Year's Best Horror Stories - the Series

[weirdmonger]

I was wondering how experts here rank this long series in USA. Equivalent of the British Pan Book of Horror??
I have a vested interest in this as I was in five of them.
But don't let that influence your answers.

[Johnlprobert]

Sorry Des but I have never read even a single volume in this series.

They weren't in high street shops when I was young, and I've never found one in a second hand shop now I'm older. I always much preferred the British anthologies when I was a kid anyway so I never felt it was any great loss.

[weirdmonger]

They had some wonderful covers and lasted from 1971 to 1994.
Sadly never regularly on sale in UK, though, as you intimate.

[carolinec]

I'm afraid I only have one of these - the special 20th issue from 1992 which I bought from you on eBay, Des. It's a fine volume with great stories by Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Joel Lane, Nicholas Royle, t. Winter-Damon, et al (and Des, of course!). I'll post the full contents later if you like - but in a bit of a hurry at the moment so can't do it now. I'm afraid I don't have a working scanner and the know-how to do a cover scan though.

I do recall hearing about this series previously, but I don't think I owned any until this one, so can't really comment on any others.

I do find the American settings of a few stories a bit off-putting. I always prefer stories with an English setting which I can relate to.

[weirdmonger]

Americans on another site have said:
=========

I have them all. I didn't care that much for the first one. The Page-edited ones weren't all that great, either. But once Wagner had his hands on the series it became an international treasure.

Alas.
===============
During modern horror's formative years (70's & 80's) it was the only year's best anthology. It was also the first annual anthology series, predating Shadows. Unlike Shadows it was a reprint series and gave U.S. readers access to hard to find British stories (for example, those appearing in Fantasy Tales). As such, in my opinion, it was seminal.


===========
i tend to prefer it over the pan books, but i also tend to think that their idea of 'best' isn't really the same as mine.
still, there's enough quality material in each one to rate buying and keeping.
===========

[andydecker]

I have the Wagner editions complete. The introductions to the stories were always excellent, and he had an eye for a good selection. Apart from the I guess important american writers - to sell it - he did a lot of rarer stuff, even stories reprinted from mags like Ghost&Scholors.

As far as the writer are concerned, he did most of the big guns who were in vogue at the time. King, Lumely, Lee, a lot of DAW writers.

And the coverart was great.

If there is interest, I could do post a list of contents.

[stephenbacon]

Andy, that would be great.

I have several of the editions, so it would be great to see which ones I'm missing.

[dem bones]

I've got sixteen of them and I'd say they've very little in common with the Pan's but plenty with what Steve Jones is doing with Best New Horror. The three Richard Davis numbers are probably my favourites in terms of content, but the Karl E. Wagner state-of-the-horror-nation introductions are unmissable. I like that he searched high and low for stories (he even includes a gem from an Outlaw Biker mag) and had a huge regard for the small presses, in particular Ghosts & Scholars (he supplied the intro to The Best Of Ghost & Scholars, making it even more enjoyable). Only thing I wasn't so keen on was Karl's perhaps understandable refusal to feature his own superb modern pulps.

I had no idea there were distribution problems. Most of mine seem to have come from Forbidden Planet who always stocked them in quantity.

Des, i'm sorry but I don't think i've any of the ones your work appears in so i'm guessing you were a regular toward the end of the series when i'd drifted out of horror for a vampire nightmare?

[weirdmonger]

Aug 25, 2008 7:29:10 GMT dem bones said:

Des, i'm sorry but I don't think i've any of the ones your work appears in so i'm guessing you were a regular toward the end of the series when i'd drifted out of horror for a vampire nightmare?

Yes, I was in the last five editions.
I think my stuff was the result of Karl unearthing obscure mags!

See: The Small Press Cover Ark:
vaultofevil.proboards75.com/index.cgi?board=indie&action=display&thread=672
des

[dem bones]

I stopped on YBH 17 by the looks of things. I've no idea why, as it was a stormer with great work from Harlan Ellison, Ian Watson, Greg Nicoll's Screaming Lord Sutch referencing Dead Air, Ramsey Campbell, Monteleone (Nobody's Perfect), Brian Lumley (Fruiting Bodies: diseased mushroom unpleasantness) to name but some - even RCH gets a look in (Regression).

[weirdmonger]

Aug 25, 2008 9:04:51 GMT dem bones said:

I stopped on YBH 17 by the looks of things.

You did that on purpose, Demonik! My first one was #18 !

This is my second one (#19):
vaultofevil.proboards75.com/index.cgi?board=davispagewagner&action=display&thread=863

[dem bones]

Aug 25, 2008 9:11:28 GMT weirdmonger said:

You did that on purpose, Demonik! My first one was #18 !

Yeah my built in 'monger detector told me - "don't buy it any more! Des will be in there from now on!"

Actually, of the series' I missed out on due to abandoning ship, it's Years Best Horrors I most regret not persevering with. Some volumes were more geared toward my own dubious taste than others, but KEW consistently came up with welcome surprises and turned me on to the likes of Philip C. Heath (Dead Man's Fingers), Leslie Halliwell, Al Sarrantonio's lovable Pumpkin Head, probably even Richard Laymon as I don't think I'd read him before The Grab. .

[andydecker]

Year´s Best Horror Stories Series VIII – July 1980

The first of the Wagner books.

Content:

Introduction: Access to Horror – Karl Edward Wagner

The Dead Line - Dennis Etchison
To Wake The Dead – Ramsey Campbell
In the Fourth Year of the War – Harlan Ellison
From the Lower Deep – Hugh B. Cave
The Baby-Sitter – Davis Grubb
The Well at the Half Cat – John Tibbetts
My Beautiful Darkling – Eddy C. Bertin
A Serious Call – George Hay
Sheets – Alan Ryan
Billy Wolfe´s Riding Spirit – Kevin A. Lyons
Lex Talonis – Russell Kirk
Entombed – Robert Keefe
A Fly One – Steve Sneyd
Needle Song – Charles L. Grant
All the Birds come Home to Roost – Harlan Ellison
The Devil behind you – Richard A. Moore

[weirdmonger]

Aug 25, 2008 16:28:06 GMT andydecker said:

A Fly One – Steve Sneyd

Thanks for putting up the contents of the first KE Wagner edition, Andy.
Steve Sneyd was (still is) the British Small Press icon.
des

[dem bones]

Thanks andy. Looking at the list and the ones we're missing/ have yet to put up are 4, 5, 18, 20, 21, 22.

The first three, edited by Richard Davis and first published in the UK by Sphere can be found HERE