And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people
May 28, 2026 1:31 pm
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
On June 1st, 2021, we released GREEN INFERNO: THE WORLD CELEBRATES YOUR DEMISE. Five years ago.
cover art by Kristofor Harris, GREEN INFERNO logo by Shawn Aldridge
It's an imperfect book. I'd never assembled an anthology or even remotely edited anything before in my life—my publishing experience was self-releasing four issues of my comics series Mad Doctors and having my first and only indie comics writing contract voided by the COVID outbreak—but I had drawn a pretty sharp Skull & Laurel logo and had a cool name for a press, a pandemic relief check to pay advances to some artists, and more gumption than know-how...and that was about it.
Most critically, GREEN INFERNO lacks Alex's editorial and creative vision, though we remedied that in short order (if you're unfamiliar with Tenebrous' origin story, the TLDR version is: Alex's story "Depth of the Water" was subbed to the GI slush pile, not by her but by a member of her writing group; and it was accepted, of course—much to her bewilderment—because while I may not have had know-how, I do have great taste. She literally-immediately made Tenebrous Manor her own, as if it had been built for her; and it had been, even if neither of us knew it at that moment.)
Alex here with an interlude, because I love this story so much and will never cease to tell it: The reason why it was subbed by a friend (hi, Jim!) on my behalf was because I'd been having such a hard time I had quit writing. A project I really wanted to be on had sent me an invite; I wrote something terribly personal and also recommended other friends for it. They got in, I got ghosted, and I was at the start of my journey so very, very vulnerable. It was such a low point. It wasn't the only one I'd have, publishing has a way of humbling you, but it is the one that became... everything. All the rest of this. A testament to how much having a community, and giving a new press a chance, and rallying when you're down, and one kind act from one friend, can change *everything*. Everything. <3
But as I thumb through a copy of the book now, I find I'm still awfully fond of my first-timer maximalist interior design choices—white space is the enemy!—and the eclectic-as-fuck table of contents filled with outsiders, misfits and Weirdos (one of whom, Ian McGinty, has moved on to newer Weirder realms than these; travel well, Ian).
Cut to today: Our distribution deal with IPG begins just a couple days from now, on June 1st, 2026; exactly five years from the release of GREEN INFERNO. That fact never once registered with me until thirty minutes ago, when I sat down to type this newsletter; and I know that sounds like dramatic license but it's the stone cold truth. This intro wasn't supposed to be about GREEN INFERNO at all (definitely about Tenebrous' five-year anniversary and impending distro, but not about GI).
In the five years since, we've released 37 books (Excuse me: How many???!!! Fetch me my fainting couch) and five magazine issues. (And reduced the number of ellipses Matt uses by about 87%). And there's an argument that our proper anniversary isn't until this November, which will mark five years since IN SOMNIO, our second proper release and the one that Alex took the reins of. The one when Team Tenebrous was officially locked in.
But this one still feels pretty special. We may not know exactly what the deal with IPG is gonna mean for Tenebrous; there are no guarantees, especially with how fragile the publishing landscape—hell, the whole world—feels at times. We've busted our asses, though, to put ourselves in the position we're in; Alex and I built something out of nothing but sheer will, craftiness, a little luck, blood and sweat and definitely some tears along the way. We have earned this... whatever comes next.
What we do know is that we're gonna find some ways to celebrate these five years: together in a couple weeks; separately in our remote Portland and Romania wings of the Tenebrous Manor; and with all of you wonderful Weirdos who have supported us along any stretch of the road. Thank you.
And if there's anything *you* can think of that you'd like to see us do for this year's big TENEBIRTHDAY drop us an email and let us know. I'm claiming the entirety of June through November as party time.
Five years: but that is not "all we got," sorry Mr. Bowie. We've got a whole helluva lot more.
Such as...
Santiago Eximeno's ALICIA IS IN THE BASEMENT, out June 16th!
Why not kick off The Tenebrous Distribution Era™ with the darkest trip we've yet taken? Bummer trip out the gates, here we gooooooooooooo
One summer afternoon, Santi and Maria's daughter disappears without a trace from a public park. A fruitless investigation passes, the agony only serving to tear Santi’s life and family further apart.
Months go by, and Santi finally stumbles upon a clue: it is hardly a name, barely a whisper, but it is enough to reveal a haunting legacy and unleash an entirely new kind of horror upon the despairing young father:
“He Who Does Not Speak With Children.”
"Eximeno writes with a razor sharp precision, creating an atmosphere of thick dread that never loosens its grip. The end is haunting in the truest sense, devastating and impossible to shake."
- Unstable Books
"One of the most emotionally devastating novellas in recent memory. It earns every goddamn thing it does."
- The Blog Without a Face
"Tenebrous went for broke here and this is by far their best. A painstaking, demented journey...The final pages will leave you staring into the abyss, where hope and horror blur together in the most devastating way."
- The Next Best Book Club
Cover art and interior illustrations by Jenna Cha.
Translated to English by Alicia L. Alonso.
ALICIA IS IN THE BASEMENT is out June 16th. This book is a special kind of licking-the-live-wire; worthy of the sickos gif 
mmm that's the stuff.
BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror (+ More) Vol. Four, out July 14th!
A misogynistic Asian fetishist goes on a date with the Chinese goddess of Drought. Archaelogists explore our apocalyptic future. Carnivorous plant women just wanna have fun. Demonically possessed throuples. Lil goopy guys go viral.
Sounds like BRAVE NEW WEIRD time to us!
"BRAVE NEW WEIRD defines, and sometimes redefines, what horror fiction can be. There’s something for everyone here, from relatively straightforward to downright experimental storytelling. The one thing that ties these disparate stories together is their uniformly high quality."
- David Simon, davewritesanddraws.com
Twenty-three creators converge to deliver the Bravest, Newest, and Weirdest fiction of 2025:
Z.D. Dochterman - Avila Beach
Wen Wen Yang - Drought's Vengeance
Chris Scott - The Sunflower Farmer
D. Marmara - In the Amygdala of the Beholder
Wailana Kalama - The Lazarus Ruins
Alexander James - Silver Wires & Sweet Water
Andrew Rivas - THE GOOPY LIL GUYS GO VIRAL
Biscuit Starberry - You Are Going to Die
Juleigh Howard-Hobson - Death Doesn't Sound Like It Looks
Audrey Zhou - Two’s Company, Three Might Be A Sign of Demonic Possession
Corrie Haldane - Hivemind
Ashley Stokes - Orange Slab
David Luntz - Brief Interlude with the Night Hag
Caleb Bethea - Glitter in Your Eyes
A.L. Goldfuss - Drosera regina
Zebulon Horse - The Mascot's Head
Daniel Loring Keating - Letter of Apology from Eldritch Appliances, LLC
Alistair Rey - Leviathan’s Womb
TJ Price - Exhibits…
Toshiya Kamei - Sworn Brothers
Patrick Malka - What We Remember, What We Pass Down
Morgan Melhuish - A Fragment of the Heart of Sappho
Caroline Hung - Ticket po mamser.
BRAVE NEW WEIRD Vol. Four arrives July 14th. The future of Weird Fiction just keeps getting Weirder.
Michael Bettendorf's MIDWESTERN CHROME, out August 11th!
Weird Cyberpunk Noir, Tenebrous-style:
Weird Cyberpunk Noir...Tenebrous-style.
A burned-out detective trapped in a cold case finds a curious lead—the severed head of an android who cries for help in the voice of his dead wife. It has her memories. It has her personality. But is it…Elsie?
Welcome to the frayed-wire-and-spare-parts autopsy of a near-future Nebraska, lit bright by neon promises and smoldering with broken dreams. Society is high on body augmentations and self-interest and low on moral reckonings.
Harlan's cold case takes center stage in the novella Our Bird Trills Mechanical, but desperate people willing to do whatever it takes fill the pages: people like Lucian Lucky, an augment-addicted prizefighter who must decide if the cost of winning is worth the size of the purse; or Javier, a love-struck henchman who’s fallen for the niece of his violent boss.
Freaks, fighters, fixers and f&%k-ups: fortune favors the corrupt in MIDWESTERN CHROME.
Cover art and interior illustrations by AriBo.
“Does what only the finest dystopian Sci-Fi Noir can: shows us ourselves in the reflection of a cohesive, all-too-plausible future. Highly recommended.”
- Sean Doolittle, Device Free Weekend
"An unmissable genre mashup that brings to mind the best of Philip K. Dick."
- Michael Moreci, screenwriter (Revealer, Revival) and comics author (Barbaric, Wasted Space)
MIDWESTERN CHROME is out August 11th. Fire up your neural implants.
We'll see you on the other side, Tenebrous Cult. It's gonna be a long Weird journey, and we're grateful to have you with us.
Hail Indie Publishing.
Hail New Weird Horror (+ More!)
Hail the Tenebrous Cult.
Hail the Inferno.
Matt + Alex
