The Digest Enthusiast – Page 28 – Larque Press | The Digest Enthusiast

TDE Update May 17, 2018

Michael Bracken Interview

Award-winning author and copywriter, Michael Bracken, delivers a terrific 17-page interview for The Digest Enthusiast book eight. Michael is the author of over 1,200 short stories and several novels. He garnered the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement in short mystery fiction in 2016. Shown here is the opening spread that kicks off the discussion that includes career highlights, writing tips and techniques, and comments on his stories from Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Espionage, Weird Menace, AHMM, Mystery Weekly Magazine, EQMM, Needle, Down & Out: The Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and others. TDE8 is coming soon.

Note: Photography by Amber Bracken.

Vault May 14, 2018

Sharon Tate’s Eye of the Devil

Witchcraft News ad — Advertisement for Sharon Tate’s first film, Eye of the Devil, from Witchcraft News

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

“There was a lot of weirdness concerning Tate’s first movie, 13, aka Eye of the Devil, which starred David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Donald Pleasence, David Hemmings, and introduced Sharon Tate. ‘Look at her long enough and she may be the last thing you ever see!’ claimed an early version of the print ad.”

TDE Update May 11, 2018

Coming soon to virtual newsstands near you:

The print proof for The Digest Enthusiast book eight is due May 17th. If the final review goes smoothly, the print and digital versions should be available near the end of the month.

Among the features inside is Peter Enfantino’s overview and synopses of Western Magazine and its pardner publication, 3-Book Western. Here’s an excerpt:

“By 1955, western fiction was everywhere. On the TV, on the radio, in paperbacks, in the funny books and, perhaps most of all, in the pulps. A good percentage of the oaters (in all the various print incarnations) were published by Martin Goodman and his publishing empire. When Good- man decided to add digests to his résumé, he did so with an uncharacteristic tentativeness . . .”

News May 5, 2018

Bob Vojtko’s Butrum Beaver

Yesterday’s mail brought a new mini comic, a classic 8-page style mini comic, from TDE contributor Bob Vojtko. It’s filled with single-page comics and gag cartoons featuring Butrum Beaver who’s just turned 50. He’s feeling his age and the corporate overloads at the Lumber Yard where he works aren’t helping.

Bob also has four new cartoons in The Digest Enthusiast book eight, due out later this month.

Butrum Beaver #1 can be yours for the bargain price of just $1, postage paid. Contact Bob through his page on Facebook. And be sure to ask about his other mini comics like Fake Comics and Bent Lemons.

Reviews May 2, 2018

Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse

Excerpt 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.”

TDE Update April 27, 2018

The Creative Worlds of Joe Wehrle, Jr.

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.

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.”

Vault April 24, 2018

Manhunt January 1953

Manhunt blazed onto newsstands with Mickey Spillane’s “Everybody’s Watching Me,” serialized over its first four issues. Reprinted in June 1955, and in January 1964 as “I Came to Kill You,” it became one of the few stories ever to run three times in the same magazine.

Interviews April 20, 2018

Speculative Fictioneer

cover — Analog May/Jun 2017 “Tenéré” with Manny Frishberg Cover design by Victoria Green

From the introduction to Edd Vick’s interview, conducted by D. Blake Werts, from The Digest Enthusiast book six.

“Edd Vick works for the University Book Store, and buys so many books that his library is a stuffed three-car garage. He published The Comics Fandom Examiner in the early 1990s, which reviewed thousands of creator-controlled comics, then started issuing them under the name MU Press and its imprint AEON. The publishing company lasted fifteen years into the mid-2000s, printing well-received work by Donna Barr, Cathy Hill, Matt Howarth, and others. Edd’s stories have appeared in Analog, Asimov’s, The Year’s Best SF, and many other magazines and anthologies. He was a founding member of the website The Daily Cabal, an early online outlet for flash fiction. He lives in Seattle with SF novelist Amy Thomson, their adopted daughter Katie, three chickens, a dog, and a cat.”

Opening Lines April 17, 2018

Opening Lines

Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:

“Their women came first.

“One was a blonde, one a redhead, one a brunette. They were tall, extremely so; as though height had been a determining factor in their present status. Among others. They were beautiful, in a spectacular fashion. It was not a friendly sort of beauty. Their blue-painted eyelids were held far down over their eyes; not in modesty, but in a sort of supercilious disdain. As though rejecting the stares they were long since used to receiving.”
“The Black Bargain” by Cornell Woolrich Justice Vol. 2 No. 1 January 1956

Vault April 12, 2018

Bestseller Mystery B128

Although not labeled officially with the “Ellery Queen Selects” banner, Bestseller Mystery B128 follows the series’ formula: a short story collection edited by Queen, with his introduction. It’s also the last of the series.

Bestseller Mystery, B128, Nov. 1, 1950
“The Monkey Murder and other Hildegarde Withers Stories” by Stuart Palmer
“The Monkey Murder,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jan.1947
“The Purple Postcards,” The Detroit Free Press, July 2, 1939 as “The Riddle of the Purple Postcards” with slight differences in text
“Miss Withers and the Unicorn,” Aug. 3, 1941*
“The Riddle of the Double Negative,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March 1947
“The Long Worm,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Oct.1947
“The Hungry Hippo,” 1943**
“Tomorrow’s Murder,” The Detroit Free Press, June 2, 1940 as “Riddle of the Beggar on Horseback” with slight differences in text.
“Fingerprints Don’t Lie,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov. 1947

* date of copyright registration: no findable publication previous to this volume.
** 1943 is copyright date given in the book; earliest findable publication: The Australian Women’s Weekly, Feb. 19, 1944. The text has numerous differences.