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    Black Static #28 Horror Magazine
    Black Static #28 Horror Magazine
    Black Static #28 Horror Magazine
    Ebook246 pages2 hours

    Black Static #28 Horror Magazine

    By TTA Press

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    About this ebook

    Black Static is the successor to The Third Alternative magazine, which was founded in 1994. When TTA Press acquired Interzone in 2005 it was no longer necessary to publish science fiction and fantasy in The Third Alternative. So its replacement was retitled Black Static and now its contents are original horror/dark fantasy fiction and illustrations plus related news and reviews of books, movies and DVDs. It is not celebrity oriented. This edition has the text of the print edition but some illustrations, graphics and advertisements are not present.

    The title and strapline reference 'electronic voice phenomenon' (EVP), the noise found on recordings which some people interpret as the voices of ghosts. The film White Noise, starring Michael Keaton, could more accurately be called Black Static. What makes the title even more suitable is that 'Black Static' is also Paul Meloy's British Fantasy Award winning story from The Third Alternative.

    The Third Alternative was never afraid to push the envelope, and nothing has changed in that regard. Black Static has earned much praise for its style, bravery, editorial and fiction content. Its stories are innovative and daring, never afraid to shock or disturb, yet always entertain.

    The magazine publishes some of the finest Horror writers working today: Christopher Fowler, Afterlife creator/writer Stephen Volk, Lisa Tuttle, Nicholas Royle, Conrad Williams, Tony Richards, Scott Nicholson, Steve Rasnic Tem, Cody Goodfellow, Mélanie Fazi, Matthew Holness (creator and star of TV’s Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace), Michael Marshall Smith, Simon Clark, Graham Joyce, Gary McMahon, Alexander Glass, Joel Lane, to name just a few. Alongside these is a dazzling array of new talent such as Aliette de Bodard, Daniel Kaysen, Shannon Page, Roz Clarke, Ray Cluley, Sarah Totton, James Cooper, Nina Allan, Eric Gregory and many more.
    A unique fiction magazine requires unique presentation and Black Static delivers on this front too, thanks to the extraordinary original artwork of artist like David Gentry and Ben Baldwin along with a design that delights in breaking rules.

    Every issue contains a striking news feature called White Noise, compiled by Peter Tennant. Pete also supplies all the magazine's book reviews in his Case Notes column which runs to at least fourteen pages and includes interviews, sidebars and factoids. Tony Lee reviews the latest DVD/Blu-ray releases in his Blood Spectrum Column. Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk and Mike O'Driscoll supply thought-provoking comment columns, and every issue gives away lots of free stuff.
    Black Static is published bimonthly, in alternate months to Interzone (we offer a discounted joint subscription to both print magazines). You can subscribe to the print version using the TTA Press website's shop.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTTA Press
    Release dateJun 5, 2012
    ISBN9781476194516
    Black Static #28 Horror Magazine
    Author

    TTA Press

    TTA Press is the publisher of the magazines Interzone (science fiction/fantasy) and Black Static (horror/dark fantasy), the Crimewave anthology series, TTA Novellas, plus the occasional story collection and novel.

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      Book preview

      Black Static #28 Horror Magazine - TTA Press

      BLACK STATIC

      #28

      A magazine of horror and dark fantasy.

      Cover:

      Cropped from Warwick Fraser-Coombe's illustration

      for ‘The Pest House’

      * * * * *

      Black Static

      Issue 28 (APR – MAY 2012)

      Print edition ISSN 1753-0709 © 2012 Black Static and its contributors

      Published bimonthly by TTA Press

      TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, United Kingdom

      * * * * *

      Website: ttapress.com

      Email: blackstatic@ttapress.com

      * * * * *

      TTA Press on Smashwords ISBN: 9781476194516:

      First draft v5 Roy Gray

      * * * * *

      Editor: Andy Cox

      Contributing Editors: Peter Tennant, Tony Lee, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk, Mike O’Driscoll

      Podcast: Pete Bullock, transmissionsfrombeyond.com

      Twitter + Facebook: Marc-Anthony Taylor, facebook.com/TTAPress

      Events/Publicity/E editions: Roy Gray

      * * * * *

      Retail Distribution: Pineapple Media, pineapple-media.com; Central Books, centralbooks.com

      * * * * *

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This emagazine is licensed for your personal use/enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this magazine with others please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this magazine and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please go to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the contributors and editors

      * * * * *

      To obtain the print edition of Black Static in Europe or North America where your retailer may not stock it please ask them to order it for you, or buy it from one of several online mail order distributors...or better yet subscribe direct with us!

      Subscriptions: Print edition subscriptions available online at ttapress.com/shop

      Note we have some illustrations in this edition and you can see these in colour at http://ttapress.com/1263/black-static-28/0/5/

      Unsolicited submissions of short stories are always welcome. Please follow the contributors’ guidelines on the website.

      Note live links are repeated in the NOTES TO THE READER

      * * * * *

      CONTENTS

      NEWS

      EDITORIAL NOTES

      WHITE NOISE - compiled by Peter Tennant

      COMMENT/COLUMNS

      COFFINMAKER'S BLUES - by Stephen Volk

      INTERFERENCE - by Christopher Fowler

      FICTION

      THE PEST HOUSE by Carole Johnstone

      illustrated by Warwick Fraser-Coombe

      CRACKS by Jon Ingold

      illustrated by David Gentry

      THE BALLAD OF BOOMTOWN by Priya Sharma

      illustrated by Richard Wagner

      PALE LIMBS by Daniel Kaysen

      illustrated by Mark Pexton

      THE MESSENGER by Joel Lane

      REVIEWS

      SILVER BULLETS - TV Reviews by Mike O'Driscoll

      At Play With the Dead: The Walking Dead and Being Human

      CASE NOTES - book reviews by Peter Tennant

      books: Bring on the Jubliee: Christopher Fowler's Red Gloves, Hell Train, Bryant & May Off the Rails, Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood (with author interview); The Game's Afoot: Holmes and Horror; Magazine Spotlight: Morpheus Tales issue 16; The Children of the Night (vampire anthologies).

      BLOOD SPECTRUM - DVD/Blu-ray reviews by Tony Lee

      discs: Mad Detective, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Contagion, Immortals, A Horrible Way to Die, Kill Keith, The Thing, The Yellow Sea, Another Earth, Hugo, 666: The Prophecy, Crows Zero, Shadow of the Sword, Texas Killing Fields, The Divide, Bad Lieutenant, Dream House, Demons, Demons 2, The Wicker Tree, The Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile

      NOTES TO THE READER – links etc.

      BACKPAGE

      * * * * *

      EDITORIAL NOTES –

      READERS’ POLL & best of Black Static Anthology Please visit the TTA forum and join in discussions about the possibility of a readers’ poll to find favourite content of 2012, and a ‘best of’ anthology to cover issues 1–26. E book versions of the early issues can be found via the live links in the Notes to the Reader.

      * *

      Submissions of short stories are always welcome, but please follow the guidelines on the website.

      * *

      E-Edition (An Apology): Normally an E book version of each new issue of Black Static (and sister magazine Interzone) could be downloaded from Smashwords. Unfortunately we failed to keep this process up to date but this issue corrects that problem. If this has affected you please accept our apologies and reassurances that we tried very hard to fix the problem. Keep checking Fictionwise, Smashwords, or Amazon for new issues. Thanks for your patience!

      * *

      Interaction

      You’ve might’ve tried to register for the Interaction forum recently but failed, thanks to a problem caused by spambots. Happy to say that this problem has now been fixed and registrations are once again possible, so please try again. It’d be great to see the forum as lively again as it once was. Live link in Notes to the Reader.

      * *

      Prices

      As warned last year, and thanks mostly to the recent huge hike in postage costs, we’ve had to raise print issue subscription prices slightly. However, we’ve also attempted to make longer term print subscriptions more attractive – dual subscriptions to Interzone plus Black Static, for example, now save more money, and lifetime subscriptions remain unchanged. It probably seems unfair that some subscriptions have gone up while the print cover price hasn’t, but unfortunately that’s still locked in for a short while yet.

      * *

      The June print issue, Black Static 29, will be dated July and is due out in that month as TTA are changing the schedule of the print issue. That will also affect the ebook dates as e-issues cannot be prepared until I have the print issue files. Black Static 29 will have stories from Nina Allan (Sunshine) and Baph Tripp (Chodpa) who, in his teens, was Louis Tripp; the star of cult horror movies The Gate and its sequel.

      - - - -

      * *

      This issue's cover image is by Warwick Fraser-Coombe, from his illustration for ‘The Pest House’. • Special thanks to Mark Pexton and Richard Wagner for their last minute illustrations this issue. • Night’s Plutonian Shore has ceased and instead Mike O’Driscoll is contributing Silver Bullets, our new television review column. A couple more changes and new additions still to come… •

      * * * * *

      * * * * *

      WHITE NOISE #28

      DOUBLE DEAD

      Double Dead was Abaddon’s fastest-selling title of 2011, and author Chuck Wendig is set to revisit the character of Coburn, a vampire caught up in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, with Double Dead: Bad Blood, an eBook-only novella sequel to be released on May 14th on all e-platforms. According to the publisher’s press release, ‘Wendig is also working on an exciting new urban fantasy series for Abaddon Books, bringing gods and monsters onto the city streets in a thrilling new take on classic genre tropes. The first in this new series is due for release in 2013’. For the latest on this and all other things Abaddon go to abaddonbooks.com.

      * *

      SOURDOUGH

      Back in our February 2011 issue I waxed exceedingly enthusiastic about Sourdough, a collection of linked short stories by Australian writer Angela Slatter, who was our featured writer in that issue. Tartarus Press have now released the book in a paperback edition, which you can purchase from tartaruspress.com and while you’re over there take a look at all the other fine books they publish.

      * *

      BLOOD SPECTRUM TURNS GREEN

      Black Static columnist Tony Lee has written a book. Hulk, taking a long, hard look at Ang Lee’s 2003 film based on the Marvel Comics character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, will be published in paperback this July by Telos Publishing, as part of their Telos Movie Classics line. For his Blood Spectrum column Tony manages to cram a remarkable number of DVD reviews into a very limited space, so it will be interesting to see how he copes with having 128 pages to discuss one film. You can learn more by going to telos.me.uk and having a snout round.

      * *

      WORLD BOOK NIGHT PRESENTS

      Monday the 23rd of April is World Book Night, so whatever you’re doing and where you are, please try to find time to fit in a little reading. And if you happen to be in Liverpool, then head on down to Waterstone’s Liverpool One at 12 College Lane, where no lesser personages than Ramsey Campbell and Alison Littlewood, both of whom have had work appear in Black Static, will be on hand to read and sign books from 19.30 through to 20.30. You can get more information on that by searching waterstones.com.

      * *

      DADAOISM (AN ANTHOLOGY)

      It’s the title of the latest project from Chômu Press, and their first anthology release, with twenty six slices of fiction and some familiar names, including Nina Allan, Reggie Oliver, Brendan Connell, Rhys Hughes, Colin Insole, Daniel Mills, D.F. Lewis, Michael Cisco and Kristine Ong Muslim. Edited by Quentin Crisp and Justin Isis, the book is ‘designed as a literary manifesto for the 21st Century’ and ‘presents a mystery tour of the literary imagination to demonstrate that outside of exhausted mainstream realism and uninspired genre tropes, contemporary English-language writing is a thriving and creatively vital arena’ – bold claims from the UK’s newest and brightest small press. And bold readers who want to confirm those statements one way or the other should tick the 16th of May in their diaries, when the book will be out in paperback. More details at chomupress.com.

      * *

      DEADFALL HOTEL

      The latest novel by Black Static contributor Steve Rasnic Tem, Deadfall Hotel will debut in the UK on the 10th May, having first popped its head above the parapet in the US and Canada on the 17th of April. It’s published in paperback by Solaris who claim the book is arguably their ‘most ambitious and striking title to date’. They also reckon ‘Steve Rasnic Tem’s entrancing and powerful prose combines the atmosphere of Edward Gorey with the phantasmagoric richness of Mervyn Peake, creating a unique work of genius that will leave you spellbound’ and if you want to check out this guy Tem before you buy to discover if he is that good, then be sure to snag a copy of the March issue (#239) of our companion mag Interzone to read the brilliant ‘Twember’. For more information go to solarisbooks.com. NB Interzone #239 is live on Smashwords.

      * *

      NIGHTMARE CITY

      Way back in the day, when I reviewed for The Third Alternative, the predecessor to this magazine, I was mightily impressed by a novella titled The Hidden Language of Demons by the writing duo of L.H. Maynard & M.P.N. Sims. That novella has now been expanded into a novel that’s out and about in the world as Nightmare City, written by Maynard Sims and published by Samhain, in eBook format in January and paperback from May 1st. Samhain also have another Maynard Sims title in the works, the third Department 18 book, The Eighth Witch. To find out more go to samhainpublishing.com or maynard-sims.com.

      * *

      ABOUT THE DARK

      We are quite chuffed to report that Alison Littlewood’s story ‘About the Dark’, which was published in Black Static #25, has been selected by editor Stephen Jones to appear in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #23. For breaking news as it breaks, check out stephenjoneseditor.com. Rumour has it that Alison will soon be releasing a short story collection, also called About the Dark.

      * *

      HIS VAMPYRRHIC BRIDE

      After a brief excursion to the days of World War Two and Vampyrrhic Whitby, author Simon Clark returns to the world of Vampyrrhic and Vampyrrhic Rites with a new novel and ‘a fearsome Viking curse that will…unleash a terrifying creature on the world’. His Vampyrrhic Bride is out in hardback from Severn House on the 28th June. You can discover more at severnhouse.com.

      * *

      EIBONVALE NEWS

      The good people at Eibonvale have two new books out. The first is a collection of short stories by Jeff Gardiner with the title A Glimpse of the Numinous and the second is Where Are We Going?, an anthology on the theme of journeys edited by independent press stalwart Allen Ashley, that’s described by the publisher as ‘a collection of tales of urban decay and angst’, and many other things besides. Contributors to the latter volume include Gary Budgen, Terry Grimwood, Andrew Hook, Joel Lane, Alison Littlewood, Ralph Robert Moore, Stephen Palmer, Ian Sales and Douglas Thompson. Both books are available in hard and paperback, and to find out more you need to go to eibonvalepress.co.uk.

      * *

      SHADOW PUBLISHING

      Founded by award winning editor and author David A. Sutton, Shadow Publishing is a small press dedicated to dark fantasy and horror. In February they reissued The Satyr’s Head: Tales of Terror, an anthology that originally appeared in 1975, edited by Sutton and with ten stories including work by Ramsey Campbell, Joseph Payne Brennan, Brian Lumley and David A. Riley. Other projects in the pipeline include two volumes in the Writers from the Shadows series, featuring the work of neglected authors, The Female of the Species and Other Terror Tales by Richard Davis and Temple of the Fox by James Wade. Finally, scheduled for Autumn 2012, is the endearingly titled Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types by Johnny Mains. For more information about these and anything else tenebrous, go to shadowpublishing.webeasysite.co.uk.

      * *

      TERROR SCRIBES MEETING

      If you should happen to be in Bristol on Saturday the 5th of May and at a loose end between midday and midnight, then pop into The Golden Guinea Public House at 19 Guinea Street, where the good folk of The Terror Scribes will be partying in the downstairs lounge. There isn’t an entry fee and everyone is welcome, though I’d guess an interest in horror fiction would be advantageous, as they say in all the job adverts. There’ll be readings, a Q&A session with the writers and a raffle and a quiz. Also Rainfall Records and Books will be launching some new projects on the world, including Paul Edwards’ debut collection of themed horror stories Black Mirrors, John B. Ford and Steve Lines’ novel The Night Eternal, issue #1 of the all new Terror Tales Magazine and a CD. You can get more information at pauledwards76. blogspot.co.uk.

      * *

      COMPILED BY AND © 2012 PETER TENNANT • SEND YOUR NEWS TO whitenoise@ttapress.com.

      * * * * *

      * * * * *

      COFFINMAKER'S BLUES

      by Stephen Volk

      COCKING SEVERAL SNOOKS

      With two key directors turning in their most formally boring films ever, Roman Polanski’s Carnage and David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, and a once-visionary British director (Terence Davies) turning in the turgidly uninteresting The Deep Blue Sea, not to mention the crushingly twee crowd-pleaser The Artist supposedly set for Oscar glory, it seems timely to look at a director who was the most unflinching and provocative of his era, but who in his twilight years descended into garage film-making with friends and relatives, clearly unable to give up the art form he loved.

      When Ken Russell passed away last November, one humour magazine printed a hoax that his funeral was to be banned. Tellingly, many people, with visions of bare breasts, nuns and Nazis, confidently believed it to be true. No director more pissed off the British, critics and establishment alike, and no director was so sorely affected by their disenchantment with his work.

      Given that I wrote his first out-and-out horror film, Gothic, perhaps this is a good time, and place, to put my experience of the man on record.

      I was still working as an advertising copywriter when I heard from Virgin Films, who had been sitting on the script for two years, that they had the director for my first produced screenplay. I hung up the phone and bluntly asked my art director, "If you were having a film made who would you least want to direct it? He said, Michael Winner. I said, Second guess. He said, Ken Russell."

      True to say, in the mid-80s Russell’s career was not in the ascendant, but not quite plummeting. He’d done Altered States in the States, adding (presumably) the trippy bits and by his own admission causing the death of its writer, Paddy Chayefsky, plus a seedy thriller, Crimes of Passion, featuring dildos to a Vivaldi soundtrack and Anthony Perkins as a deranged priest. Still, the producers thought on the strength of it he was the man for the job and I vacillated between quiet despair and delight that the man about the say action! had made The Devils, one of my favourite films of all time, and Tommy, the visual soundtrack of my art school days.

      The person I met was a cherubic mad professor, not at all fearsome, who told me at Sitting Ducks, his production company, that he thought our film "could be scarier than Alien". I kept to myself that I never saw it as a Ken Russell film at all.

      THE RIGHT HAND OF SATAN

      I am always amazed when writers declare no interest in politics. I’ve even heard one storyteller whose work has appeared in these pages say he has no time to observe the outside world. To which the rejoinder might be: what are you observing, other than your own navel? What is your writing engaging with, if not power, history, social forces, injustice, culture, moral issues, personal fears and interpersonal values?

      You may not care about the wholesale demolition of the UK arts and welfare system being undertaken by the present Government, bombastic and unopposed in its resurrection of Thatcherite values. You might not have cared for Luc Besson’s film The Lady, about Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma enduring house arrest at the hands of a totalitarian regime, even if there was more genuine emotion in the one moment where one of her guard says Music than in the entire clod-hopping 140 minutes of War Horse. But then, Suu Kyi’s father said: You may not believe in politics, but politics believes in you.

      What does all of this have to do with The Exorcist, you might ask. A lot, I’d say.

      I’ve just been reading Studies in the Horror Film: The Exorcist,

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