In which we take a closer look at each issue. For our capsule history of the magazine, go here.
Volume
3, Number 3 
(July/August,
1983)
Cover
Art: Joe Burleson
TZ
Publications, Inc.
President
& Chairman: S. Edward Orenstein
Contents:
--In the Twilight Zone: “Ailurophilia”
by T.E.D. Klein
--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M.
Disch
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan
Wilson
--Other Dimensions: Nostalgia by Ron
Goulart
--Other Dimensions: TZ Trivia Crossword
#1
--Other Dimensions: Etc.
--TZ Interview: H.P. Lovecraft by Peter
Cannon
--Required Reading: “Something About
Cats” by H.P. Lovecraft
--“Huggins’ World” by Ennis Duling
--“Open Frame” by Jack C. Haldeman II
--Cartoon by Curt Ferguson
--“Edison Came to Stay” by A. Wayne
Carter
--TZ Screen Preview: Brainstorm by James Verniere
--TZ Screen Preview: An Advanced Look at
Twilight Zone: The Movie
--The Fantasy Five-Foot Bookshelf by
Disch, Wagner, Hadji, and Klein
--“The Peddler’s Bowl” by Gordon Linzner
--“The Better Choice” by S. Fowler
Wright
--“The Book” by Gahan Wilson
--A Feline Portfolio
--“Mistral” by Jon Wynne-Tyson
--Show-by-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight
Zone: Part Twenty-Five by Marc Scott Zicree
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “Five Characters
in Search of an Exit” by Rod Serling
--Looking Ahead
--In the Twilight Zone: “Ailurophilia” by T.E.D. Klein
-Klein
begins his editorial by stating that the three most popular subjects for books
were once considered to be Abraham Lincoln, doctors, and dogs. Now, Klein
reflects, the three most popular subjects appear to be golf, Nazis, and cats.
This issue of the magazine takes the latter as its subject and Klein offers to
send a poster of TZ cat Maximilian (pictured, illustration by Randy Jones) to
the first nine readers (for nine lives) to write in with the correct number of
cat images contained in the issue.
-The centerpiece of the issue is an epistolary interview with H.P. Lovecraft, together with a reprinting of Lovecraft’s essay, “Something About Cats.” Klein shares quotes from Lovecraft’s ex-wife Sonia H. Davis (also known as Sonia Greene) and Lovecraft’s friend W. Paul Cook that illustrate Lovecraft’s affection for cats. Klein also explains that the interview with Lovecraft contained in the issue was compiled using Lovecraft’s voluminous letters as published by Arkham House. The remainder of the editorial is business as usual, with Klein providing briefs on the issue’s contributors, beginning with Lovecraft scholars Peter Cannon (who “interviews” Lovecraft) and S.T. Joshi, who writes an introduction and notes for “Something About Cats,” before moving on to the contributors of fiction for the issue, Jon Wynne-Tyson, Gordon Linzner, Ennis Duling, Jack C. Haldeman II, A. Wayne Carter, S. Fowler Wright, and Gahan Wilson, the latter of whom makes a second appearance with his usual column as TZ’s film critic. Klein also mentions that Marc Scott Zicree’s The Twilight Zone Companion is in its fourth printing and has been nominated for an American Book Award.
--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M. Disch
-Disch begins by sharing two images of the Cheshire Cat (in keeping with the theme of the issue) from the Barry Moser-illustrated edition of Alice in Wonderland (pictured), which Disch previously recommended in this column for the Christmas shopping season. Next, Disch thoroughly takes apart works by two of the leading
horror writers of the time, Peter Straub and Karl Edward Wagner, the latter of
whom appears alongside Disch later in the issue for “The Fantasy Five-Foot
Bookshelf.” Disch has a great deal to say about Straub’s Floating Dragon, little
of it positive in tone. He writes: “Straub plots much as he butchers, producing
such a multiplicity of possible explanations that there is sure to be at least
one alibi for any crime against logic.” Disch provides an excerpt from the
novel in order to illustrate Straub’s writing style and sums up his thoughts on
the novel by reprinting several interjections from the section “Unbelief” in Roget’s
International Thesaurus (Third Edition). Disch
next places Karl Edward Wagner’s story collection, In a Lonely Place, under the critical microscope. Disch
generally finds Wagner’s writing as insufferable as Straub’s, but concedes:
“Straub is just as guilty as Wagner of using such pseudohistory as window
dressing for his spook show, but with Wagner it’s less exasperating, partly
because Wagner seems so much more sincere as he performs his ancient rites,
partly because there is a dramatic shapeliness to his tales, the result of
their having a beginning, middle, and an end.”
-Another work that receives the sharp end of Disch’s critical spear is The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Describing Brooks as unrivaled among Tolkien imitators, Disch writes: “Brooks’s Wonder Bread prose is as exciting as a game of Dungeons and Dragons at a birthday party for pathologically shy six-year-olds.” The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, a retelling of the legends of Camelot from the primary perspective of Morgan le Fay, fares little better in Disch’s view. He writes: “Male readers should be warned, however, that as a purveyor of wish-fulfilling fantasies (Once upon a time the world was ruled by a Secret Sisterhood, the Druids, and the greatest and loveliest of all Druids was Vivian, High Priestess of Avalon . . .), Bradley caters primarily to women, especially women (a majority, I fear) who think there may be something in astrology and psychic powers and that science and reason are tools of patriarchal power.”
-Concerning King of the Wood by John Maddox Roberts, Disch writes: “Roberts’s dreamland is chockablock with antiquarian detail that has been well-digested and reconstituted by his imagination, so that the result is not a cabinet of curios but a vivid panorama of a true-seeming never-never-land.” Disch singles out “The Monkey’s Bride” by Michael Bishop from the anthology Heroic Visions, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, while writing that the rest of the book’s contributors produce “work that is either amiable or decorative in the manner of the better sorts of handicraft at a Renaissance Fair.”
-Disch saves his best praise for Hart’s Hope by Orson Scott Card, describing Card as “undoubtedly one of the brightest ascendant stars in the field of fantasy and science fiction.” Disch concludes his column by quoting from a novel Card has been publishing in an “Independent Student Newspaper” disassociated from Brigham Young University. Card writes: “And the temptation of the flesh has become even more powerful in these last days. Because the scientists have wrought seeming miracles, mortals have come to believe whatever sounds like science. The enemy has wasted no time teaching mortals to spout rational-sounding explanations of why it is healthier to indulge the lusts of the flesh than to resist them.” As Disch writes: “Any writer who can, in all sincerity, produce that paragraph and a book like Hart’s Hope has got enough internal contradictions to power his own printing press.”
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson
-Wilson
reviews two films this issue, The
Entity and Sorceress. Wilson spends the majority of the column on The
Entity, the controversial film based on
actual events in which Barbara Hershey (pictured) plays Carla Moran, a single
mother who finds herself the repeated victim of an invisible (or unseen) sexual
assailant. The film was scripted by Frank De Felitta, from his 1978 novel based
on the case of Doris Bither, and directed by Sidney J. Furie. An earlier novel
by De Felitta, Audrey Rose (1975), a
nightmarish tale of reincarnation, was scripted by the author for the 1977 film
directed by Robert Wise. The novel was based on real events from De Felitta’s family
life. The Entity was a controversial
film, and remains so today, due to its graphic depiction of sexual violence,
made even more disturbing by the fact that the assailant is heard but never
seen, nor, as Wilson points out, properly explained. Is it a ghost? A demon? An
invisible man? The film offers little in terms of resolution and functions
rather like a document of a particularly disturbing case history.
-Wilson briefly examines the relationship between sex and horror in cinema, covering pre-code horror films, monster movies, and vampire films before writing: “Now, however, with The Entity, we have arrived at a new era in monsters. . . we can, at least, observe the very explicit effects of a monster who indulges in actual sex, and generally even in the missionary position!” Wilson does not question whether or not the film is actually based on real events but dislikes the use of this marketing approach, regardless of the truth, since make-believe easily elicits a willing suspension of disbelief while “based on actual events” leads the viewer to scrutinize everything presented in the film. This annoyance aside, Wilson writes: “It certainly has a nasty premise, and it could have been a thoroughly disgusting movie. But thanks to Sidney J. Furie of Ipcress File fame, who directed it, and to an oddly sincere sort of script by Frank DeFelitta, based on his novel (which is, presumably, based on some actual incident), and to the acting, by Barbara Hershey, in the really hard-to-beat-for-difficulty role of the supernaturally violated victim, the movie ends up being quite sympathetic.” Wilson also praises the film’s disturbing makeup effects by Stan Winston and James Kagel, very nearly guessing the method by which the artists achieved the effects. For the scenes in which Hershey is assaulted, only the actress’s head was above the bed setting. Hershey sat, unseen, on the floor below while, from her neck down, a fake body was constructed which could be manipulated using cables and air bladders. Wilson concludes on a typically humorous note: “However it was accomplished, I think it’s safe to state it is the very first such whatsis ever assembled, and it would have made a lifetime’s living for an old-time carnival sideshow man.”
-Wilson also briefly considers the fantasy film Sorceress, an exploitation sword and sorcery film written by Jim Wynorski and directed by Jack Hill (as “Brian Stuart”). Wilson begins his review this way: “If The Entity manages to tiptoe around the pitfall of being disgusting, Sorceress, gleefully, does not. It wants to be disgusting, strives for it, and succeeds completely.” Wilson equates the film with the cheap movie serials of his youth, with the added pleasures of sex and sadism thrown in, and spends the rest of his column describing the more outrageous scenes in the film.
--Other Dimensions: Nostalgia by Ron Goulart
-Old
time radio is the nostalgic subject this issue, with a focus on mystery,
suspense, and horror programs of the 1930s and 1940s. Goulart lends a personal
perspective to describing the best-known programs, beginning with Orson
Welles’s (pictured) The Mercury
Theatre on the Air. Goulart briefly
mentions the infamous The War of the Worlds broadcast of 1938 (Goulart remembers it as 1940), as well as the
meeting between H.G. Wells and Orson Welles in October, 1940 during H.G. Wells’s
U.S. lecture tour. They met in San Antonio, TX, where Orson Welles was also
giving a lecture. Although H.G. Wells was vocal in his dislike of Orson Welles’s
adaptation of The War of the Worlds, the
meeting between the two men was cordial. From there, Goulart considers Orson
Welles’s time as radio’s The Shadow, and
expands the discussion to cover his general love for the program, especially
the music, the spooky narration, and the outrageous episode titles.
-Goulart neglects to mention that Orson Welles performed in Lucille Fletcher’s “The Hitch-Hiker” on the long-running, and star-studded, program Suspense, a radio play that was adapted by Rod Serling for the first season of The Twilight Zone. Goulart does mention Fletcher’s other famous radio play, “Sorry, Wrong Number,” perhaps the most popular episode of Suspense, and praises the play’s star performer, Agnes Moorehead (radio’s Margo Lane on The Shadow), who, according to Goulart, performed the play seven additional times due to listener demand. The film version of “Sorry, Wrong Number,” starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, appeared in 1948. Lucille Fletcher provided the film’s script and collaborated with Allan Ullman in adapting the script into a novel, released the same year. Goulart notes that Agnes Moorehead, known for her evocative voice, was awarded a role on The Twilight Zone, in Richard Matheson’s “The Invaders,” in which she doesn’t speak a word.
-The history of I Love a Mystery, Goulart’s favorite program, is discussed in some detail, as are the unique offerings to be found on Lights Out (Goulart’s pick for the scariest radio program) and Quiet, Please. Goulart profiles the two creatives who made these programs special: Wyllis Cooper and Arch Oboler. Goulart describes the way in which Cooper created Lights Out, Cooper’s subsequent departure from the program to try his hand at screenwriting in Hollywood, Oboler’s arrival on the program, leading to its greatest success, and Cooper’s return to radio with the artful but commercially unsuccessful Quiet, Please. Arch Oboler wrote one of the more intriguing “lost” (unproduced) episodes of The Twilight Zone, a script titled “What the Devil!” that was slated for the fifth and final season of the series. The script describes the fate of an obnoxious couple in a sports car who decide to duel with the driver, who happens to be the Devil, of a truck loaded with explosives on a lonely stretch of Arizona highway.
-Even more popular than Lights Out, Goulart tells us, was the horror series Inner Sanctum, the creation of writer/director Himan Brown. Remembered for the ghoulish humor of the program’s host, Raymond (Raymond Edward Johnson), Goulart provides a typical example of Raymond’s opening narration. Having run out of space, Goulart ends his column with a fleeting mention of another program, Escape, which adapted tales from such writers as John Collier, H.G. Wells, and Algernon Blackwood.
--Other Dimensions: TZ Trivia Crossword #1
--Other Dimensions: Etc.
Illustration by Robert Price
-The miscellany column this month includes an interview with actor Donald Sutherland, a brief response to a newspaper article on the avant-garde musical artist Laurie Anderson, and a reprinting of a humorous article by Robert M. Price concerning a narrative trend in horror fiction.
-The magazine’s resident film reporter James Verniere provides a concise biography of Donald Sutherland and interviews the actor concerning Sutherland’s appearances in genre films. They begin by discussing Sutherland’s early appearances in horror films such as Castle of the Living Dead (1964), Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), and Fanatic (aka Die! Die! My Darling!) (1965), the latter scripted by Richard Matheson from a novel by Anne Blaisdell. Next, they discuss the commercial failure of the film Don’t Look Now (1973), a psychological horror film adapted from the story by Daphne du Maurier in which Sutherland appears alongside Julie Christie. The film was directed by Nicholas Roeg, whose career as a cinematographer included photographing Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death (1964), co-scripted by Charles Beaumont, and François Truffaut’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Although Don’t Look Now was not successful upon its initial release, it has since come to be considered among the finest horror/suspense films of its era. Sutherland blames the film’s failure on The Exorcist, which opened two months after Don’t Look Now, as well as, and perhaps more importantly, Paramount Studio’s lack of support for the film. Finally, Sutherland explains the reasons why he accepted a role in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which essentially came down to a great script and a director with a vision. Directed by Philip Kaufman, the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an important entry in the science fiction/horror genre, widely considered to be the equal of the original film version of Jack Finney’s novel (1956, directed by Don Siegel, starring Kevin McCarthy of The Twilight Zone’s “Long Live Walter Jameson” and Twilight Zone: The Movie) due to its convincing urban setting, depth of characterization, excellent performances, gruesome makeup effects, and relentlessly grim tone. The original film version is marred by a superficially happy ending attached to the film at the insistence of the studio.
-The magazine received numerous letters concerning an article in the Chicago Tribune headlined with “Laurie Anderson blends a twilight zone with pop.” The magazine did not immediately respond because no one on the editorial staff knew of Laurie Anderson. “However,” the article states, “it now seems that everyone else in the world does know who she is, and TZ film chronicler Jim Verniere just phoned to say that a lengthy musical composition of hers will be featured in The Keep, the horror movie previewed in our last issue.”
-A reprint of an article by author, publisher, and anthologist Robert M. Price, from his fanzine Crypt of Cthulhu, humorously catalogs the absurd practice among horror writers of having a character write a narrative until the point of their demise (pictured). Price provides several examples. The trend began, as far as Price’s article is concerned, with H.P. Lovecraft’s “Dagon.” Lovecraft is represented a second time with an excerpt from “The Diary of Alonzo Typer,” a story written with William Lumley. Other authors followed in Lovecraft’s footsteps and Price shares examples from stories by Lin Carter, August Derleth, Robert Bloch, and Frank Belknap Long. Fittingly, Price ends the article with “. . . but wait! Good God! What’s that coming out of the garbage disposal – eeeeyahh! glub, glub . . .”
--TZ Interview: H.P. Lovecraft by Peter Cannon
“TZ joins America’s acknowledged master
of cosmic horror for a gentlemanly talk about dreams, nightmares, and the
delights of Providence, Rhode Island.”
-Howard Phillips Lovecraft, author of fantasy and horror fiction, best known for his association with Weird Tales magazine, whose posthumous appreciation as an important American author greatly eclipses the scant recognition received during his lifetime, died in 1937, forty-six years before this issue hit newsstands. Therefore, this interview with Lovecraft is an artistic deception. This feature on Lovecraft was likely originally slated to follow the same format as “The Essential Writers” column from previous issues, in which a deceased writer of supernatural fiction is profiled in an essay by a literary historian (Mike Ashley or Jack Sullivan) and represented with a notable story. Previous issues included features on M.R. James, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machen, and L.P. Hartley. Later issues featured the Benson brothers, Shirley Jackson, and H. Russell Wakefield. It was Carol Serling who suggested that the feature on H.P. Lovecraft take a different approach. Knowing that the magazine wished to reprint excerpts from Lovecraft’s letters, published in several volumes by Arkham House, Serling suggested the interview format, with Lovecraft’s answers taken from his vast correspondence.
-The interviewer is Peter Cannon, a Lovecraft scholar and author of Lovecraftian fiction. Cannon is faithful to the artifice, using his opening remarks to provide a brief outline of Lovecraft’s life and writings and to describe traveling to Providence to meet with Lovecraft for the interview. Cannon covers a great amount of material over the course of the interview. He begins by recording Lovecraft’s thoughts on Providence, Lovecraft’s beloved native city, as well as Lovecraft’s love for England and his penchants as an Anglophile. Lovecraft’s attempts to set stories in other locations are discussed, as is Lovecraft’s bleak view of humanity’s place in the cosmos. From there, the interview moves along a biographical track, recording Lovecraft’s memories of his upbringing, his early love of science (especially astronomy) and reading, the death of Lovecraft’s father, Lovecraft’s admiration for his maternal grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, and the deaths of both Phillips and Lovecraft’s maternal grandmother, the latter event plunging the Lovecraft household into “a gloom from which it never recovered.”
-Other
topics discussed include the way in which the death of Lovecraft’s grandmother
brought nightmares that in turn inspired imagery in Lovecraft’s poetry. Revealed
also is the prosaic truth behind the naming of the mad sorcerer Abdul Alhazred,
author of the dreaded book of black magic, The Necronomicon. The name was
applied to Lovecraft himself by a relative, in a bit of roleplaying, when the
young Lovecraft became enamored of the region described in the Arabian
Nights. Lovecraft’s school days are
briefly touched upon, as are Lovecraft’s earliest published writings, science
articles and miscellaneous written contributions by a teenaged Lovecraft for
local newspapers. From here, the interview delves into Lovecraft’s stories,
beginning with “Herbert West – Reanimator,” a story Lovecraft despised, and a
story that was considered by most to be strictly minor Lovecraft until director
Stuart Gordon and writer Dennis Paoli adapted the story for the 1985 cult film,
Re-Animator. Lovecraft describes
breaking into Weird Tales magazine as
a contributor, and also describes the conditions which resulted in his turning
down the publisher’s offer to edit the magazine (the required move to Chicago
proved prohibitive).
-Lovecraft very briefly describes his marriage to Sonia H. Greene, as well as the eventual disintegration of the marriage, and avoids directly commenting on an indirect question about sex. Lovecraft describes his evolution as a political thinker, his love of the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen, M.R. James, and Algernon Blackwood, and his generally low opinion of the fiction published in Weird Tales. Lovecraft describes the rare instance of a dream inspiring a story, as in “The Statement of Randolph Carter,” and provides comments on a number of his other stories. Lovecraft held a very low opinion of almost all of his stories, stating that the only stories he felt were successful were “The Colour Out of Space” and “The Music of Erich Zann.” Lovecraft describes the occasional difficulties in placing many of his most notable works, including “The Call of Cthulhu” and At the Mountains of Madness, and provides details on the only book publication of his work to appear during his lifetime, an error-filled edition of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” with illustrations by Frank Utpatel, published by Visionary Press in 1936. Lovecraft explains why Putnam’s initially planned to publish a collection of his tales before ultimately declining, and describes the lack of satisfaction achieved in ghostwriting stories or collaborating with other authors.
-Lovecraft gives his opinion concerning popular horror films of the time (he generally found them boring), describes his love of the southern U.S., as well as his reticence to set a story there (he associates warmth with happiness), and bemoans the gradual shrinking of markets for quality weird fiction. Lovecraft explains the reason he has never held down a regular job (he never learned an employable skill), and describes the methods by which he is able (barely) to live on a minuscule budget. The interview concludes with Lovecraft’s autobiographical poem, “Background.” Cannon provides a final statement describing the circumstances of Lovecraft’s death and the creation of the publisher Arkham House by Lovecraft’s friends August Derleth and Donald Wandrei in order to preserve Lovecraft’s writings. Finally, Cannon provides a list of works by Lovecraft and others for those interested in reading further. The interview is illustrated with several photographs, including two profiles of Lovecraft, a photograph of one of Lovecraft’s handwritten letters to Clark Ashton Smith, a photograph of Lovecraft’s tombstone in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, and a current (1983) photograph of the house in which Lovecraft lived. Also included is Lovecraft’s sketch of his home, the cover (by A.R. Tilburne) for the November, 1938 issue of Weird Tales (containing Lovecraft’s “The Nameless City”), and Virgil Finlay’s famous illustrative portrait of Lovecraft as an eighteenth-century gentleman.
-On a final note, the earliest adaptations of Lovecraft’s stories on American television arrived courtesy of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. The second season of the series brought two Lovecraft adaptations, “Pickman’s Model” and “Cool Air,” the latter adapted by Serling, both of which are considered to be among the show’s best segments.
--Required Reading: “Something About Cats” by H.P. Lovecraft
With an introduction and notes by S.T. Joshi
Illustrated by Jason Eckhardt
“HPL’s definitive defense of a creature
who, if not man’s best friend, is
certainly the gentleman’s”
-This dense, witty, philosophical, and sometimes outrageous (and hilarious) written defense of the domesticated cat, presented here in edited form, is one of Lovecraft’s best-known and most oft-reprinted essays, a mode of writing in which, according to Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, “Lovecraft fully reveals that astounding erudition, found only indirectly in the tales, that made him one of the most intelligent men of his generation.” The essay was first published (posthumously) as “Cats and Dogs” in the Summer, 1937 issue of the amateur magazine Leaves, edited by Lovecraft’s friend and literary executor Robert H. Barlow. It was collected as the title work in Something About Cats and Other Pieces, edited by August Derleth and published by Arkham House in 1949. The essay was written much earlier, in 1926, and Joshi details the genesis of the piece in his introduction: “It was inspired by Lovecraft’s lifelong connection with amateur journalism. In November of 1926 the Blue Pencil Club, a group of amateur writers based in New York City, was planning to hold a debate on the aesthetic superiority of cats or dogs. Lovecraft had become closely associated with this group during his two years spent in New York, but in April of 1926 he had left the ‘pest zone’ of Brooklyn to return to the tranquil and familiar environs of his native Providence. Not wishing to be left out of the discussion, however, he wrote a lengthy treatise for his good friend James F. Morton to read to the club.” The debate itself was inspired by a similar debate that occurred in the pages of the New York Herald Tribune in October of 1926, in which the critic Carl Van Doren wrote an article defending the cat as the gentleman’s chosen companion. The article prompted rebuttals and attacks from the writers Albert Payson Terhune and Harvey O’Higgins.
-The essay is an artful if straightforward rebuttal of the negative conceptions that have formed around the image of the domesticated cat throughout the course of human history. It also addresses dogs and dog-lovers in an honest, if sometimes insulting, manner. Lovecraft discusses the physical beauty of the cat, famous writers and artists who admired cats, the Egyptian worship of cat idols, the mysteries of cat behavior, and the general inability of some people to live with an animal companion as independent in its behavior as themselves. Lovecraft concludes: “Beauty, sufficiency, ease, and good manners – what more can civilization require? We have them all in the divine little monarch who lounges gloriously on his silken cushion before the hearth. Loveliness and joy for their own sake – pride and harmony and coordination – spirit, restfulness, and completeness – all here are present, and need but a sympathetic disillusionment for worship in full measure.”
-Cats appear in several of Lovecraft’s tales. As S.T. Joshi points out in his introduction: “who can forget that scene in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath [1927; published 1943] when legions of cats save Randolph Carter from loathsome toadlike entities on the moon, leaping back to earth before dawn?” Cats take a central role in Lovecraft’s gruesome revenge story, “The Cats of Ulthar” (1920) and remain an unfortunate figure from one of Lovecraft’s most popular tales, “The Rats in the Walls” (1924). In the tale, the narrator’s cat is given an appallingly racist name which has repeatedly served as fodder for those detractors who have attacked Lovecraft’s growing stature as a writer due to the racism and xenophobia Lovecraft revealed in private letters and, often indirectly, several of his tales.
--“Huggins’ World” by Ennis Duling
Illustrated by Nicola Cuti
“Seen from the inside, the funny papers
weren’t very funny.”
-A journalist is intrigued by a long-running newspaper cartoon, Huggins’ World, which seems never to change over time. The journalist attempts to contact the strip’s creator, feeling there may be a story there which will jumpstart the journalist’s sagging career. The journalist is invited to the creator’s home, making the journey via an old, abandoned railway. Once arrived, the journalist realizes, to his horror, that not only has he arrived in the actual world of the cartoon (a zany town with frighteningly insane residents) but that he is trapped there. In a final act of desperation, the journalist discovers the location of the cartoonist’s drawing board and draws a doorway back to his world. The story was reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 10 (1984), edited by Arthur W. Saha.
--“Open Frame” by Jack C. Haldeman II
Illustrated by Rosanna Chinchilla
“He was just your average Joe, but
somewhere inside lurked a genius”
-For a brief time, an average man becomes incredibly intellectually gifted. In this state, he deduces that the Earth has long moved through a vast electromagnetic field that has diminished the brain power of everyone on the planet. The planet has now moved free of this field. With his newfound intellectual gifts, the man makes plans to improve his life and pursue an array of new fields of study. But it was only a hiccup. Earth again moves into the electromagnetic field and the man loses his newfound intellectual ability.
-Jack C. Haldeman II (1941-2002), a prolific and accomplished science fiction writer specializing in short fiction, returned to the pages of TZ Magazine with the story "Judgment Day" in the March/April, 1984 issue. Another story, "Dead Man's Tie," appeared in the February, 1987 issue. Haldeman collaborated with George Alec Effinger for the story "The Funny Trick They Played on Old McBundy's Son" in the Summer, 1986 issue of Night Cry. Haldeman also wrote the copious story notes for the posthumously published anthology Rod Serling’s Other Worlds (1978), which included an introduction by Richard Matheson and stories by Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, William F. Nolan, Fritz Leiber, and Dennis Etchison, among others. Haldeman's younger brother, Joe Haldeman, best-known as the author of The Forever War (1975), previously appeared in the pages of TZ Magazine for the May, 1981 issue with the story "Seven and the Stars."
--Cartoon by Curt Ferguson
Illustrated by Gregory Cannone
“For phone-machine freaks, a cautionary
tale. Start reading at the sound of the beep.”
-An answering machine, nicknamed Edison by its owner, develops a mind of its own while recording the increasing eccentric behavior of its owner, the frustrations and suspicions of his associates, and, eventually, the evidence of a murder. The tale is told almost entirely in the form of transcripts from an answering machine. This story is an interesting entry in the tale of technological terror, using a recent innovation, the telephone answering machine, to explore the dehumanizing aspects of our increasing reliance on technology to facilitate interpersonal relationships, a theme explored numerous times on The Twilight Zone.
--TZ Screen Preview: Brainstorm by James Verniere
“Despite the death of one of its stars,
special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull believes he’s saved the film. James
Verniere reports.”
-Verniere documents the troubles on the set of the film Brainstorm, directed by Douglas Trumbull and starring Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood (pictured), Louise Fletcher and Cliff Robertson (star of The Twilight Zone’s “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” and “The Dummy”). The film is notable as the final film role of Natalie Wood, who died in a boating accident before photography was completed on the film. Wood’s death, which continues to be a subject of fascination for many who believe there was more to the actress’s death than an accident, nearly derailed the film. Despite the insistence of director Trumbull that the film could be completed without Wood, MGM/UA attempted to scrap the project and collect on an insurance claim with Lloyds of London. Trumbull convinced Lloyds that the film could be completed and was given the go-ahead to finish. MGM/UA eventually came around once Trumbull screened a rough cut of the film for the studio. Trumbull is best-known as a special effects artist, working on such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Trumbull’s opportunities as a feature-film director virtually evaporated after the troubled production of Brainstorm, a film which, due to the studio’s reluctance to properly market the film, was a commercial failure. Trumbull previously directed the science fiction ecology film Silent Running (1972) but it was also commercially unsuccessful. Verniere briefly interviews Trumball concerning the filming of Brainstorm. The feature is accompanied by several color photographs from the film.
--TZ Screen Preview: An Advanced Look at Twilight Zone: The Movie
“What’s in store for the summer? A trip
back to The Twilight Zone, courtesy Steven
Spielberg and John Landis.”
-This is a photo-feature serving as a preview of Twilight Zone: The Movie as well as a preview of the next issue of TZ Magazine, which is devotedly almost entirely to documenting the production of the film. The text that accompanies the photographs describes each segment of the film, including director George Miller's remake of Richard Matheson's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (pictured), which I wrote about in detail in my previous post.
--“Confessions of a Freelance Fantasist” by Isidore Haiblum
Illustrated by the author
“A survival guide in the form of a
memoir”
-In the previous issue, science fiction and fantasy author Isidore Haiblum (1935-2012), using a humorously self-deprecating tone that is carried over into this installment, wrote about his cloistered upbringing in an ethnic Jewish community, his discovery of hardboiled detective stories, which spurred a desire to write, and his breakthrough as a writer when he connected with author/editor Larry Shaw at Dell Books. In this installment, Haiblum describes his life as a published author, from falling into the science fiction genre (“I do not view my lack of scientific knowledge as an obstacle”), to writing the first ethnic Jewish science fiction novel (The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders), to injecting his love of hardboiled detective fiction into his novels. Haiblum also describes the ups and downs of having an agent, seeing his works published in hardcover, as well as in foreign editions, and the challenges of working with artists to achieve an appropriate cover image.
--The Fantasy Five-Foot Bookshelf by Thomas M. Disch, Karl Edward Wagner, R.S. Hadji, and T.E.D. Klein
“More recommended reading lists from
those in the know – and shame on you if you’ve never heard of Claude Seignolle
or Philip George Chadwick.”
-Last issue I shared the pages from the first part of this feature. This time around, I’ve decided to simply list the selections chosen by the authors. In most cases, each author also provides a sentence of two explaining why the works in question deserve their lofty positions.
13 Great Works of Fantasy from the Last 13 Years
Selected by Thomas M. Disch
1.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2.
The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories by
Cynthia Ozick
3.
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
4.
Shamp of the City-Solo by Jaimy
Gordon
5.
The Great Victorian Collection by
Brian Moore
6.
The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium and Other Novels by Harry Matthews
7.
The Auctioneer by Joan Samson
8.
Dancers at the End of Time by Michael
Moorcock
9.
Alyx by Joanna Russ
10.
Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend
Warner
11.
Lovers Living, Lovers Dead by Richard
Loritz
12.
Childhood and Other Neighborhoods by
Stuart Dybek
13.
Little, Big by John Crowley
13 Neglected Masterpieces of the Macabre
Selected by R.S. Hadji
1.
Basil Netherby by A.C. Benson
2.
Bury Him Darkly by John Blackburn
3.
The Dark Chamber by Leonard Cline
4.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Hanns
Heinz Ewers
5.
The Shiny Narrow Grin by Jane Gaskell
6.
Children of the Black Sabbath by Anne
Hebert
7.
Neither the Sea Nor the Sand by
Gordon Honeycombe
8.
Tales of the Uneasy by Violet Hunt
9.
A Book of Bargains by Vincent
O’Sullivan
10.
The Hole of the Pit by Adrian Ross
11.
Randall’s Round by Eleanor Scott
12.
The Accursed by Claude Seignolle
13.
Medusa by E.H. Visiak
13 Best Science Fiction Horror Novels
Selected by Karl Edward Wagner
1.
The Death Guard by Philip George
Chadwick
2.
Final Blackout by L. Ron Hubbard
3.
Vampires Overhead by Alan Hyder
4.
The Quatermass Experiment by Nigel
Kneale
5.
Quatermass and the Pit by Nigel
Kneale
6.
The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck by
Alexander Laing
7.
The Flying Beast by Walter S.
Masterman
8.
The Black Corridor by Michael
Moorcock
9.
Land Under England by Joseph O’Neill
10.
The Cross of Carl by Walter Owen
11.
Freak Museum by R.R. Ryan
12.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
13.
The Day of the Triffids by John
Wyndham
The 13 Most Terrifying Horror Stories
Selected by R.S. Hadji
1. “The Striding Place” by Gertrude
Atherton
2. “Negotium Perambulans” by E.F. Benson
3. “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood
4. “The Jar” by Ray Bradbury
5. “In the Bag” by Ramsey Campbell
6. “The Upper Berth” by F. Marion
Crawford
7. “Mujina” by Lafcadio Hearn
8. “Pigeons from Hell” by Robert E.
Howard
9. “The Ash-Tree” by M.R. James
10. “The Thing in the Cellar” by David
H. Keller
11. “The Graveyard Rats” by Henry
Kuttner
12. “The Haunter of the Dark” by H.P.
Lovecraft
13. “The Frontier Guards” by H. Russell
Wakefield
The 13 Most Terrifying Horror Stories
Selected by T.E.D. Klein
1. “Casting the Runes” by M.R. James
2. “The Novel of the Black Seal” by
Arthur Machen
3. “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood
4. “The Dunwich Horror” by H.P.
Lovecraft
5. “Bird of Prey” by John Collier
6. “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell
7. “They Bite” by Anthony Boucher
8. “Stay Off the Moon!” by Raymond F.
Jones
9. “Ottmar Balleau X 2” by George Bamber
10. “First Anniversary” by Richard
Matheson
11. “The Autopsy” by Michael Shea
12. “The Trick” by Ramsey Campbell
13. “To Build a Fire” by Jack London
-Klein also offers a few “honorable mentions” for his list, including “Fritzchen” by Charles Beaumont, “Mimic” by Donald A. Wollheim, “A Bit of the Dark World” by Fritz Leiber, Ringstones by Sarban, and The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson.
--“The Peddler’s Bowl” by Gordon Linzner
Illustrated by José Reyes
“The bowl held magic, that much was
clear. But was it a blessing . . . or a curse?”
-A poor couple in medieval Japan receives an unusual visitor after dark. He is a peddler of wares but is not trying to sell them anything. Instead, the peddler offers that they eat from his bowl. The couple is wary at first and then terribly frightened when it is revealed that the bowl was crafted by forest spirits and contains magical properties. When that magical property is revealed to be an endless bowl of steamed rice, however, the man and his wife eat greedily. The wife wakes the husband in the middle of the night and forces him to help her steal, while the peddler sleeps, as much rice from the peddler’s magic bowl as they are able before the sun rises. Desperate to beat the dawn, the wife reaches her hand into the bowl. The bowl reduces the wife’s hand to a bloody stump. To make matters worse, all of the rice the couple pilfered has transformed into an inedible muck. The peddler, a kind-hearted man, wished only to share a meal with the couple. He travels the countryside, sharing the rice from his magical bowl with the poorest households. He foolishly neglected to explain to the couple the nature of the magic. The contents of the bowl cannot be given if not freely offered and cannot be gathered and stored beyond a single meal.
-Gordon Linzner returns to the pages of TZ Magazine with another tale of magical Japan. Linzner previously appeared in the magazine with the story "The Inn of the Dove" for the June, 1981 issue. Linzner also appeared with the story "Moshigawa's Homecoming" in the November, 1981 issue, and the story "MTA Announces New Plans to Ease Subway Congestion" in the September, 1982 issue. A later story, "The Magistrate's Pillow," appeared in the March/April, 1985 issue.
--A Pair of Cat-Tales
“Two faces of your friendly neighborhood
feline: demonic . . . and delightful”
--“The Better Choice” by S. Fowler Wright
Illustration by Frank Beyda
-A
scientist and his wife are discussing the possibilities, as well as the
advantages and disadvantages, of transforming the wife into a cat. The
scientist believes he can achieve the transformation and the wife offers herself
up as a subject. Many days later, the wife, now in the form of a cat, returns
to their home, having had many exciting adventures. The scientist opens the
door for her, where she can enter the home and return to her human life. Instead,
she bounds away into the night, content to remain a cat. This story originally
appeared in Science Fiction
Adventures in Mutation (1955), edited by
Groff Conklin.
--“The Book” by Gahan Wilson
Illustration by Frank Beyda
-A
book collector named Doren is astonished to find a rare grimoire at an absurdly
low price on the shelves of his favorite used bookstore. He expects to receive
trouble from the shop’s proprietor, who will undoubtedly recognize the error in
price and instead charge Doren a price closer to the book’s actual worth. To
Doren’s surprise, the shop owner offers no resistance when Doren brings the
book to the counter for purchase. Unbeknownst to Doren, however, an evil spirit
in the form of a cat, who has long plagued the shop’s owner, follows the new
owner of the cursed book out of the shop. This story is reprinted from its
initial appearance in the June, 1962 issue of Playboy. It was
collected in The Cleft and Other Odd Tales (1998).
--A Feline Portfolio
“TZ artists look at the most perfect
supernatural creature of them all.”
-The magazine’s art director asked the magazine’s usual artists to dig into their files and share their most interesting or unusual cat illustrations. The results comprise this portfolio, with illustrations by John Canizzo (pictured), Randy Jones, Nicola Cuti, E.T. Steadman, Annie Alleman, Stephen W. Andrus, Yvonne Buchanan, Chris Pelletiere, Rosanna Chinchilla, Peter Kuper, Ahmet Gorgun, Richard Basil Mock, and Frances Jetter. Also included are several quotes on cats.
--“Mistral” by Jon Wynne-Tyson
Collage with an illustration by Aubrey
Beardsley
“When the wind known as le mistral blows, memories return, masks
are torn away, and horror unsheathes its claws.”
-While vacationing in an area of France far removed from the usual tourist spots, the narrator encounters a school friend from many years ago. The friend is accompanied by a beautiful and exotic woman who reminds the narrator of a feline. The narrator learns that the woman insists on a disciplined life. She does not eat meat, vacation where it is cold, or remain in a place where an unnatural wind blows. The narrator makes the mistake of feeding the woman meat from his dinner plate, resulting in the woman’s ravenous behavior. The narrator’s friend and the woman leave soon after the narrator offers the use of his car. Later, the narrator finds his wrecked car near the roadside. Nearby, he finds the body of his friend, clawed to ribbons as though from a wild animal. There is no sign of the woman, and she is never seen again. “Mistral” was reprinted in the first issue of TZ Magazine’s sister publication, Night Cry. It was also selected for The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XII (1984), edited by Karl Edward Wagner. Jon Wynne-Tyson previously appeared in the magazine for the October, 1982 issue. A later story, “Monarch of the Glen,” appeared in the Winter, 1985 issue of Night Cry.
--Show-by-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone: Part Twenty-Five by Marc Scott Zicree
-Zicree
is winding down his episode guide to the original series by providing the cast
and crew credits, Rod Serling’s opening and closing narrations, and summaries
for the fifth season episodes “Sounds and Silences,” “Caesar and Me,” and “The
Jeopardy Room.” Unlike in his then-recently published The Twilight Zone Companion, Zicree’s guide in the pages of TZ Magazine does not include his
production history of the series, episode commentaries, or writer profiles.
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” by Rod Serling
-Reprinted
here is Rod Serling’s teleplay for the excellent third season episode, “Five
Characters in Search of an Exit.” The script was based on an unpublished story,
“The Depository,” by Marvin Petal. It was directed by Lamont Johnson and
featured William Windom, Susan Harrison, Murray Matheson, Kelton Garwood, and
Clark Allen as a group of misfits trapped in an unfamiliar place with no memory
of who they are or how they got there. The episode also features Carol Hill and
Mona Houghton, the latter being the daughter of series producer Buck Houghton. For
more interesting facts about the episode, revisit Brian’s review.
--Looking Ahead: In the September/October TZ
-Next
month brings a special issue, an in-depth look at the making of Twilight Zone: The Movie. The issue also includes George Clayton Johnson's teleplay for his classic TZ episode, "Kick the Can," remade by Steven Spielberg for Twilight Zone: The Movie, as well as an afterword by Johnson proposing a new ending to the play and describing the episode's transition to the big screen. Marc Scott Zicree completes his show-by-show guide to the series and reflects back on his personal journey in researching the series and on The Twilight Zone's unique appeal.
-JP