Black Static #75

Black Static

by Andy Cox, Simon Avery, Danny Rhodes

The May-June 2020 issue contains new cutting edge horror fiction by Simon Avery, Danny Rhodes, Kristina Ten, Cody Goodfellow, and Daniel Carpenter. The cover art is by Ben Baldwin, and interior illustrations are by Ben Baldwin, Richard Wagner, Vincent Sammy, Kai Martin, and others. Regular Into the Woods by Ralph Robert Moore; Notes from the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker; Case Notes book reviews by Mike O'Driscoll, Laura Mauro, Andy Hedgecock, David Surface, Georgina Bruce, and Daniel Carpenter, who also interviews Kay Chronister; Blood Spectrum film reviews by Gary Couzens. The cover art is 'Rendezvous' by Ben Baldwin The Black Paintings by Simon Avery illustrated by Richard Wagner The Stonemason by Danny Rhodes illustrated by Ben Baldwin Asleep in the Deep End by Cody Goodfellow illustrated by Kai Martin Roots by Daniel Carpenter Except for the Down Below by Kristina Ten illustrated by Richard Wagner Notes From the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker Into the Woods by Ralph Robert Moore Case Books Daniel Thin Places by Kay Chronister, plus author interview • Laura These Foolish and Harmful Delights by Cate Gardner • David One Good A Beginner's Guide to Survival Before, During, and After the Apocalypse by Christopher Barzak • Georgina You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce • Mike O' Engines Beneath Us by Malcolm Devlin, Honeybones by Georgina Bruce • Andy Night Train by David Quantick Blood Film Reviews by Gary Couzens The Year of the Sex Olympics • Doctor Sleep • Magic • The Mad Magician • The Man with the X-Ray Eyes • Endless Night • Phase IV • Colour Out of Space • Kwaidan • Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain • Beyond the Door • Hammer Volume Death & Deceit • Why Don't You Just Die! • Extra Ordinary • The Perished • The Platform • Best of Fifty Years of Public Information Films

Genres: Horror

122 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 29, 2020

Reviews

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An artist — caught between thinking his own Tate Modern installations ‘bullshit’ and a talkative cancer diagnosed and now self-untreated inside his body and, later, outside it — has an accompanied Pilgrim’s-Progress, as it were, from Beethoven chamber music to a cancer’s concupiscence to the eponymous Goya. The epiphany of having given birth to those who walk the world today. This story is sheer black disturbance in the darkest chasms of literature, I opine. Indeed, as impossibly black as ‘vantablack’ (see my recent review where I first encountered that word: amid much ‘bullshit’ modern poetic em-dashed prose made into greatness from word installations.)
“, blushes of colour obscured by an all-encompassing blackness.”
I like accessible, and somehow this story is limpidly accessible, too

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 Louis Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great issue of Black Static. Love my subscription!

[Hal]

I particularly enjoyed Roots by Daniel Carpenter, and The Stonemason by Danny Rhodes in this issue.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a regular reader of Black Static and don’t normally comment on them. However, this one is worthy of mention as there are three stand out stories: The Black Paintings by Simon Avery, Asleep in the Deep End by Cody Goodfellow and Except for the Down Below by Kristina Ten. Each of these stories contain original premises and touches of the bizarre and weird, which is all to my taste. Regular columns by Ralph Robert Moore and Lynda E. Rucker are, as usual, insightful and thought-provoking. As a final ‘icing on the cake’, the publication is illustrated with ground-breaking artwork and - strangely - has the best ‘book-smell’ I’ve ever come across!