Eldritch Tales is an all-fiction, weird-fiction fanzine with a strange history. It started as a companion magazine to the non-fiction Dark Messenger, so the first issue was titled Dark Messenger Reader #1. The second issue was “lost” and would be published out of sequence between issues 7 and 8. A total of 30 issues were published between 1975 and 1995, mainly by the Yith Press in Kansas. The stories were weird fiction, with probably a lot of Lovecraftian inspiration.
Then in 2017, it was revived by Necronomicon Press and renumbered as “volume 2,” and the tagline “The Un-Unique Magazine,” which was a play on Weird Tales‘ “The Unique Magazine.” This incarnation was edited by Robert M. Price for six issues through 2019. These were octavio in size and, after the second issue, had color covers.
It continued with weird fiction with a lot of Lovecraftian tales. With the problems that Necronomicon Press has been going through, it ended with the sixth issue. They appear to have all issues available, but they aren’t handling any sales right now.
Now in 2022, Price brought back Eldritch Tales through print-on-demand and has put out two more issues, #7 and #8, both available from Amazon. Strangely, neither indicate the publisher of the works, which I assume is Price’s Cryptic Publications, nor any copyright. I don’t know when or if we’ll see more stories, and his editorials in both are silent on that matter. As he also revised Crypt of Cthulhu last year, I would hope that both will continue in 2023, maybe with Crypt being non-fiction and Tales being fiction. That remains to be seen.
#7 (July 2022) was subtitled “Tales of Mystery & Terror,” though the issue number is not on the color cover. This issue has nine stories and two poems. I’m not familiar with any of the authors, nor do we get a page or two telling us about them. I read a few of the stories and enjoyed them. Frank Coffman‘s “The Hunger” deals with wendigos in the Canadian woods. Allen MacKay‘s “The True Form of Gla’aki!” is about an amateur art collector visiting the Severn Valley.
#8 (December 2022) has the issue number on the cover. This one has 12 stories and no poems. Two authors return from #7, and Price himself has a story. C.L. Rossman‘s “The Ceremonies” is one of the strangest Cthulhu tales I’ve read, so I won’t even attempt to describe it. Mark McLaughlin and Michael Sheehan Jr.‘s “The Black Sarcophagus of Nyarlathotep” is a tale centered around you-know-who. Donald Burleson‘s “Azathoth Shrugged: Jonathan Galtman, Reanimator” is a different tale of zombies.
So if you are looking for new weird fiction, check these out. Be advised that you may have problems finding them on Amazon. I stumbled upon issue #8 and looked around for issue #7 for a while before I discovered it. Both are linked to Robert M. Price as he is the editor, but I don’t think either list the number. So good luck. I hope we’ll see more.
UPDATE: After this went live, I discovered that #9 is now available on Amazon.
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