FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 138 - I Mars by Ray Bradbury

A tale of a lone man stranded on Mars with only himself for company, and one that now reads like a prediction of the perils of chatbots and AI.

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MICROGORIA 097 - The Sound of Thunder Lizards

In a little T Rex tangent I couldn't fit into the Damnation Alley saga, we exploring the culty connections between dread dino Satanus in Judge Dredd, Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park and Westworld, time tourism, 2000 AD's Flesh, T Rex hunting, and Ray Bradbury! 

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HYPNOGORIA 143 - The Life & Works of Stuart Gordon Part 2

In the second part of our celebration of the marvelous movies of the late great Stuart Gordon, we voyage to the future with Space Truckers and Fortress, and delve into the past to discover the secrets of Castle Freak. We return to Lovecraft and Poe with Gordon's versions of The Black Cat and Dreams of the Witchhouse, and find different dreams coming turn in Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. Finally we journey in to the heart of darkness with his final movies, King of the Ants, Edmond and Stuck. 

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ELDRITCH LIGHT ORCHESTRA - October Games

A suitably autumnal theme created for my reading of the classic #Halloween horror story The October Game by Ray Bradbury

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THE OCTOBER GAME by Ray Bradbury

A horror story for Halloween by Ray Bradbury! read by Mr Jim Moon with autumnal dirges by the Eldritch Light Orchestra

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HYPNOGORIA 74 - The Origins of Halloween Part V

Continuing in our annual series on the history of the spookiest night of the year, Mr Jim Moon takes at a look Halloween in the mid-twentieth century. We talks about the works of Ray Bradbury, the horrors of EC comics, and the Disney classic retelling of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad (1949).

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GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #22 - Tracing the Dark Carnival

Dark Carnival was Ray Bradbury's first  book, comprised of some twenty-seven tales, and published by the legendary Arkham House in 1947. While Bradbury would become famous as an SF author, he had always written more than just science fiction, and the early stories collected in Dark Carnival showcase Bradbury's dark side in a brilliant collection of eerie fantasies and imaginative horror tales. Now then, the tales in Dark Carnival have had a long and tangled publishing history (as alluded to last week), which I shall attempt to unravel here. Here are the details of the first edition -

DARK CARNIVAL
(Arkham House 1947 US)

1. The Homecoming
2. Skeleton
3. The Jar
4. The Lake
5. The Maiden
6. The Tombstone
7. The Smiling People
8. The Emissary
9. The Traveler
10. The Small Assassin
11. The Crowd
12. Reunion
13. The Handler
14. The Coffin
15. Interim
16. Jack-in-the-Box
17. The Scythe
18. Let's Play 'Poison'
19. Uncle Einar
20. The Wind
21. The Night
22. There Was An Old Woman
23. The Dead Man
24. The Man Upstairs
25. The Night Sets
26. The Cistern
27. The Next In Line

Next the anthology was reprinted in the UK by Hamish Hamilton, with new cover art from Michael Ayrton. However this edition dropped seven of the stories and also rearranged the running order.

DARK CARNIVAL
(Hamish Hamilton 1948 UK)

1. The Crowd
2. The Emissary
3. The Jar
4. The Lake
5. The Man Upstairs
6. The Night
7. Skeleton
8. The Small Assassin
9. There Was An Old Woman
10. Uncle Einar
11. The Tombstone
12. The Next In Line
13. The Wind
14. The Cistern
15. Homecoming (former The Homecoming)
16. The Dead Man
17. Let's Play 'Poison'
18. The Handler
19. The Smiling People
20. The Traveler

This edition only includes twenty of the original stories. The missing tales were -

1. The Maiden
2. The Night Sets
3. The Scythe
4. Reunion
5. Interim
6. Jack-in-the-Box

Several years later, fifteen of the tales in the original Dark Carnival were reprinted, some in a revised form, in a later collection entitled The October Country. This was published in the US by Ballantine Books in 1955,  with cover art and interior illustrations by Joe Mugnaini. The October Country also included four additional tales, which had previously appeared in other places, but fitted in nicely to the autumnal feel of this collection. 

THE OCTOBER COUNTRY

(Ballantine 1955 USA)

1. The Crowd  (DC)
2. The Emissary (DC)
3. The Jar  (DC)
4. The Lake  (DC)
5. The Man Upstairs (DC)
6. The Scythe (DC)
7. Skeleton (DC)
8. The Small Assassin  (DC)
9. There Was An Old Woman (DC)
10. Uncle Einar (DC)
11. The Dwarf  (OC)
12. The Next in Line  (DC)
13. The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse (OC)
14. The Wind (DC)
15. The Cistern (DC)
16. Homecoming (DC)
17. The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (OC)
18. Touched With Fire (OC)
19. Jack-in-the-Box (DC)

(OC) = new stories added to The October Country (1955)
(DC) = stories from Dark Carnvial (1947)

The October Country was also printed in the UK by Rupert Hard Davis Ltd. in 1956, again with a cover by Joe Mugnaini, a variant of the US edition, but with the stories in a different order.

THE OCTOBER COUNTRY
(Rupert Hard Davis Ltd. 1956 UK)

1. The Dwarf (OC)
2. The Next in Line (DC)
3. The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse (OC)
4. Skeleton (DC)
5. The Jar  (DC)
6. The Lake  (DC)
7. The Emissary (DC)
8. Touched With Fire (OC)
9. The Small Assassin (DC)
10. The Crowd (DC)
11. Jack-in-the-Box (DC)
12. The Scythe (DC)
13. Uncle Einar (DC)
14. The Wind (DC)
15. The Man Upstairs (DC)
16. There Was An Old Woman (DC)
17. The Cistern (DC)
18. Homecoming (DC)
19. The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (OC)

Right then, pay close attention, because this is where it gets complicated! The first paperback edition from Ballantine in 1956 reprinted all nineteen stories, and used the running order from the UK hardback. And this remained the format for subsequent paperback editions in the US. Furthermore Rupert Hard Davis Ltd. reissued The October Country as a hardback several times down the decades, retaining the same contents. 

However the UK paperback editions somewhat confusingly slimmed down the book, whittling down the story count to thirteen. And there was to be another significant change too - for only twelve tales from The October Country would be included, and the thirteenth tale would be The Traveler from Dark Carnival. This new line-up of thirteen stories first appeared in the 1961 paperback edition from Ace UK, but later was adopted for other editions from the New English Library (in 1970 and 1975), and Panther (1976 and 1984). 

THE OCTOBER COUNTRY - UK Paperback Edition
(Ace UK 1961)

1. The Dwarf  (DC) (OC)
2. The Watchful Poker Chip of H.Matisse (OC)
3. The Skeleton (DC) (OC)
4. The Jar (DC) (OC)
5. The Traveler (DC)
6. The Emissary (DC) (OC)
7. Touched with Fire (OC)
8. The Scythe (DC) (OC)
9. Uncle Einar (DC) (OC)
10. The Wind (DC) (OC)
11. There was an Old Woman (DC) (OC)
12. The Homecoming (DC) (OC)
13. The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (OC)

However it was a regular publishing convention that large books of short stories like this would often be broken up into two separate volumes for the paperback release. And while they often appeared marked as Such-And-Such Volume 1 and 2, it was not uncommon for publishers to retain the original title for the first half but publish the second with an entirely new title.

So then, in the UK, the missing tales would get a separate volume of their own, one  that was not billed as The October Country Vol. II. Instead the rest of the stories would appear in a paperback entitled The Small Assassin. However in this case, as there were only seven stories left over, it was decided to make up the shortfall with a selection of tales from Dark Carnival that have not made it into earlier versions of The October Country.

THE SMALL ASSASSIN 
(Ace UK 1962)

1. The Small Assassin (DC) (OC)
2. The Next In Line (DC) (OC)
3. The Lake (DC) (OC)
4. The Crowd (DC) (OC)
5. Jack-In-The-Box (DC) (OC)
6. The Man Upstairs (DC) (OC)
7. The Cistern (DC) (OC)
8. The Tombstone (DC) 
9. The Smiling People (DC)
10. The Handler (DC)
11. Let’s Play “Poison” (DC)
12. The Night (DC)
13. The Dead Man (DC)

The Small Assassin was reprinted in paperback by Four Square in 1964 and 1965, then again by the New English Library in 1970 and 1973, by Panther in 1976, and again by Pather/Granda in 1984. The last edition was by Grafton in 1986. So then, all but five stories from the original Dark Carnival were printed in The October Country and Small Assassin UK paperbacks. For the record, the uncollected tales were -

1. The Maiden
2. Reunion
3. The Coffin
4. Interim
5. The Night Sets

Now for years, Bradbury forbade a reprinting of Dark Carnival, because he had revised many of the stories for The October Country. However he relented in 2001 and allowed a limited edition to be done. This luxury reprint was limited to 750 copies and featured four new stories and an afterword by Clive Barker. And even more limited edition of 52 copies was produced that was lettered, leather-bound and trayed. This version was signed by both Bradbury and Barker, came a CD of an audio interview with Bradbury, and with a chapbook contained an extra tale - Time Intervening 

DARK CARNIVAL

(Gauntlet Press 2001 US)

1. Jack-in-the-Box
2. Let's Play 'Poison'
3. Reunion
4. Skeleton
5. The Cistern
6. The Coffin
7. The Crowd
8. The Dead Man
9. The Emissary
10. The Handler
11. The Jar
12. The Lake
13. The Maiden
14. The Man Upstairs
15. The Next In Line
16. The Night
17. The Night Sets
18. The Scythe
19. The Small Assassin
20. The Smiling People
21. The Tombstone
22. The Traveler
23. The Wind
24. There Was An Old Woman
25. Uncle Einar
26. Editors Notes - essay by Donn Alright
27. Dark Carnival Revisited - essay by Ray Bradbury
28. Dark Carnival: A History - essay by Jon Eller
29. The Last Unknown: An Afterword by Clive Barker
30. The Sea Shell*
31. The Watchers*
32. Bang! You're Dead!*
33. The Poems*
34. The Homecoming
35. Interim

* new stories added in this edition

However previously the Gauntlet Press also published a limited edition of The October Country too in 1997 for its 40th anniversary. This was limited to 500 copies, with a deluxe leather-bound edition of 52 copies. There were no new stories added to this edition, so I shall spare you all another listing!

And finally, and for the sake of completeness, Bradbury was to write few more tales concerning the strange and monstrous Elliot Family who feature in three tales first published in Dark Carnival, which would appear in his collections The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), The Toynbee Convector (1988). In 2001, all the Elliot Family tales were collected into a single volume entitled From the Dust Returned and woven into a novel format. It was published by William Morrow/Harper Collins and appropriately enough featured a cover by Charles Addams. 

1. The April Witch (from The Golden Apples of the Sun 1953)
2. Homecoming (from Dark Carnival)
3. West of October (from The Toynbee Convector 1988) 
4. On the Orient North (from The Toynbee Convector 1988) 
5. Uncle Einar (from Dark Carnival)
6. The Traveler (from Dark Carnival)
7. From the Dust Returned (originally only published in The Magazine of Fantasy &Science Fiction, September 1994) 

GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #21 - The October Country

When I was young, I had a huge appetite for anthologies of weird fiction, largely spawned by my encounters with previously discussed volumes such as Deadly Nightshade, Ghostly Gallery and Ghosts, Spooks & Spectres. After ploughing through a great many short stories collections, I began to assemble a mental list of authors, writers that I knew always delivered a cracking tale. And if I saw an anthology in a library or bookshop that had a  tale by one of "The List" which I hadn't read or didn't already own, said book instantly was borrowed from the library/bought if I had the pocket money to spare.  

Now one of the oldest names on "The List" was Ray Bradbury, whose classic story The October Game in Deadly Nightshade made an unforgettable impression upon me, and if you've ever read that very dark and masterfully told tale you will know exactly what I mean. And as one of the top names on "The List", I was naturally mad keen to my little mitts on anything by Bradbury. The first book of his that I owned was a battered Corgi paperback edition of The Illustrated Man, which naturally I adored, but I was keen to track down some collections of his more horror-orientated tales.

I'd gleaned from somewhere, probably a bio blurb, that the collection I wanted was Dark Carnival, which by all accounts featured some of his most famous horror tales. I would later discover that this was his very first book, and also published first by the legendary Arkham House. However I also learned very quickly that it was wasn't readily available in his country, and it was even in the late 1970s already changing hands for well beyond pocket money prices. But fortunately, I also soon discovered that through a long and tangled publication history, that I will outline another day, a good two thirds of the tales in Dark Carnival had later been reprinted in another Bradbury collection entitled The October Country.

And this particular book had  been split into two volumes for the UK paperback market, with one half appearing as the edition that you can see pictured above and the other as another paperback entitled The Small Assassin. Now I luckily discovered this just as I had some birthday money to spend, however less fortunately, it would only stretch to one book. So which did I choose? Well, obviously the one with the grinning skull and what looked like a Grim Reaper on it! Seriously though, despite the considerable allure of that bony visage on the cover, the very title just appealed to me... The October Country... a promise of place where the leaves are always turning, the scent of bonfires haunts the air, and Halloween is always near.

The full line-up of tales in my edition was - 

The Dwarf

The Watchful Poker Chip of H.Matisse

Skeleton

The Jar

The Traveler

The Emissary

Touched with Fire

The Scythe

Uncle Einar

The Wind

There Was an Old Woman

Homecoming

The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone

Now if you are familiar with all or just some of the tales from Dark Carnival or the original version of The October Country - for many have been reprinted elsewhere over the years - I think you'll agree the most horrific of them actually ended up in The Small Assassin. Now that's not to say that there aren't some fine horror stories in this collection - real skin freezers like Skeleton or The Emissary - but there are also plenty of eerie fantasies too, haunting tales that touch the heart or make you smile, making this selection the lighter half of the stories on the whole. However despite that, this book certainly did not disappoint my younger self, and The October Country was somewhere I'd revisit time and time again.

Admittedly there were a couple of stories that would take time to grow on me - The Watchful Poker Chip of H.Matisse I'm looking at you - but on the whole, I fell in love with these stories right from the first reading. Just as his SF was always about more than just silver rockets and strange planets, so too in these weird tales: the darkness Bradbury is exploring is our own inner spaces, breaking the boundaries of our usual thinking, and mapping the chambers of the human heart. Hence even when Bradbury takes us to the more whimsical regions of his autumnal lands, there is still a real weight to the tales, delivering stories that resonate in the mind and capture the imagination just as powerfully as as the pure horrors found in the likes of The Jar.

The lighter tales in this collection also acknowledge the romance and appeal of the horror genre. As a life-long lover of Halloween, Bradbury's October Country reflects the fun as well as the frights of the dark season. And nowhere is this seen more clearly in the loose trilogy of tales concerning the Elliot Family. In The Traveler, Uncle Einar and Homecoming we are introduced to a strange clan of folks who dwell on the dark side, and possess many strange talents or shapes. In many ways, Bradbury's family are the forerunners of similar but more well-known macabre enclaves, the Addams Family and The Munsters. But while those two more famous families were played just for laughs, Bradbury's tales are far more profound, exploring a secret world that where the darkness has been embraced, where horror is celebrated as a virtue, and being monstrous is the norm. The Elliot Family tales are tremendous fun, but they also have a great deal to say about our own attractions to the horror genre, that blurred line where having fun is being frightened, and where we get to swap places with the monsters for a while.  

Now around this time of the year, the web fills up with features and articles recommending spooky tales for the Halloween season, and you can discover a great many classic chillers perusing them. However, if you want a collection of tales that are as beautiful as they are chilling, as lyrical as they are horrific, and one that imaginatively explores our relationship with the darkness, then book a ticket to travel to The October Country. And if you do, you may well find, that like myself, you'll be revisiting these tales this time every year...  

MICROGORIA 17 - Lee-viathan 99

In a stop-gap episode, Mr Jim Moon raids the archives of the Great Library of Dreams to uncover the tale of Leviathan '99 - a 1960s experimental radio play. This space age sonic drama was a riff on Moby Dick penned by the late great Ray Bradbury and starred Sir Christopher Lee as an obsessed comet-hunting captain on a space vessel...


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HYPNOBOBS 133 - I, MARS

In this show, Mr Jim Moon takes us on a journey from the Great Library of Dreams to a forgotten corner of the planet Mars, as imagined by the late great Ray Bradbury.

For more discussion on Ray Bradbury's Mars - Highway To Mars Podcast: The Martian Chronicles

Plus SFFAudio has a nice PDF of the original printing in Super Science Stories

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  I, MARS

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HIGHWAY TO MARS - The Illustrated Man

The Illustrated Man is a widely celebrated collection of short stories by the legendary Ray Bradbury. In Part One of this podcast series, Stefan Sawynok outlines the tales that make up this seminal  SF anthology.

HIGHWAY TO MARS - The Illustrated Man Part One

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In Part Two Stefan is joined by Odile Thomas (of Sending A Wave) and Mr Jim Moon to discuss the best stories in this classic collection, and also talk about the 1969 film adaptation starring Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom.

HIGHWAY TO MARS - The Illustrated Man Part Two

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HIGHWAY TO MARS - The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Never kick a martian in the chronicles. Odile, Stefan and Mr Jim Moon work their way through Ray Bradbury’s collection of stories. This one is an epic and apologies for issues with the sound, Odile’s mic was having an off day – it needed a good hug. Due to the length we don’t have any synopsis however if you want a blow by blow rundown of the stories, check out the excellent Books Without Pictures – The Martian Chronicles

Highway to Mars website - http://highwaytomars.com/2013/07/the-martian-chronicles/

Hghway to Mars - The Martian Chronicles - DIRECT DOWNLOAD

I, MARS by Ray Bradbury

Over at the wonderful SFFaudio, Mr Jim Moon reads an uncollected Martian Chronicle by Ray Bradbury - I, Mars

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HYPNOBOBS 81 - Radio Free Bradbury

To mark the passing of legendary author Mr Ray Bradbury, Mr Jim Moon raids the audio archives of the Great Library of Dreams to unearth old time radio adaptations of two of his classic tales, 'Kaleidoscope' from The Illustrated Man and 'Mars is Heaven' aka 'The Third Expedition' from The Martian Chronicles.

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