About Issue #3: Gothic Marxism
“I politically self-identify as a socialist. I want everyone to be as comfortable as they can be while they’re waiting to die. Unfortunately, the major part of Western civilization consists of capitalists, whom I regard as unadulterated savages.”
– Thomas Ligotti
Good evening, goblins and ghouls. Welcome to The Gotham Guillotine’s third issue: Gothic Marxism. Mwahahahahaha!
Before we get started with our feature presentation full of horrors beyond human comprehension, we should thank a few people.
Issue #3 features work from some fantastic work from big name authors who could’ve sent their terrifying work to another magazine where they would’ve been paid big bucks. But instead they were so grateful to donate their work to us, a little socialist literary magazine.
So thank you to Jon Greenaway, Adam C. Jones, Gretchen Felker-Martin, China Miéville, Alison Rumfitt, and W. Scott Poole. Buy all their books, listen to all their podcasts, and scream their big names from the hilltops!
And thank you as well to our soon to be famous writers for sharing their work with us.
We raise a glass of blood to all the magazines, comrades, and creatives who’ve supported us throughout the first year of our wretched existence.
Gothic Marxism is a relatively new genre of Marxist theory that deserves more than one issue of creative and philosophical discussion. We at The Gotham Guillotine urge our comrades at other publications to take up the torch we’ve lit and set the world ablaze.
And now, SCARY STUFF!
Our lead story is “Finale of Seem” by Yared Kay about a slaughterhouse with smokestacks that choke the residents and workers, but is conspicuously missing cows.
Our first piece of nonfiction is a necessary one to set the theoretical carnival that follows: “Gothic Marxism: A Manifesto on the Dark Way of Being Red” by Adam C. Jones and Jon Greenaway.
Our first poem is “Gaza, ya ghazal” by Hannah Mesouani that describes the horror that is Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. As always, Free Palestine!
Up next is an amazing short story for you dinosaur enthusiasts and horror lovers out there, “Good Girl” by Gretchen Felker-Martin.
Then we have an interview with China Miéville conducted by Dan Dellechiaie. You should read China’s new novel The Rouse, and you should also read Dan’s short story “Bright Purple Like Nothing Mattered” from our first issue.
Following that, is “after the shock” by Kevin O’Neill, an atom bomb of a poem that will not only shock you but thrill you too.
“they are so silent, they are in another world” by Alison Rumfitt is our next prose masterpiece that will have you and your beau fleeing to the countryside for a Gothic getaway in the shadow of a pagan chalk entity.
We couldn’t just have one piece by Jon Greenaway, could we? His essay “All That is Solid Melts into Ghosts: Spectral Production and the Horror of Post-Industrial Capitalism” is adorned with excellent photos by the incomparable Áron Lődi.
Jan Clausen’s poem “XLII” will ring in your ears like a haunted bell for months after.
Speaking of tinnitus, our next short story “Hum” by Jesse Payne deserves a listen.
Work is certainly horrific. Or at least it is in Agnieszka Kotwasińska’s essay “Rage Against the Domestic Work” about the novel Victorian Psycho.
The Gotham Guillotine’s poet in residence Kathryn R. Rieber haunts these pages again with her latest “Flying a little kite.” You should read her previous poems here and here.
“Three Wrong Turns” by Evergreen Ippolito is an 850-word fever dream set in our beloved, haunted Gotham.
W. Scott Poole’s “What Scares Us in the Backrooms: Horror’s Revolutionary Possibilities?” elucidates what dozens of film critics couldn’t: that the horror is here.
“Time Under Tension” by Timothy Nolan is a breathtaking poem that will repeat in your mind like a never-ending merry-go-round.
We finally get another chapter in Elias Everett’s TTRPG lore that started in Issue #1. This time, it’s “Stargoyles.”
Our final essay of this dark and stormy night comes from another former contributor, T.S. Carney. Instead of Chernyshevsky’s What Is To Be Done?, this time he’s laying out an argument for “Gogol’s Gothic Marxism.”
And last but not least, Daniel Andrade Amaral closes out this issue with his poem “War Balloons.”
Thank you again to all our contributors for making this issue scary as fuck.
Thank you to our artists: Rosalynde Agatha Kasper, Line Lizard, Lora Morales, Áron Lődi, Alyce Barr, Magdalena Sołodyna, Kathryn R. Rieber, Natasha Zinos, Christopher Smith, and Timothy Nolan. And also the Public Domain Image Archive.
A shoutout is in order for the two bands whose vibes were sufficiently spooky enough to (dis)grace our pages: the goth post-punk band Cellophane Kiss and the horror-punk band Dracula and His Band the Draculas.
Thank you to Ameer Malik for suggesting the theme of this issue. You should read his horror story “Decommissioned” from our first issue. It’s going to be featured on The Scare You To Sleep Podcast very soon!
The Gotham Guillotine will reopen for submissions in March 2027 for its fourth issue: “Socialist Surrealism.” We look forward to hearing from you in the spring.
Be afraid, dear readers. Be very afraid.
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