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Post by dem bones on Dec 16, 2010 21:42:51 GMT
Bother in the Belfry - loved it. Lord P at his humorous best. Twisted and turned and had me fooled at various points. You know the way Van Thal quoted gory - and sometimes slightly misleading - lines from the stories on the back covers of the Pan Horrors to tickle the readers' taste-buds? In the case of Bother In The Belfry i'd have gone for: "It transpired that over the last few weeks the village of Porchestbury ... had been terrorised by a series of peculiar attacks. Sheep had disappeared, a cow had been discovered disemboweled one morning, and while no human being had been harmed, there had been several sightings of a large winged creature on clear nights."Rereading the story earlier, i was amazed (not to mention embarrassed!) that it had somehow escaped my mind the adorable Miss Jephcott doesn't feature at all and the best Massene Henderson can do for a "glamorous assistant" is grumpy old Mr. Meillir the train driver, which is hardly the same. i still haven't nabbed a copy of Against The Darkness - it's the one JLP collection i'm missing - but i lost my heart to Miss Samantha when she and Mass showed up in The Faculty Of Terror. Aldiazon is pretty damn fit, too. For a tentacled blob of slime.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 17, 2010 8:27:39 GMT
Thanks to Johnny Mains for providing us with this next, an Oscar Cook rarity no less! Has anyone else noticed how Cook's horror shorts invariably build around the eternal triangle? Anyway, today's treat, Tembuku, another Borneo adventure of District Officer Dennis ( When Glister Walked, Si Urag Of The Tail, etc.), sees the psychodrama played out against a backdrop of native hostility and superstition after a drunken white steals the sacred Head of Maboga! Mr. Mains has provided a publication date - March 1925 - but i've no idea where he found this, though it's maybe worth remembering that Cook was editing Hutchinson's Adventure-Story Magazine at the time? Thanks Johnny! Hope the rest of you find this very early Oscar winner as fascinating as i did. Attachments:
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Post by Johnlprobert on Dec 17, 2010 8:45:21 GMT
Hurrah for the Vault Advent Calendar!
The Oscar Cook is a fascinating, if decidedly minor entry, in his canon and probably the kindest thing you can say is that it's "of its time"! But three cheers to Mr Mains for making it available for us pulp-hungry completists to take a look at.
Nice to see Mark Samuels' Cannibal Kings getting an airing here - it's from his rather wonderful PS collection Glyphotech which is probably all sold out now but if not it's definitely worth hunting down.
It's interesting how the conditions under which one reads a story can affect one's appreciation of it. I first read Cannibal Kings in a London pub one Saturday morning nursing one of the worst hangovers of my life courtesy of a lunchtime/afternoon/evening/night on the slash with - Mark Samuels! I think the headache actually added to the atmosphere of the story, and I just rather like that Mr Samuels was involved in the creation of both!
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 17, 2010 12:00:02 GMT
I'm sure Oscar has others he favours up his sleeve. 'of it's time' is about right. I like that period though and amidst the squirming of embarrassment, thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Post by noose on Dec 17, 2010 12:03:30 GMT
I am sitting on another undiscovered story (in the sense it's not been seen for 80 odd years) - if Dem wants it, I'm sure I can type it up...
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Post by dem bones on Dec 17, 2010 20:06:18 GMT
well, if you're sure it's not putting you to any trouble then of course i would be delighted. many thanks, John. after our surprise special guest appearance from Oscar Cook, tomorrow, it is back to the contemporaries and i must say, i've been made up that what the combined ranks of Vault authors have come up with so far could easily pass for a mini- Black Book Of Horror primer. Now, if only some of the old lags from the Filthy Creations debut issue would log in ....
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 18, 2010 4:45:05 GMT
Just been reading these in front of the cricket. I can see why Lord P. is so highly regarded - great stuff.
Enjoyed the Oscar Cook story - he's reminiscent of those other fine adventure/supernatural writers of south east Asia and other exotic locales - Beatrice Grimshaw and James Francis Dwyer.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 18, 2010 7:09:28 GMT
There sure was a lot of that white men in pith helmets and baggy safari suits trampling through the jungle malarkey around in the 'twenties and 'thirties. The Creeps and Not At Night's alone likely provide enough material for a juicy horror/ adventure crossover anthology. Probably explains why the period was the golden age of 'when carnivorous plants attack!' fiction, too. Tropical heat is not really a big problem for we poor condoomed of Hail Big Society Britain just now, 'specially those who reside up north, so if you're snowed in, why not pour a generous dram of mulled Seagrams 100 Pipers, pull your chair a little closer to the candles and compose yourself for today's delicious delight. When I pestered Craig Herbertson for a story, the only guideline was i'd prefer something in EC vein, but really, i'd be happy with anything just so long as it was really horrible. Step on my vitals if A Game of Billiards doesn't score on both counts! There's even a touch of Oscar Cook's sacred 'Warwick' shockers about it. A Game of Billiards first appeared in Benedict J. and V. C. Jones (ed's) Tales from the Smoking Room (Hand of Danjou Press, 2009). "a 40 page A4 Homebrew Zine of Victoriana horror and steampunk." (see Matthew Fryer's review at Welcome To The Hellforge). Many thanks to Craig for allowing me to resurrect it! Attachments:
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stephenbacon
Crab On The Rampage
www.stephenbacon.co.uk
Posts: 78
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Post by stephenbacon on Dec 18, 2010 10:07:50 GMT
I just stumbled across this thread - it looks superb!!!
I've got 18 delicious treats to catch up on now.
Good stuff, everyone...
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Post by dem bones on Dec 19, 2010 10:51:50 GMT
Thanks Stephen and Chris (on the Conan-Doyle thread ). Relieved to learn many of you are playing catch-up as, I realise now, the weekend tends to be the graveyard slot. Day 19, and the first of, I hope, two offerings from my dear friend, Franklin Marsh, "the master of the macabre" (© Filthy Creations #3), world's leading authority on the Black Sorcery novels of Gregory Pendennis and - this is where it goes a bit pear shaped - co-founder of Vault, along with Ripper and self. The Morris Men first surfaced in Vault Mk. I's Workshop Of Filthy Creations during the summer of 2006 to much acclaim, and was picked up by Christopher Wood for publication in the following year's 2nd BHF Book Of Horror Stories. Attachments:
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Post by dem bones on Dec 20, 2010 9:21:52 GMT
Richard Stains - The Sucking PubBefore his No Such Thing As A Friendly surfaced in The Fifth Black Book Of Horror, the never knowingly uncontroversial Richard Stains was perhaps best known to our readership as the author of such celebrated "saddo horror"-annihilating nasties as Lobster Holocaust, Psycho Flasher, Whores Die Screaming ("Banned in five countries"), Bloodbath For Ethel, The Chopping Centre, British Horror Club Award winner Bestiality in Black Magic, and his critically acclaimed excursion into Dennis Wheatley territory, My Wife Was Satan's Slut (" ... your own brain could be damaged by what you read within these pages... DAMAGED SO MUCH YOU MAY NEVER READ AGAIN.") Sadly, the last we heard, Mr. Stains had taken up residence in an old people’s home, though it seems even near constant sedation has yet to impact on his literary prowess, as the following x-treme fang bang - one of his most deeply personal stories to date - amply demonstrates. When those ice creams at the brewery transfer Stainsy from his New Cross power base, The Duke of Marlborough, to a poncey gender-bender hang out in Camden Town, something has to give! Can the lure of Samantha the barmaid's superlative knockers and a dart board attract the proper punters, or is Big Dick doomed to become the latest victim of The Sucking Pub? With grateful thanks to Mr. Stains's literary agent, Mark 'The Pitbull' Samuels, for acting on our behalf as both mediator and minder during the fraught negotiations with Bazzer of the Cold Blow Lane Firm. Attachments:
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Post by David A. Riley on Dec 20, 2010 10:06:37 GMT
Good old Dick. He might be wobbling on the wrong side of senility these days, but he never fails to deliver.
I laughed - okay chuckled - out loud at the end of this one.
I nice addition to the calendar.
David
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 20, 2010 10:07:32 GMT
Richard never fails to elicit that dark forbidden chuckle.
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Post by David A. Riley on Dec 20, 2010 10:13:39 GMT
Richard never fails to elicit that dark forbidden chuckle. They're the best kind.
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Post by noose on Dec 20, 2010 10:23:11 GMT
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