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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 12, 2010 17:16:24 GMT
thanks, Lord P. still playing catch-up after enduring the worst bout of man-flu in history so i only just got to see this. i wasn't much enthused by Phantasmagoria either - don't think i've ever managed to finish it - but your comments on the E.C. Tubb story have determined me to get around to that one pronto. It's a wonderful collection, don't you think? Even the stories that perhaps haven't worn so well play their part. I liked it a lot and it has me on the lookout for volume two now!And make sure you read that E C Tubb story - it's a Black Magic Cracker! |
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Post by dem on Nov 13, 2010 20:35:33 GMT
And make sure you read that E C Tubb story - it's a Black Magic Cracker! : tip off much appreciated, Lord P.! really can't fathom how i've missed this up 'til now as it has two of the top ingredients - film crew in peril, black magic: early seventies style - that make for my type of thing. only slight disappointment is the lame kiss off, but it's certainly great fun getting there. Director Mark Bannerman of the Arabesque Film Company, desperately seeking an award, thinks he's finally hit the jackpot with The End Of An Era which purports to expose witchcraft for the load of old hocus pocus mumbo jumbo it really is. Bannerman's gorgeous lead, Lady Mavis Carter-Frobisher, has persuaded her father to let them shoot a scene in the grounds of Fairfield Manor, home to a real coven of witches who worship the sacred oak trees. Trouble is, the genuine article are a bunch of elderly uglies and their attempts at demon raising have proved a resounding flop, so Bannerman persuades Lady Mavis to rope in a dozen of her glamorous young friends to play their part. As a compromise, the coven leader, Simon Dene, is kept on to add a sense of gravitas to the affair and besides, he's bound to look dead comical when he strips off to perform the animal sacrifice. Come the night of the full moon, everything goes wrong except the one bit they didn't want to. They can't find a black goat, so a cockerel is dirtied up as a poor substitute. The altar is so stoned she has to be helped off set - her reluctant replacement has every reason to feel nervous. At least the cast look good prancing around starkers, and Bannerman's improvised black magic ritual is a sight more successful than anything the professionals have managed to date .... |
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Post by dem on Nov 2, 2012 22:09:10 GMT
Just received this from Mr. Sutton. Discounts, news of a New Writings In Horror Omnibus, an anthology and three tasty new collections in the offing - what more can you ask for?SHADOW PUBLISHING NEWS Special Offers for the Christmas season: Shadow Publishing is offering discounts on its titles for the Christmas season. Phantoms of Venice is discounted from £20.00 to £15.99. The Satyr's Head: Tales of Terror, normal price£5.99 is now £4.50. The Female of the Species And Other Terror Tales by Richard Davis is down from £7.99 to £6.50, as is Frightfully Cosy And Mild Stories For Nervous Types by Johnny Mains. The offers end 31st December 2012, but order soon to ensure delivery before Christmas. Postage extra. Go to the website and click on the Special Offers page and order using PayPal. These offers are also available if you wish to pay by cheque in the UK. Contact me for further details. Titles forthcoming: In the Spring 2013 Shadow Publishing will be issuing Horror! Under The Tombstone, a reprint in one volume of the long out of print New Writings in Horror and the Supernatural: volumes 1 & 2 (Sphere, 1971/1972). Stories by Ramsey Campbell, Robert Holdstock, David A. Riley, Kenneth Bulmer, E. C. Tubb and Rosemary Timperley feature in this blast from the past. Plans are underway for the unveiling details of the first of my The Shadow Book of Horror anthologies. Publication details and writers' guidelines will be available hopefully by the New Year... Further down the line Shadow Publishing hopes to launch three new titles at the World Fantasycon in Brighton next year. Details will be forthcoming in a future Shadow Publishing News. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Regards, David.
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Post by dem on Mar 28, 2013 23:17:53 GMT
Seems unfair to spare these two having picked on all the others. On 1st and 2nd acquaintance, Phantasmagoria had a soporific effect and I'm not even sure if I ever completed it. Third time around, and it's not bad at all. Mr. Coney's contribution is, um, "well written" I should imagine, but could have lived without its sermonising nature to be honest.
W. T. Webb - Phantasmagoria: "Progress was a crazy Moloch, devouring all things for its own sake, and not for the good of humanity .... They formed a pair of misanthropic misfits in a heedless world of bingo, motorways, pop music and betting shops." Olaf Perrydown, a drop out, drug-addicted sculptor of the far-out, works from a squalid room atop a junk-shop on Drum Street, Blackhill. Tickner, a successful children's author, is his sole friend and confidant, the pair having met on a doomed protest march against the dreaded local "redevelopment." Olaf has since found another cause to embrace - the rescue of a dream girl abducted by Voskars, "little men with fox-faces and fur-backed hands," from the Seventh Dimension. Said dream girl supervised Olaf's latest misunderstood masterpiece, a 'Daganblok', which, she assures him, opens a portal between the dimensions. When Tickner next visits the flat he finds Olaf gone and a note pinned to the recent sculpture begging him to destroy it before more Voskars can creep through to our world. It's too late - the bastards are everywhere, demolishing the quaint old slums to erect more souless council estates, supermarkets, multi-story car-parks, etc.. When the police refuse to take him seriously, Tickner resorts to drastic measures.
Michael G. Coney - The Hollow Where: Marriage to Robert has worn Janet to a drudge with a twenty-four hour hoovering obsession. Her glamorous sister, Marion, is more his type, but she's married to his brother, Ed. The couples are neighbouring farm-owners, no need to tell you who has made a success of their career. If this were an episode of Midsomer Murders they'd have already reached an ultimately lethal arrangement, Tom Barnaby would let Robert commit a grisly homicide or two before producing the cuffs, and we'd all have had our money's worth. Unfortunately, this is less of a story, more a string of clichés. "a bad workman blames his tools," "the grass is always greener on the other side", "circumstances have nothing to do with anything, it's all your fault" & Co. Robert learns life's harsh lesson, vows to pull his socks up, things will be different from now on ....
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Post by andydecker on Sept 16, 2018 10:44:26 GMT
Another of the abridged German versions in Pabel Publishing's Vampir Horror Paperback, which appeared monthly on the stands with its fixed length of 145 pages. This one is from October 1976. "Solo for a Cannibal"
No. 40 Of the 13 stories in the original remained 9. Missing are Davis, Mackleworth, Rome and Campbell. As usual no introductions made the cut. The only writers the audience would be maybe familiar with are Tubb and Bulmer, the rest would have been blanks. Like all of these translations I doubt a better editorial guidance would have made a difference. The typical reader wasn't into backgrounds and information. Young me also doubtless would have skipped the intros or just read Tubb and Bulmer, whose SF I liked. Having no recollection at all about the content and re-reading this I was kind of surprised how many stories bordered on parody. I know, personal taste and all, but I thought Tubb's film crew in peril a very broad if amusing satire until the groan-worthy punchline. The same could be said for Bulmer's EC homage, which I thought especially unoriginal. Also, Campton's The Goat would have benefitted from a bit more seriousness. Smith's Inglorious Rise just missed a score by Sondheim and Tim Burton at the helm. The only stories with a bit of an edge were David Riley with The Farmhouse, Brian Fortey with Prison and Julia Birley with the People down below. All are timeless and could have been written just today. Especially Birley impressed me. Sadly, I don't know the original; Maybe the rest of the stories made a better balance then this selection. They titled this Solo for a Cannibal, no doubt inspired by the as usual uncredited cover. I have seen this, but can't remember who the artist was. |
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Post by dem on Sept 16, 2018 15:30:07 GMT
Sadly, I don't know the original; Maybe the rest of the stories made a better balance then this selection. They titled this Solo for a Cannibal, no doubt inspired by the as usual uncredited cover. I have seen this, but can't remember who the artist was. Shadow Publishing reissued New Writings .... Vols 1 & 2 in an Omnibus edition as Horror! Under The Tombstones (2013). That cover painting is driving me crazy. Am sure I've seen it used on front of a magazine, but have checked the usual suspects and no joy as yet. |
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