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Then, in the space of a month, no less than three articles on the splat pack appear in various places, and guess who's in all of the pictures. So why am I not going to give him more than a few paragraphs of mention? Because Mike, our beloved editor, told me two months ago that Schow wasn't a splatterpunk, that I didn't have to read The Kill Rife or mention him in this article. Schow has received a lot of accolades for his first novel, The Kill Riff, and his short story "Red Light," won the World Fantasy Award. A very specific talent, so far, but one worth watching.Īnother guy who shows up for all the splatterpunk photo sessions, and the one who seems to be its chief polemicist. I would especially like to see a novel from him, which would show whether he could work at longer length or not.

Still, above all I would like to see more of Matheson's work before making any critical judgment, as he has only produced the handful of works that are in Scars (and a few since) up till now (Matheson earns oodles of bucks working in television, so prose writing is more a matter of pleasure than necessity).

One is hard pressed to define Matheson's stories as splatterpunk, despite the fact that he shows up for all the photo sessions and is mentioned in all the critical works. And like Tem's work, Matheson almost never seems to engage me on anything other than a strictly intellectual level. His work strikes me the same way that Steve Rasnic Tem's does: I like some of it, dislike other parts, but I'm not sure exactly why. Unfortunately, Matheson's compact, condensed visions of hell work very much on a hit or miss basis with each individual reader. Other good tales include "Conversation Piece," "Red," "Graduation" and "Goosebumps" - each a brief, well-told story. An excellent psychological tale that comes off like a cross between Roald Dahl and Ray Bradbury. Another good tale is "Dust," an excellent story about an insane man fighting what he believes is sentient dust impinging on his isolated existence. A taut, gripping story with a truly grotesque twist ending. It tells the tale of a strong willed man who wakes up inside a buried coffin, then determinedly fights his way out to the surface ‹ only to find a horrible truth awaiting him up top. Oddly, it his collaboration with his father, "Where There's a Will," that is his best and most splatterpunk-like story. Matheson's specialty is turning out tight, condensed, extremely short-short stories, most of which have been collected in Scars.ĭisplaying almost all of his best work, Scars is a good (though not great) collection, and shows up his form quite well. The son of famous horror writer Richard Matheson, R.C. (Text originally published in Nova Express, Volume 4 Issue 1, Summer 1988)Īnother person whose name shows up whenever the word "splatterpunk" is mentioned is Richard Christian Matheson. PART EIGHT: The Faces of the New Flesh - Richard Christian Matheson, David J.