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Hellebore Zine
Series · 7 books · 2019-2022

Books in series

Hellebore #1 book cover
#1

Hellebore #1

The Sacrifice Issue

2019

Hellebore is a poisonous plant that has the power of altering perception, and it's thought to be one of the main ingredients for the witches' flying ointment. Associated with the water element, it is known for opening up portals to the Underworld and the subconscious. Hellebore is a collection of writings and essays devoted to British folk horror and the themes that inspire it: folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, witches & the occult. The Sacrifice issue examines the role of human sacrifice in folk horror. From The Wicker Man to Blood on Satan's Claw. Delve into a world of witchcraft, megalithic monuments, and pagan survivals in hidden rural areas. Featuring words by Ronald Hutton, Katy Soar, Verity Holloway, David Southwell (Hookland), Dee Dee Chainey, Mercedes Miller, John Reppion, and Maria J. Pérez Cuervo. Artwork by Paul Watson and Eli John.
Hellebore #2 book cover
#2

Hellebore #2

The Wild Gods Issue

2020

The notion of paganism as a wild and primitive force has exerted a huge influence on folk horror. In fiction, pagan rituals are often seen as primitive and barbarous, but also as an antidote to repression and conventionalism. What have these Wild Gods represented, and what do they represent now? How did these ideas find their way into modern Britain? From the cult of Pan in Edwardian England to 1970s Satanists, from Bacchanals in Buckinghamshire to the echo of voodoo drums in Cornwall, from ritual madness to sex magick. Amidst the idyllic English countryside, the Wild Gods awaken to threaten everything that is respectable. Featuring words by Alan Moore, Katy Soar, Melissa Edmundson, Ruth Heholt, John Reppion, Anna Milon, and K. A. Laity. Artwork by Occult Party, Joe Gough, and Richard Wells.
Hellebore #3 book cover
#3

Hellebore #3

The Malefice Issue

2020

Curses and hexes are a recurring trope in folk horror and occult fiction. They’re active forces, invisible and unstoppable, disrupting the social order and threatening the Establishment. In The Malefice Issue we explore the complex relationships of witchcraft and magic with structures of power, and analyse the fear of malefice throughout history. Where do we place the Other, and why do we dread it? Does it wander the untamed landscapes of the north? Is it hidden in the green meadows of the English Arcadia? Does it live within the walls of a respectable institution? Or has it travelled from a faraway land? Power and fear, subversion and repression, exclusion and belonging. The third issue of Hellebore is a history of our anxieties, because, as Shirley Jackson said, “to learn what we fear is to learn who we are”. Featuring words by Catherine Spooner, Rebecca Baumann, Verity Holloway, Thomas Waters, Catherine Winter-Hébert and Finn Robinson, Thérèse Taylor, Maria J. Pérez Cuervo, and Colin J. McCracken. Artwork by Paul Watson, Nell Latimer, and Nathaniel Winter-Hébert.
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#4

Hellebore #4

The Yuletide Special

2020

Midwinter. The shortest day, the symbolic death and rebirth of the Sun. It is a time of darkness, but also of hope and celebration. For this Midwinter special we’ve gathered stories to help us through the darkest months: ancient legends that may still be re-enacted, accounts from a frozen past, tales of ghosts and revenants and witches and warlocks, stories that bring chills into our living rooms. In this issue, sinister rituals unfold during the longest nights of the year, spirits drift through the icy landscapes of the Arctic, and churches are never safe havens. Gather around the fire. Let’s gaze at the shadows lurking beyond the Christmas lights. Featuring words by Katy Soar, Jackie Bates, John Callow, Verity Holloway, John Reppion, Shane McCorristine, Roger Clarke, and Elizabeth Dearnley. Artwork by Blood and Dust, Eli John, and Nathaniel Winter-Hébert.
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#5

Hellebore #5

The Unearthing Issue

2021

For the ancients, the subterranean world was the realm of the dead; in the Medieval era it became the abode of demons. With earth we cover our dead. Embedded in our psyche is the idea that what has been buried ought not to return—at least not to this world. From M.R. James’s Templar whistle sticking out of the sands of an East Anglian beach to the demonic skull emerging from the mud in The Blood on Satan’s Claw, the act of unearthing in folk horror always brings back something long-forgotten, threatening, and uncanny. In The Unearthing Issue we look at these stories to examine what once was buried and analyse the consequences of its disinterment. The re-emergence of cursed objects, human remains, and Martian spaceships threatens us with the repetition of past traumas and forgotten histories. But if the earth often acts as a repository of our darkest truths, the act of unearthing forces us to confront them. In spite of fears and tribulations, only by learning about our past will we stand the chance of breaking the cycle. Hellebore is a collection of writings and essays devoted to folk horror and the themes that inspire it: folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, and the occult. Featuring words by Gabriel Moshenska, Katy Soar, David Evans-Powell, Peter Hewitt, Jonah Locksley, Kenneth Brophy, Aleco Julius, Amara Thornton and Subhadra Das. Artwork by Courtney Brooke (Lightwitch), Isa Bancewicz, and Nathaniel Winter-Hébert.
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#6

Hellebore #6

The Summoning Issue

2021

From the Witch of Endor to Aleister Crowley, from the Satanic feminism of the suffragette era through to the current occult revival, The Summoning Issue delves into the history of witchcraft, magic, and the occult to analyse the impulses behind acts of conjuration: the thirst for forbidden knowledge, the pursuit of liberation, and the desire for wealth, status, and fame. Spirits or deities, angels or demons. The calling of a supernatural agent may bring power, but also comes with many risks. In these pages, games of cards usher in cloven-footed strangers, runic inscriptions conjure up demons, a communal warning is uttered every Bonfire Night, and the pagan dead rise from ancient barrows. Hellebore is a collection of writings and essays devoted to folk horror and the themes that inspire it: folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, and the occult. Featuring words by Christine Ferguson, Victoria Anne Pearson, Per Faxneld, Efram Sera-Shriar, John Reppion, Katherine Weikert, Verity Holloway, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, and Francis Young. Artwork by Courtney Brooke (Lightwitch), Ellen Rogers, and Nathaniel Winter-Hébert.
Hellebore #7 book cover
#7

Hellebore #7

The Ritual Issue

2022

Mummers with ill intentions, sacrificial May Queens, ecstatic trances. Folk horror is consistently fascinated by the power of ritual. In this issue we question the subgenre’s distrust of communal expression while we celebrate communities and their power to re-enchant. We travel through the isles following parades of ancient antlers, clashing swords, and spectral skeleton horses, and look at an ever-evolving body of folklore in order to reflect on our history and our future. This is our Beltane offering: folklore, magic, togetherness, and re-enchantment. HELLEBORE is a collection of writings and essays devoted to folk horror and the themes that inspire it: folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, and the occult. Featuring words by Francis Young, Catherine Spooner, Victoria Anne Pearson, Maria J. Pérez Cuervo, Clare Button, Hannah Armstrong, Aleco Julius, and Angeline Morrison. Artwork by Nona Limmen, Richard Wells, and Nathaniel Hébert. Edited by Maria J. Pérez Cuervo.

Authors

John Callow
Author · 4 books
John Callow gained a First Class BA Honours degree from Lancaster University, an MA with distinction from Durham. and holds a Doctorate from Lancaster University, that was funded by the British Academy.
Kenneth Brophy
Author · 1 books
Dr. Kenneth Brophy is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Glasgow. His specialisms are the British Neolithic and early Bronze Age, and over the past two decades he has excavated a range of prehistoric monuments and cropmark sites across Scotland including ceremonial enclosures, timber halls and stone rows. He is the author of Reading between the lines: the Neolithic cursus monuments of Scotland (2015).
John Reppion
John Reppion
Author · 12 books

JOHN REPPION is an author, Fortean essayist, and Weird Fiction writer, born in Liverpool in 1978. He has written articles for the likes of Fortean Times, Strange Attractor Journal, Darklore, and Paranormal Magazine, and is a contributing editor for The Daily Grail online. In 2008 The History Press published 800 Years of Haunted Liverpool - John's weird history/paranormal guidebook to the city. His fiction has been published in anthologies from Combustion Books, Ghostwoods Books, PS Publishing, Snowbooks, Swan River Press, and Vagrants Among Ruins. He and his wife, Leah Moore, have been scripting comics together since 2003, writing for the likes of 2000 AD, Channel 4 Education, Dark Horse, DC Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Electricomics, IDW, and Self Made Hero. They have written established characters such as Doctor Who (The Whispering Gallery, 2008 with Ben Templesmith) and Sherlock Holmes (The Trial of Sherlock Holmes, 2009 with Aaron Campbell, and The Liverpool Demon, 2012 with Matt Triano), as well as creating their own including Brit-Cit Psi Division, Judge Lillian Storm (Storm Warning, 2015 with Tom Foster). Together they have faithfully adapted notable works by Lewis Carroll (The Complete Alice, 2010), H. P. Lovecraft (The Shadow Over Innsmouth, 2012), Bram Stoker (The Complete Dracula, 2009), and M. R. James (Ghost Stories of an Antiquary Vol 1, 2016) into comics and graphic novels.

Per Faxneld
Per Faxneld
Author · 5 books

Per Faxneld is Swedish Historian of Religion he holds a ph.d. in History of Religions (obtained in 2014). his field of specialisation is Western esotericism, new religions and "alternative spirituality" (e.g. Satanism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, New Age, the sacralization of physical excercise, etc), with a particular emphasis on how they are formed in tandem with processes of modernization (especially secularization). he has also worked from a sociological perspective with questions pertainng to strategies of legitimation, religious authority and identity formation. Other interests include religion and popular culture (reflection my background in cinema studies), folk religion (e.g. editing a critical edition of a folkloristic classic), gender issues, globalization and religion and violence. A key theme in his research is the relation between Western esotericism and art/literature. My doctoral dissertation (Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture, awarded the Donner Institute Prize for Eminent Research on Religion, and later re-published by Oxford University Press) adresses how anti-clerical feminists – primarily during the time period 1880–1930 – used Satan as a symbol of rejecting the patriarchal traits of Christianity. I emphasized how these women were inspired by the period's most influential new religion, Theosophy, and how the anti-religious discourses of secularism impacted feminism.

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