Morella by Edgar Allan Poe (read by Wayne June)
The great and powerful narrator WAYNE JUNE has recorded, I proudly say at my prompting, the most wondrous and definitive audiobook of Edgar Allan Poe’s Morella ever recorded.
Feast your ears on this…
Posted by Jesse Willis
Theodore Sturgeon’s Mr. Costello, Hero
First published in Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1953, Theodore Sturgeon’s novelette, Mr. Costello, Hero, was subsequently collected into a handful of SF anthologies and many Sturgeon collections. But none of these reprinted the original Ed Emshwiller art (see below).
More importantly, for purposes of this post at least, it was adapted as the July 30, 1956 episode of X-Minus One which is available as an |MP3| or in this new YouTube video:
Posted by Jesse Willis
Shambleau by C.L. Moore
Here is Jayem Wilcox’s illustration for C.L. Moore’s Shambleau as it appeared in Weird Tales, November 1933, its first publication:
Her first professional sale, selling for $100, it is also her most famous story.
The LibriVox version, read by Roberta J, runs just under 78 minutes |MP3|.
C.L. Moore recorded her own reading of Shambleau, available below in two parts, for a Caedmon record (TC 1667) published in 1980:
Frank Kelly Freas’ did the cover art for the Caedmon recording:
And on the back of the LP was an abridged “Footnote To Shambleau” taken from a 1975 essay of the same name:
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Three Hoarsemen #43 – The Courtyard, Neonomicon, and Providence, by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows
The latest episode of The Three Hoarsemen podcast, episode 43, was a discussion of The Courtyard, Neonomicon, and Providence – that’s either two or three graphic novels depending on how you count from Avatar Press. Written by Alan Moore and illustrated Jacen Burrows. In it Jeff Patterson, Fred Kiesche, and I talked about these beautiful and horrific reworkings of the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft.
|MP3|
Podcast feed: https://www.theincomparable.com/hoarse/subscribe/
Posted by Jesse Willis
“The Smithsonian Collection” of “Old Time Radio Science Fiction” featuring an essay by Ray Bradbury
Published in 1995, a year prior to the birth of Archive.org (and all that has meant to access to classic radio drama), the “The Smithsonian Collection – Old Time Radio Science Fiction” is a collection of radio dramas likely never to see physical production again. This out of print collection from Radio Spirits, featured a detailed “60” page history booklet on the history of SF in radio, and uniquely, a Ray Bradbury essay as a foreword. Here it is:
Here too are all the radio dramas included in the release:
The Mercury Theatre On the Air – The War Of the Worlds |MP3|
Suspense – Zero Hour |MP3|
Lights Out – The Meteor Man |MP3|
X Minus One – Mars Is Heaven |MP3|
The Mysterious Traveler – Operation Tomorrow |MP3|
Lights Out – Rocket From Manhattan |MP3|*
Escape – The Time Machine Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Family Theater – Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea |MP3|
Suspense – Donovan’s Brain Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Dimension X – The Martian Chronicles |MP3|
*I have substituted the Arch Obler’s Play version of Rocket To Manhattan for the Lights Out version, but the original Arch Obler’s Plays version is HERE.
Posted by Jesse Willis
CBC Vanishing Point – The Playground adapted from the story by Ray Bradbury
Where did helicopter parenting come from? Maybe from the same deep fearful psychological roots as Ray Bradbury’s 1952 short story THE PLAYGROUND.
This Ray Bradbury Vanishing Point adaptation of The Playground is one of Ray Bradbury’s rarest radio dramas! Not available in any of the Archive.org listings, missing from all the other usual sites around the web, I finally tracked down one old archived link and here it is:
|MP3|
Dramatized by Martin Lager
Cast: Roger Dunn, Elva Mai Hoover, Tom Butler, Chance Drury, Keram Malicki-Sanchez, Brian Stittle, Danny Higham
This episode was supposedly broadcast on CBC Radio on November 2, 1984 – but that may not be correct.
Funny thing, I would have suspected this episode didn’t actually exist except for the facts that I had heard it and actually have a copy. Yet, even more strangely it is possible it may never have been broadcast* despite the fact that the end of the preceding episode of Vanishing Point mentions “The Playground” by “Ray Bradbury” will be broadcast “next week”.
This is a really, really rare modern audio drama folks!
For those who’d like to add some details to the various archives around the web here’s the front, back, and inside covers for the 1994 Listening Library commercial release giving the episode’s credits. This last is the only place I’ve found The Playground‘s credits:
Here’s the art from the first magazine publication in Esquire, October 1953:
And here’s The Ray Bradbury Theater TV adaptation, starring William Shatner:
Posted by Jesse Willis
*even the commercial released cassette version above doesn’t have any end of episode credits!
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