Lost in Time and Space with Lefty Feep

This collection of pulp tales brilliantly shows just how different the meaning of a writer's work can differ between a fan and the writer. Editor John Stanley, host of the once popular San Francisco based late night horror movie television show Creature Features, put together many of Robert Bloch's 'famous' Lefty Feep stories. Each yarn involved a very contemporary (for the 1940's that is) con man named Lefty Feep who delighted in telling some long suffering schmuck in a coffee shop the wild tales about his failed get rich quick schemes. Written for the fantasy pulps of yore, each tale has a magical trapping of sorts (i.e. flying carpets, genie in a bottle, etc) that inevitably trip up our tireless, and quite clueless, fall guy of a hero. Not surprisingly Bloch barely remembered writing some of the stories (most were written at the request of the publisher and not out of any desire by Bloch to explore the character further) and this workmanlike attitude casts a humorous light on Stanley's obvious, and quite fanatical, love for the character in the interview segments with Bloch that bookend each story. The small press edition, from Stanley's own, and now defunct, Creatures at Large Press, was intended to be the first volume in a series, but none ever followed. Bloch, in his unauthorized autobiography, blamed the stories with his trademarked bemused self-deprecation. Highly recommended for both the silly stories and the probably unintended fan/writer insight.