Magazines To Make You Scream!

That is, scream in the most delightful way.

I wasn't even a glimmer in my parents' eyes during the glory days of pulp magazines. They had racks full of pulps for everything from sci-fi to mystery to soap opera type rubbish...just about anything they could put into print. And yes, the horror pulps took up most of that diluted limelight. A few stuck around over the years, but most vanished, relegated to shredding machines and land fills by the end of the 50's. Fortunately a resurgence took place in the mid 80's, and today we are lucky enough to have a few remaining fiction magazines to entertain us.

I do sometimes read more than just horror, and so read a few non-horror magazines, but seeing as this is a horror writing site, I'll stick to the basics.

 Cemetery Dance Was the first horror related magazine I started reading. There are always some big name authors penning some awesome shorts within these pages, and, to let us inspiring writers have a shred of hope, a lot of fiction from unknown writers as well. Some of my favorites such as King and Crouch and Ketchum are regular contributors, making CD, in my opinion, a powerhouse of horror fiction literature. The interviews and articles and artwork are also second to none.

Shock Totem is a very well put together publication, from it's more traditional book binding rather than magazine binding, to the overall layout of the contents. ST sometimes publishes short fiction that borderlines on novella in length, but also runs quite a bit of flash fiction, encompassing a mere page. The balance and flow works. I've become a fan of more authors I've discovered within the pages of this magazine than any other publication. That says a lot about the quality of the work you'll find here.

Dark Discoveries is a new arrival in my arsenal of horror fiction literary pursuits and it doesn't disappoint. Of all the horror magazines I've seen in my time, this one most closely identifies with the pulp magazines of the past, with it's quirky artwork and jumbled ads and reviews. And the fiction within is brilliant and fun and gorey, just like we like it. I've been very impressed with this publication, enough so that I've added it to a short list of magazines I subscribe to, the other two mentioned above.

The three magazines above are publications I recommend to any horror fan. There is a lot here you just won't find in a book or a movie. Treasures reserved for a throwback to the glory days of horror and horror small print literature. I hope this will encourage a few of you to pick up one, or all of these magazines, and relax and escape into a world of blood-soaked nightmares.