Fans of legendary authors H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury and Robert E. Howard are no doubt familiar with the classic genre magazine Weird Tales, which launched the writing careers of those and countless other literary legends. Founded in 1923, the magazine became an icon of the genre and inspired many of its readers to take up writing themselves – including a young Stephen King, whose first exposure to Weird Tales came from issues once owned by his father.
The original publication closed up shop back in 1954, and despite many attempts to revive it, Weird Tales remained mostly dormant until 1988, when it resurfaced in a different format and style than the original. Ownership has changed hands recently to Publisher John Harlacher and Editor-in-Chief Marvin Kaye, who vowed to take the magazine back to its roots.
The newly-relaunched Weird Tales began appropriately enough with a Lovecraft theme focusing on HPL's “Old Ones,” with original stories by Brian Lumley (Necroscope), Michael Shea (The Autopsy) and many more. The second issue, which premieres tomorrow, focuses on dark fairy tales – a very hot theme in fiction, film and television lately, as you probably know by now – with new fiction by major authors like Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) and Tanith Lee (The Gorgon), interviews with genre icons like Ramsey Campbell (The Nameless) and the essay “Ninety Years of Weird Tales” by Darrell Schweitzer (The Shattered Goddess).
Visit their official site for the full list of stories and articles, and find out how to get your copy when it launches tomorrow!