Readers wrote us in record numbers when we 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.
Our 85th anniversary issue — featuring fiction by Michael Moorcock, Sarah Monette, and Tanith Lee, nonfiction by Cherie Priest, and Jeff VanderMeer’s interview with China Míeville, and is still available for purchase online — introduced the 85 Weirdest Storytellers individually. If one of your favorite weirdos didn’t make the list, you can share your weird and let us know! Our 90th anniversary isn’t that far away…
Meanwhile:
WEIRD TALES presents: The 85 Weirdest Storytellers 1923-2005
- 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 the Share the Weird page and tell your fellow readers about the weird storytellers you love the most!)
Tags: 100 years of solitude, 85 weirdest, 85th anniversary, addams family, alan moore, alice cooper, alice sheldon, alice walker, american gods, anansi boys, andy kaufman, andy warhol, angela carter, anime, anne rice, art, art bell, artists, astro boy, bill plympton, bjork, blade runner, blue velvet, body worlds, books of blood, breakfast of champions, c.l. moore, charles addams, charles fort, charlie and the chocolate factory, charlie and the great glass elevator, chuck shepherd, cirque du soleil, clark ashton smith, clive barker, coast to coast, coen bros, coen brothers, comic books, comics, conan, coraline, crash, cthulhu, dark fantasy, dark side of the moon, dave mckean, david bowie, david cronenberg, david lynch, doctor octagon, douglas adams, dr. octagon, dr. seuss, edward gorey, edward scissorhands, elephant man, elric, eraserhead, ethan coen, fahrenheit 451, fantasy, far side, film, filmmakers, fortean, franz kafka, frida kahlo, gabriel garcia marquez, gaiman, gary larson, gormenghast, grant morrison, griffin & sabine, griffin and sabine, gryphon, gunther von hagens, h.p. lovecraft, harlan ellison, headless thompson gunner, henry kuttner, hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, horror, hunter s. thompson, illuminatus, illustrated man, inland empire, interview with a vampire, into the woods, ivan stang, j.g. ballard, james and the giant peach, james tiptree, jim henson, joel & ethan coen, joel coen, john waters, joyce carol oates, kara walker, kate bush, kool keith, kurt vonnegut, laurie anderson, lon chaney, lovecraft, m.c. escher, madeleine l'engle, magic, man of 1000 faces, man of a thousand faces, manga, margaret brundage, mervyn peake, michael moorcock, mirrormask, movies, muppets, museum at purgatory, music, myst, naked lunch, neil gaiman, news of the weird, nick bantock, nick cave, nightmare before christmas, no country for old men, octavia butler, osamu tezuka, our town, penn & teller, philip k. dick, pink floyd, rand & robyn miller, rand miller, ray bradbury, roald dahl, robert anton wilson, robert crumb, robert e. howard, robyn miller, rod serling, roger waters, salvador dali, samuel r. delany, sandman, sci-fi, science fiction, scifi, sharkey's day, shirley jackson, skin of our teeth, slaughterhouse-five, solomon kane, something wicked this way comes, song, songs, songwriter, songwriters, spider-man, stanley kubrick, stephen king, stephen sondheim, steve ditko, subgenius, sweeney todd, sweeny todd, sylvia townsend warner, tanith lee, terry gilliam, the fly, the forgetting room, the metamorphosis, the shining, the wall, thomas ligotti, thomas pynchon, thornton wilder, tim burton, time bandits, titus groan, tom waits, twilight zone, twin peaks, vampire lestat, videodrome, virgil finlay, warhol, warhol museum, warren zevon, weird, Weird Tales, weirdest, weirdest storytellers, weirdo, welcome to the machine, werewolves of london, william s. burroughs, wim wenders, x-men, zevon, zothique
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”).
June 25th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I was amazed that Fritz Leiber was not listed.
July 28th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Flann O’ Brien, James Joyce, Slick Rick, Captain Beefheart, Lil Wayne, Patrick McCabe, Bob Shaw, George Bernard Shaw, Kool G Rap…
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Paul Bowles, Jane Bowles, John Cheever, Alfred Chester, Thomas M. Disch, Michael Haneke, K.W. Jeter, Francis Bacon, Colin Wilson, John Cassavetes…but, then, what is weird really? One man’s mausoleum, is another man’s living room.
February 17th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
That’s a lot of weird, and I love love love it all! Most of the weird artists closest to my heart have either made the list or have been mentioned by other readers. However, I think Don Hertzfeldt bears mentioning, as does Alejandro Jodorowsky. And, if a group (Cirque de Soleil) can be mentioned, then Mr. Bungle is pretty dang weird.
March 19th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Caitlin R. Kiernan! We can’t forget about her!!
April 21st, 2009 at 9:48 am
Where is Arthur Machen in your list? The greatest of them all…
April 21st, 2009 at 9:53 am
@Roger: you’re forgetting the “of the past 85 years” part.
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
What about Algernon Blackwood?
April 24th, 2009 at 7:05 am
Well, Machen’s writing was not confined solely to the late Victorian era, and he continued way beyond 1924.
Comedian and author Stewart Lee rates “The Green Round” (1933) as AM’s most enjoyable work. Machen’s fine late stories “N” and “Opening the Door” date from the 1930s; not to mention the wonderful “Islington Mystery” (1927).
May 1st, 2009 at 7:05 am
And let’s not forget Machen’s late flowering collection “The Children of the Pool and Other Stories” (1936). Third-rate Machen perhaps but more impressive than much of the finest work of many another premier fantasy author. There is also Machen’s intriguing mystery “The Gift of Tongues”, written in the late 1920s. A true or fictional account? The latter, I would guess.
May 15th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
This has to be an oversite, because I don’t see Richard Matheson on the list, one of the greatest post Lovecraft weird writers. It doesn’t get much weirder than I am Legend or The Shrinking Man.
I would also like to toss in directors James Whale and Roger Corman, but Matheson really NEEDS to be in there.
May 19th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Tim Burton has a unique style when making his movie. I love Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands.,`*
June 11th, 2010 at 12:21 am
David Bowie has some really eccentric personality but i like his style of music. he is a good actor too.~**
July 15th, 2010 at 10:57 am
when i hear about David Bowie, it reminds me of Vanilla Ice. ~”~
October 22nd, 2010 at 3:02 pm
aside from being a great singer David Bowie is also a good actor playing the role of Tesla in the movie The Prestige:,,