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Post by dem bones on Mar 1, 2011 12:09:44 GMT
Donald A. Wollheim (ed.) - The Macabre Reader (Digit, n.d.; originally Ace, USA, 1959) Thorp McClusky - The Crawling Horror Robert Bloch - The Opener Of The Way John Martin Leahy - In Amundsen's Tent H. P. Lovecraft - The Thing on the Doorstep Thomas Burke - The Hollow Man Donald Wandrei - It Will Grow on You Clark Ashton Smith - The Hunters from Beyond Zealia Brown Bishop - The Curse of Yig Robert E. Howard - The Cairn on the Headland Henry S. Whitehead - The Trap
Verse Thomas Lovell Beddoes - The Phantom-Wooer H. P. Lovecraft - Night Gaunts Ray H. Zorn - Greegree H. P. Lovecraft - The DwellerBlurb Macabre! That is the right word for the horrifying tales told in this book. The Dance of Death, that fearsome carnival of the skeletons, weaving their gruesome evils in and out of the lives of the living, summarizes the true essence of this excruciating collection. Here are stories of terror from all climes and all times; from the lingering horrors of ancient Egypt to the unnamed monsters of the frigid cold and the tropic jungle. Here are the amorphous haunts of modem cities and the reptilian shadows of the forgotten past.We've already met a number of these elsewhere on the board and Graham took us through the whole thing on Vault MK I, but it's one of Wollheim's stronger pulp selections so there's likely more milage to be had from it. The Wandrei story was new to me - it doesn't disappoint - but it's the Thorp McClusky blob of slime novella i'm most looking forward to as i can't remember if i read it before. Donald Wandrei - It Will Grow on You: A ghastly treat for fans of Henry Whitehead's The Lips, Edward Lucas White's Lukundoo and Bryce Walton's The Devil Doll. The man in the lumpy raincoat walks in on the Doctor just as he's preparing to close the surgery for the weekend. The stranger explains that he's just returned from the Tropics, having escaped the romantic attentions of a clinging native girl - or so he thought. The Doctor examines the man's swollen leg to discover a throbbing, foot high growth in the shape of a naked woman. "She was looking up at her host in an ecstasy of admiration, and the voice was drooling love, the fawning, brainless love of a cretin." Clearly, the lovestruck little miss will have to be surgically removed, but the Doctor's every attempt to anaesthetise his patient ends in failure - the besotted pygmy shatters the syringe. Well, if she's going to be difficult about this ... The Doctor fetches an axe .... John Martin Leahy - In Amundsen's Tent: South Pole, 1912. Captain Scott and his men got off lightly in comparison to Sutherland's three man expedition. Well beaten to the Pole by their rivals, Sutherland's team have attracted some very hostile company - beings from another world who drive men insane on mere sight of them. Sutherland and Travers go missing in the night, leaving Drumgold to record their final moments. Being a trooper, Drumgold is still scribbling away in his journal as the things are parting his tent flaps! i'm sure the author could never have predicted how often this gloriously insane pulp romp would be anthologised! Thorp McClusky - The Crawling Horror: Hans Brubaker's farmhouse comes under attack from a colourless jelly which devours rats, cats and cattle before turning it's attention to human prey. His beautiful young wife Hilda and the local physician Dr. Kurt are the only people who believe his seemingly insane story and help him secure the place versus the shapeless creeping sludge. All is well until eighteen year old Bertha Brandt turns up on the doorstep in the middle of the night, dishevelled but apparently alive. Bertha has been missing, presumed eloped with a Catholic boy, and Dr. Kurt is so relieved to see her safe that he welcomes her into the Brubakers home without a second thought. As he prepares a hot drink, Bertha sneaks into Hilda's bedroom and has halfway done devouring her before Dr. Kurt realises his mistake. Zealia Brown Reed – The Curse Of Yig: Oklahoma, 1925. An ethnologists’ researches into snake lore amongst the Native Americans leads him to Guthrie Asylum where Dr. McNeill introduces him to a casualty of the curse of Yig. McNeill then relates the tragic history of settlers Walker and Audrey Davis, whose anxieties over her wiping out a nest of baby rattlers culminate in madness, manslaughter and monster births. A pulp classic with a killer ending, reputedly revised by H. P. Lovecraft. Thomas Burke - The Hollow Man: Gopak, fifteen years dead, is revived by the Leopard Men and returns from Africa to London to seek out the man who murdered him. It's not revenge he's after, he just has a notion that his one-time partner is the only man who can put him out of his misery. The murderer, known throughout only as Nameless, is the proprietor of a relatively thriving eating house, although it doesn't stay that way for long with a moribund corpse as a permanent fixture.
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Post by jamesdoig on Mar 1, 2011 22:54:53 GMT
but it's the Thorp McClusky blob of slime novella i'm most looking forward to as i can't remember if i read it before. I read it in the same anthology just a few weeks ago and loved it. Between Ooze, Slime, It and the Crawling Horror there must be anthology - or has it been done already?
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Post by dem bones on Mar 2, 2011 19:09:53 GMT
Especially for you, James. a 'The joys of slime' checklist. Short StoriesAnthony R. Rudd - Ooze Joseph Payne Brennan - Slime Thorp McClusky - The Crawling Horror Stephen King - The Raft Arthur Machen - Novel Of The White Powder Theodore Sturgeon - It Am sure there must be loads more? the Machen might be a little contentious, but considering it ends with poor Francis reduced to a puddle of evil-reeking black goo with eyes (and all due to his indulgence in masturbation if lit critic Peter Penzoldt is to be believed), I reckon he's earned his place more than most. NovelsVictor Norwood - Night Of The Black Horror (Badger #44, Jan. 1962) Harry Adam Knight - Slimer (Star, 1983) John Halkin - Slime (Hamlyn. 1984) William Essex (John Tigges) - Slime (Leisure, 1988) David Bischoff - The Blob (Star, 1989) It's so long since i read Guy N. Smith's The Slime Beast am not sure whether to include it as, far as i can remember, he might by slimy but those who come into contact with him don't actually turn to sludge. Come to think of it, Phil Smith's The Incredible Melting Man is also on the gunky side. We might need some ground rules before pursuing the subject further.
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Post by jamesdoig on Mar 2, 2011 20:29:17 GMT
Lovely, Dem! "Slime checklist" indeed. I reckon the Novel of the White Powder fits nicely:
There upon the floor was a dark and putrid mass, seething with corruption and hideous rottenness, neither liquid nor solid, but melting and changing before our eyes, and bubbling with unctious oily bubbles like boiling pitch.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 3, 2011 13:18:51 GMT
Some more. can't believe I overlooked the first two! R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Shipwreck. A translucent blue jelly from outer space devours Sydney J. Bounds! Janet Hirsch - The Seeking Thing: A Magazine Of Horror original, entirely in keeping with RAWL's beloved 'twenties/ 'thirties pulp. Driving along a country road, Paul Allenby hits a crumpled shape. Fearing the worst he gets out of the car and is relieved to discover that it was only a battered up burlap bag. As he pulls away, it attaches itself to the bottom of his vehicle and when he arrives home Allenby notices a wide, ugly scratch extending from fingertip to wrist. By the following day this has become a bloodless brown stain fast climbing his arm and giving off a putrid stench. What is he turning into? R. F. Broad - Bhuilleneadh. Scottish setting but otherwise business as usual as Lance Cranford, ''the greatest ghost-hunter of the century", confronts the all-devouring formless mass. Think there might be an evil spirit involved (it's been a while). From the Not At Night series. My utterly useless notes suggest that August Derleth's The Tenant might be worth looking into and, if early Vault member, nightreader's super review is anything to go by Vern Hansen - Claws Of The Night most certainly is!
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Post by jamesdoig on Mar 5, 2011 22:41:28 GMT
Another slime possibility - Ray Bradbury's "Skeleton" where the guy is reduced to a talking jellyfish.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 6, 2011 14:24:00 GMT
Then there's poor Richie Grenadine, early exponent of the Vault cheap beer & nothing diet, whose sad demise forms the basis of Stephen King's Gray Matter, which first saw publication in Cavalier for October 1973 (fig A), just in case you happen to find a copy knocking around at a car boot sale.
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Post by andydecker on Mar 6, 2011 16:52:08 GMT
Sometimes you really see the difference in quality between Playboy and the rest.
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Post by Dr Strange on Mar 15, 2011 9:33:46 GMT
Another possible for the slime list - Mark Ronson's Ogre (Hamlyn, 1980) turns out to be a gigantic amoeba.
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Post by David A. Riley on Mar 15, 2011 9:37:37 GMT
Perhaps not slime, but there's an all-encompassing intergalactic mould in Mark Samuels' The Black Mould which appears in his most recent collection, The Man Who Collected Machen.
Definitely one of his darker stories (no pun intended!)
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Post by kooshmeister on Jun 6, 2011 8:29:08 GMT
Does Theodore L. Thomas and Kate Wilhelm - The Clone (Berkeley Medallion, 1965) count for the slime list? It's pretty blobbish and slimy.
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Post by lemming13 on Jun 6, 2011 8:40:23 GMT
How about the Thing On the Doorstep, old HPL's tale of familial bodysnatching? The liquefying corpse on the doorstep is pretty slimy. Likewise M. Valdemar in Poe's tale.
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Post by kooshmeister on Apr 22, 2012 6:01:08 GMT
My ex mentioned a novel about living oil that eats people, possessed by ghosts or something. Anyone know the title of this? Not Phantoms by Dean Koontz, I think the word "Fields" was in the title he gave me (and which I forgot).
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Post by doug on Apr 22, 2012 14:44:31 GMT
My ex mentioned a novel about living oil that eats people, possessed by ghosts or something. Anyone know the title of this? Not Phantoms by Dean Koontz, I think the word "Fields" was in the title he gave me (and which I forgot). "The Crawling Horror" by Thorp McClusky. Has a Slime/blob monsters that eats/absorbs/disolves people and takes on some of the characteristics. It's the 1st story in "The Macabre Reader". take care. Doug
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Post by kooshmeister on Apr 22, 2012 20:42:07 GMT
Just read the summary and that isn't it, unfortunately. I was told the menace was specifically crude oil possessed by vengeful ghosts. The Crawling Horror is a short story, besides, and my ex intimated that this other story was an actual novel.
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