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Jinx, v. 1, issue 3, June 1942

Page 6

page 6    JINX

Now let's look inside the issues. And what do we find? Well, in the February issue, there's two none-too-good Bok drawings. The one for "Alien Vibrations" is well-drawn, but inexcusably trite for a story that offered such possibilities for a really fantastic scene. The one for Keller's story is almost indistinguishable. And Knight still dithers with comic strip style for the Heinlein story.

In the April issue, Hannes again muffs a possibility for a good drawing by using the "Calkins Coin" instead of a nice illustration full of Mye. And that thing he did for "Passage to Sharanee", while dandy as sheer drawing is a ghastly mess so far as an illustration for the story goes. So that's what space waifs look like. Ugh! And why use Kyle? A poor imitation of Paul is far worse than none. Much sooner none. Knight comes through with a slightly better job on "Old Man Mars", but it's still nothing to rave about. Conanight shows indications, but so what? And Streeter, who did some rather nice stuff for Hornig's issues, could have been dispensed with. "The Core" was a story for Fore to work on. As sheer drawing, the pic for "File 384" is good, but why should it go into FUTURE? There's nothing fantastic about it at all.

And the June issue -- where was Doc when that was put together? The three stories in the front of the book are badly, but badly illustrated. No oomph whatsoever in Knight's spread, which was much too dark anyway, and his full page was botched so badly with the lack of highlights that it was ruined. Forte's full page for Tucker's story was poorly done. Then -- wham! Suddenly we get a series of nifty drawings. The Forte for Blish's story; the Paul for Gordon's tale, and Damon on "The Real McCoy". Why didn't RWL put one of those at the beginning of the book? Wake up, Lowndes! You're going around in a daze.

Now the Quarterlies. Smolenski does three utterly uninspiring pics for "Shadow Girl". Again, why not Forte -- if Bok or Dolgov were unavailable. And Musacchia does completely idiotic drawings for "The Great Mirror". But idiotic. Nowhere in the story does it indicate that the hero and heroine were virtually nekked, yet look at the pix. The spread has a good scene, but is badly executed. (The cover, tho inaccurate in regard to story, is rather good. Better than that Bok blight upon the last issue.)

We're particularly harsh upon Doc and Bok because they both knew better. The Knight drawings for "Starstone World" are fair. Better than most of his stuff, but still none too good.

Now let's get to stories. The February issue was okay, provided you like Cummings. "Beyond the Stars" would not have been so bad had Ray not rewritten it so many times for PLANET and others recently. Even so, it was enjoyable. Now to April, which has, we see, ten new and complete stories. Well, they're complete; an we'll take people's word that none of them are reprints. But why five of them were written, let alone published is quite beyond us. First of all, let's take that "unusual novelette" called "The Core". Unusual is the right word. It is the damndest mess of uninspiring drivel we've seen outside of the pages of ASTOUNDING. And why Cyril isn't appearing regularly in that publication, we cannot see. He has all the requirements. Brilliant ideas; nauseating setups; sets and sets of heels for characters; cynical writing, and stories that begin without beginning and end without ending. The Gentleman was rather fascinating -- the only real character Gottesman has ever made -- a machine! Now on to "Two-Way Time". It should have been "Crime". An interesting conception done in the Palmer fashion -- the writing wasn't quite as bad -- after all, we haven't seen Gilmour before, so suppose that he hasn't had the practice to write in the AMAZING style -- but it was a good imitation.

Then there's "Four Star Planet", a four-star collection of Rover-Boyish, Tom Swiftish garbage, by that dean of juvenile stfhacks, Dick Wilson. When he keeps to sheer whimsy for fanzines, Wilson is entertaining, but so far his attempts at writing a story for regular magazines have been rather pitiful. "Old Man Mars" should have died years ago. We observe some sort of connection with a previous Winterbotham opus called "The Fourth Dynasty". Now that was a tale with an interesting concept, but this has neither concept nor interest. Is Doc hypnotized by the name, Winterbotham? And finally, "Web of Moons" by Bok. Hah, FUTURE. Hah, science-fiction. Hah! We can stomach a bit of honest fantasy like "Passage to Sharanee" or Bok's "Alien Vibration" but this assemblage of purple prose is too much. We appreciate the fact that it was only two pages and wonder why those extra pages couldn't have been added to Station X. For GhuGhu's sake, Doc, don't prostitute yourself again for the sake of a line

(continued on page eight)

Saving...

page 6 JINX Now let's look inside the issues. And what do we find? Well, in the February issue, there's two none-too-good Bok drawings. The one for "Alien Vibrations" is well-drawn, but inexcusably trite for a story that offered such possibilities for a really fantastic scene. The one for Keller's story is almost indistinguishable. And Knight still dithers with comic strip style for the Heinlein story. In the April issue, Hannes again muffs a possibility for a good drawing by using the "Calkins Coin" instead of a nice illustration full of Mye. And that thing he did for "Passage to Sharanee", while dandy as sheer drawing is a ghastly mess so far as an illustration for the story goes. So that's what space waifs look like. Ugh! And why use Kyle? A poor imitation of Paul is far worse than none. Much sooner none. Knight comes through with a slightly better job on "Old Man Mars", but it's still nothing to rave about. Conanight shows indications, but so what? And Streeter, who did some rather nice stuff for Hornig's issues, could have been dispensed with. "The Core" was a story for Fore to work on. As sheer drawing, the pic for "File 384" is good, but why should it go into FUTURE? There's nothing fantastic about it at all. And the June issue -- where was Doc when that was put together? The three stories in the front of the book are badly, but badly illustrated. No oomph whatsoever in Knight's spread, which was much too dark anyway, and his full page was botched so badly with the lack of highlights that it was ruined. Forte's full page for Tucker's story was poorly done. Then -- wham! Suddenly we get a series of nifty drawings. The Forte for Blish's story; the Paul for Gordon's tale, and Damon on "The Real McCoy". Why didn't RWL put one of those at the beginning of the book? Wake up, Lowndes! You're going around in a daze. Now the Quarterlies. Smolenski does three utterly uninspiring pics for "Shadow Girl". Again, why not Forte -- if Bok or Dolgov were unavailable. And Musacchia does completely idiotic drawings for "The Great Mirror". But idiotic. Nowhere in the story does it indicate that the hero and heroine were virtually nekked, yet look at the pix. The spread has a good scene, but is badly executed. (The cover, tho inaccurate in regard to story, is rather good. Better than that Bok blight upon the last issue.) We're particularly harsh upon Doc and Bok because they both knew better. The Knight drawings for "Starstone World" are fair. Better than most of his stuff, but still none too good. Now let's get to stories. The February issue was okay, provided you like Cummings. "Beyond the Stars" would not have been so bad had Ray not rewritten it so many times for PLANET and others recently. Even so, it was enjoyable. Now to April, which has, we see, ten new and complete stories. Well, they're complete; an we'll take people's word that none of them are reprints. But why five of them were written, let alone published is quite beyond us. First of all, let's take that "unusual novelette" called "The Core". Unusual is the right word. It is the damndest mess of uninspiring drivel we've seen outside of the pages of ASTOUNDING. And why Cyril isn't appearing regularly in that publication, we cannot see. He has all the requirements. Brilliant ideas; nauseating setups; sets and sets of heels for characters; cynical writing, and stories that begin without beginning and end without ending. The Gentleman was rather fascinating -- the only real character Gottesman has ever made -- a machine! Now on to "Two-Way Time". It should have been "Crime". An interesting conception done in the Palmer fashion -- the writing wasn't quite as bad -- after all, we haven't seen Gilmour before, so suppose that he hasn't had the practice to write in the AMAZING style -- but it was a good imitation. Then there's "Four Star Planet", a four-star collection of Rover-Boyish, Tom Swiftish garbage, by that dean of juvenile stfhacks, Dick Wilson. When he keeps to sheer whimsy for fanzines, Wilson is entertaining, but so far his attempts at writing a story for regular magazines have been rather pitiful. "Old Man Mars" should have died years ago. We observe some sort of connection with a previous Winterbotham opus called "The Fourth Dynasty". Now that was a tale with an interesting concept, but this has neither concept nor interest. Is Doc hypnotized by the name, Winterbotham? And finally, "Web of Moons" by Bok. Hah, FUTURE. Hah, science-fiction. Hah! We can stomach a bit of honest fantasy like "Passage to Sharanee" or Bok's "Alien Vibration" but this assemblage of purple prose is too much. We appreciate the fact that it was only two pages and wonder why those extra pages couldn't have been added to Station X. For GhuGhu's sake, Doc, don't prostitute yourself again for the sake of a line (continued on page eight)