INTRODUCTION
Success is, in itself, a kind of horror.
When Hot Blood proved a winner, we decided the only way to make the next volume better was for it to be an anthology of all new stories. The idea was exciting, but we knew it would be quite a challenge. It had been simple to put together twenty-four tales of hardcore horror for the first edition because we had the entire history of short horror fiction to choose from, as well as a dozen fine new contributions. Could we find twenty-four equally stunning new tales of dread and debauchery? The thought was chilling.
The call went out to the cream of the crop of today’s horror writers and our fears were quickly proven unfounded. We were deluged with new tales that met our primary requirement: that sex be the driving force in each story without being pornographic.
But our second horror lurked in piecing together Hotter Blood: Now we found we had to turn down excellent stories by name authors whose work, for a myriad of reasons, did not meet our needs for this volume. There is a lot of talent out there—enough to ensure equally great future collections.
You’re sure to notice an intentional slant toward horror’s new voices in Hotter Blood. These are the names we will be reading throughout the next decade and beyond, the authors whose works will top bestseller lists as King and Koontz have done for the past many years. These are the rising stars on the horror horizon, and their work deserves as wide an audience as we, as fans, have granted their horrific godfathers. In Hotter Blood, we are proud to give horror’s new blood (so to speak) the exposure it is due (and, in some cases, overdue).
You never know where you’ll find tomorrow’s horror stars. Grant Morrison and John Byrne are already familiar names to hundreds of thousands of rabid fans as leading comic book writers. Morrison wrote the multimillion-dollar-success Batman graphic novel “Arkham Asylum,” while Byrne revamped the Superman legend during his groundbreaking tenure on that title. We are extremely pleased to present the first published short prose fiction works of both gentlemen in Hotter Blood.
We were proud to see most of the original stories from the first Hot Blood collection nominated for various short fiction awards in the horror and science fiction communities. We’re certain history will repeat itself with this collection.
Have we whetted your appetite for shivers and sex? Good! We meant to. After all, we already know how good this collection is. Now it’s time for you to share our excitement, as you step into the world of Hotter Blood.
Just one warning: Get set for a new breed of horror!
Jeff Gelb
Michael Garrett
January 1991