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Post by dem bones on Nov 24, 2007 19:16:25 GMT
Brian J. Frost - The Monster With A Thousand Faces: Guises Of The Vampire In Myth & Literature (Bowling Green State University, 1989) Fantasy historian and artist Brian J. Frost's opens his excellent anthology The Werewolf Book (Sphere, 1973) with a lengthy essays on The Werewolf Theme In Weird Fiction so even before you get to the stories by Seabury Quinn, Sutherland Menzies, Clemence Houseman, Dale C. Donaldson et al you've already had your money's worth. In Monster With A Thousand Faces he performs the same service for the Undead but this time he dispenses with the anthology format altogether in favour of two lengthy papers, Guises Of The Vampire: An Inventory and The Vampire Motif In Weird Fiction. It's another of those books that, no matter how many times I dig it out, I'm sure to find something that went straight over my head before - and perhaps the only vampire bibliography to include endorsements for Brian Ball's The Venomous Serpent and Errol Lecale's The Death Box!
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Post by Steve on Nov 24, 2007 20:29:33 GMT
...perhaps the only vampire bibliography to include endorsements for Brian Ball's The Venomous Serpent and Errol Lecale's The Death Box! Yay, The Venomous Serpent! I love The Venomous Serpent! Sorry, got a bit carried away there... sorry...
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Post by andydecker on Nov 25, 2007 17:40:08 GMT
both may be a bit dated, but are nice short novels. And the ending of Ball´s novel is quite unexpected. (Okay, not today, but I guess back then it was quite a shocker
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 3, 2012 23:36:17 GMT
I enjoyed Frost's Monster with a Thousand Faces every bit as much as his "The Werewolf Theme in Weird Fiction" and his The Essential Guide to Mummy Literature. It's a fantastic resource for identifying new reading material. For example, now I want to track down a copy of Dona Tolson's "Nice Old House," "in which the new tenant of a spooky old house is devoured by a vampire-sofa." This Lecale fellow sounds interesting, as well . . . Frost's often unpredictable opinions make for entertaining reading. Unlike most critic/scholar types, he lavishes praise on both Seabury Quinn and R. Chetwynd-Hayes. At the same time, he also delivers some scathing put-downs. The book's first section, in which Frost discusses theories of vampires, threw me for a bit of a loop. At first, I thought he sounded strangely credulous about the notion of real-life supernatural vampires; by the end, I suspected him of engaging in some deadpan humor. The essay includes numerous ornate disclaimers regarding the theories it presents. For example: Nevertheless, one can never be absolutely positive that everyone who claims to have encountered authentic vampires are either naive fools or outrageous frauds; for surely in an infinite, eternal cosmos there is nothing imaginable--or unimaginable--which might not be true, somewhere or sometime.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 4, 2012 9:21:35 GMT
Am sure mr. piglingbland will correct me if wrong but I believe the Werewolf and Vampire essays originate from David Sutton's legendary 'sixties small press fanzine, Shadow (not sure about the Mummy one)? Brian also contributed fantasy artwork to another celebrated independent publication from the same decade, Gothique. Whatever his own reservations about the book, Monster With A Thousand Faces and Greg Cox's The Transylvanian Library are the two vampire biblio's I've had the most use and enjoyment from, Brian's probably the more so because, for all that it's a work of academia, his is very much a fans-eye view. Let E. F. Bleiler loose on Seabury Quinn, RCH, 'Errol LeCale', Brian Ball, 'Etienne Aubin' and the like and they'd none of them stand a chance, but BJF is less hung up on 'literature': if he likes it, it makes the cut. Monster ... was the first place I ever learned of the highly dubious Horror Stories (the 1970's effort from Stanley publications, not the shudder pulp classic), took me right up until last year to finally get to read some sample issues, and Feast Of Blood In The House Of Vampires & Co., certainly lived down to my expectations. Best I don't comment on the credulity or otherwise of those who feel the need to impress upon us, over & over & over & over & over & ...., that, when it comes to real v*Mp*res, they alone know the truth. It's a 'that's ten precious years of my worthless life I'll never-get-back' thing ....
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jun 4, 2012 10:30:12 GMT
It's a 'that's ten precious years of my worthless life I'll never-get-back' thing .... One somehow feels one wants to know more about that.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 21, 2012 5:21:17 GMT
Trust me, jojo, you wouldn't. Anyway, was rummaging through a stack of vampire/ goth-zines earlier and this showed up .... ... as reprinted in the debut issue of the divine Ms Darlene Daniels' Chicago-based Nocturnal Ecstasy (c.1990). It's the only ad i could find for Brian's book, which is a travesty when you consider the endless endorsements the v.press would run for "hilarious" 'COUNT DRACULA AVAILABLE FOR BLOOD DRIVES - NIGHTS ONLY!' cards ("Only $1.40 & 45c postage. Now available in beautiful Dracu-blue").
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