Edwin Baird

My copy was delayed in the post by over 100 years! But, it's nice to finally have it.

Cover: This doesn't look like a Weird Tales cover at all, but it does look like 1923.

The Dead Man's Tale by Willard E. Hawkins *** - Dead man follows his still-alive war buddy and rival for the affections of the matchless Velma back home and tries to assert control. This is pretty good until the lackluster ending.

Ooze by Anthony M. Rud **** - A superior tale of horror set in backwoods (Clarke County) Alabama show more (the territory of great writer Tom Franklin). A scientist gets more than he bargained for when his experiments are successful. That's all I will reveal.

The Thing of a Thousand Shapes by Otis Adelbert Kline ***1/2 - This is the first of two parts, but has Kline's usual style, and it sets up a good situation for Part 2--but will there be a payoff?

The Mystery of Black Jean by Julian Kilman *1/2 - What this story of a large French Canadian and his two bears is doing in Weird Tales is anybody's guess.

Hark! The Rattle! by Joel Townsley Rogers *1/2 - Poorly constructed tale that it doesn't do to describe, but I'll say it involves snakes.

The Ghost Guard by Bryan Irvine * - Poorly written and poorly plotted story of a hated guard at a prison that is being expanded; a great example of when an author has a vague idea and tries to write a compelling story and fails.

The Ghoul and the Corpse by G.A. Wells *** - Poor title, but this story of discovering a frozen corpse in an Alaskan glacier is at least fairly well told and--most importantly--not dragged out.

Fear by David R. Solomon *1/2 - Another poorly written story about snakes. This premier issue is shaping up to be a real bummer.

The Chain by Hamilton Craigie 1/2 - How did this ever get published? The poor writing is only matched by the poor plot. A detective has some important papers that will put a bad guy in jail, locked in a safe in a soundproof office at the top of a skyscraper surrounded by guards, etc. etc. etc. (stupid, stupid, stupid). And even more alarming, a blurb at the bottom of the next page tells us another Hamilton Craigie story will appear in the next issue! Mr. Craigie was obviously blackmailing the editor.

The Place of Madness by Merlin Moore Taylor *** - This is a solid, although completely predictable story about a commission investigating the abuse of prisoners. One prisoner--a lifer--has a special beef about the "black room" he and other prisoners are frequently confined to, which some emerge from mad! (And I don't mean "angry".) You'll know where it's going, but at least Taylor is a decent writer. This still isn't a Weird Tales story of the kind we think of, however.

The Closing Hand by Farnsworth Wright *1/2 - Future editor Wright's 2-page tale is contrived and stupid, as two sisters spend the night alone in a cursed house.

The Unknown Beast by Howard Ellis Davis * - People are being crushed to death, so a neighboring county's deputy sherriff comes to the rescue. Not just stupid and unbelievable, but racist as well.

The Accusing Voice by Meredith Davis *1/2 - Another story with a stupid plot, but at least it holds some interest, as a jury member is confronted by recurring dreams of the prisoner he helped receive the death penalty. Readable, but totally implausible, and the ending makes no sense whatsoever--think about it!

The Sequel by Walter Scott Story ** - This add-on to Poe's The Cask of Amontillado is logical enough, but it lacks any shock or real terror.

The Weaving Shadows by W.H. Holmes *1/2 - Man enlists a detective to discover the meaning behind strange shadow figures and pools of blood on the floor of the old house where he lives with his sister and niece. This has a good, creepy start, then degenerates to an unsatisfying conclusion.

Nimba, the Cave Girl by R.T.M. Scott ZERO stars - We think Nimba is strong and independent--after all, she carries an unconscious man under her arm down a fifty foot vine to her cave! Then, sheer stupidity. This is like a grade school story, and it's insulting to the reader's intelligence, and especially to women.

The Young Man Who Wanted to Die by ZERO stars - I assume the author is an anonymous 6th grader, writing for an even younger audience. It's just stupid and awful.

The Scarlet Night by William Sanford *1/2 - Strange story of a man betrayed by his wife and a doctor, but the ending is too confusing to make much sense of. I'll give the author an "A" for spelling, but a "D" for everything else.

The Extraordinary Experiment of Dr. Calgroni by Joseph Faus and James Bennett Wooding 1/2 - Controversial scientist arrives in town, befriends the town idiot, and buys a circus ape. What could go wrong? Really bottom of the barrel and complely predictable.

The Return of Paul Slavsky by Capt. George Warburton Lewis 1/2 - Terrorist anarchists are loose in a story that is incredibly poorly written and has an unbelievable ending, to boot!

The House of Death by F. Georgia Stroup *** - Three women are cleaning the house of a woman accused of murdering her infant. This story is a pretty original idea and much better than most anything else in this issue..

The Gallows by I.W.D. Peters ** - A man's wife is so annoying that he can't wait to be executed. Like nearly every story in this issue, it doesn't belong in my ideal Weird Tales, but at least it's a bit different.

The Skull by Harold Ward ** - Awfully racist story of two white men, overlords of 500 Africans, bickering over a woman, with dire results. Racist as they come, nevertheless, it has a memorable ending that deserves a couple of stars.

The Ape-Man by James B. Clark, Jr. ** - Well, I guess we needed another ape to go along with the two bears and the two snakes in the issue so far. Or maybe there were more. I may have lost count. Actually, not really an ape, but a man who resembles one. Given the abysmal quality of this issue, this mediocre tale (which also has virtually no ending) is one of the better entries.

The Eyrie by the Editor - Mostly consists of a letter from Anthony "Ooze" Rud praising the magazine's intent and his plans to spread the word of its arrival on his upcoming trip to Montgomery and Mobile!

If Weird Tales had not improved after this, we would never have heard of it. This is the most disappointing issue of any major magazine I have ever read. show less