Back in July 1955, Imaginative Tales published Robert Bloch’s wacky The Big Binge with fabulous cover artwork by HAROLD McCAULEY. Pink elephants, vampires, a talking gorilla, and general silliness feature prominently in this tale. Back in the 1950s, Imaginative Tales represented the “risque” fantasy genre. The stories and cover art were intended to titillate the readers. Robert Bloch is in fine form in The Big Binge with his sly humor and clever plotting. Bloch seems to be channeling his inner “Thorne Smith” in this story of screwball fantasy. If you’re looking for the lighter side of Robert Bloch, I recommend The Big Binge. I have the original Imaginative Tales digest, but The Big Binge has been reprinted a couple times and is available online. What’s your favorite Robert Bloch work? GRADE: B+
I’m trying to remember if this came out in paperback as IT’S ALL IN YOUR MIND.
Dan, I’ve seen THE BIG BINGE bundled with The Miracle of Ronald Weems on AMAZON.
This is indeed the same novella as was published as IT”S ALL IN YOUR MIND.
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2016/09/ffb-big-binge-aka-its-all-in-your-mind.html
Todd, Dan really knows his stuff!
I love the covers on the old digests. I have this one, but I haven’t read Bloch story.
Bill, I love the covers on IMAGINATIVE TALES. Classic!
I don’t know it but will seek it out. I LOVE that cover!
“Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” and NIGHT OF THE RIPPER come to mind.
Jeff, my favorite Robert Bloch story is “That Hell-Bound Train” but I figured other people would choose it for today so I went with a more obscure Bloch title.
George – I also did a Bloch story from Imaginative Tales. I chose Black Magic Holiday (aka The Devil With You) fro Issue 3. Fun stuff in the Thorne Smith vein
Scott, Robert Bloch’s “Thorne Smith” stories are fun reads. And, of course, I love the covers on those IMAGINATIVE TALES!
sounds like my type of story.
Maggie, I enjoy the light-hearted Robert Bloch as much as the much darker Bloch.
I’ve read too little of his more overtly humorous work George, thanks for this. Time to crack open that Lefty Feep collection I’ve had on the shelf all these years!
Sergio, you’ll enjoy Robert Bloch’s lighter side with Lefty Feep and humorous tales like THE BIG BINGE.
Bloch must have had a great time writing this kind of story. I know I have a great time reading them.
Jerry, Bloch wrote enough light and funny fiction to suggest he enjoyed exercising his sense of humor.
Robert Bloch really belongs in a class of his own – I’ve read a lot of his stories and they were always special …
Though I don’t remember this one, but that may be because of my age – too much reading is no good for your memory maybe?
He must have been a kind of king of short stories – turned them out by the dozens/or hundreds?
Wolf, I think that Robert Bloch’s short stories are better than his novels overall.
“That Hell-Bound Train” (people really want to screw up that title, for some reason) is one of my favorite Bloch stories, as is “The Funnel of God”…as is an Ed Gorman favorite, perhaps his best late story, “The Yougoslaves”…”The Man Who Collected Poe” is certainly a sentimental favorite, as is the gentle fantasy “The Movie People”…”A Case of the Stubborns”…”Sweets to the Sweet”…my favorite obscure Bloch story is almost certainly “The Dead Don’t Die!” and the playful Virgil Finlay illustrations that make Bloch the protagonist really help make that one memorable. AMERICAN GOTHIC and THE KIDNAPER are solid novels…and I think I like his novels more than you, though I found STRANGE EONS almost as dull as the Mythos rehashes it’s meant to critique by example, and PSYCHO HOUSE is a very tired sequel (PSYCHO II, the novel, and the utterly different film, are both rather good). Never got too far with THE TWILIGHT ZONE novelization, but the script did such terrible things with the source stories…I might try it again, eventually. Still plenty to read…
Todd, I loved the short stories Robert Bloch wrote in the Sixties and Seventies. He was a the top of his game then.
The wiki on him also brings back memeories – and has many beautiful covers for his stories/novels, must have been written by a fan!
PS:
As I suspected from his name Robert came from a German Jewish family …
Gosh…how silly. I left out the two other stories that might even top these others: “The Weird Tailor” and “Final Performance”. And “Water’s Edge” isn’t too shabby, either. Nor is his completion of the Poe fragment, “The Light-House”…
Todd, I have the COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF ROBERT BLOCH to read someday soon. There’s plenty of stories I’ve never read or forgotten.