WEIRD TALES Was the First Storytelling Magazine Devoted Explicitly to the Realm of the Dark FICTION and Fantastic
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W ® eird TalesFALL 2009 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.WEIRDTALESMAGAZINE.COM WEIRD TALES was the first storytelling magazine devoted explicitly to the realm of the dark FICTION and fantastic. Founded in 1923, WEIRD TALES AMBIENT MORGUE MUSIC | Richard Howard 22 provided a literary In which an Irish music journalist discovers home for such what lies beneath the avant-garde. diverse wielders of the imagination as EVERYBODY IS WAITING FOR SOMETHING H.P. Lovecraft Andrea Kneeland | In which the world changes twice. 28 (creator of Cthulhu), Robert E. Howard THE BUZZARD | Eric Red 32 (creator of Conan In which a cowboy faces his most unlikely nemesis. the Barbarian), Margaret SampleTHE HOUSE file THAT SMITH BUILT | Simon King Brundage (artistic In which homicide and suicide look alarmingly similar. 38 godmother of goth fetishism), and Ray THE MEN IN THAT WATER | Zdravka Evtimova Bradbury (author of In which a woman feels strongly about an asteroid. 40 The Illustrated Man and TWISTED | Kevin Veale Something Wicked In which the saga of zombies and brains goes gonzo. 50 This Way Comes). Today, O wondrous reader of the 21st century, we continue to seek out that POETRY which is most weird and unsettling, for your own edification HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS Lucy A. Snyder 49 All writers EDITORIAL & CREATIVE DIRECTOR Stephen H. Segal FICTION EDITOR Ann VanderMeer CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Amanda Gannon, Kenneth Hite, Darrell Schweitzer of suc stories ASSISTANT EDITOR/ONLINE Vanessa Ellis ASSISTANT EDITOR/OUTREACH Rae Bryant h EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Chelsea Bauch, Tessa Kum CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Steven Archer, Molly Crabapple, Alex Eckman-Lawn, Ira Marcks, Marc Robinson are prophets PUBLISHER John Gregory Betancourt EDITOR EMERITUS George H. Scithers SPECIAL FEATURE Happy 200th Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe 10 Growing Up Poe Five dark storytellers break down the Ravenific One’s presence in their young lives, from classroom recitals to angst-ridden longings to nightmare-fueled insomnia. 68 Tell-Tale Homes Poe’s adult life was marked by a succession of short- term abodes. Nick Mamatas tells us where—andSample why. file DEPARTMENTS 4 | THE BAZAAR | inventing the past to excavate it 6 | THE LIBRARY | never has the Death Star seemed so aptly named VOL. 64, NO. 2 | Issue 354 31 | HARVEY PELICAN & CO. | special offers from the esoterica king WEIRD TALES ® is published by Wildside Press, LLC. Postmaster and others: send 48 | STRANGE PAGES | Michael Swanwick finds a rare note all changes of address and other sub- scription matters to Wildside Press, 9710 72 | LOST IN LOVECRAFT | adrift amid the mysteries of antiquity Traville Gateway Dr. #234, Rockville MD 20850–7408. Single copies, $6.99 in U.S.A. 76 | THE CRYPTIC | the best fantasy art book in the history of the world & possessions; $10 by first class mail elsewhere. Subscriptions: 4 issues $20 in U.S.A. & possessions; $40 elsewhere, in U.S. funds. Single-copy orders should be addressed to WEIRD TALES at the COVER ILLUSTRATION | “Thaumaturge” by Andrew Trabbold address above. Copyright © 2009 by Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved; ANDREWTRABBOLD.BLOGSPOT.COM • TRABBOLD.DEVIANTART.COM reproduction prohibited without prior permission. Typeset & printed in the United States of America. WEIRD TALES ® is a registered trademark owned by Weird Tales, Limited. The ßazaar STRANGE ARTISANS & ARTIFACTS Sample file Steampunk Etc. | BY AMANDA GANNON JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN 4 ~ WEIRD TALES ~ Fall 2009 What treasures lie Rwithin Alex CF’s expedition cases? HE LOCK HAS been chipped away, and the Alex lavishes particular attention upon his crea- battered old case swings open easily to reveal tures. The albino werewolf fetus seems asleep in a T a biologist’s field kit, complete with a selec- hand-labeled jar of preservative, hairs stirring. The tion of dissecting tools, rows of test tubes, and bottles dessicated body of an infant triceratops lies on a bed full of samples: tissue, hair, teeth. Then we find a of excelsior, all sunken, pebbled skin and bony crucifix—a jarring, superstitious note that adds to ridges. They are absolutely believable as real crea- our growing unease. And finally there is a jar, well- tures, primitively preserved. sealed and very old. Tucked next to it, a diary and Alex’s work provides a glimpse into a time that several pages of hastily-scribbled notes testify to the never was, a world where the borders between sci- reality of what lies within. It’s a cryptozoologist’s ence and the unknown are far wider than they are dearest dream, or worst nightmare: a complete here snf now. It’s a world of time travel and were- werewolf fetus. Everything falls into place, realiza- wolves, vampire hunters, Elder Things, and fright- tions like clockwork. ening truths; a world in which Doctor Frankenstein Faced with such tangible evidence right in our and Herbert West could have performed their un- hands, it’s overwhelmingly tempting to believe —yet speakable experiments in very good company. It is a werewolves are figments of our imagination and tragic, horrific, wonderful world long familiar to us lycanthropy has been scientifically explained away. from the writings of Verne, Burroughs, and Lovecraft. Where, then, did this case of mysteries come from? And, indeed, Alex often draws direct inspiration Meet Alex CF, a U.K.-based “cryptozoological from early weird fiction and its recurring theme of pseudo-scientific assemblage artist and illustrator“ science pitted against the unknown, exploration who specializes in creating relics of a nonexistent against ignorance. “Many of my back-stories involve past. He brings each such project to life, like the men and women who have turned away from super- lycanthrope research case, in meticulous detail.Sample The stitionfile in the hope of finding solace in reason,” he process can take weeks as Alex gathers materials, says. “My greatest passion is the unknown—ideas sculpts creatures, assembles machines, creates and things we wish to understand, but cannot.” slides, fills journals with notes and drawings, and It is the attempt to understand the ineffable that replicates vintage photographs and daguerreotypes. forms the core of Alex’s art. It asks not only what if, The appearance of age is the critical fiction here, but also what is—not always a comfortable ques- the factor without which suspension of disbelief can- tion. Yet comfortable or not, somewhere deep in our not occur. Alex’s techniques yield completely convinc- twisted little hearts, don’t we hope that all those ing results; real antiques lie side by side with artifacts wonderful worlds we have always dreamt of are re- the artist has created from modern materials, and— ally out there, just waiting to be discovered? Would- save for those items we know cannot exist—the two n’t we secretly all love to go there, even for a are indistinguishable from one another. moment, no matter how frightening? Exploring these artifacts fosters a quiet, subtle It’s possible. It’s not far at all. Alex has already horror, and also an illicit thrill—a sensation famil- packed you a case. y iar to anyone who has ever spent hours poking through attics, libraries, and strange old museums hoping for a glimpse of the unknown. Alex’s art rep- A limited-edition pressing of Many Dead Things: The Spec- resents forbidden knowledge, indeed: stories of hu- imens of Lord Merrylin, a photographic history of Alex CF’s manity’s inhuman past, prehistoric plateaus, failed work, is available now on his Web site, with a wider print- experiments, and vanishing species that never were. ing to follow. Visit www.alexcf.com to pre-order. Arts & Culture ~ THE BAZAAR ~ 5 The library BOOKS, TOMES & GRIMOIRES Interview | BY SIMON THALMANN ZOMBIES WITH BLASTERS? In a galaxy far, far away, no oneR can hear you scream . T ’ S BEEN AN especially good October for horrorSample file novelist Joe Schreiber, who released two new nov- Iels on the 13th: an original haunted-house tale, No Doors, No Windows, and the first all-out horror novel set in the Star Wars universe, Death Troopers. The latter has generated huge buzz, and the book’s promoters have pulled out all the stops, giving it its own Web site, a tie-in “quest series” to the popular on- line game Star Wars Galaxies (marking the first time the game has introduced content inspired by a current novel? Like a lot of people my age, I grew up watch- novel), and an official StarWars.com “Zombie Week” ing the original three movies, and I loved them, and featuring undead-themed Star Wars art. We caught I still love them. My editor at Del Rey and Ballan- up with Schreiber, 40, by phone to discuss Death tine was also involved in the Star Wars expanded Troopers, which follows the plight of the survivors on universe books that they do, and there’d been a con- the Purge, an Imperial prison barge that breaks down versation with the office about how cool it would be in a distant, uninhabited part of space and comes to do a Star Wars horror novel, and they asked me if across a seemingly abandoned Star Destroyer. I would be interested in it, and I jumped at the chance . I definitely went about it with the idea of How does one transition from writing straight writing a book that you wouldn’t necessarily have to horror novels to writing a Star Wars horror be a huge fan of Star Wars to enjoy. I mean, you 6 ~ WEIRD TALES ~ Fall 2009 could read it as sort of a standalone horror or sus- pense novel; that was sort of my approach when I tackled it. How was the writing process different using a preexisting world? It was ironically liberating, ac- tually.