Weird Tales #367-Contents

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDb) doesn't include Weird Tales #367 (2023) in its issue grid of the magazine. It does, however, have an entry on that issue and lists it as a digital audio download. I can attest that Weird Tales #367 was in fact put into a print. I have a copy here in front of me, even if that copy is only half of what I ordered from Weird Tales. And thereby hangs a tale that you have heard before.

On October 16, 2023, I ordered two copies of Weird Tales #367 from the Weird Tales website. My order was confirmed. Cool. And so I waited . . . and waited . . .

Finally, in January 2024, I contacted Weird Tales through the email function on its website, letting them know that I hadn't received what I had ordered from them. And what do you know, a few days later, I received a package in the mail . . .

Except that the package enclosed just one copy of the magazine.

By that time, I was no longer able to use the email function on the website. I don't think my browser or my computer like that website. I think one or both consider it unsafe. That's not surprising. The Weird Tales website has had problems for years and years. I can't say why. You would think that a publishing company based in New York City would have figured out the Internet by now. Anyway, I still haven't received my second copy, and it might be too late. It could be that there are no longer any print copies available. I have lodged a complaint with my credit card company. Maybe I'll get my money back eventually, but not all of it, for I'm still out the postage for two copies. Maybe I should look into other options for holding Weird Tales to account for essentially ripping me off, the way they have, I think, with readers in the past. I'll just say that if you want Weird Tales-related merchandise, do your best to find it somewhere else. Don't buy from the business behind the magazine. You're likely to lose out.

So there's an important distinction to be made here between the business and the magazine. You can examine and judge the magazine based on its merits, regardless of what the business behind the magazine does or fails to do. That's what I would like to do in this series. I have a bias against the business. I'll do my best not to let that cloud my judgment of the magazine, which I will take piece by piece, like what I did with the first issue of March 1923, beginning on March 6, 2023. 

Weird Tales #367, the Cosmic Horror Issue (2023), is a perfect-bound book of 8 by 10-1/2 inches, or close to the dimensions of a Golden Age comic book. There are 96 pages inside and fifteen individual works, including three essays, three poems, and nine short stories. The cover art, dated 2022, is by Mike Mignola. Illustration in the interior, most of which appears to be digital, is uncredited. Jeff Wong may be its creator. Mike Mignola's cover is reproduced inside as well, and there are reproductions of previous covers of Weird Tales.

Following are the contents of Weird Tales #367, published, I believe, no earlier than the summer of 2023. All are short stories unless otherwise noted.

• "Cosmic Horror and Weird Tales Go Hand-in-Tentacle" by the editor, Jonathan Maberry. Mr. Maberry's essay is the whole of "The Eyrie."

• "The City in the Sea: A Hellboy Story" by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola, a prose story featuring Mr. Mignola's comic book character Hellboy.

• "When the Stars Are Right: The Weird Tales Origins of Cosmic Horror," an essay by Nicholas Diak.

• "A Ghost Story for Christmas" by Paul Cornell.

• "The Forest Gate," a poem by Samantha Underhill.

• "Night Fishing" by Caitlín R. Kiernan.

• "The Traveler" by Francesco Tignini.

• "Cosmic vs. Abrahamic Horror," an essay by F. Paul Wilson.

• "The Last Bonneville" by F. Paul Wilson.

• "Lost Generations" a poem by Angela Yuriko Smith.

• "Concerto in Five Movements" by Ramsey Campbell.

• "Mozaika" by Nancy Kilpatrick.

• "Inkblot Succubus," a poem by Nicole Sixx (Nicola Sixx in the table of contents).

• "Laid to Rest" by Tim Lebbon.

• "Call of the Void--L'Appel du Vide" by Carol Gyzander.

To be continued . . . 

Original text copyright 2024 Terence E. Hanley