Sunday, October 20, 2019

WEIRD TALES No. 363


WEIRD TALES
Vol 68, No.1 -Issue # 363
Editor Marvin Kaye
Weird Tales Inc.
76 pgs.

Reading this “new” Weird Tales had us going backward in time when this pulp monthly was the most popular magazine on the newsstands. Via its pages, the “old” Weird Tales gave the world Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. If that’s all it had delivered, it would clearly have been enough. But it gave the world of American fiction so much more with an endless list of writers and artists today considered cultural legends.

Now a new group of dreamers have picked up the banner, collected a group of talented fantasiest and given us a whole new treasure chest of dark, twisted tales. Here are stories to build nightmares upon, beautiful told by Victor Lavalle, Josh Malerman, Lisa Morton, Jonathan Maberry, Hank Schwaeble and Marc Bilgrey.  Of them, our personal favorite being Maberry’s “Shadows Beneath the Stone,” which is as good a sword and sorcery yarn as we’ve ever read.

There is also bizarre poetry we are totally unqualified to judge and artwork we do hardly applaud. Desgin Director Jeff Wong has created such a beautiful package; just looking through the issue was a rewarding experience and his melding of story and illustrations simply inspiring.

So thank you, all who had a hand in bringing back Weird Tales. You’ve done something truly special here and it’s our hope, like the old classic, this new incarnation is around for a very long, long time.

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