Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. Photo by Liz Duffy Adams

June was a big month for interviews at Black Gate. Our top articles were interviews, and our roving reporter Joe Bonadonna placed two in the Top Ten — a lengthy conversation with Author T.C. Rypel (the Gonji series) at #2, and a free-wheeling conversation with two editors of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Adrian Simmons and David Farney, at #8. And the #1 article for the month was Elizabeth Crowens’s enchanting conversation with the First Couple of Fantasy, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman.

Rounding out the Top Five for the month was our report on the ongoing back issue sale at Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog magazine (still one of the best bargains in the industry), a Vintage Treasures piece on the 80s fantasy paperbacks of E. Hoffmann Price, and Nick Ozment’s think-piece “When Fantasy and Theology Collide: Some Thoughts on Satan.”

Number Six was Derek Kunsken’s review of Wonder Woman, followed by a look at another vintage paperback, The Worlds of Jack Vance (1973). Number 8 was a report on the latest issue of Weirdbook. And wrapping up the Top Ten was Ryan Harvey’s review of Universal’s Kharis Mummy films.

The complete list of Top Articles for June follows. Below that, I’ve also broken out the most popular overall articles, online fiction, and blog categories for the month.

The Top 50 Black Gate posts in June were:

1. The Poison Apple: Shared Worlds All Over the World – A Q & A with the Dynamic Duo, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
2. The Eighth Samurai: An Interview with Author T.C. Rypel
3. Try the Science Fiction Value Packs from Asimov’s and Analog for Just $6.95
4. Vintage Treasures: The Pulp Fantasies of E. Hoffmann Price
5. When Fantasy and Theology Collide: Some Thoughts on Satan
6. Don’t Mess With the Amazons: The Wonder Woman Movie
7. Vintage Treasures: The Worlds of Jack Vance
8. Weirdbook 35 Now Available
9. Discussing All Things Fantasy, Past, Present, and Future: An Interview with Adrian Simmons and David Farney of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly
10. The Massachusetts Mummy: Universal’s Kharis Mummy Movies

     

11. It’s Large: Ringworld by Larry Niven
12. You Deserve a Great Mummy, So Here’s My Favorite: The Mummy ‘59
13. A Tale of Two Covers: Chasers of the Wind by Alexey Pehov
14. Goth Chick News: “Show Me the Mummy!” or Universal Studios Eats Its Young…
15. Delivering on the Promise of a True Open World: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
16. More Thoughts on Ghostwriting for a Living
17. Game Informer 290, June 2017: The Top 100 RPGs of All Time
18. Vintage Treasures: World’s Best Science Fiction 1965 – 1970, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr
19. Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Pellucidar Saga: Back to the Stone Age
20. Vintage Treasures: The Ace Novels of Patricia C. Wrede

     

21. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Character Profile Sheet — Revised
22. Smugglers, Alien Vampires, and Dark Dimensions: The Best of C. L. Moore
23. A Treasure Trove of Classic Science Fiction & Fantasy: The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson
24. “A World Gone to the Dogs”: City by Clifford D. Simak
25. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: The Many Faces of Bob Weinberg
26. Half Past Human by T.J. Bass
27. Pulp Literature 13 Now Available
28. Clockwork Gunslingers, Soul-Sucking Ghosts, and Vampire Cowboys: Straight Outta Tombstone, edited by David Boop
29. 2017 Locus Award Winners Announced
30. Modular: Adventuring in Dangerous Terrain – Frog God Games’ Perilous Vistas

     

31. Rebellion Worlds, Rocklike Aliens, and Cubes from Space: Rich Horton on The Rebellious Stars by Isaac Asimov & An Earth Gone Mad by Roger Dee
32. Support the Literary Wonder & Adventure Show!
33. New Treasures: The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories, Volume One, edited by James D. Jenkins and Ryan Cagle
34. Gaming Summer Camp
35. Goth Chick News: A Unique Musical Take on a Weird Tales Classic
36. Andrew Liptak on 39 SF, Fantasy, and Horror Books to Read in June
37. The Play’s The Thing
38. Future Treasures: A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden
39. Unbound Worlds on 7 Great Occult Detectives
40. The Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog on the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of June 2017

     

41. New Treasures: Behind the Mask, edited by Tricia Reeks and Kyle Richardson
42. June 2017 Locus Now on Sale
43. Amazing Stories, October 1963: A Retro-Review
44. May/June 2017 Analog Now on Sale
45. Princesses, Space Battles, Monsters and Aliens: The Sirantha Jax Novels by Ann Aguirre
46. Future Treasures: The Queen of Swords, Book 3 of the Golgotha Series, by R.S. Belcher
47. May/June Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Now on Sale
48. The 33% Mark: When it’s OK to Stop Drafting Go Back and Edit
49. Monsters, Murder and Magic in Victorian London: Storm and Ash by Elizabeth Cady
50. Catching Up With the Fiction at Tor.com

There were plenty of older articles popular last month as well. The 25 most popular blog posts written before June were:

1. Goth Chick News: Samuel L. Jackson Takes On Japanese OVA – Hold On To Your Butts…
2. Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: A Review of The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
3. The Return of the King (1980)
4. Adventures on Stage: Fantasy Literature’s Missing Link
5. “Are You Not Still Entertained?”: Gladiator’s 10-Year Oscar Anniversary
6. Eccentric in Retrospect: Helen Simpson’s The Woman on the Beast
7. It’s Not Too Late to Catch Up on Your May Reading (But You’re Cutting it Close)
8. My Fantasia Festival, Days 5 to 7: Cold in July, The Fatal Encounter, and Huntresses
9. Black Gate Withdraws From Hugo Consideration
10. Fantasia Diary 2015, Day 5: Teana: 10000 Years Later, Crimson Whale, and The Shamer’s Daughter
11. New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard
12. Blowing the Doors Off the Barn: Expanding the Iron Fist Mythos
13. Return to Thieves World in Beyond Sanctuary: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
14. Living it Large: How Larger Than Life Characters Work
15. Adventures In Gaming: The Temple Of the Sea Gods
16. Haunt the House: The Music and Art of Will Houlihan
17. The IX by Andrew P. Weston
18. The Series Series: Shieldwall: Barbarians! by M. Harold Page
19. Tribulations Herculean and Tragic: Beyond Wizardwall by Janet Morris
20. The Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog on the Best SF and Fantasy Books in May
21. Stories from a S&S Griot: Nyumbani Tales by Charles R. Saunders
22. Read “The Great Detective” by Delia Sherman at Tor.com
23. Caught Between Rebels and the Empire’s Blackest Magic: Beyond the Veil: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
24. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: The Skeleton Matters (Or, Why It’s Not OK to Skip Scenes in Your Third Act)
25. I, The Sun by Janet Morris

The Top Black Gate Online Fiction features were:

1. An excerpt from The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
2. “Seven Against Hell” by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
3. An excerpt from Pirates in Hell, edited by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
4. An Excerpt from Three Ghosts in a Black Pumpkin by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna
5. The first chapter of The Wreck of the Marissa by M Harold Page
6. An excerpt from Truck Stop Earth by Michael A. Armstrong
7. An excerpt from Mouth of the Dragon by Tom Barczak
8. An excerpt from Shards of the Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder by Roy A. Mauritsen
9. “Nero Wolfe – Stamped for Murder” by Bob Byrne
10. “Tsathoggua” by Michael Shea
11. “Stand at Duben-Geb” by Ryan Harvey
12. An excerpt from Soleri by Michael Johnston
13. “The Sorrowless Thief” by Ryan Harvey
14. “Vestments of Pestilence” by John C. Hocking
15. An Excerpt from Souldrifter by Garrett Calcaterra
16. An excerpt from Mad Shadows II by Joe Bonadonna
17. “The Trade” by Mark Rigney
18. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” by Joe Bonadonna
19. “Iron Joan” by ElizaBeth Gilligan
20. Fiction Excerpt: “Tumithak of the Corridors” by Charles R. Tanner

The top categories last month were:

1. Editor’s Blog
2. Vintage Treasures
3. Art
4. Books
5. News
6. Magazines
7. Blog Entry
8. Role Playing Games
9. Art of the Genre
10. Games
11. Interviews
12. Future Treasures
13. Writing
14. Conan
15. Rich Horton
16. Goth Chick
17. BG Staff
18. Series Fantasy
19. Reviews
20. Comics
21. New Treasures
22. Essays
23. Movies & TV
24. Pastiche
25. Discovering Robert E. Howard

The Top 50 Black Gate blog posts in May are here, and you can see all 87 posts we made in the month of June here.