Electronic Version of Collapse IV Now Available

Urbanomic's scholarly and strange journal "Collapse" now has its fourth volume available as a free download. The "Collapse IV: Concept Horror" journal--a two hundred page plus work that might better be described as a book--notably contains a piece by Thomas Ligotti previewing his upcoming book, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Besides Ligotti, the journal features contributors and content from a host of names familiar to the realm of weird fiction: H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, China Mieville, and Michael Houellebecq.

This is a fat collection of articles all focused on concept horror, an array of ultra-intelligent scholarship bobbing between weird fiction and pure philosophy that cannot be missed by genre aficionados. The articles are interspersed with macabre illustrations and some grisly photographs that only enhance the power of the words. The "Dead Monkeys" photo set appearing next to Thomas Ligotti's words is especially unsettling--and appropriate.

Download the PDF file from this Urbanomic page. Though I lack the background to judge how Urbanomic's publication measures up to other philosophical journals, they have indeed issued a high quality product here. In the realm of horror studies, at least, "Collapse IV" can almost perch above prestigious past publications of weird scholarship like "Studies in Weird Fiction" in terms of sheer quality.

-Grim Blogger