One hundred years ago this week, the magazine Weird Tales debuted. The “Unique” magazine is perhaps the most famous of the pulps to readers today thanks to its publishing of horror by H. P. Lovecraft and Conan tales by Robert E. Howard, but it encompassed many more authors and works during its three-decade run. I’m opting to commemorate the centennial of the magazine by reading all its 1923 issues, starting with the March issue, Volume 1, Number 1. The cover features what is perhaps the best of the three novelettes in this issue, “Ooze,” by Anthony M. Rud; the other two are “The Dead Man’s Tale,” by Willard E. Hawkins, which leads off the contents, and “The Chain,” by Hamilton Craigie, which is perhaps less of a “gooseflesh” story than some of the other content. There are also 22 short stories and the first part of a two-part story by Otis Adelbert Kline, “The Thing of a Thousand Shapes.” I’ve already read about half the issue, and I hope to be able to comment on it for my weekly wrap-up on Sunday.

The first issue of Weird Tales is available online at the Internet Archive, as are many others.