Alec Worley's Blog, page 4

Science Fiction Double Feature: Planet of the Vampires (1965), It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958)

The first Alien movie brought axle-grease and body horror to sci-fi cinema back in 1979. Audiences were dazzled by Ridley’s Scott’s seemingly unprecedented vision. But there were fans and sci-fi savvy critics who scored plenty of nerd points by pointing out similarities to a couple of fondly remembered B pictures from previous decades.

Terrore nello spazio (Terror in Space, 1965) was released in the US by AIP as Planet of the Vampires.

‘Planet of the Body Snatchers’ would have been more accurate, ...

Lessons From Earthsea

‘Earthsea: The First Four Books’, Puffin, 2016, cover art by Matt Jones

How did we forget A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)? Everyone agrees Ursula K. Le Guin’s rites-of-passage fantasy is a classic: profound, lyrical, exquisitely written, a masterclass in the evocation of magic and revered by uber-hip authors from Margaret Atwood to that guy who wrote Sandman. Yet as seminal masterworks go, there never seems to be much buzz about it these days, certainly not next to gargantuan fantasy franchises like ...

Mapping the Labyrinth: A No-Mucking-About Beginner’s Guide to Starting Out as a Writer

“Welcome to your new home! It comes with a south-facing oubliette, goblin infestation, and no possible means of escape.” (image © TriStar Pictures)

I’m often questioned by younger writers looking to begin their journey. The field of writing - especially commercial writing - is as glamorous as it is treacherous. There’s a wealth of information out there, but you need to separate the truth from the clickbait. In an attempt to be more prepared next time someone asks me, and to save me from forgettin...

Evolve or Die: Is this the End for Sword and Sorcery?

Original Heroquest box art by Les Edwards, © MB Games, 1988.

BARBARIAN SOUP

A classic, no-effort comfort dish, handy for those back-of-the-cupboard ingredients a little past their sell-by date.

© 20th Century Fox

Writing time: 30 minutes

Serves: Men over fifty, lazy editors

Ingredients:

1 ripe barbarian + sword

1 wilted slave girl (clothes removed)

1 mad sorcerer + minions (you can substitute the traditional robed cultists for animated skeletons if you prefer a little crunch)

1 giant snake (or unknowable...

Helpless Monsters, Hopeless Writers, and How to Write Horror Comics

Hey, weirdos!

This month’s schedule has got me tangled up scripting something in the region of 150 pages of comics for three different publishers (plus a little copywriting to add spice to the deadline mix), which means – for the first time since I launched this newsletter – I’m unable to put out an original article this month.

However, here’s three little-seen articles from the very early days of Agent of Weird, unearthed from the depths of the vault.

“I Want You To Stop Me!” dissects the dreadful...

M.R. James and the Craft of Fear

The BBC’s 1973 adaptation of Lost Hearts, directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark

The ghost stories of Etonian scholar Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) are about as perfect in terms of structure and technique as it’s possible to get. With the thirty-three terror tales James penned for his own amusement, including classics such as Casting the Runes and Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, he revolutionised the form. Building on innovations made by Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), Jam...

Old Sorcery, New Edge: Q&A with Molly Tanzer

Jirel of Joiry by Sasha Durdevic

Molly Tanzer is an award-winning American novelist, short story writer and editor with a gift for combining historical fact with fantastical fiction. Reviving an iconic sword and sorcery heroine eighty-five years after her last outing, Molly is now continuing the adventures of the first lady of heroic fantasy in the pages of New Edge Sword & Sorcery.

Jirel of Joiry first appeared in the delirious 1934 short Black God’s Kiss by Catherine L. Moore. The flame-haired w...

The Horror Masterpiece You May Have Missed

The Rolling Giant, Kane Pixels

“What’s up, guys! Wyatt here.”

The horror begins with the cheerful banality of countless YouTube videos, as our teenage host treks through secluded woodland, chuckling as he passes an ‘Area Closed’ sign, until he finds the really cool thing he’s hoping will finally get his subscribers into the high hundreds.

Hidden in the shade of an old tree, we find what looks like some kind of burrow. Curious, we peer inside and see a flight of concrete stairs, eerily symmetrical, ...

The Liminal Horror Masterpiece You Probably Haven’t Seen

The Rolling Giant, Kane Pixels

“What’s up, guys! Wyatt here.”

The horror begins with the cheerful banality of countless YouTube videos, as our teenage host treks through secluded woodland, chuckling as he passes an ‘Area Closed’ sign, until he finds the really cool thing he’s hoping will finally get his subscribers into the high hundreds.

Hidden in the shade of an old tree, we find what looks like some kind of burrow. Curious, we peer inside and see a flight of concrete stairs, eerily symmetrical, ...

Over By Christmas (a short story)

‘Winterslandschaft’ by Caspar David Friedrich, 1811(-ish) via Wikimedia Commons

The papers hadn’t said nothing about a blizzard. Then again, the papers weren’t saying much about anything except the war. The ladies who came in the shop that morning for their Christmas goose had been mercilessly eager to talk. How about what the Germans had just done to them poor buggers up north, eh? Kiddies on their way to school when the shells came down, they reckon. And what if the Kaiser should ever think to ...