PALE GREY IDOL (Issue Zero, 2026)

What have we here? Why, it's only a pocket-sized Canadian magazine of 'Strange and uncanny tales from the best contemporary writers of folk horror and weird fiction'! I received an unexpected copy of this through the old physical post from Michael Kelly, the editor. It's about 2/3 the size of ST, and contains five stories. Pocket-sized is literally true, which gives it an automatic thumbs up on the design front. The cover is pretty cool, too.

So, having scored highly on presentation, what of the content? Of the five stories here, there is not a single dud. Some impressed me more than others, but I doubt whether horror fans will have cause for complaint. Well, most of them. You know what people are. 

Or do you?

Because that's a recurring theme here. Not the only theme, but it seems to keep coming up. In the first story, 'Flume' by Seán Padraic Birnie, a boy resents taking his bratty little brother swimming at a leisure center in Hove. What could be more human than sibling rivalry, in or out of the pool. But the story takes a very odd and disturbing twist in the last few paragraphs. A good start, not least because the setting was so well depicted in a few deft strokes. 

'Stillness by Ben Tufnell' takes us to rural England and a poacher caught in a vicious mantrap. This is an atmospheric tale of a minor transgression punished by extreme ill fortune. Or is it? What emerges as the protagonist bleeds and suffers is something else. Certain inhabitants of the woods seem to take a dim view of rabbit snares. Some guardians of the land are worse than any gamekeeper.

We're in traditional ghost story country with K. Wallace King's 'Folly'. Indeed, this could have been a pastiche of some very familiar tropes. A person down on their luck is invited to an almost forgotten friend's place in the country. The folly of the title, seen from the guest's bedroom, is a very structure indeed, attracting even stranger... people? I liked this one, although I suspect the ending will leave some feeling cheated. I feel it was artistically right.

'The Philosopher's Skeleton' is perhaps the weirdest tale here. Using the viewpoint of a girl in a village school, Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece reveals a bizarre community in the grip of a strange cult. The philosopher of the title is due to return soon, when certain rituals are performed. But when a truck sheds its load of television sets in the village, the people get a glimpse of a world very different from their closed community. This is sharply surreal in places, and the school setting is slightly reminiscent of the more bonkers brand of Japanese horror movie. 

'The Heads' by Brian Evenson takes us to that interesting sub-genre, what might be termed visionary horror. A child is born with the ability to see the eponymous beings who are trying to push through into our reality. Fortunately, a doctor with the same ability helps the boy. The problem is that seeing Them means they see you, and they don't like being seen. Nicely crafted, this one.

'Floodlands' by Steve Toase takes us back to dear old Blightly and the rising waters of East Anglia. Here the theme is failure and sacrifice. Failure to hold back the sea, failure to maintain a heritage, and failure of the protagonist to stick with an onerous task. The sacrifice comes when the narrator returns to find an ancient trackway restored and ancient powers revived. But at what cost? 

This is a good debut, and I look forward to Issue One, due out in 2027. A small, unpretentious magazine that achieves a lot within its modest page count.