Ferry then transferred his assets to Reynolds and filed for bankruptcy protection. However, the judge found the asset transfers fraudulent because Ferry was trying to keep them away from creditors (including Ackerman) and continued to function as the magazine’s editor. As a result, a US Bankruptcy trustee filed suit for $750,000 plus punitive damages against the law firm that represented Ferry in the case.
Published in Canada, Rod Gudino’sRue Morgue is probably the most attractive and informative magazine currently covering horror in popular culture. The glossy bi-monthly featured interviews with Dario Argento, William Lustig, Alan Moore, Rob Zombie, Guillermo del Toro and many others, along with plenty of film, DVD and video, book, audio, toy and gaming news and reviews.
As usual, Weird Tales produced four issues from DNA Publications with fiction and verse by Keith Taylor, Ian Watson, editor Darrell Schweitzer, Tanith Lee, Stephen Dedman, Thomas Ligotti, Ashok Banker, David Langford, Phyllis and Alex Eisenstein and others, along with articles by Douglas Winter (on Clive Barker), Gary J. Weir (on how he rediscovered his father through the latter’s correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft), S. T. Joshi (reviews of Cthulhu Mythos fiction), and John Betancourt (on vampires).
From the same publisher, but far less professional-looking, was the quarterly Dreams of Decadence: Vampire Poetry and Fiction. Edited by Angela Kessler, contributors included Brian Stableford, Sarah A. Hoyt, N. Lee Wood, Wendy Rathbone and others.
Meanwhile, DNA’s Aboriginal SF, the semi-professional magazine first published in 1985, folded with the spring issue. Editor Charles C. Ryan cited the periodical’s excessive time demands, rather than any failure of the magazine, for his decision. Aboriginal’s inventory was absorbed by Absolute Magnitude, which also agreed to fulfil all outstanding Aboriginal subscriptions with its own magazine.
Edited by Richard Chizmar, Robert Morrish and Kara L. Tipton, the long-running Cemetery Dance published four issues featuring fiction by John Shirley, Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon, Christa Faust, Dennis Etchison, Richard Christian Matheson, Simon Clark, Al Sarrantonio, Darrell Schweitzer, David B. Silva, Tim Lebbon, Bentley Little, Nancy Holder, T. M. Wright, Conrad Williams, Michael Cadnum and others. The magazine also included interviews with Bentley Little, Douglas Clegg, Simon Clark, Peter Straub, Tim Lebbon, Kim Newman, T. M. Wright and Al Sarrantonio, the usual review and opinion columns by Poppy Z. Brite, Bev Vincent (Stephen King news), Thomas F. Monteleone, John Pelan, Michael Marano, Charles L. Grant and various tributes to Richard Laymon.
Paula Guran’s Horror Garage published a further two issues featuring pin-up covers of a woman in a fur bikini and another wielding a bloody cleaver. That aside, there was fiction by the mandatory John Shirley, Kim Newman (a new ‘Anno Dracula’ story), Peter Crowther, Don Webb, Gerard Houarner, Bruce Holland Rogers and others, a reprint interview with China Mieville, Norman Partridge’s Drive-In reviews and various other regular columns.
As usual, Gordon Van Gelder’sThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction featured an impressive selection of fiction by such authors as Lucius Shepard, Esther M. Friesner, Michael Bishop, Geoff Ryman, Lucy Sussex, Michael Cadnum, Robert Sheckley, Thomas M. Disch, Paul McAuley, Ron Goulart, Terry Bisson, Ian Watson, the late Poul Anderson, James Morrow, Ray Bradbury, Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, Carol Emshwiller, Michael Blumlein, and even actor Alan Arkin! There were also all the usual book and film review columns by Charles de Lint, Elizabeth Hand, Robert K. J. Killheffer, Michelle West, James Sallis, Kathi Maio and the always excellent Lucius Shepard, plus other non-fiction from Mike Ashley, Paul Di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer, Bradley Denton and Barry N. Malzberg, amongst others. Unfortunately, a number of copies of the April issue were printed without any punctuation, and the bumper October/November issue appeared without its cartoons, although all the gag-lines were included!
David Pringle’s Interzone published stories by Stephen Baxter, John Whitbourn, Graham Joyce, Ian Watson, Ashok Banker, Eric Brown, Liz Williams, Ian R. MacLeod, Gwyneth Jones, Thomas M. Disch, Lisa Tuttle, Gregory Benford and Richard Calder’s interminable ‘Lord Soho’ series based around famous operas and operettas. The monthly magazine also featured interviews with Calder, Stephen Baxter, John Clute, Frank Kelly Freas, Lucius Shepard, Ian R. MacLeod, Ian McDonald, Connie Willis, David Zindell and John Christopher (the March issue was a special celebration of his career), an always lively letters column, David Langford’s ‘Ansible’ column, Gary Westfahl’s opinion column, Evelyn Lewes’s controversial media commentary, plus various book and film reviews by Nick Lowe, Paul McAuley, Tom Arden, Liz Williams, Chris Gilmore, David Mathew, Paul Beardsley, Matt Colborn, Phil Stephensen-Payne, Paul Brazier, John Clute and others.
Having finally succumbed to illustrated covers, Paul Fraser’s Spectrum SF produced two issues featuring fiction by John Christopher, Stephen Baxter, Michael Coney, Mary Soon Lee, Eric Brown and Charles Stross. The best thing about this paperback periodical was its extensive listing and often grumpy reviews of recent publications.
Realms of Fantasy included a feature on Stephen King’s best and worst, and managed to spell the author’s name incorrectly on the cover!
Christopher Fowler joined Andy Cox’s The Third Alternative with a regular column about the cinema. The three issues published also featured fiction by James Lovegrove, Simon Ings, Mike O’Driscoll, Joel Lane, Muriel Gray, James Van Pelt, Douglas Smith and others; interviews with Lovegrove, Gray and Graham Joyce, and articles about film directors Michael Powell, Andrei Tarkovsky and Tim Burton. With Issue 28, there was a subtle title change to The 3rd Alternative.
Also edited by Andy Cox, Crimewave 5: Dark Before Dawn featured three novellas and seven short stories, the stand-out being Christopher Fowler’s contribution.
The ever-busy Mr Cox also launched the first two issues of The Fix: The Ultimate Review of Short Fiction from TTA Press, featuring interviews with Gordon Van Gelder and Ellen Datlow, columns and features by Mat Coward, Peter Tennant, Tim Lebbon and others, and numerous reviews of magazines, anthologies and collections.
For vampire fans, Arlene Russo’sBite Me: The Magazine for the Night People from Scotland, included interviews with ‘Gothic supermodel’ Donna Ricci, film director Kevin J. Lindenmuth, authors Nancy Kilpatrick and Fred Saberhagen, articles about Hammer’s Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb and Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, plus such useful hints as ‘10 Ways to Become a Werewolf!’.
The fourteenth issue of the impressive French magazine Ténèbres featured modern ghost stories by L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. Sims, Stephen Laws, Rick Hautala and others, articles by Brian Stableford, Ramsey Campbell and Maynard and Sims, and interviews with Laws and Hautala.
The Book and Magazine Collector contained a useful article by David Whitehead looking at books about ‘Horror Stars’, while ‘Relaunch of Clive Barker’ was a special sixteen-page magazine ‘outsert’ by Jeff Zaleski which appeared in Publishers Weekly to tie-in with the publication of Barker’s latest novel, Coldheart Canyon.