Christopher Fowler - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 10

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 (including Star 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 webzine Event 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.

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 quarterly Necrofile: 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’s BaremBones 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.