Weird Tales' 85th Anniversary Makeover
Of all the panels at this past weekend's New York Comic Con, the most earnest and most historically fascinating was the Weird Tales discussion. Deep in the bowels of the Javits Convention Center, a motley crew of fans and curiosity seekers were privy to stories about the magazine's first eight decades. Armed with a slideshow of the best of those lurid, monster-filled covers featuring semi-nude women, editorial director Stephen H. Segal talked with insight about the magazine that launched the careers of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.
Weird Tales even was the first magazine to publish the fiction of Tennessee Williams, when Williams was just 17. "It was the first magazine devoted to fantasy, horror and science fiction. In fact, it was launched three years before the phrase 'science fiction' was even invented," said Segal.
