CATHURIA: NEWSLETTER OF THE HORROR-FANTASY SOCIETY
& ARCANE SCIENCES SOCIETY(1975)
THE AUSTRALIAN HORROR AND FANTASY MAGAZINE (1984-86?)
TERROR AUSTRALIS: THE AUSTRALIAN HORROR AND FANTASY
MAGAZINE (1987-92)
HORROR DOWN UNDER: A BRIEF HISTORY OF
TERROR AUSTRALIS MAGAZINE
By
Leigh Blackmore
The real name of Chris Masters is Chris Anagnostopoulos
TERROR AUSTRALIS: BEST AUSTRALIAN HORROR (1993)
THE GARGOYLE CLUB: SYDNEY HORROR WRITERS AND ARTISTS
SOCIETY (1988?-92?)
ANTICS: A JOURNAL OF ANTI-CONTROL
RED VISCOUS MADNESS
FORBIDDEN DIMENSIONS,NAMELESS DREAMS
THE POSSIBILITY (OF FINDING SUCH A DOG)
CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN HORROR
FICTION: A CRITICAL SURVEY
By Leigh Blackmore
© 2003
This survey will focus primarily on the work of Australia’s three
most published writers of horror – Rick Kennett, Rob Hood and Terry
Dowling – with some information about other writers as well
RICK KENNETT
ROB HOOD
TERRY DOWLING
Horror Magazines since the demise of Bloodsongs
Dark Animus
SCREAMS IN THE WILDERNESS: AUSTRALIAN HORROR
IN THE 1990's.
by Leigh Blackmore
©
1994
Note: this was written for Scream Factory magazine but not finished
in time to meet their deadline. Using info from this article along
with other research, a piece called “The Hunt for Australian Horror
Fiction” by Sean McMullen and Steven Paulsen appeared in Scream Factory
No. 16 (1995). A revised version by Bill Congreve (using some of
my info), McMullen and Paulsen appeared as “A History of Australian
Horror” in Congreve and Hood (eds) BONESCRIBES: YEAR’S BEST AUSTRALIAN
HORROR (1995).
One of these article also won Congreve et al the William Atheling Award
for Criticism.
If only I’d finished and published my version!!
PART ONE: SPEAKING OF THE UNSPEAKABLE
"Enter night, exit light...
It's just the beasts under your bed
In your closet, in your head"
Metallica
Before I discuss Australian horror, I want to comment on the way I
see horror as a genre. In Part Two, we'll get to more specifics about
the horror scene 'Down Under'.
I believe it was the trance artist Austin Osman Spare who said, "Dreams
shall flesh". Those who know me well are aware of how passionately
I feel about the horror genre. I sometimes feel the time for having
to defend horror as a legitimate form of artistic expression should
be long past. But the fact is that, for a start, some of horror's greatest
exponents have at times disparaged, or been embarrassed by, the word.
I recall reading an anthology introduction by Vincent Price, one of
the elder statesman of horror MOVIES, where he was bemoaning the way
fans would congratulate him on his latest HORROR film. "Call it
Psychological Melodrama, call it Dark Fantasy" cried Price, as
though there was something shameful about being tarred with the horror
brush.
Why should that be? I think perhaps Price's attitude stemmed from
the fact that horror deals with topics that other genres sweep under
the carpet - horror deals with marginalised themes and subject matter
- and so it's always bound to be controversial, never respectable.
As soon as its themes look like becoming acceptable, it changes tactics,
moving into new areas and techniques of outrage. There should be no
need to apologise for this. Karl Edward Wagner expressed my own view
(in the introduction to one of his YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES volumes))
when he said that although the term has always caused polite sniffs
and raised eyebrows in polite society, HORROR is the best word for
it, never mind "ghost story", "supernatural fiction", "terror
story" "suspense story", "psychological story" or "contemporary
dark fantasy." "The point" says Wagner "is that
HORROR remains a convenient catch-all term for stories that, on one
or more levels, create within us a sense of fear or unease. The props
and orientation are not important, except as a matter of individual
taste, so long as the overall effect on the reader is a shiver - physically
OR emotionally, but best when there's both".
PROBLEMS OF DEFI NITION
There's a great crossover between Crime and Horror. Poe was father
of the detective story and of the psychological horror story. Most
crime fiction is grounded in reality - it's about gumshoes, intellectual
whodunnit puzzles, gangs, life on the street, stalk-n-slash thrillers.
The worst that can happen in these stories is you get gunned or poisoned
or knifed or perhaps tortured.
But hardboiled crime (Ellroy, Vachss) with its concentration on the
seamy side of life and social issues like child abuse, corruption etc
has a violent edge that shades into horror. Is Val Newton film noir
or horror? is Cornell Woolrich crime or psychological horror? Bloch
took Ed Gein (true crime) and turned it into PSYCHO, indisputably a
horror novel/film. Dark Harvest have moved from publishing pure horror
to publishing what they term 'Dark Mystery'. FALLING ANGEL is a fabulous
example of a crime/horror crossover featuring gumshoe stuff and also
voodoo/supernatural.
PURE HORROR points to more terrifying possibilities, ventures into
territory that crime cannot go. It deals with the supernatural and
the occult, the non-rational and the super-real. What if the surface
reality we take for granted is pulled out from under our feet, leaving
a yawning chasm, undermining our surety of our place in the cosmos?
If monsters exist, then anything is possible. WE ARE NOT SAFE FROM
OURSELVES OR FROM THE WORLD WE THINK WE CONTROL. The line between sanity
and madness is the line horror steps across, enticing and dragging
the reader with it.
Enduring power and popularity of myth e.g. glamour and sexuality of
the vampire - ROMANCE. Twentieth century PASSION PLAYS. Witness Coppola's
DRACULA, Phantom of the Opera, etc.
SYMBOLISM of blood, myth of immortality, etc. Liberating. Unique pleasures.
WOMEN - Charlotte Perkins Gilman; WOMEN OF DARKNESS; SKIN OF THE SOUL;
HAUNTING THE HOUSE OF FICTION. Roots of modern romance in the 19thC
Gothic.
Subversion
The members of our local horror society, The Gargoyle Club, had the
pleasure at a recent meeting of hearing Terry Dowling, Australia's
most awarded fantasist, read his essay "An Aesthetic of Fear".
It's a piece well worth seeking out and reading. I share some of Terry's
attitudes as expressed there, especially his recognition that horror
fiction shares the subversive attitude of the Surrealists, a bunch
of renegade poets and painters who created a nightmare world of the
irrational, largely as an imaginative weapon against conventional perceptions
of reality. The bizarre interior landscapes explored by those artists
have much in common with the territory of fear explored by horror writers.
(Is there a corresponding "Aesthetic of Splatter"? The debate
that went on for some years in the late eighties in the field between "quiet" horror
and so called "splatterpunk" does the horror genre a disservice;
the genre is complex enough to encompass a whole spectrum of shudders,
ranging from the subtly disturbing unease of the ghost story at one
end, through to full-on graphic terror at the other.
That many people find horror confronting is hardly surprising; it's
essentially about THREAT of various kinds. Its themes attack and tear
down walls that many of us, in this late twentieth century society,
spend our lives trying to put up psychological walls of denial and
pretence that provide flimsy protection from both frightening inner
truths and threats from outside (for women particularly, the exterior
threats include the omnipresent threat of male violence in its various
forms - abuse, rape, incest and so on). There will always be those
that find the medium offensive. As far as I'm concerned, that's as
it should be. If horror wasn't getting up people's noses it wouldn't
be doing its job.
Defense of Pop Culture style
Does challenging readers' assumptions sound too grandiose an aim for
a simple book of horror stories, something that is after all being
offered by the publisher as mass-market entertainment? Well of course
sheer entertainment is also an integral part of the equation. Though
I believe horror to be a medium capable of profound statements about
the human condition, I have to say that's not the first thing on my
mind when I pick the latest horror book off the stand; what I'm looking
for is a good and entertaining read.
Ironically, horror's entertainment value is often used against it
by the critics. It's a false and elitist argument that if something
is popular it can't be any good. I once heard a woman in a bookshop
where I was working say to a friend who was recommending a Stephen
King book "Stephen King -oh no, I wouldn't read him, he CAN'T
be any good, he's too popular". Such a view is as specious as
the literary racism practised by some readers and critics in distinguishing
between "fiction" (a sort of writing perceived by them as
intrinsically lowbrow) and so-called "literature" (a sort
of writing perceived from the ivory towers of academia as noble and
uplifting, somehow better than that 'popular stuff').
I fully expect that not everyone who buys TERROR AUSTRALIS, my anthology
of horror stories by Australian writers, is going to like all of it.
You can't please all the people all the time. On one hand, for the
hardcore horror fans it's not going to be consistently heavy enough.
Nothing ever is!
On the other hand, it's inevitable that some (especially those new
or unused to the genre) will find parts of the book to their taste
and other parts not. I'd suggest that if there's anyone who can find
NOTHING in TERROR AUSTRALIS to move or entertain them, it's probably
because of preconceptions about what literary style should be. For
instance, a recent newspaper article said the fiction in TERROR AUSTRALIS
was at the "bovver boy" end of the spectrum, implying it
was suspenseful & pacy, but somehow all brawn and no brain. I'm
sure some of the writers who wrote moody atmospheric tales with multilevelled
subtexts and ambiguous, unresolved endings would be as bemused by that
one as I was.
It's convenient for critics who are unused to the genre to say "this
is badly written" or to label it as pulp fiction or whatever,
especially if they are ill prepared to be confronted by the directness,
the nightmare logic, by which horror confronts life, sex and death.
Every genre has its conventions, literary formulas that form its structural
'skeleton'. Does that necessarily make genre fiction either predictable,
or of lesser artistic merit than the equally formularised mainstream
fiction? (And by that I mean the oft pretentious and sometimes unreadable
mainstream novels written by middle-aged academics for an audience
of their peers.) I don't think so. Does it mean that all SF and crime
novels, all romances, all westerns and spy thrillers, genre types that
sell in the millions, are devoid of serious purpose and value? Of course
not.
What counts is the way the formula, the basic genre skeleton, is fleshed
out. Horror operates within a narrow emotional range; but the incredible
variety of stories that can be told while still tapping into that narrow
emotional range is what enables horror to speak to us intimately. In
its particular way, horror can address issues that are of vital human
interest and importance, not least - what does it MEAN to be human?
Horror is, in many ways, less formulaic, far more open-ended than
some other genres The great thing about horror is that it offers escapism
and challenge. Good luck to readers who want their escapism tamed and
subdued, or as intellectually nourishing as candyfloss. Good horror
changes you in a way you don't forget about when you turn off the light
and try to go to sleep.
I'm not denying horror can be rude and crude; it pulls no punches
thematically and shock is an integral part of its intended effect.
But it is equally capable of a dark lyricism and an intensity that,
to me at least, means it is really attempting to come to grips with
issues - social, cultural, political and so on. Horror has its own
stylistic vocabulary; and frankly, the people who claim it is almost
always stylistically unsophisticated simply haven't done their homework.
Let them read The Odyssey, Petronius, Chaucer, Shakespeare. Let them
read Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas Mann, Isak Dinesen, Edith
Wharton. Let them read Charles Beaumont, Robert Aickman, Ramsey Campbell,
Lisa Tuttle, Joe Lansdale, Clive Barker, Joan Aiken, KW Jeter, Tanith
Lee, Harlan Ellison, Peter Straub, Patrick McGrath, Joyce Carol Oates.
These and dozens of other writers have carved themselves permanent
places not only in a pop culture genre called horror, but in literature,
by pushing the envelope of stylist limits as well as by force of imagination.
Any good writer puts him or herself on the line when writing a story.
It's been said many times that "it's easy to write - all you have
to do is sit down and open a vein". That's probably truer of horror
than of most other forms of fiction; it's an especially challenging
and demanding medium in this regard. ALL writers put into their work
their heart and soul, their sweat and sometimes their blood, and always
their vision of the world as it is and as it might be. Australian horror
writers are no exception. They are participating in a grand tradition
of pleasantly terrifying their readers that goes back to very roots
of human civilisation, and will probably always be with us as long
as there is dark and night and things that go bump, whether they are
outside our minds or inside our skins.
I think that TERROR AUSTRALIS (and volumes like the INTIMATE ARMAGEDDONS
series edited by Bill Congreve) provide a badly needed forum for
writers who want to step outside the bounds of the conventional,
and they provide a treat for readers who like to do the same. Those
who have the discernment, what HP Lovecraft called the 'requisite
sensitiveness' to appreciate the atmosphere of the weird and the
macabre, will find a hefty dose of it in TERROR AUSTRALIS. There
will be those who still prefer the likes of Danielle Steele, and
Sidney Sheldon. All I have to say about that is - "Ooh, THAT'S
scary".
In my view TERROR AUSTRALIS will have succeeded whether its stories
provoke controversy, whether they challenge some of our comfortable
assumptions about reality, or whether they simply provide some enjoyable
chills. And for me, the book is a sign that at least one major publisher
in this country has recognised the sales potential of the genre. My
hope is that the horror genre will continue to gain momentum in this
country.
Most of us spend our lives seeking safety and comfort. Horror, by
contrast, is about the profane pushing at the bounds of the sacred,
pushing where some readers might prefer not to go. Horror is not meant
to make us feel safe.
Paradoxically, the discourse between horror writer and horror reader
is a safe way of exploring threatening issues from the comparative
safety of the armchair - not by any means a comfortable, easy chair
- let's call it an uneasy chair. Settled in our uneasy chairs, reading
horror, we have the opportunity to confront frightening issues mentally
and emotionally. Horror offers us danger (to a point) - the paradoxical
excitement of the taboo, the thrill of the edge; it deals with the
far edge of consensus reality, takes us into the realms of the unacceptable,
of the forbidden. But horror fiction does more than simply offer the
frisson of thinking about the unthinkable; it speaks about the unspeakable.
Horror sees that 'In the midst of life we are in death..."; it
kicks over the rotten log of consciousness, and takes delight in describing
what's crawling around in the usually-unacknowledged underside. The
attitude of horror readers has much in common with that of Doubting
Thomas poking his finger into Christ's wounds - their attitude is: "Don't
just tell me - show me. I want to experience it".
Horror, politically, is the most potentially radical fictional mode.
It is the eternal rebel; in our fin-de-siecle consumer culture (the
Situationists' 'Society of the Spectacle'), by its very nature it works
to break us out of our 'reality-tunnel', our preconceptions about self
and the world. Horror deals with the irruption of the irrational or
the supernormal into the everyday. Like SF, horror can extrapolate
from current trends in technology and sociology; but it rarely fails
to deal as well with the numinous - inherent in it is a degree of ethical
seriousness which many fail to appreciate.
These are exciting times for the horror genre, of which Clive Barker
has said 'there are no limits.' He means that, of course, in terms
of the subject matter that can be explored. But we needn't think that
the abandonment of limits in terms of theme also means we can neglect
style, plot, interior logic, as is often the case with the idea-driven
horror written by inexperienced writers. The successful horror writer
knows that he or she must do more than just impart a creepy idea, or
relate a gruesome episode; that the horror must be intimated and foreshadowed
through ideas that unsettle or disturb the reader. The willing suspension
of disbelief, even more so than in other forms of speculative fiction,
like SF, is an essential ingredient of the best horror.
TA is first ADULT CONTEMPORARY book of horror in Australia. PIONEERING
says Van Ikin.
Features writers from ALL STATES OF AUSTRALIA (the grandmother, the
clown, the CES manager, the librarian) - something for everyone no
matter where they live
In nearly 30 stories covers WHOLE SPECTRUM OF HORROR THEMES from serial
killers to vengeful demons, from the lurid to the sophisticated. .
ENTERTAINING -- 350 page rollercoaster ride/ghost train rolled into
one. We want chills and thrills in fiction - action and excitement.
Essence of horror is Nightmare logic. Writers are saying to paraphrase
shock-rocker Alice Cooper WELCOME TO OUR NIGHTMARES. Your WORST FEARS
come true, are played out on the page. What's in with you when you
turn out the light. Catharsis.
Horror is about things that go bump in the mind. Spans spectrum from
subtly disturbing unease (e.g. MR JAMES) to outright screaming pitch
terror (e.g. Bloch) and visceral gore (e.g. Barker). Horror in the
mind's eye of the beholder.
Good horror doesn't only seek to shock via calculated outrage, it
can uplift, exalt. Mystical. TRANSCENDENCE AND TRANSFORMATION. Altered
states Has religious awe. Barker's Lament Configuration - device to
take you into new realms of experience. Deals with deep and fundamental
things: questions of the existence of the soul, good and evil (basic
fictional CONFLICT). The big issues at an intimate level.
What it means to be HUMAN. The dividing line between holy and unholy,
normal and deviant, madness and sanity is a thin one. MONSTERS ARE
US. Cite Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Phantom of
the Opera, (poignancy of "this lonesome gargoyle who dreams of
beauty secretly") The Elephant Man, ("I am not an animal
I am a human being") David Cronenberg. My empathy with the monsters.
Helps us appreciate DIFFERENCE - exploration what we have in common
with the ALIEN. Explore different models of reality. The richness,
and gaudiness of life's variety.
Fear is a UNIVERSAL emotion, like hate and wonder, one of our strongest.
Horror taps into that. PARADOX of FASCINATION. DELIGHTS OF TERROR.
Appeal is pleasurable chills - 'adventurous expectancy'. PARADOXICAL.
Also insatiable curiosity - thrill of forbidden fruit (Eve eating the
apple from the Tree of Life); Bluebeard's castle; informed by sense
of mystery, and driving desire to plumb the depths of the universe's
mysteries. Combination of repulsion and insatiable attraction or curiosity
about the unknown.
VIOLENCE (grue, raw-head-and bloody bones, skull beneath the skin)
is a manifestation of the human need to investigate reality VICARIOUSLY.
Horror provides CATHARSIS. Reality is angst, devastation. pain, loss,
loneliness, alienation.
Violence can be satirical - Lansdale's "Night They Missed the
Horror Show", Wayne Allen Sallee's "Ride the A Train".
And it's only one word in the vocabulary of horror, which also deals
with death, darkness, the unknown. Crime fiction is often as violent
and more morally vacuous. SPEAKING OF THE UNSPEAKABLE. SPIRIT as well
as FLESH - secret & insidious places of the heart. Escalation of
suspense.
AMBIGUITY, ATMOSPHERE, SUSPENSE, WEIRDNESS. SURREALISM, intensity.
Horror about facing Jung's SHADOW SELF - subconscious, surrealist,
subversive. THE DARK SIDE we all face. Horror casts an unflinching
spotlight on the (interior) abyss - Nietzsche. GHOSTS = inner demons.
TABOO and REPRESSED emotions and desires.
Modern fiction - trendy for to be jaded, disengaged, detached. Horror
ENGAGES the reader at a basic and powerful level - resensitises us
- addresses inner fears and longings. Burroughs WORD IS VIRUS. Horror
often DYSTOPIAN.
SF concentrates heavily on visions of the future - alien technology
and culture. It rarely explores the inner landscape of the psyche.
Horror looks at interior states, at the skull beneath the skin.
HORROR IN AUSTRALIA: THE PAST
What are the cultural sources of Australian horror? By contrast with
England, for instance, which has a past - (old gods: druids, pagan
rituals, Guy Fawkes), Australia's atheist/materialist culture (its
equivalent social icons might be the barbecue, Melbourne Cup, the Gay
Mardi Gras) has often been dismissed as raw, shallow, lacking in sophistication. "We
live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of
infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far": so
wrote H.P. Lovecraft in his classic cosmic horror story "The Call
of Cthulhu". While Lovecraft's words were meant metaphorically,
if applied to the lingering Australian 'cultural cringe', they could
be taken literally. Fortunately this attitude is now largely moribund,
consigned to the historical dustbin along with the colonialism that
engendered it. We increasingly understand that our landscape, our flora
and fauna, our social conditions are all unique, and therefore we have
a unique position from which to comment on the world at large.
If until now there has been a sense of having to count Australia's
horror achievements on the fingers of one hand, that merely reflects
the disdain that has been accorded horror until very recently. Horror
fiction everywhere has, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, been a sort of 'genre-that-dare-not-speak-its-name';
while its mass popularity has never been in doubt, its cultural 'legitimacy'
is only gradually being acknowledged; this has been inevitable due
to its willingness to ask uncomfortable questions about our internal
and external reality.
The horror genre has shared these difficulties with all literature
produced in this country; the historical process whereby the Australian
identity has striven to assert itself against its colonial heritage
and the tyranny of distance; to come to terms with its multiculturalism
and the white man's position as intruder on a culture far older - that
of the Aboriginal people. These are truisms of Australian literary
theory, and show themselves in the early literature that can be classed
as horror.
Australian ghost stories are often of the 'Bush Gothic' school - traditional
bush yarns with supernatural elements added in. Aboriginal traditions
have not really been absorbed into white culture even now; they offer
many unexplored avenues for fiction (though a token flirtation with
the mysteries of the Dreamtime has been made in such motion pictures
as THE LAST WAVE and KADAICHA).
While the true bibliographical spadework on Australian horror history
remains to be done, a brief outline can be given.
Undated, but issued c.1945 but undated is A.E. Martin's THE SHUDDER
SHOW, published at one shilling by the NSW Bookstall Co in Sydney.
This was obviously intended as light entertaining reading for railway
travellers and suchlike. Illustrated by Brodie Mack, it contains a
mixture of short mystery stories, some few horror tales with titles
like "The Blood Drip", "The Hollmsdale Horror" "The
Handkerchief" and "The Queer Case of Christine Madrigal",
filled out with a few non-fiction weird fillers like "Shuddersome
Folk: Incubi and Hexen". The stories are competently written hackwork
with no overt Australian connection, and A.E. Martin may well have
been a housename.
In 1954 and 1955, Michael Waugh published several horror stories in
booklet form. THE [MYSTERY OF THE] ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN was a 43-page
paper covered booklet which appeared from the Cleveland Publishing
Company in Sydney. It was followed in 1955 by two volumes of similar
size under the imprint of Vampire Press. These were BACK FROM THE DEAD
and THE LIVING DEAD. The preceding volumes are all listed in Reginald's
two-volume SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY LITERATURE (Gale Pub Co) but
have not been seen by the present writer. They are a good example of
the sort of fugitive horror work that has been published in Australia
over the years but needs to be tracked down for fuller description.
Waugh is also reputed to have published FANGS OF THE VAMPIRE, but Reginald
does not list this; nor are any biographical details about the author
currently known.
HORROR IN AUSTRALIA: THE PRESENT
Sf fanzines and semi-professional magazines thrived in Australia from
the mid-1940's onwards, but the real surge in Australian sf activity
can be dated to 1975's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Melbourne.
It was not until the 1980's that the horror genre could be said in
any sense to have begun to flourish in Australia. Discounting Don Boyd’s
FUTURISTIC TALES, which published a few Lovecraftian yarns but leaned
heavily to sf, the first magazine devoted to the horror genre in this
country was Barry Radburn's THE AUSTRALIAN HORROR AND FANTASY MAGAZINE
which ran six issues between 1984 and 1986. AH&FM was a brave attempt
at a local magazine; though nearly half the content was by overseas
writers, at least they were originals not reprints, and AH&FM did
offer for the first time a regular local forum for new Australian horror
fiction.
PHANTASTIQUE, a horror comic funded by a government unemployed-youth
training scheme, ran four issues during 1986 but ended when its grant
ran out and its graphic content caused it to be banned in three states.
Editor Steve Carter continued his graphic horror explorations on an
underground level with CHARNEL HOUSE, now in its fourth issue.
A number of writers and artists involved in PHANTASTIQUE went on to
found the team that produced TERROR AUSTRALIS magazine, which took
up where AH&FM left off. TA, while running lead stories by overseas
names, for the first time gave most of its space to original Australian
horror and dark fantasy stories. It published three book-sized issues
between 1987 and 1992, and made possible the present anthology. Only
the occasional genre piece saw print outside the specialist sources
(for instance "The Howling at Bentmoor Castle" by Michael
S. Christian (CAMPAIGN, July 1987), notable only perhaps for being
the first of a new subgenre which could be termed 'Gay Gothic').
In the yet more specialised area of horror film fandom, the horror/exploitation
fanzine CRIMSON CELLULOID managed a few issues, on the back of regular
horror filmfests at innercity Sydney cinemas. Then it was back to underground
shlockzines like MONDO GORE and Steve Bedwell's rock-magazine column
DR STEVE'S SPLATTER CHATTER until the advent of the slick and cynical
Melbourne-based exploitation zine FATAL VISIONS (now past its 14th
issue). TERRORZONE, a glossy cinematic zine aimed at the teenage market,
folded after 3 issues in 1992.
Locally produced horror comics have included the one-off FAMILY SLAUGHTER
and Chris Sequeira's Gothic chiller with a vampire theme, PULSE OF
DARKNESS and Neil Walpole's THE FRIGHT STUFF. Mark Morrison kept fans
in touch with his late-eighties fanzine SCRATCHINGS FROM THE CRYPT.
The Canberra-based ORDER OF DAGON Newsletter which began in 1988 by
David Tansey moved to Melbourne under the editorship of Chris Masters
in 1990, and as EOD Magazine has provided a fertile ground for the
development of contemporary Australian horror. Masters has since published
two issues of SHOGGOTH, a small press magazine devoted to Lovecraftian
horror.
Collections and novels were restricted to independent publishers.
Dorothy Michell issued her AUSTRALIAN TALES OF GHOST (sic) AND FANTASY
(1986), (described in one cover blurb as "a collection for those
who want to read good stories without being overly terrified"),
and FURTHER AUSTRALIAN TALES OF GHOST AND FANTASY. The literary quality
of these was not high, but their reprinting since attests to their
commercial success. Another collection, PALE FLESH: STORIES OF THE
MACABRE by BJ Stevens, appeared in a tiny run in 1989 and was quickly
out of print.
A few horror novels began to emerge, though none was exceptional. Again,
while many SF and fantasy writers have achieved professional prominence,
no professional Australian writer has yet made a major impact with
a novel marketed as horror. Bruce Kaplan's JENNY'S DANCE (1989) and
Huw Merlin's DARK STREETS (1992) were both self-published; the former
far superior to the latter, a not altogether successful attempt to
mesh crime, horror and sf themes. Richard Harland's THE VICAR OF MORBING
VILE (1993) is a literate and amusing gothic in the spirit of Peake.
Currently we are seeing a huge increase in the success of juvenile-audience
horror: with for example Judith Clarke's THE BOY ON THE LAKE: STORIES
OF THE SUPERNATURAL (UQP, 1989) and STRANGE OBJECTS by Gary Crew, and
further anthologies for teenagers - Penny Matthews' SPINE-CHILLING:
TEN HORROR STORIES and HAIR-RAISING: TEN HORROR STORIES (both Omnibus
Press 1992).
In 1991, growing academic interest in the Gothic impulse evinced itself
in a one-day course offered by Sydney University's Continuing Education
Program - AFTER DARK: A DAY-TIME STUDY IN TERROR; and in Feb 1992 the
conference held at the State Library of NSW - 'Imagining the Darker
Self: Australian Gothic in Literature and Culture'. Intelligent reviews
and criticism of the horror genre can be found (apart from EOD Magazine)
in Rod Williams' SKINNED ALIVE, an irreverent and irregular Qld journal;
and in Van Ikin's respected SCIENCE FICTION.
In 1992 came the first adult anthology of horror stories to be seen
in Australia - Bill Congreve's INTIMATE ARMAGEDDONS (Five Islands Press),
a small-run book which should definitely be sought out by fans.
Mention popularity of cult Gothic fashion.
The Australian Publishing Scene
Small! Wilderness.
The Past
Then there's Australian horror writing that was published overseas.
Not much of it, but the editors of AUSTRALIAN HORROR AND FANTASY MAGAZINE,
Steve Studach and Barry Radburn, both had work published in the US
and UK small press in the mid-eighties. Examples are Studach's poem "Through
the Skull's Eye" in Eldritch Tales No. 12 (1986) and his story "The
Horror Through the Dark Gate" in Fantasy Macabre No. 13 (1982)
and Radburn's stories "Of Morning Mists" and "The Night
Train" in the same issue. Radburn also had "Shadows in the
Moonlight" in Etchings and Odysseys No. 10 (1987).
A number of Australian writers have been published in the latest incarnation
of WEIRD TALES, but oddly enough the work that has appeared has been
primarily fantasy from the likes of Keith Taylor. No overtly weird
or horrific work by Aussies has yet appeared there, though many Australian
writers - Rick Kennett and Rob Hood spring immediately to mind - would
be of high enough quality. Why haven’t they cracked this market?
Of a similar vein is the work of Rick Kennett etc. Greg Egan's powerful
tale "Mind Vampires” appeared in Interzone.
As a real bit of Australian trivia, Robert Bloch reveals in his recent
'unauthorised autobiography' ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH that his film screenplay
THE NIGHTWALKER was based on a submission by an Australian housewife.
Is she still out there writing horror? More food for future research.
Bloch also mentions (on p. 396), having received an invitation from
Australia to contribute to a screenplay "A producer wanted me
to work on a suspense film which would utilize Sydney Harbour as a
background - specifically Sydney Harbour on New Year's Eve, at which
time $500,000 worth of fireworks would be launched there to celebrate
the bicentenary". The suspense film was Keith Curtis' project
HARBOUR GOTHIC, a fabulous concept in my opinion which was optioned
for filming but never made it to the screen.
We can (however reluctantly) lay claim to John Brosnan, whose works
under the pen names Simon Ian Childers and Harry Adam Knight are tongue-in-cheek
horror of the Guy N. Smith variety. (Those initials - SIC and HAK -
aren't by any means accidental!) but Brosnan's long residence in the
UK, where these volumes were published (there are also US editions),
means they are at one remove from truly homegrown Aussie horror. Titles
include DEATH SPORE, CARNOSAUR, the 1984 novel which has certain features
in common with the plot of Michael Crichton's JURASSIC PARK, BEDLAM
and FUNGUS.
Michael Dugan's MOVING SKULL (Hodder & Stoughton 1981) is a collection
of horror-oriented verse.
CURRENT MAGAZINE SCENE
DARK TIMES, the journal of Melbourne's The Vampire Legion, started
publishing in 1993 and has produced several issues to date. It includes
a good mix of non-fiction (predominantly on vampiric themes, but ranging
also over ghosts and graveyard chic in general, with especial reference
to Gothic rock-music), plus reviews and some poetry and fiction of
a macabre nature.
BLOODSONGS is the 'great white hope' (or should that be Great Dark
Fear?) of Australian horror publishing in magazine form. Kicking off
in January 1994 with a slick first issue, it includes new horror fiction
by Robert Hood, Kate Humphrey, Sean Williams, BJ Stevens, Barbara Welton,
Maurice Xanthos and Misha Kumashov, and an extract from Ramsey Campbell's
novel-in-progress, THE ONE SAFE PLACE. Also a swag of macabre poetry,
reviews on all media, and interviews with Ramsey Campbell and myself.
With some of Australia's most informed commentators on-board as columnists
- Michael Helms (editor of FATAL VISIONS, the exploitation cine-and-serial-killer
zine out of Melbourne), Bill Congreve and Steve Paulsen, BLOODSONGS
really delivers. Paulsen's piece here is titled "The State of
the Australian Horror Fiction Magazine" and I refer SCREAM FACTORY
readers to it - this piece contains a far more detailed overview than
I can present here.
Horror stories occasionally turn up in offtrail sources. AUREALIS
magazine, which commenced publishing in 1990 and is now into its thirteenth
issue, features one or two horror stories per issue, alongside the
more dominant sf and fantasy fare. (By comparison, EIDOLON Magazine,
started at approximately the same time and whose name sounds somewhat
more ghostly, has published nothing overtly in the horror genre except
Duncan Evans' "The Ghouls Go Wild for a Man Who Works the Graveyard
Shift" in Issue #13, the editors preferring to concentrate on
sf).
THE MENTOR, a long-running sf fanzine published and edited by Ron
Clarke, has never (unlike some sf cliques) been averse to horror, though
its presence was negligible until the last year or so. Ron had always
reviewed horror books as well as fantasy and sf, and for a while became
a regular attendee at Gargoyle Club meetings and so was able to report
on the various things happening in the local resurgence of horror fiction.
Since then he has moved more strongly back into the sf scene by reviving
the long-defunct Futurian Society.
Van Ikin's SCIENCE FICTION, similarly, has always given a place in
each issue to horror reviews - early on with Keith Curtis's 'Nightwebs" columns
(which also covered crime), and later with "Darkside", penned
by Lorene Tell. Issue #33 (1993) didn't carry a specific horror review
column, but Lucy Sussex reviewed several horror collections nevertheless.
As from Issue #34 the "Darkside" column is being penned by
(I blush to confess it) me.
There is also the odd tale outside speculative fiction sources. "Warmth" by
Bobbie Saw is a brief tale of fungoid horror that appeared in PLEXUS
#36 in 1993, published by the Union at the University of Technology
Sydney. A full-scale research project would have to be undertaken in
order to identify horror tales that may have appeared in other such
student newspapers and kindred ephemeral sources.
The Gargoyle Club first met July 20, 1991 and irregular meetings eventually
became monthly. A newspaper piece "Spooked Out: Creepy, kooky
club is a screaming success" appeared in THE GLEBE Newspaper 23
Sept 1992. Eventually, post-Terror Australis, the club focussed on
production of a new magazine, and the first issue of COLD CUTS is about
to appear.
The Melbourne Horror Society began in February 1992 and spawned DAARKE
WORLDE magazine. It went to monthly meetings in early 1993.
CURRENT BOOK SCENE
TERROR AUSTRALIS . A long article about editing the book appeared in
AUSTRALIAN SF WRITER'S NEWS No. 5 (March 1993). The publicity coverage
included a couple of articles with a good deal to say about the Australian
horror scene in general - one was Sonia Harford's piece "Fear
Dinkum" for GOOD WEEKEND July 3, 1993 - Sydney and Melbourne
Morning Herald magazine. Another was Susan Chenery's piece "Boys
and Ghouls Come Out to Play" for the AUSTRALIAN WEEKEND REVIEW
June 5-6 1993. Plus over 20 radio interviews and an appearance on
the Ray Martin Show - a nationally broadcast midday chat show - with
specially shot footage of my residence, the Blackmausoleum.
SHRIEKS: A HORROR ANTHOLOGY edited by Jillian Bartlet, Cathi Joseph
and Anne Lawson, finally appeared from Sydney collective publisher
Women's Redress Press in October 1993 (it was originally scheduled
for publication in April of that year; its non-appearance at that time
led many, including writers who had submitted for it, to believe the
project may have died; but it was merely long in the making). Introduced
by Sydney University academic Jennifer Maiden, it's a hefty sampling
of horror written by-and-large by writers whose other work is well
outside the genre, although Coral Hull had work in Terror Australis
magazine.
Put together as a women's-only anthology concept, as per the name
of the press, this was probably serves as a useful antidote to the
male-dominated current horror magazines, where there is very little
balance to be observed in terms of perspective on women's issues in
general, and the role of women in horror in particular. Nevertheless
its approach unfortunately smacks of smacks of a disagreeable separatism,
especially in the introduction where Maiden demonstrates blissful ignorance
of other local work in the genre. We can perhaps agree with her that
'male artists who do confront direct violence - usually in commercial
culture - tend to describe how monsters are destroyed. Women tend to
describe how monsters are created' though not (for those familiar with
Terror Australis, EOD and other regular horror markets) with her observation
that 'in much current Australian male literature, blood did not seem
to flow - or if it did, it was safely tourniqued in character reminiscence...'.
Of course, Maiden's attitude is probably representative of the typical
academics who tend to pay attention only to the professionally-published
and 'literary' flow of work in the genre, and contrive to overlook
the furious and burgeoning activity at the 'underground' or 'small
press' level.
This volume contains, as well as some 37 pieces of fiction and poetry
(the themes are primarily visceral and psychological - overt supernatural
horror barely gets a look-in), a feminist analysis of themes in the
movie SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - "Why Do Fat Chicks Have to Die" by
Alison Lyssa. The anthology has not been distributed at a mass-market
level - in Sydney I have only seen it stocked at Gleebooks, which caters
for the tertiary student/academic readership. Most hardcore horror
fans therefore won't track it down. On the other hand, it's valuable
for its intended audience - readers not normally used to reading horror,
for whom the genre here serves as a useful forum for examining 'political
and domestic abuses, grief, mutilations, suicides, psychological mazes,
conceptual sleight-of-hand and refined and unrefined torture'. And
certainly it represents another step forward in having horror make
its way into the literary mainstream here.
Graham Hague's novel GHOST BEYOND EARTH passed off as Dean R. Koontz
'Veronica Hart' published by Reed/Mandarin is possibly a pseudonym
for Victor Kelleher, who revealed in a recent interview that he was
planning to have a horror novel published pseudonymously.
A recent OXFORD BOOK OF AUSTRALIAN GHOST STORIES ? includes tales
by Rick Kennett and Lucy Sussex.
Stuart Coupe and Julie Ogden, editors of MEAN STREETS crime fiction
magazine have edited several recent noteworthy anthologies in which
horror is at least an element. HARDBOILED (Allen and Unwin 1992) is
actually a collection of All-American crime writing, but Coupe's interest
in horror fiction is evinced by the presence here of Joe Lansdale's
Stoker-award-winning tale "The Night They Missed the Horror Show".
CASE RE-OPENED (Allen and Unwin 1993) is also primarily crime, but
here the writers are all Australian, and the anthology is based on
a terrific concept. The writers were given the brief to take a famous
Australian murder or mystery - and solve it. Fictionally, the writers
look at some of Australia's most notorious and best-known real 'cases'
including The Pyjama Girl Murder, The disappearance of Prime Minister
Harold Holt, Phar Lap, the stolen Picasso, the Bogle-Chandler murder,
The shark arm mystery, the Tamam Shud case, the Beaumont children mystery,
the Qantas bomb hoax, the Easey Street murders and the Wanda beach
murders. An intriguing mixture of fact and fiction in this collection
makes these crime stories cross well over into fantastic territory
- one has to ask what is pure imagination and what is real; and the
gruesomeness of most of the cases is sure to appeal to horror fans
as well. Contributors are Nigel Krauth, Robert Wallace, Peter Corris,
Garry Disher, REL Cassidy, Marele Day, Kerry Greenwood, Jean Bedford,
Steve Wright, JR Carroll and Robert Hood.
The MEAN STREETS team joined up with Robert Hood to co-edit 1993's
CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC (Five Islands Press), a brilliantly conceived anthology
in which romance, horror, fantasy, science fiction and the western
invade crime fiction. These hybrid cross-genre stories are crime stories
that will definitely appeal to horror and dark fantasy fans - most
of them are bizarre at the least, and some of them with their stronger
elements of horror are definitely more horror than crime. Contributors
are: Jean Bedford, Dominic Cadden, Bill Congreve, Peter Corris, Marele
Day, Garry Disher, Terry Dowling, Kerry Greenwood, Robert Hood, Jan
McKemmish, Robert Wallace and Steve Wright.
Occasionally Australia is used as a setting for horror by overseas
writers. THE TALLOW IMAGE by Jane Brindle (Orion, June 1994) is a novel
opening in 19th century Australia and moving to England in the 1980s.
Its theme is that of 'a curse from the past which comes to haunt and
destroy people living in the present.'
Lucy Sussex's collection MY LADY TONGUE AND OTHER STORIES (Heinemann
Australia, 1990) includes several nightmarish tales. Problems of definition
reoccur here; Sussex uses ghostly visitants and spooky feel quite often,
but these are in the context of a book which is more dominantly sf/
fantasy.
A recent article "So You Want to Be a Horror Writer" by
Stephen Higgins, published in AUREALIS NO. 13 (1994) is really just
a short parody rather than the serious article promised by the title
but apparently author and sf bibliographer Sean McMullen is preparing
a more serious article or bibliography on horror for a future issue.
THE WEIRD COLONIAL BOY would have been an excellent title for a horror
novel. Actually, Paul Voerman's second novel (published in London by
Gollancz) is more of a zany sf fantasy.
The Future
Several promised horror collections have yet to materialize. Terry
Dowling's collection, on which he has been working for some time, will
be well worth waiting for, but Terry is giving little away about who
will be publishing it. Bill Congreve's FADE TO BLACK: HORROR STORIES
FROM THE WESTERN SUBURBS doesn't have a publisher yet either; while
it may appear as a chapbook from BLOODSONGS, it's somewhat on the backburner
while Bill seeks a publisher for INTIMATE ARMAGEDDONS II, an 80,000-word
anthology which has accepted stories by Lucy Sussex, Rosaleen Love,
Geoff Maloney, Sean Williams, Terry Dowling and Rob Hood amongst others.
(Five Islands Press, who published the first INTIMATE ARMAGEDDONS volume,
declined to publish a second volume, and Volume II may appear from
Wakefield Press, a small South Australian publisher). Bill is also
considering a collection of his vampire tales, to be titled, appropriately
enough, VAMPIRE TALES. BJ Stevens self-published a small collection,
VISIONS OF TORMENT, in 1993 with a view to having a professional publisher
take it on, but as yet no one has.
Rob Hood is reputed to have written an epic Gothic suspense novel
and a fantasy novel - again, both are unpublished to date - and also
has a collection of horror stories in preparation. Actually Hood has
enough material for three or four short story collections.
Various plans are afoot to produce some single-author chapbooks. Bill
Congreve is preparing DOORWAY TO ETERNITY by Sean Williams, which includes
some horror fiction, and this may be the first of a series as Bill
is actively stirring up interest in this concept. (Apparently there
is a possibility that sf and horror specialist Galaxy Bookshop in Sydney
may get involved in publishing a series of author chapbooks, similar
to the way Roadkill Press was started up by Little Shoppe of Horrors
in the US). Chris Masters also has plans to publish some chapbooks
(under his mooted Fiendish press imprint?) of overseas authors like
DF Lewis as well as by local writers. And Eidolon magazine, which has
already experimented in this area with a limited-edition chapbook THE
MARS YOU HAVE IN ME by Terry Dowling, which quickly went out of print,
is rumoured to be considering more single-author chapbooks in the near
future.
An anthology in progress in DEEDS OF DOOM edited by Tony Markidis
of Galley Press, an independent publisher based in Sydney. Who's in
it?
CATHURIA: A SHORT HISTORY
(May 2002)
©
2002 Leigh Blackmore
Cathuria was the Newsletter of the Arcane Sciences Society and the
Horror Fantasy Society, both co-founded by Blackmore with his school
friends Lindsay Walker and J. Michael Blaxland at Newcastle Boys’ High
School (now Waratah High) in 1975.
Only three issues were published. Issue 1 (Jan-Feb 1975) had little
real content, and was a one-page issue describing the aims of the two
societies. It was printed by the school office secretaries on their
Gestetner duplicating machine (usually reserved for official school
memos etc) from a stencil typed and cut by Blackmore, who had convinced
them somehow to let him use school facilities for a mildly subversive
and definitely non-curricular publication. There is mention here of
Azathoth productions, a filmmaking group within the HFS. This group
produced the unfinished short film “The Double Shadow” (based on the
Clark Ashton Smith story) and also resulted in an unproduced script
treatment by Blackmore for Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann”.
Issue 2 (Mar-Apr 1975) ran to six pages and was typed by Blackmore
at home in his bedroom when undoubtedly he should have been concentrating
more on things like school homework. It is led by a quotation from
August Derleth regarding critics which he still finds highly amusing.
(I can’t remember whether it was chosen by Lindsay Walker or myself).
The first article was “A Short History of the Tarot” by Lindsay Walker.
While largely cribbed from existing books on the subject, it is a good
brief intro to the history of the subject. Walker was an avid tarot
reader at an early age, and introduced Blackmore to some of its mysteries,
and tarot reading forms one of Blackmore’s esoteric pursuits to this
day (indeed he is currently engaged in composing a series of sonnets
giving the symbolism of the Major Arcana). A column, Letters received,
reflects some correspondence as the youthful horror fans tried to reach
out of suburban Newcastle to contact similar organisations in the outside
world. This is followed by the “Booklist”, which was supposed to form
the basis of a borrowing library. Most of the books listed were from
the library of Lindsay Walker, again reflecting Walker’s occult interests,
which were to greatly influence Blackmore in years to come. A note
that the society would screen ‘Play Misty for Me” throws light on another
activity of the Horror Fantasy Society, which was film screenings –
by hiring films from the National Film Library in Canberra, we were
able to select at least a couple of unusual subjects to show in the
school hall on movie nights. The Hammer film “The Vampire Lovers” had
been shown some time before. Let it be noted that we were outsiders
amongst our fellow students, who generally preferred to see surf movies,
action films, etc. This notice is followed by an article on HP Lovecraft
which Blackmore compiled from three other sources, and contains the
sum total of his knowledge about Lovecraft at that time. Issue #2 was
sold to attendees of the “Play Misty for Me” screening for 5c per copy.
Issue 3 (May-Jun 1975) shows Cathuria at its zenith. A massive eight
pages long, it opens with a stunner of a film review by Blackmore on
a now-deservedly forgotten Amicus fantasy film. One may note that on
the letterhead now appears “Patron – J. McGee”. McGee was a teacher
at the school who undertook to supervise the Film Society screenings.
Because we had screened films, we managed to convince him to put his
name down as the patron of the Horror-Fantasy Society as well (and
by association, the Arcane Sciences Society). This did not go down
well with the school headmaster but more of that anon. It was Lindsay
Walker’s really very good review of “Flesh Gordon” that really got
the rag in trouble with the powers-that-be at school. A party of us
had journeyed to Sydney to see this movie at the Dendy in Martin Place,
having read about it in Cinefantastique magazine. Blackmore, well under
age like the rest, but especially self-conscious, had spent the whole
session hunched down in his chair while watching the movie, terrified
that the usher would haul him out of the cinema – but these fears proved
groundless.
On return to Newcastle, the fateful review was written. The main objectionable
bit was the quotation of the monster’s line “I’m going to burn your
fucking planet to a fucking crisp!” This was not viewed kindly when
the school head master reviewed our wonderful literary production,
and was not seen as fitting for a well-disciplined group of students
whom Newcastle Boys’ high was supposed to be grooming for the outside
conservative business world. A review of “Battle For the Planet of
the Apes” followed; this was written by our fifth (and probably last
member Kerry Hewitt, a fan we had discovered whose room at home was
stacked high with scrapbooks about sf, fantasy and horror, and who
was particularly fond of the old TV series ‘Dark Shadows”. The Letters
Received column shows more epistolary explorations on behalf of club
members, and mentions the fateful Aussiecon convention where Blackmore
would meet L Sprague de Camp and Forrest J. Ackerman as well as auctioneer
Keith Curtis, and be permanently warped towards fantasy fandom. The
Booklist goes drearily on, exhibiting Blackmore’s list-making tendencies
more than anything else. The issue concludes with Michael Blaxland’s
article on Vlad the Impaler, again cribbed from various other sources,
and a mention of the lecture on Satanism and witchcraft that was in
fact delivered to a church group by Blackmore, Blaxland and Walker.
(This was the last activity of the Arcane Sciences Society under that
name, save for a similar lecture delivered to a Christian fellowship
group that met in the school).
So whatever happened to Cathuria? Blackmore and co. were prepared
to continue it. Blackmore had written a 9000 word article disputing
Colin Wilson’s views on Lovecraft, which were infuriating to him as
a young and uncritical devotee of the Old Gent of Providence; this
piece was to appear in the nascent Issue No. 4. But (as they say in
Monty Python, “it was not to be”). Fate took a hand. Another school
student who had been approached to be roped into the societies (our
evangelical zeal for the horror/occult cause was unsurpassed) reported
it to the school head. The head was aghast to find that school facilities
(Gestetner machines, secretaries’ time) were being used to produce
a publication, which featured unhealthy hints of black magic, horror
and worst of all, four-letter words. Expletives and reviews of sexy
fantasy movies must be banned! Blackmore was called into the head’s
office and told in no uncertain terms that these activities were inappropriate
and were to be prohibited on school grounds. There was to be no more
Cathuria, and touting for prospective members in school hours was strictly
verboten; though he acknowledged that outside of school we could do
whatever we chose. And so the Colin Wilson piece never appeared, Cathuria
came to an ignoble close, and the rest is history. But Blackmore would
not forget; and would resume his horror activities with colleagues
in the heady Terror Australis days of the late eighties.
And so I bequeath to you this relic of a strange adolescence. Apologies
for the fact that tops and bottoms of pages are cut off in some cases,
but Cathuria was produced in the then-popular foolscap format, and
does not easily photocopy to A4. Enjoy. Or not.
INDEX TO THE
AUSTRALIAN HORROR MAGAZINES
3500 words
BY LEIGH BLACKMORE
©
1994
* indicates non-Australian contributor
Reviews, editorials and letter columns have not been indexed; nor
have individual illustrations, though comic strips have been. Page
numbers are not given. AUSTRALIAN FUTURISTIC TALES has not been indexed
as although it published several Lovecraftian tales it was primarily
a science fiction magazine. AUREALIS and EIDOLON are here excluded
for the same reason.
THE AUSTRALIAN HORROR AND FANTASY MAGAZINE Ed: Barry Radburn & Steven
Studach.
No. 1 (Summer 1984)
Fiction:
Collins, Paul 'Fairy Good"
Gral, Joseph "Old Man in Wheelchair"
Elphick, Christine " Dark Intruder"
Kennett, Rick "Made in Hell"
Radburn, Barry M. "Journey's End"
Studach, Steve "Redemption"
Non-Fiction:
Donohue, Trevor. "Horror and Fantasy Down Under"
Poetry:
Anon. "Night".
No. 2 (Autumn 1984)
Fiction:
England, Paul "Uncreated"
Kennett, Rick "The General"; "The Necropolis Watch"
Lyle. "Anything at All"
Ravenlore, Karen. "Ol' Bess"
Studach, Steve & Barry M. Radburn. "White Mane"
Poetry:
* Fox, Janet "Endangered Species"
* Humphries, Dwight M. "Night Complaint"
Radburn, Barry M. "The Good Ship Death"
Non-Fiction: King, Ray. "George Miller: It's a Long Way from Chinchilla
to Hollywood".
No. 3 (Winter 1984)
Fiction:
Kamensky, Mark J. "Don't Touch That Dial"
Lyle. "Through November Eyes".
von Trojan, Kurt "In Loving Memory"
Willis, Johnny R. "The Reclamation"
Poetry:
* Fox, Janet "The Ghoul-Children’s Halloween"
* Humphries, Dwight E. "Autumn Wind"
Whateley, Charles Daniel. "Voyager"
Non-Fiction:
Blackmore, Leigh "HP Lovecraft: The Mystery of the Missing Manuscript"
No. 4 (Spring 1984)
Fiction: Collins, Paul. "Timothy's Happiness is Second to None"
* Williamson, JN "Little Doll from the Backwoods"
Poetry:
* Humphries, Dwight. 'Desert Communiqués': "Glory Road"; "Unsung"; "Ruins"; "Denied"; "Revel"; "Night
Unto Night"; "Invisible"; "Daybreak"
Kennett, Rick "The BEM".
Non-Fiction:
Studach, Steve. "Horror Comics: The Not-so-funnies".
No. 5/6 (n.d.)[1985]
Fiction:
Axon, Nell "Direction"
Carnegie, Kate. "The Skarsdale Place"
Causby, Vivienne "Face Job"
* Crouch, Annette S. "Lights Out for Prudence'
Dahl-Adams, Andra. "The Ice Wizard" [Note: this is Episodes
1 & 2 of a short novel, which is all published, due to the cessation
of AH&FM]
*Fox, Janet. "Otherhood"
Lyle. "Recovery"
Michell, Dorothy. "The Trap"
Pearce, A. "Requiem for a Dead Lover" [note: ‘A. Pearce’
is a pseudonym for Margaret Lorraine Pearce]
Ravenlore, Karen. "The Changeling"
Sunholm, Trisha. "Sound Excuse for Murder"
Poetry:
* Fox, Janet. "Graveyard Angel"
* Salmonson, Jessica Amanda. "The Ghost of the Queen"; "Silent
Snow, Secret Snow"; "Under Draco".
Trebilco, J. "Demoniac"
Non-Fiction:
O'Neill, Mary T. "Dracula: Man and Vampire"
BLOODSONGS Ed: Chris A. Masters and Steve Proposch
No. 1 (January 1994)
Fiction:
* Campbell, Ramsey. "The One Safe Place" (novel extract).
Congreve, Bill. "Mrs Legion"
Hood, Robert. "Autopsy"
Humphrey, Kate. "Love, Pain & Self-Will"
Kumashov, Misha. "Rawbone"
Stevens, BJ. "A Sedative for Bosch"
Welton, Barbara. "McDiarmid"
Williams, Sean. "Mary's Blood"
Xanthos, Maurice. "Art Critic"
Poetry:
Ball, Tom. "Death's Passage"
Brook, T.J. " Death"
Elsbury, Grant. "Bloodsong"
Medici, D.P. "Come Poet"
O'Connor, Ian "The Key"
O'Dea, Theresa A. "Weeping Sheets"
Proposch, Steve. "Genghis Khan"
Robertson, William P. "Some Corpses Gab".
Non-Fiction:
Helms, Michael. "Cut"
Kadavar, K.D. "Video Nasties".
Paulsen, Steve. "The State of the Australian Horror Fiction Magazine"
"
Leigh Blackmore: The Man Behind Terror Australis" [Interview by
Chris A. Masters]
"
Ramsey Rambles" [Ramsey Campbell interview by Steve Proposch]
COLD CUTS: THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE SYDNEY HORROR SOCIETY Ed:
Don Boyd, Ron Clarke, Antoinette Rydyr.
No. 1 (Winter 1994)
Fiction:
Boyd, Don "When the Werewolves Vanish"
Carter, Steve. “Unsafe Sex"
Congreve, Bill. "The Corpse"
McAuliffe, Mark. "The Rug"
Marsden, Rod. "Lest Ye be Judged"
Roberts, PJ "For the Price of a Sixpence"
Rydyr, Antoinette. "The Baying"
Stevens, BJ. "Kissing the Dead"
Tansey, David "Sex Kill, Sex Thrill"
Poetry:
'Baudelaire, Samolina' (Lillia Marcos) "Dark Prince"
Drewer, Cecilia. "Vertigo on the Mountain Top".
DAARKE WORLDE Ed: Tony Brook
Daarke Worlde Sampler (March 1992)
Fiction:
Masters, C.A. "The Ritual"
Brook, Tony (as by 'The Jathemon Brookster") "Thy Brother's
Blood"
Non-Fiction:
Masters, C.A. "A History of Small Press in Horror Australia"
No. 1 (June 1992)
Fiction:
Brook, Tony (as by the Jathemon Brookster) "Despair Not, Quiet
Jester!"
Doolan, Chris "Booby Trap"
Tansey, David "Gumby the Shoggoth Goes Quantity Surveying!: A
Lovecraftian Splatterpunk Parody Extravaganza"
Ladd, Erick T. "Crossed Lines"
McAuliffe, Mark "The Return"
Proposch, Steve "The Snake Lady!"
Non-fiction: Masters, C.A. "Rapt in Universal: A Retrospective
of Classic Mummy Films from Universal Studios"
Crossword: Stevens, BJ "The Kuraria Crossword"
No. 2 (n.d.) [late 1992]
Fiction:
'Baron M'. "Last Rites".
Brook, Tony J. (as by 'The Dread Master'). "It's Said That He's
a Charming Man"
Brook, Tony J. (as by 'T. Jonathan Brook) "The Old Mirror"
Brook, Tony J. (anonymously) "The Stygian Stalker"
* Colson, S. Darnbrook. "Midnight Mass"; "Night School"
* Lewis, DF "Madame Claudia".
McAuliffe, Mark. "The Pale Trees"
Proposch, Steven. "Speed Limits"
Roberts, PJ "The Green Bus"
Whimple. FW. "Such a Pretty Thing"
Zatar, Luiz. "Bloodsucker"
Poetry:
'Claws, Insanity'. "A Christmas Carol".
Non-Fiction:
Masters, CA. "The Mummy's Return"
Masters, CA)(as by 'The Infernal One') "Magick".
Crossword: Stevens, BJ "The Kuraria Crossword" (Solution).
No. 3 (June/July 1993)
Fiction:
Boyd, Don "Maldemur, The City of Hate"
Carter, Steve "Clan of Mongrel Flesh"
*Colson, S. Darnbrook "Aces, Straights and Flushes"
*Lewis, DF "Down the Spirit-Hole"
Marsden, Rod "The Stygian Stalker Strikes"
Masters, C.A. "The Fight"
McAuliffe, Mark "The Grey Plate"
McDermott, Kirstyn "I Am the Silent Voyeur"
Pearce, Margaret. "The Janus Paradox"
Plank, Tony "The Pit"
'Procostomus, Prentis' (Tony Brook?) "Dead Men Don't Share Spades"
Roberts, P.J. "Geronimo and the Werebison"
Non-Fiction:
Masters, Chris "Frankenstein on the Big Screen: Part One: Frankenstein
at Universal Pictures"
No. 4 (Oct/Nov 1993)
Fiction:
'Baudelaire, Samarina' (Lillia Marcos) "1959"
Blackshaw, G.S. "Night of the Disrespectful Crows"
*Colson, S. Darnbrook "Tools of the Trade"
'Criticorum, Yannush' "Profound Carnage"
Killen, Reece "Daddy Said It Was All Right"
Lee, Richard "The Book"
*Lewis, DF "Stumps"
McAuliffe, Mark "The Soft, Warm Flesh That Festers"
Plank, Tony "Slippery Shadows"
Roberts, PJ "The Head of Drakula"
Routley, B.J. "One of Us"
Thorn, Steven Ironstone "Cold Tigers"
Williams, Sean "The Wedding of the Millenium" (Part One)
Poetry:
McDermott, Kirstyn "Satan to His Love"
Rydyr, Antoinette and Steve Carter "The Splatter-Head's Lament"
DARK TIMES: JOURNAL OF THE VAMPIRE LEGION Ed: The Baroness.
No. 1 (1992) Not seen.
No. 2 (Spring 1993)
Fiction:
'Baroness, The'. "Call Me Razor".
Boehme, Sarah. "The New Neighbours from Hell: A Black Comedy".
'Dalv, Lucard'. "The New Neighbours from Hell".
'D'Armagh, Ambrosia'. "The New Neighbours from Hell: Or - An Immortal
Misunderstanding".
Welton, Barbara. "Solitary Candle".
Poetry:
anon. "Ecstasy".
Darren. "Shades of Night"
'Shadow'. "My Lady's Gothic Chamber".
'Skull'. "Configuration".
V, Adam. "The Chair"
'Von Wolfstone, Stefan'. [untitled].
Non-Fiction:
'Azriel'. "Storm Constantine".
'Baroness, The'. "Through This Haunted Mirror: An evening in the
company of a contemporary ghost hunter".
'Baroness, The'. "Vampire Fascination: Evolution of Image Part
I".
'Maitresse, La'. "The Quest for Elizabetha".
Michaela. "The Chameleon Factor - Gary Oldman: Sid Vicious to
Dracula and Beyond".
Sinton, Drew. "Phantom Friends: Investigations into Melbourne's
Pint-Sized Spiritual Playmates".
Trish. "Voices of Darkness: Gothic Music Now".
EOD: THE ESOTERIC ORDER OF DAGON MAGAZINE Ed: Chris Masters
No. 1 (March 1991)
Fiction:
Masters, C.A. "The Dark Window"
Murphy, Steven "Door to Door"
Murphy, Steven "Killed in an Instant"
Roberts, P.J. "I Am Nyarlathotep"
Steer, Louise "Just a Little Bit More"
Tansey, David "No Longer a Stranger"
Poetry:
Roberts, PJ "A Tribute to Evil"; "A Dire Portico"; "Shoggoths"; "Insect-Like
Creatures"; "Horned, Faceless Demons"
Non-Fiction:
Masters, C.A. "The Body Snatchers"
Tansey, David "EOD: A Brief History"
Tansey, David: "HP Lovecraft: An Insight"
No. 2 (May 1991)
Fiction:
Booth, P. Raymond "Darklove"
Masters, C.A. "What's for Dinner?"
Michell, Dorothy "The Rainbow Serpent"
Murphy, Steven "Roma and Julian"
Roberts, P.J. "The Dream"
Stevens, B.J. "The Diary of Howard Clarke Long Phillips"
Tansey, David "Multi-Dysfunctional Polis"
Williams, Sean "Playing Radio"
No. 3 (July 1991)
Fiction:
Booth, P. Raymond "Incunabulae"
Congreve, Bill "Interview"
Proposch, Steven "Figures in the Mist"
Proposch, Steven "Soul Fire"
Roberts, PJ: "The True Cross"
Tansey, David "Dirty Creature Comin' My Way"
Williams, Sean "Burglar Alarm"
No. 4 (Sept 1991); SPECIAL LOVECRAFTIAN ISSUE
Fiction:
Booth, Raymond P. "Transvect! Said the Great Ghuyre"
Evans, Duncan. "Westy Herbert: Regurgitator"
Masters, C.A. "Come to Me"
Stevens, B.J. "Cold Clay"
Tansey, David "Assyria: A Darke Phantasie"
Non-fiction: Blackmore, Leigh "Under the Pyramids: On Lovecraft
and Houdini: Part One"
Tansey, David "I Was a Teenage Lovecraft" (incl. Index to
EOD NEWSLETTER 1989-90)
No. 5 (Dec 1991)
Fiction:
Booth, Raymond P. "No-one at the Bridge" [Part Two of the
Offany Cycle]
Brook, T.J. "Lore of Darkness"
Congreve, Bill "The Milkman Comes"
Evans, Duncan. "Mason Finch and the Glasshouse Rose"
Michell, Dorothy. "The Boar's Head"
Proposch, Steven "Maggie's Place"
Steer, Louise M. "Werewolves"
Stevens, B.J."Pollen"
Tansey, David "The Blood of an English Man"
Williams, Sean "Twist of the Knife"
Poetry:
Blackmore, Leigh "The Sphinx"
Hull, C.E. "Winter Becoming"; "Dead Cat"
McKenzie, Kirk J. "Homicidal Fantasies"
Proposch, Steven "This Black"
Roberts, PJ "Night Walkers"; "The Solitary Watcher"
Comic Strip: O'Keefe, Gavin "Despair"
Non-Fiction: Blackmore, Leigh "Under the Pyramids: On Lovecraft
and Houdini: Part Two"
No. 6 (March 1992)
Fiction:
Brook, T.J. "Lore of Darkness: Lore Two: Sins of the Skin!"
*Edwards, Ian "A Question of Balance"
Evans, Duncan "Bringing Home the Bacon"
Kakmi, D'Metri "Paris By Night"
Kennett, Rick "Dead Air"
Larkin, Joan "Stella"
Roberts, P.J. "The Freak"
Sharlotte, Marguerite "One Day Last Summer"
Steer, Louise M. "The Last of Reinhardt?"
Williams, Sean "Woman's Revenge"
Poetry:
Edwards, Wayne "Pets"; "Rosalie"
McAuliffe, Mark "Here Be Demons”;” Perceptions of Dawn"
McKenzie, Kirk J. "Bit Off More Than She Could Chew"
Roberts, P.J. "The Dark Brotherhood"; "Let Sleeping
Demons Lie" (twice! pp. 30 and 73!);"Strange Sacrifices"; "Vampires" "The
Kiss of Death"
*Robertson, William P. "Mini-Marts Attract Monsters"; "The
Sending" (incorrectly attributed to Mark McAuliffe - see Erratum
in Issue #7 p. 17)
Comic Strip: Stevens, BJ and Kurtstone "Dr Variegate in Showtime"
No. 7 (Sept 1992)
Fiction:
Brook, Tony J. "Lore of Darkness: Lore Three: The Realm of the
Under-Dwellers"
Burke, Jo-Ann C. "The Ruby Brooch"
Congreve, Bill (as by 'Waldopecker III, Ralph Emerson') "Totally
Gratuitous Horror Story Part One: Life's a Bitch"
Congreve, Bill (as by 'King, Clive Ramsey') "Totally Gratuitous
Horror Story: Part Two: Life Wasn't Meant to Be Easy"
Dexter, Peter (as by 'Dexter') "Valley Fold"
Evans, Duncan "In Madam's Wood"
Paulsen, Steven "Stray Cat"
Stevens, B.J. "Desperation Point"
Tansey, David "Blood-Spill"
Williams, Rod "Time Will Not Heal"
Xanthos, Maurice. "Old Man's Game"
Poetry:
Burke, Jo-Ann C. "Treasure"
Kennett, Rick "Downwind”; "The Richest Man in the Cemetery"
McAuliffe, Mark "A Short Poem About Death"
O'Dea, Theresa "The Death Man"
Proposch, Steven "Two States"
Sanders, R.E. "Misery"; "Haunted"
*Ragan, Jacie "All Aboard"; "Guardian of the Coal”;
Malefactress"
Roberts, P.J. "Ancient Beings"; "The Swamp"; "Bestial
Faces”;” Grinning, Fleshless Skulls"
Van Helden, Eddie "Mabuza's Plum"; "Poem by Japanese
Caesarian"
Comic Strip: O'Keefe, Gavin " Despair"
No. 8 (Dec 1992)
Fiction:
Brook, T.J. "Lore of Darkness: Lore Four: The Strange and Bizarre
Ailment of Mortimus Kromwell"; "Lore of Darkness: Lore Five:
Morbidius and the Night Creatures"
Burke, Jo-Ann C. "As a Phoenix, Rising"
Congreve, Bill "In Search of Clean Air"; "Totally Gratuitous
Horror Story Part 3:And Then You Pay Taxes"
Dexter, Peter (as by 'Dexter'). "A Binding Undone"
*Lewis, D.F. "Nygremaunce"
Parfoot, C.C. "Dust to Dust"
Proposch, Steven "Another Beginning"
Roberts, P.J. "A Ghost of the Living"
Sullivan, Andrew. "Nhil Village"
Poetry:
McAuliffe, Mark "When the Dragons Walk Again"; "A Sinister
Sibling's Sonnet"; "You Will Be Mine"
McKenzie, Kirk J. "Anal Intruder"
Proposch, Steven "The Hollow Man (Nosferatu)"
Non-Fiction: Wilson, Sam "The Castle of Murders: The American
Horror Film as Cultural Text"
ORDER OF DAGON NEWSLETTER Ed: David Tansey
No. 1 (Jan 1989)
Fiction:
Jacobson, Gregory. "The Thing at the Window"
Jacobson, Gregory & David Tansey. "The Shadow Out of Space
and Time" (Part One)
Tansey, David. "The Missive".
Non-fiction:
Tansey, David. "The Cthulhu Mythos and Australia".
No. 2 (March 1989)
Fiction:
Jacobson, Gregory. "The Vengeance of Ithaqua"
Jacobson, Gregory & David Tansey. "The Shadow Out of Space
and Time" (Part Two)
Poetry
Meyers, Toby. "The Evil House on Elm Street"
Wallis, Paul F. "To Marie"
No. 3 (May 1989)
Fiction
Jacobson, Gregory & David Tansey. "The Shadow Out of Space
and Time" (Part Three)
Poetry:
Davison, M. "Love Immortal"
'Gypsy, The'. "Eternal"
Non-Fiction:
Lovett, Gayle. "Collecting Weird Tales". [Part One]
No. 4 (date?). [1989] Not seen.
Fiction:
Jacobson, Gregory & David Tansey. "The Shadow Out of Space
and Time" (Part Four).
Tansey, David. "Shade,The"
Poetry:
Davison, M. "Claret, Anyone?"
Non-Fiction:
Cusack, Pauline. "Horror Lurks".
No. 5 (n.d.) [1989]
Fiction:
Tansey, David. "When the Stars Are Right".
'Wicked Witch of the West, The'. "The World is Black"
Poetry:
'Gypsy, The'. "Drowntide".
Non-fiction:
Davison, M.J. "HPL: The Band".
Lovett, Gayle. "Collecting Weird Tales: Part 2 - Major Anthologies
of Weird Tales Stories".
No. 6 (Aug 1989)
Fiction:
Tansey, David. "In the Blood'
Poetry:
Davison, M. "The Message"
Non-Fiction:
Lukatela, Philip. "Lon Chaney: The Man of a Thousand Faces"
No. 7 (Sept 1989)
Fiction:
Tansey, David. "The Relic"
Tansey, David. "The Horror at Holy Oak" [issued separately
as a supplement to No. 7]
Non-Fiction:
Morrison, Mark (as by 'The Markster'). "Ten Essential Paperbacks
for Latter-day Lovecraftians".
ORDER OF DAGON SAMPLER (Sept 1989)
Fiction:
Cusack, Pauline. "The Essential Darkness"
Tansey, David "The Garden of Amisthenes'
Poetry:
Cusack, Pauline. "Eternal"; "Drowntide".
Davison "The Message"
Non-Fiction
Cusack, Pauline. "Horror Lurks"
Morrison, Mark (as by 'The Markster'). "Ten Essential Paperbacks
for Latter-day Lovecraftians".
No. 8 (Nov 1989)
Fiction:
Morrison, Mark. "Stop".
Non-Fiction:
Davison, Mike "Horror and Fear"
[Tansey, David]. "The OoDex: Index to Order of Dagon Newsletter
1989".
No. 9 (Jan 1990)
Fiction:
Reid, Bruce. "The Hollow"
Rosenberg, Barry. "Sanyasin"
Tansey, David. "The Reef".
No. 10 (March 1990)
Fiction:
Defay, Kara. "Kraken Woken"
Dowding, William. "The Web That Evil Weaves"
Rosenberg, Barry. "Shadow of a Man"
No. 11 (May 1990)
Fiction:
Duke, Mitchell J. "Ever Mindful"
Michell, Dorothy. "The Loneliest Signpost".
No. 12 (July 1990)
Fiction:
Defay, Kara. "Best Left Alone"
Duval, Melanie. "The Skull Collector"
Roberts, PJ. "Revenge of the Green Bus"
Young, Elsie. "Snakes and Ladders"
No. 13 (Aug 1990)
Fiction:
Clark, Robert A. "The Cellarman"
Duval, Malanie. "A Letter for Number 18"
Franklin, Billie. "Fred"
Routley, Jane. "One of Us"
Steer, Louise M. "The Forests of the Night"
Stevens, Bryce. "It's Such a Crazy Idea It Might Just Work"
Strasser, Dirk. "00.00 a.m."
Verran, James. "Voyeur"
No. 14 (Sept 1990)
Fiction:
Burger, Edward. "Castle of the Zombies"
Clark, Robert A. "The War Dogs"
Clarke, Chris. "The Beheading"
Early, RG "The Window"
Gerlach, Steve. "The Innocent Boys"
Murphy, Steven "Ride a Bullet"
Routley, Jane. "One of Us"
Smoors, Bridget. "Ye Olde Tyme Shoppe of Horrors"
PROHIBITED MATTER Ed: Rod Marsden
Publishes crime and sf as well as horror but since these often cross
over, the entire contents are listed here.
1, No. 1 (n.d.) [1992?]
Fiction:
Boyd, Don "Library Guard"; "Murderer's Moon"; "Persian
Gulf Murder Spree"; "Strange Homecoming"
Carter, Steve (as by 'S. Carcinogen') "The Hauptmon Curse"; "Horror
in the Artont"; "Johnny Psycho"; "Within the Yellow
Maze"
Marsden, Rod "Alien Encounters"; "Gone Fishin'"; "Misadventures
of a Train Traveller"; "Vampyre Nights"
Non-Fiction:
[Marsden, Rod] "Banned for 19 Years - The State of Australian
Censorship Today"
No. 2 [1993]
Fiction:
Boyd, Don "The Case of the Murderous Monarch"; "Hellroad"; "Lucky
Strike"; "Murder in the Rainforest"; "Sheet Lightning"
Carter, Steve "Hostile Earth: Special Delivery"; "Mutant
Dawn";
Carter, Steve and Antoinette Rydyr "The Restroom"
*Dumars, Denise "The Original"
Jackson, Geoff "Hut of Hammers"
Marsden, Rod. "And the Sins of the Father"; "Bloody
Mary"; "If An Eye Offend"; "Julie Bright and the
Final Misadventure of an Accountant"; "What Thou Shalt Not
Commit"
McConchie, Lyn "The Good Old Days"
Rex, Keith "The Li-Clese Exhibition"
Non-fiction:
Marsden, Rod "The Phantom Fights Censorship"
SEVERED HEAD: THE NEWSLETTER FOR THE MELBOURNE HORROR SOCIETY Ed:
Chris Masters
No. 1 (Nov 1993)
Non-Fiction:
Masters, Chris. "The Case for Censorshit".
No. 2 (Jan 1994)
Poetry:
Proposch, Steve. "The Trade Elevator"
Non-Fiction: Hailstone, Michael "The Ghosts of Bondi Junction"
SHOGGOTH Ed: Chris Masters
No. 1 (June 1992)
Fiction:
*Dumars, Denise. "The Deal"
*Lewis, D.F. "The Old One"
Richards, Tim "Shadow from the Past".
Tansey, David. "The Shadow Out of Space and Time"
Poetry:
* Mecklem, Todd "Cthulhu on Mars"
Non-Fiction: Blackmore, Leigh "On the Rim of the Unknown: A Visit
with Frank & Lyda Belknap Long"
Blackmore, L.D, C.A. Masters & BJ Stevens "Blasphemous Tomes:
A Guide to Lovecraftiana in the Small Press"
Masters, C.A. "Shoggoth Reviews"
Spiteri, Charles "Dark Tidings"
No. 2 (n.d.) [March 1993] subtitle: THE CTHULHU MYTHOS MAGAZINE
Fiction:
Boyd, Don "Dagon's Forge"
*Lewis, D.F. "Alum Chine"
Masters, C.A. "Cthulhu Reborn"
Stone, Kurt. "A Letter from the Other Side"
Studach, Steven "Darkness Child"
*Vaughan, Ralph E. "The Guardian"
*Webb, Don "The Sound of a Door Opening"
Poetry:
Blackmore, Leigh: "Ubbo-Sathla"; "Providence, March
15, 1937"; "The Conjuration"; "The Temple";
'The Dark God"; "Pickman's Models"; "The Nameless
City"; "The Outsider"; "The Statement of Randolph
Carter"; "Dream Landscape"
Sequeira, Chris and BJ Stevens (as by 'Grandmaster Sequeira and Deejay
Beejay) "R'lyeh Rap"
*Vaughan, Ralph E. "Ulthar"
Non-Fiction:
Frayle, Ben "Lovecraftian Horror Role-Playing"
Rex, Keith "Dagon Worship Today"
Spiteri, Charles "Dark Tidings"
*Winter-Damon, T. "Ralph Vaughan: Visionary of the Dreamlands"
SKINNED ALIVE Ed: Rod Williams
Primarily a critical/reviews magazine but from Issue 2 has also included
fiction
No. 2 (n.d.)[1991]
Fiction:
Williams, Rod "Say It With Blood"
No. 3 (July 1991)
Fiction:
* Houston, G.N. "The Old Timers"
Kapiteyn, Joe "Mummy's Boy"
No. 4 (March 1992)
Fiction:
Proposch, Steven "Black Hearts"
No.5 (Aug 1993)
Fiction:
*Lewis, D.F. "Winning Ways"
McAuliffe, Mark "The Wisdom of Solomon"
*Mecklem, Todd "Sweet Strawberry"
SOCIOPATHIC TIMES Ed: Rod Marsden
No. 1 (n.d) [Summer 1993]
Fiction:
Boyd, Don. "Death of a Parliamentarian"
Jackson, Geoff "Mud".
Roberts, PJ. "The Church of the Divine Fastbuck"
Non-Fiction:
Marsden, Rod. "A Case Against Censorship".
TABULA RASA: A HISTORY OF HORROR Ed: David Carroll & Kyla Ward
No 1: The Dark Ages (Jan 1994)
Non-fiction [not credited but apparently entire contents by the editors]
"This Man Belongs to Me: The Life and Deaths of Vlad the Impaler"
"
State of the Art: A Diary"
"
Holy Shit! What is all this Green Stuff?" [Interview with Lloyd
Kaufman of Troma movie productions]
"
The Exorcist Revisited"
"
Vincent Price Filmography"
"
The Dark Ages: Eight Centuries of Horror"
"
The Inquisition: A Gesture of Good Faith"
No 2 (April 1994). Not seen.
TERROR AUSTRALIS: THE AUSTRALIAN HORROR AND FANTASY MAGAZINE Ed: Leigh
Blackmore, Chris Sequeira, BJ Stevens.
1, No 1 (Autumn 1988)
Fiction:
Kennett, Rick. "Alley Ghost"
'Llewellyn, Dr M.A.' (Jon Marshall) "Essay on Pain"
* Lumley, Brian. "Back Row"
Paulsen, Steven "The Place".
'Strigby, Jhankor' (Bill Beattie) "Slime's Lot"
Sweeney, Andrew Jude. "The Wolf at the Door".
Venning, Rick. "The Crash".
Yahp, Beth. "Dreamers"
Xanthos, Maurice "The Final Blow"
Poetry:
Blackmore, Leigh "Homage to Arthur Machen: The Shining Pyramid"
* Furnass, Malcolm. "Beyond the Hanging Gate"
Hull, Coral E. "Evening Feeling"
Non-Fiction:
Morrison, Mark "Keeping Time"
Sequeira, Chris "Personal Terrors"
Stevens, BJ "Every Time the Candle Burns"
"
Weaving Words with Clive Barker" [Interview by Leigh Blackmore]
1, No. 2 (Winter 1988) [in fact published Winter 1989]
Fiction:
Burke, Frances. "The Gift"
Krause, Jonathan. "Phantom of the Night"
Kennett, Rick. "Strange Fruit"
Morehead, Sheila. "How Long Will It Be?"
Parsons, Graeme. "The Mistake"
Paulsen, Steven. "Old Wood"
Schultz, SR. "Castle Elacteu"
Von Trojan, Kurt. "Willie's Struggle"
Xanthos, Maurice "Guitar Man"
Poetry:
Doheny, Shane. "Am I Not Asleep?"
Hull, Coral E. "Suck Your Guts Out"
'Uda, Carl' (Chris Sequeira) "He Had a Soul"
Non-Fiction:
Stevens, BJ. "Horrors of Australian History"
"
Communion with Whitley Strieber" [Interview by Leigh Blackmore]
2, No. 1 (WN 3)(Summer 1992): THE JACK THE RIPPER SPECIAL
Fiction:
* Campbell, Ramsey. "Jack's Little Friend"
Klacar, Pamela. "Ripperama"
*Royle, Nicholas. "Flowers, Holes and Loneliness"
Sequeira, Chris. "Strange Unsolved Mysteries"
'Sequeira, Dr George W' (Chris Sequeira). "Catch Me When You Can
- From Hell"
Stevens, BJ. "This Little Piggy Gets"
Xanthos, Maurice. "The Stripper Revealed".
Zupp, Adrian. "Hoboes".
Poetry:
Hull, Coral E. "Supper"
O'Neill, KT. "Jack the Ripper".
Non-Fiction:
Blackmore, Leigh. THE COMPLETE JACK THE RIPPER REFERENCE GUIDE. Includes: "A
Survey in Scarlet - Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes: A Chronology
of Fiction, Verse, Non-Fiction and Film " (with Chris Sequeira); "The
Ripper in Literature: Addenda to the Kelly Bibliography"; "Jack
and Dracula"; "JTR and HPL"; "The Ripper on the
Screen: TA's Top Ten" (with Chris Sequeira); "Jack the Ripper
in Music"; "An Incomplete Jack the Ripper Panelography" (by
Sequeira alone); "The Ripper in Non-Fiction"
Cheeseman, Gregory "Portrait of the Ripper"
Morrison, Mark. "Keeping Time"
Sequeira, Chris. "Horrors of Australian History"
'Sequeira, Dr G.W.' (Chris Sequeira) "Jack the Ripper: Some Novel
Suspects"
Stevens, BJ "Every Time the Candle Burns"
VANDEMONIAN (1991 -only issue) Ed: Kate George
Fiction:
Blezard, Carl "Waiting"
Blezard, Jan "The Purifier"
Clark, Graeme "Andrea versus The Impostor"
Masters, C.A. "Billy"
Roberts, PJ "Room 408"
Stephens, Mark J. "In Reminiscence of Those Dead-of-Night Frights"
Poetry:
Furley, Karen "Idling Spirits in Corridors"
Roberts, PJ. "The Lonely Hunter"; "The Superstition"; "I
Am Called Death".
Vertigan, Craig "Red-Blooded Woman"; "The Sight"
Non-Fiction:
George, Kate "Stephen King Chronology"; "Before Carrie"; "Unpublished
Work [of Stephen King]"; "Steve's Hard-to-Find Shorts";
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