Black Gate had 1.16 million page views in May, slightly more than our monthly average last year. We’ve gotten used to significant traffic increases year after year, so it’s actually something of a relief to have traffic stabilize for a bit. Nonetheless, we’re grateful to you, our readers, for all the time you spend with us each month, and we hope we keep things interesting for you.

How did we keep things interesting last month? Our top story for May was Black Gate‘s second Hugo nomination… which we declined (again). The brief statement announcing our decision was read 8,200 times, making it our number one post for the month. It was followed by an article questioning whether Weird Tales had quietly folded, and Rich Horton’s analysis of the 2016 Hugo situation.

Rounding out the Top Five for May were Martin Page, with his thoughtful piece on the 80’s moral panic surrounding Dungeons & Dragons, and Bill Maynard’s examination of the Abuses of Public Domain Fiction.

Coming in at number 6 for the month was our report on the launch of one of the most exciting magazines of the past decade, Skelos, followed by our photo-essay on the 2016 Nebula Awards weekend. Peadar Ó Guilín clocked in at #8 with his detailed review of Michael Swanwick’s modern classic The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, followed by our announcement that SF Signal was shutting down.

Closing out the Top Ten for last month was Thomas Parker’s thoughtful and frequently hilarious review of Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake, titled Shut Up, You Freak!

The complete list of Top Articles for May 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 May were:

1. Black Gate Declines Hugo Nomination
2. Is Weird Tales Dead… Again?
3. The Hugo Nominations, 2016; or, Sigh …
4. Joseph P Laycock’s Dangerous Games: Revisiting the “Moral” Panic Around D&D (and You Thought the ‘Pups Were Bad).
5. The Abuses of Public Domain Fiction
6. Support the Launch of Skelos, a New Magazine of the Weird
7. A Weekend With the Greatest Talents in Science Fiction: Report on the 2016 Nebula Awards
8. The Iron Dragon’s Daughter: A Wholly Biased Review
9. SF Signal Goes Dark
10. Shut Up, You Freak!!

     

11. Ancient Planets and Treachery at Every Turn: Rich Horton on The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett.
12. The Birth of the Novel
13. Once More Into the Primal Land: Tarra Khash: Hrossak! by Brian Lumley
14. Vintage Trash: Producers Releasing Corporation, the Poorest of Hollywood’s Poverty Row
15. The Granddaughter of Fu Manchu
16. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Austin’s Jack the Ripper
17. Beneath the Shining Jewel by Balogun Ojetade
18. More Metal on Metal: Swords of Steel II edited by D.M. Ritzlin
19. Superheroes in Prose: A City-Smashing Interview with the Editors of the New Anthology Tesseracts Nineteen
20. Future Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 1, edited by Neil Clarke

     

21. The Arms and Armor Collection of the Museo Cerralbo, Madrid
22. The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in April
23. The 2016 Nebula Award Winners
24. (1) Weird Trick To A Dragon’s Hoard
25. Interview With James Stoddard: To Tour Evenmere, The Night Land, and Other Exotic Locales
26. The 2016 Locus Award Finalists
27. Science Fiction Stories, January 1955: A Retro-Review
28. Future Treasures: The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu edited by Paula Guran
29. Hope, Heroism, and Ideals Worth Fighting For: Darwyn Cooke, November 16, 1962 – May 14, 2016
30. We Are a Romance of the Machine: An Hour With CJ Cherryh, SF’s Newest Grandmaster

     

31. Please Welcome Lady Business to the Hugo Ballot!
32. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Going to the Nebulas
33. April Short Story Roundup
34. Vintage Treasures: Green Magic: The Fantasy Realms of Jack Vance
35. After the Twilight: Walt Simonson’s Ragnarök
36. Cast Your Spell on a Medieval Town in The Village Crone
37. Star Trek After All: The New Trailer for Star Trek Beyond
38. Goth Chick News: This Will Not End Well…
39. Rick Riordan Brings the Lightning to Rosarium Publishing
40. Future Treasures: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten, edited by Jonathan Strahan

     

41. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: The Key West Private Eye – Gideon Lowry
42. Future Treasures: War Factory by Neal Asher
43. The SFWA Bulletin #208, the 2016 Nebula Awards Special Issue, is Now Available
44. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: The Nebulas and the College 7
45. The Series Series: Guile by Constance Cooper
46. Goth Chick News: Is There Anything Creepier Than a Doll? Let’s Help John Find Out…
47. Goth Chick News: A (Sort of) Jaws Prequel With a Whole Lot of Whaaaat?
48. Beneath Ceaseless Skies 199 Now Available
49. One More Time(Piece)
50. Table of Contents for Mysterion

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

1. A Detailed Explanation
2. Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: A Review of The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
3. New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard
4. The IX by Andrew P. Weston
5. Vintage Trash: Reel Wild Cinema Free Online (and Legal!)
6. Pirates, Weather Sorcery, and Desperate Nautical Adventure: The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster
7. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: The Skeleton Matters (Or, Why It’s Not OK to Skip Scenes in Your Third Act)
8. Tribulations Herculean and Tragic: Beyond Wizardwall by Janet Morris
9. Art of the Genre: Top 10 Fantasy Artists of the Past 100 Years
10. Return to Thieves World in Beyond Sanctuary: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
11. Caught Between Rebels and the Empire’s Blackest Magic: Beyond the Veil: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
12. Goth Chick News: Close Encounters – The Week We Made Contact
13. How to Worldbuild a Good Sandbox: Four Rules from the 40K Universe
14. Vintage Treasures: The Silistra Quartet by Janet Morris
15. Part Gothic, Part Sword and Sorcery, and Part Horror: Andrew P. Weston’s Hell Bound
16. Black Gate Nominated For a Hugo Award
17. Register Your Interest, Copyright for Paper and E-Books
18. Love in War and Realms Beyond Imagining: A Review of The Fish, the Fighters and the Song Girl by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
19. A Review of Warriors, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois
20. Black Gate Withdraws From Hugo Consideration
21. Nazi Film Review: Hitlerjunge Quex
22. The Great Savage Sword Re-Read: Vol. 2
23. Vintage Treasures: The Elsewhere Anthologies, edited by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold
24. “A Great Place to let Your Imagination Run Wild:” Joe Bonadonna Reviews Rogues in Hell
25. Art of the Genre: Art of Dungeon Maps

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 Souldrifter” by Garrett Calcaterra
4. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” by Joe Bonadonna
5. “The Pit Slave” by Vaughn Heppner
6. “The Weird of Ironspell” by John R. Fultz
7. “Awakening” by Judith Berman
8. “Assault and Battery” by Jason E. Thummel
9. “The Trade,” Part One of The Tales of Gemen, by Mark Rigney
10. “A Phoenix in Darkness” by Donald S. Crankshaw

The top categories last month were:

1. News
2. Vintage Treasures
3. Magazines
4. Books
5. Blog entry
6. Reviews
7. Fiction
8. Art-of-the-genre
9. Game reviews
10. New Treasures
11. Future Treasures
12. Comics
13. Interviews
14. Art
15. Editors blog
16. Goth Chick
17. Essays
18. Conan
19. Discovering Robert E. Howard
20. Series Fantasy

The Top 5o Black Gate blog posts in April are here, and you can see all 111 posts we made in the month of May here.