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Post by dem bones on Feb 3, 2022 18:17:51 GMT
Harry Widmer [ed] - Eerie Stories: Aug. 1937 (Adventure House, 2005) Gates Alexander - Virgins of the Stone Death
Ronald Flagg - The Soul-Scorchers’ Lair
Eric Lennox - Corpse Girl’s Return
Branton Black - Devil’s Brew
Cliff Howe - Her Isle of Horror
Rexton Archer - The Pain Master’s Bride
Horace Stoner - Sinister Skein
Terrence Flint - Rehearsal with Doom
Clifford Gray - Lust for Blood
Leon Dupont - Mate of the Beast
John Gregory - Terror’s Tomb
Peter Reginald - Step-Daughter to Greed "Here is another full-fleshed Saunders heroine; the most provocative element of the otherwise unimaginative scene is the expanse of thigh shown. This was the cover of the August 1937 Eerie Stories, a one-shot effort from Ace." - Robert Kenneth Jones, The Shudder Pulps, 1975. If RKJ is to be believed, the cover is the best thing about the very short-lived Eerie Stories. William G. Contento, perhaps the field's greatest ever bibliographer who, sadly, died on December 13th last year, identifies five of the stories as reprints under new sex-ed up titles (and dubious author attributions) from earlier Ace publications. Despite, or most likely because of this, there was no chance of my ever resisting! Will it live down to expectations? [Cliffhanger ending].
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Post by dem bones on Feb 4, 2022 9:50:44 GMT
Ronald Flagg - The Soul-Scorchers' Lair: He had a mad desire to scorch his wife's soul, sending the intense heat of a blow-torch through her flesh. Serial torture fiend Aranda Pombal leads a charmed life as a man they couldn't hang. Among his many known victims, the mandatory beautiful wife, chained up and slowly burned to death, inspiring a tribute cult of soul-scorchers in the process. "He got away with it — claimed her death was accidental," marvels Flint Warren, the Governor General's two-fisted chief investigator. A fellow named Manuel, who testified against Pombal, has been secured in the lighthouse on Cavalier Rock under the witness protection scheme. The killer has learned of his whereabouts. Can Flint Warren reach the tower before he settles his score in pain? Branton Black - Devil's Brew: Sardonically. Gavin Clark planned murder, and visioned his trembling young wife bestowing her caress upon a corpse ... A dying invalid suspects wife Madeline and best pal, Randolph Shortly, are getting it on behind his back. Let's see how lover boy performs after downing four lethal doses of arsenic! Three page filler. Unspeakably terrible.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 5, 2022 10:09:32 GMT
 Leo Morey : (first appeared in Secret Agent X, Sept. 1934, as The Murder Masterpiece by G. T. Fleming-Roberts). It was stark horror that Edmund Neymores learned when he witnessed the ghastly torment of a helpless girl as she posed for a statue of agony Fulton Xaviar's latest and most disturbing creation to date — "a tormented soul captured in metal" — is the talk of the exhibition. However, Neymore, a journalist on The Evening Review, is far from impressed. The horrific bronze bears an uncanny resemblance to Munchy, a blind match-seller who inexplicably vanished off the street ten days ago. Neymore confronts the sculptor at his Sheringham Street studio. Threatened with the police, Xavier, an amputee from the waist down following a railway accident, comes clean. "Man in Pain" is the work of a golden-bearded mystery recluse in the basement — "the greatest genius of all time" merely lent his name to it. A woman's scream from below. Neymore and Xaviar burst in on the maniac as he poses two recalcitrant models for another grisly masterpiece, 'Judgement.' Much more like it. Could have graced Horror Stories or Terror Tales and nobody would have minded. |
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Post by dem bones on Feb 6, 2022 9:50:34 GMT
Clifford Gray - Lust for Blood The boat club's secretary floated over corpse currents to a madman's hideaway where the price of life was blood.. Long Island. Bruce Mallory, ex crime reporter turned resident boat club troubleshooter, investigates the worrying disappearance of a banker's headstrong daughter (she has defied him and taken up nursing rather than idle in luxury). Has Mary Fallon been abducted? Is there a connection with the spate of bloody "suicides" off the coast? Mallory calls at the remote white building high on a hill, home to a wealthy, ancient recluse named Lennon and his three unhinged sons. The old man's devastating pernicious anaemia demands regular extreme blood transfusions, and, fearful of losing their meal ticket, the boy's make sure he gets 'em. Can Mallory liberate Mary from the theatre of horror before the fiendish Dr. Andrew Lennon drains her dry of every last drop of blood? Could be wrong, but I think this is the only Eerie story thus far to remark the size of the heroine's tits — small wonder the mag didn't make it to an issue two.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 6, 2022 13:10:36 GMT
Can't wait for Corpse Girl's Return and Virgins of the Stone Death.
Nice illustrations, but a bit on the safe side.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 6, 2022 18:06:15 GMT
Nice illustrations, but a bit on the safe side. Which is in keeping with the rest, really. The Pain Master's Bride is fun. Terrence Flint - Rehearsal with Doom: Middle aged Graham Munster had patiently watched his beautiful ward grow old enough for him to force her to be his bride. And to keep her from the arms of another and younger man, Muster had to do a Rehearsal with Doom. Guardian uncle lusts over Alma MacKnight, who has stayed with him every summer from childhood. Imagine his fury when, no sooner has she come of age than Alma informs the kindly lecher of her engagement to fit young Malcolm Paine. A furious Muster trains Karl the killer wolfhound to rip out his rival's throat on sight. But .... Leon Dupont - Mate of the Beast: (first appeared in Ace Mystery , May 1936, as Wolf Vengeance by Rex Grahame). Len Oakley found that no mortal man could steal a bride of the beast. When you least expect it — ambushed by a straight supernatural horror short! Oakley sets out into the woods to gun down Ruud, his hated step-brother, who has absconded with "his" gal, Mary Timmons ((Mary doesn't see things quite that way, but what's it got to do with her?). From infancy, Ruud has developed an uncanny affinity with the timber wolves, who now stalk Len's every move toward the lethal quagmire at Oak Hollow .... |
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Post by dem bones on Feb 7, 2022 11:03:50 GMT
 James A. Ernst: (first appeared in Secret Agent X, June 1935, as Tomb of Torment by Emile C. Tepperman). Private detective Manton wanted to know why lovely Anne Seymour went willingly into a pit of terror with a parchment-faced fiend. Manton is hired to mind Anne Seymour, a hoity-toity heiress who has attracted the unwelcome attentions of Borchard, formidable High priest of New York voodoo snake cult. During an evening out at the cinema, Anne, fallen under her stalker's hypnotic spell, is whisked away to cemetery on the outskirts of Westchester. The bodyguard traces the gang to a secret chamber beneath a mausoleum, only to be promptly beaten unconscious. He recovers his senses to witness 12 foot serpent and very drugged, naked, poor little rich girl, slither sinuously toward one another, in Anne's case, to be photographed for blackmail purposes. When Manton ruins the shoot, the snake gets loose to seek out someone to devour .... |
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Post by helrunar on Feb 7, 2022 17:11:21 GMT
The terror/torment tomb yarn sounds like a lot of fun. Kind of disappointing though that it turned out to be the usual blackmail racket set-up.
Two things I would surmise: Anne's breasts are described as having a mind of their own "ripely swelling globes of abundant flesh" or something along those lines, and the big snake winds up gobbling the errant High Priest.
And that's called entertainment.
Great drawing, too!
H.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 7, 2022 17:46:10 GMT
The terror/torment tomb yarn sounds like a lot of fun. Kind of disappointing though that it turned out to be the usual blackmail racket set-up. Two things I would surmise: Anne's breasts are described as having a mind of their own "ripely swelling globes of abundant flesh" or something along those lines, and the big snake winds up gobbling the errant High Priest. And that's called entertainment. Great drawing, too! H. You can read/ download the issue via Archive.org. No need to log in. Robert Kenneth Jones is atypically scathing of Eerie Stories and other Ace publications in his book, but on this evidence, I'd have to say they're no better or worse than the more generic 'Spicy' stories. BTW, I'm not sure what you've been reading but we have it on the bodyguard's authority that the breasts in question are small and "pear shaped." |
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Post by helrunar on Feb 7, 2022 19:16:04 GMT
Thanks for the tip, Dem!
cheers, Hel
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Post by dem bones on Feb 12, 2022 10:53:35 GMT
 James A. Ernst: She was alluring, desirable — but the newshawk shuddered. For he knew she had slept the sleep of death with the cadavers in the morgue. Desperate for a story, hotshot reporter Cranford persuades pal Det. Sergeant Harris to allow him a snoop around the morgue — surely there's one among the hundred plus unidentified corpses worthy a six column screamer? Pay dirt! Among the suicide's destined for the Potter's Field, a blonde looker who sure as hell didn't take her own life. She's been murdered. And someone is responsible! The dead dame with no name is wearing half a black onyx cameo ring. If he could only find who has the other piece ... Cranford drops by Tony's Speakeasy on a hunch and sure enough, sat at the bar is Kretchel, the evil chemist, damaged gold band on his finger. Before he shoots the irksome newshound, Kretchel reveals that he has developed a perfume as lethally addictive to the wearer as heroin or morphine. "The clinging odor finally dominates the user until she cannot live without it. " His lab assistant had to be silenced as she'd threatened to expose his plan for world domination! Kretchel's patented wonder instant suffocation drug did for blondie — or so he thinks ... Peter Reginald - Step-Daughter to Greed: Terrified, the girl forced her trembling legs to carry her into the tomb of the dead to search for an inheritance in hell ... . Monty Wills, private dick, accompanies secretive young client, Miss Stoner, on a clandestine visit to Greenmount cemetery. Their night's work has not yet begun when they are driven at by a ghastly faced bruiser in a black limousine "like a coffin on wheels." Miss Stoner, undeterred enters a mausoleum and sets to work tearing open a coffin, to retrieve the jewels left her by her late father. Dad had them buried on his person to prevent grasping Myra, Miss Stoner's hideous evil step-mother, from pocketing them along with the rest of his worldly goods. Speak of the devil, here she comes with two armed thugs. |
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Post by andydecker on Feb 12, 2022 11:44:37 GMT
Eric Lennox - Corpse Girl’s Return: She was alluring, desirable — but the newshawk shuddered. For he knew she had slept the sleep of death with the cadavers in the morgue. Desperate for a story, hotshot reporter Cranford persuades pal Det. Sergeant Harris to allow him a snoop around the morgue — surely there's one among the hundred plus unidentified corpses worthy a six column screamer? Pay dirt! Among the suicide's destined for the Potter's Field, a blonde looker who sure as hell didn't take her own life. She's been murdered. And someone is responsible! The dead dame with no name is wearing half a black onyx cameo ring. If he could only find who has the other piece ... Cranford drops by Tony's Speakeasy on a hunch and sure enough, sat at the bar is Kretchel, the evil chemist, damaged gold band on his finger. Before he shoots the irksome newshound, Kretchel reveals that he has developed a perfume as lethally addictive to the wearer as heroin or morphine. "The clinging odor finally dominates the user until she cannot live without it. " His lab assistant had to be silenced as she'd threatened to expose his plan for world domination! Kretchel's patented wonder instant suffocation drug did for blondie — or so he thinks ... Of All The Gin Joints In All The Towns In All The World, eh? This sounds rather dumb, but maybe the end is effective. Peter Reginald - Step-Daughter to Greed: Terrified, the girl forced her trembling legs to carry her into the tomb of the dead to search for an inheritance in hell ... . Monty Wills, private dick, accompanies secretive young client, Miss Stoner, on a clandestine visit to Greenmount cemetery. Their night's work has not yet begun when they are driven at by a ghastly faced bruiser in a black limousine "like a coffin on wheels." Miss Stoner, undeterred enters a mausoleum and sets to work tearing open a coffin, to retrieve the jewels left her by her late father. Dad had them buried on his person to prevent grasping Myra, Miss Stoner's hideous evil step-mother, from pocketing them along with the rest of his worldly goods. Speak of the devil, here she comes with two armed thugs. This sounds really lame, but the illustration is great. |
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Post by dem bones on Feb 12, 2022 19:42:09 GMT
This sounds really lame, but the illustration is great. is a curio for sure. It looks as if Ace were cutting their losses, recycling spent detective stories under shudder pulp titles and hoping nobody would notice. You are spot on re Step-Daughter in Greed, although I can't find it in me to dislike Corpse Girl's Return.  Leo Morey : (first appeared in Secret Agent X, Aug. 1934, as "Fiend’s Masquerade" by Preston Grady). Loretta's dark-eyed invitation made the young investigator face the horrific monsters of her storm-lashed island. South Carolina. Hoke Martin, private dick, defies a storm to take a boat across the water to the island home of Dr. Richard Curtis, the famous plastic surgeon. Curtis. who miraculously rebuilt faces ruined in battle during the Great War, is regarded as the most eminent scientist in the fields of surgical anaplasty, albeit a loose canon given to dubious experiment for its own sake. No sooner has Martin set foot ashore than a man trapped in the body of a gorilla draws a stick message in the sand, urging that he return whence he came if he values his life. A glimpse of eighteen-year-old Loretta "firm globes" Curtis decides him against hasty departure. It was Loretta requested his presence on the island, her rich fiancee, Frank Holmes, having disappeared in mysterious circumstances. After the business with the man-ape, we suspect the MAD SCIENTIST is conducting inter-species brain transplants, but that's not quite the case. Over six long years, Curtis has grafted a gorilla's skin onto the body of a rootless traveller, and vice versa. Story reads like it may have been written with Weird Tales in mind but was neither great nor awful enough for Farnsworth Wright to purchase. Two left to read. Twenty-five pages of Virgins of the Stone Death ("Gripping novel of exotic adventure") is a daunting prospect. |
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Post by dem bones on Feb 14, 2022 8:23:17 GMT
Horace Stoner - Sinister Skein: (first appeared in Detective-Dragnet, Dec. 1932, as "Talking Clues" by Harry Widmer). Trooper Trant had to untangle a bloody murder skein — depending on the help of a beautiful girl who didn't trust him because he had seen her wearing the briefest of clothing. She was bound and gagged in a closet at the time, but don't let that build your hopes up. Begins with State Trooper Trant's rescue of an old man tied to the track in the path of an oncoming train and features a talking parrot throughout (catchphrase: "Let her rot!") but despite this, a mundane tale of a dispute between crooks over a stolen diamond. "Ritzy city debutante," Natica Nason, provides the almost-dressed lust interest.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 14, 2022 8:32:53 GMT
Horace Stoner - Sinister Skein: (first appeared in Detective-Dragnet, Dec. 1932, as "Talking Clues" by Harry Widmer). Trooper Trant had to untangle a bloody murder skein — depending on the help of a beautiful girl who didn't trust him because he had seen her wearing the briefest of clothing. She was bound and gagged in a closet at the time, but don't let that build your hopes up. Begins with State Trooper Trant's rescue of an old man tied to the track in the path of an oncoming train and features a talking parrot throughout (catchphrase: "Let her rot!") but despite this, a mundane tale of a dispute between crooks over a stolen diamond. "Ritzy city debutante," Natica Nason, provides the almost-dressed lust interest. Natica Nason! What a name. |
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