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Post by dem bones on Aug 21, 2009 14:32:35 GMT
It's here .... Justin Marriott (ed.) - Paperback Fanatic #11 (August, 2009) Contents Editorial:
Fanatical Mail - Paperback fanatics from around the world have their say!
AGRO! - The Fanatic continues its look at Hell's Angels pulps
Thirty Years Behind The Typewriter - Classic Steve Holland interview with versatile author Peter Leslie
I've Been Up So Long - Fanatic interviews publishing maverick Mark Howell. The NEL editor's reminiscences of life with Laurence James, Jim Moffatt, Peter Haining, Bob Tanner & Co.
The Lives And Loves Of James Moffatt - Fanatic investigates the many pen-names of Richard 'Skinhead' Allen
Take A Journey to Dimension X - The Fanatic studies the 'Jeffrey Lord' sword and sorcery series Blade
A Green Dog Trumpeting - The Fanatic interviews Ian Miller one of the most idiosyncratic and distinctive of all paperback artists whose work includes The Sucking Pit, Errol LeCale's Zombie, and the striking covers for the Panther reprints of Lovecraft's At The Mountains Of Madness and The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward.
Edited by Justin Marriott : justinATjustincuitprint.free-online.co.uk
Designed by Glenn B Fleming : gbf15AThotmail.co.uk
Published August 2009: contact www.thepaperbackfanatic.com No review just yet as this only turned up at mid-day, and within the first two pages there are teasers for proposed future PF articles that had me drooling before i'd even made the customary preliminary flick through this one! I've since torn through the letters, the Jim Moffatt feature, friend of Vault Michel Parry on the controversial and improbable history of Agro and Hells Angels versus London, Justin's interrogation of the incredibly sweet natured Mark Howell, and read enough of Steve Holland's interview with Peter Leslie to know that those of us who feel strongly about the trend toward "big thick wads of books" are not alone in our disdain. Inexcusably, closet- PF fan the Bride then rose from the slab, grabbed the mag right out of my hands and is even now snickering and groaning over "those disgusting titty covers you all like so much", so i figured i'd hack this out in the meantime! If you'd told me two years ago that an issue of Paperback Fanatic this light on horror content would be one of my favourites to date, i'd have looked at you like you were something out of Deliverance .... Well done to Justin, Glenn, Michel, Steve Holland, the interviewees and all the letter writers for providing such a fascinating read. |
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Post by Steve on Aug 21, 2009 18:30:19 GMT
You had me at the disgusting titty covers.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 25, 2009 7:52:38 GMT
Actually, the quota is slightly down on previous issues (believe me, i put hours of study into these things ), so it's a 'must try harder' in that department. That said: Swampgirl, The Nymphette, Diary Of A Female Wrestler ... their hearts are in the right place. There's more Justin in this one than #10 and, as ever, a Marshall Cavendish feel in that much that follows on from previous issues. Cases in point: The Hells Angel pulps/ Agro (fig A) feature takes us right back to Pulpmania.  Fig A. Agro, the not banned edition. Cover design by Domenico RodiThe Peter Leslie and Mark Howell interviews continue the story of the NEL mavericks as does the bibliography in process, The Lives And Loves Of James Moffatt which lists over 70 of his non- Skinhead pulps from 1964-79. Blade, being the brainchild of Lyle Kenyon Engel, dovetails the Robert Lory interview in #4. And Fanatical Thoughts is really something with contributions from, among others, James Harvey, Nick Austin, pulphack, Andy Decker .... often the letters are mini-article in themselves. |
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Post by shaun Jeffrey on Aug 25, 2009 7:56:00 GMT
The person on the cover reminds me of Sid Snot! |
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Post by allthingshorror on Aug 28, 2009 7:51:35 GMT
A cracking issue this one Justin - nice to see the positive feedback on the Holmes interview, LOVED the Mark Howell interview - with every issue I'm getting sucked into the mental world of NEL just that little bit more, and the Ian Miller interview rounds off another classic PF.
Have some good news for you - have had a good two hour chat with Cecil Smith (NEL Art Director) last night and he say's he writing down massive answers to the questions I sent him, with photos and a few NEL promo items etc.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Aug 28, 2009 10:58:00 GMT
I must admit I have slowly come to grips with the sight of these Paperback Fanatic's. They look really superb. If anyone has a spare copy of the Burroughs issue please let me know.
Just as a desperate plea there is a huge American market for all things Burroughs - see ERBdom - and they don't know a great deal about English editions so if you ever ever consider a reprint I will be first in the queue. Cursing myself for being too tardy.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Aug 28, 2009 13:44:39 GMT
LOVED the Mark Howell interview - with every issue I'm getting sucked into the mental world of NEL just that little bit more... Have some good news for you - have had a good two hour chat with Cecil Smith (NEL Art Director) last night and he say's he writing down massive answers to the questions I sent him, with photos and a few NEL promo items etc. Agreed with all above comments. The Howell and Leslie interviews were highlights for me. I think we should lobby Justin to create a virtual NEL office, with all the regular offbeat oddballs. Justin - would there be any mileage in a short piece about certain authors and their product placement, blatant self-advertisement of their other books, and in-joke appearances by fellow authors, characters, publishers, song lyrics etc... |
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Post by pulphack on Aug 29, 2009 7:49:31 GMT
what can i say? being a more justin-written issue makes it more up my street, but that's not to take away from other contributors. this one is more in the 'tradition' of PF (i think we can safely say it established that style from day one!), and splendid for it.
the ian miller int, was the big surprise for me - fascinating stuff on someone whose style is instantly recognisable, and stands apart from the general run of cover artists in that period.
the mark howell and peter leslie pices were obvious highlights for me. mark is someone who looms large in stories i've heard, but i've never met the man and it was nice to read things in his own words. the story of his own legal brush with gold eagle, which makes peter leslie's seem small, is one for another day as i guess he doesn't wish to go into it (mr james was never so reticent!). the peter leslie int, funnily enough, i'd read the original version of a few months back when someone loaned me a load of old paperback soc. newsletters that the good mr holland edited. the new version, tidied up a bit and with some things i don't remember from the first publication, was well worth revisiting.
nice to see michel parry's take on the Agro issues as a sidelight to continuation, too.
another cracking little issue, all in all. for me, PF goes strength to strength.
two final things. first off, on the matter of Drums Of The Dark Gods - i read the Peter Saxon SBL it was allegedly based on (did i mail you about this befoe, justin?). definitely a Bill Baker book, that one. the style is unmistakeable and it's very much a crime novel with only a hint of voodoo, and that as a cover. i'd say that McNeilly was handed the original with the instruction to rewrite as a supernatural Quintain thriller but found little in the actual prose to work with (certainly, there are no passages that seem common to either). what he seems to have done is take the structure and then completely rewrite from scratch, so rather than an adaptation, what we have is a rewrite from, effectively, the original outline.
secondly, i can't believe MH didn't know why LJ was called Sid! partly because of the surname, and partly because when LJ used to work at Foyles, Sid James would come in every friday and purchase off him every crime novel published that week. never thought of Sid James as a voracious reader, but i suppose there are long gaps during shooting schedules and you can only chase Barbara Windsor around the dressing room for so long...
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Post by dem bones on Aug 29, 2009 9:20:12 GMT
Sid James, Vault's honorary crime buff from beyond the grave! If anyone's handy with a Ouija board, see if you can get his verdict on Jim Thompson. I love it when we get these 'what the stars read/ listen to' snippets: Siouxsie Sue with her Pan Horror fixation, MES with his regular Arthur Machen, MRJ and Lovecraft endorsements, LJ dropping a reference to the Fall's Eat Y'Self Fitter into killer porker classic The City, former Man Utd. hardnut Brian McClair mentioning his fondness for the Psychedelic Furs debut album, etc. On a more sinister note, Mick Mercer, the Goth scene's answer to Steve Holland, once mentioned that then T*ry minister Michael Portillo, was a regular browser Atlantis, the Occult bookshop in Museum Street. Favoured subject matter? Black Magic! Justin - would there be any mileage in a short piece about certain authors and their product placement, blatant self-advertisement of their other books, and in-joke appearances by fellow authors, characters, publishers, song lyrics etc... You're the man for the job, FM! If Justin doesn't want it, we'll have it! Mr. Horror's interrogation of Cecil Smith has obvious potential, and i hope Stephen Sennitt goes through with his proposed article on Ballantine's Chamber Of Horror series too. Mr. Marriott's editorial hint at forthcoming features on US publishers of impressively dubious credentials drives home that, eleven issues in, PF's work on earth has still only really just begun. |
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Post by andydecker on Aug 30, 2009 11:25:24 GMT
Again an interesting issue all around.
Loved the interviews. It is a shame that nobody did a comprehensive book on the british paperback industry when all the players were still alive. A lost opportunity. I know that this isn´t interesting for the masses, still sad that so many of those facts and anecdotes are lost. This makes the PF even more important.
The Blade article was interesting. I would like to know how the French handle the series. Hard to imagine that they still follow the formula. And over 200 novels? That is a lot. I nver was a Blade fan. I find Roland Green boring. Still I came to appreciate Manning Lee Stokes lately. He wrote some truly mental - from todays point of view - Nick Carter´s, and I guess to re-read a Blade or two can´t hurt.
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Post by justin on Sept 28, 2009 20:37:34 GMT
Seeing as I had better remove that "BFS Award Nomination" from The Fanatic cover as being decades out of date, and it possibly not meaning an awful lot, I'm proud to say I now have a new cover line.
"As recommended by Loaded Magazine!"
To rank up there with a review of Pulp Mania in Bizarre which I proudly showed my mum only for the opposite page to be a phone-sex advert, Loaded has listed the mag in its top ten guide this month.
They've totally missed the point of course, and it'll bring no orders in, but it was an excuse to buy the Holly Oaks calendar special. Being a juvenile baying chauvinist pig and all that!
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Post by allthingshorror on Sept 28, 2009 20:42:54 GMT
11 was a bloody good issue - and have had a very privileged sneaky peek at the cover for 12 and all I can say - Justin is a pulp god.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 28, 2009 21:17:58 GMT
"As recommended by Loaded Magazine!" To rank up there with a review of Pulp Mania in Bizarre which I proudly showed my mum only for the opposite page to be a phone-sex advert, Loaded has listed the mag in its top ten guide this month. wouldn't have thought there were that many mags have been nominated for a BFS award and received a nod from Loaded? That's a nice kind of crossover potential to have. mrs. demonik will be thrilled to see a recommendation from a lads mag on the cover - all her groundless suspicions that our noble academic pursuits are just an excuse to ogle big tits confirmed ..... Was the Bizarre review favourable? |
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Post by johnnymains on Jan 4, 2019 18:41:30 GMT
A cracking issue this one Justin - nice to see the positive feedback on the Holmes interview, LOVED the Mark Howell interview - with every issue I'm getting sucked into the mental world of NEL just that little bit more, and the Ian Miller interview rounds off another classic PF. Have some good news for you - have had a good two hour chat with Cecil Smith (NEL Art Director) last night and he say's he writing down massive answers to the questions I sent him, with photos and a few NEL promo items etc. Sad news to convey, Patricia, Cecil's wife would like me to pass on the news that Cecil died on 31/12/18 of issues relating to dementia. Cecil never did get round to doing the massive interview - although not on the lack of trying on my part - he was always too busy with his life. After his funeral (in around two weeks) - Patricia and I will be writing a obituary and will post it up here, amongst other places. |
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