Leo Margulies' Weird
Tales Anthologies
Weird Tales
Pyramid Books. May 1964
$0.50
Worlds of the Weird
Pramid Books , January1965
$0.50
My copy
„Weird Tales“
Contents:
- 127 • Pigeons
from Hell • (1938) • novelette by Robert
E. Howard
My copy
„Worlds of Weird“
Contents:
- 143 • Giants
in the Sky • (1939) • shortstory by Frank
Belknap Long
It's „Weird Tales“
week here at the Bunker!
„Why“,
do you ask, „Is it Weird Tales week?“
Well,
I'll tell you.
Since
last week I am the new „contributing editor“ over at Weird
Tales Magazine!
It's
true! The magazine that never dies is still alive and kicking and I'm
officially part of it. And to celebrate this I figured that this
would be “Weird Tales Week”!
Ok,
and to be honest I needed to get off my lazy butt and provide some
content here.
These
two paperbacks first crossed paths with me during the early 70s. I
was already aware of Weird Tales at the is time from the
introductions and copyright pages of several other horror anthologies
that I had read. So I new that the magazine must have been something
special if it was home to H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard among
many others. There was nothing that I loved more as a kid than to see
the phrase “copyright Weird Tales Magazine 193*. Seeing that phrase
guaranteed good time ahead.
Almost
every major genre writer of the first half of the twentieth century
appeared at one time or another between the covers of the Unique
Magazine.
If I
was to pick a definitive “WTs” collection from among the many
that appeared since these, the first of many “WTs” tribute
anthologies to be published, came out I would honestly say that to
this day no one has topped the choice of Stories made by Mr.
Margulies.
Leo Margulies was a master editor and anthologist. He reportedly
edited 46 magazines. Among which were Startling Stories,
Fantastic Universe, Thrilling Mystery and Thrilling Wonder
Stories. Later on from the late 40s up to the middle 1960s he
edited 12 paperback SF and Horror anthologies. Being from the pulp
era gave him great familiarity with the writers and stories of that
age. His choice of stories for these two anthologies were totally
lacking in any pretensions other than picking stories that were well
written, representative of the magazine and highly entertaining.
Another
thing that I like about his choice of stories is that they are
neither obscure Forgotten Treasures nor tales that had alredy
been reprinted to death up to that time.
So if
anyone ever asked me “what was Weird Tales about?” I would
just hand them these to slim paperbacks.
Now
let's take a look at some of those stories!
The
Man who Returned by Edmond Hamilton
Even
though Ed is most famous as a SF writer he was a heavy duty WTs
contributor back in the 1920s and 30s. TMwR tells the story of some
poor schmuck who wasn't quite dead when he was interred in the
mausoleum. He wakes up an heads back to town where he does a bit of
window peeping on his friends and family only to discover that even
though he might not be better of dead,everyone else in his life is
better off with him dead. The story ends with him returning to the
mausoleum,climbing back in his casket and closing the lid on himself.
This shook me up quite a bit when I read it back in 71 or so.
Spider
Mansion by Fritz Leiber
Spider
Mansion is so goofily bad that Mr. Leiber had to have been pulling a
fast on and wrote this actually as a satire of Pulp Tropes without
ever bothering to let anyone in on the joke. That just has to be the
case here. Fritz Leiber never wrote a bad story in his entire career.
Not a single one! So this piece of cheesy schlock just has to be on
purpose.
A
fellow gets invited out to an old school mates creepy Gothic mansion
out in the boondocks. Upon arrival is seems that his old chum has
been conducting some glandular experimentation. His friend isn't a
insecure midget any more. It seems that he has some how become a
muscle bound seven foot tall megalomaniac! Oh, and there's a spider
the size of a Shetland pony running about the place eating people!
This just has to be a non-self referential piece of satire. I just
can't accept anything else.
Drifting
Snow by August Derleth
I've
probably mentioned this story half a dozen times since starting the
blog. I'll say it again though. I love this story. It's one of the
finest horror stories ever published and the 2nd best
story that Auggie ever wrote.
A
monied Wisconsin family is spending winter weekend t their country
estate way out in the middle of no where. A blizzard come up and the
men of the family are lured by a figure that they see out in the
storm to their deaths. The end up being frozen solid and drained of
blood. Yep, it's those pesky snow vampires. So what does the story
teach us? Never go and kick out young servant girls during blizzard
just because the are in a family way out of wedlock. Especially if
you are the one who knocked them up. Brrrr! Good story!
Pigeons
from Hell by Robert E. Howard
Old
Two gun Bob shows us,that when he set his mind to it, that he could
writing a genuinely chilling horror story with out having to resort
to buckets “Blood and Thunder”.
What
we get instead of Swords and Sorcery is two crazy old sisters
and an ex-slave who turn out to be axe welding Zombies who love
dispatching travelers who are foolish enough to spend the night in
their decayed and seemingly deserted southern mansion. There's a lot
more to it than that, I just don't feel like going into it at this
time. Mr. Howard deliver with authentic seeming local color and
history. An intriguing back story and suspenseful plotting. The story
is a genuine classic and even got filmed on on the old Boris
Karloff “Thriller” show.
Roads
by Seabury Quinn
Well,
it does qualify as Weird.
A Roman soldier who was
at Christ's crucifixion
is cursed with
immortality and becomes Santa Claus. This is what the creator of “
Jules de Grandin” considered lite fantasy circa 1938.
The
Valley of the Worm by Robert
E. Howard
That
REH is he only author who appears in both volumes goes to show just
how much impact he had on both the magazine and the genre itself.
Valley
of the Worm is one of those stories that you will never forget if
you read it a young enough age. Howard manages to unite his own
Hyborian Age with HPL's Cthulhu Mythos. We get a world spanning
migration of the Aryan race (no, not those Aryans!) as they seek a
new home in a prehistoric world full of dangerous beasts and even
more dangerous humanoids and their primeval Gods from beyond.
This is absolutely gorgeous story
telling that only REH could write. Read it and you'll grok
“Blood and Thunder”.
Mother
of Toads by Clark
Ashton Smith
Nobody
did weird like
CAS. His stories were so different from his contemporaries and so
ahead of their time that it's no wonder (and a shame) that he's not
nearly as adored today as his friends HPL and REH. If I wanted to be
cynical, I'd say part of the problem with his lack of fame is that he
didn't die young and tragically. He just lived to long to become a
legend. His fantasy and horror stories have to be read to be
believed. Imagine mixing REH and HPL together and then ad good doses
of kinkiness and droll humor. That describes CAS in a nutshell.
Toads
is one of his fantasies set in the imaginary medieval French province
of Averroigne. A place of deep forests, magic, danger and kinky sex.
I'll
sum the story up in one sentence. A young man gets tricked into
carnally servicing a beautiful witch who turns out to be a ghastly
frog woman.
Sadly
this is the version that got butchered by, the at the time editor,
Farnsworth Wright.
This
is just the way I like them, weird and nasty.
The
Thing in the Cellar by
Dr. David H. Keller M.D.
This
has to be one of the meanest f##king stories that I've ever read.
It's been said by critics that Dr. Keller was a misanthrope. And
after reading this story you will surely believe that yourself.
No one believes a little kids fear
of the cellar and so as punishment his father forces the little boy
sit sit alone evenings, alone in the kitchen ,in front of the cellar
door. Well guess what! The little guy gets killed and eaten by what
ever is in the cellar. This story completely blew my mind when I
first read it. Stories aren't supposed to end that way. They should
end with the little guy being saved by his repentant father. With
lots of hugs, tears and forgiveness at the end. Well it sure a s shit
doesn’t happen in this story. Thank you very much Dr. Keller you
old bastard!
Seriously.
This is a power house in only a few pages. One of the best genuine
horror tales that I've ever read.
Well
that's it this time around.
Weird Tales Issue 361 Front and Back covers
Take
care and thanks for stopping by!
Doug
