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Outpost 28, Issue #1
Outpost 28 is a collection of dark short stories inspired by the old pulp magazines from the 60s and 70s. Some of my favorites that influenced this project include Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, and Astounding Science Fiction. Outpost 28 strives to carry on this tradition of collaborative writing and artwork. We hope you enjoy the stories, artwork, and interviews in this first issue and many more issues to come. By the way, Outpost 28 is an ol' fashioned, rootin' tootin' book with real paper pages that you turn with your fingers.
Issue #1 features ghoulish stories by Jake Bauer, S.C. Megale, Dean Kuhta, and Ayesha Ahmad as well as artwork by professional artists like Andy Fairhurst, Michael Brack, Socar Myles, Benjiman Jungbluth, and Rachael Alexandra. In addition, there are two interviews in this issue that feature Jason Walton from the band Agalloch and an interview with Tim Cretella from Doppio Music. Order your copy of issue #1 today to enjoy bizarre worlds filled with monsters, ghosts, and the undead!
Outpost 28, Issue #1 is only available here: http://www.deankuhta.com/outpost28.php
Issue #1 features ghoulish stories by Jake Bauer, S.C. Megale, Dean Kuhta, and Ayesha Ahmad as well as artwork by professional artists like Andy Fairhurst, Michael Brack, Socar Myles, Benjiman Jungbluth, and Rachael Alexandra. In addition, there are two interviews in this issue that feature Jason Walton from the band Agalloch and an interview with Tim Cretella from Doppio Music. Order your copy of issue #1 today to enjoy bizarre worlds filled with monsters, ghosts, and the undead!
Outpost 28, Issue #1 is only available here: http://www.deankuhta.com/outpost28.php
85 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2013
4 people want to read
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December 29, 2017
Issue #1 of Outpost 28 is a beautiful book. The front cover has all the grainy gumption of the bizarro pulps of the Lovecraftian era by which it was inspired, and the illustrations by the featured artists (Dean Kuhta, Andy Fairhurst, Michael Brack, Socar Myles, & Ben Jungbluth) are lovely in the most visceral and dread-inspiring ways.
The opening story, "The Thin in the Cellar," by Jake Bauer, is a textbook Lovecraft homage, from the narrative voice, to the atmosphere, to the other worldly humanoid-insect-god-coming-for-puny-human plot. The story progresses in a well-paced arc, and the protagonist's exodus from the "nice white Cape" to the open road feels increasingly claustrophobic in that the thing from the cellar seems to be everywhere at once, and gaining.
In the vein of Lovecraft's lofty takes on earth-crushingly powerful elder gods and the paralysis of existential dread, S.C. Megale's short story, "Allfather," tackles pretty ambitious subject matter: who is God and why has he seemingly forsaken his people? Stopped in his tracks, literally, by a young female archer, after which he is able to remember his true identity, God accepts both the suffering and the prayers of his followers. The prose is beautiful, but in a choppy, nontraditional way that is just offbeat enough for a story in which God can be taken prisoner for refusing to convert to his captor's religion. An unexpected direction after "The Thing in the Cellar" but a satisfying one.
An interesting little zombie/post-apocalyptic tale; one woman has the power to command the undead. They help her to stay alive, but she helps them—taking thoughts and feelings from them, from the before—too. I was curious as to where the woman got her ability, and will look forward to Ahmed's story in Outpost 28 Issue #2.
I love me a haunted train story, and Belinda Miller's was indeed haunted...and haunting. The image of Mildred in the window of the train—an elegantly dressed woman in a lavender dress and a diamond brooch with pale rose lipstick and violet eyes lined in smokey gray—is one that lingered after the final pages of the story.
A perfect title for this Gothic ghost story, "Little Lonely Girl" follows the immediate aftermath of a young violinist killed in a car crash on her way home from a recital. Kuhta's descriptions of the dust-entombed mausoleum, and the creepy, blinking book that Abigail shares her crypt with, are vivid and lyrical, and the artwork created by Michael Brack to go with the story is hypnotic. The story leaves the reader to imagine their own conclusion for little, lonely Abigail, but the sadness felt for the (breathing?) dead girl (her mother materializes and then is snatched away from her) is as unambiguous as the starkly enchanting prose. A fine and ghostly tale!
In a world no longer able to support the human race, since medicinal science has progressed to the point where the lifespan of humans is infinite, one man works as the purveyor of assisted suicide. The poison? A syringe of death administered on the count of eleven. This is a fast-paced dystopian piece with an unexpected twist at its climax. A great closer for Outpost 28 Issue #1's fiction!
The remainder of this magazine is made up a short but savory poem by Rachel Alexandra, interviews with both Doppio Music and Jason Walton, conducted by Dean Kuhta, and an interview of Dean Kuhta himself, conducted by Michelle Souliere, in which I learned that Dean's literary influences include Lovecraft (of course :), Tolkien, Clive Barker, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells, and the piece of his art that generates the most dramatic responses is "She Was Swathed in Sorrow," neither fact of which surprised me!
The opening story, "The Thin in the Cellar," by Jake Bauer, is a textbook Lovecraft homage, from the narrative voice, to the atmosphere, to the other worldly humanoid-insect-god-coming-for-puny-human plot. The story progresses in a well-paced arc, and the protagonist's exodus from the "nice white Cape" to the open road feels increasingly claustrophobic in that the thing from the cellar seems to be everywhere at once, and gaining.
In the vein of Lovecraft's lofty takes on earth-crushingly powerful elder gods and the paralysis of existential dread, S.C. Megale's short story, "Allfather," tackles pretty ambitious subject matter: who is God and why has he seemingly forsaken his people? Stopped in his tracks, literally, by a young female archer, after which he is able to remember his true identity, God accepts both the suffering and the prayers of his followers. The prose is beautiful, but in a choppy, nontraditional way that is just offbeat enough for a story in which God can be taken prisoner for refusing to convert to his captor's religion. An unexpected direction after "The Thing in the Cellar" but a satisfying one.
An interesting little zombie/post-apocalyptic tale; one woman has the power to command the undead. They help her to stay alive, but she helps them—taking thoughts and feelings from them, from the before—too. I was curious as to where the woman got her ability, and will look forward to Ahmed's story in Outpost 28 Issue #2.
I love me a haunted train story, and Belinda Miller's was indeed haunted...and haunting. The image of Mildred in the window of the train—an elegantly dressed woman in a lavender dress and a diamond brooch with pale rose lipstick and violet eyes lined in smokey gray—is one that lingered after the final pages of the story.
A perfect title for this Gothic ghost story, "Little Lonely Girl" follows the immediate aftermath of a young violinist killed in a car crash on her way home from a recital. Kuhta's descriptions of the dust-entombed mausoleum, and the creepy, blinking book that Abigail shares her crypt with, are vivid and lyrical, and the artwork created by Michael Brack to go with the story is hypnotic. The story leaves the reader to imagine their own conclusion for little, lonely Abigail, but the sadness felt for the (breathing?) dead girl (her mother materializes and then is snatched away from her) is as unambiguous as the starkly enchanting prose. A fine and ghostly tale!
In a world no longer able to support the human race, since medicinal science has progressed to the point where the lifespan of humans is infinite, one man works as the purveyor of assisted suicide. The poison? A syringe of death administered on the count of eleven. This is a fast-paced dystopian piece with an unexpected twist at its climax. A great closer for Outpost 28 Issue #1's fiction!
The remainder of this magazine is made up a short but savory poem by Rachel Alexandra, interviews with both Doppio Music and Jason Walton, conducted by Dean Kuhta, and an interview of Dean Kuhta himself, conducted by Michelle Souliere, in which I learned that Dean's literary influences include Lovecraft (of course :), Tolkien, Clive Barker, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells, and the piece of his art that generates the most dramatic responses is "She Was Swathed in Sorrow," neither fact of which surprised me!
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