''Twilight Zone'' literature is an umbrella term for the many books and comic books which concern or adapt ''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...
''
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
.
Comics
Gold Key Comics
Gold Key Comics was originally an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated this way from 1962 to 1984. Currently, Gold Key Comics is owned b ...
published a long-running ''Twilight Zone'' comic that featured the likeness of
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ' ...
introducing both original stories and occasional adaptations of episodes. The comic outlived the television series by nearly 20 years and Serling by nearly a decade. A later revival of ''Twilight Zone'' comics was published by
Now Comics
NOW Comics was a comic book publisher founded in late 1985 by Tony C. Caputo as a sole-proprietorship. During the four years after its founding, NOW grew from a one-man operation to operating in 12 countries, and published almost 1,000 comic book ...
, spinning off of the 1980s revival of the show.
In 2008, The
Savannah College of Art & Design
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France.
Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Unit ...
and publisher
Walker & Company
Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...
collaborated to produce a series of graphic novel adaptations of episodes from the series that were written by Rod Serling.
Beginning in December 2013, comics publisher Dynamite Entertainment ran a multi-issue series, written by J. Michael Straczynski and with art by Guiu Vilanova.
Guides
Marc Scott Zicree
Marc Scott Zicree (born 1955) is an American science fiction author, television writer and screenwriter. Zicree has written for major studios and networks including Paramount, Universal, Disney, Sony/Columbia Tri-Star, MGM, New Line, CBS, NBC, ...
's episode-by-episode guide of the
original series
Original programming (also called originals or original programs, and subcategorized as "original series", "original movies", "original documentaries" and "original specials") is a term used for in-house television, film or web series productions ...
, ''The Twilight Zone Companion'' (1982), was published by
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...
). Later editions were updated to include a brief chapter acknowledging the
1985 revival series, although no additions or corrections were made to the previously existing text.
Martin Grams, Jr.'s volume, ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic'' (2008), covers production information for each episode of the original series in great detail. At 800 pages, it is much longer and more detailed than Zicree's guide, and makes a point of identifying and correcting Zicree's misstatements and errors.
Magazines
Beginning in 1981 and with
T. E. D. Klein
Theodore "Eibon" Donald Klein (born July 15, 1947) is an American horror writer and editor.
Klein has published very few works, but they have all achieved positive notice for their meticulous construction and subtle use of horror: critic S. T. ...
as editor, ''The Twilight Zone Magazine'' (also known as
''Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine'') featured
horror fiction
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J ...
and to some extent other forms of
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
and some borderline
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
. ''The TZ Magazine'' reviewed and previewed new movies while publishing articles about ''The Twilight Zone'' original and revival (''
The New Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an anthology television series which was constructed from September 27, 1985 to April 15, 1989. It is the first of three revivals of Rod Serling's acclaimed 1959–64 television series, and like the original it featur ...
'') television series, among other cultural oddities. ''The Twilight Zone Magazine'' was initially successful; by 1983 it was selling 125,000 issues a month, outselling magazines like ''
Analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
''.
Under Klein's
editorship, the magazine published several noted writers, including
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
,
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
,
Pamela Sargent
Pamela Sargent (born March 20, 1948) is an American feminist, science fiction author, and editor. She has an MA in classical philosophy and has won a Nebula Award.
Sargent wrote a trilogy concerning the terraforming of Venus that is someti ...
, and
Peter Straub
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
.
In late 1985, Michael Blaine succeeded Klein as editor. From March 1986 until its last issue of June 1989 the editor was
Tappan King
Tappan Wright King (born 1950) is an American editor and author in the field of fantasy fiction, best known for editing ''The Twilight Zone Magazine'' and its
companion publication '' Night Cry'' in the late 1980s. Much of his work has appeared ...
, who also edited its "twisted sister" publication, ''
Night Cry
''The Night Cry'' is a 1926 American silent film family drama directed by Herman C. Raymaker and starring Rin Tin Tin. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros.
Cast
* Rin Tin Tin as himself
*John Harron as John Martin
*June Marlowe as ...
''. It was the most reliable market for much of the best short horror in that period and appealed to audiences for the likes of ''
Fangoria
''Fangoria'' is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr.
The magazine was originally released i ...
'' and ''
Starlog
''Starlog'' was a monthly science fiction magazine that was created in 1976 and focused primarily on '' Star Trek'' at its inception. Kerry O'Quinn and Norman Jacobs were its creators and it was published by Starlog Group, Inc. in August 1976. ...
'', as well as for ''
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...
'' and ''
Whispers''. Like ''
Omni Magazine
''Omni'' was a science and science fiction magazine published in its domestic American market as well as the UK. It contained articles on science, parapsychology, and short works of science fiction and fantasy. It was published as a print version ...
'', which it also somewhat resembled, it was published by a company better-known for "skin" magazines, ''
Gallery
Gallery or The Gallery may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Art gallery
** Contemporary art gallery
Music
* Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s
Albums
* ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album
* ''Gallery'' (Gr ...
''
's Montcalm Publishing.
The all-fiction
digest-sized
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately , but can also be and , similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes have evolved from the printin ...
companion, ''
Night Cry
''The Night Cry'' is a 1926 American silent film family drama directed by Herman C. Raymaker and starring Rin Tin Tin. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros.
Cast
* Rin Tin Tin as himself
*John Harron as John Martin
*June Marlowe as ...
'', makes a cameo in ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' 300th episode, "
Barting Over
"Barting Over" is the eleventh episode of the The Simpsons (season 14), fourteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', advertised by Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox, and indicated on-screen to be the 300th episode of ...
". On occasion, the magazine and digest reprinted often-anthologized short stories, introducing a new generation of horror aficionados to classic short stories by veteran writers, such as "
The Voice in the Night
"The Voice in the Night" is a short story by English writer William Hope Hodgson, first published in the November 1907 edition of ''Blue Book Magazine''.
The story has been adapted a number of times, most prominently in the 1963 Japanese film '' ...
" by
William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson (15 November 1877 – 19 April 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction, and sci ...
, and "The Bookshop" by
Nelson Bond.
Novels
Numerous novelizations were published based upon episodes of ''The Twilight Zone.'' In 2003, the first Twilight Zone novel was published, entitled ''The Twilight Zone Book 1: Harvest Moon'', which was written by John J. Miller. Two sequels were later published. The first sequel was entitled ''The Twilight Zone Book 2: A Gathering of Shadows'' which was written by Russell Davis. The second sequel was entitled ''The Twilight Zone Book 3: Deep in the Dark'' written by John Helfers.
In 2004,
Black Flame released the five novelizations based on 2 episodes each from the
2002 series. Jay Russell, Pat Cadigan, Paul Woods, K.C. Winters and Christa Faust adapted the episodes.
Short story collections
Several volumes of original short stories were published under ''The Twilight Zone'' brand, the first of which was edited by
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ' ...
, himself.
* ''From the Twilight Zone'' (1962, Doubleday)
* ''Chilling Stories from Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone'' (1965, Grosset & Dunlap)
* Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Revisited (1967)
* ''
Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary'' (2009, Tor Books)
See also
*
Fantasy fiction magazine
A fantasy fiction magazine, or fantasy magazine, is a magazine which publishes primarily fantasy fiction. Not generally included in the category are magazines for children with stories about such characters as Santa Claus. Also not included are ...
*
Horror fiction magazine
A horror fiction magazine is a magazine that publishes primarily horror fiction with the main purpose of frightening the reader. Horror magazines can be in print, on the internet, or both.
Major horror magazines
Defunct magazines
*''The Arkham ...
*
Online magazine
An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer magaz ...
*
Science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet.
Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, nov ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Twilight Zone Literature
Defunct science fiction magazines published in the United States
The Twilight Zone
Fantasy fiction magazines
Horror fiction magazines
Gold Key Comics titles
NOW Comics titles