The four issues of Chris Roberts’ One Eye Grey, described as “a penny dreadful for the 21st century” contained old folk tales or ghost stories set in another London.
Weighing in at a hefty 200 pages, the thirty-four stories in the third issue of John Brum’s Tabard Inn: Tales of Questionable Taste certainly lived up to the magazine’s subtitle.
Fans of Harlan Ellison could read his unused 1974 story/treatment for an episode of TV’s Land of the Lost and a short essay about rejection letters (with examples) in the Rabbit Hole newsletter.
Published by the University of Tampa Press, the first issue of Studies in the Fantastic edited by S. T. Joshi included articles on J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker and Robert Aickman. Meanwhile, the second edition of Joshi’s Lovecraft Annual from Hippocampus Press contained articles and reviews, along with cover art by Allen Koszowski.
Under editor Lee Harris, The British Fantasy Society’s nicely-produced newsletter Prism had an erratic publishing schedule. Along with all the usual news and reviews, issues included columns by Ramsey Campbell, Mark Morris, Eric Brown, Conrad Williams and James Barclay.
Peter Coleborn and Jan Edwards gave up their editorship of the BFS’ Dark Horizons magazine with #52, and Stephen Theaker took over with the following issue. Among those who contributed fiction and poetry were Joel Lane, Jo Fletcher, David A. Riley, Robert Holdstock and Allen Ashley, while Charles de Lint and Lawrence Watt-Evans were both interviewed.
The title was joined by a sister publication, New Horizons, edited by Andrew Hook. It was hard to see what the difference was, as the first issue also featured fiction and poetry, along with interviews with independent publisher David Rix and writer Tony Richards.
Handsomely published in hardcover and limited to 250 numbered copies edited by Mark Valentine and Ray Russell, the eighteenth issue of Faunus: The Journal of The Friends of Arthur Machen included a 1924 Introduction written by Machen, along with various essays about the author.
The August issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction included an article on obscure Weird Tales and Arkham House author Greye La Spina.
In his controversial study The Original Frankenstein, Charles Robinson, a professor of English at the University of Delaware, claimed that Mary Shelley’s husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, made at least 5,000 changes to the manuscript of her famous novel, many of them significant. Robinson scrutinized the hand-written drafts of the book at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and concluded that, “The book should now be credited as ‘by Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley’.”
Peter Ackroyd looked into the manner of Edgar Allan Poe’s mysterious death in his fascinating biography Poe: A Life Cut Short.
Leslie A. Sconduto explored the werewolf myth in early literature in Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study from Antiquity Through the Renaissance from McFarland & Company. From the same imprint and edited by Jason Colavito, A Hideous Bit of Morbidity: An Anthology of Horror Criticism from the Enlightenment to World War I collected reviews and essays by Sir Walter Scott, Daniel Defoe, Andrew Lang and others.
Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales by game designer Kenneth Hite was a chronological exploration of all H. P. Lovecraft’s stories. It was available in both electronic and print form from Atomic Overmind Press.
Lisa Rogak’s biography Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King included eight pages of black and white photos.
Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman was a substantial guide all things Gaiman by Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden and Stephen R. Bissette, with a “slightly worn” Foreword by Terry Pratchett.
With a Foreword by J. K. Rowling, Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon was written by Melissa Anelli, webmistress of The Leaky Cauldron fan site.
Lois Gresh’s The Twilight Companion: The Unauthorized Guide to the Series was a young adult study of Stephanie Meyer’s vampire books.
From PS Publishing, Basil Copper: A Life in Books compiled and edited by Stephen Jones was an illustrated hardcover that contained a comprehensive working bibliography of the British author’s work, along with a number of short stories, a television script based on M. R. James’ “Count Magnus”, and an in-depth look at Copper’s life and career by Richard Dalby.
Keith Seward’s Horror Panegyric explored the “Lord Horror” sequence of novels and comics by David Britton. It was published in small hardcover format by Savoy Books.
Edited by Benjamin Szumskyj, Dissecting Hannibal Lecter: Essays on the Novels of Thomas Harris collected twelve critical essays with a Foreword by Daniel O’Brien, from McFarland. From the same imprint, The Great Monster Magazines by Robert Michael “Bob” Cotter was a guide to the classic black and white monster comics of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague looked at the birth of the American comic book up to Fredric Wertham’s infamous decency battle in the mid-1950s, which resulted in the self-imposed Comics Code.
Edited by Amy Wallace, Del Howison and Scott Bradley with a brief Introduction by Gahan Wilson, The Book of Lists: Horror was an ideal bathroom read featuring peculiarly subjective lists complied by Ramsey Campbell, George Clayton Johnson, Brian W. Aldiss, Michael Marshall Smith, Michael Slade, Poppy Z. Brite, Kim Newman, Lisa Tuttle, Gary Brandner, T. E. D. Klein, Nancy Holder, Thomas Ligotti, Caitlín R. Kiernan, John Skipp, Steve Rasnic Tem, S. P. Somtow, Stephen Volk, Tim Lebbon, Christopher Golden, Bentley Little, Joel Lane, Lisa Morton, Edward Lee, Jack Ketchum, Sarah Langan, Gary A. Braunbeck, Sarah Pinborough, Don D’Auria, Tim Lucas and film directors Eli Roth, Neil Marshall, Jörg Buttgereit and Richard Stanley, amongst numerous others.
Equally disposable was Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead by Jonathan Maberry. Purportedly employing scientific crime scene methods for investigating and identifying the walking dead, it featured commentary by Ramsey Campbell, Brian Keene, Ellen Datlow, Stephen Jones, film-maker Dan O’Bannon, actor Tony Todd and many others, along with some wildly variable zombie fan art.
The big movie novelizations of the year included Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk both by Peter David, The Dark Knight by Dennis O’Neil, Hellboy II: The Golden Army by Robert Greenberger, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and The X Files: I Want to Believe, both by Max Allan Collins.
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was written by James Rollins, and the three previous movie tie-ins were reissued in a bumper omnibus edition entitled The Adventures of Indiana Jones.
30 Days of Night: Eternal Damnation by Steve Niles and Jeff Mariotte was a spin-off novel from the comic series created by Niles and Ben Templesmith, while S. D. Perry’s Aliens: Criminal Enterprise was another spin-off novel, this time based on the movie series.
Jack Ketchum’s 1989 novel The Girl Next Door was reissued as a film tie-in with an added interview about the movie with the author and scriptwriters Daniel Farrands and Philip Nutman. A movie tie-in of Ketchum’s 2001 novel The Lost was also published by Leisure.
Steven Gould’s 1992 novel Jumper and the third volume in the series, Jumper: Griffin’s Story, were both published as movie tie-in editions.
Batman: Gotham Knight by Louise Simonson was based on the animated film of the same title.
TV shows getting the tie-in treatment included Supernatural: Bone Key by Keith R. A. DeCandido, Ghost Whisperer: The Plague Room by Steven Piziks and Primeval: The Lost Island by Paul Kearney.
Diana G. Gallagher’s Charmed: Trickery Treat was based on the long-ago cancelled series, as was Kenneth Johnson’s V: The Second Generation, written by the show’s creator.
The 4400: The Vesuvius Prophecy by Greg Cox and The 4400: Wet Work by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore were both based on the cancelled CBS show.
As always, there was a plethora of Doctor Who tie-ins based on the BBC series, including The Doctor Trap by Simon Messingham, Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski, Ghosts of India by Mark Morris, Martha in the Mirror by Justin Richards, The M
any Hands by Dale Smith and Snowglohe by Mike Tucker.
Edited by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, Doctor Who: Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas was a shared-world anthology featuring twenty-two stories and a wraparound. Doctor Who: Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership was edited by Keith R. A. DeCandido and contained thirteen original stories, while Richard Salter edited Doctor Who: Short Trips: Transmissions, featuring seventeen tales.
Torchwood: The Official Magazine Yearbook included five stories based on the Doctor Who spin-off series, along with articles.
The second volume in a trilogy, Hellgate: London: Goetia by Mel Odom was based on the computer game.
David Pirie’s A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema was a revised and updated edition of the author/scriptwriter’s groundbreaking 1973 study.
In the neatly-designed Silver Scream: 40 Classic Horror Movies Volume One 1920–1941 from Telos Publishing, American writer Steven Warren Hill (with the help of some friends) looked at key films from the perspective of plot, highlights, lowlights, goofs, versions, trivia and major cast and crew.
Published by MacFarland, Derek Pykett’s guide explored British Horror Film Locations, while Brian Albright’s Wild Beyond Belief! Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s had another self-explanatory title.
William Schoell’s critical study Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies was available from the same imprint.
The Pocket Essential: Vampire Films by Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc claimed to contain “almost everything you need to know in one essential guide” about movies featuring the undead.
Tomahawk Press’ Hazel Court: Horror Queen: An Autobiography appeared a month or so after the death of its subject/author.
The first edition of Robert Sellers’ The Battle for Bond from Tomahawk had to be pulped when the estate for Ian Fleming objected to the inclusion of court documents from the Thunderball plagiarism court case of 1963, which the James Bond author famously lost. In his new Foreword to the revised edition, thriller writer Len Deighton accused the Fleming family of censorship and demonstrating “bad taste”.
To mark the centenary of Fleming’s birth, Sebastian Faulks’ new James Bond novel, the 1960s-set Devil May Care, was published in May.
Quite possibly the biggest art book of the year, if perhaps not the best assembled, was A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H. P. L. edited by Jerad Walters and published by Centipede Press. Weighing in at an impressive 400 pages, the book was available in a bewildering array of different limited editions, ranging from $395 up to $2,495. With a Preface by film director Stuart Gordon, an Introduction by Harlan Ellison, Afterword by Thomas Ligotti, and text by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert M. Price and Jane Frank, the beautifully-reproduced plates showcased the work of more than forty artists, including Virgil Finlay, Hannes Bok, Lee Brown Coye, Frank Utpatel, Michael Whelan, Dave Carson, Gahan Wilson, Les Edwards, Bob Eggleton, H. R. Giger, Stephen Fabian, J. K. Potter, Ian Miller, Harry O. Morris, Randy Broecker, John Jude Palencar and John Picacio, amongst many others.
Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner featured the work of more than 300 artists, plus a profile of Grand Master Award winner John Jude Palencar.
Edited by Stephen D. Korshak and J. David Spurlock, The Paintings of J. Allen St. John: Grand Manster of Fantasy was a combined biography and superb retrospective of the artist’s commanding paintings. The book also included appreciations by Jack Williamson, artist Vincent Di Fate and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ son Danton, along with an Introduction by Lin Carter and an Afterword by Frank Frazetta. It was published in various states by Vanguard Productions, including a deluxe slipcased hardcover that included a sixteen-page portfolio, and a signed leatherbound edition with an additional tipped-in plate ($250.00).
Mark Evanier’s Kirby: King of the Comics was a giant-sized look at the career of influential and pioneering illustrator Jack Kirby, who died in 1994.
From Fantagraphics Books, Blake Bell’s Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko was the first critical retrospective of the work of the reclusive co-creator of The Amazing Spider-Man, while Bill Schelly’s Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert looked at the career of the comic artist most famous for DCs Sgt. Rock.
Edited by Jacques Boyreau and published in a “VHS format” by Fantagraphics, Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box, Vol.1 reprinted around 100 examples of the outrageous artwork that used to be featured on video boxes.
Tales from Outer Suburbia combined the short fiction and bizarre sketches of Australian artist Shaun Tan.
Adam Rex’s delightful blend of humorous poetry and artwork, Frankenstein Takes the Cake was a follow-up to the author’s bestselling Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich.
The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch was written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated in colour by Michael Zulli. It concerned a mysterious adventure beneath the streets of London that involved The Theatre of Night’s Dreaming and the Cabinet of Wishes Fulfill’d.
Gaiman also teamed up with artist Gris Grimly for the children’s picture book The Dangerous Alphabet, a piratical ghost story involving two brave children, a no less courageous gazelle, and various trolls, bugbears and monsters.
The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook by “Raphael Van Helsing” (writer Michael Howard and artist Miles Teves) was presented in the form of an illustrated diary with fold-out maps.
In March, a federal court in the US finally decided that Time Warner had to share the rights to Superman with the heirs of co-creator Jerome Siegal. The retroactive “Widows and Orphans” ruling covered copyright in the comic book character from 1999 onwards.
Despite its hefty size, The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics edited by Peter Normanton was a disappointing black and white collection of almost fifty comic strips dating from the 1940s up to nearly the present day. Although the book included adaptations of works by H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, the format did not really support the best presentation of the material.
Joe R. Lansdale teamed up with artists Nathan Fox and Dave Stewart to adapt Robert E. Howard’s Pigeons from Hell as a four-part series from Dark Horse Comics.
From Marvel, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home was an original five-part series plotted by Robin Furth and scripted by Peter David, with artwork by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove.
P. Craig Russell adapted and illustrated the graphic novel of Neil Gaiman’s young adult book, Coraline, while In Odd We Trust was a graphic novel based on Dean Koontz’s “Odd Thomas” series, illustrated by Queenie Chan.
Jim Butcher scripted The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle, a graphic novel prequel to the popular book series, illustrated by Ardian Syaf.
Zinescope Entertainment published three issues of The Straw Men, based on the novel by Michael Marshall (Smith). Zenescope president Joe Brusha adapted the book, while Brett Weldele contributed the minimalistic artwork and David Seidman supplied the evocative covers.
The same publisher also launched The Chronicles of Dr. Herbert West, a re-imagining of the serial by H. P. Lovecraft.
The Nightmare Factory Volume 2 from HarperCollins/Fox Atomic Comics contained illustrated adaptations of four stories by Thomas Ligotti. Scripted by Joe Harris and Stuart Moore, with art by Vasilis Lolos, Bill Sienkiewicz, Toby Cypress and Nick Stakal, each story featured a new Introduction by the author.
The CBS-TV show Ghost Whisperer became a five-issue series from IDW, while NBC’s Chuck got a six-issue limited series from DCs WildStorm imprint.
Joss Whedon brought his character Fray into the sixteenth issue of Dark Horse Comics’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
From Bluewater Productions, Vincent Price Presents was an ongoing series adapting some of the late actor’s best-known films, along with new stories based around Price’s iconic image. Bluewater’s companion series of Ray Harryhausen Presents titles included Sinbad Rogue of Mars, Flying Saucers vs.
the Earth and Back to Mysterious Island.
Although titled Frank Frazetta’s Dracula Meets the Wolf Man, Image’s one-shot comic was actually scripted by Steve Niles with art by Francesco Francavilla.
Niles also wrote Dark Horse’s four-part Criminal Macabre: Cell Block 666, while writer Mark Verheiden and illustrator John Bolton teamed up to expand Sam Raimi’s cult favourite The Evil Dead, which collected the four-issue mini-series.
Written by Joe Hill, Welcome to Lovecraft from IDW concerned the members of a family trying to rebuild their lives on the eponymous island in Maine. Gabriel Rodriguez supplied the art.
Published by DC Comics in bumper trade paperback format, Showcase Presents The House of Secrets Volume One collected in black and white eighteen complete issues of the comic book edited by Joe Orlando. Similar volumes were dedicated to The House of Mystery, The Unknown Soldier, The Phantom Stranger and Challengers of the Unknown.
The damaging screenwriters’ strike carried into 2008 and resulted in the Hollywood Foreign Press’ usually prestigious 65th Golden Globe Awards ceremony being reduced to a dull press conference.
However, 100 days after the strike began, The Writers Guild of America finally reached a settlement just in time for the 80th Academy Awards Ceremony in February, when more than 90% of WGA members agreed to a deal giving them a larger share of profits from the Internet and other new media. The strike reportedly cost Hollywood and the wider Los Angeles economy an estimated $1.6 billion.
Presented at LA’s Kodak Theatre on February 24, the lowest-rated Oscars ever threw up few surprises as Best Art Direction went to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Golden Compass won Best Visual Effects, Disney’s Ratatouille was voted Best Animated Feature, and the Best Animated Short Film went to the British-Polish co-production Peter and the Wolf.
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