Every since 1954, people have been trying to resurrect Weird Tales as if it were an undead corpse in a tale by H. P. Lovecraft. Why they do this is out of love for the past, a golden age that was only appreciated after it was gone. Because the fact is, being published in Weird Tales was almost a non-event in the wider view. For example, when Marc R. Schorer, Tennessee Williams or Lucy Maud Montgomery died, no one mentioned Weird Tales on their CV. It was merely a low-paying market that accepted stories with ghosts and ghoulies in it. If The Saturday Evening Post or Colliers would have them, no doubt, these authors would have published there instead. In interviews, Fritz Leiber was known to get a little miffed with younger folks who never understood this. He published where he did, not because of the name of the magazine, but because it was the only place that published that kind of story.
Other facts that resurrectionists ignore is that Weird Tales shirted financial collapse pretty much the entire run. It was never a money-maker. From a business point-of-view, why bring back something that was a virtual failure? For a small group, Weird Tales provided the kind of stories horror fans love. I guess the hope is if we bring it back, more great horror fiction will happen. This may have been true in 1923 but ignores that today one of the most successful writers is Stephen King, a horror writer. (Not to speak of Anne Rice, V. C. Andrews, Ira Levin, John Saul or any of the dozens of other writers who struck it big with vampires, etc.)
But this is naïve. First, when people look back at Weird Tales they see the legacy, not the facts. It is a kind of nostalgia that ignores the realities. And this is essentially what Lin Carter’s attempt to revive WT was back in 1981. Supposedly by making it a paperback he was being more realistic, accepting that the days of Pulp magazine were over. He congratulates Leo Marguiles and Sam Moskowitz (the last two crazy enough to try it) for their four issues in 1973-4, known as the California issues. He figures in his first editorial to avoid their fate by making WT a paperback magazine. And then he proceeds to do exactly what they did….
Sam Moskowitz in a letter at the back of the first issue says about the California Issues:
“I twice talked Leo Marguiles out of reviving the magazine, once in 1958 and again in the sixties, because I thought he would lose his shirt. When he did revive it briefly, in 1973-74, I resisted the idea of making it all reprints from Weird Tales, and suggested reprints of stories so out-of-the-way as to be virtually new, since hardly anyone had ever read them or could be expected to remember them, and to continue the magazine in this manner until a new string of contributors could be developed…”
When you look at the contents of a Weird Tales resurrection you will inevitably find the following categories: (1) lost stories by old WT alumni such as Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard or Clark Ashton Smith. (2) These may be wholly theirs but there is a good chance they have been “finished’ by younger hands—posthumous collaborations. (3) Then there are the new pastiches of the Cthulhu Mythos or similar fare. (4) There is the classic “Weird Tales Reprint” (ie. Stuff you already read from 1936), plus (5) new stories by the old authors who still survive, and finally, (6) a small number of new writers that supposedly follow the WT tradition. These names bring current readers to the magazine. These are your best hope of finding something new worthy of reading.
Let’s break down the four issues using these criteria:
Newly discovered stories from ex mortis WT almni
Issue 1: “Scarlet Tears” by Robert E. Howard”
“Someone Named Guiberg” by Hannes Bok
“The House Without Mirrors” by David H. Keller
“Red Thunder” by Robert E. Howard
Issue 2: “Song of the Gallow’s Tree” by Robert E. Howard
Issue 3: “To the Nightingale” by Clark Ashton Smith
Issue 4; “The Doom-Chant of Than-Kul” by Robert E. Howard
“The Sea-Gods” by Clark Ashton Smith
Post-humous collabs
Issue 1: “The Light from the Pole” by Clark Ashton Smith and Lin Carter
Issue 2: “Descent Into the Abyss’ by Clark Ashton Smith and Lin Carter
Issue 3: “The Guardian of the Idol” by Robert E. Howard and Gerald W. Page
Pastiches
Issue 1: “Dreams in the House of Weir” by Lin Carter
Issue 2: “Something in the Moonlight” by Lin Carter
Issue 3: “The House of the Temple” by Brian Lumley
“The Summons of Nuguth-Yug” by Gary Myers and Marc Laidlaw
“The Winfield Inheritance” by Lin Carter
Issue 4: “The Vengeance of Yig” by Lin Carter
Reprints
“Someday I’ll Kill You” by Seabury Quinn
“Bat’s Belfry” by August Derleth
Issue 2:
“Night Ocean” by H. P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Barlow
“The Feast in the Abbey” by Robert Bloch
“The Sapphire Siren” by Nictzin Dyalhis
Issue 3: “The Wind That Tramps the World” by Frank Owen
“The Red Brain” by Donald Wandrei
Issue 4: “The City of Dread” by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach
“Ooze” by Anthony M. Rud
New Stories by Living WT Authors
Issue 1: “The Courier/The Worshippers” by Robert A. W. Lowdnes
“The Pit” by Carl Jacobi
“Healer” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
Issue 2:“The Lamashtu Amulet” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
“Fear” by Joseph Payne Brennan
“Liberation”/”The Guardian” by Robert A. W. Lowdnes
Issue 3: “The Chinese Woman” by Evangeline Walton
“The Black Garden” by Carl Jacobi
“Nobody Ever Goes There” by Manly Wade Wellman
“The Summons”/”The Viola” by Robert A. W. Lowdnes
Issue 4: “The Next Glade” by Robert Aickman
“There Are No Ghosts in Catholic Spain” by Ray Bradbury
“Homecoming” by Frank Belknap Long
“New authors to WT
Issue 1:
“Down There” by Ramsay Campbell
“When the Clock Strikes” by Tanith Lee
Issue 2:
“Boy Blue” by Steve Rasnic Tem
“Trick or Treat” by Ramsay Campbell
“Valse Triste” by Ray Faraday Nelson
“The Sombrus Tower” by Tanith Lee
Issue 3: “The “Messenger” by Steve Rasnic Tem
“The Opposite House” by John and Diane Brizzolara
Issue 4: “Crocuses” by Charles Sheffield
“The Belfrey” by James Anderson
“Compliments of the Season” by John Brizzolara
“Save the Children” by Steve Rasnic Tem
“Late Night Final” by Stuart H. Stock
Let’s do a little math and see what we will see: the make up of each issue is approximately the same with between 1-4 category 1, 0-1 category 2, 1-3 category 3, 2-3 category 4, 3 category 5 and 2-5 category 6. In other words, a balance between these 6 categories is pretty good with only a slight variation between them, such as Issue 4 did not feature a post-humous collaboration. Issue 4 featured more new writers, perhaps the beginning of a new trend? The variety among authors was pretty good too, with only Lin Carter and Clark Ashton Smith appearing in all the issues and Steve Rasnic Tem and Robert A. W. Lowdnes in three. Other writers like Ramsey Campbell, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, Carl Jacobi appearing twice.
Carter did an impressive job of collecting many of the biggest names from the old WT including H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Seabury Quinn, Manly Wade Wellman, Frank Belknap Long and Ray Bradbury. I would have liked to see Edmond Hamilton in a future issue as he was such a quintessential author to the magazine. Also to Carter’s credit is including the late 20th Century’s best fantasy and horror writers in Ramsay Campbell, Tanith Lee, Brian Lumley, Steve Rasnic Tem and Robert Aickman. Who knows, if the magazine had gone on, Carter might have even snagged a Stephen King short story.
In the final analysis, I have to give Carter credit for his selections, though perhaps a little too much Cthulhu Mythos pastiches for my taste (I think I loved them when I bought this back in 1981, now, not so much.) He represents horror well, though he hasn’t any Science Fiction or much Sword & Sorcery (which is probably smart from a marketing POV). He includes poetry (which Marvin Kaye entirely ignores in Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Died, 1988). What’s missing in Carter’s magazine are the illustrations and the letters. This is supposed to be a magazine, not just a paperback anthology. The Eyrie was such a part of what Weird Tales was, I am surprised he dropped the letters after issue one.
Ultimately, Lin Carter’s Weird Tales was no more successful than the California WT of 1974, with only four issues. I think it failed for precisely the same reason for the blend is very similar to what Margulies and Moskowitz did seven years earlier. Carter did have the assistance of the awesome Robert Weinberg and Roy Torgeson, but this in a way is a trap. The nostalgia trap. The Carter WT looks more backwards than forwards. Would being a forward-oriented magazine have worked better? Well, the Smithers/Schweitzer Weird Tales of 1988 will try that and …. Well, that’s another piece altogether.
