Readers
Rich Horton's Market Summaries:
Some Small Press Horror Magazines, 2004
I'll be treating several small-press horror-oriented magazines here. I note as ever that I am not a big fan of horror fiction in general. So calibrate my comments accordingly. That said, I find myself in more sympathy with these magazines this year -- those I saw seemed better than usual.
1. Flesh & Blood
I saw two issues of Flesh and Blood this year, #14 and #15. The two issues combined featured just over 40,000 words of fiction. There were a total of 14 stories, one of them a novelette (serialized in the two issues), 5 of them short-shorts. The magazine continues in its larger size, and it is really rather attractive. (The cover to #14 was quite good -- #15 was more of a standard issue horror cover, tedious to me despite being well enough executed.) The editor is Jack Fisher.
The novelette, Douglas Clegg's "The Dark Game", is decent work, about a man taken prisoner in a war who is able to survive the gruesome tortures performed by his captors by playing the "game" his mother taught him. Other effective stories came from K. D. Wentworth, Paul A. Toth ("Penguins" -- pretty funny rather than horrific), Holly Phillips and Brian Knight.
2. All Hallows
This is the journal of the Ghost Story Society. It is edited by Barbara and Christopher Roden. I was fortunate in that one member with an extra copy sent me one (#35). As you might expect, the stories are all ghost stories. Mostly fairly traditional, what you might call "genteel". There is a lot of nonfiction besides the stories.
There were nine short stories, about 35,000 words of fiction. Many of the stories were quite enjoyable. My favorite story was "Bringing Helena Back", by Sarah Monette, one of her Kyle Murchison Booth stories. This time Booth agrees to help an old college friend bring his wife back from the dead (despite the fact that she died of a cocaine overdose in the company of another man).
3. Inhuman
This is a new magazine, edited by illustrator Allen Koszowski, apparently with the goal of giving him more stories to illustrate. I saw Volume 1, Number 1, dated July 2004. Five new stories, about 28,000 words of fiction, plus two reprints, one from Robert Silverberg, the other from movie director John Carpenter. Of the new stories, I particularly liked Paul W. Finch's "Bullbeggar Walk", about a man who goes on the title walk (a country route in England) on a dare.
4. Mythos Collector
This 'zine is edited by Brian Lingard, with a specific slant -- homages to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and also articles about collecting Mythos related material. There is a fairly limited amount of fiction, as well as some poetry. In the one issue I saw (#6, dated Winter 2004) there were two short stories, totaling about 10,000 words. I note first that the articles can be of some interest -- I enjoyed one in this issue by Daniel J. Bishop, treating the claims by some that a story called "That Hideous Face" was by Lovecraft (apparently not, says Bishop). The fiction in this issue, while not outstanding, struck me as better than in previous issues. The two stories are by Tim Curran and Phil Roberts.
