Black Static Issue 60

Black Static

by Andy Cox (Editor), Ben Baldwin (Illustrator), Lynda E. Rucker

Black Static 60, the tenth anniversary issue, contains new dark novellas and novelettes by writers who published their very first stories here: Carole Johnstone, Tim Lees, Ray Cluley, and Stephen Hargadon, with a guest editorial by the legendary Mick Reeks. The cover art is by Ben Baldwin, who also began his career here, as did Lynda E. Rucker who's now in every issue with her Notes From the Borderland column. Other features include Into the Woods by Ralph Robert Moore; Case Notes by Peter Tennant (book reviews and an in-depth interview with Daniel Mills); Blood Spectrum by Gary Couzens (film reviews). Story illustrations are by Ben Baldwin, Jim Burns, Richard Wagner, and others.


The cover art is 'The King in Yellow' by Ben Baldwin


Guest Editorial by the legendary Mick Reeks


Fiction:


Skyshine (or Death by Scotland) by Carole Johnstone


The Shuttered Child by Tim Lees
illustrated by Jim Burns


The Swans by Ray Cluley
illustrated by Richard Wagner


Langwell Sorrow by Stephen Hargadon
illustrated by Ben Baldwin


Columns:


Notes From the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker


Into the Woods by Ralph Robert Moore


Reviews:


Case Notes: Book Reviews by Peter Tennant


Written on the Land Itself: Daniel Mills
The Account of David Stonehouse, Exile
Moriah
plus author interview


Four Books by Allison Littlewood
A Cold Silence
Zombie Apocalypse!: Acapulcalypse Now
The Hidden People
Five Feathered Tales
(guest reviews by Stephen Theaker)


Ancient Modern: Jeffrey Thomas
Ghosts of Punktown
Haunted Worlds


Short Story Collections
The Dream Operator by Mike O’Driscoll
Escape Plans by David Sakmyster


Blood Spectrum: Film Reviews by Gary Couzens


American Gods, The Kettering Incident, Valkyrien, The Sinbad Trilogy, The Orchard End Murder, Blood Diner, Waxwork, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud, Return of the Living Dead III, Life, The Belko Experiment, Killing Ground, A Dark Song, The Ghoul, Capture Kill Release, Voice from the Stone, The Transfiguration, The Evil Within, Phoenix Forgotten, Temple, Within

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

Magazine

First published September 1, 2017

Reviews

[Des Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long lived with the truly remarkable Stephen Hargadon canon of stories in Black Static, and this one I tell you is that canon’s latest apotheosis, beyond which I cannot conceive of a greater apotheosis. Except I expect there may be one. I put nothing past this author, least of all a goal. Here, we have pub talk as a sort of religion, pubs as scatologically and eschatologically worse than even one’s memory of them, one’s living in them … and better, too. Football, too, as soccer puppets of the darkening soul. I imagined stigmatised bodies hanging from those chanting outstretched soccer-scarves to the Sorrow. I cannot do justice to this text packed with wise saws, homilies, unique locals, the strangeness of suburbs of a city that are ordinary to the people living there but an alien land to you, like life and death themselves. The good-hearted winks at sometime bad bonhomie, a rough cut mix of rarefied Quentin S Crisp and something overwhelmingly and completely off-the-bar but true. Achingly on-the-wall big screen rolling news big heads on those with booted feet. And the narrator himself is a real character and a half. Full of anxieties as well as hidden hopes.

I also think the editor has put together here four works for Black Static impossible for me to gestalt. Another worry to add to my list.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of my observations at the time of the review.

[Michael J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good tenth anniversary issue with stories by contributors who first appeared in Black Static magazine or came to prominence as a result of appearing here. Great art on the cover and throughout by Ben Baldwin. Only four stories this issue, plus an excellent insightful interview with Daniel Mills (and review of his novels), and extensive reviews of the works of Allison Littlewood and Jeffrey Thomas. The best tale this issue is novelette "Langwell Sorrow" by Stephen Hargadon about a depressed single office worker who becomes obsessed with discovering an otherworldly amateur football (soccer) team that he learns about in a pub. It's an engaging story full of insights that ends vaguely enough that it will frustrate most readers who seek a little more resolution in story conclusions. Also ending inconclusively is "Skyshine (Or Death By Scotland) by Carole Jonhstone, a compelling story of mental illness and an experimental placebo treatment. Tim Lee's "The Shuttered Child" provides genuine chills in a story of collegiate idealism, revolution, and a shared discovery of a ritualistic and cruel village treatment of children suspected of harboring demons within. Ray Cluley's "The Swans" is heavy on symbolism and ends in an also vague (perhaps a theme this issue?) but disturbing way.

[John W. Dennehy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another solid issue.