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Post by dem bones on Nov 26, 2007 15:58:57 GMT
Linda Lovecraft [Michel Parry] (ed.) - More Devil's Kisses (Corgi, 1977) Introduction - Linda Lovecraft
Mary E. Counselman - Something Old
Maurice Level - The Last Kiss
H. R. Wakefield - Monstrous Regiment
May Sinclair - The Nature of the Evidence
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Fly-by-Night
Jerome Bixby - The Best Lover In Hell
Erika Johansson - Some Like It Cold
Angela Carter - Master
Ramsey Campbell - Loveman's Comeback
Joseph F. Pumilia - Toad
Steven Utley - Sidhe
David Drake - Smokie Joe
Chris Miller - The Magic Show The series came to an abrupt end when Scotland Yard seized copies of the second book, and Corgi were threatened with prosecution under the Obscene publications act. Charles L. Grant argues it was due to the inclusion of the story Smokie Joe by David Drake, but, as Michel himself confirmed, it was a spectacularly tasteless effort by Chris Miller concerning some fairly rum goings-on at a children's party that caused the trouble. "On the question of which story got DEVIL'S KISSES 2 withdrawn, it was definitely Chris Miller's story, Magic Show. A story which first appeared in the satirical magazine, The National Lampoon.
You won't be surprised to hear that Chris Miller was one of the writers of National Lampoon's Animal House, the film that launched a thousand toga parties..." The story drew quite some response on the old board ( HERE) - as did the collection as a whole. Maurice Level - The Last Kiss: A husband, blinded and hideously deformed when his wife through vitriol in his face after he threatened to leave her, intervenes on her behalf when the case comes to court, preventing her from receiving a long jail sentence. At his request she pays him an emotional visit in which she begs his forgiveness and somehow even manages to kiss him, whereupon ... Well, not for nothing is Level feted as a master practitioner of the conte cruel. Jerome Bixby - The Best Lover In Hell: Jim Maddock, sinner, seducer, adulterer and all round fornicator, encounters the Devil in the SW corner of Gehenna. "The lava had burned most of the skin off his torso - raw patches of flesh showed - his lips were cracked, his hair was gone, and his earlobes were crackly black husks. But he laughed." Jim offers the Devil a challenge, namely to prove which of them is the better lover. Jim has a lot of fun - with Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Madame Bovary & co. - in coming off second best and earns himself the coveted position of special honorary demon who must guard the corridor wherein lie these beauties for all eternity. And "satisfy utterly their every demand". Angela Carter - Master: "...had first exercised a propensity for savagery in the acrid lavatories of a minor English Public School where he used to press the heads of the new boys into the ceramic bowl and then pull the flush upon them to drown their gurgling protests. After puberty, he turned his indefinable but exacerbated rage upon the pale, flinching bodies of young women whose flesh he lacerated with his teeth, fingernails and sometimes his leather belt in the beds of cheap hotels near London's great rail terminus. It is in Africa he meets his match in the form of a native girl he buys and systematically brutalises. Syphilitic and insane, he leaves a trail of innumerable jaguar corpses across the continent until she, by now quite as degenerate as her master, metamorphosis's into a jaguar-woman .... R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Fly-By-Night: Tobias the cat is forever leaving presents on the carpet for owners Newton Hatfield and his daughter Celia. One evening they return home to find an odd creature, 'pretty', fanged and leathery of wing which Celia adopts although Newton is far from keen. The Fly-by-night feeds on extreme human emotion of the darkest hue, and when Newton comes close to murdering his daughter in an argument, he realises it's time to destroy it. Problem is, the creature has grown considerably by now and he's also gotten around to ravishing Celia. Joseph F. Pumilia - Toad: An ugly teenager, despised by his contemporaries, Toad is so called because of his facial resemblance to that warty creature. So how comes he's so popular with the women teachers? Erika Johansson - Some Like It Cold: Bo Rosenkwist wants to be the first man to have sex at the North Pole and persuades Barbro, a trainee gym instructor, to partner him. Barbro frets about the Ice Giants "said to keep up their numbers by taking over the bodies of travellers frozen in the snow", but Bo has too much on his mind to pay her any heed. On their first night at the Pole, Barbro wanders naked from their tent and Bo has his first and last encounter with frosty the snowman and his mates. Chris Miller - The Magic Show: Mrs. Levine hires a magic show for son Ira's seventh birthday party. While the parents congratulate her on such a marvellous idea, Dr. Fun and Mr. Frog organise a drug fuelled, infant orgy next door. Just when you think it can't get any worse, a pony is introduced into the proceedings ...
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Post by andydecker on Jan 8, 2011 13:03:59 GMT
Michael Parry Zehn Teufelsküsse Pabel 1978, Zehn Teufelsküsse - More Devil´s Kisses (german new title: Ten Devil´s Kisses) Vampir Horror Taschenbuch 68 Found this on Ebay. Back in the day I seldom bought the collections, but upon seeing this I realized that this is the german edition of the infamous "Linda Lovecraft", published like the first a few numbers earlier. The shrunken content is: Mary E. Counselman - Etwas Altes (Something Old)
Maurice Level - Der letzte Kuß (The Last Kiss)
H. R. Wakefield - Connie (Monstrous Regiment)
May Sinclair - Die Natur des Beweises (The Nature of the Evidence)
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Nachtflieger (The Fly-by-Night)
Jerome Bixby - Der beste Liebhaber der Hölle (The Best Lover In Hell)
Erika Johansson - Manche mögens kalt (Some Like It Cold)
Angela Carter - Master (Master)
Ramsey Campbell - Die Rückkehr des Liebesmannes (Loveman's Comeback)
Steven Utley - Sidhe (Sidhe)Gone are the forword and the more offensive stories, including the one which caused the scandal (?). Also gone every mention of the little word erotic on the cover or back-Cover and the more than suggestive name Linda Lovecraft  (which today sounds a little bit corny, doesn´t it?) I kind of hoped that the Drake and Miller stories were included, but of course they were not. Still, I think the cover is better than the original. |
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Post by dem bones on Jan 8, 2011 15:07:07 GMT
Given that the German censors are so strict, am surprised Loveman's Comeback didn't go the way of the David Drake and Chris Miller stories as it would be shocking enough for most anthologies. Have you had a translation of Ramsey's Scared Stiff: Tales of Sex and Death collection over there or is that a silly question? Incidentally, the cover painting is by Les Edwards and it was originally used for Michel's 5th Mayflower Book Of Black Magic Stories. |
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Post by andydecker on Jan 8, 2011 17:53:05 GMT
Given that the German censors are so strict, i'm surprised Loveman's Comeback didn't go the way of the David Drake and Chris Miller stories as it would be shocking enough for most anthologies. This was more a thing of self-censorship as the editors were always aware at the time that the social youthservices who monitored such things could pull the plug through the backdoor. Pabel already had to cancel a successful pulp series because of a run-in with the rating board. (Censorship is complicated here in Germany, the catchword nowadays is if "the material in question is a risk of developmental impairment concerning the gloryfication of violence". There is no state censorship, but if something is deemed harmful to minors - by a state board - and put on the index, this means a restricted distribution is enforced. Basically this means you can only sell it under the counter. Which for a mass-media publisher is of course the death of the object. Imagine The Sun only sold in a Sex-Shop., where under age customers are prohibited. Back in the 60s reading unpurged Mickey Spillane was thought harmful to minors for instance, today the battlefields are violent movies and PC Games. And of course the evil Internet. Just a few weeks ago the government wanted to enforce a new Youthmedia-law which - more or less - would have forced everyone (!) with a webpage to mark their work with a youth-rating like for movies or to restrict access to the time between 22.00 hours and 0600 hours. A terrible sloppy made, idiotic law which only got stopped because of a technicality and not because it was rubbish. Nothing is more subjective then todays movie-ratings, the version of Terminator which is broadcast in say, France, with a PG rating is rated 18 in Germany. (And still cut). The same politicians who want to censor the Net wanted to declare all PC-Ego-Shooters illegal and also outlaw Paintball-Shooting after some nut went on a killing spree like in the US and shot a lot of people.) But back to 1978; if they really omitted those two stories for reasons of taste or caution is just a guess; as the length of those particular paperback series was strictly limited to 160 pages they had to cut something out. Of course it is possible that Mr Parry informed foreign publishers about his problems with this particular anthology, but I think it is more realistic that they cut those out for length or the editor read them for once this time - I knew editors who who more or less threw the dice when it got to the content of anthologies and only read the stories after translating when they edited it, and sometimes never read them at all when editing was done out of house. But the idea that they ditched the Linda Lovecraft name for obvious reasons has merit, I think. This could have got unwarrented attentions nobody wanted, and at the time sales were already going down, a year later the series was cancelled. Now Ramsay Campbell, that is a good question. He never seemed to catch on in Germany, and at the time of Scared Stiff I fear no editor would have bought his stuff. But a few years later the first Hot Blood were published. and not enough people bought them. Sometimes even sex doesn´t sell  |
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Post by dem bones on Jan 8, 2011 21:57:30 GMT
There's some more about this collection - and a great quote from Pulp Mania! - on the 'Linda Lovecraft' - The Devil's Kisses thread and, regardless of what Charles L. Grant had to say about Smokie Joe, it's clear that the Chris Miller story was the cause of the ban in the UK. I can't believe Michel would have tipped off the German publishers - he seems to have been intent on publishing as many taboo-busting, trouble making anthologies as humanely possible at the time - so either news crossed the channel or - horror of horrors - the editors actually read this one! I still find the 'Linda Lovecraft' pseudonym inspired and loved Michel's idea of hiring an actress to play her on promo tours. Incidentally, it's unlikely that May Sinclair's story sent the Vice Squad into a frenzy, but if you've not read it, The Nature Of The Evidence is an absolute treat. Hot Blood was published in Germany?!!! Was it uncut? very interesting post that, andy.  |
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Post by dem bones on Sept 21, 2015 5:49:36 GMT
Steven Utley - Sidhe: "It's kind of like a succubus ... capable of assuming human form. But it's meaner.". Harry Beckett, magazine illustrator and womaniser, is sent a wax doll by his furious ex, Sheila McCullough, an ardant feminist and self-styled Sorceress. What the effigy lacks by way of eyes and hands, it more than makes up for in the genital department, even if she's bitten deep into the over-sized member. Sheila informs him that she's sicced the Sidhe on mankind, so he'd best enjoy his pleasures while he can. Harry, unimpressed, picks up a beautiful woman at a trendy pub. Virginia Dentata explains she's an actress (credits include Shriek Of The Demon, The Swinging Newlyweds, and The Flying Hookers), and eagerly accompanies Harry back to his place to show what she can do ...
David Drake - Smokie Joe: To get Tullio's boys off his back, Big Tom Mullens, gangster, turns to black magic, enlisting the diabolical services of Smokie Joe and his corpse-like hoods, Nick and Angelo. As ever with these Satanic pacts, there's a dreadful price to pay, the least of which is relinquishing control of his criminal empire to these nasty new guys. But it's Tom's son, Danny, gets the first dose of hell on earth when he catches a truly abominable STD.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Sept 25, 2015 12:53:56 GMT
Funnily enough, I've only just spotted the question about a German Scared Stiff. It was published in a limited edition as Steif vor Angst in 2002 by Edition Phantasia.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 25, 2015 17:41:47 GMT
Funnily enough, I've only just spotted the question about a German Scared Stiff. It was published in a limited edition as Steif vor Angst in 2002 by Edition Phantasia. Uncut? |
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Post by andydecker on Sept 26, 2015 18:52:37 GMT
Funnily enough, I've only just spotted the question about a German Scared Stiff. It was published in a limited edition as Steif vor Angst in 2002 by Edition Phantasia. Uncut? Yes. Edition Phantasia is a smallpress publisher and this was one of those expensive limited edition things. This will be faithfully translated and unabriged. |
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Post by dem bones on Sept 29, 2015 7:32:58 GMT
Thanks for that, Andreas. And speaking of which:
Ramsey Campbell - Loveman's Comeback: Proper creepy! It wasn't by chance that Loveman took a property on a private road overlooking a cemetery. A powerful black magician, he lured his women by making dolls in their image and burying them. In the case of our heroine, she'd have come to him willingly. But now - unless her memory is completely shot through drug abuse - Loveman is dead, killed outright in a road accident. So why is she convinced that it was him brutally raped her in the graveyard shed? Final revelation still freaks me. Can't help but wonder if, had it not been for the attention-hogging The Magic Show, Loveman's Comeback may have attained a similar notoriety to The Loved Dead.
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Post by pateris on Aug 9, 2016 11:50:20 GMT
Hot Blood was published in Germany?!!! Was it uncut? And in France too, uncut AFAIK ! |
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Post by andydecker on Feb 4, 2021 22:45:42 GMT
I had to read the original for a project, like a lot of other Parry anthologies.
Some great stories, some not so great. A few have aged horribly bad. The usual. Does it deserve its reputation? Not really.
While the Linda Lovecraft pseudonym was funny and inspired, the introduction and its relentless "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" tone grated on my nerves fast.
Mary E. Counselman - Something Old
An okay story, a bit long for its plot. And the happy end seemed a bit forced.
Maurice Level - The Last Kiss
This was great. As I read the book about the Grand Guignol I recognized the name, and considering how old this is, it is still a great horror story.
H. R. Wakefield - Monstrous Regiment
One of the best stories of the anthology. It impressed me especially, because Wakefield is thought primarily as a writer of traditional ghost stories. Of course he wrote this late in life, if I understood this correctly, and it has a ghost - or maybe it only exists in the protagonists mind -, but as a story of sexual abuse this was chilling. At times it read like a bitter parody of traditional Victorian ghost stories.
May Sinclair - The Nature of the Evidence
This on the other hand irked me. For all her feminist tropes and at the time of writing "risque" elements the rigid and conservative moral she subtly - or not so subtly in the case of Where the fire is not quenched - establishes undermines the rest.
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Fly-by-Night
I thought it okay but not great.
Jerome Bixby - The Best Lover In Hell
This was tiresome nonsense. Neither horror nor erotic, and the writer's idea of historys most "desirable" and "sinful" woman was pretentious and idiotic. Marie-Antoinette and Madame Bovary? What the f***k?
Erika Johansson - Some Like It Cold
Another mediocre one. An amusing title and begining, but the rest did nothing for me. I couldn't find anything about the writer. As it was apparently comissioned for the book, maybe this was a pseudonym or a one-off.
Angela Carter - Master
Far divorced from you usual weird tale in style and writing, and I guess its topics and politics could fill a classroom worth of feminist papers. But its elements have become its own clichés in the post-Gaiman urban fantasy.
Ramsey Campbell - Loveman's Comeback
Absolutly horrifying and depressing tale. I didn't see the end coming, and it was a kick in the nuts. If you think it can get no worse, Ramsey shows the opposite.
Joseph F. Pumilia - Toad
Nice one.
Steven Utley - Sidhe
Middle-of-the-road. Nice ECish and competently written.
David Drake - Smokie Joe
I liked parts of it, but at times it read more like a plot synopsis for a novel than a well constructed short story. Also thought the doubtless gross ending a bit tucked on.
Chris Miller - The Magic Show
I guess today no editor would touch that with a stick. Kind of unbelievable that this was originally sold in a newsstand magazine. Without any problems. I never read an issue of National Lampoon. Must have been a hell of a magazine. On the other hand I remember certain Hustler cartoons which were equally tasteless and, well, funny in a sick kind of way. You laugh, you are emberrassed about yourself. Miller must have had brass balls to write this and his editors to publish it.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 5, 2021 20:26:28 GMT
I'm fond of The Nature of the Evidence, but agree that Loveman's Comeback and The Last Kiss are .... special (can't remember Monstrous Regiment!). Didn't think much of Fly-by-Night. The Magic Show really is once read, never forgotten. As with the first book, I wonder at the inclusion of certain stories, some of which strike me as plain dull. Would have liked the series to have lasted longer. Jeff Gelb - or his publisher - used to make a big deal out of Hot Blood being "the worlds first erotic horror series" or some such nonsense, but our late friend Michel beat them to it by over a decade.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Feb 6, 2021 9:29:10 GMT
The Fly-By-Night finishes The Monster Club and is not the story to do it. Hardened (perhaps not the right term to use on this thread) RCH fan that I am I can't remember much about it.
Didn't the Chris Miller story actually cause controversy sufficient that the volume was withdrawn? And possibly reprinted without that story? For some reason I have in my head that this edition is a bit of a Holy Grail amongst pulp paperback collectors for that reason. I think Ramsey Campbell might know the story behind this one.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 6, 2021 10:47:33 GMT
The Fly-By-Night finishes The Monster Club and is not the story to do it. Hardened (perhaps not the right term to use on this thread) RCH fan that I am I can't remember much about it. Didn't the Chris Miller story actually cause controversy sufficient that the volume was withdrawn? And possibly reprinted without that story? For some reason I have in my head that this edition is a bit of a Holy Grail amongst pulp paperback collectors for that reason. I think Ramsey Campbell might know the story behind this one. Hello your worship! I'm sure there's more about this on another thread, but in meantime here's Mike Ashley's take. Considering how many contributors to this board have copies, I think it's more than a 'few' survive. Evidently those tasked with 'destroying' the books made a commendably half-hearted job of it. |
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(which today sounds a little bit corny, doesn´t it?)
