As I was going through anniversaries and observances of anniversaries last year, I missed an observance. This one was for the 100th anniversary of Weird Tales, and it was published in the Comic Con International: San Diego 2023 Souvenir Book, which went along with that renowned comic book convention held from July 20 through July 23, 2023. The article is called "Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird," and it was written by the current editor of the magazine, Jonathan Maberry. Mr. Maberry's article is nine pages long and includes a lot of illustrations and photographs. If you read it, you will probably notice the lists. Lists after lists. And after the lists, there are more lists. My complaint from before--lists are not writing--still applies. A second complaint: the use of brandnames, this time in the names of undefined or ill-defined sub-sub-genres of fiction, little pools filled with little fish, including "cosmic horror" and "dark fantasy," as if the use of these brandnames is somehow incantatory. Then there is product placement, more or less an advertisement for the 100th anniversary book, also edited by Mr. Maberry. And then another complaint: a lack of editing. Where was the editor or proofreader of Mr. Maberry's article when he wrote:
Part of the fun of this is working with the writers to discover new ways of crafting tales that do not fit easily into any other magazine's "box" but that whisper to the dark heart of .
Yes, there really is an unfinished sentence in a professionally written and printed publication. And of course I have already written about this insistence that there is something new in genre fiction, when really there is nothing new at all as far as I can tell, including in the 100th-anniversary issue of Weird Tales, which has on its cover and in its lead story a thirty-five-year-old comic book character.
Next: I continue beating a dead horse.
Original text copyright 2025 Terence E. Hanley
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