Mefisto in Onyx

1993

First published as a longish short story in Omni magazine, Mefisto in Onyx is one of Ellison's most acclaimed stories of recent years. A psychological thriller with several ingeious plot twists, the story involves a psychic who enters the mind of a serial killer through a process called "shriking," only to discover as much about himself as the man on death row.

The central thesis is stunning, but the execution (so to speak) doesn't do it justice -- it feels hurried and superficial, perhaps because this short novella was really intended to be a full-fledged novel. In an interview in the December 1981 issue of "The Twilight Zone Magazine," Ellison said he was at work on "a popular bestseller" for which he was paid $154,000 just on the basis of describing the plot to an editor at Houghton Mifflin. The novel was to have been titled Shrikes.

For some time, a film version of Mefisto starring Samuel L. Jackson was said to be in development. No longer; as Harlan wrote in December 2003:

Go hit all those Samuel L. Jackson sites and tell the yentas that the one and only reliable authority on the material -- me --reports that all rights to the property have reverted to the original author, name of Ellison; that the horse's ass Miramax hired to write my screenplay after I had my quad-bypass took two-three years and turned out first and second drafts so useless and stupid that I shan't even mention his name. He was fired when Sam Jackson said he wouldn't do the film with such a gawdawful screenplay. The studio didn't renew its option in time, and I refused to give them an extension so they could hire ANOTHER inept doofus. That's all several years ago. There is no MEFISTO IN ONYX production in the works now. Not >withwithout< Sam, not nowhichway. Tell 'em I said so, and tell 'em they're couchmonkeys who ought to go out and do some manual labor instead of sitting around at the Gossip-Organ vacuuming up and spewing forth the detritus they mistake for thought.

Got that?

This edition includies striking cover art (as well as an introduction) by Frank Miller. The story appeared again in 1997 in the Slippage collection.

Collector's Notes

Publisher Mark V. Zeising issued two distinct limited edition versions of Mefisto: the first, a signed, slipcased edition of 1,000 copies; the second, a much more elaborate collectable in full-grain leather, laid in a red velvet tray and encased in a metal "death cell," including two keys.

Contents

• Introduction: Frank Miller
• no chapter headings