Weird Tales Magazine No. 370: Monster Issue

by Jonathan Maberry, Ray Porter (Narrator), Bronson Pinchot (Narrator)

You can’t have a good tale of monster hunting without monsters. And sometimes the monsters don’t need to be hunted. Sometimes it’s fun sitting back at minimum safe distance and watching the mayhem.

Weird Tales Magazine used to be nicknamed “The Unusual Magazine,” which is a bit of truth in advertising. And this issue hits that bull’s-eye pretty solidly. There are monster stories (short stories and flash), monster poems, and even an essay about monsters to be found here. But they’re each a little outside of the conventional box. Each writer brought a curious kind of game here, twisting the established models, skewing expectations, and having some very dark fun spinning creepy yarns about monsters of all kinds. So, lock the doors, turn down the lights, and dig in. It’s about to get scary in here.

“What Mike Saw” by Isaac Marion
“Charakakon” by Johnny Compton
“Gorgeous” by Delilah S. Dawson
“ Bruises on the Flesh of God” by Charles R. Rutledge
“Riddle” by Gwendolyn Kiste
“Straw Man” by Peter Clines
“Lagniappe” by Dennis K. Crosby
“Soft Shells” by Clay McLeod Chapman
“Termination Flash Fiction” by Wayne Brady
“My Hideous Secret A Prose Poem” by Maxwell I. Gold
“Death Carries a Peculiar Perfume” by Ellen Hopkins
“Dinner with Mom” by Ray Porter
“Putting the Hell in Hell Week” by J. Rose
“Born in the Swamp Monsters Great and Small” by Chris Ryall

Audible Audio

Published December 3, 2024

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[vk chompooming · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who does not normally read short story anthologies, I was pleasantly surprised that Weird Tales really was 4 stars! I would have given it 5 stars, but the essay about Swamp Monsters at the end kinda brought the score down. I read this b/c one of my favorite authors, Peter Clines, has a short story in this issue and I try to read EVERYTHING he writes. I have heard of this title due to my reading the works of H.P. Lovecraft, but I never thought this issue would have captivated me to such a degree. Every story was incredible! I loved every character and setting. The end essay kinda killed the magic, but for an issue all about monsters, it was incredible!!

[Christopher Pate · Rating 4 out of 5]

An agreeable read featuring monsters of different sorts and aspects, ranging from weird to surreal to amusing if still horrific, including a Kolchak story! A few tales dragged but most were highly and the fiction is interspersed with a few non-fiction pieces that were good reads as well. The best of the fiction tales were: Dinner with Mom by Ray Porter (nicely weird tale); Kolchak: the Night Stalker, Bruises on the Flesh of God by Charles R. Rutledge (great read and very nostalgic as I remember watching and enjoying the movie and the series back in the 70s); and Termination Agreement by Wayne Brady (delightfully gruesome and amusing!). If you're a fan of monster stories do yourself a favor and tuck this one in your reading list.

More at my blog: https://bookworminthedark.blogspot.com.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all anthologies, some stories that I liked, some that I did not. My favorite was "Charakakon" by Johnny Compton. Some unique material there that reminded me of Robert Aickman. "What Mike Saw" by Isaac Marion was very well done as well. I also liked the stories by Delilah Dawson and Peter Clines. Chris Ryall's survey of Swamp Monster in popular culture was nicely put together.

I am a big Kolchak fan so was looking forward to a new Night Stalker story. Charles Rutledge hits the right tone, but the story just was not interesting. I hope he finds some better material because I think he does a good job of evoking he feeling of the old TV show.

[Andreas Acevedo Dunlop Strom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of monster stories and poems. The essay at the end was great, too, making me want to revisit a lot of monster movies.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just read the Peter Clines and Ray Porter, pretty creepy, especially the Ray Porter one, cant wait to see if he writes more, will come back to the rest of them.

[myreadingescapism · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ray Porter is the GOAT.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding collection of monster short stories and other items by great authors and narrated by great narrators.