Original advertisement for 10 Of The Best... (making plentiful use of the Monomyth Cross symbol), published in Monomyth 23
Ten of the Best... or 10 of the Best... Short Stories was a planned anthology, compiling — exactly as its title suggests — ten of the best short stories originally published in Monomyth's first two years or so of issues. The collection was advertised as "Coming soon" in July 2000's Monomyth 23, but the project was one of those that foundered during the magazine's subsequent hiatus as Atlantean Publishing reorganised its priorities.
As the ellipsis in the title implies, the 'Ten of the Best...' moniker was not confined to this collection; the name was already in use in various issues of Monomyth during the same period, as a series title for a sequence of 'list' articles by the Founding Editors. The aborted anthology was hoped to be the first of several, with the intention of also compiling other early Atlantean successes such as the first- and second-year serials.
First mooted around the turn of the millennium, the collection's contents were selected by Atlantean editor-in-chief DJ Tyrer, and artwork produced by David Leverton in late 2000. Publication was, however, fated to be perennially put on the back burner through the long Monomyth Hiatus, and this title has never (yet) seen the light of day.
Artwork[]
The illustrations were created on an even-then antique Apple Mac LC II, using basic image-editing software that dated from around 1991! The project also led to the experimental creation of a never-used Atlantean Publishing logo, visually 'submerging' the name of the press, à la Atlantis — rediscovered during the early development of this wiki, this idea was resurrected with a new take on the same theme, which became the Atlantean 'A' logo.
The main artwork commission was for front and back cover designs, but suggested the addition of internal art. This came to take the form of small frontispieces, designed around each story's title, to preface each in the anthology. Eleven years later, a selection are reproduced here for the first time:
