The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 2002, Volume 13

by Stephen Jones

  The July issue of the monthly The New York Review of Science Fiction had an article about Clark Ashton Smith and the 1999 tribute anthology The Last Continent, while the November issue included a special forty-four-page supplement with reactions to the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

  Charles N. Brown’s monthly Locus boasted new cover designs by Arnie Fenner and included interviews with Frank Kelly Freas, Ellen Datlow, John Crowley, Thomas M. Disch, Harlan Ellison, Bob Eggleton, Andy Duncan, Lucius Shepard and several others, along with all the usual news and reviews.

  Now available through Warren Lapine’s DNA Publications, Science Fiction Chronicle was almost back on schedule, producing eleven issues with founder Andrew I. Porter staying on as news editor. Along with introducing interior colour, the magazine also revived Marvin Kaye’s opinion column, premiered Brian Keene’s new horror column, and featured interviews with various SF writers.

  As always, The Bulletin of The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, edited by David A. Truesdale, contained plenty of useful articles and business advice for writers. Contributors included Harry Harrison, Michael Cassutt, Mike Resnick and Barry Malzberg, Barry B. Longyear, Kevin J. Anderson and others. The four quarterly issues also featured tributes to Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson, a history of the Nebula Award, an interview with Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and market reports by Derryl Murphy and Randy Dannenfelser.

  Despite a couple of confusing format changes and an editorial switch, The British Fantasy Society’s newsletter Prism still managed to produce six bimonthly issues for members. These featured the usual news and reviews along with articles on young-adult fantasies, regular columns by Tom Arden and Chaz Brenchley, plus interviews with Lisa Tuttle and Canadian director John Fawcett.

  The society also published two square-bound volumes of Dark Horizons, both of which were all-fiction issues edited by Debbie Bennett and featuring D.F. Lewis, Paul Lewis, Tina Rath, Peter Tennant, Mark McLaughlin and Allen Ashley, amongst others. The second volume of F20, published by Enigmatic Press and the BFS, and co-edited by David J. Howe with Maynard and Sims, was an all-fantasy issue themed around the seven deadly sins. Contributors included Freda Warrington, Juliet McKenna, Storm Constantine and Louise Cooper.

  Voices from the Vault, the newsletter of Britain’s Dracula Society, included obituaries for actor Francis Lederer (by Basil Copper) and author R. Chetwynd-Hayes, along with various reviews.

  The Official Newsletter of the Horror Writers Association, edited on a monthly schedule by Kathryn Ptacek, featured all the usual columns and the editor’s extensive market reports, plus a fascinating article on reverting rights by Richard Laymon, an interview with Laymon by Vincent Fahey, an extensive tribute to R. Chetwynd-Hayes, and self-congratulatory reports on the 2001 World Horror Convention/Bram Stoker Weekend.

  Most of the March issue was devoted to remembrances and tributes to HWA President Laymon, who died suddenly in February. Former vice-president David Niall Wilson succeeded the author as the group’s president, with Tim Lebbon stepping into the role of VP until the next regular election, when both were officially returned to office.

  Barbara and Christopher Roden’s excellent All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society included numerous book reviews, Roger Dobson’s film news and Richard Dalby’s obituary column, Ramsey Campbell’s take on The Blair Witch Project, articles on Vernon Lee, Blood of the Vampire (1958), The Ghost Breakers (1940) and The Skull (1965), and an interview with Douglas Clegg by Michael Rowe. There was also fiction by Stephen Volk, Paul Finch, Geoffrey Warburton, Peter J. Wilson and others, plus artwork by Paul Lowe, Douglas Walters, Dallas Goffin, Iain Maynard and veteran Alan Hunter.

  The Stephen King Universe: A Guide to the Worlds of the King of Horror by Stanley Wiater, Christopher Golden and Hank Wagner was a chunky trade paperback from Renaissance Books which looked at the influences on King’s work by grouping the author’s novels and stories by setting and theme. A deluxe, signed, limited edition containing extra text and illustrative material not included in the paperback version was available in hardcover from Cemetery Dance Publications at $75.00.

  The Essential Stephen King was yet another reference guide by Stephen J. Spignesi ranking 101 books, stories and movies by King.

  Douglas E. Winter’s long-awaited authorized biography, Clive Barker: The Dark Fantastic, stretched to more than 650 pages and contained useful primary and secondary bibliographies, two eight-page photo inserts, headings by Barker and a story written when the author was fourteen years old.

  A follow-up to his 1990 volume The Weird Tale, The Modern Weird Tale was S.T. Joshi’s critical study of such authors as Stephen King, Clive Barker, Anne Rice, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, Robert Aickman, Shirley Jackson, William Peter Blatty, T.E.D. Klein, Thomas Ligotti and Thomas Tryon.

  Published by Liverpool University Press, Ramsey Campbell and Modern Horror Fiction was an in-depth study of the Liver-pool-based horror writer by the prolific Joshi, including a detailed bibliography plus a look back at his early life by Campbell himself. From the same publisher and author, A Dreamer and a Visionary: H.P. Lovecraft in His Time proved that there were still more minutiae to be squeezed out of poor HPL’s short life.

  From 1923 until 1937, C.M. Eddy, Jr. and Muriel E. Eddy enjoyed a close relationship with H.P. Lovecraft. Fenham Publishing’s trade paperback The Gentleman from Angell Street: Memories of H.P. Lovecraft contained four essays/memoirs of HPL, three poems about Lovecraft by Muriel Eddy, and several pages of photographs. A collection of five of Eddy’s weird tales, Exit Into Eternity: Tales of the Bizarre and Supernatural, was reprinted by the same publisher, with an introduction by the author’s wife.

  After researching his subject for more than twenty years, Mike Ashley’s Starlight Man: The Extraordinary Life of Algernon Blackwood (aka Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life) was a long-anticipated and fascinating illustrated biography published on the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the acclaimed writer of the supernatural.

  In Search of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Raymond T. McNally and Radu R. Florescu looked at Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel and its cultural impact.

  Edited by James Van Hise, The Fantastic Worlds of Robert E. Howard was an illustrated guide to the work of the Weird Tales writer, with contributions from Rusty Burke, Rick Lai, Roy Krenkel and others, mostly taken from The Robert E. Howard United Press Association (REHUPA).

  Subtitled Friends of Yesteryear: Fictioneers & Others and limited to 4,000 copies, Book of the Dead was written in the 1970s and contained wonderful personal reminiscences by the late E. Hoffman Price about friends and colleagues such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Seabury Quinn, Henry Kuttner, August Derleth and others. Unfortunately, like other recent Arkham House volumes, the book was poorly edited and filled with unnecessary typos.

  Greenwood’s The Supernatural in Short Fiction of the Americas by Dana Del George was a somewhat skewered look at short horror fiction by such authors as Poe, Hawthorne, Bradbury and others. However, most modern writers were notable by their absence. Bob Madison’s American Horror Writers was a young-adult study of ten authors, including King, Lovecraft and Poe.

  French fan Alain Sprauel added to his series of attractive self-published bibliographies with a chronological listing of Peter Straub’s published work in France.

  One of the best art books of the year was Fantasy of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History written by artist Randy Broecker. Beautifully designed and printed by Collectors Press, the stunning oversized hardcover not only contained around 450 exemplarily chosen full-colour illustrations (including many rare pulp and paperback covers), but also a detailed history of the genre and its practitioners that was immaculately researched and presented with an infectious enthusiasm for its subject matter.

  From the same publisher, Richard A. Lupoff’s The Great American Paperback: An Illustrated Tribute to Legends of the Book contained more than 600 lavishly produced cover reprodu
ctions from all genres.

  After issuing a profits warning in January, Collins & Brown Publishing, owner of Pavilion and the Paper Tiger art-book imprint, was taken over by the Chrysalis Group in a reported £2.1 million deal.

  The Art of Richard Powers by Jane Frank was a beautiful and in-depth tribute from Paper Tiger to the American artist (1921–1996) whose often surreal covers graced many horror collections and anthologies in the 1950s and early 1960s. It additionally included a foreword by Vincent Di Fate; a memoir by the artist’s son, Richard Gid Powers; a previously unpublished interview and a checklist of book covers. Also from the Paper Tiger imprint, Offerings was the latest full-colour collection of Brom’s dark depictions of demonic heroes and villains.

  Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta was the third and final volume in the Frazetta series from Underwood Books, edited by Cathy and Arnie Fenner. It included a wealth of previously unpublished material and appreciations by Bernie Wrightson, Dave Stevens, Michael Kaluta and others.

  Introduced by Dave Stevens, Wings of Twilight: The Art of Michael Kaluta included much of the artist’s comics work plus illustrations for The Lord of the Rings, Prince Valiant, Vampirella and Metropolis.

  The Wally Wood Sketchbook was a large-sized paperback from Vanguard Productions which featured fascinating commentary on the comics artist by Steranko, Al Williamson and Joe Orlando.

  Visionary, edited by Mark Wheatley and Allan Gross, collected the art of Gray Morrow from the late 1950s onwards, with an introduction by Al Williamson.

  From Cemetery Dance Publications, Dark Dreamers: Facing the Masters of Fear was a book of monochrome photographs by Beth Gwinn, with commentary by Stanley Wiater and an introduction by Clive Barker. Just over 100 horror authors, artists, editors and film-makers were featured, along with a short commentary by the subject or from Wiater, who also supplied brief recommended reading lists. Some of the most poignant shots were those of people who are no longer with us – Robert Bloch, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Richard Laymon, and Karl Edward Wagner (with an uncredited Lynne Gauger). There were also signed, limited and leather-bound lettered editions. Despite the dull dust jacket, the book was billed as the official companion volume to Dark Dreamers, a weekly Canadian television series hosted by Wiater.

  Dynamic Forces released two full-colour lithographs of ‘Universal’s Mightiest Monsters’. Alex Horley’s Dracula: Crimson Kiss and Greg and Tim Hildebrandt’s Bride of Frankenstein were available both as regular prints and in limited editions signed by the artists.

  Co-authored in German and English by film director Jörg Buttgereit (Nekromantik), Nightmares in Plastic looked at horror-inspired model kits through nearly 150 photos of completed kits and box art.

  Despite his death the year before, Edward Gorey continued to have wicked fun with the month-by-month misfortune that mysteriously plagued The Deranged Cousins. Edited by Karen Wilkin, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey collected interviews, photographs and unpublished artwork by the late artist.

  Probably the most superfluous book of the year was The Quotable Sandman: Memorable Lines from the Acclaimed Series by Neil Gaiman. Unless such pithy pensées as ‘That which is dreamed can never be lost, can never be undreamed’ had some kind of resonance for the reader, the attractive pocket hardcover was only worth acquiring for the full-colour illustrations by ‘a remarkable ensemble of artists’, including Dave McKean, Kent Williams, Glenn Fabry, Charles Vess, Rick Berry, Brian Bolland and others.

  It was also hard to know who would want Edison’s Frankenstein 2002 Calendar, featuring twelve rare stills from the 1910 film, with anecdotes, trivia and interesting facts written by Frederick C. Wiebel, Jr. At least Midnight Marquee’s Attack of the Movie Monsters 2002 Calendar included stills from 1950s and 1960s sci-fi films featuring ‘Damsels in Distress and the Monsters Who Terrorize Them’.

  The Classic Movie Tin Sign set contained poster reproductions of The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Invisible Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

  An original poster advertising Boris Karloff’s 1932 The Mummy sold to a telephone bidder at Christie’s in London for £80,750 in March. Designed by artist Karoly Grosz, it was one of only three copies known to have survived and was discovered amongst a collection found in a garage in Arizona.

  From Pentagram Publications, Dracula: The Graphic Novel reprinted the 1966 Ballantine Books comic strip with introductions by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.

  Dark Horse Comics’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured a four-part mini-series, False Memories, scripted by Tom Fassbender and Jim Pascoe, which explored the effect that Buffy’s younger sister Dawn had on the history of the Scooby gang.

  Also from Dark Horse came a 168-page Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novel, which included such reprint stories as TV scriptwriter Doug Petrie’s ‘Food Chain’ and ‘Double Cross’, plus Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski’s first Buffy collaboration.

  Meanwhile, Buffy creator Joss Whedon made his comic writing debut with Dark Horse Comics’ eight-issue miniseries Fray, which was set in a future where vampires, demons, and other supernatural creatures existed. The books were illustrated by newcomer Karl Moline.

  Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic character Tim Hunter returned, somewhat older and wiser, in DC/Vertigo Comics’ Hunter: The Age of Magic, a new series written by Dylan Horrocks and illustrated by Richard Case, which picked up three years after the recent mini-series Names of Magic.

  DC/Vertigo’s House of Secrets: Façade was a two-issue mini-series scripted by Steven T. Seagle and illustrated by Teddy Kristiansen in which human witness Rain Harper fled the Spirit Court.

  Despite a promise by publisher Brian Pulido that the character would never return after being killed off, Chaos! Comics launched a new series of Evil Ernie on Halloween while, from the same publisher, Phil Nutman continued the original story of Tommy Doyle from the lacklustre movie Halloween IV in the somewhat confusingly titled comics Halloween II and Halloween III: The Devil’s Eyes (which featured a variant cover design).

  As usual there were novelizations of the summer blockbusters, such as The Mummy Returns by Max Allan Collins and Dave Wolverton’s young-adult The Mummy Chronicles: Revenge of the Scorpion King, Lara Croft Tomb Raider by Dave Stern, Final Fantasy The Spirits Within by Dean Wesley Smith and Planet of the Apes by William T. Quick.

  Frankenstein: The Legacy and Night of Dracula were a pair of pot-boilers updating the classic monsters by Christopher Schildt, featuring introductions by Sara Jane Karloff and Bela G. Lugosi, respectively.

  Larry Mike Garmon’s Return of Evil: Dracula, Blood Moon Rising: The Wolf Man and Anatomy of Terror: Frankenstein were the first three volumes in Scholastic’s young-adult series Universal Studios Monsters, about a trio of children battling the classic movie monsters when the latter were released during a special film transfer.

  David Jacobs’s The Devil’s Night was the second volume in another series featuring all the classic Universal Monsters.

  A.A. Attanasio’s The Crow: Hellbound was the latest novelization of the movie and comic-book series created by James O’Barr.

  Based on the Hallmark Entertainment TV miniseries, The Monkey King by Kathryn Wesley (aka Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch) contained sixteen pages of colour photos.

  There was no sign of the series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer novelizations slowing down. Yvonne Navarro contributed The Willow Files Vol. 2 and Nancy Holder’s latest was The Book of Fours. The Faith Trials by James Laurence contained eight pages of colour stills, and the prolific Christopher Golden published his four-volume serial novel The Lost Slayer, comprising Prophecies, Dark Times, King of the Dead and Original Sins. Tales of the Slayer Vol. 1 was an anthology of seven stories about different Slayers by Nancy Holder, Yvonne Navarro and others.

  As if that was not enough, Holder and Jeff Mariotte published the Buffy/Angel crossover trilogy Unseen: The Burning, Door to Alternity and Long Way Home, while Angel continued in his own series of
novelizations with Avatar by John Passarella, Soul Trade by Thomas E. Sniegoski, The Summoned by Cameron Dokey and Bruja by Mel Odom.

  TV’s witchy Halliwell Sisters appeared in the young-adult Charmed novelizations The Legacy of Merlin by Eloise Flood, Soul of the Bride by Constance M. Burge and Beware What You Wish by Diana G. Gallagher. Blair Witch Files: The Death Card by Cade Merrill was the fifth in the unlikely young-adult series.

  She may be growing up on TV, but Sabrina the Teenage Witch still proved popular with younger readers in Pirate Pandemonium and Dream Boat by Mel Odom, Wake-Up Call and From the Horse’s Mouth by Diana G. Gallagher, Witch Way Did She Go? by Paul Ruditis and Milady’s Dragon by Cathy East Dubowski.

  Hidden Passions: Secrets from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox was purported to be written by Juliet Mills’s evil witch from the daytime soap opera, but was more likely authored by series creator James E. Reilly.

  Lawrence Miles’s The Adventures of Henrietta Street was set in 18th-century England and featured the eighth Doctor Who encountering a coven of comely witches. The Ghost Hunter’s House of Horror by Ivan Jones was a young-adult novelization of the BBC-TV series.

  Resident Evil 6: Code Veronica by S.D. Perry was based on the popular zombie video games.

  Featuring his mismatched heroes Gotrek Gurnisson and Felix Jaeger, William King’s Beastslayer and Vampireslayer were the author’s fifth and sixth Warhammer novels in the new series from Black Library, based on the fantasy role-playing game.

  White Wolf’s ever-popular World of Darkness series, based on the role-playing games, continued with Predator & Prey: Judge and Jury, both by Gherbod Fleming. Heralds of the Storm was Book One in the ‘Year of the Scarab’ trilogy by Andrew Bates, and Tremere: Widow’s Walk and Widow’s Weeds were the first two books in a new trilogy by Eric Griffin based on the Clan series.

  Inherit the Earth edited by Stewart Wieck, collected nine stories based on Hunter: The Reckoning. Silent Striders and Black Furies, Red Talons and Fianna and Shadow Lords and Get of Fenris were all omnibus volumes in the ‘Tribe’ series based on White Wolf’s Werewolf: The Apocalypse game.