In
which we take a closer look at each issue of the magazine. For our capsule
history, go here.
Volume
1, number 7 (October, 1981)
Editor:
T.E.D. Klein
Cover
Art: Tito Solomoni (for “Offices” by
Chet Williamson)
TZ Publications
President
& Chairman: S. Edward Orenstein
Secretary/Treasurer:
Sidney Z. Gellman
Executive
Vice-Presidents: Leon Garry, Eric
Protter
Executive
Publisher: S. Edward Orenstein
Publisher:
Leon Garry
Associate
Publisher and Consulting Editor: Carol
Serling
Editorial
Director: Eric Protter
Editor:
T.E.D. Klein
Managing
Editor: Jane Bayer
Contributing
Editors: Gahan Wilson, Theodore
Sturgeon
Editorial
Assistant: Marc Stecker
Design
Director: Derek Burton
Art
and Studio Production: Georg the
Design Group
Production
Director: Edward Ernest
Controller:
Thomas Schiff
Administrative
Asst.: Eve Grammatas
Public
Relations Manager: Jeffrey Nickora
Accounting
Mgr.: Chris Grossman
Circulation
Director: Denise Kelly
Circulation
Assistant: Karen Wiss
Circulation
Marketing Mgr.: Jerry Alexander
Western
Newsstand Consultant: Harry Sommer,
N. Hollywood, CA
Advertising
Manager: Rachel Britapaja
Adv.
Production Mgr.: Marina Despotakis
Advertising
Representatives: Barney O’Hara &
Associates, Inc.
Contents:
--In the Twilight Zone: “Wonders Never
Cease” by T.E.D. Klein
--Publisher’s Note by Carol Serling
--Other Dimensions: Books by Theodore
Sturgeon
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan
Wilson
--TZ Interview: Richard Matheson by
James H. Burns
--“Out of Place” by Pamela Sargent
--“Shootout in the Toy Shop” by Robert
Sheckley
--“Zeke” by Timothy Robert Sullivan
--“The Burden of Indigo” by Gene O’Neill
--“Sea Change” by George Clayton Johnson
--TZ Screen Preview: The Beast Within by Robert Martin
--Dr. Van Helsing’s Handy Guide to Ghost
Stories, Part III by Kurt Van Helsing (T.E.D. Klein)
--“Offices” by Chet Williamson
--“The Tear Collector” by Donald Olson
--“The Great Elvis Presley Look-Alike
Murder Mystery” by Mick Farren
--“Paintjob” by Jay Rothbell
--The Twilight Zone: The Third Season by
Marc Scott Zicree
--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight
Zone: Part Seven by Marc Scott Zicree
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “The Big, Tall
Wish” by Rod Serling
--Looking Ahead: In November’s TZ . . .
--In
the Twilight Zone: Wonders never cease . . .
-Klein’s
editorial column follows standard procedure for this issue, brief bios of the
contributing writers along with their thumbnail images. Klein calls attention
to the fact that Marc Scott Zicree’s guide to the series no long has to rely
upon publicity images for each episode as the dean and students at the Ithaca
College School of Communication have sent the magazine images from the episodes
taken from the school’s Rod Serling Archive.
--Publisher’s
Note by Carol Serling
-This
is Serling’s first return since the premier issue and she uses the occasion to
share some of the encouraging letters the magazine offices have received since
the publication began, as well as promote the magazine’s new short story
contest.
--Other
Dimensions: Books by Theodore Sturgeon
-In
a change of pace, Sturgeon looks at fewer titles than usual and uses the
majority of the column to trumpet John Crowley’s novel Little, Big, which
Sturgeon describes this way: “More than five hundred pages, and when you reach
the end, you mourn that there are no more, and you deeply envy those who have
yet to read it; you wish you could be a fly on the wall to watch their surprise
and delight as they turn these magic leaves.”
-Sturgeon
also briefly looks at Stephen Englehart’s The Point Man (“as exciting a
slam-banger as you’ll find this year”), Index to the Science Fiction
Magazines 1980 by Jerry Boyajian and
Kenneth R. Johnson (“the editors are convinced that magazines are still where
the action is, and so am I”), and War Games by Karl Hansen, perfect if “your thing is battle, sex, violence, and
hardcore sf all at once.” Sturgeon ends the column by wishing congratulations
to Donald A. Wollheim on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Wollheim’s
DAW Books.
--Other
Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson
-Wilson
takes the opposite approach of Sturgeon and increases the number of films he
looks at in this issue from his usual two to four. Wilson takes a brief look at
Escape from New York (1981, director: John Carpenter), Outland
(1981, director: Peter Hyams), Superman
II (1980, director: Richard Lester), and Raiders
of the Lost Ark (1981, director: Steven
Spielberg).
-The
only film Wilson dislikes on an artistic level is Superman II, which
Wilson believes fails to capture the relatively innocent feel of the original
comic books, mainly though the film’s use of realistic violence. Superman
II suffered from a troubled production which
saw Twilight Zone director Richard
Donner, who helmed the first film, exit the production. In recent years, a
“Richard Donner Cut” of the film has been released.
-Wilson’s
takeaway from Escape from New York and Outland is the inherent bleakness of each film, as the directors of those films
present our voyage into the future and into space as violent, cruel, and
dominated by the machinations of big business. Wilson is more pleased with Raiders
of the Lost Ark, which he views chiefly
through the lens of nostalgia, though he cheapens the film by not recognizing
the artistry which separates the film from its admitted source material, the
Saturday serial matinee. Hindsight is 20/20, however, and the film has gone on
to be considered a classic of the adventure film.
--TZ
Interview: Richard Matheson, Spinning fantasy from daily life
By
James H. Burns
-The
concluding half of Burns’s two-part interview with Twilight Zone writer
Richard Matheson is very rewarding. Matheson recounts his time scripting feature
films, including an in-depth look at the Edgar Allan Poe series from director
Roger Corman and American International Pictures. In this and subsequent
sections of the interview Matheson occasionally comes off as difficult to
please as he expresses dislike for the AIP Poe films as well as Alfred
Hitchcock’s The Birds, which Matheson
at one point had the opportunity to script until Hitchcock disagreed with
Matheson’s vision that the birds should rarely be shown in the film.
-Matheson
proceeds to discuss all of his film work for the large and small screens, those
he scripted and those scripted by another hand based on his work. He discusses
the difficulty in adapting his own work as well as in adapting the work of
others. Some of the films Matheson discusses in detail include: The Morning After, Die! Die! My Darling, The Devil
Rides Out, and The Stranger Within, the latter taken from Matheson’s story
“Mother By Protest” (aka “Trespass”). Matheson also discusses the failings of The
Legend of Hell House and Somewhere in
Time, as well as his television ventures
outside of The Twilight Zone, including
the Star Trek episode “The Enemy
Within,” which Matheson claims was tampered with by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Matheson discusses
the production of Duel, his work with
producer/director Dan Curtis, and the occasional odd project such as the
television film Dying Room Only, which
Matheson greatly enjoyed.
-Matheson
concludes by discussing the effort to make a film from his latest novel, What Dreams May Come, a project which would not see fruition until 1998. Matheson also teasingly
states that “I have loads of Twilight Zone episode ideas left over from when I was working on it. Hosting a
fantasy series would be a lot of fun.” Unfortunately, we never got to see
Matheson host his own fantasy series or use those Twilight Zone ideas. As I stated in last issue’s review,
this interview with Matheson is one of the finest and most in-depth I’ve read
outside of Matthew R. Bradley’s career retrospective interview “The Incredible
Scripting Man.” It comes highly recommended.
--“Out
of Place” by Pamela Sargent
Illustration by Annie Alleman
“‘To see ourselves as others see us’ can
be pretty disconcerting – especially when it’s through the eyes of your own pet
cat!”
-Seen
through the perspective of a housewife and her interactions with her pet housecat,
the world awakens one day to find that the thoughts of animals can be heard
aloud.
-The
strength of this tale lies in the fact that Sargent does not play it for laughs
but commits to a serious extrapolation of what might occur if humans could
suddenly hear what animals were thinking. Sargent predicts that animals would
reveal our hates, prejudices, fears, and guilt but that ultimately humans would
overcome this burden and force the social order to return to what it was before
the advent of the “miracle.”
-Due
both to its quality and to its subject matter concerning housecats, the story has
been reprinted several times, most frequently in cat themed anthologies such as
Magicats! (1984), Roger Caras’ Treasury of Great Cat Stories (1987), and The Cat Megapack (2013). The story was included in The
Best of Pamela Sargent (1987).
-Sargent
(born 1948), whom T.E.D. Klein describes as “one of science fiction’s most
consistently interesting young novelist,” was near the beginning of her career
when this story appeared but has since become one of the most productive and
accomplished female voices in SF. She has been the recipient of two Nebula
Awards, a Locus Award, and been nominated for dozens more. Her work as an
editor is equally accomplished as she compiled three volumes of the Nebula
Awards anthologies as well as the innovative and important Women of Wonder anthology
series. Associate Publisher Carol Serling found a liking for Sargent’s work as
Serling included a story from Sargent in all three anthologies Serling compiled
for DAW Books between 1993 and 1995. Sargent was the only author to have a
story in each anthology.
--“Shootout
in the Toy Shop” by Robert Sheckley
Illustration by Randy Jones
“Baxter was big, hard-boiled, and hard
to scare. But he finally met his match in the . . .”
-A
down-on-his-luck and unlikable private detective is given a much-needed job by
the owner of a toy shop whose inventory is disappearing nightly.
-Sheckley
returns to the magazine with this brief tale which attempts to combine the
hard-boiled genre with the fantasy tale and is largely unsuccessful in doing
so. The problems lie in the tone and the length of the tale. Sheckley never
settles on a proper tone for this one, unsure whether to play it for comedy or
for suspense or for wonder. He settles for a bit of everything and the mixture
doesn’t quite gel. Also, the tale is too short and centered on the wrong
character. Though its premise of a living doll is hardly original, as a reader
I would have rather spent time with the toymaker and the toys than with the
unlikable private detective who gets a taste of tragedy when he instantly falls
in love with the doll only to destroy it in a jealous rage.
-Sheckley
(1928-2005) was known for his mordantly funny, bitingly satirical short science
fiction and fantasy tales, collected in such volumes as Citizen in Space (1955),
Shards of Space (1962), and The
People Trap (1968). During the 1950s and
early 1960s he was unquestionably one of the finest practitioners of the short
story working in SF, during which time his work was frequently adapted for
television. He won a special author Nebula Award in 2001.
--“Zeke”
by Timothy Robert Sullivan
Illustration by Chris Pelletiere
“An alienated man confronts ‘the world’s
sleaziest roadside attraction’ – and ends up shaking hands with . . .”
-An
albino man struggling to adapt after a messy divorce finds solace from a
creature viewed at a roadside freak show on a lonely stretch of Florida
highway.
-This
is the strangest tale in the issue and it possesses an overall quality of
ambiguousness that somewhat captures of the feel of the original television
series. In a brief passage, the protagonist imagines himself in a Twilight Zone episode
with his movements described by Rod Serling’s narration. Again, this is another
story in the issue with tonal problems, as much of it is described in terms
which would normally denote humor, including broad, unflattering Southern
archetypes, but Sullivan chooses instead to try and achieve a tone of awe and
wonder, coupled with a rather weak attempt at a concluding moral. Sullivan also
attempts, not altogether successfully, the old trick of presenting
stereotypical characters only to display the fallacy of the stereotype.
-Sullivan
(born 1948) appeared on the SF scene in the late 1970s with short fiction and
the occasional essay in genre journals. His few attempts at the novel appeared
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during which time he also compiled the
themed horror anthologies Tropical
Chills (1988) and Cold Shocks (1991). Sullivan’s preferred form is the
short story and he continued to place his short fiction with genre magazines as
recently as 2015.
--“The
Burden of Indigo” by Gene O’Neill
Illustrated by José Reyes
“He wore the hated badge of the pariah.
Why should the world care what was in his heart?”
-The
tale follows the tragic events of a few days in the life a man cursed with the
forced skin pigmentation of a social outcast in an unnamed future society.
-This
tale is marked by its strong social message, one which perhaps still speaks to
us today, as it concerns a group of social outcasts who are marked with varying
shades of synthetic skin pigmentation based upon an undisclosed tier of social
or criminal transgression. O’Neill is wise in not attempting to delineate too
much of the future/alternate society in which his tale takes place, leaving
much of the detail to the imagination of the reader. The fault in the tale lies
in the ambiguousness of character, as O’Neill is clearly attempting the tone of
a moral fable but only succeeds in giving the reader enough of a glimpse of
character to be disappointed when that glimpse does not flower into a fuller
illustration. In other words, a reader may find it difficult to care for a
character one knows little to nothing about. The main message of the tale rings
clear, however, and that is the brutality of the righteous often equals or
exceeds that of the transgressor.
-“The
Burden of Indigo” was O’Neill’s (born 1938) second professional published SF
story and he has continued to turn out short fiction and the occasional SF
novel to the present day, mostly in the horror and dark fantasy genres. He has
been nominated for multiple Bram Stoker Awards, winning two, one for his 2009
fiction collection Taste of
Tenderloin and again in 2012 for his
novella “The Blue Heron.” A recent interview with O’Neill can be found in the
March, 2016 issue of Lamplight magazine.
--“Sea
Change” by George Clayton Johnson
Illustration by Robert Morello
“Lucho had a horrifying secret – even
more horrifying than he himself realized.”
-A
gunrunner suffers a gruesome accident in which he loses his hand only to
discover that his hand has slowly grown back and the lost appendage has grown a
doppelganger
-“Sea
Change” was originally written as a story treatment and sold to The Twilight Zone for
production during the second season. For reasons of objection from a sponsor of
the series, a food company who believed that the story’s gruesome subject
matter would turn viewers from their appetite, series producer Buck Houghton
was forced to ask Clayton Johnson to buy back the story. Johnson, who had
subsisted by occasionally selling his stories to the series, resulting in such
episodes as “The Four of Us Are Dying” and “Execution,” used the opportunity to
offer Houghton a deal. Johnson agreed to buy back his story under the condition
that he was allowed an attempt to write an original teleplay for the series.
Houghton agreed and the result, “A Penny for Your Thoughts,” marked the first
of several distinguished episodes from Clayton Johnson’s typewriter, including
such classic segments as “A Game of Pool” and “Nothing in the Dark.”
-The
title is taken from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610
or 1611: “Nothing of him that doth fade, /But doth suffer a sea-change, /into
something rich and /strange,”). Had the tale been dramatized on the television
series, it likely would have resulted in a truly unique and unsettling segment
which may be viewed as a classic along the lines of Johnson’s other efforts. It
also would have struck a pleasing strain of Gothic horror too seldom featured
on the series. As it is, Johnson held on to the tale for twenty years before
allowing it to appear in this issue, the first of several such “lost” episodes
that the magazine would feature in its pages. “Sea Change” was nominated for
the now-defunct Balrog Award for superior achievement in short fiction and was
reprinted a year later in Great Stories from Rod Serling’s The Twilight
Zone Magazine, the only annual issue the
magazine produced, as well as in the first issue of Night Cry, indications that T.E.D. Klein thought highly
of the tale. Johnson chose the story
as representative of his work for Masters of Darkness, edited by Dennis Etchison, and the story appears in Johnson’s career
retrospective, All of Us Are Dying and Other Stories.
-Johnson’s
(1929-2015) skills at characterization were rivaled only by Rod Serling on the
series and in this brief tale he develops two clearly delineated characters
that immediately pull the reader into the dramatic situation. The concept
itself may seem hackneyed to a modern reader but one must remember that Johnson
originally wrote the material in 1962. If there is a fault with the tale it
lies in its brevity. It feels too much like a story treatment rather than a
proper story. That being said, it hardly suffers for this and remains an
intriguing and enjoyable tale.
--TZ
Screen Preview: The Beast Within by Robert Martin
-Martin’s
latest look at upcoming horror films covers the production of The Beast Within, a
1982 film which began life when producer Harvey Bernard bought the film rights
to Edward Levy’s novel of the same name merely from reading the description of
the novel in a catalog from publisher Arbor House. Needless to say, the film
does not follow the events of the novel. The resulting film was not successful,
monetarily or critically, and has largely been forgotten except by those with a
taste for cult films or those with a particular interest in horror films. Directed
by Phillipe Mora from a screenplay by Tom Holland (later a successful horror
film director, Fright Night, Child’s Play, etc.), the story concerns the emerging bestial nature of the teenaged
progeny of a rape. Among the cast is Twilight Zone actor R.G. Armstrong, who had a memorable role as the sympathetic
contractor in “Nothing in the Dark.”
--Dr.
Van Helsing’s Handy Guide to Ghost Stories by Kurt Van Helsing (T.E.D. Klein)
Illustrated by Lee Brown Coye, with
illustrations taken from the August Derleth-edited anthologies Sleep No More (1944) and Who Knocks? (1946).
-For
this third installment of Klein’s examination of the literary ghost story, the
writer considers the esthetics of the ghost story, with particular attention
paid to form, tone, and the unity of effect in the successful tale of the
supernatural.
-This
installment is much more engaging than the previous entries for no other reason
than Klein finally gets down to examining what makes a ghost story successful as well as offer an answer to the question of why there are relatively few truly distinguished ghost stories despite the thousands which have been written
since the birth of the literary form. Klein largely espouses
the views first proposed by M.R. James, author of some of the finest ghost
stories in the English language, who opined, in the preface to his second collection of ghostly tales, More Stories of an Antiquary (1911), that the ghost story works best when the ghost is "malevolent or odious: amiable and helpful apparitions are all very well in fairy tales and local legends, but I have no use for them in a fictitious ghost story." Klein also forwards the opinion that the humorous ghost story is in fact rarely
humorous, serving only to undermine the essential ingredient in the proper
ghostly tale: the reader must be made to believe that these uncanny events can happen
and thus be frightened by that realization. Klein also believes the tale of
supernatural horror should be short in nature, no longer than a short novel, as
it is difficult to maintain the essential atmosphere of the ghostly tale over a
long novel. Klein disparages the five hundred page novels which were popular at
the time. Ironically, Klein produced one of these giant supernatural novels,
and a fine one at that, a few years later with The Ceremonies (1984).
Klein prominently quotes from successful authors of ghost stories, from Edith
Wharton and Henry James to Walter de la Mare and L.P. Hartley. Klein also promises
a fourth and final installment next issue.
--“Offices”
by Chet Williamson
Illustrated by José Reyes
“The twentieth century has spawned a
whole new way of life. Now it’s even spawned a new breed of ghost.”
-A
copywriter discovers that the spiritual essences of his coworkers haunt the
office building during the nighttime hours.
-“Offices”
was Chet Williamson’s (born 1948) first professionally published short story
and received the cover of this issue of the magazine. It is no surprise,
however, as T.E.D. Klein knew he had something special when Williamson
submitted this tale. It is easily the finest in the issue and one which
perfectly captures that unique Twilight
Zone feel. It is a shame “Offices” wasn’t
adapted for the revival Zone television
series.
-“Offices”
may remind one a bit of Charles Beaumont’s “The Vanishing American” in its
examination of the effects of the nine-to-five workday on the spirit of the
common person. Williamson has produced an admirable body of SF fiction, having
garnered multiple award nominations for his efforts, winning the now-defunct
International Horror Guild Award in 2002 for his story collection Figures in Rain. Williamson
recently completed a sequel to Robert Bloch’s novel Psycho published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2016 as Robert
Bloch’s Psycho: Sanitarium.
--“The
Tear Collector” by Donald Olson
Illustrated by E.T. Steadman
“His rows of colored bottles were
beautiful to look at – but how many lives had he squeezed dry to fill them?”
-A
young woman with a propensity to cry is engaged by a rich tear collector.
-This
slight fable of fortune and misfortune is the rather simple tale of a young
woman who suffers a series of misfortunes and has a propensity to cry. She has
a chance encounter with an eccentric collector of tears. She soon falls in love
with the collector, bringing her happiness and after which she can no longer
provide tears, thus ending their relationship. The ending suggests an amusing
narrative cycle.
-Olson
(born 1938) has not produced a great amount of SF material but has seen “The
Tear Collector” adapted for the television series Tales from the Darkside, a competitor to the revival Twilight Zone series, as the sixteenth episode of the first season. He has seen some
of his other short stories published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
and subsequently reprinted in one of the
various book anthologies which bear Hitchcock’s name.
--“The
Great Elvis Presley Look-Alike Murder Mystery” by Mick Farren
Illustrated by George Chastain
“There were dozens and dozens of
suspects – all of them sporting sideburns and guitars!”
-A
detective is tasked with sorting through the suspects of a murder at an Elvis
Presley look-alike contest.
-This
one is an entertaining and funny riff on a classic mystery set-up. Farren has a
gift for characterization that carries the tale along and the ending, though
somewhat weak, has a pleasingly uncanny edge. Farren (1943-2003) was equally
known as a singer, journalist, and fiction author. He was associated with the
British underground music scene and much of his fiction reflects his interest
in rock n’ roll and related subjects. Farren found time to be an impressively
prolific author, not only in the realm of SF but also in fringe non-fiction and
journalism. He began publishing SF with his 1973 novel The Texts of Festival and continued to produce SF stories and novels until his death.
--“Paintjob”
by Jay Rothbell
Illustrated by Earl Killeen
“A painting’s supposed to be two
dimensional, not three – and certainly not four.”
-A
proud landlord sets out to paint over a mural created by a tenant with
unexpected results.
-This
slight tale has not aged well in one particular area, its unsympathetic
portrayal of immigrants. Rothbell’s immigrant landlord is an extremely
controlling, ignorant, and unlikable figure who hates Americans and who one
assumes will come out of his frightening experience wiser but it is uncertain
that he will do so. Nevertheless, Rothbell evokes some memorable imagery in the
tale and the final third descends into the impressively hallucinogenic strains
of a nightmare.
-Rothbell
(born 1954) is perhaps best known as the fourth wife of writer Robert Sheckley
and is sometimes credited as Jay Sheckley. They met and married in 1981 and
after only a few years their marriage ended in divorce. Rothbell collaborated
with Sheckley on a story, “Spectator Playoffs,” published in Night Cry. Rothbell
would go on to provide both Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine and Night Cry with several additional stories and articles. She ceased writing SF in
the late 1980s.
--The
Twilight Zone: The Third Season by Marc Scott Zicree
-Here
Zicree writes a brief essay on the transition from the second to the third
season of the original television series, something he had not done for the
second season transition but something he would later incorporate into his The Twilight Zone Companion.
--Show-By-Show
Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone, Part 7
-Zicree
continues his guide to the original television series with episode summaries
along with Rod Serling’s opening and closing narrations. With this issue,
Zicree enters the third season of the series. The episodes Zicree covers, all
of which we have also covered here in the Vortex, include: “Two,” “The
Arrival,” “The Shelter,” “The Passersby,” “A Game of Pool,” “The Mirror,” and
“The Grave.”
--TZ
Classic Teleplay: “The Big, Tall Wish” by Rod Serling
-Presented
here is the full original teleplay for Serling’s “The Big, Tall Wish,” filmed
as the 27th episodes of the first season, directed by Ronald
Winston, and starring Ivan Dixon. The episode originally aired on April 8,
1960. You can read Brian’s review of the episode here.
--Looking
Ahead: In November’s TZ
-Coming
up in the next issue are stories by Tanith Lee, Thomas M. Disch, Evan
Eisenberg, Clark Howard, Melissa Mia Hall, Gordon Linzner, Juleen Brantingham,
Stanley Schmidt, and a now-classic (and controversial) horror story by Ramsey
Campbell. Robert Martin previews Halloween
II, Klein, writing as Kurt Van Helsing,
completes his examination of ghost stories, and Rod Serling’s classic teleplay,
“Death’s Head Revisited,” is presented in full. See you back soon!
-JP