From Beyond the Dark Gateway No 1

My first story published in the States was A Sense of Movement in 1972 in the fanzine From Beyond the Dark Gateway, edited by Edward P. Berglund. My story was illustrated by Harry O. Morris. The magazine was A4 in size with mimeographed text pages and semi-glossy lithographed pictures. It was published by Silver Scarab Press in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by the same people who already published Nyctalops.

I rewrote my story some years later, expanding it from 3,400 words to 5,700, with a totally new protagonist. The new version was published in The Third Black Book of Horror in 2008.

Other contributors to the magazine included John Jacob, J. J. Koblas, Walter C. DeBill, Jr., Gordon Matthews. Graham Pryor, and R. E. Weinberg, with artwork from Steve Riley, Andrew Smith, Gordon Matthews, Mike Scott, Tim Kirk, Randall Spurgin, Denis Tiani, Mark Gelotte and Harry Morris.

Gothique

Back in the mid sixties I was starting to get into fantasy, SF and horror. I already regularly bought copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland, which whetted my appetite. Then I saw an ad somewhere (I can't remember where but it could have been in Books & Bookmen) for a magazine dedicated to horror, printed and published in the UK. This was Gothique - and it was my introduction to the world of fanzines - most of which in those days were produced by enthusiasts on hand cranked gestetner duplicators. Gothique was a revelation to me, and from then on I eagerly looked forward to the next issue arriving through the post. It also led to me buying Dave Sutton's landmark Shadow magazine, which was the first devoted entirely to literary horror. Gothique, though, was my initiation.

The first issue I bought:

Looking at them now, the articles were far less in depth than I seemed to feel they were at the time. And the printing was certainly primitive compared to what would be expected today, but there was a charm and vibrancy to these then which stirred the blood for me anyway.