|
Post by Steve on Dec 28, 2009 17:35:01 GMT
As there are a lot of names I never heard about, I could imagine that most of these stories were public domain even back then... Kind of Mystifying is the story by Mort Calhoun. Can't identify this particular collection but, if it helps, all the stories (with the possible exception of the one by the mysterious 'Mort Calhoun') appeared in Weird Tales at one time or another.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Dec 24, 2009 18:44:27 GMT
Another eventful year for Vault. One which has witnessed some tremendous and well-deserved personal triumphs for some of our number and also seen our collective name being dragged through the mud the length and breadth of the internet. Not to worry though, our reputation in the world of horror remains unchanged - we're still a bunch of irredeemable rabble!
A very happy and peaceful Christmas to all.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Dec 20, 2009 18:24:46 GMT
'Blur' sounds about right. My grasp on the passage of time these days is shaky at best. I think this was the year in which I was finally reunited with most of my books and stuff (everything that hadn't either been sent to a car boot or unceremoniously - possibly ceremoniously, I don't know if she still has the coven - just binned). Anyway, I was happy about that. I even managed to get back on me financial feet sufficiently to be able to afford to fill a few gaps in the collection. Now if only I had time to read some of them. As far as new stuff goes I've got up to speed with the Black Books - keep 'em coming, Charles! - and was also happy to find a copy of Craig's book, School (review to follow next year sometime). Oh, and a few nice Wordsworths - don't ask me which ones but they were/are all worthwhile. Looking forward to what 2010 has in store Wordsworth-wise. Magazines: there is really only one, isn't there? Good to see it going from strength to strength this year. Best for the future to Justin and all concerned. Also very nice to see Rog managing to get a new FC out. I've spent much of my 2009 downtime watching horror films. Hammer and other old British stuff earlier on and then Universal, Val Lewton and the like more recently. Basically reliving the old 'late night horror double bill' days of my youth (probably a mid-life thing). Tried some newer stuff but found it very much of a mixed bag. What have I seen? Oh yeah, watched the latest 'Coffin Joe' film, Embodiment Of Evil, is it? Did nothing for me at all. Dead Snow was sort of semi-recommended to me but I found that largely disappointing as well sad to say. Watched a load of recentish zombie films the other week - Romero's Diary Of The Dead was well below par I thought (saved only by the deaf Amish farmer who should have got his own film); Flight Of The Living Dead shows an admirable disregard for logic but otherwise should really count itself lucky to have gone straight to DVD; Last Of The Living is a low-budget zombie slacker comedy from New Zealand which is pretty much what you'd expect. My conclusion then - they don't make horror films like they used to, do they? I've been meaning to watch REC because that's supposed to be good but haven't got round to it yet. Will make a concerted effort to watch it over Christmas and hopefully end the year on a positive note (nobody liked Mother of Tears, did they? Saw that last year I think and actually enjoyed it - worryingly though I don't even remember Asia Argento naked. I really must be getting old). All things considered I suppose it's not been such a bad year. 2009 and still discovering old books that I never knew existed thanks to the likes of Vault and Paperback Fanatic. Who'd have thought it? All the best for 2010 to the Ghosts of Vault Past, Present and Yet To Come.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Dec 20, 2009 16:08:55 GMT
As the publisher didn´t bother with the original titles I will list the writers and a re-tranlation of the story´s title, which may or not resemble the original. Here's the original titles for reference, Andy. Introduction – Peter Haining Mary Shelley – Transformation Mrs. Oliphant – The Open Door Miss Catherine Crowe – The Italian's Story Mrs. Henry Wood – The Ghost Mrs. Gaskell – The Old Nurse's Story Amelia Edwards – The Phantom Coach Mary Ann Evans – The Lifted Veil Miss Braddon – Evelyn's Visitant Mrs. Riddell – Sandy The Tinker Anonymous – The Tale Of A Gas-light Ghost Mrs. L. T. Meade – Eyes Of Terror Mrs. Molesworth – At The Dip Of The Road Miss Gertrude Bacon – The Gorgon's Head Another very interesting post on an aspect we'd never know about otherwise. Out of interest, do you know what Haining's best-selling anthology was in your neck of the woods?
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Dec 20, 2009 15:51:55 GMT
I was chin-wagging with the Mains that there should be a Vault Convention for which the price of admission is a flagon of cider and a dog-eared NEL horror to swap. I've got a 2 litre bottle of White Lightning and a tatty copy of Peter Cave's Speed Freaks with a 2 inch tear to the base of the spine - will I get in? Er... Kev said it'd be alright...
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Nov 29, 2009 19:16:29 GMT
Seems Wordsworth are now set to release their own Horror in the Museum early in the new year. From what I can make out this isn't a straight reprint of the original The Horror in the Museum but rather a slightly rejigged version of their previously available Loved Dead collection. Haven't seen a full list of contents yet so don't know exactly what changes have been made - I think it's fairly safe to assume that "The Horror in the Museum" itself has been added but I don't know whether "The Loved Dead" has been re-attributed to C.M. Eddy or just left out completely.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Nov 28, 2009 16:04:38 GMT
The Body Snatcher by R L Stevenson. Brilliant, and it reminded me that I must try & get hold of the out of print Tartarus Press edition of his stories as he really could write could the lad Growing up, I'd always just assumed that Stevenson was one of those 'literary giants' that I heard people talking about - after all, he wrote Treasure Island and stuff, didn't he? They made his books into films. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, they're classics surely? Only later did I learn that for years following his death the literary establishment had pretty much ignored him - as they tend to do with authors who write horror stories, kids' books, and, you know, all that kind of second-rate stuff that 'proper' writers wouldn't bother with. For a long time, about the biggest (back-handed) compliment anybody would pay him was that he was a 'popular' author. The truth of the matter is, as our Lord Probert points out above, that the lad could really write. An extremely gifted storyteller and no mistake. In fact, even though Stevenson has subsequently become the subject of a long overdue re-evaluation of his true talents, it surprises me (unless I've missed something) that there doesn't seem to be a reasonably priced collection of his short stories widely available. Wordsworth do a Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that also includes most (possibly all - I don't have it handy just now) of the stories from The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables ('Markheim', 'Thrawn Janet', and the like) but there's so much other truly classic stuff which just doesn't seem to be readily available.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Nov 28, 2009 15:16:44 GMT
Well, I'm in the $5 dollar box now. There's a cheap part of me that's looking forward to being sold at three for a pound. Don't know about that, Craig - picked up a paper copy of School: The Seventh Silence recently (and not from the bargain bin either before you ask). Still early days for me to attempt any sort of a review but I will say that so far I'm very impressed and it's a real shame the book's gone out of print.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Nov 12, 2009 18:27:53 GMT
I've only recently discovered the delights of Norman J Warren. Inseminoid is tosh heaven. Terror isn't great. Prey is tops - allegedly owing a great deal to D H Lawrence's The Fox. Satan's Slave is a bit slow but has its moments. Recently watched Prey, Satan's Slave, Inseminoid and Bloody New Year in quick succession and, having previously been in two minds, had finally decided that Norman J Warren's standing as a 'poor man's Pete Walker' was probably more than fair - now I'm feeling like I should at least give Prey another go. Of all Warren's films Prey does seem to be the one that might benefit from repeated viewings. I can't help feeling that anyone returning to, say, Inseminoid in search of something they may have missed first time round (such as a coherent plot or a really good shot of Stephanie Beacham in her pants) is only going to be disappointed. Not sure why but me and new horror films never really seem to hit it off. Maybe it's something else I can blame my ex-wife for... yeah, come to think of it she made me sit through Blair Witch Project that time, and that was rubbish. Then there was that other time when she rented Saw on DVD and I ended up falling asleep after about 10 minutes - what a waste of money that was... anyway, now any time I hear somebody saying that the likes of Paranormal Activity is "the scariest thing since The Blair Witch Project" needless to say it puts me right off. Don't know if I fancy this Anti-Christ or not - I've had more than enough intellectual porn and mutilation to last me really but did someone mention a talking fox?
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Nov 9, 2009 18:16:50 GMT
Possibly excluding Shriek!, about which i've not been able to find anything just yet, Lowndes also edited ALL of these Health Knowledge magazines.. Don't know if this is any good to you, Dem, or how much you know already but Shriek! - known variously as "The horror film fan magazine" (as you say) and "The monster horror magazine" - was a short lived contender for the Famous Monsters market. Four issues between May 1965 and Winter 1967. "Produced by The House of Horror in London, for Acme News, New York" apparently. Editor was one Frank N. Stein - possible pseudonym, what do you reckon? The "The House of Horror" bit would seem to be an attempt to associate the magazine with Hammer, who were still very much a household name in horror at the time, and Shriek! had a fair amount of Hammer content. Don't know what the precise nature of the relationship was between Acme and Health Knowledge (were Acme distributors?) but Shriek! doesn't generally seem to get mentioned much alongside the other Health Knowldege titles you're talking about here. Also it was a different kind of mag - no pulp reprints - so I wouldn't necessarily assume that Lowndes was the aforementioned Mr Stein. Hope this helps a bit.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Nov 8, 2009 20:34:28 GMT
Illustration from the back of The Fall's 1981 Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul single by Edwin "Savage Pencil" Pouncey. Not sure if this has been mentioned here before?
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Nov 8, 2009 16:23:30 GMT
Hiya charltonman - welcome to wider pulp territory! I reckon we're that if nothing else.
I was a regular on the PC site myself at one time - before I sort of lost the plot as it were - and still have good memories of the place and the people.
If you like old pulp, wet wednesdays, a bit of Hammer horror and '70s rock (don't get Caroline started on Jethro Tull and I believe Dem, our resident janitor of lunacy, is a bugger for a bit of Van der Graaf Generator) then you should feel a least halfway at home here, feller.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Nov 8, 2009 15:42:40 GMT
As a writer Lumley is particulary fascinated with Lovecraft´s fishmen from Innsmouth... It is a fascination I am afraid I can´t share. So there is a race of Creatures of the Black Lagoon living in the ocean and lusting for human woman to breed. Booh, scary, kids, bring on the harpoons. It is a concept which has IMHO dated badly, and reading about the terror of the protagonists upon discovering the frog people is more laughable than horrific. I take your point, Andy, but for me - and for all its shortcomings - the "Shadow Over Innsmouth" shtick was Lovecraft's greatest achievement. It's not the 'frog people' themselves, who were really nothing new even at the time, but rather the fishy taint they cast over everything. I love that sense of decay that Lovecraft instills in "Innsmouth" and the like - the rotting seafronts and overall atmosphere of physical, social and moral degradation. That's where the real horror lies.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Oct 17, 2009 16:30:38 GMT
I suspect that unlike many here who are big into their anthos and who'll probably struggle to narrow their choice down to 10 titles, I'm going to struggle to come up with 10. Still I'll give it a go. The Unspeakable People - ed. Peter Haining (1969) Hands down my favourite anthology ever. I've always had a soft spot for his Evil People too ( Midnight People not so much, I have to say) but Unspeakable - give or take 3 or 4 somewhat questionable inclusions which I'm more than happy to overlook - is an absolute blinder of a collection. "The Loved Dead", "The Idol of The Flies", Kuttner's "The Graveyard Rats" (probably my single favourite horror short), John Wyndham's "The Cathedral Crypt", "Bianca's Hands" by Theodore Sturgeon - if I was putting together my own anthology, they'd all be in there. Alongside these you get classics like "The Copper Bowl" and off-beat oddities such as "The Bird Woman" and barking mad necrophiliac love story "A Thing of Beauty". All this and Laurence James. Sublime. The Far Reaches Of Fear (orig. Superhorror) - ed. Ramsey Campbell (1976) Another attempt at a taboo-breaking anthology and a pretty damn good one at that. I know this one in its Star paperback incarnation, which as far as I'm aware has the same line-up as the hardback. Brian Lumley's "The Viaduct" gets the ball rolling and, by my reckoning at least, it's an absolute cracker. Anything with Manly Wade Wellman and R. A. Lafferty in will do for me thank you very much (although Lafferty's not at his best here) but the main reason I hold this one dear is that struggling to get my head round the story "Wood" finally helped me realise the extraordinary genius of Robert Aickman. It takes me a while sometimes but I get there eventually. The 3rd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories - ed. Robert Aickman (1967) The first half dozen or so Fontana Great Ghost Stories are all well worthwhile - not least for Aickman's introductions - this one makes my list simply because reading "The Beckoning Fair One" and "Negotium Perambulans" in here again a while ago got me back into short horror fiction again after far too long away from the fold. The 3rd Pan Book Of Horror Stories - ed. Herbert Van Thal (1962) Even if you're not really one for horror anthologies, the Pan Horrors are a bit special. But how do you choose your favourite? Number 3 contains a few old chestnuts, and I've always thought "The Two Bottles of Relish" was a bit over-rated, but this is more than outweighed by the likes of "Meshes of Doom" and the masterly "Unburied Bane". Plus it's practically riddled with Charles Birkin. Maybe not the sort of stuff the Pans are remembered for today but still a lovely collection. You can see why Kirby went for The Dark Descent - the sheer bulk of the bastard in its original form (1000 plus pages) makes it a portable library. It's a marvellous achievement but, for reasons i can't fathom, despite rating virtually every story, i've never liked it. The Dark Descent - ed. David G. Hartwell (1987) I've got The Dark Descent split over three, still fairly hefty, volumes; The Colour of Evil, The Medusa in the Shield and A Fabulous Formless Darkness, which maybe helps make it a bit less of a bastard. Anyhow I think this is a staggering piece of work. Any attempt at a "definitive anthology" tracing the development of the horror genre from the early 19th century to the present day (mid '80s) must surely, you'd think, be doomed to failure. Somehow though Hartwell pretty much pulls it off. So much great stuff here and he even finds space to occasionally step outside the perceived confines of the genre. A stunner. 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural - ed. Mary Danby (1979) Another great bruiser of a collection, in which one Roger B. Pile more than holds his own alongside some of the greatest names in supernatural fiction. Bedside reading of the highest order. Tales from a Gaslit Graveyard - ed. Hugh Lamb (1979) Some of this stuff may be a touch creaky but it's that other worldly sense that really makes this collection. "The Shrine Of Death" is truly haunting, there's a healthy dose of conte cruel, and this collection introduced me to both R. Murray Gilchrist (who recognised the weird possibilities of The Peak District long before Brian Ball wrote The Venomous Serpert) and Bernard Capes (who I'm still not quite sure about). Either way I'm grateful for the heads up. Never at Night (orig. More Not At Night) - ed. Christine Campbell Thomson (1961) There's something tremendously comforting about the Not At Night stuff, of which this was my first taste. You've just got to love any book full of stories with names like "Swamp Horror" and "Creeping Fingers". Romeo Poole's man-bat classic "The Death Crescents Of Koti" is but one fine example of the delightful tales that make up this volume. Looked at now, the Robert E. Howard story might seem a touch out of place, at the time though it would have just been another highlight. The Black Book Of Horror - ed. Charles Black (2007) I'm currently catching up on the BBoHs I'd missed and still can't quite believe we're on the 5th book already. I suppose the first one will always be my favourite though - partly because, not to take anything away from Charles, it's very much a Vault anthology (12 of the 18 stories were written by Vault members) and partly because it's just such a bloody good read. There you go, that's my Top 9. Just thought of another one; Christopher Lee's 'X' Certificate - ed. Michel Parry (1975) Because reading this - particularly Basil Copper's "Amber Print" - in bed as a child scarred me for life. My heartfelt thanks to all concerned.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Oct 16, 2009 0:46:27 GMT
Keep It Up Downstairs by Elton Hawke, Everest Books 1976 'Good Morning, Milady,' the butler said respectfully. Lady Cockshute opened her eyes and stretched. 'Good Morning, Hampton. Ah, breakfast. I really feel like it this morning.' 'A beautiful day, Milady. The sun is in the sky... and Lord Cockshute is in his bath. Would Milady care for a roll?' 'Exactly, Hampton. The usual, please.' 'My pleasure to serve, Milady,' said Hampton as he pulled back the covers and climbed into bed...Proof that long before the likes of Lulu, iUniverse and PublishAmerica (allegedly), there were publishers that would publish absolutely anything - Everest's tie-in novelisation of the wildly funny 1976 British sex comedy Keep It Up Downstairs starring Willie Rushton and Diana Dors. It seems Elton Hawke was a pseudonym used by Hazel ( Virgin Witch and Crossroads) Adair, who also wrote the original screenplay so there's not even anyone else to share the blame. Lord and Lady Cockshute, Hampton the butler, Rogers the groom, Mellons the gamekeeper... you just know you're in safe comedy hands with a cast of characters like that. And rounding out the stellar cast; Carmen ( 'Allo 'Allo!) Silvera as Lady Bottomley and the French woman from Mind Your Language as Mimi, the saucy French maid. Throw in an actress and a bishop and the stage is all set for a cavalcade of arse-slapping mirth. Much like Queen Kong and Everest's other dodgy Brit movie tie-ins, by far the most fun to be had here is perusing the several generous pages of black & white stills.
|
|