Something strange is going on at the Quicksilver Mine in central California. Dead bodies are being dumped there; strange sounds and smells are emanating from its black depths. As increasingly bizarre phenomena occur in the area around the mine, people begin to wonder if Nature itself has turned against humanity and is rebelling at the violation of its pristine beauty. And are some of those who work in the mine actively conspiring to bring about a cataclysm that will overwhelm the region and the Earth?

Michael Shea began writing Momma Durtt in 1986. A few years later, he entered the University of San Francisco, to secure a master's degree in its writing program, and he completed this novel as his thesis. But Momma Durtt has lain unpublished ever since. Hippocampus Press is proud to present this novel of cosmic eco-horror from the pen of one of the masters of contemporary weird fiction. With vibrant characters, racy language, and a spectacular denouement, Momma Durtt is uniquely suited to our own times, when climate change is alerting us to the dangers of tampering with Nature.

From as early as the 1970s, Michael Shea (1946-2014) distinguished himself as one of the most compelling writers of weird fiction of his generation. Now that his classic story The Autopsy has been adapted for television for Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, the time is right for a full-scale assessment of Shea's work as a writer of tales of terror and the supernatural.

The Autopsy is one of several tales that mingles gruesomeness and science fiction. Others include Polyphemus, where the members of a spaceship encounter the titanic eye of some unthinkably vast and hostile entity. The Angel of Death exhibits the battle of two alien entities as they successively inhabit hapless human beings in their quest for supremacy.

Shea's sensitivity to the downtrodden is exhibited in such tales as The Horror on the #33, Water of Life, and Tollbooth, populated by homeless people, prostitutes, drug dealers, and other disdained members of society. Shea's affinity for California is shown in Fill it with Regular, Upscale, and other tales that bring his native state to life. As a bonus, two unpublished stories are included: Feeding Spiders, evoking the work of a writer who adopted California as his home-Ray Bradbury; and Ghost, where a vengeful ghost stalks the tough streets of South Boston.

Michael Shea was the author of dozens of novels and tales of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. This volume shows why his vibrant work deserves to live in the hearts and minds of weird fiction devotees.

Early in his career, Michael Shea wrote the Lovecraftian novel The Color out of Time (1984). He subsequently wrote some of the most scintillating and gripping tales of the Cthulhu Mythos in contemporary weird fiction, including Fat Face and Copping Squid. These tales mingled Lovecraftian themes with the gritty realism of urban horror, and they often featured drug addicts, prostitutes, and others whom conventional society treats with scorn and marginalization.

Shea wrote the novel Mr. Cannyharme in the late 1970s, and it constitutes a remarkable adaptation of Lovecraft's early story The Hound (1922), about the depredations of an ancient Dutch vampire. In Shea's novel, Mr. Cannyharme stalks the seedy Mission District of San Francisco in the aftermath of the hippie movement of the 1960s. Holed up in a rundown hotel, the seemingly harmless Cannyharme-aged, feeble, bent almost double with a crippling disease-is the focus of the supernatural terror in the novel.

Jack Hale, who manages the hotel, is one of the few who sense the danger to society and the world that Cannyharme represents. With a motley band of young whores and drug dealers, he takes on the challenge to counteract the horrors that Mr. Cannyharme seeks to release upon an unsuspecting world.

Mr. Cannyharme, written in a vibrant prose that brings to life the multitude of characters that populate the book, is a triumph of Lovecraftian terror, but also speaks of the way in which those who are regarded as the refuse of society can assert their dignity and self-worth in a grim environment. In this sense, it proves to be a novel affirming the triumph of the human spirit over the horrors facing it.

In Polyphemus, an exploration team on a desert planet encounters a terrifying alien monstrosity. The Angel of Death is the story of a serial killer hunting innocent women who turns out to be a visitor from another world. In the blackly humorous horror story Uncle Tuggs, a series of grisly and bizarre deaths may be connected to the mysterious disappearance of old Uncle Tuggs. The Horror on the #33 tells of the strange and horrific monster one man encounters on a city bus. And the highlight of the collection, the classic story The Autopsy, which Algis Budrys called one of the most successful meldings of science fiction with horror that I have ever encountered and which was filmed for Guillermo Del Toro's Netflix series Cabinet of Curiosities, tells of an aging pathologist called in to perform an autopsy-but what he discovers during his examination is chilling and unthinkable . . .

Michael Shea (1946-2014) was one of the finest American authors of speculative fiction of modern times, and Polyphemus (1987), originally published as a limited edition hardcover by Arkham House, features the best of his short fiction, in which he deftly blends the genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. A landmark collection of modern speculative fiction returns to print at long last in this edition, which features a new introduction by Laird Barron.

In the title story Polyphemus, an exploration team on a desert planet faces death when it encounters a terrifying alien monstrosity. In The Angel of Death, a serial killer who has a city on edge may finally have met his match in the form of a powerful interplanetary traveler. In the blackly humorous Uncle Tuggs, a series of grisly and bizarre deaths may be connected to the mysterious disappearance of old Uncle Tuggs. The Horror on the #33 tells of a man's struggle with a deadly and horrible monster on a city bus. And in the highlight of the collection, The Autopsy, which Algis Budrys called one of the most successful meldings of science fiction with horror that I have ever encountered and which was filmed for Guillermo del Toro's Netflix series Cabinet of Curiosities, an aging pathologist is called in to perform an autopsy-but what he discovers during his examination is chilling and unthinkable ...

Michael Shea (1946-2014) was one of the finest American authors of speculative fiction of modern times, and Polyphemus (1987), originally published as a limited edition hardcover by Arkham House, features the best of his short fiction, in which he deftly blends the genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. A landmark collection of modern speculative fiction returns to print at long last in this edition, which features a new introduction by Laird Barron.

Michael Shea (1946-2014) was one of the most distinguished, respected, and beloved figures in the fields of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He won two World Fantasy Awards, and his Nifft the Lean series of fantasy adventure novels attracted a wide audience. He also wrote powerful tales of supernatural horror, including several tales elaborating upon H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

This first major volume of writings and tributes to appear after his untimely death contains an array of fiction, poetry, and other writings that demonstrate Shea's effortless skill in different genres and styles. Four substantial tales--including the unpublished novella Credit Card and the award-winning The Growlimb--are included, together with an intriguing assortment of weird and fantastic poetry, published and unpublished, including verses that appeared at key moments in his novels and stories.

The volume features tributes to Shea's unique personal and literary gifts by such figures as Laird Barron, Cody Goodfellow, Marc Laidlaw, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and Jason V Brock, as well as a portfolio of artwork illustrating Shea's writings by such artists as Michael Whelan, Alan Clark, John Stewart, Allen Koszowski, and Steve Gilbert. The book concludes with a comprehensive bibliography of Shea's writings.

This book is a poignant testimonial to the imperishable imprint that Michael Shea left upon the domain of imaginative fiction, and upon the individuals whose lives he touched.

Linda Shea, writer and artist, was married to Michael Shea for more than thirty years. S. T. Joshi is a leading author, critic, and editor in the realm of weird fiction and included Shea's writings in several of his anthologies, including the acclaimed Black Wings series.

Books and films have skewered Hollywood's excesses, but none has ever portrayed one man's crazy vision of the future of big action/adventure films as The Extra does. As over-the-top as Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles, as savagely dark as Robert Altman's The Player, and more violent than Rollerball, this is the story of the ultimate, so-insane-it-could-only-happen-in-Hollywood formula for success, a brave new way to bring the ultimate in excitement to the silver screen. Producer Val Margolian has found the motherlode of box-office gold with his new live-death films whose villains are extremely sophisticated, electronically controlled mechanical monsters. To give these live-action disaster films greater realism, he employs huge casts of extras, in addition to the stars. The large number of extras is important, because very few of them will survive the shoot.

It's all perfectly legal, with training for the extras and long, detailed contracts indemnifying the film company against liability for the extras' injury or death. But why would anyone be crazy enough to risk his or her life to be an extra in such a potentially deadly situation?

The extras do it because if they survive they'll be paid handsomely, and they can make even more if they destroy any of the animatronic monsters trying to stomp, chew, fry, or otherwise kill them. If they earn enough, they can move out of the Zoo--the vast slum that most of L.A. has become. They're fighting for a chance at a reasonable life. But first, they have to survive . . .