In Stfdom you seldom get something for nothing. In fact, you seldom get something for something. But Manly Banister, he of the Nekromantikon Press, is giving away something for nothing. Yep, you read that right the first time. Banister is actually giving away something for nothing. He has written a wonderful satire on fandom in general and the self-appointed ghods of fandom in particular, and he's printed it all up in a neat little book called EGOBOO. It's really a whiz. Printed on his own press, from type set with his very own fingers, Manly has turned out a booklet that is professional in appearance and very, very professionally written. You'll laugh; you'll scream; you'll tear your hair -- and if you happen to be one of those ghods who is the butt of Manly's little joke, your face will be very very red! As I said, the whole thing is free for the asking. No box tops, no labels, no nuttin' but a penny postcard with your name and address. Send to EGOBOO, c/o Manly Banister, 1905 Spruce Street, Kansas City 1, Missouri. You will get something that will make your eyes shine and your funnybone work overtime. And here's a tip: Only a few hundred were printed. So the thing is bound to become a collector's item pretty soon. Knowing Banister as I do, he'll never drum up enough energy for another edition, so you'd better get one while the getting is good. Nuff said?
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Just before sitting down to bang out these immortal words (Laney, that's immortal .. so watch the typing and don't leave out the "T"!) ((What's eatin' you, lad? You thinking about some of my famous misprints like "Dam Moskowitz" or "countercockwise"?)), I viewed LIGHTS OUT on TV, featuring "The Strange Case of John Kingman" by Murray Leinster. TV is a very good medium for stf. There should be lots more. But what arouses my ire is the way they always seem to have to surround plain honest stf with all those props that make the audience think they are going to see something weird -- like Frankenstein or the Mummy's Ghost or something. All that hogwash about Lights Out and the flickering candles and so on. They should present it for what it is -- good fiction! People can and do appreciate these dramas as they are played. So why not play them straight? ((The trouble with you, Wilkie, is that you don't appreciate the Yiddish sense of dramatic values.))
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How many of you caught the September issue of SHORT STORIES? It contains the fictionalised version of Heinlein's movie script, "Destination Moon". I haven't had the time to read it yet; (I'm always months behind in my reading) but it looks interesting.
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I want to publicly thank Bob Pavlat of Hyattsville, Maryland for lending me a copy of DIANETICS. It was very generous of him, and I am getting a kick from reading it. Which proves that it pays to advertise in SPACEWARP. I mentioned in this very Korner that I would like to borrow a copy and Bob immediately made his generous offer. Thanks a million, Bob.
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I remarked here last month that the abundance of stf on the newsstands couldn't continue. It looks like I was very much right. For if the Korean conflict flares up intoan all-out war with Russia, and that seems a very definite possibility, many of the newer mags and some of the older ones will either have to bite the dust or spread out their publication schedule. Reason? That old bugaboo that sounded the death knell for so many good publications during WW2 -- paper shortage.
Paper is getting hard to come by. I work in a printing house that manufactures business forms -- carbon interleaved snapouts -- for all of the really big businesses of the United States ... Plug ... Standard Business Forms Inc., Industrial Ave., Gastonia, North Carolina, Emerson D. Folk, President and General Manager ... if you'd like to buy the best interleaved snapouts obtainable at any price ... unplug. -- and we are already experiencing difficulties in obtaining certain paper products. Damn it, we just get used to having plenty of everything and along comes a foul fiend of a communist who has nothing, and takes it away from us. But such is life, my friend, such is life!
Gad. I'm getting philosophical. Better turn things over to:
LONGHAMMER'S HAMMERINGS: I've just read Manly Banister's EGOBOO again, and I'm so tickled I couldn't even see Betty if she walked into this room right now, stark naked. Gad, what a book!
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And he went down into the valley of dry bones ...
Text versions and page scans Judy Bemis
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Updated June 19, 2015. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.