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Midnight Graffiti
THE NEW NAME IN HORROR ALL AMERICA IS WHISPERING. . .
It's got its fingers on the fear-loving pulse of the nation like no magazine around. Already winner of the American Horror Award and nominated for a Hugo, Midnight Graffiti has re-created the genre in just the first few years of its existence -- defying taboos, exalting the subnormal, mining our richest, most sinister fantasies, bringing you the best new works by the most acclaimed masters and hottest writers on the dark side of fiction.
STEPHEN KING brings a plague of terror down from the peaceful skies of Maine . . . you may want to close your shutters. DAVID J. SCHOW cruises the L.A. streets with a martyred punk whose distinctive tag burns through the void of the voids. JOE R. LANSDALE finds a plastic, inflatable friend you can take almost . . . anywhere. NANCY COLLINS demystifies the messiah reborn, an avenging angel of the suburbs with a strange and savage appetite. And HARLAN ELLISON, DAN SIMMONS, NEIL GAIMAN, REX MILLER, STEVEN R. BOYETT, K.W. JETER, and JOHN SHIRLEY all bring you original tales from the farthest corners of the imagination that until now could only be found in the horror-haunted pages of . . . MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI.
It's got its fingers on the fear-loving pulse of the nation like no magazine around. Already winner of the American Horror Award and nominated for a Hugo, Midnight Graffiti has re-created the genre in just the first few years of its existence -- defying taboos, exalting the subnormal, mining our richest, most sinister fantasies, bringing you the best new works by the most acclaimed masters and hottest writers on the dark side of fiction.
STEPHEN KING brings a plague of terror down from the peaceful skies of Maine . . . you may want to close your shutters. DAVID J. SCHOW cruises the L.A. streets with a martyred punk whose distinctive tag burns through the void of the voids. JOE R. LANSDALE finds a plastic, inflatable friend you can take almost . . . anywhere. NANCY COLLINS demystifies the messiah reborn, an avenging angel of the suburbs with a strange and savage appetite. And HARLAN ELLISON, DAN SIMMONS, NEIL GAIMAN, REX MILLER, STEVEN R. BOYETT, K.W. JETER, and JOHN SHIRLEY all bring you original tales from the farthest corners of the imagination that until now could only be found in the horror-haunted pages of . . . MIDNIGHT GRAFFITI.
365 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
February 14, 2010
Reprinted from the pages of the magazine Midnight Graffiti comes this spine-chilling collection of stories of horror and terror from the most acclaimed masters of the genre. These 20 tales include some of the most gripping fiction I've ever encountered. Consider, for example, David J. Schow's "Bad Guy Hats," a detailed study of intraspecific predator-prey relationships and social ecology that will have you scrutinizing even the kindest-seeming of people with suspicion for years to come. Or Stephen King's "Rainy Season," first published in this collection, a tale of small-town mores and a warning to travellers that even the most picturesque of towns may turn out to be lethal traps. Or Dan Simmons' "The River Styx Runs Upstream," a story of resurrection -- with a ghastly difference. Midnight Graffiti offers these and 17 more stories that will curdle your blood. Caution: Do not read at night. And be sure to sleep with a nightlight on after reading the stories in this collection.
December 4, 2008
Some of the stories in this anthology are GREAT. Some are horrible. If you can find a copy, I recommend it, though!
September 8, 2016
To me, the measure of a good story is that it stays with you. That doesn't have to mean in a pleasant way. Some stories are not pleasant, and are not designed to be. That said, I think it is important to bear in mind that some people can find stories that are designed to be pleasant, unpleasant. The intention of the writer must always contend with the prismatic mind of the reader.
I read Midnight Graffitti around the time it came out twenty years ago. To this day I am still haunted by Emerald City Blues, Bad Guy Hats and Murder Mysteries. What I saw there turned me in ways that I am still processing, even after all this time. I think of them at least once a week on the norm and more than that if I am writing something of my own, and looking for the vibes I picked up from those stories to share now, with my readers.
These stories are good, but more than that, they manage to be good in short story form. To me, a short story is the equivalent of a mic drop after saying something perfect to an audience. They are an elusive art form in our mad world of consumerism, where MORE is always deemed BETTER.
The inky kisses pressed between these pages are dark, intense, brief and memorable. Taste them for yourself.
I read Midnight Graffitti around the time it came out twenty years ago. To this day I am still haunted by Emerald City Blues, Bad Guy Hats and Murder Mysteries. What I saw there turned me in ways that I am still processing, even after all this time. I think of them at least once a week on the norm and more than that if I am writing something of my own, and looking for the vibes I picked up from those stories to share now, with my readers.
These stories are good, but more than that, they manage to be good in short story form. To me, a short story is the equivalent of a mic drop after saying something perfect to an audience. They are an elusive art form in our mad world of consumerism, where MORE is always deemed BETTER.
The inky kisses pressed between these pages are dark, intense, brief and memorable. Taste them for yourself.
October 26, 2008
I used to read a lot of anthologies, and since I ride the train daily, I figured maybe I should resume this habit, seeing as that 15-50-page stories are perfect for my rides to and from work, and for my crappy lunch break, where I have nothing better to do than sit on a cold metal bench, alone, smoking and reading (occasionally interrupted by shoving some food down my gullet). I briefly perused my anthologies one morning after making the decision to start re-reading these oft-ignored volumes, and immediately knew which one I would kick this endeavor off with: ‘Midnight Graffiti’, the perfect choice for a lifelong poseur and elitist prick.
Just knowing that this was tucked away in my laptop bag brought back a flood of memories from my angst-ridden high school days, pitifully eking out an existence as the typical underachieving, uninspired white kid in Suburbia, USA. I recollected how I’d spend my idle time (not building beeramids, not laying the wood to some skank) by ignoring the whims of my folks and sitting back smugly contented that I was reading ‘Midnight Graffiti’ while all those other chumps were busy actually reading garbage assigned to them by some nimrod or another. They could blissfully continue to struggle through joyless slop like Dickens, I was getting a little taste of Harlan Ellison, Dan Simmons, J. Straczynski, and Nancy Collins. Could I possibly be any more slick, digging the ‘cutting edge’ of contemporary fare while my foolish, conformist peers wasted their time scrutinizing some 100-year old, irrelevant piece of shit? Well, I certainly didn’t think it was possible.
I hunkered down in the uncomfortable confines of the stairwell in my usual train-car to distance myself from the bustling cretins of the world and whipped the relic known as ‘Midnight Graffiti’ out. Here it was, tangible proof that not only do I kick ass, but have been kicking ass since back in ‘the day’. Just look at the cover of the book, with that badass Giger work adorning the cover. Wait a second, that’s actually pretty crappy; if Giger committed this abortion he’d have set it aflame before it could leave his premises and tarnish his reputation. So what the hell is that flabbergastingly poor work? It turns out that the cover illustration is actually by some total fraud named Martin Cannon, just some unfortunate slob without an original style of his own, proving he’s capable of producing something as derivative as possible of the style of Giger, sans talent. This was perhaps the first thing I noticed as I sat down to read the book, and this wasn’t very promising. Come to think of it, there must have been a pretty good reason to quit reading anthologies in the first place, right?
‘Midnight Grafitti’ is, quite possibly, that reason.
I’ll try to start with the positives, mainly because that really isn’t going to take very long. Like many early/mid 90’s anthologies (see ‘Shock Rock’, ‘Prime Evil’, and ‘Night Screams’ from my small sample alone), the ever-present Stephen King has a seldom-published contribution in ‘Midnight Graffiti’, and editors Jessica Horsting and James Van Hise unwisely decide to shoot their wad immediately out of the starting gate by opening it up with “Rainy Season”. While I don’t personally consider this a very good sampling of King, I can understand why they might use this, almost anything else ‘The King’ has written would blow all other entries so far out of the water that you couldn’t realistically expect anyone to read beyond the first story. Following King’s lead, J. Michael Straczynski does a pretty good job clearing the relavtively low bar which has been set, with “Say Hello, Mister Quigley”, which doesn’t really break any new ground with the creepy-doll-comes-to-life-and-menaces-somebody plot, but at least managed to hold my interest.
Also managing to entertain was John Shirley’s “‘I Want To Get Married!’ Says the World’s Smallest Man”, which chronicles the disastrous love life of a little person following in the footsteps of the esteemed Herve Villachaize; and “Rant” by Nancy Collins, which I’ve always liked due to its complete intolerance, madness, and otherwise nonsensical nature. Granted, “Rant” has lost some of its luster of the years, probably because I’ve seen it reprinted in at least three other volumes (including the lackluster “Splatterpunks II”, which in terms of sequels, goes over about as well as Gremlins 2). Rather shockingly, Neil Gaiman, who I usually couldn’t care one way or the other about, actually has one of the few worthwhile reads within, with “Murder Mysteries”, a roundabout indictment of God’s alleged Master Plan and borrowing heavily from the once-popular mythos of something referred to as 'heaven' and ‘angels’. Sadly, of the nineteen stories collected herein, these are the only five I’d even care to bother with again.
As for the other fourteen stories: generally weak.
Some of them are decent: the Gil Lamont yarn “Sinus Fiction” begins promisingly until falling apart in some misunderstanding-between-the-sexes codswallop, and the usually-reliable Dan Simmons and Harlan Ellison both offer up stories which are well below their standard, with “The River Styx Runs Upstream” and “Where I Shall Dwell in the Next World”, respectively. This might be the lowest point of the book, that two authors expected to deliver the big hits are poorly represented.
After that, the remainder is really bad: very short tales “Cattletruck” by Cliff Burns and “Salvation” by Lawrence Person are both rather pointless and lame while striving to be meaningful and thought-provoking, and Joe Lansdale’s attempt at comedy with “Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland” falls flat. Somewhere in the middle, David Schow tries to shock with the pseudo-hardcore, borderline tortureporn story “Bad Guy Hats” and Rex Miller bored the tits off me with his zombie/voodoo/ghetto-life tripe “Spike Jones and the Reverend Sister Claudine”. R.V. Branham is generously allowed to contribute two pieces of garbage with “The New Order: 3 Moral Fictions” and “Heaven, Heaven is a Place”, and to conclude this parade of mediocrity, co-editor James Van Hise stinks it up with the dawdling vampire tale “Dark Embrace”.
Let’s not forget to hand out the Suck-Ass award for the Worst Story Within for this anthology, and the nominees are:
“Emerald City Blues” / Steven Boyett. The author uses the time-honored crutch of borrowing established characters (the inhabitants of Oz) and endlessly perverting their well-intentioned natures, only to have them caught up in a boneheaded nuclear catastrophe.
“Heaven, Heaven is a Place” / R.V. Branham. Both of Branham’s stories sucked, but allowing him to dominate at something is unthinkable (even if that something is having the most shitty stories included in this colelction), so I had to flip a coin to determine which travesty got a shot at the ‘honors’.
“The Domino Man” / Phil Tiso. This story absolutely blows. Years of abusing inhalants couldn’t possible do the damage that this alleged story manages to do in a few ridiculous pages, even with the women cooing ‘Mmmmm’ for their cherished Domino Man.
And the winner is: “The Domino Man”. It did not make me go Mmmmmm.
Why haven’t I mentioned “Blue on One End, Yellow on the Other” by K.W. Jeter? You don’t want to know, trust me.
I don't think that the Anthology Experiment went over too well; back to reading something slightly more worthwhile, maybe some letters to the editor from back-issues of Club, if I can manage to pry the pages apart somehow.
Just knowing that this was tucked away in my laptop bag brought back a flood of memories from my angst-ridden high school days, pitifully eking out an existence as the typical underachieving, uninspired white kid in Suburbia, USA. I recollected how I’d spend my idle time (not building beeramids, not laying the wood to some skank) by ignoring the whims of my folks and sitting back smugly contented that I was reading ‘Midnight Graffiti’ while all those other chumps were busy actually reading garbage assigned to them by some nimrod or another. They could blissfully continue to struggle through joyless slop like Dickens, I was getting a little taste of Harlan Ellison, Dan Simmons, J. Straczynski, and Nancy Collins. Could I possibly be any more slick, digging the ‘cutting edge’ of contemporary fare while my foolish, conformist peers wasted their time scrutinizing some 100-year old, irrelevant piece of shit? Well, I certainly didn’t think it was possible.
I hunkered down in the uncomfortable confines of the stairwell in my usual train-car to distance myself from the bustling cretins of the world and whipped the relic known as ‘Midnight Graffiti’ out. Here it was, tangible proof that not only do I kick ass, but have been kicking ass since back in ‘the day’. Just look at the cover of the book, with that badass Giger work adorning the cover. Wait a second, that’s actually pretty crappy; if Giger committed this abortion he’d have set it aflame before it could leave his premises and tarnish his reputation. So what the hell is that flabbergastingly poor work? It turns out that the cover illustration is actually by some total fraud named Martin Cannon, just some unfortunate slob without an original style of his own, proving he’s capable of producing something as derivative as possible of the style of Giger, sans talent. This was perhaps the first thing I noticed as I sat down to read the book, and this wasn’t very promising. Come to think of it, there must have been a pretty good reason to quit reading anthologies in the first place, right?
‘Midnight Grafitti’ is, quite possibly, that reason.
I’ll try to start with the positives, mainly because that really isn’t going to take very long. Like many early/mid 90’s anthologies (see ‘Shock Rock’, ‘Prime Evil’, and ‘Night Screams’ from my small sample alone), the ever-present Stephen King has a seldom-published contribution in ‘Midnight Graffiti’, and editors Jessica Horsting and James Van Hise unwisely decide to shoot their wad immediately out of the starting gate by opening it up with “Rainy Season”. While I don’t personally consider this a very good sampling of King, I can understand why they might use this, almost anything else ‘The King’ has written would blow all other entries so far out of the water that you couldn’t realistically expect anyone to read beyond the first story. Following King’s lead, J. Michael Straczynski does a pretty good job clearing the relavtively low bar which has been set, with “Say Hello, Mister Quigley”, which doesn’t really break any new ground with the creepy-doll-comes-to-life-and-menaces-somebody plot, but at least managed to hold my interest.
Also managing to entertain was John Shirley’s “‘I Want To Get Married!’ Says the World’s Smallest Man”, which chronicles the disastrous love life of a little person following in the footsteps of the esteemed Herve Villachaize; and “Rant” by Nancy Collins, which I’ve always liked due to its complete intolerance, madness, and otherwise nonsensical nature. Granted, “Rant” has lost some of its luster of the years, probably because I’ve seen it reprinted in at least three other volumes (including the lackluster “Splatterpunks II”, which in terms of sequels, goes over about as well as Gremlins 2). Rather shockingly, Neil Gaiman, who I usually couldn’t care one way or the other about, actually has one of the few worthwhile reads within, with “Murder Mysteries”, a roundabout indictment of God’s alleged Master Plan and borrowing heavily from the once-popular mythos of something referred to as 'heaven' and ‘angels’. Sadly, of the nineteen stories collected herein, these are the only five I’d even care to bother with again.
As for the other fourteen stories: generally weak.
Some of them are decent: the Gil Lamont yarn “Sinus Fiction” begins promisingly until falling apart in some misunderstanding-between-the-sexes codswallop, and the usually-reliable Dan Simmons and Harlan Ellison both offer up stories which are well below their standard, with “The River Styx Runs Upstream” and “Where I Shall Dwell in the Next World”, respectively. This might be the lowest point of the book, that two authors expected to deliver the big hits are poorly represented.
After that, the remainder is really bad: very short tales “Cattletruck” by Cliff Burns and “Salvation” by Lawrence Person are both rather pointless and lame while striving to be meaningful and thought-provoking, and Joe Lansdale’s attempt at comedy with “Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland” falls flat. Somewhere in the middle, David Schow tries to shock with the pseudo-hardcore, borderline tortureporn story “Bad Guy Hats” and Rex Miller bored the tits off me with his zombie/voodoo/ghetto-life tripe “Spike Jones and the Reverend Sister Claudine”. R.V. Branham is generously allowed to contribute two pieces of garbage with “The New Order: 3 Moral Fictions” and “Heaven, Heaven is a Place”, and to conclude this parade of mediocrity, co-editor James Van Hise stinks it up with the dawdling vampire tale “Dark Embrace”.
Let’s not forget to hand out the Suck-Ass award for the Worst Story Within for this anthology, and the nominees are:
“Emerald City Blues” / Steven Boyett. The author uses the time-honored crutch of borrowing established characters (the inhabitants of Oz) and endlessly perverting their well-intentioned natures, only to have them caught up in a boneheaded nuclear catastrophe.
“Heaven, Heaven is a Place” / R.V. Branham. Both of Branham’s stories sucked, but allowing him to dominate at something is unthinkable (even if that something is having the most shitty stories included in this colelction), so I had to flip a coin to determine which travesty got a shot at the ‘honors’.
“The Domino Man” / Phil Tiso. This story absolutely blows. Years of abusing inhalants couldn’t possible do the damage that this alleged story manages to do in a few ridiculous pages, even with the women cooing ‘Mmmmm’ for their cherished Domino Man.
And the winner is: “The Domino Man”. It did not make me go Mmmmmm.
Why haven’t I mentioned “Blue on One End, Yellow on the Other” by K.W. Jeter? You don’t want to know, trust me.
I don't think that the Anthology Experiment went over too well; back to reading something slightly more worthwhile, maybe some letters to the editor from back-issues of Club, if I can manage to pry the pages apart somehow.
March 17, 2016
I picked this up because it had two of my favorite authors in it - Stephen King and Joe Lansdale. King's story is great! It's that genre of a small town with a secret/tradition and what happens when outsiders get in. If I "toad" you more, I'd ruin it! As for Lansdale, well I didn't like his entry. It just didn't work for me, but I still love him! The other stories run the gamut! You've got a weird story with Oz in it, a midget with a crack head, and frog rain! I really liked "Say Hello, Mister Quigley" and "Bad Guy Hats"! I couldn't stand "Sinus Fiction" and, in fact, did not finish it. Still, "Rainy Season" is my favorite, and I'm glad I read this!
December 17, 2015
Mixed bag of stories. Some of them were really great; some of them just weren't my thing. A couple were downright bewildering (and not in a good way).
My favorites:
-"Rainy Season" by Stephen King
-"Say Hello, Mister Quigley" by J. Michael Straczynski
-"Salvation" by Lawrence Person
-"Murder Mysteries" by Neil Gaiman
-"Dark Embrace" by James Van Hise
My favorites:
-"Rainy Season" by Stephen King
-"Say Hello, Mister Quigley" by J. Michael Straczynski
-"Salvation" by Lawrence Person
-"Murder Mysteries" by Neil Gaiman
-"Dark Embrace" by James Van Hise
July 26, 2018
I forgot about the attack toads in King's "Rainy Season"- hahaha! The toads alone make this antho worthwhile, but I really enjoyed "Rant" by Nancy Collins (in the appropriately titled PSYCHOS section). We've all met this absolute nutjob on the bus, ranting about THEY- that's what's so disturbing.
March 4, 2025
My 2nd vacation read, while enjoying some time in Florida. I struggle to read with so much going on, so this collection of short stories was perfect.
This collection had a mix of 'Very good' to 'Not Good', but (except for maybe two stories) didn't exactly blow me away.
My top 5 below:
1. 'Dark Embrace' by James Van Hise: The final story in the collection (and by the editor of the collection) was the best of all 19 stories. Vampires? I'm in.
2. 'Emerald City Blues' by Steven R. Boyett: The only other real standout in this collection. Very creative and a compelling story based in the world of the Wizard of Oz. Excellent!
3. 'Bad Guy Hats' by David J. Schow: There's a bit of a drop-off from #1 and #2 to #3. However, I did enjoy this one. Action-packed and an interesting story.
4. 'The River Styx Runs Upstream' by Dan Simmons: Another very interesting story idea here. Liked this one quite a bit as well!
5. 'I Want to Get Married, Says the World's Smallest Man' by John Shirley: A big drop-off from the previous four stories (which were by far the best) to this one. It was interesting and quite funny though.
Honourable mentions: Neil Gaiman's 'Murder Mysteries' and Gil Lamont's 'Sinus Fiction'. The rest (aside from these 7) just weren't for me I suppose (even Stephen King's Rainy Season failed to make a lasting impression on me).
This collection had a mix of 'Very good' to 'Not Good', but (except for maybe two stories) didn't exactly blow me away.
My top 5 below:
1. 'Dark Embrace' by James Van Hise: The final story in the collection (and by the editor of the collection) was the best of all 19 stories. Vampires? I'm in.
2. 'Emerald City Blues' by Steven R. Boyett: The only other real standout in this collection. Very creative and a compelling story based in the world of the Wizard of Oz. Excellent!
3. 'Bad Guy Hats' by David J. Schow: There's a bit of a drop-off from #1 and #2 to #3. However, I did enjoy this one. Action-packed and an interesting story.
4. 'The River Styx Runs Upstream' by Dan Simmons: Another very interesting story idea here. Liked this one quite a bit as well!
5. 'I Want to Get Married, Says the World's Smallest Man' by John Shirley: A big drop-off from the previous four stories (which were by far the best) to this one. It was interesting and quite funny though.
Honourable mentions: Neil Gaiman's 'Murder Mysteries' and Gil Lamont's 'Sinus Fiction'. The rest (aside from these 7) just weren't for me I suppose (even Stephen King's Rainy Season failed to make a lasting impression on me).
September 9, 2024
Well known collection of stories from Midnight Graffiti, an also well known horror fiction journal from the way back. Typical box of chocolates in that there will be stories that hit nicely and others that make you say "meh." A fun thing to do is to look up the issues the reprinted stories come from, the cover art is usually a banger, "Emerald City Blues" being an outstanding example.
February 12, 2024
As is common with anthologies, this one is a mixed bag of horror stories but overall it is a very good collection.
January 28, 2010
I wanted to like most of the stories in this book. I really did. However, a lot of them were filled with graphic horror, which isn't something I like to read. So I think that colored my opinion of some of the stories near the end of the book.
One of my favorite parts about the book was the intro that Jessica Horsting wrote. It's a fascinating look at horror, how it's changed over the years due to society, and why we're so entranced by horror novels/movies. Jessica Horsting writes: "Fear is a sort of emotional chaos that can often be overwhelming, so we try controlling it in a variety of ways: organied religion, astrology, scientology, computer classes, aerobics, housecleaning-basically, I see everything as a sublimation of fear, except horror, which is a fairly uncorrupted expression of it. Horror is the only medium that regularly succeeds in relating the momunmental strangness of the world in an accessible, cathartic manner. It's good for you-trust me." What an intriguing concept.
Stories I loved:
Rainy Season: I'd read it in Nightmares and Dreamscapes and I found it such a creepy little story.
Say Hello, Mister Quigley:Great great story. Disturbing, compelling, with an unexpected twist at the end that made it oddly touching.
Emerald City Blues:What a unique take on the end of the world and the Wizard of Oz. Just brillant.
Stories I liked:
Rant: Great story but I felt like it was missing something
I want to get married says the world's smallest man: I can't explain why I liked this story, as it was pretty strange. Howevr, I liked it.
Stories I didn't like:
Sinus Fiction: Ick. Just ick. I was confused half the time.
Bad Guy Hats: I liked the idea behind this, but there was too much graphic violence for me to enjoy it.
Cattletruck: Utterly forgetable. In fact, I can't even remember what it was about.
Bob the Dinosaur goes to Disneyland: What the heck happened in this story? Terrible!
The rest of the stories in the book I didn't finish because either there was too much violence or I had no clue what went on and had to stop reading (something that I almost never do).
One of my favorite parts about the book was the intro that Jessica Horsting wrote. It's a fascinating look at horror, how it's changed over the years due to society, and why we're so entranced by horror novels/movies. Jessica Horsting writes: "Fear is a sort of emotional chaos that can often be overwhelming, so we try controlling it in a variety of ways: organied religion, astrology, scientology, computer classes, aerobics, housecleaning-basically, I see everything as a sublimation of fear, except horror, which is a fairly uncorrupted expression of it. Horror is the only medium that regularly succeeds in relating the momunmental strangness of the world in an accessible, cathartic manner. It's good for you-trust me." What an intriguing concept.
Stories I loved:
Rainy Season: I'd read it in Nightmares and Dreamscapes and I found it such a creepy little story.
Say Hello, Mister Quigley:Great great story. Disturbing, compelling, with an unexpected twist at the end that made it oddly touching.
Emerald City Blues:What a unique take on the end of the world and the Wizard of Oz. Just brillant.
Stories I liked:
Rant: Great story but I felt like it was missing something
I want to get married says the world's smallest man: I can't explain why I liked this story, as it was pretty strange. Howevr, I liked it.
Stories I didn't like:
Sinus Fiction: Ick. Just ick. I was confused half the time.
Bad Guy Hats: I liked the idea behind this, but there was too much graphic violence for me to enjoy it.
Cattletruck: Utterly forgetable. In fact, I can't even remember what it was about.
Bob the Dinosaur goes to Disneyland: What the heck happened in this story? Terrible!
The rest of the stories in the book I didn't finish because either there was too much violence or I had no clue what went on and had to stop reading (something that I almost never do).
November 4, 2016
I'm not giving this book 5 stars only because of the stories I didn't really enjoyed that much. There were some stories that I just wanted to read as fast as I could to move on to the next one. I didn't skip them only because of my OCD.
Overall it's a great collection though, amazing characters, great storytelling. I liked that some of the characters were just ordinary people and others amazing beings.
These are my favorites, I would read them over and over again:
Rainy Season
Say Hello, Mister Quigley
Sinus Fiction
Bad Guy Hats
'I Want to Get Married!' Says the World's Smallest Man
Rant
Murder Mysteries
The River Styx Runs Upstream
Dark Embrace
Overall it's a great collection though, amazing characters, great storytelling. I liked that some of the characters were just ordinary people and others amazing beings.
These are my favorites, I would read them over and over again:
Rainy Season
Say Hello, Mister Quigley
Sinus Fiction
Bad Guy Hats
'I Want to Get Married!' Says the World's Smallest Man
Rant
Murder Mysteries
The River Styx Runs Upstream
Dark Embrace
September 27, 2013
A mostly good set of horror short stories with some stinkers in the bunch. I had never heard of the publication "Midnight Graffiti" before, but I wish more publications like it existed now. I'm kind of sad this set ended, actually. I was really enjoying reading this.
My "five star" favorite stories from this set include:
- "Rainy Season" Stephen King
- "Say Hello, Mr. Quigley" J. Michael Straczynski
- "Emerald City Blues" Steven R. Boyette
- "Bad Guy Hats" David J. Schow
- "Rant" Nancy A. Collins
- "Murder Mysteries" Neil Gaiman
- "Where I Shall Dwell in the Next World" Harlan Ellison
My "five star" favorite stories from this set include:
- "Rainy Season" Stephen King
- "Say Hello, Mr. Quigley" J. Michael Straczynski
- "Emerald City Blues" Steven R. Boyette
- "Bad Guy Hats" David J. Schow
- "Rant" Nancy A. Collins
- "Murder Mysteries" Neil Gaiman
- "Where I Shall Dwell in the Next World" Harlan Ellison
April 23, 2016
I'm a big fan of Horror anthologies, and this is one of the best I've ever read. From the terrific introduction by the editor, to the last page, it was very satisfying. The stories range in intensity from the sheer grit of "Bad Guy Hats" to the quirky "Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland." There is something in here for everyone. Everybody gets a chance to be scared by something in here; all bases get covered.
March 14, 2018
Not my favorite horror short story collection. I enjoyed Neil Gaiman's story "Murder Mysteries." I think that was my favorite of the collection. King's "Rainy Season" and Simmons' "River Styx Flows Upstream" were also gems. I enjoyed Lansdale's story and Branham's story regarding Heaven... both had unique characters.. even though not quite typical horror stories. There were quite a few stories that I didn't enjoy, so kind of neutral on recommending the book.
July 28, 2011
I absolutely love short stories. This book was well put together. Like any other short story compilation, there were ones I liked more than others. I was thrilled about Stephen King's Rainy Season included. I've read that story dozens of times, and each time it's still wonderful. Also, there is a story about OZ that is absolutely amazing. I highly recommend this book.
January 11, 2008
This book contains one of my favorite short stories of all time "Emerald City Blues". A nuclear attack on Oz, truly disturbing. The book is a fiction collection in relation to the short lived magazine of the same name. There is some really great horror fiction in here.
June 3, 2012
I really miss Midnight Graffiti magazine, it was all kinds of awesome. If you never had the chance to read it back in the day, this book collects some of the best stories to appear between its covers.
May 28, 2008
I bought this book originally b/c there was a Stephen King story in it, but I read one story in it over and over again: "Murder Mysteries" by Neil Gaiman. It is HEAVENLY! ;)
March 29, 2009
An excellent collection of horror shorts.
May 6, 2010
Fear is an amazing thing. Without it we wouldn't be complete.
Read
July 19, 2010great collection, in spite of copious embarrassing intros by jessica horsting.
October 4, 2010
I liked all the short stories, reminded me of the great twilight zone series
April 12, 2011
I enjoyed this collection. Good mix of authors, and the Stephen King inclusion is one of my favorites!
August 23, 2011
amzing collection of short stories!
March 17, 2014
LOVED it.
March 14, 2015
Quite a wide variety of stories here - horror, spec fic, ghost stories, splatterpunk - and for the most part, definitely well written. An excellent cross-section of speculative fiction.
September 10, 2024
Most of the reviews here seem to be for the paperback Midnight Graffiti anthology, but this listing is actually for the second issue of the magazine from the late eighties. I miss magazines - affordable magazines - like I miss shopping in stores and writing letters or emails. The last time I attempted to read a current magazine was six or seven years ago when I bought a subscription for Cemetery Dance magazine, and it was expensive, and I only ever received one issue, and that was (literally) four years later. So if you are experiencing a hankering for a periodical, I recommend that you go on eBay and buy a couple old issues of Midnight Graffitti. It's cheap (except for sometimes the Stephen King issue, but that shows up at affordable prices also if you keep yr eyes open) and each issue contains early work (interviews, etc.) from an impressive lineup of important weird fiction authors - such as Lansdale, Garton, Ted Sturgeon, Skipp and Spector, many more... This periodical likes featuring, though by no means exclusively, the OG 'splatterpunk' authors...
July 26, 2021
This was a wonderful collection of short stories mainly for the sheer variety of genres, styles, and moods.
Many stories, I highly enjoyed and they fell into the usual horror, sci-fi, or fantasy that I typically find myself reading. Stories from Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and an absolutely wonderful study on how Harlan Ellison process of writing from misheard words were a few of my favorites.
And then… there were the other stories… which delved into insane issues, off-kilter writing styles, violent twisted viewpoints, and drugged deranged plots that made me feel uncomfortable… which, even though they were not my cup of tea, I still highly admired because I love reading and seeing things from different perspectives than my own.
It’s good and it’s bad and it’s great. I’m quite happy to have stumbled upon this book at a yard sale and will be keeping it in my collection.
Many stories, I highly enjoyed and they fell into the usual horror, sci-fi, or fantasy that I typically find myself reading. Stories from Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and an absolutely wonderful study on how Harlan Ellison process of writing from misheard words were a few of my favorites.
And then… there were the other stories… which delved into insane issues, off-kilter writing styles, violent twisted viewpoints, and drugged deranged plots that made me feel uncomfortable… which, even though they were not my cup of tea, I still highly admired because I love reading and seeing things from different perspectives than my own.
It’s good and it’s bad and it’s great. I’m quite happy to have stumbled upon this book at a yard sale and will be keeping it in my collection.
October 14, 2023
A total mixed bag. The good stories are found at the very beginning and the very end of the book. The middle stories ranged from mildly weird to downright awful. Too many stories in this book are more like fantasy/science fiction than horror. I’ve been a lifelong horror fan. But reading this book made me wonder if I didn’t actually like horror at all! Then the last couple of stories reassured me that yes, I’m in the right genre (along with a few other reviews that echoed my thoughts).
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