Jack Davis SHOCK: The Magazine Of Terrifying Tales #1 ; May 1960:
Matthew Lynge - Feast Day
Theodore Sturgeon - Bianca's Hands
Gene Dilmore - The Band Played On
Henry Kuttner - The Graveyard Rats
Ray Bradbury - The Crowd
Reginald Rose - Parlor Game
W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw
Jim Thompson - Forever After
Anthony Boucher - The Empty Man
Richard Matheson - Crickets
Stanley Ellin - The Speciality Of The House
John Collier - Green Thoughts
Avram Davidson - The TenantSHOCK: The Magazine Of Terrifying Tales #2 ; July 1960:
Jack Davis Theodore Sturgeon - Bright Segment
Avram Davidson - Mean Mr. Murray
Stanley Ellin - The House Party
Will Folke - Pin-Up Girl
Anthony Boucher - 9 Finger Jack
Ray Bradbury - The Emissary
Mort Golding - Baby Picture
Miriam Allen de Ford - Laughing Moths
Saki - Sredni Vashtar
John Collier - The Frog Prince
Philip MacDonald - Our Feathered Friends
Pat Gibbons - The Doll
Robert Bloch - Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper Edited by the handsome beast of the (uncredited) Jack Davis cover illustrations and a spider named Lulubel,
Shock seems to have survived just the three issues, which is especially unfortunate given the quality of story (a safe mix of acknowledged classics and new hackwork) that made up the magazines.
Letters To The Editor section was pretty much a Lulubel appreciation society, and Count Dracula wrote in person to endorse # 2.
"Let me compliment you on the fine blood-curdling tales in your last issue of SHOCK. I especially enjoyed
Baby Picture by Mort Golding. Lately, I've been bored with the same old dribble in other magazines and it's a pleasure to see one like yours come out - with some
fresh new blood".
I guess there are many Lenny Kaye's from North Brunswick, New Jersey, but it would be nice to think that Patti Smith's old henchman was the person who penned the following tribute
"I felt sorry for Lulubel when I read about her being lonely and such, so I decided that after I finished the first issue I would sit down and write her a letter telling her what I thought of the magazine:
a) The cover - I didn't like it at all.
b) The editor's letter to the readers - That's what prompted me to write to you. I liked it.
c) Feast Day - Very good. It was handled nicely.
d) Bianca's Hands - Usually like Ted Sturgeon's work. This wasn't quite up to par. Still, it was very good.
e) The Band Played On - All I can say is - wow!
f) Graveyard Rats - Even reread this one. It was excellent.
g) The Crowd - Bradbury at his best.
h) Parlor Game - Best in the issue.
i) The Monkey's Paw - Another excellent one.
j) Forever After - I liked this one.
k) Crickets - New twist on an old theme. Very good.
l) Speciality Of The House - Old plot done up excellently.
m) Green Thoughts - Very good. It gives you something to think about. What would a man do if he were a plant?
n) The Tenant - A good story, but I didn't like the ending".
And then there was Elliot Kall's succinct appreciation of ...
"Matthew Lynge's
Feast Day was socko. That cheating broad got exactly what she deserved."
Shock Magazine. It was indeed "socko".
We've covered most of the better known stories before so I thought I'd concentrate for the most part on the rarer stuff.
Matthew Lynge - Feast Day: Surly farmer Fletcher throttles wife Betty Mae for cheating on him with the muscular hired help. He buries her on top of a termites nest and the bugs devour her piece by piece. Mmmm, this flesh stuff sure is tasty? Where can we get some more? Let's try those pigs over there - we can leave that big guy 'til later ...
A seriously wonderful 'when insects attack' miniature, this wouldn't have been out of place in the early Pan Horrors.
Gene Dilmore - The Band Played On: Wisecracking 'Uncle Eddie' hosts another live edition of his smash hit game show. Win, and you're guaranteed a life of luxury. Lose .... best not think about that. Contestant Mr. Thompson is safely secured and now must concentrate as he never has before, his task - to remove that big red ball from his mouth with a metal scoop. Oh, the hysterical laughter each time it springs back and hits him on the nose! If it gets any more side-splitting, 'Uncle Eddie' will need to change his trousers! Now the clock is running down and the band are preparing to burst into the show's popular theme song,
Give Me Five Minutes More ....
Reginald Rose - Parlor Game: Munn's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He calls at a remote shack to be threatened with a rifle and tied to a chair by three waxen octogenarians. Their leader explains that he and his brothers have a real downer on young 'uns on account of them being healthy and not caring about their elders. But it's OK, they only want to play a game.
"We only answer 'yes' or 'no'. Three questions each and then you have to guess who's the oldest. If you do then you win the game. If you don't then we'll shoot you and bury you down in the cellar with the others ....."
Reginald Rose was also responsible for the story filmed to great box office success as
Twelve Angry Men.
Jim Thompson - Forever After: Ardis can take no more of pig-ignorant husband Bill with his inane small talk, how he ignores the way she looks even when she's put on her best negligee. Fifteen years she's put up with it, but no longer. Tonight her bumbling lover Tony, a dishwasher at Joe's Diner, has shown up with a cleaver, just as she instructed. He doesn't like the idea of punching her out once he's butchered Bill, but needs must if it's to look convincing.
Another author you wouldn't readily identify with this type of stuff. Thompson was and still is justly celebrated for his violent crime novels, at least two of which , the excellent psycho-thrillers
The Killer Inside Me and
Pop. 1280 arguably qualify as horror stories. As far as I'm aware,
Forever After is his solitary, very mild flirtation with supernatural fiction.
Miriam Allen de Ford - Laughing Moths: For Rick Bridger, 28-year old travelling salesman, the recurring nightmare of being chased down a county road by swarms of vicious lepidoptera is awful enough, but recently they've taken to laughing as they attack him ... and now he's taken to sleepwalking. That old fool Dr. Grunwalt reckons it all stems from some underlying morbid fear of Ellie, his bride-to-be. Sure, like she's some kind of were-moth. Psychiatrists, eh?
Richard Matheson - Crickets:
"Listen', he said. 'They aren't just making indiscriminate noises when they rub their wings together ... They're sending messages."John Morgan confides his fears to vacationing Hal and Jean Galloway who are too polite to send the paranoid old fool packing. Morgan is convinced that he's deciphered the code of the crickets and far from going chirrup ... chirrup for the Hell of it, they're actually reciting the names of the dead - who are planning to return from the grave en masse! And now, they're onto him!
Mort Golding - Baby Picture: Against their express wishes, photographer Mr. Crater takes advantage of Hruck and Marcia's absence to take some snaps of their cute little baby, Jennifer. But when he develops the film there's something missing - namely, Jennifer. Marcia explains all. She even strips naked for the occasion. These sexy vampires, eh?
Will Foulke - Pin Up Girl: Beautiful gold-digger Lani is just setting out on her modelling career when she attracts the attention of Prince Ahmed. Lani's not really up for marrying the ultra-possessive grease-ball but, man, he's one of the world's richest men so when he proposes she sneaks out to inform her photographer, Gibson, about the change in plans.
Gibson has news of his own. Those shots he took of her are going to grace the covers of all the high profile fashion and glamour mags. She's gonna be bigger than Monroe, Mansfield, Ekberg ...
Lani had best not let the Prince overhear her confession that she's only marrying the schmuck for his money or she really will discover what it's like to be a "pin-up girl"!
Avram Davidson - The Tenant: Engel is employed by rat-tenament landlord Balto to relocate his poverty-stricken clients to a new slum as this one's due for demolition. Eccentric old Mrs. Walbeck proves obstinate, even in the face of a $100 'bonus'. She's not going anywhere. And neither is that toad-like child thing in the bird cage.