John C. Pelan (July 19, 1957 – April 12, 2021) was an American author, editor and publisher in the small press science-fiction, weird and horror fiction genres.
He first founded Axolotl Press in 1986 and published several volumes by authors such as Tim Powers, Charles de Lint, Michael Shea and James P. Blaylock.
Darkside Press printed classics of Science Fiction, Midnight House published classic horror fiction (including Charles Birkin, Jane Rice and R. R. Ryan) and Silver Salamander Press was devoted to new works of modern horror, but all three have been inactive since 2006.
Pelan has edited over two dozen single-author collections and novels by such authors as Russell Kirk, Violet Hunt and Fritz Leiber for various publishers including Ash-Tree Press.
He was also the editor of several "new fiction" anthologies, including Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium, The Devil Is Not Mocked, The Last Continent: New Tales of Zothique, The Children of Cthulhu and the Bram Stoker Award-winning The Darker Side.