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Post by andydecker on Mar 25, 2012 13:25:23 GMT
One of the more interesting German genre publishers in the 70s was Luther Publishing. Wolfhart Luther worked in top positions in the management of publishers Bastei and Pabel, back then the two juggernauts of the Heftroman. Those two were the market. In 1970 he started his own business, together with his wife Anne Erber he founded a few publishing outfits simultaneously. (So he could circumvent legally some of the finer points of business law while catering to different markets.) Luther was a businessman first and foremost and quite a character. He started as an actor before the war, then became a tax-inspector. After the war he worked a while as an actor before working in sportspaper-distribution for a publisher. When he founded his own publishing houses, Luther Publishing and Anne Erber Publishing. horror was kind of a coming novelty, so along a few romance lines and western he published horror, culminating in the creation of the infamous Dr. Morton series. He actually started with a thing called Luther´s Gruselzeitung (Luther´s scary paper), a collection of articles and horror stories in the format of a daily paper. There were only six issues of that, which has become a very rare collector item. I never saw it myself. It was succeeded by Luther´s Gruselmagazin, a monthly and later bi-monthly paperback sold on the newsstand. Today these books have been a bit lost in obscurity, but in hindsight the content was quite innovative for its time. Each issue featured a mix of translations mostly bought from Singer Features, some german originals, a comic, macabre cartoons - a lot from young cartoonist Uli Stein, who later became a one-man-merchandising industry -, and the odd article. 132 pages first it later became 188 pages. For instance the first issue had stories from from Edogawa Rampo, Algernon Blackwood, Robert Bloch and Robert E. Howard, among others. Later there was H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, Harlan Ellison, Seabury Quinn, Clark Ashton Smith. A lot of these stories introduced those writers in Germany for the first time. Also Luther developed a stable of then unknown german writers. A lot of them wrote apparently under pseudonyms, so maybe they later moved on to better things. Or not. Most of their stories were unoriginal and pedestrian. Sometimes there were supernatural themes, but a lot aped the short and shocking Hitchcock approach so often read in american crime magazines.  As high-class at least the american writers were, the covers tended more to the lurid side. As with his other publications Luther liked the sensationalist approach to horror. At first he used movie stills from the then popular exploitation movies, which were eye-catching but undeniably sleazy, later he went for the usual painted art. Luther´s Gruselmagazin lasted for 18 numbers before it was canceled. It was an interesting concept which never quite caught on. As there was not much editorial guidance, people never got the history of the originals, so it didn´t generate much interest. The horror-boom was a few years in the future, and the covers while more suited for an older customer-base seemed to promise too cheap thrills. Also they were more expensive then the competitors. As Luthers Heftromane seemingly sold better than the paperbacks, they vanished rather quickly. Still, Luther did some interesting things. In his Horror-Expert line he published such gems as Seabury Quinn´s serial The Devil´s Bride, Peter Saxon and Ralph Comer, while in his crime-imprint Top Krimi he did french pulpster Andre Caroff´s Miss Atomos series. While the translations are often a bit rough, at least they were not edited like later most of the other material from other publishers. |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 25, 2012 19:11:47 GMT
Thanks ever so for sharing, andreas. one of my chief Fanatic/ Vault joys of recent years has been learning a little about the German and - via James - Australian pulp industries, both of which were a complete mystery to me. Luther certainly knew a proper pulphack when he saw one. Lovecraft, Howard, CAS and Bloch you kind of expect but Rampo, Saxon, Cromer and Quinn! Had no idea The Devil's Bride ever made it out of America. i doubt you'll see another uncensored edition for some time on account of a once read, never forgotten (i've tried!) black crucifixion scene worthy of 'Russell Fresh Fiancés for the Devil's Daughter Gray.' i particularly like the cover artwork for the William F. Nolan story (The Attorney?) and the Murders In The Rue Morgue effort. vaguely reminiscent of a Grand Guignol poster, that one.
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Post by pulphack on Mar 26, 2012 10:11:13 GMT
Absolutely, Dem - the opening up of German and Australian pulp history is fascinating. Thanks for this, Andy... those are wonderful covers, and a fascinating slice of history.
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Post by andydecker on Mar 26, 2012 11:14:23 GMT
Glad you liked ´em I guess Dem is correct with the Nolan story; unfortunatly Luther neither bothered with the original title nor with the translators name. Here is another batch, just for fun. I hope Pho*t*B*uck*t won´t interfere  The Lord was a spin-off from Dr.Morton in 1976, which at the end replaced Morton, after the authorities finally made it impossible to distribute Morton any longer. In a recent rare interview Luther said that the series was deliberatly developed to calm the waters.   So it became the family friendly version of Dr.Morton, but without the ultra-violence of its precursor it was too soft and just boring. Of course the fans of the original hated it. The concept itself wasn´t so bad, indeed it was quite novel at the time. The main problem was that it featured all the Morton characters as "guest-stars" which just seemed to rub it in.   Basically the Lord is an experiment of Dr. Morton. He creates a clone of himself. But the clone is the exact opposite of Morton. And he wields PSI powers, which are - for the sake of convenience and to make the character more mysterious – never fully explained. So instead throwing him into his acid bath Morton puts him in a castle in Cornwall and gives him a bodyguard/chaufeur. Suddenly the man is inexplicably known as Sir Edward to the world and solves weird crimes, which he pointedly does non-violent. The bi-weekly series had some nice covers but was canceled after 38 issues. There is a postscript to the tale. Luther Publishing then tried to re-establish both Morton and the Lord in a new form, as the Dr. Morton Crime Magazine. It was done in the magazine format and had a resemblence to those american true crime magazines. It featured a novel-length new Morton tale and some I guess made up sensational "true" crime articles. In three years 17 issues were published in three different formats, before it vanished. Needless to say that the novels were also the de-clawed family-friendly Morton version which made them pretty boring.    In its heyday Luther also published crime-novels in the hard-boiled vein. The Terror crime novel featured a mix of translations and german originals all written by a veteran of the Heftroman who later became famous for a young adult crime series.   For once the covers, all movie stills from exploitation movies, don´t promise too much. There is a lot of explicit sex and torture in the novels unheard of in the tame Jerry Cotton or Kommissar X weeklys. And ever the shrewd businessman Luther put choice excerpts in the blurbs, highlighting the violence or the sex-scenes. The monthly series lasted 18 books. After the end of the Morton Magazine Luther Publishing vanished rather fast. According to the interview there was nobody who could continue the business - which was a family business - in difficult times when the markets imploded. As far as the now old opponents of the Heftroman are concerned, Morton still is a cynical, even vile product. But it was ahead of its time and one of a kind, which in this niche will be unforgettable. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 26, 2012 12:25:16 GMT
after the authorities finally made it impossible to distribute Morton any longer. Something seems to be missing here. We need more information about this Morton business. |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 26, 2012 13:23:26 GMT
Never seen a copy but simply had to scan this from andy's article, der heftroman, in Paperback Fanatic #18 . i've been fixated since first clapping disbelieving eyes on the bloody thing. don't you think it screams 'shudder pulp'? it's to be hoped mr decker will talk us through some more of The diabolical doctor's adventures. Giving it some thought, the Grusel #15/ Der Lord #1 cover painting might depict a scene from Nolan's The Final Stone - filmed (terribly!) for TV as Terror at London Bridge: David Hasselhoff versus Jack the Ripper - but that wasn't published until the mid-eighties and i'm not sure the magazine survived that long? |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 26, 2012 14:15:06 GMT
don't you think it screams 'shudder pulp'? Yes, except that a "shudder pulp" cover would have had a young lady being mangled. |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 27, 2012 9:37:57 GMT
very true, so maybe that particular cover wasn't the best example i could have used, but. fear not! another lingering scrutiny of PF, combined with a google of 'John Ball - Dr. Morton', reveals young women tied up, tied down, half-painted blue, caught in spiders webs, decapitated, frozen in test tubes, bothered by a big skull with snakes poking through its jaws, and generally subjected to all manner of abuse.
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Post by andydecker on Mar 27, 2012 10:16:21 GMT
Here is the Morton story: In 1974 the recently formed Luther Publishing wanted to be successful on the Heftroman market. Its branch Anne Erber Publishing was doing all kinds of series at the time, from nurse novels to western. Horror was next. As Luther perceived the material published by the competition as watered down – which was true – he wanted to have a strong content. As he said in a recent interview: "Horror is only fun when it breaks a taboo." So the new series should deliver as much violence and sex as they could get away with. Today the concept is old and tired, but in 1974 the Heftroman market was the domain of the clean hero. In the crime novels there was no ambiguity, the heroes were always policemen or P.I.s, shot to wound, violence was glossed over, sex was reduced to some lines about naked breasts and three dots, if mentioned at all. And crime didn´t pay. Ever. The idea that evil maybe wins now and then was thought to be harmful to young minds. Morton now was unapologetic different in all those aspects. Instead of going the supernatural way like the competition, Luther went for the crime format, spiced up with terror. Glenn Morton, later Sir Glenn, is a brillant medical doctor with a surgery in Harley Street and a private clinic in Brighton. After hours he is both a vigilante and a mad scientist. He kidnaps crooks - and later innocent bystanders - and does medical experiments with them. And he doesn´t care if there is collateral damage. Morton´s right hand man is William Grimsby, his driver and handyman. Grimsby is an old war-buddy and a ruthless and skilled killer. Unfortunatly he has an ailment. He is impotent and can only gets off when he kills young girls. Today he would be called a serial killer, back then this term wasn´t popularized yet. As drugs would diminish Grimsbys usefulness Morton turns a blind eye to Grimsby´s hobby. And these guys were the heroes. Every novel was told from their POV, so the reader could follow each and every atrocity through their eyes. With the calm rationalisation why they did this. Morton wasn´t portraited as a raving lunatic, but as a cool scientist who did things for a reason. He even had a free clinic on the country, doing charity work. When he didn´t dissect people without anesthesia. There also was a tight continuity in most novels, new characters were introduced, like Sir Henry, an aristocrat friend of Morton, who later became a member of the team and who enjoyed his first murder.  The usual plot was about a new experiment. Folks had to be kidnapped, tortured and operated on, Morton had to be one step ahead of the police, who hunted the mystery madman, Grimsby had to stalk young girls and kill ´em. And all of this bloody mayham bi-weekly – later weekly - and only for 60 Cent in todays currency at a newsstand. According to Luther they had a print-run of 100000. Who wrote the majority of these novels is still a mystery. Nobody ever owned up in public to the authorship, and even the rumor mill was silent. His style was pretty simple and straightforward. Still he knew his medical facts to make things sound authentic, and his UK sounded authentic also, from the descriptions of the pubs to the landscape of Norfolk and the Broads, the background for a lot of novels as Morton had a farm there. And he delivered some truly memorable and horrfic novels. Cancer devours 12 people for instance had the good doctor kidnap a bus of College-kids and impregnating all with an especially virulent cancer, so he could synthesize a serum as a cure for cancer. In Meat Platter with Demeter Morton attacks a crime family and re-enacts the poodle-scene from Theatre of Blood, only with the daughter of the crime lord instead of dogs. In The singing Murder he stumbles upon a pop-star with latent necrophilic tendencies, kidnaps him and eliminates his inhibitations with drugs, so he can do a field study of how the guys breaks down, digs up corpses and eats them. All in the name of science, of course. Needless to say that the youth authorities and the critics were not thrilled. In a country which spawned a Dr. Mengele a "hero" like Dr. Morton which was mainly read by minors? Understandably not a good idea. There is no censorship in Germany. But there is a youth protection law. This is all very complicated. Basically media can end up on an index, if they are not deemed suited for minors. Distributors of that medium are then no longer permitted to sell, rent out or even present this object in public or to broadcast it. The same goes for advertising for this object. For a product sold on newsstands this means the end. There were 56 Morton novels and nearly all of them ended on this index. After a year and a half the series had to be cancelled. Today all of this is a bit hard to understand. Especially if you can watch a thing like Dexter on the tv. In this regard Dr. Morton was way ahead of its time. After its cancellation Luther tried a few times to revive his object, keeping the good doctor on the side of the law, but it never worked. The original run is expensive today, and the series is still debated by older fans of the Heftroman. |
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Post by dem bones on Mar 27, 2012 11:38:55 GMT
Now there's a straight-to-Paperback Fanatic contender if ever was: thanks for guiding us through Dr. Morton's seriously deranged career, mr. decker. he's like the ultra-sadistic lunatic Dr. Friedrich Friedrichsohnin in Seabury Quinn's House Where Time Stood Still turned up to eleven. stating the obvious, but in view of this youth protection law, it seems incredible the series could have survived for 56 volumes. if ever they'd made it to Britain i reckon the demand would require another print run of 100000 per novel - Luther could have cleaned up.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 27, 2012 12:51:28 GMT
'So the new series should deliver as much violence and sex as they could get away with.' Andy
Sounds like an ideal recipe. ;D Must say its an absolutely fascinating account. It definitely has a Mars Attacks' bubblegum card feel to it. The moral questions are legion and the covers spectacular example of the worst possible taste. All some form of catharsis I suppose. I bet these old mags sell for stacks nowadays.
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Post by andydecker on Mar 27, 2012 13:49:44 GMT
in view of this youth protection law, it seems incredible the series could have survived for 56 volumes. Glad you liked it. thanks! Well, yes, but it is a typical bureaucracy, these things take their time, and Luther was a family-business. When the big publishers had this kind of problems - and they all had their run-in with the law, all for much more stupid reasons - they caved in at once. They couldn´t need this kind of thing. Bad for business. I guess Luther just ignored it as long as he could or played them. In his interview he comes across as this kind of guy. ;D |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 27, 2012 20:05:20 GMT
Excellent! Splendid! Thanks.
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