Richard Matheson (Twilight Zone’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” The Legend of Hell House) and his son Richard Christian Matheson (TV, movie and short story writer) are the first authors to be announced as Guests of Honor at World Fantasy Con 2013.

The con takes place in Brighton, England over Halloween Weekend 2013.

The full press release follows the jump.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION 2013 ANNOUNCES FIRST AUTHOR GUESTS OF HONOUR

In keeping with our primary theme of “The Next Generation”, we are honoured and delighted to welcome living legend RICHARD MATHESON and his son RICHARD CHRISTIAN MATHESON as our first author Guests of Honour to World Fantasy Convention 2013, October 31-November 3.

Richard Matheson is a master of modern science fiction, fantasy and horror, and Stephen King credits him with single-handedly regenerating a stagnant genre. His best known novels include the influential I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, A Stir of Echoes, Hell House, The World Fantasy Award-winning Bid Time Return and What Dreams May Come, all of which have been turned into movies. His latest novel, Other Kingdoms (2011), is about witchcraft and fairies in a rural English village.

Not only did Richard Matheson script fourteen episodes of Rod Serling’s iconic The Twilight Zone TV series (including the classic ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’), but his produced movie scripts include The Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors, The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride), Duel, The Legend of Hell House, Somewhere in Time, Jaws 3-D and the two ‘Kolchak’ TV movies, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, amongst many other credits.

Richard Matheson was awarded the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984 and the World Horror Convention’s Living Legend Award in 2000. In 2006 he was presented with The Legend Award by Ray Bradbury in Los Angeles.

Richard Christian Matheson began his career in the late 1970s. At twenty, he became the youngest writer ever signed to an overall deal with Universal Studios and he wrote scripts for a number on network TV shows. He moved quickly into feature film writing, working with Steven Spielberg on Harry and the Hendersons and Three O’Clock High. To date, he has written, co-written and sold over twelve spec screenplays – considered a record.

He has scripted three mini-series, including Sole Survivor for the Fox network, based on Dean Koontz’s best-selling novel; The Chronicles of Amber, for the Syfy Channel based on Roger Zelazny’s best-selling fantasy series, and the original Dragons, a six-hour for Matheson’s producing partner Bryan Singer and the Syfy Channel.

Richard Christian Matheson is considered a master of the short-short story and has published more than seventy stories of psychological horror in magazines and major anthologies. Thirty of his critically acclaimed stories are collected in Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks with a Foreword by Stephen King and an Introduction by Dennis Etchison. His second collection, Dystopia, gathers sixty stories with an Introduction by Richard Matheson and an Afterword by Peter Straub. The volume also includes tributes about RC’s writing from Clive Barker, Ellen Datlow, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, Stephen Jones, Ramsey Campbell and many others. Matheson’s debut novel, Created By, was a Bram Stoker Award nominee and his magic-realism novella, The Ritual of Illusion, will soon be available from PS Publishing.

“My dad loves your theme of the writing torch passed from father to son,” explains Richard Christian Matheson, “and confessed he sees it that way between us . . . which is very moving to me. Given this, the World Fantasy Convention 2013 will be greatly meaningful to us and the perfect chance to catch-up with missed friends and colleagues we haven’t seen forever.”

RICHARD MATHESON and RICHARD CHRISTIAN MATHESON will join our previously announced Master of Ceremonies, CHINA MIÉVILLE (author of such critically acclaimed and popular novels as Perdido Street Station, The City & the City, Kraken and Embassytown), in the picturesque and vibrant seaside town of Brighton, on the south coast of England, over Hallowe’en weekend 2013.

Other authors, editors and artists already registered include Joe Abercrombie, Peter Atkins, James Barclay, James P. Blaylock, Ramsey Campbell, Vincent Chong, Peter Crowther, Hal Duncan, Les Edwards, Jo Fletcher, Stephen Gallagher, Christopher Golden, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Joe Haldeman, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Stephen Jones, Nancy Kilpatrick, Jay Lake, Tim Lebbon, Brian Lumley, Thomas F. Monteleone, Kim Newman, Garth Nix, Sarah Pinborough, Mark Samuels, Darrell Schweitzer, Robert Silverberg, Angela Slatter, Michael Marshall Smith, S.M. Stirling, F. Paul Wilson and many others…

Over the next couple of years we will be releasing information on the official website (www.wfc2013.org) about more Guests of Honour, Themes, Dealers’ Room, Art Show, Room Rates, Programming, the World Fantasy Awards, special events, promotions, advertising and all the other things that make WFC the one date in the convention calendar that no professional or fan can afford to miss. You can also follow the latest news on our special Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds, or via our free iPhone and Android phone apps, so sign up today!

Although the convention is still almost two years away, we are already heading towards 400 registered memberships! Please be aware that there is a firm limit on the number of Attending Members, so once the convention is sold out there will be no more memberships available. Remember, this year’s World Fantasy Convention in San Diego sold out eight months prior to the event, so the sooner you join, the sooner you are guaranteed a place. Plus the membership rate will increase at regular intervals as we get closer to the dates of the convention.

All the information can be found on the website (www.wfc2013.org), under HOW TO JOIN on the left-hand menu. You can easily register now by following the instructions on the page and paying via the PayPal buttons. The membership fee will be automatically converted into your local currency at the time of the transaction. Please also remember to complete and submit the details of your registration for our files. You will not be considered to have registered for the convention until we have received BOTH your payment and the registration form.

If you attended the previous two UK World Fantasy Conventions or the World Horror Conventions in Toronto and Brighton, then you know that we are committed to giving you an event that will be unforgettable. This is your opportunity to participate in one of the most exciting and exhilarating conventions ever held in Europe, for both professionals and fans alike.

World Fantasy Convention 2013 will equal the very best in the history of the event. If you are serious about your writing career, or simply enjoy reading in the genre and want to meet like-minded people, then you really cannot afford to miss it . . .

DON’T JUST WISH YOU WERE HERE . . . WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION 2013, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND

—The WFC2013 Team [email protected] www.wfc2013.org