Abomination Magazine #1
edited by Corey
J. Goldberg
April 2012
When I opened up the first issue of Abomination, I really
didn't know what lay in wait for me. I naturally assumed I would get
a few horror stories from an upstart magazine, a couple of which I
might actually like. Abomination surprised me.
Corey's introduction offers a sincere message from a guy who loves
horror enough to start another venue in which to showcase it, but he
makes it plain that it's not just some short stories he wants to
highlight. It seems poets and artists are welcome to the fold as
well.
Following the introduction is a remarkably good drawing entitled
"Bite," of a couple sitting on a bench, though the macabre
tone of the actual picture is less romantic and quaint that just
that. One of the things I like about illustrations like "Bite,"
as well as the three others included, is that they complement the
written word amplify the tone and timber of a book. What's more,
speaking of illustrations, this inaugural issue even included a short
story in the form of a comic strip. "The Power of Dreams"
by Michael Gedkowski was a Lovecraftian-inspired crime story with
graphics as rough as the subject matter.
What brought me to the dance is the stories, though.
William J. Fedigan's "Burning Like Dead Skin" was the first
short story and probably made it quite clear that Abomination
wasn't out to print pure pulp. The writing style had a kind of
staccato feel to it, told through the eyes of a couple very disturbed
criminals. It was a bit murky at first, but once I adjusted the style
it was a really good story.
"Selection" by W.B. Stickel was memorable, due in part to
its reminiscence to an old Twilight Zone episode I remember of
a Nazi soldier who learns what it's like to be a Jew under the thumb
of German tyrants. Where "Selection" stands apart is its
introduction, intriguing characters (especially the visitor named
Melaku), and the remorseless tone.
My favorite story would have to be Matthew S. Dent's "Whispers
in the Skin Garden." This one harkened back to some of those
wonderfully dark fusions of horror and sci-fi from years past.
Imagine endless fields of living skin, grown for the purposes of skin
grafts and the like in a not-so-distant future, then imagine the poor
bastards who have to tend those fields. The grim resignation of the
narrator really came through and evoked a lot of sympathy.
At face value, this first issue feels like a hodgepodge of horrors,
with its varying forms of storytelling. But if you're a person who is
open to dark fiction that comes in a myriad of forms, you may want to
keep an eye on this one. For a ragamuffin magazine, it shows a lot of
promise.
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