In
which we take a closer look at each issue of the magazine. For our capsule
history, go here.
TZ Publications, Inc.
President
& Chairman: S. Edward Orenstein
Secretary/Treasurer:
Sidney Z. Gellman
Executive
Vice Presidents: Nils A. Shapiro
& Eric Protter
Executive
Publisher: S. Edward Orenstein
Publisher:
Nils A. Shapiro
Associate
Publisher/Consulting Editor: Carol
Serling
Editorial
Director: Eric Protter
Editor:
T.E.D. Klein
Managing
Editor: Jane Bayer
Contributing
Editors: Gahan Wilson & Theodore
Sturgeon
Design
Director: Derek Burton
Art
and Studio Production: Georg the
Design Group
Production
Director: Edward Ernest
Controller:
Thomas Schiff
Administrative
Assistant: Eve Grammatas
Public
Relations Manager: Melissa
Blanck-Grammatas
Public
Relations Asst: Jeffrey Nickora
Accounting
Manager: Chris Grossman
Circulation
Director: Denise Kelly
Circulation
Assistant: Karen Wiss
Circulation
Marketing: Jerry Alexander
Western
Newstand Consultant: Harry Sommer
V.P.
Advertising Director: Martin Lassman
N.Y.
Advertising Manager: Louis J. Scott
Advertising
Production Manager: Rachel Britapaja
Advertising
Assistant: Marina Despotakis
Contents:
--“In the Twilight Zone” (editorial) by
T.E.D. Klein
--Other Dimensions: Books by Theodore
Sturgeon
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan
Wilson
--Interview: Robert Bloch, conducted by
Tom Collins
--“The Jaunt” by Stephen King
--Boucher Back-to-Back, “Summer’s Cloud”
& “The Way I Heard It” by Anthony Boucher
--100 Years of Fantasy Illustration by
Stephen DiLauro
--“The Assignment” by Mitch Potter
--“The Dreamshattering” by Mary Kittredge
--TZ Screen Preview: “Outland” by Robert
Martin
--“The Fireman’s Daughter” by Phyllis
Eisenstein
--“Waiting for the Papers” by Alan Ryan
--“The Inn of the Dove” by Gordon Linzner
--“Deadline” by Mel Gilden
--“Scenicruiser and the Silver Lady” by
Peter S. Alterman
--Show by Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone,
Part Three by Marc Scott Zicree
--“The After Hours” (teleplay) by Rod
Serling
--Looking Ahead: “In July’s TZ . . .”
-“In
the Twilight Zone” by T.E.D. Klein
Subtitled: “An Exceedingly Wide Range .
. .”
-Here
Klein gives brief biographical details about the contributors. Some
contributors are featured in thumbnail images.
-Other
Dimension: Books by Theodore Sturgeon
Sturgeon comments on the following:
-The
Trouble With You Earth People by
Katherine Maclean
“. . . a brilliant and highly original
writer who writes only when she has something important to say. . .”
-Transfigurations
by Michael Bishop
“as complex, as carefully thought-out,
and as compelling an sf novel as you’ll find anywhere, ever.”
-Songs
from the Stars by Norman Spinrad
“. . . marvelous melding of plot and
real feeling. . . “
-The
Beginning Place by Ursula K. LeGuin
“. . . the kind of fantasy, I’m sure,
that lived so urgently in Rod Serling’s heart.”-Fiction
of the Absurd: Pratfalls in the Void edited
by Dick Penner
“. . . zooms into sardonic and hilarious
and provocative fantasies that most pure fantasist wouldn’t – couldn’t – dream
of.” -Shallows
of Night by Eric van Lustbader
-The
Wall of Years by Andrew M. Stephenson
“. . . he’s done a lot of homework.”
-The
Demu Trilogy by F.M. Busby
-Find
the Changeling by Gregory Benford and
Gordon Eklund
“I found the premise incredible but
enjoyed the chase.”
-Birth
of Fire by Jerry Pournelle
“. . . complete with insurrection,
revolution, social commentary, and battle.”
-Time
Out of Mind by Richard Cowper
-Firebird
by Charles L. Harness
“. . . to pile wonder upon wonder can
cause the collapse of wonder.”
-Re-entry
by Paul Preuss
“. . . swift and ingenious.”
-Optiman
by Brian Stableford
“I like the scholarly, subtle Stableford
rather better than this kind of intellectualized mayhem.”
-The
Golden Barge by Michael Moorcock
“I recommend it.”
-Cosmic
Crusaders by Pierre Barbet
“. . . wonderful, wild patchworks of sf
and historical drama. . .”
-Project
Pope by Clifford Simak
“. . . it’s a lovely book.”
-The
Devil’s Game by Poul Anderson
“. . . an engaging book; Anderson
doesn’t know how to tell a story badly.”
-Wheelworld
by Harry Harrison
“. . . a hard-driving adventure tale
with some highly inventive and believable off-Earth effects.”
-Came
a Spider by Edward Levy
“Don’t bother.”
-Yellow
Peril by Richard Jaccoma
“. . . don’t buy it.”
-A
Different Light by Elizabeth A. Lynn
“. . . it has the strength and
tenderness and yearning that a true love story needs.”
-Chronolysis
by Michel Jeury
“The writing is beautiful, with a
wondrous sensuality to the images. . .”
-Sturgeon wrote the introduction to this
edition of the book
-The
Berkeley Showcase, Volume 3 edited by
John Silbersack and Victoria Schochet (Contains an interview with Sturgeon)
-The
Great SF Stories #4 edited by Isaac
Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg
“The entire set will be a landmark when
it’s done.”
-The
Best of John Sladek by John Sladek
“. . . outrageous, hilarious sf
fantasies . . .”
-Valis
by Philip K. Dick
“There is no way to describe or even to
review this book with any accuracy; all one can do is to turn you loose on it
with the injunction that it will give itself to you to the exact degree that
you are able to give to it.”
-Other
Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson
Wilson
reviews two films: The Formula (1980) and Scanners (1981).
-Wilson
generally dismisses both films. The
Formula stars Marlon Brando and George C.
Scott and concerns the mining of coal to produce oil and its secret formula
being kept from the public by an evil corporation. Wilson disparages Brando’s appearance
and performance as well as George C. Scott’s uninspired turn as a police
investigator. The Formula is now
almost totally forgotten expect by those who enjoy poor filmmaking.
-Wilson
is even harsher on the now-classic film Scanners
from director David Cronenberg. Wilson’s
judgment is chiefly founded on his view that Scanners lacks convincing characterizations and is too similar to Brian de
Palma’s earlier film, The Fury (1978), based
on the 1976 novel by John Farris. Posterity has proven that Wilson is off the
mark on this critique as Scanners is
now considered a classic of the horror/sf film, remembered chiefly for its
impressive special effects from legendary makeup artist Dick Smith and the
villainous performance from actor Michael Ironside. Wilson is correct that Scanners
is very similar to The Fury and was likely inspired by the earlier film
but the film has since surpassed The Fury (a film which I am personally very fond of) in both critical esteem and cultural longevity.
-Interview:
Robert Bloch, conducted by Tom Collins
-Robert
Bloch, born 1917, was the prolific author of many works of horror, mystery, and
science fiction, far too numerous to list here, and should be familiar to most
readers of this blog. He was a professionally published author while still in
his teens whose career spanned from the late pulp era to the early 1990s,
encompassing radio, film, television, short stories, novels, and even stand-up
comedy. He was a noted correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft, was a recipient of
Grand Master awards from the World Fantasy and World Horror conventions, and
was a favorite raconteur on the convention circuit. Bloch is renowned as the
author of the novel Psycho, the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s film. He
also wrote many film and television scripts, including several of the great
Amicus anthology films (adapted from his short stories) and films for William
Castle, as well as teleplays for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Star Trek,
Thriller, and many more. He died in 1994.
Bloch never wrote for The Twilight Zone in
any of its television incarnations but did write the novelization of the 1983
film, Twilight Zone: The Movie. You
can read our history and review of that publication here.
-Tom
Collins, interviewer, is described by editor T.E.D. Klein as “a writer and
researcher based in Manhattan” who is Klein’s choice to play Mycroft Holmes
based on Collins's appearance. Collins is a very occasional short story writer
but whose chief contribution to the genre is as an essayist on subjects of
fantasy and science fiction.
-The
interview with Bloch begins on solid ground but ultimately ends up mired in an
examination of Bloch’s pseudo-psychological views on modern society. In the
early 1950s, Bloch began to write what is now labeled the psychological
thriller and his interest in related subjects endured throughout his life and
colored much of his work. At the time of the interview Bloch had recently
finished his long-awaited novel Psycho
II. It was released in September, 1982. A
rather enjoyable film, Psycho II, was
released in 1983 but was not connected in any way to Bloch’s novel other than
the shared title. Bloch discusses the genesis of his 1959 novel Psycho, his move to Hollywood to work in films, and
his brief encounter with Alfred Hitchcock at a preview screening of Psycho (1960). The interview concludes with Bloch
addressing his admittedly antiquated views on violence and sociological
subjects. Overall, the interview is rather underwhelming, particularly in
relation to the two previous interviews in the magazine with Stephen King and Peter
Straub. Whereas those interviews focused on creativity and the writing process,
interviewer Tom Collins seemed to be primarily interested in challenging the
ideas on human psychology found in Bloch’s work. For a much more edifying
encounter with Bloch, see the collected edition of Bloch’s interviews, The
Robert Bloch Companion: Collected Interviews, 1969-1989, compiled and edited by Randall D. Larson for Starmont House in 1989.
-“The
Jaunt” by Stephen King
Illustrations by José Reyes
“It
was a journey only sleepers survived.”
-In
the far future, a family of four prepares to take a teleportation journey to
Mars as the father recounts the invention of teleportation in the 20th
century.
-“The
Jaunt” is Stephen King in a relatively rare science fiction mode. Though I am
not in a position to critique his use of science I found the story to be
engaging despite the unusual narrative structure. King's gift for propulsive
narration is evident in nearly everything he writes, particularly from this
period. King can’t help turning his subject toward the grisly and horrifying,
however, and the ending of “The Jaunt,” though predictable, remains effective. According
to T.E.D. Klein’s editorial, King was inspired to write the story after reading
William F. Temple’s 1949 novel The
Four Sided Triangle, which was expanded
from Temple's 1939 novelette for Amazing Stories and filmed in 1953 by Hammer Films and director Terence Fisher. “The Jaunt” was included in King’s 1985
collection Skeleton Crew (in my view,
his strongest collection of stories), as well as in the first, and only, annual
issue of the magazine, Great Stories from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone
Magazine (1982). King was a frequent contributor
to and supporter of the magazine throughout its run, which roughly corresponded
to the most fertile and productive period of his career. He is cover featured
on several issues and contributed a handful of stories and interviews.
-King
is a stated fan of the original series Twilight
Zone (though he all but calls the show
overrated in his 1981 survey of horror in the mass media, Danse Macabre) and contributed a story to the first revival
Twilight Zone series, “Gramma,” taken
from the aforementioned Skeleton Crew after
its appearance in 1984 in Weirdbook 19. “Gramma”
concerns a young boy who is left alone to care for his bedridden grandmother
who happens to practice black magic and needs a fresh young body into which she
can project her consciousness. The story contains elements of H.P. Lovecraft’s
“Cthulhu Mythos” and was adapted for television by Harlan Ellison.
-For
King's constant readers, there is one bit of trivia which may have gone
unnoticed. In the story, during the experimental phase of teleportation, the United
States government selects a convicted murderer to take the jaunt while awake in
order to study the results. The mass murderer they select is named Randall
Foggia, who comes through the jaunt horribly aged and muttering, “It’s eternity
in there.” Foggia is likely an avatar of King’s the Man in Black, a villainous
character who features in many of King’s works, such as The Stand and The
Dark Tower series. The character and his
many avatars are typically identified by the initials RF.
-King's
then-upcoming novel, Cujo, is promoted in T.E.D. Klein's editorial.
That novel was released in September, 1981. On a final note, the film rights to
“The Jaunt” are currently held by writer/director Andrés Muschietti, the
director of the current adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel IT. Time will tell whether we get a film of “The
Jaunt” but it would have made an intriguing episode of the Zone revival series.
-Boucher
Back-to-Back; “Summer’s Cloud” and “The Way I Heard It” by Anthony Boucher
Illustrations by Thomas Angell
-Two
short-shorts. “Summer’s Cloud” concerns a tourist who falls victim to a
vampire. “The Way I Heard It” concerns a ghost story and the differing versions
of it heard by a group of people. It is revealed that one of the party is the
subject of the story.
-Anthony
Boucher, born 1911, was the pen name of polymath William Anthony Parker White,
remembered for his fantasy and science fiction stories, his mystery novels, and
his reviews of mystery fiction under the name H.H. Holmes (a name taken from an
infamous 19th century American serial killer). He was co-founder of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, where he served as editor and published many
of the writers who would later write for The Twilight Zone. Boucher provided editorial work for Ellery
Queen’s Mystery Magazine, in which he
provided translations of such writers as Jorge Luis Borges, as well as for
Judith Merril's annual The Year's Best SF. Boucher was also a prolific writer for radio, particularly in the
mystery genre and such programs as The Adventures of Ellery Queen. An annual mystery convention, Bouchercon,
or The Anthony Boucher Memorial World
Mystery Convention, is held in his honor.
He died in 1968.
-The
two short-shorts presented here were originally published in The Acolyte, a
semi-professional magazine remembered chiefly for its dedication to the works
of the circle of writers who gathered around H.P. Lovecraft. Both stories can be
found in The Compleat Boucher from
NESFA Press (1999).
-100
Years of Fantasy Illustration by Stephen DiLauro
-DiLauro
is described by T.E.D. Klein as “. . . a New York-based writer specializing in
art history.” DiLauro would provide two additional essays for the magazine,
both written in collaboration with Don Hamerman, “The Gargoyles of Gotham” and
“A Glimpse of Ghostly Britain.” Here DiLauro provides images and capsule
comments on a wide-array of fantasy artist ranging in time from Gustav Doré to
Edward Gorey. The artists include: Gustav Doré, Aubrey Beardsley, Sidney Sime,
Arthur Rackham, Heath Robinson, Frank R. Paul, Max Ernst, Stephen Lawrence,
Virgil Finlay, Rick Griffin, Lee Brown Coye, and Edward Gorey. Presumably due
to space limitations DiLauro leaves out a number of important artists,
particularly Maxfield Parrish, Edmund Dulac, J. Allen St. John, and Hannes Bok.
It is nevertheless an enjoyable look at this rich field and it is the type of
edifying article which would separate the publication from similar magazines in
the field.
-“The
Assignment” by Mitch Potter
Illustration by Charles Waller
“Why
was the old lady so interested in odd ways to die?”
-A
junior college student believes his substitute teacher is one of the Fates,
women of Greek myth who control the lives and destinies of all humankind
through threads which are woven into existence and cut at the time of death.
-This
appears to be Potter’s sole short story contribution to the fields of science
fiction and fantasy. Unfortunately, the story does not utilize its unique plot
in any original or innovative way and is further hampered by an entirely
predictable ending.
-“The
Dreamshattering” by Mary Kittredge
Illustration by Frances Jetter
“How
do you cure an epidemic of nightmares?”
-A
woman discovers that her husband is working on a classified project at a nearby
military installation that is adversely affecting the lives of the residents in
a nearby town.
-Mary
Kittredge published a single fantasy novel, The Shelter, in 1987, written in
collaboration with Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. She has also produced a handful of
short stories and an essay of interest, “The Other Side of Magic: A Few Remarks
About Shirley Jackson” for Discovering Modern Horror Fiction, edited by Darrell Schweitzer (Starmont
House, 1985). “The Dreamshattering” was her first professionally published work
of fiction. It possesses a very interesting premise in which the government is
developing “bombs” which can cause nightmares and insanity in its victims.
However, the idea struggles to the find the depth of exploration it deserves in
the short story form.
-TZ
Screen Preview: “Outland” by Robert Martin
-The
color portion of the issue takes a look at the 1981 science fiction thriller
film Outland starring Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, and Frances Sternhagen. The bulk of
the article is an interview with director Peter Hyams. The article is
accompanied by several color stills from the film. Robert Martin, author of the film profile, was the editor of Fangoria magazine at the time.
-“The
Fireman’s Daughter” by Phyllis Eisenstein
Illustration by Arthur Somefield
“The
power was there for the asking. You just had to want it enough.”
-A
young woman discovers that her best friend possesses the ability to put out
fires using only her mind. This girl uses her ability to assist her firefighter
father.
-I
enjoyed this story from Eisenstein, who has been nominated for nearly every
award the field of professional science fiction has to offer, including
multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award nominations. She won the now-defunct
Balrog Award for her 1979 short story collection, Born to Exile. Eisenstein
is also a prolific novelist and a frequent essayist. She uses the very clever
concept of reverse Pyrokinesis, which is the ability to mentally create fire,
made very popular by Stephen King in his 1980 novel Firestarter, itself inspired by the writings of Charles
Fort, to craft a tale of friendship,
trust, and, ultimately, tragedy. There is also a satisfying, if easily
foreseen, twist ending. It is one of the stronger stories in the issue.
-Eisenstein's 1978 short story, "Lost and Found," was adapted by George R.R. Martin for the second season of the Twilight Zone revival series.
-“Waiting
for the Papers” by Alan Ryan
Illustrated by Bon Neubecker
“Some
men face the end with a struggle, some with a cry . . .”
-A
young man faces the end of the world with a group of old men in an old fashioned
candy store.
-This
tale about a young man relating his experiences with a group of old men in a
candy store while the fallout from a nuclear attack moves toward them is little
more than a mood and character piece, largely draped in ambiguity. As such, it
feels like a scene out of a longer work instead of a self-contained piece of
short fiction. Ryan is a highly accomplished writer of horror and this story
does not display his considerable talents. “Waiting for the Papers” is included
in Ryan’s 1988 collection, The Bones
Wizard. The phrase, “waiting for the
papers,” refers to the way in which the old men at the candy store wait for the
early edition of the next day’s paper to be delivered. When the delivery truck
does not arrive it is a symbol that the end is truly near.
-Alan
Ryan was a horror and dark fantasy writer who came to prominence during the horror
boom in publishing in the late 1970s. During the 1980s he produced a
substantial body of work including novels, short stories, poems, essays, and
editorial work. His novels include Dead
White (1983) and the highly regarded Cast
a Cold Eye (1984). His short fiction has
been featured in all the major magazines and anthologies of the period and he
won the World Fantasy Award for his 1984 short story “The Bones Wizard.” It is
perhaps by his editorial work that Ryan has left the most lasting mark upon the
field. He compiled the first volume of the Night Visions anthology series (1984) along with the
anthologies Halloween Horrors (1986),
The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories (1988),
and Haunting Women (1988), all of
uniformly excellent quality. Ryan died in 2011. In 2016, Cemetery Dance published his final novel The Slave Tree.
-“The
Inn of the Dove” by Gordon Lizner
Illustrated by José Reyes
“The
Innkeeper’s story had no ending – until two strangers entered.”
-In
feudal Japan, an innkeeper who has suffered a personal tragedy is given an
opportunity for revenge by a fortuitous course of circumstanc
-This
story, though obviously an attempt to write in the style of a Japanese fable,
comes off as flat and uninvolving. It features only the barest glimpse of a
speculative element (concerning the dove of the title) and presents a rather predictable
tale of revenge with a ponderous and unconvincing climactic fight scene. Only
the interest of period detail saves the story from total disappointment.
-Gordon
Lizner is best known as the longtime editor of Space and Time magazine,
an American speculative fiction magazine. Lizner edited the magazine from its
inception in 1966 until the end of 2005. The magazine resumed publication in
2007 under new editorship and continues to be published biannually today. Lizner’s
editorship of Space and Time culled
two Balrog Award nominations in the early 1980s.
-“Deadline”
by Mel Gilden
Illustrated by Randy Jones
“Any
old writer has a muse. John Blakesly Hardin had a demon!”
-A
dying novelist attempts to ward off a troublesome demon so that he can complete
his final novel.
-This
was a slight yet amusing short-short featuring a different spin on the
deal-with-the-Devil story, a story type which The Twilight Zone traded
in repeatedly to differing levels of success. “Deadline” was reprinted a few
years later in 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories, edited by Isaac Asimov, Terry Carr, and Martin H. Greenberg (Doubleday,
1984). A native of Chicago, Gilden applied his talent in combining humor and
horror on the children’s book market in the late 1980s and early 1990s, most
notably on the Fifth Grade Monsters series.
He has continued to write books for younger readers into the new century with
his most recent book, The Coincidence Couch, appearing in 2017 from Wildside Press.
-“Scenicruiser
and the Silver Lady” by Peter S. Alterman
Illustrated by Bob Gale
“A
fatally erotic encounter just off the highway to eternity”
-A
washed-up former baseball player takes to cruising the New York highways at
night to ease the pain of his crumbling life when he encounters an avatar of
Death who travels the same roads and possesses an insatiable appetite for
destruction.
-Despite the terrible title, this
long story by Peter S. Alterman is a bleak little gem written in an engaging
hard-boiled style. It was my favorite story in the issue and moved twice as
fast as the shorter stories in the issue. It is the type of story which would
come to symbolize the “dark suspense” movement which saw its greatest
flourishing in the pages of Cemetery
Dance magazine later in the decade. The
story was reprinted only once, again by T.E.D. Klein, in the Summer, 1985 issue
of Night Cry, with artwork by Frances
Jetter. Alterman appears to have been active in the science fiction and fantasy
community in the late 1970s and early 1980s, writing several essays,
introductions, and reviews for books and magazines. He published only one other
speculative story and seems to have left the field behind entirely. It’s a pity
this story isn’t better known as I think it has strong appeal to fans of
William F. Nolan, Joe R. Lansdale, and Norman Partridge.
-Show-by-Show
Guide: TV’s The Twilight Zone, Part
Three by Marc Scott Zicree
-Zicree
closes out the first season of the series with this third part of his ongoing
guide to the series. The episodes he covers are: “Execution,” “The Big Tall
Wish,” “A Nice Place to Visit,” “Nightmare as a Child,” “A Stop at Willoughby,”
“The Chaser,” “A Passage for Trumpet,” “Mr. Bevis,” “The After Hours,” “The
Mighty Casey,” and “A World of His Own,” all of which we have covered here on
the blog. You can find links to those episodes by finding the title in the
Directory section on the sidebar.
-TZ
Classic Teleplay: “The After Hours” by Rod Serling
-Includes
the shooting script for Serling’s masterful first season episode, including an
unusual variant of Serling’s opening narration. “The After Hours” was directed
by Douglas Heyes and starred Anne Francis as a young woman who experiences a
unique kind of haunting at a New York department store. It contains what I feel
is the single scariest sequence of the entire series when Marsha White (Anne
Francis) awakens after a fainting spell to find herself alone after closing
hours in the darkened department store. We rated the episode an “A,” very near
our highest rating. You can read my review of the episode here.
-This was a very up-and-down issue in
terms of fiction. The stories by Phyllis Eisenstein and Peter Salterman were the strongest, despite appearances by such notable writers of the
period as Stephen King and Alan Ryan. Though I enjoyed the King story it is not
generally considered among his stronger efforts, even by his most ardent
admirers, and it has rarely been reprinted. The article on fantasy illustration
was nice and having one of Rod Serling’s finest teleplays is always a pleasure.
Marc Scott Zicree is cruising through his coverage of the series, needing only
three issues to get through the first season. As the magazine continued its run
it would look to retain the “Show by Show” guides by covering other series such
as Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and
‘Way Out. Keep an eye out for our
coverage of the July, 1981 ssue in a few weeks.
-JP
