SSW: "The Girl with the Green Skin" by Mickey Spillane (and why it's missing from FANTASTIC, November/December 1952, and replaced by "The Veiled Woman" as ghosted by FANTASTIC editor Howard Browne)

 An entry submitted to the FictionMags Index:

Life [v32 #25, June 23, 1952] ed. Henry R. Luce; managing ed. Edward K. Thompson; associate ed. Sally Kirkland [Sr.; Jr. is her actor daughter]  (Time, Inc., 20¢, 136pp+front/back cover pages, 10½″ x 13″, cover: [photo] by Christa (cover model: Rosemarie Bowe) This issue can be read here (thanks to Ward Saylor for the pointer).

page 79 · "Death's Fair-Haired Boy: Sex and Fury Sell 13 Million Gory Books for Mickey Spillane" · Richard W. Johnson · iv · [Mickey Spillane] illustrated with photos by Peter Stackpole [Spillane summarizes his story "The Girl with the Green Skin", which he had sold to Fantastic for its 3rd (Nov/Dec 1952) issue; Howard Browne notes in several memoirs that he needed a story not previewed/spoiled in one of the US's largest-circulation magazines, so he ghosted "The Veiled Woman" for the magazine, attributed to Spillane, apparently without Spillane's approval. In the later memoirs, Browne notes also he thought Spillane's a terrible story, further incentive.]

Fantastic [v1 #3, Nov./Dec. 1952] (35¢, 164pp, digest, cover by Barye W. Phillips) 
• 4 · The Veiled Woman · Mickey Spillane (ghost written by Howard Browne) · na
• 50 · To Fit the Crime · Richard Matheson · ss
• 56 · Final Exam · Chad Oliver · ss
• 67 · Candlesticks · Dean Evans · ss
• 84 · The Moon of Montezuma · Cornell Woolrich · nv
• 112 · The Missing Symbol · Ivar Jorgensen (by Paul W. Fairman) · ss
• 120 · Rabbit Punch · Ralph Robin · ss
• 131 · The Celestial Omnibus · E. M. Forster · ss Albany Review January 1908
• 148 · The Cask of Amontillado [Fortunato] · Edgar Allan Poe · ss Godey’s Lady’s Book November 1846
• 154 · The Opener of the Crypt [Fortunato] · John Jakes · ss; sequel to “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe

This issue can be read here.

as originally sold:

How Spillane summarizes his story "The Girl with the Green Skin" as quoted in Life:

"A reporter visits an artist, and he's fascinated by this portrait of a woman he sees hanging up in the studio. There's this girl, see--she's beautiful, she's stark naked, only she's all green. Even her hair is a dark bottle green. The reporter can't stand it. He asks the artist to tell him about her. The artist says he brought her into the country. She's so beautiful that men who make love to her are never satisfied with another woman. But women hate her. The artist says he had to send her back where she came from. The reporter leaves. The artist is staring out the window. And then he says, 'All right, dear. You can come out now.' And this green hand comes out and touches him on the shoulder. That's all. Nothing more. Keep it mysterious."

see also: Mickey Spillane Parodies and Pastiches

for more Short Story Wednesday reviews, please see Patti Abbott's blog