Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Battleborn Magazine Issues 2 and 3
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.
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt
The Fish in Jonah's Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt
(Brain Waves Press, 2026.) Cover created by Miblart with interior illustration by the author.
The Fish in Jonah's Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) is a young-adult, portal fantasy written by Byron Leavitt. It's a contemporary, cosmic-horror take on the sub-genre that was a gateway for many of us. Recall the books like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (1961), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950), The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900), and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)?
All of the above have adult followings as much as their young adult readerships. Which portal fantasies grabbed you and helped you become addicted to fantasy?
Simulcast on Black Gate:Dark Muse News: Sword & Sorcery Chain Story (#19-#23)
In August 2025, we hailed the emergence of a second Chain Story project championed by Michael A. Stackpole. This is a Sword & Sorcery-focused, contagious set of connected (“chained”) stories.
Each is:
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: There is something about Return to Silent Hill - It's Mary!
The movie Return to Silent Hill (2026) is an adaptation of the psychological horror Silent Hill 2 (SH2) video game that was rebooted by Konami under Bloober Team in 2024. This 'return' film is directed by Christophe Gans, who championed the original 2006 film (which loosely adapted the first video game released in 1999). With the resounding success of the Bloober SH2 video game reboot, fans of the horror series had hope that the movie would pack a 1-2 punch, but it has been received poorly. Why?
James Sunderland appears to be the focus since the movie opens with him driving a car to a lookout featuring Silent Hill, as would be expected from the video games (both original and release) and the Trailer. The truth is, the movie is really not about him. Also, you'll meet a ton of characters, and they will mirror characters in the game... except in the movie, they aren't really different people. So:
To deliver this sucker punch approach, Gans' production delivery had to be perfect. And it was off. I had to meticulously screen capture, crop, and dissect the movie to change my mind about the work. Why reveal spoilers here? Most of the internet already has, including Gans in his interview (links below), and, for me, the movie would have been more enjoyable knowing what I know now. What at first appears to be a big mess is actually a coherent offering. Anyway, in short, as teased by the header image, there is something about Mary.
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Reviewing Arcane Arts and Cold Steel by David C. Smith
In 2019, Pulp Hero Press published Brian Murphy's Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery, which was notably covered by David C. Smith (link to review) and John O’Neill (link) on Black Gate. O'Neill highlighted that Brian Murphy was one of the earliest contributors to Black Gate, from way back in 2012! Six years have passed since the publication of Flame and Crimson; whereas the subtitle and focus of that was a history of Sword & Sorcery (S&S), Pulp Hero Press just followed with a sequel focused on writing it, penned by David C. Smith with a foreword by John O'Neill.
This post covers the complementary book Arcane Arts and Cold Steel: Writing Sword-and-Sorcery Fiction (Pulp Hero Press 2025, 298 pages). Greg Mele recently posted a Black Gate article on how this book is The Literary Sorcerer’s Toolkit; read that to learn more about the author.
