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Post by dem on Aug 23, 2015 11:08:51 GMT
Out now - all 200 pages of it!!! Justin Marriott (ed.) - Paperback Fanatic # 33 (August 2015) 
Fanatical mails:The Postal Fanatics have their say on issues 31 and 32 : Chris Mikul, Colin Clyes, Clive Davies, Andy Boot, Tom Tesarek, Richard Sala, James Doig, Nigel Taylor, Scott Carlson, Cassandra Solon-Parry, Kev Demant
Scott Carlson - Astonishing histories: The author picks up the Ballantine baton
James Doig - Carter Brown: the Australian series. Australia's finest export
Tom Tesarek and Scott Carlson - ...on their weasels-ripping-flesh good time in Chicago at the windy city pulp convention.
Lynn Munroe - Ed Wood. A checklist of Ed's unique body of paperbacks.
Lynn Munroe - HoIlywood Rat Race: reviewed.
Lynn Munroe - Ed Wood's Sex Tales. The super rare Wood mags
Anthologies
Nigel Taylor - Fantastic Symphonies
Justin Marriot - Alfred Hitchcock
James Doig - An Australian anthology of horror/sf pulps unearthed
Justin Marriot - An Invitation To The Hunt
Justin Marriot - A Visual Guide to Corgi
Justin Marriot - A Brief history of Corgi books: Billions and squillions of gorgeous Corgi cover scans
Editor Justin Marriott
Assistant Editor Jim O'Brien
Subscriptions/ info etc The Paperback Fanatic
Review to follow ASAP (slight technical hitch: one-man Vault anniversary anti-celebration culminated in a mangled elbow .....) |
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Post by dem on Aug 25, 2015 10:23:32 GMT
Lets get this party started. As mentioned above, this time PF has mutated into a 200 page paperback, essentially a combination of the regular magazine and a Corgi special (will save that to last: it's a 120+ page book in itself). Love the anthologies-that-should-have-been - might even attempt to tart up our "imaginary bands" thread as a possible rocky-horror response to Nigel Taylor's "music-related fantasies selection," Fantastic Symphonies. James Doig cherry-picks some of the best - and not-so-best - SF and horror fiction to appear in the pages of Man, a long-lived (1936-197?) , mildly (?) raunchy Aussie mag, including Colin Dangaard's The Rats Of Bird Island - mutant rodents attack a lighthouse - and something called The Creeping Death by Ron Miller concerning "an all-consuming vegetable horror that lands in a spaceship on the Federal Highway near Cambera .... surely one of the worst SF stories ever published." Justin too-generously provides Vault a co-credit for his An Invitation To The Hunt but, in truth, his selection is far broader in scope than our string of horrors. The commentaries/ synopses are great fun, and we even get some bonus extras ( "Other Bloch tales having a tangential connection with music include the Liszt-inspired vampire yarn Hungarian Rhapsody .... For an alternate take, with a giant snail as the relentless pursuer, see The Hunt For Blank Claveringi ....") So, just when you think your wants list is already impossible enough, now we're down to adding items that don't actually exist. Can only agree with the comments re "Alfred Hitchcock" anthologies. The Dell, Nel and Pan paperback cover artwork is macabre for sure, but the all-important written content can be a slog and it's only those ghosted by the excellent Robert Arthur work for this reader. Much as it pains me to admit it, some of the Peter Haining selections for NEL are deathly dull. More, lots more, to follow .... |
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Post by mcannon on Aug 25, 2015 23:39:26 GMT
James Doig cherry-picks some of the best - and not-so-best - SF and horror fiction to appear in the pages of Man, a long-lived (1936-197?) , mildly (?) raunchy Aussie mag, including Colin Dangaard's The Rats Of Bird Island - mutant rodents attack a lighthouse - and something called The Creeping Death by Ron Miller concerning "an all-consuming vegetable horror that lands in a spaceship on the Federal Highway near Cambera .... surely one of the worst SF stories ever published." >>*Struth!* - The Federal Highway runs past less than a mile alway from my house - I hope that my copy of Fanatic #33 arrives quickly so that I can check James' article for survival instructions! "Man" did indeed die out sometime in the early 1970s. I can't remember exactly when, but can recall furtively scanning through a few issues when I was 12 or 13, circa 1970-72. I have to admit that I _wasn't_ looking for science fiction...... Though it seemed relatively raunchy to me at the time, it was probably milder than then average Lad's Mag of today. Mark |
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Post by dem on Aug 26, 2015 12:41:08 GMT
"Man" did indeed die out sometime in the early 1970s. If only .... Have never seen a copy of Man, but thanks to Java's Bachelor Pad, recently sampled some of the cute, not-very risqué fantasy fiction from the later Adam, and you could likely compile a neat anthology from that publication, too. Lynn Monroe's unflinching scrutiny of Ed Wood/ Gallery Press's Sex Tales is a personal highlight of #33, as the magazines in question have taken on near mythical qualities for this reader. How would they compare with Adventures In Horror ? Could Monster Sex Tales possibly live down to that gaudy, supremely hideous cover artwork (and learning that the randy Frankenstein-a-like ripping the blouse from his big-titted victim depicts a scene from something called Raging Sex Monster suggests it probably does)? Many, if not all the stories mentioned are reprinted in the 50-strong , but unforgivably bereft of cover artwork, Blood Splatters Quickly: The Collected Stories of Ed Wood, jnr (OR, 2014). I'm very tempted .... The staged photo's at back of Horror Sex Tales - advertising a next issue that never was - are the stuff of Ph*tob*cket's nightmares. * Getting ahead of myself here, but for the benefit of Mr. Fanatic, Jack D. Shackleford was indeed an occultist/ pulp writer in the vein of his contemporaries Gerald Suster and Eric Erikson, and, reputedly, a sometime haunter of the much-missed Eastcote bookshop. Sadly, we were informed by his son, Greg, that Mr. Shackleford passed away in October 2011 (more info HERE) |
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Post by jamesdoig on Aug 26, 2015 22:03:18 GMT
Have never seen a copy of Man, but thanks to Java's Bachelor Pad, recently sampled some of the cute, not-very risqué fantasy fiction from the later Adam, and you could likely compile a neat anthology from that publication, too. I've got a box of Man sitting at home somewhere - I'll post some covers and things when I've got a chance. And there are two or three boxes still in Graeme Flanagan's shed that I need to sell. There's a listing of contents of this stuff over at the Fictionmags site, though it's far from complete. It pretty much died when Gough Whitlam eased bans on prohibited publications - which also meant the market became flooded with reprint horror comics. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Aug 26, 2015 22:08:14 GMT
The Federal Highway runs past less than a mile alway from my house - I hope that my copy of Fanatic #33 arrives quickly so that I can check James' article for survival instructions! Yes, beware the dreaded mindless carnivorous plants who have somehow mastered the art of inter-planetary space travel. Just keep your flame-thrower handy. |
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Post by dem on Aug 27, 2015 18:18:17 GMT
I've got a box of Man sitting at home somewhere - I'll post some covers and things when I've got a chance. And there are two or three boxes still in Graeme Flanagan's shed that I need to sell. There's a listing of contents of this stuff over at the Fictionmags site, though it's far from complete. It pretty much died when Gough Whitlam eased bans on prohibited publications - which also meant the market became flooded with reprint horror comics. That would be great James. From the reproductions in PF, the covers are very sweet and innocent, nothing to scare the horses (unlike the Horror Sex Tales abominations. I hope somebody identifies the Gallery Press house artist!). |
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Post by dem on Aug 28, 2015 17:09:58 GMT
 Pendulum Pictorial, 1968 Lynn Monroe has excelled himself this issue. The trawl through the entire literary works of Ed Wood is both an extraordinary feat of literary detection and an excruciating, read-through-your-fingers guilty pleasure, especially with covers like the above lying in ambush. Mr. Monroe's review of the posthumously published Hollywood Rat Race highlights the sheer scale of the great man's self delusion and boundless optimism in the face of terminal adversary. A 'Crack Tinsel Town & Get Rich Quick' primer from the director of Bride Of The Monster? The Fanatical Mails are, as ever, an education and it's heartening to see so many tributes to our late friends and colleagues Graeme Flanagan and Michel Parry, including a touching note from Michel's extremely gifted daughter Cassie (as those of you who've heard her recordings as Moth Ra will already be aware). Also liked Nigel Taylor's line comparing the two new PF's in one envelope with Whizzer & Chips! Not the most obvious comparison, perhaps, but as a fellow fan, I know what he means! |
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Post by Dr Strange on Aug 28, 2015 17:49:05 GMT
Pendulum Pictorial, 1968 This being Ed Wood, I am surprised it isn't gorillas. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Sept 2, 2015 20:35:48 GMT
My copy arrived yesterday - it's a huge book!
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Post by jamesdoig on Sept 4, 2015 22:12:53 GMT
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Post by andydecker on Sept 5, 2015 12:33:20 GMT
Thanks for the scans.
You are too hard on this, I think. A few of these are funny. I like them.  |
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Post by dem on Sept 6, 2015 17:53:39 GMT
Thanks for the scans.
You are too hard on this, I think. A few of these are funny. I like them. Me too, particularly the illustrated covers. They have charm. (Matter of fact, I'm planning to immerse myself in Aus culture this coming week ....) The twin-pronged assault of text and cover art that is A Visual Guide To Corgi would alone fill a paperback and, as with so many PF articles, left me ravenous for a part II. Another glorious gallery with informative commentary - and capsule reviews to hate with a passion once you realise that, despite the author's "don't even go there" alert (always the most irresistible lure), you've added the likes of Lemmus #1: Waiters On The Dance and Star Child to bastard wants list. I so like the look of Anne Blaisdell's Nightmare. Lobsang Rampa can go do one though. |
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Post by franklinmarsh on Sept 24, 2015 11:32:12 GMT
Lets get this party started. Not 'arf! Am now in receipt of a copy of this myself, and after I've finished the good Mr Mains' tales, I'll be perusing this tome. Flicked through last night and thought I'd died and gone to heaven with the Corgi stuff. Was brought back to earth with a clip round the ear from the Mrs for apparently spending too much time studying those glorious Carter Brown covers. Ouch! Congrats to Justin, James and all involved. |
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