For those of us who are long-time fans of genre fiction, this is kind of a Golden Age. Not only are there more readily available reprints of vintage material than even the most devoted fan could ever get around to reading, there are also a number of magazines and journals devoted to the fiction we love. For example, MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY, THE SHADOWED CIRCLE, THE BRONZE GAZETTE, and the subject of today’s post, THE DIGEST ENTHUSIAST. Book Sixteen in that series is now available, and it’s one of my favorite issues so far.
It starts off with a very nice keyhole cover featuring pinup model Jeanne
Carmen, who’s featured in a long article about her career, lavishly illustrated
(as they say) with many photographs and magazine cover reproductions.
Inside, regular contributor Steve Carper starts things off with an in-depth
article about Handi-Books and their publisher James Quinn. Handi-Books
published one of my favorite Harry Whittington novels, SLAY RIDE FOR A LADY, as
well as good books by Robert Leslie Bellem, Cleve F. Adams, Paul Evan Lehman,
Leslie Ernenwein, and others.
TDE editor Richard Krauss examines the first year of Howard Browne’s tenure as
editor of FANTASTIC and returns later in the issue with a look at Robert A.W.
Lowndes’ editorship of various magazines published by Health Knowledge. I’ve
long been interested in Lowndes, who was known for editing some entertaining
pulp magazines on next-to-nonexistent budgets. Krauss’s article about the
Health Knowledge magazines is fascinating. Those magazines were never distributed
to any of the stores and newsstands I frequented as a kid, or I would have picked
them up for sure. I have a few in my collection now and always find them
interesting.
Peter Enfantino continues his survey of MANHUNT, the best crime fiction digest
of the Fifties, and Anthony Perconti takes a look at some of the digest-sized
comic book reprint collections published by DC in the Eighties. I enjoyed both
of these articles as well. Perconti’s stirred up some nice nostalgic memories because
I bought and read quite a few of those digest comics collections when they were
new. I actually remember seeing some of the very late issues of MANHUNT on the
stands when they were new, but I never bought any of them. I’m not sure why,
unless my allowance and the money I earned just wouldn’t stretch quite that
far. EQMM was my mystery digest of choice in those days.
So there’s something for just about everybody in Book Sixteen of THE DIGEST
ENTHUSIAST, and it’s all well-written, informative, and entertaining. This is a
great series, and the latest volume is available on Amazon in both a full color
and a black-and-white edition. Highly recommended.
