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Post by dem bones on Apr 14, 2010 10:35:24 GMT
David Sutton - On The Fringes For Thirty Years: A History Of Horror In The British Small Press (Shadow Publishing, 2000) Stephen Jones Stan Nicholls - Strange Daze: Introduction
Mainly Movies - The 1960s Small Press Publishing Empires: The British Fantasy Society Literature Lifts Off - The 1970s Small Press Publishing Empires: The Fantasy Tales Stable A Surfeit Of Short Stories - The 1980s Small Press Publishing Empires: Ghosts & Scholars And The Haunted Library The New Cutting Edge - The 1990s
The ContributorsBlurb: The First History of Horror in the British Small Press. On the Fringe for Thirty Years reviews the distinctive decades during which horror in the UK small press developed. In the 30 years since 1965, the independent presses and the small press 'empires', such as The British Fantasy Society and The Haunted Library receive a much overdue appraisal by an editor and author who was in the thick of it.
"When Forrest J Ackerman began publishing Famous Monsters Of Filmland, its appearance in Britain coincided neatly with the new wave of movies being made by Hammer Films... By their accumulated impact, these two genre icons led to the blossoming of British horror fanzines in the mid-1960s."
From the modern 'golden age' of the 60s, of Gothique and Twylight, through the 70s... and Fantasy Tales ... the 80s... and Ghosts & Scholars ... to the 90s and the flowering of small press horror book publishers in the final years of the century, this history reveals the exceptional wealth of innovation and commitment by genre editors over the years.
"There's a fascinating, if convoluted, tale to be told about the path fanzines have taken in this country. As far as the horror and dark fantasy titles are concerned, nobody is better qualified to relate it than Dave Sutton."For me, this covers the glory years, when the approach was, out of necessity, no frills - the same cut, paste and photocopy approach that would serve punk so well and a far cry from today's small press where the focus has shifted to quality books and the emphasis on the slick and often ludicrously extravagant (limited, signed edition: acid free paper: silk ribbon: price? out of your range, sonny!). I'm sure we're all at least aware of the British Fantasy Society, Fantasy Tales, Ghosts & Scholars and Haunted Library, all of them justly celebrated in Thirty Years On The Fringes, but its the chapters on the 'sixties pioneers and their 'seventies spawn that had me engrossed because the magazines discussed are known to me only by reputation and they clearly attracted a better class of contributor! Eddy C. Bertin has quite a fan club on here for his often brilliant horror stories, but I had no idea he was a noted HPL bibliographer, nor that he was so prominent on the horror 'zine scene during the 'sixties and 'seventies. As I write, David A. Riley has recently taken over as editor of the British Fantasy Society's Prism and his involvement in the small presses can only be described as long term. Even as The Lurkers At The Abyss were being unleashed on the world via 11th Pan Book Of Horror Stories (wedding cake) Mr. R was contributing to David Sutton's boundary breaking Shadow ("in this début issue we have Weasels Ripped My Flesh Apart - Aspects of Fantasy Culture and Adrian Cole on Van Der Graaf Generator ....."). In 1969, what would eventually become Brian J. Frost's The Monster With A Thousand Faces began life as an article, The Vampire Theme In Weird Literature in issue #8 of Gothique (1965-9), which could boast Michel Parry, Eddy C. Bertin, Stan Nicholls, Mike Ashley and Ramsey Campbell among its regulars. When David Sutton began Shadow the following decade, Frost, who also regularly provided original artwork to a number of small press publications - wrote companion piece, The Werewolf Theme In Weird Fiction which would evolve into his much admired anthology The Werewolf Book (Sphere, 1975) ...... On The Fringes For Thirty Years originally appeared as an article in Scream Factory #17 (1996), and although "significantly revised' and expanded upon for purposes of this 40pp booklet, perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay the author is that I hope this proves to be just a taster for the full blown Small Press Encyclopedia that is so clearly in him. Excellent.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 27, 2017 10:20:27 GMT
Chapters 1 & 3 of On The Fringes ... are reproduced in their entirety in Pulp Horror 5 alongside an interview with Mr. Sutton spanning the history of Shadows & Shadow Publications from the late 'sixties to the present day. Also of relevance, David's introductions to Richard Davis's The Female Of The Species & Others (Shadow Publications, 2012), Adrian Cole's Tough Guys (Cole & Sutton; the Hawkwind gig years: Parallel Universe, 2016) and David A. Riley's The Lurkers In The Abyss & Others (Shadow Publications, 2013).
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Post by ropardoe on Mar 27, 2017 11:38:18 GMT
Chapters 1 & 3 of On The Fringes ... are reproduced in their entirety in Pulp Horror 5 alongside an interview with Mr. Sutton spanning the history of Shadows & Shadow Publications from the late 'sixties to the present day. Also of relevance, David's introductions to Richard Davis's The Female Of The Species & Others (Shadow Publications, 2012), Adrian Cole's Tough Guys (Cole & Sutton; the Hawkwind gig years: Parallel Universe, 2016) and David A. Riley's The Lurkers In The Abyss & Others (Shadow Publications, 2013). I love this booklet. I wish David would expand it into a book-length volume, perhaps combining it with an autobiography of his long life in this genre and in fandom.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 27, 2017 17:56:11 GMT
I love this booklet. I wish David would expand it into a book-length volume, perhaps combining it with an autobiography of his long life in this genre and in fandom. That would be something worth reading and no mistake! Maybe Mr. S. is delivering it in installments. Don't have copies of all the post-2012 Shadow Publications but, as mentioned, those listed above include autobiographical snippets relating to the Shadow/ Small Press experience, as does the introduction at back of (!) the Voices From Shadow compilation, and - admittedly to a lesser extent - the appreciation of Mike Chinn's work in Radix Omnium Malum & Other Incursions (Parallel Universe, 2017). I wouldn't bet against there being more. It's such a shame that there's been no ghost and/ or horror equivalents of Martin Lacey's El Tel Was A Space Alien: The Best of the Alternative Football Press, but I suspect the time has long past for such a project - unless it concentrated on the now - as permissions may prove very difficult to come by. Later: From the 'Pulp Horror' #5 thread There's a whole section devoted to the work of Jim Pitts in Shadow and other early fanzines in the forthcoming book of Jim's artwork which Parallel Universe Publications will be bringing out later this year, including an article about Jim's early work by Dave Sutton himself. There will be others sections by Brian Lumley (Jim has illustrated a number of his books), Adrian Cole and Steve Jones (Jim was in nearly every issue of Fantasy Tales and did quite a number of front covers).
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Post by dem bones on Feb 6, 2018 18:53:08 GMT
Among the recently reprinted house of Fanatic publications now/ soon-to-be available via Am*zon, Pulp Horror 5 (March 2017: reprint Jan. 2018) includes an interview with David A Sutton and a generous, beautifully illustrated extract from On The Fringes For Thirty Years. Am*zon.UKThose who share our fondness for 'sixties-present day horror & fantasy 'zines and small press publications will surely appreciate The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts (Parallel Universe, 2017)
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on May 22, 2018 12:13:04 GMT
Just received a pristine copy of this fascinating looking publication - thanks to Riley Books, via AbeBooks.co.uk - and I'm very much looking forward to exploring this intriguing area of horror history.
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Post by ropardoe on May 22, 2018 15:02:52 GMT
Just received a pristine copy of this fascinating looking publication - thanks to Riley Books, via AbeBooks.co.uk - and I'm very much looking forward to exploring this intriguing area of horror history. You'll enjoy it, I'm sure. And chances are you'll end up with a list of zines you'll be wanting to get hold of.
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