Black Gate had 1.26 million page views last month, very nearly a record. Much of that bump in traffic was due to a series of very popular posts. Derek Kunsken has long been one of our most popular bloggers — his interview with Christopher Golden was our third most popular article in October, and last month his piece on Rebirth: DC’s corrective reboot was #5. But he thoroughly dominated the charts in July, claiming both the #2 slot, with his look back at Marvel’s Star-Lord, and the top spot, with his examination of the soaked-in misogyny of Piers Anthony’s famed Xanth series. Remember to leave room for the rest of us, Derek!

Bob Byrne was #3 on the list, with the second half of his two-part history of Necromancer and Frog God Games. Nick Ozment had our second most popular comic article in July, claiming the fourth spot on the list with his retrospective of Kurt Busiek’s Astro City. Rounding out the Top Five was our look at Chaosium’s classic Runequest campaign Borderlands.

Also in the Top Ten were Adrian Simmons’ belated review of Hudson Hawk, M Harold Page’s review of The Trojan War: A New History, some comments on James Wallace Harris’ popular post “Who Still Reads 1950s Science Fiction?”, Bob Byrne’s examination of a century of John D. MacDonald, and our look at the 2016 David Gemmell Award Nominees.

The complete list of Top Articles for July 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 July were:

1. A Tremendously Disappointing Re-Read: The Soaked-in Misogyny of Piers Anthony’s Xanth
2. Thinking about the Evolution of Marvel Comics’ Star-Lord
3. Of Necromancers and Frog Gods: Part Two (The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes)
4. Kurt Busiek’s Astro City. Also Joyce, Hemingway, Faulkner, and a Tangent on Modernism
5. Chaosium’s Borderlands: Can Playing RPGs Really Make You a Billionaire?
6. Belated Movie Review #7: Towards a Unified Theory of Hudson Hawk
7. Was Homer a Historian After All? A Look at The Trojan War: A New History
8. Who Still Reads 1950s Science Fiction?
9. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: A Century of John D. MacDonald
10. The 2016 David Gemmell Award Nominees

     

11. Three Ways to Write a Cast of Supporting Characters Without Confusing the Reader
12. Solitaire Wargaming: B-17 Leader
13. Announcing the 2016 Robert E. Howard Foundation Award Winners
14. Future Treasures: Swords v. Cthulhu: Swift Bladed Action in the Horrific World of H.P. Lovecraft, edited by Jesse Bullington and Molly Tanzer
15. Black Gate Nominated for a World Fantasy Award
16. The 2016 Hugos: Short Fiction Ballot Thoughts
17. The Strange and Happy Life of The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology
18. When It’s Time to Railroad…
19. Teaching History through Wargaming: Strategy & Tactics #280: Soldiers 1918
20. John DeNardo: In Defense of Media Tie-Ins (Part 1)

     

21. Noise About Xignals
22. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Mycroft’s Job
23. Dark Sleeper by Jeffrey E. Barlough
24. Goth Chick News: Kiefer Sutherland and Hollywood Both Flatline
25. Reading Burroughs’ Biography as a Writer
26. The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in June
27. Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1951: A Retro-Review
28. Adventure in The Old Kingdom: The Minikins of Yam by Thomas Burnett Swann
29. Weirdbook 32 Now Available
30. Lara Destiny and the Question of Identity

     

31. To Ride a Rathorn by P. C. Hodgell
32. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Don’t Panic!
33. New Treasures: United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas
34. Series Fantasy: Apparatus Infernum by A. A. Aguirre
35. Here Be Spiders: Arachnophobia & Arachnoquake
36. The July – September 2016 issue of The Lorelei Signal Now Available
37. Jerry Springer through the Time Portal! Tom Holland’s Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
38. Vintage Treasures: The Collections of Zenna Henderson: The Anything Box and Holding Wonder
39. Future Treasures: Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, edited by Jonathan Strahan
40. Dorsai and Secret Psi Powers: Rich Horton on The Genetic General/Time to Teleport by Gordon R. Dickson

     

41. Goth Chick News Reviews: End of Watch — Stephen King Wraps Up a Trilogy
42. July/August Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Now on Sale
43. Sample the Finest Short Stories of a Science Fiction Great: The Best of Robert Silverberg: Stories of Six Decades
44. The Conclusion to a Grand Adventure: Hobgoblin Night by Teresa Edgerton
45. Try Out Blind Spot, a New Magazine of French Science Fiction
46. An Introduction to B.C. Bell’s The Bagman
47. See the Comic-Con Teaser Trailers for Justice League and Wonder Woman
48. Future Treasures: Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone
49. Roman Lusitania Opens at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid
50. Goth Chick News: So There Really Was Something In The Woods…?

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

1. The Scariest Hour in TV History: Space 1999: “Dragon’s Domain”
2. The IX by Andrew P. Weston
3. Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: A Review of The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
4. Part Gothic, Part Sword and Sorcery, and Part Horror: Andrew P. Weston’s Hell Bound
5. New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard
6. Tribulations Herculean and Tragic: Beyond Wizardwall by Janet Morris
7. Vintage Treasures: The Silistra Quartet by Janet Morris
8. Return to Thieves World in Beyond Sanctuary: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
9. Caught Between Rebels and the Empire’s Blackest Magic: Beyond the Veil: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
10. Love in War and Realms Beyond Imagining: A Review of The Fish, the Fighters and the Song Girl by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
11. Art of the Genre: Top 10 Fantasy Artists of the Past 100 Years
12. A Detailed Explanation
13. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: The Skeleton Matters (Or, Why It’s Not OK to Skip Scenes in Your Third Act)
14. Haunted Bushes, Serial Killers, and Mysterious Strangers: Algernon Blackwood’s The Listener and Other Stories
15. Wolf’s Empire Genesis: Future Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
16. “A Great Place to let Your Imagination Run Wild:” Joe Bonadonna Reviews Rogues in Hell
17. The Devil in the Details: A Review of Lawyers in Hell
18. Of Necromancers & Frog Gods – Part One (The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes)
19. The IX: Exordium of Tears by Andrew P. Weston
20. The Perfect Prescription for Perdition: Doctors in Hell, edited by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
21. Giving the Devil His Due: A Review of Dreamers in Hell
22. Art of the Genre: Art of Dungeon Maps
23. I, The Sun by Janet Morris
24. A Mining Colony, a Blind Date, and a Ghostly Alien Hand: A Review of Outpassage by Janet Morris & Chris Morris
25. New Treasures: Exordium of Tears by Andrew P. Weston

The Top Black Gate Online Fiction features were:

1. An Excerpt from The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
2. An Excerpt from Truck Stop Earth by Michael A. Armstrong
3. “Seven Against Hell” by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
4. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” by Joe Bonadonna
5. “The Renunciation of the Crimes of Gharad the Undying” by Alex Kreis
6. An Excerpt from Souldrifter by Garrett Calcaterra
7. Excerpt: “Sight of Vengeance,” by Howard Andrew Jones
8. Excerpt: “Whispers from the Stone,” by Howard Andrew Jones
9. “The Trade,” Part One of The Tales of Gemen, by Mark Rigney
10. “The Pit Slave” by Vaughn Heppner

The top categories last month were:

1. Art of the Genre
2. Vintage Treasures
3. Books
4. Magazines
5. Game Reviews
6. Blog Entry
7. Conan
8. Pulp
9. Art
10. Reviews
11. Comics
12. Future Treasures
13. Series Fantasy
14. New Treasures
15. BG Staff
16. Discovering Robert E. Howard
17. Goth Chick
18. Black Gate Goes to Summer Movies
19. Convention Report
20. Rich Horton

The Top 5o Black Gate blog posts in June are here, and you can see all 101 posts we made in the month of July here.