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Post by andydecker on Dec 28, 2009 12:34:31 GMT
Jon Hanlon (ed.) - Death's Loving Arms and Other Terror Tales (Corinth Publications, 1966, 159 p.) The Special from the Horror Grill, Vampir Horror Paperback 30, 1976 Here is the German edition from 1976. Content: G.T.Fleming-Roberts - Blood Magic Hugh B. Cave - Death´s Loving Arms Wyatt Blassingame - Village of Dead Freederick C. Painton - Vampire MeatThis is copyrighted by a Corinth Publication in 1966. I don´t know if this is a british or an american anthology or if it is abridged. I couldn´t find it on the Vault, but maybe I didn´t look hard enough. I guess these are pre-war tales, maybe some magazine reprints? There are no infos about the writers or the original publication dates. The german title is one of those supposed "funny" titles, you know, horror with a wink, nothing to see, dear mr. censor, all in good fun. At least it has a nice cover. Havn´t read one of the stories, as I got this last week.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 28, 2009 16:44:19 GMT
Not sure about Vampire Meat but the rest are from the notorious 'sex & sadism' or 'shudder pulp' Terror Tales, the Fleming-Roberts from the Sept. 1934 issue, the Cave and Blassingame from October 1934. Can't vouch for these particular stories, but usually, your average Terror Tales - Horror Stories - Spicy Mystery - Marvel Tales - Uncanny Tales novella involves a bride being kidnapped on her wedding night and subjected to all sorts of degradation by a bunch of perverted circus freaks or festering old gits - they're a Paperback Fanatic article in waiting! From the stories I've read, the high watermark/ absolute nadir (depending on your point of view) is Russell Gray's entirely pointless exercise in torture porn, Fresh Fiance's For The Devil's Daughter, from Marvel Tales, May 1940: even some shudder pulp aficionado's pale at that one. In my head, these depression era authors were the precursors of Guy N. Smith; Weird tales amped up with loads of sex, entirely gratuitous flagellation and very violent violence. yeah, you bet I'm a fan - and don't get onto John Newton Howett's cover artwork for the magazines or we'll be here all day. and, if I read you right, this stuff was translated into German? Brilliant find, andy.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 29, 2009 10:00:57 GMT
Now everything starts to make sense. Started reading this yesterday, and it is indeed pure "shudder pulp". Will cover those four tales, as the Cave is a lot of pulpish fun. It is a shame that the german editors of the time couldn´t be arsed to write a few sentences about the content. But back then this kind of information was hard to come by and at least the Pabel/Moewig guys were more traffic managers than scholars of fantastic literature. I don´t know who was the editor of the Vampir line at the the time, but they published 8 weeklys and 2 paperbacks every month. And frankly, in this particular market it wouldn´t have interested anybody anyway, so why bother? I have Grey on my hard-drive. It is way ahead of its time Unbelievable stuff.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 29, 2009 10:53:33 GMT
Fresh Fiance's For The Devil's Daughter's was reprinted in Tom Mason's Spicy Horror Stories (Malibu, 1990), along with seven improbably titled gems from the frankly terrifying Uncanny Tales & Co. Having heard so much about it (even the normally unflappable Robert Knox admits it's "repugnant"), I was prepared for the worst.... or thought I was. Have read a little more of Fischer/ "Gray"s work since, but nothing has topped Fresh Fiances .... Utter mindless sadism at its finest. Have come to like Rob Davis's cover art for the Malibu book, but it can't really live with the originals. Pretty sure this one - from the July 1939 issue - is by the bloody hand of Howett.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 29, 2009 19:33:03 GMT
A little more info. Vampire Meat was first published in the third and final issue of something called Dr. Death (April 1935). Also, there was a US edition of Death's Loving Arms, published by Corinth-Regency in 1966 which includes a fifth story, Frances Bragg Middleton's From Out Of The Shadows. Corinth published at least one companion volume, Hanlon's The House Of Living Death & Other Terror Tales. Curt reviews both on Groovy Age Of Horror. Choice artwork! Death's Loving Arms. House Of Living Death.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 30, 2009 12:13:20 GMT
re-read Gray´s Fresh Fiance's For The Devil's Daughter's after finding it on my hard drive somewhere. I had forgotten how violent this is. Hard to believe that this found it´s way into print. Of course the setting in the world of publishers and literary agents is hilarious. Would have made a good episode of Master´s of Horror ;D I did a little research of Gray/Fischer. Seemingly a fascinating man. Running as a socialist for New York state senate, must have been a tough guy. For those who are interested www.allanguthrie.co.uk/pages/noir_zine/profiles/bruno_fischer.php, this is a good overview about his life and his many crime novels. Great cover, dem, the one you posted. I am always intrigued how misogynistic and full of sex those torture covers where in an era where you couldn´t show two married people together in one bed in movies.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 30, 2009 13:40:13 GMT
thanks for the link, Andy. This is Bruno Fischer quoted in Ron Goulart's An Informal History of the Pulp Magazines (Ace, Sept. 1973) In the spring of 1936 I was editor of The Socialist Call, the official weekly of the Socialist Party. I'd got married two years before ... and the way radical publications paid in those days of depression our primary income came from my wife's job. One afternoon while brooding in a bar (rye - two drinks for a quarter) with one of my editors over how to make a living while editing, he mentioned that for a while he had written pulp stories. I'd never read one, but on the way home, rather high, I bought a number. Several were what the trade called horror-terror magazines. It seemed to me that they would be most up my alley since they required style and mood and atmosphere, and I was nothing if not a competent writer. I spent the week writing a Poe-type short of 6,000 words and sent it out to Popular Publications, which was the leading house for that kind of magazine. A couple of weeks later I got my first letter from Rogers Terrill with a check for sixty dollars. In those days that was quite a sum. I then wrote a 10,000-word novelette and got a check for $125 — a raise to one-and-a-half cents a word. By the end of the year I had earned $2,000 on horror-terror shorts. I quit my job and it was almost twenty-five years before I did anything but write free-lance. I am always intrigued how misogynistic and full of sex those torture covers where in an era where you couldn´t show two married people together in one bed in movies. I've another Tom Mason anthology, Spicy Western Stories, compiled from the magazine of the same name. The stories are tame and not particularly interesting, but the contemporary artwork is still the same; big-titted young women in the direst circumstances. There's often a branding-iron involved. It does kind of make you wonder at the mentality of the guys who got off on looking at that sick stuff. Will scan some examples later, if i get a few minutes.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 30, 2009 18:37:02 GMT
Uncredited interior images from Spicy Western Stories (1936-42), "Classic tales of A Wild West where Men are Men and Women are nothin' but scantily clad trouble!" I understand the magazine was run in two versions, censored and uncensored. According to the back cover blurb on Mason's book, the eight he reprints are uncensored, but they're incredibly restrained when held against their often barbaric horror counterparts. There's a gorgeous cover gallery at the indispensable Galactic Central"Never again would she be able to wear an evening gown after that branding"- Edwin Truett's The Moving Finger "He didn't know which hit him first - the bucket of paint, or the luscious armful of girl" - Laurence Donovan, The Bull Had Blue Horns "She screamed, scratched and slapped, but she was no match for his surprise attack" - E. Hoffman-Price, Forbidden Food
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Post by andydecker on Jan 13, 2010 15:51:31 GMT
As I couldn´t resist I had to order some Bruno Fischer/Russel Gray This was delivered today. Gryphon Books, 1992 This is a collection of six stories, which according to editor Gary Lovisi were never published before. Fischer wrote them in the 1930s and sold them, but the magazines went under before publication. The titles are: A Mate for Murder The Poisened Well Opium at Retail Instruction for Murder Satan Calls His Slaves A Surplus of Gray Matter I guess nothing will top Fresh Fiances, but one can hope. Sadly there are no original illustrations or covers included
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Post by severance on Jan 13, 2010 16:40:48 GMT
I've got several of the 'Gold Medal' thrillers Fischer turned to in the fifties - here are a sample:
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Post by dem bones on Jan 13, 2010 17:14:49 GMT
How do they shape up, Sev. Did he still have his nasty streak? Andy, does Gary Lovisi mention which magazines they were intended for? Have only four of his shudder pulp novellas and, of course, the mistake I made was reading Fresh Fiance's For The Devil's Daughter first and expecting it every time. Gargoyles Of Madness, reprinted in one of Rob Weinberg's excellent pulp classic booklets, Revelry In Hell, is a decent sex & sadism shocker - I really must write up some notes - but even there it's overshadowed by the Donald Graham story that gives the booklet its title and is at least comparable to Fresh Fiances ... in terms of slobbering perversion and pain for pain's sake. There were (sporadic ?) UK editions of Horror Stories, Terror Tales and Dime Mystery. Have no idea when they were published, but the contents seem to correspond with the US originals from the late 'thirties/ early forties. The Dime Mystery contains Gray's The House Of The Rat which completely underwhelmed me the one time I read it, most likely because it's a straight crime caper, when all I wanted was Fresh Fiances ..., etc. I really should re-read him with my blinkers off. * andy, would you object if we shift this thread into the Fantastic Pulps section? *
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Post by andydecker on Jan 14, 2010 12:49:02 GMT
Here is the breakdown on those six tales. Lovisi didn´t specify which magazines they were written for, only that for one Fischer used the pseudonym of Adam Train and two are Russel Gray. The stories are very different in genre and tone. The only thing present in all is Fischer´s seemingly fondness for nutty names. A Mate for Murder: Private Detective Molly Pepper goes undercover to college to solve why young Jean Morgan killed herself. The trail leeds to a slimy rat named Virgil Clay who runs a vicious marihuana racket in Hope City. Besides selling reefers in an apartment he makes photos when the disinhibited kids doing unspeakable things to blackmail their families. But Molly is discovered and forced to smoke the poison, and when she awakes in a dark ally she has a corpse on her hands and the D.A. on her trail... I am in two minds about this story. As short as it is, it is quite suspenseful and well-plotted, the second half is like a Tarrantino stand-off among crooks. But the marihuana nonsense is so absolutely idiotic it is like fingernails scratching on a drawing board. Smoke a joint and you either strip nude and fuck the next best guy or kill him and forget about all. Yeah, right. The Poisoned Well:Well-read taxi-driver Tommy drives famous writer Kyle Montgomery, whose arrival in the small town is a sensation. What follows is a tale of fraud and two murders, which Tommy solves just because one read page convinces him that the writer is an impostor; the real Montgomery would never write such drivel ... Today you would call this story a cozy mystery. An okay story, having books as a theme as so often in Fischer´s work. Opium at Retail:Hard nosed cop Cosmo Britt has it really for drug smuggeling creep Socks Okey, especially when his society girlfriend Leta Duncan flirts with the gangster to make Cosmo jealous. But Cosmo always gets his man. And girl ... Priceless alone for the idiotic names. This is a spicy detective tale, with dames in various states of undress and ample breasts straining against web-like negligees. This is told in first person present tense, which you don´t see often. Absolutely dumb plot with a bizarre twist at the end. But Cosmo´s description of the dames never gets old Instruction for Murder:Stage writer McGee is in love with his much younger cute secretary Leona Diamond. Who marries brute Patterson. First person narrator Walt Bligh, a crime novelist, is there when Leona drops the bomb and calls poor McGee a sweet old thing. Patterson has to ask Bligh about the perfect murder, who just says that any woman can get away with murder. She just has to say the man attacked her and sticks to her story. A short time later Leona stabs hubby to death, and McGee pays for her defense. But Bligh knows this was murder ... Markedly different in tone than the other storys. This is more in the Cornell Woolrich vein, a somber tale where people get away with murder but it will destroy her lives. Satan Calls His Slaves:Slimy old man Jonas has the hots for a beautiful model which he sees on all billboards. So he makes a magic mirror out of glas and blood which he sends to models. It robs them of their free will. They come to his lair, where he lets them strip naked. But he never gets his dream-girl, always just look-alikes, as he doesn´t know her real name. So he puts the girls on his altar and slits her wrists, to collects their blood for more mirrors. Enter model Hagar Dawson, who is in love with ad-agency boss Keith Webb. She is in terror about her murdered colleagues. Then she has to nip the avances of fat old business man Hanley in the bud, who enraged promises her that she will "come crawling naked on your belly and beg me to take you". A while and another murder later Hagar gets a mirror in the mail. Jonas is selling old and repulsive rich man the blood mirrors so they can abuse young and otherwise unwilling woman. Of course Hagar crawls naked on her belly before Hanley, but she is Jonas´ dream girl and it gets ugly ... This was supposed to be a Gray story, and it delivers on all counts. Would have made a terrific B-movie. There is everything there: sex, sadism, nudity, true love and a convoluted plot with a lot of creepy scenes, when innocent girls climb aboard black limousines to serve the depraved lusts of rich old men. Unbelievable A Surplus of Gray Matter: Gambler Prof is broke, but fellow crook Harry Board owes him 100 fishes. But Board is hiding upstate from the police and working as a chauffeur for rich and beautiful Verona Moravia and her hubby. But Verona has a fling with writer Stanley Pomade, and Harry has made a few photos and plans a little blackmail. Prof is taking over the operation, but all went pear shaped when he discovers that Harry tricked him and Pomade is in reality Socks Portia, a con-man on the run form the feds. Hilarity ensues ... And another writing style. This is a slightly amusing con man tale. It is written like a Dan Turner mystery with a lot of slang and losers. Not Donald Westlake by far, still it has a few amusing lines and scenes. But you never would guess that this is the same writer of Satan or Fresh Fiances. Fischer´s talent for writing in all styles his amazing. On the whole this was an interesting read, even if the majority was crime and not shudder pulps. Now I am really looking forward to his novels House of Flesh and The Evil Days. What a find!
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Post by andydecker on Jan 14, 2010 12:53:22 GMT
@ Severance lovely covers. I especially like Second hand nude. You have to give it to Gold Medal. they knew how to make good titles. Titillation, scandal, misogyny and a lot of suggestion in just three words. Who would not want to read this novels?
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 14, 2010 16:13:41 GMT
Great ones to take to work. Make sure you are wearing pedantic spectacles and carrying a biro to make notes
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Post by dem bones on Jan 15, 2010 0:09:35 GMT
"What a find!" is right and thanks so much for such an informative and entertaining review. It takes a long time for the penny to drop with me and just as I was getting to think that 'Russell Gray" was the name he reserved exclusively for his 'sex & sadism' stuff, now I'm not so sure. Even if you'd not mentioned it, would have had Satan Calls His Slaves marked down as a Gray story, but which is the other one? A Mate for Murder, sounds like the only remotely likely candidate, so bet it isn't that one. Sev, can you shed any light on his Gold Medal novel The Lustful Ape (1959)? Am particularly interested because this seems to have been the only one published under 'Russell Gray". Dug out my mouldering Horror Stories and Terror Tales reprints (RIP, the Fantasy Center). Believe they were edited by Rogers Terrill. Horror StoriesFrances James - Valley Of Corpses Donald Dale - Tapestry Of Terror Wayne Rogers - The Devil's Ambassador Wyndham Brooks - The Last Horror W. Wayne Robbins - The Thing From Beyond Frances Bragg Middleton - Dead Voice Calling
The Editors - The Nightmare Dreamer: Meet Wyndham Brooks, Dreamer - and Writer - Of Nightmares!Terror TalesWayne Rogers - I Am A Frankenstein! Donald Dale - Bodies Born For Slaughter Raymond Whetstone - They Shall Feed At Midnight Ralston Shields - Vengeance Of The Living Dead E. G. Morris - Lost! Nathaniel Grew - School For Horror Mindret Lord - College Of CorpsesDime MysteryFrederick C Davis - Sculptor Of Flame Francis K. Allan - There's A Corpse In Your Future! Bruno Fischer - The Hour Of The Rat D. L. Champion - Morning, Noon - And Fright! W. E. Thiessen - Frozen Stiff Shad Collins - Mr. Blanding Builds His Death House John Bender - Nightmare Island Frederick Blakeslee - Adventures into The Unknown H. Frederick Young - Symbols Of SlaughterThe Horror Stories cover is a Howitt, continuing his Nick Cave-like reign of terror versus attractive young women who wear red dresses. Nice sewer, but this is very subdued by his standards. Where are the Guillotine, stocks and/ or cauldron of boiling oil? The issue in question is the same as the US August 1940, and, according to Galactic Central, dates from 1948. The Terror Tales is a straight reprint of the US Sept 1940 and the Dime Mystery replicates the US December 1948 issue, although Symbols Of Slaughter doesn't appear on the contents list, so possibly it replaces a letters column or editorial in the original?
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