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Post by dem bones on Aug 11, 2019 7:14:42 GMT
John Tigges, Kevin Browne & Stephen Blue - Kevin Browne's Nightales (Upper West Side Publishing, 1990) Preface
Introduction
All Bets Are Down
Just The Right Card
Capital Punishment
Greatest Gift Of All
Objective Report
No Control
The Truth Box
From A Simple Time
De'ja' Vu
Tycoons
Shouldn't Throw Stones
An Eye For An Eye
To Age Is Human
Over The WallBlurb: Welcome to a fascinating new world of HORROR, MAGIC and SUSPENSE. A world where the concept of "impossibility" is nowhere to be found. Welcome to a time located somewhere outside of the one that we know exists, between never and always, a place somewhere other than lost and just short of found. Welcome to NIGHTALES.
Step inside and experience the new name in thrilling entertainment. Open up to NIGHTALES.Been reading this over past week. 14 Kevin Browne screenplays adapted as short stories by John Tigges/ 'William Essex', author of Vessel, Garden Of The Incubus, Venom, Unto The Altar & Co. The framing story Destiny, written by Browne and drawn by Stephen Blue, is told in a comic strip. Silicone Valley, New York. The annual Microchip Inc staff summer picnic, funded by company founder, Clarence Riddick. Riddick detests his employees, blaming them for a disastrous slump in profits. His wife, Evalyn, insists he join them on the popular bus ride through the woods; "you might even enjoy yourself." Despite familiarity with the short route, the driver inexplicably gets them lost. To pass the time, a decrepit office cleaner shares a strange story... All Bets Are Down. First stop, Casino Vitarum on Markhan Boulevard, whose patrons play to win back their youth. The odds are so stacked in favour of a hostile management that nobody has ever been known to beat the house, but Bernie Parks, an arthritic sixty-something, believes he's devised a system .... Just The Right Card: Miss Debbie Moyer chances upon a shabby gift shop whose unique and prohibitively expensive cards-for-every-occasion guarantee customer satisfaction. For the right price, proprietor Teddy, who gets about the shop in a motorised wheelchair, can mail you the card to cure cancer, land that dream job, destroy a business rival .... Capital Punishment: Desperate to end his miserable existence, veteran coal miner Jeffrey Wilkes commits cold blooded murder before several witnesses. Sadly for him, the jury is rigged ... Greatest Gift Of All: A man who lost his leg in a hit and run avenges himself on the culprit, Jimmy Mallard, by bestowing the gift of immortality. Mallard, a mob hitman, owes $30,000 to the ruthless Gandetto family. Carmine Gandetto, furious at shooting, knifing and drowning Mallard to no effect, invites him to a construction site to see if they can reach a compromise ...
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Post by dem bones on Aug 11, 2019 16:47:52 GMT
Objective Report: Troy Gallo, alcoholic veteran reporter on The Examiner, faces instant dismissal unless he can satisfy editor Gilmarten's demand for sensationalist copy, beginning with an account of a fatal cat accident outside a posh address on Upper West Side .... No Control: Spectacular homicidal meltdown of Clark Cunningham, air traffic controller, driven to despair by vindictive, ever-whining, lard-arsed wife. This and Greatest Gift of All (which may have been inspired by Ray Russell's The Cage), have been the most entertaining to date. The Truth Box: Francine Quaid buys it on impulse, a perfect, quirky 10th birthday gift for son Sam, a boy who already has everything. The box is supposedly battery operated, though the truths it relates are equally devastating without. From A Simpler Time: Having slipped through a time tunnel on Lord Gerald's plantation, Aaron of Morgan is transported to Virginia, A.D. 1751. During his brief exile, the primitive meets and befriends nine-year-old Thomas Jefferson who shares his views on the evils of slavery. Has Aaron travelled centuries backwards or forwards? I'm sure you can guess. The framing story is disappointing - Riddick has since been handed a note warning that "someone on this bus will die today" - but otherwise great fun, almost Nigel Taylor's Mystery Tour taken on a marathon excursion through The Twilight Zone.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 12, 2019 6:18:24 GMT
De'ja' Vu: Larry and Gail Moynihan land their dream home on Calhoun Street for an absolute steal. The neighbours even insist on throwing a house-warming in their honour. Hugs! What luck! Oh, we're going to be so happy here! Etc.
And then some fool tells them what happened to the previous owners. Over and over again.
Tycoons: Four devious, ultra-competitive businesspersons contest a cosmic game of Monopoly.
Shouldn't Throw Stones: In the aftermath of a Nuclear war, those fortunate to draw a winning lottery ticket are separated from friends and family and relocated to Newtown, a glass-domed synthetic city off Rhode Island. Mark Danvers regrets his good fortune. He hates Newtown, hates its ruling council and misses his son so bad. It's got so bad Mark just has to escape, no matter the attempt may cost several lives.
An Eye For An Eye: Little Tiffany Laggert has extraordinary accurate powers of precognition, so when she excitedly informs father that, in two days time, long-blind Granddad will regain his sight, he really ought to listen ...
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Post by dem bones on Aug 13, 2019 9:44:25 GMT
Nightales ends on two more world-as-we-know-it-turned-on-its-head fables, both very Twilight Zone. John Tigges handles them well, though I prefer when he's let loose on the horrors.
To Age Is Human: Paul and Sandy Delmarro wonder where the money is gonna come from to keep her mother, Edith, in Millbury House, now they've a new addition to the family. One for those who dote over ugly, gummy, wrinkled little creatures at either end of the age scale.
Over The Wall: When the "crime wave to end all crime waves" sweeps America, the Anamosa prison is one of few safe-havens from the lawbreakers. It's the duty of long-time warden Sid Kurtz to keep it that way.
Have already mentioned that the framing cartoon isn't much cop and final instalment does zero to change original opinion. This apart, I very much enjoyed the bulk of these stories.
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