Monthly Archives: February 2015

Ken Asamatsu

AsamatsuBorn in 1956 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Graduated Toyo University to work at Kokusho Kankokai, famous in Japan as the publisher of Lovecraft and many other works of horror and fantasy. Debut work as an author was Makyo no Gen’ei (Echoes of Ancient Cults), in 1986. He continues to be active in a wide range of activities, including writing extensively in the weird historical and horror genres. While remaining extremely interested in the Cthulhu Mythos, lately he has been concentrating on weird historicals set in the Muromachi period (1333-1573).

In 2005 was a candidate for the annual award of the Mystery Writers of Japan, Inc. in the short story genre, for his Higashiyamadono Oniwa (Higashiyamadono Villa Garden).

He has also made considerable contribution to Japanese fiction as an anthologist, proposing a number of collections successfully published in Japan. The Lairs of the Hidden Gods, which won high praise in the original Japanese, is now available from Kurodahan Press.

His website is http://homepage3.nifty.com/uncle-dagon/

 

Pierre V. Comtois

Pierre V. Comtois is a newspaper reporter writing from Lowell, MA who has been editing and publishing Fungi, the Magazine of Fantasy and Weird Fiction intermittently since 1984. Comtois’ latest book, Marvel Comics in the 1980s: An Issue by Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenon, was published in 2015 by Twomorrows Pubs. Two earlier volumes, Marvel Comics in the 1960s and 1970s, appeared in 2009 and 2011. In addition, Comtois has contributed fiction to many small press magazines over the years including Haunts, The Horror Show, Thrilling Tales, various magazines for Cryptic Publications and Rainfall Books, and e magazines Planetary Stories and Liberty Island Magazine and currently is a regular columnist for PJMedia.com. Comtois’ fiction has also appeared in such collections as Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak: Supernatural Sleuth, Eldritch Blue, and Chaosium Books anthologies. The author has also written a number of books including novels such as Strange Company and Sometimes a Warm Rain Falls; non-fiction such as Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor; and short story collections such as The Way the Future Was, The Portable Pierre V. Comtois, and the forthcoming Goat Mother and Others from Mythos Books. Comtois has also found the time to contribute non-fiction articles to such magazines as World War II, America’s Civil War, Wild West, and Military History, many of which were collected in 2011 in Real Heroes, Real Battles, a book published by Sons of Liberty Press. Also from Sons of Liberty is River Muse: Stories of Lowell and the Merrimack Valley, to which Comtois has contributed a personal recollection entitled “I Was a Teenaged Bibliophile.” For more information about the author, visit www.pierrevcomtois.com