Three issues from the shank of each magazine's run under these editors...of course, editor (and eventual tv producer) Gerard F. "Gerry" Conway wouldn't get too much chance to do more with his prose magazine than this second issue of The Haunt of Horror, which would be folded before the prepared third issue could be printed (Marvel soon offered a large-format black and white comic book with that title, to join a series they'd already started and advertise in the Haunt digest issues). Rather sobering to realize that of these three magazines, Haunt almost certainly had the largest budget...while not a lavish one by any means...contemporary issues of Analog (from Conde Nast) and Vertex (from Mankind Publishing, also publishing slick magazines. if lower-budget ones) and even the slowly cheapening Galaxy/If group of magazines at paperback publisher UPD were somewhat more impressively produced than any of these three, as the two more durable magazines were already, or about to become, literal cottage industry, put together over home-office tables. 
Though the fiction they were publishing was about as good as that in any other fiction magazine in 1973. Of course, when we look at the more talented contributors to these issues, that isn't too surprising...including knowing that "John K. Diomede" in two of the issues is a pseudonym for George Alec Effinger. The F&SF leads off with "Peregrine: Alflandia" as a fragment, not quite as free-standing as advertised by Edward Ferman's blurb, of the Secundis sequel to Peregrine: Primus by Avram Davidson. Essentially as the first chapter, it's a great teaser, even if Davidson was having so much fun with his more rustic characters' accents and idiosyncratic syntax, that it can be a little daunting at first, if clearly Davidson enjoying himself and sharing much of that joy. Basically, though, it's expert setting development and introduction of the first important characters, but the story is just starting to happen when the chapter ends. Set as it is in an alternate Mitteleuropa of the late 1800s, it has some of the feel of the (even better) Eszterhazy stories, which would begin appearing not much later. Even better as well is the first of the too-short series of Arcana stories by Janet Fox, in the Fantastic issue, "A Witch in Time," where she demonstrates how much she's learned from the best of the sword and sorcery writers before her, and matches all but the very best of their work. Fox had published her first professionally-published fiction only a few years before, with the Magazine of Horror in 1970, and was already doing impressive work, even if her hand would grow a bit surer over the next several years. I can only wish she had published more. Meanwhile, one of her models, Fritz Leiber, reviews as his only book in this issue's column Henry Mazzeo's fine anthology of horror fiction Hauntings, illustrated by Edward Gorey, and notes something I'd failed to fully perceive over the years (probably in part because I first read the book when I was nine years old), that taken together, as they are presented on the dust jacket, the Gorey illustrations present their own narrative.
And Leiber is of course present in the Haunt of Horror issue as well, with the second half of his first novel, Conjure Wife, reprinted justly as a classic. I will have more to say about all three issues (as you might well guess, given the bare bones on display here) with more time to devote to the task, but I will note the most annoying ads in all three issues are the stiff cigaret center inserts in all three, put in these and not a few paperbacks of the era (Dell Books, particularly, stick in my memory thus) by their printer/binders in collaboration with the publishers, as tobacco companies began to cope with losing access to tv and radio advertising in the U.S. True brand in the F&SF, Kent in the other two...even more enervating than the $20 astrological chart ads in the Fantastic (particularly considering how far $2o went in 1973) or the "anti-gravity device" or the "ESP laboratory" offered among the less savory classified ads in the F&SF (the pitches in the Fantastic tended toward witchcraft and related Hidden Knowledge, usually less expensively).
- Publication: Fantastic, September 1973
(View All Issues) (View Issue Grid) - Editor: Ted White
- Year: 1973-09-00
- Publisher: Ultimate Publishing Co., Inc.
- Price: $0.60
- Pages: 132
- Binding: digest
- Type: MAGAZINE
- Title Reference: Fantastic - 1973
- Cover: Joe Staton
- Notes: Vol 22, No 6.
- 4 • Editorial (Fantastic, September 1973) • [Editorial (Fantastic)] • essay by Ted White
- 6 • The Stuff of Time • shortstory by Gordon Eklund
- 7 • The Stuff of Time • interior artwork by Michael Kaluta [as by Mike Kaluta ]
- 22 • A Witch in Time • shortstory by Janet Fox
- 23 • A Witch in Time • interior artwork by Michael Nally
- 34 • Dem Bones • shortstory by George Alec Effinger [as by John K. Diomede ]
- 35 • Dem Bones • interior artwork by Billy Graham
- 44 • The Nights of Dreadful Silence • [Dread Empire] • shortstory by Glen Cook
- 45 • The Nights of Dreadful Silence • interior artwork by Michael Kaluta [as by Mike Kaluta ]
- 52 • AFC • shortstory by Karl T. Pflock
- 52 • AFC • interior artwork by Joe Station
- 60 • Moment of Truth in Suburb Junction • shortstory by David R. Bunch
- 66 • Isaiah • shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg [as by Barry Malzberg ]
- 69 • The Son of Black Morca (Part 3 of 3) • serial by Alexei Panshin and Cory Panshin (book publication as Earth Magic 1978)
- 70 • The Son of Black Morca (Part 3 of 3) • interior artwork by Jeff Jones
- 110 • Fantasy Books (Fantastic, September 1973) • [Fantasy Books (Fantastic)] • essay by Fritz Leiber
- 110 • Review: Hauntings by Henry Mazzeo • review by Fritz Leiber
- 114 • ... According to You (Fantastic, September 1973) • [According to You (Fantastic)] • letter column conducted by Ted White
- Publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1973
(View All Issues) (View Issue Grid) - Editor: Edward L. Ferman
- Year: 1973-08-00
- Publisher: Mercury Press, Inc.
- Price: $0.75
- Pages: 164
- Binding: digest
- Type: MAGAZINE
- Title Reference: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - 1973
- Cover: Don Davis
- Notes: Vol 45, No 2, Whole No 267. Cover art untitled.
- 4 • Peregrine: Alflandia • [Peregrine] • novelette by Avram Davidson
- 24 • Floating • shortstory by David J. Skal [as by Dave Skal ]
- 31 • Books (F&SF, August 1973) • [Books (F&SF)] • essay by Sidney Coleman
- 31 • Review: Three Trips in Time and Space by Robert Silverberg • review by Sidney Coleman
- 34 • Review: Beyond the Resurrection by Gordon Eklund • review by Sidney Coleman
- 35 • Review: The God Machine by William Jon Watkins • review by Sidney Coleman
- 35 • Review: Today and Tomorrow And ... by Isaac Asimov • review by Edward L. Ferman
- 35 • Review: Playboy's Gahan Wilson by Gahan Wilson • review by Edward L. Ferman
- 37 • Cartoon: "First, I'd like to take this opportunity to clear up these silly rumors about my having made a deal with the devil ..." • interior artwork by Gahan Wilson
- 38 • Thinking of the Unthinkable • [Brigadier Ffellowes] • shortstory by Sterling E. Lanier
- 46 • Down and Out • shortstory by Ron Goulart
- 57 • Films: Green Grows the Soylent • [Films (F&SF)] • essay by Baird Searles
- 60 • In the Pines • novelette by Karl Edward Wagner
- 86 • The Magic White Horse With His Heart in His Mouth • shortstory by Phyllis MacLennan
- 90 • Herman • shortstory by Graham Petrie
- 101 • Constant As the Northern Star • [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] • essay by Isaac Asimov
- 112 • The Bear Went Over the Mountain • [Roxy Rimidon of the Planet Patrol] • novelette by Sonya Dorman
- 158 • F&SF Competition: Report on Competition 5 • essay by uncredited
- Publication: The Haunt of Horror, August 1973
(View All Issues) (View Issue Grid) - Editor: Gerard Conway
- Year: 1973-08-00
- Publisher: Marvel Comics Group
- Price: $0.75
- Pages: 164
- Binding: digest
- Type: MAGAZINE
- Title Reference: The Haunt of Horror - 1973
- Cover: Kelly Freas
- Notes: Volume 1, Number 2 (final issue) Cover illustrates "Devil Night".This issue contains the complete "Neon" by Harlan Ellison. Two pages of the story were transposed when it was published in the first issue.
- 2 • Editorial: Condtional Terror (The Haunt of Horror, August 1973) • essay by uncredited
- 4 • Devil Night • shortstory by Dennis O'Neil
- 4 • Devil Night • interior artwork by John Buscema
- 17 • Pelican's Claws • shortstory by Arthur Byron Cover
- 17 • Pelican's Claws • interior artwork by Dan Green
- 27 • The Jewel in the Ash • [Dr. Warm] • shortstory by George Alec Effinger [as by John K. Diomede ]
- 27 • The Jewel in the Ash • interior artwork by Walter Simonson [as by Walt Simonson ]
- 46 • Conjure Wife (Part 2 of 2) • serial by Fritz Leiber
- 46 • Conjure Wife (Part 2 of 2) • interior artwork by Walter Simonson [as by Walt Simonson ]
- 84 • Kilbride • shortfiction by Ron Goulart
- 84 • Kilbride • interior artwork by Frank Brunner
- 94 • "In the Wind ..." (The Haunt of Horror, August 1973) • essay by uncredited
- 95 • Finders Keepers • shortstory by Anne McCaffrey
- 95 • Finders Keepers • interior artwork by Billy Graham
- 106 • Digging Up Atlantis • essay by Lin Carter
- 106 • Digging Up Atlantis • interior artwork by uncredited
- 112 • Neon • (1973) • shortstory by Harlan Ellison
- 113 • Neon • interior artwork by Frank Kelly Freas [as by Kelly Freas ]
- 121 • Author's Page (The Haunt of Horror, August 1973) • essay by uncredited
- 154 • Mono No Aware • shortstory by Howard Waldrop
- 154 • Mono No Aware • interior artwork by uncredited