Number 541
Demon of Destruction!
This is a famous story, reprinted in fanzines at least a few times that I can remember. "Demon of Destruction," by Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta is from Forbidden Worlds #1, from 1951.
Only Williamson signed the story, on page 2, but he was known to ask his buddies to dive in and help.
Except for the artwork, "Demon" is pretty standard ACG fare. A man and woman get mixed up with the supernatural, in this case a demon, Marzo, who is "worse than Satan." Wow, that's bad. As always, the humans are smarter than the evil-doers in these stories. There really was no need for Marzo to grant three wishes because they turned against him, but such is the way of ACG plots.
You'd think they could've found a better place to hide that coffin, especially if they're just going to tell us where it is!
ReplyDeleteWe physicists really do look like that, you know. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to ACG books, I always cut them a little slack.
ReplyDeleteACG had a rather large output over the years when they were publishing and editor Richard Hughes pretty much wrote all of the stories himself.
beautiful Williamsonfrazetta! I love the old painter's trick they inheritedly employ by creating a sense of relief, or space, around a head shot using arcing hatch strokes. Real class element to Williamson's work.
ReplyDeleteChuck, there's a quote from ACG writer Norman Fruman in Alter Ego #61:
ReplyDeleteIn all of the years I was there [ACG]--and I worked in the office from 1951 or 1955--Richard [Hughes] wrote very few stories. We had around 20 titles, and Richard had to read every one of those stories and comment and make changes. There were a couple of guys in California, one who wrote The Kilroys who was very good. Richard rarely wrote for the supernaturals. They, by all odds, were the most difficult ones to write.
I wrote the supernaturals and science-fictions and the love stories, which were the easiest to write. Stop to think, when you're doing ten magazines a month, it was all Richard could do to keep up with just reading, because you didn't use all the stuff that came in.
Later on ACG became the proverbial one-man band, and when they listed writers like Shane O'Shea and Zev Zimmer, etc., they were all pen-names for Hughes.
I made a transcription error in my last comment: the line is "...and I worked in the office from 1951 to 1955..." not "1951 or 1955". Sorry 'bout that!
ReplyDeletethis may have be reprinted, but I don't remember seeing it.( besides single pages)
ReplyDelete