Posted originally on Black Gate Dec 6, 2023
New
Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, Vol. I Issues #1 and #2. Cover art by
Caterina Gerbasi (Fall 2023); and Gilead (Winter 2023)
October 2022, Michael Harrington
hosted an interview with Oliver Brackenbury on Black Gate;
Brackenbury is the editor and champion of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine.
That post coincided with the release of the teaser Issue #0 including
short fiction & non-fiction (free in digital format, or priced at cost on
Amazon Print-on-Demand, through the
New Edge Website). In Feb. 2023 Black Gate announced
the magazine’s Kickstarter which succeeded and
spurred the creation of the illustrated Issues 1 & 2 that are being
released now (Nov 2023). This post shares the official press release of
these issues and adds the Table of Contents for both. New Edge is
setting a strong foundation with these, with illustrations and heavy-hitting
authors.
NEW
EDGE SWORD & SORCERY ISSUES 1&2 IMPENDING RELEASE!
New Edge Sword &
Sorcery will be releasing issues
#1& #2 in mid-November for direct
sale through their website. Until then, the new issues
are available for pre-order through Backerkit. Those who
pre-order issues #1 & #2 will be paying slightly less than final retail
prices, all the more reason to run
over to the NESS pre-order shop now!
Issue one features an original
Elric tale by Michael Moorcock! He joins twenty-three other authors across both
issues, such as Canadian horror master Gemma Files, Margaret Killjoy, S&S
veteran David C. Smith, Hugo Award-winner Cora Buhlert, Milton Davis, and more.
There’s also a tale by Jesús Montalvo, an author from the burgeoning S&S
scene south of the US border, translated from its original Spanish by Gonzalo
Baeza.
Twenty artists are spread across
the two issues, including Morgan King, who directed Lucy Lawless in his 2021
rotoscope-animated Sword & Sorcery film The Spine of Night.
Each issue features seven or eight
original stories and four works of non-fiction: one book review, one essay, one
in-depth interview, and one historical literary profile of figures like Charles
Saunders or Cele Goldsmith. All stories, essays, and profiles are to be paired
with two original B&W illustrations.
“Made with love for the classics
and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling”, these Sword &
Sorcery tales take place in settings inspired by Asian, African, and Central
American, as well as European, cultures; featuring prominent disability,
neuro-divergent, and LGBTQ+ representation; all while delivering high-quality
writing in a wide variety of styles. Sword & Sorcery can be many things and
still be Sword & Sorcery.
New Edge Sword &
Sorcery #1 & #2 are available in
digital, perfect bound softcover, and sewn-stitched hardcover formats which lay
flat for ease of reading. Interiors are printed on eighty firm, 100gsm cream
paper pages sized at a spacious 8½x11 inches. The hardcovers are also enhanced
with bookmark ribbons in colors taken from the gorgeously painted cover art.
Brackenbury has plans for
publishing further issues, as well as expanding into book publishing with a
line of themed anthologies & novella series. News of future crowdfunding
campaigns and more can be found via the New Edge Sword & Sorcery newsletter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and Twitter accounts.
To help cut post-crowdfund turnaround in half, the NESS editorial team are
already editing stories for next year’s issues.
Example
illustrations for New Edge Magazine Vol I, Issue #1
VOLUME I, NUMBER 1 – MMXXIII
Cover art by Caterina Gerbasi
FICTION
CARNIVORA by Kirk A.
Johnson, Illustrated by Daniel Vega
COME LAY THE CRONE TO REST by Margaret Killjoy, Illustrated by
Gary McCluskey
SISTER CHAOS – Bryn Hammond, Illustrated
by Dan Rempel
CHAK MUUCH – Jesús Montalvo, Translated
from Spanish by Gonzalo Baeza, Illustrated by Carlos Castilho
TEARS OF EB by Sarah
A. Macklin, Illustrated by Trevor Ngwenya
THE PILLARS OF SILENCE by Prashanth Srivatsa, Illustrated by
Hardeep Aujla and Gary McCluskey
THE FOLK OF THE FOREST – Michael Moorcock, Illustrated
by Sapro
NONFICTION
WHY (NEW EDGE) SWORD & SORCERY?
by Brian Murphy, Illustrated by Sara Frazetta
CELE GOLDSMITH LALLI—MIDWIFE TO
THE SECOND SWORD & SORCERY BOOM by Cora Buhlert, Illustrated
by Chuah Shih Shin
FRESH BLOOD AND NEW THUNDER!
BRINGING NEW READERS TO SWORD & SORCERY, WITH SOF MAGLIANO – Oliver
Brackenbury
REVIEW: WOMAN OF THE
WOODS BY MILTON J. DAVIS – Robin Mar
VOLUME I, NUMBER 2 – MMXXIII
Cover art by Gilead
FICTION
THE DEMON OF TASHI TZANG by Dariel Quiogue, Illustrated by
Aldo Ojeda
FANG by Jacquie Kawaja, Illustrated by
Ursa Doom (Björn Magnusson)
REVELSTOKE by Gemma
Files, Illustrated by Saprophial
A DEBT FORGOTTEN, A DEBT UNPAID
by Jeremy Pak Nelson, Illustrated by Damiano Di
Marco
THE EYES OF THE DEMON by J.M. Clarke, Illustrated by
Morgan King
WATER, WHICH LAUGHS AT ALL THINGS
by T.K. Rex & L. Ann Kinyon, Illustrated by
Magda Kulbicka
ATONEMENT FOR A RESURRECTED GOD
by David C. Smith, Illustrated by
Simon Underwood
HOW MANY DEATHS TILL VENGEANCE?
By June Orchid Parker, Illustrated by
Matthew Spencer
NONFICTION
NEURODIVERGENCE IN SWORD &
SORCERY by Jonathan Olfert, Illustrated by Remco Van Straten
SWORD & SOUL BROTHERS by Milton
J. Davis, Illustrated by Chuah Shih Shin
SWORD & SILK: AN INTERVIEW WITH
DARIEL QUIOGUE by Oliver Brackenbury
REVIEW: RETURN OF THE
SORCERESS BY SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA by Kris Vyas-Myal
