Futura Horror: 1970-80

[dem bones]

..... leading on from the Orbit thread (so you'll have to cross-reference for a fuller picture - i'm sure you're all dead up for that!). As ever, this is but a skeleton, it needs fleshing out, i just wanted too make a start, blah blah blah blah blah .....

Futura Horror: 1970-80

Orbit/ Futura

A. Merritt - Burn Witch, Burn (Orbit, 1974)
A. Merrit - Dwellers in the Mirage (Orbit, 1974)
A. Merrit - The Face in the Abyss (Orbit, 1974)
Abraham Merritt - Seven Footsteps To Satan (1974)
Michael G. Coney - The Hero Of Downways (Orbit, 1974)
Michel Parry (ed.) - The Devil’s Children: Tales of Demons & Exorcists (Orbit, 1974)
Peter Haining (ed) - The Ghouls: Book I (Orbit, 1974, 1976)
Dave Allen (ed.) - A Little Night Reading (Orbit, 1975)
Anthony Craze - Harvest Moon (Orbit/Futura, 1975)
P. B. Yuill (Joint pseudonym of Terry Venables and Gordon M. Williams) - The Bornless Keeper (Orbit, 1975)
Peter Haining (ed) - The Ghouls: Book II (Orbit, 1976)
Richard Davis (ed.) - The First Orbit Book Of Horror Stories (1976)
Peter Haining (ed.) - The Black Magic Omnibus Volume 1 (Orbit, 1977)
Peter Haining (ed.) - The Black Magic Omnibus Volume 1 (Orbit, 1977)

See Orbit Horror in the 'Seventies for more details

Futura

Elwyn Jones & John Lloyd - The Ripper File (1975)
David Seltzer - The Omen (1976)
Bryan Cooper - Stones Of Evil (1976)
Linda Cline - Weak Foot (1976)
Peter Cushing (with Peter Haining) - Tales Of A Monster Hunter (1977)
John Farris - The Fury (1977)
Delos W. Lovelace - King Kong (1977)
Constance Rauch - The Landlady (1977)
Anne Rice - Interview With The Vampire (1977)
George Romero - Martin (1978)

Arabella Randolph - The Vampire Tapes (1978)
Robert Black [Robert Holdstock] - The Satanists (1978)
Thomas Tessier - The Fates (1978)
Gene Thompson - Lupe (1978)
Martin Cruz Smith - Nightwing (1978)
Gwyneth Cravens & John S Marr - The Black Death (1978)
Joseph Howard - Damien: Omen II (1978)
Peter Straub - If You Could See Me Now (1978)
James Montague - Worms (1979)
Richard Masson - Creatures (1979)
John Farris - All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By (1979)
Ivor Watkins - The Bloodsnarl (1980)
Kirby McCauley (ed.) - Dark Forces (1980)
Edward Levy - Came A Spider (1980)
Sean Richards [Peter Haining] (ed.) -The Elephant Man & Other Freaks (1980)
Victoria Burgoyne - Savaged (1980)
John Hyde - The Prediction (1980)

I can't be pleasant having a publishing credit for Interview With A Vampire against your name, but Futura redeemed themselves before the decade was done with the triple whammy of Arabella Randolph's The Vampire Tapes, Ivor Watkins' The Blood Snarl and 'James Montague's superlative Worms. They were also very fond of a movie tie-in during this period which usually bodes well.

1981-1990 to follow in the not too distant .....

[dem bones]

A few more covers, a definite addition to the listing, and two which are maybe close but no cigar.

Gordon McGill, Omen III: The Final Conflict (1980)

Roy P. Mackal - The Monsters Of Loch Ness (1976) (investigates the phenomena from a "scientific viewpoint")

Paul Victor - Warlords Of Atlantis (Fantasy film tie-in) (1979)

[H_P_Saucecraft]

An addition for you, Dem:

Brooks Stanwood - The Glow (1980)

I'll post a cover scan tomorrow if I remember

[dem bones]

Thanks Dave, that's a new one on me. Must admit, i find the 'seventies Futura's far more bizarre and enticing than much of their eighties output. I bet Peter Straub looks back on sharing publishers with 'Arabella Randolph' as a career highlight!

A belated happy birthday to you, by the way. Hope you enjoyed yourself!

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Feb 9, 2009 0:12:39 GMT dem bones said:

Thanks Dave, that's a new one on me. Must admit, i find the 'seventies Futura's far more bizarre and enticing than much of their eighties output. I bet Peter Straub looks back on sharing publishers with 'Arabella Randolph' as a career highlight!

A belated happy birthday to you, by the way. Hope you enjoyed yourself!

Thanks Dem, I had a good birthday, plenty of booze involved. Dvds I'd ordered as birthday presents hadn't arrived on saturday, but I got them this morning ;D , still waiting on Snuff by Eric Enck & Adam Huber (I cancelled my order at christmas, but trying again now).

Here's the scan, afraid it's not a very exciting cover, looks like Futura recycled the blood drop from The Blood Snarl :

[lobolover]

Sorry to recycle this, but is The Glow any good or is this not your cover scan? Interesting to see the Merrit up there, ahve read and reviewed Dwellers (and Metal Monster), will soon delve into Face in the abyss.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Feb 26, 2009 23:28:19 GMT lobolover said:

Sorry to recycle this, but is The Glow any good or is this not your cover scan? Interesting to see the Merrit up there, ahve read and reviewed Dwellers (and Metal Monster), will soon delve into Face in the abyss.

It is my cover scan, but I'm sorry to say I haven't read it yet, it's in that large section called 'to read'
But, I will be sure to report back, once I've read it ;D

[dem bones]

Another one. Picked this up - along with with William Drummond's Night Must Fall and Confessions of A Film Extra - on my last big splash out, £5 the lot from my friend Mark Defoe's relatively small but never dull stall in Spitalfield Market (Sundays only). Probably give it a thread to itself at some juncture.

Christine Sparks - The Elephant Man (Futura, 1980)

Blurb:

A CENTURY AGO, HE FASCINATED, HORRIFIED AND MOVED A GENERATION. NOW, HIS STORY WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN. THE ELEPHANT MAN

His name was John Merrick. A hideous freak, born with terrible deformities, he suffered as a prisoner in a Victorian circus sideshow. Even when the surgeon, Frederick Treves, rescued him from his torment, mankind continued to treat The Elephant Man like a monster.
Until Treves' love and compassion breathed new life into Merrick's soul — and those around could see the poetry in his dreams of freedom.

A Brooksfilms Production for EMI Films ..... Based on the life of John Merrick, the Elephant Man, and not upon the Broadway play or any other fictional account.

The Bride doesn't go in for fiction much, but roughly 25 seconds after i snapped this up, she hit another stall and came away with:

Michael Howell & Peter Ford - The True History Of The Elephant Man (Penguin, 1980)

Cover design by Christopher Millets

JOSEPH MERRICK SUFFERED A TERRIBLE DESTINY.

Through horrible physical deformities which were almost impossible to describe, he spent much of his life exhibited as a fairground freak until even nineteenth-century sensibilities could take no more.

Hounded, persecuted and starving, he ended up one day at Liverpool Street Station where he was rescued, housed and fed by the distinguished surgeon Frederick Treves. To Treves's surprise, he discovered during the course of their friendship that lurking beneath the mass of Merrick's corrupting flesh lived a spirit that was as courageous as it had been tortured, and a nature as gentle and dignified as it had been deprived and tormented.

The subject of several books, a Broadway hit, and now a film, Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology. Here, for the first time, are the true and unromanticized facts of his life. An extraordinary and moving story, set amongst the brutal realities of the Victorian world, telling of a tragic individual and his survival against overwhelming odds.

It just goes to show. You wait a lifetime for an Elephant Man and then two come along at once.

[dem bones]

Time to update some of these listings .....

Robert Holdstock - Necromancer (Futura, 1978)

Blurb:
CRUACHOS

An ancient evil from the dawn of time.

In a quiet town west of London stand the ruins of a burned-out church. Within the ruins is a stone font. Legends surround it, dark stories of blood, suicide and madness.
To June Hunter, it is a prison — holding in its cold grasp the soul of her young son ....

To Lee Kline, it is a puzzle, a challenge for his questing mind .. .
To Francoise Jeury, it is a key to the deep past, a memory stone bearing the secrets of an ancient people .. .

For all of them it is a deadly danger.

NECROMANCER

--a superb novel of terror, obsession and agonizing suspense.

Additions to original list

C.Terry Cline - Damon (1976, 1978)
Ed Naha - Horrors: From Screen to Scream (1976) *non-fiction*
Robert Holdstock - Necromancer (1978, 1981)
Alan Dean Foster - Alien (1979) *film tie-in*
Stephen King - The Dead Zone (1980, 1984, 1987)
Stephen King - Firestarter (1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986)
Brooks Stanwood - The Glow (1980)
Michael T Hinkemeyer - Summer Solstice (1980)
Gordon McGill - Omen III: The Final Conflict (1980, 1982, 1985)
Christine Sparks - The Elephant Man (1980)

C. Terry Cline - Damon (Futura, 1976, 1978)

DAMON A four-year-old-boy with the mind of a genius - and the body of a man ...

DAMON The breathtaking story of a boy.tormented by a mysterious and terrifying second self - his motivations twisted, his sexual desires demanding satisfaction ...

DAMON `captures you.on the first page and doesn't even let you go when you've finished ... A well-written chiller ... a cliffhanger plot. . . The denouement is a shocker.' - LIBRARY JOURNAL

DAMON `is one of the most original, dynamic, and exciting novels I have read since I brought ROSEMARY'S BABY to the screen.' - WILLIAM CASTLE

John Farris - All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By (Futura, 1979)

Blurb:
A spine-chilling nightmare of black occultism and vengeance that begins with unholy matrimony and ends in blood-curdling terror.

For the Brodwins, the heritage of the Deep South was more than magnolias and mint juleps. Much more. For, rooted in supernatural sorcery, dogging each generation in its turn, there was the Brodwin curse, a curse of possession, of lust, of madness, its origins lost in the jungles of Africa and the impenetrable mists of time.

"A knockout. John Farris is prabably America's premier novelist of terror. When Farris turns it on, nobody does it better." - STEPHEN KING
"Farris has a genius for creating compelling suspense" - PETER BENCHLEY
"Guaranteed to turn one's blood to gelatin" - NEW YORK TIMES