Uncle Doug's Bunker of Vintage Horror Paperbacks

The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson. A neglected proto-Lovecraftian classic.

2013-05-12T15:54:00.002+02:00

The Boats of the Glen Carrig
By William Hope Hodgson

A neglected proto-Lovecraftian classic.

Ballantine Book. Adult Fantasy Series.
February 1971. $0.95
Cover art by Robert LoGrippo

My 1971 copy.

Vacations over and I loaded my parents on the plane this morning for their flight back to Ohio. So that means it’s time to get back to the blog. Oh yeah!

Since I’ve had so much "William Hope Hodgson" on the brain lately I figured that I'd do another one of his books. This time, though, it’s a novel and not a collection of short stories.

I’ll be honest and say that my re-read of “The Boats of the Glen Carrig" was a little over two years ago. So I won’t be going into a highly detailed plot synopsis. I first read it back in the very early 1970s. As a 10 year old I had no idea who “Hieronymus Bosch” was, but the Bosch inspired cover art by “Robert LoGrippo” drove me on the spot into begging my parents to buy me the book. It didn’t hurt that I recognized Mr. Hodgson as being the author of, my favourite horror story at the time, “The Voice in the Night”. I knew that story from the copy of “More Tales to Tremble By” owned by the "Johnny Clem Elementary School" Library. I had borrowed it so many times that I considered it my own personal property. It’s a wonder that I never stole it.

Before I get I get into the story, I want to first talk about Mr. Hodgson’s writing style in general. I like it! I have read several reviews lately where people have complained that his language is archaic, that Mr. Hodgson sacrificed description in favour of mood and atmosphere and lastly that he loved run on sentences. Now I’ll agree that his “The Night Land” is an unreadable mess, but I knocked off “Boats” in one afternoon two years ago and had no trouble with it as a ten year old either. I don’t know if this means that your average modern/young reader will enjoy it today or not. As a child my only talent (and to be fair, my only talent in my entire life.) was that I learned to read at an early age and learned too read well. 40+ years ago the great majority of the genre writing that was considered appropriate for young readers was mostly stuff written between the 1890s and pre-WWII. There was no YA horror market/Industry ala R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” series and the like. This means that back then we were cutting out reading teeth on the likes of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, Howard Philips Lovecraft and of course William Hope Hodgson.
That’s not a bad reading list for ten year olds! So I’m completely at home with Mr. Hodgson’s writing style. Come to think about it I’ve also seen such complaints being raised against “Abraham Merritt" lately. I think that this is a terrible shame that many people shy away from “old” novels and stories fearing that they will have trouble with the writing "style". These are all wonderful fantasists who aside from a few writers such as “Darrell Schweitzer” have no peers in the modern world are far as pure imaginative genius is concerned.

June 1945 Famous Fantastic Mysteries

Let’s move on to the novel since I guess that that’s more than enough autobiographical BS and “opinionation” than any one is interested in hearing.

“Boats” was written back in 1907 and wasn’t reprinted until 1971 when the late great Mr. Lin Carter published it as the 25th volume in his legendary “Adult Fantasy Series” from “Ballantine Books”. It was also published in magazine form back in 1945 in the June issue of “Famous Fantastic Mysteries”. There were only 6 editions between 1907 and 1971, with the sixth edition being the Ballantine paperback edition. This Ballantine edition was the first true paperback edition which finally reached a mass audience who appreciated the book. I’m of the opinion that thanks to the efforts of Lin Carter “Boats” is still in print to this day.

I hadn’t read any “H. P. Lovecraft” yet when I first read “The Boats of the Glen Carrig”, but looking back one sees just how much of an influence Mr. Hodgson’s stories had on HPL. If you like your horrors to be nameless, oozing, tentacled and slimy then you just love this novel! Trust me; I wouldn’t lie to you about this!

The 1982 Orbit UK editon the a "Les Edwards" cover.

The novel jumps write into the middle of the action. We find the characters already manning the two remaining life “boats” from the abandoned “Glen Carrig”. There is absolutely no exposition explaining why they abandoned ship or even what has happened to the Captain and the rest of the crew. The narrator is a young English nobleman who had booked passage on the ship. After spending some time at sea the come upon a fairly large forested island that is extensively criss-crossed by streams and small rivers. The row up on of these streams and end up discovering an abandoned ship. The derilict ship seems, upon investigation, to have been abandoned in great haste. They find personal belongings, equipment and supplies that have been left lying by the original crew. They even find a very disturbing journal left by a female passenger. They decide to spend the night on the derelict and wisely barricade themselves in one cabin after becoming frightened by what they read in the journal and by the oppressive and frightening atmosphere hanging over the island it self. I said that this is a wise decision to barricade them selves in a cabin since the end up spending the entire night being besieged by some large, shapeless and tentacled horror that seems to be intent on making away with as many of the crewmen as possible. After spending an exhausting and nightmarish night fighting off the monster they go in search for a spring of fresh water that was mentioned in the journal they found. This doesn’t go as well as they had hoped. They do discover the spring from which they can replenish their supply of fresh water. Unfortunately they also come across some trees into which to have humans fused into them. These fused entities also emit horrible screams that have a paralyzing affect on the seamen and narrator. They decide that removing themselves from the island and taking their chances on the open sea would be the best course of action.

They end up being set upon by a Typhoon once both boats are back at sea. I find this to be a fascinating section since Mr. Hodgson himself spent many years at sea when he was a very young man. So when he describes how they skilfully ride out the storm for days at end is an education in itself. He speaks with knowledge and experience as he describes the technologies and skill that is needed to do this.

Once the storm subsides our narrator discovers that the 2nd boat has gone missing during the storm. Don’t let this worry you though, we discover in the afterward that they safely made their way back to England.

Our dauntless crew final come across another island which upon first view seems to be a much more promising safe haven than the previous island. But being a good horror novel we soon learn that they’ve gone from the frying pan into the fire.

This new island turns out to be even more dangerous and nightmarish than the first island. Even though there is plenty of food, water and even wood with which they can repair the boat so they can continue their homeward journey, it is also occupied by beings of the best Lovecraftian tradition even though “Boats” predates HPL by 20 years.

It’s the occupants of this island that cause the crew the greatest trouble. So instead of “man vs. nature” we get “man vs. the unnatural”. Mr. Hodgson really earns our money in the, the second half of the book. We have the following problems.

A life boat the need extensive repairs to be sea worthy again.

Some of the crewmen are either ill, injured or both.

Giant crabs! (YIKES!)

Mobile Giant Mushrooms! (YIKES²!)

Another vessel that has been trapped in seaweed off the island for several YEARS ALL THE WHILE BEING BESEIGED BY A GIANT KRAKEN!! (YIKES³!)

AND trouble with carnivorous slimy flippered and tentacled amphibious LEECHMMEN!! (2x YIKES³!!)

Seriously, this novel is firing on all cylinders during this last half. It’s a race against time, technological limitations and monsters. Lots and lots of monsters!
Trust me; this section has to be read to be believed! I don’t want to spoil your fun, so go out and find it! It’s available on-line since its public domain. You can also order it new from Amazon or used from Abebooks and Ebay.

The 1991 UK editon with a "Luis Rey" cover.

This book is a must read if you love the fantastic, horror and adventure. It also give us quite a bit of insight into how HPL developed his “vision”

Mainly though, this is a wonderfully fun and entertaining novel that will reward your efforts in obtaining a copy. To put it simply, I love this book!!

If you want to know a little bit more about William Hope Hodgson and his stories then please follow this link to my earlier post on his “Best of” collection. HERE!

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Doug

A Cavalcade of Robert Bloch Anthologies!

2013-04-21T19:14:00.000+02:00

A Cavalcade of Robert Bloch Anthologies!

The man himself!

I’m going to do this a bit differently this time around. I’ve been so busy in the garden this week now that winter is finally over and my parents are arriving on Friday for a three week visit. Sadly, neither has left me any time to actually read an anthology this week and then prepare and article about it.

So what I’m doing for this weeks posting is presenting scans of all the Robert Bloch anthologies that I own and haven’t had a chance so far to cover in-depth. So you be seeing some nice quality scans of both front and back covers with a listing of the contents.

I’m sorry, but this is the best I can offer this week. I figured that a quickie would be better than going another 3 weeks with posting anything.

Robert Bloch, for those of you who might not know, was one of the horror genre’s most prolific, popular and successful writers from the 1930s up until Mr. Bloch’s death in 1994. He wrote over 34 novels, and over 40 collections of his short stories have been published. He wrote numerous scripts for radio, television and film during his career. Many of these scripts were based upon his short stories. He is of course most famous to the general reading public as the “AUTHOR of PSYCHO! As the blurb on every single Bloch novel or collection will let you know. He was also one of the original members of the “Lovecraft Circle”. He even once received written permission to kill of HPL in a story from Mr. Lovecraft himself. HPL then reciprocated by killing of Mr. Bloch in another story.

I’ve been a fan of Mr. Bloch about as long as I’ve been reading. Some of the films he scripted, such as “The House that Dripped Blood” and “Asylum” are also among my favourites since my early teens. He also wrote to wonderful horror themed scripts for the original “Star Trek” series.

Now let’s take a look at those collections.

Nightmares: Ten Weird Tales.

Belmont Books. 1961. $0.35

Contents:

vii • An Introduction to Nightmares • essay by Robert Bloch
9 • The Sorcerer's Apprentice • (1949) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
20 • I Kiss Your Shadow— • (1956) • shortstory by Robert Bloch (variant of I Kiss Your Shadow)
37 • Mr. Steinway • (1954) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
50 • The Proper Spirit • (1957) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
57 • Catnip • (1948) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
70 • Hungarian Rhapsody • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
79 • The Light-House • (1953) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Bloch (variant of The Lighthouse)
93 • The Hungry House • (1951) • novelette by Robert Bloch
111 • Sleeping Beauty • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
123 • Sweet Sixteen • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

More Nightmares: Weird Tales by Robert Bloch

Belmont Books. February 1962. $0.50

Contents:

7 • That Hell-Bound Train • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
24 • The Feast in the Abbey • (1935) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
32 • Slave of the Flames • (1938) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
54 • One Way to Mars • (1945) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
66 • The Cheaters • (1947) • novelette by Robert Bloch
88 • The Fiddler's Fee • (1940) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
111 • Mother of Serpents • (1936) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
121 • Waxworks • (1939) • novelette by Robert Bloch
146 • The Seal of the Satyr • (1939) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
162 • The Dark Demon • (1936) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

Horror-7: Tales of Shock and Terror

Belmont Books. February 1963. $0.40

Contents:

Enoch • (1946) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton • (1939) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
The Shambler from the Stars • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1935) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
The Secret of Sebek • (1937) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
The Opener of the Way • (1936) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
The Mandarin's Canaries • (1938) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
Return to the Sabbath • (1938) • shortstory by Robert Bloch [as by Tarleton Fiske ]

Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper: Tales of Horror

Belmont Books. January 1962. $0.50

Contents:

vii • Introduction (Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper) • (1962) • essay by Robert Bloch
9 • Sweets to the Sweet • (1947) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
19 • The Dream Makers • (1953) • novelette by Robert Bloch
54 • Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper • (1943) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
77 • The Eyes of the Mummy • (1938) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
94 • The Mannikin • (1937) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
114 • The House of the Hatchet • (1941) • shortstory by Robert Bloch (variant of House of the Hatchet)
134 • The Cloak • (1939) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
153 • Beetles • (1938) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
167 • The Faceless God • (1936) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

Atoms and Evil

Fawcett Gold Medal Books. August 1962. 0.35

Contents:

7 • Try This for Psis • (1956) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
26 • Comfort Me, My Robot • (1955) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
39 • Talent • (1960) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
52 • The Professor Plays It Square • (1957) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
60 • Block That Metaphor • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
69 • Wheel and Deal • (1962) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
76 • You Got to Have Brains • (1956) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
87 • You Could Be Wrong • (1955) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
101 • Egghead • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
115 • Dead-End Doctor • (1956) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
129 • Change of Heart • (1948) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
135 • Edifice Complex • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
146 • Constant Reader • (1953) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

Bogey Men

Pyramid Books. March 1963. $0.40

Contents:

9 • A Matter of Life • (1960) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
16 • The Model Wife • (1961) • shortfiction by Robert Bloch
18 • Broomstick Ride • (1957) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
28 • The Skull of the Marquis de Sade • (1945) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
50 • Memo to a Movie-Maker • (1961) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
56 • The Thinking Cap • (1953) • novelette by Robert Bloch
88 • The Shoes • (1942) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
100 • The Man Who Collected Poe • (1951) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
117 • The Ghost-Writer • (1940) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
136 • The Man Who Murdered Tomorrow • (1960) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
146 • "Psycho"-logical Bloch • [SF Profile] • (1962) • essay by Sam Moskowitz

Tales in a Jugualr Vein

Pyramid books. February 1965. $0.50

Cover by Jack Gaughan

Contents:

· 7 • Sabbatical • (1959) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

· 17 • Double-Cross • (1959) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

· 36 • The Past Master • (1955) • novelette by Robert Bloch

· 60 • Terror Over Hollywood • (1957) • novelette by Robert Bloch

· 83 • A Home Away from Home • (1961) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

· 91 • Rhyme Never Pays • (1957) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

· 101 • Night School • (1959) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

· 112 • Pin-Up Girl • (1960) • shortstory by Robert Bloch [as by Will Folke ]

· 120 • Founding Fathers • (1956) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

· 139 • The Deadliest Art • (1959) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

The Skull of the Marquis De Sade

Pyramid Books. January 1966. $0.50

(And yes, That'S Peter Cushing.)

Contents:

9 • The Skull of the Marquis de Sade • (1945) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
35 • A Quiet Funeral • (1965) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
43 • The Weird Tailor • (1950) • novelette by Robert Bloch
71 • The Man Who Knew Women • (1959) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
105 • Lizzie Borden Took an Axe... • (1946) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
123 • The Devil's Ticket • (1944) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
143 • The Bogey Man Will Get You • (1946) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

Chambers of Horrors:

Twelve spine-chilling trips into the mind of the author of PSYCHO

Award Books. 1966. $0.60

Contents:

9 • The Living End • (1963) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
14 • The Head Hunter • (1950) • shortstory by Robert Bloch (variant of Head Man)
31 • Impractical Joker • (1965) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
48 • Pride Goes - • shortstory by Robert Bloch
52 • The Screaming People • (1959) • novelette by Robert Bloch
87 • Fat Chance • (1960) • novelette by Robert Bloch
98 • The Unpardonable Crime • (1961) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
103 • Method for Murder • (1962) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
110 • Two of a Kind • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
117 • Untouchable • (1962) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
123 • Beelzebub • (1963) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
131 • "Frozen Fear" • (1946) • shortstory by Robert Bloch

The Living Demons:

Swarm Beyond the boundaries of their Nightmare World

Belmont Books. September 1967. No cover price.

Contents:

7 • Introduction (The Living Demons) • (1967) • essay by Robert Bloch
9 • Life in Our Time • (1966) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
18 • The Indian Spirit Guide • (1948) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
34 • "Lucy Comes To Stay" • (1952) • shortstory by Robert Bloch (variant of Lucy Comes to Stay)
40 • The Plot is the Thing • (1966) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
47 • Underground • (1967) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
53 • The Beasts of Barsac • (1944) • novelette by Robert Bloch
72 • Philtre Tip • (1961) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
77 • The Unspeakable Betrothal • (1949) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
91 • Black Bargain • (1942) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
107 • The Girl from Mars • (1950) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
114 • Beauty's Beast • (1941) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
131 • Tell Your Fortune • (1950) • novelette by Robert Bloch

Dragons and Nightmares

Belmont Books. 1969. $0.75

Contents:

11 • A Good Knight's Work • (1941) • novelette by Robert Bloch
42 • The Eager Dragon • (1943) • novelette by Robert Bloch
74 • Nursemaid to Nightmares • (1942) • novella by Robert Bloch
172 • Back Word • (1969) • essay by Robert Bloch

Dragons and Nightmares

Belmont Tower Books. 1972. $0.75

Contents:

11 • A Good Knight's Work • (1941) • novelette by Robert Bloch
42 • The Eager Dragon • (1943) • novelette by Robert Bloch
74 • Nursemaid to Nightmares • (1942) • novella by Robert Bloch
172 • Back Word • (1969) • essay by Robert Bloch

The Best of Robert Bloch

Ballantine Books. November 1977. $1.95

Contents:

xi • Robert Bloch: The Man Who Wrote Psycho • (1977) • essay by Lester del Rey
1 • Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper • (1943) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
21 • Enoch • (1946) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
39 • Catnip • (1948) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
55 • The Hungry House • (1951) • novelette by Robert Bloch
79 • The Man Who Collected Poe • (1951) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
97 • Mr. Steinway • (1954) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
113 • The Past Master • (1955) • novelette by Robert Bloch
141 • I Like Blondes • (1956) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
153 • All on a Golden Afternoon • (1956) • novelette by Robert Bloch
185 • Broomstick Ride • (1957) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
197 • Daybroke • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
209 • Sleeping Beauty • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
225 • Word of Honor • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
237 • The World-Timer • (1960) • novelette by Robert Bloch
271 • That Hell-Bound Train • (1958) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
289 • The Funnel of God • (1960) • novelette by Robert Bloch
319 • Beelzebub • (1963) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
329 • The Plot is the Thing • (1966) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
337 • How Like a God • (1969) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
355 • The Movie People • (1969) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
369 • The Oracle • (1971) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
377 • The Learning Maze • (1974) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
393 • Author's Afterword: "Will the Real Robert Bloch Please Stand Up?" • (1977) • essay by Robert Bloch

Mysteries of the Worm: All the Cthulhu Mythos Stories of Robert Bloch

Zebra Books. 1981. $2.95

Edited by Lin Carter.

Contents:

7 • Demon-Dreaded Lore • (1981) • essay by Lin Carter
17 • The Secret in the Tomb • (1935) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
27 • The Suicide in the Study • (1935) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
35 • The Shambler from the Stars • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1935) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
50 • The Faceless God • (1936) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
75 • The Grinning Ghoul • (1936) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
92 • The Dark Demon • (1936) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
108 • The Mannikin • (1937) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
132 • The Secret of Sebek • (1937) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
158 • Fane of the Black Pharaoh • (1937) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
185 • The Unspeakable Betrothal • (1949) • shortstory by Robert Bloch
206 • The Shadow from the Steeple • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1950) • novelette by Robert Bloch
239 • Notebook Found in a Deserted House • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1951) • novelette by Robert Bloch
270 • Terror in Cut-Throat Cove • (1958) • novelette by Robert Bloch
329 • Afterword (Mysteries of the Worm) • (1981) • essay by Robert Bloch

Sorry that I didn’t have time to comment on any of the stories. I’ll be covering these collections with postings that’ll be much more in-depth sometime in the future.

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Doug

RIP Basil Copper. Another Master has crossed over

2013-04-08T11:50:00.003+02:00

I just found out that „Basil Copper“ passed away 4 days ago. He was 89 years old. Mr. Copper is most well-known for his horror stories and 52 “Mike Faraday” detective mystery novels.

What many fans don’t realize is that he was also a journalist and newspaper editor for a large part of his professional life. Sadly, Mr. Copper isn’t as well-known as he deserves in the United States. Most of his novels and collections have been printed in America were released by the specialty publishers “Arkham house” and “Fedogan &Bremer”. To my knowledge, “The Great White Space” was his only mass market horror paperback released in America. Pinnacle did publish some of his pastiches of August Derleth’s Sherlock Holmes pastiche, Solar Pons.

I first discovered Mr. Copper at the end of the 1970s when I came across a copy of his "Arkham House" collection "From Evil's Pillow" at the public library in Newark Ohio.. I endned up reading it in one sitting. That's how deeply it drew me in. These is simple, old fashioned horror stories that get under your skin before you even know what is happening. Stateside, Mr. Copper’s greatest success was having his famous short story “Camera Obscura” be filmed as a segment of Rod Serling’s old television show “Night Gallery”.

I always enjoyed Mr. Copper’s short stories even when I wasn’t the biggest fan of his novels. I own both of the Arkham House collections ,“From Evil’s Pillow” and “And Afterward, the Dark”. These are two top notch collections which contain two of my all-time favorite stories, “The Grey House” and “The Gossips”.

Mr. Copper told his tales in a very straightforward and non-decorative style. The same could also be said of his stories. He seemed to concentrate his talents on telling good stories without any pretentious “Hey! Look at me! I’m writing!” trappings. And even though he wrote in an unadorned style, he could evoke an enormously powerful sense of place and atmosphere. I have honestly no idea how correct his description of Sicily is in his novelette “The Gossips” is. I just know that one of my dreams is to go there one day simply based of how he has brought the island to life for me.

I honestly don’t know why he didn’t obtain greater success in the states, which is a terrible shame, considering the rare combination of quality and quantity he produced in his lifetime.

So here’s a toast to your Shade Mr. Copper!

Thank you for enriching my life with your stories!

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Doug

I am Legend by Richard Matheson. The birth of a genre

2013-04-07T12:46:00.003+02:00

I Am Legend

By Richard Matheson

Corgi Books 1971

(Originally published in 1954.)

My 1971 copy.

I’ve had Richard Matheson on the brain lately since writing a post several weeks ago celebrating his 87 birthday. Now because of this bout of “Matheson-Fever” I’ve re-read quite a bit of his work these past 5 weeks. I don’t know whether it was a good idea or not, but I ended up choosing his 1954 Vampire apocalypse novel “I am Legend” for my bedtime reading. As it turned, I spent more time reflecting on the book than I did reading it.

My first exposure to this story must have been around 1971 or so. I do know that 71 was when my parents first allowed me to stay up on Friday nights to watch “Chiller Theater” on channel 10 out of Columbus. Chiller Theater on WBNS specialized in lots of old Black and White horror films at that time. One of the first films I remember getting to stay up and watch was the 1964 film “The Last Man onEarth” starring Vincent Price. Even though I later learned that Mr. Matheson was unhappy with the production and ended up having his name removed from the script credits, this is the most faithful film adaptation so far and is also one of the most frightening films that I’ve ever seen. I know that it upset the hell out of my back then and this of course meant that I was in a ten year olds horror heaven! I didn’t get a hold of the novel until a few years later when I found a used copy of the film tie-in paperback to its second Hollywood incarnation under the title “The Omega Man” starring Charleston Heston. I was thrilled to discover that the novel outdid the film.

“I am Legend” is one of those stories that just won’t let me go. It is so full of ideas and concepts that force me to play it over and over in my mind, all the while asking myself “what would I do in this situation?”

The premise of the novel is a fairly simple one. A plague has decimated the entire planet and it appears as though only one man has survived it. And this isn’t just your normal pandemic where everyone starts coughing and sneezing before eventual falling down dead. Ok, they do all fall down dead. There’s only one catch. They don’t stay dead. The infected return from the dead as vampires or so it seems.

The novel picks ups in January 1976 (it was published in 1954) and is told in first person style through the journal of Robert Neville, who seems to be the only one who has survived the plague. Robert has literally boarded himself up in his suburban home converting it into a fortress so that he can fend off the nightly onslaught of his undead neighbours. He is a man living out his life under siege and it has taken its toll on his mental health.

Robert Neville isn’t your typical heroic figure who has purpose and answers. He is a normal man being overwhelmed by his existence. While reading the novel you catch on quite quickly that the vampires are not the real threat in Robert’s existence. What are destroying him is pure and simply loneliness and despair. The man isn’t living; he simply exists on a day to day basis with no real goals or any kind of future perspective. Because of his loneliness, Robert is trapped in a downward spiral of madness and alcoholism. It sounds clichéd, but robber Neville is his own greatest enemy in the novel. The story oozes an atmosphere of despair and hopelessness that makes it hard going at times. This is in no way a rousing adventure story of a man battling for humanity. There isn’t any humanity left in Matheson’s over run world of vampires.

What immediately sets the novel apart from most vampire novels is Mr. Matheson’s scientific rational for the vampirism. These aren’t gothic supernatural entities. They are victims of a plague which has reanimated them and left them thirsting for blood. We discover that Neville spends his days fortifying his home defences and tracking the vampires to their lairs so he can exterminate them. He spends his night inside his barricaded suburban home drinking himself blind while playing records so loudly that he can’t hear the vampires taunts for him to come out.

Many of these vampires are old friends, neighbours and colleagues from his prior existence. The female vampires will even perform lewd dances before his front door in an effort to lure him out. We find out the Robert is a man who truly wished to die, but can’t bring himself to take that last deciding step.

The second third of the novel shows Neville coming to the realization that if he can’t bring himself to take his own life he must find a reason to live and not just to exist on a day to day basis He decides to discover the cause of the plagues and to maybe find a cure. Neville is not the scientist he is portrayed as in the three film adaptations of this novel. He has to teach himself microbiology. He goes about this by raiding the shelves for textbooks at the local library and scrounging up what medical equipment he can find. As he learn more and more about biology and pathogens he also begins to study and cold heartedly experiment on the vampires.

These experiments he conducts on (non)living subjects show a total lack of empathy that is quite horrify. He takes no pleasure in his experimentations, but neither does it disturb. He has simply quit perceiving his test subjects as anything related to humanity. He discovers that the plague has been caused by an air borne bacteria that first kills and then reanimates its victims. He also learns that behaviour of the vampires is both physiological and psychological. The reanimation, resistance to bullets, growth of fangs, thirst for blood, disintegration after staking and allergy to sunlight are genuine physical processes. The fear of mirrors, garlic and religious symbols are nothing more than self fulfilling prophecies. The victims realize that they are vampires. So it is only logical to them that they can’t stand their own reflections, the smell of garlic or symbols of the religions that they themselves practiced in their former lives since everyone “knows” that this is how vampires behave. Neville also discovers that all of the vampires are not dead. In some cases the victims have become “converted” without having been killed by the plague. This last point is something that will play a major role in the novels third and final act.

The novel’s final act has Neville discovering a woman, Ruth, wandering around in broad daylight. As he attempts to approach her she seems terrified of him and tries to flee. In a very unsettling scene he literally has to chase her down, restrain her and forcibly take her back to his home. Ruth tells him the story of how she has survived the last three years and how during that time her husband and child were killed. Now even though Neville is overjoyed at finding another survivor, the past three years of surviving in a world populated with vampires has made him a cold hearted and suspicious man. Don’t forget the man is still half insane. It’s just now that he’s a sober and lucid mad-man. Robert immediately perceives that Ruth’s “story” is full of discrepancies so large that even John Holmes could drive through them without brushing against the sides. We finally discover that Ruth isn’t the only survivor. There are many more. Unfortunately they are all infected but haven’t totally succumbed to vampirism. They have even developed a serum that halts most of the symptoms and the thirst for blood. And in comparison to the “genuine” vampires, they haven’t suffered any brain damage. These “survivors” are in full control of their faculties, one hundred percent aware of their situation and in the process of building a new society. Ruth is one of the leaders of this new order and has been sent to spy on Neville. Neville is at first overjoyed to hear of this. Ruth dampens his spirits though by informing him that the “new society” is out to get him. It seems that many of the vampires he disposed of during his daytime hunts were actually “survivors” who also have to sleep during the day. Thinking that the survivors will understand, he refuses to flee even though Ruth begs him to do so.

The novel ends with Roberts capture and subsequent imprisonment while he awaits his execution for the “atrocities” he has committed. As an act of mercy, Ruth gives him two tablets to take so he won’t suffer so badly during his execution. The novel ends with Neville looking out the window of his cell at the crowd that has gathered for his impending execution. As he see the fear and horror in their faces when the notice him watching them from his cell he realizes that he himself has become a monster and that he is

“A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever.

I am legend."

This is one damn good novel that will bounce around in your head for weeks afterward. It’s a fast read, but also a disturbing one.

Even though the story will be 60 years old next year it has held up amazingly well. Matheson’s undecorated and straight forward prose is the main reason for this.

The only problem, and it by no means Mr. Matheson’s fault, is that this will probably come of as quite a familiar story to most younger readers. For “I am Legend” is the progenitor of the “Zombie Apocalypse” genre. If you get a chance to see the 1964 film adaptation you immediately realize that this is George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”. It’s just starring Vincent Price and made 4 years before Romero’s film was made. Almost every single Zombie film mad after 1968 owes a huge debt to “Night of the Living Dead”. And NotLD owes an enormous debt to “I am Legend”. Unfortunately, because of this, many younger readers will have a strong sense of déjà vu when they read the novel. Which is an honest shame, since this is the story started it all.

The novel is a genuine masterpiece of not only genre literature, but also powerful study on loneliness and the toll it takes.

It’s still in print, so if you have never read it you should definitely seek it out and read it!

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Doug

Doc Savage: Madness from the Sea

2013-04-01T14:53:00.000+02:00

Doc Savage: Madness from the Sea

By Kenneth Robinson (Lester Dent)

Bantam Books. 1974. $1.75

Originally published in Doc Savage Magazine April 1936

I’ve always had a weakness for the “Doc Savage” adventures. My love for which almost rivals my love of H.P. Lovecraft tales. So when I first bought this back 1974 I was almost beside myself with joy. After reading the back cover and paying for the book I rode home on my bike so quickly that I almost got myself killed!

Here’s the back cover blurb……

“William Harper “Johnny” Little John, famed archaeologist and member of Doc Savage’s iron crew, is missing. The fractured remains of a grotesque figurine and a glowing message hastily scrawled on a broken mirror are the only clues to Johnny’s abductors. The words revealed on the shattered glass by Doc’s blacklight lantern would change the Man of Bronze forever: “In his house at R’Lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming”

Now you can see why I almost got myself killed by being in such a hurry to get home and start reading!

Before we discuss the story, let me fill you in on how this most unusual of “Doc Savage” adventures came into existence.

As most of you know, H. P. Lovecraft corresponded at a level than can only be described as prodigious and that the writers he exchanged the most letters with went on to be know as the “Lovecraft Circle”. The most frequently mentioned members of this group were Frank Belknap Long, Robert E. Howard, E. Hoffman Price, Robert Bloch and of course August Derleth. The great Fritz Leiber was also a later member of this goup. What most causal fans don’t know is that “Lester Dent” was also a member of the group. Now these days Lester Dent is remembered by his Pen name of “Kenneth Robinson”. This is the house name put on every single Doc Savage adventure. Robinson created the character and went on to pen more than 80 of the Doc Savage novels under the name of “Kenneth “Robinson”.

Anyone interested in reading the scores of letters the two men exchanged need to either get their hands of a copy of “The Selected Letters of H.P.Lovecraft Volume V” published by “Arkham House” in 1976 or to buy a copy of “S.T. Joshi’s” “Converstions between a dreamer from Providence and a Schlock Meister from Manhatten”, published by “Hypothalamus Press” in 1998. The Joshi book is still in print and available from Amazon.

The letters exchanged between these two masters of their prospective fields shows us a great deal of insight between their conflicting world views. HPL believed that a true “gentleman” never wrote purely for financial gain where as Dent believed that a “true” writer could produce such high levels of quantity and quality that great financial success was to be taken for granted and his natural due. Another topic of their correspondence was to whether or not Mr. Lovecraft’s mythology could be effectively transplanted into the action adventure genre. Dent stated in several letters that he would love to try his hand at placing Lovecraft’s theology” into the world of Doc Savage. Lovecraft gave his implicit permission by cryptically stating..

“My Lord Yog-Sothoth’s House has many rooms”

What is also so interesting about this quote is that “Brian Lumley” has repeatedly pointed out this converstion between HPL and Dent as justification and or defense of his own (accused) divergence from “Lovecraftian ideological purity/dogma”. So as we see here, Mr. Lumley was not the first to place HPL’s “Yog-Sothothery” in an action and adventure setting.

Mr. Dent, after interpreting HPL’s statement as implicit allowance to use the “Mythos” set about writing one of the most wonderfully over the top and insane Doc Savage adventures that ever saw print. It didn’t end with this single Doc Savage adventure though. Lent went and dedicated the adventure to “My Providence Grandfather”. Mr. Lovecraft, who always appreciated a good inside joke, went and instigated the story that the narrator of his 1931 serialized novel “At the Mountains of Madness” was none other than Doc Savage’s aid “William Harper “Johnny” Little John”! Now, it becomes even weirder. Both Doc Savage Magazine and Astounding Science Fiction, were ATMoM originally appeared, were published by “Street and Smith”. “John W. Campbell” the editor of “Astounding” and famous SF author decided to get into the act by writing Doc Savage into his famous short novel “Who goes There” the following year. “Who goes there?” is the basis for the two famous films “The Thing from Another world” and “The Thing”. Here is Campbell’s description of “MacReady” who is actually an incognito Doc Savage investigating the strange goings-on in Antarctica!

“MacReady was a bronze giant of a man with strange gold flecked eyes”

If that isn’t a perfect description of Doc, then I don’t know what is!

Now let’s discuss the story since I think that I’ve bored you with enough background.

“Madness from the Sea” is more or less a direct sequel to HPL’s “Weird Shadows over Innsmouth”. “Madness” covers the events after WSoI’s narrator escapes Innsmouth and ends with the raid conducted on the town by Federal Agents and the Military.

The adventure starts after HPL’s nameless narrator escapes from Innsmouth and vainly attempts to warn the government of the threat posed to humanity by the hybrid inhabitants of Innsmouth, the “Deep ones” and the ancient gods that they serve. In a last ditch effort, because no one will listen to him, the young man tries to contact Doc Savage. He finally receives an appointment from Johhny Little John, who is the world’s greatest living archaeologist, and tells him his story. As proof, the young man show’s Johnny a few gold coins of ancient and unknown origin. Johnny recognizes the coins from previous expeditions he conducted in the South Pacific under the auspices of “Miskatonic University” during the 1920s before he became one of Doc’s trusted assistants. Since Doc and the other 4 assistants are off on another adventure Johnny decides to set off for Innsmouth with just Doc’s cousin “Patrica Savage” as company. In typical Doc Savage fashion the pair fails to return from their excursion. Doc and the remaining four aides infiltrate Innsmouth under various disguises to get to the bottom of the mystery. Doc and his crew are convinced that a smuggling ring is behind the entire situation and the Hybrids, Deep Ones and Elder Gods are just a cover story used to scare off outsiders. This is the single DS adventure that I’ve ever read that had a threat that wasn’t of mundane origin. After a series of chases, fights and escapes Doc, his five aids, Habeas Corpus the ape, Chemistry the hog and Pat Savage find themselves on the roof of the old “Marshe Gold Refinery” battling for their very lives against a small army of Deep Ones and hybrid humans. Another first for this series is that this is the only Doc Savage adventure where our heroes are forced to kill and do not even try to take prisoners or spare lives. It’s literally a free for all slaughter with dead fish men piling up hundreds more arriving to fill the gaps of the fallen, the refinery on fire and our heroes at bay running low on ammunition for their “super firers”. The situation looks hopeless when suddenly; Doc’s private airship appears out of the night sky raining death and destruction down upon the army of batrachian horrors.

(I first read this when I was 13 and I thought that my head was going to explode from all of the excitement!)

Its turns out that Doc had sent out an emergency SOS shortly before his equipment was destroyed. This tells you how dire the straits are when Doc Savage has to call for assistance. What happens next in the story is another stroke of cross-over genius. It seems that Doc’s call for help was picked up by playboy millionaire “Richard Wentworth” who is secretly the vigilante crime fighter “The Spider”. After receiving Doc’s distress call, Wentworth, with the help of Ram Singh, his Sikh man servant and fiancé, Nita Van Sloan, breaks into Doc’s secret hangar on the Hudson river and hot wires Doc’s private airship,. Wentworth then stops on the way to Innsmouth to pick up his own private arsenal and then continues on his way to assist Doc and his crew. After having gleefully slaughtered half the population of Innsmouth with military grade weapons, Wentworth lands and picks up our battered and bloody heroes. It’s strange to see some one in a Doc Savage adventure take life and not be chastised over it by Doc.

Now that he realizes the threat imposed to humanity by the events playing out in Innsmouth, Doc immediately begins to organize a counter attack against Innsmouth the moment they safely return to New York.

For you see, Doc has learned that “the stars are right” and they only have a few days before the inhabitants of Innsmouth and their Deep One allies release Cthulhu from his grave!

After informing the government about the situation in Innsmouth, Doc tells his aids to meet him at the secret hanger in 18 hours. Upon arriving at the hangar the next morning they find doc waiting for them. It seems that he had flown his proto-type jet to his secret “Fortress of Solitude” that is located above the Artic circle. This is where Doc stores his inventions that he feels could pose a threat to the world if they fell into the wrong hands. They then transfer supplies, weapons and a mysterious crate that Doc brought back from the “FoS” into Doc’s private submarine, the Hell Diver. They then sail north for Innsmouth.

It turns out that Doc has learned of the existence of “Y'ha-nthlei”, the city of the Deep Ones lying in an oceanic trench off the coast before Innsmouth. Doc has decided that this city must be destroyed at any cost if humanity is to be saved. To make a long story short, after fighting off an undersea army of Deeps Ones and other horror they launch a nuclear tipped torpedo down into the deep sea trench that hides Y'ha-nthlei at its bottom. The tale ends with Y'ha-nthlei being destroyed in an atomic blast, Innsmouth raided by the feds and humanity being, for the time being, saved.

The adventure ends with Doc making an all bands radio broadcast, from the Hell Diver, to the world…..

"Watch the depths everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the depths!“

This has to be the best Doc Savage adventure that I’ve never read. It’s hard as hell to find, so good luck looking for it,

You can find the online text here though!

And HERE!!!

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Doug

Beware the Beasts

2013-03-24T13:19:00.000+01:00

“Beware the Beasts”

(A collection of stories as good as the cover is bad)

Edited by Vic Ghidalia and Roger Elwood

MacFadden-Bartell Books. 1970. $0.75

Cover art by Cover by “Jack Faragasso”

Cover Blurb:

“They dared invade the beast’s realm and saw things no human should ever see. Some of them even came back-seemingly alive…”

Contents:

11 • In the Avu Observatory • (1894) • shortstory by H. G. Wells
19 • The Cats of Ulthar • (1920) • shortstory by H. P. Lovecraft
23 • Here, Daemos! • (1942) • shortstory by August Derleth
33 • The Hound • (1942) • shortstory by Fritz Leiber
49 • The House of the Nightmare • (1906) • shortstory by Edward Lucas White
59 • The Mark of the Beast • (1890) • shortstory by Rudyard Kipling
73 • The Squaw • (1893) • shortstory by Bram Stoker
86 • Metzengerstein • (1832) • shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe
96 • The Tortoise-Shell Cat • (1924) • shortstory by Greye La Spina
111 • The Wendigo • (1910) • novella by Algernon Blackwood

My copy.

“Beware the Beasts” has the dubious honour of being the best collection of stories with the most inappropriate cover art and blurb. Look at the cover by “Jack Faragasso” you get the impression that this is a science fiction novel and not a collection of classic horror/monster stories. I have strong memories of buying “MB” and “Belmont2 books from the bargain bin at “Woolworths” back during the early 1970s. I even went and looked this up just to make sure that my memory wasn’t playing tricks. I mean, this was over 40 years ago. It turns out that even though my memory is in good working order, I still wasn’t 100% correct. It seems that during the early 70s and publisher named “Unibooks” sold reprints of “MB” and “Belmont” titles under their own imprint and sold them as instant remainders at such stores “Woolworths”, “Woolco” and “Grants”. I used to love digging through the bargain bin at Woolworths and finding such good stuff as H.G. Wells titles and Ron Goulart’s “Space for Hire”.

As I said in my insert beneath the title, “Beware the Beasts” is an outstanding collection of stories selected by Messrs. Ghidalia and Elwood with some of the worst packaging that I ever seen. At first glance and even at the 2^nd, you get the strong impression that this is a SF novel. Only after opening it up and taking a look at the table of contents do you realize that this is actually collection of horror stories. And as an added bonus, almost half of the stories are reprinted from “Weird Tales” original incarnation! So let’s take a look at them there stories!

· In the Avu Observatory by H. G. Wells

This is a nice little monster story by Mr. “War of the Worlds” Wells. An Astronomer working in an isolated Observatory on a mountain top above the jungles of Borneo receives an unexpected visitor one night in the form of a man sized bat “thing”. The story is fairly mundane and incredibly straight forward in its telling. What makes it such an entertaining story though, is Well’s description of the Astronomer’s “cat and mouse” struggles with the monster bat in the total darkness of the observatory’s dome after his lamp gets knocked over. Just the very idea of being trapped in the darkness with something that’s out to kill me gives me the willies. I want to bring to your attention that this is, in my opinion, is the weakest story in the book. Which you should realize is not at all a bad thing, considering how enjoyable of a story this is! This puts the collection off to a good start which just keeps improving as you read along.

· The Cats of Ulthar by H. P. Lovecraft

I love “The Cat’s of Ulthar” even though it’s been re-printed to death. This is one of HPL’s stories that was written during his “Lord Dunsany” phase and is one of his most popular. “Cats” is in Mr. Lovecraft’s “Dream Lands” and is one of my favourite “revenge” tales. An old couple hates all things feline and are responsible for all the cat disappearances in the village of “Ulthar”. Unfortunately for them though, they make their worst and last mistake when they “disappear” the kitten belonging to an orphaned “gypsy” child. This story manages to be simultaneously creepy, poetic and humorous. You can also see here in the story that HPL genuinely loved cats.

So never ever forget that……

“It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroë and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle’s lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten.”

The online text is HERE

· Here, Daemos! by August Derleth

“Here, Daemos” is one of Mr. Derleth’s more effective stories. I’m almost willing to bet that this is a small homage to “M.R. James”. A small village in England receives a new Vicar. It’s seems that even though the village’s former minister was well loved, he wasn’t exactly a financial genius and the parish is all but broke. Mr. Webly, the new Vicar, being a very ambitious man and meant for better things, decides to remedy the situation with a wee bit of self righteous grave robbing. This of course would be for a good cause, or so he tells himself and his superiors. The grave in question belongs to a long dead Knight who was rumoured to be a black magician. Local legend says that he had been entombed with his entire treasure and a companion who was to act as guardian of the treasure. Some of the villagers believe that the Knight was buried with his faithful hound “Daemos” The legend also tells that the Knight’s hound was in reality his “familiar” who he always summoned to his side by calling “Here, Daemos!” so to make a long story short, the new vicar open the tomb to plunder it’s contents and afterwards “hilarity ensues”. I have the impression that Mr. Derleth took a little bit more time to write this one.

· The Hound by Fritz Leiber

During his career, the late Fritz Leiber wrote some of the most original horror stories ever published. I think his greatest concept was that modern metropolises and their collective psychic energies would create their own horrors and demons to replace those of the middle ages. “Smoke Ghost” “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes”and “Our Lady of Darkness” are probably his most famous examples using this theme. Leiber’s Chicago in this story is a dark, dreary, lonely and filthy place filled with annoymity and despair. A young man in a dead end job at a department store becomes haunted and pursued by the titular “Hound” and slowly starts to lose his mind. At first you suspect that the events are playing out entirely in his imagination. We slowly learn though that others around him are starting to notice the hound or at least traces of its existence. And being a “Fritz Leiber” story, these folks, sensing that something is terribly wrong, they begin to distance themselves from him instead of offering him emotional support. The ending is pretty unusual in that the young man eventual learns that flight and resistance are futile, that there is no escape! He does though gain an allie/witness to his suffering and horror which even though he might be doomed does lessen his burden in that he isn’t alone with the horror anymore. Fritz Leiber was one of America’s greatest writers of weird tales even though he is mostly famous for his Science Fiction and Fantasy stories/novels. I have to say though that the combined atmosphere of doom, insanity, isolation and depression is so strong that I can’t honestly call the story enjoyable. It is definitely not an easy read. What I can say though, is that it is brilliantly written and disturbing as all hell.

· The House of the Nightmare by Edward Lucas White

Mr. White’s “House of Nightmare” is one of my all time favourite horror/ghost stories. It’s so good that is was included in “The Century’s Best Horror Stories” published by “Cemetery Dance Press” and edited/selected by “John Pelan”. “The House of nightmare” was chosen as the entry for 1906. You didn’t misread that, “Nineteen-Oh-Six”! You can’t imagine when reading this story that it was actually published 107 years ago. This is one of those stories that shows that atmosphere can be everything. A motorist has an accident while coming down from some mountains. They aren’t named but something makes me think that they must be the Ozarks. He goes looking for help and ends up spending the night in what seems to be a dilapidated farm house on the very edge of the woods. His host is a strange young boy with a hair lip who seems to be living all alone. During the night the narrator is visited in a vivid nightmare by what appears to be a monstrous hog which attempts to crush and devour him. Upon waking up he finds that the young boy is no where to be found. Giving up his search he walks to the next town to find a garage that can repair his auto. He tells of his stay at the abandoned farm where he learns of the house’s terribly past. This is a fantastic story. Even though you figure out pretty quickly what is going on, the atmosphere and descriptions are so incredibly that it’ll be a very long time before you forget the story! I dearly love this one.

· The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling

A British officer desecrates a shrine in India and gets a curse put on him by a beggar/holy man. The guy has it coming since he broke a golden rule which is as valid today as it was in past centuries. This rule was even pounded into our heads during my time in the Army. And it’s simply five little words.

“Don’t F##K with the Locals”!

This is a fun little tale that lets off some of the tension built up by the previous two stories.

· The Squaw • (1893) by Bram Stoker

Stoker’s „The Squaw“, even with its completely non-PC title, holds a special place in my heart. I first came across it in an adaptation that appeared in an old issue of “Creepy” when I was a kid. The “Reed Crandall” art was deliciously appealing in it’s goriness. The other reason that it’s so special to me is that it takes place in Nuremberg and I’ve live here in Nuremberg as a civilian for the past 22 years and I was stationed here for 4 years during the 1980s with the “2nd ACR”.

A Brtish tourist accidentally kills a kitten while visiting the “Kaiserburg” in Nuremberg with friends. Later they are visiting the town’s famous medieval dungeon with its preserved torture chamber. Our tourist, having not learned his lesson, goofs around by posing inside of Nuremberg’s infamous “IronMaiden”. This is then the moment where momma cat makes her move. Being a British story I guess that you could simply say that this is all “bloody good fun”.

· Metzengerstein • (1832) by Edgar Allan Poe

„Metzengerstein“is a Poe story that I never read before. I’m always surprised to rediscover how many of his stories hold up so well when compared to modern writing styles. A young spoiled count whose family has been feuding for centuries with their neighbours enjoys a great moment of “schadenfreude” when said neighbours stables burn down and the families head dies in the fire. A short time later the young count’s grooms find a stray horse carrying the markings of the neighbouring family. The neighbours deny all knowledge of this steed and the young man decides to keep it. He does notice that the horse bears a striking resemblance to one that is portrayed being ridden by an ancestor of the neighbour’s in a tapestry celebrating a military victory of his ancestors over the ancestors of his neighbours. It also happens that during this battle the ancestor was killed while riding the horse. Now here’s where the story falls apart for me. On the very same day that the live horse is found, the other horse vanishes from the tapestry. The young counts only response to this mystery is to have the chamber contain the tapestry walled off. Of course the young man becomes obsessed with his new steed even though it never ceases trying to throw him. His obsession becomes so great that he gives up all contact with the outside world to spend all his time riding about his estate on this horse. Of course it all ends tragically. Except for the odd logic, this is a very good story that holds up after all these years. Good for you Mr. Poe!

· The Tortoise-Shell Cat by Greye La Spina

Miss La Spina’s “Tortoise-Shell Cat” is an extremely entertaining tale of theft, love, loyalty, voodoo and a Were-Cat taking place as a preparatory school for wealthy young women down in Louisiana during the 1920s. This could have made a great supernatural “Nancy Drew” mystery if it wasn’t for the covert and casual racism that plays a major role in the attitudes of the characters good and bad in the story. It’s sadly that kind of racism that’s completely taken for granted and seems to be assumed that it’s the natural state of things. It’s not easy, but if you can accept it as a period piece and read it with a huge grain of salt, you will find it to be an interesting and suspenseful story. The racism isn’t mean spirited, it’s just some outmoded assumptions on relationships between the races that by today’s standards verge on pure idiocy. So don’t say I didn’t warn you.

· The Wendigo • (1910) by Algernon Blackwood

“The Wendigo”, by Algernon Blackwood, ends this anthology on such a high note that if it had been placed first in the contents every story that came afterwards would have paled greatly in comparison regardless of how truly good they were.

Mr. Blackwood lived a very active and interesting life. He spent much time in the wilds of Canada and it shows here. His experience in the Canadian wilderness adds a depth of atmosphere and authenticity that is rarely seen in horror stories. This story had such a huge influence on H. P. Lovecraft that that it has been more or less officaly added to the “Cthulhu Mthos”. The “Wendigo” is a Native American demon/spirit/demon/elemental that is said to posses it’s victims and turn them into berserker cannibals. Blackwood’s “Wendigo” is not quite as gory as this, but it still makes for one hell o a frightening tales. A group of hunters and their guide are lured by their greed for a “big kill” ever deeper into the Canadian wilderness where they fall prey to the never shown, but ever present “Wendigo”. This is truly one of the finest horror stories ever written. This is another fine example of showing that what is not shown can be more terrifying that what is shown. Even though we never see the “Wendigo” it is still one of the greatest monsters ever portrayed on the printed page. It’s available to read on line. So if you consider yourself a genuine horror/weird tales fan and have never read this story then do it now or shame on you!

"The Wendigo" at Project Gutenberg

“Beware the Bests” is one of the better anthologies that I’ve read lately. It has a strongly focused theme and consists of very strong stories where even the weakest ones exceptional stories. It’s well worth getting if you can find an affordable cop some where.

That’s it for this time.

Thanks for stopping by.

Doug

Masters of Terror Vol.I: William Hope Hodgson

2013-03-12T17:57:00.001+01:00

Masters of Terror Volume 1

William Hope Hodgson

Corgi Books 1977

My copy.

Contents:

7 • Introduction: William Hope Hodgson: His Life and Work (Masters of Terror 1) • (1977) • essay by Peter Tremayne
15 • The Voice in the Night • (1907) • shortstory by William Hope Hodgson
30 • A Tropical Horror • (1905) • shortstory by William Hope Hodgson
41 • The Mystery of the Derelict • [Sargasso Sea] • (1907) • shortstory by William Hope Hodgson
55 • The Terror of the Water-Tank • (1907) • shortstory by William Hope Hodgson
72 • The Finding of the Graiken • [Sargasso Sea] • (1913) • novelette by William Hope Hodgson
96 • The Stone Ship • (1914) • novelette by William Hope Hodgson
128 • The Derelict • (1912) • novelette by William Hope Hodgson

William Hope Hodgsonhas, from the very beginning, been one of my favourite writers of the weird. When you read through this slim, quasi “best of” collection you’ll see how much influence he had on H. P. Lovecraft. It’s not fair to Mr. Hodgson, but many of his short stories could easily be described as “proto-Lovecraftian”.

Mr. Hodgson was not only an excellent writer of short horror stories; he was also a very successful novelist. His most famous novels of horror and the fantastic were “The House on the Borderland”, “TheBoats of the “Glen Carrig”” and “The Night Land”. He also penned a series of stories about the supernatural investigator “Carnacki the Ghost Finder”. All of these stories and novels are in the public domain and are available on-line to read. They are also all still in print and available at Amazon! So do yourself a huge favour and look up some of these stories and novels. They are fun, readable and have held up amazingly well when you realize that this was all written before 1914!

Mr. Hodgson sadly died at a fairly young age when he found himself at the receiving end of a German Artillery shell in France during WWI. So we will never know how many more novels and stories he had in him still.

Mr. Hodgson didn’t bother with mundane or traditional horrors such as Ghosts, Demons or other such supernatural horrors that are so common in Edwardian horror stories. Nope, Mr. Hodgson’s horrors are tentacled, slimy and squamous. Just the way Mr. Lovecraft liked ’em! The horrors in these stories may be unnatural, but never supernatural. They are all physical, if not terrifying and disgusting, tenants in our world. If Mr. Hodgson is famous for anything it would be more or less single handedly inventing the popular concept of the “Sargasso Sea”. That huge continent sized mass of sea weed floating out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A huge seething mass that has trapped sailing ships through out all of history. That it also happens to be the home of numberless shapeless and slimy horrors that defy description just makes it that much more enjoyable.

Every story, except one, in this collection deals with these maritime horrors. If you find a copy heed my advice and space them out. They are all wonderful tales, but the plotting and setting lend them a sameness that blends them all together if you attempt to read them all, like I did, in one sitting.

Mr. Hodgson spent many years at sea when he was very young. And it’s this maritime experience that lends a strong sense of authenticity to his stories set at sea. I think he did take a few liberties though when describing the ship’s crewmen. In these stories they all come across as good, decent and brave men. From what I’ve read of his own life , it seems that this is not actually the case as far as Mr. Hodgson’s experiences went.

I’m not going to go into to describing these stories this time. They have to be read to be believed. And lucky for you, they are all available online!

The collection opens up with Mr. Hodgson’s most famous story, “A Voice in the Night”. This is one of the first horror stories I ever read. I can vividly remember taking home a copy of “More Tales to Tremble By” from the library at “Johnny Clem Elementary School” back around 1970. The story, although bloodless, scared me out of a year’s growth and managed to give me a lif long fear/hatred of moldy things. I reread it last week and even though I’m 51 years old now, it still managed to be deliciously creepy! You’ll have to trust me on this. The story is so good that it was even filmed in Japan as “Matango, Fungus of Terror” aka “Attack of the Mushroom People”. You can find a few clips of this film on “Youtube”.

Here’s a typical passage describing one of Hodgson’s horrors….

"But he never finished, for a tremendous hoarse scream cut off his words. They hove themselves round and looked. I could see without turning. The man who had run from us was standing in the waist of the ship, about a fathom from the starboard bulwarks. He was swaying from side to side, and screaming, in a dreadful fashion. He appeared to be trying to lift his feet, and the light from his swaying lantern showed an almost incredible sight. All about him the mould was in active movement. His feet had sunk out of sight. The stuff appeared to be lappingat his legs and abruptly his bare flesh showed. The hideous stuff had rent his trouser-leg away as if it were paper. He gave out a simply sickening scream, and, with a vast effort, wrenched one leg free. It was partly destroyed. The next instant he pitched face downward, and the stuff heaped itself upon him, as if it were actually alive, with a dreadful, severe life. It was simply infernal. The man had gone from sight. Where he had fallen was now a writhing, elongated mound, in constant and horrible increase, as the mould appeared to move towards it in strange ripples from all sides.“

Now, did that wet your appetitie? If it did, then search out these stories online or at your bookstore or library. I can honestly say that these are some of the finest stories of this sort that the genre has ever seen. And they are of course, of special interest to any serious fan of H.P. Lovecraft.

Well that it for this week.

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Doug

A Converstion with Murray Tinkelman

2013-03-05T16:22:00.001+01:00

A conversation with the great Murray Tinkelman

Mr. Tinkelman and his favorite cover!

Two weeks ago I had the great pleasure of speaking with Mr. Murray Tinkelman, the famous and award winning illustrator. This came about by my wanting to do something different for once in the blog. Mr. Tinkelman has been one of my favourite cover artists since the middle 1970s when he illustrated the front and inside covers for the Lovecraft and Lovecraft related titles for Ballantine books under the editorship of Judy Lynn del Rey. Anyone who is familiar with these editions will immediately recognize and appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of these editions. Mr. Tinkelman went on to do many more wonderful covers for such authors as Kurt Vonnegut, John Brunner, Richard Matheson, Zane Grey, Joe Haldeman and E. R. Eddison.

Mr. Tinkelman grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Upon graduating from High School of Industrial Artshe started working for the famous Iger Studios doing “touch up work” for other artists along with his best friend “Dick Giordano2. Mr. Tinkelman didn’t get along very well with Mr. Iger and moved on to greener pastures. His first professional sale was to “Seventeen Magazine”. This shows that even great artists like Mr. Tinkelman have to start somewhere. Since these humble beginnings Mr. Tinkelman has gone on to become one of the nations greatest Illustrators and respected artists. Here is a direct quote from his Studio’s home page…

“Murray Tinkelman is an award-winning artist who has won gold medals from the Society of Illustrators, The New York Art Directors Club and the Society of Publications Designers. His illustrations have appeared in a variety of publications such as Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Tinkelman has been commissioned by The National Park Service to do drawings and paintings of National Parks and Monuments and by The U.S. Air Force to be an artist-reporter on specific missions. He has had a one-man exhibit of his baseball art at The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York in 1994 and The United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Alabama in 1995. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Delaware Art Museum, the International Photography Hall of Fame & Museum, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.
Tinkelman has been a guest curator for The Discovery Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and the Society of Illustrators, Museum of American Illustration in New York City.
Tinkelman has been named the recipient of the 1999 Distinguished Educator in the Arts award from the Society of Illustrators in New York. He has received the 1995 Sports Artist of the Year from The United States Sports Academy, the 1970 Artist of the Year award from The Graphic Arts Guild in New York City, and the 2001 Syracuse University Faculty Service Citation.
He is Professor Emeritus from Syracuse University where he taught in the undergraduate program and was the senior advisor in the Independent Study MA Program in Illustration for over 25 years from 1979 - 2006.

I have to make a confession now, up until two weeks ago I only knew Mr. Tinkelman as one of my favourite cover artists and nothing more! I actually had the Chutzpah to write to the man and ask him if he’d answer a few questions form the blog. I sent him a link to a previous post of mine covering his cover work for the HPL titles. He quickly responded to my email. He said that he didn’t like to type and he wouldn’t burden his wife with his correspondence. But I was free to call him at home. He then added his telephone number. I thought ok, this’ll be an interesting, since I had only originally planned on sending him a few simple questions. I then realized that I had better learn a little bit about the man if I was actually going to be audacious enough to actually impose on his time, kindness and generosity.

After reading up on Mr. Tinkelman’s (real) career, I was terrified to think that I had the nerve to impose upon such an important artist. At first I thought of begging off. But then after chewing over it, I then thought that I’d just express my admiration, ask a few simple questions and leave the man alone. So two weeks ago today I pulled my nerve together and called at the agreed upon time.

What I at first feared to be a humiliating experience turned into one of the most joyful, informative and entertaining 54 minutes of my life. I quickly discovered that Mr. Tinkelman, to my great relief and pleasure, is an extremely warm, friendly, unpretentious and charming man!

Mr. Tinkelman asked me about myself and why I was interested in his work, which I explained. He told me that he never considered himself a “Cover Artist”. He explained that cover art allowed him the freedom to move onto to his actual artistic interests. He said that when he makes public appearances that he gets recognized by three groups of fans/admirers. Those who are interested in his art and illustration career, those who know him as a SF/Horror/Fantasy cover artist and those who admire his cover work on westerns.

Mr. Tinkelman loves 1950s autos, Baseball, the rodeo as inspiration for his western art and Gene Autry. He explained to me that there are two kinds of people in this world. They are “Gene Autry” people and “Roy Rogers” people. Because of my father, I’m a Roy Rogers person myself. Mr. Tinkelman was kind enough not to hold that against me though!

Mr. Steve "Doc Savage" Holland

I asked him about the HPL covers he did and he told me that he knew Lovecraft from his youth by reading his father’s copies of “Weird Tales Magazine”. He went on to tell me that he had been offered by “Ballantine Books” to illustrate the covers to Ballantine’s reissue of the Tarzan novels. Mr. Tinkelman didn’t feel that his style would be appropriate for the Tarzan novels and declined. This was a huge break for the famous comic’s artist “Neal Adams” since he ended up getting the assignment. I have to say, that even though I agree with Mr. Tinkelman, that his style might not fit the Tarzan novels, I would still have loved to have seen what he would have done. He then went on to tell me that just a day or so later he was approached by re-approached by Ian Summers to do the Lovecraft illustrations for Ballantine.

Mr. Tinkelman also told me of his time stationed in Germany with the army where he worked in Wurzburg as an illustrator painting welcome signs for officer’s wives and hand drawing cigar bands when officer’s children were born. I asked him how this was (this was during the Korean War) and he said that it was better than getting shot at. I can agree with 100%!

We then went on to discuss illustration in general and the decline of “Book Design”.

Mr. Tinkelman believes that the decline in the quality of book design can be mostly blamed on inexperienced art directors at the publishing houses. He told me that these days the position of “Art Director” is often considered to be an unimportant opening position that is filled by young inexperienced people and that it isn’t taken nearly as seriously as before. He also thinks that even though “narrative illustration” is much less in demand there is still plenty of wonderful work being done in “decorative illustration”. Mr. Tinkelman stated that, his good friend, the late Maurice Sendak also shared the opinion that quality book design had suffered greatly these last few decades.

Mr. Tinkelman's Original Cover The "Red sells" cover

Mr. Tinkelman told me two interesting stories regarding how Art Editors will meddle with and destroy fine book art. Mr. Tinkelman did the famous cover for Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle”. This is lovely piece of art that draws your eye to the book that is done predominantly in shades of yellow. When “Dell Books” decided to reissue the novel, the art director decided that “red sells” and heavily cropped the art and placed a heavy red border around it. The second story involves Mr. Tinkelman’s continuing interest in book design and art. He told me that he still browses the SF section and the books stores. He came across a new edition of “John Brunner’s “Stand on Zanzibar”. “Random House” still owned the reprint rights to his cover art which allowed them to continue using it over the years. It seems that some “genius” in their art department decided to “improve” upon Mr. Tinkelman’s original art and completely butchered it into a horrible collage. Mr. Tinkelman was understandably angry enough that he wrote a letter to the art department at Random House asking them what they thought they were doing. And as a perfect example of how things are run these days, instead of explaining their decision, they just sent him a form letter referring any future inquiries to their legal department. I can’t decide for myself what is worse in this situation, the ignorance, the hubris or the arrogance.

The Original cover The Butchered late 80s cover

As I was doing my research/home work on Mr. Tinkelman’s art and career I came across his series of covers he did for some of the “Zane Grey” westerns. These were new to me and I was overjoyed to see that he was using “Steve Holland” as his model. Even if the name “Steve Holland” doesn’t mean anything to most people, millions of readers still know the man’s face, physique and torn shirt. Steve Holland is the man who was immortalized as the personification of “Doc Savage” on the famous “James Bama” paperback covers from the 1960s!!! It turns out the Mr. Tinkelman and Mr. Bama are good friends and that Mr. Tinkelman got to “borrow” Steve for the Zane Grey covers. Mr. Bama went on to become an admired and respected western and landscape painter. One funny note to this interesting piece of information is that when I informed Mr. Tinkelman that the original “torn shirt” worn by Mr. Holland had been auctioned off for a very high price, Mr. Tinkelman told me that he still owned the denim jacket worn by Mr. Holland in all those Zane Grey covers.

At one point during our conversation I told Mr. Tinkelman that the “Tinkelman Lovecrafts” bring much higher prices with collectors than the ”Michael Whelan Lovecrafts”. He just laughed and said “don’t let Michael know that!”

I’m going to wrap this up. I was so nervous and the beginning of our conversation and then so over joyed and enthralled that I forgot to take any notes while we were talking. As soon as we hung up I started jotting down notes like a mad man. So I’m sure I’ve left a few things out. Regardless, it was a wonderful hour spent with one of my idols who turned out to be so much more kind, generous and charming as I could ever have hoped for.

I am very much in Mr. Tinkelman’s debt and extremely thankful that he shared his precious time with me.

Thank you Murray from the bottom of my heart!

Postscript….

I’m going to add something here that I recently realized and I’m kicking myself for not bringing it up with Mr. Tinkelman.

Lastly, take a look at the books that Mr. Tinkelman worked on. Every single one of these books is still in print and considered classics in their fields. Mr. Tinkelman was chosen to represent the finest that these genres had to offer. This shows me how highly Mr.Tinkelman was held in the esteem of the publishing houses. They wanted the very best to represent the very best.

Mr. Tinkelman told me that he was once approached by Joe Haldeman, who told him that Mr. Tinkelman’s cover for “The Forever War” was his favourite cover from all the ones that ever appeared on his books.

Looking at the body of his work, and even though Mr. Tinkelman stated he didn’t consider himself a cover artist. I myself consider him a Grand Master of the field and the faces which he placed on these books greatly increased the reading experience of each one.

On a last note, I’ve just learned that Murray has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Kendall School of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan and the he is also being inducted to the Illustrators Hall of Fame!!

Congratulations Murray!!

Thank you Mr. Tinkelman!

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Doug

Happy Birthday Richard Matheson!

2013-02-22T12:11:00.003+01:00

Happy Belated 86th Birthday to Mr. Richard Matheson!!

Mr. Matheson ,who as far as I’m concerned the greatest living american writer of horrific ficiton, turned 86 this past Wednesday. Mr. Matheson has written genre classics for the pulps, mainstream literature, film and Televison. Mr. Matheson has written 28 Novels, more short stories than I can count, 22 film scripts and at least 48 film scripts! 15 of those scripts were for the original Twilight Zone“ alone! Who can forget „Nightmare at 20,00 feet“? He wrote the scripts for the famous Roger Corman/Vincent Price/Edgar Allan Poe films from the 1960s. His two most famous TV scripts were for TV films „The Night Stalker“ and „Duel“.

Mr. Matheson‘s stories and novels are a heady mix of SF and Horror. His Vampire apocalypse novel „I am Legend“ is probably the greatest SF horror novels of all time. I recently did a fairly large Richard Matheson re-read this winter and his short stories have aged exceptionaly well. Much of his work is still in print. So go check him out. And i mean now!

He is also, to my knowledge, the last survivng writer who appeared in „Weird Tales“ during it’s original incarnation.

The man is a true national treasure of the macabre and a giant in his field.

Happy Birthday Mr. Matheson!!

Time hasn't been in abundance these past two weeks. I had a telephone converstion with the great artist Mr. Murray Tinkelman this past Sunday and I hope to have it written up as soon as I finish renovating our bathroom. "She who must be obeyed" takes priority this time! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by and I apologize for such a short posting.

Terror at Night

2013-02-10T12:47:00.002+01:00

“Terror at Night”

Edited by Herbert Williams.

New Avon Library. 1947.

No cover price.

My battered copy

Contents:

· HP Lovecraft – The Haunter of the Dark (Weird Tales, 12/36; Cthulhu Mythos, sequel to Robert Bloch’s The Shambler from the Stars)

· Bram Stoker – The Judge’s House (Holly Leaves, 12/5/1891)

· WW Jacobs – The Interruption (The Strand, 11/1925)

· Thomas Burke – The Black Courtyard (Night-Pieces: Eighteen Tales, 1935)

· HR Wakefield - The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster (Shivers, 1932)

· Algernon Blackwood – The Second Generation (The Westminster Gazette, 6/6/1912)

· W Elwyn Backus – The Phantom Bus (Weird Tales, 9/30)

· Arthur Machen – Change (The Children of the Pool and Other Stories, 1936)

· Henry S Whitehead – The Left Eye (Weird Tales, 6/27)

· Ambrose Bierce – A Watcher by the Dead (San Francisco Examiner, 12/29/1889)

· Lord Dunsany – The Two Bottles of Relish (serialized in Time & Tide beginning 11/12/32)

· MR James – Lost Hearts (Pall Mall Magazine, 12/1895)

· EF Benson – Caterpillars (The Room in the Tower and Other Stories, 1912)

“Terror at Night” is one of the oldest books in my collection. I’m amazed that it didn’t fall apart last week while reading it. Thankfully it didn’t though. This might possible be explained by a statement on the back cover.

“Bound in heavy weight covers, they have a delightful flexibility in handling, and stand up well under reading and rereading. The covers are specially processed to make them resistant to dirt, damp and rough usage”

I wonder if they realized that this edition would still be read 66 years later.

And I have to say that I love the old style “George Mayers” cover. Mr. Mayers did quite a few covers back then and later on did lots of covers for the old “men’s adventure” magazines. There is one thing about the collection that does bother me. The cover states that it “Complete and Unabridged”. This infers to me that this is a reprint, most likely, from a hardback. His isn’t the case though. This edition is a true first edition. I’m betting that this is an intentional trick to make the book look more legitimate. From what I’ve read, paperbacks were very looked down upon when they first came out, many readers seeing them as an inferior product both in physical and subject quality. So I’m betting they wanted to trick readers into thinking that this was simply and inexpensive edition of a “real” book.

Now let’s take a look at those stories.

“The Haunter of the Dark”

by H.P. Lovecraft.

“Haunter" is one of Mr. Lovecraft’s popular stories which has been reprinted to death since paperbacks came into existence. According to the “ISFDB” it’s been reprinted 76 times in English alone! Another thing that makes the tale so noteworthy is that is dedicated to an extremely young “Robert Bloch”. The stories narrator is a fictionalized Bloch who Lovecraft is kind enough to kill off at the end of the story. It seems a young writer/occult investigator learns of a treasure looked in the steeple of an abandoned church on a hill in the middle of “Akham Massachusets” It seems that the church had been desecrated and taken over by some esoteric cult during the 19^th century, all of whose members disappeared. Rumors persist that the church is cursed, haunted and that a treasure remains within. It’s supposedly a huge gem-stone, the so called “Shining Trapezohedron“. Our hero (victim since HPL stories don’t have heroes. They just have people who get eaten, go insane or both.) „Robert Harrison Blake of 620 East Knapp Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin”, breaks into the church and finds the gem stone, which he takes home. As always, this is a huge mistake since whatever that has been protecting the gem also follows Blake home. The ending is classic HPL hysterics. This is the kind of HPL ending that so many people tend to make fun of. I can’t understand why though. I do the same thing if I was in Robert Blake’s shoes. The story ends with Blake’s last journal entry…..

“Lights still out—must be five minutes now. Everything depends on lightning. Yaddith grant it will keep up! . . . Some influence seems beating through it. . . . Rain and thunder and wind deafen. . . . The thing is taking hold of my mind. . . .
“Trouble with memory. I see things I never knew before. Other worlds and other galaxies . . . Dark . . . The lightning seems dark and the darkness seems light. . . .
“It cannot be the real hill and church that I see in the pitch-darkness. Must be retinal impression left by flashes. Heaven grant the Italians are out with their candles if the lightning stops!

      “What am I afraid of? Is it not an avatar of Nyarlathotep, who in antique and shadowy Khem even took the form of man? I remember Yuggoth, and more distant Shaggai, and the ultimate void of the black planets. . . .
      “The long, winging flight through the void . . . cannot cross the universe of light . . . re-created by the thoughts caught in the Shining Trapezohedron . . . send it through the horrible abysses of radiance. . . .
      “My name is Blake—Robert Harrison Blake of 620 East Knapp Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. . . . I am on this planet. . . .
      “Azathoth have mercy!—the lightning no longer flashes—horrible—I can see everything with a monstrous sense that is not sight—light is dark and dark is light . . . those people on the hill . . . guard . . . candles and charms . . . their priests. . . .
      “Sense of distance gone—far is near and near is far. No light—no glass—see that steeple—that tower—window—can hear—Roderick Usher—am mad or going mad—the thing is stirring and fumbling in the tower—I am it and it is I—I want to get out . . . “must get out and unify the forces. . . . It knows where I am. . . .
      “I am Robert Blake, but I see the tower in the dark. There is a monstrous odour . . . senses transfigured . . . boarding at that tower window cracking and giving way. . . . Iä . . . ngai . . . ygg. . . .
      “I see it—coming here—hell-wind—titan blur—black wings—Yog-Sothoth save me—the three-lobed burning eye. . . .”

I love this story and reread it every year.

“The Judge’s House”

by Bram Stoker

I’ve never this particular Stoker story before. I’m happy to have been able rectify this situation though. “The Judge’s House” is a very entertaining story about a young student who decides to rent the wrong house for the summer. It’s one of those stories where summer gets a summer rental at a puzzlingly low price. And of course as a genre fan you know exactly why the young man gets the place so cheaply even if he doesn’t. The original owner of the house was an evil judge who took great pleasure in sentencing people to death by hanging. The judge enjoyed these hangings so much that he took the hangman’s rope with him upon retiring from office and having it attached to the bell in the signal tower of his home. Later tenants of this house seem to develop very successful suicidal tendencies. The young student learns of all this from his housekeeper who he hired for the summer from the local village. He of course scoffs at the story and considers it to be just a superstition help by the locals. The village rector even tries to warn him, to no avail. It turns out the young man likes to put in very long evenings of study. These cramming sessions though, aren’t what they’re cut up to be since he is visited every night by huge rat with glowing red eyes. Another problem is that during these midnight visitations a portrait o the old judge seems to change expression and leer at the young man. Needless to say, things don’t turn out well for the young man.

Even with the tragic ending, this is a fun little story that has aged well even though it was written over one 112 years ago.

“The Interruption”

by W, W, Jacobs

This is only the 2^nd story that I’ve ever read from Mr. Jacobs. The other one is not only his most famous, but also one of the most famous horror stories of all time. I’m talking about “The Monkey’s Paw”. This was one of the very first horror stories that I ever read. “The Monkey’s Paw” has become so iconic that even those who have never read it still know the basic story. It’s such an pervasive story that the Simpsons even did a take off of it on one of their Halloween shows.

So anyways, “The Interruption” is as much of a horror tale as it is a murder suspense story. It seems that an upper class English gentleman poisoned his wife and managed to make it look like a lingering illness. He manages to fool everyone except his house-keeper. She begins to black mail him with insinuations of how awful it would be if there was an inquest and the body had to be exhumed. Eventual the servant becomes the master and visa versa. The “grieving” widower finally decides that the situation is intolerable and attempts to frame his housekeeper with the murder of his wife by poisoning himself and setting up his house-keeper to take the fall before he succumbs. The idea is that his physician should discover the poisoning before it is too late. Sadly, it turns out that his house-keeper has been one step ahead of him the entire time.

I enjoyed this one. You can see the ending is pretty obvious, but I’m a sucker for someone getting their “just desserts” ala EC comics.

“The Black courtyard”

by Thomas Burke.

“The Black Courtyard” is a genuinely creepy and atmospheric psychological horror story. A desperate young man breaks into an old miser’s home with the intention of relieving the old man of some of his hoarded wealth. As it always happens in this sort of story, things goes badly wrong and the young man graduates from incompetent burglar to guilt ridden murderer. Every night he compulsively returns to the scene of his crime in a somnambulistic state. And every day he compulsively walks home from work by way of the murder scene. He slowly goes mad with guilt and fear until he receives the inevitable visit from the police.

This is a brilliant story. You honestly agonize and sweat with the murderer. You sympathize with his suffering and truly hope that he gets away with it. It’s truly a good story when you find yourself emoting with a murderer!

“The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster”

by H. R. Wakefield

“Seventeenth Hole" is one of my favourite Wakefield stories. Imagine if M.R. James was writing shorter and snappier horror stories. The Welsh Golf club of Duncaster has built themselves a new 17^th hole. It’s a lovely thing to behold. It plays awfully though, what with most balls seeming to always land in the woods. Guests also seem to have the terrible luck of dying there. It appears as if some unknown wild beast has been mauling them to death. . It turns out that the 17^th hole is too near an ancient Celtic sacrificial grove and what ever it was that they called up is still hanging about. Unluckily, since the Druids have vacated the area during the past few thousand years, the thing has been reduced to going out and finding its own sacrifices.

This is a fun and creepy little story.

“The Second Generation”

by Algernon Blackwood

This is a tough one to judge. If it had been written by someone I’m not familiar with I would have said it was a good story. But it wasn’t written by someone unfamiliar to me. It was written by the great Mr. Blackwood and that’s a completely different kettle of fish. I had very high expectation for a Blackwood story that I’ve never read before.

I have to say that as far as I’m concerned, this is very minor Blackwood. In fact, I think it is the weakest story in the anthology.

A class conscious young man is deeply in love with a woman who he fears has a social standing that is too far above his. Because of his insecurity he never gets up the courage to express his true sentiments and he leaves England for India to seek his fortune. Many years later he returns to England a wealthy man. He knows that she married an older man during his absence and that her husband has just recently died. He screws up his courage and decides to send her a telegram asking if he may pay her a visit because he has important matters he wishes to discuss with her. He receives an oddly impersonal reply that he may call on her at his convenience. Arriving at the mansion he is instructed by a servant to wait in the drawing room until the “Lady of the house” is ready. While waiting to be received he agonizes over his past insecurity and indecisiveness. Suddenly the woman appears to him and sits with him while he is drinking his tea. She gently chastises him over his past cowardice and bemoans the fact that he never told her how he felt about her. He is distracted by the entrance one of the servants and in turning back to his hostess he finds her seat beside him on the sofa to be empty. The servant informs him that her ladyship will now receive him. At this announcement a strange young woman enters the room and inquires about the purpose of his visit and if he has papers for her to sign. He then realizes that this is the wife of deceased husband’s grown son from his first marriage and that the woman he has actually come to visit is also dead. He excuses himself and leaves.

The one thing I did like about this story is that I can’t decide whether it’s a ghost story or psychological story of a man haunted by regret and past mistakes.

“The Phantom Bus”

by W. Elwyn Backus

I’ve covered this story in an earlier post when I discussed another anthology that it appeared in.

This would have made a good “Twilight Zone” episode along the lines of "A Stop at Willoughby". A man notices every day at his bus stop that another bus always appears a few minutes before his. No one ever gets on or off. He eventually decides out of pure curiosity to take this particular bus just to see where it goes. Too bad he never noticed how pale and still the passengers are or that the bus is strikingly similar to a bus that ran the same line a few years earlier until it plunged off a bridge during an ice storm. You can pretty much see where this one is going.

I like it though even though you figure it out within the first few paragraphs. Think of it as an extremely genteel version of “Clive Barker’s “Midnight Meat Train”.

“Change”

by Arthur Machen.

This is a good one! Mr. Machen has never disappointed me and this story is no exception.

Several families are vacationing on the Cornish coast during summer vacation and befriend each other. And while the other families are so impressed with the one family’s nanny, they decided to pool resources and allow her to watch all of the children. One day Nanny, against the advice of the locals takes the children picnicking to a local series of caves. They fail to return come evening and a search party is sent out. They come across the missing nanny and children as said group are were searching for one of the children who seems to have gone lost on the way home. The nanny and children had been enjoying themselves so much in the caverns that they never noticed that the sun had set. While trying to find their way home in the darkness and wood one child became separated from the group. The child is eventually found but in a strangely altered state. In fact, the child has become wizened and strangely age. He also seems to have forgotten English and now speaks a strange unknown language. Did I mention that the villagers leave their lights burning the entire night because the inhabitants of the region have terrible fear of fairies? Well the do. A friend of the family, during a later exploration, discovers evidence of witchcraft in the cave and after making a few inquiries learns that the nanny had lost an earlier position at a boarding school because of some hushed up scandal involving the children she was in charge of.

This is a great story that unfolds a piece at a time and leads up to a huge payoff.

“The Left Eye”

by Henry S. Whitehead

I’m going to make this one quick since it was only a little while ago that I covered it in another anthology post.

A French Canadian Bootlegger living on the shores of Lake Champlain, with his very large family, brutally murders his oldest daughter and the parish priest who befriended her. His daughter was the only member of the family who was a truly decent person. The rest of the clan was the worst sort of “white trash”. The old man gets wind of his daughters planned flight and beats her and the priest to death with an iron bar, reducing both of them to bloody pulp. Fleeing the law, the Bootlegger decides to hide out a few weeks on an uninhabited island in the middle of Lake Champlain. His plan is to wait out the island until the search dies out or move on. It turns out that the island isn’t quite as uninhabited as he thought. It’s the home of a very large species of ground dwelling spiders. Hilarity ensues!

This is a great story. It’s a lot bloodier and gorier than most of Rev. Whitehead’s stories. And one of the few stories that he wrote that weren’t set in the West Indies.

Wordsworth Books has just published a very affordable edition of Rev. Whitehead’s collected horror stories. Get it while it’s still available. This it the most complete collection of Whitehead stories ever published and the first one to appear in over 30 years. It’s available at Amazon.

“A Watcher of the Dead”

by Ambrose Bierce

This is a mean spirited story as only Ambrose Bierce could write them.

Two doctors bet a gambler that he would not be able to stay sane while locked in a totally darkened and locked room with a corpse. The gambler discovers that winning the bet isn’t as easy as he thought. Especially when he discovers that the corpse is starting to move around in the darkness. This all ends in death, betrayal and madness with one of the most bizarre twist ending that I’ve ever read.

You’ll love this tale If you like your horror served up with a huge helping of meanness and cynicism.

“The Two Bottles of Relish”

by Lord Dunsany

This story starts out as a kind of locked room mystery and ends up as one of the best sick jokes that I ever read.

Two amateur sleuths decide to investigate a murder case that even Scotland Yard hasn’t been able to solve. A young woman moved into a bungalow with her common law husband. Shortly afterwards she disappears and is never seen again. Her “husband” tell everyone that she headed out for parts south. This is quickly exposed as a lie. The “husband” is also found to be holding a sum of money identical to an amount of money the missing woman withdrew from her bank account the day before her disappearance. All evidence points to foul play, but there is no body! So we have a classic case of Corpus Delecti. With no corpse you have no crime. The only suspicious evidence it that for the two weeks directly after the disappearance the “husband2 never left the property, ordered nothing but vegetables and two bottles of relish from the grocer, cut down every tree on the rented property and reduced them all to fire wood which he never used. The two amateurs finally solve the crime, but there is nothing to been done about it after the fact. The story closes with one of the best punch lines that I’ve ever read. It would have been more at home in a Robert Bloch story.

“But why,” he said, “did he cut down the trees?”

“Soley,” said Linley, “in order to get an appetite”

The tale is a true classic of gallows humour!

“Lost Hearts”

by M. R. James

M.R. James had the talent of writing some of the best ghost stories that ever appeared in print. He also had the genius to write tales that were simultaneously genteel and grisly. It’s this odd combination that makes his stories so effective and unforgettable.

“Lost Hearts” is a story that gets under your skin and won’t be easy to forget. A 11 old orphaned boy gets taken in by an elderly distant cousin who he never knew existed. The young man is overjoyed by his good fortune even though he knows nothing about his benefactor. After arriving at his cousin’s isolated country estate (are there any other kind?) he is pleased to learn the old man is extremely kind and friendly, even if he seem to be inordinately interested in the boys birth date. After becoming settled in the young man is befriended by the house-keeper who takes him under her wing and tries to make him comfortable in his new surroundings. He learns from his new friend that his elderly cousin is extremely fond of children. So fond in fact, that the old man has taken in homeless children twice. The first child was a young gypsy girl and then on later a little Italian boy. It turns out that both of these little ingrates ended up nearly breaking the old man’s heart by seemingly running off in the middle of the night. They seemed to be in such a hurry to leave that they even left all of their personal effects behind. The house-keeper assumes that this to be blamed on the “wander lust” that many foreigners suffer under. After becoming settled in to the routine of a new life, the young man starts have nightmare, vision and sleep walking incidents involving to emaciated pale children who are clutching gaping wounds on their breasts! The boy tells his benefactor about these events and oddly enough the old man doesn’t seem to be surprised at all by these nocturnal visitations. During the course of events the boy learns that his cousin is a leading expert in ancient occult beliefs and rituals. Things come to a head on the eve of the boys 12th birthday when the old man bids him to secretly visit him in the library at midnight. The old man won’t explain why, but impresses upon the importance of utmost secrecy! No one else in the household must know of this. Being to excite to sleep for a few hours the young man passes the time until midnight by gazing out his window onto the moon lit garden. He notices two shapes coming out of the nearby woods heading in the direction of the house. It appears to be the two children of his dreams. He looses sight of them as they round the corner of the house. It seems that they are going to the library patio on that side. Midnight arrives and the boy sneaks down to the library as promised. Upon entering the library our young narrator notices that his cousin appears to have prepared some odd ceremony!

I won’t spoil the ending, but I’m fairly sure that you can see where the whole thing is heading. If you’re interested then head on over to Amazon, since Mr. James’ Ghost stories are still in print!

“Caterpillars”

by E.F. Benson

“Caterpillars” is one of Mr. Bensons most famous stories that’s has been frequently reprinted in the past. Even though the story is quite simple and straight forward it is still fairly unsettling. A man spending a few weeks vacation at a hotel on the Riviera decides one night, after suffering a bout of insomnia, to go down to the hotel’s reading room to get a book that he had seen earlier that day. After retrieving the book he notices on the way back upstairs that someone has left the door open on one of the empty rooms. Deciding to take a peek inside he sees the following……

“Then I saw that the greyish light of the bedroom came from the bed, or rather from what was on the bed. For it was covered with great caterpillars, a foot or more in length, which crawled over it. They were faintly luminous, and it was the light from them that showed me the room. Instead of the sucker-feet of ordinary caterpillars they had rows of pincers like crabs, and they moved by grasping what they lay on with their pincers, and then sliding their.bodies forward. In colour these dreadful insects were yellowish-grey, and they were covered with irregular lumps and swellings. There must have been hundreds of them, for they formed a sort of writhing, crawling pyramid on the bed. Occasionally one fell off on to the floor, with a soft fleshy thud, and though the floor was of hard concrete, it yielded to the pincerfeet as if it had been putty, and, crawling back, the caterpillar would mount on to the bed again, to rejoin its fearful companions. They appeared to have no faces, so to speak, but at one end of them there was a mouth that opened sideways in respiration.
Then, as I looked, it seemed to me as if they all suddenly became conscious of my presence.”

After fleeing back to his room the man spends the rest of the night wide awake with the fear that the caterpillars are coming for him. As the sun starts to rise he convinces himself that it was just a waking nightmare and nothing more. That day he learns that the room from the night before is now occupied by a fellow Englishman and the strike up an acquaintance. A few days later while they are walking through the hotel’s garden his new friend says that he wants to show him something odd that he found in his room that morning. He pulls a matchbox from his pocket and upon opening it shows him a living, but miniature version of the caterpillars that had terrified the one man a few nights previously. They both remark that it appears to some sort of un-catalogued caterpillar. Needless to say their investigation doesn’t bring them any further and they dismiss the whole incident. That very same night the first man is once again unable to sleep and heads once more to the reading room. Upon returning to his room he sees a repeat performance of the giant caterpillar migration. This time they are stream into the new occupant’s room and not out of it. Convinced that he is dreaming he says nothing about it. A year later the first man is staying once again at the hotel. While conversing with the lady who runs the hotel, he learns that his friend is suffering from incurable cancer. The land lady then confides that she feels partially responsible since the room had been empty for an entire year before she rented it to his new acquaintance. It seems that the previous occupant had suffered from terminal cancer.
If this sound like your thing, then go to Amazon since Wordsworth books has also just released the complete ghost/horror stories of E.F. Benson in another very affordable edition.

Well that’s it for this time!
Take care and Thanks for stopping by.

Doug

The Moon of Skulls by Robert E. howard

2013-01-27T12:52:00.000+01:00

The Moon of Skulls

By Robert E. Howard

“Time Lost Series”

Centaur Press

1968. $0.60

My copy of the Centaur Press edition.

Contents:

“The Moon of Skulls: Weird Tales, June & July 1930

“Skulls in the Stars”: Weird Tales, January 1929

“The Footfalls Within”: Weird Tales, September 1931

I had planned on covering another anthology, but since Mr. Howard’s 107^th birthday was this past week the other anthology will have to wait until next Sunday.

Does REH even belong in a blog covering old Horror Paperbacks since he is most famously known for his "Sword&Sorcery” tales? I think yes, since one of the big differences between S&S and “Heroic Fantasy” is a very strong element of supernatural horror running through most S&S tales. And I think that Mr. Howard’s “Solomon Kane” adventures are a perfect example action filled horror stories or if you wish, horror filled action stories. In these stories the genre lines are very blurry.

The character of “Solomon Kane” appeared in 9 stories, 5 fragments and 2 poems all written between 1928 and 1932. The first seven stories were originally published in “Weird Tales Magazine”. The rest were first published during the 1960s.

Solomon Kane is Bob Howard’s 2^nd most popular character after “Conan” and some folks would argues that “King Kull of Atlantis” shares 2^nd place. I personally enjoy the Kanes stories much more than the Kull stories.

Solomon Kane was Howard’s 17^th Century Sword swinging, pistol firing “Puritan” avenging angel. He was a very busy guy travelling around England, Europe and Africa. Kane was literally a one man arming who spent his life writing wrongs and battling evil, be it human, supernatural or both. Kane has gone up against Pirates, Ghosts, Slavers, Zombies, Demons, Lost civilizations and even Harpies!

I’m a huge fan of almost everything Mr. Howard wrote. He poured his heart and soul into to every story. Even though he was a working writer pounding out stories every single month from the time he was 18 up until his death at the age of 30, he put so much energy and conviction into every story that you get carried away immediately into every single word. Only god knows what heights he could of reached if he would have had the luxury to take his time with writing and not had to have worried about making a living purely as a Pulp writer. As far as I’m concerned much of his writing transcends pure “Pulpfiction”. That’s why we are still reading his stories more than 77 years after his death.

Not being a “Howard Scholar” it appears, to me at least, that the qualities that made him “great” were also the things that drove him to take his life at the young age of thirty years. Mr. Howard’s passions were enormous. This meant that his hatreds were as large as his loves. This tends to weigh heavily on many of his tales, filling them with contradictions. He championed the under dog, hated fascism, slavery and injustice. At the same time he could be bigoted or racist. He would abhor slavery and at the same time champion the superiority of the white race and Anglo culture. To me, this showed the war being raged in his soul. He spent almost the entirety of his life in the small isolated town of “Cross Plains” Texas. He grew up during hard times in a rough world. Our concepts of racial harmony and progressive thinking hardly existed back then, or at least not in popular culture. I think that because of his great passions, inexperience in the wider world and genius, these non-PC traits tend to slap you in the face at times. Depending on how you look at it, it can either harm the story or increase its (misguided) honesty, power and authenticity.

I won’t lie; I can forgive him almost everything. That’s how wonderful these stories are. Had he been a calmer, more open and level headed human being he probably would have been a much lesser writer. It’s seems that there is a very fine line between great artistic genius and self destructive madness. Mr. Howard walked this very fine line only to finely slip over at the age of thirty.

I like to think that if he had lived longer and moved out into the wider world he might have become a more tolerant and open minded man. That is something that we will never know though.

So that’s the contradiction that was/is Robert Ervin Howard. The things that contributed to his greatness were also a madness that brought about the end of his life far too early.

Now let’s get to those stories.

“The Moon of Skulls”

Kane is travelling across Africa searching for a young English woman who has been kidnapped by pirates and possibly sold into slavery. While following her trail deep into the heart of unexplored Africa he finally finds her being held prisoner in the lost city of Negari which is the last outpost of sunken Atlantis. The city is ruled “Nakari, the Vampire queen of Negari”. Nakari being “white” wants Solomon as her mate. He refuses and hilarity ensues. This is an entertaining mixture of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Opar” and Haggard's “She”. Sadly, the racism tends to be fairly overt and probably would insult many modern readers. I doubt that I could recommend it to a black friend. So as I mentioned above, this is a real love hate kind of story. There are some serious “he’s gotta be fucking kidding!” moments in this story as far as the racism is concerned, that almost destroys the story. If you have a fairly healthy “bull-shit meter” then just ignore the racist comments and go along for the insanely enjoyable ride.

“Skulls in the Stars”

Back in England Solomon travelling across the moors, takes the path less taken and runs afoul of a ghost. Guess who wins?

“The Footfalls Within”

This is another tale chronicling Solomon’s travels across Africa and is one of those classic Bob Howard contradictions. This time he’s rescuing and avenging a tribe of Africans who have been captured by Arab slave traders and taken to the coast on a forced death march through the jungle. Kane ends up being captured by said slavers and joins the march as a prisoner. Luckily for Solomon and the natives the caravan runs across a temple/tomb from some ancient lost civilization. Lucky that is, because the Slavers just have to open it up to see if it contains treasure. Instead of discovering treasure then awaken and release the demon that has been imprisoned within. This is a fun short little story with sympathy for the African victims instead of disdain and of course, Solomon once more dishing out some seriously righteous ass kicking!

What I found so great about this slim volume containing a novelette and two short stories is that we get to see both sides of Mr. Howard’s world view. And huge warts and all, Robert E Howard will always have a place in my heart, library and who is someone whose stories I will always happily return to in the years to come!

Here are scans of the rest of my Howards! I don't have as many as I used to. I hope that these are still of interest though!

There are still two “Solomon Kane” collections in print.

The inexpensive “The Right Hand of Doom” from Wordsworth Books.

Here.

And

The Deluxe illustrated "Savage Tales of“Solomon Kane” collection from DelRey.

Here.

And lastly I’d like to bring a new book from “Michael Brooks”, a successful new writer to your attention.

Go here!

This looks extremely promising! His first novel had received excellent reviews!!

That’s it for this week!

Take care and thanks for stopping by!!

Doug

Horror Hunters

2013-01-17T17:51:00.002+01:00

„Horror Hunters“

„Nightmare tales of the dead and the undead“

Edited by Roger Elwood & Vic Ghidalia

Manor Books. 1975. $0.95

The Front and Back cover to my 1975 edition.

The 1971 edition that I can't find anywhere!!

This week’s book, Horror Hunters, is an early “themed anthology” originally published by Manor books back in 1971. The obvious theme of this anthology is seekers of horror or those who investigate it. I own the 1975 edition and can’t find a single copy of the 1971 edition anywhere. Once again Messrs. Elwood and Ghidalia deliver another enjoyable anthology of predominantly “Weird Tales” reprints. I enjoyed it so much that I finished it in just one evening. The cover seems to be a very loosely based upon Theodore Sturgeons “One foot and the Grave”. The anthology is dedicated to “August Derleth”

Contents:

Ancient Sorceries - Algernon Blackwood

The Gateway of the Monster - William Hope Hodgson
The Unnamable - H. P. Lovecraft
The Thing on the Roof - Robert E. Howard
Mr Ames' Devil - August Derleth
In the X-Ray - Fritz Leiber Jr.
One Foot and the Grave - Theodore Sturgeon
I Kiss Your Shadow - Robert Bloch

Now let’s take a look at the stories!

Ancient Sorceries - Algernon Blackwood

“Ancient Sorceries” is one of Algernon Blackwood’s most famous stories. It’s one of five “John Silence, Physician Extraordinary“ stories that he wrote. John silence is a British physician who handles supernatural cases. The structure of these tales usually has John telling his most interesting cases to his friends. He’s basically passive in these stories and only at the end does he conduct a follow up investigation in an attempt to verify the facts of the case. I enjoyed this story a lot. It kept me guessing and on my toes up to the very end. It’s seems that a meek middle aged Englishman, while on vacation in the French Provence, decides to detrain at a small village in an attempt to escape all the noisy tourists who are sharing train with him. He doesn’t like crowds or noise. It seem that the ruin the atmosphere of his trip. As he leaves the train he is warned about the village by an elderly French traveller who had been sharing his compartment. As the Traveller only speaks broken French, all he understands is a warning about sleeping and cats. He is immediately enchanted with the medieval charm of the older part of the village and decides that getting off the train was a good choice. He notices how quiet the village is and how friendly the locals are. He books a room and immediately feels an amazing sense of peacefulness fall over him. He becomes so enchanted with the entire setting that he decides to stay for a few days. He ends up staying over 2 weeks since he just can’t bring himself to leave. This begins to frighten him a bit. He is also unnerved by realizing the villagers are keeping him under constant, if not extremely discreet, observation. He also begins to believe that the daily comings and goings of the villagers is purely for his sake and that they are all truly leading a completely separate existence that he knows nothing about. Another interesting point is that the villagers always seem to remind him of cats and seem to be able to vanish after turning corners. He even goes out of his way to follow people just so he can discover how it is that they seem to disappear once they round a corner. On the day that he finally pulls himself together and decides to leave he meets the innkeeper’s daughter and seems to fall under another spell of enchantment. After spending a few more days in the company of this “enchanting” young woman he begins to think that villagers are waiting for him to make up his mind about something. He finally comes to the conclusion that once he makes of his mind, he has no idea about what though; they will reveal their secret to him and invite him to join their community. I won’t give it all away though since I’ve all ready been run off at the keyboard. Let me just say we end up with a tale of black magic, executed witches, were cats, Satanism, the black mass and reincarnation!! Lots of atmosphere makes this a top story in my eyes.

The story is available online is you want to read it. I recommend it very much!

John Silence Stories

The Gateway of the Monster - William Hope Hodgson

“Gateway of the Monster” is one of Hodgson’s “Carnackithe Ghost finder” adventures. And this tale truly is an adventure. Carnaki is a very competent and aggressive Edwardian Para-normal investigator who goes around the UK breaking ghosts. You could consider him to be the original “Ghost Buster”! In this adventure Mr. Carnacki is asked to investigate the goings on at an isolated country estate. Not that there’s any other kind of country estate in these kinds of stories. It seems that there is a haunted bed chamber terrifying the household. Carnacki ends up going up against a demon in the form of giant hand that is using a cursed ring as an inter-dimensional doorway. It has already strangled an entire family before Carnacki gets called in to send it packing. Carnacki is a very modern sort of ghost breaker in that he not only uses magical spells, but also scientific equipment and a service revolver to battle the demon. So we get a monster hand, a strangled baby and a kitty cat that gets beaten to a shapeless pulp. Not bad for a horror story written 100 years ago. This story is grisly, gory and fun!

It’s available on-line if you want to read it.

Carncacki on-line

The complete Carnaki stories are also available from Wordsworth books at a very affordable price.

Wordsworth Carnacki Collection

The Unnamable - H. P. Lovecraft

“The Unanamable” is a transitional HPL story from when he was moving away from his “Dunsanyian” stories and had quite gotten started on the Cthulhu Cycle of stories. Personally, I like this story a lot. But sadly, I like it for all of the wrong reasons. This is exactly the kind of HPL stories that people love to make fun of and satirize. It has all of the qualities that a good “bad” Lovecraft story demands. The characters are stupid. The prose is so purple that the Caesar’s would have tried to wear it and it’s more hysterical than a Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobiac at a spelling bee.

The story starts out with two researchers of the unknown who are discussing if something can be truly “unnameable”. Researcher #one says no and researcher# two says yes. They then go on to discuss a local legend about a 17th century family from the area who were dealing in black magic. Legend tells that the wife gave birth to a child so monstrous that they had to keep it locked up in the attic. I love this plot point. The only thing missing is the bucket of fish heads. This is terrible clichéd, but I honestly think that this is the origin of the cliché. So anyways the one researcher goes on to tell how this monstrous child broke loose from time to time and terrorized the vicinity. The researcher then goes on to tell his friend how after the parents died, the neighbours left the house abandoned and the attic locked. “Good riddance!” they must have thought. Anyways baby mongo breaks out one last time and goes on a killing spree. The researcher tells of how when he went and investigated he found a pile of freaky deaky bones in the attic. The were so unnerving that instead of sharing the discovery he goes and dumps them into the tomb of the things parents which is conveniently located in an old abandoned cemetery. It seems that the skeleton substantiates the old rumours of the thing having “ape like claws”, “hoofed feet”, “huge fanged jaws” and “horns”. AND it turns out they are discussing this the whole time while sitting on the aforementioned tomb as night closes in! So they’re just sitting there “smokin’ and Jokin’ just as the moon gets covered by a passing cloud and something comes bursting up out of the tomb and goes all ninja turtle on them.

They wake up the next day in the hospitaly badly beaten and covered with hoof marks. Researcher #2 asks, “What was it that attacked us?” And researcher #1 replies “The “Unnamable”!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have a name for it. Monster!

I love this story just for its awfulness alone.

Here’s the on-line text…..

"The Unnamable" on-line

The Thing on the Roof - Robert E. Howard

This is a fairly ok Robert E. Howard penned “Cthulhu Mythos” story about grave robbing gone bad. It seems that an archaeologist (tomb plunderer) didn’t read far enough into REH’s version of the “Necronomicon”, “Unspeaksble Cults”, and brings home the wrong kind of treasure. The “Treasure” turns out to be one of those cranky, stinky shapeless, tentacled, hoofed and flying monstrosities that don’t play well with others. HPL would have called it typical “YogSothothery”. What I really like, is that in a typical HPL Mythos story the protagonist/victim usually ends up insane, with soiled drawers, devoured or a combination of the three. In a Robert E. Howard Mythos tale the protagonist charges death head on with both barrels blazing and ends up with his skull crushed to a pulp with a giant hoof print in the middle of it. This story is a good example of wha REH was nicknamed “Two Gun Bob”.

Mr Ames' Devil - August Derleth

This one is enjoyable but a typical example of what Mr. Derleth termed one of his “filler” stories. I hobby sorcery actually manages, much to his surprise and chagrin, his own personal demon. Said demon then goes about fulfilling his master’s wishes whether his master wants him to or not. The hobby sorcerer then tries to use a contractual loop hole and, as always in these kinds of stories, it backfires. This one is short enough to be enjoyable before it wears out it welcome. I have to say though that Mr. Derleth was capable of much better stories.

In the X-Ray - Fritz Leiber Jr.

I would consider “In the X-Ray” a fine story, if say, August Derleth had written it.

But since it was written by the great “Fritz Leiber” though, I have to say that it’s pretty dull and underdeveloped. I admit though, in Mr. Leiber’s defence, that this is one of his very early tales and all of his greatness still lay in the future.

A young woman goes to her Dr. complaining terrible pain and swelling in her ankle. It seems that this happened after having a nightmare about the rotting corpse of her recently deceased twin sister coming out from under the bed and grasping her ankle. The surving twin claims the pain feels just as if someone had her ankle in a painful grip from the inside. Uncle Doctor makes a few X-Rays and discovers that the girls were actually triplets, but the 3 girl didn’t develop and was absorbed by the surviving twin while still in the womb. This young woman also confesses to the Doctor that her twin sister hated her, and up until her death, made her twin’s life a living hell. The evil sister even cursed her twin whilst dying and swore to come back and get her. One thing the doctor has held back from his patient so far, it the fact that it seems that the absorbed twin has now started to finaly develop and grow!

Now let me stop here for a minute. This story has all the making of a great “body horror” story. I mean what can be nastier than having an absorbed foetus starting to grow and come to life inside of you! I don’t even want to consider how many wonderful ways he could have taken it. Sadly he doesn’t. The story ends with a suicide before anything awesomely awful could take place. From anyone else this would be a good story. Coming from Fritz Leiber though makes the story a huge let down.

One Foot and the Grave - Theodore Sturgeon

Ted Sturgeon never, to my knowledge, wrote a pedestrian story and this one is no exception. He manages to condense a novels worth of dialogue and plotting into just 45 pages! I’m sorry, but I’m not going to go all that deeply into the plot. It’s so crazy and complicated that I can only describe it as a “Screwball comedy, love story, Horror and fantasy mash up. You get murdered enchanted lovers, entombed arch angels, wizards, their familiars, werecats, Satyrs hidden valleys, unrequited love and a ton of dense plot. I get dizzy and tired just thinking about it. I can assure you that it’s a wonderful and satisfying story. Even though this appeared in "Weird Tales" I think that it would have been more at home in John W. Campbell's "Unknown".

I Kiss Your Shadow - Robert Bloch

“I Kiss your Shadow” is typical Bloch insanity from the beginning of his career. I’m running against time here so I’ll sum it up in one sentence. Guy kills his wife and her shadow comes back and screws until she comes down with a bad case of “coffin birth”! The idea is so deliciously nasty that it’ll fester in your mind for days.

Like I said at the beginning, this collection is pretty strong story wise and extremely entertaining. The two fairly weak entries serve as palate cleansers between the heavier stories. Check it out if you can find a copy.

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Doug

Strange Eons

2013-01-13T12:50:00.002+01:00

Strange Eons

By Robert Bloch

Blurb: „In the Fantastic Tradition of H. P. Lovecraft”

Pinnacle Books 1979. $1.95

That is not dead which can eternal lie / Yet with strange aeons even death may die.“ – H. P. Lovecraft: The Nameless City

Front and back covers to my copy.

Mr. Robert Bloch! Thanks to Will Erickson @ "Too Much Horror Fiction"

“Strange Eons” was Robert Bloch’s final tribute to his friend and mentor “H.P. Lovecraft”. To my knowledge, Mr. Bloch never wrote another Cthulhu Mythos story after this novel. I figure that that is reasonable seeing that he brings the entire “Cthulhu Mythos” to an end in this book. Yep, in the novel, the Stars are finally right!

Mr. Bloch seemed to have had two shadows hanging over his career. The first one was that he was one of the original members of the “Lovecraft Circle” which means that he started out his career by writing Lovecraft pastiche. Luckily he quickly broke away from HPL’s influence to develop his own style of writing and afterwards only returned occasionally to “Lovecraft Country”. The second shadow was that after 1960 every single Bloch novel or short story collection (aside from only one that I know of. And Will Errickson over at “Too much Horror Fiction” had to point that out to me.) contained the following blurb, “by the author of PSYCHO”. Alfred Hitchcockfilming Mr. Bloch’s novel was a huge boost to his career, but it would also be how he would ever after be recognized by the general reading public even though he was hugely successful from the 1930s onward.

Mr. Bloch was a true multi-talent. He was extremely successful in several genres. He wrote Horror, Science Fiction, and Crime/Thrillers. He was also an extremely canny businessman. From the 1940s onward he was also a very successful script writer for film, Television and Radio. Almost always adapting his own stories. Some of his original scripts were written for such shows as “I Spy”, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” and even 3 episodes for the original “Star Trek”. So here is a man who not only got paid to for his printed stories, He would then sell the film rights AND get paid a third time to write the scripts! Not bad for a Pulp writer.

Now let’s take a look at “Strange Eons”. I can’t say that “Eons” is a great book. It is highly entertaining, but is such of an insider joke that I think that readers who have no knowledge or interest in H. P. Lovecraft will find little to love here. To be fair, Mr. Bloch includes a huge chunk of exposition explaining all you need to know about Mr. Lovecraft and his works. I feel though that this brings the story to a dead stop. I understand that he wanted to reach as large of a readership as possible with this novel. As a Lovecraft fan though, I can only think “C´mon! I know this shit already! Let’s get going!” The book is great fun; it’s just not great literature. Any HPL fan will see every shock revelation coming a mile away. And since this is basically a huge tribute/Love-letter to Lovecraft and his Mythos I wish that he could have been a bit more subtle for those in the know.

The story itself is broken down into 3 sections and told as a mystery. The first section deals with two art collectors in Los Angeles who literally stumble across and purchase a painting that turns out to be the genuine painting that appeared in Lovecraft’s story “Pickman’s model”. This sets off a chain or murders by some mysterious group who want the painting and will go to any lengths to recover it and to hide any evidence of it even existing. The murders themselves all appear to be modelled after famous death scenes from Lovecraft stories. This is quite apparent to the two collectors since one is an HPL aficionado and the other is the target of the fore-mentioned chunk of HP exposition. Eventually our two collectors meet untimely and grisly ends. Thus ends the first section of the novel. The second section picks up about six months later and the ex wife, who is a photo model, of one of our dead art collectors gets dragged into the whole mess by being hired to model in some ads for a new cult that has popped up in LA. She then gets approached by govt. agents who are investing the Sect as part of a supposed racketeering investigation. Turns out this sect is heavily involved with the Return of Cthulhu and the Government knows this. After a series of HPL inspired murders and chases involving denizens straight out of Lovecraft stories our heroine gets initiated into the inner circle of a international group of spies, scientists and diplomats who are waging a shadow war against the Cult and the Cthulhu Mythos deities. By the end of the second section we learn the Cult has infiltrated all levels of government and society by means of bribery and mind control. Our heroine is finally kidnapped and forced into a marriage of convenience with Cthulhu himself. She then on their wedding night she receives from Cthulhu the gift that keeps on giving and as a result of this gift she goes insane. The third section then moves up 30 years to ca. 2009 or 2010. We know this from two reasons. The first is that we are told that its thirty years later and the second reason it that everyone seems to have video-phones on their office desks. Our new protagonist is a young reporter who is investigating the resurgence of the Cthulhu cult from the first two sections. It seems that the cult had been busy recruiting member and spreading death and terror around the globe before being put down by various governments. Anyways it now seems that some one has been doing their best to convince the public that there never was any Cthulhu Cult and the end of the world is not approaching. Our young reporter finds out other wise. It seems that his foster father is behind the efforts to convince the world that every thing is just fine and that there is nothing to worry about. We also find out that the young reporter is an ORPHANE who’s mother died insane after his birth without ever revealing who was the father of her child. I bet that you can guess where the final 20 pages of the book are going. Like I said earlier, the Stars are finally right!

All in all, “Strange eons” is a fun read for HPL and Robert Bloch fans. The 2^nd section is the best part of the book. It reads like an old “Mannix” episode then switches into high gear as “The Man from U.N.C.L.E vs. The Mythos”. We even get treated to an all out nuclear attack on “R’Ley”!

What I did find really clever in the book is that the protagonists were never sure if the cultists were mocking them by recreating death scenes from Lovecraft, recreating the murders for their own (the cultists) amusement or that HPL was a visionary who saw these future murders in his dreams and then incorporated them into his stories. We do learn through the novel that Lovecraft knew what was going on through the visions he had while dreaming, personal investigations and that his stories were meant as warning to future generations.

So if you like Bloch or Lovecraft I can highly recommend this book. You can give it a pass though If you’re not interested in either.

Lastly, I received a copy of a new collection of “Flash Fiction” published by Michael Faun and “Hyperpyrexia Press”. I haven’t had time to get very far into the collection. What I’ve read so far has been quite enjoyable. You can check it out here……

“Feverish Fiction VOL#1”

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that everyone survived the holidays and that 2013 will keep all of you healthy, happy and sane!

Thanks for stopping by!

Doug

P.S.

I just found out the the "Oxford Univeristy Press" has a nice hardback Lovecraft anthology coming out in June 2013. It looks pretty interesting!
You can check it out here!

2012-12-28T12:44:00.001+01:00

“Shadows with Eyes: Six Tales of Crawling Horror”

By Fritz Leiber.

Ballantine Books. 1962. $0.35

Cover by Richard Powers

Contents:
5 · A Bit of the Dark World · nv Fantastic Feb ’62
36 · The Dead Man · nv Weird Tales Nov ’50
62 · Power of the Puppets · ss Thrilling Mystery Jan ’42
84 · Schizo Jimmie · ss The Saint Detective Magazine Feb ’60
93 · The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity · ss F&SF Mar ’62
102 · A Deskful of Girls [Change War] · nv F&SF Apr ’58

My copy.

This started out as a Face Book horror literature group entry that grew a wee bit too long. And since I’m a lazy shit, I decided to use it as this week’s blog entry! So you have my apologies that I’m not covering every story in the collection this time.

Some times it’s the little things that can make such a huge difference. I started reading Fritz Leiber’s anthology “Shadows with Eyes” last night. So far I’ve only made it through the first story (novelette) “A Bit of the Dark World” which originally appeared in the February 1962 issue of “Fantastic”. It’s a great story that reeks of modernity. Even though it was written over 50 years ago you can see that Mr. Leiber was going out of his way to write a cosmic weird tale that had absolutely no gothic or pulp trappings. The setting is the Pacific coastal mountains just an hour’s drive north of Los Angeles. We are introduced to our three main characters who are a Genre writer/Psychologist and a younger couple who are probably screen play writers for SF films. On the way to the Psychologist’s summer house in the mountains they discuss what place classic horror has in modern society since it seems that nothing can be considered unexplainable by modern science anymore. They also agree that since the world has become so busy and sophisticated that we don’t bother to look past the mundane horrors around us. The psychologist also postulates that since every scientific discipline has become so focused, cubby-holed and introverted that one discipline has no idea what the other is doing and no one seems to care that because of this situation there is no true “grand picture” of what reality is. Shortly before they reach the Psychologist’s house they all experience a phenomenon that appears to be both objective and subjective at the same time. Oddly the neighbour of the psychologist who is also riding along doesn’t seem to experience anything out of the normal. It’s also insinuated that the man is fairly mundane as far as sensitivity or imagination is concerned. This entire philosophical discourse takes place in the first few pages setting up everything else that comes. Damn! This is just a long short story that gives us more ideas in a few pages than most novels contain in hundreds of pages. It would take another 16 years, but Mr. Leiber has just set up the driving philosophical argument that is the basis to his 1977 novel “Our Lady of Darkness”. What we get here though is a wonderful story of truly cosmic weirdness/horror without any of the old clichéd trappings of the pulp tradition.

Read t if you can find it!

At the beginning I said that it’s the little things that can make such a huge difference. “A Bit of the Dark World” is only 31 pages long and is divided into four chapters. Each chapter starts with a wonderful Epigraph which all fit beautifully into each chapter. The Epigraph to the fourth chapter almost brought me out of my bed though.

“But the third sister, who is also the youngest——! Hush, whisper whilst we talk of her! Her kingdom is not large, or else no flesh should live; but within that kingdom all power is hers. Her head, turreted like that of Cybele, rises almost beyond the reach of sight. She droops not; and her eyes rising so high might be hidden by distance; but, being what they are, they cannot be hidden; through the treble veil of crape which she wears, the fierce light of a blazing misery, that rests not for matins or for vespers, for noon of day or noon of night, for ebbing or for flowing tide, may be read from the very ground. She is the defier of God. She is also the mother of lunacies, and the suggestress of suicides. Deep lie the roots of her power; but narrow is the nation that she rules. For she can approach only those in whom a profound nature has been upheaved by central convulsions; in whom the heart trembles, and the brain rocks under conspiracies of tempest from without and tempest from within. Madonna moves with uncertain steps, fast or slow, but still with tragic grace. Our Lady of Sighs creeps timidly and stealthily. But this youngest sister moves with incalculable motions, bounding, and with tiger’s leaps. She carries no key; for, though coming rarely amongst men, she storms all doors at which she is permitted to enter at all. And her name is Mater Tenebrarum—Our Lady of Darkness.”

Thomas de Quincy in “Suspiria de Profundis”

This quote had my inner geek jumping for joy! Not only is “Our Lady of Darkness” one of my all time favourite novels (It was the subject of one of myvery first postings.), but I’m also a huge fan of Dario Argento’s “Three Mothers” trilogy of films. This short Epigraph added that extra drop of joy that brought the cup, which was my reading experience, to over flowing.

Thank you Mr. Leiber, where ever you are, for sharing so much joy and wonder with me all these many years!

Lastly, I hope that everyone survived Christmas, the Apocalypse and that everyone has a happy New Year!

Let's make 2013 a good one.

I'm still waiting for my flying car though!

Doug

Clark Ashton Smith, the weird of it all!

2012-12-09T15:01:00.001+01:00

Clark Ashton Smith,

the weird of it all.

This week I want to discuss the works of Clark Ashton Smith. Mr Smith, as far as most contemporary readers are concerned, was the third member of “Weird Tales Magazine’s” Big Three. The other two are “Howard Phillips Lovecraft” and “Robert Ervin Howard”. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Smith isn’t nearly as famous as his two friends. I think that his lack of wide spread fame is explained by several factors that he had no control over. I think that by not being as eccentric or as tragic a figure as Lovecraft and Howard has robbed his name of that certain romanticism that hovers over the reputations of HPL and REH. To put it bluntly, CAS just wasn’t the “character” that his two friends were. From all accounts even though Mr. Smith led a fairly reclusive life, it was a matter of choice and not because of any social inadequacies or awkwardness. There stories that he was quite the ladies man and lead a very energetic existence as far as relationships with the fairer sex goes. In his introduction to “The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton smith” the great Gene Wolfe adds this statement….

“At the time he wrote for the pulps, Smith lived in a cabin near an abandoned mine, far from any neighbour. The nearest town was Auborn, northeast of San Fancisco; Auborn is not large even today. There can be little doubt that strange lights shone in the windows of the cabin by night, and that strange sounds emanated from it. No source I have found reports these; but when a man like Smith lives in a place like that, he has visitors.”

Another big drawback for Smith is that he never managed to create a franchise like Howard’s “Conan” or Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu Mythos”.

I won’t bother going over Mr. Smith’s biography since it’s all online and so many people have done it so much better than I ever can or will. I’ll only point out that he was a famed poet before he became a writer, sculptor and painter. Instead, I want to speak about his writing.

Trying to describe the stories and style of CAS is like trying to describe the music of “Phillip Glass”. You know that its Glass music the second you hear it, but can you describe it to someone who hasn’t? That’s not very easy is it?

CAS had the most amazingly obtuse vocabulary that I’ve ever read. He supposedly memorized an entire dictionary as part of his “self education”. Just looking at his story titles makes you want to grab a dictionary. At least I need to at times. Here are some examples…

“The Dark Eidolon”

“The Seven Geases”

“Genius Loci”

and

“Chinoiserie”

Those are titles that make you have to scratch your head and wonder what they could be about. And it’s such audacious wordage such as this is one of the things that make Mr. Smith so wonderful to me.

His stories are not easy to describe. CAS heavily corresponded with HPL and REH, so there is some cross pollination of ideas among the 3. Each though was his own animal with his own distinct voice and vision. If I wanted to be lazy I would say that if you mixed HPL and REH in a blender, added a bit of erotic kinkiness and a strong does of sly humour than you might just come close to describing the style of Clark Ashton Smith.

He wrote predominately fantasies in a more or less “Sword & Sorcery” vein. He wrote quite a bit of straight horror also a lot of early SF for the Gernsback Magazines.

The common thread in all of his stories was the pure weirdness of it all. I would but it simply that Mr. Smith wrote “weird tales”. And I mean that this “weirdness” in smiths stories was much purer in his stories that in the stories of HPL and REH. Howard wrote what could be mostly described as Heroic fantasy/Swords and Sorcery and HPL mostly wrote SF disguised as horror. Regardless of what Mr. Smith was writing at the time, be it SF, Horror of quasi Sword & Sorcery, it could all be described as “weirdness” that was at a level that HPL and REH never achieved.

Mr. Smith created several story cycles/worlds that never managed to catch on like Howard’s “Hyperborea” or Lovecraft’s “New England” did. These worlds were

“Poseidonis”, which was a remnant of sunken Atlantis.

“Xiccarph” a fantasy world circling a distant star.

“Hyperborea”, an ancient fantasy version of Greenland which is not to be confused with REH’s antediluvian fantasy home of “Conan”

And lastly my favourite,

“Zothique”!

“Zothique” is the original “Dying Earth” sub-genre series of the stories that inspired the “Dying Earth” series of “Jack Vance”. “The “Worlds End” series by Lin Carter and Gene Wolfe’s “Book of the New Sun” series of novels.

Zothique is a far future Earth where the sun is a dying “Red Star”, the continents have sunken and only “Zothique” remains as the last continent. In this far future our present history has been forgotten, new gods have been created, old gods have been reborn and the world has become a decadent place of danger and magic.

There is only one writer today who I think of who has an understanding of the “weird tale” that is on the level of Clark Ashton Smith. And that writer is “Darrell Schweitzer”.

Mr. Schweitzer has his own voice and vision that still manage to evoke a weirdness that parallels the stories of Mr. Smith. Please grab a copy of one Mr. Schweitzer’s fantasy novels of collections and you will see what I mean. They are true treasures and a joy to read.

Clark Ashton Smith is one of the few writers who enchant me as much today as they did almost 40 years ago when I discovered him through Ballantine’s “Adult Fantasy “series edited by the late great Mr. Lin Carter.

Here are two CAS passages that have burned themselves into my mind over the past decades. The first is the opening paragraph to his prose poem “The Abominations of Yondo” and the second is the closing paragraph to his SF story “The Monster of Prophecy”.

“The sand of the desert of Yondo is not as the sand of other deserts; for Yondo lies nearest of all to the world's rim; and strange winds, blowing from a pit no astronomer may hope to fathom, have sown its ruinous fields with the gray dust of corroding planets, the black ashes of extinguished suns. The dark, orblike mountains which rise from its wrinkled and pitted plain are not all its own, for some are fallen asteroids half-buried in that abysmal sand. Things have crept in from nether space, whose incursion is forbid by the gods of all proper and well-ordered lands; but there are no such gods in Yondo, where live the hoary genii of stars abolished and decrepit demons left homeless by the destruction of antiquated hells.”

“When the poet had communicated this bit of astronomical information to Ambiala, that the star Atana was his own native sun, and had also told her of his Ode to Antares, a most affecting scene occurred, for the empress encircled him with her five arms and cried out:

'Do you not feel, as I do, that we were destined for each other?'

Though he was a little discomposed by Ambiala's display of affection, Alvor could do no less than assent. The two beings, so dissimilar in external ways, were absolutely overcome by the rapport revealed in this comparing of poetic notes; and a real understanding, rare even with persons of the same evolutionary type, was established between them henceforward. Also, Alvor soon developed a new appreciation of the outward charms of Ambiala, which, to tell the truth, had not altogether inveigled him theretofore. He reflected that after all her five arms and three legs and three eyes were merely a superabundance of anatomical features upon which human love was wont to set a by no means lowly value. As for her opalescent coloring, it was, he thought, much more lovely than the agglomeration of outlandish hues with which the human female figure had been adorned in many modernistic paintings.

When it became known in Lompior that Alvor was the lover of Ambiala, no surprise or censure was expressed by any one. Doubtless the people, especially the male Alphads who had vainly wooed the empress, thought that her tastes were queer, not to say eccentric. But anyway, no comment was made: it was her own amour after all, and no one else could carry it on for her. It would seem, from this, that the people of Omanorion had mastered the ultra-civilized art of minding their own business.”

If you like this kind of writing then you can read much more at the CAS fan page “TheEldritch Dark”. They have the complete e-texts to his stories.

“TheReturn of the Sorcerer; The Best of Clark Ashton Smith” is still available/inprint.

“Penguin books” is planning a CAS collection of stories and poetry for 2013!!!

Ray Bradbury once said this about Mr. Clark Ashton Smith”

“Smith always seemed, to me anyway, a special writer for special tastes; his fame was lonely. Whether or nor it will ever be more than lonely, I cannot say. Every writer is special in some way, and those who are more than ordinarily special are either damned or lost along the way.” Knowing that they won’t damn Clark Ashton Smith, and that they are willing to recover what of his might be lost, gives his fans a sense of closeness to him."

I wish that this wasn’t such a rambling and disjointed post this time, but Mr. Smith’s stories are so unique, wonderful and special that I’m at a loss of words to even begin to describe them in the way they truly deserve. I just hope that that I have piqued your interest enough to take a look at the world of Clark Ashton Smith!

I was so deeply impressed by Mr. Smith's stories that I built a time machine during a my lunch breaks at work so I could visit "Zothique" myself!

Don't try this at home kids!

Now check out some of these wonderful CAS covers from my collection.

Panther UK 1972. Cover by Bruce Pennington

Panther UK 1974

Ballantine Adult Fantasy. June 1970. Cover By George Barr

Ballantine Adult Fantasy. July 1973.

Cover by Gervasio Gallardo

Panther Uk. 1974

Pocket Books. August 1981. cover by Rowena Morrell

Gollancz UK. 2002. Cover by J.K. Potter

Necronomicon Press. June 1995

Prime Books. 2009. Cover by Peter Bergting

Take care and thanks for stopping by!!

Doug

2012-11-20T21:10:00.003+01:00

Masters of Horror

Edited by Alden H. Norton

Berkley Books. April 1968. $0.60

Contents:

Introduction - Sam Moskowitz
Clemence Housman - The Werewolf
Bram Stoker - Dracula's Guest
Mary Shelley - The Transformation
Robert W. Chambers - The Yellow Sign
A. Merrit - The Women Of The Wood
H. R. Wakefield - Blind Man's Bluff
David H. Keller - A Piece Of Linoleum
Henry Kuttner - Before I Wake
Ray Bradbury - The Candy Skull

My copy.

Here’s another wonderful collection edited by ”Alden H. Norton”. Mr. Norton as I’ve written before was once one of america’s top genre editors. He at one time or another edited fiction for “Argosy”, “Adventure”, “Astonishing Stories”, “Super Science Stories”, “Famous FantasticMysteries”, “Fantastic Novels” and “A. Merritts Magazine of Fantasy”. So what we have here is an anthology edited by a man who was a master of his profession. It also doesn’t hurt that “Sam Moskowitz” lent a hand in suggesting stories. Mr. Norton edited all together 3 Horror anthologies for “Berkley. These were “Masters of Horror”, “Horror Times Ten”” and “Hauntings and Horrors: Ten Grisly Tales”. Here’s the link to my earlier post on “Horror Times Ten”…

"Horror Times Ten"

This is simply a wonderful collection. The book keep me so entertained that it only took me two evening to finish it. There’s not a single bad or disappointing story in the entire book. I’m serious, it one the finest anthologies that I’ve read in ages. One other thing that makes this book so special is I originally purchased it from the ads in the back of “Famous Monsters of Filmland” over 40 years ago.

Here's the old Famous monster's ads.....

Now let’s take a look at those stories!

Clemence Housman - The Werewolf

Housman’s “The Werewolf” is a great story about a mysterious and beautiful young woman who shows up one night at the door of an isolated northern European/Slavic farming estate during a massive snow storm. The son of the estates Mistress falls instantly in love with this beautiful young woman who is supposedly making a long trek alone to visit some distant relatives. The young son of one of the serfs is also enchanted by this young woman who places a kiss on his forehead as she takes her leave to continue her story. As she goes she promises that she will return. The Mistresses other son returns from a hunting expedition shortly after the young woman leaves and he’s terrified to see wolf tracks in the snow leading straight up to the Halls main entrance. When he learns of the mysterious visitor he quickly puts two and two together and realizes that this woman is a Werewolf! A few days after her visit the serf’s small son mysteriously disappears and wolves are heard howling in the distance. The 2^nd brother is present when the young woman returns a second time. He warns the others of the danger being presented by the young woman, but no one believe him and his brother accuses him of simply being jealous young woman only has eyes for him. This cause a rift between the (twin) brothers that eventually leads to open strife between the brothers. The “smart” brother takes it upon himself to follow the young woman after her next visit and what follows is literally a running battle with a deadly and tragic end.

This story hasn’t aged a bit considering that it was written during the 1890s. I enjoyed the “prose poem” style of narration and the believable dynamics of the twin brothers relationship.

Here’s the link to the online public domain version of this story…….

"The Werewolf"

Bram Stoker - Dracula's Guest

“Dracula’s Guest” was originally written as the opening chapter to Mr. Stokers “Dracula”. Because of the length of the novel it was decided to excise this opening chapter for brevity’s sake. The story covers the first stretch of Jonathan Harker’s trip to Transylvania. Staying outside of Munich near the German Alps, Jonathan takes a day trip and against the advice of his driver decides to visit an abandoned village in an accursed valley. We find out that maybe Mr. Harker should have followed the coachman’s advice as it turns out the village was abandoned due to a small vampire problem. Luckily for him a nearby detachment of Bavarian Cavalrymen had been alerted to his dilemma by a certain Count Dracula via a telegram sent to Jonathan’s current host. This is an entertaining and fast paced little story that I’ve heard of, but never read before.

Mary Shelley - The Transformation

“The Transformation” is a nice little morality tale written by Mary “Frankenstein” Shelley. It tells the story of a spoiled, arrogant, profligate and ungrateful young nobleman who loses everything through his ingratitude towards those who care for him and his narcissistic ways. He end up be cast out by his adoptive family and risks losing the love of his fiancé when he meets up with a “Rumpelstiltskin”-like dwarf who promises him a chest full of treasure if the young nobleman agrees to exchange bodies for just one day. Of course the dwarf reneges on their agreement and tries to insinuate himself into the young mans life. The ending is not a surprise, but still very satisfying. This is a well written and enjoyable story even though was written back in the 1820s!

Robert W. Chambers - The Yellow Sign

Robert W. Chambers was a very popular novelist back at the beginning of the 20^th century, but is most famous today for his collection of horror stories called “The King in Yellow”. These stories were of great influence on H.P. Lovecraft. The thing that left the greatest impression on HPL and most modern readers was a common thread running through this series of very loosely interconnected stories. That thread was an imaginary theater piece called “The King in Yellow” which was supposedly so revealing of hidden truths that it drives the reader insane. The most widely reprinted scene from the play is…

"Cassilda's Song"

Which comes from Act 1, Scene 2 of the play:

“Along the shore the cloud waves break,

The twin suns sink behind the lake,

The shadows lengthen

In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies,

But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

Where flap the tatters of the King,

Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead,

Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa.”

“The Yellow Sign” deals with an artist and his model who share recurring nightmare concerning the repulsive “grave worm like” night watchmen of the church and cemetery next door to the artist’s apartment house and who discover a copy of “The King in Yellow” in the artist’s private library where one never existed before. I won’t reveal more. I can promise you thought that this story is simultaneously genteel and terrifying. It is genuinely a frightening proto-Cthulhu Mythos story. I works on every level.

The “Yellow sign” refers a mysterious symbol which represents the “King in Yellow”, his servants and followers. Anyone who possesses is subject to mind control and another Chamber’s story hints that the symbol is of extra-dimensional origin.

If you’re interested, “Wordsworth” books offer a lovely and affordable edition as part of their “Library of Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural” and is available from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and amazon.de and abebooks. Here's the link.

"The King in Yellow"

A. Merrit - The Women of The Wood

Abraham Merritt is one of my all time favourite Fantasists, and this is the first time I ever read one of his short stories. I own a collection which contains all of them, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. “The Women of the Wood” was a story that appeared in “Weird Tales” back in the 1920s after being rejected by “Argosy”. This was the only time they rejected one of his stories. Since he was their most popular author I can’t imagine why they did this. It was a big hit in “Weird Tales2 though. It deals with an aviator who is staying at an in located in the French Alps as he tries to heal his soul and body from the traumas of WWI. He ends up becoming the friend and protector of a group of Dryads living in a nearby grove of trees that are threatened by a local family. The local family wishes to destroy the grove because they see it as a sigh of the repression their forefathers suffered at the hands of the local noble’s centuries before. This is a nicely written story with on of the most morally ambivalent tales that I’ve ever read. I like to think that Mr. Merritt intended it that way. It can also be found in Mr. Merritt’s short story collection “The Fox Woman and other Stories”.

H. R. Wakefield - Blind Man's Bluff

“Blind Mans Bluff” is another goody. It’s a very short and even nastier story. A man purchases an abandoned country estate and goes out to it one evening so he can give it the once over before he moves in. He arrives as the sun is going down and once he enters the house he discovers that the lights aren’t functioning. While trying to find his way back to the front door he becomes terribly disoriented in the darkness and it seems the front door isn’t were it should be anymore. And to make matters worse, something is in the darkness with him! Brrr! To paraphrase what the late “Andy Griffith” once said, “mmh mmh! Good story!”

David H. Keller - A Piece of Linoleum

This has to be the saddest story in the book. A man is driven to suicide by his wife’s somewhat questionable good intentions. I’ve read that Dr. Keller didn’t have the highest regards for the fairer sex. It’s a nice sick story in spite of it’s low key misogyny.

Henry Kuttner - Before I Wake.

Henry Kuttner was a great hack pulpist before he blossomed as a collaborator with his wife “C.L. Moore”. This shows that he was already on his way out of the pukp ghetto before he met his wife. Mr. Kuttner was also a mentor to “Ray Bradbury” and did some polishing up on some of Mr. Bradbury’s early stories that had been rejected. I find that so interesting since this story predates Ray’s start as a writer yet it reads like a mixture of “Ray Bradbury” and “John Steinbeck”.

“Before I wakes” deals with Joe, the young son of an immigrant Portuguese fisherman living on Florida’s Gulf coast. Young Joe is a dreamer who things that all lands beyond the horizon must be places of magic and beauty. His father wishes to get him signed aboard a ship as soon a possible to banish these foolish ideas from joe’s head. For good or bad, young Joe rescues a toad that his father tries to crush while coming home drunk one night. It seems that this toad just might be a Witch’s “Familiar” who outlived his mistress. Joe ends up being given the choice to either live in the land of his dreams or to remain in the mundane world of every day reality. This is another lovely story that is both melancholy and satisfying.

Ray Bradbury - The Candy Skull

“The Candy Skull” is an early “Ray Bradbury” story that had never been reprinted before. It’s a precursor to Mr. Bradbury’s later “romanticized Mexico” stories. This is a straight up murder mystery with a wonderful Mexican setting that takes place deep in Mexico on “dia de los Muertos”. That’s Mexico’s “Day of the Dead”. This is a very good story which is made even more enjoyable by the fact that the last time I read it was about 40 years ago.

Like I said at the beginning, this has to be one of the very best anthologies that I’ve read in a long time. To me, Mr. Alden is a world class anthologist right up there with “Robert Arthur” and “August Derleth”. Get this book if you can find a copy. It’ll be well worth the effort.

I have two more things to bring up.

The first of them is that “Wordsworth Books” publishes what they call “The Library of Tale of Mystery and the Supernatural”. This series is a labour of love which has reprinted collection by many extremely hard to find writers. These are great affordable (cheap) paperback collections by such authors as “H. P. Lovecraft”, “Robert E. Howard”, “E.F. Benson”, “Henry S. Whitehead”, “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle”, “William Hope Hodgson”, “Robert W. Chambers”, “Sheridan Le Fanu” and many many other wonderful story tellers.

It seems that “Wordsworth” may be discontinuing the series due to lack of ales. That would be a horrible shame. This series is a labour of love that deserves your support. Most of the tales can’t be found anywhere else. These are also very attractive and affordable trade paperbacks. You can check out “Wordsworth” homepage here. All of these titles are available from “Amazon” and “Abebooks” around the world.

So please do check them out and do your self a huge favour by purchasing a few of these fantastic collections!

Lastly I’ve been asked to announce that the “The Ethereal Gazette Presents:Shadow of the Nightmare” is accepting short story submissions for the same named horror anthology.

You can find out all about it here!

Well that’s it for this week. I’ll try to post a bit more frequently aswinter moves in and I’ll have more time to write these posts.

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Doug

2012-11-04T13:21:00.001+01:00

"Creeps by Night"

Edited by Dashiell Hammett

Four Square Books.

February 1966

My copy of the UK "four Square" edtion.

The US edtion from "Belmont"

Hi folks, this week I’m covering “Creeps by Night”, which was edited by the great “Dashiell Hammett”. This is the companion paperback “The Red Brain” which I covered several weeks ago. Together these 2 collections completely reprint the original 1932 hardback, “Creeps by Night”. I love the cover to this collection. Sadly, I can’t decipher the artist’s signature even with the use of a magnifying glass. Even though it’s slightly misleading as far as the contents go. I still love the whole haunted house horror imagery. I know this would have appealed to me greatly when I was just a youngster. But then again, even today, I still find it extremely attractive.

What I especially liked about this collection is that even though these are “horror” stories, they are also very “suspenseful” horror stories. I’m assuming that this reflects Mr. Hammett’s sensibilities and or tastes as editor.

Introduction
A Rose for Emily - William Faulkner
The House - Andre Maurois
The Spider - Hanns Heinz Ewers
The Witch's Vengeance - W B Seabrook
Mr. Arcularis - Conrad Aiken
The Strange Case of Mrs Arkwright - Harold Dearden
The King of the Cats - Stephen Vincent Benet
Beyond the Door - Paul Suter
Perchance to Dream - Micheal Joyce
A Visitor from Egypt - Frank Belknap Long

Now let's take a look at those stories!

A Rose for Emily - William Faulkner

Back in 1932 “A rose for Emily” was a new story that hadn’t been reprinted a million times. This was even included in one of my high School literature books. That’s how famous it was at one time. This is a great story that has all the elements that made Faulkner so famous. You have a “Southern Gothic”, small town scandals and gossip, fallen aristocracy, insanity, murder and even a strong whiff of necrophilia! In short, it has all the makings for great young adult reading!

The House - Andre Maurois

“The House” is only 3 pages long and is more of a vignette than an actual story. A woman has a recurring dream of visiting a country estate where she is warned by the people living there that it’s haunted. Years later she discovers the house of her dreams with a result that is so obvious that reading more than the first few paragraphs is a waste of time.

The Spider - Hanns Heinz Ewers

This is the English translation from the original German. I’ve never read it in German but this seems to be a marvellous translation. A young student rents a room in a boarding house. Upon discovering that all of the previous tenants have met mysterious deaths he cons the police in letting him have the room rent free upon the condition that he discovers the source of the mysterious deaths. He develops a bizarre relationship with a beautiful young woman whose rooms are across the street from his. The never meet face to face and only communicate through hand signals. This has to be one of the creepiest stories that I ever read. You get to experience the young mans descent into obsessive madness as he becomes drawn ever deeper and deeper into the silent games he’s plays with the young woman across the way as the simply sit across from each other in their window day after day. This is a wonderful story.

The Witch's Vengeance - W B Seabrook

A young Englishman on vacation in the French Pyrenees falls in love with the grand daughter of a reputed witch. He convinces this love to leave her grandmother which makes the old woman extremely angry. The “witch” then puts a curse upon the young man which has immediate results. His best friend then goes about confronting the witch in an attempt to lift the curse.

Mr. Arcularis - Conrad Aiken

This is probably a very enjoyable story as long as you have never seen the film “Jacobs Ladder” or the “Twilight zone” episode “"A Stop at Willoughby". I figure that back in the early 30s that this was a very original twist ending. A man recovering from a serious operation goes on an ocean cruise to regain his health. He starts to have episodes of sleep walking that seem to be leading him ever closer to the ships hold where a coffin and its occupant are being taken back to Ireland of burial. Mr. Arccularis has the feeling that something terrible will happen once he does reach the ships hold while sleep walking. Hmmm, I wonder what that could be.

The Strange Case of Mrs Arkwright - Harold Dearden

Mrs. Arkwright is the widow of a horrible man who caused her to lose her baby. It seems that her first husband even died on the night that she lost the child during childbirth. She is now remarried but begins to suffer from terrible nightmares. He new husband convinces her to visit a psychiatrist to get to the roots of her nightmares. We then get about 5 pages of the psychiatrist analyzing the symbolism in her dreams. It seems they are based on her guilt over losing her child and her hatred towards he first husband. This seems to solve things nicely and to celebrate the newly married couple have the psychiatrist down for the Christmas holidays after they have moved into the estate that Mrs. Arkwright inherited from her late first husband. Over the holidays Mrs. Arkwright’s nightmares begin again and this time they are accompanied by somnambulism. All this is witnessed by the visiting psychiatrist. Suddenly her nightmare takes on a whole new meaning once the doctor sees what Mrs. Arkwright does in her dead husband’s bedroom while sleep walking. This is a nice story, but after reading this king of stuff for over 40 years the ending wasn’t that much of a surprise.

The King of the Cats - Stephen Vincent Benet

This one reads more like a children’s story than something Dashiell Hammett would pick out for a horror anthology. But who knows. Maybe he thought we need a break from all of the gloom and doom in the previous stories.

A young man falls in love with a “feline like” Russian Princess in exile in America. He has great hope for their relationship until he receives competition for her affections in the form of a French conductor who actually has the tail that he conducts with. This is a cute little fantasy story dealing with how the young man attempts to do away with his rival. This is also the lightest story in the entire collection.

Beyond the Door - Paul Suter

I liked “Beyond the door” very much. A young man inherits his late Uncle’s house which he promptly moves into. His Uncle had been found down in an uncovered well that was located in the cellar. By reading his Uncle’s diary the young man learns that the old man had been haunted/hunted at night by something that constantly tried to break into his chambers. This all started shortly after one of the servant girls moved out and away without telling anyone. Hmmmm. I wonder if there is any connection.

Perchance to Dream - Micheal Joyce

This is another odd story. I liked it very much though. This one is pure psychological horror. I man visits his estranged sister after having not seen her for many years. She live in a small town and is married to the local chemist/pharmacist who has strange ideas on how to treat their son illness. It seem that daddy is a “sort of do it yourself” medical researcher. The brother tries to get his sister to leave her husband and to take their son with her. Sadly the pharmacist and his axe have other ideas. What impressed me so much with this story is the feeling of complete oppression the woman lives under and her inability, thanks to constant abuse from her husband, to take a concrete measures to help herself and her son. The relationship of abused and abuser in the story has a ring of truth to it. It has to be the most unpleasant and surprising story in the book.

A Visitor from Egypt - Frank Belknap Long

This one is a pretty good pulp horror story from Mr. Long. There’s nothing subtle or psychological about this one. No siree! A museum curator receives a visit from a famous archaeologist who due to some skin affliction is wrapped up in coat, gloves and scarves. He is extremely interested in the museum’s newest acquisition from Egypt. It turns out that the bones belong to the most favoured of the god “Osiris’s” priests. And the curator learns that his visitor is not who he claims to be and that it’s not wise to piss of the old gods. This story is straight up pulp horror and a perfectly horrible “upbeat2 ending to the collection.

All in all “Creeps by Night” is a very strong collection that relies more on suspense building rather than “in your face” pulp horror. It makes for a nice change of pace. Not that I have anything against “in your face” pulp horror!

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Doug

2012-10-28T18:12:00.003+01:00

Abraham Merritt,

a forgotten master of Fantasy and lost world adventure.

Hi folks!

Mr. Abraham Merritt

I’m going a tad bit off topic this week in covering an author who is not a writer of horror stories. I figure though, that since horror and fantasy are kissing cousins you’ll all give me a bit of leeway.

What got me going in this direction is that a few weeks ago I made one of the best deals that I’ve ever made on Ebay. I won a complete set of “A. Merritt” books published by Avon Books back in the 1970s. I paid $15.15 for the set and they are all in fine condition. I already had 5 of these editions but I won’t complain about having a few doubles at this price.

“Abraham Merritt” was a big deal who was continuously in print from the 1920s up until the beginning of the 1980s. I read that as of 1981 he had sold more than 10,000,000 copies! Over 5,000,000 of these were in Avon editions alone.

And this is from a man who only wrote on the side and who’s complete output is only 81/2 novels and a few short stories.

Mr. Merritt is most well known for his fantasy/lost world adventure stories. To be lazy, I could describe his writing and stories as Edgar Rice Burroughs meets Robert E. Howard meets C.L. Moore meets H. P. Lovecraft meets Leigh Brackett. It’s not that he was inspired by these folks. All of these esteemed writers, aside from Burroughs, were partially inspired and influenced by Mr. Merritt. His stories appear at first look to be simple pulp escapism. This is not the case though. He elevated fantasy fiction up to the level of literature with out ever sacrificing the amount of entertainment that they delivered. Even when describing lost worlds, brave heroes and heroines, fantastic beings and creatures, tragedy, excitement and lastly, grand adventure did Mr. Merritt ever condescend to his readers. This stuff is truly pulp goodness written by an adult for adults. His writing is dense, but hat’s what makes it so rewarding. During his lifetime, Mr. Merritt was the highest paid newspaper editor in America and only wrote as a side profession. His stories and novels were serialized in the highest paying fiction markets of the day. This was from the late 19-teens up into the 1930s. The later reprints of these stories in book form were also world wide best sellers. I wish I knew why these wonderful stories fell out of grace with new young readers. Something happened to the reading tastes a little over 30 years ago that seems to have resigned them to the dust bin of genre writing. I’ve seen some bloggers and reviewers complain that the writing is too dense or that the stories are too old fashioned. I can’t pass judgement on the density of the writing since this is the kind of stuff I learned to read from. Of course these stories are old fashioned and slightly sexist. They were written in another world than ours. That doesn’t make them bad or poor. It makes them different. It seems that many younger readers are quick to pass judgement on anything that doesn’t fit the politically correct, post modern narrative. I think that it’s their loss though. I wish that I was talented enough of a writer to even begin to describe how powerful and moving these novels are. Especially “The Face in the Abyss”, ”The Moon Pool”, “Dwellers in the Mirage” and “The Metal Monster”. These novels are fantasy adventure on a level that wasn’t seen before or since. That’s why the man sold 10 million+ books! I’ll be adding some links to his writings that are still in print at the bottom of this post.

Now let’s talk about this last series of Merritt books from Avon. Avon Publishing was practically the sole publisher of Mr. Merritt’s writings. Avon published the paperbacks from the late 1940s all the way up until the early 1980s. They even published an “A. Merritt’s Fantasy Magazine” for a few years. Avon claims to have sold more than 5,000,000 Merritt editions. I guess Mr. Merritt was good business for Avon.

The editions that Avon published during the 1970s were that rare and wonderful combination of a great author, great cover artists and perfect book design. That is a very special thing when it happens. These volumes all had a wonderful uniform look that made them recognizable from a mile away to even reader with poor eyesight. They all sport Mr. Merritt’s name at the top in a huge arch with the title directly underneath in a large oval field. This is all in the foreground of some of the most amazing cover art that I’ve ever seen. 2 covers were done by “Stephen Fabian”. Two were done by “Rodney Mathews”. Sadly, I don’t’ know who did the other four. It’s a terrible shame that who ever painted the cover to “Dwellers in the Mirage” didn’t get credit in the book. I find that every one of these covers is so fitting to the subject matter that it is obvious that who ever was in charge of this series took their work very seriously. I think that it’s awful that you don’t see this kind of care being put into books these days. The layout of these covers alone is art in itself.

So in closing I want you to take a look at these covers, drink in their beauty, and appreciate the care, time and talent that went in to putting the series together. We will never see this kind of publishing artistry ever again.

UPDATE: 3 November
Mark Cannon of Canberra Australia sent me the following information....

"British artist Patrick Woodroffe did the "Dwellers in the Mirage" and "Seven Footprints to Satan" covers. I have a UK edition of "Dwellers" which also uses this cover. He also did the covers for Futura editions of "Satan" (with a different and much wilder cover) and "Burn Witch, Burn", and another edition of "The Ship of Ishtar".

Woodroffe illustrated huge number of British SF< Fantasy & Horror paperbacks, along with record covers, in the 1970s."

THANKS MARK!!

Here is the E-text to the fantasy/SF round robin that Mr. Merritt contributed to. It's a 20th century who's who of the fantastic!

The Challenge from Beyond By C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft,Robert E.Howard, and Frank Belknap Long

Stephen Fabian's offical home page.

Rodney Matthew's offical home page.

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Doug

Here's the scans of the editions in my collection.
And thanks to Bill Crider for turning me onto "Photoscape".
Now I can do these cool wrap around scans.

Cover By Stephen Fabian.

Another Fabian cover.

Rodney Matthews!

More Rodney Matthews!

A lovely Ken Barr cover. the original recently sold for $970!

Patrick Woodroffe

Les Edwards

Another one by Patrick Woodroffe! Aint this one of the most amazing things that you've ever seen!

Here are my other Merritt's in my collection. These are nice but come no where near the later editions as far as beauty goes.

Here's some links Merritt books that are still in print!

"The Moon Pool"
"The Metal Monster"
"The Ship of Ishtar"

The film "Devil Doll" was based on Mr. Merritt's "Burn Witch! Burn!"

2012-10-20T14:57:00.000+02:00

Hallowe’en Horrors (Halloween Horrors)

Edited by Alan Ryan

Sphere Books. 1988

Charter Books 1986

My UK copy.

The US edition.

“Hallowe’en Horrors” editied by the late Alan Ryan is the oldest Halloween theme anthology and it’S from only 1988. So I’m once pushing the boundaries of what I consider “Vintage” again. But considering that Halloween themed anthologies are scarcer than Skanks Teeth I thinks it’s safe to stretch my definitions a little bit this time. I read this jut last year for the first time and found it to me a pretty satisfying, if grisly, collection of Halloween stories. What I fond to be interesting about Mr. Ryan’s anthology is how grim and grisly the selection of stories is. There’s nary a drop of whimsy in this collection. The closest any of them come to being “traditionally spooky” is Ramsey Campbell’s “Apples”. And that’s simply because no children die in it. Dead kids makes some of the stories hard going emotionally. Aside from that every story fits it’s Halloween theme perfectly. Get it if you can find it!

Blurb from the back cover….

“HALLOWE'EN - A TIME FOR PUMPKIN LANTERNS AND TRICK OR TREAT, FOR HOT SPICED DRINKS AND PARTY LAUGHTER. FOR SOME. BUT NOT FOR ALL. FOR THOSE LONELY SOULS HALLOWE'EN IS A NIGHT OF NECROMANCY AND BONE-CHILLING FEAR, WHEN THE WILD OCTOBER WIND CANNOT QUITE MASK THE HIGH, KEENING SCREAM OF TERROR, WHEN THE ANCIENT EVILS ARISE ONCE MORE FROM THE UNDERWORLD TO LURE THE UNWARY TO THEIR DARK AND TERRIBLE DEATHS ...”

CONTENTS

HE'LL COME KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR - ROBERT R MCCAMMON

EYES - CHARLED L GRANT

THE NIXON MASK - WHITLEY STRIEBER

THE SAMHAIN FEIS - PETER TREMAYNE

TRICKSTER - STEVE RASNIC TEM

MISS MACK - MICHAEL MCDOWELL

HOLLOW EYES - GUY N SMITH

THE HALLOWEEN HOUSE - ALAN RYAN

THREE FACES OF THE NIGHT - CRAIG SHAW GARDNER

PUMPKIN - BILL PRONZINI –

LOVER IN THE WILDWOOD - FRANK BELKNAP LONG

APPLES - RAMSEY CAMPBELL

PRANKS - ROBERT BLOCH

Now let’s take a look at the stories……

“HE'LL COME KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR” by ROBERT R MCCAMMON.

A working class family finds out that maybe the new job with a promotion and getting an affordable home in the new sub-division doesn’t come with out sacrifices, especially on Halloween. I enjoyed this one. Sometimes an unpleasant ending is just what the doctor ordered.

“EYES” by CHARLES L GRANT.

Only the late Charles Grant can combine incredible Halloween atmosphere and mood with heart breaking loss, regret and punishment. This story is a perfect example of what Mr. Grant meant by describing his style as “quiet horror”. Saying that I enjoyed this one would be a lie. Considering it deals with the abuse and subsequent death of a boy with Downs Syndrome makes it too sad and painful to be considered enjoyable. Still, it’s an amazing and powerful story that will stay with you for a long time.

“THE NIXON MASK” by WHITLEY STRIEBER.

This is Mr. Streiber’s take Halloween paranoia in the Nixon Whitehouse. This is a wonderfully weird story of how Richard and Pat Nixon have to deal with “Trick or Treaters” and the significance of not letting your mask slip and showing fear to outsiders. I’m not sure, but I think this is actually about the loss of control and how we try to hide the loss. I didn’t like this one a lot, but it is bizarre enough to keep your interest.

“THE SAMHAIN FEIS” by PETER TREMAYNE .

A little boy in Ireland moves with his widowed mother in a remote house in the mountains and meets an invisible friend named “Sam”. I’m assuming that you can figure out where this one is going. It’s well written with a strong sense of place, but it’s a “been there, done that” kind of story.

“TRICKSTER” by STEVE RASNIC TEM.

I liked this one a lot. It’s definitely a Halloween story, but with a modern urban and not traditional setting. A man is haunted by both his dead/missing trickster brother and the dysfunctional relationship they shared. I loved this story. It’s a modern and non-traditional story that manages to still be 100% Halloween with great mood and an unsettling ending that gets under your skin. Not the easiest read in the book, but well worth it.

“MISS MACK” by MICHAEL MCDOWELL.

This is a great story that could have appeared in a later edition of “Weird Tales”.

It tell the story of a very deep friendship between two female teachers in a small southern town clear How “deep” the friendship actually is, is never made clear and is totally beside the point. What is important is how a jealous rival responds to the relationship between the two women. What makes matters worse it the jealous mans mother is a witch. This is one of those stories where bad things happen to good people and there are some fates that are worse then death. It’s scary , sad and actually keeps you hoping right up to the bitter end.

“HOLLOW EYES” by GUY N SMITH.

This one is a goodie! I man goes searching Halloween night for his arrant teen age daughter who’s run away with her delinquent boyfriend. He soon discovers that what used to be considered teen age seasonal hijinks have taken a very nasty and deadly turn. I would have been disappointed if this one didn’t have an awful end.

“THE HALLOWEEN HOUSE” by ALAN RYAN.

A group of teenagers decided to visit a local haunted house on Halloween and run into something straight out of one of Manly Wade Wellman’s “Silver John” stories.

This one is a great “spooky” Halloween story.

“THREE FACES OF THE NIGHT” by CRAIG SHAW GARDNER.

This has to be the most ambitious story in the collection. A young man has a Halloween encounter with a Warlock neighbour which changes his life. This one is just to weird to even bother describing. Let’s just say he becomes a force of evil and leave it at that.

“PUMPKIN” by BILL PRONZINI.

If your hired hands advise you to leave the evil pumpkin alone and to let it simply rot on the vine, then maybe you should listen to them. This is a very simple, but effective Halloween shocker. I enjoyed it.

“LOVER IN THE WILDWOOD” by FRANK BELKNAP LONG.

An old woman in a nursing home convinces her care giver to sneak her out of the home on Halloween night so that she can meet her lover for one last tryst. This one is a surprisingly sweet and touching story written by pulp meister Long. It’s a wonderfully written story.

“APPLES” by RAMSEY CAMPBELL.

“Apples” is a wonderful non-cryptic Halloween story about a group of kids who steal some apples out of their weird old neighbors garden and the crazy shit that goes down on Halloween as he take supernatural revenge. This story shows what I love so much abour most of Mr. Campbell’s writing. It’s also the only other story next to “Lover in the Wildwood” that doesn’t end in God awful horror and death.

“PRANKS” by ROBERT BLOCH.

“Pranks” is the kind of Robert Bloch story that has all of his strengths and none of his weaknesses. There are no stupid puns or black humour in the story. Think of it as really good EC horror with out any of the gallows humor or eye winking. Trick or Treat goes horribly wrong for 13 children and their parents. If you have children then this one will be keeping you up nights!

I think the “Hallowe’en Horrors” is a very solid anthology of Halloween stories that never stray from the theme. I strongly recommend that you seek out this book and buy if you can find an affordable copy.

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Doug

P.S.

Here's a new Halloween Anthology that's still in Print!

"HALLOWEEN"

It reprints many of the stories that appeared earlier in the classic and sadly out of print "October Dreams".

2012-10-07T11:38:00.000+02:00

There’s a signpost up ahead - your next stop, the OCTOBER COUNTRY!

THE OCTOBER COUNTRY … that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coalbins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain…Ray Bradbury.

Not that anyone is asking, but if you would ask me, I would say that the late RayBradbury is the one author most identified with the month of October. And now that October is upon us I figured that it’s time for a little bit more Bradbury.

October is in it own way the perfect month. Where as I think that September and November are “tainted” months. September “taint” summer nor fall and November “taint” autumn nor winter. October has warm sunny days with crisp cool nights. The daytime skies have a blue that is almost painful. The leaves are showing their colors and Halloween is on its way. This is the season of the witch, the unexpected. We hope that maybe a little bit of magic and wonder might peek from behind the curtain that is reality as we know it. It shows us that even dying can have its own beauty as nature prepares for the end of life’s cycle as the death of winter approaches. And Mr. Brabury understood this perfectly.

Mr. Bradbury was always a stylist. What many might not know is that he was a writer of horror stories before he became the RAY BRADBURY who most readers know. His earliest stories appeared in “Weird Tales” magazine back in the 1940s and these were mostly horror stories. Not your typical horror stories, but horror stories none the less. Many of these early stories have been collected in tow volumes. The U.S. edition is still in print under the title “The October Country”. The UK edition appeared under the title of “The Small Assassin”, with a small but significant change in the contents which I’ll list below. These stories were first reprinted in the collection “Dark Carnival” from “Arkham house publishing”.

“SomethingWicked This Way Comes” is a novel of fantasy and horror about an evil magic carnival that visits a small Midwestern town during the last week of October.

“TheHalloween Tree” is Mr. Bradbury’s love letter to Halloween, friendship and the end of childhood. It deals with a magical journey through history (and the origins of Halloween) taken by a group of boys’ to save the life of a dying friend and the sacrifices that must be made for the sake of love and friendship.

Both “The Halloween Tree” and “The October Country” are full of wonderful illustrations and have covers done by the incredible Mr. Joseph Mugnaini. These books show the magic of the perfect writer working with the perfect illustrator. Both of these men compliment each other immensely. As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Mugnaini’s cover to “The October Country” is single greatest book cover ever.

"From the Dust Returned" is a collection and expansion on the "Elliott Family" stories which were first introduced in the classic Halloween stroy "The Homecoming" . The Elliott's were the original inspiration for "Charles Adams" "Family"!

And lastly, “The October Country”, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and “The Halloween Tree” are all still in print!! So order them now in time for Halloween!

Here are the edtions that I own.

“The October Country” contents: (copied from the Wikipedia)

"The Dwarf"

The owner of a Hall of Mirrors and a young carnival-goer observe a dwarf who uses the mirrors to make himself seem taller.

"The Next in Line"

A couple staying in a small Mexican town comes across a cemetery which holds a shocking policy regarding the interred whose families cannot pay.

"The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse"

A thoroughly dull man becomes the new avant garde craze precisely because he is boring.

"Skeleton"

A man becomes convinced his skeleton is out to ruin him, and consults an unorthodox specialist.

"The Jar"

A poor farmer buys a jar with something floating in it for twelve dollars and it soon becomes the conversation piece of the town. However his wife begins to realize that she cannot stand the jar or him.

"The Lake"

A man revisits his childhood home and recalls a friend who drowned in a lake during childhood.

"The Emissary"

A sick boy who cannot go outside has only two connections to the world, his dog and a woman who lives in the neighborhood. However the neighbor dies and the dog inexplicably runs off.

"Touched With Fire"

Two old men make it their mission to push fulfillment on unhappy people. They unsuccessfully try to do so with a woman whose story ends bloodily. It was first published under the title "Shopping for Death".

"The Small Assassin"

A woman becomes convinced her newborn baby is out to kill her.

"The Crowd"

A man discovers something odd about the crowds that form around accidents.

"Jack-in-the-Box"

A boy lives with his mother in a vast secluded mansion. She raises him to be God after telling him his father, the original God, was killed by beasts outside.

"The Scythe"

A man comes into possession of a powerful scythe and a wheat field. He discovers that the task of reaping is more than meets the eye.

"Uncle Einar"

One of two stories in this collection to feature members of the Elliott family, a collection of movie monsters and immortal beings. This story focuses on a character named Uncle Einar, who tries to find a way into the skies after damaging his biological radar.

"The Wind"

A former travel writer becomes mortally afraid that the winds he has defied around the world are gathering to kill him.

"The Man Upstairs"

A young boy suspects the man renting the upper room of his house to be more than a man.

"There Was an Old Woman"

There was an old woman who defied death for years. Death tricked her one day and stole her body but she wasn't going to let that stop her.

"The Cistern"

A woman describes to her sister how magical the land beneath the sewer must be, where lovers are reunited in death, torture and anguish.

"Homecoming"

The main story concerning the Elliott family. It concerns their return to the ancestral home in Illinois for a gathering, and is seen through the eyes of Timothy, a mortal child left on their doorstep who longs to be like them. Einar from "Uncle Einar" figures prominently. The story later formed the basis for the 2001 novel From the Dust Returned, which also incorporated the "Uncle Einar" story in its narrative.

"The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone"

Fans track down a writer who chose to withdraw into seclusion and cease writing, and get his story from him.

“The Small Assassin” contents:

"The Small Assassin"

"The Next in Line"

"The Lake"

"The Crowd"

"Jack-in-the-Box"

"The Man Upstairs"

"The Cistern"

"The Tombstone"

"The Smiling People"

"The Handler"

"Let’s Play 'Poison'"

"The Night"

"The Dead Man"

The Trailer to Dosney's adaption of "Something Wicked his Way comes"

And here's a clip from "The Cartoon Network's" adaption of "the Halloween Tree" narrated by Leonard Nimoy!

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Doug

2012-09-30T18:01:00.000+02:00

The Lovecraftian cover art of Gervasio Gallardo and Murray Tinkelman.

Or “Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover”.

I’ve been working again in the garden all day. Now that autumn is here there’s a lot to cut back and dig up. So I’m not in a great mood to do any story reviews today. I’ll have a lot more time to write reviews once the weather turns bad in a few weeks. I hope that all of you are cool with this.

I’ve been reading H. P. Lovecraft since 1971 when on my way home from school I found a copy of “The Shadow over Innsmouth and Other Horror Stories” that someone had lost. This was a genuine case of “their loss, my gain”. This was the HPL collection that they were peddling to little kids through the “Scholastic Book Club”. The “Scholastic Book Club” was also my first introduction to Poe, Wells, Finney, Kersh, Collier and Stoker. Not bad stuff for a publisher specializing in affordable paperbacks for grade schoolers!

The cover to the Scholastic edition wasn’t anything to write home about, but it didn’t detract from the reading experience either. I’ve always believed that a great cover can’t save a bad book, even if it does help with the sales though. The great artwork of the legendary “Frank Frazetta” has graced the cover of many a shitty novel. A poor choice of artwork can’t ruin a good book either, even if it might hinder sales. Once in a while there is that rare and special thing though. You have the perfect mating of cover artist and author. This is a wonderful thing when it happens. Luckily this happened twice with the Ballantine Lovecraft editions of the early 1970s. The covers of the Lovecraft paperbacks published by Ballantine books during the early 1970s had cover art by “Gervasio Gallardo” and “Murray Tinkelman”. Both of these men took the Lovecraft themed artwork way beyond the typical gothic horror covers that had been used for earlier HPL editions. Both of these artists were able to evoke the mood of otherworldiness that played such a huge part of Mr. Lovecraft’s writings. The later covers by “Michael Whelan” in the 1980s are iconic in their own right, but he only manages to invoke the uniqueness of HPL’s vision as far as his horror stories are concerned. Sadly Mr. Whelan does not manage to tap above the underlying current of strangeness or otherness that ran through all of Mr. Lovecraft’s writings and not just his straight out horror stories. So, for me at least, Mr. Whelan’s cover art doesn’t manage to tap into the heart of what makes these stories so very special to me. Mr’s Gallardo and Tinkelman have managed this perfectly, as far as I am concerned. And in closing, the less we say about the later 1970s cover by “John Holmes” the better. Don’t get me wrong though, no matter what your taste in art is, all 4 of these men were/are master artists and illustrators. And not just graphic designers who seem to be doing all of today’s book art.

Unless other wise stated these are all scans of my own books.

The cover art of "Gervasio Gallardo"

Gallardo Gallery

I'll bet a 100 bucks that that's a "B. Dalton" on my copy of Kadath!

Not mine

Not mine.

The cover art of "Murray Tinkelman"

Not mine. Not mine, but a copy's on it's way! :-)

The inside cover illustrations by Mr. tinkelman.

The Horror in the museum

The Dream quest of Unknown Kadath

The Mask of Cthulhu

The Doom that came to Sarnath

The Trail of Cthulhu

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

P.S.

Starting next week I’ll be doing at least 2 Halloween themed posts. I can’t believe that it’s already Octobers-Eve. It’s been a fast year.

Dark Gods by T.E.D. Klein

2012-09-24T17:29:00.002+02:00

DARK GODS

By T.E.D. Klein

Pan Books. 1987

My UK edtion from 1987 with a truly stupid cover that doesn't do this book justice.

The original 1986 US edition.

Contents:

"Children of the Kingdom"

"Petey"

"Black Man with a Horn"

"Nadelman's God"

I’m pushing the edge here as far as my own personal concept of “vintage” goes. I’m telling myself that any one younger than 40 would consider a 25 year old book to be “vintage”, so I’ll let it slide.

“DARK GODS” has to be one of the finest single author horror collections I’ve ever read and definitely the finest H. P. Lovecraft inspired collection ever. Mr. Klein has taught written and even edited the old “Twilight Zone Magazine. Sadly due to writers block he has written very little. Aside from “DARK GODS” he has published one novel, Ceremonies, and only a few the short stories, including "The Events at Poroth Farm" which “Ceremonies” is based on.

Interesting trivia: Mr. Klein’s full name is Theodore "Eibon" Donald Klein. He addes The name “Eibon” as a nod to “Clark Ashton Smith” and to Mr. Smith’s fictional Wizard “Eibon” and his self named tome of forbidden knowledge “The Book of Eibon”. This allowed Mr. Klein to have a cool by-line of “T.E.D.”.

I read two of the novellas included in this collection prior to 1986. I read “Children of the Kingdom back in 1981 in the classic anthology “Dark Forces” and “Black Man with a Horn” two years later in “New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos” in 1983.

And now to the novellas…….

“Children of the Kingdom”

CotK takes place in New York during the lates 70s or early 80s prior to a massive summer power outage/black out. It deals with NYC basically being invaded by a race of subterranean half humans who reproduce in the oddest way. This story unfolds nicely through 2 parallel plot threads. The first one deals with a young man and his elderly Grandfather. Gramps gets moved into a senior citizens apartment complex in a neighbourhood slowly being taken over by swarthy foreigners and other undesirable types. This is a nice intentional nod to Mr. Lovecraft’s issues with multiculturalism. Gramps and the young man make friends with a costa Rican priest who is writing a “true” history of the races. It seems that there was once a half human civilization in what would become Costa Rica. It seems that they were punished by the gods for being so warlike. The Gods removed their penises and forced them underground. The 2^nd thread in the story deals with a series of strange occurrences centered on the sewer system. I wonder if they could be somehow connected with the old priest’s histories. Read it and find out!

“Petey”

A couple buy themselves an old house in the country at a bargain price. Actually it’s a steal since the husband gets the house through a crooked highway planning scam.

It’s seems a madman lived there with his “pet/adoptive child” and no one has been feeding it since it’s “father” was sent to a mad house when he refused to sell his home to the highway commission. And when “Petey” gets hungry he becomes very angry. The folks at the new owners house warming party are about to find out.

“Black Man with a Horn”

This is a great story. It thinks it’s the best “Cthulhu Mythos” story ever written by someone else other tham Mr. Lovecraft. A pulp writer, and acquaintance of HPL, finds out the maybe Mr. Lovecraft wasn’t making up all of his stories. I’m not going to say more. This is a wonderful mystery, Mythos tale and character study. The old pulp is writer is based on “Frank Belknap Long” which adds that certain touch of realism and authenticity. Find this story and read it! I can’t even begin to describe how good it is!

Here is what "World Fantasy Award" winner Darrell Schweitzer recently said in a discussion about this story and Mr. Klein....

" A great story. The protagonist is obviously based on Frank Belknap Long. Klein had a knack for making serious literature out of what would have in most peoples' hands been fanfic. If only he were still writing!"

“Nadelman’s God”

I just love “OMG! I’ve help create a monster!” kinds of stories.

Mr. Nadelman is a self satisfied ass of an Advertising executive who was a pretentious gothic poet during his college years. It now seems that a Heavy Metal Band wants to use one of his old poems on their new album. He’s flattered and says yes. Unfortunately an unbalanced fan takes the song literally and follows the directions given in it to create a new “god”, a god of death and despair for the modern age. This succeeds beyond the fans wildest dreams. Sadly he can’t control what he has called up and it goes searching for its true creator. The nice since of unstoppable doom makes this one tough to read.

You can consider yourself extremely lucky if you can get your hands on a copy of this book. Every single one of these 4 novellas pays off in spades! If you love HPL, then the pay off is even higher. Believe me, this book is that good! Now go out there and get searching!

Take care.

And thanks for stopping by!

Doug

2012-09-18T11:29:00.001+02:00

A bothersome Question has been answered!

Thank you sir!

2012-09-16T16:52:00.002+02:00

For the Love of Brain Lumley…

I’m not ashamed to admit that as far as I’m concerned, Mr. Brian Lumley is one of the greatest horror writers who has ever lived. Mr. Lumley started writing when he was a MP with the Royal Army in the late 1960s stationed in Berlin. He wrote some Lovecraftian pastiches and excerpts from volumes of forbidden lore in his free time and decided to send them off to “August Derleth”. Mr. Derleth wrote back requesting more. Mr. Lumley’s first volume of short stories “The Caller of the Black” was published by “Arkham House” in 1971 and the rest is history.

He received a “World Fantasy Award” for Lifetime Achievement in 2010!

Even though it is just part of his complete works, Mr. Lumley is most famous for his “Necroscope” series which details a secret war against vampires who’ve come to the earth through an inter-dimensional doorway. These are great books that simply got wilder and crazier with each new volume. I’m more interested in his other writings though. Mr. Lumley has written SF Horror, Sword & Sorcery, Cthulhu Mythos stories, straight up horror and a mixture of all of these. Mr. Lumley will be turning 75 years old at the beginning of December, but I wanted to thank him and wish him “Happy Birthday” a little bit early.

What I’ve always enjoyed about Mr. Lumley’s stories is that they are simply unpretentious fun! He’s not a stylist or an “artiste”. He is simply a master story teller who honestly seems to love what he writes. And I love what he writes too!

THANK YOU SO VERY MR. LUMLEY!!!!!

p.s. And many thinks to Mr. Thomas Broadbent of Providence Rhode Island for making me think a lot a about Mr. Lumley this past week.

Here are some of my Lumley's

They're only 20-25 years old, so I'm kind of torn on weither I should call these vintage or not.

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Doug

2012-09-12T16:53:00.002+02:00

The Red Brain (and other creepy thrillers)

Selected by Dashiell Hammett

Belmont books 1961. $0.35

My copy of the 1691 Belmont edition.

The Contents:

Introduction - Dashiell Hammett
John Collier - Green Thoughts
Robert Dean Frisbie - The Ghost Of Alexander Perks, A. B.
Peter Fleming - The Kill
Peter MacDonald - Ten O'Clock
L. A. G. Strong - Breakdown
S. Fowler Wright - The Rat
Irvin S. Cobb - Faith, Hope And Charity
H. P. Lovecraft - The Music Of Erich Zann
Donald Wandrei - The Red Brain
W. Elwyn Backus - The Phantom Bus

The UK edtion from Four Square

The companion volume from Belmont which completes the original anthology

The original 1931 Hardcover edition.

I’m posting a lot later than usual because I honestly do try to re-read each book before I write about it and I haven’t had as much free time these past weeks.

Anyways, I enjoyed this anthology a lot more than I thought I would. I was thinking that even though Mr. Hammett was a world class mystery writer he might not be the best anthologist of horror stories. Happily he proved me wrong.

Regarding this collection, as old as my Belmont edition is, the original anthology is even older and originally appeared way back in 1932 as “Creeps by Night”. I find the originally title much better. I mean, the original has me asking myself is “creeps” what the stories do or are there actually those who “creep” by night or lastly, are there those who are Creeps at night? It doesn’t really matter though. This is a fairly strong anthology that contains stories that haven’t been heavily anthologized. And rarely anthologized stories are always seen as good things here at the Bunker.

I like the cover a lot. It’s dark and colorful at the same time. Sadly I have no idea who the artist is.

Now let’s take a look at the stories.

John Collier - Green Thoughts

I’m starting to become a big John Collier fan. This is the fourth one of his stories that I’ve read this year and they’ve all been good fun with a mean little streak of nastiness running through them. Mr. Mannering inherits the effects of a late friend who disappeared on an Amazon expedition. One of the items is a plant bulb which he promptly plants in his green house. This quickly grows into an extremely large Orchid type plant, the kind of which Mr. Mannering has never seen before. He finds out to his own peril that this plant is carnivorous and can procure its own meals. First housse pets and then household members disappear until Mr. Bannering himself falls victim to the plant. It seems that once a meal has been digested it re-appears as a sentient bud on the Orchid. This doesn’t seem to bother Mr. Bannering much until his hated and sadistic nephew inherits his estate. Reading this I have the funny feeling that “Little Shop of Horrors” isn’t such an original story after all. This is an enjoyable story with a nasty and somewhat unexpected end.

Robert Dean Frisbie -The Ghost Of Alexander Perks, A.B.

This is a semi-comic story regarding the titular ghost who is haunting a tramp steamer. “A.B.” means “Able Bodies Seaman”. We discover that a ghost abandoning a ship is even worse than when the rats do. You would never imagine that suicide because of loneliness could be actualy be the driving force behind a fairly humorous ghost story. I liked this one. It even has a fairly happy end. At least no one dies.

Peter Fleming - The Kill

A young man stranded in a isolated train station shares the story of the recent events which took place on his Uncle’s estate with the only other passenger stranded with him. It’s seems his Uncle sired an illegitimate son with a servant girl who he neglected and had sent away. The bastard son turns out to be a werewolf (through a curse his mother placed on the narrators Uncle.) who has returned to kill any heirs of the Uncle. The Uncle had disinherited his nephew and had as his heir a female companion. She ends up killed and eaten. This, the nephew explains, makes him once again the Uncle’s heir. The silent stranger react strangely when he here’s of this change in the Uncle’s Will. You can, I hope, see where this is going. Even if the ending was telegraphed from a great distance I still enjoyed the story.

Peter MacDonald - Ten O'Clock

This was an odd one which, for my tastes, took too long of a time getting to the end. A wealthy young lawyer cuts short his vacation in the country side to return to London so that he can be reunited with his mistress. He promises to call on her at 10 P.M exactly. While waiting to go to her he is called upon for legal advice from a merchant seaman who seems to have troubles with a lover who jilted him for a wealthy man. It seems that the trouble is that the seaman has murdered this woman. While he is so anxious to get to his rendezvous with his lover, the lawyer advises his visitor to turn himself in to the police. The young man also promises to act as the sailors advocate during the trial. The seaman thanks him and takes his leave. The young lawyer notices that it’s now almost 10 P.M. and won’t arrive at the promised time. He telephones his mistress, but no one answers. He then notices the hatbox that the seaman seems to have left behind. Hmmmm? What could be in it? Except that this story was printed 20 years to early it could have come straight from the pages of an old EC horror comic. It’s a nice story that sadly telegraphs the payoff much too soon.

L. A. G. Strong – Breakdown

This is an odd one. A man wishes to murder his mistress in his own home and comes up with one of the most convoluted means of establishing an alibi. It gave me a headache just trying to follow his plan. Why he just doesn’t kill the woman some place else and dispose of the body was a huge nagging question while reading the story. Since his plan is for him and his wife to return from a day trip and discover the body in their living room when they return. That drove me crazy. The murder seen is particularly grisly and nerve racking. Once they return home with his alibi in palace it seems the body has vanished along with all signs of the crime. This quickly drives him to a nervous breakdown where he confesses everything to his wife with surprising results. I have to admit that I didn’t see the ending coming. That alone makes this story extremely rewarding the first time you read it. Hat’s of to L.A. G. Strong!!

S. Fowler Wright - The Rat

A man on a sea voyage gets stranded on a rocky atoll in the middle of the ocean with very meagre supplies, hardly any hope of rescue. His only companion is the titular rat and it wants his food supply. As you expect, a battle of wills ensues between the two. This is a somewhat depressing story with a very satisfying ending.

Irvin S. Cobb - Faith, Hope and Charity

3 criminals escape while being transported across the south western U. S. to be deported and eventually executed in the prospective countries. They come to realize that each of them is kept alive by a belief in one of the 3 positive (positive that is, in their own twisted logic.) traits mentioned above in the title of the story. We also learn that each faces a different form of punishment. Each one also believes that the punishment that he faces is much worse than the methods facing the other two. Through the course of the story each man meets his doom in a way reflecting how he is supposed to be executed or punished. These dooms are brought about to each man by way of what he perceives as being his driving motivational trait. This one reads like “John Steinbeck” when he was in a very bad mood. This one was a nice surprise with honest satisfaction at the end.

H. P. Lovecraft - The Music of Erich Zann

This is an outstanding early HPL story which displays the beginnings of what would be major themes in his stories. A destitute student lives in a very old neighbourhood at the top of a large hill in an unnamed, but obviously French city.

In the room above his lives old Eric Zahn who plays very strange music at night on his violin. The young student befriends the old musician and learns that the old man can use his music to open up a gateway tot the outer spheres and call down the entities that exist there. Of course things end badly with the old man devoured and the student rushing out in the night half insane with fear. He returns the next day only to discover that the entire section of town has not only disappeared, but seems to have never existed! I get a big kick out of this story every time I read it. The entire story just reeks of “lovecraftian” ideas without getting to hysterical or wandering over in to unintentional self parody. Even if this can’t be considered one of Mr. Lovecraft’s best stories I do consider it to be some of his best writing. It has 100% of his weirdness while still marinating great self control in writing style and structure.

Donald Wandrei - The Red Brain

Mr. Wandrei was the co-founder of Arkham House Publishing

Antares, incredibly far into the future at the end of time, is the last existing star with a planet supporting life. All of the other stars in the entire universe have turned to dust that is choking out the entire universe. The beings from the Antares system have evolved into huge brains that live by pure thought alone. They attempt to turn back the death of the universe by creating artificial brains that has greater intellects and problem solving skills than their own. These experiments in creating artificial intellects finally reach their highest level of perfection with the creation of the greatest intellect the Universe has ever seen. This being is the Red Brain. The Red Brain has the mental and psychic powers to restore life to the dying Universe. There is only one problem though……………………………………………………….

The Red Brain was mad!

W. Elwyn Backus - The Phantom Bus

A man whole recently lost his fiancé in bus crash begins to notice every day, a few minutes before it arrives, that his bus will be preceded by an old decrepit black bus similar to the make in which his fiancé died. No one ever gets on or off of this mysterious bus. This mystery finally drives him into taking this mystery bus himself so that he can find out what its destination is. This turns out to not be a very good idea.

Reads like an old time radio show. It’s an ok story with no surprises.

Well that’s it for this week. I’ll try to get back on my weekly schedule as soon as possible.

AND THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!!!