Midnight Graffiti

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Like many early/mid 90’s anthologies (see ‘Shock Rock’, ‘Prime Evil’, and ‘Night Screams’ from my small sample alone), the ever-present Stephen King has a seldom-published contribution in ‘Midnight Graffiti’, and editors Jessica Horsting and James Van Hise unwisely decide to shoot their wad immediately out of the starting gate by opening it up with “Rainy Season”. Granted, “Rant” has lost some of its luster of the years, probably because I’ve seen it reprinted in at least three other volumes (including the lackluster “Splatterpunks II”, which in terms of sequels, goes over about as well as Gremlins 2). Or Dan Simmons' "The River Styx Runs Upstream," a story of resurrection -- with a ghastly difference. Here it was, tangible proof that not only do I kick ass, but have been kicking ass since back in ‘the day’.

Several were interesting in portraying the point of view of part of society: Rainy Season, Say Hello Mister Quigley, Emerald City Blues, Rant. I hunkered down in the uncomfortable confines of the stairwell in my usual train-car to distance myself from the bustling cretins of the world and whipped the relic known as ‘Midnight Graffiti’ out. W. JETER, and JOHN SHIRLEY all bring you original tales from the farthest corners of the imagination that until now could only be found in the horror-haunted pages of . Lamont's "Sinus Fiction" was evocative of Simmons's 1990 science fiction masterpiece Hyperion - almost difficult to picture in its stark originality.I would prefer to be almost entirely unaware of the editor's existence, and allow their selections to speak for themselves.

I briefly perused my anthologies one morning after making the decision to start re-reading these oft-ignored volumes, and immediately knew which one I would kick this endeavor off with: ‘Midnight Graffiti’, the perfect choice for a lifelong poseur and elitist prick. It turns out that the cover illustration is actually by some total fraud named Martin Cannon, just some unfortunate slob without an original style of his own, proving he’s capable of producing something as derivative as possible of the style of Giger, sans talent.The final story, "Dark Embrace," comes from (mercifully silent) co-editor James Van Hise and is an adroit, if somewhat predictable, story of a boy who is forced to mature with cruel haste. NANCY COLLINS demystifies the messiah reborn, an avenging angel of the suburbs with a strange and savage appetite. This was perhaps the first thing I noticed as I sat down to read the book, and this wasn’t very promising. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I especially love horror in short story form, so I was delighted to find a new collection - and thrilled to find it so gratifying.