The Disquieting Guest — Ib Melchior: Tivoli Nights and Rat-Bat-Spider-Crabs
Ib Melchior passed away on March 13, at the age of 97. His death was rather overshadowed in genre circles by those of two far more famous figures in the field, so I’m going to take a few moments now to remember the contributions of the novelist, screenwriter and director. While his most notable contributions have been more SF than horror, there are enough horrific elements in his work that I think he has a place in this column. The most high-profile works associated with him are ones where his involvement was in one way or another indirect. He wrote the English-language script for Mario Bava’s SF/horror masterpiece Planet of the Vampires (1965). His concept Space Family Robinson (later a comic book) was, he claims, plagiarized by Irwin Allen as Lost in Space, and indeed, when the film version came along in 1998, Melchior was a paid consultant. And his short story “The Racer” was the basis for Paul Bartel’s brilliant (and ever-more-topical) satire Death Race 2000 (1975).*
Call for Guest Posters: Authors, Bloggers, Fans!
That’s right! We’re looking for guest posters for our show. Here’s what we’re looking for: About genre — rants, history, observations, questions, etc. Discussions of craft — if you’re an author, we’d love to have your guest posts on all things related to your writing. What inspired you to write X? What are you favorite books? Etc.! Interviews Book reviews Movie reviews Basically, we’re looking for anything and everything to fill up our week with interesting content. And you never know: we might bring you onto the show to rant with us (this is more a probably than a might, if we’re being honest). Send an email to skiffyandfanty[at]gmail[dot]com and let us know what you’d like to contribute. If you have an idea for something that doesn’t fit into any of these categories, let us know! We’ll probably be interested.
