Trade paperback, Edgeworks Abbey, 2004. Illustrated with 16 pages of full-color art by Mark Zug.

I Robot

Literature & Fiction

Isaac. Asimov

Genre Fiction

Edgeworks Abbey

Brain Movies collects Harlan Ellison's television work. Reproduced from Ellison's private files (and occasionally featuring his hand-written alterations), these scripts appear exactly as they did when the writer pulled them from his Olympia manual typewriter. This 438-page paperback features: "Touching Magic"—An introduction by J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5 and writer of the Clint Eastwood-directed film Changeling, in which he describes the importance of seeing actual script pages as the author originally wrote them. "Memos From Purgatory"—Ellison's adaptation of his memoir about life in a Brooklyn gang. Produced for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, this harrowing tale of juvenile delinquency is presented in TWO different drafts—one with Ellison's extensive hand-written revisions—illustrating the author's creative process. Two stories from The Outer Limits —"Soldier," the story that inspired the Terminator movie franchise, and the Writers Guild Award-winning "Demon With a Glass Hand," one of the most iconic segments of the 1960s science fiction anthology. Ellison won yet another Writers Guild Award for "Paladin of the Lost Hour," an episode of the 1985 Twilight Zone revival written simultaneously with the Hugo Award-winning short story of the same name (featured in Harlan 101: Encountering Ellison), but this particular script differs from the story in one key respect: it features the original ending Ellison planned for this classic story. This lost ending hasn't been seen since his colleagues in the Zone writer's room convinced him to write the conclusion that has since become famous. The original outline for the story — remarkably reminiscent of the short story in its execution — is included as well. After leaving his post as creative consultant on The Twilight Zone, Ellison penned one more episode at the behest of the series' new script editor, J. Michael Straczynski, and that was "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich," presented here for the first time with the treatment from which the teleplay was developed. The final script is "The Face of Helene Bournouw," and if you've only seen the episode of Showtime's anthology series The Hunger that bears that title, you've merely seen the vulture-picked bones of Ellison's adaptation of his own chilling short story. See why Harlan had the tv episode credited to his pseudonym, Cordwainer Bird, in a script that — effectively — will be seen for the first time in this volume. Brain Movies, Volume One features a beautiful cover portrait of Ellison by artist Iain McCaig, best known for his work on the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises.

Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

Humor & Entertainment

ELLISON, HARLAN

Movies

The second in the ongoing Brain Movies series collects six more of Harlan Ellison's teleplays. Once again, the scripts are reproduced from Ellison's private files, exactly as he typed them. This 476-page paperback features: A new introduction by Patton Oswalt, the voice of Remy in Ratatouille, Grammy-nominated comedian, and author of the New York Times bestseller Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. "Killing Bernstein"—The unproduced teleplay adaptation of Ellison's chilling short story originally intended for the short-lived ABC anthology series Darkroom. Appearing in an Ellison collection for the first time. "Deeper Than the Darkness" — Ellison's 90-minute Cimarron Strip teleplay, featuring Jack the Ripper in the Old West, that was famously ruined by the director's poor grasp of logic. "Mealtime"—The episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea that resulted in an ABC censor having his pelvis broken by a model of the Seaview. After 47 years, Ellison's original script finally sees the light of day without the tampering that led to the first appearance of his derogatory Writers Guild pseudonym: "Cordwainer Bird." "The Sort of Do-It-Yourself Affair" and "The Pieces of Fate Affair"—Two teleplays from The Man From U.N.C.L.E., featuring Ellison's original storylines before they were revised for production. These scripts include an editor's note explaining the scandal that kept the latter episode out of circulation for years. "Phoenix Without Ashes" — The Writers Guild Award-winning pilot script for Ellison's legendarily bowdlerized science fiction series, The Starlost. See Ellison's original teleplay — the source of the recent New York Times-bestselling graphic novel — appearing for the first time in an Ellison collection. And a beautiful new cover by World Fantasy Award-nominated artist Jill Bauman.

Designed as both an introduction to Harlan Ellison's vast body of work and as a manual for would-be writers, Harlan 101 collects the best of the author's short fiction, seven essays on the craft of writing, and a collection of rarely seen oddities from Ellison's extensive archives.This 400-page paperback features:An introduction by New York Times bestseller Neil Gaiman, author of the Hugo Award-winning novels American Gods and The Graveyard Book, and creator of Vertigo Comics' Sandman series.The first appearance in a widely available Ellison collection of his newest short story—the 2011 Nebula Award-winning "How Interesting: A Tiny Man."Five Hugo Award-winning short stories, including "‘Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman," "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," "The Deathbird," "Jeffty Is Five," and "Paladin of the Lost Hour.""Snake in the Crypt"—The never-before-republished story that Ellison rewrote to become "The Deathbird." See how this average tale was re-worked into a Hugo Award-winning novelette.The lost ending to "Paladin of the Lost Hour"—This ending only appeared in the very first publication of the short story in the 1985 anthology Universe 15; it has never been reprinted.A disturbing and, as-yet, unfinished short story titled "Pet."Seven informative, yet entertaining essays on the craft of writing (four which have never appeared in an Ellison collection).Plus sixteen other stories—some subtly revised for this publication—spanning Ellison's career. From the 1950s comes "The Sky is Burning." The 1960s are represented by "All the Sounds of Fear" and "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes." The Ellison of the 1970s appears in "At the Mouse Circus," "Basilisk," "Hindsight: 480 Seconds," "The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge," "Shatterday," "Shoppe Keeper," and "Strange Wine." The 1980s offerings include "Broken Glass," "Grail," "On the Slab," and "Prince Myshkin, and Hold the Relish," while the 1990s bring forth "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" and "Sensible City."

Harlan 101: Encountering Ellison

Short Stories & Anthologies

For the first in over 50 years, Harlan Ellison's second novel returns to print in a substantially revised and expanded form. Also included are three of Ellison's best long-form stories.This 336-page paperback features:The Sound of a Scythe, Harlan Ellison's never-before-republished second novel—appearing for the first time under the author's preferred title (the original publisher renamed it The Man With Nine Lives without Ellison's consent)—expanded by 25% from its 1960 publication and extensively rewritten by Ellison for this appearance. Virtually every page has been finessed by the author."Mefisto in Onyx"—The Bram Stoker Award-winning novel of a telepath who's asked by his best friend to journey into the mind of a serial killer on death row."All the Lies That Are My Life"—Ellison's novella about a world-famous writer who overshadows his best friend from beyond the grave."The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie"—A Veronica Lake-inspired tale of a rediscovered silver-screen star's brutal return to Hollywood.An introduction by Emmy-nominated tv writer Ronald D. Moore, creator of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and writer/producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roswell, and HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivale.And a beautiful new cover by World Fantasy Award-nominated artist Jill Bauman.

The Sound of a Scythe: and 3 Brilliant Novellas

This anthology assembles seventeen never-before-collected pulp stories from the 1950s. Includes—for the first time since its original publication in the April 1957 issue of SUPER-SCIENCE FICTION—"Invulnerable," which STEPHEN KING described as "...one of my favorite stories..." when it nearly appeared in Ellison's 1982 collection, STALKING THE NIGHTMARE. It's taken 30 years, but "Invulnerable" is finally available again. Every story has been revised by the author specifically for this collection. Stories include: "Invulnerable" (1957), "Like Father, Like Son" (1957), "Walk the Ceiling" (1957), "The Kissing Dead" (1956, written with Henry Slesar), "Across the Silent Days" (1958), "Star Route" (1955), "Backlash!" (1956), "Machine Silent, Machine Yearning" (1957), "Way of an Assassin" (1958), "Fool's Mate" (1958), "The Untouchable Adolescents" (1956), "The Little Boy Who Loves Cats" (1954), "Parasite" (1955), "Up the Down Escalator" (1955), "Glug" (1958), "Hit-Skip" (1957), and "Why Did Wallace Crack?" (1956).

Rough Beasts: Seventeen Stories Written Before I Got Up To Speed

Harlan Ellison's never-before-published 238-page, unproduced screenplay adaptation of Norman Spinrad's Hugo Award-nominated novel BUG JACK BARRON that was to have been directed by Costa-Gavras (Z) for Universal Pictures in the early 1980s. Respected film critic and historian LEONARD MALTIN has written an insightful introduction with input from Ellison on why—after nearly 30 years—the film has still never been made. This paperback book includes Ellison's original casting suggestions from 1983 so you can "see the movie in your mind" with the faces Ellison imagined for each role. This screenplay was reproduced from Harlan Ellison’s file copy. The pages originated on a manual typewriter, hence the idiosyncrasies that set them apart from the sanitized, word-processed pages of today.

None of the Above

SPINRAD, NORMAN

Disenchanted attorney Lee Kraiter travels to the roof of the world, where he discovers the secrets of The Dark Forces in an unfilmed pilot created by Harlan Ellison in 1972. “It steals righteously from Lost Horizon and the marvelous works of H.P. Lovecraft and the caveats of Charles Fort and even the Dr. Strange comics (with a nod to Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, and the old wizard Shazam),” exclaimed Ellison in his NBC-TV pitch. And if Kraiter’s magical exploits don’t satisfy your crime-fighting desires, checkout Ellison’s unproduced Batman outline pitting the dynamic duo against Two-Face. Still not enough? How about an episode of The Rat Patrol guest starring der Führer? Maybe Ellison’s original outline for “Crypt” from Logan’s Run? Still not satisfied? Why not discover “Who Killed Andy Zygmunt?” in Ellison’s third script for Burke’s Law? Or, you could plunge back to the beginning of Ellison’s tv career with his first-ever teleplay: an installment of the skydiving series Ripcord, Ellison’s heartfelt homage to a Hemingway who had just suicided. The scripts in this book were reproduced from Harlan Ellison’s file copies. The pages originated on a manual typewriter, hence the idiosyncrasies that set them apart from the sanitized, word-processed pages of today.

Brain Movies Volume Five: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

EXPLORE ELLISON’S TAKE ON THE SCIENCE FICTION WESTERN: Cutter’s World, Ellison’s two-hour 1987 pilot for a Western-tinged science fiction series for CBS (fifteen years before Joss Whedon finally got one on the air with Firefly), tells the story of guilt-ridden 20th century astronaut Ben Cutter’s journey to an alien world, where he and his twelve-year-old son, Mac, must carve out a life for themselves in the perpetual twilight of a world inhabited by two species in conflict: the humanoid vivo, and the kyben (the recurring beings featured in Ellison’s Night and the Enemy story cycle). REDISCOVER THE LOST SHORT STORY AND ABORTED NOVEL THAT BECAME DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND: In keeping with the kyben theme established by Cutter’s World, BRAIN MOVIES, Volume Three digs into the archives hidden within the Lost Aztec Temple of Mars to publish for the first time the short story fragment and aborted novel that evolved into Ellison’s Writers Guild Award-winning teleplay for “Demon With a Glass Hand.” Ellison began work on “The Queer File,” a short story about a man paid to catalogue strange occurrences, while he was living in New York City in the early 1960s. By early 1964, the story had become a novel titled OBITUARY FOR AN INSTANT. Then, just as Ellison started chapter four, The Outer Limits came calling and the novel’s premise evolved into “Demon With a Glass Hand.” READ THE SCRIPT THAT SECURED ELLISON’S TELEVISION CAREER: “Who Killed Alex Debbs?” is the first of Ellison’s four teleplays for the 1960s crime series Burke’s Law and features the titular LAPD Homicide Captain investigating the murder of a Hugh Hefner-inspired publisher. Read the script that landed Ellison his first ongoing gig in Hollywood and led to the hot up-and-comer being listed as one of Cosmpolitan’s six most eligible bachelors. PUT YOURSELF IN THE STORY EDITOR’S CHAIR AND PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE AN ELLISON PITCH: “The Ship That Kills” is a “lost episode” of the 1974 series The Manhunter, starring Ken Howard. For years, Ellison wondered why his segment of the depression-era action series never went before the cameras. Now, you can read his storyline—written with the same energy with which he verbally pitched it to the story editor—and discover, in the editor’s notes, the reason that the episode was never made. Cover art by 15-time Hugo Award winner and Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee Michael Whelan.

Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Three (Standard Edition)

READ THE BASIS FOR ELLISON’S FIRST GROUNDBREAKING PLAGIARISM SUIT: Brillo, the two-hour ABC pilot based on Ellison and Ben Bova’s short story of the same name, was the impetus for the author’s first plagiarism lawsuit. At long last, Ellison afficionados can now see how the story of a (then-futuristic) 1990s beat cop teamed with the latest in law enforcement technology (the eponymous robot) would have played out on the small screen had not the network passed on the series. For fans of the absurd, some of the “suggestions” issued by ABC Broadcast Standards and Practices are recounted in the editor’s note. In addition to the pilot teleplay, this volume presents several pages of Ellison-commissioned concept art for the Brillo robot drawn by Science Fiction Hall of Fame-inductee Frank Kelly Freas... ...as well as the treatment for “Funny Money,” a further adventure for Brillo and his human partner, Mike Polchik, plotted by Ellison and Bova when the ABC series was still in development. LEARN WHAT WAS REQUIRED TO LURE GLORIA SWANSON TO THE SMALL SCREEN: “Who Killed Purity Mather?” is the second of Ellison’s four scripts for Burke’s Law. The author considers the production of this teleplay to be a high point of his television career and the accompanying editor’s note recounts how he lured the elusive Gloria Swanson down from Sunset Boulevard to appear in her first television role. VENTURE WITH ELLISON INTO THE UNIVERSAL PICTURES BLACK TOWER WHERE, HARLAN ASSURES YOU, “EVERY FLOOR IS THE THIRTEENTH.”: “Jeffrey’s Being Quiet” was Ellison’s contribution to the short-lived parapsychology series The Sixth Sense, where he spent a few hellish months (recounted in the editor’s note) as a story editor in the early 1970s. Inspired by the same personal incident that produced the short story “All the Birds Come Home to Roost,” as well as a key plot point in “On the Downhill Side,” this treatment is Ellison at his best—harnessing his pain in the service of his art. The scripts in this book were reproduced from Harlan Ellison’s file copies. The pages originated on a manual typewriter, hence the idiosyncrasies that set them apart from the sanitized, word-processed pages of today. Cover art by Jason Davis & Bo Nash based on the cover of DANGEROUS VISIONS by Leo & Diane Dillon.

Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Four (Standard Edition)

BOVA, BEN

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Books by Edgeworks Abbey

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I Robot

Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

Harlan 101: Encountering Ellison

The Sound of a Scythe: and 3 Brilliant Novellas

Rough Beasts: Seventeen Stories Written Before I Got Up To Speed

None of the Above

Brain Movies Volume Five: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison

Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Three (Standard Edition)

Brain Movies: The Original Teleplays of Harlan Ellison, Volume Four (Standard Edition)