Tuesday, August 27, 2019

July: Weird Tales #363

Four years ago this month I asked the question, "Where Is Weird Tales?" The magazine hadn't been seen since Spring 2014 when issue #362 was published. For years afterward there wasn't any news forthcoming from the publishers, and the Weird Tales website was stuck in an information-less state. Now I have news that Weird Tales is back with issue #363, published in July 2019 and announced on August 14 on a website which shall remain nameless. The Weird Tales drought seems to have ended for now.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database doesn't yet have anything on this issue. Information seems hard to find in general (a continuing trend, I guess), but I have the following:

Weird Tales #363, July 2019
Publisher: Nth Dimension Media (presumably)
Editor: Jonathan Maberry
Cover art by Abigail Larson
80 pages

Contents
  • "The Eyrie"
  • "What Waits in the Trees" by Stephanie Wytovich
  • "Up from Slavery" by Victor LaValle
  • "Erasure" by Stephanie Wytovich
  • "By Post" by Josh Malerman
  • "A Housekeeper’s Revenge" by Lisa Morton
  • "A Woman Who Still Knows How to Die" by Stephanie Wytovich
  • "Due to the Memory of Scars" by Stephanie Wytovich
  • "The Shadows beneath the Stone" by Jonathan Maberry
  • "Outside the Shells of Horseshoe Crabs" by Stephanie Wytovich
  • "I-O-U" by Sherrilyn Kenyon
  • "Payday" by Hank Schwaeble
  • "Distant Drums" by Marc Bilgrey
  • "Amelia Delia Lee" by Tori Eldridge
I don't know whether there is any interior art. If there is, I hope that it doesn't include any digital dreck, but that's probably too much to hope for these days.

The blurb above the title reads: "The Return of the Magazine That Never Dies." Down below you'll see that this is "An Unthemed Issue." (I guess the plan for an all sword-and-sorcery issue went by the wayside years ago.) The cover, by the way, is a swipe of Margaret Brundage's iconic bat-woman from October 1933. And although the Weird Tales website now has some content, it is--well, suboptimal might be a nice way to put it. Finally, I should tell you that I don't have any of this directly from the publisher or editor, and I have no idea how they are going to handle the backlog of complaints against them, from authors, fans, readers, and subscribers. Anyway, Weird Tales is back. Let's hope that it's a worthy successor to previous incarnations, and let's wish the new editor and staff good luck in their efforts.


Copyright 2019, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

7 comments:

  1. I wonder if subscribers (such as myself) will ever get a copy?

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    1. Dear -> Ray,

      I guess if I had a piece of advice for you and anybody else who has a claim or a complaint against Weird Tales, I would say contact the new magazine and let them know how you feel. I have heard nothing good and only bad about the service (or lack thereof) received by customers from Weird Tales. I can't see how they should be let off the hook just because there's a new editor. My view is that if he and his staff have inherited the magazine, they have also inherited all previous obligations.

      Good luck.

      TH

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    2. Thanks!
      I received the new issue, and so I sent an immediate reply letter (to the new address listed inside) requesting cancellation and refund for the issues outstanding on my subscription. They have me on record and honored their commitment by sending me the new issue, so now let's see if they process the refund.

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    3. Well, Ray, one out of two isn't bad. I hope you have received your refund by now.

      TH

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    4. I have not received my requested refund.

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    5. Hi, Ray,

      Sorry to hear it.

      If Weird Tales wants to clean up its act and restore its reputation, it had better take care of things like this. I really have to wonder who is in charge and what goes on with it. And I wonder if the parent company Viacom knows about any of these shenanigans.

      Good luck. Keep trying.

      TH

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