I had a comic book (“The Avengers”) which was based on a Harlan Ellison short story “Five Dooms to Save Tomorrow.”
Can anyone give a compilation that includes this story.
(In the comic book, an average Joe is unwittingly carrying the power to destroy the world, and The Watcher (pledged not to interfere with lesser races) interferes once again, violating the Prime Directive just as Kirk and Company did so many times, but helping to save Earth in the meantime.)
Actually, I think this story was an original, written especially for Marvel, and not based on a short story.
Here’s the publishing history,
http://www.steampunk.com/sfch/bibliographies/hecbb.html
Here’s another good site,
http://www.enteract.com/~chrisday/Ellison/Original1.html
Aaahhhhh! People after my own heart! I read/re-read lots of Harlan, and have enjoyed his talents for years. Even named my website for his Dreamcorridor series. He lives near a great bookstore called Dangerous Vision in the valley in S.CA.
Man, I love Ellison! I’m still waiting (more and more impatiently all the time) for Edgeworks V to come out. It will reprint the two “Glass Teat” compilations.
Here’s yet another site mentioning “Five Dooms to Save Tomorrow”
http://harlanellison.com/text/comicbib.txt
This is on HE’s official webpage, Ellison Webderland. One of my favorite sites, although it doesn’t get updated very often.
Now with 1000 posts of pure wisdom!
(or something)
You might have to wait a bit for Edgeworks V. I heard that the publishing company is not going to put out anymore because there are going off in a new direction. H.E. will have to find a new publisher, I guess. I have both Glass Teat books, but I wouldn’t mind seeing how he updates them.
Anyone who lives in the L. A. area can see Unca Harlan and others discuss the original version of The Outer Limits. Harlan wrote two episodes, “The Soldier” and “Demon With a Glass Hand.” Actors Robert Culp (“Demon”) and Martin Landau and producers Robert Justman (who was also a Star Trek producer) and Joseph Stefano will also be there.
Where? At the Directors Guild of America Theater at 7920 Sunset Boulevard.
When? March 10 at 7PM.
How much? $15.
More info can be found here: http://mtr.org/exhibit/paley17/paley.htm
It’s all part of the William S. Paley Television Festival. Other shows, past and present covered are MASH, That 70s Show, The Carol Burnett Show, South Park* (Meet Trey Parker and Matt Stone!) Get a Life, Dharma & Greg, Freaks and Geeks and The West Wing.
The Outer Limits was one of the best anthology SF shows on TV, second only to The Twilight Zone, IMHO.
TRIVIA: Harlan Ellison noticed many similarities between The Terminator and his two Outer Limits episodes. (There’s also a similarity between Skynet and Harlan’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.”) He sued James Cameron and Harlan won. Now, every copy of The Terminator on home video must carry an acknowledgment of the works of Harlan Ellison. I think he also got a nice chunk of cash, too! 
Years ago, after I heard about this, I watched Harlan’s two Limits episodes with my brother and, well, we lost count of the number of similarities we spotted.
Harlan deserved to win.
When all else fails, ask Cecil.
By the way, Ellison completists can find his article “Dostoevesky Never Wrote for Tony, Either, So Get on with Your Life” in the SFWA Bulletin. It’s an appreciation of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
You can order it from the Bulletin for $4.99 at 1436 Altamont Ave., PMB 292, Schenectady, NY 12303-0297.
Sorry about the plug, but I need to sell a few more of these to make up for the cancelled subsciptions.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
Actually, Harlan won’t be there after all, and neither will Robert Culp. See http://harlanellison.com/news.html
When all else fails, ask Cecil.
At the risk of starting a flame war I really don’t see much of a similarity between Terminator and Demon with a glass hand. Sure there are time traveling robots in both, but in T1, the robot is trying to destroy humanity and in Demon the glass hand dude is trying to save it. There are aliens in demon, an evil computer in Terminator. However my memory of Demon is kind of shaky. Could someone who has seen it recently point out the similarities that would justify a copyright suit.
BTW, I am a fan of both Ellison and Cameron
Having an open mind means you put out a welcome mat and answer the door politely. It does not mean leaving the door open with a sign saying nobody’s home
Actually, James Cameron and Harlan Ellison settled out of court about the acknowledgement in the credits of The Terminator. It would have been interesting to see it go to court. Part of Cameron’s problem was that he was just stupid about the stuff that he ripped off of Ellison. He was giving interviews in which he was saying that he was influenced by the look of certain episodes of The Outer Limits.
At that point, Ellison threatened to take him to court. Cameron’s lawyers told him to settle, so they gave Ellison $100,000 and told him that all future showings of The Terminator would have the credit “With Acknowledgement to the Works of Harlan Ellison”. Then the film showed on cable, and the credit was missing. Apparently Cameron figured that money was enough to satisfy Ellison and that no one really cared about the credit. (And, besides, the rule in Hollywood is that you never admit to plagiarism in public. Give people all the money they want, but never admit to anything.) So Ellison’s lawyers went back to Cameron’s lawyers, and Ellison got another $100,000 and Cameron agreed to be in the acknowledgement.
Then the videotape version of the film came out, and the acknowledgement was still missing. Apparently Cameron still thought that, given enough money, Ellison would just go away. The lawyers got together again. This time Ellison got another $200,000, and finally the credit appeared in the film.
For what it’s worth though, the case was shakier than it seems. While I see the resemblance of the film to the episodes “Soldier” and “Demon with a Glass Hand”, I see other resemblances too. There’s another episode of The Outer Limits, whose name I don’t know, about a man from some post-World-War-II world who travels back in time to find the mother of the man who caused the war. He takes her away so he can stop her from ever having the child. That episode wasn’t written by Ellison. There are also resemblances to the Philip K. Dick story “Second Variety” (which was eventually made into a movie called Screamers). It has unstoppable post-apocalyptic robots just like in The Terminator. The script made from “Second Variety” circulated in Hollywood for about 15 years before it got produced. There’s apparently good reason to think that Cameron saw that script at one point.
The Terminator is a pastiche of science fiction ideas from all over the place. I think it’s a great film, but it steals from everything. I suspect that Cameron, who’s the same age as I am (born in 1952), like me watched The Outer Limits as a child and absorbed the ideas in it so much that he’s unaware how much any s.f. ideas he has come from all his childhood reading and watching. At least in The Terminator Cameron ripped off some interesting ideas.
You can talk about the vengeance of God all you want, but for REAL retribution, try pissing off Harlan Ellison!
HA! This is a true thing, and I wouldn’t want to send this man hate mail either and not sign it. Talk about an irratated author! I love it! 
I’ve seen him publish the home address and phone number of some harrassers that tried to stay anonymous, he called another lady while on air at a radio station, and flew across the country to show up at the house of one particularly nasty letter writer.
I have to admit it he’s given me some great ideas in the “don’t get mad, get even” department.
Carpe Jugulum
Wendall–the OL’s episode you’re trying to remember was “The Man Who Was Never Born”, written by Anthony Lawrence, starring Martin Landau.
If you think his conflict with Cameron is scary, you should read about what happened with him and the producers of The Starlost.
Unfortunately, I don’t remember which book it’s in.
At the risk of shameless name dropping, my former neighbors in New York (Leo & Diane Dillon) illustrate many of his books.
The story of “The Starlost” is covered in Ellison’s essay “Somehow, I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas, Toto”. It can be found in three places: The introduction to the novelization called Phoenix Without Ashes, Stalking the Nightmare, and The Essential Ellison. As part of Stalking the Nightmare, it is also reprinted in Edgeworks 2.
God is my co-pilot. Blame Him.
It was also fictionalized in a funny novel, The Starcrossed.
Two points:
The last sentence in my previous post should say, “So Ellison’s lawyers went back to Cameron’s lawyers, and Ellison got another $100,000 and Cameron agreed to put in the acknowledgement.”
Take any statement that Ellison makes with a grain of salt. He’s famous for concocting stories to make himself look better. Some of his exploits are true, but others are clearly invented. I can tell you some details if you’d like.