Talk:The Witch's Tales

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:The Witch's Tales (magazine)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: J Milburn (talk · contribs) 17:36, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm really enjoying reviewing your articles, so I'm happy to take on this one, too. If you'd rather hear from other voices, do let me know- I promise I won't be offended! J Milburn (talk) 17:36, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

• As there are only two issues, and if they're in the public domain, why not include both covers?

  Done. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:05, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

• Is the radio show worth a redlink?
• Any of the authors in the lead worth linking? How about The Shadow or The Carwood Publishing Co.?

  I've linked to the magazine, but that's just a redirect to The Shadow, which is about the franchise as a whole. There should eventually be a separate article for the magazine. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:05, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

  I don't think Carwood is worth linking; I can't find any sources that do much more than list the magazines they published. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:13, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

• A tiny bit more on the radio show would be helpful; I assume it was an anthology show aimed at children/families?

  I don't have much more on the show, at least in the sources I have for the magazine. I found a Google Books preview of Terror on the Air by Richard J. Hand and used that to source the fact that it was the first radio horror program. If you could send me the article you mention below, I'll use it to add a bit more. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:43, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

• "Cole also appeared in the second issue with "Mrs. Hawker's Will", an episode from the radio show; it was adapted for the magazine by Laurence D. Smith." I think a little more is required here. I assume the original story for the radio show was written by Cole, but it was then adapted by Smith? It's not quite clear.

  Yes, Cole wrote the script for the episode, and Smith adapted it to short story form. I've tried to clarify this. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:11, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

• "The reprints were good stories" Could we attribute this in the text?

  Done. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:11, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

• There is some nice material in doi:10.1080/19376529.2012.667021 which could be included- at the very least, it will help cement the notability of the publication, which some editors may call into question.

  Page 63: "Cole launched a pulp magazine tied to the program, The Witch’s Tales, which premiered in November 1936 and ceased publication after the second issue.¹⁷ Mike Ashley attributes the magazine’s failure to its publisher (Carwood) and editor; a larger firm may have successfully transferred the radio program’s success to a pulp (2000, p. 104).¹⁸ Nominally edited by Cole, Tom Chadburn actually handled the work (Ashley, 2000). The December issue included an adaptation of ‘‘Mrs. Hawker’s Will’’ (20 June 1935), however, it mostly reprinted Pearson’s Magazine material from the turn of the century (Ashley, 2000).¹⁹"

  Those footnotes (page 78): "17 Weird Tales also spawned a radio show, Stay Tuned for Terror (1945), based on adaptations of Robert Bloch’s stories. // 18 Publisher Street & Smith certainly did so with The Shadow magazine (1931–49). // 19 From script (Cole, 1998, pp. 163–179); AKA ‘‘The Hairy Monster’’ (26 September 1932)."

  Page 64 (note that the author is initially talking about the radio show...) "The Witch’s Tale’s intertextuality suggests several functions. It exemplifies genre expectations shared by producers and audiences and a predilection for repetition common to horror. Familiar stories likely reduced risk and perhaps production costs (how the program handled copyrights tied to its adaptations remains unknown, however WOR required writers to submit a form attesting to the writer’s responsibility for copyright and releasing the company from any liabilities, suggesting a loose concern for intellectual property rights that may have been widespread in early radio).²⁵ Intertextuality also indicates the shared audiences and interconnectedness of radio, print, and film, for instance Weird Tales advertised the program Stay Tuned for Terror, and the introduction of ‘‘The Spirits of the Lake’’ in that magazine suggests readers’ familiarity with the program.²⁶ The program’s links with the pulps provides evidence that Cole saw such magazines as a secondary outlet for his stories and as trans-media vehicle. Publishing his stories and creating his own pulp provided Cole with additional publicity for the program and revenues. The Witch’s Tales magazine also anticipates the contemporary media industry’s emphasis on content across multiple platforms and tie-ins. Finally, in rooting his material in classic, Gothic horror, a good deal dating to the 19th century, Cole offered an intertextual reference to the program’s affinities."

  Another mention appears to mistakenly refer to The Witch's Tale as The Witch's Tales in the closing lines- an understandable mistake...

• I'd be happy to email you the full article, if you'd like to read it, but it is mostly on the radio show (though it does prove that the show itself is notable.)

  Per my note above, yes, please send it to me -- I can use it to expand the description of the radio show if nothing else. The references to the magazine are drawn from the same source I'm using, but I noticed they mentioned Ashley's opinion that Carwood's inexperience was an issue, so I added that to the article. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:52, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Nice stuff, as ever. J Milburn (talk) 18:16, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

I wonder whether the page should be moved to simply The Witch's Tales? A dab page may be appropriate- A Witch's Tale, The Witch's Tale and this article all have a similar name. J Milburn (talk) 19:05, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Ok, I've just noticed that you got the name of the radio show wrong (or perhaps some of your sources did!). I have corrected it and added a link. J Milburn (talk) 19:19, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Ashley has it wrong; I'll let him know. (I send him errata periodically.) I moved the page, but then realized that perhaps that will screw up Legobot. Should I undo the move till the review is over? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:05, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Hmm. Legobot just said the review failed! I assume the move caused it to break somehow. Any idea what to do about that? Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:08, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

The bot's failed one review, but just opened another- I've made some tweaks. If you send me an email I'll send you the article. (In terms of other stuff to include from that article, I wondered whether a mention of other pulp magazine/radio crossovers and/or the "trans-media" and "anticipation [of] emphasis on content across multiple platforms" might be worth mentioning- the latter definitely helps show why readers should care about this magazine, if nothing else, while the former may be of interest to people already excited about radio/pulp magazines.) J Milburn (talk) 00:03, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

I've emailed you. (If I were you I'd mung that email, by the way; spambots still harvest them, unless you have a lot of faith in your spam filter.) Thanks for the offer -- I will add something as you suggest above, but I'll probably wait till I get the article and do it all together. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 02:46, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

I took the material you suggested above, and added a comment based on that. I don't see anything else really usable in the rest of the article, though it would be pretty useful for the radio show article. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 15:47, 29 December 2014 (UTC)