This post is brought to you by Monster and Monster II (and later in September, Monster III. Check out the cover here for the first time!) All these blog posts are eventually going to find their way into books, so why not dip into some of Dark Worlds Quarterly posts from the past? Monster includes some favorites like “The Vampire Stories of Hugh B. Cave” and “How Bug-Eyed Was Your Monster?” Monster II has “Ithaqua: Wendigo and the Walker on the Wind” and “I, Robot, the Autobiography of a Mechanical Man”. These are just four, of course, as each book contains 60,000 words of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror with a particular feel for all things monstrous.
Books like Orty Ortwein’s The First Geeks (2024) are few and far between. To explain that, I have to back up a little. If you are like me there aren’t enough books about Science Fiction, the real Science Fiction. Sure, there are plenty of volumes that claim to be a history of the genre, books like Lester Del Rey’s The World of Science Fiction (1976) or Adam Roberts The History of Science Fiction (2006). But not since I read Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction (2018) have a come across a book that really made me feel like I was getting the full picture. Astounding shows the period from several POVs and includes all the important players. Nevala-Lee doesn’t gloss over things in a way that non-SF readers will like. He assumes you are part of this thing we all love and proceeds in that manner. The First Geeks takes this same approach. Tells the story in a triple weave that shows what they did and how they affected each other.
Let’s get specific. The First Geeks is the story of three men, all men I have an interest in: Ray Bradbury, Forrest J Ackerman and Ray Harryhausen. Now, most biographers focus on one of these. There are several Bradbury bios, plenty of analysis of his stories, etc., but by dissecting him away from these other two, you miss how their lives influenced each other. Ortwein’s approach is simple enough, tell the story of Science Fiction, fandom and professional writing and film-making, as it happens. One chapter may concern Ray Bradbury taking a bus across the US to be there when the first Worldcon took place in New York. Another chapter will tell how Forrest J Ackerman and his girl Friday, Morojo, Myrtle Douglas, wore the first costume at that convention, setting the mold for modern Cosplay. Another section focuses on Ray Harryhausen and his father, a machinist, making the ball-and-socket joints for Ray’s famous animated monsters. And how Ray cut up his mother’s fur coat to give that cave bear something to wear. And another might discuss all three enjoying time in a California SF club.
The First Geeks has another strength, one that even Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding does not. An alternative title might suggest what I mean here. Orty Ortwein could have called his book: Three Fans. His history isn’t a dry-and-dusty study but the kind that exists in the homes and fan clubs that were Science Fiction. You really feel how important SF was to all three men, how it influenced their actions, and ultimately, found all three at the top of their own venue: Bradbury, the poet laureate of SF writers, Forry, the king of fans and Famous Monsters and Ray Harryhausen filling seats in theaters to wonder at the creatures of mythology reborn. Ortwein casts a wide net within his triple subject pulling in writers’ clubs like the Milwaukee Fictioneers and the Manana Literary Society, fanzines like Futuria Fantasia, Fans in WWII, August Derleth and Arkham House, and all the great films. These guys were nuts for flicks, which they saw multiple times. (I doubt I could sit through Metropolis once let alone forty times!)
Now if I was to point out any weaknesses in the book, I would have to say the lack of images. This isn’t to say there aren’t any photographs but they tend to be in the front and back with a wide image-less middle. If you are looking for a visual guide type book, you will be disappointed. This one is for readers.
Now you might guess that I know (or have heard) a thing or two about SF/F/H. I suppose these many posts say that. But the depth of The First Geeks delighted me. I can honestly say I never once said, “Well, everybody knows that. That’s nothing new.” I was fascinated by Ortwein’s information andhis clean presentation of it. Of course, this is a book written for one such as I. I think, if you are reading this blog, it may have been written for as well. Check it out here.
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