Introduction TO Bug-Eyed Monsters and Bimbos
This is the first anthology I ever edited. I was the Toastmaster at Nolacon II, the 1988 Worldcon, and the committee asked me if I’d be willing to edit an anthology on any topic that appealed to me. I’ve always loved humor, so I agreed if I could put together a book of science fiction parodies.
I titled it Shaggy B.E.M. Stories (in science fiction parlance, a B.E.M. is a Bug-Eyed Monster). I scoured the professional magazines, but also the fanzines, and finally came up with some 30 stories, some by superstars like Asimov and Clarke, some by relatively unknown fans.
I turned in the manuscript, and they went to press…but none of them had ever been involved in publishing, and they didn’t know that they were supposed to return the galleys to the editor and the authors for proof-reading, so the final version had about 200 typos in it. (And even so, it was still a damned funny book.)
Shaggy B.E.M. Stories was a limited edition, and about 75% of the print run sold out the weekend of the convention. Finally, after a dozen years or so, I decided it was time to bring it out again, and I sold it to Byron Preiss, who promptly re-titled it Dirty Rotten Aliens. Money changed hands, I paid all the writers a second time—and then Byron was killed in a tragic accident, and the book never came out.
Move the clock ahead another decade, and I thought I’d try again. And now you hold in your hands the second edition, proudly wearing yet its third title, this time Bug-Eyed Monsters and Bimbos.
And you know what?
Whatever they call it, it’s still a totally delightful collection of some of the best parodies of science fiction every written.
Enjoy.