We should probably explain, in case you have a headache. The non-mystery of greydogtales is that we wander all over the place, from lurchers, through strange detectives and Edwardian trivia, to weird and horror fiction.  THERE IS NO PLAN! All is whim and confused fancy, so the easiest way to not miss anything is to subscribe for free, on the left. No chicken carcass salespeople will call, and your home is not at risk. Not from us, anyway. So, let’s get on…

Where do you come from? Despite H P Lovecraft’s considerable influence on weird fiction, some of us only found the guy from Providence after we had already gone weird. It may be a Britlander thing, but we ourselves were steeped in the dark and/or wry fiction of Emily Bronte, William Hope Hodgson, H G Wells, Saki and Jerome K Jerome before ever we trod Arkham. Our own main influences can be found in those and other early writers, with HPL  following on later, extending the tendrils of cosmic horror which arose in the last days of the Victorian era. It’s probably why old greydog only visits Lovecraftland in his writing on those rare occasions when the Muse has a coughing fit and spits on his shoulder.

However, one independent publisher which has done a lot to explore HPL’s themes imaginatively is the Canadian Martian Migraine Press, helmed by Scott R Jones. There’s always something exciting and different about their anthologies, taking cosmic horror in new directions, re-interpreting Lovecraftian concepts, or simply going deep into the roots of humanity, perception, and madness.

Today we cover their 2017 anthology A Breath from the Sky, reviewed by one of our guest reviewers, author Matt Willis. We asked Matt to have a look at this anthology because no less than six of the stories within were recently given a nod by Ellen Datlow in her Best Horror of the Year (Volume 10). Particularly noted were authors Premee Mohamed, Megan Arkenberg, Cody Goodfellow, Aaron Vlek, Gordon B. White, and Jonathan Raab. A well-deserved moment for the authors and for Martian Migraine.

Oh, and there are loads of new, interesting weird fiction and horror books out at the moment. We’ll try and mention some of them next time…

NOTE: As usual, any opinions expressed below are those of the individual reviewer.

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A Breath from the Sky – Unusual Stories of Possession

Editor – Scott R Jones

Martian Migraine Press, 2017

Reviewed by Matt Willis

Having written several stories recently on the nature of consciousness and its relationship with the vessels it can occupy, I was interested to read A Breath from the Sky – Unusual Stories of Possession, and in terms of the sheer breadth of possibilities in this concept I was not disappointed. The collection is not perfect, but anyone who is interested in the idea will find something to intrigue and entertain them.

Editing a themed anthology is no simple business. At the point you send out your open call or your invitations, you lose control of the idea, and when the stories come back, with all those myriad interpretations of the brief, you have to re-establish it as best you can. A good anthology has to not just contain a selection of great stories, it has to hang together as a book as well as any novel, take the reader on a meaningful journey rather than throw them aimlessly from point to point. The choice of stories must be as much for how well they complement the collection as for individual quality.

It can also be a thankless business – readers will inevitably prefer the styles of some writers over others and will inevitably have subjective ideas about what a short story should look like, and how the experience of reading one should be. If there’s something for everyone, there is inevitably nothing that will please everybody. There is, it should be said, much to please readers of short weird and horror fiction.

It felt to me at first that A Breath from the Sky might have set itself too difficult a task to fully succeed. The first angle was to produce a collection of ‘strange tales of possession’, which the anthology certainly is. There are as many different angles to the concept of ‘possession’ here as it is possible to imagine.

In addition though, it tied itself to the HP Lovecraft story ‘The Colour Out Of Space’ as an additional inspiration and hook. I couldn’t help feeling that this additional angle to the theme left A Breath From The Sky sometimes pulling in too many directions. A collection of tales inspired by the Lovecraft story would perhaps have been thematically more cohesive, as would a collection that sought to explore every conceivable angle of possession. In trying to do both, A Breath from the Sky sometimes feels a touch confused. Placing the Lovecraft story third in the running order is symptomatic of this. We’ve barely been introduced to the idea before being taken straight to Lovecraft’s lengthy story of a meteorite and the strange effects it starts to have on a remote area west of Arkham, Massachusetts which, as the collection’s introduction admits, is not overtly a story about possession. This is reinforced by following the story with the only other tale in the collection that is obviously inspired by it, ‘The Monsters Are Due In Mayberry’, by Edward Morris – a few others reference it obliquely, but before and after that double bill, ‘The Colour out of Space’ doesn’t seem to command much influence over the book. Perhaps it would have made sense in this instance to leave it out…

For all that, A Breath from the Sky is home to some fabulous stories, and, as I’ve already alluded to, the variation of interpretations of the concept of possession is in itself impressive. These range from the straightforward tale of a demonic entity inhabiting a human body to much less obvious treatments – strange sounds and signals that appear to take over the personality, seemingly human consciousnesses that find themselves in bodies that don’t belong to them, technology that starts to turn people into something else… There are allegories and fables, and possibly the odd warning.

With due consideration of the fact that everyone’s preferences will be different, I felt this collection really hit its stride about halfway through with a strong run of stories beginning with ‘Viscera’, by Sam Schreiber. This is a story that seems to be about a relatively straightforward demon possession but rapidly evolves into something else. The “demon” Solmaz, who can taste human souls and has disturbing appetites, is an engaging narrator and the story takes an unexpected turn which might be a metaphor for current gender politics or just an imaginative take on “the ghost in the machine”. It’s followed by ‘Everything Wants To Live’ by Luke R.J. Maynard, a refreshingly original rumination on the ever closer relationship between humans and technology and the blurring of the lines between them.

‘The Evaluator’ by Premee Mohamed is reminiscent of an old-fashioned occult detective story with a hardboiled narration and a genuinely chilling adversary with a surprise nature. Of all the stories that echo the “blasted heath” setting of the Lovecraft tentpole story, I felt this one did so with the most originality. ‘Open Night At The Dirtbag Casino’ by Gordon B. White tells of an entity stuck in a brutally Sisyphus-esque routine with no idea why or how they ended up that way, or what their endless ordeal has made of them. ‘But Thou, Proserpina, Sleep’ by Megan Arkenburg an unsettling, poetry-punctuated tale of a visitor who comes through a blizzard into the home of a reclusive academic, was, for me, a highlight.

Overall, A Breath from the Sky is well worthy of attention despite its flaws, which rather pale beside the quality of the writing. The collection is at its best when it has something to say about what it means to be human in the late modern era.

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/eUhm2Sa

Amazon US http://a.co/d/8EVEyR7

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Matt Willis‘s latest book is A Black Matter for the King, available in paperback and on Kindle now:

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/5QDtg4e

Amazon US http://a.co/d/g3VBHgg

 

We’ve all met them. People. The Tall Things Who Can Use Tin Openers. There are, however, many myths and legends surrounding them, and these days, some lurchers get confused. What are humans really like? Should we believe everything we hear?

Most dogs would let this pass and merely go Woof, but we lurchers are the intelligent, inquisitive pinnacle of dog evolution, and not so easily satisfied. Since our earlier articles on Training Your Human, our experts have managed to decode more aspects of these peculiar beings. Today we have a cold-nosed sniff at a few of the myths about living with humans.

1) HUMANS AND PACKS

Humans tend to live in small units, sometimes with juveniles, but we have now concluded that they are not proper pack animals. They co-exist, inside and outside the lair, through a series of blunders and poorly-expressed verbal communications which pass for a social system.

As they have no clear, functional hierarchy, it is up to you to work around this. The easiest route is to help them out by becoming the dominant member, and telling them what to do each day. Make it clear that you have a routine, and that it would be easier for everyone if they just follow that. But be patient. It can take many years to make a collection of essentially disorganised beings into a functional pack. Don’t waste your time trying to see them as upright lurchers. They’re not that well developed.

NOTE: If you are maintaining only one human, you might as well go alpha and boss them around. It’s them or you.

2) THE ‘MEALS ARE ONLY FOR MEALTIME’ MYTH

Certain dogs, such as the more gullible members of the spaniel clan, keep falling for this one. Humans are actually the equivalent of shaved squirrels, and store food randomly all over the place. Just because they shove some of it in a bowl twice a day doesn’t mean you’re supposed to stop there.

First of all, make sure that you stare at them intensely and unremittingly every time they themselves are eating (you can practice this through the window, squinting at the neighbour’s cat). Humans are riddled with something called guilt, and will often give in, throwing food at you to get rid of you.

Secondly, why not check coat pockets, half-shut cupboards and kitchen surfaces? These are all places where humans put food and then forget about it – no point in letting it go to waste. And note that the large white humming thing in the kitchen, the refrigerator, is there for everyone. Humans will be delighted at how clever you are if you manage to nudge a badly-closed refrigerator open and eat the pack of steaks they bought that day. You can tell how delighted they are because they jump around and shriek when they find the empty packaging.

Finally, remember that as lurchers, you can invariably get to food which humans are convinced is out of reach – but don’t overdo this one, or they will end up nailing all foodstuff to the ceiling.

3) HUMANS AND EXERCISE

Contrary to what you may have heard, it seems that humans do not need a lot of exercise. They are, however, inherently lazy and need at least a couple of decent bursts of activity every day. Living with humans is not necessarily a constant trudge from one boring shop to another, or walking in the wrong direction down the same dull street each evening.

Instead, try to provide them with some variety by disappearing during walks and then reappearing in an unexpected place without warning, or dragging them off in a long and complicated hunt for a fox that was down that lane over there three days ago. Keep them on their toes and on the edge of panic – it’s good for them.

Games are also a good idea. ‘Fetch’ is an excellent form of fitness training for them, as we have often said in these pages. Give them a ball or stick to throw, and then while you run around doing something useful, they can stretch their legs by retrieving said object. Repeatedly. If they don’t get it, bring them the object once, to give them the idea, but completely ignore it after that, or they’ll get no exercise at all.

4) HOW MUCH SHOULD HUMANS SLEEP?

Unlike lurchers, humans tend to select a specific chunk of the night and then pass out for many hours at a time, usually on your bed. But is this good for them? Lurcher scientists have uncovered new evidence that suggests humans are more attentive when regularly stimulated. They just don’t understand the proper pattern of napping on and off throughout the entire day.

Help their development through easy techniques, such as jumping onto their heads at three in the morning, suddenly deciding you need a pee in the middle of the night and whining incessantly, or simply rolling all the bedding around you until they wake up due to hypothermia. In the morning you will find your humans far more interested in a series of well planned naps, like normal beings.

NEVER let a human sleep for more than four hours in a row. Doing so can be seriously injurious to the amount of attention you receive.

5) THE DEAFNESS MYTH

Most humans have surprisingly good hearing, but (as we have often pointed out) very limited comprehension. The erroneous belief that they are rather deaf as a species is therefore only based on their inability to understand what you are saying.

There are a number of ways round this. They respond quite well to direct stimuli – try ramming your nose into their crotches until they pay attention, or shoving your food bowl across the floor until they trip over it.

If you have been barking for half an hour without pause, and they still haven’t responded, vary your instructions by alternating sharp barks with a high, keening whine, and then a series of worrying grumbles. They will eventually get the message.

NOTE: If your human is genuinely hard of hearing, just go straight for the ‘nose rammed in crotch’ approach.

6) ARE THEY OBSESSED WITH POO?

Strangely, this last one is completely true. Whilst humans make a stab at being social, when it comes to peeing and pooing, they really do prefer to lock themselves in a tiny, cramped room, completely isolated, and do their business there, pretending that no one else exists. The porcelain thing in this room is treated with reverence – washed, wiped and visited many times a day. Human visitors will ask to see it, or queue to go in there. Sometimes they will even kneel before it, as if in worship, and open their mouths wide to make a special offering.

Lurcher theologians have concluded that this is a religious matter beyond our understanding – a view which is strengthened by the way in which humans got to great effort to collect our poo in little bags and then try to find a special container for it. A gesture to some unknown God? Who can be sure? The human is one of the strangest animals we will ever encounter.

IN CONCLUSION

Learn to separate myth from reality, and with time you will grow to like these beings. Mostly. When in doubt, simply hang out with other lurchers. You know it makes sense.

Exciting! Electrifying! Eckhardtian! Episcopalian! These are just four words beginning with E. None of the illustrated books we mention today are episcopalian (we don’t think) but they are fun – even scholarly but fun in one case. And we have some exclusive illos to show off. Our targets are Jason Eckhardt, Sam Gafford, Brandon Barrows, Hugo Petrus, Edgar Allan Poe and a surprise guest, David Langford.

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NOTE: All pics should be clickable for larger versions, and sales links are provided for each book should you fancy a copy.

The Artist at the Threshold

We start with an illustrated volume we mentioned a while back, as a neatish link. Our first in-depth exposure to Jason Eckhardt’s striking work was in Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H.P. Lovecraft (PS Publishing 2017), written by Sam Gafford.

The art of Some Notes on a Nonentity, a biography in graphic novel form, is fascinating, and was very well received:

“Eckhardt’s art deserves especial praise here: while he has published many drawings on Lovecraftian subjects over his career, the breadth of style and expression in SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY is a cut above what anyone might have expected, and those familiar with the people and places involved will appreciate the considerable care that has gone into photo-references of the historical persons and places within. It’s an attention to detail that is echoed in Sam Gafford’s text, although the pace is kept lively – this is a work that could easily have been twice as long, and yet have become less accessible.” (Amazon Reviewer)

We even bought a copy at the time, and were most pleased with it – a lovely work to browse, and very informative.

Eckhardt: Behind the Masque

Now Jason Eckhardt has turned to Edgar Allan Poe, a fitting choice given Poe’s influence on Lovecraft.

“Poe has probably influenced me more than any other one person. If I have ever been able to approximate his kind of thrill, it is only because he himself paved the way by creating a whole atmosphere & method which lesser men can follow with relative ease.” (HPL to J. Vernon Shea, 19 June 1931)

The new book, The Masque of the Red Death and Others (Ulthar Press 2018), includes a selection of Poe’s original stories, each beautifully illustrated by Eckhardt:

“Edgar Allan Poe lives again in this collection of 13 of his most famous short stories and poems brought to life by exclusive, never-before-seen haunting illustrations from famed artist Jason Eckhardt. Stories include ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘Metzengerstein’, ‘The Gold-Bug’ and many more including the title story.”

The Masque of the Red Death and Others

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/fn8ygc7

Amazon US http://a.co/d/g99wlZs

Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H.P. Lovecraft

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/2E48Yz7

Amazon US http://a.co/d/ezZVFgx

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By Langford Station, We Sat Down and Wept

The curious thing is that whilst checking out more of Eckhardt’s work, we knew he’d done a lot of line art for other Lovecraftian projects, but hadn’t realised that he’d illustrated an old friend of ours, that erudite author, editor and reviewer David Langford, a Britlander like ourselves. Many and many’s the time we have shouted at him across a crowded convention bar – and discovered that we were on his deaf side. No, really.

The item in question is the Irrational Numbers Pamphlet (Necronomicon Press 1994) by David Langford (Author), Jason C. Eckhardt (Illustrator).

“Irrational Numbers by David Langford is a collection of three short stories in techno-Lovecraftian vein, where occult investigations intersect dangerously with physics, mathematics and computer software.

“Neil Gaiman’s back-cover quote reads “Only Dave Langford knows the meaning of the word ‘fear’,” with the tiny footnote The other words only Dave Langford knows the meaning of are ‘Labile’, ‘Glabrous’ and ‘Scrotiform’.”“

The pamphlet itself is around occasionally, secondhand, but the three stories are still available in Different Kinds of Darkness by Langford:

“Different Kinds of Darkness collects 36 “straight” sf/fantasy/horror stories, complementing the parodies and pastiches in He Do the Time Police in Different Voices — there is no overlap. The stories range from the first Langford professional appearance in (gulp) 1975 to my latest piece of fiction at the time of delivery in October 2003.”

He Do the Time Police in Different Voices is an especially delightful book of parodies which we have mentioned on greydogtales before:

http://greydogtales.com/blog/parodies-possibilities-end-of-the-year-part-the-last/

Different Kinds of Darkness is available through Ansible (as is Time Police).

https://ansible.uk/books/dkod.html

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Barrows Wrangles with Lovecraft’s Worlds

Finally, as we’re in the zone, it seems well worth mentioning another graphic work from last year, Mythos: Lovecraft’s Worlds, written by Brandon Barrows and illustrated by Hugo Petrus, published by Calibre Comics. Petrus has worked with writer Roy Thomas for Marvel Illustrated: The Three Musketeers, amongst other projects.

Barrows is, of course, a writer of both comics and many varieties of weird and thriller fiction, including his recent novel This Rough Old World, which is published by… Ulthar Press, run by Sam Gafford. Degrees of Kevin Bacon explode.

“Remembered as the father of modern horror, H.P. Lovecraft is best known for tales of terror, cosmic abominations and especially his most famous creation, the dreaded Cthulhu! Few realize, however, the true creative breadth and depth spanned by Lovecraft, who penned stories of horror but also of fantasy, science fiction and even humor. Within this Mythos series, writer Brandon Barrows and artist Hugo Petrus go beyond tentacles and evil gods to explore the rare corners and the myriad worlds created by H.P. Lovecraft!”

Barrows has adapted Lovecraft’s original texts clearly and appropriately to fit the medium of graphic stories, and there are two other particular pleasures in Mythos:

• It’s not all the usual stories, and the collection includes ‘The Strange High House in the Mist’, and ‘The Beast in the Cave’, as well as the wry, humorous ‘Ibid’.
• Petrus has selected different styles of B/W work for each story, so you get a rather clever contrast between them. In some cases the art is almost EC Comics style, but then it becomes finer, or more subtle, or more pervaded with greyscale, depending on the tale being depicted.

We found it an enjoyable collection, and a nice change.

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/6pqUVaX

Amazon US http://a.co/d/2v83cMY

Pictures! We interrupt our normal programming to bring you coverage of a new book by Charles van Sandwyk, How to See Fairies, with some rather spiffy art to show off (all the illustrations should be clickable for much larger versions).

A kindly move by us, for, as Dave Brzeski says in his article below, people nowadays (including greydogtales) do indeed like to take the fae/fey “back to their very earliest roots”, exposing their sly, inhuman ways –

Clinging to the cotton-grass, claws wrapped round stalks and stems, narrow heads lifting. Out of the half-world to play, soft pipes and changelings, curdled milk and blood on the bedsheets. The Children of Angles and Corners, as alike to the fey of folk-tales as a cleaver to a butter knife.

Their music is a scrape on glass, a lost child’s wail, forced through throats which do not quite exist. Their limbs twitch without sinews and bend where there are no joints. They see farmsteads and the flesh within, flesh that dances when plucked. Fat where they are lean, sweetmeats for their soured tongues…

The Horse Road, John Linwood Grant

But we shall not be perverse. This books reminds us more of lolling at home as children, flicking through the little ‘Flower Fairies’ books by Cicely Mary Barker (we were hoping that there would be more really malicious fey-folk – the Nightshade Berry Fairy was our favourite).

Art from another era, skilfully reborn today…

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How to See Fairies and Other Tales

by Charles van Sandwyk

Reviewed by Dave Brzeski

Publisher: The Folio Society

Format: Hardcover in slipcase

I’m forced to begin this review with a question—Why have I never heard of Charles van Sandwyk before? This is almost inconceivable to me when you look at the superb quality of van Sandwyk’s artwork. It’s not as if he hasn’t been around a while. A quick look up on Wikipedia reveals that he’s had numerous books published since the late 80s, that he has paintings hanging in the National Library of Canada, as well as in several important private collections. Charles van Sandwyk is evidently not obscure.

This gorgeous, slipcased hardcover is, in fact a collection of previously printed works, collected together for the first time. Originally published in extremely limited edition runs by The Fairy Press, a division of Charles van Sandwyk Fine Arts. A good number of the illustrations are newly coloured, or completely new to this collection, thus making this volume an essential purchase even for those very lucky few to own copies of the original Fairy Press editions.

The works included are…

The Fairy Market (2009)

How to See Fairies (1993)

The Gnome King’s Treasure Song (2000)

Pocket Guide to the Little People (1997)

Afterglow (2008)

Wee Folk (1994)

The Fairies’ Christmas (2001)

It’s immediately obvious that van Sandwyk is very familiar with the artists that trod this ground before him. In fact, this book is dedicated to Arthur Rackham, probably the greatest of them all. Van Sandwyk’s artwork is easily of sufficient quality to stand side by side with anyone from the grand master Rackham to Brian Froud. He even manages to capture the period feel of the earlier fairy artist’s work, while having a style completely of his own. One could wax eloquent about the brilliance of van Sandwyk’s artwork for page after page—there’s even a three panel foldout—but How to See Fairies isn’t simply a collection of great fantasy artwork. Van Sandwyk writes too…

It’s the fashion these days, to take fairy tales and the fae right back to their very earliest roots, by which I mean they tend to be a nasty, spiteful bunch and not something you’d ever be happy to encounter. Here, however, we harken back to the days when children’s authors presented a much kinder, more pleasant view of the little people. I certainly feel there’s room for both.

The Fairy Market, and indeed most of the book is told in verse and, astonishingly, van Sandwyk’s writing somehow manages to perfectly capture the style and feel of those classic children’s books most of us grew up with just as well as his artwork. It becomes immediately evident on reading that van Sandwyk isn’t simply knocking a few words together, on which to hang his pictures—the man can actually write!

Pocket Guide to the Little People and Wee Folk are more along the lines of a bestiary of the fairy folk, the latter being very much a small collection of pictures with few words. The final item, The Fairies’ Christmas, also breaks from the mould, in that it’s a rather delightful vignette, not told in verse.

Considering that van Sandwyk is a decade younger than I, I cannot help but be impressed with the way he effortlessly transports me back to those years before he was born, when my mother taught me to read at least a year before I started school.

If I could level any criticism at all at this beautiful book it would be that it’s in a rather too fine and expensive a format for children. I honestly can’t see many parents allowing their pre-schoolers to get their hands on it. Having said that, at £39.95, it doesn’t seem all that expensive for such a quality package.

The Folio Society’s How To See Fairies, authored and illustrated by Charles van Sandwyk, is available exclusively from www.FolioSociety.com

(All art copyright Folio Society/van Sandwyk 2018)