Stop the presses! The new issue of Occult Detective Quarterly is here.

This one looks even more impressive than the last issue, and that’s saying something. Here’s the description.

Enter the dark world of the occult detective, where heroes and fools risk their lives facing strange, occult and supernatural phenomena. Occult Detective Quarterly‘s second issue offers you a wealth of new fiction from some of the best creators, with award-winning talent on both the writing and illustration sides. Horror, crime – and punishment. Meet a demon-marked girl, a native American cop, an occult adventurer between the wars, and a psychologist who already knows the Dark. Or explore Edwardian Paris, visit haunted Scotland, and have a worrying trip into the back-street markets of sixties Hong Kong. The classic occult detective Carnacki makes an appearance, as does a hoodoo PI in Harlem – nine original stories by Tim Waggoner, Steve Liskow, Tricia Owens, Edward M Erdelac, Brandon Barrows, Kelly A Harmon, Joshua M Reynolds, Mike Chinn, and Bruno Lombardi. Plus detailed reviews, and features on John Constantine and Occult Physicians.

If you didn’t pick up the first issue, you missed out on the launch of one of the most important new fantasy magazines of the decade. But don’t fret… it’s not too late to catch up.

[Click the images for bigger versions.]

The issue kicks off with a bang, with some exciting news about some ambitious new projects. Here’s an excerpt from the editorial by Sam Gafford and John Linwood Grant.

Not only have picked out some terrific stories and articles, but we have further Grand Plans. Later this year we intend to bring you the first in what may become an annual publication — ODQ Presents. This brand new anthology will feature longer stories — novelettes to novellas — that we couldn’t fit into the magazine because of their length. We have some excellent tales from which to pick, and we don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

On top of this, we’re in negotiations to commission a second, quite different anthology, to come out early next year. For that one we’ll be delving into the world of earlier occult detective stories. The anthology will bring you a rich, varied and annotated selection of classic tales to complement the new material in ODQ Presents, and to draw you into the history of this fascinating field.

As for the issue at hand — I didn’t find it as richly illustrated as the first one, but it still has some knockout interior art. Here’s a few samples, starting with Sebastian Cabrol’s wonderfully spooky illustration for Brandon Barrows’ Carnacki story, “The Arcana of the Alleys” (at left) and Russell Smeaton’s gorgeously rendered and atmospheric piece for “The Black Tarot” by Mike Chinn (right).

In addition to the fiction, there’s top-notch non-fiction as well, including a heavily-illustrated piece by Danyal Fryer on the most famous occult detective in comics, John Constantine (sample page below left).

There’s also “The Man Who Is Carnacki: An Interview with Dan Starkey,” and “Doctors of the Strange: The Tradition of the Occult Physician,” by Tim Prasil. Plus reviews by Dave Brzeski and James Bojaciuk (sample page at right below).

Here’s the complete tale of contents.

FICTION

“The Arcana of the Alleys,” Brandon Barrows
“The Black Tarot,” Mike Chinn
“Conquer Comes Calling,” Edward M. Erdelac
“The Grabber Man,” Tim Waggoner
“White Ghost in the City,” Tricia Owens
“Devil in the City of Lights,” Bruno Lombardi
“Light from Pure Digestion Bred,” Kelly A. Harmon
“Death and the Dancing Bears,” Steve Liskow
OCCULT LEGION: “Terror on the Links”,” Joshua Reynolds

ARTICLES

The Constant Englishman: John Constantine, Hellblazer, Danyal Fryer
The Man Who Is Carnacki: An Interview with Dan Starkey
Doctors of the Strange: The Tradition of the Occult Physician, Tim Prasil

REVIEWS

By Dave Brzeski and James Bojaciuk

BORKCHITO: Occult Doggo Detective

Sam L. Edwards & Yves Tourigny

The cover this issue is by Alan M. Clark. See more details at Doomed Meddler Central.

We last covered Occult Detective Quarterly with Issue #1.

Occult Detective Quarterly is edited by Sam Gafford and John Linwood Grant. Issues are $12.95 each; subscriptions are not currently available (far as I can tell, anyway). You can purchase copies at the Electric Pentacle Press website.

See our June Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.