What is this lingering fear of insects, arachnids, arthropods, crustaceans and those that slither… is it a hangover from the survival battles in the savannah or does it go deeper and further back than that in our evolutionary heritage?

Unchallenged, the locusts, the maggots, the worms, the flies, the aphids and the termites may consume and destroy all that we have and hold dear.

Creeping Crawlers, as the title surely suggests, offers plenty of slithering, crawling horror, science fiction and fantasy stories by nineteen of today’s top authors.

Edited by Allen Ashley, it features tales by David Birch, Gary Budgen , Adrian Cole, Storm Constantine, Andrew Darlington, Pauline E. Dungate, Dennis Etchison, Edmund Glasby, John Grant, Terry Grimwood, Andrew Hook, Mark Howard Jones, Alan Knott, Robin Lupton, Ralph Robert Moore, Richard Mosses, Marion Pitman, David Rix and David Turnbull.

The collection is a new title from Shadow Publishing, publishers of anthologies and collections of horror and weird fiction. Included in the company’s line up are reprints and original material.

• Creeping Crawlers edited by Allen Ashley. ISBN 978-0-9572962-2-0. (Paperback 390 pages, £11.99)

• You can buy this anthology on its own, or for a short time, take advantage of a special offer, Creeping Crawlers plus Phantoms of Venice (limited edition hardcover) for £20 (discount of £12) from the publishers here

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek Magazine) and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War and “Dan Dare”. He’s the writer of "Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies" for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: Books, downthetubes News, Other Worlds

Tags: downthetubes News, Horror Stories, Shadow Publishing