The Deadlands

@thedeadlands.com

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a journal of ends and beginnings https://psychopomp.com/deadlands/ published by @psychopomp.com, tweets by @feliciafm.bsky.social and @seanmarkey.bsky.social

A robed figure stands in a forest of dead trees. Their back is facing us so that we, too, look into the distance. Beached and broken boats lay atop a greying rise under a cloud-wracked moon. Cover of The Deadlands Issue 43, Summer 2026

Charon, illustration by Gustave Doré for an 1861 edition of Dante's Inferno (The Divine Comedy). An old man wearing very little clothing struggles to pole a boat in rough waters, surrounded by cliffs

faint illustrations of a skull in the bottom left, middle, and upper right corner on a gradient background that fades from dark at the top to light grey at the bottom. I solid white rectangle cuts across the middle of the image, and the small text “subscribe to the deadlands” is centered in the white background

The cover of issue 42 of the deadlands, "Do Forests Dream of Plasmodial Creep, by Dory Whynot" features a pale figure on a grayed out forest floor, yellow lichen covering their hands and face.

Cover for The Deadlands Issue 42, Spring 2026. The image shows a pale figure with curled arms and hands laying upon a graying forest floor. A yellow lichen creeps across their hands and face, obscuring their eyes.

The cover of The Deadlands Issue 41, Winter 2026. A skull-shape mountaintop rises above a long winding path. A traveler looks upon the road ahead. The sky is blue black with a sickle moon and roiling clouds.

A weathered stone post carved with a skull and crossbones. Above the skull is the raised text “NO TOCAR” and below it “PELIGRO DE MUERTE,” warning not to touch due to danger of death. The whole surface is rough, chipped, and aged, set against a cobblestone walkway in the background.

a skull face is just visible amongst a pile of bones, all in an eerie antique color.

social media post by a user named Peyton reads: “in October the mitochondria turns into the frightochondria and becomes the haunted house of the cell.”

Two circular challenge coins are shown side by side against a dark background. The left coin features a white skull overgrown with colorful mushrooms—yellow, red, orange, purple, and green—emerging from its eye sockets and crown, with a pale ribbon below reading “ADMIT ONE.” The right coin shows a stark black tree with gnarled, twisting branches on a white background; several black stars hang from its limbs like pendulums. Text around the edge reads “THE DEADLANDS 2026,” with “MEMENTO MORI” centered at the base.

A skeleton dressed in a fluffy pink dress hangs from a fence.

five giant skeletons hang from the roof of a house.

A large pile of orange, yellow, white, and black Halloween candies, including candy corn and pumpkin-shaped candies with green tops. Text above reads: “my body functions at its highest level when I am eating fresh in-season produce.”

An old looking skull lays on a cement path covered lightly in brown leaves.

$A fractured red sky, maze-like with golden fissures, surrounds a golden skull at the top of a long, golden path awaiting a lone figure.$

A modified version of the Simpsons “Do It For Her” meme. The bulletin board that normally shows photos of Maggie is instead covered with various pictures of skeletons in different poses and settings. The central text still reads “DO IT FOR HER,” but “her” has been humorously replaced by the collage of skeleton images, making it a skeleton-themed parody of the original meme.

A meme image based on Nickelback’s “Look at this photograph” scene. The lead singer is holding up a framed picture, but instead of a photo, the frame shows a custom coin design featuring a skull with mushrooms, plants, and the words “Admit One.” Below the image, the meme text says: “look at this coin” with the word “coin” in red replacing “photograph.”

Illustration of a white skull partially obscured by colorful mushrooms and plants. Different fungi sprout from and around the skull, including red mushrooms with white spots, yellow fan-shaped mushrooms, gray cluster mushrooms, and orange bulbous mushrooms, with green and purple plants filling the background. A ribbon at the bottom of the skull reads “ADMIT ONE.”

Illustration of a white skull partially obscured by colorful mushrooms and plants. Different fungi sprout from and around the skull, including red mushrooms with white spots, yellow fan-shaped mushrooms, gray cluster mushrooms, and orange bulbous mushrooms, with green and purple plants filling the background. A ribbon at the bottom of the skull reads “ADMIT ONE.”

Three decorative gourds sit on a brick porch. Each is warty and gnarled in shades of white, green, and orange.

1. horshoe crabs predate the dinosaurs.

just how old are horshoe crabs? Scients have discovered fossils of their ancient ancestors that lived 445 million years ago. Dinosaurs first appeared about 200

(picture cuts image off)

(picture is of a person sitting near a road with a horshoe crab over their face, pictures says)

I bring a sort of

ABILITY TO SURVIVE

vibe to the MASS EXTINCTIONS

that OTHER SPECIES don't really like

A neon pink skeleton covered in cobwebs features a giant orange jack 'o lantern smile over the image.

a skeleton holding a sign that says "always trust recursion skeleton" and then a skeleton holding that picture, held by a bigger skeleton holding THAT picture, and another BIGGER skeleton hold THAT! picture, and so on. You get it, it's a recursion.

A wall mural with a green background features two white bunnies, one with earbuds and one with headphones on.

A turkey vulture with beautiful dark plumage and a gray and white head sits amongst dry grasses.

fish on top: a puffer fish unpuffed, all the overlapping bones are scrunched together.

fish on bottom: a puffer fish all puffed, round as a basketball, bones all spread out.

close up of a painting -- a skull with mouth open, in front of which, and to the right, is a lit candle

a happy lil skeleton holding ...an orange thing we dunno what it is painted on a wall in space. the orange thing has a face and looks pretty concerned. maybe it is a vape, but maybe not!

a skeleton sits at a desk on a battlefield writing in a notebook. The handwritten text "my dearest rebecca" floats above it.

carl sagan in a red turtle neck with his arms folded but instead of the car sagan face you know and love it's a skull and in the background is a huge spiral galaxy with the center glowing yellow like an EGG

A skeleton wearing a black blazer sits on tops of a wooden pergola, appears to be talking, and waves a skeletal hand.

A black and white field of thistle against a searingly bright background. There are cobwebs wrapped around the thistle heads.

A blue-gray skeleton is petting a bone horse and what might be a bone dog (it's not clear). There are stars in the gray background and lots of spiderwebs! This is clearly a canva freebie.

A small brown box is open and a small white card decorated with lavender and a drawing of a dancing skeleton and the words Thank You sits on a wooden tabletop.

A hand hold a pen and draws a skeleton on a small card decorated with lavender.

a brown box gets a decoration of blue and pale orange washi tape that has flowers and moons in gold.

small square package in brown paper with a small rose stamp and black twine around it.

Two ornaments, one a skull, one a ribcage, get black waxed cotton for hanging. They sit on Soda, Clay, and Fire by Gail Nichols, and next to a blue handled pair of scissors.

Cover for issue 39 of The Deadlands, Summer 2025. A figure standing on a sloping hill faces a foggy stand of trees in the distance. The trees look like ghostly figures of giant people.

Two round ornaments decorated with a skeleton head and ribs and glazed in a sparkly purple glaze.

a scale with a pile of bones equal to a 1 ton rock. totally real picture not badly photoshopped at ALL...

Image reads Best Friends The End. A skeleton has a pink hand above their shoulder and they are standing amongst flowers and hearts are flying.

A pink hand sits on a tree stump! It's very strange, possibly plastic, and a little creepy!

A photo of two skeletons has been altered with a cartoony beach scene. They look happy and are wearing sun hats.

two identical spidermans pointing at each other

Cover for The Deadlands Issue 38, which features a compact flock of passenger pigeons, their wings spread, their eyes white. They have passed to the deadlands, but their beauty, gray and white and brown, lives on.

a skeleton juggling three hearts, graphics from the early 90s style

a beautiful drawing of a skull that says "VOTE

the deadlands

most likely to semiprozine 2025!"

FULL SIZED skeleton in a deadlands hoodie and a psychopomp hat with a name tage that says "free hugs" crossed out and "skeleton selfie #skelfie"

A woman in shadow and fog reaches for her flying shawl. The sickle moon rises above all. Issue 37 Winter 2025 THE DEADLANDS.

A woman in shadow and fog reaches for her flying shawl. The sickle moon rises above all. Issue 37 Winter 2025 THE DEADLANDS.

A skeleton with a pirate's hat sings in a tree.

a skeleton on fire in a library on fire with text that says

support your favorite magazines

unsupported magazines will close faster than a book can burn

A tired-looking skeleton sits on a wooden bench with their skeleton dog.

close-up of a mouth. TEETH