Tim and Donna Lucas’ indispensable Video Watchdog kept to its bi-monthly standard with features on David Lynch’s Lost Highway, The Lathe of Heaven, the Evil Dead trilogy, the awful Starship Troopers, Dracula on video, and director Ulli Lommel, along with Douglas E. Winter’s soundtrack column and all the news and reviews expected from one of the most intelligent and entertaining magazines in the field.
Edited by Dave Golder, the glossy monthly multi-media magazine SFX devoted cover features to Starship Troopers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X Files, Lost in Space, Godzilla, Star Wars, The Truman Show, Highlander: The Raven, Uma Thurman, former Doctor Who Tom Baker and the top twenty sexiest people in SF!
Over at Visual Imagination, David Richardson’s Starhurst concentrated on science fiction with Starship Troopers, Lost in Space, Babylon 5, Deep Impact, Godzilla, Star Trek: Insurrection, Armageddon, Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine and the inevitable Las Vegas’s Star Trek: The Experience. Meanwhile, David Miller’s companion horror title Shivers celebrated its 50th issue and featured The X Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scream 2, Wishmaster, John Carpenter’s Vampires, Species II, Halloween H20 and Blade.
Sci-Fi Entertainment, the official magazine of the Sci-Fi Channel, was just one of a growing number of titles edited by Scott Edelman. It included features on The X Files, Babylon 5, Sliders, Lost in Space, Xena Warrior Princess, Godzilla, Armageddon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stargate SG-1, 7 Days, Mercy Point and various Star Trek movies and TV shows, along with British and American news and numerous ads.
The 16 October issue of the film magazine Entertainment Weekly contained a surprisingly knowledgeable list of “The Sci-Fi 100” (from Star Wars at No. 1 to Independence Day at No. 100), along with some interesting sidebar features.
Despite some administration problems, Necronomicon Press continued to churn out numerous small press booklets, mostly dedicated to H. P. Lovecraft and his fiction. Robert M. Price’s Crypt of Cthulhu reached its 100th edition and along the way published a special Lin Carter issue commemorating the tenth anniversary of his death, which included an early story by the author and other tribute fiction.
Price also published HPL-inspired fiction and poetry in three issues each of Cthulhu Codex (featuring James Ambuehl, D. F. Lewis, Darrell Schweitzer and Richard L. Tierney), Midnight Shambler (with Adam Niswander, James Ambuehl, Stephen M. Rainey and Darrell Schweitzer), and Tales of Lovecraftian Horror (including W. H. Pugmire, Gary Myers, R. G. Capella and Peter Cannon).
S. T. Joshi edited three issues each of Lovecraft Studies and The New Lovecraft Collector (featuring Lovecraft news and releases around the world, including Joshi’s ongoing series “The Works of H. P. Lovecraft: A Listing by Magazine”), plus an issue of Studies in Weird Fiction with articles on Clive Barker, H. P. Lovecraft and Frank B. Long, and Richard Matheson.
Knowledgeably edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, S. T. Joshi and Michael A. Morrison, Necronomicon’s quarterly Necrofile: The Review of Horror Fiction featured reviews by, amongst others, Brian Stableford, Chet Williamson, Peter Cannon and the editors, Ramsey Campbell’s regular offbeat column, and an opinion piece by Stephen Jones.
Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri’s BaremBones continued with articles about The X Files novels, interviews with cover artist Richard S. Prather and horror host Bob Wilkins, an index to Tales of the Frightened magazine, a look at the career of schlock director Jerry Warren, plus lots of other fascinating stuff.
Stuart Hughes and David Bell commemorated the eighth year of publishing their quarterly small press horror magazine Peeping Tom with stories by Stephen Gallagher, Steve Harris, D. F. Lewis, M.M. O’Driscoll, Derek Fox, Gavin Williams, Nicholas Royle, Chico Kidd and others.
Subtitled “A Magazine of Science Fiction & Dark Fantasy”, Patrick and Honna Swenson’s very professional-looking quarterly Talebones reached its thirteenth issue and included fiction and poetry by Stefano Donati, Trey R. Barker, Uncle River, Bruce Boston, Hugh Cook, Mary Soon Lee, Mark McLaughlin, Tom Piccirilli and Don D’Ammassa, interviews with Spider Robinson, Bill Ransom, Jack Cady and K. W. Jeter, plus book reviews by Ed Bryant and Janna Silverstein.
Also sporting a full-colour cover, Indigenous Fiction edited by Sherry Decker made its debut in August with fiction and poetry by Steve Lockley, James S. Dorr and others, plus an interview with Jeff VanderMeer.
Graeme Hurry’s neatly designed Kimota published two special issues, dedicated to SF and horror, featuring fiction by Joel Lane, Paul Finch, Peter Crowther, David Sutton, D. F. Lewis, Stephen Bowkett and Derek M. Fox, along with an interview with Peter Hamilton and an article by Ramsey Campbell. The tenth issue of Mark McLaughlin’s The Urbanite was published at Halloween and included fiction and poetry by W. H. Pugmire, John Pelan, Paul Pinn, Marni Scofidio Griffin and Caitlin R. Kiernan, based around the theme “On Whom the Pale Moon Gleams”, while Gordon Linzner’s twice-yearly Space and Time featured fiction by A. R. Morlan and Charlee Jacob.
Pendragon Publications’ Penny Dreadfuclass="underline" Tales and Poems of Fantastic Terrors included work from John B. Ford, James S. Dorr and editor Michael Pendragon.
Writer and editor John B. Ford continued to build his small press publishing empire with Ghouls & Gore & Twisted Tales, a collection of fourteen stories illustrated by Steve Lines, and The Derelict of Death, a William Hope Hodgson pastiche co-written with Simon Clark. He also edited the final two issues of Terror Tales, featuring stories by Michael Pendragon, Paul Finch, Derek M. Fox and L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. Sims.
Mick Sims and Len Maynard also launched their own supernatural ghost and horror story magazine, Enigmatic Tales. The three perfect-bound issues featured fiction and poetry by John B. Ford, Bernard Capes, Paul Finch, Rhys Hughes, Steve Sneyd, A. F. Kidd, Peter Tennant and the editors, along with articles by Hugh Lamb and Richard Dalby.
The first volume of Steve Algieri’s Pulp Eternity was a time-travel issue, with fiction by Cynthia Ward, Christopher Rowe and others. Published back-to-back, Dark Regions/The Year’s Best Fantastic Fiction edited by Joe Morey and Morey and Mike Olson, respectively, featured fiction and poetry by Brian Lumley, Brian Hodge and Bruce Boston. The ninth issue of Rod Heather’s Lore included fiction from Stefan Grabinski, W. H. Pugmire and Elizabeth Massie, while the fourth issue of Epitaph; Tales of Dark Fantasy & Horror edited by Tom Piccirilli included an interview with Melanie Tern.
D. E. Davidson’s Night Terrors celebrated its second anniversary with two issues that contained fiction by Hugh B. Cave and Don D’Ammassa. Canadian book dealer Raymond Alexander also included a new story by Cave in his first My Back Pages “magalog”.