NEW EDGE SWORD & SORCERY MAGAZINE FIRST TWO ISSUES RELEASED
Posted originally on Black Gate Dec 6, 2023
NewEdge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, Vol. I Issues #1 and #2. Cover art byCaterina Gerbasi (Fall 2023); and Gilead (Winter 2023)
October 2022, Michael Harringtonhosted 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 includingshort fiction & non-fiction (free in digital format, or priced at cost onAmazon Print-on-Demand, through theNew Edge Website). In Feb. 2023 Black Gate announcedthe magazine’s Kickstarter which succeeded andspurred the creation of the illustrated Issues 1 & 2 that are beingreleased now (Nov 2023). This post shares the official press release ofthese issues and adds the Table of Contents for both. New Edge issetting a strong foundation with these, with illustrations and heavy-hittingauthors.
NEWEDGE SWORD & SORCERY ISSUES 1&2 IMPENDING RELEASE!
New Edge Sword &Sorcery will be releasing issues#1& #2 in mid-November for directsale through their website. Until then, the new issuesare available for pre-order through Backerkit. Those whopre-order issues #1 & #2 will be paying slightly less than final retailprices, all the more reason to runover to the NESS pre-order shop now!
Issue one features an originalElric tale by Michael Moorcock! He joins twenty-three other authors across bothissues, such as Canadian horror master Gemma Files, Margaret Killjoy, S&Sveteran 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&Sscene south of the US border, translated from its original Spanish by GonzaloBaeza.
Twenty artists are spread acrossthe two issues, including Morgan King, who directed Lucy Lawless in his 2021rotoscope-animated Sword & Sorcery film The Spine of Night.
Each issue features seven or eightoriginal stories and four works of non-fiction: one book review, one essay, onein-depth interview, and one historical literary profile of figures like CharlesSaunders or Cele Goldsmith. All stories, essays, and profiles are to be pairedwith two original B&W illustrations.
“Made with love for the classicsand an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling”, these Sword &Sorcery tales take place in settings inspired by Asian, African, and CentralAmerican, as well as European, cultures; featuring prominent disability,neuro-divergent, and LGBTQ+ representation; all while delivering high-qualitywriting in a wide variety of styles. Sword & Sorcery can be many things andstill be Sword & Sorcery.
New Edge Sword &Sorcery #1 & #2 are available indigital, perfect bound softcover, and sewn-stitched hardcover formats which layflat for ease of reading. Interiors are printed on eighty firm, 100gsm creampaper pages sized at a spacious 8½x11 inches. The hardcovers are also enhancedwith bookmark ribbons in colors taken from the gorgeously painted cover art.
Brackenbury has plans forpublishing further issues, as well as expanding into book publishing with aline of themed anthologies & novella series. News of future crowdfundingcampaigns 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 arealready editing stories for next year’s issues.
Exampleillustrations 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 byGary McCluskey
SISTER CHAOS – Bryn Hammond, Illustratedby Dan Rempel
CHAK MUUCH – Jesús Montalvo, Translatedfrom Spanish by Gonzalo Baeza, Illustrated by Carlos Castilho
TEARS OF EB by SarahA. Macklin, Illustrated by Trevor Ngwenya
THE PILLARS OF SILENCE by Prashanth Srivatsa, Illustrated byHardeep Aujla and Gary McCluskey
THE FOLK OF THE FOREST – Michael Moorcock, Illustratedby Sapro
NONFICTION
WHY (NEW EDGE) SWORD & SORCERY?by Brian Murphy, Illustrated by Sara Frazetta
CELE GOLDSMITH LALLI—MIDWIFE TOTHE SECOND SWORD & SORCERY BOOM by Cora Buhlert, Illustratedby Chuah Shih Shin
FRESH BLOOD AND NEW THUNDER!BRINGING NEW READERS TO SWORD & SORCERY, WITH SOF MAGLIANO – OliverBrackenbury
REVIEW: WOMAN OF THEWOODS 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 byAldo Ojeda
FANG by Jacquie Kawaja, Illustrated byUrsa Doom (Björn Magnusson)
REVELSTOKE by GemmaFiles, Illustrated by Saprophial
A DEBT FORGOTTEN, A DEBT UNPAIDby Jeremy Pak Nelson, Illustrated by Damiano DiMarco
THE EYES OF THE DEMON by J.M. Clarke, Illustrated byMorgan King
WATER, WHICH LAUGHS AT ALL THINGSby T.K. Rex & L. Ann Kinyon, Illustrated byMagda Kulbicka
ATONEMENT FOR A RESURRECTED GODby David C. Smith, Illustrated bySimon Underwood
HOW MANY DEATHS TILL VENGEANCE?By June Orchid Parker, Illustrated byMatthew Spencer
NONFICTION
NEURODIVERGENCE IN SWORD &SORCERY by Jonathan Olfert, Illustrated by Remco Van Straten
SWORD & SOUL BROTHERS by MiltonJ. Davis, Illustrated by Chuah Shih Shin
SWORD & SILK: AN INTERVIEW WITHDARIEL QUIOGUE by Oliver Brackenbury
REVIEW: RETURN OF THESORCERESS BY SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA by Kris Vyas-Myal
Example illustrations for New Edge Magazine Vol I, Issue #2
