It was a dark and stormy night�

Well, maybe not. But everybody likes a good scare. Some get their kicks from slasher flicks and Halloween costumes, but true horror aficionados know that the imagination can conjure up far more terrifying images than anything Freddy Krueger could ever produce on his best day. Though their heyday seems to have passed, horror magazines were the preferred medium of thrill seekers for decades. Here�s a sampling of some of the best known horror magazines.

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is probably the best known horror magazine of all time. First published in 1923, it�s still going strong in 2009.

Notable for its macabre stories and pulpy covers, Weird Tales has featured stories from notable writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury, and was in fact the first publication to print work by famed playwright Tennessee Williams.

Revamped in 2007, Weird Tales has broadened its contents to include articles on weird culture and narrative essays, but has never strayed from the spine chilling tales that made it famous.

http://www.weirdtalesmagazine.com/ Weird Tales website

Creepy

Creepy (along with sister publications Eerie and Vampirella) was a famed American horror comic published from the 1960�s through the 1980�s.

Billed as �illustrated tales of terror and suspense�, Creepy capitalized on the horror revival of the early 1960�s brought on by the frequency of classic horror films being shown on television and radio programs such as Suspense.

Creepy�s initial run ended in 1985, but Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights in 2007 and began republishing anthologies of Creepy�s archives. Dark Horse plans on relaunching Creepy in 2009.

http://www.horrorseek.com/horror/unclecreepy/ A website about Creepy

Tales From The Crypt

Most people remember the Cryptkeepter; the ghoulish gentleman who was host of HBO�s horror anthology series Tales From The Crypt in the 1990�s. But what people might not remember is Tales From The Crypt�the horror comic from the 1950�s that inspired the television show.

Despite its iconic status, Tales From The Crypt produced only 30 issues in its initial five year run. 1954 saw a crackdown on horror comics by moralists who thought their popularity had a direct correlation to the rise of juvenile delinquency in America. The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings of that same year placed restrictions on comics such as not being able to use the words �horror� or �terror� in titles, and not allowing them to depict zombies, vampires, and other familiar trappings. The publishers of Tales From The Crypt decided to cease publication rather than compromise.

The series had been fully anthologized and reprinted several times. The series was resurrected in 2007 and continues to publish fresh issues.

http://www.papercutz.com/tc/tc.html Publisher's website for Tales From The Crypt

Horror Stories

Horror Stories was an American pulp magazine in the weird menace genre. Best remembered for its lurid covers of females in distress, Horror Stories enjoyed a brief run of only 47 issues, but back issues are a much sought-after collector�s item.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_Stories_(magazine) Wikipedia page on Horror Stories

Cemetery Dance

Cemetery Dance is a somewhat recent addition to the horror magazine cannon. Publishing for the last 20 years, it has features stories and interviews with contemporary horror masters Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Dean Koontz, and others.

In recent years, Cemetery Dance has branched out and now publishes horror novels as well as its critically acclaimed magazine.

http://www.cemeterydance.com/ Cemetary Dance official site

Extra For Experts:

http://www.vintagelibrary.com/pulpfiction/genres/Weird-Menace.php Information about the "weird menace" genre

http://www.monsterlibrarian.com/horrormag.htm Horror magazine reviews

http://freewebs.com/snmhorrormag/ SNM Horror (online magazine)

http://www.geocities.com/unifan2001/ Site dedicated to monster magazines in the 1960�s-1970�s