Freezer Burn Magazine 4.0, David G. Rogers, 10 Becket Street, Salem, Ma 01970, $3/1, $12/4, 80 pgs. The cover to this magazine is done by the effervescent Cathy Burburuz, a symmetrical sort of organic sci-fi kinda thing that really draws the eye. Inside one finds a short story by the equally prodigious D. F. Lewis. Lately it seems one can’t open a magazine without finding one or the other and usually both. (Say, you don’t think that Lewis and Burburuz are really the same person, do you, writing left handed and drawing right?) In any case, the Lewis piece is nothing to write home about. In fact, it’s nothing to write about period. The next story however, David Fingerman’s, “The Dog Of The House,” is quite striking in content, surprising, very short, very well written, very creepy and probably the story this magazine should have started. James S. Dorr wades in with an equally nasty little short story “Annie” about a gift that gives more than anticipated. It’s another very short, very well written and scary story. In fact, that seems to be the norm here, short, well written stories that quickly grab you, zap you with an ending and then are gone. Editor Rogers intersperses poetry between the stories as mini-breaks so one moves from story to poem to story to poem in a waveform sort of motion. I should point out that not all of the stories are horror related. In fact, there is a science fiction tale, a Jeff Vandermeer tale (that’s the best way I can describe it), a poignant story of senility, and a more mainstream piece as well. All are well written and worth reading. For a moment, let me talk about layout. This is a very clean magazine, much use of whitespace and a decent, easy reading type. Each page is framed and the title and author are in extra large fonts so there’s no mistaking who did what. The only problem I encountered is that editor Rogers uses a left margin, small font device to do bios and this sometimes runs against the left hand margin of the story. It’s a minor point but an annoying one. Overall, this is a magazine whose layout compliments its contents extremely well. It’s quarterly, it contains enough good fiction to make most other magazines envious, it’s full of poetry and the art compliments rather than gives away or overwhelms.
Palace Corbie #6, Wayne Edwards, Merrimack Books, PO Box 83514, Lincoln, NE 68501-3514, $9.95,217 pgs. Palace Corbie is one thick little magazine whose table of contents is spattered with names recognizable to anyone who’s read more than a couple small press magazines. Why, there’s even a story by D. F. Lewis. No art by Cathy Burburuz though. Actually not much art at all. A great cover by David Grilla; evocative and enchanting and leaving you wondering what’s happening. Other than that it’s just you, white space, black text and the editor’s choices. So let’s talk about choices. The stated purpose here is to have Palace Corbie represent stories that admit the weakness in us all and that are loosely based on the there of personal terror. Now that’s broad enough to encompass just about anything and while it’s interesting to note when magazines have themes or goals or purposes, the real question falls into two parts; did they meet the purpose and are the stories worth reading. If the purpose is broad like this one is it becomes almost a moot point. So, we are left, once more, with words, style, composition and talent. Writers involved in this issue include Yvonne Navarro, James S. Dorr, John Bensen, Edward Lee, Mark Rich, Charlee Jacob and many more. I want to note here that the poem “The Mouth Tailor,” by Charlee Jacob knocked my socks off. And you know how I feel about poetry so you must imagine how good this really is. And, in fact, almost all of the fiction here is of that ‘sock knocking off’ qualtiy. This is pretty rich stuff; rich in imagery, rich in content, rich in mood and mystery. Looking back, I find that the works do indeed meet both of the aforementioned criteria, they do encompass personal terror and they are very well written. As a total package this is hard to find fault with. It’s jam packed full of top flight fiction in a very readable format. And, in thinking about it, Palace Corbie is perhaps more representative of writers of the future than the WOTF is.
The Silver Web #12, Ann Kennedy, Buzzcity Press, P. O. Box 38190, Tallahassee, Fl. 32315. $5.95/1, $10/2 ($6.95/$12 Canada & Foreign), 64 pgs. This is a magazine of the surreal or, to be even more specific, surreal dark fantasy. This is, by definition, a pretty narrow niche what with all that unconscious stressing of imagery and such going on. In any case, let’s look at structure and content. The cover, by one Phil Reynolds, is very good and very haunting. Reynolds also does the back cover and much of the interior art and his stuff’s pretty creepy to look at. I find surrealism only marginally easier to understand than poetry. In fact, I almost consider it poetry in a prose format. This is fiction that usually requires work. It is fiction that often operates on more than one level. It is fiction, which, at times, can leave you baffled. Done poorly it is tedious and ridiculous. Editor Kennedy sees that neither of those two things happen within these pages. For the most part, I can report that I understood pretty much every story between these covers, which in itself is no small feat. I did have a struggle with one or two but I prevailed in the end. Not without reason, I understood Cliff Burns review column best. After all it’s pretty hard to write a surrealistic review column. There’s also an interview with Phil Reynolds done by Darrell Schweitzer. The interview is accompanied by numerous examples of Phil’s art. Very worth looking at. There’s also a Tom Piccirilli story here, and anytime I get to read one of those it’s a real treat. Let me say unconditionally, that I almost always enjoy the offerings of this magazine. But then I am forced by the damn aliens (you thought I wasn’t going to mention them didn’t you?) to have extremely wide and eclectic tastes. The bottom line here is that you should like surreal fiction first before you should even try The Silver Web. Or maybe you should try The Silver Web in order to see if you truly like surreal fiction. Or maybe you should try it just to get an idea of what a great magazine should look like. Or maybe you should picture yourself in an empty room, a dimly lit doorway beckons, beyond lies who knows what, a spider web hangs in the right angle of the shaded opening. Get it?
Age Of Superheroes #28, Dan O’Keefe, 1423 E. John, Apt.2, Seattle, WA 98112, $2 for one, 12/$20, 42 pgs. (Prices go up $1 per ish with issue #30) The subscription information for this magazine is tucked away on page 37 ad is totally indistinguishable from the story it sits below. Editors, you must make it easy for people to buy your wares, you need more than a good product and a great idea you need ;eye catching packaging and information that can be found in a number of places. This is supposed to be a monthly magazine (I don’t think more than an issue or two has been on time) of a limited run. The plan in to run for 100 issues and to use it to showcase Superheroes in a mostly serial format. This means you need to get all the issues to understand the main story. Yes, there is complimentary material that is stand alone but the main focus is, indeed, the serial. I would guess that if you are not on board yet now is rather late. I, myself, being only sporadically on board can tell you that the level of writing is fairly adolescent focused and the quality is in the same range as well as the art. Not bad if you’re an adolescent into comics or Superheroes. Juvenile offering for juveniles or beginners in the superheroe genres. Of marginal interest to all others.
Kim Elizabeth’s Darkworld Vampires, Millennium Publications, 105 Edgewater Rd., Narragansett, RI 02882, $3.25, $4.50 Canada. This is a comic which pairs Kim Elizabeths’ writing--mostly poetry--with a number of artists who interpret the words. Artists include Leilah Wendell, Daerick Grodd, Daniel Presedo, Colleen Doran, O. J. Cariello, Jae Lee, Michale Dutkiewicz, Sandra Chang, and Mike Okamoto. This is a quality production, done in color and on good paper with professional reproduction and color separation. The focus in all on vampires and sometimes it just a single one page poem over two page art spread but it does work. Shallow words over pretty pictures? Perhaps, but sometimes art does not need to be more than a pretty picture. The art itself ranges through a number of styles and while the whole thing is just a bit too short for me, I generally enjoyed every single page. This issue is a bit outdated so check with the publisher to see if they’re still in operation (hell, with the small press the way it is you should be checking with everybody!). The damn aliens want me to mention that this is a nice addition to small press comics publishing. They want to see more. I gave ‘em Millennium’s address. Personally, I’d like to see more of Kim Elizabeth’s work.
Channeling The Demon, Gary Morton, 65 Front St. W., Suite 0116-199, Toronto, Ontario, M5J 1E6, $5, $7 Canada, 103 pgs. Morton is a self published Canadian writer who has been putting out about a novel a year. This is his third. At least one of his previous two have been reviewed in the tank. One of the things I, as a reviewer look for is progress. Does a writer get better with age? Does the writer learn more about pacing, story and subject, style and character. I’m pleased to say that Morton has indeed learned and that Channeling is the most readable of his work yet. It is a horror story about, um, well, the channeling of a demon. The main characters are fairly intriguing and the horror is at least spooky in spots. There are still some weak areas in terms of pacing and description but Morton has done a much better job in mood setting and in developing plot. It’s not bad for the price and it’s a pretty good example of what you can do nowadays with a decent printer, a good idea and time.
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