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The Strange Edge Magazine Issue 0
What is The Strange Edge? It’s the thin line of intersection between stories that are weird in setting, weird in character, weird in plot, weird in form, and weird in aesthetic, but that still remain essentially readable to those of us who haven’t been sentenced to seven years in an MFA program. It’s a flavor of soft-serve Bizarro featuring chunks of absurdism and postmodernism in a base of the surreal. It’s an uncomfortable mix of the brows, high and low, that weaves in and out of transgressive zones and into the fantastic. It’s the lobster-faced baby Kafka hid in his vault for Kharms to find and eat after escaping the Gulag. It’s an Ionesco script acted out by Monty Python and filmed by Guy Maddin.
This is the 0th issue of a new journal with an ancient purpose: to gather together fiction and stuff that is cool to read and look at and know about.
In short, it’s a magazine of weird fiction. This issue is a Proof of Concept.
This is the 0th issue of a new journal with an ancient purpose: to gather together fiction and stuff that is cool to read and look at and know about.
In short, it’s a magazine of weird fiction. This issue is a Proof of Concept.
Unknown Binding
First published July 1, 2015
1 person is currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
G. Arthur Brown
24 books85 followersG. Arthur Brown, when not sleeping, writes absurd and irreal fiction, especially in rest rooms. His flash fiction collection I Like Turtles earned a Wonderland nomination for Best Collection of 2014. Governor of the Homeless, his second novella and first horror offering, was released in 2016 by Psychedelic Horror Press. His latest collection, Stories to Make You Puke Your Pants, was released in June of 2022 by Planet Bizarro.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 21, 2015
Fantastic collection overall, and a pretty decent primer for anyone the least bit curious about the latest wave of "strange" to crash over the breakwalls of genre, flooding both into and out of those harbors of more staid, stagnant fiction. With this many authors included, some pieces are bound to resonate more than others, but there were precious few that failed to stimulate or elsewise capture my interest. Personal favs included "If Ever the Twain Shall Meet" by Ray Fracalossy, "The Luscious School" by Mark Allen Berryhill, "Crotch-couch" by Zoltán Komor, "Soda Celebrities" by Matthew Revert, "The Powell/Fourth Dog Incident" by Douglas Hackle, "Do You Remember Lisa Graves?" by Sean Leonard, and "An Open Letter to S.C. Johnson & Son, A Family Company" by Jon Konrath.
And the best part? It's totally free. Get yourself a copy here.
And the best part? It's totally free. Get yourself a copy here.
September 19, 2015
It’s a flavor of soft-serve Bizarro featuring chunks of absurdism and postmodernism in a base of the surreal.
from the intro by G. Arthur Brown
"Nickleback are like AIDS for the ears." - Chris Kelso
Hey, look - it's a new "literary" magazine! These things are usually great for wrapping fish, but in this case you may actually want to read it instead - 1. because it's pretty doggone good and 2. it's an e-mag. (And why the hell would anybody want to wrap fish? I just don't get it.)
There are lots and lots of highlights:
- In Dustin Reade's Clouds and Feathers, you'll learn that when the cloud people attack, it helps to have Roald Dahl
on your side.
- Douglas Hackle tells a sad tale of how one man'sshaggy dog story comes back to haunt him again and again in The Powell/Fourth Dog Incident.
- Bradley Sands offers up a review of that annoying eighties video game - Deadly Cubicles. (I was never able to make it past the first level as the elevator doors wouldn't close on my enormous 80's lady-shoulder pads.)
- Jon Konrath complains to the S. C. Johnson Company about the overtly sexual connotations of Scrubbing Bubbles.
- And then there are these nifty bits that you really should read:
- "Don’t you like birds?”
He frowned. “No one likes birds. Not even ornithologists. They pretend to watch them for fun, but they’re really just keeping tabs on them. Birds have a remarkably strong ‘us vs. them’mentality. You should see my car.” - from Matryoshka by Matt Sunrich.
- Now, the kids and I are both punished - they are grounded in their rooms, and as for me, the parents won't give back my skullcap. It's quite embarrassing. Going to work in the mornings some cheeky brats on the bus are having a great time pushing spitballs and chewed bubble gum betweenmy brain wrinkles when I'm not looking. - from Secret Skull House by Zoltan Komor
- Fingers reached up through the garbage disposal. Ian turned on the hot water, blistering hot, and hammered at the fingers with a giant spoon. He flicked the switch that worked the garbage disposal, but this only lowered a disco ball in the closet. The fingers retreated back down the drain, and a mouth took their place. - The Meat Grinder Showerhead by Andrew Wayne Adams
People like to say it’s the cows that are the worst, because they have sixteen legs and armor plating and spew fire. These people have never had a white grub hiss at them before jumping into their mouths and down their throats. They multiply in the colon, the Army pamphlets say. Their young live off the fauna inside you and grow to full adult size in three days then dig their way out of you, all twenty thousand of them. When we burn the bodies, they make a sound like popcorn. - Doomsday Eats by Konstantine Paradias
(That last one is a cautionary tale about when killer crops take over the earth, so thanks a lot for that Monsanto - you fuckers!)
All these marvels, plus some wonderfully creepy photos by Tracy Terrill -
can be yours for the low, low price of . . . nothing. Just see Arthur Graham's review for the details.
from the intro by G. Arthur Brown
"Nickleback are like AIDS for the ears." - Chris Kelso
Hey, look - it's a new "literary" magazine! These things are usually great for wrapping fish, but in this case you may actually want to read it instead - 1. because it's pretty doggone good and 2. it's an e-mag. (And why the hell would anybody want to wrap fish? I just don't get it.)
There are lots and lots of highlights:
- In Dustin Reade's Clouds and Feathers, you'll learn that when the cloud people attack, it helps to have Roald Dahl
on your side.
- Douglas Hackle tells a sad tale of how one man's
- Bradley Sands offers up a review of that annoying eighties video game - Deadly Cubicles. (I was never able to make it past the first level as the elevator doors wouldn't close on my enormous 80's lady-shoulder pads.)
- Jon Konrath complains to the S. C. Johnson Company about the overtly sexual connotations of Scrubbing Bubbles.
- And then there are these nifty bits that you really should read:
- "Don’t you like birds?”
He frowned. “No one likes birds. Not even ornithologists. They pretend to watch them for fun, but they’re really just keeping tabs on them. Birds have a remarkably strong ‘us vs. them’mentality. You should see my car.” - from Matryoshka by Matt Sunrich.
- Now, the kids and I are both punished - they are grounded in their rooms, and as for me, the parents won't give back my skullcap. It's quite embarrassing. Going to work in the mornings some cheeky brats on the bus are having a great time pushing spitballs and chewed bubble gum betweenmy brain wrinkles when I'm not looking. - from Secret Skull House by Zoltan Komor
- Fingers reached up through the garbage disposal. Ian turned on the hot water, blistering hot, and hammered at the fingers with a giant spoon. He flicked the switch that worked the garbage disposal, but this only lowered a disco ball in the closet. The fingers retreated back down the drain, and a mouth took their place. - The Meat Grinder Showerhead by Andrew Wayne Adams
People like to say it’s the cows that are the worst, because they have sixteen legs and armor plating and spew fire. These people have never had a white grub hiss at them before jumping into their mouths and down their throats. They multiply in the colon, the Army pamphlets say. Their young live off the fauna inside you and grow to full adult size in three days then dig their way out of you, all twenty thousand of them. When we burn the bodies, they make a sound like popcorn. - Doomsday Eats by Konstantine Paradias
(That last one is a cautionary tale about when killer crops take over the earth, so thanks a lot for that Monsanto - you fuckers!)
All these marvels, plus some wonderfully creepy photos by Tracy Terrill -
can be yours for the low, low price of . . . nothing. Just see Arthur Graham's review for the details.
August 13, 2015
Great job putting this crew together and making an A+ comp. Haven't read anything in a while and this was a pretty good toss of cold, stinky toilet water on my face. Nothing like a nice refreshing dose of bizarro to get the blood pumping again. More details later.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews