Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Battleborn Magazine Issues 2 and 3

[LEFT] Battleborn issue #1 (cover art by Samuel Dillon); [CENTER] Interior Art for "Jaguar's Children" by Greg Mele (artist Babeto Daroz); [RIGHT] art for Lee Patton's "Temple of the River King."

Black Gate has covered the inception of Battleborn magazine as it spawned from an August 2025 crowdfunding on Indiegogo. Columnist and author Mark Rigney interviewed the champion and chief editor Sean CW Korsgaard over three segments: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Too much ground to recap here, but we can highlight that the goal of the magazine is to blend contemporary Sword & Sorcery with reprints of classics (beyond Robert E. Howard, there will be Michael Shea, David Drake, and even more....that we 'kane't' wait to share the identities of!)

Sean CW Korsgaard is not to be confused with the Commander of Battleborn Magazine. This character is akin to the Skull from Tales from the Magician's Skull, and he is as rough as the skeletal icon, but perhaps a bit easier on his interns. The Commander has provided his sacred guidance below.

This post covers the initial reception to the advanced review copies of issue #1 (reaching the open market now, as this is written! Check back for later edits that will include links to order), the schedule targets for Issues #2 and #3, and even a special note from the Battleborn Commander. Looking for review copies or feedback from fans? Check out Battleborn's Facebook Page (Link), and contact the Commander (via his intern-like admins).

Battleborn, issue 1

Reviews of Issue #1

James D Mills from The Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing

The next Savage Sword of Conan?... Battleborn magazine is a new Sword and Sorcery magazine that brings the charm of the classics to new readers. They're also devoted to sharing newer writers with the world. Overall, I found this to be a fun read and a compelling beginning to a magazine that I hope runs for a long time. It has a clear identity and is built to provide a multi-medum format that is meant to celebrate the genre as a whole.

The Gung-Ho Book Club Podcast & Wordpress

Battleborn hit the ground running thanks to the experience of the editorial team and the solid newcomer stories backed by even more solid veteran fare. The columns are highly informative and thought provoking, the comic is a neat touch, and The Commander is the absolute boss.

Don McGregor Review

Battleborn enters the Sword & Sorcery magazine anthology market not with a whimper, but with a booming battle cry. It is an ebullient rallying cry that celebrates authors both living and dead in a beloved genre. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you not only purchase this first issue but find a way to support it through a subscription to future issues.

David Riley (Horror/Fantasy/Sci-Fi writer and co-owner of Parallel Universe Publications) Review

It’s good to see that unlike too many periodicals Battleborn does not shy away from publishing reprints... At over 200 pages, Battleborn is a substantial read, with ne’er a poor story anywhere in sight. Definitely an important addition to the growing number of sword and sorcery publications appearing today in what is truly an exciting period in our genre.

Issue #1 Contents

BATTLEBORN BRINGS SWORD-AND-SORCERY’S BOLDEST STORIES – FROM THE FRONTLINES OF FANTASY TO YOUR FINGERTIPS!
Battleborn is a magazine that collects the very best of modern and classical sword-and-sorcery and heroic adventure stories, and delivers page after page of fist-pumping blood-and-thunder fantasy for your reading pleasure. It’s more than just a magazine – it’s a celebration of that grand fantasy tradition of two-fisted action and unforgettable heroes going back to the pulps, and the writers who have kept that spirit alive for generations.
Battleborn issue 1 contains the following stories and poems.
"A STONE'S THROW" by Howard Andrew Jones
"BLOOD OF THE ONI" by C.L. Werner
"JAGUAR'S CHILDREN" by Gregory D. Mele
"VENGEANCE VOW" by TJ Marquis
"TO BOAST OF VICTORY" by Erik Waag
"TEMPLE OF THE RIVER KING" by Lee Patton
"THE FURY'S BLADE" by Robert Rhodes
"THE ROAD OF KINGS" by Robert E. Howard
"PEARLS OF THE VAMPIRE QUEEN" by Michael Shea
"THE LAST SPELL" (Part 1 of 3) by Schuyler Hernstrom
Each story is paired with glorious black-and-white artwork, and they’re accompanied by columns penned by some of modern fantasy’s boldest thinkers, including Sean CW Korsgaard, Jason M. Waltz, Morgan Holmes, Jason Ray Carney, Gregory D. Mele, and The Commander!
All this and more in this volume of BATTLEBORN! So what are you waiting for? If love for heroics and glory beat in your chest like a battle drum, grab your copy today, and become a hero. Become a legend! Become… BATTLEBORN!

Battleborn Commander Address

Brothers-in-arms of Black Gate!
For countless years, you have gallantly carried the banner of sword-and-sorcery forward when blaggards and cowards left it for dead. You were among the first, and many a gallant ally joined you in fighting the good fight – Tales of the Magician’s Skull, Old Moon Quarterly, Savage Realms Monthly, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, DMR Books and so many others.
At last, it is Battleborn's turn to carry the banner of sword-and-sorcery forward to greater glory along the frontlines of fantasy.
Long have you waited. Long have we labored and trained. Now our hour at glory is at hand, and we’re ready to join the charge with not just one, but the first two issues of Battleborn.
Not only are they beauties – glorious black-and-white art paired with every story – and not only did we fulfill our promise to deliver one of the most brutal flavors of fantasy between our folds, with heroic fantasies’ finest firing on all cylinders on every page… Battleborn is also the biggest sword-and-sorcery magazine in print today, with over a 100k words an issue of glorious heroes committing bloody deeds, not including columns, reviews, comics, and words of wisdom shared by me, your patron of pulp and paragon of masculinity, The Commander.
But this is not only about celebrating face-melting, hard-hitting, fist-pumping sword-and-sorcery. This is about saluting the brave and bold men and women who’ve spent months fighting the good fight to make sure Battleborn arrives to your hands as the biggest and boldest magazine it could be.
To the staff who kept the magazine moving forward by tireless effort and sheer fucking will… to the blooded veterans and gentlemen rankers of sword-and-sorcery, whose names and stories we wear like a badge of honor... To the late lamented legends of the subgenre whose spirits and stories we seek to keep alive in our pages… And to the hungry greenhorns who drew first blood in our slush pile, and are about to earn their ranks within sword-and-sorcery…
We salute you. I salute you.
I couldn’t be prouder of all of them or of Battleborn. Why, I might even shed a tear, if I hadn’t lost my tear ducts in the war.
I can’t wait for all these fine warriors to set your hearts and this genre ablaze with their swords and their stories.
Brothers of Black Gate -- join us in Battleborn's Great Crusade, to put boots to asses, bring books to the masses, and restore sword-and-sorcery to its rightful place in fantasy: reigning supreme atop the bloody throne.
Glory awaits. Triumph awaits. Battleborn awaits.
We’re ready – are you?
See you atop the walls.
Always Forward, The Commander

The Commander's Forum

The Battleborn leaders and community do a great deal of their chatting on their Facebook page (follow along now).

The Battleborn Battle Plan

Issue #1 - available imminently (publication in process)
Issue #2 - to be showcased ~ Howard Days, June 11th being the anniversary of the Father of Sword & Sorcery's death, and the event in his honor being June 12th & 13th this year.
Issue #3 - to be released ~ The Day of Might, Oct 23rd every year, in honor of Howard Andrew Jones's stranger-half (a.k.a. the "Skull") who declared that day in celebration of the anniversary of the day on which the Skull first revealed himself to the modern world!

Issue #2 TOC

"Alyrienne" by Michael A. Stackpole
"Calicask’s Body" by John C. Hocking
"A Step in Time" by Violette Malan
"Ten Arrows" by Alyssa Hazel
"All in a God’s Way" by Jason M. Waltz
"Wizard’s Right Hand" by Steven L. Shrewsbury
"Surface" by Chuck Clark
"Mortu and Kyrus in the White City" by Schuyler Hernstrom
"Twilight of the Horn Hunters" by Scott Forbes
"Crawford Valiance Lost" by Michael Panter
"The Mantichore" by David Drake
"The Sacker of Cities" by Daniel J. Davis
"The Crosses Grow on Anzio" by Audie Murphy
"The Last Spell" (Part 2 of 3) by Schuyler Hernstrom

Issue #3 TOC

"Against the Wall" by James Enge
"The Fury’s Rune" by Robert Rhodes
"Scion Ung" by S.E. Lindberg
"The Blood of Wolves" by Adrian Cole
"The Icehawk" by Mark Rigney
"In the Temple of the Shadow Moon" by Bryan Young
"The Taker of Voices" by Richard Lee Byers
"More Than Man" by K.D. Julicher
"Thrall" by Charles Belt
"A Violent Way" by e. rathke
"Where First She Had Sinned" by Keith Alerec
"The Wizard of Remembrance" by Sarah Newton
A story to be revealed publicly at Howard Days 2026
"Danny Deever" by Rudyard Kipling
"Live Your Life" by Tecumseh
"The Last Spell" (Part 3 of 3) by Schuyler Hernstrom

Sneak peek of interior illustrations for Issue #2, [LEFT] art for "The Crosses Grow on Anzio" by Audie Murphy (art by James O'Barr) and [RIGHT] art for "Valiance Lost" by Michael Panter (artist Mike Rollins)

S.E. Lindberg is Blackgate.com’s Managing Editor, regularly reviewing books, interviewing authors, and running Dark Muse News. He has led the Gen Con Writers' Symposium and the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group; even interned for Tales from the Magician’s Skull, and is Assistant Editor for Battleborn. He contributed eight stories across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell & Heroika and an entry for Weirdbook’s Zombies. He independently publishes Dyscrasia Fiction®, stories of which have appeared in Whetstone and Swords & Sorcery magazines, A Book of Blades (Vol. I and Vol. II), DMR’s Terra Incognita, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Savage Realms Magazine, and Michael Stackpole's Chain Story 2 Project.