Devil Dogs and Haunted Highways: The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XIII, edited by Karl Edward Wagner

Devil Dogs and Haunted Highways: The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XIII, edited by Karl Edward Wagner

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The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XIII (DAW Books, October 1985). Cover by Michael Whelan

The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XIII was the thirteenth in the DAW Year’s Best Horror series, and the sixth edited by the great Karl Edward Wagner (1945–1994). The book was copyrighted and printed in 1985. Michael Whelan returns as cover artist after taking a hiatus from Series XII. This marked Whelan’s tenth cover for the series! The newest cover is more fantasy than horror with an elf or goblin-like human playing a bone as a flute in a Pan-like fashion. There is a darkness to the art that is suggestive of horror or darker fantasy. Whelan’s diverse choice of artistic topics for horror does not disappoint.

This volume contained seventeen different authors. All male. Nine were American, six were British, and there is one returning Canadian author, Vincent McHardy and a returning German-born author, David J. Schow. Six of these stories came from books. Another six came from professional magazines. Two came from fanzines, one from a convention program, one from a chapbook, one from a journal, and one from a comic book. Considering the pre-internet era of this volume, Wagner is impressive in that he seemed to read everything from everywhere, looking for good horror.

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Vintage Treasures: The Mind Spider and Ships to the Stars by Fritz Leiber

Vintage Treasures: The Mind Spider and Ships to the Stars by Fritz Leiber

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The Mind Spider and Other Stories and Ships to the Stars (Ace Books, 1976). Covers by Walter Rane

Last year I discussed the marvelous collection The Worlds of Fritz Leiber, published by Ace in 1976, and was astounded to find the author make this claim in the introduction.

I believe this collection represents me more completely, provides a fuller measure of the range of my fictional efforts, than any other. I’ve tried to make it that way, without repeating stories from other collections, especially the ones currently in print. There no overlap with those whatsoever. (Overlapping collections are an annoyance to readers and authors alike.)

Leiber had more than half a dozen collections in print in 1976, including five volumes of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales, two volumes of The Book of Fritz Leiber (DAW, 1974 and 1975), The Best of Fritz Leiber (Del Rey, 1974), and the two collections we’re discussing today, The Mind Spider and Ships to the Stars.

How is it possible to assemble a world-class retrospective and avoid any overlap with his other popular collections? I guess the only way to do it is to be Fritz Leiber.

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Indrajit and Fix Up

Indrajit and Fix Up

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In the Palace of Shadow and Joy, Between Princesses and Other Jobs, and Among the Gray Lords
(Baen Books, July 2020, July 2023, and January 2024). Covers by Don Maitz and Kieran Yanner

Dave Butler first came to my attention with the Witchy Eye series. It was pitched to me as epic fantasy set in Colonial America. I took this to mean Alternative History, which is interesting but not really my cup of tea. After several rounds of recommendations from people I trust, I finally took the leap. And that’s when I read this line right here:

Not since St. Martin Luther nailed the skin of the Eldritch ’eretic Cetes to the church door in Wittenberk an’ cried ‘’ere I stand!’ ’as such powerful preachink been ’eard by Christian ears, I trow!

Saint Luther? Nailing the skin of a heretic to the door of Wittenberk, rather than the Theses? Brother, if you know me, you know how all in I am at this point. By the time I was done with the book, David Butler had entered the hallowed halls of authors whose books I buy the day they drop.

Which brings us to the Indrajit and Fix novels.

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Goth Chick News: Fan-Girling Over the FAN EXPO

Goth Chick News: Fan-Girling Over the FAN EXPO

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Way back in 2010, Black Gate photog Chris Z suggested we check out the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con. This was by no means a new event in our fair city. In fact, the Chicago Comic Con was first held at the Playboy Towers Hotel (yes, that Playboy) in 1972. Wizard World, original publishers of the famous Wizard Magazine, purchased the event in 1996, giving it nationwide publicity and eventually expanded to host similar events in nearly twenty cities. By 2011 it was the largest convention of its kind in Chicago, and though it wasn’t strictly in the idiom of GCN, the show runners were gracious and granted us press passes that year. It turned out to be one of our favorite events and we have covered it every year since.

Like so many other businesses, the entertainment convention industry took a huge hit during the covid-19 pandemic. Even the biggest comic convention in the world, San Diego Comic-Con, which is run by a non-profit organization that also runs WonderCon, admitted the lack of live events during 2020 put a huge burden on the company’s finances. By 2021 Wizard World had cut back their conventions to six including Philadelphia, New Orleans, Portland, Cleveland, and St. Louis. Luckily Chicago remained as well since by now the people we met at this event were the sources of ongoing GCN content throughout the year. However, in August 2021 Wizard World announced they would be selling the convention events business to FAN EXPO.

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From the Age of Splatbooks: Charlemagne’s Paladins by Ken Rolston and Roger Raupp

From the Age of Splatbooks: Charlemagne’s Paladins by Ken Rolston and Roger Raupp

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Charlemagne’s Paladins (TSR, July 1, 1992)

One of the more interesting developments during the AD&D Second Edition years (1989-2000) was the Historical Reference series of campaign sourcebooks.

These green “splatbooks” were well-researched, taking a broad view of history, myth, and legend, and looking at all of it through a D&D lens. Charlemagne’s Paladins is one such shining example. Written by Ken Rolston, illustrated by Roger Raupp, and with cartography by Gaye O’Keefe, this sourcebook adapts the historical setting of the Carolingian period into a quasi-game world, featuring the historical and legendary personalities and events of Charlemagne’s time.

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New Treasures: Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker

New Treasures: Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker

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Gods of the Wyrdwood (Orbit, June 27, 2023). Cover design by Duncan Spilling

RJ Barker is the author of The Wounded Kingdom trilogy (Age of Assassins, Blood of Assassins, and King of Assassins), and The Tide Child trilogy (The Bone Ships, Call of the Bone Ships, and The Bone Ship’s Wake). His newest novel Gods of the Wyrdwood, published by Orbit last month, kicks off — you guessed it — a new series, The Forsaken Trilogy.

I’m intrigued by this one because it seems very different from many of the fantasy novels cluttering the shelves. Paste Magazine calls it “A unique spin on the traditional Chosen One trope… one doesn’t turn out anything like you expect.”

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Talking Tolkien: Does Size Matter? The Rankin-Bass Hobbit by Thomas Parker

Talking Tolkien: Does Size Matter? The Rankin-Bass Hobbit by Thomas Parker

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Fellow Black Gater Thomas Parker and I share quite a few interests – but within those interests we tend to vary wildly. I enjoy chatting with him. I conned him into writing a…I mean, he graciously agreed to do a Horace McCoy piece for A (Black) Gat in the Hand, and I’ve been after him to shore up my Black Gate views by doing a guest piece for me. And man, do I LOVE this one on the Rankin-Bass classic, The Hobbit. It was worth the past four years of badgering him.  Read on!

Let me begin with a statement that is impossible to prove but that almost no one would dispute: J.R.R Tolkien’s 1937 children’s fantasy The Hobbit is one of the most beloved books in the world, and because it serves (according to the cover of my old Ballantine paperback) as the “enchanting prelude to the Lord of the Rings” it is also one of the most influential books of the last century, all of which means that those who would presume to adapt the story for other media would be wise to tread warily.

Over the decades, there have been stage adaptations (including an operatic one), graphic novels, and many audio renderings. But when it comes to film adaptations, there are really only two versions to choose from, and they couldn’t be more different in scale, emphasis, and execution.

Most recently we have the triple-decker expansion offered by Peter Jackson — The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), three movies that together have a running time of almost eight hours and that were made with all the technical sophistication and immense resources that Mordor… er, a major Hollywood studio can offer. The trilogy had combined budgets of six hundred and sixty-five million dollars, and during their initial theatrical releases the films netted approximately three billion dollars (to say nothing of profits from home video and merchandising). As the Dark Lords of the boardroom can tell you, each zero in those immense grosses is a veritable Ring of Power in itself.

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Package Blue, the Second Novel by Todd McAulty, Now Available Free

Package Blue, the Second Novel by Todd McAulty, Now Available Free

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Artwork for Package Blue by Pixel Vault

In May of last year I was contacted by director Tim Miller (Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate). I’d been doing some work for Tim’s Blur Studios for a few months, writing story ideas for upcoming streaming projects, with a pool of talented authors that included John Scalzi, Tamsin Muir, and others. Tim had just been hired to help develop an ambitious property set in the Inhabitants Universe owned by the NFT company Pixel Vault, and he was looking for a writer to dive into the project.

Tim had first reached out to me after reading my first novel The Robots of Gotham, published under the name Todd McAulty in 2018, and we’d become friends over the years. I ended up doing a bunch of work on the Inhabitants project for Tim, and when he left the project in June, Pixel Vault put me on a weekly retainer, mostly to assist with creating background lore. When I was fired from my day job in November, Pixel Vault offered me an 8-month contract to write a series of linked stories set in their colorful Inhabitants Universe.

The first was Package Blue, written as a web-novel and published online in weekly installments. Illustrated by the talented team at Pixel Vault, Package Blue is the tale of a team transporting a mysterious cargo through a raging Iowa snowstorm that loses contact with the rest of their convoy, and discovers they’re being pursued by something inhuman. Each of its 12 Acts is meant to be read in 10-15 minutes. Total length is 42,000 words.

You can read the whole thing here. I’m already halfway done with the second book, which we hope to launch online in September. I hope you’ll give it a try, and let us know what you think!

Vintage Treasures: Phaid the Gambler by Mick Farren

Vintage Treasures: Phaid the Gambler by Mick Farren

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Phaid the Gambler (Ace Books, August 1986). Cover by Jim Gurney

Mick Farren was a fascinating guy.

He was the singer for the UK band The Deviants in the 60s, and released two solo albums in the late 70s, and a live album in 2005. He began his writing career in the early 1970s as a journalist for the UK Underground press, and eventually the mainstream New Musical Express. By the end of the 70s he was supporting himself as a full time writer, and over a 30-year career he published 23 novels before his death in 2013 at the age of 69. He died after collapsing on stage during a Deviants concert in London in July 2013.

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Fantasy Detectives and an Ancient Mystery Cult: The Five Penalties Trilogy by Marina Lostetter

Fantasy Detectives and an Ancient Mystery Cult: The Five Penalties Trilogy by Marina Lostetter

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The Helm of Midnight and The Cage of Dark Hours
(Tor, April 2021 and February 2023). Covers by Sam Weber and Reiko Murakami

Marina Lostetter has had a heck of a career in just the last ten years. She started publishing in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show in 2012, and quickly followed up with sales to Galaxy’s Edge, Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, Shimmer, Uncanny Magazine, and many other fine outlets. Her first three novels, all part of the Noumenon space opera trilogy (published 2017-2020) won wide acclaim from major outlets (“Brilliant… the genre at its very best.” — Kirkus Reviews; “Lostetter remains at the forefront of innovation in hard science fiction.” — Publishers Weekly).

Last year Lostetter released her first fantasy novel, The Helm of Midnight, and five months later followed up with the aliens-vs-robots adventure Activation Degradation. She’s only published one book this year, The Cage of Dark Hours (sequel to Helm of Midnight, and the second book of The Five Penalties trilogy), but it’s still early.

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