It's been two years since TTA Press launched what is without doubt Britain's best Dark Fantasy magazine. To celebrate, editor Andy Cox and his team have assembled what, despite there being only five stories, may be the best contents list yet, wrapped around by David Gentry's blood-spattered cover; it's odd to think that any Black Static cover could be atypical, yet until now all of Gentry's covers have been literally dark – to see so much white is literally startling.
Fiction
Tim Lees is the only writer in the line-up not to have featured in Black Static before, but he has appeared in both Interzone and Black Static's precursor, The Third Alternative. In 'Cuckoos' he tells of a chance meeting by a man and a woman both unhappy with their jobs, and who have more in common than they think. 'Cuckoos' is another of those terrific stories that refuses to toe the narrative line lesser writers might have taken, is firmly grounded in the current economic condition, and its fantastic (in the most literal sense) premise apart, rings utterly true to everyday life. Outstanding.
Kim Lakin-Smith appears in consecutive issues with 'The Shadow-Keeper,' at first sight a story as unlike its precursor as its possible to conceive, yet both feature the lone child outside of the others, and an attack by bullies that has wholly unforeseen consequences. When William Ward 'engages' a new servant at a local bazaar, he quickly realizes that he has made a serious mistake, for Kitty is not an adult as he first thought, but a giant child six feet tall. Refusing to admit his mistake, William tries to give Kitty the best life he can in the few years she has left to her. Again, Outstanding.
From Burton-On-Trent, Carole Johnstone takes the reader to the North Sea for a 'Dead Loss,' an atmospheric telling of the rise of a new species in a thematic echo of Al Robertson's 'De Profundis' and several other Black Static stories. Johnstone's grim portrayal of the men working in a fishing industry that itself is a ghost of its former grandeur is finely detailed rings utterly true. Highly Recommended.
Joel Lane
British Fantasy Award inner Joel Lane is becoming one of Black Static's most regular contributors. In 'Some of Them Fell' four school-leavers celebrate entering the adult world by holding a nocturnal party on the edge of the moors, but make a horrifying discovery in the shrubbery. Lane is more interested in how Matt and Adrian are affected by the gruesome discovery that they make than in any cheap gore, and their journey to a sort of possible closure is finely-drawn and ultimately, quite poignant. Highly Recommended.
James Cooper bring the fiction to a close with 'My Secret Children,' in which the adolescent son of a widowed single parent cuts out pictures of missing children and decapitates action men, writing the names of the children on the action men's foreheads, while his father takes him to dog fights. Cooper's elliptical examination of the pair's mental state provides a far more disturbing atmosphere than any out and out horror, and is a fine showcase for a much under-appreciated writer.
Features
Christopher Fowler's Interference column looks at the dearth of idea films, and celebrates a rare success in the South African 'District 9.'
In Electric Darkness, Stephen Volk challenges writers and directors to 'challenge the audience's complacency,' citing examples as diverse as Heath Ledger as The Joker in Batman and Lars von Trier's Antichrist.
Case Notes
Peter Tennant's 'Case Notes' occupy almost a quarter of the magazine, and provide its intellectual core. This issue Tennant focuses on Joel Lane, providing a profile as part of his review of Lane's collection The Terrible Changes and novella The Witnesses Are Gone. Much of the rest of the review is given over to novellas by other authors, including Carole Johnstone's Frenzy.
Tony Lee provides a similarly comprehensive overview of DVD and Blu-Ray releases in 'Blood Spectrum, including Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell and Sleepy Hollow.' Completing the features section is Mike O'Driscoll's 'Night's Plutonium Shore,' with a detailed review of Dan Simmon's Drood.
 |
