From the same publisher, but far less professional-looking, was the quarterly Dreams of Decadence: Vampire Poetry and Fiction. Edited by Angela Kessler, contributors included Brian Stableford, Sarah A. Hoyt, N. Lee Wood, Wendy Rathbone and others.
Meanwhile, DNA’s Aboriginal SF, the semi-professional magazine first published in 1985, folded with the spring issue. Editor Charles C. Ryan cited the periodical’s excessive time demands, rather than any failure of the magazine, for his decision. Aboriginal’s inventory was absorbed by Absolute Magnitude, which also agreed to fulfil all outstanding Aboriginal subscriptions with its own magazine.
Edited by Richard Chizmar, Robert Morrish and Kara L. Tipton, the long-running Cemetery Dance published four issues featuring fiction by John Shirley, Jack Ketchum, Richard Lay-mon, Christa Faust, Dennis Etchison, Richard Christian Matheson, Simon Clark, A1 Sarrantonio, Darrell Schweitzer, David B. Silva, Tim Lebbon, Bentley Little, Nancy Holder, T.M. Wright, Conrad Williams, Michael Cadnum and others. The magazine also included interviews with Bentley Little, Douglas Clegg, Simon Clark, Peter Straub, Tim Lebbon, Kim Newman, T.M. Wright and A1 Sarrantonio, the usual review and opinion columns by Poppy Z. Brite, Bev Vincent (Stephen King news), Thomas F. Monteleone, John Pelan, Michael Marano, Charles L. Grant and various tributes to Richard Laymon.
Paula Guran’s Horror Garage published a further two issues featuring pin-up covers of a woman in a fur bikini and another wielding a bloody cleaver. That aside, there was fiction by the mandatory John Shirley, Kim Newman (a new ‘Anno Dracula’ story), Peter Crowther, Don Webb, Gerard Houarner, Bruce Holland Rogers and others, a reprint interview with China Mieville, Norman Partridge’s Drive-In reviews and various other regular columns.
As usual, Gordon Van Gelder’sThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction featured an impressive selection of fiction by such authors as Lucius Shepard, Esther M. Friesner, Michael Bishop, Geoff Ryman, Lucy Sussex, Michael Cadnum, Robert Sheckley, Thomas M. Disch, Paul McAuley, Ron Goulart, Terry Bisson, Ian Watson, the late Poul Anderson, James Morrow, Ray Bradbury, Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, Carol Emshwiller, Michael Blumlein, and even actor Alan Arkin! There were also all the usual book and film review columns by Charles de Lint, Elizabeth Hand, Robert K.J. Killheffer, Michelle West, James Sallis, Kathi Maio and the always excellent Lucius Shepard, plus other non-fiction from Mike Ashley, Paul Di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer, Bradley Denton and Barry N. Malzberg, amongst others. Unfortunately, a number of copies of the April issue were printed without any punctuation, and the bumper October/November issue appeared without its cartoons, although all the gag-lines were included!
David Pringle’s Interzone published stories by Stephen Baxter, John Whitbourn, Graham Joyce, Ian Watson, Ashok Banker, Eric Brown, Liz Williams, Ian R. MacLeod, Gwyneth Jones, Thomas M. Disch, Lisa Tuttle, Gregory Benford and Richard Calder’s interminable ‘Lord Soho’ series based around famous operas and operettas. The monthly magazine also featured interviews with Calder, Stephen Baxter, John Clute, Frank Kelly Freas, Lucius Shepard, Ian R. MacLeod, Ian McDonald, Connie Willis, David Zindell and John Christopher (the March issue was a special celebration of his career), an always lively letters column, David Langford’s ‘Ansible’ column, Gary Westfahl’s opinion column, Evelyn Lewes’s controversial media commentary, plus various book and film reviews by Nick Lowe, Paul McAuley, Tom Arden, Liz Williams, Chris Gilmore, David Mathew, Paul Beardsley, Matt Colborn, Phil Stephensen-Payne, Paul Brazier, John Clute and others.
Having finally succumbed to illustrated covers, Paul Fraser’s Spectrum SF produced two issues featuring fiction by John Christopher, Stephen Baxter, Michael Coney, Mary Soon Lee, Eric Brown and Charles Stross. The best thing about this paperback periodical was its extensive listing and often grumpy reviews of recent publications.
Realms of Fantasy included a feature on Stephen King’s best and worst, and managed to spell the author’s name incorrectly on the cover!
Christopher Fowler joined Andy Cox’s The Third Alternative with a regular column about the cinema. The three issues published also featured fiction by James Lovegrove, Simon Ings, Mike O’Driscoll, Joel Lane, Muriel Gray, James Van Pelt, Douglas Smith and others; interviews with Lovegrove, Gray and Graham Joyce, and articles about film directors Michael Powell, Andrei Tarkovsky and Tim Burton. With Issue 28, there was a subtle title change to The 3rd Alternative.
Also edited by Andy Cox,Crimewave 5: Dark Before Dawn featured three novellas and seven short stories, the stand-out being Christopher Fowler’s contribution.
The ever-busy Mr Cox also launched the first two issues of The Fix: The Ultimate Review of Short Fiction from TTA Press, featuring interviews with Gordon Van Gelder and Ellen Datlow, columns and features by Mat Coward, Peter Tennant, Tim Lebbon and others, and numerous reviews of magazines, anthologies and collections.
For vampire fans, Arlene Russo’sBite Me: The Magazine for the Night People from Scotland, included interviews with ‘Gothic supermodel’ Donna Ricci, film director Kevin J. Lindenmuth, authors Nancy Kilpatrick and Fred Saberhagen, articles about Hammer’s Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb and Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, plus such useful hints as ‘10 Ways to Become a Werewolf!’
The fourteenth issue of the impressive French magazine Ténèbres featured modern ghost stories by L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims, Stephen Laws, Rick Hautala and others, articles by Brian Stableford, Ramsey Campbell and Maynard and Sims, and interviews with Laws and Hautala.
The Book and Magazine Collector contained a useful article by David Whitehead looking at books about ‘Horror Stars’, while ‘Relaunch of Clive Barker’ was a special sixteen-page magazine ‘outsert’ by Jeff Zaleski which appeared in Publishers Weekly to tie-in with the publication of Barker’s latest novel,Coldheart Canyon.
After publishing two bi-monthly issues in 2001, Sovereign Media officially terminated Dan Perez’s editorship ofSci Fi at the end of May, following the breakdown of negotiations between the publisher and the Sci Fi Channel regarding the transfer of ownership and the future management of the magazine.
Despite the tragic death of founder Frederick S. Clarke, Cinefantastique still produced six issues under publisher Celeste C. Clarke and editor Dan Pearsons. These included aFar scape double issue and cover features on Hannibal, The Mummy Returns, Planet of the Apes, Ghosts of Mars and The Lord of the Rings.
Produced on a strict monthly schedule, Tim and Donna Lucas’s Video Watchdog featured the usual fascinating articles on James Bond, AIP’s Beach Party series, both versions ofThe Haunting of Hill House, Godzilla 2000, Frank Herbert’s Dune, Hitchcock on DVD, the restorations of The Lost World and Planet of the Vampires, superheroes and an interview with Mel Welles. With a list of contributors that included Kim Newman, Douglas E. Winter, Stephen R. Bissette and Tom Weaver, the quality of the reviews was exemplary. However, readers were once again left wondering whether Lucas’s long-promised book on Mario Bava would ever be published.
From Visual Imagination Limited, David Miller’s Shivers included cover features on Shadow of the Vampire, the cinema’s greatest bogeymen, the Buffy monster make-up,Resident Evil, Jeepers Creepers and a bumper edition on The Mummy Returns.
Cult Movies featured a fascinating piece about Bela Lugosi visiting England, while Dennis J. Druktenis’s enthusiasticScary Monsters Magazine reached its fortieth issue and celebrated ten years of publication with the usual articles on TV horror hosts, regional conventions and old movies.
Alternative Cinema, the magazine of independent and underground film-making edited by Michael J. Raso, included interviews with Donald F. Glut, Julie Strain and Sam Sherman, plus an article about the making of Erotic Witch Project 2.
The revived Castle of Frankenstein magazine began reprinting Don Glut’s series of novels The New Adventures of Frankenstein in an appallingly illustrated magazine format from Druktenis Publishing. At least they also included a black and white reprint of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein comic book from the 1950s.
For serious fans of
model kits, the fortieth issue of Kitbuilders was a special Halloween edition featuring some impressive monster models.
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After twenty-one years, Rosemary Pardoe’s acclaimed M.R. Jamesian publicationGhosts & Scholars rounded out the year and its print incarnation with issues 32 and 33 featuring fiction by David Longhorn, C.E. Ward, Anthony Wilkins, Don Tumasonis, James Doig, David G. Rowlands, Katherine Haynes and Michael Chislett, plus articles by Pardoe, Christopher and Barbara Roden, and Andy Sawyer.
With Pardoe’s fine fanzine transformed into a web-based, non-fiction magazine and the recent demise of Maynard and Sims’s Enigmatic Tales, David Longhorn launchedSupernatural Tales to fill the gap in the British small-press market. The first two issues contained some fine new supernatural stories by Chico Kidd, Michael Chislett, David G. Rowlands, Tina Rath and Steve Duffy. However, the dull presentation and lack of artwork did not do the new title any favours.
As usual, Gordon Linzner’sSpace and Time published two issues, featuring fiction and poetry by Mary Soon Lee, Darrell Schweitzer, Bruce Boston and others, plus interviews with Ursula K. Le Guin and James Morrow. Joe Morey and Bobbi Sinha-Morey’s Dark Regions: A Journal of Fantasy, Horror & Science Fiction also managed two issues that included stories and poems by Charlee Jacob, Bruce Boston, P.D. Cacek and James S. Dorr.
James Van Pelt, Denise Dumars and Bruce Boston were amongst those contributing fiction and poetry to Patrick and Honna Swenson’s Talebones, which also featured interviews with Dan Simmons and Charles de Lint and a review column by Edward Bryant.
The twelfth issue of Mark McLaughlin’s The Urbanite was a special ‘Zodiac’ issue featuring stories by Christopher Fowler, Shane Ryan Staley, John Pelan, Hugh B. Cave and others, plus an impressive poetry suite by Jo Fletcher.
Subtitled ‘a journal of parthenogenetic fiction and late labelling’, the first edition of Nemonymdus was an attractively designed collection of sixteen stories, whose author bylines would not be revealed until the second issue.
Graeme Hurry’s Kimota published its regular two issues, with stories by Peter Tennant, Joel Lane, Hugh Cook, Paul Finch and others, along with articles on old radio drama and artist Sidney H. Sime, the usual reviews and letters columns, and more outstanding artwork from ‘T23’.
Indigenous Fiction, edited by Sherry Decker, featured the usual mix of fiction, poetry and reviews, while Jack Fisher’sFlesh & Blood: Tales of Dark Fantasy & Horror included an interview with Tom Piccirilli.
Paul Bradshaw’s The Dream Zone reached its tenth number with two issues packed with fiction and poetry by Ian Watson, Mark McLaughlin, Allen Ashley, Peter Tennant, Rhys Hughes and many less familiar names, plus reviews and letters columns, and a useful article aimed at writers explaining how to avoid rejection.
Robert M. Price’s Crypt of Cthulhu No.104 featured fiction and poetry by Joséph S. Pulver, Sr., Darrell Schweitzer, Richard L. Tierney, Frank Searight and David E. Schultz, articles by Ross F. Bagby, Rawlik and T.G. Cockcroft, plus the usual ‘Mail-Call of Cthulhu’ and ‘R’lyeh Reviews’.
The Lovecraftian Dark Legacy from ‘H’chtelegoth Press included Cthulhu Mythos fan fiction and poetry from James Ambuehl, Phillip A. Ellis, Ron Shiflet and Peter Worthy, plus artwork by Sinestro. There was more of the same in Cthulhu Cultus, including work by James and Tracy Ambuehl, and Chris Loveless.
The fourth issue of Pentagram Publications’ Lovecraft’s Weird Mysteries featured four stories and a poem, plus an old interview with Weird Tales cover artist Margaret Brundage.
Brian Lingard’s Mythos Collector was a new magazine devoted to Lovecraft with fiction by Christopher O’Brian and James P. Roberts, an interview with artist John Coulthart, and articles on collecting Mythos-related material.
Paul Fry’s Peep Show was launched by Birmingham’s Short, Scary Tales Publishing with a colour cover by Mike Bohatch and fiction from Sheri White, Daniel Harr, Michael O’Connor, Alex Severin, Glen Hamilton, Kobe Nihilis and Jim Lee.
The latest double issue ofAurealis, Australia’s longest-running science fiction and fantasy magazine, was mailed to subscribers just before Christmas. It included fifteen stories by Dirk Strasser, Robert Hood, Robert Browne and others, plus a warts-and-all interview with outgoing editors Strasser and Stephen Higgins, an interview with author Ian Irvine, Bill Congreve’s book reviews, and new editor Keith Stevenson’s plans for the future of the title.
Also from Australia came the second issue of small-press magazine Orb, edited by Sarah Endacott, and former Allen & Unwin publicist Darran Jordan launched two issues of a new magazine called Eschaton from his Eclectica imprint.
The July issue of the monthlyThe 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 monthlyLocus 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.
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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.
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