Reviewer Michele Lee has nice things to say about Murky Depths #5 over at The Fix, and gives a run down of all the stories. One part in particular caught my eye:

Short, but no less disturbing, “A Gland Enterprise” by Bill Ward fits the theme by presenting us with people caught long ago on an unfriendly planet who have to go to great lengths to keep their bellies full. Not just another cannibal tale, it combines futuristic and prehistoric elements to great success.

‘Not just another cannibal tale,’ aw shucks, now I’m blushing.

I recently received my contributor’s copy of Murky Depths # 5, and all I can say is that this is the format genre print magazines need to aspire to emulate. Forget the boring old monochrome newsprint digest format that nobody can see in the rack, and don’t be fooled by the glossy full-sized mags with their stapled spines and floppy, impossible to read pages that feel as disposable as Newsweek, Murky Depths has a look and feel that finally brings short fiction into the twenty-first century. Perfect bound with a readable spine that looks great on a book shelf, with dimensions a little over 10 x 6 (graphic novel sized, or the size of another magazine that ‘gets it,’ Black Gate) that make it possible to hold comfortably and read without the page wilting in your hand, and — most impressively — possessing a slick layout and stunning variety of interior art that should appeal to today’s more visually-oriented and media-savvy fan of spec fic, Murky Depths is what the future of print media will look like.

And it has some great dark fiction too, ranging from the historical to science-fictional, alien snowfalls, the old west, strange planets, shadowy cities, vampires and angels and virtual reality nightmares . . . a great selection not tied to any one genre or way of crafting dark fiction. Murky Depths is also bridging the gap between textual and graphical story telling with several fine comic strips, all with divergent and engaging art styles. Here is a magazine that has real rack appeal, and positively demands to be collected, and will satisfy fans of comics and text alike. Paging through my issue, I can’t help but wonder what the state of genre short fiction would look like now if just one of the bigger SF magazines had had the vision to move to a format like Murky Depths ten years ago. I’m just glad somebody has finally done it, and done it so well, and I’m hoping to see big things from this magazine in the future.

Oh yea, and I’ve got a piece in Murky Depths # 5 as well, a gruesome little bit of flash called ‘A Gland Enterprise’ that I’m pleased to say has found a very good home.