Welcome to issue 114!

Sometime in early December, I’ll have to make a decision about the future of the print edition of Apex Magazine. Personally, I love doing them. They’re beautiful books to behold thanks to the hard work of Lesley Conner, Justin Stewart, and the artists we feature on each cover. The interior pages are filled with all the great fiction, interviews, and nonfiction that you’ve come to expect from Apex Magazine. It’s a product I’m proud of.

Back in October, 2017, when I decided to launch the print edition, I expected that it would either fade away in disinterest or skyrocket and become the Next Big Thing. Neither of these have happened. There is a small, but dedicated, base of fans who love the paper version, yet, sales are barely above the break-even line.

This puts me in a hard place. Is loving the work and creating a beautiful product enough? I want to say yes, but the reality is it has to financially sustain itself. At the moment, we’re at place where if interest wanes, even a little, then the print edition isn’t doing that. That’s really disheartening because I don’t want to disappoint those of you who love the print edition so much. A few more print subscribers and then the right choice and my decision would be clear. 

If you would like to see the print edition of Apex Magazine continue, now is the time to act. You can back us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/apexmagazine) or sign up via our website (https://www.apexbookcompany.com/collections/apex-magazine-all/products/apex-magazine-print-subscription). 

If you want it, we’ll provide it. Simple as that!

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This month we celebrate the return of a dark fantasy and horror legend: Gary A. Braunbeck. Gary’s story, “Godzilla vs. Buster Keaton or: I Didn’t Even Need a Map,” is our Patreon financed novelette. You might need your Kleenex while reading this emotionally stirring story. In “Master Brahms” by Storm Humbert, the author tackles the concept of identity in new ways by employing an old trick. Finally, Sabrina Vourvoulias has written a fast-paced and moving heroic story about a word witch using her powers for Good in “Toward a new lexicon of augury.”

“Because it all starts with words, don’t you know? And ends that way, too.”

Indeed, Sabrina.

Gary Kloster returns to our pages for the first time in several years with his reprint “Riding the Signal.” Paul Jessup writes about the infamous Slender Man crimes in “Boy A, Girl A, Slender Man: How Some Children Played at Slaughtering.” Andrea Johnson interviews Storm Humbert and Russell Dickerson interviews cover artist Godwin Akpan.

I hope you enjoy issue 114!