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Jinx, v. 1, issue 3, June 1942
Page 5
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BEACON LITE by SF Cynic The Beacon makes a long-delayed investigation of various titles edited by members of the Futurian Society of New York. Frankly, we'd been passing them up because, while none of them were perfect, they didn't offend nearly as much as certain other periodicals with much better reputations. But recently Lowndes and Wollheim cornered us and hissed: "You're gonna be impartial, see!" So, here goes. ... First of all, the March STIRRING. Why the hell can't some people use a bit of imagination? Here's STIRRING, which frankly can't afford to use a three-color cover. Ok. So what do they do? They try to imitate a three-color cover with what they have on hand, and end up looking like a cheap comic magazine. There were three issues of STIRRING and three of COSMIC, you may recall, before the large-size SSS appeared. Of those six, two had poorish covers by Morey; three had well-drawn covers by Bok, and one had a nifty cover by Eliott Dold. But did any of them make the use of the cover-type that they might have? Yes, one: the June STIRRING -- although it was partially offset by the red on it. Why not be bald about it. They have a cartoon-like cover. So, simply use a dark background, and a rectangle or other wise shaped illustration, done as imaginatively as possible by a good artist. By Bok, Dolgov, Dold, or whom have you? The first COSMIC was hideous by the cheap red, white & blue shocker; the second was marred by the cheap yellow-and-red clash. The third wasn't loused up as bad as the others, but was still misdone. But if you can actually use two colors like that, why the hell couldn't they have regular red and blue covers. Like the red and blue plate of a progressive proof? You get really startling effects that way. Different and often much more attractive than the normal three-color effect. We've looked over the progressives of a lot of Lowndes' issues as well as Hornig's and in lots of cases the red-and-blue sheet is far better than the finished job. On the March STIRRING, the color combination was just bad. The drawing itself wasn't horrible -- Bok's done better -- but it could have been made lots more effective. Inside the book, well, the DAW can't be blamed for a stinko print job. But why does he continue to print such Kornbluthian bilge as "The Perfect Invasion" when yon Cyril is capable of turning out a story worth reading -- like "The Golden Road"? "Perfect Invasion" reads as if K were desperately trying to write as cynically, unconvincingly, and sloppily as de Camp. Well, in a sense he succeeded this time. He did louse up what could have been a good story in the de Camp manner, but the tripe wasn't as smooth. Not so much against STIRRING, as yet, since, outside of the covers it seems rather pointless to delve into the past. Besides, there are three issues of 1942 FUTURE and two QUARTERLIES for your wrath. First of all: covers. Now Doc has shown us, with the three by Hannes Bok, that he does know what a good cover is. Then why this series of screaming horrors by Forte? The guy did a fairly good one last year, but this powderpuff for April which poises over us like a pale cast of thought, only not pale, and that lugubrious mass of junk which passes for a cover on the June issue makes us wonder what has happened to our erstwhile editor. In all fairness we must admit that the worst featuresabout that cover may not be Doc's fault -- we refer to the lettering. Why in hell couldn't they have used simple white for the titles of stories instead of that ghastly black and yellow? It all could have been seen then. And yellow space! And the hero's idiotic red costume! About the only redeeming features are Pinko's wings and part of the machinery at the bottom. The effect of the ship is mostly nil. And then there's Bok's cowboy and Indian cover for the #6 QUARTERLY, with an old rusty frame in the background. That makes it science fiction, we suppose. He shoulda put a little tag on that frame "Time machine" so we'd know. And whose brilliant idea was it to make the complexions of the hero and heroine the same as that of the Indians? True, the Indian isn't as red as he's been painted, but still his complexion is darker and ruddier than that of the average city dweller.
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BEACON LITE by SF Cynic The Beacon makes a long-delayed investigation of various titles edited by members of the Futurian Society of New York. Frankly, we'd been passing them up because, while none of them were perfect, they didn't offend nearly as much as certain other periodicals with much better reputations. But recently Lowndes and Wollheim cornered us and hissed: "You're gonna be impartial, see!" So, here goes. ... First of all, the March STIRRING. Why the hell can't some people use a bit of imagination? Here's STIRRING, which frankly can't afford to use a three-color cover. Ok. So what do they do? They try to imitate a three-color cover with what they have on hand, and end up looking like a cheap comic magazine. There were three issues of STIRRING and three of COSMIC, you may recall, before the large-size SSS appeared. Of those six, two had poorish covers by Morey; three had well-drawn covers by Bok, and one had a nifty cover by Eliott Dold. But did any of them make the use of the cover-type that they might have? Yes, one: the June STIRRING -- although it was partially offset by the red on it. Why not be bald about it. They have a cartoon-like cover. So, simply use a dark background, and a rectangle or other wise shaped illustration, done as imaginatively as possible by a good artist. By Bok, Dolgov, Dold, or whom have you? The first COSMIC was hideous by the cheap red, white & blue shocker; the second was marred by the cheap yellow-and-red clash. The third wasn't loused up as bad as the others, but was still misdone. But if you can actually use two colors like that, why the hell couldn't they have regular red and blue covers. Like the red and blue plate of a progressive proof? You get really startling effects that way. Different and often much more attractive than the normal three-color effect. We've looked over the progressives of a lot of Lowndes' issues as well as Hornig's and in lots of cases the red-and-blue sheet is far better than the finished job. On the March STIRRING, the color combination was just bad. The drawing itself wasn't horrible -- Bok's done better -- but it could have been made lots more effective. Inside the book, well, the DAW can't be blamed for a stinko print job. But why does he continue to print such Kornbluthian bilge as "The Perfect Invasion" when yon Cyril is capable of turning out a story worth reading -- like "The Golden Road"? "Perfect Invasion" reads as if K were desperately trying to write as cynically, unconvincingly, and sloppily as de Camp. Well, in a sense he succeeded this time. He did louse up what could have been a good story in the de Camp manner, but the tripe wasn't as smooth. Not so much against STIRRING, as yet, since, outside of the covers it seems rather pointless to delve into the past. Besides, there are three issues of 1942 FUTURE and two QUARTERLIES for your wrath. First of all: covers. Now Doc has shown us, with the three by Hannes Bok, that he does know what a good cover is. Then why this series of screaming horrors by Forte? The guy did a fairly good one last year, but this powderpuff for April which poises over us like a pale cast of thought, only not pale, and that lugubrious mass of junk which passes for a cover on the June issue makes us wonder what has happened to our erstwhile editor. In all fairness we must admit that the worst featuresabout that cover may not be Doc's fault -- we refer to the lettering. Why in hell couldn't they have used simple white for the titles of stories instead of that ghastly black and yellow? It all could have been seen then. And yellow space! And the hero's idiotic red costume! About the only redeeming features are Pinko's wings and part of the machinery at the bottom. The effect of the ship is mostly nil. And then there's Bok's cowboy and Indian cover for the #6 QUARTERLY, with an old rusty frame in the background. That makes it science fiction, we suppose. He shoulda put a little tag on that frame "Time machine" so we'd know. And whose brilliant idea was it to make the complexions of the hero and heroine the same as that of the Indians? True, the Indian isn't as red as he's been painted, but still his complexion is darker and ruddier than that of the average city dweller.
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