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47-561: " Kelvin Kent " was a pseudonym shared by writers Henry Kuttner and Arthur K. Barnes . The byline appeared on a series of 12 science fiction stories published in Thrilling Wonder Stories from 1939 to 1944, featuring protagonist "Pete Manx". Leigh Brackett noted that the stories were inspired by Edmond Hamilton 's 1938 TWS story "Easy Money". Comics Journal essayist Donald Phelps described Manx as "a lumpen prole Broadwayite . . . A grubby, pragmatic Damon Runyonite [who] (sometimes reluctantly) embarked on time-traveling errands: these, at

94-492: A trade paperback by IDW Publishing . An unrelated film tie-in was released in 2007 as a one-shot I Am Legend: Awakening published in a San Diego Comic-Con special by Vertigo . A nine-part abridged reading of the novel performed by Angus MacInnes was originally broadcast on BBC 7 in January 2006 and repeated in January 2018. I Am Legend has been adapted into a feature-length film three times, as well as into

141-459: A direct-to-video feature film called I Am Omega . Differing from the book, each of them portrays the Neville character as an accomplished scientist. The three adaptations show him finding a remedy and passing it on. Adaptations differ from the novel by setting the events three years after the disaster, instead of happening “in the span of” three years. Also, adaptations are set in the near future,

188-634: A few years after the film's release, while the novel is set 20 years after its publication date. Soy leyenda is a short film by Mario Gómez Martín in 1967 intended as a student film for the Spanish Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía . It has been described as the version most pessimist and faithful to the original novel. In 1964 , Vincent Price starred as Dr. Robert Morgan (rather than "Neville") in The Last Man on Earth (the original title of this Italian production

235-471: A forceful style of storytelling which derives from the best hard-boiled crime novels." Dan Schneider from International Writers Magazine: Book Review wrote: "Despite having vampires in it, [the novel] is not a novel on vampires, nor even a horror nor sci-fi novel at all, in the deepest sense. Instead, it is perhaps the greatest novel written on human loneliness. It far surpasses Daniel Defoe 's Robinson Crusoe in that regard. Its insights into what it

282-595: A neglected master and a "pomegranate writer: popping with seeds—full of ideas". William S. Burroughs 's novel The Ticket That Exploded contains direct quotes from Kuttner regarding the "Happy Cloak" parasitic pleasure monster from the Venusian seas. Mary Elizabeth Counselman believed that Kuttner's habit of writing under widely varied pseudonyms deprived him of the fame that should have been his. "I have often wondered why Kuttner chose to hide his talents behind so many false faces for no editorial reason... Admittedly,

329-439: A note from her confessing that she is indeed a vampire herself. Her note suggests that only the undead vampires are pathologically violent but not those, like her, who were alive at the time of infection and who still survive due to chance mutations. These living-infected have slowly overcome their disease and are gradually developing a new society and new medications. Ruth admits she was sent to spy on him by her comrades and that he

376-557: A panic, Neville opens fire on them but is in turn shot and subdued. Imprisoned and dying, he is visited by Ruth, who informs him that she is a senior member of the new society but, unlike the others who perceive him as a murderer, she does not resent him. She acknowledges the public need for Neville's execution but, out of mercy, gives him a packet of fast-acting suicide pills . Neville accepts his fate and asks Ruth not to let this society become too heartless. Ruth promises to try, kisses him, and leaves. Neville goes to his prison window and sees

423-471: A terrified woman named Ruth in broad daylight. The two cautiously gain each other's trust and even share a romantic embrace. Neville explains some of his findings, including his theory that he developed immunity against the infection after being bitten by an infected vampire bat years ago. He prepares to test Ruth to determine if she is infected or immune, vowing to treat her if she is infected, but she knocks him unconscious. Once Neville comes to, he discovers

470-445: Is a 1954 post-apocalyptic horror novel by American writer Richard Matheson that was influential in the modern development of zombie and vampire literature and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted into the films The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007). It was also an inspiration for George A. Romero's Night of

517-425: Is also a playful take on an old archetype, the vampire (the reader is even treated to Neville’s reading and put-down of Bram Stoker 's Dracula ). Matheson goes to great lengths to rationalize or naturalize the vampire myth, transplanting the monster from the otherworldly realms of folklore and Victorian supernaturalism to the test tube of medical inquiry and rational causation. With I Am Legend , Matheson instituted

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564-431: Is dedicated to him. Roger Zelazny has talked about the influence of The Dark World on his Amber series. Kuttner's friend Richard Matheson dedicated his 1954 novel I Am Legend to Kuttner, with thanks for his help and encouragement. Ray Bradbury has said that Kuttner actually wrote the last 300 words of Bradbury's first horror story, "The Candle" ( Weird Tales , November 1942). Bradbury has referred to Kuttner as

611-405: Is full of good ideas, every other one of which is immediately dropped and kicked out of sight. The characters are child's drawings, as blank-eyed and expressionless as the author himself in his back-cover photograph. The plot limps. All the same, the story could have been an admirable minor work in the tradition of Dracula , if only the author, or somebody, had not insisted on encumbering it with

658-524: Is to be human go far beyond genre, and is all the more surprising because, having read his short stories—which range from competent but simplistic, to having classic Twilight Zone twists (he was a major contributor to the original TV series)—there is nothing within those short stories that suggests the supreme majesty of the existential masterpiece I Am Legend was aborning." In 2012, the Horror Writers Association gave I Am Legend

705-490: The British film 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later both feature a rabies -type plague ravaging Great Britain , analogous to I Am Legend . Tim Cain, the producer , lead programmer and one of the main designers of the 1997 computer game Fallout cited I Am Legend and the movie The Omega Man as influences on the game: "This book was how a[n] individual would handle thinking that he

752-490: The Cthulhu Mythos genre, based on the writing of the former and added to, among other authors, by the latter. Among these were "The Secret of Kralitz" (Weird Tales, October 1936), "The Eater of Souls" ( Weird Tales , January 1937), "The Salem Horror" ( Weird Tales , May 1937), "The Invaders" ( Strange Stories , February 1939) and "The Hunt" ( Strange Stories , June 1939). Kuttner added a few lesser-known deities to

799-489: The gothic fiction tradition. In I Am Legend , the "vampires" share more similarities with zombies , and the novel influenced the zombie fiction genre and popularized the concept of a worldwide zombie apocalypse . Although the idea has now become commonplace, a scientific origin for vampirism or zombies was fairly original when written. According to Clasen: " I Am Legend is the product of an anxious artistic mind working in an anxious cultural climate. However, it

846-515: The Living Dead (1968). Discussing the creation of Night of the Living Dead , Romero remarked: "I had written a short story, which I basically had ripped off from a Richard Matheson novel called I Am Legend ." Moreover, film critics have noted similarities between Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Last Man on Earth (1964). Stephen King said: "Books like I Am Legend were an inspiration to me." Film critics noted that

893-572: The Living Dead (1968). Set on Cimarron Street in 1976 Gardena, California , after an apocalyptic war that ravages the land with weekly dust storms, the novel details the life of Robert Neville in the months and eventually years after the outbreak of a pandemic that has killed the rest of the human population and turned infected survivors into " vampires ". The vampires conform remarkably to their stereotypes in fiction and folklore: they are blood-sucking , pale-skinned, and nocturnal, though otherwise indistinguishable from normal humans. Neville, possibly

940-717: The Moon" stories, which were originally published under Barnes's and/or Kuttner's names. Henry Kuttner Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915. Naphtaly Kuttner (1829–1903) and Amelia Bush (c. 1834–1911), the parents of his father, the bookseller Henry Kuttner (1863–1920), had come from Leszno in Prussia and lived in San Francisco since 1859; the parents of his mother, Annie Levy (1875–1954), were from Great Britain. Henry Kuttner's great-grandfather

987-569: The Mythos is a collection of Kuttner's Cthulhu Mythos stories edited by Robert M. Price (Chaosium, 1995). (It also contains three additional tales concerning 'Iod's dread tome' by Robert Bloch , Lin Carter and Robert M. Price ). The Kuttner stories included are: "The Secret of Kralitz", "The Eater of Souls", "The Salem Horror", "The Jest of Droom-Avesta", "Spawn of Dagon", "The Invaders", "The Frog", "Hydra", "Bells of Horror" and "The Hunt" - thus, all

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1034-399: The Mythos stories which had appeared in the special Kuttner issue of Crypt of Cthulhu , plus "Spawn of Dagon" and "The Invaders". The story "The Black Kiss" (printed here, as often elsewhere, under the joint byline of Kuttner and Robert Bloch), was in fact written entirely by Bloch; Bloch co-credited Kuttner on the tale due to using the character Michael Leigh from "The Salem Horror". "Beneath

1081-641: The Mythos, including Iod ("The Secret of Kralitz"), Vorvadoss ("The Eater of Souls"), the Hydra and Nyogtha ("The Salem Horror"). Critic Shawn Ramsey suggests that Abigail Prinn, the villain of "The Salem Horror", might have been intended by Kuttner to be a descendant of Ludvig Prinn , author of De Vermis Mysteriis —a book that appears in Kuttner's "The Invaders". Etchings and Odysseys No 4 (1984), edited by Eric A. Carlson, John J. Koblas and R. Alain Everts,

1128-595: The Tombstone" by Robert M. Price and "Dead of Night" by Lin Carter round out the volume. Price points out in his introduction to the volume that "Henry Kuttner's own private corner of the Cthulhu Mythos was, then, apparently derived in about equal measure from Lovecraft, Bloch, Zoroastrianism , and Theosophy ." Kuttner spent the mid-1950s getting his master's degree but died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1958. I Am Legend (novel) I Am Legend

1175-407: The bacteria also produce resilient "body glue" that instantaneously seals blunt or narrow wounds, explaining how the vampires are bulletproof. Lastly, he deduces now that there are in fact two differently-reacting types of vampires: conscious ones who are living with a worsening infection and undead ones who have died but been partly reanimated by the bacteria. After three years, Neville suddenly sees

1222-413: The bacteria are deathly sensitive to garlic and sunlight. After he painstakingly attempts to win the trust of a stray sickly dog that dies after only a week, Neville, heartbroken, commits himself even more vigorously to his studies. Soon he experiments directly on incapacitated vampires, which leads to a new theory that vampires are affected by mirrors and crosses because of " hysterical blindness ", in which

1269-636: The behest of his scientist-buddy, inauspiciously named 'Dr. Mayhem'". Six stories in the series are ascribed to Kuttner, four to Barnes, and two are reportedly collaborations. Haffner Press has announced an omnibus edition of the Kutter/Barnes collaborations and shared character stories, set for release in November 2015. Hollywood on the Moon / Man About Time: The Pete Manx Adventures will include all twelve Kelvin Kent stories, as well as six "Hollywood on

1316-622: The cause of humanity's downfall. In 2007, a third adaptation of the novel was produced, this time titled I Am Legend . Directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith as Robert Neville, this film uses both Matheson's novel and the 1971 Omega Man film as its sources. This adaptation also deviates significantly from the novel. In this version, the infection is caused by a vaccine originally intended to cure cancer . Some vampiric elements are retained, such as sensitivity to UV light and attraction to blood. The infected are portrayed as nocturnal, feral creatures of limited intelligence who hunt

1363-574: The fun is in pretending to be someone else. But Kuttner cheated himself of much fame that he richly deserved by hiding his light under a bushel of pen names that many fans did not know were his. Seabury Quinn and I both chided him about this." According to J. Vernon Shea , August Derleth "kept promising to publish Hank's and Catherine's books under the Arkham House imprint, but kept postponing them." A friend of Lovecraft's as well as of Clark Ashton Smith , Kuttner contributed several stories to

1410-628: The germ theory of vampirism, a take on the old archetype which has since been tackled by other writers (notably, Dan Simmons in Children of the Night from 1992)." Although referred to as "the first modern vampire novel", it is as a novel of social theme that I Am Legend made a lasting impression on the cinematic zombie genre, by way of director George A. Romero , who acknowledged its influence and that of its original cinematic adaptation, The Last Man on Earth (1964), upon his seminal film Night of

1457-524: The horrors of how the disease claimed the lives of his wife and daughter. Suffering from extreme isolation , depression , and alcoholism , Neville determines there must be some scientific reasons behind the vampires' origins, behaviors, and oddly specific aversions, so he gradually researches at his local library, discovering that the root of the disease is probably a Bacillus strain of bacteria capable of infecting both living and deceased ("undead") hosts. His experiments with microscopes also reveal that

Kelvin Kent (pen name) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1504-436: The infected now delusionally react as they believe they should when confronted with these items. Neville additionally discovers that exposing vampires to direct sunlight or inflicting wide oxygen-exposing wounds causes the bacteria to switch from being anaerobic symbionts to aerobic parasites , rapidly consuming their hosts when exposed to air and thus giving them the appearance of instantly liquefying. However, he discovers

1551-608: The infected staring back at him with the same hatred and fear that he once felt for them. He realizes that he, a remnant of old humanity, is now a legend to the new race born of the infection. He acknowledges that their desire to kill him, after he has killed so many of their loved ones, is not something he can condemn. As the pills take effect, he is amused by the thought that he will become their new superstition and legend, just as vampires once were to humans. As related in In Search of Wonder (1956), Damon Knight wrote: "The book

1598-559: The latest page of the manuscript still in the typewriter. The other spouse would routinely continue the story where the first had left off. They alternated in this manner as many times as necessary until the story was finished. Among Kuttner's most popular work were the Gallegher stories, published under the Padgett name, about a man who invented high-tech solutions to client problems (assisted by his insufferably egomaniacal robot) when he

1645-426: The novel, with both Oswin and Neville checking defences, boarding up the door/window, listening to classical music, and turning it up to drown out the sound of the enemies outside (Daleks for Oswin, vampires for Neville). The book has also been adapted into a comic book miniseries titled Richard Matheson's I Am Legend by Steve Niles and Elman Brown. It was published in 1991 by Eclipse Comics and collected into

1692-482: The screenplay for this film, and although the premise remains, it deviates from the novel in several ways, removing the infected people's vampiric characteristics, except their sensitivity to light. In this version, the infected are portrayed as nocturnal, black-robed, albino mutants, known as the Family. Though intelligent, they eschew modern technology, believing it (and those who use it, such as Neville) to be evil and

1739-426: The slush pile; it was under his tutelage that she sold her first story (to John W. Campbell at Astounding Stories ). Kuttner was known for his literary prose and worked in close collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore . They met through their association with the " Lovecraft Circle ", a group of writers and fans who corresponded with H. P. Lovecraft . Their work together spanned the 1940s and 1950s and most of

1786-472: The sole survivor of the pandemic, barricades himself indoors nightly as vampires violently swarm his house. He is further protected by the traditional vampire repellents of garlic , mirrors, and crucifixes . During the day, the vampires are inactive, allowing Neville to drive around stabbing them with wooden stakes (since they seem impervious to his gun’s bullets), which causes them to instantly liquefy, and scavenging for supplies. Occasional flashbacks reveal

1833-651: The special Vampire Novel of the Century Award. One major influence upon Matheson and others of the genre is the Mary Shelley novel, The Last Man , about an immune person surviving in a plague infested world. Although Matheson calls the assailants in his novel "vampires" and their condition is transmitted through bacteria in the blood and garlic is a repellant to this strain of bacteria, they have little similarity to vampires as developed by John William Polidori and his successors, which came straight out of

1880-437: The work was credited to pseudonyms, mainly Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell. L. Sprague de Camp , who knew Kuttner and Moore well, has stated that their collaboration was so seamless that, after a story was completed, it was often impossible for either Kuttner or Moore to recall who had written what. According to de Camp, it was typical for either partner to break off from a story in mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence, with

1927-464: The year's most childish set of 'scientific' rationalizations." Galaxy reviewer Groff Conklin described Legend as: "...a weird [and] rather slow-moving first novel... a horrid, violent, sometimes exciting but too often overdone tour de force." Anthony Boucher praised the novel: "Matheson has added a new variant on the Last Man theme... and has given striking vigor to his invention by

Kelvin Kent (pen name) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1974-415: Was L'ultimo uomo della Terra ). Matheson wrote the original screenplay for this adaptation, but due to later rewrites did not wish his name to appear in the credits; as a result, Matheson is credited under the pseudonym "Logan Swanson". In 1971 , a far different version was produced, titled The Omega Man . It starred Charlton Heston (as Robert Neville) and Anthony Zerbe . Matheson had no influence on

2021-507: Was a special Kuttner tribute issue featuring three reprinted tales by Kuttner - "It Walks By Night", "The Frog" and "The Invaders," together with various essays on Kuttner, and an interview with his wife and fellow writer C.L. Moore . Crypt of Cthulhu 5, No 7 (whole number 41) (Lammas 1986), edited by Robert M. Price , was a special Henry Kuttner issue collecting eight Cthulhu Mythos stories by Kuttner. (It did not include "Spawn of Dagon" or "The Invaders"). The Book of Iod : Ten Tales of

2068-473: Was drunk, only to be completely unable to remember exactly what he had built or why after sobering up. These stories were later collected in Robots Have No Tails . In her introduction to the 1973 Lancer Books edition, Moore stated that Kuttner wrote all the Gallegher stories himself. Marion Zimmer Bradley is among many authors who have cited Kuttner as an influence. Her novel The Bloody Sun

2115-464: Was responsible for the deaths of many of her fellow vampires, including her husband. Still, Ruth reiterates her romantic feelings for Neville and urges him to flee the city to avoid capture. Neville ignores Ruth's warning, assuming he will be treated fairly by the new society of living-infected. However, his mind is changed when he watches a group of them annihilate the undead vampires outside his home with fiendish glee, then break down his front door. In

2162-697: Was the last survivor on Earth. This is why in Fallout 1 when you're voted to leave the Vault, we really wanted that sense of isolationism; that sense of: You are the only person out here on the Wasteland who is, quote, 'a normal person', and we wanted you to feel, like, special in that way." The Doctor Who episode " Asylum of the Daleks " sees Oswin Oswald introduced in a similar fashion to Neville as an homage to

2209-462: Was the scholar Josua Heschel Kuttner . Kuttner grew up in relative poverty following the death of his father. As a young man he worked in his spare time for the literary agency of his uncle, Laurence D'Orsay (in fact his first cousin by marriage), in Los Angeles before selling his first story, " The Graveyard Rats ", to Weird Tales in early 1936. It was while working for the d'Orsay agency that Kuttner picked Leigh Brackett 's early manuscripts off

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