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Joe Wehrle Jr

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F&SF Dec. 1961The fifth and final episode of Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse saga appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Dec. 1961).

Contents
Claude Veillot “The First Days of May” Translated from the French by Damon Knight (“Les Premiers Jours de Mai”, Fiction May ’60).
Herbert Gold “The Mirror and Mr. Sneeves” Story #3, ed. Whit & Hallie Burnett, A.A. Wyn 1953
Anne Walker “The Oversight of Dirty-Jets Ryan”
Will Stanton “You Are with It!”
John Anthony West “The Fiesta at Managuay” Call Out the Malicia, Heinemann 1961
Grendel Briarton “Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: XLVI”
Isaac Asimov’s Science: The Trojan Hearse
Hal Draper “Ms Fnd in a Lbry or The Day Civilization Collapsed”
Brian W. Aldiss “Evergreen” (Hothouse No. 5)
Index to Volume 21

Cover by Ed Emshwiller

Contents from Galactic Central

An excerpt from Joe Wehrle, Jr.’s review of the Hothouse series, from The Digest Enthusiast book six:

[In “Evergreen”] Yattmur and Gren have a child. Gren has become more and more distant and inhuman under the influence of the morel. The morel is soon to sporulate, and it wants to transfer itself to the young, strong child, which can carry it back to the sunlit world for seeding.

F&SF Sep. 1961The fourth part of Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse saga appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction (Sep. 1961).

Contents
Gerard Klein “The Monster in the Park” translated by Virginia Kidd
Herbert Gold “The Day They Got Boston” (Metronome Jan. 1961)
Grendel Briarton “Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: XLIII”
Michael Young “The Timekeeper”
F. L. Wallace “Privates All”
Nils T. Peterson “Pecking Order”
Rosemary Harris “Hamlin”
Isaac Asimov: Science: Not As We Know It
Rosser Reeves “Effigy” (verse)
Rosser Reeves “E=mc²” (verse)
Brian W. Aldiss “Timberline” (Hothouse No. 4)

Cover by Ed Emshwiller

Contents from Galactic Central

An excerpt from Joe Wehrle, Jr.’s review of the Hothouse series, from The Digest Enthusiast book six:

“The story “Timberline” (September 1961) finds the travelers far from their natural home, a place where the Sun seems to hang low over the water, and the air is cold and misty. A land of eternal sunset. The boat grounds on an ice shelf, and Gren and Yattmur urge the fishers out of it and onto an islet, where they all live fairly contentedly for a time.”

Fawn the Dark-Eyed posterIn 1965, Joe Wehrle, Jr. launched Fawn the Dark-Eyed. Inspired by the heyday of newspaper comic strips like Flash Gordon and Modesty Blaise, the publication presented Fawn’s adventures in Sunday-sized comic strip pages. Unfortunately, this early version of Fawn only lasted two issues, with the second edition published in February 1966.

A third issue was planned, and Joe published a poster of Fawn in 1967 to bridge the gap between issues. All three items are relatively hard to find, but the poster is likely the most uncommon. Fortunately, a small stock of the original print run has been uncovered and is now available via eBay.

The second iteration of Fawn appeared in 1972, as a blonde, in the four-page comic adaptation of Joe’s short story “The Bandemar” in Sense of Wonder No. 12. The story and comic are slated to appear in The Digest Enthusiast book nine in Jan. 2019.

Fawn’s longest run appeared in 1974, in a second series of Sunday-sized comic strips in the Menomonee Falls Gazette No. 142–161, 163–171, 173–176, 178, 179, 181, 183 and 188.

F&SF July 1961The second part of Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse saga appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction (July 1961).

Contents
Kingsley Amis “Something Strange”
Will Worthington “Package Deal”
Nicholas Breckenridge “The Cat Lover”
Grendel Briarton “Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: XLI”
Otis Kidwell Burger “The Zookeeper”
Kris Neville “Closing Time”
Poul Anderson “Night Piece”
Isaac Asimov: Science: Recipe for a Planet
Brian W. Aldiss “Undergrowth” (Hothouse No. 3)

Cover by Ed Emshwiller

Contents from Galactic Central

An excerpt from Joe Wehrle, Jr.’s review of the Hothouse series, from The Digest Enthusiast book six:

“In “Undergrowth” (July 1961), we find that the morel has bisected itself to access the minds of both Poyly and Gren. Under its direction, they capture a girl named Yattmur in order to learn the whereabouts of her tribe. If mankind, like H.G. Wells’ Eloi, has lost its initiative through the passage of time, the morel acts as a prod, driving his hosts to achieve its own ambitious aims.”

F&SF April 1961The second part of Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse saga appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction (April 1961).

Contents
Evelyn E. Smith “Softly While You’re Sleeping”
Harold Calin “The Hills of Lodan”
Anne McCaffrey “The Ship Who Sang” (Brainship)
Robert Graves “Dead Man’s Bottles”
Kit Reed “Judas Bomb”
Grendel Briarton “Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: XXXVIII”
Isaac Asimov: Science: My Built-In Doubter
Nils Peterson “Cosmic Sex and You”
Richard Banks “Daddy’s People”
Doris Pitkin Buck “On Hearing Another Report of Little Green Men from . . .” (verse)
Brian W. Aldiss “Nomansland” (Hothouse No. 2)

Cover by Ed Emshwiller

Contents from Galactic Central

An excerpt from Joe Wehrle, Jr.’s review of the Hothouse series, from The Digest Enthusiast book six:

“In ‘Nomansland’ (April 1961), the second part of the saga, we’re shown even more richness and multiplicity of the plant world. Toy is now nominal leader of the group since Lily-yo and the other elders have “Gone Up” but Gren is beginning to assert himself as a rebel, unwilling to submit to a leader. Oldest of the males, it is tabu for any of the females to touch him except during the courtship season.”

BK Stevens interview

B.K. Stevens published over 50 short stories, primarily in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Eleven are included in her collection, Her Infinite Variety: Tales of Women and Crime. She’s the author of Interpretation of Murder, a traditional mystery offering insights into Deaf culture and sign language interpreting, and of Fighting Chance, a martial arts mystery for young adults. Nominated for Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards, and a Derringer award-winner, Stevens taught English for over 30 years and wrote full time until her death in 2017.

At the time of her interview for The Digest Enthusiast book six, she sent a copy of her bibliography which is now available on this website. I’ll continue to update Bonnie and Joe’s biblios in the days ahead.

F&SF Feb. 1961 coverExcerpt from Joe Wehrle, Jr.’s review of the Hothouse series by Brian Aldiss, from The Digest Enthusiast book six:

“I have a most vivid recollection of receiving my February subscription copy of Fantasy and Science Fiction with Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse novelette. The Ed Emshwiller cover grabbed me at once with its near-abstract depiction of figures caught in a mad tangle of vegetative color. The story lived up to the illustration’s promise. And then some. And the series won a Hugo Award.”

“Hothouse begins by directly immersing us in a steaming forest habitat where humans of a greatly diminished size (one-fifth our height) struggle endlessly against semi-sentient vegetable life, and one side of Earth forever faces an aging Sun.”

Work on The Digest Enthusiast book eight is about 90% complete. Content gathering for the “News Digest” section is underway and layout will begin next month. The zine is in great shape for a late May/early June release.

Spread on Joe Wehrle, Jr.

POD/Digital digests are on the rise and looking better than ever. The writers have always pushed themselves to improve, the editors always on the lookout for the best writing they can find. But recent issues have also begun to the push to improve their design. It’s inspiring and gave me pause to consider how to improve the look-and-feel of TDE. Last time, the contents page got a major upgrade. In book eight, I’ve made design improvements throughout the issue. I think it’s the best looking issue yet. Here’s a sample spread from our tribute to the great Joe Wehrle, Jr. who left us on December 10, 2017. The piece is a “…visual time capsule of his legacy…an amazing, unsung hero of the creative arts.”

Escape splashpanelHere’s the splashpanel of a 4-page comic story about a robot from 1962 by the late Joe Wehrle, Jr. This is one of his earliest works that I’ve seen, created when he was 21 years old. If it looks familiar please let me know. I wonder if it was ever printed in a fanzine, most likely a science fiction fanzine.

The Digest Enthusiast book eight will feature a pictorial tribute to Joe and his work, with lots of samples and quotes from correspondence and interviews. It’s due in June 2018. I also intend to add his bibliography to the website as soon as I carve out some time. In the meantime, isfbd has one focused on his science fiction work.