The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22

by Stephen Jones

  The fourteenth edition of John O’Neill’s beautifully designed Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature was a massive double issue that included an article by Rich Horton on “Modern Reprints of Classic Fantasy” along with the fiction, poetry and reviews.

  Edited by Debbie Moorhouse, the sixth paperback issue of GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine featured fiction and poetry by Lavie Tidhar and others.

  There were two new issues of Small Beer Press’ slipstream ’zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, edited by Gavin J. Grant, Kelly Link et al. and featuring fiction, poetry and articles.

  Justin Marriott’s excellent The Paperback Fanatic changed its format to a smaller but much more attractive size. Boasting full-colour cover reproductions throughout, the four issues published during the year included interviews with Shaun Hutson, Graham Masterton and Warren Murphy; fascinating articles about Roger Elwood and Laser Books, early Pinnacle titles, Edgar Rice Burroughs at Ace Books, Four Square SF, Pyramid’s “Fu Manchu” titles, Karl Edward Wagner’s “Kane” books, Guy N. Smith, post-apocalyptic men’s SF adventure and Robert A. Lowndes’ Magazine of Horror, etc., along with a lively letters column in every issue.

  #1 Creature fan David J. Schow squeezed out another rare issue of his occasional fanzine, The Black Lagoon Bugle. Issue #24 featured news and updates about America’s Favourite Amphibian.

  The New York Review of Science Fiction included an interview with poet Donald Sidney-Fryer, articles about the supernatural fiction of Elizabeth Walter and Marjorie Bowen by Mike Barrett, and “An Annotated Bibliography on Vampire Media”.

  Following the tradition of the late and lamented All Hallows, The Silent Companion was the annual fiction magazine of A Ghostly Company. Boasting front and back cover art by veteran illustrator Alan Hunter, the nicely produced publication contained seven traditional supernatural stories.

  The Spring issue of Machenalia: The Newsletter of The Friends of Arthur Machen included the usual news, book reviews and articles, including an extensive piece celebrating the 140th anniversary in 2009 of the birth of Algernon Blackwood.

  The September 2009 edition of the British Fantasy Society’s Prism newsletter was belatedly distributed to the membership early in the new year. Although the news and reviews were a bit out of date, the much-delayed issue still contained some fine columns by Ramsey Campbell, Eric Brown and Mark Morris.

  The periodical went back to basics under new editor David A. Riley, who had previously co-edited the magazine in the mid-1970s and managed to put out three new issues in 2010. Along with the usual features, Campbell and Morris stayed on as columnists, joined by John Llewellyn Probert, and there were interviews with Johnny Mains, Shaun Jeffrey, Charles Black and Joe Hill.

  The BFS also produced two new volumes of Dark Horizons, featuring fiction, poetry and articles (including interviews with Simon Bestwick, Brian Stableford, Mark Charan, Aliette de Bodard and Allen Ashley, along with fascinating pieces on the history of Arkham House and the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series by Mike Barrett), plus an edition of New Horizons containing more fan fiction.

  Dog Tales was the second volume of Phil and Sarah Stokes’ impressively researched Memory, Prophecy and Fantasy: The Works and Worlds of Clive Barker. Once again limited to just 250 hardcover copies, the in-depth study covered Barker’s early theatrical projects and was illustrated with numerous photos, posters and concept drawings, many of them in colour.

  Lilja’s Library: The World of Stephen King was a collection of interviews and non-fiction material from Hans-Ake Lilja’s website, much of it updated, along with new material. A fifty-two copy signed, lettered and traycased edition was also available ($250.00).

  The Dream World of H.P. Lovecraft: His Life, His Demons, His Universe from Llewellyn was a biography by occult scholar Donald Tyson that concentrated on the author’s more esoteric influences.

  Unrepentant: A Celebration of the Writings of Harlan Ellison® was a slim hardcover that celebrated the author’s appearance at his “last” convention, MadCon 2010 in Madison, Wisconsin. Edited and packaged by Robert T. Garcia in an edition of just 300 copies (100 of which were signed by Ellison), the book contained fiction, essays, art and a bibliography, along with a comic strip by Neil Gaiman.

  Illustrated with numerous photos, Sam Weller’s Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews included a Foreword by Black Francis.

  Donald Sturrock’s family-sanctioned Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl included an account of the biographer’s first visit to the home of the often-difficult author. The book was abridged for a five-part reading by Julian Rhind-Tutt on BBC Radio 4 in September, with Ian McDiarmid as the voice of Dahl.

  For those for whom The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion was not enough, then there was always The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films from McFarland & Company, Inc., in which editors Amy M. Clarke and Marijane Osborn collected twelve essays about Stephenie Meyer’s series. Edited by Michelle Pan, Bella Should Have Dumped Edward: Controversial Views and Debates on the Twilight Series collected comments from an online fan site devoted to Meyer’s anaemic vampire books.

  From BenBella Books, Ardeur: 14 Writers on the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series was edited by Laurell K. Hamilton and Leah Wilson and included fourteen essays by Nick Mamatas, Lilith Saintcrow and others.

  The Fledgling Handbook 101 by P.C. Cast and Kim Doner purported to be a guidebook given to new vampires in the “House of Night” series by P.C. and Kristin Cast.

  From McFarland, Deborah Painter’s Forry: The Life of Forrest J Ackerman looked at the life and career of the legendary sci-fi and horror fan, editor and agent, with a Foreword by Joe Moe.

  Edited by S.T. Joshi for Hippocampus Press, A Weird Writer in Our Midst: Early Criticism of H.P. Lovecraft was a fascinating compilation of articles and criticism about the writer up to about 1955. From the same PoD publisher, Ten Years of Hippocampus Press 2000–2010 was a useful annotated bibliography compiled by founders Derrick Hussey and S.T. Joshi, along with David E. Schultz.

  In The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror from the same imprint, Thomas Ligotti questioned what it means to be human. Ray Brassier supplied the Introduction.

  Also edited by S.T. Joshi, Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture from Greenwood was a handy reference guide with contributions from Richard Bleiler, Matt Cardin, Gary William Crawford, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Paula Guran, Melissa Mia Hall, Stephen Jones, John Langan, Barbara Roden, Christopher Roden, Darrell Schweitzer, Brian Stableford, Bev Vincent and many others.

  The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, Third Edition was a revised and updated version of J. Gordon Melton’s guide to the undead in books, movies and mythology. Martin V. Ricardo contributed the Introduction.

  In The English Ghost: Spectres Through Time, Peter Ackroyd chronicled a wide range of historical hauntings, including that of the infamous Borley Rectory, which mysteriously burned down in 1939.

  Edited by Maria del Pilar Blanco and Esther Peeren, Popular Ghosts: The Haunted Spaces of Everyday Culture from Continuum featured twenty-two critical essays about ghosts in the media and popular culture.

  Published by McFarland & Company, Inc., Gothic Realities: The Impact of Horror Fiction on Modern Culture contained eight critical essays and a Selected Bibliography by L. Andrew Cooper. The scope of the book ranged from Gothic literature to torture porn.

  In Voices in the Dark: Interviews with Horror Movie Writers, Directors and Actors from the same imprint, Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan interviewed twenty-five people working in the horror genre, including Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, James Herbert, Joe Hill, Sarah Pinborough, John Carpenter, Rob Zombie and Ron Perlman. Anne Billson supplied the Foreword.

  From University Press of Kentucky, The Philosophy of Horror edited by Thomas Fahy contained fourteen essays, while Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy: New Life for the Undea
d edited by Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad for Carus Publishing/Open Court contained twenty-one essays.

  The latest volume in A Brief History series from Robinson/ Running Press was Vampires by M.J. Trow. Somewhat oddly, the book was split into two sections, with the first part looking at vampires in mythology and modern culture and the (longer) second part devoted solely to Vlad the Impaler.

  A depressing trend in comedy non-fiction guides included The Vampire Survival Guide: How to Fight, and Win, Against the Undead by Scott Bowen, and The Zen of Zombie: Better Living Through the Undead by Scott Kenemore.

  When Werewolves Attack: A Field Guide to Dispatching Ravenous Flesh-Ripping Beasts by Del Howison looked at lycanthropic lore, while The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Werewolves by Nathan Robert Brown included a chapter about literary lycanthropes. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Zombies was written by the same author.

  From Severed Press, The Official Zombie Handbook (UK) by Sean T. Page was an oversized guide along the same lines, giving advice and instructions on how to survive a zombie invasion of Britain.

  Dr Dale’s Zombie Dictionary: The A-Z Guide to Staying Alive by “Dr Dale Seslick” (Ben Muir) was a spin-off of the comedy stage show How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, which was voted Best Comedy Show 2010 by Buxton Fringe.

  PS Publishing launched its new PS Art Books imprint with Tomorrow Revisited: A Celebration of the Life and Art of Frank Hampson by Alistair Crompton. The oversized hardcover not only served as a fascinating biography of the comics artist best remembered for his Dan Dare strip in Eagle, but was also crammed with full-colour reproductions taken from the original artwork, preliminary sketches and hundreds of photographs.

  The Art of Drew Struzan from Titan Books collected the stunning movie poster roughs and finished paintings of the American artist (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future etc.), along with extremely candid commentary by Struzan, an Introduction and “Outroduction” by David J. Schow, and a lively Foreword by movie director Frank Darabont.

  The Addams Family: An Evilution was a huge collection of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams’ macabre drawings.

  The Horror! The Horror!: Comic Books the Government Didn’t Want You to Read by Jim Trombetta was an illustrated look at the history of pre-Code comics in America, including the infamous EC line. The book came with a DVD featuring an anti-comics TV documentary from the period directed by Irvin Kirschner (The Empire Strikes Back).

  From Hieronymous Press, Into the Land of Shadows was a large format reprinting of the Prince Valiant Sunday newspaper strip by writer Mark Schultz and artist Gary Gianni involving monsters, wizards and a race of subterranean little people.

  As usual edited by Cathy and Arnie Fenner, Spectrum 17: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art from Underwood Books reprinted the work of more than 300 artists, including a profile of the late Al Williamson, who was named recipient of the 2010 Spectrum Grand Master Award for artistic achievement.

  From the same imprint, Sword’s Edge: Paintings Inspired by the Works of Robert E. Howard contained more than twenty full-colour paintings by Spanish artist [Manuel Peréz Clemente] Sanjulian, edited by the Fenners and Manuel Aud.

  Edited by publisher Tim Underwood himself, Savage Art: 20th Century Genre & the Artists That Defined It showcased a variety of pulp magazine covers by Virgil Finlay, J. Allen St John, Norman Saunders, Frank R. Paul and others. Frank M. Robinson supplied the Introduction.

  From Non-Stop Press, Outermost: The Art + Life of Jack Gaughan was a biography written by Luis Ortiz that contained numerous illustrations by the prolific Hugo-winning book and magazine artist, along with an intimate Introduction by his widow, Phoebe Adams Gaughan.

  H.J. Ward from The Illustrated Press was a biography/art book of the pulp artist by David Saunders that also included a checklist of covers.

  Meanwhile, at a Heritage art and illustration auction in August, the original Hugh J. Ward cover painting for the August 1936 issue of Spicy Mystery smashed the record set by a pulp magazine cover, realising a sale price of $143,400 (with premium). Also in the sale, a Norman Saunders cover for the May 1951 Marvel Stories went for $50,787 and a Margaret Brundage cover for the January 1936 Weird Tales sold for $37,343.

  Following on from a previous lawsuit in 2002, Neil Gaiman accused one-time collaborator Todd McFarlane in June of changing the names of some of the supporting characters they co-created for the comic series Spawn to prevent Gaiman sharing in any residual profits. Gaiman subsequently won his case in court.

  The first two volumes of Stephen King’s The Stand, Captain Trips and American Nightmare, were released in January by Marvel, while King teamed up with comics writer Scott Snyder and artist Rafael Albuquerque for the first five issues of Vertigo’s American Vampire.

  Locke & Key 2: Head Games from Subterranean Press included the Lovecraftian graphic sequence written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, along with bonus material by Hill. It was also available in a 250-copy signed edition ($250.00) and a lettered edition of twenty-six copies ($500.00) with added art and dust-jacket by Vincent Chong.

  The first volume of a two-part graphic adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight: The Graphic Novel, adapted and illustrated by Korean artist Young Kim, had a 350,000-copy first printing from Hachette/Yen Press in the US.

  Nicely illustrated by Buffy the Vampire Slayer artist Cliff Richards in black and white, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies from Del Rey was a black and white graphic novel adaptation by British writer Tony Lee of the New York Times best-seller by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

  From Moonstone Books, Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Lovecraftian Damnation written by C.J. Henderson and illustrated by Robert Hack pitted the unorthodox reporter against Lovecraft’s fishy Deep Ones.

  A woman discovered a mysteriously disappearing library that contained everything she had ever read in The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger.

  Scripted by Gary Gerani and illustrated by Stuart Sayger, Bram Stoker’s Death Ship from IDW was based around the “Demeter”, the ship that transported Count Dracula from Transylvania to England.

  Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale co-scripted Robert Bloch’s Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper for the same imprint, with art by Kevin Colden.

  Based on the character created by Robert E. Howard, The Chronicles of Solomon Kane from Dark Horse collected stories from Marvel Premier and The Sword of Solomon Kane adapted by Roy Thomas and Ralph Macchio. Artists included Al Williamson, Mike Mignola and Howard Chaykin. Thomas also teamed up with artist Barry Windsor-Smith for The Barry Windsor-Smith Conan Archives Volume 1 from the same publisher, which collected the first eleven volumes of Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian.

  Zombie Terrors from Asylum Press was the first volume in an annual Halloween graphic anthology series intended for mature readers.

  Irish comics imprint Atomic Diner published the horror graphic novel Róisín Dubh: From the Grave, written by Maura McHugh and illustrated by Stephen Daly.

  In February, a rare issue of Action Comics No.1 (1938), the first comic book to feature Superman, sold via an online auction site between two private sellers for a reported $1 million, beating all previous records.

  Less than a week later, a copy of Detective Comics No.27 (1939), featuring the first appearance of the Batman, sold for $1,075,500. However, that record was beaten late the following month when another copy of the first issue of Action Comics changed hands for $1.5 million, almost five times what it had been worth just a year earlier.

  Ramsey Campbell wrote the novelisation of Michael J. Bassett’s underrated version of Solomon Kane, based on the character created by Robert E. Howard.

  Jonathan Maberry novelised the new version of Universal’s The Wolfman, while Alexander Irvine adapted Iron Man 2 to book form.

  T.T. Sutherland’s Alice in Wonderland was a novelisation of the Tim Burton film, which was a sequel to Lewis Carroll’s book.

  Being Human: Bad Blood by James Goss, Being H
uman: Chasers by Mark Michalowski and Being Human: The Road by Simon Guerrier were all based on the cult BBC TV series.

  Joe Schreiber’s Supernatural: The Unholy Cause was also based on The CW series.

  The first two books in a packaged trilogy, The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s Diaries Volume 1: Origins and 2: Bloodlust, were anonymously written young adult tie-ins to the book and TV series, credited to L.J. Smith, Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec.

  BBC Books’ continuing series of tie-ins featuring the eleventh Doctor continued with Doctor Who: Night of the Humans by David Llewellyn and Doctor Who: Apollo 23 by Justin Richards.

  Aaron Rosenberg’s Stargate Atlantis: Hunt and Run, Chris Wraight’s Stargate Atlantis: Dead End and Stargate Atlantis: Homecoming by Jo Graham and Melissa Scott were all based on a cancelled TV series, as was Stargate SG-1: The Power Behind the Throne by Steven Savile.

  Sheriff Jack Carter investigated the swapping of people and objects from other places in the TV tie-in Eureka: Substitution Method, while the townsfolk discovered that they had better keep their thoughts to themselves in Eureka: Brain Box Blues, both by Cris Ramsey.

  Nancy Holder’s Saving Grace: Tough Love was based on the TNT angel/cop TV series.

  30 Days of Night: Fear of the Dark by Tim Lebbon was set in the world of the graphic novels, while Dead Space: Martyr by B.K. Evenson was based on the best-selling Electronic Arts video game series.

  Warhammer: Bloodborn by Nathan Long was the first volume in the “Ulrika the Vampire” series, set in the world of the role-playing game. The same author’s Warhammer: Zombieslayer was the twelfth book in the “Gotrek & Felix” series, also based on the game.

  Easily the most attractive movie-related book of the year was The Art of Hammer: Posters from the Archive of Hammer Films, compiled by Marcus Hearn for Titan Books. The large-sized hardcover included almost 300 full-colour posters from around the world.