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Post by dem bones on Jan 25, 2009 16:25:39 GMT
Peter Haining (ed.) - The Freak Show (Corgi, 1971)  Bruce Pennington
Daniel Defoe - The Magician
Edgar Allan Poe - Hop-Frog
Tod Robbins - Spurs
Clark Ashton Smith - The Ampoi Giant
Ray Bradbury - The Dwarf
L. Sprague de Camp - The Gnarly Man
Mildred Clingerman - The Gay Deceiver
Davis Grubb - The Magic Prince
Stanley Ellen - Beiderbauer’s Flea
Fritz Leiber - The Power Of The Puppets
Joseph Payne Brennan - The Rising Man (Levitation)
John Wyndham - Jizzle
August Derleth - Carousel
Esther Carlson - Heads You Win
Robert Bloch - Girl From Mars
Harry Harrison - At Last, The True Story Of Frankenstein
Eric Frank Russell - Mutants For Sale
Margaret St. Clair - Horrer Howce
Harlan Ellison - Big Sam Was My Friend
Dylan Thomas - After The FairBack cover blurb: Magicians and murderers … Puppets and corpses … Carnivals and cannibals …
Grisly tales of fairgrounds - where the music of the carousel drowns screams of terror .....
Stories of dwarves and giants and ape-men: and puppets whose evil spirits dominate their masters .....
THE FREAK SHOW: A world of terror and the macabre ... peopled by weird and horrifying beings ......" .... an anthology I've always thought was slightly in bad taste, though it contains many good stories" - Mike Ashley, Paperback Fantatic #6, 2007. Includes: August Derleth - Carousel: A mob runs riot and lynches a black man at the Amusement Park for no reason other than his color. Three years later, scheming Mrs. Benjin is giving her lonely stepdaughter hell. Little Marcia befriends the dead man's ghost and he promises to watch over her. Mrs. Benjin follows her to the derelict funland intent on bringing about an 'accident', but the towering spectre intervenes. One of Derleth's best, and the ending is EC incarnate (albeit a decade early). Tod Robbins - Spurs: Famously, the basis for Todd Browning's infinitely scarier Freaks. Copo's Circus. "She loved Simon LaFleur: but she well knew this Romeo in tights would never espouse a dowerless girl", so when the 28-inch tall Jacques Courbe proposes to her, bareback rider Jean-Marie agrees to marry him as a means of getting her hands on his inheritance. The truth emerges in a drunken moment at the wedding feast and the humiliated Jacques ensures her life is a living hell from then on. A fine story in its own right, but don't expect the notorious chicken woman episode from the movie as the punishment the dwarf inflicts on his gold-digging wife is one of degradation as opposed to vivisection. Harry Harrison - At Last, The True Story Of Frankenstein: Panama City, Florida. After witnessing the extraordinary performance of a ‘monster’ seemingly entirely oblivious to pain, reporter Dan Bream interviews its master, monocled Carney showman, Victor Frankenstein V. Frankenstein confides that the creature is wearing out and he’ll need replacing very shortly … Robert Bloch - The Girl From Mars: What with the bad weather, poor takings and his girl Mitzie running off with Rajah the magician, Carney boss Ace Lawson hasn't had much luck of late. It seems all that is about to change when the Platinum girl walks in, asking to see the Girl from Mars. Ace explains that she, Mitzie, was a fake, bat wings and all, but hits on the idea of hiring this bombshell to take her place. She gives him some spiel about being from Mars - or "Planet Rekk' as it's known to its inhabitants - her rocket having crashed to Earth during an electrical storm. She also keeps reminding him that she's very hungry ... Joseph Payne Brennan - Levitation: Morgans Wonder Carnival plays Riverville, an isolated mining community starved of entertainment. The troupes star attraction is the black-clad Hypnotist who requires a volunteer for his demonstration. Frank is eventually shamed into the job after lobbing peanuts at volunteer #1. The Hypnotist puts him under and commands him "Rise from the platform. Rise!" Frank rises. The Hypnotist falls to the floor clutching his chest. Frank rises.
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Post by lobolover on Feb 18, 2009 22:04:02 GMT
Cover strangely reminds me of the discworld covers ive seen.
Well, I aint to sure about this one. What about the Dylan Thomas, I heard alot about his "Adventures in the skin trade" .
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Post by allthingshorror on Aug 3, 2009 19:11:02 GMT
I found this today in the most filthiest box of books while in Norwich, I almost didn't buy it cos it was truly rank. Paid 50p for it, managed to clean it up, the cover was completely brown with dirt... Rapp + Whiting (1970) |
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Post by carolinec on Aug 3, 2009 19:38:02 GMT
That cover illustration looks almost like a Gerald Scarfe - but I'm sure it can't be, can it?!  |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Mar 2, 2013 19:01:39 GMT
Thomas Nelson (1972) Jim Souder
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Post by dem bones on May 28, 2015 13:15:10 GMT
Eric Frank Russell - Mutants For Sale: (aka This Ones On Me, Nebula, 1953). Albert Jensen, a columnist for The Morning Call, investigates the seedy side-street premises of a wizened old dwarf, suspecting his trade in "mutants" is a front for a drugs ring. The dwarf assures him that his business is legit - as the window-sign says, he provides mutants to order. So the obnoxious Jensen demands to be shown a miniature blue Rhinoceros. Stanley Ellen - Beiderbauer’s Flea: ( The Blessington Method & Other Strange Tales, 1964). Thaddeus Beiderbauer’s Mighty Mites are the greatest flea circus the world has ever seen. But star performer Sebastian is incensed when, at huge expense, Beiderbauer acquires a new circus strong-flea, Casimir, and promotes him to the top of the bill. When Sebastian's fickle girlfriend makes a play for the muscle-bound Bulgarian marvel, sabotage, murder and tragedy befall the show. Esther Carlson - Heads You Win ...: ( MFSF April, 1953). Dr. Aesop Abercrombie helps bushy-tailed man Roland Feeney find gainful employment.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 28, 2015 18:08:08 GMT
Eric Frank Russell - Mutants For Sale: (aka This Ones On Me, Nebula, 1953). Albert Jensen, a columnist for The Morning Call, investigates the seedy side-street premises of a wizened old dwarf, suspecting his trade in "mutants" is a front for a drugs ring. The dwarf assures him that his business is legit - as the window-sign says, he provides mutants to order. So the obnoxious Jensen demands to be shown a miniature blue Rhinoceros. Stanley Ellen - Beiderbauer’s Flea: ( The Blessington Method & Other Strange Tales, 1964). Thaddeus Beiderbauer’s Mighty Mites are the greatest flea circus the world has ever seen. But star performer Sebastian is incensed when, at huge expense, Beiderbauer acquires a new circus strong-flea, Casimir, and promotes him to the top of the bill. When Sebastian's fickle girlfriend makes a play for the muscle-bound Bulgarian marvel, sabotage, murder and tragedy befall the show. Esther Carlson - Heads You Win ...: ( MFSF April, 1953). Dr. Aesop Abercrombie helps bushy-tailed man Roland Feeney find gainful employment. Always rated Russell and he has a certain horrific slant. On a side note I actually saw a flea circus out in a small fair in East Germany 15 years ago. The ringmaster of the fleas was everything you would expect - a totally shady bloke who looked like he hated children. I often thought about writing a horror story on it but I thought no one would believe it. |
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Post by dem bones on May 29, 2015 8:20:37 GMT
Always rated Russell and he has a certain horrific slant. On a side note I actually saw a flea circus out in a small fair in East Germany 15 years ago. The ringmaster of the fleas was everything you would expect - a totally shady bloke who looked like he hated children. I often thought about writing a horror story on it but I thought no one would believe it. You should go for it, Craig, but it will have to be bloody good to beat Collier! I don't understand this flea circus thing at all. Are they in a magnified tank or something, otherwise how is the audience supposed to see them? This is the first time I've revisited The Freak Show in a decade, and, with the possible exception of the whimsical Esther Carlson offering, it's been a joy. Cases in point: Margaret St. Clair - Horrer Howce: ( Galaxy, July 1956). Desperate for money, Genius inventor Freeman introduces slimy entrepreneur Dickson-Hawkes to his latest ghastly mechanically-driven illusion - a virtual freeway where motorists are hunted down by cannibal aliens with elongated arms. Freeman gives fair warning that the Horrer Howse still has a few bugs. "No yelling, or anything like that - no matter what you see ... Remember, none of this is real." John Wyndham - Jizzle: ( MF&SF, Feb. 1952). Ted Stevens, hawker of quack potions in a travelling show, buys a monkey from a stranger while drunk in The Goat And Gate. Giselle - or Jizzle as Ted pronounced it - proves an instant hit with the audience on account of her artistic talent and amazing telepathic skills. Ted stands to make him a fortune! But Rosie, his lover and stage-assistant, is worried. She rightly believes 'Jizzle' has a malicious streak ... Mildred Clingerman - The Gay Deceiver ( A Cupful of Space, Ballantine, 1961). All the little children love Papa Frolic, with his bright clothes, colourful balloons and jolly flue playing. Verna, the waitress he rescued from a greasy spoon and hired as his assistant, loves him too, though sometimes she's awful frightened. It seems that whenever they leave for another town, at least one local infant dies horribly. |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 29, 2015 12:26:39 GMT
Sounds bad but I can't remember. It was in a small German village near Leipzig in the middle of nowhere. We were playing a local highland games which bizarrely had loads of huge Germans dressed in kilts lumping about massive stones and throwing trees. Some of them looked as though we cheated by having modern weapons in the wars otherwise we would have been slaughtered wholesale. No one spoke English, only Russian as a second language. Entertainment out there was pretty spartan - disco playing songs that were popular in the 1970's (but only in Germany - Smokie were a huge favourite.) A juggling fire-show and in the middle of it a press of little kids waiting for the flea circus. I saw the bloke hanging about for a few hours before our gig and genuinely thought he might be arrested on appearance alone. He had a little box with one open side like one of those children's paper theatre sets from the last century. I didn't see the show close up - probably sounds wimpy but the fear of bubonic plague held me back from a closer look.
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Post by dem bones on May 30, 2015 5:57:06 GMT
Sounds bad but I can't remember. It was in a small German village near Leipzig in the middle of nowhere. We were playing a local highland games which bizarrely had loads of huge Germans dressed in kilts lumping about massive stones and throwing trees. Some of them looked as though we cheated by having modern weapons in the wars otherwise we would have been slaughtered wholesale. No one spoke English, only Russian as a second language. Entertainment out there was pretty spartan - disco playing songs that were popular in the 1970's (but only in Germany - Smokie were a huge favourite.) A juggling fire-show and in the middle of it a press of little kids waiting for the flea circus. I saw the bloke hanging about for a few hours before our gig and genuinely thought he might be arrested on appearance alone. He had a little box with one open side like one of those children's paper theatre sets from the last century. I didn't see the show close up - probably sounds wimpy but the fear of bubonic plague held me back from a closer look. Now that is truly surreal, and not just the strange affection for bloody Smokie. No excuse, Craig, you have to write it now! |
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Post by mcannon on May 31, 2015 0:30:30 GMT
Sounds bad but I can't remember. It was in a small German village near Leipzig in the middle of nowhere. We were playing a local highland games which bizarrely had loads of huge Germans dressed in kilts lumping about massive stones and throwing trees. Some of them looked as though we cheated by having modern weapons in the wars otherwise we would have been slaughtered wholesale. No one spoke English, only Russian as a second language. Entertainment out there was pretty spartan - disco playing songs that were popular in the 1970's (but only in Germany - Smokie were a huge favourite.) A juggling fire-show and in the middle of it a press of little kids waiting for the flea circus. I saw the bloke hanging about for a few hours before our gig and genuinely thought he might be arrested on appearance alone. He had a little box with one open side like one of those children's paper theatre sets from the last century. I didn't see the show close up - probably sounds wimpy but the fear of bubonic plague held me back from a closer look. Now that is truly surreal, and not just the strange affection for bloody Smokie. No excuse, Craig, you have to write it now! A couple of months ago I was in a small town in the Czech Republic, an hour or so out of Prague, and spotted a tour poster for Smokie. What horrors lie behind this strange Continental fascination with 1970s Brit pop groups? Mark |
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