Weird Tales

WT fans who’ve gone e-book in recent years can now enjoy the magazine on the Sony Reader! December’s issue #352 is live at the Sony store — as are #350 and a free WT holiday sampler. Look for issue #351 to go up next week, more back issues soon, and every new issue as it’s released!

The December 2008 issue of Weird Tales features an exclusive interview with the leading dark-fantasist of our generation, Neil Gaiman — so this holiday season, we’re doubling up on the Gaimany goodness! From now through Jan. 31, all new and renewing Weird Tales subscribers in the U.S. will receive a free copy of THE NEIL GAIMAN READER, a fantastic book of essays about Neil’s work that includes two extensive interviews with the man himself. That’s $47.95 worth of weirdness for just $20!

This November, the Chicago drama troupe Wildclaw Theatre — which received rave reviews last year for its staging of the horror classic “The Great God Pan” — will premiere a brand new adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dreams in the Witch House.” Our very own Lovecraft columnist Kenneth Hite will be on hand representing Weird Tales at the show’s opening night on Sunday, Nov. 16. It’s an auspicious occasion: the 75th anniversary of the story’s original 1933 publication in Weird Tales, the 85th anniversary year of the magazine itself, and a triumphant return to the Chicago arts & letters scene for Weird Tales, which was based in the Windy City all throughout its heyday of the 1920s and ’30s.

For fifteen years, the Chicago office of Weird Tales was the cutting edge of far-out strangeness in the American consciousness, as it produced such classic icons of the genre-to-be as Robert E. Howard’s bloody barbarian-king Conan and H.P. Lovecraft’s tentacled cosmic monstrosity Cthulhu. And the Midwestern location was not incidental to the Weird Tales story; not only did visionary editor Farnsworth Wright come to WT straight from his gig as music critic for the Chicago Herald & Examiner, but it’s worth noting that all of 20th-century horror literature might have evolved differently if Weird Tales had originally been based in the New York publishing mecca, instead of in Chicago. When the magazine’s first editor was dismissed in 1924, Lovecraft himself was publisher Jacob Clark Henneberger’s first choice for a replacement. But Lovecraft could just barely stand leaving his beloved Providence, R.I., to live for a time in nearby New York; uprooting himself to Chicago was utterly out of the question. And so Weird Tales went on to be shaped by Wright’s eclectic vision of the strange and horrific, while Lovecraft spent the rest of his days undistracted by editorial duties, penning mind-blowing stories now considered American classics. Both men’s work influenced horror for generations to come.

Wright wasn’t the only Chicagoan responsible for the magazine’s profound stamp upon the genre subcultures that rose in its wake. Fashion illustrator Margaret Brundage had been one of Walt Disney’s classmates at both McKinley High School and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts; in 1933, she became Weird Tales’s chief cover artist. The 65 lush pastel illustrations she created over a thirteen-year period, featuring eye-catching scenes of whip-wielding witches, maidens in bondage, and black-clad gothic succubi, would provide a template not only for other pulp magazines, but for the goth-fetish fashion styles that remain popular today.

What’s more, one of Brundage’s latter-day collectors, Chicago author and genre-fiction scholar Robert Weinberg, has been the leading authority in maintaining and promoting the Weird Tales legacy for the past three decades now. His book The Weird Tales Story remains the definitive history of the magazine’s literary greatness.

So, Chicago-area Weird Tales fans, we encourage you to take part in the horror history your city helped build: head to the Athenaeum Theatre and see Wildclaw’s production of “The Dreams in the Witch House” — either on opening night this Sunday, or during the show’s five-week run. It promises to be a night to remember.

Never tried Weird Tales before? Not quite ready to shell out seven bucks to try the new issue? Then check out the last issue on us. For a limited time only, you can grab a complete, free PDF of the July/August Weird Tales, chock full of strange sorcery, angelic gangster wars, and mecha-telepathic orphans. Featuring original fiction from Norman Spinrad, Nick Mamatas, and Karen Heuler; an in-depth interview with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola; a journey into H.P. Lovecraft’s dreamlands; an exclusive excerpt from Stephen Hunt’s steampunk epic The Court of the Air; and lots more!

Note: the complete download is 13 megs. Alternately, if you’re using a Sony Reader, you can buy the ebook edition of this issue for just $2.84.

Weird Tales - July/August 2008

It was a full house on Oct. 15 when the KGB Fantastic Fiction series hosted a special Weird Tales group reading in New York City. Authors Jeffrey Ford, Karen Heuler, and Micaela Morrissette joined editors Ann VanderMeer and Stephen Segal to present recent and upcoming stories from the magazine — and also to showcase Steven Archer’s “Blasphemous Horrors” art series and several winners from the recent Spam Fiction Contest. (Honorable mentioneer Lane Bowen’s brother Wade was on hand to receive applause for his story “Canadean Pharmacy! Enlarge!”) Thanks to KGB maestros Ellen Datlow (who took these photos) and Matthew Kressel — and to everyone who came out and had fun!

A reminder to New York-area fans: Wed., Oct. 15 is Weird Tales night at the KGB Fantastic Fiction reading series! Join us in downtown Manhattan to hear authors Jeffrey Ford, Karen Heuler, and Micaela Morrissette — and enjoy highlights from the Weird Tales Spam Fiction Contest, meet (and win prizes from) editors Ann VanderMeer and Stephen Segal, and take a close look at Steven Archer’s original Blasphemous Horrors paintings. The fun starts at 7pm; check out the KGB website for directions and more details.

Pretty Scary, the women-in-horror webzine, has posted a wide-ranging interview with WT fiction editor Ann VanderMeer. Read her thoughts on genre trends, the meaning of weird, and the spectrum of fantastic woman authors on bookshelves today.

Maryland- and D.C.-area Weird Tales fans have the opportunity this weekend to meet contributing artist Steven Archer, who’ll be showcasing his “365 Days of Blasphemous Horrors” series of Lovecraft-inspired mixed-media paintings at the Horrorfind Weekend at the University of Maryland. Archer’s wife and creative partner Donna Lynch, the other half of the musical duo Ego Likeness, will also be in attendance, reading from her new horror novel Isabel Burning tonight at 7 pm.

Werewolves! Blasphemous horrors! A steampunk soundtrack! A ballroom full of weirdoes enjoyed all of the above at the Weird Tales 85th anniversary reception Friday night at the World Science Fiction Convention in Denver. The photos will be uploaded soon — but first, it’s time to announce online, as we did at the party, the identities of our Spam Fiction contest winners! (more…)

…to all those who submitted entries in our Spam Fiction Contest! We received some 150 spamalicious short stories by this morning’s deadline, and have now begun the judging process. Winners will be announced Friday evening at our Weird Tales reception during the World Science Fiction Convention in Denver, and will be posted online Saturday. Stay tuned!