If there was a predominate topic last month at Black Gate, it was unquestionably the Hugo Awards.

Black Gate was nominated for a Hugo Award for the first time this year — an honor we declined on April 19. The Awards were presented at the World Science Fiction Convention on August 22, and our coverage of the awards and its immediate aftermath, written by me and Jay Maynard, produced the top three BG articles in August. In fact, those three posts were read more than the next 30 articles on the list combined.

The most popular non-Hugo article this month was Elizabeth Cady’s look at Aristophanes’ The Birds, “Ancient Worlds: The First Fantasy World.” Next was our report on a controversial analysis of NPR’s Top 100 Books list, “New Statesmen on the “Shockingly Offensive” 100 Best Fantasy and SF Novels.”

Sixth was David B. Coe’s second essay on the 2015 Hugo Kerfuffle, “Enough, Part II,” followed by the 8th entry in our very popular Discovering Robert E. Howard series, “Jeffrey Shanks on The Worldbuilding of REH.” Coming in at number 8, and sticking with the Robert E. Howard theme, was Bob Byrne’s “The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Ramblings on REH.”

Number 9 last month was M. Harold Page on “Chivalry: Not Really About Opening Doors (and Still Quite a Useful Coping Strategy).” And rounding out the Top 10 was another in our Discovering Robert E. Howard series, Don Herron’s “Pigeons From Hell From Lovecraft.”

The complete list of Top Articles for August follows. Below that, I’ve also broken out the most popular blog categories for the month.

The Top 50 Black Gate posts in August were:

1. Dear Puppies: Your Taste Sucks
2. Dear Conservatives: Don’t Let the Door Hit You On the Way Out
3. Dear Puppy Nominees: Grow Up
4. Ancient Worlds: The First Fantasy World
5. New Statesmen on the “Shockingly Offensive” 100 Best Fantasy and SF Novels
6. Enough, Part II
7. Discovering Robert E. Howard: Jeffrey Shanks on The Worldbuilding of REH
8. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Ramblings on REH
9. Chivalry: Not Really About Opening Doors (and Still Quite a Useful Coping Strategy)
10. Discovering Robert E. Howard: Pigeons From Hell From Lovecraft by Don Herron

     

11. Future Treasures: The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
12. Visiting a Holy Well in Oxfordshire, England
13. Goth Chick News: New (Horror) Treasures – Star Wars Screenwriter Gives Us an Abomination
14. When Is Fantasy Not Fantasy? Or, One Person’s Religion = Another Person’s Mythology
15. The Golden Age of Horror Seems to be Progressing Well: The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Seven
16. Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward Re-Read The Coming of Conan
17. Discovering Robert E. Howard: David Hardy on El Borak – The First and Last REH Hero
18. Victor Milan Talks Planet Paradise, His Many Pen Names, and a Plastic Dinosaur with Metallic Paint on It
19. The Great Serialization Experiment: The Lay of the Land
20. Discovering Robert E. Howard: Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward Re-Read “The Phoenix on the Sword”

     

21. Vintage Treasures: The Timescape Clark Ashton Smith
22. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: A Story Analysis Worksheet
23. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 1963: A Retro-Review
24. The New Dungeons & Dragons Movie Will Be Set in The Forgotten Realms
25. Getting Closer to Home: A Review of Milton J. Davis’ Saga Changa’s Safari
26. Atlantis, Vikings, and the Hordes of Kublai Khan: Merlin’s Ring by H. Warner Munn: Part I
27. A Medieval Birthday Cake
28. The Mystery of Peter S. Beagle’s I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons
29. Conquer a Dark and Dangerous Galaxy in Forbidden Stars
30. Vintage Treasures: The Man of Gold by M.A.R. Barker

     

31. Book Riot Suggests 9 Books That Will Challenge Your Idea of Fantasy
32. How G.O.G. Rescued the Classic Forgotten Realms Computer Games
33. The Petrie Museum, London’s Overlooked Egyptology Treasure Trove
34. Sasquan Announces Record Voting for the 2015 Hugo Awards
35. Magneto, the Comic Series
36. Future Treasures: Dungeons & Dragons: Out of the Abyss
37. Fantasia Diary 2015, Day 6: The Arti: The Adventure Begins, Director’s Commentary: Terror of Frankenstein, (T)ERROR, and I Am Thor
38. Camestros Felapton on The True History of the Great Puppy Kerfuffle of 2015
39. Beneath Ceaseless Skies 178 Now Available
40. Future Treasures: The Story of Kullervo by J. R. R. Tolkien

     

41. Chivalry: Might is Right… Not Quite What You Think
42. The Speed Of Dark: Paksennarion vs. Autism
43. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Pro-Tips From Paul Dale Anderson
44. The August Fantasy Magazine Rack
45. New Treasures: Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places, edited by J.R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec
46. Starvation Cheap & Primeval Thule
47. Sarah Avery Wins the 2015 Mythopoeic Award for Tales from Rugosa Coven
48. Future Treasures: The Path of Anger by Antoine Rouaud
49. All of Time and Space and the Wonders and Horrors Therein: Frank Belknap Long’s “The Hounds of Tindalos”
50. Vintage Treasures: Fantastic Stories: Tales of the Weird & Wondrous, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Patrick L. Price

The top categories last month were:

1. New Treasures
2. Books
3. Blog Entry
4. Fiction
5. Magazines
6. Vintage Treasures
7. Pulp
8. Editor’s blog
9. Reviews
10. Music
11. News
12. Art of the Genre
13. Convention Report
14. Uncategorized
15. Game Reviews
16. Future Treasures
17. Essays
18. Series Fantasy
19. Comics
20. Goth Chick

The Top 5o Black Gate blog posts in July are here, and you can see all 135 posts we made in the month of August here.