorial team as the two trade paperback editions included opinion pieces by Ramsey Campbell, Mark Morris, Lou Morgan, Stephen Volk and Jonathan Oliver, along with fiction and poetry from, amongst others, Gary McMahon, Megan Kerr, Lavie Tidhar, Ian Whates and Allen Ashley. There were features on writing historical fantasy, the rise of weird Westerns, the state of role-playing games, inventing monsters, justifying fan fiction, the importance of cover art, and the role of “grimdark” fiction. Paul Finch, Ben Baldwin, Tom Fletcher, Tom Brown and Tommy Donbavand were all interviewed.
The BFS also published two hardcover anthologies only available to members of the Society. For an organization dedicated to the literary aspect of the genre, it was unfortunate that the typography and design of The Burning Circus: BFS Horror 1 was so disappointing. At least editor Johnny Mains managed to attract an impressive line-up that featured Adam Nevill, Thana Niveau, Angela Slatter, Alex Hamilton, Lynda E. Rucker, Stephen Volk, Muriel Gray and Rob (sic) Shearman, along with an Introduction by outgoing BFS President Ramsey Campbell.
Juliet E. McKenna edited and Introduced a companion BFS anthology entitled Unexpected Journeys, which contained eight stories (one reprint) by, amongst others, Gail Z. Martin, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Liz Williams and Chaz Brenchley.
The fifth issue of Shadows & Tall Trees included stories by Gary Fry, Claire Massey, Richard Gavin, Ray Cluley and Lynda E. Rucker. Editor Michael Kelly announced that, with future editions, the format would change to an annual trade paperback and ebook.
Another small magazine with continuing concerns over its frequency and format, David Longhorn’s superior small magazine Supernatural Tales reached its 25th print issue with three editions published in 2013. Amongst those authors featured were Iain Rowan, Tina Rath, Lynda E. Rucker, John Llewellyn Probert, Christopher Harman, Brian J. Showers, Michael Chislett and Peter Bell. The title also included eclectic reviews by the editor.
James R. Beach’s Dark Discoveries magazine published issues themed around “Horror and Rock” and “Dark Fantasy”. They featured fiction by F. Paul Wilson, Robert E. Howard and Ramsey Campbell, Angeline Hawkes, Weston Ochse, Joe McKinney and Steve Rasnic Tem, along with interviews with Rob Zombie, John Skipp, Jonathan Maberry, Boris Vallejo, Chris Morey of Dark Regions Press, Dark Horse Comics’ Scott Allie, and the return of Robert Morrish’s “What the Hell Ever Happened To … ?” column, spotlighting Sean Costello. Articles included, amongst other topics, Alice Cooper’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare album, Stephen King’s connection to rock ’n’ roll, Thomas Ligotti and music group Current 93, the sword & sorcery legacy of Robert E. Howard and an introduction to author Karl Edward Wagner.
The two issues of Ireland’s Albedo, edited by Bob Neilson and others, featured fiction, interviews and reviews covering all aspects of the genre. Issue #43 included a piece in which David Gerrold, David Morrell, Mike Resnick, Jane Yolen, Ellen Datlow, Eileen Gunn, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jack Womack, Raymond E. Feist, Amber Benson, Gary Wolfe and other luminaries put forward their opinions about “The Most Important Issue Facing Writers Today”.
Hildy Silverman’s Space and Time: The Magazine of Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction published its usual two editions featuring fiction and poetry, along with a tribute to Josepha Sherman in issue #118. Subscribers to the cancelled Realms of Fantasy magazine received complimentary print and electronic versions of S&T.
The four issues of Morpheus Tales featured fiction and poetry in a much-improved format with glossy colour covers.
The 25th issue of Justin Marriott’s Paperback Fanatic was a perfect-bound “Weird Tales Special”. Along with numerous full-colour cover reproductions, the magazine included a reminiscence by Ramsey Campbell, plus pieces on Avon Fantasy Reader, the British editions of Weird Tales, Frank Belknap Long, Leo Margulies, C. L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, Seabury Quinn and Christine Campbell Thomson’s “Not at Night” anthologies.
Along with fiction and reviews, the second volume of Jason V. Brock’s multicoloured and perfect-bound [Nameless], billed as “a bi-annual journal of the macabre, esoteric and intellectual …”, offered some interesting articles on the history of television animation in America, the story behind August Derleth’s “Stephen Grendon” pseudonym, and horror themes in Space: 1999, along with interviews with George A. Romero and Rod Serling, the latter conducted by William F. Nolan back in 1963.
/> Brock was also one of a number of contributors to the fourth volume of Centipede Press’ annual paperback magazine Weird Fiction Review, edited by S. T. Joshi. The Famous Monsters-inspired edition featured short fiction and poetry by Lynne Jamneck, Michael Kelly, Leigh Blackmore and others, along with some interesting articles on H. P. Lovecraft’s discovery of William Hope Hodgson, Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, Dennis Etchison’s The Dark Country, monster magazines, Henry S. Whitehead, Jack Davis, Algernon Blackwood, Forrest J Ackerman, an interview with Patrick McGrath, and a colour portfolio of Bob Eggleton’s paintings.
As usual, the two issues of Rosemary Pardoe’s excellent The Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter were filled with fascinating news, reviews, articles and letters about the ghost story author, along with fiction by Chico Kidd, Mark Valentine, Peter Bell and others.
Dedicated to the memory of Arthur Machen, a special issue of Gwilym Games’ Machenalia from The Friends of Arthur Machen celebrated the author’s centenary-and-a-half commemoration at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton with a number of nonfiction pieces by Machen, R. B. Russell and the late Roger Dobson.
After taking a hiatus in 2012, the two issues of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet from Gavin J. Grant, Kelly Link and others, contained stories and poetry by Helen Marshall, Nina Allan and others.
Canada’s Ex Hubris Imprints published issues #3 and #4 of Postscripts to Darkness, edited by Sean Moreland and Aalya Ahmad and featuring fiction and poetry by Michael Kelly, Albert Choi and others, along with interviews with Gemma Files, Helen Marshall and Tony Burgess.
Doors to Elsewhere from The Alchemy Press collected seventeen of Mike Barrett’s terrific essays (one original), from The New York Review of Science Fiction, Wormwood, Dark Horizons and elsewhere, about authors who were mostly published by Arkham House and Weird Tales. Following a new Introduction by Ramsey Campbell, Barrett’s concise profiles included Arkham House itself, Greye La Spina, Fritz Leiber, Marjorie Bowen, Ernest Bramah, C. Hall Thompson, Clifford Ball, C. L. Moore, G. G. Pendarves and Lord Dunsany, amongst others.
Andrew Lycett’s biography Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation, ran to more than 500 pages.
From Hippocampus Press, Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing About the Master of Science Fiction collected twenty-one articles and eight stories by William F. Nolan, along with a piece on Nolan by his subject, tributes to Bradbury by Jason V. Brock, John C. Tibbetts and editor S. T. Joshi, and an Afterword by Greg Bear.
From the same PoD publisher, David Goudsward’s H. P. Lovecraft in the Merrimack Valley explored the writer’s links with the Massachusetts and New Hampshire area. Kenneth W. Faig, Jr supplied the Foreword.
McFarland & Company, Inc. published H. P. Lovecraft’s Dark Arcadia: The Satire, Symbology and Contradiction by Gavin Callaghan, which was an attempt to objectively reassess the works and life of the horror writer by ignoring secondary accounts, while Conan Meets the Academy: Multidisciplinary Essays on the Enduring Barbarian edited by Jonas Prida contained ten articles about Robert E. Howard’s character in popular culture.
In the snappily-titled The Modern Literary Werewolf: A Critical Study of the Mutable Motif from the same publisher, college instructor Brent A. Stypczynski looked at werewolves as representations of a proposed shapeshifter archetype. It took in not just Jack Williamson’s seminal Darker Than You Think, but also books by J. K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett and Charlaine Harris, and came with a useful Bibliography.
The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece was a biography of the author by Roseanne Montillo.
Compiled by Brian Freeman, Hans Ake Lilja and Kevin Quigley, The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Trivia Book from Cemetery Dance Publications included an Introduction by Mick Garris, artwork by Glenn Chadbourne and more than 1,000 questions. It was available in various editions, including a deluxe traycased edition of fifty-two lettered copies containing an original illustration by Chadbourne ($300.00).
From the same imprint, The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book: Revised and Updated Second Edition edited by Freeman and Bev Vincent added more than 100 new questions to the 2005 volume.
In The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-up Art from Vanguard Productions, Stephen D. Korshak and J. David Spurlock did their utmost to uncover the background behind the somewhat enigmatic artist, best known for her sexy/bondage pastel paintings that graced the covers of Weird Tales in the 1930s. Artist Rowena Morrill supplied the Foreword, and there were essays by Robert Weinberg and Melvin Korshak.
Also from Vanguard, Frazetta Sketchbook was the first in a series of art books reproducing sketches and preliminaries by Frank Frazetta, with a Foreword by J. David Spurlock. It was also available in a deluxe hardcover edition with an extra folio.
Hermes Press published Frank Frazetta: Art and Remembrances, which featured text by the artist’s son, Frank Frazetta, Jr, a Foreword by Kirk Hammett and an Afterword by Jerry Lawler.
Spectrum 20: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, edited as usual by Cathy and Arnie Fenner for Underwood Books, contained more than 500 images from over 300 artists, along with a profile of Grand Master Awardwinner Brom.
PS ArtBooks continued to turn out beautiful full-colour volumes of pre-code comic books in a bewildering variety of editions. The “Harvey Horrors Collected Works” series was expanded with further volumes of Tomb of Terror and Witches Tales with new Forewords by Jeff Gelb, Joe R. Lansdale and James Lovegrove.
The “American Comics Group Collected Works” from PS continued with more volumes of Forbidden Worlds and Adventures Into the Unknown, including Forewords by Mark Chadbourn and Paul Di Filippo. The second volume in the “Roy Thomas Presents” reprints of The Heap featured Forewords by both Herb Rogoff and series editor Thomas, while Lawrence Watt-Evans contributed a comprehensive Foreword to the second volume of The Thing! in the “Pre-Code Classics” series.
Based around an old library copy of a fictitious fantasy novel, The Ship of Theseus by the mysterious V. M. Straka, S by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst featured hand-written comments by two students, along with inserted letters, newspaper clippings, etc., contained within a slipcase.
David Britton’s Eduardo Paolozzi at New Worlds from Savoy Books was an illustrated look at the art of the 1960s artist whose work is most associated with the groundbreaking British SF magazine edited by Michael Moorcock. Design historian Rick Poynor supplied an Introduction, and there was commentary from Michael Butterworth, John Clute and J. G. Ballard.
Lord Horror: Reverbstorm was a huge hardcover graphic novel from Savoy, written by David Britton and illustrated in black and white by John Coulthart, originally published across seven issues of David Britton’s Lord Horror comic.
Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein was an illustrated adaptation of an edited version of Mary Shelley’s text, with a Foreword by Bernie Wrightson and an Afterword by artist Grimly.
I. N. J. Culbard adapted and illustrated a graphic novel of H. P. Lovecraft’s, The Shadow Out of Time.
Richard Corben’s adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher for Dark Horse comics also incorporated Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Oval Portrait”, while Corben’s The Raven and the Red Death featured separate adaptations of two other Poe stories.
In Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s series Afterlife with Archie for Archie Comic Publications, Archie, Jughead and the other loveable inhabitants of Riverdale were transformed into the walking dead when Sabrina the Teenage Witch cast a spell that went wrong.
Writers Clive Barker and Mark Miller teamed up with artist Haemi Jang for the twelve-issue series New Genesis, a reinterpretation of Biblical horrors from comics imprint Boom! Barker was also credited on one of the two stories that comprised the Hellraiser Annual 2013 from the same imprint.
No doubt inspired by the success of Game of Thrones, Avatar’s George R. R. Martin’s Skin Trade was based on the author’s 1988 werewolf novella.
>
For the first time in a decade, Neil Gaiman returned to the Sandman title for Overture, an expansive prequel illustrated by J. H. Williams III.
A ghostly female serial killer who called herself “The Light” was murdering New Yorkers at random in Dynamite’s The Shadow, based on the 1930s pulp character.
IDW’s Classics Obliterated: Mars Attacks was a spoof on the old Classics Illustrated title, with the trading card alien invaders reimagined in stories based on Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Meanwhile, a hardcover edition of Classics Illustrated from Papercutz was devoted to Edgar Allan Poe and featured adaptations of “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Gold-Bug” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget”.
Although the Showtime TV series may have finally come to an end, Marvel revived sympathetic serial killer Dexter in his own eponymous comic, written by creator Jeff Lindsay.
To celebrate the TV show’s 20th anniversary, The X Files finally got its tenth season in a monthly comic book series from IDW, written by Joe Harris and set in the present day. Series creator Chris Carter executive produced and consulted.
*
Peter David’s tie-in novel to After Earth also included three “After Earth: Ghost Stories”, one by Robert Greenberger and two from Michael Jan Friedman, previously published separately as estories. After Earth: A Perfect Beast was a prequel to the movie featuring work by the same three authors.
The year’s other original movie tie-ins included 47 Ronin by Joan D. Vinge, The Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie and B. K. (Brian) Evenson, Man of Steel by Greg Cox, Pacific Rim by Alex Irvine and Star Trek: Into Darkness by Alan Dean Foster.
Published under the Hammer imprint, Guy Adams’ Countess Dracula reimagined the events of the 1971 movie as happening in 1930s Hollywood, while Shaun Hutson’s The Revenge of Frankenstein was a new novelization of the 1958 Hammer film.