Shambleu & The Mask of Ctulhu

A Tale of two Covers!

Hey all!

I lucked out online this week and bought some great paperbacks from a small on-line dealer here in Germany. A few of them are great cover-wise, a few are great contents wise and a few are great contents and cover wise.

The two most interesting are/were from a UK paperback house called “Consul Books”. I’m speaking of “Shambleau” by Miss C.L. Moore and “The Mask of Cthulhu” by Mr. August Derleth. Both of which sport wonderful cover Illustrations by a great illustrator who is sadly unnamed

“Shambleau” is a collection of “Northwest Smith” and “Jirel of Joiry” stories which first appeared in “Weird Tales” back in the 1930s. The Jirel stories are “Sword &Sorcery” adventures where the titular heroine is the ruler of a small French kingdom back during the middle ages. These are excellent adventure stories with a strong female lead that was very atypical for the time in which these stories were written. They are action packed with a strong undertone of “regret” and “unrequited love”.  “North West Smith” is the “proto-Hans Solo”. He is a rogue, smuggler and space ship pilot travelling through a future “habitable” solar system. I’m guessing that it’s the female influence, because these stories along with being great pulp fiction also have a very thoughtful and erotic style. These stories also,IMHO, have a good dose "Robert E. Howard"," H.P. Lovecraft" and "Clark Ashton Smith" without appering derivitive in any way what so ever.

“Smith had a strange dream that night. He thought he had awakened to a room full of darkness and moonlight and moving shadows, for the nearer moon of Mars was racing through the sky and everything on the planet below her was endued with a restless life in the dark. And something . . . some nameless, unthinkable thing . . . was coiled about his throat . . . something like a soft snake, wet and warm. It lay loose and light about his neck . . . and it was moving gently, very gently, with a soft, caressive pressure that sent little thrills of delight through every nerve and fiber of him, a perilous delight—beyond physical pleasure, deeper than joy of the mind. That warm softness was caressing the very roots of his soul and with a terrible intimacy. The ecstasy of it left him weak, and yet he knew—in a flash of knowledge born of this impossible dream—that the soul should not be handled . . . And with that knowledge a horror broke upon him, turning the pleasure into a rapture of revulsion, hateful, horrible—but still most foully sweet. He tried to lift his hands and tear the dream-monstrosity from his throat—tired but half-heartedly; for though his soul was revolted to its very deeps, yet the delight of his body was so great that his hands all but refused the attempt. But when at last he tried to lift his arms a cold shock went over him and he found that he could not stir . . . his body lay stony as marble beneath the blankets, a living marble that shuddered with a dreadful delight through every rigid vein.

The revulsion grew strong upon him as he struggled against the paralyzing dream—a struggle of soul against sluggish body—titanically, until the moving dark was streaked with blankness that clouded and closed about him at last and he sank back into the oblivion from which he had awakened.“

Yep! Death by ecstasy/orgasm! And it gets even better! And come to think about it. It’s not the worst way to go.

“She was unbinding her turban...
He watched, not breathing, a presentiment of something horrible stirring in his brain, inexplicably... The red folds loosened and — he knew then that he had not dreamed — again a scarlet lock swung down against her cheek... a hair, was it? A lock of hair?... thick as a thick worm it fell, plumply, against that smooth cheek... more scarlet than blood and thick as a crawling worm... and like a worm it crawled.”

Miss More ended up Marrying “Henry Kuttner”. They, together, wrote some of the best SFthat ever appeared in the magazines. Their stories were always thoughtful and entertaining. That’s not an easy combination!

“PaizoPublishing” reprinted two volumes of C.L. Moore stories!

Northwestof Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith

And

BlackGods Kiss (The complete Jirel stories)

Both collections of part of Paizo’s “Planet Stories Library” series and well worth looking into!

Here is the e-text to “Shambleau” which will prove to you how wonderful a writer C.L. Moore was!

SHAMBLEAU E-Text

 

The 2^nd Consul collection is “The Mask of Cthulhu” by Auguast Derleth. In my eyes Mr. Derleth was a world class writer of small horror stories in the “Weird Tales” vein, a God send of a Publisher and top editor. I just can’t stand his “Cthulhu Mythos” stories. I find them lame, un-inspired and total missing the point. I will never denigrate the man though for this since IMHO he is responsible for giving Lovecraft to the larger world. And I also love his “regular” stories and almost all of the amazing anthologies he edited. So God Bless the man!

You have to admit though, that this collection probably sold very well thanks to the stunning cover!

And now a word from your sponsor……..

 

 

 

  

And here are my Edgar Rice Burroughs "Geek Creds"

I went and watched Disney’s “John Carter” this past Thursday and came out happier than a flea at a Grateful Dead concert! This is a wonderful and amazing film. If I had to sum it up in one word that word would be “JOYOUS”!!! I’ve waited for this film since 1972. The Barsoom book entered my life at just the right time. Not even “The Lord of the Rings”, which I read for the first time in 1976, hit me as hard as “Edgar Rice Burroughs” Barsoom series did. As a hard core Burroughs fan I could very easily nit-pick this film to pieces, but that would be totally pointless. There have been some serious changes made in the story and some of the characters. Covering these changes alone would take another entire blog entry. The film though taken as a whole is a complete joy though. Director Stanton and scripter Chabon have nailed the soul of this series so perfectly that nothing else matters!! Even with the changes, this is 100% ERB, John Carter ,Dejah Thoris and Barsoom. I was actually sad when the film was over. I wanted it to never end. I even ready to go out and my my own pair of “Dejah Thoris” Underoos! They film is truly greater than the sum of its parts. And believe me even with its flaws these are some awesome parts! To me this is the “Anti-1941”. I don’t know how many of you remember this Steven Spielberg comedy from the very early 1980s. In 1941 you have dozens of wonderful little bits that when put together don’t add up to jack-$hit. I can’t get this film out of my head. I pray that it succeeds so we can soon be transported back to Barsoom.

 

Take care everybody and have a good week!

 

Doug