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Celebrating Pulp Fiction Magazines at Windy City Pulp & Paper

Celebrating Pulp Fiction Magazines at Windy City Pulp & Paper

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If you’ve been following Black Gate for any length of time, you’ve probably heard me mention the Windy City Pulp & Paper Show, my favorite local convention (my detailed report on the 2013 show is here).

It’s difficult to capture the scale and feel of a show like Windy City with a blog post, however. Fortunately, I was very pleased to discover an in-depth documentary on the show on YouTube. Created by Krovia TV and just released today, this twelve minute and 35 second video gives you a great sense of the scope of the show, and has some nice interviews with founder Doug Ellis, and several exhibitors and buyers, such as Tom Roberts of Black Dog Books, Steve Spilger, Tim Isaacson, Fred Taraba, and others. It’s a great way to get a taste of Windy City without leaving your comfy chair.

See the complete film here, or click on the clip above.

Black Gate 4 is Sold Out

Black Gate 4 is Sold Out

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Black Gate Magazine 4-smallBlack Gate 4, originally published in Summer 2002, is now sold out.

BG 4 featured the start of a major fantasy series from Hugo Award-winning author Bill Johnson, a new novelette from David B. Coe, and fiction from Cory Doctorow, Tina Jens, Mark McLaughlin, Patrice Sarath, Keith Allen Daniels, and many others. The terrific cover art was by Charles Keegan. Here’s the issue summary:

A Chicago pub where the ghosts of Blues legends gather to swap tales and jam one final time… a post-apocalyptic cityscape where automated bombers still cruise overhead and the last rock band hears the sound of extinction… a wild west where a trio of demons test the wits of a lone bounty hunter… and the dungeons of Chateau Machecoul, where an aging knight comes face-to-face with a horror unlike anything he’s ever known.

Since the end of the print version of Black Gate, we’ve been selling the last of our back issues at ridiculously low prices. BG 14 and 15 were cover priced at $15.95 and $18.85 each, but now you can get any two two issues for just $15 — plus $5 for each additional issue after that. That includes our rare first issue. Get our first three issues for just $20!

Stock is running very low on most of our early issues, however, and we sold our last copy of BG 4 today. Back issues of Black Gate contain original short stories and novellas from Michael Moorcock, Charles de Lint, James Enge, Cory Doctorow, Devon Monk, Harry Connolly, Martha Wells, Howard Andrew Jones, Myke Cole, and many others.

Get all the details on our back issue sale here.

May 2015 Lightspeed Magazine Now on Sale

May 2015 Lightspeed Magazine Now on Sale

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Lightspeed May 2015-smallIf you’re an aspiring fantasy writer, there’s even more reason to read Lightspeed this month. It has a short story by C.C. Finlay, the new editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Here’s your chance to do a little homework, and learn a little more about what kind of fantasy Charles enjoys.

There’s also a new story in Matthew Hughes’s long-running Kaslo Chronicles, as well as new fiction from Seanan McGuire and Helena Bell, and reprints from Sean Williams, Merrie Haskell, R.C. Loenen-Ruiz, and Annie Bellet.

Lightspeed publishes fantasy and SF, both new fiction and reprints. Here’s the complete fiction contents of the May issue.

Fantasy

“Sun’s East, Moon’s West” by Merrie Haskell (from Electric Velocipede #17/18, Spring 2009)
“Mouth” by Helena Bell
“Breaking the Spell” by R.C. Loenen-Ruiz (from Philippine Speculative Fiction IV, 2009) — available May 19
“The Blood of a Dragon” by Matthew Hughes — available May 26

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The mid-May Fantasy Magazine Rack

The mid-May Fantasy Magazine Rack

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Apex-Magazine-71-April-2015-300 Asimovs-Science-Fiction-June-2015-300 Clarkesworld-104-300 The-Dark-Issue-8-300
Beneath-Ceaseless-Skies-172-300 Heroic-Fantasy-Quarterly-24-300 Innsmouth-Magazine-15-300 Knights-of-the-Dinner-Table-219-300

The mid-May April magazine rack is crowded with a mix of print (Asimov’s, Knights of the Dinner Table) and online (The Dark, Clarkesworld, BCS, and HFQ) magazines. This month we say goodbye to Innmouth Magazine, which published its last issue last summer. Click on any of the images above to see our detailed report on each issue.

As we’ve mentioned before, all of these magazines are completely dependent on fans and readers to keep them alive. Many are marginal operations for whom a handful of subscriptions may mean the difference between life and death. Why not check one or two out, and try a sample issue? There are magazines here for every budget, from completely free to $7.50/issue. If you find something intriguing, I hope you’ll consider taking a chance on a subscription. I think you’ll find it’s money very well spent.

Our late April Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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Knights of the Dinner Table #219 Now on Sale

Knights of the Dinner Table #219 Now on Sale

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Knights of the Dinner Table 219-small DC Showcase 12 Challengers of the Unknown-small

The latest issue of Knights of the Dinner Table boasts another great Kirby tribute by the fabulous Fraim brothers. The cover is an homage to DC Showcase #12, featuring the Challengers of the Unknown, drawn by the great Jack Kirby and originally published in 1957. (Kirby later claimed he reused elements from this series at Marvel Comics, when he collaborated with Stan Lee to create The Fantastic Four four years later.) Click on the images for bigger versions.

I remember buying the very first issue of KoDT, at a comic convention here in Chicago. I had no idea then that it would become one of the longest-running independent comics in history.

Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine is written and drawn by my friend Jolly R. Blackburn, with editorial assistance by his talented wife Barbara. Readers of the print version of Black Gate may remember the KoDT spin-off The Java Joint, which appeared in the back of every issue (and was eventually collected in a single volume in 2012).

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 172 Now Available

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 172 Now Available

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Beneath Ceaseless Skies 172-smallI love a good weird western. So you can imagine how intrigued I was by the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Scott H. Andrews’ magazine of literary adventure fantasy. It’s a special weird western issue, celebrating the release of their new themed anthology Ceaseless West. Issue 172 contains three new stories, a reprint, a podcast, and more.

“Splitskin” by E. Catherine Tobler
My love reveled in winter’s sunbroken days, when the light spills to the fresh-fallen snow to stab a person in the eyes. Gugán flit from path to stone, a trickster comfortable with his Raven heritage. I, as Eagle, startled at every shift of snow, caught always unawares in the bright sun as he pelted me with clumps of melting cold.

“Swallowing Silver” by Erin Cashier
John Halpern knew it should be a heavy weight on his conscience, to wake up and know that he was going to kill a thing that used to be a man. Whether it was or wasn’t was a topic of much internal contemplation for him as he walked up the long path to his brother-in-law’s house to ask for help. The fact that his brother-in-law was himself a devil-man did not escape him.

“The Snake-Oil Salesman and the Prophet’s Head” by Shannon Peavey
Leaving Leo alone, with his brother’s head. Leo stepped closer to the jar. Cary’s white-blond hair floated up from his skull, the tips waving slightly. It looked like strands of spiderweb, or exposed nerves. “You still telling people things they don’t want to hear?” He tapped on the glass. As if he might rouse it to speech.

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Galaxy Science Fiction, September 1952: A Retro-Review

Galaxy Science Fiction, September 1952: A Retro-Review

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Galaxy Science Fiction September 1952-smallWith this issue, Galaxy completed its second year of publication. That’s 24 issues of top-notch science fiction. It’s tough to match that stamina, and I applaud H.L. Gold, his staff, the authors, and the artists for staying the course.

“Delay in Transit” by F. L. Wallace — Denton Cassal is a sales engineer, traveling toward the center of the galaxy to solicit a top scientist to work for his company on an instant communication device. His journey takes him through Tunney 21, a planet inhabited mostly by Goldophians, who look somewhat like seals. Equipped with an AI device named Dimanche, Cassal is able to read people based on their body chemistry and temperature. He’s being pursued, but Dimanche’s intelligence and advice give Cassal confidence, provided he’s willing to listen.

This piece was reprinted in Bodyguard and Four Other Short Science Fiction Novels From Galaxy edited by H. L. Gold in 1962. In this issue, however, it was credited as a novella. I liked the use of the AI as well as the setting of Tunney 21. Wallace also does a nice job with the pacing.

“The Snowball Efect” by Katherine MacLean — To prove the value of sociology (and his own department), Wilton Caswell meets with the university president to create a list of rules for an organization to employ in order to grow membership. If an organization adopts the rules and shows growth, then the president has quantitative proof of the depatment’s value; the underlying principles of philosophy can promote success to all graduates. Caswell and the president choose the Watashaw Sewing Circle for their experiment and then withdraw to see what happens. It turns out that the rules work. They work so well, in fact, that the sewing group expands into a broader organization — one focused on civic welfare and politics.

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The Dark Issue 8 now on Sale

The Dark Issue 8 now on Sale

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The Dark Issue 8-smallThe Dark continues its tradition of great covers, with a marvelous contribution this month from gaming artist Angus Yi. Check out his website here.

The Dark is a quarterly magazine co-edited by Jack Fisher and Sean Wallace. The eighth issue features four all-original short stories:

“The Ghost of You Lingers” by Kevin McNeil
“An Ocean of Eyes” by Cassandra Khaw
“A Shot of Salt Water” by Lisa L Hannett
“Momentary Sage” by Eric Schwitzgebel

You can read issues free online, or help support the magazine by subscribing to the ebook editions, available for the Kindle and Nook in Mobi and ePub format. Issues are around 50 pages, and priced at $2.99 through Amazon, B&N.com, Apple, Kobo, and other fine outlets. A one-year sub (six issues) is just $15 – subscribe today.

If you enjoy the magazine you can also support it by buying their books, reviewing stories, or even just leaving comments. Read issue 8 here, and see their complete back issue catalog here.

We last covered The Dark with Issue 7.

See our Late April Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.

Goodbye, Innsmouth Magazine

Goodbye, Innsmouth Magazine

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Innsmouth Magazine 15-smallI was dismayed to find, as I was cataloging our recent magazine coverage for the Late April Magazine Rack, that the delightful digital horror zine Innsmouth Magazine, published by Innsmouth Free Press, released its final issue last summer.

In a post titled “Goodbye, Innsmouth Magazine,” the editors offered a brief explanation:

Well, it had to happen sometime. Innsmouth Magazine says a fond farewell with its final issue, number 15, this spring. We’ve had fun putting together this little zine, but don’t make enough sales to keep it afloat. So, it must go.

It’s always a sad milestone when the field loses another fine magazine. The good news is that Innsmouth Free Press continues, and has recently produced some terrific books, including Jazz Age Cthulhu by Jennifer Brozek, A.D. Cahill, and Orrin Grey, and the anthology Sword & Mythos, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles. The final issue of the magazine, #15, is still worth your attention, and contains plenty of good stuff:

Innsmouth Magazine uncoils its tentacles with seven stories of the Weird and the macabre. Do you dare to stay in “The Peach Room”? Can you survive “The Lust of Ebon Teeth”? Could it be true that “The Ocean is Eating Our Graves”? Fiction by William Meikle and many others. Welcome to our final issue!

Innsmouth Magazine was edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles, and available exclusively in digital format for $4/issue. We last covered Innsmouth Magazine with issue #4. You can still purchase back issues through Amazon, Smashwords, Weightless Books, or right at their website.

Clarkesworld 104 Now on Sale

Clarkesworld 104 Now on Sale

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Clarkesworld 104-smallThe newest issue of Clarkesworld, one of the best genre mags on the market, is now on sale. Issue 104 contains five new short stories, plus reprints from James Van Pelt and Hannu Rajaniemi.

Short stories featured this issue are:

“The Garden Beyond Her Infinite Skies” by Matthew Kressel
“For the Love of Sylvia City” by Andrea M. Pawley
“Mrs. Griffin Prepares to Commit Suicide Tonight” by A Que, translated by John Chu
“Ossuary” by Ian Muneshwar
“An Evolutionary Myth” by Bo-Young Kim
“Solace” by James Van Pelt (from Analog, June 2009)
“Tyche and the Ants” by Hannu Rajaniemi (from Edge of Infinity, Nov 2012)

Non-fiction includes “Destination: Mars” by Andrew Liptak, who’s also been writing a fine series of pulp and classic SF retrospectives SF at Kirkus Reviews over the last few months (see a partial list here); “Another Word: It’s Good to Be Lazy and Foolish” by SF author Ken Liu; an interview with author and editor Cat Rambo; and an editorial, “Overload!” by Neil Clarke, in which he talks about (among other things) his upcoming Year’s Best Anthology: The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 1, to be published “sometime in 2016” by Night Shade Books. This issue also includes two podcasts.

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