Search Results for: "Weird Tales"

Weird Tales Deep Read: July 1936

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Margaret Brundage for Red Nails We return to the golden age of Weird Tales to consider the eleven stories in the July 1936 issue. This time around we’re dealing with many familiar authors, led by the triumvirate of C. L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard, one H. P. Lovecraft short of perfection. The big three present classic tales from their popular fantasy series (Northwest Smith, Zothique, Conan). The other familiar names deliver more of a mixed bag,…

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Women Do It Better? The Women of Weird Tales, from Valancourt Books

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The Women of Weird Tales By Everil Worrell, Eli Colter, Mary Elizabeth Counselman and Greye La Spina Introduction by Melanie Anderson Valancourt Books (280 pages, $24.99 hardcover/$16.99 paperback/$9.99 digital, November 3, 2020) It is well known by now that women had a pivotal role in the development of those literary genres called Gothic Fiction, Horror, Dark Fantasy, etc. If we look at the iconic Weird Tales, the golden era of which spanned the ‘20s to the ‘50s, female authors were constantly…

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Weird Tales Deep Read: May 1923

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Cover by William Heitman This time we’re considering another early Weird Tales, the third issue, May 1923. This was one of the oversized bed-sheet sized issues and contained 21 stories by 22 authors. Astonishingly, fourteen of these authors were one and done, with no additional published stories in the sf/fan field. Another two have two stories listed at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. The two most significant authors in this issue are Vincent Starrett, a long-time newspaper man who produced…

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Weird Tales Deep Read: November 1934

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Weird Tales, November 1934. Cover by Margaret Brundage (for “Queen of the Lillin”) We’re back on more familiar ground with this issue of Weird Tales from its classic period. More familiar authors are represented, and although not every story is a classic the editors at least avoided any real stumbles this. The issue grades out to a 2.1, which all in all is pretty decent. Both Howard and Lovecraft appear, although the Lovecraft tale is a reprint and the Howard is…

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Weird Tales Deep Read: June, 1923

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Cover by Heitman for “Murders in the Rue Morgue” June 1923 was the magazine’s fourth issue, and it was still clearly a magazine in search of itself. There are very few authors who had a major impact on the magazine appeared in this issue. The most notable name, of course, is Edgar Allen Poe with a reprint of one of his most famous tales (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”) and, secondarily, Otis Adelbert Kline, with a story largely forgotten today, but…

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Weird Tales Deep Read: August, 1934

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Yet another Brundage cover We have another nine stories to consider this time around, but what is particularly noteworthy is that all nine of the authors are at least somewhat well known. The most obscure on the list is probably Anthony Rud (here writing under the name of R. Anthony, perhaps best known for his story “Oooze,” arguably the best offering in WT’s initial issue [3-23]), which is partially due to his passing in 1942 at the relatively young age…

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Weird Tales Deep Read: October 1934

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Cover by Margaret Brundage This third installment of the Weird Tales deep read covers the eleven stories in the October 1934 issue, including the first Jirel of Joiry story by C. L. Moore. Her flame didn’t burn as long in the Unique Magazine as the Lovecraft-Howard-Smith trinity’s did, but it did burn as brightly. Moore had sixteen stories in Weird Tales between 1933-1939, twelve in an incredible burst of creativity in the years 1934-1936. This issue had three stories set in…

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Weird Tales Deep Read: March, 1933

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Weird Tales, March 1933. Cover by Margaret Brundage This installment of the deep read of the Unique Magazine examines the nine stories in the March, 1933 issue of Weird Tales. We see some familiar names from the previous column: Seabury Quinn, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and Harold Ward, as well as a couple who might be familiar to fans of pulp fiction, Otis Aldebert Kline and Paul Ernst. Kline is probably best known for his imitation Edgar Rice…

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Weird Tales Deep Read: July 1933

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Somewhat fanciful Brundage cover for “Hand of Glory” This is the first in a series of posts I’ve wanted to do for awhile now, a detailed look at a single issue of Weird Tales magazine where I do a short analysis of each story, the famous, the infamous, and the forgotten. Just to make things a little confusing, I rate these stories, unlike movies, on a 1-5 scale, with the lower the number, the better the story. You can look at…

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Yes, Weird Tales is Back

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Cover by Abigail Larson A few months ago I started to hear rumors that Weird Tales, the most storied and collectible American fantasy magazine of all time, had returned. Whispers, really. But I’d been hearing whispers for the last six years, ever since the last issue appeared from Nth Dimension Media, and especially since I published the article “Is Weird Tales Dead… Again?” in 2016. So I didn’t pay much attention. But then I heard more reliable reports, and started to…

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