Also from Subterranean cameTestament: The Unpublished Prologues by David Morrell, in which the author examined the writing of his 1975 thriller. It was available in numbered and lettered editions, both signed. Monsters and Other Stories by small press publisher/editor Richard Chizmar collected six recent tales, introduced by Edward Bryant. Subterranean’s lettered edition also added an essay by Hugh B. Cave.
Candles for Elizabeth was an attractive chapbook from Meisha Merlin Publishing that collected three stories (one original) by Caitlin R. Kiernan, with an introduction by Poppy Z. Brite.
Steve Harris’ Challenging the Wolf from The Squane’s Press was limited to 500 copies and contained the original novelette of the title plus the first chapter from the unpublished novel The Switch.
Dark Raptor Press released chapbooks of Expiry Date by Scottish author Carol Anne Davis, the werewolf tale The Case of the Police Officer’s Cock Ring and the Piano Player Who Had No Fingers by Ed Lee and John Pelan, The Adventures of Threadwell the Tailor or Alterations Made While You Wait by P.D. Cacek, andYours Truly, Jackie the Stripper by Edo van Belkom. Each was limited to 333 signed copies.
Writhing in Darkness: Part I and Part II were a brace of chapbooks from California’s Dark Regions Press which collected, respectively, nineteen and seventeen pieces of “horrific verse” by Michael Arnzen, with introductions by Wayne Edwards and John Grey. Dark Tales & Light by Bruce Boston was a collection of ten stories from Dark Regions, while Poking the Gun: The Selected Poetry of John Grey contained twenty-eight poems (seven original) along with an introduction by Michael Arnzen and illustrations by Dale L. Sproule. Each was limited to 125 signed copies.
Nice Guys Finish Last was the title of a story by Gary Jonas, which Barnes & Noble Books cut from the anthology 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories. It was rescued by Oklahoma’s Ozark Triangle Press, who published it in chapbook format. From the same imprint also came Jonas’Curse of the Magazine Killers, a collection of four stories which were sold to markets which subsequently folded before they could publish them.
Britain’s Enigma Press kicked off its series of Enigmatic Novellas chapbooks with Moths by L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims, followed by The Dark Satanic, a collection of two novellas by Paul Finch, and Candlelight Ghost Stories, two traditional ghost stories by Anthony Morris.
11th Hour Productions launched a series of Twilight Tales chapbooks featuring Chicago-area authors withTales of Forbidden Passion, Dangerous Dames, Strange Creatures andWinter Tales, all edited by Tina L. Jens.
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There was not much horror or dark fantasy in the eleven issues of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published in 1998 under editor Gordon Van Gelder. Novelettes by Joyce Carol Oates and Tanith Lee were the standouts, and there was also fine fiction from Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Ian MacLeod, Ian Watson, Elizabeth Hand, Howard Waldrop and Phyllis Eisenstein. At least Douglas E. Winter’s occasional book review column kept the flag flying for horror.
Edited by David Pringle, Britain’s monthly Interzone continued to showcase some of the best imaginative fiction available, along with articles and reviews. Among the authors featured were Tanith Lee, Paul J. McAuley, Don Webb, Thomas M. Disch, Ian Watson, Gary Couzens, Michael Bishop, Cherry Wilder, John Whitbourn, Gwyneth Jones, Darrell Schweitzer, Ramsey Campbell and Kim Newman, plus interviews with Whitbourn, Jones, Stephen Gallagher, Sarah Ash, Dennis Etchison, John Shirley and Jack Williamson.
Under new publisher DNA Publications, Worlds of Fantasy & Horror changed its name back again to Weird Tales, but it remained a pale imitation of the legendary pulp magazine under the editorship of Darrell Schweitzer. Tanith Lee, Melanie Tem, Ian Watson, David J. Schow, Brian Stableford and S.P. Somtow were among the authors who contributed to the two over-sized issues published in 1998.
Cemetery Dance edited by Richard T. Chizmar included fiction by Thomas Tessier, Nancy A. Collins, Ed Gorman, Gary Raisor, Chaz Brenchley, Hugh B. Cave, Norman Partridge, Jack Ketchum, Poppy Z. Brite, Dennis Etchison, Douglas Clegg, Joe R. Lansdale and Norman Partridge, plus interviews with Tessier, Cave, Brian Hodge, Michael Marshall Smith, Edward Bryant, David Morrell, David B. Silva and Ramsey Campbell. With the tenth anniversary number, the magazine moved from a quarterly to a bi-monthly schedule and expanded its content per issue.
Andy Cox’s glossy quarterlyThe Third Alternative included new fiction from Conrad Williams, Jason Gould, Rhys Hughes, Christopher Priest, James Lovegrove, Paul Finch, Joel Lane, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jeff VanderMeer and Tom Piccirilli, plus interviews with Priest, Graham Joyce, Jonathan Coe and Joyce Carol Oates. Odyssey edited by Liz Holliday published three issues with fiction by Darrell Schweitzer, Charles Stross, Richard Parks, Roz Kaveney and Ian Watson, interviews with Stephen Baxter and Tim Powers, and an appreciation of the late George Hay by David Langford.
After disappearing in 1994,Amazing Stories, the oldest of the science fiction magazines (created in 1926), was once again resurrected in July, this time by gaming company Wizards of the Coast. Unfortunately, despite an initial print-run of around 75,000 copies, the new contents were mostly limited to media tie-in fiction (includingStar Trek), articles and reviews.
In June, Stephen King had a new short story, “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What it is in French” in the Summer Fiction Double Issue of The New Yorker.
The special S/M issue of Barry Hoffman’s Gauntlet: Exploring the Limits of Free Expression included an interview with Clive Barker by Del Howison and fiction by Poppy Z. Brite. The following number featured Howison’s interview with Richard Christian Matheson, a spoof interview with/by Brite, plus short fiction by Matheson and Richard T. Chizmar, and a novel excerpt from editor Hoffman.
Ténèbres: Toutes les couleurs du Fantastique was a new quarterly magazine launched in France that attempted to provide a professional market for fantastic literature. Edited by Daniel Conrad and Benoit Domis, the first three issues included fiction by Jay R. Bonansinga, Les Daniels, Stephen Dedman, Poppy Z. Brite, Christa Faust, Nancy Kilpatrick, John Brunner, Terry Dowling and Kim Newman, along with interviews with Dan Simmons, Brite, Faust, Kilpatrick and Newman.
Omni Online included a round-robin story written by Elizabeth Hand, John Clute, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Kim Newman and Jonathan Lethem, and another collaboration from Kelley Eskridge, Graham Joyce, Edward Bryant and Kathe Koja before the website was closed down in March, following the death of founder Kathy Keeton in 1997. Four former editors of the site, including Ellen Datlow, subsequently launched the new fiction webzineEvent Horizon (http://www.eventhorizon.com/sfzine ) five months later with fiction and columns by Terry Dowling, Pat Cadigan, Lucius Shepard, Jack Womack, Edward Bryant and others. Another round-robin story by Jay Russell, Elizabeth Massie, Roberta Lannes and Brian Hodge appeared over the November and December issues.
The March issue of the Book and Magazine Collector contained an overview of the career of “R. Chetwynd-Hayes: Master of the Macabre” by David Whitehead, along with a very useful bibliography and a guide to the current values of the author’s first editions. The same issue also included articles on “Arthur Conan Doyle and the Paranormal”, “Aubrey Beardsley and The Savoy” and the usual pages of bookseller ads. The annual SF, fantasy and horror issue of AB Bookman’s Weekly in October featured a profile of Lord Dunsany by Henry Wessells, along with reviews and book dealer ads.
Dean Koontz was the featured writer in the December issue of Publisher’s Weekly’s The Author Series twenty-page supplement. During an informative interview with Jeff Zaleski, Koontz revealed that his presidency of the Horror Writers of America would haunt him forever, and that he resigned his office because of excessive political infighting in the organisation, particularly over awards. “I’ve written some horror,” the author also admitted, “but I don’t like horror.”
Edited monthly by Frederick S. Clarke and Steve Biodrowski, the always-excellent Cinefantastique included in-depth features on Tomorrow Never Dies, Blade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost in Space, Species II, The X
Files movie, Mulan, Virus, Mighty Joe Young, and double-issues based around The Outer Limits, The X Files and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Tim and Donna Lucas’ indispensable Video Watchdog kept to its bi-monthly standard with features on David Lynch’s Lost Highway, The Lathe of Heaven, the Evil Dead trilogy, the awful Starship Troopers, Dracula on video, and director Ulli Lommel, along with Douglas E. Winter’s soundtrack column and all the news and reviews expected from one of the most intelligent and entertaining magazines in the field.
Edited by Dave Golder, the glossy monthly multi-media magazine SFX devoted cover features to Starship Troopers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X Files, Lost in Space, Godzilla, Star Wars, The Truman Show, Highlander: The Raven, Uma Thurman, former Doctor Who Tom Baker and the top twenty sexiest people in SF!
Over at Visual Imagination, David Richardson’s Starhurst concentrated on science fiction with Starship Troopers, Lost in Space, Babylon 5, Deep Impact, Godzilla, Star Trek: Insurrection, Armageddon, Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine and the inevitable Las Vegas’s Star Trek: The Experience. Meanwhile, David Miller’s companion horror title Shivers celebrated its 50th issue and featured The X Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scream 2, Wishmaster, John Carpenter’s Vampires, Species II, Halloween H20 and Blade.
Sci-Fi Entertainment, the official magazine of the Sci-Fi Channel, was just one of a growing number of titles edited by Scott Edelman. It included features on The X Files, Babylon 5, Sliders, Lost in Space, Xena Warrior Princess, Godzilla, Armageddon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stargate SG-1, 7 Days, Mercy Point and various Star Trek movies and TV shows, along with British and American news and numerous ads.
The 16 October issue of the film magazine Entertainment Weekly contained a surprisingly knowledgeable list of “The Sci-Fi 100” (from Star Wars at No. 1 to Independence Day at No. 100), along with some interesting sidebar features.
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Despite some administration problems, Necronomicon Press continued to churn out numerous small press booklets, mostly dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft and his fiction. Robert M. Price’s Crypt of Cthulhu reached its 100th edition and along the way published a special Lin Carter issue commemorating the tenth anniversary of his death, which included an early story by the author and other tribute fiction.
Price also published HPL-inspired fiction and poetry in three issues each of Cthulhu Codex (featuring James Ambuehl, D.F. Lewis, Darrell Schweitzer and Richard L. Tierney),Midnight Shambler (with Adam Niswander, James Ambuehl, Stephen M. Rainey and Darrell Schweitzer), and Tales of Lovecraftian Horror (including W.H. Pugmire, Gary Myers, R.G. Capella and Peter Cannon).
S.T. Joshi edited three issues each of Lovecraft Studies and The New Lovecraft Collector (featuring Lovecraft news and releases around the world, including Joshi’s ongoing series “The Works of H.P. Lovecraft: A Listing by Magazine”), plus an issue of Studies in Weird Fiction with articles on Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft and Frank B. Long, and Richard Matheson.
Knowledgeably edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, S.T. Joshi and Michael A. Morrison, Necronomicon’s quarterlyNecrofile: The Review of Horror Fiction featured reviews by, amongst others, Brian Stableford, Chet Williamson, Peter Cannon and the editors, Ramsey Campbell’s regular offbeat column, and an opinion piece by Stephen Jones.
Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri’sBaremBones continued with articles about The X Files novels, interviews with cover artist Richard S. Prather and horror host Bob Wilkins, an index to Tales of the Frightened magazine, a look at the career of schlock director Jerry Warren, plus lots of other fascinating stuff.
Stuart Hughes and David Bell commemorated the eighth year of publishing their quarterly small press horror magazine Peeping Tom with stories by Stephen Gallagher, Steve Harris, D.F. Lewis, M.M. O’Driscoll, Derek Fox, Gavin Williams, Nicholas Royle, Chico Kidd and others.
Subtitled “A Magazine of Science Fiction & Dark Fantasy”, Patrick and Honna Swenson’s very professional-looking quarterly Talebones reached its thirteenth issue and included fiction and poetry by Stefano Donati, Trey R. Barker, Uncle River, Bruce Boston, Hugh Cook, Mary Soon Lee, Mark McLaughlin, Tom Piccirilli and Don D’Ammassa, interviews with Spider Robinson, Bill Ransom, Jack Cady and K.W. Jeter, plus book reviews by Ed Bryant and Janna Silverstein.
Also sporting a full-colour cover, Indigenous Fiction edited by Sherry Decker made its debut in August with fiction and poetry by Steve Lockley, James S. Dorr and others, plus an interview with Jeff VanderMeer.
Graeme Hurry’s neatly designedKimota published two special issues, dedicated to SF and horror, featuring fiction by Joel Lane, Paul Finch, Peter Crowther, David Sutton, D.F. Lewis, Stephen Bowkett and Derek M. Fox, along with an interview with Peter Hamilton and an article by Ramsey Campbell. The tenth issue of Mark McLaughlin’s The Urbanite was published at Halloween and included fiction and poetry by W.H. Pugmire, John Pelan, Paul Pinn, Marni Scofidio Griffin and Caitlin R. Kiernan, based around the theme “On Whom the Pale Moon Gleams”, while Gordon Linzner’s twice-yearly Space and Time featured fiction by A.R. Morlan and Charlee Jacob.
Pendragon Publications’ Penny Dreadful: Tales and Poems of Fantastic Terrors included work from John B. Ford, James S. Dorr and editor Michael Pendragon.
Writer and editor John B. Ford continued to build his small press publishing empire with Ghouls & Gore & Twisted Tales, a collection of fourteen stories illustrated by Steve Lines, and The Derelict of Death, a William Hope Hodgson pastiche co-written with Simon Clark. He also edited the final two issues of Terror Tales, featuring stories by Michael Pendragon, Paul Finch, Derek M. Fox and L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims.
Mick Sims and Len Maynard also launched their own supernatural ghost and horror story magazine, Enigmatic Tales. The three perfect-bound issues featured fiction and poetry by John B. Ford, Bernard Capes, Paul Finch, Rhys Hughes, Steve Sneyd, A.F. Kidd, Peter Tennant and the editors, along with articles by Hugh Lamb and Richard Dalby.
The first volume of Steve Algieri’sPulp Eternity was a time-travel issue, with fiction by Cynthia Ward, Christopher Rowe and others. Published back-to-back, Dark Regions/The Year’s Best Fantastic Fiction edited by Joe Morey and Morey and Mike Olson, respectively, featured fiction and poetry by Brian Lumley, Brian Hodge and Bruce Boston. The ninth issue of Rod Heather’s Lore included fiction from Stefan Grabinski, W.H. Pugmire and Elizabeth Massie, while the fourth issue of Epitaph; Tales of Dark Fantasy & Horror edited by Tom Piccirilli included an interview with Melanie Tern.
D.E. Davidson’s Night Terrors celebrated its second anniversary with two issues that contained fiction by Hugh B. Cave and Don D’Ammassa. Canadian book dealer Raymond Alexander also included a new story by Cave in his first My Back Pages “magalog”.
There were two issues ofDreams of Decadence: Vampire Poetry and Fiction edited by Angela Kessler, and Vampire Dan’s Story Emporium edited by Daniel Paul Medici featured interviews with Janet Fox and Jim Baen.
The premiere issue of Masque Noir from editor Rod Marsden billed itself as “The New Wave of Australian Avant-Garde”. Meanwhile, Eidolon 25-26 appeared a bit late, with stories by Terry Dowling and Rick Kennett, and Aurealis managed just one issue in 1998. Altair was the title of a new Australian speculative magazine edited and published by Rob Stevenson.
Issue 45 of Joe R. Christopher’sNiekas was a special “Dark Fantasy” number with essays about Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft and others by such contributors as Mike Ashley, S.T. Joshi, Sam Moskowitz and Darrell Schweitzer (who was also interviewed). Issue 72 ofFoundation: The Review of Science Fiction edited by Edward James included an article about Suzy McKee Charnas plus an interview with the author.
The 9th issue of Horror Magazine from Dark Regions Press featured interviews with Joe R. Lansdale, Yvonne Navarro, Darrell Schweitzer and Suzy McKee Charnas, plus a report on the 1997 World Horror Convention.
Still the leading news and reviews magazine of the F&SF field, Locus celebrated its 30th year of publication with interviews with Tim Powers, T
anith Lee, Joan Aiken, S.P. Somtow, Stephen Baxter, Paul J. McAuley, Nelson Bond, Lucy Taylor, P.D. Cacek, Peter Straub and many others. Andrew I. Porter’s news and reviews magazineScience Fiction Chronicle managed only five issues in 1998 (one up on the previous year), and included interviews with Charles L. Grant and Tanya Huff.
The Ghost Story Society’s excellent journal All Hallows published three perfect-bound editions edited by Barbara Roden and Christopher Roden that contained stories by Rhys Hughes, Paul Finch, Tina Rath and Simon MacCulloch. They also included reviews, news columns and non-fiction by Roger Dobson, Richard Dalby, David G. Rowlands and others about The Twilight Zone, Charles L. Grant, Robert Aickman, Arthur Conan Doyle, and The Innocents.
Given a welcome re-design by editor Debbie Bennett, The British Fantasy Society’s bi-monthly newsletter,Prism UK, featured articles by Mark Chadbourn, Mike Chinn, Meg Turville-Heitz, Simon Clark and Stephen Gallagher, interviews with Whitley Streiber, Peter Atkins, Graham Joyce and Stephen King, and regular columns from Nicholas Royle, Tom Holt and Chaz Brenchley, along with all the usual news and book and media reviews. Dark Horizons No. 37 was edited and produced for the Society by Peter Coleborn, Mike Chinn and Phil Williams and included fiction from Simon MacCulloch, Rick Cadger, Paul Finch, Mark McLaughlin and D.F. Lewis, plus an article by Storm Constantine. The BFS also published its first major paperback and hardback release, Manitou Man: The Worlds of Graham Masterton by Graham Masterton, Ray Clark and Matt Williams. Containing ten tales of sex, death and terror (three original), a critical analysis of the author and a complete Masterton bibliography, the book was limited to a 300-copy paperback edition and a 100-copy deluxe cased edition signed by the three authors plus cover artist Les Edwards, illustrator Bob Covington, editor David J. Howe, and Peter James, who supplied the introduction.
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