As the month of October creeps along into longer fall nights and the spooky vibes, some quick, creepy weird escapism might what you need for some before bed reading.
Here are a couple of random magazine and comic collections for grownups (a couple of favorites you might have seen me suggest before) for the love of reading:
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
The mystery and suspense magazine celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, and is still going strong. So many authors, have contributed to this one over the years from well-known names to talented hobbyists. I won’t list any one in particular, as you could find a recent volume with not one author you recognize, or come across a vintage copy with a work by G.K. Chesterton. One of the coolest things about magazines with this type of longevity is you can find the latest edition a commercial bookstore, and older vintage editions at used bookstores, thrift shops and garage sales. Start searching and dig into the mystery.
Heavy Metal and Metal Hurlant
Technically, these are two separate magazines from different countries, but it only makes sense to list them together. The original Heavy Metal Magazine from 1977 features content translated to English from the French magazine Metal Hurlant created in 1975. After on-and of-publication weirdness over the last 50 or so years, you can once again purchase new issues of both of these magazines. Heavy Metal releases about six issues a year with new content. Metal Hurlant releases quarterly anthologies with both new a classic archival content based on a cohesive theme (aka “The Monster Within”). Both of these magazines were sought out by Gen-X teenagers who wanted to read the R-Rated content that looked like someone who might have fallen asleep tripping on acid while reading a Playboy, but found out there was some pretty great storytelling and art mixed in. They blend science fiction, horror and fantasy from a variety of artists, and yes, there is some really good storytelling still to be found. BIG warning, or course, these aren’t for everyone, that is for sure. Yet for those with the constitution for it, there is always at least one or two stories that will rope you in.
Tales From the Crypt: The EC Archives Vol. 1
Published in 2021 by Dark Horse Comics, here’s a collection of the Golden Age horror from Entertaining Comics (EC) that date back to 1950. It features a forward by horror legend John Carpenter and compiles classic horror tales originally found in The Crypt of Terror Issue 17-19 and Tales from the Crypt Issues 20-22 while keeping the original vintage style of the illustrations in tact. These aren’t just the stories themselves pulled from the magazine. It includes a look at the original covers, advertisements, and event letters to the Crypt-Keeper from back in the day including one note from a Mrs. Ester Murshower of Alameda, Calif. who simply said.. “..these are the kind of stories I GRAVE!” We might not know what happened to the original readers, but we do know the original stories are being reprinted for new generations to ejnoy.
One of the best things about anthology mags and comic collections is you can skip what you want and read what you want..often in any order you want, so pick a story and escape into a weird night of October reading joy.
Yes indeed, “A true library is a collection of books” (Thomas Carlyle-1841) is still true today and applies as well to paper books and those stored on a computer. I devoutly subscribed to Heavy Metal for many years. It included stranger types of light horror, and continued various stories from month to month. Also kept a few original standalone volumes of bound comic novels illustrated by Philippe Druillet from the 70’s including the 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane, Gail, and Yragael, which were part of H.M. and I would not part with them. For interested parties, as the 70’s books are rare, The Lone Sloane stories are easily found as faithful reprints in a 3-volume “slipcase set” with all the psychedelic organo-gothic horror art for which Druillet is famous. The originals in the early 1970s were badly translated from the French, but I prefer the wording in those as they seemed to me at the time to emphasize the horror and depredation aspects of the tales. Druillet, the creator of the monster in ‘Alien’, was the cause of many lights kept burning all night in my youth.
Hi Lisa! A great article about the different magazines out there for the horror/mystery /comics folks. My local library carried the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Unfortunately,you couldn’t check them out ,so I would spend an afternoon reading a bunch of them until my vision got blurry. My sister had a subscription to the Twilight Zone Magazine which was published from 1981 to 1989. It was a great publication. It had short stories from prominent writers like Stephen King. The original transcripts from all of the episodes and anything show related. I’m going to have seek out some the magazines you mentioned. Thanks Lisa!