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Post by helrunar on Aug 17, 2018 14:51:19 GMT
The cover is quite the whammy. It may have to be the kick-off portrait for a rather select gallery called something along the lines of Helrunar's Woof! Zenana--the counterpart to the Phwoar! thread for those of particular and discerning tastes.
Whenever I see the name Suzanne Ruthven I always wonder if she began as an 80s Goth chanteuse who perhaps opened for Siouxsie and the Banshees, once upon a time.
cheers, H
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Post by andydecker on Aug 17, 2018 17:55:56 GMT
God, but that cover painting is a shocker. The horror ... the horror ...
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Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2018 10:32:02 GMT
The cover is quite the whammy. It may have to be the kick-off portrait for a rather select gallery called something along the lines of Helrunar's Woof! Zenana--the counterpart to the Phwoar! thread for those of particular and discerning tastes. God, but that cover painting is a shocker. The horror ... the horror ... Am almost certain it's modelled on a photo of the hugely-missed Pete Steele - presumably by the world's official number #1 most lovestruck fan in history. When questioned over the choice of cover, author adopts a diplomatic tone. John Hunt Publishing BlogCan't help but think Udolpho regular Gerald Gaubert would have come up with something far more fitting to the occasion. Gerald Gaubert Page Three Girl, ( Udolpho #24, Spring 1996)
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Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2018 14:30:05 GMT
Had completely forgotten that from issues # 27 through to #31, Udolpho published a substantial number of original very short (100-350 words) stories contributed by the readers, several of them excellent. Jennie Gray [ed] - Udolpho #27 (Gargoyle's Head Press, Winter 1996) Eugene Delacroix , detail from Baron Schwiter, 1826. Derek Brockis - La Bête Returns Suzanne Ruthven - Incubi and Succubi [Andrew Phelvin, Bryan Haworth, Tim Thompson & Anne Paterson] - Short Stories Patrick McGrath - Bram Stoker and his Vampire Terry Hale & Jennie Gray - Three Gothic Luminaries; Bram Stoker, Anne Radcliffe & Horace Walpole Emily de Laszowska Gerard - Transylvanian Superstitions: Part II Contributions and Contributors. ... we challenged you to write a new form of fiction for us, consisting of short stories no longer than 300 words long. We had a very gratifying number of submissions, though sadly far too many of them had a vampire theme, and too much vampirism does tend to get a little wearying at times.Andrew Phelvin - Sister X: Vampire nun feeds on the tears she coaxes from her sisters as they sleep. Bryan Haworth - Emilio: A night at the circus, and the puny, hunchbacked clown loses it with the Strongman. The audience find the ensuing one-sided and increasingly violent tear up hilarious. Tim Thompson - Dr. Forbes & His Contraption For Cats: A MAD SCIENTIST's most insane invention to date is bad news for felines of no previous flying experience. Anne Paterson - A State Of Corruption: A cannibal stalks the eerie wynds by night .... Issue notable for Derek Brokis's magnificent account of the life and crimes of the [alleged] werewolf of Ancien Régime (flourished c. 1764-67): "The new two year killing cycle commenced on December 21st, 1765. Christmas was remembered as a particularly melancholy time, because meticulous priests refused to authorise burial rites on the grounds of insufficient remains; a little girl vanished in Julianges and only two hands and two feet were ever found." Also Suzanne Ruthven on how a dutiful study of pornographic literature led to an obsession with demon lovers and sex vampires among early church scholars, and Patrick McGrath wisely celebrates the Dracula centenary some months early to avoid the rush. Jennie Gray [ed] - Udolpho #28 (Gargoyle's Head Press, Spring 1997) Albrecht Durer , detail from St. Jerome in his Study. Jennie Gray - Simon Marsden's 'In Ruins: The Once Great Houses of Ireland' [Review] Jennie Gray - Monk Lewis: From Horror Novelist to Plantation Owner Members' Short Stories Andrew Phelvin - The Legend of the Nephilim Michael Laplace-Sinatra - Science and the Romantics 'H' - The Doomed Man (London Magazine, Sept. 1823) Contributions and Contributors.The challenge this time was to come up with original Gothic/ macabre stories of 200 words or less. This reader particularly enjoyed The Sweater (a must for our 'Fashion Victims' listing) and Extract from 'A Physician At War ...'Tanya lloyd - Incey Wincey: Adventurous spider's heroic bid for freedom is tragically curtailed. Andrew James - Sweater: When he invites his dates to select from his warm sweaters for a trek through the snow, they invariably choose the blue turtle-neck. Anne Acaster - Extract From 'A Physician At War,' The Private Memoir of Dr. M.: A ghoul feasts on the depleted ranks of the retreating regiment. Bryan Haworth - The Bibliomane: Death by bookstacy. Emma Hooper - Nightstalking: Out on the pull with the local lycanthrope. S. D. Andersson - This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get: A failed rock & roll suicide's struggle to overcome an insurmountable obstacle. Death doesn't want him. Steve Prizeman - Descent: Mystery of a never-ending staircase. Bernard O'Brien - Bacton: A security guard suspects that either he is going out of his mind again or the gasworks is lethally haunted. Personal highlight of the issue is the editor's From Horror Novelist to Plantation Owner, quite my favourite concise (7 pages) article on M. G. Lewis since Howard Anderson's introduction to the OUP edition of The Monk (1973), which it possibly even improves upon.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 18, 2018 16:34:23 GMT
Thanks for the blog link. I finally read the original Polidori story "The Vampyre" last year and there's really not much there, in terms of a film or television crumpet. Unless, of course, one built such up out of whole cloth, which would be the only sensible thing to do. Somebody was planning a film a few years ago but seems as if nothing came of it. At least, that's what I recall goggly telling me months ago.
And thanks for mentioning Pete Steele. I read his Wikipedia entry. Sad that he died so young. I did get a chuckle out of the section recounting the nude centerfold he did for Playgirl and his horror upon learning that only 23 percent of the subscribers were female. Hahaha.
Sounds like a really nice fellow. And it was a lovely gesture that they planted a memorial oak for him.
cheers, Steve
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Post by dem bones on Aug 19, 2018 12:18:03 GMT
Jennie Gray [ed] - Udolpho #30 (Gargoyle's Head Press, Autumn, 1997) Lynda Gray Daniel Richier - To The Heart of Dracula Country Harry Warren - The Montpelier Hell-fire Club Andrew Phelvin - Marcion: Heretic of Heretics Tom Ruffles - Phantasmagorian Ghost Shows Gala Sarrington, D. B. Adams & Andrew James - Fiction Jennie Gray - Gothic Revivals and Last Stands Contributions and Contributors"Our last short story challenge used as its starting point the most prosaic modern environment you could think of. Of the resulting horror tales, we have chosen three, all very different ...".... and all very accomplished. Gala Sarrington - Screaming Child: A supermarket near you. A bawling brat stirs the frozen meats to regroup, sparks the apocalypse. D. B. Adams - Instant Colour: A suicide in the photo booth. Andrew James - The Evergreen Gymnasium & Health Club: Bubbly young Kelly gives potential client the guided tour. The girl on the exercise bike begs him to "please ... help ... us .... out." It's obviously some kind of torture chamber for gullible keep-fit freaks and masochists. He takes a life membership. Udolpho published an inordinate amount of v*mp*re non-fiction/ "non-fiction" filler over it's too brief life-span. Will be generous and say the vast majority of it is execrable, a rare, glorious exception being Daniel Richlier's withering account of the first 'World Dracula Congress'(Romania, various Dracu-tourist hotspots, May 1995). The cast of two-hundred, few of whom emerge with a shred of credibility, include Raymond McNally, Radu Florescu, Jeanne Youngson, Elizabeth Miller, Dr. Mary Mulvey Roberts, Bernard Davies, Vincent Hillyer, Stephanie Moss, Corrina Vixenhaus ("a pseudo dominatrix from California"), Rev J. Gordon Melton, Miss Sujahta Bleed ("The Japanese Vampirella," who, spookily, suffers a spectacular spontaneous nosebleed when the coach reaches Bransov) and superstar guest author, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. As ever, Jennie Gray put it best in her capsule review ( Supplements & Back Copies, Udolpho # 34, Autumn 1998). Also of note, Tom Ruffles on the late eighteenth century vogue for morbid magic lantern shows, Andrew Phelvin's history of events leading to the excommunication of Bishop Marcion, Harry Warren's celebration of a lesser-known Hell-fire Club ... In short, everything about this issue is magical.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 1, 2018 5:18:18 GMT
Jennie Gray [ed.] - Udolpho #23 (Gargoyle's Head Press, Winter 1995) William Blake. Detail from Death of the Strong Wicked Man Derek Brockis - La Bête: The Beast Of Gévaudan Jan Bondeson - The Stone Child Douglas Milne & Christine Gormley - Poe: The Man Who Was Used Up Bryan Haworth - William Faulkner: Poe's Heir?
What's In A Song? Douglas Milne - A History Of Gloomy Sunday Rob Brautigam - The Ballads Of Carl Loewe: Ghastly German Music
Baron La Motte Foulke - Peter Schlemihl
Reviews Terry Hale - Night Thoughts For A New Age. Vale Royale by Terry Dunn Charles Bradlaught - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Suicide. Four Dada Suicides by [eds.] Terry Hale, Roger Conover & Paul Lenti Tanya Lloyd - Tom Holland's The Vampyre Bridget Goldschmidt - Mary Diana Dodds, A Gentleman & A Scholar by Betty T. Bennett Linda Montague - The Real Account of Susannah Brookes
Omnium Gatherum Contributions & Contributors"With Gloomy Sunday [Rezső Seress] composed a song that was popular with the suicidal, and hated and feared by everyone else .... One youth threw himself over a bridge when he heard the melody whistled by a passer by." Another classic issue. A werewolf outrage, morbid music, "the earliest known case of Lithopedion," the miserable last days of Edgar Allan Poe, a reprint of La Motte Foulke's early nineteenth century novella concerning the man who sold his shadow to the Devil. Reader response to the lead article was so favourable as to encourage Mr. Brockis to delve deeper into this fascinating and terrible case of alleged lycanthrope. La Bête ("Makes the Hound of the Baskervilles look like a poodle") duly returned the following winter in Udolpho #27.
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 12, 2018 19:56:19 GMT
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Post by helrunar on Jun 17, 2021 12:43:42 GMT
What a grand thread! Had I been drinking tea, it would have burst explosively from my mouth upon catching a glimpse of this choice cutting from the News of the World, in re Author Gerald Suster: "Master at top school is black magic weirdo" www.media-underground.net/images/devil_teacher.jpgWhat a hoot! Suster sounds like a guy who was a real piece of work. But undeniably colorful! And he bought rounds at bars and shared his cigarettes. His wife Michaela must have been intriguing too. Edit to add: Michaela died the same year as her hubs. A tragic end for both of them. H.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 17, 2021 15:38:16 GMT
Jennie Gray [ed.] - The Goth #1 (Gargoyles Head Press, Sept. 1990). Jennie Gray - Editorial Jennie Gray - The Background to the Writing of Frankenstein Edward de la Bedoyere - Religion and Witchcraft In The Golden Ass Anonymous - Song for the Richest Woman In Wrangel Sally Morefield - The Great Ballooning Craze Monk Lewis/ Percy Bysshe Shelley - Four Ghost Stories Captain Eyre - The Retreat from Kabul: Part 1, The Murder of the British Envoy. A Brief History of The Gothic Society (readers were invited to invent one) Our Special Correspondent in Docklands - The Thames River Bus Society NewsDebut issue of The Goth, later Udolpho, the journal of the Gothic Society (it is far too posh to be thought of as a fanzine, especially when compared to the reader hostile lo-fi messes some of us were knocking out in the nineties). Includes; Editor on science and supernaturalism in Mary Shelley's deeply sad cautionary tale. Percy Bysshe Shelley's transcript of four creepy supernatural tales told him by 'Monk' Lewis, featuring the ghost of Lord Lyttleton, a mysterious huntsman, a gobby feline and, "what's that ghastly stench coming from the stove?"; a too-brief piece on Britain's pioneering balloonists (Haining got an entire oversized coffee table book from the subject); A Brief History of The Gothic Society - readers were invited to invent one. From this opening instalment we learn that GS recently celebrated it's 505th anniversary, having been founded on 22 August 1485 by King Richard III, which was good of him. The Retreat from Kabul. Extracts from eyewitness accounts of one of the most calamitous military operations in the history of the British army. Opens with harrowing account of the gleeful murder and mutilation of Sir William Macnaughten at Christmas, 1841. Society news contained first mention of their intention to restage the Black Banquet from La Bas ...
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Post by helrunar on Jun 17, 2021 15:42:27 GMT
What a fabulous publication! I'd have loved to read "Religion and Witchcraft in the Golden Ass"--a novel with a very silly title that had a profound impact upon some. The Graves translation is interesting.
Love all the scans here, Dem--thanks!
H.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 17, 2021 15:50:17 GMT
Having read the backstory--what happened to Suster with that tatty article in that shite-rag was really horrific. Presumably that hack claimed to be somebody interested in the occult who wanted to meet the author having read some of his books on the topic. Just shows you can never be too careful--though evidently, judging from the anecdotes, Suster was hardly noted for his sense of discernment, discretion or tact.
Reading up on this was another thing that made me think how I now have a love/hate relationship with Britain, and England specifically--something the Princess inquired about somewhere or other. The institutionalized levels of hypocrisy, imbecility, and hatefulness are hard to take. But goddammit, I'd still hop on a plane in a New York minute (or should it be London minute) if the proper circumstance arose to go back. Only ever visited once, back in the Summer of '95. I've thought about going over for one of those book fairs someday provided I'm not too decrepit.
I realized even in my brief three week stay back a quarter of a century (!!) ago that the England I fell in love with in books, films and shows like The Avengers only ever existed in the realm of the imagination. Maybe it all just needs to stay there.
H.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jun 17, 2021 18:46:01 GMT
I think things have changed quite a bit in the last 30 years or so. There's even a UK Police Pagan Association, set up in 2009, and currently with something like 200 members - all serving policemen and policewomen who identify as pagan, heathen, wiccan, etc.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 18, 2021 11:25:06 GMT
What a fabulous publication! Love all the scans here, Dem--thanks! H. Just retrieved the rest from their hiding place (appropriately enough, a dark recess behind bookcase). Have sorted three to re-read over coming days. This pair .... Jennie Gray [ed] - Udolpho #15 (Gargoyle's Head Press, Dec. 1993) Erhard Schon (circa 1490-1550) Suzanne Ruthven - Aleister Crowley: The Man, The Myth, The Magic. Stephen J. Hunyi - Unholy Communions Denis Moss - The Ghostlands of M. R. James Jonathan Walker - Spencer and Gill: The Last of the Pre-Raphaelites? Marie Mulvey Roberts - Book Review: The Beast Within: The History of the Werewolf by Adam Douglas. Nicola Warwick - Why women writers are so important in Gothic Literature Also Editors Letter, Members Letters (Mortmere, Gabriel Ernest Vane& Co), Places & People, Susan Preston's Memento Mori (cartoon strip), Witchcraft Part III: Fiction & Legend, The Diary of Lady J., Competition etc. Jennie Gray [ed] - Udolpho #25 (Gargoyle's Head Press, Summer, 1996) Judas the Archscoundrel (engraving, 1695). Jan Bondeson - The Prolific Countess and Other Medieval Legends Elias Maglinis - The Unknown Greece: A Land of Dreams and Nightmares Jennie Gray - A Death in the Morning Richard Chapman - M. R. James: The Erudite Entertainer Hans Anderson - The Shadow [Translated by M. R. James] M. R. James - The Haunted Doll's House Strawberry Hill & Other Delights: A Visit to Gothic Twickenham Ingrid Hicks - Tibetan Sky Funeral Contributions and Contributors
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Post by helrunar on Jun 18, 2021 13:13:21 GMT
Those are fascinating, Dem. And that's a truly strange picture on the cover of the first one. Bizarre!
cheers, Steve
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