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Test Patterns: Creature Features
You've awakened from a night of strange dreams emanating from the TV's test pattern, but now things are taking a more monstrous turn. Here are 29 original tales from established weavers of weird tales, and several new voices of horror, introducing strange new beings and otherworldly scenarios. So turn on, tune in, and hold on tight!
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
358 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2018
20 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Duane Pesice
24 books98 followersDuane is the author of a small army of stories under a slew of pseudonyms. Under his own byline he has published pieces in a number of of hitherto-unrelated places. He writes weird fiction and baseball articles and has a book available.
Duane also records under the band name "moderan", and is indebted to the late David R. Bunch for the use of that name and concept.
He lives in southern Arizona with his guitars, books, and cats.
Duane also records under the band name "moderan", and is indebted to the late David R. Bunch for the use of that name and concept.
He lives in southern Arizona with his guitars, books, and cats.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 31, 2018
Well, I edited the thing and think highly of it *laughs*
October 31, 2018
Really surprising little anthology of monster stories
This was actually a pretty snarky little book that made you look at some of the old stories from a new angle. It also made you think of some new things too, and overall I really liked this book. It made me feel like I was at the drive-in again.
This was actually a pretty snarky little book that made you look at some of the old stories from a new angle. It also made you think of some new things too, and overall I really liked this book. It made me feel like I was at the drive-in again.
July 1, 2021
Quite bizarre but honestly I loved it. I mean....it really is for a particular taste but I was all for it once I was able to get into the stories. I recommend it.
March 23, 2025
I believe this is the last of Planet X publications books on my shelf to read, and may in fact be the last one of their physical books put out period that I hadn't read. I'm pleased to say that it can end on a high note.
The presentation, the blurb, even the title of 'Creature Features' might make one believe they're in for a collection of monster tales of various but semi-traditional kinds. There is maybe one werewolf story, a few Frankenstein's Monster/created adjacent stories, but by and large these are truly tales of 'creatures': monsters, aliens, gods that defy ready classification.
It gets off to a bit of a rocky start, the first couple of stories were a little rough. But by the time we hit Cody Goodfellow's weird western, 'The Greedy Grave' the collection fully hits it stride as weird fiction for weird times, with unnameable creatures. Other entries like Farah Rose Smith's 'In The Room of Red Night' play in genre bending spaces more akin to William Hope Hodgson's The Night Lands. Kurt Fawver's 'Extinction in Green' is a fantastic epistolary piece, and Natasha Bennett's 'Underground Rose' is a surprisingly sweet story about finding acceptance in a small town. Orrin Grey, ever the master of monsters, is of course present with a story that could easily by an X-File, 'The Pepys Lake Monster.'
Some of these really stretch beyond the genre and simply frame much more real world and psychological terrors within a 'horror story.' Erica Ruppert's 'Pretty In The Dark' doesn't ever let us know if something truly supernatural has occurred, but we can all sit with the shared horrors of loneliness, of places and memories that have the world has moved on from and abandoned, of lost youth. Robert Guffey's 'The Eye Doctor' can be read as a terrifying and action packed otherworldly adventure, but the fear of a child that thinks its been abandoned by its parents, that they cannot help it, and are in fact fallible human beings is something far more relatable and likely to hit home. James Fallweather also deals with childhood traumas and the scars war leaves on the families of those hurt or left behind in "A Little House In The Suburbs." "Aphantasia" by Robert S. Wilson again has some superlative monster fighting action, but underlying that are some really poignant ideas about love beyond and not including the physical or sexual, and the transcendence of being seen for what we are rather than what others would want us to be. And in James Russell's 'Spirit of the Place' we get some very straightforward commentary on the consequences of colonialism.
John Paul Fitch's 'Signals', S.L. Edwards 'With All Her Troubles Behind Her', John Linwood Grant's '/For Whom There is no Journey', 'Mrs. Doogan' by Lana Cooper, and Aaron J. French's 'Chosen' are all super fun, action heavy, stories ranging across subgenres.
We also have some humor mixed in, with Buzz Dixon's 'The Bride of the Astounding Gigantic Monster' and the very self aware 'Bride of Castle Frankenstein' by Jill Hand as well as the Outer Limits or Twilight zone-esque 'Normal' by John Claude Smith.
The presentation, the blurb, even the title of 'Creature Features' might make one believe they're in for a collection of monster tales of various but semi-traditional kinds. There is maybe one werewolf story, a few Frankenstein's Monster/created adjacent stories, but by and large these are truly tales of 'creatures': monsters, aliens, gods that defy ready classification.
It gets off to a bit of a rocky start, the first couple of stories were a little rough. But by the time we hit Cody Goodfellow's weird western, 'The Greedy Grave' the collection fully hits it stride as weird fiction for weird times, with unnameable creatures. Other entries like Farah Rose Smith's 'In The Room of Red Night' play in genre bending spaces more akin to William Hope Hodgson's The Night Lands. Kurt Fawver's 'Extinction in Green' is a fantastic epistolary piece, and Natasha Bennett's 'Underground Rose' is a surprisingly sweet story about finding acceptance in a small town. Orrin Grey, ever the master of monsters, is of course present with a story that could easily by an X-File, 'The Pepys Lake Monster.'
Some of these really stretch beyond the genre and simply frame much more real world and psychological terrors within a 'horror story.' Erica Ruppert's 'Pretty In The Dark' doesn't ever let us know if something truly supernatural has occurred, but we can all sit with the shared horrors of loneliness, of places and memories that have the world has moved on from and abandoned, of lost youth. Robert Guffey's 'The Eye Doctor' can be read as a terrifying and action packed otherworldly adventure, but the fear of a child that thinks its been abandoned by its parents, that they cannot help it, and are in fact fallible human beings is something far more relatable and likely to hit home. James Fallweather also deals with childhood traumas and the scars war leaves on the families of those hurt or left behind in "A Little House In The Suburbs." "Aphantasia" by Robert S. Wilson again has some superlative monster fighting action, but underlying that are some really poignant ideas about love beyond and not including the physical or sexual, and the transcendence of being seen for what we are rather than what others would want us to be. And in James Russell's 'Spirit of the Place' we get some very straightforward commentary on the consequences of colonialism.
John Paul Fitch's 'Signals', S.L. Edwards 'With All Her Troubles Behind Her', John Linwood Grant's '/For Whom There is no Journey', 'Mrs. Doogan' by Lana Cooper, and Aaron J. French's 'Chosen' are all super fun, action heavy, stories ranging across subgenres.
We also have some humor mixed in, with Buzz Dixon's 'The Bride of the Astounding Gigantic Monster' and the very self aware 'Bride of Castle Frankenstein' by Jill Hand as well as the Outer Limits or Twilight zone-esque 'Normal' by John Claude Smith.
December 7, 2018
Odd stories
Very strange stories that are so bizarre that you don't know what to make of them. I just know that I liked them!
Very strange stories that are so bizarre that you don't know what to make of them. I just know that I liked them!
January 16, 2021
This is a disarmingly aberrant book of possibly accidental genius that has inspired my pre-Christmas aberrations with preferable aberrations of its own. Star turns as the monstrous stigmata of solipsism. As the end FADE OUT by the editor, inter alia, says: “transfix you.”
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews