The Digest Enthusiast, Book Two - Arkay Olgar, ed.

I've heard quite a bit about the new magazine The Digest Enthusiast, all of it good, and having read the second issue, I have to agree. For someone like me who grew up reading digest magazines—there was a wide selection of them available at most grocery and drug stores when I was a kid—this is a very entertaining publication.

The Digest Enthusiast covers all sorts of magazines. Included in this issue are articles about The Mysterious Traveler Magazine, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, Borderline, Paperback Parade, Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog/Astounding, and even the Archie Comics digests. Plus articles on other comics, like the very intriguing Italian publication Mister No (I wish some of these were available in English translations) and on literary magazines. There are also fine interviews with my old friend Gary Lovisi, publisher of Gryphon books; mystery writer Robert Lopresti; and Steve Darnell, publisher of Nostalgia Digest. Rounding out the issue, appropriately enough, are four short stories by Joe Wehrle Jr., D.D. Ploog, Richard Krauss, and John M. Kuharik. These are excellent crime and fantasy yarns.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Digest Enthusiast: Book Two, enough so that I've gone back and ordered the first issue so I can catch up, and I intend to be a regular reader from now on. Highly recommended.