Reading Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, Part 16

In which we take a closer look at each issue. For our capsule history, go here. 

Volume 2, Number 4 (July, 1982)

Cover art: David White

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: Gahan Wilson, Thomas M. Disch

Design Director: Michael Monte

Art Production: Wendy Mansfield, 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

Western Newsstand Consultant: Harry Sommer

Advertising Manager: Rachel Britapaja

Adv. Production Manager: Marina Despotakis

Advertising Representatives: Barney O’Hara & Associates

Contents:

--In the Twilight Zone: “Market report . . .” by T.E.D. Klein

--Other Dimensions: Screen (“Digging The Boogens) by Stephen King

--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M. Disch

--Other Dimensions: Music by Jack Sullivan

--Other Dimensions: Etc.

--TZ Interview: Robertson Davies by Terence M. Green

--“Offer of Immortality” by Robertson Davies

--A Glimpse of Ghostly Britain by Stephen DiLauro (text) & Don Hamerman (photos)

--“Tommy and the Talking Dog” by Lewis Shiner

--“Chompers” by Joe R. Lansdale

--On Location with The Last Horror Film by Steve Swires

--TZ Screen Preview: The Thing by Robert Martin

--“Not Our Brother” by Robert Silverberg

--“Why the Traveling Salesman from Aldebaran Doesn’t Stop in Omaha Anymore” by Hal Goodman

--3 Journeys Into Nightmare:

            -“Picnic Area” by Joan Aiken

            -“A Trip to New York” by Nina Downey

            -“Food, Gas, Lodging” by Craig W. Anderson

--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone: Part Sixteen by Marc Scott Zicree

--TZ Classic Teleplay: “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” by Rod Serling

--Looking Ahead: In the August TZ . . .

--In the Twilight Zone: “Market report . . .” by T.E.D. Klein

-The subject of Klein’s editorial is the lamentable state of the market for short genre fiction. Klein takes as his launching point Barry N. Malzberg’s personal history of science fiction, Engines of the Night (reviewed last month by Thomas M. Disch), in particular the section in which Malzberg details his six-month editorship of Amazing and Fantastic in 1968. From there Klein examines the shrinking of the market and expresses the hope that the success of TZ Magazine will produce imitators to publish the many publishable stories which Klein must reject each month for lack of space in the pages of TZ. Klein then provides his customary capsule biographies of the issue’s contributors along with thumbnail images.

Gahan Wilson's cartoon explaining his absence.

--Other Dimensions: Screen by Stephen King

“Digging The Boogens”

-With Gahan Wilson on a publicity tour, Stephen King steps in to praise the simple pleasures of the low-budget horror film The Boogens. The film, about ravenous creatures who ascend from an abandoned mine to terrorize a small town, was directed by James L. Conway and written by David O’Malley and Bob Hunt. It was released in 1981. King extols the pleasures of the simple premise, crude special effects, and performers who are “either in the Young and Fresh or Old and Grizzled category.” King also gently scolds horror film fans who have become so demanding of the form that they can no longer enjoy the pleasures of a simple monster movie. King makes an interesting slipup when he credits Robert Barbour Johnson’s 1939 story "Far Below” to Robert Townley Watson, the latter of whom is a character from King’s own work. Robert Townley Watson was the founder of the Overlook Hotel in King’s 1977 novel The Shining. He is the grandfather of Bill Watson, the maintenance man who shows Jack Torrance the ins and outs of the hotel after Torrance agrees to accept the job of winter caretaker. “Digging The Boogens” is a fugitive nonfiction piece from King as it does not appear to have been collected or reprinted since its appearance here.

--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M. Disch

-Disch looks at Upside Downside by Ron Goulart, Software by Rudy Rucker, The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders by Isidore Haiblum, Roderick by John Sladek, The Impending Gleam by Glen Baxter, and Poetry Comics by Dave Morice.

-Disch describes Goulart’s Upside Downside as “unarguably a dud – the least comic comic novel, on the basis of chuckles per chapter, that I’ve ever read.” Goulart is a regular contributor to TZ Magazine and Disch continues by describing not only the process by which a work such as Upside Downside gets published but the futility of reviewing such a book.

-Disch praised Rudy Rucker’s first published novel White Light but criticized Rucker’s follow-up Spacetime Donuts. Rucker is back with a new novel, Software, which Disch finds more to his liking, largely on the basis of its conscious imitation of the works of Philip K. Dick.

-Disch had this to say about Isidore Haiblum’s The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders: “For me, the whimsy is too gentle and the plot line too much like a game of Dungeons and Dragons combined with a pillow fight, but that just shows that I’m a grumpy old so-and-so who can no longer giggle at three in the morning. You kids have fun. I’m going up to the study and grab forty winks.”

-Disch next reviews John Sladek’s Roderick, an excerpt of which was featured in the September, 1981 issue of TZ Magazine. Disch generally praises the work, ending with: “What remains to be said of Sladek is that, like almost all great humorists, under the hilarity and ingenuity there is a smoldering magma of other emotions: anger, of course, for every satirist is an angry man, but a good deal of pain and sorrow, too.”

-Disch concludes his column by recommending the works of two cartoonist, Glen Baxter, whose The Impending Gloom will appeal to those who enjoy the works of Addams, Gorey, and Gahan Wilson, and Dave Morice, whose Poetry Comics “treats the texts of famous poems as comic book texts, in styles that vary from brain-damaged funky . . . through traditional cute-mouse capers . . . to a collage of Emily Dickinson done in the style of True Romance comic.”

--Other Dimensions: Music by Jack Sullivan

-Sullivan returns with another installment in his history of macabre classical music. He begins by covering the music of George Liegeti’s Requiem as it was used by Stanley Kubrick in The Shining. The remaining selections are:

Symphony no. 7 & Symphony no. 8 by William Shuman

Symphony no. 7 by Peter Mennin

“Eight Songs for a Mad King” by Peter Maxwell Davies

“Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum” by Olivier Messiaen

--Other Dimensions: Etc.

-The second installment of this new feature finds humor and food for thought in the predictions of a psychic from the pages of the December, 1968 Playboy, a graphic design from Stephen Schlich in which the text reads “Twilight Zone” one way and “Rod Serling” the other, a quotation from The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith (Arkham House, 1979), a passage on the pulp magazines from Frederick Pohl’s memoir The Way the Future Was, two examples of the use of “Twilight Zone” from the March 14 and March 28 issues of The New York Times, and a poem written in parody of H.P. Lovecraft: “Another Fungus from Yuggoth” by Baird Searles. The offer of a poster of Maximillian the Twilight Zone cat is also reiterated to those who contribute usable material.

--TZ Interview: Robertson Davies by Terence M. Green

“Canada’s literary magician speaks his mind on ghost fiction, evil, and the modern age.”

-It is a good thing that interviewer Terence M. Green provides a brief biography of Davies before the interview proper since little about Davies’s life and career are approached in the interview. The interview somewhat narrowly focuses on the influences in Davies’s fictions, from Davies’s thoughts on supernatural fiction and the idea of Evil, to the neutering of fairy tales and the works of Poe and Mervyn Peake. Davies also speaks a bit on the current sociopolitical climate and the fundamental importance of personal experience in the creation of fiction. Despite the somewhat narrow focus and lack of biographical detail, the interview is a delight as Davies is engaging and intelligent. Davies’s works which are discussed are his ghost stories (an example of which follows the interview), the Deptford Trilogy of novels (Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders), and his then-current book, The Rebel Angels. Davies died in 1992, aged 82.

--“Offer of Immortality” by Robertson Davies

Illustrated by Lisa Mansolillo

“Forget the warm weather – it’s Christmas in Toronto! So settle back in your chair, let your dinner digest, and listen as the Master of Massey College recounts his last college ghost story.”

-The narrator (Davies) befriends a visiting professor from Colombia, Jesus Maria Murphy, who offers to reveal the secret of his immortality. As the narrator is taking a day to decide whether he wants to be cryogenically frozen in order to return and observe the progress at the college, Murphy comes to a bad end during the annual Christmas dinner.

-Davies, the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate college associated with the University of Toronto, made a tradition of telling ghostly and strange stories during Christmas at the college, much like that master of the ghost story, M.R. James. “Offer of Immortality” was the final story told by Davies at Christmastime before his retirement. It was collected, along with Davies’s other Christmas ghost stories, in High Spirits (1983). Perhaps the most notable aspect of the tale is the level of humor, which Davies acknowledged as a conscious attempt to contrast the “somber” quality of many ghost stories.

 

Dead Man's Tree

--“A Glimpse of Ghostly Britain” by Don Hamerman (photographs) & Stephen DiLauro (text)

“The Druids are long dead, they say, but in their land the ancient mysteries survive”

-This feature essentially functions as a travel guide to the legendary haunted places of Great Britain, covering Stonehenge in Wiltshire, Dead Man’s Tree in London’s Green Park, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Tower of London, and the tombstones in a courtyard of the Blackfriars section of London. This was a fun and engaging short feature with some excellent photographs.

--“Tommy and the Talking Dog” by Lewis Shiner

Illustrated by Donni Gilles

“More important, what he said made sense.”

-A young boy is offered a pair of magical shoes by a talking bulldog with the promise of treasure to be discovered. After putting on the shoes, the boy finds that he can walk into any room in a motel and speak candidly with the inhabitants there. Eventually, the boy throws the shoes away only to later discover that the treasure he sought was the ability to see the world in any way he desired.

-Lewis Shiner returns to the pages of the magazine after an appearance in the May, 1981 issue with his story “Blood Relations.” With “Tommy and the Talking Dog” Shiner gives us a grimy, modern parable which may have worked better with a bit of humor in it. Instead it is written in a sober manner while presenting the rather clichéd moral of a young boy who escapes his drab existence by imagining such things as talking animals. Still, it’s a breezily written fantasy from a writer who would make greater inroads in the SF community with his cyberpunk stories and novels. “Tommy and the Talking Dog” was collected in Nine Hard Questions About the Nature of the Universe (Author’s Choice Monthly #4) (1990).

--“Chompers” by Joe R. Lansdale

Illustrated by Randy Jones

“One thing about that old lady: she never bit off more than she could chew!”

-A homeless lady finds a pair of fake teeth lying in a pool of blood and, having few remaining teeth herself, pops them into her mouth. Soon, she finds herself to be ravenously hungry while the teeth grow larger and sharper. She begins to eat anything in her way, including several people, before the teeth turn on her. Afterwards, a homeless man finds the fake teeth in a pool of blood and, having few remaining teeth himself, pops them in. Soon, he discovers that he’s ravenously hungry . . .

-“Chompers” works a bit like a darker and more humorous version of the Twilight Zone episode “Dead Man’s Shoes,” in which a magical object is passed from one homeless person to the next with each unaware of the object’s deadly power. Lansdale, now better known for his mystery and historical fiction, wrote many of these short, funny, macabre tales early in his career. Most of them were collected in Bumper Crop (2004). Lansdale appeared in earlier issues of TZ Magazine with similar type tales with “The Dump” in the July, 1981 issue and “The Pasture” in the December, 1981 issue. “Chompers” was first collected in Stories by Mama Lansdale’s Youngest Boy (Author’s Choice Monthly #18) (1991). A short film was made of the story in 2008 by writer/director Joseph Gatto.

--On Location with The Last Horror Film by Steve Swires

“How with limited time, a limited budget, and plenty of chutzpah, Judd Hamilton managed to make a Cannes-based thriller with a cast of thousands.”

-This is a rather lengthy look at the making of the 1982 horror comedy film The Last Horror Film, which began as a vehicle for star Caroline Munro developed by her then-husband Judd Hamilton. It concerns an obsessed fan, played by Joe Spinell of Maniac fame, who stalks a female horror star (Munro) during the premier of her film Scream. The film was directed, guerilla style at the Cannes Film Festival, by director David Winters from a script by Winters and Hamilton. Steve Swires gives a full rundown of the making of the film, including interviews with Hamilton and Munro and plenty of photographs.

--TZ Screen Preview: The Thing by Robert Martin

“TZ’s Robert Martin, on location, braves the frozen wastes to witness some climactic scenes from John Carpenter’s terror epic.”

-This is a fascinating set report from the production of a film which, though not entirely successful during its initial release, has come to be considered one of the true horror classics of the 1980s. The Thing was released in the summer of 1982 to lukewarm reviews and underwhelming business. Since that time, however, Carpenter’s reimagining of John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” has grown in stature, due to its excellent direction, claustrophobic atmosphere, engaging cast, and the startling special makeup effects of Rob Bottin. The film was further enhanced by a score from Ennio Morricone, one of the rarer occasions in which Carpenter did not provide the score for his film. Accompanied by great photos, Robert Martin gives a full set report from the making of the film, including aspects of location scouting and shooting, production design, casting, fire and demolition stunts, as well as slight but tantalizing descriptions of the makeup effects being developed by Rob Bottin. Interestingly, the report ends with a glimpse of some of Carpenter’s possible future projects, two of which sound intriguing but never came to fruition: a weird western titled El Diablo and an adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter, the latter of which became a disappointing 1984 film directed by Mark L. Lester starring Drew Barrymore and George C. Scott.

--“Not Our Brother” by Robert Silverberg

Illustrated by Richard Basil Mock

“The mask was the thing he sought most – yet behind it was the one thing he feared.”

-An American collector of Mexican masks barely escapes with his life after he finds himself in a small Mexican village where a local celebration of animal deities summons dangerous inhuman entities.

-As Klein notes in his editorial, Silverberg, the Grand Master of Science Fiction, returns to the magazine with a horror story about strange happenings in a small Mexican village after placing two earlier stories with the magazine about strange happenings in Chile and Jerusalem (“How They Pass the Time In Papel” from the May, 1981 issue and “A Thousand Paces Along the Via Dolorosa” from the July, 1981 issue). This might be the best of the bunch as it possesses some unnerving scenes and well captures that disorienting “stranger in a strange small town” atmosphere which seemed to be so popular in horror fiction in the 1980s. The climax, though somewhat telegraphed, is capably handled and Silverberg expertly captures the character of an out-of-the-way Mexican village, or at least how an American would imagine it to be.

-The story was reprinted in Great Stories from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine (1982) and collected in The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party (1984). It was most recently reprinted by Stephen Jones in The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories (2018), which also offered a preface detailing the genesis of the tale. Silverberg had recently become fascinated with Mexican masks and begun to collect them. He was also producing short fiction at a rate he had not experienced in decades. Since the story was horrific fantasy and thus unlikely to sell to the science fiction magazines, Silverberg first sent the story to Alice K. Turner at Playboy. Turner rejected the story on the basis of its resemblance to “A Thousand Paces Along the Via Dolorosa” and the fact that she felt it possessed the same problems as that earlier story. Silverberg then sent the story to T.E.D. Klein at TZ who published the story but not without also commenting on the tale’s resemblance to the earlier stories Silverberg placed in the magazine.

--“Why the Traveling Salesman from Aldebaran Doesn’t Stop in Omaha Anymore” by Hal Goodman

Illustrated by Bill Logan

“‘Call me Al,’ he told everyone. But he should have added, ‘Caveat Emptor!’”

-This slight, Bradburyesque tale is a humorous short-short about an alien who arrives on Earth and sets up a booth at a local fair to sell items he’s collected on his journey across the universe. He sells a trio of young sisters some items which take on a life of their own, prompting the alien to make a fast escape when the girls’ father comes after him with a shotgun.

 

--3 Journeys Into Nightmare

“Picnic Area” by Joan Aiken

“A Trip to New York” by Nina Downey

“Food, Gas, Lodging” by Craig W. Anderson

-Three short stories in which the atmosphere of dreams and nightmares is used to explore predicaments of character.

--“Picnic Area” by Joan Aiken

Illustrated by D.W. Miller

“After long years of absence, he was returning to the past – or perhaps it was the other way around.”

-A middle-aged man is driving through an area of Wales in which he spent time as a boy during The Blitz. He stops at a picnic area where he is bitten by a dog. Seeking help at a nearby village, he finds himself in the very house in which he lived during his brief childhood relocation. There, the repressed memory of a terrible sin rises again to the surface with deadly consequences.

-Joan Aiken (1924-2004) returns to the pages of the magazine with a well-wrought, haunting meditation on memory and repression. The rising tension and weird atmosphere are handled well and the ending is suitably grim. The story was collected in A Whisper in the Night: Stories of Horror, Suspense, and Fantasy (1982). The collection also includes Aiken’s “Old Fillikin,” which appeared in the April, 1982 issue of TZ. Aiken’s 1958 story “Marmalade Wine” was adapted for the second season of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. Aiken’s father was the American poet and short story writer Conrad Aiken (1889-1973), whose 1932 story “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” was also adapted for the second season of Night Gallery.

--“A Trip to New York” by Nina Downey

Uncredited illustration

“Fun city was their destination – but getting there was more than half the fun.”

-Dave and Sally are driving across the country on their way to New York. They never seem to make progress since each day starts over in a seemingly never-ending cycle of repetition. Only Dave seems to be aware of their predicament and is unable to convince his wife of the dilemma.

-This was a neat story on an old theme, that of the inescapable repetition of a series of events, the ultimate nightmare of déjà vu. It was Downey’s first published story and was originally submitted for the magazine’s first annual short story contest.

--“Food, Gas, Lodging” by Craig W. Anderson

Illustrated by Frances Jeter

“Three little words – surely that was too short for a death sentence.”

-A white-collar criminal is on the run with his ill-gained assets when he chances upon an out-of-the-way diner which conceals a sinister secret. This was a predicable yet enjoyably nasty story in which the primary pleasure is watching a villain twist in the wind before getting his just deserts. The story would have been right at home in an issue of Tales from the Crypt or as an episode of Tales from the Darkside. It is in the mold of such TZ episodes as “Deaths-Head Revisited” and “The Last Night of a Jockey.” The story was reprinted in the Summer, 1985 issue of Night Cry.

--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone: Part Sixteen by Marc Scott Zicree

“Continuing Marc Scott Zicree show-by-show guide to the entire Twilight Zone television series, complete with Rod Serling’s opening and closing narrations.”

-Marc Scott Zicree, author of The Twilight Zone Companion (now in its third edition), continues his guide to the original series, with cast and crew listings, Rod Serling’s narrations, and episode summaries. This month he covers the fourth season episodes “On Thursday We Leave for Home,” “Passage on the Lady Anne,” and “The Bard.”

--TZ Classic Teleplay: “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” by Rod Serling

-The complete teleplay for Rod Serling’s second season episode in which the leader of a wagon train (Cliff Robertson) finds himself suddenly transported to 1961. The episode was directed by Buzz Kulik and originally aired on April 7, 1961. You can read Brian’s review of the episode here.

--Looking Ahead: In August’s TZ

-Next month looks like another great issue beginning with Edgar Allan Poe’s and Robert Bloch’s great collaborative effort, “The Lighthouse,” and continuing with stories from Michael Kube-McDowell, Barbara Owens, and Janet Fox. The issue also features an interview with perhaps the greatest of the Twilight Zone directors, Douglas Heyes, and a trio of screen preview features on E.T, Tron, and Poltergeist. Thomas M. Disch returns with more book reviews and Ron Goulart steps in for Gahan Wilson on movies. The TZ Classic Teleplay for next month is Rod Serling’s “The Trade-Ins.” See you then.

-JP

Reading Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, Part 15

In which we take a closer look at each issue. For our capsule history of the magazine, go here.

Volume 2, Number 3 (June, 1982)

 

Cover Art: Malcolm McNeill (for Richard Matheson’s “The Doll”)

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 Editors: Steven Schwartz, Robert Sabat

Contributing Editors: Gahan Wilson, Thomas M. Disch

Design Director: Michael Monte

Art and Studio Production: Georg the Design Group

Production Director: Stephen J. Fallon

Controller: Thomas Schiff

Assistant to the Publisher: Judy Borrman

Public Relations Manager: Jeffrey Nickora

Accounting Manager: Chris Grossman

Circulation Director: William D. Smith

Circulation Manager: Janice Graham

Eastern Circulation Manager: Hank Rosen

Western Newsstand Consultant: Harry Sommer

Advertising Manager: Rachel Britapaja

Adv. Production Manager: Marina Despotakis

Advertising Representatives: Barney O’Hara & Associates, Inc.

Contents:

--In the Twilight Zone: “The mind’s eye . . .”

--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M. Disch

--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson

--Other Dimensions: Music by Jack Sullivan

--Other Dimensions: Etc.

--“Browning’s Lamps” by David Nemec

--Fantasy in Clay, photographs by Scott Hyde

--“Anniversary Dinner” by D.J. Pass

--“The Dark Ones” by Richard Christian Matheson

--TZ Interview: Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) by John Boonstra

--TZ Screen Preview: Blade Runner by James Verniere

--“Alan’s Mother” by Steve Rasnic Tem

--“Zombies” by Dolly Ogawa

--“Home Visit” by Roger Koch

--“Mrs. Halfbooger’s Basement” by Lawrence C. Connolly

--“The Broken Hoop” by Pamela Sargent

--“Some Days Are Like That” by Bruce J. Balfour

--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone, Part Fifteen by Marc Scott Zicree

--“The Story Behind Richard Matheson’s ‘The Doll’” by Marc Scott Zicree

--TZ Discovery: “The Doll” by Richard Matheson

--Looking Ahead: In July’s TZ

--In the Twilight Zone: “The mind’s eye . . .” by T.E.D. Klein

-Klein begins his editorial column with a reminiscence of fantasy writer John Collier (1901-1980), author of many highly-regarded short stories, including “The Chaser,” which was adapted for the first season of The Twilight Zone by writer Robert Presnell, Jr. and director Douglas Heyes. Collier also had several of his stories adapted on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Klein then introduces the gem of the issue, Richard Matheson’s “The Doll,” a teleplay originally slated for the fifth season of The Twilight Zone which went unproduced for over twenty years before appearing on Amazing Stories. The column finishes up with the customary snippet bios of the issue’s contributors along with thumbnail images.

--Other Dimensions: Books by Thomas M. Disch

-Disch takes a look at T.H. White’s The Maharajah and Other Stories, edited by Kurth Sprague, and finds it competent but lacking the power of White’s masterpiece, The Once and Future King. Disch next looks at Michael Bishop’s No Enemy But Time and praises its imaginative approach while also faulting the construction of the novel’s time travel element. Disch is more critical of Spacetime Donuts by Rudy Rucker, which he feels lacks the skill shown in Rucker’s first published novel, White Light. Finally, Disch absolutely skewers The Engines of the Night by Barry N. Malzberg (the author is left unnamed in the review), which he finds to be both defeatist and self-serving. This personal history of science fiction writing was later expanded by Malzberg as Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium, in which Malzberg writes about the devastating effect Disch’s review had upon him. 

--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson

-Wilson reviews Quest for Fire (1981), directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, which was the subject of a full-color screen preview in the December, 1981 issue of Twilight Zone Magazine (part 9 of our series). Wilson generally praises the film with particular attention given to the actors, the technicians who created the behavior and language of the characters, and the practical special effects.

--Other Dimensions: Music by Jack Sullivan

-Sullivan devotes his column on spectral music to Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich, giving particular attention to the composer’s struggles under the oppressive Stalin regime. He covers these works:

Fourth Symphony

Fifth Symphony

Eighth Symphony

Violin Concerto No. 1

Tenth Symphony

Symphony No. 13

Symphony No. 14

Sonata for Violin and Piano

String Quartet No. 15

--Other Dimensions: Etc.

-A new column for the magazine, described as “a department for you, the readers. We’re looking for pithy views, provocative quotes, unusual photos, weird and amusing newspaper items, surprising uses in the media of that magic phrase ‘The Twilight Zone,’ and any other tidbits suggesting that the Twilight Zone exists right here and now on earth.” Readers are encouraged to send in items with the promise of a poster of Twilight Zone cat Maximilian. This column presents a reader’s photos of gargoyles in Europe, a letter received by TZ Magazine contributor Tom Seligson from director Wes Craven, two cartoons, a quote from an H.P. Lovecraft letter giving recommended reading, and a quote from author Peter Straub on science fiction.

--“Browning’s Lamps” by David Nemec

Illustrated by Marty Blake

“Searching for the greatest batter in baseball history, he discovered the dreadful secret of . . .”

-A sports journalist discovers the story of baseball’s greatest hitter, who never made it to the big leagues because of his lack of fielding skills. When the journalist tracks the player down he discovers that the secret of the hitting success lies in the man’s eyes. The journalist arranges to receive the man’s eyes after the man’s death only to discover, almost too late, the high price one pays for the gift of miracle sight.

-David Nemec is described by T.E.D. Klein as “a New York writer whose most recent novel was Bright Lights, Dark Rooms, published in 1980 by Doubleday, with two more due to appear this October: Bad Blood from Dial and The Systems of M.R. Shurnas from Riverrun Press. Two of his stories have also been included in Martha Foley’s yearly honor roll of Best American Short Stories.” Nemec (b. 1938) is equally well-known as a baseball historian, as “Browning’s Lamps” capably demonstrates. The story does take some pretty wild leaps of logic dealing with the transference of eyes but is very well-written and engaging. It will hold particular interest for those readers who are also interested in baseball.

--Fantasy in Clay

Photographs by Scott Hyde

“The Martin Brothers, four Victorian English potters, created a grotesque menagerie of ‘boobies, boojums, and snarks.’”

-The eccentric Victorian English brothers and potters Robert Wallace Martin, Walter Martin, Edwin Martin, and Charles Martin are profiled on the occasion of a New York gallery exhibit of their work. Their rather tragic lives are briefly discussed followed by a photo gallery with many examples of their works.

--“Anniversary Dinner” by D.J. Pass

Illustrated by Robert Morello

“A modern American cautionary tale about onions, marijuana, and the generation gap.”

-A pleasant old couple, who live semi-reclusive lives on their self-sustaining farm, encounter a young female hitchhiker on one of their occasional trips into town. They invite the young woman to stay the night at their farm and have her for dinner, literally.

-This humorous horror tale was memorably adapted for the first season of Tales from the Darkside. That program mined quite a bit of material from the pages of TZ Magazine. The story was adapted by writer James Houghton, directed by John Strysik, and featured Mario Roccuzzo and Alice Ghostley as the cannibal couple, and Fredrica Duke as their unfortunate dinner guest. It first aired on February 3, 1985.

--“The Dark Ones” by Richard Christian Matheson

Illustrated by Annie Alleman

“Hundreds pursued him – and the only escape was death.”

-Richard Christian Matheson, son of TZ writer Richard Matheson, returns to the magazine with this darkly ironic short-short about the hunter and the hunted. Richard Christian Matheson at this time was building a career as an acclaimed writer of dark short fiction after a precocious beginning as a prolific television writer. “The Dark Ones” was collected in Scars (1987).

--TZ Interview: Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) by John Boonstra

Photographs by Kim Gottlieb

“A final interview with science fiction’s boldest visionary, who talks candidly about Blade Runner, inner voices, and the temptations of Hollywood”

-Philip K. Dick died on March 2, 1982, shortly after this interview was conducted. His untimely death meant that Dick did not get to see how the film Blade Runner spawned a small industry of films adapted from his novels and short stories. The heartbreaking part of this interview is the optimistic tone struck by Dick, who felt that he still had a lot of great work ahead of him and who also felt that he was finally at a place to do the work he had wanted to do for years. The interview covers all areas of Dick’s career, including his beginnings as a writer, his mainstream work, his most recent novels, the novel he was currently working on (the unfinished The Owl in Daylight), as well as Blade Runner, the highly anticipated adaptation of Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dick speaks about his initially contentious relationship with the studio, his refusal to write a novelization of the film, and his joy at reading the script changes made by writer David Peoples. Dick also discusses how his fiction was related to the type of fantasy presented on The Twilight Zone (though he never wrote for the series), his marriages and divorces, and the ways in which science fiction is reflected in modern society. This is essential reading for fans of Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner, or science fiction in general.

--TZ Screen Preview: Blade Runner by James Verniere

Illustrated with stills from the film

“Harrison Ford confronts a world of renegade androids in Ridley Scott’s film of the Philip K. Dick novel.”

-A full-color preview of Blade Runner (1982), based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), adapted by writers Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. James Verniere focuses on the design of the film and the challenges of the production with quotes from director Ridley Scott, screenwriter David Peoples, production designer Lawrence G. Paull, and concept artist Syd Mead. Blade Runner was not initially successful financially or critically when it arrived before audiences in 1982 but its reputation has steadily increased to the point of being considered among the finest science fiction films ever made, and the finest of the many adaptations of Philip K. Dick on screen. Author K.W. Jeter wrote three sequels to Blade Runner: The Edge of Human (1995), Replicant Night (1996), and Eye and Talon (2000). The definitive book on the making of the film is Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon. A sequel to the film, Blade Runner 2049, appeared in 2017 from director Denis Villeneuve. 

--“Alan’s Mother” by Steve Rasnic Tem

Illustrated by Harry Pincus

“She was wise in the ways of magic, but she had something more important to teach: a lesson in reality.”

-A meditation on childhood and the loss of innocence centered around a young boy who comes to disbelieve his mother’s magic ways as he matures, thus spoiling the ability for her magic to help him. Tem (b. 1950) is an award-winning and highly-regarded author of dark fantasy novels and short stories. He appeared earlier in the March, 1982 issue with the creepy and effective story, “Sleep.” “Alan’s Mother” is a gentler tale of the ways in which cold reality can destroy the magic of the world, and how rationality can destroy imagination. The story was reprinted in 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories (1995).

--“Zombies” by Dolly Ogawa

Illustrated by Peter de Seve

“It was a real Rocky Horror show – directed by his own mother.”

-A spoiled, overgrown child of a man who cares about nothing except playing music with his band the Zombies discovers that his mistreated mother has rented out his bedroom to a very scary border. “Zombies” was a debut story from Ogawa. It was reprinted in the Summer, 1985 issue of Night Cry.

--“Home Visit” by Roger Koch

Illustrated by D.W. Miller

“There was something subtly wrong over at the Martin place . . . and those dead rats were the least of it!”

-Two social workers pay a home visit to a frightening family who harbor a deadly secret. This wonderfully nasty horror story would have been right at home in the pages of a pre-code horror comic. It is part killer family story and part creature feature with plenty of shocking detail. Koch once worked as a social services case worker and used that experience to imagine this horrible scenario. The story was reprinted in the first issue of Night Cry.

--“Mrs. Halfbooger’s Basement” by Lawrence C. Connolly

Illustrated by Ahmet Gorgun

“Was she a witch, or just a crazy old lady? The answer (enough to make you scream) lay hidden in the darkness of . . .”

-A boy is coerced by his friends to enter the home of a mysterious old lady who has not been seen for days. Once inside, he meets the feeble old woman and her truly awful young companions. This was another fun horror story which will remind readers of the type of macabre tale presented on programs like Tales from the Darkside. Its gruesome and ironic ending was clever and well-orchestrated. Karl Edward Wagner included the story in The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series XI (1983) and it was collected in Voices: Tales of Horror (2011).

--“The Broken Hoop” by Pamela Sargent

Illustrated by Bruce Waldman

“Torn between two cultures, she also had to choose between two worlds – and only one of them was real.”

-An American Indian woman raised among whites squanders her chance to travel to a parallel dimension where her native people can find peace. Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) returns to the magazine after appearing in the October, 1981 issue (part7 of our series) with this poignant and timely fantasy about the American Indian experience in the early days of American settlement by Europeans. The story was reprinted in Top Fantasy (1985) and collected in The Best of Pamela Sargent (1987).

--“Some Days Are Like That” by Bruce J. Balfour

Illustrated by Randy Jones

“Being the last man on Earth wasn’t all fun and games!”

-A short-short about a man who returns from a trip to find himself the last person on Earth, or so he believes. After days of boredom and despair he decides to jump off a building only to hear a phone ringing on his way down. Balfour is described as having interviewed many science fiction and fantasy writers for magazines. “Some Days Are Like That” is his fiction debut.

--Show-By-Show Guide: TV’s Twilight Zone: Part Fifteen by Marc Scott Zicree

­-Zicree, author of The Twilight Zone Companion, continues his early guide to the series with cast and crew listings, summaries, and Rod Serling’s narrations for the following fourth season episodes: “The New Exhibit,” “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville,” and “The Incredible World of Horace Ford.”

--“The Story Behind Richard Matheson’s ‘The Doll’” by Marc Scott Zicree

-Zicree provides the history of Richard Matheson’s teleplay with quotes from Matheson himself. The teleplay was originally slated to appear during the fifth season of The Twilight Zone when it was purchased by producer Bert Granet. It was then shelved by producer William Froug after Granet’s departure from the series due to the fact that Charles Beaumont’s (and Jerry Sohl’s) “Living Doll” was already in production and two doll stories was more than Froug wanted to do during one season. Matheson also divulges that he originally pictured Martin Balsam and Mary LaRoche in the lead roles. Both of these performers will be familiar to Zone viewers as Balsam appeared in “The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine” and “The New Exhibit,” and LaRoche appeared in Matheson’s “A World of His Own” and, ironically, Beaumont’s and Sohl’s “Living Doll.”

--TZ Discovery: “The Doll” by Richard Matheson

Illustrated by Perry A. Realo

“The ‘Twilight Zone’ episode you never saw: a bittersweet saga of loneliness and love in which fate takes the form of a dollmaker.”

-An middle-aged bachelor purchases a doll from an eccentric German doll maker as a gift for his niece. When the niece seems disinterested in the doll, the bachelor takes it back, intending to return it only to become smitten by its image of a lovely woman. He returns to the doll maker to inquire about the model only to discover the woman who is the doll's likeness has become smitten by a doll which resembles the bachelor. The doll maker, it seems, has worked a sort of magic to bring these two lonely people together. 

-In Marc Scott Zicree’s history of the teleplay he quotes Richard Matheson as believing there is no longer a wide audience for the type of gentle fantasy displayed in “The Doll.” Matheson arrived at this conclusion largely from the fact that Somewhere in Time (1980), the film adaptation of his 1975 novel Bid Time Return, failed to find a wide audience during its theatrical run (though it soon developed a rabid cult following). Matheson did not expect “The Doll” to ever be produced. Happily, he was mistaken and “The Doll” was produced on Steven Spielberg’s fantasy anthology program Amazing Stories. It was broadcast on May 4, 1986 as part of the first season. It’s inclusion in this issue of TZ Magazine no doubt sparked Spielberg’s interest. The episode was directed by Phil Joanou and featured John Lithgow, Anne Helm, Sharon Spelman, John Christopher Jones, Rainbow Phoenix, and Albert Hague. Lithgow’s performance was awarded an Emmy. Two of Matheson’s other stories were adapted for Amazing Stories, “One for the Books,” adapted by Matheson, and “Miss Stardust,” adapted by Richard Christian Matheson.

--Looking Ahead: In July’s TZ

-Next month looks like another great issue. We get stories from Robertson Davies (also interviewed), Lewis Shiner, Joe R. Lansdale, Joan Aiken, and Robert Silverberg, as well as Rod Serling’s teleplay for “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim.” Stephen King guest writes the film review column and there are also features on Ghostly Britain and John Carpenter’s The Thing. See you then!

-JP