It’s important to recognize the work of the talented artists working in the field of fantastic fiction, both dark and light. The following created dark art that I thought especially noteworthy in 2017: Sandro Castelli, Joachim Luetke, Tran Nguyen, Vince Haig, George C. Cotronis, Richard Wagner, Vincent Chong, J. K. Potter, Armando Veve, Greg Chapman, Sam Dawson, Luke Spooner, Ilona Reny, Dusan Kostic, Daniele Serra, Natalia Maroz, Yaroslav Gerzhedovich, Kim Bo Yung, Allen Koszowski, Tara Bush, Mikio Murakami, Psychoshadow, Erik Mohr, Jason Zerillo, Galen Dara, Jason C. Eckhardt, Douglas Klauba, Paul Lowe, David C. Verba, and John Stanton.
Tim Lucas’s lovingly produced, long-running, digest-sized movie magazine Video Watchdog® stopped publication with its 184th issue, published in June 2017. RIP. It will be missed by genre movie aficionados everywhere. BFS Journal edited by Allen Stroud is a nonfiction perk of being a member of the British Fantasy Society. It’s published twice a year and includes reviews, scholarly articles, and features about recent conventions. In 2017 there were articles about Religion in Fantasy, Bladerunner, shapeshifting vampires, and a variety of other topics of interest. BFS Horizons is the fiction companion to the journal; #5 was edited by Phil Lunt. There was a good piece of fiction by Steve Toase in the issue. The Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter is published annually and edited by Rosemary Pardoe. It contains mostly nonfiction articles and reviews, with an occasional piece of original fiction. Lovecraftian Proceedings 2 edited by Dennis P. Quinn (Hippocampus Press) is a journal that published some of the academic papers presented at the Henry Armitage Symposium held at the 2015 NecronomiCon, in Providence, Rhode Island. In addition to those papers selected for inclusion, there are abstracts of all the other papers presented that year. Dead Reckonings: A Review of Horror and the Weird in the Arts edited by Alex Houstoun and Michael J. Abolafia is an important journal filled with reviews and articles about fiction and film. It’s published by Hippocampus Press and two issues were published in 2017. The Green Book: Writings on Irish Gothic, Supernatural, and Fantastic Literature edited by Brian J. Showers brought out three issues in 2017. In those issues there was an article about the insect literature of Lafcadio Hearn, a fragment of an unpublished book by Irish mystic and poet, A. E., the introduction by Elizabeth Bowen to The Second Ghost Book, published in 1952, an article exploring the influences of Ireland on Caitlín R. Kiernan’s writing, plus other articles and reviews of books, magazines, and theater. Issue #10 concentrated on Lord Dunsany’s place among his Irish peers, featuring reviews of Dunsany’s work written by his contemporaries A. E., Elizabeth Bowen, Forrest Reid, and Austin Clarke; introductions by W. B. Yeats and Padraic Colum; and reminiscences of the author by Katharine Tynan, Oliver St. John Gogarty, and Seán Ó Faoláin.
Black Static edited by Andy Cox is still the best, most consistent venue for horror fiction. In addition to essays, book and movie reviews, and interviews there was notable fiction by Eric Schaller, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Danny Rhodes, Ian Steadman, Scott Nicolay, Charles Wilkinson, Tim Lees, Ray Cluley, Kristi DeMeester, Tim Casson, YZ Chin, Ruth J. Booth, Sarah Read, Ralph Robert Moore, Mark Morris, Carole Johnstone, Mel Kassel, Carly Holmes, and Mike O’Driscoll. The Read and the Morris are reprinted herein.
Nightmare edited by John Joseph Adams is a monthly webzine of horror. It publishes articles, interviews, book reviews, and an artists’ showcase, along with two reprints and two original pieces of fiction per month. During 2017 there were notable stories by Andrew Fox, Jenn Grunigen, Kathleen Kayembe, Eric Schaller, Nate Southard, Cadwell Turnbull, Caspian Gray, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Caroline Ratajski, and Carrie Vaughn.
Supernatural Tales edited by David Longhorn is a regularly published repository of excellent supernatural fiction, in addition to book and movie reviews. In the two issues from 2017 there were notable stories by Tom Johnstone, Jane Jakeman, Gary Fry, Helen Grant, and Charles Wilkinson.
Tales from the Shadow Booth Volume 1 edited by Dan Coxon is the debut issue of a new journal (that looks like an anthology) of mostly new dark fantasy and horror fiction. The magazine looks promising, with strong stories by Sarah Read and Stephen Hargadon.
Mythic Delirium edited by Mike Allen, is a quarterly magazine of fantasy fiction and poetry. In 2017 there was notable dark work by Maura McHugh, Jennifer Crow, and Jane Yolen. Weirdbook edited by Douglas Draa brought out three issues in 2017. The long-running magazine publishes both prose and poetry. The strongest work in 2017 was by James F. Mabe, Christian Riley, Charles Wilkinson, Chad Hensley, Gillian French, Chris Kuriata, Clay F. Johnson, Patrick Tumblety, Tom English, and C. R. Langille. Not One of Us edited by John Benson is one of the longest-running small press magazines. It’s published twice a year and contains weird and dark fiction and poetry. Issue #50 was especially good. In addition, Benson puts out an annual “one-off” on a specific theme. The theme for 2017 was “Care.” There were notable stories and poems throughout the year by Sonya Taaffe, Billie Hinton, Tim Major, Michael Piel, Rose Keating, K. S. Hardy, and Gillian Daniels. The Major is reprinted herein. Shimmer published by Beth Wodzinski, edited by several people, comes out every other month and usually contains a good mix of fantasy and dark fantasy, with the occasional science fiction story. During 2017 there was notable dark work by Malon Edwards, Martin Cahill, Heather Morris, Lina Rather, Sonya Taaffe, Maria Haskins, and Ashley Blooms. The Dark, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace, is a monthly webzine dedicated to dark fantasy and horror. It publishes new stories and reprints. During 2017, there were notable new stories by Kristi DeMeester, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Carlie St. George, Ian Muneshwar, Octavia Cade, and Kelly Stewart. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by C. C. Finlay is one of the longest running sf/f/h magazines in existence. Although it mostly published science fiction and fantasy, there’s usually a few healthy dollops of horror during the year. During 2017 the strongest horror stories were by Cat Hellisen, Marc Laidlaw, David Erik Nelson, Rachel Pollack, Robert Reed, James Sallis, Shannon Connor Winward, Rebecca Campbell, G. V. Anderson, Leah Cypess, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Lisa Mason, R. S. Benedict, Amy Griswold, and Justin C. Key. The Nelson is reprinted herein. The Stinging Fly is a biannual magazine of Irish writing, mostly mainstream, but issue #35 guest edited by Mia Gallagher was subtitled “Fear and Fantasy” and included notable dark fiction and poetry by Lucy Sweeney Byrne, Gerard Hanberry, Roisín O’Donnell, Natasha Calder, Dawn Watson, and Oliver Arnoldi. Gamut is a new monthly online magazine edited by Richard Thomas, focusing on crime and dark fiction. It publishes new and reprinted stories and poems. The strongest new work in 2017 was by Mel Kassel, Holly Goddard Jones, Stephen Graham Jones, Chloe N. Clark, Andrew McSorley, Mercedes M. Yardley, Kate Jonez, Damien Angelica Walters, Maria Haskins, Lina Rather, Judy Jordan, S. L. Coney, Eric Reitan, E. Catherine Tobler, Letitia Trent, and Cassandra Khaw. Dark Discoveries edited by Aaron French only brought out one issue in 2017, with a good, new story by Paul Tremblay, book and movie reviews, and interviews with Kelly Wilde, Peter Levenda, Paul Tremblay, and Ellen Datlow. Apex magazine edited by Jason Sizemore is an online magazine that publishes a variety of genre fiction. There were notable dark stories published in 2017 by John Hornor Jacobs, Lyndsie Manusos, Annie Neugebauer, Rich Larson, and Ursula Vernon. Lamplight: A Quarterly Magazine of Dark Fiction edited by Jacob Haddon brought out three issues in 2017. It published originals and reprints. The strongest stories were by Nate Southard, Andrew Reichard, Noelle Henneman, and Morgan Crooks. Tor.com publishes new sf, fantasy, and horror weekly, and the acquisitions and editing is done by several in-house editors and several consultants (I’m one of the latter). In 2017 there were notable horror and dark fantasy stories by Lucy Taylor, Cassandra Khaw, Kelly Robson, Max Gladstone, Sunny Moraine, and A. C. Wise. The Robson is reprinted herein. Uncanny edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas publishes both nonfiction and fiction. The fiction veers toward the weird, and sometimes is quite dark. In 2017 there were notable stories by Maurice Broaddus, T. Kingfisher, Mary Robinette Kowal, S. Qiouyi Lu, and Catherynne M. Valente.