The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18

by Stephen Jones (ed. )

  Canada’s Rue Morgue magazine turned out eleven glossy issues in 2006. Along with all the usual movie, DVD, book and music coverage, issues also featured interviews with Roger Corman, Clive Barker, Wes Craven, Jean Rollin, Lina Romay, Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs, Basil Gogos, David Seltzer, Richard Donner, Peter Straub, Adrienne Barbeau, Takashi Miike, Pete Walker, R. Lee Ermey, Ingrid Pitt, Ramsey Campbell, the late Billy Van, Elvira, Bob Clark and John Saxon. The 9th Anniversary Halloween Issue was a tribute to late Italian director Lucio Fulci and also included “The Connoisseur’s Guide to 50 Alternative Horror Books”.

  The annual Rue Morgue Festival of Fear, held over three days in September in Toronto included special guests Alice Cooper, Guillermo del Toro, Jeffrey Combs, Linda Blair, Roddy Piper, Ben Chapman, Michael Berryman and others.

  HorrorHound was a new glossy magazine out of Cincinnati, Ohio, which was devoted to movies, comic books, video games, model kits, DVDs and gore.

  Charles N. Brown’s newszine Locus entered its 40th year of publication with interviews with, amongst others, Geoff Ryman, S. M. Stirling, Dave Duncan, the inevitable Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Jay Lake, Betsy Wollheim, Peter Straub, China Miéville,, and Joe Hill (who was outed by Variety in early 2006 as Joseph Hillstrom King, the son of Stephen and Tabitha King). The May issue looked at “Young Adult Fiction” with essays by Ursula K. Le Guin, Garth Nix, Graham Joyce and others, while the July issue’s “Special Horror Section” featured commentary from Edward Bryant, Ellen Datlow and bookseller Alan Beatts.

  Prism: The Newsletter of the British Fantasy Society had an erratic schedule under the editorship of Jenny Barber. Despite this, each issue was packed with publishing and media news, and there was a brief interview with David Sutton.

  Under editors Marie O’Regan and the busy Barber, the BFS’ journal Dark Horizons was a messy mixture of short stories and non-fiction, including book and media reviews that would have been better suited in Prism. The two issues published in 2006 featured new and reprint fiction from Mark Chadbourn, Debbie Bennett, John Howard, Lavie Tidhar, Mark Morris, Ramsey Campbell, Tim Lebbon and others, along with interviews with Neil Gaiman and independent film-maker Jeff Brookshire.

  Edited with an Afterword by the ubiquitous Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan, and featuring a “heartfelt” Introduction by Stephen Jones, The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration was an attractive trade paperback anthology of twenty horror, fantasy and SF stories (six original) with contributions from Christopher Fowler, Clive Barker, Michael Marshall Smith, John Connolly, Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Peter Straub, Neil Gaiman, Brian Aldiss, Richard Christian Matheson, Robert Silverberg, Stephen Gallagher and others. All profits from the book went to the Society and the “Black Dust” Nqabakazula Charity Project in South Africa.

  BFS members were also treated to a special edition of Cinema Macabre edited by Mark Morris. This trade paperback version replaced the J. K. Potter cover art on the PS Publishing edition with a new painting by Les Edwards, and Jonathan Ross’ Introduction was dropped in favour of one by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane.

  From the Ghost Story Society, All Hallows contained fiction by Stephen Volk and others along with an interview with Australian author John Harwood, plus the usual reviews, columns and articles by Ramsey Campbell, Roger Dobson, Reggie Oliver and Gary McMahon.

  Edited by Gwilym Games, Machenalia was the newsletter of The Friends of Arthur Machen. Along with plenty of Machen-related news, each issue also contained reviews of other genre material.

  The tenth issue of David Longhorn’s annual Supernatural Tales was another bumper volume featuring contributions from Don Tumasonis, Gary McMahon, Andrew Darlington, Lynda E. Rucker, Tina Rath and Michael Chislett, amongst others. Whispers of Wickedness included an interview with author Steven Pirie.

  The two issues of John Benson’s Not One of Us contained stories and poems by Sonya Taaffe and others. Change was the latest in a series of annual, variously-titled publications from the same publisher. A trade paperback anthology edited by Benson, The Best of Not One of Us, was published by Prime Books/Wildside Press and included fifteen stories that originally appeared in the magazine.

  Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link’s Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and Heather Shaw and Tim Pratt’s Flytrap featured the usual mixture of slipstream fiction, poetry and articles.

  The October issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction included interviews with Thomas Ligotti and Peter Straub, and the Winter issue of The Bulletin of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America featured an introductory essay by Bud Webster on Donald A. Wollheim’s classic horror anthologies The Macabre Reader and More Macabre.

  Published by Writer’s Digest in association with “The Horror Writers of America” [sic], Mort Castle’s guide On Writing Horror: Revised Edition contained forty-four essays (twenty-four original and the others mostly revised) on how to write horror with a Foreword by Stanley Wiater and an Afterword by Harlan Ellison.

  Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler’s The Monsters: Mary Shelley & the Curse of Frankenstein looked at the origins of Mary Shelley’s influential novel.

  Edited by Scott Connors for print-on-demand publisher Hippocampus Press, The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on the Writings of Clark Ashton Smith collected twenty-six critical essays (five original) by Brian Stableford, S. T. Joshi, James Blish, Donald Sidney-Fryer and others on the author’s work, along with a gathering of contemporary reviews.

  H. P. Lovecraft’s Collected Essays Volume 3: Science and Collected Essays Volume 4: Travel were also available from Hippocampus, edited with notes and an Introduction by S. T. Joshi. From the same imprint came Lovecraft’s New York Circle: The Kalem Club 1924–1927, edited by Kirk Mara Hart and Joshi, with a Preface by Peter Cannon and an Introduction by Mara Kirk Hart.

  In December, a number of original Lovecraft letters and manuscripts were auctioned at Sotheby’s. Among the items was an autographed manuscript of “The Shunned House” that sold for $45,000.

  Charles Addams: A Cartoonist’s Life was a biography by Linda H. Davis.

  From McFarland Publishing, Allen A. Debus’ Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction: A Thematic Survey included Forewords by Donald F. Glut and Mark F. Berry.

  Published by Greenwood Press/Praeger, Legends of Blood: The Vampire in History and Myth by Wayne Bartlett and Flavia Idriceanu looked at the undead in myths, literature and film.

  Don D’Ammassa’s Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction was a guide to the major authors and their works.

  Published in a signed edition limited to 500 copies, John Clute’s The Darkening Garden: A Short Lexicon of Horror contained a selection of terms defined for a proposed encyclopaedia on horror fiction, illustrated by thirty artists. The artwork was also available as thirty postcards, limited to 300 sets.

  Translated from the Russian by Adam Bromfield and published in a movie tie-in edition, Sergei Lukyanenko’s 1998 novel Night Watch (Nochnol Dozor) was the first in a trilogy about the epic battle between the creatures of Light and Dark.

  Other tie-in novels of the year included V for Vendetta by Steve Moore, Superman Returns by Marv Wolfman and Snakes on a Plane by Christa Faust.

  From BL Publishing/Black Flame, Final Destination 3 was also written by Faust. It was joined by novelisations for Final Destination by Natasha Rhodes and Final Destination 2 by Nancy A. Collins and Rhodes, while the spin-off title Final Destination: Looks Could Kill was written by Collins alone.

  Dark Horse Comics’ DH Press launched its paperback series of licensed Universal Monsters novels with Dracula: Asylum by Paul Witcover, Frankenstein: The Shadow of Frankenstein by Stefan Petrucha and Creature from the Black Lagoon: Time’s Black Lagoon by Paul Di Filippo.

  Other tie-in books based on older film properties included The Toxic Avenger by Lloyd Kaufman and Adam Jahnke, Jason X: To the Third Power by Nancy Kilpatrick, Friday the 13th: The Jason Strain by the busy Christa Faust, Friday the 13th: Carnival of Maniacs by Stephe
n Hand, A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers by Jeffrey Thomas, A Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance to Dream by Natasha Rhodes, Predator: Forever Midnight by John Shirley and Aliens: DNA War by Diane Carey.

  Although Buffy the Vampire the Slayer only lived on in TV reruns, the novelisations continued apace with Buffy the Vampire Slayer: After Image by Pierce Askegren, Carnival of Souls by Nancy Holder, Blackout by Keith R. A. deCandido, Portal Through Time by Alice Henderson, Bad Bargain by Diana G. Gallagher and Go Ask Malice, which was told in diary form by Joseph Robert Levy.

  The Power of Three may also have reached the end of its television run, but the Halliwell sisters continued their witchy ways in Charmed: As Puck Would Have It by Paul Ruditis and Charmed: Light of the World by Scott Ciencin.

  At least Lost: Signs of Life by Frank Thompson was based on a show that was still running, and BBC Books issued new novelisations to tie in to the exploits of David Tennant’s Doctor Who and his companion, Rose. The ghosts from a sunken navy ship flooded London in The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole. A 2,000-year-old statue of Rose led to an adventure in Ancient Rome in Jac Rayner’s The Stone Rose, and the duo searched for a key to eternal life on another planet in The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards.

  The exploits of the tenth Doctor and Rose continued in The Price of Paradise, The Art of Destruction and The Nightmare of Black Island, while the seventh Doctor and Ace were featured in Andrew Cartmel’s Doctor Who: Atom Bomb Blues.

  Based on the classic Gothic daytime soap opera, Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch was written by actress Lara Parker.

  Games Workshop issued a profit warning following the end of the Lord of the Rings sales boom. Sales for the six months to November 2006 were down by £2.3 million and full year profits were expected to be below forecasts.

  World of Darkness: Chicago: Three Shades of Darkness collected three novellas based on White Wolf’s role-playing game, and Nick Kyme’s Necromunda: Back from the Dead was based on another role-playing game.

  30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead by Steve Niles and Jeff Mariotte was a novel based on the vampire graphic series created by Niles.

  John Shirley was busy novelising John Constantine: Hellblazer with War Lord and Subterranean, and he still found time to turn out Batman: Dead White. Alex Irvine took over with Batman: Inferno, while Infinite Crisis by Greg Cox was based on the acclaimed DC Comics graphic serial.

  Tim Lebbon’s Hellboy: Unnatural Selection and young adult writer Thomas E. Sniegoski’s Hellboy: The God Machine were both based on the comic series created by Mike Mignola.

  Wolverine: Road of Bones was an X-Men spin-off by David Alan Mack, and Durham Red: Black Dawn by Peter J. Evans was based on the vampire character from 2000 AD comic.

  Editor Mark Morris asked fifty contributors to write about their favourite horror films in Cinema Macabre, from PS Publishing. The results ranged from Nosferatu (1922) to The Sixth Sense (1999) and included essays by Basil Copper, Stephen Jones, Neil Gaiman, Peter Atkins, Jo Fletcher, Stephen Gallagher, Lisa Turtle, Mark Samuels, Thomas Tessier, Christopher Fowler, Kim Newman, Joel Lane, Simon Pegg, Michael Marshall Smith, Tim Lebbon, Muriel Gray, Peter Crowther, Paul McAuley, Terry Lamsley, Ramsey Campbell, Douglas E. Winter and the editor, along with an Introduction by UK TV personality Jonathan Ross. It was published in an edition of 500 trade hardcovers signed by Morris and a 200-copy slipcased edition signed by all fifty-two contributors.

  Although Monsters: A Celebration of the Classics from Universal Studios featured a “Fearword” by Forrest J. Ackerman and contributions from a number of luminaries including John Landis, Stephen Sommers, Gloria Stuart and Ben Chapman, the minimalist text and unimaginative photo layouts didn’t do their subjects justice.

  Published by Telos as a hefty trade paperback, Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For included in-depth reviews by Dr Arnold T. Blumberg and Andrew Hershberger, along with a brief history of zombie cinema, a title index of more than 500 films, and a Afterword by zombie actor Mark Donovan.

  Night Shade Books reissued Andrew Migliore and John Strysik’s wide-ranging 1995 study Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft in a handsomely redesigned and updated edition with a Preface by S. T. Joshi.

  Andy Murray’s Into the Unknown: The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale from Headpress was the first full biography of the British author and screenwriter (who died a few months after it was published).

  The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio by Jody Duncan was a huge volume from Titan Books detailing the behind-the-scenes secrets of the make-up maestro’s extensive work in the cinema. James Cameron contributed a brief Foreword, and there was also a short notation from the late Fay Wray. Equally hefty was Titan’s Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13 th by Peter M. Bracke, which included everything any fan of Jason Voorhees needed to know about the “slasher” film series.

  From the same publisher, Denis Meikle’s The Ring Companion looked at the Japanese film cycle about a cursed videotape and the novels that inspired it.

  Celebrating its subject’s 80th birthday, Alan Silver and James Ursini’s Roger Corman: Metaphysics on a Shoestring looked at each of the director’s films, with commentary by Corman himself.

  Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather: The Illustrated Screenplay included the shooting script by director Vadim Jean and Pratchett, who also contributed separate Forewords.

  From Baylor University Press, Kim Paffenroth’s study Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth looked at the Christian imagery in the director’s series of zombie movies.

  In Irwin Allen Television Productions, 1964–1970: A Critical History from McFarland, Jon Abbott discussed the disaster movie producer’s successful TV output, including such shows as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants.

  The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy by Paul Kane covered Clive Barker’s seminal 1980s movie and its sequels and spin-offs, with a Foreword by Pinhead himself, actor Doug Bradley.

  Also from McFarland, Michael Klossner’s Prehistoric Humans in Film and Television looked at nearly 600 dramas, comedies and documentaries made between 1905 and 2004.

  Vampire fans could choose from Matthew Pateman’s study The Aesthetics of Culture in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tim Kane’s The Changing Vampire of Film and Television and Lyndon W. Joslin’s updated 1999 study Count Dracula Goes to the Movies: Stoker’s Novel Adapted, 1922–2003. Also of interest was James Bernard, Composer to Count Dracula: A Critical Biography by David Huckvale.

  Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio was an impressive full-colour showcase of the award-winning artist’s work, published in hardcover by MonkeyBrain Books with an Introduction by Michael Moorcock and an interview with Picacio by Joseph McCabe.

  Best known for his many Doc Savage paperback covers, James Bama: American Realist looked at these and much more of the artist’s work. Brian M. Kane wrote the text, and there was an Introduction by Harlan Ellison and a Foreword by Len Leone.

  The subtitle of Steve Starger and J. David Spurlock’s Wally’s World: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Wally Wood, the World’s Second-Best Comic Book Artist pretty much summed up the life of its subject. A deluxe hardcover edition included an extra sixteen-page portfolio.

  Amphigorey Again collected a number of previously unpublished illustrations and unfinished work by the late Edward Gorey.

  Origins: The Art of John Jude Palencar featured more than 100 paintings and drawings by the artist with a Foreword by Christopher Paolini and an Afterword by Arnie Fenner, who edited the volume with his wife Cathy.

  As usual, the Fenners also edited Spectrum 13: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, which contained more than 400 pieces of art by some 300 different artists. Among those represented were Michael Whelan, Bob Eggleton, Brom, Leo and Diane Dillon, Donato Giancola, Adam Rex, Todd Lockwood and Thomas S. Kuebler, along with a profile of Grand Master Award winne
r Jeffrey Jones.

  Ray Bradbury’s classic story The Homecoming was issued as a picture book, profusely illustrated by Dave McKean.

  The Illustrated Dracula featured artwork by Jae Lee, and included Bram Stoker’s missing chapter, “Dracula’s Guest”, plus various non-fiction appendices by Marvin Kaye.

  Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Other Stories You’re Sure to Like, Because They’re All About Monsters, and Some of Them Are Also About Food. You Like Food, Don’t You? Well, All Right Then was the full title of Adam Rex’s beautifully illustrated children’s book featuring poems about all the classic creatures.

  Mommy?, written by Arthur Yorinks with art by Maurice Sendak, was a pop-up picture book about a little boy searching for his missing mother who encountered many of the classic monsters.

  Poet Laura Leuck teamed up with artist Gris Grimly for Santa Claws, a frighteningly festive tale about two boys at Christmas.

  From Fantagraphics Books, Beasts! was subtitled A Pictorial Schedule of Traditional Hidden Creatures. Conceived, designed and edited by Jacob Covey, the attractively-produced hardcover volume collected artwork from ninety of the best visual artists from the worlds of comics, skate graphics, rock posters, animation, children’s books, and commercial and fine art.

  London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, which still holds the copyright to J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in the EU, protested at the publication of Lost Girls, an erotic graphic novel by Alan Moore and artist Melinda Gebbie featuring the sexually explicit adventures of Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Wendy from Peter Pan and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz on the eve of the First World War.

  The hospital, which was bequeathed the rights to his books by Barrie, claimed that Moore’s title would need their permission or license to publish. In response, the author told the BBC that “It wasn’t our intention to try to provoke a ban”. Lost Girls was subsequently issued as a three-volume deluxe hardcover set in the US by Top Shelf Productions. When pre-orders exceeded the 10,000-copy first printing, the book went into a second edition before publication. However, following discussions between the publisher and Great Ormond Street Hospital, publication of the book in the European Union was delayed until 2008, when the Peter Pan copyright expires.