The Digest Enthusiast continues to be a clear labor of love for editor Richard Krauss and one of the most beautifully put together publications around. What will you find in the most recent issue, you ask? How's this sound?
Reviews of Ed McBain's Mystery Book No. 3, Startling Mystery Stories No. 1, Vanguard Science Fiction (the one and only issue), The Dark City Oct. 2020, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Wonder Stories, The Haunt of Horror, Terror Detective Story Magazine No. 1-4, and Peter Infantino's continuing coverage of Manhunt. Plus industry news and cover previews from the digest world's favorite editors, publishers, and creators. New fiction from John Kuharik, Jack Seabrook, and Robert Snashall with art by Michael Neno. Nearly 100 digest magazine covers in full color, cartoons by Bob Vojtko, and more. 160 pages, published in full color by Larque Press.
There's sort of a tradition around there that when a new issue of The Digest Enthusiast comes in, it's read from cover to cover within a day or two, and that was the case here. My favorite feature this time around is the in-depth look at The Haunt of Horror, because I remember buying and reading those two issues when they came out. I had at least one issue of Ed McBain's Mystery Book, but I don't recall if it was the one reviewed here. I don't think I ever got around to reading it. Startling Mystery Stories came out when I was already avidly buying genre magazines, but I never saw a copy of it, or any of the other Health Knowledge publications, for that matter. I guess they just didn't get any distribution around here.
But I know one thing: every time I read an issue of The Digest Enthusiast, it takes me back to a fondly remembered era and provides a great deal of entertainment and information. I highly recommend Book Fourteen and all the earlier issues, too.
3 comments:
It's certainly the type of magazine I would try to put out if all my funds didn't tend to land in rebuilding the crumbling house around us. Shall finally spare a few for a subscription and back-issues purchase now that we're halfway to rebuilding the whole structure.
ED McBAIN'S MYSTERY BOOK should've done better than it did, but I guess Pocket Books wasn't too sure what the magazine business was about. ("Anything Mercury Press can do, we should be able to do better...")
Likewise the revived BARE BONES...
I sympathize with you on the house repairs! That kind of stuff gobbles up both time and money.
And the likewise was between BARE BONES version 2 and THE DIGEST ENTHUSIAST...though if whatever survives of Pocket Books was to invest in BARE BONES, I doubt their crew will yelp with pain...
I figured you'd sympathize with that plaint, James! Energy, too, to the extent that one has to prepare for them and engage in the easier ones (in my case, at least).
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