One of the benefits of sorting through boxes in order to reduce one’s book collection happens to be the surprise of finding something you packed away nearly 40 years ago…in mint condition! That’s what happened to me last week. I found some Rolling Stone magazines and this digest issue of Espionage.
Espionage was published from 1984 to 1987. As you might expect, Espionage specialized in spy fiction. This issue features a clever story, “An All American Hero,” by Joe R. Lansdale (not known for spy stories) and a wild story by Ron Goulart, “The Monster of the Maze.” Another writer better known for his Science Fiction stories, Charles L. Harness (The Paradox Men), delivers a suspenseful tale in “Crossings.”
Interest in spy novels tends to ebb and flow over the years. Espionage appealed to lovers of spy fiction, but after three years the thrill was gone. Did you read digest magazines back in the day? GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
| Espionage Magazine [v1 #6, February 1986] ed. Jackie Lewis (Leo 11 Publications, Ltd.; Teaneck, NJ, $2.50, 164pp, digest, cover by Rob Richards 6 · About People · [uncredited] · bg 8 · About Books · Brian Burley · br 12 · About Video · Carl Martin · mr 16 · About Other Things… · Ernest Volkman · cl 20 · Letters to the Editor · [The Readers] · lc 25 · Publisher’s Page · Jackie Lewis · ed 26 · The War Which Never Ends · Guy Graybill · ar 32 · Early Warning [Daniel John Calder; Samuel Behrens] · Michael Gilbert · ss Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine October 7 1981, as “Dangerous Enemy” 52 · An All American Hero · Joe R. Lansdale · ss 62 · Go Kill Yourself · Joe Gill · ss 82 · The Monster of the Maze · Ron Goulart · ss 102 · Crossings · Charles L. Harness · ss 110 · Letter from Moscow · Isak Romun · ss 120 · Non-Interference [Part 1 of 2; Adjutent Grijpstra; Sgt. de Gier] · Janwillem van de Wetering · nv 140 · Assignment: Vienna [Part 2 of 2] · Josh Pachter · nv 150 · Spying Through Time · Joe Lewis · cl 152 · On File…: Naughty Mariella · Richard Walton · cl 156 · Game Pages · [uncredited] · pz) |
Hm…did I read digest-sized (and larger) fiction magazines in ’84-’87? Maybe a little. ESPIONAGE had less than stellar distribution, so it was not the easiest magazine to dig out on newsstands. What I didn’t know at all at the time was that was a project of Robert Guccione’s sisters, and he unsurprisingly helped fund it, if rather less lavishly than he did his wife’s or his son’s projects (to be fair, any crime-fiction magazine, particularly a specialized one, was a little less likely to thrive than a pop-science/mumbo jumbo/some fiction magazine [OMNI] or a more attitudinal ROLLING STONE competitor [SPIN]). I’m not sure that there isn’t always some market for epsionage fiction, even if it tends to lean toward novels (never have understood, at very least emotionally, the overvaluing of novels over short forms).
The early issues’ covers were sadly amateurish, which probably didn’t help (the competent if slightly cartoonish cover on this issue was a step or two toward professional, at least)…I rhink I picked up two of the not so many issues when they were new, and remember liking them (Lansdale makes an effort to appear anywhere that’s interesting).
Good hunting! How much of a memory jog is the box-delving?
Todd, I stopped buying digests and most other magazines in the mid-1980s. Patrick arrived in 1983 and Katie in 1986 so I was busy with the kids and working three jobs. In 1995, I made my first donation of thousands of books to SUNY at Buffalo so all my SF and mystery magazines were suddenly gone. I intend on donating this issue of ESPIONAGE to them, too.
By the ’80s, FANTASTIC had been folded into AMAZING, and MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE would not be long for the world (FAR WEST even sooner gone), but THE NEW BLACK MASK magabook/A MATTER OF CRIME popped in, and while SHORT STORY INTERNATIONAL would lose most of its limited newsstand distribution, I was happy to see TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE (even though the Serling idolatry could be A Bit Much, and the OMNI-like indulgence of “True” Weird Stuff was similarly offputting…but its sister magazine NIGHT CRY, despite the odd title, was also welcome. TRIQUARTERLY came roaring into the decade, but Northwestern University soon put a stop to that. And WHISPERS went from strength to strength, as simultaneously a magazine and mostly-original anthology series, and SHADOWS joining it in the latter capacity…and that was just some of what was happening in the U.S., along with interesting work coming from Canada, the UK, and elsewhere…not to mention HARPER’S got A Lot better, as THE ATLANTIC kept trudging toward its current mediocrity.
Todd, my magazine reading took a dive in the 1980s. I let most of my subscriptions lapse and found I struggled to keep up with buying SF and mystery paperbacks from that time.
In the sixties I read F&SF, Galaxy, If, Amazing , Fantastic , New Worlds (when it could be found), EQMM, Analog on a regular basis. This slowed down once I started college. After that F&SF is the only one I read regularly until Asimov’s. Now I read F&SF and Asimov’s depending on the authors. Never heard of Espionage.
Steve, ESPIONAGE, like many digests of that era, was short-lived. But, like you, I was buying and reading GALAXY, AMAZING, FANTASTIC, IF, WORLDS OF TOMORROW, and EQMM in the 1960s and 1970s.
I found ESP{IONAGE to be an interesting but extremely limiting magazine. I would pick up an nissue if it had a Ron Goulart story (as it did in six of the seven first issues) or an Edward D. Hoch story, but I soon wearied of the magazine. It did publish a number of very good but then not well-known authors during its fourteen issue run.
Digging through boxes of old magazines can be rewarding. I came across some old issues of P,S. magazine the other day.
Jerry, I find digging through old boxes of books like opening Christmas presents!
I read the major SF mags in the sixties and well into the seventies, but stopped when my interest in SF waned, replaced mostly by mysteries and horror. I regret never having read EQMM and AHMM–I think I would have liked them. I did read lots of spy novels, but no short stories that I recall, and wasn’t even aware of ESPIONAGE and probably wouldn’t have read it if I had been.
Michael, I only bought a couple of issues of ESPIONAGE and I thought I had donated all my digest magazines to SUNY at Buffalo so this find came as a surprise!
Other than EQMM and AHMM I didn’t know that others existed. The cover of this one reminds me of how much I enjoyed Van De Wetering’s crime novels set in Amsterdam. I didn’t know he wrote spy stories too.
Patti, I didn’t know Lansdale and Goulart wrote spy stories either until I bought this digest back the 1980s.
I had a couple of issues of this one. There were occasionally other digests I read, but mostly it was EQMM and AHMM, which I read until recent years. Of course, I didn’t read them cover to cover, but both published a lot of good writers. The early digest days (Manhunt and the like) were before my time, but occasionally I would pick them up in England of all places. Again, I’d only read the authors that interested me.
Jeff, I had trouble finding ESPIONAGE with its poor distribution. I’ve never seen a copy of ESPIONAGE in a used bookstore, either.
The last three issues of ESPIONAGE were reformatted, to an 8.5×11″ format, which might’ve led them to disappear from placement next to AHMM, EQMM and other digests, while probably not getting much attention from, say, TWILIGHT ZONE or OMNI readers, and probably getting them slotted near the likes of SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (not exactly the same audience).
Todd, I never saw the larger format ESPIONAGE issues.
Never saw this though I would have probably bought it – featuring Ron Goulart and Lansdale.
Other magazines (mainly SF of course) I bought in London – often second hand on one of the markets like Camden or Portobello.
And my favourite shop was the Fantasy Centre – fond memories!
Wolf, back in the 1980s there were SF and Mystery bookstores in our area. Now, they’re all gone and the few surviving used bookstores are struggling to survive.
I’vr never heard of it. One thing you may not have heard. Michael Gilbert was Raymond Chandler’s attorney. Earl Emerson years ago saw on my friend Nancy’s nametag that she was from La Jolla. He asked her about raymond chandler, and she searched and presented him with a huge amount of info. She found and made copies of a document signed by both.
Then in 2015 IIRC, she and I went to the burial of Chandler’s wife, Cissie. It seems that when she died, Chandler was an alcoholic, and her cremains were never handled. A couple of fans who were attorney’s found out and petitioned the court to have her buried next to him. I saw a small notice of the upcoming burial in an around the town column. Nancy & I went and were so glad we did. Powers Boothe, who played on the HBO series, read his favorite quotes, many people dressed in vintage 40s clothing, and they had a vintage vehicle bring the cremains. A dixieland band played, and they had brochures available. Nancy & I got ours signed by Powers Boothe.
Before the (cancelled during the convention) LCC here in SD 2020, I had suggested they do a panel on this, as Mark Coggins was there and took pictures. He was willing to do that, but the convention organizers apparently thought it was not worth it, even though as I recall he was the ghost of honor. The same people are doing Bouchercon, and I’ll suggest it again, with little hope.
Prior to the LCC, one of my cousins came to the convention, and wanted to see some relatives graves. Nancy came along and we also went to Chandler’s grave. It was overgrown so we had it cleaned up and took pictures.
Anyone coming to Bcon in SD this year, it’s worth a visit there
Maggie, thanks for all that information! Diane and I have paid our BOUCHERCON fees, booked the hotel, and now just have to book some flight to San Diego. In the past we flew SOUTHWEST but their Christmas debacle influenced us to look at other airlines.
I’m struck by the fact that the second installment of the Josh Pachter serial is only ten pages long.
Jeff, here’s Josh Pachter talking about ESPIONAGE MAGAZINE: https://spybrary.com/espionage-magazine-remembered/
Thanks! The covers they post give evidence of a) how amateurish the first covers were, and b) how the large-format issues were likely to get placed with SOLDIER OF FORTUNE rather than the fiction magazines…the latter also used cover fonts otherwise shared by the (other) Guccione magazines…
This debuted and ran during my MDM days and the sisters of Bob Guccione contacted me about plugging it, which I did. It also got some mentions in the pages of MDM. As you may know, Guccione published Penthouse magazine. I think I got a free subscription but don’t remember too much about it other than a very busy layout.
Bob, I’m with you on the busy layout. Sadly, the publishing industry began to decline in the 1980s. A friend of mine who worked in a printing plant lost his job because sales of Harlequin paperbacks–their biggest account–started to decrease along with the magazines they printed.