In
which we take a closer look at each issue. Go here for our capsule history of
the magazine.
Volume
2, Number 5 (August, 1982)
Cover
Art: Ralph Mercer
TZ
Publications, Inc.
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
Assistant
Editor: Robert Sabat
Contributing
Editors: Thomas M. Disch, Ron Goulart
Design
Director: Michael Monte
Art
Director: Wendy Mansfield
Art
Production: Carol Sun, Susan Lindeman
Production
Director: Stephen J. Fallon
Controller:
Thomas Schiff
Assistant
to the Publisher: Judy Borrman
Public
Relations Manager: Jeffrey Nickora
Accounting
Mgr.: Chris Grossman
Accounting
Ass’t: Annmarie Pistilli
Office
Ass’t: Katherine Lys
Circulation
Director: William D. Smith
Circulation
Manager: Marie Donlon
Northeastern
Circ. Mgr: Jacqueline Doyle
Eastern
Circ. Mgr: Hank Rosen
West
Coast Circ. Mgr: Gary Judy
Advertising
Manager: Rachel Britapaja
Adv.
Production Manager: Marina Despotakis
Advertising
Representatives: Barney O’Hara &
Associates
Contents:
--In the Twilight Zone: “On the track of
Poe . . .” by T.E.D. Klein
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Ron
Goulart
--Other Dimensons: Books by T.E.D. Klein
--Other Dimensions: Music by Jack Sullivan
--Other Dimensions: Etc.
--TZ Interview: Douglas Heyes by Ben
Herndon
--“The Lighthouse” by Edgar Allan Poe
and Robert Bloch
--“MS. Found in a Bottle” by Joseph
Cromarty
--“Midtown Bodies” by John Bensink
--“The Chili Connection” by Hal Hill
--Tron, E.T. and Poltergeist: For the
kid in you . . . by Ed Naha
--Fun in the Dark by Deborah Wian
--“Slippage” by Michael Kube-McDowell
--“Something Evil” by Barbara Owens
--“The Dreamhouse” by Gezarija Abartis
--“Garage Sale” by Janet Fox
--The Twilight Zone: The Final Season by
Marc Scott Zicree
--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight
Zone: Part Seventeen by Marc Scott Zicree
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “The Trade-Ins”
by Rod Serling
--Looking Ahead: In September’s TZ
--In
the Twilight Zone: “On the track of Poe . . .” by T.E.D. Klein
-Klein
highlights the issue’s lead story, “The Lighthouse,” a posthumous collaboration
between Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Bloch. “The Lighthouse” began as an untitled
fragment left behind at Poe’s death and was completed in 1952 by Bloch
(published in 1953). Klein first encountered the tale in the Sam
Moskowitz-edited anthology The Man
Who Called Himself Poe (1969), via the
1972 Sphere (UK) paperback reprint, A Man Called Poe: Stories in the Vein
of Edgar Allan Poe. Klein highlights the
issue’s other Poe-inspired tale, the humorous short-short “MS. Found in a
Bottle” by Joseph Cromarty. The remainder of the editorial consists of capsule
biographies of the issue’s contributors alongside thumbnail images.
--Other
Dimensions: Screen by Ron Goulart
-Goulart
steps in for regular films reviewer Gahan Wilson. Goulart begins with a
nostalgic memoir about the movies he grew up with before moving on to the
reviews. Goulart spends most of the column on Cat People (1982)
a remake of the 1942 film from producer Val Lewton. The 1982 version was
directed by Paul Schrader with Alan Ormsby providing the rewrite of DeWitt
Bodeen’s original screenplay. It starred Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell,
John Heard, Annette O’Toole, and Ed Begley, Jr. Goulart begins by questioning
some of the “classic” talk which surrounds the 1942 film while also praising the
film’s restraint and use of suggestion in constructing its scares. The 1982
film contains no such restraint and it is this indulgent quality which, in
Goulart’s eyes, marks the film as an interesting failure. The film was updated
for a 1980s audience with the injection of nudity and gruesome violence. Robert
Martin provided a screen preview of Cat People for TZ Magazine in the April, 1982 issue.
-Goulart
also briefly considers Deathtrap (1982), directed by Sidney Lumet, starring
Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve, adapted by Jay Presson Allen from Ira
Levin’s Broadway thriller.
-Sadly,
in related news, Gahan Wilson recently passed away on Nov 21 at the age of 89.
Wilson is known to readers of this series as the films reviewer of TZ Magazine
but of course he was much better known for his macabre and humorous cartoons
featured in such magazines as The New
Yorker, Playboy, and The Magazine of
Fantasy and Science Fiction. Wilson was
also a novelist, short story writer, essayist, editor, and book illustrator.
--Other
Dimensions: Books by T.E.D. Klein
-Regular
books reviewer Thomas M. Disch is out so Klein steps in to appraise a clutch of
titles. Klein organizes the column under subject headings, the first of which
is Reference. Here Klein considers Horror Literature, edited by Marshall B. Tymn, published by Bowker. Between its covers
more than 1300 titles are considered by genre experts, including novels,
collections, and magazines. The book is primarily designed for the library or
the connoisseur. For the novice reader Klein recommends A Reader’s Guide to
Fantasy by Baird Searles, Beth Meacham,
and Michael Franklin (Avon) and its previously published companion title, A
Reader’s Guide to Science Fiction. Klein
also appraises Horror and Science Fiction Films II by Donald C. Willis (Scarecrow Press), Anatomy of Wonder: A
Critical Guide to Science Fiction, edited
by Neil Barron (Bowker), and On Writing Science Fiction: The Editors Strike
Back! by George H. Scithers, Darrell
Schweitzer, and John M. Ford (Owlswick Press).
-Under
the subject heading Old Masters, Klein looks at works related to classic
horror and fantasy writers. Among these are The Ghost of the Heaviside
Layer and Other Fantasms by Lord Dunsany,
illustrated by Tim Kirk (Owlswick Press), Blackwoods Books, a bibliography of the works of Algernon
Blackwood by John Robert Colombo (Hounslow Press), the anthology Friendly
Aliens from the same editor and
publisher, and An F. Marion Crawford Companion by John C. Moran (Greenwood Press). Several volumes related to the English
writer M.P. Shiel are also appraised, including Xelucha and Others; Prince
Zaleski and Cummings King Monk; The Works of M.P. Shiel – Volume I: Writings;
Volumes II and III: The Shielography Updated; The New King; and The Rajah’s Sapphire.
-Under
Puzzles Klein recommends The Tolkien Quiz Book by Nigel Robinson and Linda Wilson. Under Poems Klein appraises works from Joseph Payne
Brennan, Creep to Death, illustrated
by Jane F. Kendall, and L. Sprague de Camp, Heroes and Hobgoblins, illustrated by Tim Kirk. Both volumes were
issued by Donald M. Grant. Finally, Klein looks at The Lowbrow Art of
Robert Willams under the heading Pictures.
--Other
Dimensions: Music by Jack Sullivan
-Sullivan
returns with the final installment in his impressive, wide-ranging survey of
macabre classical music, bringing the series up to date. The works he surveys
include:
“Black Angels” by George Crumb
“Ancient Voices of Children” by George
Crumb
“Night Music I” by George Crumb
“Music for a Summer Evening” by George
Crumb
“Lux Aeterna” from Odyssey by George
Crumb
“Tashi Plays Takemitsu” by Tashi and
Toru Takemitsu
“Time Cycle” by Lukas Foss
“Mysterious Mountain” by Alan Hovhaness
“The Holy City” by Alan Hovhaness
Symphony No. 4 by Alan Hovhaness
“Akrata” and “Pithoprakta” by Xenakis
“De Natura Sonoris” by Penderecki
“Bohor I” by Xenakis
“Organ Works” and “Piano Works” by
William Albright
-Sullivan
recommends the best available recordings for each selection. Sullivan also
offers Updates and Corrections, updating recommendations for recordings of
works explored in past segments of the series. Sullivan closes out with recommendations
from those who wrote in to the magazine. Musicologist Samuel Moyer recommends
the French composers Arthur Honegger and Henri Dutilleaux, and rock musician
Greg Yaskovich, from the space rock group Mars Everywhere, recommends Karlheinz
Stockhausen, John Gage, and Morton Subotnik.
--Other
Dimenson: Etc.
-The
magazine’s newest column explores The Twilight Zone in the popular culture.
This installment includes the use of “Twilight Zone” in headlines from the Buffalo News, Peninsula Times Tribune, and New York Post, an installment of the comic strip Duffy, and a news item from the New London Day describing two young boys who attempted to hide in a department store
by posing as mannequins (recalling the TZ episode “The After Hours”).
--TZ
Interview: Douglas Heyes: Behind the Scenes at ‘The Twilight Zone’
Interview
by Ben Herndon
Illustrated with personal photographs
and artwork from Heyes
-Douglas
Heyes (1919-1993) was perhaps the most celebrated director of The Twilight Zone, having
helmed such classic episodes as “The After Hours,” “The Howling Man,” “The
Invaders,” “Eye of the Beholder,” and five more during the show’s first two
seasons. Heyes was the director brought in to tackle technically challenging
episodes and often displayed innovative camera work rarely seen on television.
This interview is a treasure for those interested in behind the scenes of The
Twilight Zone as Heyes provides detailed
accounts of the making of many favorite episodes.
-Although
a small semblance of Heyes’s full writing and directing career is given in a
brief biographical section preceding the interview, and in places in the
interview itself, the majority of the interview is given over to an in-depth
discussion of Heyes’s years working on The
Twilight Zone. After a brief exchange in
which Heyes discusses his development as a director, the discussion turns to such
TZ favorites as “The Howling Man,” “The Chaser,” “Eye of the Beholder,” and “The
Invaders,” with attention paid to makeup, special effects, writing, and Heyes’s
camera work. Heyes also discusses the creation of Rod Serling’s opening
narration segments in such episodes as “Dust” and “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar
Room.” Heyes discusses how he was brought in to steer Boris Karloff’s
Thriller toward the type of Gothic horror
series suited to its host (a claim disputed in some circles) by revisiting his
episodes for the series, including “The Purple Room,” “The Hungry Glass,”
featuring TZ favorites William Shatner, Russell Johnson, Elizabeth Allen, and
Donna Douglas, and an adaptation of Poe’s “The Premature Burial.” Heyes also discusses working with his wife,
Joanna, on “Eye of the Beholder” and “The
Hungry Glass.”
-Heyes’s
work on Rod Serling’s Night Gallery is, unfortunately, not discussed in any
detail. Heyes wrote and directed the segment “The Dead Man,” based on Fritz
Leiber’s story, and wrote the segments “The Housekeeper” and “Brenda,” the
latter based on the story by Margaret St. Clair. Nevertheless, this interview
remains essential reading for TZ fans.
--“The
Lighthouse” by Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Bloch
Illustrated by José Reyes
“Two masters of the macabre in a
posthumous collaboration: a tale of isolation, horror, and the human will.”
-A
lighthouse keeper narrates his struggles (as well as those of his dog Neptune) to
remain sane amid isolation and the storms which batter the structure. To
alleviate the strain, he becomes lost in his imagination. He imagines a rose
and is astounded to find a rose floating upon the water outside the door to the
lighthouse. Believing himself to have created the rose with his imagination, he
resolves to create a companion for himself, the perfect woman to ease his
loneliness. Although the rose soon transforms into a rotten bit of seaweed, the
narrator is determined to see it through. He conjures a beautiful woman during
a raging storm but her true essence soon becomes horribly apparent. She is
created from the remains of something long dead from the depths of the sea. The
narrator is rescued by his dog Neptune before the woman can claim him for the
sea.
-“The
Lighthouse” began as an untitled story left unfinished at the time of Edgar
Allan Poe’s death in 1849. The manuscript pages were scattered, with a portion
landing in the hands of a private collector and the remainder with the family
of Poe’s literary executor, Rufus Griswold. The fragment was given the title
“The Lighthouse” by Professor George E. Woodberry (1855-1930) when Woodberry
included the Griswold portion in the appendix of his two-volume Life of Poe (1909)
as Fragments of Poe’s Tale: The Lighthouse. The manuscript pages were eventually collated and in 1942 another Poe
scholar, Professor Thomas O. Mabbott (1898-1968), published the fragment
entire. It was Professor Mabbott who set in motion the posthumous collaboration
between Poe and Robert Bloch.
 |
| Uncredited illustration "The Man Who Collected Poe" Famous Fantastic Mysteries (Oct, 1951) |
-Mabbott
was an avid reader of horror fiction and was already aware of Robert Bloch when
he read Bloch’s story “The Man Who Collected Poe” in the October, 1951 issue of
Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Mabbott was impressed by the story,
particularly the way in which Bloch captured the Poe atmosphere and style. “The
Man Who Collected Poe” concerns a book collector who chances to meet the
foremost collector of the works of Poe. While examining items in the Poe
collector’s home library, the visiting book collector is astounded to discover manuscript
pages from several Poe stories of which he has never heard. In one of Bloch’s
most memorable climactic flourishes, the house is consumed by fire as it is
revealed that the Poe collector has brought the great writer back from the
grave to create new works of mystery and imagination. “The Man Who Collected
Poe” remains one of Bloch’s best, and best-known, tales. It is among his most
oft-reprinted stories, appearing in anthologies compiled by such editors as August
Derleth, Peter Haining, Helen Hoke, Marvin Kaye, Martin H. Greenberg, and
Stefan Dziemianowicz. It was first collected in Bloch’s Bogey Men (1963), while also appearing in The Best
of Robert Bloch (1977). The story was
memorably adapted by Bloch for the 1967 Amicus horror anthology film Torture
Garden, where Jack Palance portrayed the
zealous book collector and Peter Cushing the man who collected Poe.
 |
| Illustration by Virgil Finlay "The Lighthouse" Fantastic (Jan-Feb, 1953) |
-Mabbott
wrote Bloch inquiring whether Bloch had ever read “The Lighthouse.” Bloch had
not so Mabbott sent along a copy of the fragment with the suggestion that Bloch
attempt to finish the tale. Bloch stated: “As a lifelong reader and admirer of
Poe, I couldn’t resist. And thus it was, more than a century after Poe’s death,
that I found myself collaborating with him. In order to do so I had to analyze
his style and adapt myself to it.” Bloch completed the tale in 1952 and sold
the story to Fantastic, where it appeared in the January-February,
1953 issue, with the cover proclaiming: “Scoop! Discovery! A NEW Edgar Allan
Poe Masterpiece.” It was collected in Bloch’s Pleasant Dreams – Nightmares (1960).
-The
challenge for the reader becomes finding where Poe left off and Bloch began.
T.E.D. Klein is reticent to reveal the seam in his introduction to this issue
but the line was revealed by editor Sam Moskowitz when he included the tale in
his 1969 anthology The Man Who Called
Himself Poe (1969). Poe’s contributions
halt after the entry for Jan 3 with the words “. . . seems to me to be chalk.”
Bloch begins with the Jan 4 entry of the lighthouse keeper’s fictional journal.
Thus, Bloch wrote the majority of the tale, though he seamlessly binds his
style to that of Poe’s. Bloch has not been the only writer tempted to finish
the tale. Editor Christopher Conlon compiled a volume of noted horror, fantasy,
and science fiction writers completing the fragment. Titled Poe’s
Lighthouse, the anthology was published
in 2006 by Cemetery Dance and includes new works from George Clayton Johnson,
Earl Hamner, William F. Nolan, Conlon, and many more. Conlon has contributed
significantly to the study of The Twilight Zone and the Southern California Group of Writers. We earlier interviewed
Conlon about his work.
--“MS.
Found in a Bottle” by Joseph Cromarty
Uncredited illustration
“As a postscript to the previous tale,
and with apologies to Mr. Poe, we offer this modern variation on his . . .”
-A
man walking along the shore discovers a bottle with a tiny young woman inside.
He uncorks the bottle and attempts to free the woman but when she becomes
insulting he replaces the cork and throws the bottle into the sea.
-This
humorous short-short is a parody of Poe’s 1833 story “MS. Found in a Bottle,”
itself considered a satirical take on seafaring tales. Joseph Cromarty
contributed a few additional tales to TZ Magazine, including “The Screenplay”
in the November, 1982 issue, and “The Neighborhood Assassin” and “Words, Words,
Words,” in the January-February, 1984 issue.
--“Midtown
Bodies” by John Bensink
Illustrated by E.T. Steadman
“‘Jump!’ ‘Don’t Jump!’ Did it really
make any difference?”
-Office
workers discover the secret of flying after following the example of a woman
who attempted to commit suicide by jumping from an office building window but
flew upon the air instead.
-This
was a darkly humorous bit of surrealism and satire from a writer T.E.D. Klein
describes as “one of the funniest writers I know.” The story was reprinted in
the Winter, 1985 issue of Night Cry.
--“The
Chili Connection” by Hal Hill
Illustrated by Randy Jones
“Vasco Blanco had a mighty tough palate
– but was he a match for Hot Throat, the chili-eating champ of the galaxy?”
-An
extraterrestrial named Hot Throat arrives in the Mexican village of Los Fuegos
Pequenos to challenge the local chili-eating champion Vasco Blanco. Although
Hot Throat’s chili-eating abilities are unmatched, he is unprepared for the
effects of the village’s traditional alcoholic drink.
-The
story builds a nice setting and collection of odd characters to play out its
small struggle between worlds. Hal Hill previously appeared in the September,1981 issue of TZ with “Chameleon Junction.”
--Tron,
E.T. and Poltergeist: For the kid in you . . . by Ed Naha
Illustrated with color stills from the
films
“Creating cinematic fantasies involving
a child’s eye-view of the world can require a lot of grown-up ingenuity – as
these three movies prove. Ed Naha reports.”
-Ed
Naha reports on three films thematically linked by children-in-peril
storylines. Naha interviews the creators behind E.T., Poltergeist, and
Tron to examine the ways in which
films about children are no longer just for children. Tron, in particular, is given a detailed look,
including an examination of then-cutting edge computer generated graphics which
defined the look of the film. Steven Spielberg, who directed E.T. and wrote and produced (some say directed) Poltergeist,
is front and center in the feature and
the color stills accompanying the texts.
--Fun
in the Dark by Deborah Wian
Illustrated with Wian’s photographs
“TZ’s roving photographer takes us on a
horror-house tour.”
-Deborah
Wian, photographer for TZ Magazine, provides a photographic tour of East Coast
spook houses, those fairground staples which largely went out with the twentieth
century. Wian visits Dante’s Inferno at Astroland on Coney Island, the nearby Spook-A-Rama,
The Flying Witch at Playland in Rye, New
York, The Haunted Mansion in
Longbranch, New Jersey, and The Haunted Castle at the Great Adventure Amusement Park in New Jersey. Wian interviews
the creators and operators of the attractions and takes photographs showing the
entrances to the attractions, the performers, and much of the garish
decorations which give the attractions their charm. With professional haunts
being such a big business these days it is interesting to see this older style
of spook house where creativity often had to overcome limited space and small
budgets.
--“Slippage”
by Michael Kube-McDowell
Illustrated by Bruce Waldman
“In which a Mr. Richard Hall discovers
that everything grows old and wears away – even the past.”
-Richard
Hall finds himself slipping through the cracks of his own past as all evidence
that he ever existed, including the memories of his family and friends, slowly
disappears.
-This
story is an effective take on a well-worn theme. Kube-McDowell manages to imbue
the story with an emotional context which lifts the tale above the average
offering. TZ writer Charles Beaumont wrote two very effective takes on the
theme, the third season episode “Person or Persons Unknown” and his 1955 story “The
Vanishing American.” Kube-McDowell is a well-regarded writer of hard science
fiction who appears in the pages of TZ with a dark fantasy tale. He is perhaps
best known for his novels in the Star
Wars universe and in the universe of Isaac
Asimov’s Robot City. He is not to be
confused with the horror writer Michael McDowell (1950-1999), author of The
Elementals and the Blackwater series, and films such as Beetlejuice and
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, who
also published in the pages of TZ. “Slippage” was adapted for the first season
of Tales from the Darkside by writer
Mark Durand and director Michael Gornick, starring David Patrick Kelly,
originally broadcast November 11, 1984. The story was selected by Karl Edward
Wagner for Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XI (1983).
--“Something
Evil” by Barbara Owens
Illustrated by Frances Jetter
“Her world was decaying around her – and
revealing a horrible truth.”
The first of three stories under the banner title: 3 Highly Unusual Houses
-A
woman’s poisonous personality begins to physically manifest by turning
everything in and around her home into a rotting wasteland.
-Owens
(1934-2008), an Edgar Award winner for her 1978 story “The Cloud Beneath the
Eaves,” returns to the pages of TZ after her story “The New Man” appeared in
the March, 1982 issue. Like that earlier story, “Something Evil” is a character
study of something ominously supernatural intruding upon a “normal” life. Owens
would place more stories in the pages of TZ, appearing with “Portrait: Edward
Larabee” in the August, 1986 issue and “Sliding” in the August, 1988 issue.
--“The
Dreamhouse” by Gezarija Abartis
Illustrated by D.W. Miller
“The reality they’d shared seemed just
another illusion in . . .”
-An
unhappy couple on a long drive stops to rest at a beautiful farmhouse which
strikes them both as familiar. Once inside the house, however, their secretly
longed-for separation becomes real in a form of purgatory.
-“The
Dreamhouse” was originally submitted to TZ’s story contest for unpublished
writers but Abartis’s entry never reached the judges due to the fact that she
became a published writer soon after submitting the story. Abartis placed
additional stories with the magazine, including “The Rocking Horse” in the
September-October, 1984 issue, and “The Witch of the New Moon” in the April,
1988 issue.
--“Garage
Sale” by Janet Fox
Illustrated by Marty Blake
“The serpentine lady sold second-hand
clothes, old furniture – and something far more permanent.”
-A
city worker takes a trip to the suburbs where she finds herself at a strange
garage sale. There she makes the unusual purchase of a husband and is sold
another life in the bargain.
-Janet
Fox (1940-2009) was a prolific short story writer and poet who began her career
in the mid-1960s with stories in fanzines. By the 1970s Fox began appearing in
book anthologies and professional magazines. Fox was a prolific writer of
horror stories and appeared in the pages of nearly all the horror publications
during and after the 1980s horror boom, with stories in Weirdbook, Cemetery Dance, 2 A.M., The Horror Show, Whispers,
Fantasy Book, Fantasy Macabre, and many
more. “Garage Sale” has been reprinted in 100 Great Fantasy Short Short
Stories (1984), 100 Wicked Little
Witch Stories (1995), and was collected
in A Witch’s Dozen (2003).
--The
Twilight Zone: The Final Season by Marc Scott Zicree
-A
prefatory essay by Zicree before beginning the fifth and final season of his
original series episode guide. The fifth season turned out to be the most
up-and-down season in terms of quality, with some episodes becoming classics
and others viewed as among the worst of the series. The series switched back to
a half-hour program after the fourth season but came to rely too heavily upon
past themes and recycled ideas. Zicree explains how CBS came to cancel the
series and how Rod Serling turned down an idea to bring the series (sans The Twilight Zone
name) to ABC under the title Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves (a title derived from a 1963 book anthology
edited by Serling). Ironically, though Serling balked at the idea of doing “a
series about ghouls” with ABC at the end of the fifth season, he would soon become
involved in just such a series with Night Gallery, though he rather disastrously did not ensure the same type of creative
control he possessed on The Twilight Zone.
--Show-By-Show
Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone: Part Seventeen by Marc Scott Zicree
-Zicree
continues his guide to the original series by providing the cast and crew,
opening and closing narrations, and summaries for “In Praise of Pip,” “Steel,”
and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”
--TZ
Classic Teleplay: “The Trade-Ins” by Rod Serling
-The
full shooting script for Rod Serling’s third season episode about a near future
in which the elderly can exchange their old bodies for young and beautiful
bodies, if they have the money. The episode was directed by Elliot Silverstein
and starred Joseph Schildkraut, Alma Platt, Noah Keen, and Ted Marcuse. It
originally aired on April 20, 1962. Read our review of “The Trade-Ins.”
--Looking
Ahead: In September’s TZ
-Next
month looks to be another great issue. Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver and director
of Cat People, is interviewed, Thomas
M. Disch returns to review books, Ron Goulart reviews three films, William
Fulwiler compiles a quiz to test your knowledge of the first lines of famous
works of SF and horror, and we have stories by Jere Cunningham, Gordon Linzner,
Donald Tyson, John Skipp, and Jonathan Carroll. We also have set visits to Creepshow
and Something Wicked This Way Comes, the return of Mike Ashley’s essays on The
Essential Writers with a look at the works of Arthur Machen, along with “A
Machen Sampler,” and a true rarity, an early radio script from Rod Serling, “A
Machine to Answer the Question.” See you next time!
-JP
