Archive for March, 2010

Happy Halloween, It’s a Bloody Puppet Show

If you watch Family Guy, Robot Chicken or have seen a movie trailer or commercial chances are really, really good that you’ve heard Bill Ratner’s voice. Bill is an incredibly talented voice-over artist, and he’s also a pretty damn good writer. It was Niteblade’s honor and pleasure to present one of Bill’s stories as both a script and an mp3 performance in the March 2010 issue.

Happy Halloween, It’s a Bloody Puppet Show

We were unable to include the .mp3 of this story in the .pdf version of the magazine but it’s waiting for you at that link to click and listen. Reading the script is an enjoyable expirience but hearing Bill perform it is so much better. Clicky, clicky, you won’t regret it.

Submission Status Update

Just a super quick update on the status of submissions waiting to be read. The oldest submission in my fiction pile that’s waiting to be read is from February 17th and the oldest poetry one is from February 2nd. If you submitted prior to that and haven’t heard back from me either I didn’t receive it or my response got gobbled by a spam filter or something. Resubmit or drop me an email at rhonda@niteblade.com. I’d recommend the former.

I’m currently reading submissions with an eye toward placing them in the June issue.

Merchant of Venom

Descend into a nightmare world where death soars on ebon wings and hellish beasts torment the damned. Roam the lands of the fantastic and the macabre through the diabolic visions of Craig General, the Merchant of Venom.

Hailing from Ontario, Canada, Craig has been drawing semi-professionally for a decade. He likes to work on big projects, but is willing to work on smaller projects as well. One of his past projects involved the creation of cover artwork for small music labels. He also sells prints and t-shirts on his web site Merchant of Venom.

Craig finds his inspiration from nature (oddly enough, from such things as dead trees) and horror movies. His list of favourite artists includes John Byrne, Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, and Richard Kind. In terms of style, Craig says he is trying for something between horror comic-book art and seventeenth-century woodcuts.

Issue 11: The Marionette

Issue 11 is out and it is fabulous! I know I say this every time, but it’s true, every time. This is the best issue yet! Haunted hospitals, dancing skeletons, goddesses, a deeply disturbing play and retold fairy tales are but a few of the pieces we’ve got waiting for you. Check this out, you won’t be sorry, I promise.

Poetry:
Daughter by Miguel Lopez de Leon
My Own Ending by Michael Fosburg
Words of the Unprofound by Joseph M. Gant
The Note Found on the Person of the Dead Wizard Skewered From Above by Alexandra Seidel
The Marionette by Jason L. Huskey
Newport Memorial by Jason L. Huskey
Second Chance by James Dorr
Goddess in Training by WIlliam C. Burns, Jr.

Fiction:
Sickeningly Sweet by Maia Lena
The Night The Cricket-Man Came by Alejandro Omidsalar
Bride of Neanderthal by Jonathan Sweet
The Devil at Your Heels by Robert Mammone
AutoCanniBioTech by Joseph A. W. Quintela
Happy Halloween, It’s a Bloody Puppet Show by Bill Ratner
Judas Dances by Paul Walther
Finally Never Again by Crystal Lynn Hilbert
Cats in the Backyard by J. David Bell

Reviews:
Around a Dark Corner Reviewed by Alan Braun
The Field at the Edge of the Woods Reviewed by Jonathan Parrish