Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:
“Strike in the nails, soldiers, and let our guest see the reality of our good Roman justice!”
“Worms of the Earth” by Robert E. Howard Magazine of Horror #22 July 1968
Here’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.
Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:
“A crimson sun was sinking slowly in a pale-blue sky. Another evening was drawing on over the undulating hills of Macedon, and the tall poplars seemed to nod approval in the gentle breeze which rocked them to and fro,”
“World of the Ancients” by C.D. Ellis Worlds of Fantasy #4 1951
Although not labeled officially with the “Ellery Queen Selects” banner, Bestseller Mystery B94 follows the series’ formula: a short story collection edited by Queen, with his introduction.
Bestseller Mystery B94, Jan. 30, 1948
“Cops and Robbers” by O. Henry
“After Twenty Years” (The Four Million, New York Sunday World Magazine, Feb. 14, 1904)
“The Clarion Call” (The Voice of the City)
“A Municipal Report” (Strictly Business, Hampton’s Magazine, Nov. 1909)
“The Dissipated Jeweler” (O. Henry Encore, Houston Post, 1896)
“The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes,” (Sixes and Seven, New York Sunday World Magazine, Feb. 7, 1904)
“The Cop and the Anthem” (The Four Million, New York Sunday World Magazine, Dec. 4, 1904)
“Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet” (The Gentle Grafter)
“The Random of Red Chief” (Whirligigs, The Saturday Evening Post, July 6, 1907)
“A Retrieved Reformation” (Roads of Destiny, Cosmopolitan, April 1903)
“Babes in the Jungle” (Strictly Business)
“A Double-Dyed Deceiver” (Roads of Destiny, Everybody’s Magazine, Dec. 1905)
“The Caballero’s Way” (Heart of the World, Everybody’s Magazine, July 1907)
“The Marionettes,” (Rolling Stones, The Black Cat, Apr. 1902)
“The Man Higher Up” (The Gentle Grafter)
Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:
“The telephone was ringing when I walked into my office. I thought I knew who it was, but I tossed my hat on the desk and answered it anyway.”
“Gorilla of the Gasbags” by Bill Crider EQMM Mar/Apr 2014
The Jan/Feb 2018 issue of EQMM may have been the last issue to feature Bill Crider’s long running column: Blog Bytes. Here’s what he said about it in our interview for The Digest Enthusiast five:
“I’m not sure how ‘Blog Bytes’ came about, as I inherited the column from Ed Gorman, who called me and asked me to take over for him. I suspect that the column was the idea of the EQMM editor, Janet Hutchings, who wanted to start making some connections with the online world, but it could have been Ed’s idea. When I agreed to do the column (in 2007; hard to believe it’s been almost 10 years), Ed sent me some of his columns to look at. They were all between 400–415 words, so I’ve stuck to that with my own column.
“The only thing that worried me about doing the column was whether there would be enough new blogs and websites to keep it going. I needn’t have worried. Another thing that occurred to me a few years ago was that some blogs deserved a repeat mention because people might have missed the first one or might have forgotten about it. So I now lead with a repeat each time.”
EQMM cover image from Galactic Central.
Although not labeled officially with the “Ellery Queen Selects” banner, Bestseller Mystery B91 follows the series’ formula: a short story collection edited by Queen, with his introduction.
Bestseller Mystery B91, Oct. 14, 1947
“The Department of Dead Ends” by Roy Vickers
Contents
“The Rubber Trumpet,” Pearson’s Magazine, Sept. 1934*
“The Case of the Merry Andrew,” Fiction Parade and Golden Book Magazine, July 1936 as “The Cowboy of Oxford Street”
“The Man Who Was Murdered By a Bed,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March 1946
“Mean Man’s Murder,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov. 1945
“Snob’s Murder,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Aug. 1946
“The Case of the Honest Murderer,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July 1946
“The Man Who Played the Market,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Oct.1946
* Listed on the copyright page as Fiction Parade, 1935, actually the first merged issue of Fiction Parade and Golden Book Magazine, Oct. 1935, reprinted from Pearson’s.
Selected from a digest featured in The Digest Enthusiast book five:
“Some time has passed since I first told you about the Stranger Club up on West 53rd Street. I have spent part of it in the great lounge listening to stories of one sort or another, but they must wait, for, starting in this room last month, I have been led into as extraordinary an adventure as any I have been told and I must tell it as it befell. Perhaps the telling may help me to forget.
“Caverns of Horror” by Laurence Manning Magazine of Horror #6 November 1964
Social media and the blogs of Bill Crider’s friends and fans celebrate the life of the gifted writer with tributes and recollections upon the news of his passing yesterday. Like many, I first met Bill through his wonderful blog Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine.
In 2015, I was fortunate enough to meet him in person at Bouchercon in Raleigh, where he signed a copy of his—at the time—current novel Between the Living and the Dead. A year later, he graciously agreed to be interviewed via email and responded to general questions about his career, and highlighted some of his short stories and articles for magazines and zines like The Not So Private Eye, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, New Mystery, Hardboiled, and Ellery Queen.
When asked about his terrific story, “The Marching Madmen,” starring The Spider, he shared the inside information:
“I was invited to write a story for The Spider Chronicles, and the invitation came at a time when I’d been reading a lot of Novell Page Spider novels. I’m easily influenced by the writing style of other authors, so it seemed as if it would be easy to sit down and write a story like the ones I’d been enjoying. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, so I’m glad you think it turned out well. Writing the story kind of burned me out on The Spider, and I haven’t read any other Page novels since then.”
Rest in peace, Bill Crider, your stories and kindness, that touched so many lives, lives on.
Comic artist and illustrator Brian Buniak, drew this wonderful collage of images for Richard L. Kellogg’s spoof, “Fencer’s Document Caper,” that appeared in The Digest Enthusiast book five. Here’s the opening:
“On a warm and pleasant afternoon in Boston, my friend Eagle and I were sitting happily in the upper decks of Fenway Park.”
