Thursday, September 01, 2016

Skelos: The Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy.

Skelos: The Journal of WeirdFiction and Dark Fantasy. Volume 1, Issue 1. Magazine: Summer 2016: 158 pages, Skelos Press.

 

How nice to once more hold in my hands a thick, meaty magazine in print form. The new Skelos Journal makes a solid debut on the scene, and I’m happy to know that more issues are to come. If the editors can keep up the quality of issue #1, we fans of pulp and fantasy fiction will have something to be proud of.

There are three managing editors for the new magazine, Mark Finn, Chris Gruber, and Jeffrey Shanks. All are known for their interest in and commitment to the work of Robert E. Howard, but Skelos is not a Howard journal, of which there are several out there.  Howard is represented in the first issue, but Skelos is a “weird fiction” magazine, and all that entails. This means it can’t be pigeonholed into one genre.

For one thing, the new magazine contains fiction of various lengths alongside scholarly—but not dry academic—articles. It contains poetry and even an illustrated comic-style story. The fiction and poetry is an interesting mix of heroic fantasy, pulp horror, and even science fiction. There are plenty of illustrations but the emphasis is on words and I, for one, am glad to see it.  Most magazines I pick up these days can be quickly scanned in an afternoon. I spent several days perusing Skelos and each trip into its pages brought new surprises and ideas.

Since there is a lot of meat on these bones, I’m not going to go over every piece in the mag. Scott Cupp and Keith Taylor are probably the biggest writer names here, but there are stories by Scott Hannan, David Hardy, Matt Sullivan, Ethan Nahté, Jason Ray Carney, and myself. David Hardy’s “The Yellow Death” was my favorite, although only by a slim margin over the other excellent offerings.

The nonfiction was uniformly good, with material from Jeffrey Shanks, Karen Joan Kohoutek, and Nicole Emmelhainz. Emmelhainz’s “A Sword-Edged Beauty as Keen as Blades:” was really a fascinating read and my favorite. This is an exploration of the gender dynamics in sword and sorcery, using C. L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry as an illustration.  While sword and sorcery is usually described as a very masculine and even anti-feminine genre,  Emmelhainz finds this to be far too simple of a description. I’m still studying on her ideas to see if I agree with them all, but it was fine and provocative reading.

For poets, we have Ashley Dioses, K. A. Opperman, Jason Hardy, Frank Coffman, Pat Calhoun, and Kenneth Bykerk. I was glad to see poetry in the mix here. Certainly this is something Howard included in his work and so it falls into the tradition.  I liked all of these pieces.

There are also reviews, and plenty of other gems hidden in these pages, including the excellent illustrated tale, “Grettir and the Draugr,” by Samuel Dillon and Jeffrey Shanks.  I highly recommend it all.





21 comments:

  1. I was only able to back it at the level that gave me EBook copies. And I downloaded #1 the other night. I plan to delve into it this weekend on my iPad. That being said, I kind of regret not getting at least the first issue in hardcopy. I should look into whether it's available for purchase separately now.

    And congrats on your story in the debut issue. Very cool feather for your cap.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like a little bit of something for everyone - readers and writers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tom, I think you'll like it.

    Alex, its nice to see that kind of variety

    ReplyDelete
  4. Truly? What no papers to grade? Young minds to shape? Slacker. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mark, I've decided to take your advice on the papers. I just drop 'em down a stairwell and the the one that lands at the bottom gets an A.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope to read deeper into my copy this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congrats, Charles, for getting in the mag. Interesting, but I'm not a weird fiction fan yet.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sounds like a great magazine offering.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Paul, hope you enjoy

    Oscar, we'll convert you yet! ;)

    eric1313, it was fun

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh yeah man now you have all the time you need to read and write the next great American sci-fi epic. I knew you would come around to the Walking Man method of Millennial education!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sounds delightful and intriguing.....

    ReplyDelete
  12. SOunds like a good 'un.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Enticing AND scary!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh! And congratulations on your story being included. Seems a nice recognition.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sounds like a good outlet for your genre. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sounds like a good outlet for your genre. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's like getting any number of items that were once mass-manufactured and ubiquitous that you can't find any more. It means something to have a physical item in your hands to read independently of wi-fi. More important to see that the reading inside is substantive, not just a print version of click-bait.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Cool slippery beans ~! Looks like a grand publication, almost like the former eras of subscription funding, with Kickstarter. I wonder if it will be quarterly, or whenever they have sufficient material and funding to publish?

    Always good to see new meaty material in three dimensional form.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Mark, thumbs up

    Shadow, thanks for visiting

    Patti, definitely.

    Cloudia, thanks!

    Sage, it is

    X, Dell, Amen

    Erik, They've pretty much got the first four issues planned out

    ReplyDelete
  20. Charles, I have read weird fiction stories online which is not the same as reading them in a real magazine. I like the variety in such magazines.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I love the cover art. I wonder where I could buy one of those things as a pet, because he looks cute rather than scary.

    ReplyDelete