Gamma – Larque Press | The Digest Enthusiast

News March 27, 2020

News Digest March 27, 2020

Digest and Book Reviews
Gamma Science Fiction Feb. 1965 reviewed by Mx. Kris Vyas-Myall at Galactic Journey.

Borderline by Lawrence Block reviewed by Jeff Vorzimmer on Goodreads.

Black Coal by Chris McGinley reviewed by Rusty Barnes at Tough Crime.

Fantastic April 1965 reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf at Galactic Journey.

Digest Blogs
Fate magazine is offering lots of back issues: 5 for $22.95; 10 for $34.95; and 20 for $55.95

Dare Segun Falowo on his story “Kikelomo Ultrasheen” at Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Steven Torres on his story “The Care of Widows and Orphans” at Trace Evidence.

Sean Monaghan Q&A at The Astounding Analog Companion.

Preston Lang lists the “Top Eight Jazz Pianists in Film Noir” at Something is Going to Happen.

Pulp Literature is offering 25% off anything in their online shop.

Readin’ and Writin’
Michael Bracken provides background for his short stories for a number of Josh Pachter’s anthologies at SleuthSayers.

And speaking of Michael Bracken, I finished reading his series (co-edited with Trey R. Barker), Tacos + Guns Season One episodes four to six. Published by Down & Out Books, the stories were originally released as ebooks to subscribers. When the season ended the stories were collected into a two-volume set in print. (Subscribers received a bonus story in Vol. 2 “Platanos Con Lechera and a Snub-Nosed .38” by Mr. Bracken.) The original ebooks and print books (sans bonus) are available from Down & Out and elsewheres. Highly recommended.

Volume One: Gary Phillips, Michael Bracken, and Frank Zafiro.
Volume Two: Trey R. Barker, William Dylan Powell, and James A. Hearn.

On the publishing side of things, I completed the initial story layouts for Pulp Modern Vol. 2 No. 5 this week. Now, illustrator Ran Scott is busy creating story illustrations. so we need to be patient and give him the time and space he needs to complete his part.

Steve Carper wrote a fascinating article about Photoplay Digests, and sent along an excellent collection of cover images for the next issue of The Digest Enthusiast. These are old magazines, so the images require quite a bit of retouch, which I spent several hours working on this week, work that will spill over into next week as well.

Vintage Crime Digest
Verdict Vol. 1 No. 3 August 1953
Despite his name on the cover, there isn’t a story by Frank Kane inside this issue.

Contents Page
Raymond Chandler “Bay City Blues”
Cornell Woolrich “You Take Ballistics”
Damon Runyon “Big Boy Blues” art by Rus Anderson
Anthony Boucher “QL 696. C9” (Nick Noble)
Rex Stout “Fer-De-Lance” (Part 3 of 5)(Nero Wolfe)
William Lindsay Gresham “A Heart Condition” art by Tom O’Sullivan
Bruno Fischer “No Escape!” art by Tom O’Sullivan
Craig Rice “The Dead Mr. Duck” (John J. Malone)
Leonard S. Grey “What’s Your Verdict? No. 2”

Verdict Vol. 1 No. 3 Verdict 1953
Published monthly by Flying Eagle Publications, Inc.
Editor: John McCloud
Managing Editor: E.A. Tulman
Art Director: Chas. W. Adams
Editorial Assistant: Hal Walker
Business Magager: R.E. Decker
5.5” x 7.75” 144 pages 35¢

Opening Lines December 5, 2019

Opening Lines

“The scene is the Hall of the Great Guilty Lovers in Hell— roofed with stars that glitter like the first glances of fatal love, paved with sulfurous cosmic darkness assuage with desire, and walled with distant nebulas and galaxies that intertwine lasciviously.”
“Crimes Against Passion” by Fritz Leiber Gamma Vol. 1 No. 1 1963

Vault November 30, 2019

Gamma No. 5

Inside Front Cover art by William F. Nolan
Contents Page
(Charles E. Fritch) Across the Editor’s Desk
Ron Goulart “Nesbit”
Sylvia Dees and Ted White “Policy Conference” art by Luan Meatheringham
Charles Beaumont “Auto Suggestion”
Chester H. Carlfi “Welcome to Procyon IV”
Richard Matheson “Interest” art by Bernard Zuber
George Clayton Johnson “Lullaby and Goodnight”
Ray Bradbury “A Careful Man Dies” (New Detective Magazine Nov. 1946*)
Steve Allen “The Late Mr. Adams” (Fourteen for Tonight, Holt, Rinehart and Wilson 1955)
Dennis Etchison “Wet Season”
Inside Back Cover art by Burt Shonberg

Gamma Vol. 2 No. 5 (3) (Whole No. 5) Sept. 1965*
Editor-Publishers: Charles E. Fritch and Jack Matcha
Cover: John Healey
5.25” x 7.75” 128 pages 50¢

*From Galactic Central and Vince Nowell, Sr.’s article “Gamma: New Frontiers in Fiction” from The Digest Enthusiast No. 8 June 2018.

Vault October 15, 2019

Gamma No. 4

Contents*
H.B. Fyfe “The Clutches of Ruin”
William P. Miller “The Towers of Kagasi”
Ray Nelson “Food”
E.A. Poe “Hans Off in Free Pfall to the Moon” (Anonymous abridgment of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall”)
The Gamma Interview: Forrest J Ackerman
John Tanner (Jack Matcha) “Open Season”
Robert Katz “The Woman Astronaut”
William F. Nolan “Happily Ever After”
James Stamers “Don’t Touch Me, I’m Sensitive”
Ron Goulart “The Hand of Dr. Insidious”

Gamma Vol. 2 No. 2 (Whole No. 4) Feb. 1965
Editor & Publisher: Charles E. Fritch
Co-Editor: Jack Matcha
Cover: John Healey
5.25” x 7.75” 128 pages 50¢

*From Galactic Central and Vince Nowell, Sr.’s article “Gamma: New Frontiers in Fiction” from The Digest Enthusiast No. 8 June 2018.

Vault September 24, 2019

Gamma No. 3

Contents
Robert Turner “The Girl of Paradise Planet”
Shelly Lowenkopf “The Feather Bed”
Bernard Malamud “Angel Levine”
Edward W. Ludwig “The (In)visible Man”
Miriam Allen deFord “Inside Story”
George Clayton Johnson “The Birth”
Soviet Science Fiction: The Gamma Interview with art by Luan Meatheringham
Raymond E. Banks “Buttons”
Ron Goulart “Society for the Prevention”
Patricia Highsmith “The Snail Watcher”

Gamma Vol. 2 No. 1 1963
Editor & Publisher: Charles E. Fritch
Executive Editor: & Publisher: Jack Matcha
Managing Editor: William F. Nolan
Cover: Morris Scott Dollens
5.25” x 7.75” 128 pages 50¢

This issue is saddle-stitched, not perfect bound.

Opening Lines September 20, 2019

Opening Lines

“Administrator Raymond’s head was a hive of hornets. He could feel them buzzing in his brain, and before he opened his eyes he held out his hand.”
“The Old College Try” by Robert Bloch Gamma Vol. 1 No. 2 1963

Vault August 28, 2019

Gamma No. 2

Contents
Dorothy B. Hughes “The Granny Woman”
Robert Bloch “The Old College Try”
Francesca Marques “Michael”
Richard Matheson “Deus Ex Machina”
William Faulkner “The Kid Learns”
Jack Matcha “King’s Jester”
William Shakespeare & Ib Melchior “Here’s Sport Indeed!” (verse)
Burt Shoneber’s Portfolio
William F. Temple “The Undiscovered Country”
Robert Sheckley: The Gamma Interview
Charles E. Fritch “Castaway”
Charles Beaumont “Something in the Earth”
William F. Nolan “I’m Only Lonesome When I’m Lonely”
The Editors: A Note on Ernest Hemingway
Ray Bradbury “Sombra y Sol”

Gamma No. 2 1963
Editor & Publisher: Charles E. Fritch
Executive Editor: & Publisher: Jack Matcha
Managing Editor: William F. Nolan
Cover: Morris Scott Dollens
5.25” x 7.75” 128 pages 50¢

Vault August 11, 2019

Gamma No. 1 1963

Gamma 1 New Frontiers in Fiction
Contents
Charles Beaumont “Mourning Song”
Fritz Leiber “Crimes Against Passion”
Ray Bradbury “Time in Thy Flight”
Tennessee Williams “The Vengeance of Nitocris”
A.E. van Vogt “Itself!”
Charles E. Fritch “Venus Plus Three”
Ray Russell “A Message From Morj”
William F. Nolan “To Serve the Ship”
The Gamma Interview: Rod Serling
George Clayton Johnson “The Freeway”
Herbert A. Simmons “One Night Stand”
Kris Neville “As Holy and Enchanted”
John Tomerlin “Shade of Day”
Forrest J. Ackerman “The Girl Who Wasn’t There”
Ray Bradbury “Death in Mexico” (verse)
Richard Matheson “Cresendo”

Gamma No. 1 1963
Editor & Publisher: Charles E. Fritch
Executive Editor: Jack Matcha
Managing Editor: William F. Nolan
Cover: Morris Scott Dollens
5.25” x 7.75” 128 pages 50¢