The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

JOURNALS, NEWSLETTERS, MAGAZINES, AND WEBZINES

It’s important to recognize the work of the talented artists working in the field of fantastic fiction, both dark and light. The following artists created art that I thought especially noteworthy during 2011: Richard Wagner, Mark Pexton, Lee Moyer, Mikio Murakami, Daniele Serra, Lori Koefoed, Olivia Kernott, Brad Foster, Ben Baldwin, Paul Milne, Thomas Canty, Rik Rawling, Tim Mullins, Daniel Trout, Paula Friedlander, Caniglia, Stephen J. Clark, Chris Roberts, Brom, David Gentry, Carrie Ann Baade, Linda Saboe, Stephen James Kiniry, Nico Photos, Gabrielle Faust, Stephen Stanley, Chihiro Aldrich, John Kaaine, Dave McKean, Jason Van Hollander, Steve Hambidge, James Ng, Alia Yusuf, John Stanton, Randy Broecker, and Dan Henk.

Because of the annual turnover in small-press magazines — most rarely last more than a year or two — it’s difficult to recommend buying a subscription to those that haven’t proven their longevity. But I urge readers to at least buy single issues of those that sound interesting. Most magazines have web sites with subscription information, eliminating the need to include it here.

Some of the most important magazines/webzines are those specializing in news of the field, market reports, and reviews. The Gila Queen’s Guide to Markets, edited by Kathryn Ptacek, emailed to subscribers on a regular basis, is an excellent fount of information for markets in and outside the horror field. Market Maven, edited by Cynthia Ward is a monthly email newsletter specializing in professional and semi-professional speculative fiction market news. Ralan.com and Duotrope.com are the web sites for up-to-date market information. Locus, edited by Liza Groen Trombi and Locus Online, edited by Mark Kelly specialize in news about the science fiction and fantasy fields, but include horror coverage as well.

The only major venues specializing in reviewing short genre fiction are Tangent Online, Locus Magazine, and Locus Online, but none of them specialize in horror.

The British Fantasy Society has combined Prism edited by David A. Riley, New Horizons edited by Andrew Hook and Dark Horizons edited by Peter Coleborn, poetry edited by Ian Hunter its news, fantasy, and horror journals into one large BFS journal. The publication is provided free for members of the organization. Four issues were published in 2011. The new journal contains a news column, lots of fiction, book and film reviews, and interviews. There were notable stories and poetry by Stephen Bacon, Terry Grimwood, Jim Steel, Joel Lane, John Forth, Christopher M. Geeson, Marc-Anthony Taylor, Robert Mammone, James Brogden, and Sam Verrall. In the Autumn issue it was announced that New Horizons would be no more and that Prism and Dark Horizons would continue to be combined, with Lou Morgan taking over the editorship of Prism from David A. Riley. Peter Coleborn continues as editor of Dark Horizons.

The Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter is edited by Rosemary Pardoe and continues to be published periodically. There were two issues out in 2011, and each included pieces of fiction in addition to scholarly essays and discussions of Jamesian work.

The Weird Review edited by S. T. Joshi and published by Centipede Press put out its second issue in the fall. It included eight pieces of fiction (two of them reprints), several pieces of poetry, a gallery of art by Alexander Binder, and five essays about horror and the weird tale.

Fangoria edited by Chris Alexander is the daddy of the existing magazines that cover horror movies of all types, and overall, it’s superficial but entertaining, covering big budget and independent horror productions, the grislier the better. The magazine also features regular columns on news, DVD releases, video games, horror music, comics, and books. And lots of gore. Fangoria celebrated its 300^th issue in February with capsule descriptions of dozens of horror movies from A-Z beginning with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and ending with Lucio Fulci’s Zombie.

Rue Morgue, edited by Jovanka Vuckovic, is another monthly media magazine covering horror in all its bloody glory (with the still photos to prove it) but unlike Fangoria, in between the gore there are often thoughtful articles and columns. One of the best things about Rue Morgue is their regular “Classic Cut” column on the last page of the magazine, which covers excellent, often obscure horror sources.