Pulp Horror #1

[dem bones]

Justin Marriott (ed.) - Pulp Horror #1 (October, 2015)

Editorial: The Pulpit Of Horror
Strange Tales
At The Mountains Of Madness: Fred Chappell's Dagon
Gerald Kersh's Nightmares And Damnations
Edwin Self, Prince Of Darkness. Illustrated history of Pedigree Books
If You Go Down To The Woods .... The Origins Of The Wicker Man
The Grandest Guignol Of All: A review of Ray Russell's Unholy Trinity by Will Errickson
Things That Go Hump In The Night. Ronald Pearsall's horror fiction
Vampir Horror Roman. German Pulp.

This - and one more - just in from the house of Fanatic! 56 colour pages of total bookstacy! "Review" to very follow ....

Contact
The Paperback Fanatic Megastore.
email: thepaperbackfanaticATsky.com

And that's not all Mr. Marriott has been up to ....

[Deleted]

Ooh, fingers crossed mine will land over the weekend, as I've just finished FANATIC 33 this evening!

[Deleted]

Ah, here it is today. Particularly nice to see an article on Ray Russell considering I literally just finished THE CASE AGAINST SATAN at the weekend, a novel that I enjoyed, but struggled to keep a straight face with, not least because I kept imagining the lead characters as Father Ted Crilly and his nemesis, Bishop Len Brennan.

[dem bones]

Oct 26, 2015 18:37:46 GMT @johnforth said:

Ah, here it is today. Particularly nice to see an article on Ray Russell considering I literally just finished THE CASE AGAINST SATAN at the weekend, a novel that I enjoyed, but struggled to keep a straight face with, not least because I kept imagining the lead characters as Father Ted Crilly and his nemesis, Bishop Len Brennan.

The Ray Russell piece is by the man behind the excellent Too Much Horror Fiction blog, Will Errickson, who posts on here as Will E.

After two days of lugging around of bookcases in attempt to bring some order to the pile of mouldering old tat also known as the dem 1 & 2 "library" (smirk), finally have some time to get properly stuck into Pulp Horror #1 and the hideously beautiful Sleazy Reader #3. Before we get started, hope Justin will forgive me for reproducing the page 3 pin-up, but for me, this fine young fellow sums up what it's all about.

[dem bones]

"I plan to make Pulp Horror more personal and focused than The Paperback Fanatic. So I won't be running huge cover galleries for the most part, but plan to focus on reviews of individual titles, or titles with a common theme." - Justin Marriott, Editorial: The Pulpit Of Horror.

Maybe it's just that I love the subject matter, but Pulp Horror strikes me as the nearest thing to a commercial viable title the House of Fanatic has published to date. Initial impression is that, while it's unmistakably Justin - the high quality production values are a give-away - the writing is rawer, more off the cuff than we're used to in PF ("Harlan 'I Have No Volume Control And I must Scream' Ellison [who] provides a typically hysterical and over-blown introduction", "Dr. Muncing is an insufferable tw*t ....", etc). Opening article, Strange Tales of Mystery & Terror, providing an overview of select highlights from the short-lived 'thirties pulp great - Hugh B. Cave comes out of it well, Gordon "Dr. Muncing, Exorcist" McCreagh less so - is also one of the longer pieces, and concludes on a contentious note, possibly in retaliation to perceived wisdom that Strange Tales was "better" than Weird Tales. Regardless that they had several authors in common, both publications struck their own identity, and it's so sad that ST went under after only seven issues.

Huge cover galleries may be out, but the relatively tiny one devoted to Pedigree books' Black Magic range is an absolute beauty, and that largely due to the wonderful artwork of Stephen Boldero. Anyone wondering why some of us will never embrace ebooks, look no further than his paintings for Prince Of Darkness and Satanism And Witchcraft. Books ain't all about the written word - it's the whole package makes them works of art in their own right. Sh*tterst*ck? Give me f**k**g strength.

Was a time when I had Ronald Pearsall's academic - and extremely salacious - study of Victorian cruelty and perversion, Night's Black Angels (Gollancz, 1975), on repeat library loan, but I never realised he had two horror paperbacks published by golden-age Sphere! Justin ain't all that keen, but they spell must have to me!

A couple of amendments. Pedigree did indeed publish an edition of McCormick's The Hellfire Club minus the "West Wycombe Caves & Cafe's" logo (sticker?), and Coronet published a UK paperback edition of Gerald Kersh's Nightshades and Damnation replete with introduction by Harlan Ellison ® ™ © PLC.

More to come ...

[franklinmarsh]

Gah! Still have PF #33 to wade through and this little gem turns up! The David Pinner/Ritual stuff is what initially grabbed my attention, along with Ray Russell. Excellent dedication, too.

[dem bones]

Oct 28, 2015 13:26:22 GMT franklinmarsh said:

Gah! Still have PF #33 to wade through and this little gem turns up! The David Pinner/Ritual stuff is what initially grabbed my attention, along with Ray Russell. Excellent dedication, too.

Will's article on Unholy Trinity is a treat, could easily spawn a sequel examining the rest of Ray Russell's gothy output in detail. Have never had the pleasure of Ritual, but, the way El Fanatic tells it, the glaring similarities with The Wicker Man pretty much rule out coincidence. Don't know if its just me, but, the production values aside, Pulp Horror takes me back to the very earliest Fanatics, most notably the Sphere special. There's a similar rough and ready vibe to the writing. Would love for the mag to become a semi-regular like Men Of Violence (can't call The Sleazy Reader a semi-regular as there have already been three this year!).

[dem bones]

This is the Johnny.

Numbered #3 in the great scheme of things, this was the first issue under the name Paperback Fanatic. The magazine began life as Pulp Mania! (dirty-slick, professional) in 2006, switched to Paperback Dungeon (gnarly, lo-fi fanzine) for #2, finally settling on Paperback Fanatic for the Sphere special (August 2007). Within the colour covers, 30 A4 B/W pages devoted to Kung-fu Pulp, The Many Faces Of Paul Tabori (the majority of which were evidently engrossed in erotica), Sphere Horror: A Scrapbook of the '70's incorporating checklist and short but fascinating 'Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult' interlude, and a page devoted to Donald Franklin's 'Special Squad' series.

Here's what we made of it back on Vault Mk 1

Somebody really ought to write a history of Paperback Fanatic.

[dem bones]

As with the Aus pulps, the German horrors have been great for PF, and here Justin continues the work began by Andreas Decker in one of my all-time favourite issues, Paperback Fanatic #18 , but FOUR years ago! Where's it all going?). Hours of fun to be had from the artwork, some original to Vampir Horror Roman, much of it familiar from the day's Sphere, Tandem, and Mayflower paperbacks among others. "Relatively cheap to buy on eBay" advises Mr Fanatic. Probably not after this article.

Stephen Boldero

Right. Time to turn our attention to the lurid delights of Sleazy Reader #3 which, as title suggests, is not for the faint hearted ...

[dem bones]

A Ronald Pearsall non-fiction title. Might eventually devote a thread to it as a horrible book! Think there was a paperback, but in this instance you might be better off with the hardcover.

Ronald Pearsall - Night's Black Angels (Hodder & Stoughton, 1975)

Blurb:
Cruelty is always shocking, but it is easy to shrug one's shoulders and pretend that it is not happening. We are guilty of this, but we do not systematically use cruelty as a class weapon or social deterrent as the Victorians did. Night's Black Angels is an indictment of hypocrisy and selfishness, ruthlessness and indifference, a review of a time when the demands of progress made slaves of men, women and children, and cruelty was only reprehensible if the middle classes were upset.

Callousness was part and parcel of the business of living, and the borderline between firmness and cruelty was deliberately blurred; we see this in the treatment of children, the poor, the mad, convicts, soldiers and sailors, and all who were vulnerable. Cruelty bred cruelty. In the slums of London and the industrial cities it was so commonplace that it was not worth commenting upon. Hopelessness and drink produced frightening savagery. And few cared.

Matters, however, were improving. No one was burned as a heretic, no one was drawn and quartered. Public execution was abolished, to the annoyance of those termed amateurs of suffering, and measures to ease the lot of those who had suffered most were introduced. But cruelty still permeated Victorian life, in all forms, psychological and physical, from the social snub to the torture of convicts on the treadmill.

Ronald Pearsall has researched extensively in contemporary sources and his investigations cover the whole conspectus of Victorian society. Never a sensationalising account, this is nevertheless a sobering indictment of man's inhumanity to man.

[jamesdoig]

My copy arrived in the post today - fantastic magazine! I hope it lasts as long as PF. Love the article on Pedigree and the various reviews, especially of Fred Chappell's Dagon, which I've always meant to read and never had, and of Unholy Trinity.

By the way, have any of you Londoners heard of this guy? I found this ad while browsing a 1977 issue of Xenophile - great taste in books...

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