[j. d. worthington]

On the Vance -- I heartily agree. Odd that I should have glitched there, having recently sent a copy of Eyes of the Overworld to someone... Even in the darker pieces, there's more than a touch of humor... And for fantasy that has a nice blend of darker humor (with occasionally light satirical pieces, as well), to stark horror, there's the stories of Clark Ashton Smith. There's the Fantasy Masterworks volume, which samples from his entire career, and there's also a new printing of the original Arkham House collections being released by Bison Books (taken from the Neville Spearman plates, I believe) or, if you're really wanting to do it up fancy, Night Shade Books is releasing a 5-volume corrected and annotated edition of his complete fantasy work; the first volume should be out later this year.