Something Wicked SF and Horror Magazine #5 Read online

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  Inkless Media

  www.somethingwicked.co.za

  Copyright ©2007 by Something Wicked and Contributing Authors

  First published in Nov 2007, 2007

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  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

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  www.SomethingWicked.co.za

  SCIENCE FICTION & HORROR

  ISSUE 5—NOVEMBER 2007

  cover art by

  Vincent Sammy

  www.dkp.co.za

  Published Quarterly by Inkless Media

  ISSN 1991-0444

  Editor

  Joe Vaz

  Managing Editor

  Vianne Venter

  Contributing Non-Fiction Writers

  Fayyaad Hendricks

  Mark Sykes

  Joe Vaz

  Brett Venter

  Vianne Venter

  Marginals & Additional Art

  Genevieve Terblanche

  Design & Layout

  Joe Vaz

  Cover Art By:

  Vincent Sammy

  Advertising

  Joe or Vianne:

  +27 74 197 6456

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  www.SomethingWicked.co.za

  [email protected]

  Subscriptions: R105 for one year (R280 for International Orders). Cheques or Postal Orders should be crossed and marked payable to Inkless Media and sent to P.O. Box 15074, Vlaeberg, Cape Town 8018, South Africa or log on to the site for information on how to pay by credit card or EFT. NO REGISTERED MAIL PLEASE. Check out info inside the back cover. Submissions: Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Submissions must ONLY be sent via e-mail to: [email protected] as an attached Word .doc or .rtf file with the subject line ‘Story Submission'. We keep all artists on file and solicit work from them as and when needed. Send portfolios or links to [email protected] with the subject line ART. No postal submissions will be accepted. Please send all other queries, letters or suggestions to the above postal address or by email to: [email protected] or log on to forum.somethingwicked.co.za.

  Printed By Trident Press, Cape Town and Distributed by MagScene +27 11 579 2000

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  All material copyright © 2007 by Inkless Media, Something Wicked and by the individual creators.

  All rights reserved.

  Swicky™ is a trademark of Inkless Media and Something Wicked. This material may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission.

  All characters within stories are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, unless otherwise stated.

  The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher.

  CONTENTS

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  FICTION

  Bone Fire by Evan Morris, art by Vincent Sammy

  Crawford Towne Diener by Karen Runge, art by Pierre Smit

  Said The Spider by Michael Taljaard, art by Hendrik Gericke

  Hungry Whispers by David De Beer, art by Kobus Faber

  Dead Meat by Sam Wilson, art by Simon Tamblyn

  Little Hammer by TAHL, art by Genevieve Terblanche

  Auburn House by Stewart Langdon, art by Nicolas Rix

  Recognition by Catlyn Ladd, art by Joe Doe

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  FEATURES

  Editor's Note

  Featured Artists

  The Clown At Midnight—Interview with Stephen Francis, by Vianne Venter

  Mark Sykes’ Sixth Sense of Humour

  First Look at 30 Days of Night—by Joe Vaz

  Neil Gaiman Q&A—by Jonathan Perry

  Book Reviews

  Music Reviews

  Games Reviews

  Bits & Bobs

  Click a Link for Easy Navigation

  CONTENTS

  EDITOR'S NOTES

  FEATURED ARTISTS

  THE CLOWN AT MIDNIGHT

  BONE FIRE by Evan Morris

  MARK SYKES’ SIX TO EIGHT HUNDRED WORDS ABOUT ANYTHING

  CRAWFORD TOWNE DIENER by Karen Runge

  SAID THE SPIDER by Michael Taljaard

  HUNGRY WHISPERS by David De Beer

  DEAD MEAT by Sam Wilson

  FIRST LOOK: 30 DAYS OF NIGHT by Joe Vaz

  LITTLE HAMMER by TAHL

  AUBURN HOUSE by Stewart Langdon

  NEIL GAIMAN Q&A by Jonathan Perry

  RECOGNITION by Catlyn Ladd

  BOOK REVIEW: Blood Music by Greg Bear

  MUSIC REVIEWS: Radiohead Rides The Rainbow by Joe Vaz

  GAMES REVIEWS

  BITS & BOBS

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  EDITOR'S NOTES

  Joe Vaz is the sucker who publishers and editors Something Wicked, thanks to a 3am flash of inspiration about 18 months ago, along the lines of “how hard can it be?".

  In the 5.37 minutes per month when he's not running a media empire (mwahahaha), Joe takes time out for his day jobs—acting, writing, directing, editing, and occasionally strumming his guitar.

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  We Made it!!!

  We're a whole one years old!

  Aw, would you look at that. How cute do we look walking around in our little blue and pink jammies. What's that you say? Wipe the drool from our face? That's not drool...

  By now, you've probably noticed that we invited (begged) Issue 1 cover-artist Vincent Sammy to give us our first birthday cover. Fitting, as his baby daughter was born on the same day as we launched.

  And so a very special Happy Birthday to Vincent's very own Little Miss Wicked who also turns one on Halloween—how cool is that? We've even made her a little baby-sized version of Vincent's Issue 1 cover to wear on her birthday.

  But enough with the cuteness, let's get on with the blood and the guts and the things that go bump-in-the-night, (though in this office all three are usually provided by me falling off my chair).

  Once again we've jam-packed every square inch of paper to bring you the most awesomest (it's a word in our world, okay?) issue yet—seven new stories, two new artists and interviews with comic gods Neil Gaiman and Stephen Francis. Plus signed copies of Gaiman's Fragile Things, and Witcher PC Games to win.

  We also have some unbelievably glorious art in the all-new, completely revamped Something Wicked.

  So, prepare to devour the words (which, unbelievably, are getting better by the issue); giggle at out our very own comic-strip Swicky (below), beautifully written and illustrated by Genevieve Terblanche; smirk at witty comments by Gaiman in our transcript of his recent London Q&A session with Claire Armitstead; gasp at the beautiful new layout of our stories; marvel at our brand-new Column of Death by Mark Sykes; snort at ... well you get the picture.

  But first, a word from the ‘Boy-Did-We-Fuck-Up’ Department:

  Last issue we accidentally ran Werner Pretorius’ brilliant story Night Time is A-Coming under Brett Venter's name. We've been so embarrassed by this discovery that we've not yet had the balls to reply to Werner's very polite email in which he delicately pointed out our “boo-boo” (as Pierre Smit put it when he heard).

  Werner ... sorry man, seriously—things get stupid on deadline night, especially around the time the sun rises, but it's really not cool for that to happen. You have our sincere apologi
es. On the up-side, Werner's story has a really good Podcast (read by me) available on our website and through iTunes. So do go check it out.

  Okay, now that the grovelling is over with—let's get down to Issue 5.

  Holy Crap!!!!

  Have you paged through this thing yet? Do me a favour, right now, before you read another word, have a page through this magazine.

  Well, whatcha think?

  Later

  Joe

  5:38 am 18 Oct 2007—Cape Town

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  Got something to say? Go on, byte me: Send your letters, compliments, complaints & suggestions to: [email protected] or P.O. Box 15074, Vlaeberg, Cape Town, 8018, South Africa or register on our forum at forum.somethingwicked.co.za/

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  FEATURED ARTISTS

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  New Blood

  Simon Tamblyn:

  Illustrations for Dead Meat

  Originally an illustrator, Simon Tamblyn is currently working as a storyboard artist for the animated children's TV series, Urbo: The Adventures of Pax Africa.

  He's also a musician and the lead vocalist for Cape Town band, The Sleepers, and once passed out on stage from holding a note too long.

  Simon is also a vegetarian and has been accused of non-consensual tree hugging.

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  Nicolas Rix:

  Illustrations for Auburn House

  Nicolas Rix is a 20-something hopeful from Cape Town, South Africa.

  He has been drawing and developing his art and design skills all his life, receiving no formal training. As a former freelance web designer-turned-illustrator, he now spends a lot of time developing his illustration style and his portfolio. Nicholas’ style is strongly influenced by the Japanese Anime and the movies of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle. See more of his work at www.myspace.com/nicolasrix

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  Repeat Offenders

  Cover Artist—Vincent Sammy:

  Illustrations for Bone Fire

  Cape Town-based graphic designer Vincent Sammy is a member of Dark Kontinent Productions (www.dkp.co.za), a group of people that work on producing and self-publishing horror/sci-fi and fantasy comics.

  He also contributes to various other comic related groups such as Insurrection Studios.

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  Joe Doe:

  Illustrations for Half a Bottle of Rum

  Full time artist and illustrator, Joe Doe, has a BA degree in fine art and resides in the northern suburbs of Jo'burg with her cats, coffee and cigarettes. Armed with her oils and canvas, and inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Sandman comics, Vampire movies and rainy days, Joe regularly burns the midnight oil, churning out commissions of all shapes and sizes. Her work ranges from subliminal fantasy to the extreme bizarre.

  She also has an alter ego—painting world-class wild life for the yuppy market so that she can pay her bills and fund her figurine collection.

  More of her work can be seen at www.afriqimage.co.za

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  Pierre Smit:

  Illustrations for Crawford Towne Diener

  Pierre did art at school and is pretty much self-taught. He studied graphic design for two years at Cape Tech, but wasn't that into it. In addition to working as a scenic artist on film and TV sets, Pierre draws and paints for himself and anyone else who asks or pays for it.

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  Hendrik Gericke:

  Illustrations for Said The Spider

  Hendrik is a happily-struggling artist living a hermetic existence in the southern Boland.

  He suffered no great tragedy and overcame no real evil growing up (no more than you anyway). Of course this ruined him and he is now a closet neurotic, which happens to be a brilliant catalyst for productivity in the creative soul. Upon date of publication no plans to film his life story are being discussed.

  Visit www.myspace.com/hendrikgericke to see more of his work.

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  Kobus Faber:

  Illustrations for Hungry Whispers

  Kobus is an illustrator in Bloemfontein. He studied at a tertiary institution for two years before deciding to quit in favour of a job at a small local graphic design agency. A year later, Kobus joined a school book material company as an illustrator, and began amassing contacts in advertising circles doing illustration work. He is a huge fan of anime, comic books and video games, and would one day like to work on one.

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  Genevieve Terblanche:

  Illustrations for Little Hammer & Additional Illustrations

  Genevieve was born in captivity and despite several attempts at rehabilitation has been deemed unsuitable for release into the wild because it has bugs in it

  When uncomfortable, she writes about herself in the third person. The third person is located inside a second person, who is concealed inside a (much larger) first person.

  This saves space.

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  [Back to Table of Contents]

  THE CLOWN AT MIDNIGHT

  interview with Stephen Francis words & photos by Vianne Venter

  Stephen Francis is a funny guy. He's also slightly scary, as Vianne Venter found out...

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  Writing South Africa's favourite comic strip, making us laugh at ourselves, on demand, every day, is Stephen Francis’ job. It's fun, it's funny, and it's been hugely successful. But Something Wicked discovered something wholly unexpected—when he's not running a comedy empire, Stephen moonlights as a collector of scary toys, and is a huge fan of horror.

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  Madam & Eve writer and creator, Stephen Francis, has just returned from a rock-band reunion in the states. He's jet-lagged and has pulled out his back on the 19-hour flight home, so he's hobbling around the Madam & Eve HQ with the support of an axe. Yes. An axe. A big one. Okay, it's not real. It's a rubber-bladed prop from the horror movie Slash, which Stephen co-wrote with Gus Silber in 2001, and it makes a handy crutch. It's not the writer's traditional weapon of choice however. That is at once more blunt, and infinitely sharper. It's the power of humour, and Stephen wields it like a sharpened ironing board.

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  "I'm still a big kid you know. It helps you stay young,” Stephen says seriously as he clambers over a coffee table to get to the fuzzy face-hugger and a baby alien draped over a 1.5m guillotine in the corner of his office. “My dad always used to go, ‘what are you doing buying comics and watching horror movies? You think they're going to help your future career?'” Er, actually dad...

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  www.madamandeve.co.za/

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  US-born and raised, Stephen met his former wife, a South African, in New York City, and came to South Africa in the late ‘80s. “I came here with the plan to stay just a few months. Obviously it turned into a little longer than that,” he says. While he does miss his parents, who live in New Jersey, Stephen has no doubts about where home is these days—"I'm now a South African in my own mind. I love this country. I'll never leave. If you'd told me years ago that I'd end up living in SA I wouldn't have seen how that could be possible, but South Africa's been very good to me."

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  Growing up with New York City just half an hour away across the Hudson River, Stephen had the ultimate in big city life on tap whenever he wanted it, but says he essentially grew up in suburbia, “where there were woods close by and you could play ball in the street.” But idyllic settings have long provided the perfect backdrop for horror too, and Stephen's childhood was no exception. “Today kids have PC games and Playstation® all handed to them. I worry that they don't have to use their imaginations. We had to invent our own entertainment. I was always scared to
go down to the crawl [that's American for a basement with a really low ceiling, known, for obvious reasons, as the crawlspace], but when I got to about 12 or 13 me and some friends turned it into a tunnel of horrors. We had a horror ride with dummies and skeletons and evil laughter sound effects. We charged about 50cents and it did really well till some of the neighbours started calling my mom and complaining that their kids couldn't sleep at night."

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  Stephen is a fan of incongruity in settings and set-ups, not least for their role in horror. “Things are often most scary when they're unexpected and out of context,” he explains. “It doesn't have to be a dark and stormy night for Stephen King to frighten you. He can scare you on a bright, sunny day. It's the clown at midnight*—an idea I came across in the Famous Movie Monsters series. Basically, the clown at the circus is the friendly, funny guy who makes you laugh ... but imagine it's the middle of the night, you're alone at home and suddenly there's a knock at the door ... and that same clown is standing on your doorstep. It'd scare the hell out of me."

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  When he wasn't terrorising the neighbourhood, Stephen was sharpening his wit. “I'd always been the class clown as a kid, so when I went to the University of Miami I started my own cartoon strip in the student newspaper.” At the time, it was just one of several hobbies. Stephen's other great love was music. “Our band was called The Mad Hatters. We gigged a lot in the ‘70s, but then our parents made us go off to college. We didn't gig at the reunion last week, though after a few drinks everyone started singing at the table. I can't sing. I was a very good keyboard player, but I eventually discovered that they used to unplug my mike during the gigs. You've got to accept your limitations."

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  Right. Except that he's either lying through his teeth, or he just has very few limitations, because the magic touch that transformed a pair of comic-strip characters into the most recognised icons of post-apartheid South Africa after Madiba himself, seems to turn everything Stephen writes to gold. Which doesn't mean it always comes easy either. “Like anyone, I have my off days where I'm going, ‘oh god I have to go write a comic now...’ You do have to work at it. Ideas don't just come to me in the shower. I have to actually go and sit down with pen and paper and start free-associating and try to come up with something new."