Weird Tales

The 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days! Today we resume after a two-week break with the legendary STANLEY KUBRICK (1928-1999).

Dairy-based Beethoven-fueled ultraviolent rape-a-thon? Acid trip space pregnancy? Thermonuclear protonazi doomsday over precious bodily fluids? Mask-clad Cirque du Scientologist orgypalooza? Vietnammy soap-sock blanket party Pyle-on? Humberty Humberty cross-country lollipopping? Snow-induced secluded-hotel indoor unwelcome lumberjacking? Who is Spartacus? I am Spartacus. No, I am Spartacus. No, I am Spartacus.

What’s new: Warner Bros. releases DVD documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures.

The 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!

Look, everyone knows all about STEPHEN KING’s crazy insane stories. So let’s just move on and… consider the import of that fact. Everyone knows all about Stephen King’s crazy insane stories. Horror is supposedly the literature of the freak, the outsider, the weirdo — and, writing it, Stephen King became the most popular author in the world. So listen up, all you young freaks and geeks and rejects, we’ve got a message for you: Hang in there. Don’t give up hope. Because, in the end, you win.

The March/April 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!

CLIVE BARKER (1952– ) burst onto the horror scene in a way nobody else ever could: with a six-volume short-story collection, The Books of Blood. When other horror writers would turn away, Barker marched forward, showing off blood and intestines as if such grue were worthy of the Louvre. And his interest in the visual arts was always apparent: in the 1990s he wrote baroque fantasies, and his The Abarat Quintet is copiously illustrated with his own paintings. Barker’s work in film also led to endless Hellraiser sequels, for better or for worse.

What’s new: One week from today, from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wed., April 16, the Sloan Fine Art gallery in Manhattan will hold the opening reception for its new month-long exhibition of Clive Barker’s paintings and drawings, which will run through May 10.

Dark-fantasy lovers in the Windy City, this weekend is your last chance to see the hot new stage adaptation of Arthur Machen’s novel The Great God Pan, courtesy of Wildclaw Theatre. When it was first published a hundred years ago, critics despised this tale of a horrific experiment performed upon an innocent young woman, calling it “an incoherent nightmare of sex.” But Pan has proved to be one of the most influential horror stories of all time, inspiring H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Weird Tales founder Jacob Hennberger, among many others. Lovecraft went so far as to say: “Of creators of cosmic fear raised to its most artistic pitch, few can hope to equal Arthur Machen.” There are four performances left — reserve seats now!

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!)