Epitaph
Editor Tom Piccirilli

Extra! Extra! Big news!

And I mean big. From Pirate Writings publishing comes a spawn of evil so terrifying it will bewitch the mind with nightmares and dread--it is a dark sister. Perhaps Epitaph had been separated at birth from its grown-up sibling Pirate Writings? Regardless wherever it may have been conceived, it's here to haunt us, and hopefully for a long time.

"Tales of Dark Fantasy and Horror", this zine comes on strong with its debut issue. Every page has boisterous attitude, leaves the reader intrigued as to what might turn up next. Editor Tom Piccirilli exercises the same talent used in selecting tales for Pirate Writings, intermingles it with that dark area in his gut that has spurned out all those wonderful tales of his, and manages to come up with a great selection of bone-chilling efforts from a respectable bunch of writers and poets.

Among the stories, "The Oddist" by Gerard Daniel Houarner takes the prize for edge-of-your-seat reading. Creepy, this urban horror story functionally reworks the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" thematic with such a realistic, original twist, the reader can only scratch their head and simply wonder how he does it. Mr Houarner is indeed one of the most talented writers in the field today, and any time one of his tales shows up in a magazine, it alone makes the cost of reading that issue worth every penny.

Dan Clore brings us the opening piece "The Web of Lord Weyrdgliffe". An up and coming writer, Dan's Poe-esque/Lovecraftian tale of a Magical Baron on a quest to retrieve his body from the golems who have stolen in the middle of the night is so unthinkably unreal, yet coherently haunting, and it leaves fantastical images in the reader's mind for a long time, as if his words are electric prods shocked into the brain.

In "Pocket Full of Pie", the ever-present Sue Storm transports the reader into a dark wretch-filled dungeon where two imprisoned children attempt to discover their true selves and purposes. Truly horrific, the reader will no doubtly pull at the skin of their neck in response to the dark tense interaction Ms Storm creates between the characters.

Adam Meyer's "The Trick is the Treat" tells the story of Phoebe, a woman who starts out simply poisoning the little trick or treaters that come knocking, but turns out to be so much more evil than that. Very well drawn out, a smooth read steeped in an acquainted literary slant that never becomes cliche.

There's a co-interview with Jack Ketchum and Edward Lee that is both informative and entertaining, and filmaker Kevin Lindemuth draws out a half dozen movie/video reviews. The adept artwork talents of Allen Koszowski are riddled throughout, each piece drawn to coincide with the fiction. Very Nice. And there's also some poetry, little trinkets of fear to round off the issue.

Two and a half years ago I sent off for issue #2 of a new zine called Pirate Writings. Epitaph looks just like PW looked then. If Epitaph has its big sister's genes, then we can expect it to grow just the same. Wouldn't it be a thrill to find a full-color horror mag on the newstand someday, parked right next to Pirate Writings?

Yep. Let's make this happen. Buy Epitaph.

Copyright © 1997 by Michael Laimo. All Rights Reserved.