Video Watchdog is a bi-monthly magazine edited by Tim Lucas that specializes in analyzing the minute details of all kinds of movies, and is erudite yet entertaining. In addition to reviewing movies, there is a regular audio column by Douglas E. Winter, a book review column, and a regular column by Ramsey Campbell.
Black Static edited by Andy Cox is the consistently best magazine of dark fiction. A bi-monthly with several columns about movies and television, it has loads of reviews in addition to the fiction. The strongest stories in 2011 were by V.H. Leslie, Ray Cluley, James Cooper, Tim Lees, Carole Johnstone, Christopher Fowler, Daniel Kaysen, Barbara A. Barnett, Steven Pirie, Simon Bestwick, Alan Wall, Andrew Hook, and Alison Littlewood. Stories by Bestwick and Littlewood are reprinted herein.
Shock Totem: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted edited by K. Allen Wood is a bi-annual dark fantasy and horror magazine with fiction and a little bit of nonfiction. The two issues in 2011 had strong stories by Aaron Polson, John Haggerty, Amanda C. Davis, Steven Pirie, Meckenzie Larsen, Lee Thompson, and Jeremy Kelly.
Dark Discoveries edited by James Beach had two issues out in 2011. Over the year it featured several good interviews with writers and artists, an essay about the emergence of splatterpunk and extreme horror in fiction plus a strong story by Nick Mamatas.
Supernatural Tales edited by David Longhorn comes out twice a year and is generally jam packed with excellent dark fiction, plus a handful of book reviews. In 2011 the strongest stories were by Stephen Cashmore, Andrew Alford, Katherine Haynes, and Louis Marvick.
Shadows & Tall Trees edited by Michael Kelly published its second issue in autumn 2011 and continues to fulfill its promise with an attractive, readable design and strong dark fiction plus movie and book reviews. The stories I liked best were by Louis Marvick, Alison Littlewood, Eric Schaller, and Ian Rogers.
Inhuman edited by Allen Koszowski specializes in updates of the classic pulp monster story, and features a generous number of illustrations by Koszowski throughout. The one issue out in 2011 mixed reprints with originals. Among the originals, there’s a notable story by Darrell Schweitzer.
Unspoken Water: Poetry and Short Fiction of the Strange edited by Ian Hunter (Red Raw Press) had two issues. The creepiest stories (and one poem) were by Steve Rasnic Tem, Gary McMahon, Kristine Ong Muslim, Steve Lockley, and Andrew Hook.
Dark Tales edited by Sean Jeffery is a UK magazine that’s up to its fifteenth issue but as far as I can recall, is new to me. It includes thirteen stories in seventy-five pages, with impressive dark fiction by Sally Quilford, Richard Smith, Bruce Currie, Kate Measom, Georgina Bruce, and Benjamin Mitchell. I’m looking forward to the next issue.
Phantasmagorium edited by Laird Barron is a new literary fiction quarterly that debuted in October in an electronic edition and a few months later in a print edition. There were six stories in this first issue, and I especially enjoyed those by Genevieve Valentine, Simon Strantzas, and Stephen Graham Jones. The Anna Tambour tale about dragons who have forgotten how to behave like dragons is not horrific, but it’s charming and would make a wonderful children’s picture book.
The Sirenia Digest is a long-running email newsletter by Caitlín R. Kiernan. For $10 a month, the reader might read a preview of a new work, a fragment of an old rare one or a brand new story or poem, usually by Kiernan, occasionally by one of her friends.
MIXED-GENRE MAGAZINES
