The Damn Thing Fanzine

The notes from the seller:

THE DAMN THING - #1, #2, #3 & #4 - Nov 1940, Dec 1940, Feb 1941 & Mar 1941. Editor: T. Bruce Yerke. Contents: #1 (18 pages)- Assailing The Pro-Scientists by Damon Knight, Bedlam on 9th Street by Lothar Penguin, Is Ackerman A Schizophrenatic? by Prof. Carlton Fassbeinder, Over Hill and Dale to Pomona! by T. Bruce Yerke, The Last Man by Ray Douglas Bradbury, Boosting the Editor, List of Persons Attached in This Issue: Forrest J. Ackerman, Raymond Van Houten & Co, Chas. D. Horning, Price System Justice, Morojo, Bill Crawford, Futuria Fantasi, The Rocket, Shangri-La, T. Bruce Yerke, All Pro-Sceintists, All Fan Feuders. #2 (20 pages)- Cover drawn by Bradbury, The Editor Sits on His Platform, Genie Trouble by Ray Bradbury, Archibald was a Fan Mag Editor, Van Houten Says--, After Armagedddon by Fywert Kinge, Prof. Fassbeinder's Corn-Or, The Newark Convention by TBYerke, The Sucker Bites by Readers; #3 (20 pages) -The Editor Sits on His Platform, Hollorbochen by Lothar Penguin, Column Left! by Rigour Fungus, The Black Supreme br Eustance Bildgewater, The Demise of Clifton's Cafe by Thornton Craymyre, A Dispatch frm Shangri-La by Yerke, Scientifictionurserymes by Prof. Stinkywitz, "How Am I Today, Doctor?" by Ray Bradbury, The Sucker Bites by You & Yoy & You, Notes on Local Mags by Editor; #4 (20 pages) - Contents - Right in Front, The Editor Sits on His Platform, Illustration by Ewing Brown, Hodgkins, The Enigma by Lothar Penquin, The Trouble With Humans Is People by Ray Bradbury, For Fans by Walt Daugherty.

Robert Bloch Remembrance

Uncle Robert, I hardly knew you
August 6, 11:30 AMMilwaukee Horror Movies ExaminerAaron W. Tellock

One of Wisconsin's most infamous writers actually has little association with his own claim to fame. Mr. Robert Bloch wrote the story that horror/mystery legend Alfred Hitchcock would later turn into one of the greatest horror films in the history of horror, although Bloch is a name seldom associated with the film. It also just so happens to be that Robert Bloch took an interest in my great aunt Marion Holcombe and in 1940 they were married. Together they raised a daughter and moved to Weyauwega, Wisconsin where he would later write the story for which he was best known. Psycho is by far his most notable work partly because of the great success of the film adaptation, but Robert Bloch wrote numerous short stories and even episodes for a radio program as well as his many novels.

I never met him, partly because his marriage to my great-aunt Marion dissolved in the mid-1960’s but mostly because he had moved out to Hollywood to pursue a career in screenwriting some years before that. I’ve heard stories about my mother and her siblings going to visit his home in Weyauwega when they were younger. He was a humorous man despite his chilling horror stories and fantastic science fiction adventures. I’ve read in all of his biographies on the net and in his book about how nice he was and how much loved his family, and from what I’ve heard he truly did. The most common story is about his desk, a giant slab of oak that he sat behind creating his masterworks including one of my favorite stories, Terror.

I think about everything that I was told about the great-uncle that I never met and the most renowned feature about him was his attachment to reality. Success never tainted him or changed him; he took everything with quiet dignity and respect for the craft that he so delicately evolved into what it is today. He was one of the first to take horror outside of the supernatural during a time when the supernatural was the topic of most horror tales. His stories influenced generations of writers to follow just as H.P. Lovecraft influenced Bloch himself when he first began penning stories for Weird Tales literary magazine. I think that all authors are influenced by someone, their favorite author, having read a lot Bloch’s work in my teens and early twenties; I guess my own work was probably influenced by him.

Robert Bloch passed away in September of 1994 after a long battle with cancer.

Reference:
http://www.examiner.com/x-11159-Milwaukee-Horror-Movies-Examiner~y2009m8d6-Uncle-Robert-I-hardly-knew-you

Derleth in Redbook

REDBOOK Jan1941 - in same issue as Disney's Fantasia; A Derleth novel. he Novel of the Month at the end of the issue (pgs 113-146) is a rare novel by noted fantasy writer August Derleth. (Some silverfish damage shown in image, a fitting homage to he who revels in arcane and musty nefarious books).

Virgil Finaly Illustrations (1947)

Here are a couple of Virgil Finlays from March 1947 Startling Stories (illustrating Murray Leinster's "The Laws of Chance").

Saturday, 8 August 2009

Oh, Chrispy is flying high. Not only did I get three more 1940's era Startling Stories pulps (for my Young Lin Carter research and sheer enjoyment of reading those old tales when they were new) but just came back from watching on the big screen in glorious black and white The Wolfman (1940) and Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). They were just as much fun - and sometimes as corny - as I remember.

A great Saturday!