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Here they are: The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years!
Readers wrote us in record numbers last autumn when WeirdTalesMagazine.com asked you who, in your book, are the weirdest of the weird: the most influentially strange authors and artists and talespinners of all kinds to work their magic on the world in the 85 years since 1923, when Weird Tales was born. We asked that you not limit your suggestions to just fiction writers, and you responded enthusiastically, naming hordes of filmmakers, songwriters, cartoonists, and more. We took your ideas, added a few of our own, called some top fantasy professionals to put in their two cents, and then dove into the long and arduous process of winnowing the list down to a mere 85 names.
In our 85th anniversary issue — which also features fiction by Michael Moorcock, Sarah Monette, and Tanith Lee, nonfiction by Cherie Priest, and Jeff VanderMeer’s interview with China Míeville, and which is on sale now online and in stores in early April — we introduce you to each one of the 85 Weirdest Storytellers individually. We’ll also be discussing them here online, one a day for the next 85 days. But right now, here’s the complete list of names!
WEIRD TALES presents: The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years
- DOUGLAS ADAMS
- CHARLES ADDAMS
- LAURIE ANDERSON
- J.G. BALLARD
- NICK BANTOCK
- CLIVE BARKER
- ART BELL
- BJÖRK
- DAVID BOWIE
- RAY BRADBURY
- MARGARET BRUNDAGE
- WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS
- TIM BURTON
- KATE BUSH
- OCTAVIA BUTLER
- ANGELA CARTER
- NICK CAVE
- LON CHANEY SR.
- CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
- JOEL & ETHAN COEN
- ALICE COOPER
- DAVID CRONENBERG
- R. CRUMB
- ROALD DAHL
- SALVADOR DALI
- SAMUEL R. DELANY
- PHILIP K. DICK
- STEVE DITKO
- HARLAN ELLISON
- M.C. ESCHER
- VIRGIL FINLAY
- CHARLES FORT
- NEIL GAIMAN
- TERRY GILLIAM
- EDWARD GOREY
- GUNTHER VON HAGENS
- JIM HENSON
- ROBERT E. HOWARD
- SHIRLEY JACKSON
- FRANZ KAFKA
- FRIDA KAHLO
- ANDY KAUFMAN
- STEPHEN KING
- STANLEY KUBRICK
- MADELEINE L’ENGLE
- GARY LARSON
- TANITH LEE
- THOMAS LIGOTTI
- H.P. LOVECRAFT
- DAVID LYNCH
- GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
- DAVE MCKEAN
- RAND & ROBYN MILLER
- MICHAEL MOORCOCK
- ALAN MOORE
- CATHERINE L. MOORE & HENRY KUTTNER
- GRANT MORRISON
- JOYCE CAROL OATES
- MERVYN PEAKE
- PENN & TELLER
- BILL PLYMPTON
- THOMAS PYNCHON
- ANNE RICE
- ROD SERLING
- DR. SEUSS
- ALICE SHELDON, a.k.a. JAMES TIPTREE JR.
- CHUCK SHEPHERD
- CLARK ASHTON SMITH
- STEPHEN SONDHEIM
- REV. IVAN STANG
- OSAMU TEZUKA
- HUNTER S. THOMPSON
- KOOL KEITH THORNTON, a.k.a. DR. OCTAGON
- KURT VONNEGUT
- TOM WAITS
- ALICE WALKER
- KARA WALKER
- ANDY WARHOL
- SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER
- JOHN WATERS
- ROGER WATERS
- WIM WENDERS
- THORNTON WILDER
- ROBERT ANTON WILSON
- WARREN ZEVON
Kudos to them all: creative geniuses whose work, in whatever form and flavor, has shown an affinity of spirit with the brilliantly freaky storytelling that’s been the hallmark of Weird Tales since the magazine was born 85 years ago this very month.
(Don’t see one of your favorites here? Help us compile more weirdness! Go to our new Share the Weird page and tell your fellow readers about the weird storytellers you love the most!)
March 25th, 2008 at 10:15 am
[…] one of your favorite weird storytellers not make our list of The 85 Weirdest? That’s okay — we want YOU to spread the word right here! This is our new permanent page […]
March 25th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
That list is FREAKING AMAZING. So many I wouldn’t have remembered to include, but fit perfectly. Kudos to all involved.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I count 89 there.
(That’s weird.)
March 25th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Well, Ray, if you’re going to be that way, you forgot to count every acrobat in Cirque du Soleil.
March 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
That is an incredible list. I love that Warren Zevon and Kate Bush both get mentions.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I was quite startled to find some of the selections here, but I can’t find myself disagreeing with many of them. I’m glad Thomas Ligotti is acknowledged. He deserves a wider readership outside of his small, but loyal cult following. “Weird Tales” has done a great deal to support his work over the years, and fortunately, it appears you will continue to do so.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Wot no China Mieville? But yeah! Michael Moorcock!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Don’t worry Uncle Des, they did give China an article. Good on you, Weird Tales, for the whole list, but especially for Michael Moorcock!
March 26th, 2008 at 12:35 am
No R. A. Lafferty or Avram Davidson? For shame…
March 26th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Here’s some more: Allen Ginsburg, Yoko Ono, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Bela Lugosi, The Residents, Danny Elfman, H. R. Giger, The Brothers Quay, Ken Nordine, Matt Groening, Cordwainer Smith, R. U. Sirius, and Peter Jackson.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am
What? No Edward Whittemore?
I appreciate the fact that you went beyond just folks that write books and included other storytellers (David Bowie).
March 26th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Jack Vance? Terry Pratchett? Ian Rankin? Fritz Leiber? There are several I’d remove to make room.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I’d like to second FilmDickian’s mention of Cordwainer Smith, a name that definitely should be on the list. And even though I’m not a big fan, I was kind of surprised that Frank Zappa wasn’t included, especially since several other musicians were.
All in all, though, an interesting and far-ranging list of names. Well done.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Sorry, meant Robert Rankin as in “Armageddon the Musical.”
BTW, why 85? I’ll go along with avoiding trite numbers like 100, but why not some multiple of 13, for example?
March 26th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I figured L. Ron Hubbard would be on there, since his works of fiction have taken cult status to the extreme.
March 26th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
What, no Dr. Dooom, Black Elvis or Analog Brothers?!?! Oh, wait a minute…
Seriously, though, great list. Obviously 85 is a low number to include all the great amateur and professional weirdos but this is stellar. I think this is the first time in a decade of scouring the internet where I’ve witnessed Kool Keith get the recognition he deserves. Thanks, Weird Tales!
March 27th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Good stuff!
March 27th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Robert: 85 because, as it says at the top, it’s Weird Tales’s 85th anniversary.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Fab list! It makes me want to curl up with it and do some reading, research, viewing, etc. One writer that’s not on there: Stanislaw Lem.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
[…] som helst - de firar med att kora de 85 underligaste författarna, konstnärerna och kulturarbetarna här. Deras uppföljningsartiklar är väldigt läsvärda så om du inte redan har Weird Tales i din […]
March 28th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
what about the very odd lemony snicket/daniel handler??? i think we should add him to the list!
March 28th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I think Heinline is pretty weird.
March 29th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Good list but I would have liked to have seen Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, Frank Frazetta and Christopher Lee make the cut too.
March 29th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Borges, Borges, Borges! Geez, how could you leave him off???
Also Italo Calvino is fantastically weird.
Maybe you should put up a second group of 85?
March 29th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
No Jack Kirby? No Walter Simonson? No Salman Rushdie? No Gene Wolfe? Great list, though. 85 is obviously too few to please everyone. Nice to see that people weren’t too snobbish to include Stephen King and Dr. Seuss.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Ha ha ha ha ha!
No Gene WOLFE?!!
No Borges?!
You are a joke.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:58 am
[…] Die Liste selbst findet sich hier. […]
March 30th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Glad Ligotti made the list too–but I wouldn’t leave out his predecessors: Dino Buzzatti and Leonid Andreyev.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:23 am
Great list. But of course we must add Borges, and should probably add the Brothers Quay, Guy Maddin, Henry Darger, and perhaps Bruno Schultz. Also, what about Gary Gygax?
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
What about Georges Bataille? The Story of the Eye.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
[…] And for those with a penchant for the bizarre, Weird Tales lists the “85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years”. […]
April 9th, 2008 at 12:06 am
[…] March/April 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales magazine is featuring “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” Each day since March 26th the Weird Tales website is posting an honoree, in no particular […]
April 24th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Great list…but I can think of a few more who are definitely worth mentioning:
1) Bill Sienkiewicz
2) Tool
3) The Brothers Quay
These cats *ooze* weird like it was sweat!
May 1st, 2008 at 4:35 am
I’d add Bob Dylan (’Desolation Row’ alone should be enough to get him in). Also, is Richard Matheson missing? Dennis Wheatley and John Wyndham could be on there too. Great list, though. I like that people like Pynchon and Tom Waits make it.
May 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I’m happy to see names like Charles Addams, David Bowie, Tim Burton, Roald Dahl, Salvador Dali, Terry Gilliam, Edward Gorey, Jim Hensen, Franz Kafka, Frida Kahlo, Stanly Kubrick, Dr. Seuss, Stephen Sondheim, and Kara Walker. I’m sure there are several others I could think of if I sat here for a bit to mull it over, but one that comes to mind that I’m kind of surprised isn’t here is Marilyn Manson, what with his three album arching rock-operas (”Holy Wood”, “Mechanical Animals”, “Antichrist Superstar”).