Stygian Articles
$5 from
Jeremy E Johnson, Editor
3201 Sun Lake Drive
St Charles MO 63301

This magazine is noted as enjoying its first anniversary with this issue and it is a strong contender to survive if anything is fair in small publishing. (Not that it is.) Although there is no real editorial focus, it is obvious that the writer is treated with respect within its pages.

The stories tend to be very short (one longer one was serialized and carried over to the next issue) and solidly written at "almost ready for primetime level" that individual stories sometime exceed and sometime fall short. Steve Eller and Charlee Jacob offer fine examples of more polished work. Surrealistic pieces by D. F. Lewis, A. J. Barlow and Tim Curran also hold one' s attention fairly well. Jennifer B. Crow's dark fantasy piece is not extraordinary, but she captures the reader with good characterization. Only the first part of Douglass Hewitt's "Pain Control" is in this issue. He takes an interesting premise, but rushes a bit too quickly through the plot with an extremely malleable lead character.

B. Z. Nidritch's poetry is particularly noteworthy.

The magazine itself looks simple and attractive and is well copy-edited. Jon Eilers truly wraparound cover outside and inside is fascinating.

A great place for emerging writers to be treated with respect. For readers it's an entertaining and enjoyable read.

Copyright © 1996 by Paula Guran. All Rights Reserved.