Get Out of Our Skies!

Many younger SF readers may not recognize Henry Slesar's name -- he was everywhere as an SF writer in the first decade of his career, but by 1980 or so he was better know as a mystery writer. And, well -- a TV writer. More specifically, his work was a part of everyday American life for decades: he was the head writer of the TV soap opera "The Edge of Night" from 1956 until 1984. Henry Slesar published this tale in the December, 1957, issue of "Amazing Stories" using the "nom de plume" E.K. Jarvis. (He also wrote a good deal under the pseudonyms O.H. Leslie and Jay Street.) Lord knows why he used the pennames: this story -- a tale of advertising madness that begins with turning the afternoon sky into an enormous billboard -- is Slesar's, quite distinctly.