|
|
Post by dem bones on Jan 23, 2023 19:26:28 GMT
Coming very soon "toward the end of the month" from an Am*z*n near you: Black Samurai, Conan, Mickey Spillane, Shudder Pulps, Prices on eBay, Running a Used Bookstore, Spaghetti Western Tie-Ins, Satan Sleuth, Cult Publisher Horwitz, Paperback Cover Artists, Masters of Horror, Gothic Romances, New Wave SF
THE PAPERBACK FANATIC IS BACK FOR 2023! with an all new approach, look and attitude as well as the fascinating articles and insightful reviews of vintage paperbacks you've come to expect. This relaunch issue adds in 20 opinion columns written by a dozen leading collectors and researchers in the vintage paperback field. Such as: What it's like to be opening a used book store? What are collectible paperbacks fetching on eBay? Fascinating insights on lesser collected genres such as gothic romances, westerns and historical adventure. 14 contributors on the one paperback they would rescue from a fire, The Kung Fu craze in 70s paperbacks, Sleaze paperbacks using a swamp setting and much more! Will bring you TOC & Co. ASAP. |
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Feb 5, 2023 11:15:20 GMT
Just arrived! COLUMNS
Fanatical Musings
Paperback News News of media related to vintage paperbacks
Robot Roy Speaks Roy Nugen on running a used book store.
Artists Assemble Tom Tesarek on comic book artists that also worked on pbs.
Scoundrels and Buccaneers Justin Marriott on historical fiction paperbacks.
Haunted Love Justin Marriott on gothic romance paperbacks
Downsizing James Doig on the perils of streamlining your pb collection.
The Sleazy Reader Justin Marriott looks at sleaze pbs using a swamp setting.
Book of the Movie John Peel on movie tie-ins including Dark Shadows.
Hortwitz Paperbacks Jeff Popple's column on the cult Australian publisher.
Books Covered James Bacon traces the development of pb cover art.
The Vault of Pulp Horror Tom Tesarek tackles the shudder pulps, one issue at a time.
Hammer Time David The Preacher' Wilson on Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer books.
The Horror, the Horror! Steve Carroll on horror titles with a men's adventure flavour.
Worth Reading Nigel Bate tackles Conan pastiches
Hot Lead Steve Myall on western paperbacks by Matt Chisholm.
Past Blasters Graham Andrews SF column starts with Brian Aldiss.
A Reader's Guide To... Shaun Osborne starts with a guide to Geoffrey Household.
The Auctioneer Jules Burt takes in recent prices realised at eBay.
The Manly Man's Book Cave Steve Carroll on the kung-fu phenomenon.
The Fanatical Forum The team answer an impossible question.
Paperbacks in Review Vintage titles sliced and diced.
ARTICLES
(Did Anyone?) Buy Jove! Tom Tesarek on the short-lived Jove/HBJ imprint.
North Sea Scramble Jim O'Brien on the boom in oil-rig fiction in the 1970s.
Milton's Books Nigel Taylor looks at the leading role paperbacks played in the cult films of Milton Subotsky.
Death, Dollars and Dusty Pages Sean Nodland on the "man with no name" tie-ins.
The Unforgotten: Andrew Garve Justin Marriott on the British thriller writer who disappeared from the shop shelves.Available via: Am*z*n.ukAm*z*nExcuse for commentary to follow over coming days.
|
|
|
|
Post by humgoo on Feb 5, 2023 13:13:30 GMT
"Occult and supernatural books are always popular. The best sale was a 2-volume set of Helena Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled (1891 edition) bought for $1 each at the Lifeline bookfair, which sold for $115."
Well done Mr. Doig!
|
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Feb 14, 2023 9:48:08 GMT
"Occult and supernatural books are always popular. The best sale was a 2-volume set of Helena Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled (1891 edition) bought for $1 each at the Lifeline bookfair, which sold for $115." Well done Mr. Doig!
My favourite bit is when James discovers a massive shortfall in his profits. How comes he only has a measly $___ to show for chopping his collection down to slightly more manageable size. Where did the money go? Oh yeah ..... Anyway. The new format will be familiar to readers of recent Battling Britons, and very attractive it looks, too, with the larger format allowing the illustrations room to breath. As to the written content, it is back to the manic eclecticism of the very earliest issues, articles you might reasonably expect to find in Men of Violence, Hot Lead, or Pulp Horror have been recalled home to compliment features on Gothic Romance, swamp sleaze, captive Aus nurses in POW camps ("They were dragged away to become the playthings of bestial, sex-starved Jap officers"), 70's North Sea oil rig and kung fu craze cash-ins, historical adventure, Conan pastiches, & Co. Some personal highlights. Nigel Taylor on the novels, short stories and comic strips adapted for cinema by Milton Subotsky with critical appraisal of various Amicus movie tie-ins (including the cheats!). Article covers all points from Dr. Terror's House of Horrors through to The Monster Club via such diverse works as H. F. Heard's A Taste For Honey (tortured to death as The Deadly Bees, Andrew York's spy outing, The Eliminator ( Danger Route, David Case's macabre gothic romance — of sorts — Fengriffen, and Stephen D. Frances' The Disorientated Man ( Scream and Scream Again; the author notes bizarre similarities with the same year's Carry on Screaming). The predominance of Maitland's is not overlooked, and our favourite pompous art critic receives a deserved mention. If he's not already aware of them, Nigel might also be interested in Laurence Moody's What Became of Jack and Jill (aka The Ruthless Ones), William Lauder's novelisation of Michel Parry's post-Amicus The Uncanny, and the Parry-Subotsky edited sci-fi anthology, Sex in the 21st Century. I seem to recall that at one stage Milton was interested in filming an anthology based around stories featured in Ghosts & Scholars magazine, though I'm not sure what came of the project. Stephen Jones reveals that he originally conceived New Supernatural Stories as a 'best of' the Badger years retrospective until Lionel suggested he and Patricia write fifteen originals in the same vein. It's probably sacrilege to admit as much, but ten stories into the book, I'd have preferred they'd gone with Mr. J.'s original idea. Tom Tesarek's piece on the shudder pulps comprises a story-by-story run through of Dime Mystery Story for Feb 1937 during its soft(ish) torture porn incarnation. "If your house was burning down and you could only rescue one book, which would it be?" Seriously, how fucking twisted would you have to be to ask a question like that? Incredibly, Mr. M found 14 readers willing to provide an answer. More to follow. Fair to say the relaunch does it for me.
|
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Feb 14, 2023 17:19:13 GMT
I seem to recall that at one stage Milton was interested in filming an anthology based around stories featured in Ghosts & Scholars magazine, though I'm not sure what came of the project. Dem, this is news to me. Obviously, the film was never made. Can you remember anything at all about this? |
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Feb 14, 2023 18:02:12 GMT
I seem to recall that at one stage Milton was interested in filming an anthology based around stories featured in Ghosts & Scholars magazine, though I'm not sure what came of the project. Dem, this is news to me. Obviously, the film was never made. Can you remember anything at all about this? I'm sorry, Michael, I just remember hearing it. Ro would be the person to ask. |
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Feb 14, 2023 18:10:28 GMT
Great scans. That's very pretty art on the cover of Fengriffen. I'm mildly curious as to whether the novel makes more sense than the film version, which I thought was a real dog's dinner--a sad waste of a brilliant cast. The movie is fun to watch as long as one simply does not bother to find any sense in what is shown, and even though several of the scares are laughable. Maybe I'm just too old and jaded now.
cheers, Hel.
|
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Feb 14, 2023 18:44:43 GMT
Dem, this is news to me. Obviously, the film was never made. Can you remember anything at all about this? I'm sorry, Michael, I just remember hearing it. Ro would be the person to ask. That's okay. I've brought the subject up on the M.R. James Appreciation Society Facebook page. |
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Feb 15, 2023 7:16:16 GMT
It does look terrific - the size and format is perfect. The eye opener for me was the collectors on youtube - I've been watching those Jules Burt videos where he spends hours lovingly handling each book - great stuff! And what a great idea writing an article on oil rigs in British fiction. The downer was the fanatical forum which starkly illustrated that the contributors are a bunch of middle aged white guys. Surely Bride of Dem or The Artist Formerly Known As Princes Tuvstarr could write a column or two.
|
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Feb 15, 2023 20:07:16 GMT
It does look terrific - the size and format is perfect. The eye opener for me was the collectors on youtube - I've been watching those Jules Burt videos where he spends hours lovingly handling each book - great stuff! And what a great idea writing an article on oil rigs in British fiction. The downer was the fanatical forum which starkly illustrated that the contributors are a bunch of middle aged white guys. Surely Bride of Dem or The Artist Formerly Known As Princes Tuvstarr could write a column or two. How about Swampi? Would like to read more Penny Tesarek reviews, too. It's such a shame Sarah Morgan of My Love Haunted Heart looks to have given up the ghost, far as the blog's concerned, anyway. I'd also like to see Humgoo and Mr. Brewer among the contributors. Great scans. That's very pretty art on the cover of Fengriffen. I'm mildly curious as to whether the novel makes more sense than the film version, which I thought was a real dog's dinner--a sad waste of a brilliant cast. The movie is fun to watch as long as one simply does not bother to find any sense in what is shown, and even though several of the scares are laughable. Maybe I'm just too old and jaded now. I liked the film, though it is far from a faithful adaptation of Case's wonderful (it really is: Subotsky had great taste) novel. As Nigel reminds us, a significant departure is that the woodsman loses his fingers in the book, not an entire hand, and at no time do they chase Stephanie Beachum around the mansion. Back with PF. As James mentions above, another exceptional article is Jim O'Brien's round up of 60s & 70s North Sea oil-rig in peril novels, the drilling crews working under constant threat of terrorist attack, hijack, ecological disaster, "sentient marine growth," leftover naval mines, capsized supertankers and Slimer. I also liked the editors (too short) piece on Ace books' historical fiction and, perhaps most of all, this, from his introduction. "The comment about the mag that I receive most often is that people miss the letters page from the pre-Amazon issues." Too right — whenever a new issue arrived it was always 'Fanatical Mail' I read first. Most of the letters were bonus articles in themselves.
|
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Feb 15, 2023 20:36:34 GMT
Oh, yeah - Swampi would be perfect. |
|
|
|
Post by Swampirella on Feb 15, 2023 20:58:57 GMT
I'm flattered by the nomination  but everyone but me seems to be vastly more knowledgeable about historical & modern horror fiction. I might have read a large part of both, but remembering let alone analyzing the material is not my forte, sad to say. This is why I rarely or never add my two cents worth on any thread that's currently active. |
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Feb 15, 2023 22:11:09 GMT
Great scans. That's very pretty art on the cover of Fengriffen. I'm mildly curious as to whether the novel makes more sense than the film version, which I thought was a real dog's dinner--a sad waste of a brilliant cast. The movie is fun to watch as long as one simply does not bother to find any sense in what is shown, and even though several of the scares are laughable. Maybe I'm just too old and jaded now. cheers, Hel. I seem to remember I wrote the differences of the movie and the novel up somewhere. Can't remember the particulars. The review for Justin's Pulp Horror? Some post here? The novel is a favorite, I read it a few times over the years.
From the top of my head, the biggest difference between movie and novel is that the movie rearranges the whole structure. Naturally this changes a lot. In print the whole story is narrated by Dr. Pope - the character Cushing plays - as a first-person narrator in a strictly linear fashion. Naturally you have most people just telling theit tales and not a lot of action.
Back then this wouldn't have worked for a movie. Unfortunatly some of the motivations don't make it on the screen. And the ending is changed.Guess Subotsky thought it too complicated for the audience. {Spoiler}
The baby is stolen which drives Catherine insane; she believes the Incubus which has raped her has the child. Pope believes the woodcutter the villain, but this is impossible as it is revealed that Fengriffen has shot him at the time of the abduction.
|
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Feb 15, 2023 22:54:42 GMT
Thanks, Andreas. I honestly can't remember much about the movie. To be honest, I just watched it for a lark when it showed up on youtube and it simply struck me as ridiculous. Peter Cushing had a very pretty wig and Stephanie wore some nice clothes. That's about all I can recall I am afraid.
Good to know the book is such an excellent read. I will have to add it to my list.
cheers, Steve
|
|
but everyone but me seems to be vastly more knowledgeable about historical & modern horror fiction. I might have read a large part of both, but remembering let alone analyzing the material is not my forte, sad to say. This is why I rarely or never add my two cents worth on any thread that's currently active.