1 Challenger #39 Guy & Rosy Lillian, editors * 154A Weybridge Circle, Royal Palm Beach FL 33411 * [email protected] * 318/218-2345 * Spring 2015 CONTENTS “Beasts” by Richard Wilbur 3 “Monsters into the City”: An Editorial GHLIII (illo by Carl Gafford) 4 The Thing – Part II GHLIII 7 The Challenger Tribute: Mary Axford GHLIII 14 Attack of the Amazing Colossal Monsters Jim Ivers (illo by Charlie Williams) 15 Monsters of the Midway Steven H Silver (illo by ?) 27 Monsters of the Midway Mike Resnick (illo by Randy Cleary) 29 The State of the Magazines Gregory Benford 33 Poems Mike Estabrook (illos by Randy Cleary & Nancy Mayberry) 38 My Main Man Meade … GHLIII (illos by many) 43 “Well That Was Fun” Joseph Major (illos by Anon.) 50 “We Three Kongs of Skull Island Are” GHLIII 53 Ill-Winds Still Blow Taral Wayne 58 A Proof of Niven’s Law Joseph Major 64 One Man’s Poison Walt Wentz 73 The Chorus Lines The Chorus (illo by Thomas Edison) 75 Cover by RON SANDERS Challenger no. 39 is GHLIII Press Publication #1171, February-March 2015. Copyright 2015 by Guy H. Lillian III. All rights revert to the contributor upon first printing and on-line publication. Uncredited text by Guy Lillian. Yes, master. 2 “Beasts” Richard Wilbur Beasts in their major freedom Slumber in peace tonight. The gull on his ledge Dreams in the guts of himself the moon-plucked waves below, And the sunfish leans on a stone, slept By the lyric water; In which the spotless feet Of deer make dulcet splashes, and to which The ripped mouse, safe in the owl’s talon, cries Concordance. Here there is no such harm And no such darkness As the self-same moon observes Where, warped in window-glass, it sponsors now The werewolf’s painful change. Turning his head away On the sweaty bolster, he tries to remember The mood of manhood, But lies at last, as always, Letting it happen, the fierce fur soft to his face, Hearing with sharper ears the wind’s exciting minors, The leaves’ panic, and the degradation Of the heavy streams. Meantime, at high windows Far from thicket and pad-fall, suitors of excellence Sigh and turn from their work to construe again the painful Beauty of heaven, the lucid moon And the risen hunter, Making such dreams for men As told will break their hearts as always, bringing Monsters into the city, crows on the public statues, Navies fed to the fish in the dark Unbridled waters. 3 … bringing Monsters into the city, crows on the public statues, navies fed to the fish in the dark unbridled waters “Monsters into the City” An editorial “Beasts”, by the American poet Richard Wilbur, is possibly my favorite poem. Its vivid imagery, its identification of nature with agony, are irresistible. I think I most appreciate the poet’s generosity in including in his verse a genre image, the werewolf, a fabled bridge between man and beast, and through him demonstrating the painful transformative power of nature. “Beasts” is in some ways a cautionary poem: the world, and nature, are by no means pastoral and sweet. They churn with chaos and anguish. The artistry that embraces and expresses the world does not comfort; it excites, degrades, and panics. It breaks your heart … as always. Challenger #39 has no such ambition, but nevertheless we steal Wilbur’s most startling phrase for this issue’s theme. At the close of the last issue I had something more peaceable in mind. Rosy’s stated ambition to write her autobiography in science fiction fandom – remember, she’s second generation, born into it – inspired me to a theme of “The Family Of and the Family In Science Fiction.” I imagined an issue rife with love, tranquility and familial grace. And eventually it will come. But another influence raised its head from “the sweaty bolster”: Ron Sanders’ stunner of a cover, a painting evocative of innumerable monster epics from the 1950s and before. In the way some artwork does when you behold it, the illo compelled its immediate use and shot its influence throughout the zine it fronts. Maybe that’s because the image itself establishes a “bridge” between the monstrous and the human; this creature may be menacing, but he’s wearing Speed-os. But probably because, like all of Sanders’ work, it’s a thrilling piece of art. Our contributors and I attack the theme from several angles in this “Jack Benny” Challenger. Monster movie aficionado Jim Ivers offers another survey of genre movies of the past, this time the monsters of the 1950s. He evokes the joy of a more innocent age – and the cheerful self-derision of our genre at its silliest. But I wouldn’t trade these flicks for all the Citizen Kanes and Birdmans – I suppose that should be Birdmen (loved that movie) – on Earth or off. Thanks to the ever-reliable Charlie Williams for his wonderful work illustrating a classic. No Challenger is complete without poetry. I begin this issue with verse and poet Mike Estabrook provides lines devoted to our favorite movie monstrosities. Artwork is by Randy Cleary, another hero of Southern fandom and its fanzines, and New Orleans’ beloved Nancy Mayberry, whose artwork graced the first Nolacon II progress report back in 1987 and the cover of Mike Resnick’s special B.E.M. anthology, published for that con. 4 I guess Howard Phillips Lovecraft brought monsters into the countryside more than he did the city, but we can stretch the point enough to hail the late Meade Frierson and his epic fanzine, HPL. My THANKS to brother SFPAns Joe Moudry and Ned Brooks for their invaluable assistance with this piece Joe reminded me of Meade’s own account in SFPA of the genesis and growth of HPL, and Ned sent me an e- copy. (Br’er Brooks also helped me find a copy of HPL to work from, as my own is buried in storage.) We all loved Meade, we all admire his book, but if there is quality in the article, it all belongs to these hale denizens of the South. Steven Silver and Mike Resnick are both Chicago boys, so perhaps it’s inevitable that each should seize upon football as his subtheme and “Monsters of the Midway” as his title. By the way, if Randy Cleary’s artwork for Mike’s piece seems familiar, you may be remembering this movie poster for the original Frankenstein. Righteous work, Randy. The monster Joe Major brings into the city for this Challenger is one he has dealt with often and delightfully in these pages. You’d have to mess up mightily to have Julie Schwartz’ “Favorite Guy” turn down a Joker story! Speaking of ….The Fox series Gotham is pretty point- and lifeless nine-tenths of the time – doing little with the great villains-to- be it’s introduced: Catwoman, Penguin, the Riddler, Two-Face and the Scarecrow. But when, in “The Blind Fortune Teller”, the paler-than-pale mama’s boy Jerome Nordstrom raises his face from the table where he supposedly weeps – and the Clown Prince of Crazy leers back at us – we have to hope that it’s only a matter of time till we get righteous Bat-vibes going. You may think it’s in imitation of Mike and Joe that I give a shot to my own fan fiction in this issue – “The Thing: Part II” – but let’s be kind to yhos the editor. Let’s just say that their example inspired me to hack out a fan fiction that I’ve been thinking over for years. I make no claim for it except to repeat words I’ve said a dozen dozen times by now: I have no talent and I have a Masters of Fine Arts to prove it, and hey, I pay for the printing. The piece follows immediately. I do have a personal and much more serious writing project going. Revamping my M.F.A. thesis from 40 years ago, it’s a tale my grandfather recounted of his boyhood to my dad and myself. A human monster strides through that story, and perhaps, methinks, dealing with the savage critters of imagination will sharpen my perspective. After all, when you say “monsters,” you’re talking about people’s perceptions of monstrosity, for monstrosity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. (At my rate of progress, expect my story in another 40 years.) You notice that Challenger has restricted its understanding of monsters to fictional beings – with the exception of Mr. Silver’s gridiron behemoths. It’s not that I wasn’t tempted to write about the figurative monsters with whom I dealt as a public defender, it’s just that lately I’ve found monstrous people more depressing than interesting – mostly, I’m afraid, petty, obvious, and vulgar. Monstrous beings of imagination, on the other claw – in the wits and the hands of talented artists, they can be metaphors. They can convey truth. They can teach. 5 Which reminds me of another poem evoking a menace from the movies, Fred Chappell’s “Burning the Frankenstein Monster” from his great cycle, Midquest. (An earlier poem in that cycle is addressed to me.) Recalling the epic moment when Colin Clive’s Dr. Frankenstein throws symbolic light onto his creation, only to snatch it away, and Karloff’s beautifully wrought reaction, Fred writes “What would we give to undergo in our latter years the virgin / Onslaught of light? To be born again into light, / To be raised from the grave.” Not everything in a Challenger can be monstrous.