Eclecticism - Issue 13 July 2010

Editor	Craig Bezant
Publisher	Eclecticism
Length	107 pages
Country

Review

Okay so it's taken thirteen issues till I've become aware of Craig Bezant's magazine Eclecticism, either Craig isn't marketing to my end of the street or I've been missing the billboards. Either way no foul, I've finally stumbled across the publication and can get down and juicy with the issue. On the bright side of the operating table all previous issues are readily available for download, so you aren't going to be missing much. Let's kick off with Issue 13th that just so happens to be magazine's third anniversary addition and hence has a lot of extra meat on the bone.

Each issue of Eclecticism runs with a theme, you can no doubt look forward to a future issue's theme being titled “reviewers suck”, and this time round the word of the day is “superstitions”. So we get five prose pieces and a poem loosely constructed around that concept. But Editor Bezant isn't restricting himself to the theme alone, we also get non-theme stories from Shane Jiraiya Cummings and Martin Livings no less, as well as two additional poems. But wait that's not all! Also included, at no extra charge, which is good as the magazine is a free download, are two interviews (Scott Sigler and wee Stuart MacBride), and a featured artist, Vincent Chong. That's a hell of a lot of content to squeeze into a hundred odd pages, so you are getting a pretty feature rich experience here, as the software sales folk tend to put it.

It's just got to be said, Craig Bezant has gone bucked naked wild with the whole look of the issue and you are really in for a treat with this aspect. Besides some very welcome reproductions of Vincent Chong's work, dude has a bizarre frame of reference to say the least, each page of the magazine is presented in stunning colour with images that match the page content. So, for example, Martin Living's journey into psychotic crime noir is accompanied by a distorted city scape. It's a real treat to delve through the pages here, not only for the stories but also for the artwork. Not content with stunning us the whole visuals Editor Bezant has also hit one out of the ball park with his font selection. Now there's a sentence I never thought I would write. The visual aspects of Eclecticism - Issue 13 should appeal to even the most jaundice of pallets, and are a welcome break from black writing on white backgrounds that we are normally presented with. Mr Bezant should have a featured movie review of a classic horro fillum each issue, no idea where he could get that from. Butter wouldn't melt over here folks.

One interesting aspect to Eclecticism, that probably is going to be of little concern to most readers, is the author and artist bios appear at the front of the magazine rather than toward the back where we would traditionally expect to find them. While this is neither here nor there in terms of magazine enjoyment I found it an interesting approach and actually read the bios rather than skimming over them like I would normally do.

Guess I should talk about the actual stories before everyone gets bored and rushes off back to their own endeavours. When a magazine is bristling with names like Brett McBean, Martin Livings, Andrew J. McKiernan, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, et al, you know you are going to be in pretty good hands before you even read the first paragraph. Brett McBean kicks things off with The Scary Place, that not only shows his versatility as a writer but manages to incarnate a childhood terror in a tale that is devilishly clever. I first ran into A Picture of Death by Shane Jiraiya Cummings in the Deniz and Pillar anthology Voices. Once again the story is a feature of Eclecticism 13 and bares mentioning again. And finally Martin Livings rounded out my stand out story list with Downtown, a story so stepped in noir that it's soaking in it. I actually didn't find one weak link in the entire prose line up so dive on in the water is dark and murky and may harbour all sorts of things, just the way we like it.

As I've stated before I wouldn't know a decent poem if it leapt off the page and bit me on the arse so make up your own mind on the verse, it definitely doesn't fit into the teen angst category so there's an advantage.

If wondering about the magazine, and there's plenty to get through in it, then the best place to start is with Craig Bezant's editorial that pretty much covers what things are about in the third anniversary issue. Clearly the journey has been a wonderful experience for Bezant and it's sounding very positive that the journey just may not be over yet. Fingers crossed there for future Eclecticism goodness, now that I am aware of the publication it's certain going to have some space dedicated to it here at ScaryMinds.

This review is probably slightly disjointed and no doubt comes in sounding somewhat shaky. Having not read any of the previous twelve issues, something I'll be working to rectify over the next few months, I've got no basis for comparison. As it stands Issue 13 is a very solid piece of work that should keep most dark genre readers happily turning the pages through to the small hours. While I can't quite say there's something for everyone here, gorehounds for example are going to be disappointed, there's enough going down to entertain the vast majority of us.

With thirteen issues under the belt Craig Bezant still hasn't seen the need to include any advertising space. As stated in previous reviews I kind of like adverts in magazines as they ensure I'm aware of new releases, stuff that might interest dark genre fans, and generally allow me to find new places to click on the interweb. It also gives a magazine a cash flow that can be used to expand and include new content. Any number of publications have gone under previously due to the people in charge running out of steam and generally finding life interfering with the pursuit of the written word. Advertising isn't a bad thing, and if it means we are guaranteed more issues of Eclecticism then I'm all for it.

The other notable thing missing from the magazine is a letters to the Editor page. This could be due to Down Under dark genre fans sucking at the best of times in getting pen to paper and sending in their thoughts. I blame the internet to be honest, people are far to busy updating their facebook pages and twittering to realise no one is reading what they are writing and it's all just bland really. Rather than getting out there and promoting their stuff via avenues like Eclecticism, which has a core market readership, people are more interested in blogging for an audience of no one really. If you have a book coming out, a short in a publication, whatever, write into the magazines and let them know for gods sake! Something good just might happen. Oops, so no letters page then, putting away my soap box for today.

Okay so in the wash up I had a fantastic time with Eclecticism Issue 13 and read the magazine from cover to cover. There were some great prose pieces, the art was excellent, and the interviews were entertaining. I've downloaded the previous twelve issues and will get to them over the next few months. My advice is to check out Eclecticism, the magazine is just what you need to make you feel better.

Tell them the price Son! You may need to sit down for this one kids, Eclecticism is a free publication downloadable from the web! If you set your favourite browser to the Eclecticism homepage then you can get your paws on not only Issue 13, which rocks, but the previous twelve issues as well. For those not wanting to read electronic print, yes I know there's a number of you out there, drop your linen and start your grinning, Craig Bezant has your back covered with what must be an early Shadows 2011 entry An Eclectic Slice of Life. A sort of greatest hits of the first two years of Eclecticism with some added extras. The book is available for pre-order right about here. Think you are still eligible for free shipping and a cool free gift if you get your order in sooner rather than later.

Oops once again over the word limit and what are you doing still reading this stuff! Get thee to the magazine site and down load the bloody magazine toot sweet, you can thank me later.