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Jupiter, v. 1, issue 1, May 1946

Page 6

LETTER FROM THE FUTURE
                             Ken. Kruerer

Ed:-Note: Originally I was going to change this a littl, but have sinse decided that I shall publish it, just as I received it. I'd like reader reaction to this, as I want to make the reviewing of these old proz. by Ken. a regular feature. RPM
P.S. The title is mine, but I don't particularly like it, I wish to find a better one.
                              
                       September, 2031
Dear Ron,
I just took a trip in my time machine back exactly one hundred years to look for some half-way decent reading material. Back there in Sept. 1931, I found a new magazine had just hit the stands. Title was Strange Tales and the first issue was enough to give a zombie nightmares. It depicted a man changing into a python. And it was really well done.
The contents were as follows:
The Dead Who Walk   Novelette   Ray Cummings
The Place of the Pythons   Short   Arthur K. Burkes
The Dark Castle   Short   Marion Brandon
Dr. Muncing, Exorcist   Short   Gordon MacCreagh
The Dog that Laughed   Short   Charles Willard Diffin
The Return of the Sorcerer   Short   Clark Ashton Smith
Nasturtia   Short   Capt. S.P. Meek
A Cry From Beyond   Short   Victor Rousseau
The Awful Injustice   Short   S.G.H. Hurst

   I suppose you want to know what I thought of the stories. Well, I'll give you a general idea of the things. First is the Cummings novelette.  I won't ruin any of these by giving away the entire plot. I'll just tell enough to make you want to go back and get a copy for yourself. You can just about guess from the title, the The Dead Who Walk, what the story is about. Yep, it's the old, old gag of bringing some guys back to life. But in this case it's rather well done. At least it's a hell of a lot better than that stuff of his that we picked up in '45 and '46. Wow!!!
   The Place of Pythons by Burkes is the story that the cover illus is taken from. It's a very well told little yarn about a fellow who arises the rath of some native dame in Brazil and she curses him with "And ye shall go down to the place of Pythons" That night on his way home the path becomes unfamiliar and he gets the feeling of liking the slime under him, takes his clothes off and glides around, changes into a python and becomes very friendly with all the other similar reptiles. In his meanderings he kills a native chief and heads back toward the native who cursed him. There he is trapped, but he changes back into a man and there is the sad ending of "Was it a dream?". But it is by far the best story in the issue despite the medicre ending.
   The Dark Castle is one of the regular ghost stories that the period seemed to abound with..The usual malignant ghost is a woman this time and menaces two travelers in a gloomy old castle lit only by fire-light. Sound familiar?
   The MacCreah epic seems to be the start of a series. I can't say off hand whether there were ever anymore of them, but the first was a lollapelooza. Complete with midnight seances, unknown entity from another dimention, midnight murder to match the seances, and every other terror dispencing trick known. It probably went over wonderfully with the younger readers but it was totally lacking in style.
   The Bog That Laughed is a werdor story, as you've probably already guessed from the title. But it is one of the very best of it's type that I've seen yet. It has the added twist of putting a man's sole into a dog's dog's body and the other way around. Thus, while the dog, in the man's body died, the man, in the dog's body could laugh about it.
   You've probably read the Return of the Sorcerer, already. That's the one where a necromancer murders his brother and cuts him up into little pieces, but the pieces all come back to life and in their separate chunks and promptly proceed to scare the living hell out of the poor guy. (con't on page ll)
               (6)

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LETTER FROM THE FUTURE Ken. Kruerer Ed:-Note: Originally I was going to change this a littl, but have sinse decided that I shall publish it, just as I received it. I'd like reader reaction to this, as I want to make the reviewing of these old proz. by Ken. a regular feature. RPM P.S. The title is mine, but I don't particularly like it, I wish to find a better one. September, 2031 Dear Ron, I just took a trip in my time machine back exactly one hundred years to look for some half-way decent reading material. Back there in Sept. 1931, I found a new magazine had just hit the stands. Title was Strange Tales and the first issue was enough to give a zombie nightmares. It depicted a man changing into a python. And it was really well done. The contents were as follows: The Dead Who Walk Novelette Ray Cummings The Place of the Pythons Short Arthur K. Burkes The Dark Castle Short Marion Brandon Dr. Muncing, Exorcist Short Gordon MacCreagh The Dog that Laughed Short Charles Willard Diffin The Return of the Sorcerer Short Clark Ashton Smith Nasturtia Short Capt. S.P. Meek A Cry From Beyond Short Victor Rousseau The Awful Injustice Short S.G.H. Hurst I suppose you want to know what I thought of the stories. Well, I'll give you a general idea of the things. First is the Cummings novelette. I won't ruin any of these by giving away the entire plot. I'll just tell enough to make you want to go back and get a copy for yourself. You can just about guess from the title, the The Dead Who Walk, what the story is about. Yep, it's the old, old gag of bringing some guys back to life. But in this case it's rather well done. At least it's a hell of a lot better than that stuff of his that we picked up in '45 and '46. Wow!!! The Place of Pythons by Burkes is the story that the cover illus is taken from. It's a very well told little yarn about a fellow who arises the rath of some native dame in Brazil and she curses him with "And ye shall go down to the place of Pythons" That night on his way home the path becomes unfamiliar and he gets the feeling of liking the slime under him, takes his clothes off and glides around, changes into a python and becomes very friendly with all the other similar reptiles. In his meanderings he kills a native chief and heads back toward the native who cursed him. There he is trapped, but he changes back into a man and there is the sad ending of "Was it a dream?". But it is by far the best story in the issue despite the medicre ending. The Dark Castle is one of the regular ghost stories that the period seemed to abound with..The usual malignant ghost is a woman this time and menaces two travelers in a gloomy old castle lit only by fire-light. Sound familiar? The MacCreah epic seems to be the start of a series. I can't say off hand whether there were ever anymore of them, but the first was a lollapelooza. Complete with midnight seances, unknown entity from another dimention, midnight murder to match the seances, and every other terror dispencing trick known. It probably went over wonderfully with the younger readers but it was totally lacking in style. The Bog That Laughed is a werdor story, as you've probably already guessed from the title. But it is one of the very best of it's type that I've seen yet. It has the added twist of putting a man's sole into a dog's dog's body and the other way around. Thus, while the dog, in the man's body died, the man, in the dog's body could laugh about it. You've probably read the Return of the Sorcerer, already. That's the one where a necromancer murders his brother and cuts him up into little pieces, but the pieces all come back to life and in their separate chunks and promptly proceed to scare the living hell out of the poor guy. (con't on page ll) (6)