Beth K. Lewis (ed.) – The New Gothic

Beth K. Lewis (ed.) – The New Gothic  (Stone Skin Press, 2013)

Cover: Jason Morningstar

Beth K. Lewis – Introduction

Jesse Bullington & S. J. Chambers – Dive In Me
Fi Michell – The Debt Collector
Laura Ellen Joyce – The Death Bell
Richard Dansky – A Meeting In The Devil’s House
Steve Dempsey – No Substitute
Ramsey Campbell – Reading The Signs
Dmetri Kakmi – The Boy By The Gate
Sean Logan – Viola’s Second Husband
Mason Wild – The Devil In A Hole
Damien Kelly – The Whipping Boy
Phil Reeves – The Vault of Artemas Smith
Ed Martin – The Fall Of The Old Faith

Biographies

Blurb:
The Gothic is the most enduring.literary tradition in history, but in recent years friendly ghosts and vegetarian vampires threaten its foundations. The New Gothic is a collection of short stories which revisits the core archetypes of the Gothic – the rambling, secret-filled building, the stranger seeking answers, the black-hearted tyrant – and reminds us not to embrace, but to fear the darkness.

A dozen tales of terror fill this anthology including an original, never-before-seen story from the godfather of modem horror, Ramsey Campbell.

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – The Giant Book Of Best New Horror

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – The Giant Book Of Best New Horror (Magpie, 1993, 1994)

Cover: Luis Rey

Introduction – Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell

Robert R. McCammon – Pin
Brian Lumley – No Sharks In The Med
Chet Williamson – … To Feel Another’s Woe
Stephen Gallagher – The Horn
Peter Straub – A Short Guide To The City
Robert Westall – The Last Days Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux
Ian Watson – The Eye Of The Ayatollah
Cherry Wilder – Alive In Venice
Thomas Tessier – Blanca
Steve Rasnic Tem – Carnal House
Michael Marshall Smith – The Man Who Drew Cats
Thomas Ligotti – The Last Feast Of Harlequin
Donald R. Burleson – Snow Cancellations
J. W. Jeter – True Love
J. L. Comeau – Firebird
Karl E. Wagner – Cedar Lane
D. F. Lewis – Mort Au Monde
Nicholas Royle – Negatives
Richard Laymon – Bad News
Elizabeth Hand – On The Town Route
Alan Brennert – Ma Qui
David J. Schow – Incident On A Rainy Night In Beverly Hills
Kathe Koja – Impermanent Mercies
Ian MacLeod – 1/72nd Scale
Ramsey Campbell – The Same In Any Language
Poppy Z. Brite – His Mouth Will Taste Of Wormwood
Charles L. Grant – Our Life In An Hourglass
Grant Morrison – The Braille Encyclopedia
David Sutton – Those Of Rhenea
Joel Lane – Power Cut
Harlan Ellison – Jane Doe
F. Paul Wilson – Pelts
Jean-Daniel Breque – On The Wing
Douglas Clegg – Where Flies Are Born
Garry Kilworth – Inside The Walled City
Jonathan Carroll – The Dead Love You
S. P. Somtow – Chui Chai
Dennis Etchison – When They Gave Us Memory
Gene Wolfe – Lord Of The Land
Gahan Wilson – Mister Ice Cold
Kim Newman – The Original Dr. Shade

600+ page compilation derived from the first two Best New Horror collections. The customary lengthy introduction and Necrology are missed, but this all-story Best New Horror is possibly my favourite of the entire series to date.

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 3

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 3 (Robinson, 1992)

Luis Rey

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Introduction:  Horror in 1991

K.W. Jeter – True Love
Ramsey Campbell – The Same in Any Language
Kathe Koja – Impermanent Mercies
Alan Brennert – Ma Qui
Robert R. McCammon – The Miracle Mile
Steve Rasnic Tem – Taking Down the Tree
Douglas Clegg – Where Flies Are Born
Roger Johnson – Love, Death and the Maiden
S.P. Somtow – Chui Chai
Kim Newman – The Snow Sculptures of Xanadu
Edward Bryant – Colder Than Hell
Nancy A. Collins – Raymond
Charles L. Grant – One Life, in an Hourglass
Grant Morrison – The Braille Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Hand – The Bacchae
David J. Scow – Busted in Buttown
Russell Flinn – Subway Story
Thomas Ligotti – The Medusa
Joel Lane – Power Cut
Nicholas Royle – Moving Out
Norman Partridge – Guignoir
William F. Nolan – Blood Sky
David Starkey – Ready
Karl Edward Wagner – The Slug
Michael Marshall Smith – The Dark Land
Dennis Etchison – When They Gave Us Memory
J.L. Comeau – Taking Care of Michael
Thomas Tessier – The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank
Nina Kiriki Hoffman – Zits

Stephen Jones & Kim Newman – Necrology: 1991

Thanks to Alan J. Frackelton for the cover scan and contents!

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 2

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 2 (Robinson, 1991)

cover: Luis Rey

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Horror in 1990

K.W. Jeter – The First Time
Peter Straub – A Short guide to the City
Elizabeth Massie – Stephen
Jonathan Carroll – The Dead Love You
Harlan Ellison – Jane Doe #112
Ray Garton – Shock Radio
Michael Marshall Smith – The Man Who Drew Cats
Melanie Tem – The Co-Op
Nicholas Royle – Negatives
Thomas Ligotti – The Last Feast of Harlequin
Ian R. MacLeod – 1/72nd Scale
Karl Edward Wagner – Cedar Lane
Kim Antieau – At a Window Facing West
Garry Kilworth – Inside the Walled City
Jean Daniel-Braque (trans. Nicholas Royle) – On the Wing
J.L. Comeau – Firebird
David J. Schow – Incident On a Rainy Night in Beverly Hills
Poppy Z. Brite- His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood
Kim Newman – The Original Dr. Shade
D.F. Lewis – Madge
Cherry Wilder – Alive in Venice
Gregory Frost – Divertimento
F. Paul Wilson – Pelts
David Sutton – Those of Rhenea
Gene Wolfe – Lord of the Land
Steve Rasnic Tem – Aquarium
Gahan Wilson – Mr. Ice Cold
Elizabeth Hand – On The Town Route

Stephen Jones & Kim Newman – Necrology: 1990

Thanks to Alan J. Frackelton for the cover scan and contents!

Ramsey Campbell – New Tales Of The Cthulhu Mythos

Ramsey Campbell (ed.) – New Tales Of The Cthulhu Mythos (Grafton, 1980)

Ramsey Campbell – Introduction

Stephen King – Crouch End
A. A. Attanasio – The Star Pools
Brian Lumley – The Second Wish
Frank Belknap Long – Dark Awakening
Basil Copper – Shaft Number 247
T. E. D. Klein – Black Man with a Horn
H. P. Lovecraft & Martin S. Warnes – The Black Tome of Alsophocus
David Drake – Than Curse the Darkness
Ramsey Campbell – The Faces at Pine Dunes
Notes on Contributors
Blurb:
RETURN TO THE CAVES OF ABOMINATION

Mythmaker, visionary, conjuror of nightmare, outsider in his own century, H. P. Lovecraft called a whole universe into being: Great Cthulhu, the blind idiot god Azathoth, the sunken realm of R’Iyeh, the infamous Necronomicon – a world peopled with a festering pantheon of creatures who stalked upon the Earth before humanity’s spanning …

In their own startlingly modern interpretations of the Cthulhu Mythos, these contemporary adepts of abomination will guide you to the caves of abject, unrelenting terror, where vast unspeakable presences wait in the clammy darkness. Then they will turn off the lights …

Ramsey Campbell – Meddling with Ghosts

Ramsey Campbell (ed.) – Meddling with Ghosts (British Library, 2001)

Ramsey Campbell – Introduction

J. Sheridan Le Fanu – The Familiar
F. Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth
Mary Cholmondeley – Let Loose
Augustus Jessop – An Antiquary’s Ghost Story
Sabine Baring-Gould – Glámr
Perceval Landon – Thurnley Abbey
T. G. Jackson – The Red House
Mrs. H. D. Everett – The Death Mask
D. N. J. – The Moon-Gazer
Fritz Leiber – Smoke Ghost
L. T. C. Rolt – The Mine
A. N. L. Munby – The White Sack
T. E. D. Klein – Petey
Sheila Hodgson – Echoes from the Abbey
Ramsey Campbell – The Guide
Terry Lamsley – Two Returns

Rosemary Pardoe – The James Gang (article)

Anthology of 16 ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James, selected and introduced by Ramsey Campbell.

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell (eds.) – The Best New Horror (Robinson, 1990)

Les Edwards

Introduction: Horror in 1989 – Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell

Robert R. McCammon – Pin
Cherry Wilder – The House On Cemetery Street
Stephen Gallagher – The Horn
Alex Quiroba – Breaking Up
Ramsey Campbell – It Helps If You Sing
Laurence Staig – Closed Circuit
Steve Rasnic Tem – Carnal House
Kim Newman – Twitch Technicolor
Gregory Frost – Lizaveta
Donald R. Burleson – Snow Cancellations
Nicholas Royle – Archway
Thomas Ligotti – The Strange Design Of Master Rignolo
Chet Williamson – …To Feel Another’s Woe
Robert Westall – The Last Day Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux
Brian Lumley – No Sharks In The Med
D. F. Lewis – Mort au Monde
Thomas Tessier – Blanca
Ian Watson – The Eye Of The Ayatollah
Karl Edward Wagner – At First Just Ghostly
Richard Laymon – Bad News

Necrology: 1989 – Stephen Jones & Kim Newman

includes:

Stephen Gallagher – The Horn: Three strangers, Mick, Dave and the narrator, are marooned inside a hut during a snow blizzard. The cabin is base to the clean-up team who attend the grim business of scraping up accident casualties and one wall is plastered with newspaper accounts of this stretch of motorway’s greatest hits.

“Entire families wiped out. A teenage girl decapitated. Lorry drivers crushed when their cabs folded around them like stepped-upon Coke cans ….. an unwanted mistress dumped, Jimmy Hoffa-style, into the wire skeleton of a bridge piling that had been boxed-up ready to take concrete the next morning. ENTOMBED ALIVE! the headline said, but even that looked kind of pale next to the disaster involving the old folks’ outing and the pet food truck full of offal.

When their gas cylinder – the only source of heat – conks out, the men have an unpleasant decision to make. Stay here and probably freeze to death, or head out into the snowstorm, make for the huge articulated rig about half a mile on and sit it out in the warm cabin. Mick volunteers to go on ahead and give them a blast on the horn once he’s got the heater going.

But a murderous something else has beaten him to it ….

Michael Marshall Smith – The Man Who Drew Cats: One day old Tom just blew into Kingstown, stepped into The Hogshead Bar and the locals – unusually for them – took to the quiet fellow straight away. A quiet and private man, he makes his living from the extraordinary paintings he tosses off for tourists and sometimes when the mood takes him, he chalks his more complex designs on the pavement. But when he befriends little Billy and his mom and learns that her nogoodnik, drunken husband regularly beats the shit out of them both, he draws something really terrifying.

Chet Williamson – …To Feel Another’s Woe: The beautiful Sheila Remarque is a stage actress of exceptional ability but her gift is not for acting: she vamps the emotions of all those who come in close contact with her, draining them until they are little more than zombies.

Robert McCammon – Pin: The psychotic Joey Shatterly stands before the mirror diving the pin through each of his pupils in turn prior to stepping out with his rifle and seven bullets …

Nicholas Royle – Archway: From the day she moves into her North London flat, Bella is haunted by the scornful laughter of an old, grey faced tramp she’s see on the street. She is unfairly dismissed from her job, encounters the red-tape horrors of the DSS and faces eviction. Finally …

***

Several of these stories, along with selections from vols. 2 and 3, were resurrected in The Giant Book Of Best New Horror (Magpie, 1993, 1994)

Continues on the Vault Of Evil Forum: Best New Horror 1

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 4

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell (eds.) – Best New Horror 4 (Robinsons, Carroll & Graf, Nov. 1993)
.

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Introduction: Horror In 1992

Scott Edelman – The Suicide Artist
Roberta Lannes – Dancing On A Blade Of Dreams
Clive Barker – The Departed
Poppy Z. Brite – How To Get Ahead In New York
John Brunner – They Take
Lisa Tuttle – Replacements
Graham Joyce – Under The Pylon
Thomas Ligotti – The Glamour
John Gordon – Under The Ice
Joel Lane – And Some Are Missing
Les Daniels – The Little Green Ones
Steve Rasnic Tem – Mirror Man
Sarah Ash – Mothmusic
Karl Edward Wagner – Did They Get You To Trade?
Nicholas Royle – Night Shift Sister
Simon Ings & M. John Harrison – The Dead
Christopher Fowler – Norman Wisdom And The Angel Of Death
Kim Newman – Red Reign
Peter Atkins – Aviatrix
Ian R. MacLeod – Snodgrass
Kate Wilhelm – The Day Of The Sharks
M. John Harrison – Anima
Douglas E. Winter – Bright Lights, Big Zombie
Peter Straub – The Ghost Village

Stephen Jones & Kim Newman – Necrology

In their introduction, the editors refer to 1992 as the year of the vampire but, judged on this selection at least, there was also a trend for festooning your horror fiction with pop culture references. Rog has already tackled several of these on a Giant Book Of Terror thread, but no harm in having another go. As Nemo Skagg would say, “It’s all bollocks anyway”. So, to bollocks.

Douglas E Winter – Bright Lights, Big Zombie: “Miami is gone, carpet-bombed back into swampland … Food riots in Boston and Providence … A news team in Palm Springs got footage of what looks like a zombified Tom Cruise, his buttocks chewed away but otherwise intact ….”

Black Wednesday was the day the zombies rose from their graves to re-enact The Night Of The Living Dead for real, great news for horror fans until all zombie and cannibal films were banned outright by the state, leading to a flourishing underground trade in badly recorded pirate copies of Cannibal Holocaust, Eaten Alive, Trap Them And Kill Them, etc.

We follow the adventures of a horror magazine editor as he and his colleagues try and acquire more stock and keep their glossy going in the face of police harassment. When they’ve bought up everything available, the logical next step is to make their own flesh eating films. How timely that the living dead version of Miranda, the only woman our hero ever loved, should show up as they’re filming a live zombie massacre. Well, she always wanted to be in the movies.

This one references John Lydon, P.I.L.’s This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get, Billy Graham (still leading candlelight prayer vigils!), the Forbidden Planet chain and Oingo Boingo.

Christopher Fowler – Norman Wisdom And The Angel Of Death: “I would like to say that he died in order to make the world a safer, cleaner place, but the truth is that we went for a drink together and I killed him in a sudden fit of rage because he had not heard of Joyce Grenfell. How the Woman Who Won The Hearts Of The Nation in her thrice-reprised role as Ruby Gates in the celebrated St. Trinians films could have passed by him unnoticed is still a mystery to me.”

Stanley Morrison, a Hospital Visiting Friend in the employ of Haringey Council, readies his patients for death by instructing them on the history of radio shows and Brit films from the ‘fifties and ‘sixties and those who starred in them. If that doesn’t bore them into the next word, his tampering with their intravenous drips certainly does. Morrison’s dark secrets are exposed when he takes in the wheelchair-bound diabetic and nosey parker Saskia who, despite sharing his fondness for Norman Wisdom, Tony Hancock, Hattie Jacques, the divine Joyce & co., frowns on his mass murdering tendencies. Do you suppose Harold Shipman added names to his ‘to do’ list on the grounds they weren’t au fait with Carry On Again Doctor? And what did Haringey council ever do to our Chris to upset him so?

Karl E. Wagner – Did They Get You To Change?: Nemo Skagg, former lead singer with hugely influential punk band Needle (Excessive Bodily Fluids, The Coppery Taste Of Blood, etc.), is now a grimy down and out alcoholic, cadging cigs and 10p’s with the best of us. Ryan Chase, a good natured American portrait artist, generously funds their pub crawl from Bloomsbury through to Kensington Market in return from Skagg’s story of “where it all went wrong”. Finally, in the squat-cum-vault that Skagg has made his “home”, Ryan learns that the fallen idol is one star who never forgot his loyal fans, particularly the dead ones.

Name-checks include Sid Vicious & Nancy Spungeon, Betty Page, Brian Jones, Elvis, several dead rock and film stars and Tennant’s Super.

Nicholas Royle – Night Shift Sister: Record shop owner Carl finds a map in the street and is henceforth haunted by a teenage goth whose face is a perfect composite of his heroine, Siouxsie Sioux and his former partner, Christine. She lures him to his doom by means of a white label pressing of … a gasholder in action. Royle works plenty of Banshee lyrics and titles into his prose – “His stomach went into a slow dive. But it was love in a void …” etc – which some may find inspired. My eyes just shot to the ceiling. Intriguing supernatural mystery or smarmy horror with way too many ‘O’ levels? You decide …

See the Vault of Evil Best New Horror 4 thread

Pantechnicon #6

Pantechnicon Issue Six is now available.

Contents:

STORIES

The Interpreter
Centuries after a toxic atmosphere has confined Humanity to Earth, something wants to leave the planet.
To do that, it’ll need the help of an Interpreter – one of the professionals who use the Rosetta drug to facilitate diplomacy.
Together, they’ll change the world completely.
Luke Tudge

The Dopple Gang Show – Part One
Jacob Rieser’s not going to get an insurance payout for the destruction of his flat. Apparently the Loss Adjuster doesn’t believe his tale of parallell worlds, gorillas in armour, and a doppleganger who tried to kill him.
The first part in a new ongoing series.
Colin Sinclair

Blakenship & Dawes in: The Island of Ignominy!
Following the sinking of an ocean liner bound for South Afrika, Avery Dawes and James Blakenship find themselves stranded on an idyllic island.
Admittedly the island is dominated by an active volcano, the natives are mechanised spider-bodies with human heads, and the fellows in question are armed with naught but their wits and, well, their wits, but an English Gentleman must keep a stiff upper lip about him at all times.
Jens Rushing

Innocent
Josephine is a harlot. A whore of Babylon, put on this Earth to tempt men and women alike. Her sensuality is unavoidable, undeniable.
Her mother knows this. Tempted by her own daughter, unable to bear it any longer, she struggles through life torn between what she should feel and what she does feel.
Josephine is four years old.
Victoria Snelling

The Resetting Sun
Allison’s Father has created the most advanced artificial life-form yet. Designed from the ground-up to be the most advanced weapon available to the military, he’s indistinguishable from a human being to the casual eye.
And he’s fallen in love with Allison.
Quentin Mark Pierson

Split
Set in the same universe as Krill (Issue Four), Split sees Jupiter yet again under examination – this time by husband and wife team Ashley Havers and Sindra Vandrewala.
David Brookes

FEATURES

The Ghost School Trilogy
Tony Lee takes a look at this collection of Korean horror films.

Deeply Disturbing:
An Interview with the Grand Master of Horror, Ramsey Campbell
Seriously. Do you need any more than that?

COLUMNS

Guest Column: Stephen Volk
Screenwriter Stephen Volk takes a look at the rebirth of Hammer, and asks whether it’s really a good idea to go digging around in cinema’s graveyard.

The Fandom Menace
When you wish upon a star
Why? Why demand your favourite franchise returns, only to rip it to shreds? Curse you, fandom!

DVD has killed my inner child
Documentaries on DVDs that tell you all about how the effects were done. Blessing, or curse? Discuss.

Trudi Topham

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell – Best New Horror 1

Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell (eds.) – The Best New Horror (Robinson, 1990)

Les Edwards

Introduction: Horror in 1989 – Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell

Robert R. McCammon – Pin
Cherry Wilder – The House On Cemetery Street
Stephen Gallagher -The Horn
Alex Quiroba – Breaking Up
Ramsey Campbell – It Helps If You Sing
Laurence Staig – Closed Circuit
Steve Rasnic Tem – Carnal House
Kim Newman – Twitch Technicolor
Gregory Frost – Lizaveta
Donald R. Burleson – Snow Cancellations
Nicholas Royle – Archway
Thomas Ligotti – The Strange Design Of Master Rignolo
Chet Williamson -…To Feel Another’s Woe
Robert Westall – The Last Day Of Miss Dorinda Molyneaux
Brian Lumley – No Sharks In The Med
D. F. Lewis – Mort au Monde
Thomas Tessier – Blanca
Ian Watson – The Eye Of The Ayatollah
Karl Edward Wagner – At First Just Ghostly
Richard Laymon – Bad News

Necrology: 1989 – Stephen Jones & Kim Newman