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Post by dem bones on Aug 27, 2012 15:45:46 GMT
As with so many pulp magazines, most notably the shudder pulps, Fantastic first came to my attention when Peter Haining reproduced examples of the glorious cover artwork in Terror! A History Of Horror Illustrations From The Pulp Magazines, most notably Rupert Conrad's painting for the August 1953 issue. The Fantasy Centre had quite a run of issues, but I always passed on them in favour of something more horror specific, and it wasn't until the church downstairs held a Christmas fête a few years back that I eventually landed three and a pair of MFSF's - from the vicar himself, no less (he came over a little ... glaze-eyed, but he's a nice chap, always says "good morning!"). Didn't even check the table of contents until i got home but, as luck would have it, the January 1963 issue is a vampire special in all but name while the November 1965, with it's Fritz Leiber and John Wyndham reprints plus a dreadful Dracula-visits-the-dentist off day from The-Man-Who-Wrote- Psycho, is hardly lacking in horror. Have yet to get around to the October 1972, but Eric Frank Russell's novella, Vampire From The Void, involves "a dust mote fallen from space and its appalling appetite", so there's more than an outside chance we're talking a Slime/ Night Of The Black Horror variation which can only be a good thing. Cele Goldsmith (ed.) - Fantastic (Jan, 1963) Vernon Kramer John Jakes - In The Days Of King Arsgrat Paul Ernst - The Man Next Door Robert F. Young - Neither Stairs Nor Door Jack Sharkey - The Leech Brad Steiger - Three Tales For The Horrid At Heart Albert Teichner - The Forelife Myth Arthur Porges - 3rd Sister Roger Zelazny - On The Road To Splenoba
Features:
According To You T. C. Lethbridge - Ghost And Ghoul Coming Next Month Fantasy BooksSol Cohen (ed.) Fantastic (Nov, 1965) Julian S. Krupa Editorial
Keith Laumer - Axe And Dragon (Part I of III) L. Sprague de Camp - The Eye Of Tandyla Ray Bradbury - Tomorrow And Tomorrow Fritz Leiber - I'm Looking For 'Jeff' (reprinted from the Sept 1952 issue) Robert Sheckley - Wild Talents, Inc. Robert Bloch - Tooth Or Consequence (reprinted from Amazing Stories, May 1950) John Wyndham - Close Behind Him (reprinted from the January-February 1953 issue)
Sol Cohen - Space Devastator (about the cover art)Ted White (ed.) - Fantastic October 1972 Mike Hinge Ted White - Editorial
Eric Frank Russell - Vampire From The Void Gardner T. Fox - The Holding Of Kolymar Dennis Etchison - Time Killer Rich Brown - Dear Ted Avram Davidson - The Forges Of Nainland Are Cold (conclusion of two-part serial)
L. Sprague de Camp - Literary Swordsmen & Sorcerers (Sierran Shaman) Fritz Leiber - Fantasy Books (reviews) According To You (Letters)'The Gnome chuckled. "The Baron has no equal." Summers' illustration to Zelazny's exercise in commie bashing. Dennis Wheatley would have made a mess in his crushed velvet smoking jacket. Roger Zelazny - On The Road To Splenoba: No! he thought. We destroyed you with Easter and Christmas, with serfdom and witchery. We killed you along with the fat, pig-eyed bourgeoisie, and the lean, depraved aristocrat. We drove a stake through your unholy heart when we tattooed walls with their brains-you are dead! You never lived at all, save in the stories of old crones, in the wide-eyed imagination of children! You do not exist!The villagers cross themselves at mention of the castle and warn him against seeking shelter from the Baron, but as a proud and loyal Party member, Babakov has no time for peasant superstitions, and drives on regardless. At the castle, Babakov is admitted by a singularly hideous, gnome-like creature who leads him to an opulent chamber, the like of which has not been seen since the workers cast off their chains and rose against the oppressor! Baron Clementowitz proves an excellent host, jokes about his unpopularity among the villagers ("They all think that I'm a vampire." "Petty bourgeois romanticism!" snarls back his guest) and, before showing him to his room asks if, since the revolution, all men are like Babakov,. Babakov makes a mental note to file a report on the Baron when he returns home to Titograd. He's not to know it, but his leukaemia is his one defence against Clementowitz, or would be if the Baron hadn't already decided that he hates Communism even more than he hated the Religion it has killed, and now he wants out of this world for good.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 27, 2012 19:36:48 GMT
Summers Brad Steiger - Three Tales For The Horrid At Heart: This is neat. A trilogy of twisted short-shorts, reads like an Amicus portmanteau in need of a framing story. Rapport 1. Our narrator suffers himself to be chained to a bed in a remote cabin as he proves the powers of ESP to the sceptical Karl Henderson. At 3.15 precisely, Henderson will mentally transmit a message, and if, when Karl comes to release him, he can repeat it word-for-word, he'll win $5000. Acting as referee, Rose, our man's seriously fed-up wife, who has remained behind to keep Karl company for the experiment's duration .... Rapport 2: Pete Simpson has made it his life's work to expose all so-called psychics and mediums for the charlatans they are. Next on his hit-list, 'Professor' Marco. Marco's good, Pete will give him that, and how he manifested the ghost of his girl, Janet, is one of the more impressive con-tricks he's witnessed to date ... Rapport 3: Smithers and Carruthers on the trail of a murderous madman at large in the graveyard. The monster has already destroyed three of their friends, and, the police being of no use whatsoever in these circumstances, if anyone is going to stop him it will have to be them .... If it's the same Brad Steiger, then he would go on to become an extraordinarily prolific author of 'non-fiction' titles, including Real Ghosts: Restless Spirits and Haunted Minds (Tandem 1968) and something called Sex & The Supernatural (Lancer, 1968). He's still whacking out an phenomenal number of e-titles and the like of a Real Miracles, Dog Miracles, Puppy Miracles, Christmas Miracles (endorsed by Shirley MacLaine, no less) nature. Visible Ink, publishers of Dr. Gordon Melton's massive The Vampire Book, published Brad's The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings in 1999.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Aug 28, 2012 13:22:42 GMT
I hadn't realised that Eric Frank Russell tale had been reprinted. It shows up in my tale Creatures from the Pool, reprinted somewhere else! I'd be intrigued to learn if that original text survived unexpurgated in Fantastic.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 28, 2012 13:40:26 GMT
I hadn't realised that Eric Frank Russell tale had been reprinted. It shows up in my tale Creatures from the Pool, reprinted somewhere else! I'd be intrigued to learn if that original text survived unexpurgated in Fantastic. "Vampire from the Void" is also included in Darker Tides, the Russell collection that Midnight House published in 2006. I remember it as being one of the better stories in the book.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 28, 2012 17:50:22 GMT
I hadn't realised that Eric Frank Russell tale had been reprinted. It shows up in my tale Creatures from the Pool, reprinted somewhere else! I'd be intrigued to learn if that original text survived unexpurgated in Fantastic. Shame on Ted White! Unless i'm missing something, he makes no mention of Vampire Of The Void having appeared before, though to be fair, he doesn't claim it as new either. " Eric Frank Russell returns to our pages after too long an absence with quietly effective and archetypically British story about a a dust mote fallen from space and its appalling appetite." Will give it a read tonight if possible, though, not having any copies of Fantasy, am in no position to tell if we're talking an exact reproduction of the original text. It runs to 22 double column pages - interrupted by a double-page, thick card advertisement for True cigarettes - if that's the least help.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Aug 28, 2012 21:28:03 GMT
I think you'll be able to tell if it's unexpurgated, Dem!
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 29, 2012 11:36:04 GMT
An anthology of stories from Fantastic: Fantastic Stories: Tales of the Weird & Wondrous (TSR, 1987)Martin H. Greenberg & Patrick L. Price, Editors Janet Aulisio James E. Gunn - Introduction Robert Bloch - Double Whammy Robert F. Young - A Drink of Darkness J. G. Ballard - A Question of Re-entry George R. R. Martin - The Exit to San Breta Judith Merril - The Shrine of Temptation Reginald Bretnor - Dr. Birdmouse Poul Anderson - Eve Times Four Ursula K. Le Guin - The Rule of Names Lester del Rey - The Still Waters David R. Bunch - A Small Miracle of Fishhooks and Straight Pins Philip K. Dick - Novelty Act Isaac Asimov - What If . . . John Brunner - Elixir for the Emperor Roger Zelazny - King Solomon's Ring Ron Goulart - Junior Partner James E. Gunn - DonorThe cover illustrates Bloch's "Double Whammy," which is one of his carnival-themed stories and has a memorable ending. The book also includes some color reproductions of magazine covers. The publisher, TSR, was better known as the company behind Dungeons & Dragons.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 29, 2012 19:52:27 GMT
I think you'll be able to tell if it's unexpurgated, Dem! Ah, I see what you mean! Have triple-checked the credit but no mention of any "in collaboration with Lionel R. Fanthorpe", so evidently EFR was yet another author who wasn't one to be defeated by a demanding word count. Billy Graham Eric Frank Russell - Vampire From The Void: A blinding flash in the sky over Liverpool and once more mankind is facing death by doom, the sub-microscopic menace making its presence felt with an attack on a newspaper vendor whose arm explodes. Dr. Lloyd feels a sharp pain in his throat, and the reader wonders if he's doomed to be the Typhoid Mary of the piece. Super-sarcastic Police chief, Captain Henderson, for whom every day is infinitely worse than it's predecessor - and God knows, that was miserable enough - takes Lloyd's statement, concludes, "We've a murder and a couple of kidnappings on our hands. And we know what did it. To wit: a big crimson flash ... All we have to do is arrest a momentary flame and slap a list of charges on it." A cop patrolling West Kirby Station stops to admire a life-size poster of a bathing beauty, sighs and explodes, "her generous bosom ... his last sight on earth." A drunken wedding guest is denied even that consolation. In all, sixteen Liverpudlians spontaneously combust that first night, and the speck is only warming up. The following day sees a holocaust in the Mersey tunnel. The dust mite is growing and where it will strike next is anyone's guess - all it need do is attach itself to rodent or domestic pet to travel from A to B. A breakthrough. The police have wounded a dog - the space vampire's latest host - and have it surrounded in a field, sharpshooters taking out any bird or rodent drawn by it's powerful hypnotic powers. Lloyd has the army rustle him up a seriously powerful explosive ("I could go to the Moon on that"), straps it to a sheep. He'd have preferred to run some lab tests, but there's no time. All we can do is hope and pray as the luckless livestock approaches the insatiable vampire from the void ..... To think this top-notch Sci-horror pulp classic has been lying under my nose all this time! Twenty-Thirty pages of padding - on this evidence, it wouldn't be beyond him: Captain Henderson's protracted pipe-filling exploits are surely good for another two sides - and this would make for the perfect 'seventies NEL to sit alongside The Slime Beast. The cover illustrates Bloch's "Double Whammy," which is one of his carnival-themed stories and has a memorable ending. Robert Bloch - Tooth or Consequences: Double-Whammy I love, but can't find it in me to say the same about Tooth or Consequence. When I got these mags, of the stories I'd not read, this was the one i was most looking forward to, but it's the-man-who-wrote- Psycho having a Chetwynd-Hayes moment. Young dentist Henry Spencer is working lates when he receives his first visit from Vonier whose cavities require urgent attention. Spencer can't but think those massive incisors are too big for his patients mouth and loses it completely when he discovers Vonier casts no reflection. Dr. King prescribes garlic pills to cure his dizzy spells, and that seems to do the trick as, next time Henry gets to work on Vonier the patient looks a whole lot healthier and even shows up in mirrors. Now it's Dr. King who has a problem: some jerk has been raiding the plasma supplies ...
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Post by dem bones on Sept 2, 2012 11:26:55 GMT
Leo Summers warning; includes spoilerJack Sharkey - The Leech: Sheriff's deputy Hoxie travels to Texas to arrest Eric Klaber ... for curing a woman of cancer. Miss Perkins' grasping nephew, cheated of his inheritance, wants Klaber prosecuted for practising medicine without a licence and, as Hoxie reminds him, "ain't no higher law in McCulloch county than the one you busted except killin' a person." Klaber protests that he can't possibly allow himself to be taken in, there's a stricken fifteen year old boy needs saving. It transpires Klaber has discovered a bug that feeds on diseased cells, a discovery he jealously guards from the scientific community, mindful of how it would be exploited by the multi-nationals until only the rich could afford to be cured. Hoxie, however reluctant, is still set on doing his duty until Klaber lets slip that, when there's no cancer cells to be had, the bug gorges itself on fat, and the deputy has plenty to spare ... A bizarre borderline-vampire tale that builds to a horrific human-jellyfish ending.
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Post by dem bones on May 22, 2018 14:10:50 GMT
Brad Steiger - Two More Tales For The Horrid at Heart. ( Fantastic, Aug. 1963). Sacrifice Play: An archaeological expedition in Cambodia. Harkins, who is jealous of colleague Peters' superior accomplishments, offers him to a demon in return for untold riches. One Too Many: Warren Brondyke resolves to get tee-total Ronald Martin drunk at tonight's cocktail party. Wife Stella reckons that's a rotten thing to do but eventually agrees to spike the punchbowl for a laugh. Results similar to Stephen King's Grey Matter, which story it pre-dates by a decade. Issue also reprints Dale Clark's The Devil In Hollywood
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Post by cromagnonman on May 23, 2018 13:27:54 GMT
I tend to think of Fantastic Stories as being more of an interesting title rather than a great one. Which is not to deny that it didn't have its brief flirtations with greatness. Most of them came when it was under the editorship of the great Cele Goldsmith who not only cultivated the early work of the young Roger Zelazny but who also provided a reliable harbour for Leiber's Newhon stories at a time when sword and sorcery was very much in the doldrums, and introduced Jakes' Brak the Barbarian too. But its really the ten year period between June 1969 and January 1979 when Ted White was the editor that interests me the most. Every issue seems to chart the same unwavering course of declining standards, dwindling budgets and shrinking circulation. The evaporating calibre of the contents and contributors is sobering to note. A tenure which began with White able to trumpet headliners like Eric Frank Russell, Jack Vance, and early Dean Koontz ended up with the likes of Marvin Kaye and the seemingly ubiquitous Barry M Malzberg. We go from the sublime to the ridiculous like this: [There is a story that White allegedly promised Malzberg he would print simply anything he sent him. Which seems to me a pretty absurd commitment for an editor to make unless you're dealing with writers living in rarefied atmospheres of proven sales success which Malzberg certainly wasn't]. White can take some credit for improving the aesthetics of the magazine and in phasing out the reprints but he had no eye for fiction. The tragedy of his tenure at Fantastic Stories is that while he obdurately plodded on with second-rate professionals and their third rate rejections from intended markets there was a torrent of exciting young amateurs working in the miniscule circulating circles of the small press. People like Charles Saunders, David Madison, David Smith and Wayne Hooks, each of them brimming over with clever new ideas and exciting scenarios. Fantastic Stories should have offered a natural home for the quirky genius of Madison's Marcus and Diana tales and the visceral thrills of the Imaro stories of Saunders but there was no invitation or welcome offered by the blinkered White. In stark contrast Lin Carter and Andy Offutt snapped both of them up for YEAR'S BEST FANTASY STORIES and SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS respectively. Which only serves to illustrate what a pity it was that neither of them was editing the magazine instead of White. White may not have been much of a judge of fiction but where his issues do excel is in the quality of his editorials. He was always quite candid about the problems the magazine faced in terms of sales and circulation, most notably from the corruption endemic to the US distribution network of the time. The insights he offered into the mechanics of producing such a magazine are never less than fascinating to read. And, of course, he could always be relied upon to sometimes get on his high horse directing Quixotic tirades against popularist targets like Star Trek and Star Wars which kept the letters column energised for years afterwards.
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Post by andydecker on May 23, 2018 20:04:05 GMT
I tend to think of Fantastic Stories as being more of an interesting title rather than a great one. Which is not to deny that it didn't have its brief flirtations with greatness. Most of them came when it was under the editorship of the great Cele Goldsmith who not only cultivated the early work of the young Roger Zelazny but who also provided a reliable harbour for Leiber's Newhon stories at a time when sword and sorcery was very much in the doldrums, and introduced Jakes' Brak the Barbarian too. But its really the ten year period between June 1969 and January 1979 when Ted White was the editor that interests me the most. Every issue seems to chart the same unwavering course of declining standards, dwindling budgets and shrinking circulation. The evaporating calibre of the contents and contributors is sobering to note. A tenure which began with White able to trumpet headliners like Eric Frank Russell, Jack Vance, and early Dean Koontz ended up with the likes of Marvin Kaye and the seemingly ubiquitous Barry M Malzberg. I own one issue of Fantastic, the August issue 1972. It has a part of Carter and DeCamp very modest Conan of Aquilonia.
A writer like Malzberg - who is not for everyone and can be difficult - has no place in a magazine publishing an Elric story in the same month. Fantasy fans will scratch their heads about a typical Malzberg piece, while SF fans will roll their eyes about Moorcock's S&S. While I tend to applaud a magazine which in 1970 was an outlet for Fantasy which had no market at the time, especially S&S, it is no surprise this didn't sell well.
From today's perspective this is a treasure trove. Where do you have the short versions of Jack Vance's Emphyrio or Leiber's Grey Mouser in the same issue? Not to mention covers by Kaluta and Jones.
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Post by jamesdoig on May 24, 2018 10:19:21 GMT
I tend to think of Fantastic Stories as being more of an interesting title rather than a great one. Which is not to deny that it didn't have its brief flirtations with greatness. Most of them came when it was under the editorship of the great Cele Goldsmith who not only cultivated the early work of the young Roger Zelazny but who also provided a reliable harbour for Leiber's Newhon stories at a time when sword and sorcery was very much in the doldrums, and introduced Jakes' Brak the Barbarian too. I've got a set of Fantastic up to the end of Cele Goldsmith's editorship - I guess it doesn't have the appeal (or format) of the pulps, but had a great mix of content.
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Post by ripper on Jun 13, 2018 10:59:50 GMT
If the Brad Steiger of Fantastic is, indeed, the one who wrote all those very entertaining ahem non-fiction paranormal books, then he is sadly no longer with us, as it was reported that he passed away very recently.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 13, 2018 11:43:21 GMT
If the Brad Steiger of Fantastic is, indeed, the one who wrote all those very entertaining ahem non-fiction paranormal books, then he is sadly no longer with us, as it was reported that he passed away very recently. Yes, same one Rip. The 'Tales for the Horrid at Heart' seem to have been his first published stories - would have loved a book of them. He made the switch to 'non-fiction' very early in his career and that looks to have put a stop to the weird horror shorts.
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