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Post by dem bones on Dec 28, 2007 20:36:55 GMT
As for No.11 - I remember as a young lad reading some of the crappy ones several times, trying to work out where the horror actually was. Something I fear I have continued to do with a lot of today's 'Best Of' anthos. I was at the Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror launch and Stephen Jones was particularly proud that the 2006 edition contains "very few horror stories" (or words to that effect). Nothing against him but maybe he should think of calling it something else? I'm sure he'd be less than made up if I plonked a dollop of jam on a plate and sold it to him as a fresh cream donut. I'm on Pan #8 now and it's perfect for post-binge recovery. Nothing too brain straining and that "gleeful desire to shock" is well in evidence from the first story.
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Post by allthingshorror on Jul 27, 2008 17:18:06 GMT
Does anyone have any copies of Tim Stouts magazine - Supernatural? Need them for the old project. To borrow - or to have the coverscans. I have no idea why this little red fecking head rolls about with such gay abandon.....
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Post by lukemorningstar on Sept 22, 2008 8:20:44 GMT
Pan 9 was another of the early ones that I picked up and read as a kid, and therefore scared the crap out of me more so than if I had read it as a more cynical 'grown up'
It's funny what you remember - my first reading of Pan 9 (early 1977) tied in with the last time I remember being scared by Dr Who (The Talons Of Weng Chiang to be precise - anyone remember that one?)
My eldest daughter (14 years old) was ill last week and off school - she asked if she could read a Pan and picked number 9. Perhaps I have hyped it up too much, but she was unmoved by the subtle horror of 'The Happy Return' which, at the time was probably the most spooked I had been by any Pan story, except maybe 'Something In The Cellar' (Pan 10) I was worried about her reading it to be honest with you. It is a tale that relies totally on the reader's imagination (ie exactly what the poor kid looked like after the unmasking) Even good old 'Jolly Uncle' she just found 'funny' - crikey!
Perhaps it is just her age - my youngest (who is 12) wouldn't dare so much as look at the covers, let alone read one!
So far the only tale that has troubled her was 'The Best Teacher' which I will have to re read as I can't recall it.
I wonder whether 'kids these days' see enough in day to day TV of what we would never have seen (apart from in horror movies) when we were kids? Both of my girls will happily sit and watch CSI with their Mum, and there is some pretty graphic stuff going on there. They also watch Supernatural and Ghost Whisperer and seem untroubled.
Is Pan Horror lost on the youth of today?
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Post by dem bones on Sept 22, 2008 10:25:34 GMT
Is Pan Horror lost on the youth of today? It would be brilliant if they became a playground cult, wouldn't it? Maybe a little expensive for parents though - "Daddy, I demand you stop being such a beastly old skinflint and cough up £50 for number #30 or I'll fail all my exams!" Let us know how Miss Morningstar gets on with the rest. Man-hunt should make for an interesting response! Does anyone have any copies of Tim Stouts magazine - Supernatural? Need them for the old project. To borrow - or to have the coverscans. There's at least one cover and some details on Vault Mk. 1. Sadly, the images posted by our late friend Bob 'The Duke' Rothwell have since disappeared although there's still a smaller scan of the Jan. 1969 cover on Bob's magnificent Dennis Wheatley Info.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 22, 2008 10:54:47 GMT
Maybe I've been in Germany too long but I can imagine being arrested for letting my kids read a Pan Horror story. It seems such a shame.
Its been preying on my mind for ages that the whole thing about horror is bound up with that run up to adolescence. Its the first intimations that you will die at some point - and the young mind latches on to the idea that, if you are going to die, what manner will that death take? Pan horror provided for me a number of extremely unpleasant possibilities and might even have been the necessary security blanket for the psyche - hopefully, I will not be mashed up by a lawnmower, crushed or eaten alive - I could be lucky and die in my sleep.
Maybe we should make some attempts at influencing educational establishments - get horror into schools, kindergarten - great preparation for reality
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Post by lukemorningstar on Sept 22, 2008 12:59:30 GMT
'Miss Morningstar' - like the sound of that! My Em was determined to start at the beginning, therefore Man-Hunt was first on the agenda. Remembering the plot and the painful denouement, I warned my Mrs in advance, and she 'had a little chat' with her and then said something about 'taking after Dad and reading all that old nonsense'. Thankfully, this being the 21st Century and all that, she (my daughter) did no more than comment 'he deserved it' which I'm sure he did the rotten beggar.
As for Pan in schools, when I was in the 'first year' (nowadays year 8?) in secondary school, 1976-77 we had a brilliant English teacher, who once gave me Pan 8 on a Friday afternoon, asked me to read it over the weekend and then pick a story for him to read out loud to the class the following week. Being the little scamp that I was, I picked 'The Tunnel' because it had a 'sexy bit' in it and was very gruesome too...........
As for my daughter's continuing her trawl through the world of Pan, there are still those I will definitely not allow her to read, especially 'Kowlongo' and 'Love On The Farm'
The kids school library is so bloody PC these days - they don't even have any 'Point Horror' - I feel a strongly worded letter to the Headmaster is in order........
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Post by erebus on Feb 15, 2010 20:28:59 GMT
Currently revisiting this volume. And the tale that stands out for and the one I recall from many moons back is THE BEST TEACHER. Always liked the grim gory stuff. JOLLY UNCLE did'nt unsettle me as much as it once did. And MANHUNT is always been one I have been fond of.
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Post by lukemorningstar on Feb 17, 2010 10:16:20 GMT
Pan 9 is an excellent volume. I've always felt that a lot of the Pan stories of the late sixties through to the mid seventies were written in a similar style to the 'stories' in 'adult magzines' of the same era, substituting of course OTT gore and horror for OTT sexual goings on***
That's not to say I dont think they are excellent tales and an essential part of the history of Pan Horror (and far superior to some of the crap that padded out the later volumes) Norman Kaufman was a master of this descriptive, anatomical horror, was he not?
Anyhow, as for Pan 9, I love the 'one about the priest' (Is it 'Father Forgive Me? - havent got the book to hand) - excellent - and when I first read Pan 9 (I was about 11 at the time) I was spooked beyond belief by the ending of 'The Happy Return' where it really is up to the readers imagination as to how the poor kid must have looked.........Brrrrrrrr.
There's also the fun but downright silly 'Don't Avoid The Rush Hour' with some of the most ridiculous exposition I've ever read and what a brilliant half a page closer; Tanith Lee's 'Eustace'
*** Incidentally, I read far more Pan Horror in the early Seventies than 'adult magazines' but come on, you know the score, it was a rite of passage; it's a hot sunny day in '75, you are having a kick about in the park with a few friends, maybe smoking a 'Number 6' or two, passing round a bottle of 'Woodpecker' and as sure as eggs is eggs one of the lads will find the latest 'Rustler' or 'New Direction' in the park and you just have to have a read.............................. well OK maybe it was just me then..........
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 17, 2010 11:01:13 GMT
Lindsay Stewart - Strictly For The Birds still remains vividly in my mind as a classic. Greta story.
What's all this about cider and smoking young man. This is respectable board of ... eh...
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Post by PeterC on Feb 17, 2010 19:38:30 GMT
Dem: "I was at the Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror launch and Stephen Jones was particularly proud that the 2006 edition contains "very few horror stories" (or words to that effect). "
The MBBNH series has been slowly shedding its horror content for a long time now. You still get the odd gem but mostly its just boresville.
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Post by marksamuels on Feb 18, 2010 8:52:22 GMT
Dem: "I was at the Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror launch and Stephen Jones was particularly proud that the 2006 edition contains "very few horror stories" (or words to that effect). " The MBBNH series has been slowly shedding its horror content for a long time now. You still get the odd gem but mostly its just boresville. I think that volume contains (at least) a couple of tales that could have made it into the later books of the Pan horror series, had they been written way back when: my favourite Joe Hill tale (about the crazy red-neck horror author) and the one by Clive Barker with its sex-crazed zombies. Granted, MBoBNH is more like the earlier non-frenzied Pans than the later ones, but hey. Something for everyone, then Mark S.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 19, 2010 10:34:56 GMT
Dem: "I was at the Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror launch and Stephen Jones was particularly proud that the 2006 edition contains "very few horror stories" (or words to that effect). " that should have read " ..... and Stephen Jones was particularly proud that the 2007 edition contains "very few horror stories" (or words to that effect) ...." because the Mammoth Best New Horror 18 launch was the only one i ever attended, a very pleasant evening, too with readings from - among others - Micheal Marshall Smith, Christopher Fowler and .... Mark Samuels! as to Pan Horror 9, for what it's worth, when i got around to rereading a few of them for the board, this was the one i least remembered and probably most enjoyed.
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Post by erebus on Feb 27, 2010 13:33:34 GMT
As with the rest of the people here I too find this volume one of the most memorable. It was one that I always seemed to stumble across as a kid and always seemed to be popular on the stalls and 2nd hand book shops. The tales are great but I must say THE WHISPERING HORROR is perhaps the most creepy story I have ever read, perhaps pan's scariest of the lot. It did unerve me as a young un but I put this down to youth. But even after a re read it did the trick again like a good horror tale should.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 27, 2010 20:07:24 GMT
The tales are great but I must say THE WHISPERING HORROR is perhaps the most creepy story I have ever read, perhaps pan's scariest of the lot. i'm not sure how many of his stories have been translated, i've only come across a half dozen or so, and if they're not all as great as The Whispering Horror, they're still brilliant. we've a thread for Eddy C. Bertin here (i just shifted it from the 'favourite authors section, which isn't to say he's stopped being one!) and i still reckon one of Dr. Terror's best scoops was landing him as a contributor to The Second Black Book Of Horror!
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Post by erebus on Feb 28, 2010 19:10:20 GMT
Thank You. Never seen that thread before. THE MAN WHO COLLECTED EYES sounds fabulous. Anybody read this ?
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