The non-anthology 'Creeps'

[dem bones]

More Philip Allan: The non-anthology 'Creeps'

Apart from the famous anthologies, there were a number of novels and single author collections in the Creeps series. From Tales Of Fear (I've added the year of publication, when known)

THE FAMOUS "CREEPS" SERIES

To be successful, the gruesome story must not be too long. The most hardened of us can only take this kind of thing in small doses with a breathing space between each.

The sales of these volumes have gone into many thousands. Some have gone quite out of print; but new ones are being constantly added. Each volume has about a dozen stories of sheer, stark horror - and noone, whatever their nerve strength, should read them at night. Nervous people should not read them at all.

THE THREE FREAKS - TODD ROBBINS 1934
THE MASTER OF MURDER - TODD ROBBINS 1933
THE BUTTERFLY MURDER - CHARLTON ANDREW ?
DEVIL'S DRUMS - VIVIAN MEIK 1933
VEILS OF FEAR - VIVIAN MEIK 1934
THE STRANGE PAPERS OF DR. BLAYRE - CHRISTOPHER BLAYRE 1932
THE AIR DEVIL - BARRINGTON BEVERLEY 1934
MYSTERIES OF ASIA - SHEIK ABDULLAH 1934
TALES OF THE GROTESQUE - L. A. LEWIS 1934
VAMPIRES OVERHEAD - ALAN HYDER 1935
THE DEVIL OF THE DEPTHS - JACK McLAREN 1935

TO THE READER

If you have enjoyed the stories in this popular series - why not write one? It is very probable that other volumes will be added: and the publishers are always ready to consider the work of new, as well as established, authors.

Send MSS. to

Messrs. PHILIP ALLAN & CO., Ltd.
69, Great Russell Street, London, W.C.1

Mark envelopes 'Creeps'

Three more books, also published by Philip Allan, which appeared too early to be considered legit Creeps were Mrs. Everett's The Death Mask & Other Ghost Stories (1920), Tod Robbins' Who Wants A Green Bottle? (1926) and H. R. Wakefield's They Return At Evening (1928).

Come 1936 and the publisher seems to have veered off into a SF direction with Edmond Hamilton's The Horror Of The Asteroid & Other Planetary Horrors and Barrington Beverley's The Space Raiders, although that same year saw publication of Charle's Birkin's Devil Spawn, which collected all his contributions to the anthologies and is unquestionably a Creep!.

[pulphack]

In the Any Amount Of Books basement sale (everything a quid, get down there quick, Dem) last Friday I picked up some nice bits - a humour anthology edited by Lady Cynthia Asquith that has some rare stories by the likes of Beachcomber, a Howard Baker Sexton Blake h/b by Stephen Christie that I've wanted for ages and never even spotted when out, and a Francis Durbridge (always a pleasure as they're ridiculously scarce, if not 'rare' as such). And in amongst that I also picked up a Barry Pain novel. He's well outside Vault territory being a funny writer remembered if at all for his 'Eliza' stories, which were reissued as recently as the turn of the 2000's by Prion, with an intro by fan Terry Jones.

Anway, to get to the point, it was published by Philip Allan, and although originally from 1919, this undated edition must be mid-thirties, and has a list of other Allan titles in the back. They obviously had a yen for comic writers, as they also reissued JB Morton's The Barber Of Putney, although this is a serious novel despite being by a man who was at the height of his Beachcomber fame.

It has listings by category, and has a "Creeps" (complete with inverted commas) section. There's nothing there that Dem hasn't already listed, but what I find interesting is that both the Tod Robbins titles, also 'The Air Devil' and 'The Butterfly Murders' are all listed at this point under Crime, and not included as Creeps titles by the publisher, although the Vivian Meik and Christopher Blayre titles are... 'The Air Devil' is asterisked as 'forthcoming', which I would guess makes this edition 1934, but that depends when the print run was made. It could be a year later, as I have seen some books (Corgi did this a lot in the sixties and early seventies with JT Edson at least) still list titles are forthcoming when you have editions that are dated before that particular listing. Does that make sense (note to self, do not write entries before 6.30am)?

As Dem has listed the Crime titles as Creeps, I wondered if there was a point where the publishers decided to change their categorisation and pitch for some titles, perhaps because the sales of Creeps titles were so strong?

[pulphack]

A quick bit of googling on Barry Pain reveals that he also had a reputation for ghost and horror stories, one of which was supposed to be influential on Lovecraft. Not heard that before, as had him fixed as a humour writer because of Eliza and old anthologies I've got. Had a look on here but can't find any mentions of his horror work - have I missed a thread? This rather suggests to me that he's an EF Benson figure in some ways - anyone who has read the horror stuff care to discuss?

[gloomy sundae]

Those catalogues at back of book qualify as bonus material of the most welcome kind. I've double checked Tales Of Fear, and the Creeps listing is exactly as above. The supplement runs to ten pages; "To The Reader," "The Famous 'Creeps' series", "Mystery Stories", "Western Stories", "Racing Novels" and "Philip Allen's New Series of Popular Novels" account for one each, but a generous four are devoted to "Love Stories & Comedy," suggesting they were the biggest sellers.

It goes on to list

LOVE STORIES AND COMEDY—contd.

CRIMSON AZALEAS - H. DE VERE STACPOOLE
VULTURE'S PREY - H. DE VERE STACPOOLE
PATSY- H. DE VERE STACPOOLE
GOLDEN RAIN - OWEN RUTTER
SUNSHINE SETTLERS - CROSBIE GARSTIN
ANN'S AN IDIOT - PAMELA WYNNE
WARNING - PAMELA WYNNE
THE DREAM MAN - PAMELA WYNNE
ASHES OF DESIRE - PAMELA WYNNE
PENELOPE FINDS OUT - PAMELA WYNNE
CONCEALED TURNINGS - PAMELA WYNNE
A PASSIONATE REBEL - PAMELA WYNNE
MADEMOISELLE DAHLIA - PAMELA WYNNE
UNDER THE MOSQUITO CURTAIN - PAMELA WYNNE
RAINBOW IN THE SPRAY - PAMELA WYNNE
AT THE END OF THE AVENUE - PAMELA WYNNE
A LITTLE FLAT IN THE TEMPLE - PAMELA WYNNE
EAST IS ALWAYS EAST -PAMELA WYNNE
THE LAST DAYS OF SEPTEMBER - PAMELA WYNNE
LOVE IN A MIST - PAMELA WYNNE
THE SEALED DOOR OF LOVE - PAMELA WYNNE
THE ONE BEFORE - BARRY PAIN
THE FIRST OFFENCE - J. STORER CLOUSTON
THE LADY NOGGS, PEERESS - EDGAR JEPSON
UNCERTAIN GLORY - MARIGOLD WATNEY
MUNDY'S CHILD - ALICE LINDLEY
THE BRIDGE OF DISTANCES - ELLA SCRYMSOUR
'NEATH BURMESE BELLS - ELLA SCRYMSOUR
MORNING GLORY - RUTH ALEXANDER
THERE AND BACK AGAIN - MARY CROSBIE
DAZZLE - CLARE THORNTON
PASTURES OF HEAVEN - JOHN STEINBECK
SECOND CHOICE - E. ALEXANDER
SIXTEEN TO FORTY - "MARNA "
THE BARBER OF PUTNEY- J. B. MORTON ("Beachcomber" of the Daily Express)
ORDEAL -. DALE COLLINS
THE MONKEY GOD - GORDON CASSERLY
THE ELEPHANT GOD - GORDON CASSERLY
THE JUNGLE GIRL - GORDON CASSERLY
TIGER GIRL - GORDON CASSERLY
THE RED MARSHAL - GORDON CASSERLY
DESIRABLE YOUNG MEN - PATRICK CARLETON
THE HAWK AND THE TREE - PATRICK CARLETON
SANCTUARY - BLANCHE HARDY
DYNASTY - BLANCHE HARDY

Incidentally, any change in the Lovejoys situation? Last time I passed, they were still officially 'closed for refurbishments,' but that ominous 'sex licence applied for' hung from the lamppost suggested they might have run into difficulties.

Feb 3, 2014 8:22:20 GMT pulphack said:

A quick bit of googling on Barry Pain reveals that he also had a reputation for ghost and horror stories, one of which was supposed to be influential on Lovecraft. Not heard that before, as had him fixed as a humour writer because of Eliza and old anthologies I've got. Had a look on here but can't find any mentions of his horror work - have I missed a thread? This rather suggests to me that he's an EF Benson figure in some ways - anyone who has read the horror stuff care to discuss?

Hugh Lamb ran a number of Barry Pain's ghost & horror stories over a series of anthologies and also edited Stories In The Dark: Tales Of Terror, a three way split between Pain, Robert Barr & Jerome K. Jerome (right up your street, I'd have thought). I need a refresher, so perhaps later in the week ....

- dem

[pulphack]

I do love a catalogue in the back of a book. The one in the back of the Barry Pain is only three pages, but again the proportion given to love stories,etc suggests that it was their staple. Interested to note on the page you scanned a couple of Rat books - I think these were novelisations of the Ivor Novello silents - there may be a third, as there were three films in all. I saw them a while back at the NFT in stifling conditions while suffering a cold, and they were STILL good. The Rat was a romantic anti-hero and Parisian burglar who went from riches to prison to ruin to riches again and then death. As you do. Denise Robins gets in there at the start of a career that saw her still a big name in romance in the 1970's! But what happened to the prolific Pamela Wynne and the wonderfully named Vina Delmar?

That three-hander does sound my sort of thing and worth tracking down. I shall also look out for the anthologised Pains (??!!).

Lovejoys is well and truly gone. I almost walked past the end of Old Compton Street as it's now a green painted Harmony sex shop with lots of suitably tacky lingerie in the window and not a hint of a Sexton Blake anthology or a Three Stooges dvd in the window... Very sad. The landmark 'Lovejoys' sign that guided you into Soho even when three parts pissed after coming out of the Montague Pryke by the front is much missed.

[dem bones]

Feb 3, 2014 9:42:09 GMT pulphack said:

That three-hander does sound my sort of thing and worth tracking down. I shall also look out for the anthologised Pains (??!!).

Ah, here we are. I thought it might come in handy one day. Hugh Lamb UK Anthos A-Z by authors

So, Hugh only used two of BP's stories in his anthologies, and as both are exhumed for Stories In The Dark, that remains your best bet. His macabre work has served some of our finest anthologists very well down the decades. Michel Parry revived The Gray Cat for a fiendish felines selection, and The Undying Thing - Pain's most famous horror story by some distance - kicks off John Pelan's The Century's Best Horror Fiction. The End Of A Show has turned up in collections edited by Peter Haining, Michael O'Shaugnessy and Dorothy L. Sayers: and Robert Aickman included Not on The Passenger List in 4th Fontana Book of Great Stories

Feb 3, 2014 9:42:09 GMT pulphack said:

Lovejoys is well and truly gone. I almost walked past the end of Old Compton Street as it's now a green painted Harmony sex shop with lots of suitably tacky lingerie in the window and not a hint of a Sexton Blake anthology or a Three Stooges dvd in the window... Very sad. The landmark 'Lovejoys' sign that guided you into Soho even when three parts pissed after coming out of the Montague Pryke by the front is much missed.

oh no, our worst fears confirmed. Lovejoys will pass into legend as one of the great vault (London chapter) hang-outs along with Fantasy Centre, TYPE and the basement of the Victoria Plaza Hotel. Every visit was an adventure.