PANGO #60 (UNDATED)

 I can't say much about Pango, either the British comic book or the character..  It ran for 31 issues from 1953  to 1956, so either the numbering of the issues was continued from a previous title to explain that this was issue #60, or the British publisher L Miller & Son Ltd did not understand numbers.  The company was founded by Leonard Miller and his son Arnold in 1943 and continued until 1966; it specialized in reprints of American comics and occasionally (as in this case) created series of their own.  no artist or writer is credited on this issue -- the only one I have found online, although there have been a number of issues isted for sale at various sites, including issue #61, which the seller dated as Jan uary 1953, which is also the the seller listed for all eighteen issues he had for sale, up to issue #91, so there were at least 32 issues of the book published.  If anyone has a copy of P.J. Wolfson's British comic guide, Paperback Pulp and Comic Collector, feel free to fill in the details for me. 

So who Pango?  Evidently, he is "a white boy living in the jungle where he battles black tribes and white intruders as well as hostile animals."  No jungle or black tribes or hostile animals in this issue, though.  This time he is fully dressed and riding his horse through the mountains of North Morocco.  We learn that is young and courageous and has adventured in many lands.  We also learn that was born in France.  And that's all the backstory we have on the character.  Well, except that he's blond.

This issue is titled "The Pirate of the Rif" on the cover and "The Pirate of the Riff" on the story -- indicative of the quality of the overall publication.  The artwork is moderate and not too detailed; the writing is on a par with the "Dick and Jane" texts I read in the second grade; the characgterization boils down to "Pango, good."

Pango meets a young fellow traveler named Ahmed and the two ride off together toward the village to get food and water, they come across a band of riders in the distance, killing and pillaging "to take possession of the land."  The land belongs to Caid Mohamed ben Kaddour, Ahmed's guardian; the raiders belong to Abderhamman, a cruel tyrant.  Pango and ahmed ride on in search of food and water, not bothering to interfere with the lilling and pillaging.  They travel to Souk al had to inform ben Kaddour of the raid.Ben Kaddour wants to make Abderhama pay, but the villain is powerful.  Hr asks Pango for ideas.  Since Abderhaman lives in the mountains and wanders about, Pango says they must surprise him, prise him oout -- then attack!  But that would take a large army, and only the Pasha has one large enough.  Ben Kaddour goes to the Pasha and requests the army he needs, but the Pasha is corruipt and indolent and does not care for the well-being of his people; he refuses be Kaddour.  What to do?

Well, for ben Kaddour the logical thing is to foment a revolt, oust the Pasha, and install the Pasha's son, who is a good guy and cares for his people, and then they could go after Abderhaman.  Ben Kaddour asks Pango for his help and Pango naturally agrees.

There's a little bit of business in the middle, where Pango and Ahmed come across Abderhaman and his men and Ahmed is wounded.   They escape.  I'm not what this has to do with the story.

Pango and Ahmed go undercover to enlist the help of Abd-el-Rhali, the garrison commander at Ain-Acel to enlist his aid in the revolt.  (A wise choice to send Pango, with his long flowing blond locks disguised as an Arab fruit seller.)  A treacherous serent betrays them and the Pasha's men close in.  Rather than be taken alive and tortured, Abd-el-Rhali commits suicide.  Pango is taken and tortured, refuses to betray his friends, and is thrown in a prison cell.  Abdehaman's men storm the city, capture the Pasha, who whines for mercy.  Prince Adbullah (the good guy) is tossed into a prison cell.  During the chaos, Ahmed climbs over a wall, silences a guard, and frees Pango.  That evening, Pango and Ahmed free the Prince, and while Pango stays behind to organize a revolt (not to sure how), Ahmed and the Prince rode off for help (not to sure where).  Several days later, ben Kaddour's men pull a surprise attack and overcome the thugs.  Pango has one-panel scimitar fight with Abdehaman and efeats him handily.  Pango is thanked for bringing peace to the kingsom, the price is corned, Ahmed is commended for his bravery, Pango is showered with riches, and Abdehaman is left to rot in prison.

The final two paages of the comic book is given to photographs of military airplane -- don't know why.

Pango #60 is a fast and simplistic read.  If you wish to check it oput, it can be found at Comic Book Plus:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96799&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK : ALPHA CENTAURI OR DIE!

 Alpha Centauri or Die! by Leigh Bracket (fix-up novel of "The Ark of Mars C [Planet Stories, September 1953] and "Teleportress of Alph C" [Planter Stories, winter 1953-54], with the second story substantially edited, 1963; also included in Brackett's 2008 collection The Solar System)

"There were no more men in space.  The dark ships strode the ways between the worlds, lightless, silent, needing no human mind to guide them.  The R-ships, carrying the ffreight and the passengers, keeping order, keeping the law, taking the Pax Terrae to the limits of the solar system, and guardinbg there the boundary which was not now ever to be crossed.

"No mopre men in space,  No strong hands bridling the rockets, no eyes looking outward to the stars.  but still upon the wide-flkung worlds of Sol were old men who remembered, and young men who could dream."

It's a future where mankind can no longer dream, where the human spirit is bound by the reaches of the solar system.

From the blurb from the first edition Ace paperback:

"MANHUNT BEYOND PLUTO

"Alpha Centauri -- nearest star in the Solar System -- a matter of 4.3 light-years away.  to Kiorby and the others it meant freedom -- a word so powerful that they had gathered uop their protesting families and their few possessions and left the safe, easy, automated life of Mars to risk the wrath of the gevernment and the terror of flight into the void between the stars.

"But Alpha Centauri meant something else too:  five years crammed in the belly of a nearly obsolete spaceship, five years of praying that the old ship wouldn't fall apart, tht the food supply wouldn't run out, that the dark shape of a Government-controlled R-ship wouldn't suffenly loom ahead, blocking the path to freedom.

"And should they ever reach the unknown planets of alpha Centauri, what then?  Might there not be a force there, waiting for them, more menacing, more terrifying in its power thn anything man had encountered before?"

Pure space opera and planetary romance adventure of the type typical of Planet Stories, perhaps the best pulp magazine of its kind in the history of the genre.  Leigh Brackett was a mainstay of that revered pulp, and her writing managed to combine fantastic speculation, poetic imagery, sensitivity, and breakneck pacing.  Because of the disparate themes of the two stories that make up this novel, the book is not her very best, but it is a worthwhile example of why people hungered for this type of story.

Leigh Brackett (1915-1978), while known as the "Queen of Space Opera" in the science fiction field, was a multitalented writer who also had great success in other fields. With her 1956 novel The Long Tomorrow, she became the first woman ever nominated for a Hugo Award; she won a Retro-Hugo posthumously in 202 for her novel The Nemesis from Terra.   Other outstanding science fiction novels include The Sword of Rhiannon,The Big Jump, and (notably) The Long Tomorrow, as well as the sword and sorcery inspired Eric John Stark saga.  In the myatery field, she ghosted Stranger at Home for actor George Sanders, the hard-boiled No Good from a Corpse, An Eye for an Eye (adapted as an episode of Suspicion in 1958, the teen-age gang suspense novel The Tiger Among Us (filmed as 13 West Street in 1962), and crime novel Partner.  In the Western field, she wote the novelization of her film Rio Bravo, and the Spur-winning novel Follow the Free Wind.  She began her screenwriting career with Repubic Pictures' The Vampire's Ghost (not the grratest film ever made," according to Brackett).  This led to Columbia Pictures' Crime Doctors Man Hunt.  Director Howard Hawkes was so impressed with her novel No Good from a Corpse that he told his people to get "this guy Brackett" to help William Faulkner wit the script for Ratmond Chandler's The Big Sleep.  Brackett would go oon to work with Hawkes, scripting Rio Grande.Hatari!, El Dorado, and Rio Lobo.  She also wrote the screenplay for Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, and at the tiome of her death, had just completed the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back.  Brackett was married to legendaryscience fiction writer Edmund Hamilton and collaborated with him (uncredited) on some of his works.

For a rip-snortin' read, it's hard to gop wrong woth Leigh Brackett.

THE WHISTLER: RETRIBUTION (MAY 16, 1942)

"I..am the Whistler, and I know many things, fir I walk by night.  I know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows.  Yes...I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak!"

So speaketh the mysterious host and narrator of this mystery anthology series, which teended toward the grim (although not always) and recorded the machinations of fate.

The Whistler ran from May 16, 1942 to November 22, 1955 on the West Coast CBS radio network.  It also ran in chicago and on the Armed Forces Radio.  A couple of brief attemps were made to air the program on the east coast (July through September 1946 and late March 1947 thtrough September 1948).  In total, there were 692 episodes, nearly a quarter of them no longer available.  The radio program spawned eight films from Columbia Pictures from 1944 to 1948 (half of which were directed by William Castle), and a syndicated television show in 1954, airing 39 episodes.

The character of the Whistler was portayed at various times by Bill Forman, Gale Gordon, Joseph Kearns, Marvin Miller (remember him from television's The Millionaire, whic I covered here two days ago?), Bill Johnston, and Everett Clarke.  Writer-producer ran the program for theits first two yearss, folllowed by producer-director George Allen; other directors included Sterling Tracy, Stephen Marks. and William N. Robson.  The actual whistling for the seriies was done by Dorothy Roberts.

In "Retribution," the premiere episode of the radio series, we meet John Hendricks, on trial for the brutl axe murder of his wife and his mentally challenged stepson.  Hendricks supposed ly killed his wife for her money, but no money was found at the scene.  Much to the dismay of the trila judge, because of a lack of evidence, the jury convicted Hendricks of manslaughter insteead of murder.  Rather than face execution, Hendricks was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Ten years pass and Hendricks is planning a jail break.  Bill, his cellmate, has decided to go "straight" and refused to go with Hendricks.

We shift to a wild stormy night.  George Kimball and his wife Joan are traveling through a remote Southern when their car breaks down, its distributor flooded. They take shelter in a dark, unkempt mansion that at first appeared to be abandoned, a one-time inn.  The occupant of the creepy house is an equally creepy old lady who speaks crypticly and her simple-minded son.  After some rather unusual conversation, the old lady shows the couple through the cobweb-infested house to a room upstairs.

Meanwhile, John Hendricks, who has escaped from prison, enters the house, goes to a room and recovers a large envelope of cash from a sectret hiding place.  He is interuptted by the old woman and her son, who is carrying a large axe.  Both now have bloody heads.  They tell Hendricks that he had murdered them and now it is his turn.  A shot is fired, waking the couple upstairs.  They find Hendricks unconscious of the floor and the woman and her son missing.  The police, who had suspected that Henricks might show up, burst in.  They hear the couple's story and take Hendricks into custody.  Although the old woman and her son are nowhere to be found, they do find the envelope of cash.

A nifty little ghost story, right?  But there's a twist at the ned which changes everything...

The Whistler, because it appeared on only a few West Coast radio stations, has been called the most popular radio show that most people never heard.  It was noted for its atmospheric and unique approach to formatting which ran counter to most radio dramas of the day, making it extremely popular to today's old-time radio fans.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au-Ak3o6Brc

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: MYSTERY LEAGUE #1 (OCTOBER 1933)

Just four years after the publication of their first mystery novel The Roman Hat Mystery, "Ellery Queen)(Frederick Dannay & Manfred B. Lee) launched their first mystery magazine.  Dannay and Lee were the only employees.  Unlike other pulp magazines which would abridge their contents, Mystery League would publish only complete stories in an attempt to maintain th high quality the editors demanded.  Unfortunately, this led to the magazine having a higher price tag -- twenty-five cents -- and with the economic condition of the country, that was unsustainable.  The magazine closed after only four issues.  Dannay had much better luck eight years later when he launched the digest Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (again, as "Ellery Queen") in 1941, which would carry over the tradition of quality, uncut fiction.  EQMM is still goiing strong, now in its ninth decade.

The first issue of Mystery League carried the fourth and final novel about Druray Lane, Drury Lane's Last Case  by "Barnaby Ross," a pseudonym for Danny and Lee.  The cousins were tired of Barnaby Ross and of Drury Lane, as well as of their relationship with their publisher Viking,  so, with thumb to the nose, they published the complete novel in Mystery League two months before the Viking edition hit the streets.  Although not rudderless, Dannay and Lee sailed into the future Drury Lane-less, Barnaby Ross-less, and Viking-less.

Drury Lane was a retired Shakespearean actor and an amateur detective, getting older and growing deaf.  I hope I'm not spoiling things, but most mystery readers know that he is killed off in this novel.  The plot involves a stolen Shakespeare manuscript, which is replaced by a rarer, more valuable one.  The plot also includes a mysterious rainbow-bearded man, and envelope containing a million dollar secret, and an impossible murder.

Also included in this issue are:

• "Nightshade" by Dashiell Hammett (later included in the Hammett collections The Adventures of Sam Spade and Other Stories, edited by Queen, 1944; Vintage Hammett, 2005; and Lost Stories, 2005)  "Occasionally we shall print non-mysteries by mystery authors."
• "Suspicion" by Dorothy L. Sayers (later included in the Sayers collections In the Teeth of Evidence, 1939; in the anthologies 101 Years' Entertainment [Ellery Queen, 1941], World's Great Mystery Stories [Will Cuppy, 1943]. Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural [Herbert A. Wise & Phyllis Fraser, 1943], Murder Medlay [Hennel Locke Ltd., 1947], The Unexpected! [Bennett Cerf, 1948], Handbook for Poisoners [Raymond T. Bond, 1952], Famous Mysteries [Mary Yost Sandrus, 1955], Wicked Women [Lee Wright, 1959], Shock! [M. C. Allen, 1965], Best Crime Stories 2 [John Welcome, 1966], Great British Short Stories [Reader's Digest, 1974], Tales of Mystery and Suspense [Theodore W. Hipple, 1977], The Best Horror Stories [Hamlyn, 1977], Crimes and Clues [Stepehn P. Clarke, 1977], Masterpieces of Mystery:  Cherished Classics [Ellery Queen, 1978], 65 Great Murder Mysteries [Mary Danby, 1983], The Web She Weaves  [Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini, 1983], Great Murder Mysteries [Octopus/Chartwell, 1988], The Best Horror Stories [Lynn Picknett, uincredited, 1990], and Murder Short & Sweet [Paul D. Standohar, 2008]; and reprinted in Argosy [UK, July 1942], Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine [#85. December 1950],and The Saint Mystery Magazine [March 1966]; the story has probably been reprinted in many other places, but I'm too lazy to look them up.  "No writer but a Briton and no Brioton but a woman could have conceived such a delightfully piquant study in 'suspicion.'  A gem from the world-famous anthologist of 'The Omnibus of Crime.' "
• "To the Queen's Taste," an unsigned colum designed "as a parturage for the editor's browsing thoughts."  Topics covered include Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle, a request for readers to contribute list of what they consider the ten best detective stories of all time, a suggestion by Senator Royal S. Copeland (NY) for a federal police agency similar to England's Scotlnd Yard "To deal with the appalling wave of kidnapping now sweeping the United States" (shortly after this article was written, FDR created the Department of UInvestigation to be headed by J. Edgar), a list of imaginary mystery novels whose author could be determined by the title alone, a discussion on Native Americans as potential heroes of detective stories, a note on the death of Charlie Chan creator Earl Derr Biggers, and the need for higher critissim in the field of detective fiction.  The title has no connection with To the Queen's Taste, an anthology of some of the best short stories from the early years of EQMM.
• "Burlingame, the Magnificent" by John Marvell.  "As the District Attorney said:  'The crooks trim the puiblic and Burlingame trims the crooks!'  We offer you this rollicking story of the gentlest grafter since G. R. Chester's Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford and the imperishable Jeff Peters."  This is the first of two Burlingame stories; the second appeared in the next issue.  I have no idea whether this is the author's true name; his only other credit is a third short story in Mystery League, and his name is not listed in either Hubin's Crime Fiction or in Hawk's Authors' Pseudonyms.  The magaine claimed that he was a new writer and that the editors knew nothing about him.
• "With 
• "Puzzle Department," various puzzles. including a crossword, anagrams, ciphers, a mini-mystery, and more.
• "The Glass-Domed Clock" by Ellery Queen (also reprinted as "The Adevnture of the Glass-Domed Clock" in the Queen collection More Adventures of Ellery Queen, 1940; and in the anthologies The Arbor House Treasury of Mystery and Suspense [Bill Pronzini, 1981], and Sleuths of the Century [Jon L. Breen & Ed Gorman, 2000], and in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Marh 1991.  "One of the strange adventures in deduction in which Ellery Queen, author of 'The American Gun Mystery,' 'The Egyptian Cross Mystery,' and 'The Greek Coffin Mystery,' etc., has demonstrated his analytical method of solving crimes.  Another interesting memoir from the author's criminal casebook will appear in an early issue."

A solid issue, although -- with the exception of the story by John  Marvell -- the fiction may be overly familiar to many modern readers.  Later issues included stories by such noted authors of the time as Phoebe Atwood Taylor, G.D. H. Cole & Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Thomas Walsh, and Viola Brothers Shore.

Copies of this issue have gone for $500 or more.  Luckily for us, Internet Archive recently made the issue available this issue available.  Check it out:

https://archive.org/details/mystery-league-v-01-n-01-1933-10/mode/1up

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: THE MILLIONAIRE: THE NEWMAN JOHNSON STORY (NOVEMBER 12, 1958)

Remember this one?

"My name is Michael Anthony, and until his death just a few years ago, I was the executive secretary to the late John Beresford Tipton.  John Beresford Tipton, a fabulously wealthy and fascinating man, whose many hobbies included the habit of giving away one million dollars, tax free, each week -- to persons he had never even met."

The Millionaire (also known as If You Had A Million in syndication) was a top-rated anthology drama series airing on CBS from 1955 to 1960 for a total of 207 episodes.  That's a lot of millions; ac tually it was $206 million -- one person returned the money.  A million back then would be worth over $11 million today.  The show explored how wealth -- sudden and unexpected -- could change the lives of ordinary people, for better or for worse.  (Although never stated or acknolwedged, Tipton was essentially playing a petty god, toying with the lives of others, redgardless of the consequences.  So, yes, the rich are different.)

Michael Anthony was played by Marvin Miller (1913-1985), he was also noted for being the voice of Robbie the Robot in the 1956 SF classic Forbidden Planet, and was the announcer on old-time radio's The Whistler.   Miller also did a one-man, fifteen-minute dramatic anthology, Armchair Adventures, for CBS Radio, and in 1950. recorded 260 episodes of a five-minute series of vignettes about famous people (title unknown).  A popular voice-over artist, Miller was the voice of Aquaman for the Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure. the voice of Buddy Birdwell in the animated series Fantastic Voyage. and was the off-screen voice in The Pink Panther Show.  He won two Grammies for his recordings of Dr. Seuss stories in 1965 and 1966.  His role in The Millionaire was to take the cashier's check from Tipton and deliver it to "our next millionaire"; Tipton often told him he needed a full report.

Playing Tipton was an unknown character actor (or actors?) -- Tipton's arm was usually shown handing over the check to Anthony.   voicing Tipton, however, was character and voice actor Paul Frees (1920-1986), best known as the voices of Boris Badenov and Ludwig von Drake.  Frees also llent his voice to many of the Disney Theme park attractions, including The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.In addition to Boris Badenov, Frees provided voices for other Jay Ward cartoons, including Dudley Do-Right''s Inspector Fenwick, and characters in George of the Jungle, Tom S;ick, Superchicken, and Hoppity Hooper.  For Rankin Bass, he provided voices for The Mouse on the Mayflower. The Little Drummer Boy. Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, The Last Unicorn, The Hobbit, and The Return of the king, among others.  For George Pal. Frees did voice-over work for The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, Atlantis -- The Lost Continent, and Doc Savage.  He could also be heard as the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy, Toucan Sam, 7-Up's Fresh-Up Freddie, and the farmer in the Green Giant commercials.  Frees also worked with Tex Avery, Stan Freberg, Spike Jones, Hanna-Barbera, Walter Lantz, He voiced both Jophn Lennon and Geroge Harrison in The Beatles cartoon show, and was Ben Grimm (The Thing) in The Fantastic Four.  He was the narrator for The Manshurian Candidate, the Steve Canyon television show, did voice-overs and looping for The List of Adrian Messenger, and was the vopice of Josephine (the female persona of the Tony Curtis character) in Some Like It Hot.  And that's just a small part of his ouevre.  He also did a couple of cameos in The Millionaire.

John Beresford Tipton by the way, got his name from the birthplaces of producer Don Fedderson (Beresford, South Dakoata) and Fedderson's wife Tido (Tipton, Missouri).   Tido Fedderson also appeared an an extra in vitually every episode.

It was never revealed how or why the recipients of the check were chosen, although Tipton has said that he considered this a chess game, setting the pieces in motion to see what would happen.

In this episode, the meek don't inherit the earth, but they sure can do a lot with a million.  Newmn Johnson is constantly harried byn his overbearing employer, and has to deal with a conniving co-worker, a nosy sister-in-law, and a critical wife.  Things change when he uses his new-found wealth to buy the company.

Orson Bean is featured as Newman Jackson.  Also featured are Sue Randall, Douglas Dumbrille, Amzie Strickland, Peter Leeds, Rick Ellis, and Alica Allyn.  Tido Fedderson's cameo this time is as an office employee.  The episode was directed by James Sheldon, who directed 45 episodes of the series.  It was scripted by Leonard Kantor, whose many credits include 151 episodes of The Doctors.

If someone offered me a million dollars today, I'd probably hold out for something more valuable, like a month's worth of groceries.

Have fun enjoying someone else's wealth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzU3b0CPA84

MY GO-TO SONG FOR TODAY

Ed Trickett with one of tmy favorite versions of this great song.  Never forget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Z4PAZX9Bs

INCOMING

 A few goodies found their way to my doorstep this week:

• William Gray Beyer, Minions of the Moon.  Classci science fiction novel.  "Move over, Buck Rogers!  When Mark Nevin was put under general anestheric, he expected to wake up minus his appendix.  That was all.  To his shock and horror, he discovered himself 6000 years ub the future, long after mankind had reverted back to savagery.  Fortunately for Mark, the surgeon who had accidentally placed him in suspended animation carefully laid him in a crypt containing all the means for survival available in the 20th century.  And he would need them, for he was about to plunge into a world more dangerous and primitive than the long-dead one he had known.  and Mark would not be alone.  There was the beautiful Nona Barr.  And the mysterious Omega, a disenbodied moon-mind with the personality of a mischievous child yet possessing the transformative power of a god.  Not to mention assoreted cannibals and an actual dragon."   This was Beyer's first attempt at fiction and it was serialized in Argosy in 1939; and it was released as a book in 1950 (the fifth novel to be published by science fiction small press pioneer Gnome Press).  An abridged version appeared in a science fiction magazine in 1952.  and then silence...until it was reissued in 2017 by Altus Press as part of their Argosy Library series.  But the whimsical nature of the book proved popular with Argosy readers, and Beyer brought Mark Nevin back for three additional novel-length adventures; all four novels were released as an omnibus (Minions of the Shadow: and Other Mark Nevin-Omega Novels) in 2003 by the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, but copies are hard to find.  Beyer also pub;ioshed four mystery novels in the mid-1940s.
• James Blish, The Tale That Wags the God.  A posthumous collection of essays, edited by /Cy Chauvin.  Blish was a major science fiction figure in the 50s and 60s (A Case of Conscience. Cities in Flight, "Surface Tension", as well as two important  books of science fiction criticism as by "William Atheling"); his reputation may have taken a hit by adapting all of the origional Star Trek episodes for paperback collections, beginning in 1967.  The essays in the boomk are "mostly about science fiction and fantasy.  These include studies of Poul Anderson, James Branch Cabell [Blish was a Cabell scholar -- JH], and the application of Spengler to science fiction.   Other pieces range from "Music of the Absurd" (modern music -- more fantastic than any fiction) to the autobiographical "A Science Fiction Coming of Age" (focused on Blish's childhood), and a conversation with Brian Aldiss that reveals the emotion behind Blish the man and his fiction, as well as his intellect.  Blish's comments on his two [revious Advent books (The Issue at Hand and More Issues at Hand) were intended primarily for writers, although readers found his criticism facinating as well.  The essays in this collection are more genrrtalized and theoretical.  The five essays in Part I are thematically linked, and present a mosaic of Blish's view of science fiction, helping place it in the general context of art, literature, and life.  Together, these essays seem to form part of the extended theoretical and historical work that many critics and writers wished Blish would write.  Alas, he died too soon.  Last but not least is a very detailed 96-page Bibliography of the Works of James Blish, by his widow, Judith Lawrence Blish."  I've mentioned before that Blish's writing blows hot and cold for me, but when he was good, few could touch him.  And there is no denying his genius.  I look forward to dipping into this book, both now and well into the future.
• Harlan Ellison, with J. Michael Straczynski, editors, The Last Dangerous Visions.  At last!  It's finally here after a fifty-one year wait!  Well, it's kind of here.  TLDV was intened to be the third and fianl volume of the ground-breaking Dangerous Visions series, following 1967's Dangerous Visions and 1972's Again, Dangerous Visions.  The original anthology contained 33 stories and "almost single handedly.. changed the way readers thought about science fiction."  Stories in the anthology won two Hugo Awards and two Nebula Awards, with another story being nominated for a Hugo.  The 1972 follow-up anthology contained 45 stories and one poem; one sotry garneed a Hugo and one a Nebula.  The Last Dangerous Visions was scheduled to be published in 1973.  It didn't happen.  For nearly hnalf a decade, editor Ellison kept fiddling with the contents -- adding stories, dropping stories, swapping stories until TLDV became the most famous book that was never published.  The number of stories and authors kept changing.  The most "complete" table of contents was releaed in 1979 and included 113 stories by 102 authors, to be published in three volumes (as per the June 1979 issue of Locus); many of the authors listed have since died, and some of the stories have been published elsewhere by the author or the author's estate; n ine of the stories that had been previously announced were not included in this list.  Late in 2020, Straczynski, who is the excutor of Ellison's estate announced he would undertake puiblication of TLDV.  He would not include withdrawn stories (as many of themn were over the years), or "stories overtaken by rreal-world events."  (To be honest, many of the tales wedged alongside truly brillianr stories in the first two volumes were bloated or insignificant; I suspet the same wojuld have been true for the final volume.)  The final length of the book wis about one-sixth of that which had previously been announced by Ellison.  Anyway, what we have ended up with is 31 stories by 24 authors, 24 of the stories were originally selected by Ellison, with the remaining seven selected by Straczinski.  The stories selected by Ellison were by Stephen Robinett, D. M. Rowles (eight brief stories), Richard E. Peck, Edward Bryant, Stephen Dedham, Steve Herbst, A. E. van Vogt, John Morrissey, Jonathan Fast, Howard Fast, Robert Wissner, Steve Utley, Robert Sheckley, Dan Simmons, Ward Moore, P. C. Hodgell, and Mildred Downey Broxon.  More than 40 stories originally purchased by Ellison have been published elsewhere.  All rights to stories not used have been reverted back to the authors.  It is good to have the book -- in whatever form -- available, but I suspect that the Dangerous Visions time has passed, and that fw of these tales will be regarded in the future as classics.
• Percival Everett, James.  Huckleberry Finn reimagined.  Already acclaimed as one of the best books in recent times, James has won the 2024 Kirkus Prize, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2024 Booker Prize and for the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.  It has appeared on 33 lists of the best books of the year.  If Huckleberry Finn could be considered the great American novel (because it is!), then James may come in at a close second, or perhaps even surpass it.  Time will tell.
• Christopher Golden, Prowlers Series:  Four Complete Novels.  Omnibus of four horror novels:  Prowlers, Laws of Nature, Pedator, and Prey.  Werewolves are the myth.  Prowlers are the savage reality.  Werewolves of legend are human beings transformed by the moon into wolves; Prowlers are savage beasts masqueraading as humans.  Led by Owen Tanzer, the Prowlers are expanding, mooving from city to city to avoid detection.  They are being u hunted by Jack Dwyer, aided by the ghost of his best friend, and Molly Hatcher, Jack's love interst, Jack vows to eliminate the Prowlers from Earth.  And allies, dead or alive, must join together in a final conflict.
• Christopher Golden and James Moore, Bloodstained Oz.  A dark fantasy, the first in a series.  "Something's gone wrong over the rainbow...1933.  The winds of the Dust Bowl have reduced what had been the nation's breadbasket to a desert full of broken dreaams and desperate prayers.  The water is gone, the crops are ruined and, for the people of Hawley, Kansas, there's little left to struggle for except the chance for another day in hell.  There's a storm coming, one that will rip the roofs from farms and scatter the wretched crops far and wide.   One little girl will find a treasure trove in a ruined field and converse with a nightmare.  One man will find salvation in the dirt and damnation close on its heels.  One woman will suffer the sins of her husband and seek hope in the actions of her only child.  Dying faith will be test, because that isn't rain wetting the crops, it's blood.  Those aren't trinkets and toys that are lying hidden in the fields; they're nightmares wrapped in false promises.  And while the darkest storms bring the brightest rainbows, that isn't a pot of gold waiting at the far end; it's an emerald that gleams and flickers with its own infernal light.  [...]  there's no hell like home..."   Golden is a prolific author who weaars many hats; I've found he looks pretty daened good in all of them. 
• Amor Towles, editor, Otto Penzler, series editor, The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023.  Penzler had previously edited (among many other books) The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year for 24 volumes.  In 2020 it was announced that Penzler was out and that Stephen Cha would become series editor, with a slight title change to The Best American Mystery and Suspense.  In response, Penzler announced that a new series from Penzler's Mysterious Press and The Mysterious Bookshop would produce an annual The Best Mystery Stories of the Year.  This book is the third in that series.  As with the earlier series, Penzler (aided by Michelle Slung) would ferret out a long list of what he considered the best of the year, and a changing roster of guest editors would make the final selection.  It should be noted that Penzler's definition of what defines a mystery is extremely broad, allowing stories from mainstream publications and literary magazines that might not be considered by other editors.  This 2023 edition contains 21 stories first published in 2023, plus a "bonus" story by Edith Wharton first published in 1926.  Familiar authors include Doug Allyn, T. C. Boyle, Andrew Child, Jeffrey Deaver, Brendon DuBois, Michael Mallory, and Joseph S. Walker.