Hello, Black Gate denizens. Mike Allen here of the Monstrous Posts on Monsters and the Clockwork Phoenix anthologies. John O’Neill has asked me to write you folks a follow up on how the Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter I told you about earlier this year turned out (SPOILER ALERT: it was a smashing success) and share tips on some of the tricks I learned. I’ve got something laden with all sorts of graphics that I’ll post for you later in the…
“Even without a weapon, the warrior can slay his enemy from a hundred paces. But the ultimate ideal is when the sword disappears altogether. The warrior embraces all around him. The desire to kill no longer exists. Only peace remains.” –The King of Qin, HERO Back in 2000 director Ang Lee reinvented the kung fu film (or “wuxia film”) with his Oscar-winning CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. Inspired by the great tradition of Chinese martial arts films, Lee brought solid storytelling,…
Yes, even Goth Chicks sleep with something under their pillows. It started with a Deady Bear, then a vintage Rocky Horror Picture Show t-shirt and then a Living Dead Doll. But until now, it had never been a magazine. About a month ago, I became acquainted with Dark Beauty and fell instantly in love. Not in a Johnny-Depp-as-Jack-Sparrow kind of way, but in a David-Bowie-in-jodhpurs-with-a-riding-crop-in-Labyrinth kind of way. In other words, hopelessly. A little digging led me to artist extraordinaire and Editor…
The latest issue of the Grand Old Lady of dark fantasy, Weird Tales, arrived at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters last week. This is issue 356, Summer 2010, of a magazine that’s been published semi-regularly since 1923. This issue’s theme is “Uncanny Beauty: A celebration of the eerily sensuous.” Fittingly, it includes fiction from the eerily sensuous Catherynne M. Valente, as well as a tarot card riff on an eerily sensuous Lady Gaga video, written by the entirely sensuous Amal…
“The Weird of Ironspell” by John R. Fultz Illustrations by Alex Sheikman ( CONCLUSION! ) 8. The Breaking of the Weird His name was a legend in every kingdom of Arboria although some scholars argued that he had never existed. Ironspell was a myth, an allegory, a fireside yarn that grizzled storytellers traded for ale and roasted meat. Long after the War of Darkness had ended, long after the Death Plague was wiped from the continent, and decades…
In the grand tradition of the heroic fantasy pulps comes “The Weird of Ironspell” — a serialized novella of original Sword-and-Sorcery adventure coming to you over the next few weeks. Catch a new self-contained chapter every Wednesday right here at blackgate.com. The saga continues… “The Weird of Ironspell” by John R. Fultz Illustrations by Alex Sheikman 2. The Moon God’s Bride They marched out of the wasteland, where the bones of dead cities lay smothered beneath a sea…
It might surprise regular readers of this website that Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard are not my favorite pulp writers. They rank among the authors who have influenced and inspired me the most—and they provide endless material to discuss and analyze. But my favorite pulper, perhaps my favorite writer of all time, is Cornell Woolrich. I haven’t written anything about Woolrich on Black Gate before because his genre doesn’t intersect with the dominant focus of the magazine, except…
This post packs two punches: A showcase of the New Treasure A Clockwork’s Dreaming: And Other Tales by Claude Moreau and Scott Oden (January 2025, 134 pages, Kindle and Paperback). An exclusive interview with the deceased author Claude Moreau, the living translator Scott Oden, and special appearances of Laurent Dupont, editor of the literary magazine Les Petites Merveilles. Yes, this article is historic and magical. Read on to learn how this came to be.
Black Gate’s interview series on “Beauty in Weird Fiction” queries authors/artists about their muses and methods to make ‘repulsive things’ become ‘attractive.’ We’ve hosted C.S. Friedman, Carol Berg, Darrell Schweitzer, Anna Smith Spark, and Janet E Morris (full list of 29 interviews, with Black Gate hosting since 2018). This round features C. S. E. Cooney (CSEC), who is no stranger to Black Gate [link to listings]. She is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: first, for Bone Swans: Stories, and most recently for Saint Death’s Daughter. Previously on Black…
The Revelations of Zang by John R. Fultz. The Rogues in the House Podcast (2023). John Molinero cover art. The Rogues in the House Podcast, publishers of the Sword & Sorcery anthologies A Book of Blades Vol I and Vol II, now bring us a re-release of John R. Fultz’s The Revelations of Zang (available now in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover). John R. Fultz is no stranger to Black Gate having published in the hardcopy magazine and hosting his Skulls…