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Reviews December 9, 2018

Telzey Amberdon

Excerpt from Joe Wehrle, Jr.’s article on “The Telzey Amberdon Stories of James H. Schmitz” in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7:

James H. Schmitz wrote a number of stories about a future world where many things are possible, and particularly, over a period of ten years wrote a series concerning one Telzey Amberdon, an emerging telepath, “fifteen years old, genius level, brown as a berry and not at all bad looking in her sunbriefs.”

Jim Schmitz was born October 15, 1911, and lived until April 18, 1981. You may not be too familiar with his work as he wasn’t as prolific as many of his contemporaries, but he wrote dozens of exceptional stories and a handful of memorable novels.

Reviews December 8, 2018

Introducing D&O: The Magazine

Excerpt from the review of Down & Out: The Magazine No. 1 in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7.

Editor Rick Ollerman introduces his new magazine with the assertion, “Digest magazines aren’t what they used to be.” There are few crime fiction magazines on newsstands today. Even the influx of new titles, since the advent of Print on Demand, are often infrequent or published erratically. The Magazine intends to shake things up. How? The backing of a publisher like Down & Out Books should help. But The Magazine’s big idea is to leverage a character from a novel series in a brand new short story. In the debut edition, that’s Reed Farrel Coleman’s ex-cop, ex-PI, ex-retiree, Moe Prager.

In fact, every story in issue No. 1 features a series character, making it an ideal venue to reach new readers or delight series’ fans with short, between-novels, adventures. There’s nonfiction too. J. Kingston Pierce, who manages The Rap Sheet website, provides crime fiction news and reviews, and Ollerman introduces the issue’s only reprint in a column called, “A Few Cents a Word.”

Vault December 6, 2018

The Occult Digest

Excerpt from Tom Brinkmann’s article on The Occult Digest from The Digest Enthusiast book seven:

“The Occult Digest was an amazingly intense publication from 1920s Chicago that had two dynamic women editors who were also the publishers. The first, Effa E. Danelson, edited and published it from 1925–1939. The second, Marie Harlowe, edited and published it from late 1939 until it stopped publication in 1942.”

Tom Brinkmann writes about unusual, off-the-beaten-path magazines, digests, and tabloids. His Bad Mags website was active from June 2004–July 2017. His books, Bad Mags Volume 1 (2008) and Volume 2 (2009) are available from secondary outlets, including amazon.com

Vault December 4, 2018

Space Science Fiction No. 1

Space Science Fiction Vol. 1 No. 1 May 1952
Contents
Lester del Ray: Editorial
Lester del Ray “Pursuit”
Jerry Sohl “The Ultroom Error”
Isaac Asimov “Youth”
George O. Smith: Science—Fiction and Fact
Henry Kuttner “The Ego Machine”
Coming Events
Bryce Walton “To Each His Star”
Calling All Fans

Publisher: John Raymond
Editor: Lester del Rey
Assoc. Editor: Ben Peters
Art Director: Milton Berwin
Cover: Orban
Interior Art: Orban, Schecterson, Harrison

Read Vince Nowell, Sr.’s article “When Things Go Wrong—The Lester del Rey/John Raymond Fiasco” in The Digest Enthusiast book seven.

Vault December 2, 2018

AHMM August 1958

Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Vol. 3 No. 8 August 1958

Dear Readers: Alfred Hitchcock
Contents
Richard Hardwick “Suspicion is not Enough”
Helen Fislar Brooks “The Mink Coat”
Paul Tabori “An Interlude for Murder”
George Bush “Fate has Three Blinding Eyes”
Robert Edmond Alter “To Catch a Big One”
Bryce Walton “Good-Bye Sweet World”
Evan Hunter “Not a Laughing Matter”
Evans Harrington “Like a Legend of Evil”
Henry Slesar “Compliments to the Chef”
Borden Deal “The Followers”
Charles Mergendahl “Do-It-Yourself”
C.B. Gilford “The Dangerfield Saga”

Publisher: Richard E. Decker
Editorial Director: William Manners
Managing Editor: Marguerite Bostwick
Associate Editors: Pat O’Connell, Nadine King
Art Director: Meinrad Mayer

The graveyard pictured on the front cover also appeared in Vertigo, Hitchcock’s current film at the time of this issue’s release. See Peter Enfantino’s overview and synopses of Robert Edmond Alter’s stories for AHMM in The Digest Enthusiast book seven.

Interviews November 30, 2018

Starting The Magazine

Excerpt from Rick Ollerman’s interview from The Digest Enthusiast No. 7. Here he talks about the origins of Down & Out: The Magazine.

“I had been thinking about all of the latest wave of magazines that have hit the marketplace, mostly made possible by newer technologies like POD and the ability to do layouts and upload .pdf files to a publisher, etc. and wondered why they seemed to have a limited shelf life.

“I bumped into Eric Campbell from Down and Out Books at Bouchercon in New Orleans. And I told him, ‘You should do a magazine.’ He took a sip of something that wasn’t Kool-Aid and said, ‘That’s funny, I’ve been thinking the same thing.’ I told him I’d be interested in editing it and putting it together.”

The first issue of Down & Out: The Magazine debuted in the summer of 2017.

Opening Lines November 28, 2018

Opening Lines

“I’m not so sure about this job,” he said. “It sounds dangerous. You’ll be surrounded by addicts.”

Opening lines from “Death in Rehab” (Leah Abrams’ fifth adventure) by B.K. Stevens Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine May 2011

Reviews November 25, 2018

Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse No. 5

The 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.

Reviews November 23, 2018

Fate Vol. 23 No. 5 (No. 242) May 1970

Excerpt from Tom Brinkmann’s article, “Sharon Tate’s Fate,” from The Digest Enthusiast book six:

Fate’s May 1970 issue ran one of the earlier post-murder “weirdness” articles titled, “Sharon Tate’s Tragic Preview of Murder!” by Dick Kleiner. The article related the tale of Tate’s run-in with the ghost of Hollywood producer Paul Bern.

Tom Brinkmann writes about unusual, off-the-beaten-path magazines, digests, and tabloids. His Bad Mags website was active from June 2004–July 2017. His books, Bad Mags Volume 1 (2008) and Volume 2 (2009) are available from secondary outlets, including amazon.com

Vault October 16, 2018

Bob Hope’s They Got Me Covered

Life magazine’s October 27, 1941 profile of Bob Hope: “His most pretentious work, They Got Me Covered, a riotous autobiography, is in the tradition of Josh Billings, Bill Nye and Petroleum V. Nasby, and he is showing signs of developing into a cracker-barrel philosopher.”

They Got Me Covered is a collection of Bob Hope’s quips, cartoons, and photos. Steve Carper reveals the full story behind this 95-page, digest-sized paperback in The Digest Enthusiast book six.