Our Feature Story
New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine successfully funded issues 3 and 4, raising $34,476 US from 710 backers.
It’s a bit of a shock (though a good one) to be at that level within eighteen months of when a free trial issue #0 was put out for New Edge Sword & Sorcery to test and expand the audience for current Sword & Sorcery. While not the sole effort within the community showing success and growth in the community, it’s been the most exhilarating to witness from the inside.
NESS Publisher Brackenbury Books will be putting out issues 3 &4, currently set for Summer 2024, featuring the authors listed below. Due to the campaign's success, all authors will be published at the professional rate of 8 cents per word as per SFWA Guidelines.
This is notable as it signifies interest from a broader audience, which will hopefully encourage other authors and publishers to consider creating and publishing more Sword & Sorcery to further the revival of the genre currently underway.
The first time the magazine was funded last year, there was always the fear that it would be some fluke. All the hard work in promoting the magazine from all the staff and contributors has ensured this even larger success, a bold, exciting new phase for the magazine that will be exciting to watch from afar.
You read that last sentence correctly.
I will be stepping away from doing social media for the magazine to concentrate on other more personal creative projects, including keeping Just The Axe, Ma’am, as an ongoing concern. It’s been a blast being part of the magazine. .
Film & TV
This bit of film-related news caught our interest: Roger Corman seeks to revive the Deathstalker franchise with a reboot. We’d not be interested in that in itself, as it was best known as a series of low-budget cash-in attempts at riding the success of the 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie.
What caught our eye is the director attached: Steve Kostanski.
As the press reports, he’s previously done both original horror films like The Void and licensed properties like Leprechaun Returns, but he’s also a fellow Winnipegger who got his start in the Astron-6 film collective, where he helmed the microbudget Manborg and co-helmed the film Father’s Day which was wilder, more imaginative and plain better than a Troma movie has any right to be,
His most recent film, PG: Psycho Goreman, was a gleeful mixture of brawny, gory 90s practical effects and creatively designed tributes to the monsters featured in the Tokusatsu films & TV shows of Japan.
The Deathstalker production team successfully funded their Kickstarter for another $ 100,000 to be added to the budget for extra creatures, and this will serve as an interesting counterpoint to The Slave and the Sorcerer, another loving tribute to the schlocky films that followed in the wake of The Conan the Barbarian film of 1982.
Will this burgeoning attempt to revive the schlockier side of the genre lead to larger Hollywood studios looking into making more serious Sword and sorcery films? That, as they say, is a story for another time…
In Other News:
+ Forbidden Planet sat down with Michael Moorcock to discuss the release of the second part of his Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse comic and the reprint of Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer.
At one point, Moorcock muses that he might have written his last Elric story. The interviewer notes, “We’ve heard you say this before… multiple times, I might add,” which Moorcock admits to.
+ Meanwhile, RL Thornton sat down with Moorcock for part one of a look at his music career, which is printed in File770. Here is part two.
Speaking of music:
+ Although operating since 2022, Castle Rat has been building up a mountain of buzz these past couple of months in preparation for their full-length debut album, which will be released in April.
Originated by bandleader Riley Pinkerton when being in 2020 lockdown allowed her to rediscover her love of Black Sabbath and the inspiration of the art of Frank Frazetta, and coming up with complex lore and crafting elaborate costumes for her character, the Rat Queen with theatrical rock performances as she combats The Rat Reaperess as her bandmates wear outfits inspired by plague doctors, druids and more.
Much of the hype has been through their music videos like the faux-medieval “Dagger Dragger” and the more recent snow-bound swordplay of “Cry For Me.”
This month’s release of “Fresh Fur,” which you see above, more directly channels the neon barbarian vibes of the early 1980s. It allows her to swing swords and play guitar solos while sporting some truly magnificent big hair worthy of a Frank Thorne portrait of Red Sonja come to life.
(There’s a reason why the music video end credits include a separate credit for Blow Dryer.)
Listen and pre-order the band’s album at their Bandcamp page here.
+ Dungeon Synth Zine, which has been chronicling and reviewing the burgeoning scene of electronic artists, presented the roots of the musical genre and its connections to Sword & Sorcery for the recent New Edge crowdfunding. The reclusive S., who puts together the Zine, has a new book, 101 Dungeon Synth Albums You Must Hear.
This handcrafted book is only available in a physical edition and is filled with original art from artists who have created Dungeon Synth Album covers.
In S.’s own words:
”It's not only a list; it's a comprehensive guide with descriptions (partly based on reviews in Dungeon Synth Zine aggregated over the years), explanations of dungeon synth's characteristics, how to succeed in it, and a list of literary and gaming tropes that impregnated the imagination of musicians.”
Check it out here.
+ John R. Fultz gave an interview regarding his upcoming second Scaleborn novel at Marooner’s Rock, which also goes in-depth about his experiences in and out of major publishing, the mysterious benefactor Flying Wizard Press, and his continued focus on Sword & Sorcery.
In a later post, he revealed not just the art of next month’s release of Times Never Change by Brian LeBlanc. He confirmed that two of the three stories appearing this year are set in the same Scaleborn universe as the novels he is releasing this year and appear in New Edge Sword & Sorcery and Old Moon Quarterly . The third story featuring Gnori of Old Shard, who had previously appeared in Neither Beg Nor Yield, and A Book of Blades, will appear in May 2024 in the 60th online issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.
+ Tanith Lee (1947–2015) received an Infinity Award from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) this year.
The Infinity Award “posthumously honours acclaimed creators who passed away before they could be considered for a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.”
+ The artist Saprophial, who has illustrated The Black God’s Kiss RPG based on C. L. Moore’s character Jirel of Joiry and continued to illustrate for New Edge Sword & Sorcery, sits down for an in-depth special interview at Heavy Art Talk.
Steven L. Shrewsbury has a new novella devoted to Robert E. Howard’s gloomy Pictish warrior king Bran Mak Morn as part of the Heroic Legends line of stories. Shrewsbury has written a lot of Horror and Sword &Sorcery, and Robert E. Howard’s story “Worms of the Earth” is not just a great Sword & Sorcery tale, but also a horror story as well. Shrewsbury takes that as inspiration for this story and nods to Lovecraftian horror and some of Shrewbury’s own fiction.
The artist Gilead is currently running a Kickstarter for an 18-month calendar of his Swotd & Sorcery art. It ends April 5th, so take a look now and consider backing!
Podcasts on Parade
Rogues in the House did a rare two-part episode this month in which they gave live reactions to their listeners' accounts of how they became Sword & Sorcery fans, including a guy named Kevin Beckett (ahem) in the first part.
Part 2:
The Cromcast takes a second look at Robert E. Howard's final published Conan story,” Red Nails.”
Reviews
+ Charles Pulliam-Moore reviews the art film She is Conann. It is well worth reading as he engages with it because he is familiar with Robert E. Howard's original fiction and is willing to examine the film with more than the confusion and disbelief expressed online when the trailer first appeared.
+ Fletcher Vredenburgh reviews John R. Fultz’ Immaculate Scoundrels for Black Gate Magazine. After burning out on it years ago, he discusses it as part of his earning to enjoy reading S&S again.
+ Greg Mele also reviews John R. Fultz’s Immaculate Scoundrels for Black Gate. He does a wonderful job capturing what it was like to be a Generation X kid growing up in the 1980s, its assorted pop culture, and how all of that fuels Fultz’s novel, describing it as “that Tarantino-style wuxia-80s heist fantasy film with lizard-people you never knew you needed.”
+ Paul Weimar reviewed Howard Andrew Jones's City of Marble and Blood for Nerds of a Feather, offering thoughts on some of Jones's metafiction conceits.
+ Robin Marx reviews the S&S anthology Neither Beg Nor Yield for Grimdark Magazine and singles out stories by William King, C. L. Werner, Eric Turowski, Joe R. Lansdale, Steven Erikson, Howard Andrew Jones, and Adrian Cole as especially interesting to Grimdark readers.
This Month in Sword & Sorcery Magazines:
Beneath Ceaseless Skies:
+ Jon Olfert informs us that his Sword & Sorcery novelette, 'On Slate and Skin,' is now published at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which you can read online. As he notes,
“Took a few risks with this one, been hanging out with too many horror writers.”
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly:
The interior art you see above was added for “The Iron Serpent” by H. R. Laurence. This of adventurers vs. the title creature is getting some very positive word of mouth from those who read it. Check it out here.
New Edge Sword & Sorcery:
New Edge held a special Dungeon Synth Night as part of their crowdfunding, organized in collaboration with Wyrd Daze ezine and featuring special guests Erang, Fen Walker, and Dungeon Synth Zine, where the music genre was introduced to newcomers and its connection to sword & sorcery, then Fen Walker performed lived. Erang gave a special music video performance of several of his songs.
You can watch or listen to the entire stream here.
Old Moon Quarterly: OMQ gave a sneak peek of interior art by the always amazing Daniel Vega for an upcoming issue matching the dark fantasy vibes of the magazine.
Swords & Sorcery: For issue #146, editor Curtis Ellett wishes us the best “Whatever Your Weather” and gives us three more stories you can read online for free:
“I Will Give You a Crown of Gems to Wear” by J. M. Cyrus
“Greys and Smokes and Silvers and Steels” by Sean Jones
“The River Tokoloshe”, by D. J. Tyrer
TRIAPA: Spiral Tower Press, the people behind the Amateur Zines Way Station, Whetstone and Witch House, has established an 'Amateur Press Association,' TRIAPA, and its seventh mailing is now available.
If you want to submit a zine for TRIAPA #8, please send a 2-page zine (maximum) to spiraltowerpress@gmail.com. They invite and encourage all fans of sword and sorcery, cosmic horror, and space opera to submit.
Find out more and check all seven previous editions here.
Whetstone: On Hiatus until 2025. Read the archive of the first eight issues for free here.
Submission Calls
The following markets are dedicated to or specified to accept sword & sorcery.
+ Baen Fantasy Adventure Award, an annual contest, is open from Jan 16 - April 30. Story submissions max 8k words. Grand Prize $500 USD. Submission Guidelines Here.
+ BFS Horizons, put out by The British Fantasy Society, is always open. 500 - 5000 Words. Remuneration £20. Submission Guidelines.
+ Indie Bites, a non-profit fantasy anthology series put out by Silversun Books, is available on Kindle Unlimited and is looking for stories for both, its upcoming Wishes & Wizards and Forests & Familars-themed issue. Deadline Apr 30, 2024. Accepts up to 7500 Words. Honorarium £5. Submission Guidelines
+ Swords & Sorcery is always open. Takes up to 10k words. Payment: $25 USD. Submission Guidelines.
Thank you for reading to the end! As always we welcome your feedback. Did you like the increased coverage of Sword & Sorcery related music this issue? Let us know!
See you Next Month! — KB
I'm from Winnipeg, too....