Coronet Horror Paperbacks 1970-80

Thanks gents. Here's one that's bugged me for ages: who painted those Hugh Lamb covers? They're very beautiful.

I mentioned The Devil's Footsteps, too! Mind you, if i was someone else, i sure wouldn't bother reading my garbage either.

One of many things I love Paperback Fanatic for are the checklists. When you see all those titles one after the other, you get to appreciate just how vast a contribution, say, Sphere made to horror literature. Coronet certainly did themselves proud. And i'll always have a sneaky regard for the happy chancers of Everest!

Quite a gallery!

I don't have the Hitchcock Stories To Be Read With The Door Locked but from the contents it reminds me of the Hitchcock's edited by Peter Haining for Foursquare - more crime orientated than horror? The First of The Masters Choice books is also from 1981. The Kahn covers by Gordon Crabbe are typically excellent.

Been meaning to have a proper crack at listing/ trying to make sense of

the Hitchcock's and those responsible for them, but it's a grind because, as you're aware, many are full-on crime/ murder/ mystery which is fine, but probably not what many of us are looking for. So it's always been a thread for another day. Maybe if someone kick-starts it?

For horror content, you can't really go wrong with the Robert Arthur ghosted Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do On TV, Stories Not For The Nervous and Stories My Mother Never Told Me, but after that it gets a little murky. Bar The Doors is mostly horror, Monster Museum in the Fontana Lions series for young adults has it's moments, notably a Paul Ernst classic - again, that was a Robert Arthur job - whereas something like My Favourites In Suspense is a mix of crime, etc., and horror.

All done! Later i'll stick some links to the other people pretending to be Hitchcock threads, etc.

Well, I was wrong. The Edwards was used for Fengriffen, but not on the paperback edition. Luckily I have both.

Here is the 1977 paperback: Vampir Horror paperback 43 - David Case: Der entfesselte Dämon - The unchained Demon by Pabel Publishing.



And here is the Heftroman (weekly) from 1979. Vampir Horror 344



Here is the edition of the first "Hexer" novel - it was at first a try-out in a weekly edition of stand alone novels. The did a couple of new series with rotating schedules. At the time the market was dying and serials was the only thing which sold. The decline of the market is blamed on changing demographics and video games. But after more than 2000 published horror novels over a period of more than 15 years - not counting the diverse serials, which must also tally up to 1500 novels till the mid-eigthies (this is a rough estimate, I never did the math) - the quality of the tame content wasn´t very thrilling any longer. Or good. Add restrictions on gore, violence and sex which sometimes put the american comics code to shame and the sad fact that reading went rapidly out of fashion, it is no wonder this market was dying. Today there are only two survivors, and both are published by Bastei Publishing. It is the weekly "Ghosthunter John Sinclair", with nearly 1600 issues, which is written by one writer since 1973, and "Professor Zamorra", a bi-weekly serial since 1974, which is written now by a handful of writers again after the writer who did the work alone for over 20 years died unexpectedly last year. "Sinclair" tells the adventures of a Scotland Yard Inspector heading a ghost squad, while "Zamorra" is horror light with a lot of fantasy and some sf elements. Both have their fan-bases, but circulation isn´t that great any longer compared to the golden age of the seventies.

Back then "Der Hexer" was the only one who made to jump to its own imprint. But it only lasted about two years with a bi-weekly schedule. It was published in 1984 by Bastei Publishing. The title of the first one is "Als der Meister starb" (After the master died)



When they later started the bi-weekly-series, they used the Edwards as a logo. Covers were either tailored to the content or the usual agency stuff. Here is the No.1 from 1985, which was drawn by spanish artist Maren, if I am correct. The original character concept was often re-used, as this is supposed to be a picture of the hero. The title is "Das Erbe der Dämonen" - Demon´s Legacy. The 48 issues of the serial were written mostly by creator Hohlbein alone; 13 novels are otherwise credited.



And yey, after reading this through I realize that most of this has nothing to do whatsoever with the thread. I apologize.