Brain Freeze – Larque Press | The Digest Enthusiast

News September 11, 2020

News Digest Sept. 11, 2020

New Releases
Nostalgia Digest Autumn 2020
Contents
Steve Darnall “Hello, Out There in Radioland!”
Steve Darnall “Reflections of a Golden Age” (cover story)
Dan McGuire “At This Theatre Next Week” Chapter Four
Jordan Elliott “Man and Superman” (Clayton Collyer)
Clair Schulz “Smilin’ Through” (Pegy Lynch)
Walter Scannell “This Ladd for Hire” (Alan Ladd)
Wayne Klatt “Pleasant Screams” (radio’s scary shows)
Alex Udvary “Hollywood Madmen” (Clark & McCullogh)
Stone Wallace “Prince of Players” (Raymond Massey)
Mail Call
Plus, the Radio Program Guide for Those Were the Days and WGN Radio Theatre

Nostalgia Digest Book 46 Chapter 4 Autumn 2020
Editor: Steve Darnall
Cover: Mark Braun
5.5” x 8.5” 64 pages, b&w interior
$4.50 on newsstands
Four-issue subscription $17
Eight-issue subscription $30
Nostalgia Digest website

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Sep/Oct 2020
Contents Page
Linda Landrigan: A Word of Thanks
The Lineup
Elliot F. Sweeney “Mrs. White Hart” art by Kimberly Cho
Dan Crawford “Storage”
Jane Pendjiky “Fruiting Bodies”
Mysterious Photograph $25 fiction contest “The Handoff”
Christopher Latragna “Call it Sad, Call it Funny”
Sharon Jarvis “Who Killed What’s Her Name?”
Laurel Flores Fantauzzo: Booked and Printed
James Sallis “The Beauty of Sunsets”
Wouter Boonstra “Archored” translated from the Dutch by Josh Pachter
Steven Gore “Inflection” art by Daniel Zalkus
Mark Lagasse: Scrambled Hitch (puzzle, solution on page 192)
Arlene Fisher: Dying Words (acrostic puzzle, solution on page 192)
Richard Freeborn “Family Harmony”
John Paul Davies “Limited Edition”
Dave Zeltserman “Past Due” art by Kevin Speidell
Michael Nethercott “Old Echoes”
Tom Larsen “Buscando Tupac”
Bob Tippee “You Said This Was Business”
Josh Pachter selects/introduces a Mystery Classic: “Thubway Tham’s Hoodoo Roll” by Johnston McCulley (Detective Story Magazine Nov. 12, 1921)
Lee Lofland’s Case File: Excited Delirium
The Story That Won (May/Jun) “Never a Dull Moment in the Kitchen” by Rosemary Herbert
Coming in AHMM Nov/Dec 2020
Directory of Services/Indicia

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Vol. 65 No. 9 & 10 Sep/Oct 2020
Publisher: Peter Kanter
Editor: Linda Landrigan
Managing Editor: Jackie Sherbow
Senior Director of Art & Production: Porter C. McKinnon
Senior ADs: Victoria Green, Thomas Slosser
Cover: Erika Steiskal
192 pages
$7.99 on newsstands until Oct. 20, 2020
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine website

Amazing Selects No. 3:
Adrift in the Sea of Souls by David Gerrold
Contents Page
Adam-Troy Castro’s Introduction: The Sprung Chicken
Steve Davidson’s Publisher’s Note: David Gerrold
David Gerrold “Adrift in the Sea of Souls”
David Gerrold “The White Piano”
David Gerrold “Jacob in Manhattan”
Author’s Afterword
About the Author
Art the Artist: M.D. Jackson

Amazing Selects No. 3
Publisher: Steve Davidson
Cover and interior artwork M.D. Jackson
5.5” x 8.5” 170 pages
Print $8.99 Kindle $8.99
Amazing Stories website

Also out is Mystery Weekly Magazine Sep. 2020, with stories by Nick LeGrand, Edward Lodi, Joseph S. Walker, Benjamin Mark, William Burton McCormick, Shea E. Butler, Stan Dryer, and Eric B. Rurark. Available in print $7.99 and Kindle $3.99

Kevin Tipple highlights Fiction River: Stolen at The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog.

If Oct. 1965, Mystery Weekly Magazine April 2020

Digest Magazine Reviews
John O’Neill gives an overview of the “Big 5” digests for Sep/Oct 2020 at Black Gate.

Robert Lopresti reviews Joseph S. Walker’s “Golden Lives” from Mystery Weekly Magazine Sep. 2020 at Little Big Crimes.

David Levinson reviews Worlds of If Oct. 1965 at Galactic Journey.

Kevin Tipple reviews Mystery Weekly Magazine April 2020 at Kevin’s Corner.

Digest Magazine Writers’ Updates
Alan Dean Foster, whose “The Treasure of the Lugar Morto” appears in Analog Sep/Oct 2020, talks about writing at The Astounding Analog Companion.

Iris Hockaday, whose story “The Thunderstorm” appears in EQMM Jul/Aug 2020, reflects on “mystery” at Something is Going to Happen.

Jason Sandford on “The Eight-Thousanders” from Asimov’s Sep/Ocy 2020 at From Earth to the Stars.

Storytime
Charlie Cancel’s “R/amitheasshole Posted by Tammy Whammy 2 Hours Ago” at Pulp Modern Flash.

Josh Pachter reads his “The Secret Lagoon” from EQMM Sep/Oct 2019 at Podomatic.

Zine Scene
Jim Main’s Brain Freeze No. 5 was released this week. Its contributor list is too long to re-create here, but includes TDE illustrator Rick McCollum. The 52-page zine is available for $6.25 post paid from:
Main Enterprises
PO Box 93
New Milford, CT 06776

Brave and the Bold 167, Batman 328, Detective 495

TDE Contributors’ Corner
Jack Seabrook and Peter Enfantino review The Brave and the Bold No. 167, Batman No. 328, and Detective No. 495 at bare•bones e-zine.

Richard Kellogg sent a press release for his new book: Barry Baskerville’s Christmas Mystery (Airship 27, 2020) by Richard Kellogg and lavishly illustrated by Gary Kato, is now available from Amazon.com. In the seventh entry of this series of mysteries for children, Barry uses all his skills of observation and deduction to identify a thief who has been stealing Christmas trees from the lawns of the residents of Watsonville. Young readers will learn about the methods used by Sherlock Holmes while improving their own problem-solving skills. Sherlockians will find the book a great holiday gift for their children and grandchildren.

Jack Seabrook’s The Hitchcock Project—Harold Swanton Part Seven: Bang! You’re Dead at bare•bones e-zine.

Readin’ and Writin’
Alec Cizak offers creative writing tips on plotting at ACTV.

Did a fair about of reading this week, but didn’t finish any one of the books or digests currently in play. More next week.

Finished retouching the pages of Head No. 1 for Marc Myer’s upcoming Roman Scott collection.

Joined the Short Mystery Fiction Society this week! President: Robert Lopresti, Vice President: Kevin R. Tipple.

This week’s progress on TDE13: Steve Carper sent nearly a dozen cover scans for his upcoming article on digest SF novels. Jack Seabrook tapped Walker Martin for help securing the final images from Mystery Book Magazine No. 16, for Jack’s article on Leo Marr. And the color work on Bob Vojtko’s six gag cartoons was completed. Four will appear on one page I’ve dubbed “Zowie” in tribute to the Lopez digest magazine from the 1970s.

Our current issue: The Digest Enthusiast No. 12 is available in print at Lulu.com and Amazon, and in digital formats at Kindle Books and Magzter.

Vintage Science Fiction Digest
Galaxy Aug. 1977
Inside front cover by James R. Odbert
Contents Page
Calendar
James Patrick Bean’s Editorial: Galaxy and the Galaxy
Harbert Charles Petley “…and Earth So Far Away” art by Stephen Fabian
Frederik Pohl: Postscript to Gateway
Charles Sheffield “Perfectly Safe, Nothing to Worry About”
Jerry Pournelle, PhD: A Step Farther Out (science fact)
Frank Herbert “The Dosadi Experiment”
Richard E. Geis: The Alien Viewpoint art by Tim Kirk
Arsen Darnay “Pheromonal Fountain”
Spider Robinson: Galaxy Bookshelf
Jay Brandon “The All-Soul is Calling Quinlan” art by Stephen Fabian
Directions (letter pages)
Galaxy/If SF Mart (classified ads)

Galaxy Science Fiction Vol 38 No. 6 August 1977
Publisher: Arnold E. Abramson
Editor: James Patrick Baen
Art Director: Stephen Fabian
Assistant Editor: Elaine Will
Science Editor: J.E. Pournelle, PhD
Contributing Editor: Spider Robinson
Consulting Editor: Theodore Sturgeon
Cover: Kelly Freas
5.25” x 7.75” 160 pages $1.25

News June 5, 2020

News Digest June 5, 2020

New Releases
Nostalgia Digest Summer 2020
Contents
Steve Darnall “Hello, Out There in Radioland!”
A Few Moments with . . . Keir Dullea
CeleBio: Barbara Stanwyck (Paramount Pictures, 1949)
Randy Turner “What it was was Mayberry” (The Andy Griffith Show)
Al Doyle “Play Ball?” When baseball’s top players went to War, a wave of youngsters. veterans and amputees ensured the game would go on.
Garry Berman “Vass You Dere, Sharlie?” Jack Pearl and the rise and fall of Baron Munchausen.
Dan McGuire “At This Theatre Next Week” Chapter Three
David Rutter “Summers of Enlightenment” How the Chautauqua movement conquered America…by offering its citizens “all things in life.”
Swimsuit Spotlight: Ava Gardner, Doris Day, Anne Baxter, Kirk Douglas, Loretta Young, Alexis Smith, Jackie Cooper, Leila Ernest, Kay Stewart, Eddie Bracken, Richard Conte, Gene Tierney, Beryl Vaughn, Jimmy Durante, Maureen O’Hara, Marie Windsor, and Ginger Rogers.
Annette Bochenek “Our (Every)man in Hollywood” James Stewart became a movie star, but never forgot his small-town roots.
Mail Call

Plus, the Radio Program Guide for Those Were the Days and WGN Radio Theatre

Nostalgia Digest Book 46 Chapter 3 Summer 2020
Editor: Steve Darnall
5.5” x 8.5” 64 pages, b&w interior
$4.50 on newsstands
Four-issue subscription $17
Eight-issue subscription $30
Nostalgia Digest website

Mystery Weekly Digest June 2020
Contents Page
M.C. Tuggle “The Calculus of Karma”
Martin Hill Ortiz “Afterglow”
Luke Foster “Seat 9B”
Carl Robinette “Nothing Doing”
Allan Durand “Ancient Cypress”
Arthur Vidro “Gli or Nogt?”
Robert Lopresti “In Praise of My Assassin”
Tammy Huffman “Angels Stirring”
Peter DiChellis “Gallery Thief” (A You-Solve-It)

Mystery Weekly Magazine No. 58 June 2020
Publisher: Chuck Carter
Editor: Kerry Carter
Cover: Robin Grenville-Evans
7.5” x 9.75” 94 pages
Print $6.99 Kindle $3.99
MWM Website

The history of Los Angeles figures prominently in Paul D. Marks’ just-released novel, The Blues Don’t Care (Down & Out Books). In his post this week he shares research on The Rex, a gambling boat anchored just beyond the three-mile limit, at SleuthSayers. Paul writes about The First Two Pages of the new novel at Art Taylor’s blog.

Digest Magazine Reviews
Paul Fraser reviews The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction and the F&SF issues from whence the stories came at SF Magazines

Kevin Tipple reviews Mystery Weekly Magazine Feb. 2020 at Kevin’s Corner.

James Reasoner reviews Commando: Codename Warlord at Rough Edges.

David Levinson reviews Worlds of If July 1965 at Galactic Journey.

Storytime
Nick Kolakowski’s “Scapegoat” at Rusty Barnes’ Tough Crime.

Charlotte Platt’s story “Meet the Family,” read by JD Graves for PodClash No. 3 at EconoClash Review.

Robert Lopresti posts his story “Nobody Gets Killed” from AHMM Mar/Apr 2018 at his blog.

Digest Magazine Blogs
Richard Larson discusses hi story “Warm Math” from F&SF May/Jun 2020 at Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Robert Lopresti talks about his “In Praise of My Assassin” from MWM June 2020 at SleuthSayers.

Janet Hutchings ponders “Reading in a Time of Crisis” at EQMM’s Something is Going to Happen.

TDE Contributors’ Corner
Jack Seabrook and Peter Enfantino review Batman No. 321, The Brave and the Bold No. 160, and Detective Comics No. 488 at bare•bones e-zine.

Jack Seabrook reviews “The Monkey’s Paw—A Retelling” from The Alfred Hitchcock Hour at bare•bones e-zine.

Zine Scene
Jim Main set out to publish a new mini comic called Brain Freeze and put out a call for SF-inspired contributions. The response was tremendous, but as they arrived he worried the repro size wouldn’t really do justice to the detailed artwork many artists sent in. So he jumped up to digest-manga-size, splitting the book into two parts to accommodate all the material. Brian Freeze No. 1 parts A and B are $3.00 each postage paid. Part A features comic and illos by John Lambert, Kevin Duncan, Verl Holt Bond, Steve Shipley, Doug Holverson, Bob Vojtko, Doc Boucher, Jon Lawrence, and Brian D. Leonard. While Part B features Jason Bullock, Jerzy Szotek, Carl Taylor, George Lane III, Tony Lorenz, and more from Steve Shipley, Jon Law- rence, John Lambert, Doug Holverson, and Brian D. Leonard. Contact Jim via FaceBook for more ordering info.

Readin’ and Writin’
Haven’t read a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs in quite a few years so I decided to revisit the author with an Ace paperback edition kicking around for nearly as long. The Eternal Savage, originally titled The Eternal Lover. The science fiction aspect of this one is time travel, the necessary element that allows a prehistoric man to visit the jungles of Lord Greystoke. But Tarzan is mentioned only in passing, the caveman, Nu is the hero. He shares the spotlight with Nat-ul, the impossibly beautiful female lead. The plot and romance are serviceable, it’s the adventure and action where Burroughs excels and The Eternal Savage was quite satisfying, if not the best of others I’ve read long ago.

Bud Plant's Incredible Catalog early summer 2020

Finished reading Fate No. 735 on Monday night. Editor Phyllis Galde use her editorial to honor the memory of her friend and co-editor Rosemary Ellen Guiley who passed in July 2019. Susan Swan serves as Senior Editor on this edition that includes articles on animals lost on the Titanic, encounters with Shadow People, Sumerian “Gardener’s Sin,” the Devil’s footprints, monster hotspot Payson, Arizona, crystal skulls, UFO theories, a history of tattooing, and plenty of other true reports of the strange and unknown. In sum: a welcome edition for Spring 2020.

Finally, I read Black Gat Book No. 20: Madball by Fredric Brown. Crimes among the carneys. Stellar cast of cronies caught in a web of avarice, cons, lust, and murder. A classic novel, reprinted in a beautifully designed new package, still leveraging the best of the past, but with bright, white paper stock the first edition never glimpsed in the madball.

Lulu.com has shipped the proof of TDE12 and I anxiously await its arrival.

TDE Advertisers
The latest Bud Plant’s Incredible Catalog (Early Summer 2020) arrived this week and I was happy to see it included a listing for The Digest Enthusiast No. 11. Sign-up to Bud’s weekly eNewsletter or download the catalog at Bud’s Art Books.

Vintage Western Digest
Zane Grey Western Magazine Dec. 1969
Leo Margulies: The Open Trail (introduction)
Contents Page
Romer Zane Grey “The Other Side of the Canyon”
Clay Ringold “A Question of Faith”
James McKimmey “Showdown at Blue Bluff”
Paul Clane “Even Shoot-Out”
Walter Dallas’ A Carload of Killers
Zane Grey “The Camp Robber” (A Zane Grey Masterpiece)
Owen Wister “Timerline”
Gil Brewer “Pawnee”
C. Hall Thompson “Gun Smart”

Zane Grey Western Magazine Vol.1 No. 3 Dec. 1969
Publisher: Leo Margulies
Editorial Director: Cylvia Kleinman
Advisory Editor: Romer Grey
Advisory Editor: Dr. Loren Grey
5.25” x 7.75” 128 pages
50¢ cover price