New Edge Sword & Sorcery magazine launched a crowdfunding campaign at the beginning of February and is already two-thirds of the way to its US $14,940 goal (Canadian $20,000) with 20 days to go.
The Toronto-based magazine will use the money to produce issues one and two of the magazine, to be published in the fall of 2023, according to an announcement sent to MetaStellar. Issue #0 was released in the fall of 2022.
The first issue will feature a brand new, original story by legendary author Michael Moorcock. He joins twenty other fiction and non-fiction authors, including Canadian horror master Gemma Files, Margaret Killjoy, David C. Smith, Hugo Award-winner Cora Buhlert, Milton Davis, and more. There will also be a tale by Jesús Montalvo, an author from the burgeoning sword and sorcery scene south of the US border, translated from its original Spanish.
The two issues will also feature works by nineteen artists, including Morgan King, who directed Lucy Lawless in his 2021 rotoscope-animated sword and sorcery film The Spine of Night. Samples of the various artists’ work are available on the Kickstarter campaign page, while also being shared across the magazine’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.
Each issue will feature seven original stories and four works of non-fiction: one book review, one essay, one in-depth interview, and one historical literary profile of figures like Charles Saunders or Cele Goldsmith. All stories, essays, and the profiles will be paired with at least one original black and white illustration.
At least one, because the Kickstarter’s stretch goals are focused on three things — enhancing the book, beginning by doubling the number of illustrations, making the book more affordable outside North America by discounting international shipping, and paying contributors as much as possible. Starting at semi-pro rates, the majority of the stretch goals are alternating pay raises for authors and artists.
The magazine’s editor, Oliver Brackenbury, promises the magazine is “Made with love for the classics and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling,” delivering high quality writing and art in a wide variety of styles. Sword and sorcery can be many things and still be sword and sorcery.
New Edge Sword & Sorcery will be available in digital, perfect bound softcover, and sewn-stitched hardcover formats. Interiors are printed on eighty firm, 100GSM cream paper pages sized at a spacious 8½ by 11 inches. Stretch goals also include bookmark ribbons and foil embossing for the hardcover editions.
Readers can try issue #0 for free in digital format, or buy it on Amazon in both hardcover and paperback formats.
If the Kickstarter succeeds, Brackenbury has plans for publishing further issues, themed special issues, and eventually expanding into books, with a line of anthologies and novellas.
First day backers will receive an exclusive bookmark featuring original art which will never be shared or used anywhere else.
MetaStellar editor and publisher Maria Korolov is a science fiction novelist, writing stories set in a future virtual world. And, during the day, she is an award-winning freelance technology journalist who covers artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise virtual reality. See her Amazon author page here and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and check out her latest videos on the Maria Korolov YouTube channel. Email her at [email protected]. She is also the editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business, one of the top global sites covering virtual reality.