Letters to Nyctalops

[hopfrog]

I was shocked, a while ago when I was re-reading the old issues of Nyctalops, to find one of my book reviews in which I called one of Ramsey Campbell's collections "disappointing"! What an ignorant twit I was in those days. I think that Ramsey's book was too sophisticated for me, back in that strange aeon when the only thing I really liked was "traditional" Mythos fiction by Derleth and Lumley. It is thanks, in part, to Harry and his zine that my reading tastes matured and expanded.

Jerad Walters, who is great friends with Harry, is hoping to get him to illustrate my forthcoming omnibus from Centipede Press -- which would be FANTASTIC!!

[Zaharoff]

- Necro Post -

Like others before me, I've actually been rereading old Nyctalops issues.
The last issue, #19, came out seven years after #18.
Harry freely confessed, he had other priorities.
Nevertheless, I postponed reading #19 for a few decades, hoping Harry would come to his senses and kick out a #20.
Oh, the fool and his hopes.

Since my scanner seems to be working today, I decided to share the contents page of the final issue.
Give you a glance back twenty plus years ago.

[cannibal cop]

Nice to get a glimpse of one of these. I never came across an issue of this magazine anywhere, but I’m aware of its reputation. It must have been worth collecting for all that interior art alone. Thanks, Zaharoff.

As it turns out, the remainder of this resurrected thread is just as entertaining, the major highlight being the inclusion of Ligotti’s withering commentary on Robert Aickman’s literary output:

Quote

I'll have to leave it to admirers of Robert Aickman, which I am not one, to comment on the essays treating his work. C.P.M.'s piece seemed to display the greater critical deftness; but the subject, whom Russell Kirk called "the greatest living writer of ghost stories" when he lived, is not one I warm up to, living or dead. Too many unrewarding hours spent pondering his ineffectual subtleties, too many frustrating revelations when I finally discovered the thematic key to a tale, only to find a crude closet of cliches behind the door. It's probably my innate vulgarity which prevents me from appreciating Aickman's "obscurity" but it is not for lack of effort that I cannot.

[Teetering-Crutches]

Lots of issues turn up on eBay

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...alops&_sacat=0

Issue #18 has one of the "Nyctalops" trilogy by Ligotti, I forget what the other issues are featuring the other 2.

[cannibal cop]

Thanks for the link, Teetering. Some of the prices are a better than I expected, but they’re still much more than I can afford at this stage, especially with the addition of shipping, which in my case sometimes exceeds the purchase price. Still, nice to get a look inside a few of these at last. I love these old semi-prozines.

Here’s a “brand new” copy of #13, the 1977 issue that features T.E.D. Klein’s essay Ramsey Campbell: An Appreciation. The asking price of $20 US seems unusually reasonable for this kind of thing.

Nyctalops 13 (Silver Scarab Press, May 1977) HPLovecraft, weird fiction *UNREAD* | eBay