Severed Head Cases

[dem bones]

Severed Head Cases

Morbid much! Andy Decker's recent Thole post on the Covers You Love thread inspired this one. There must have been a hundred horror novels adorned with grisly images of severed head cases down the years. Here are some favourites, starting with this all time classic from Star which, at time of publication, was advertised across the London underground.

When Justin posted the following, he noted that it was completely inappropriate for a collection as mild as Tales Of The Frightened. He wasn't wrong!

next, Les Edwards's nice his and hers gruesome twosome for Panther's Carl Jacobi reissues.

Laymon's snuff flick novel is shocking enough on it's on terms but no harm in having the cover warn you what you're in for.

Pan were partial to decapitating the occasional model for their art. Doesn't seem like much now, but this cover so creeped me out when i was little, i almost didn't buy it.

[andydecker]

I couldn´t find another horror. Hmm

But here is a Wheatley

The Slade is still a classic ;D

[dem bones]

The Wheatley's pretty gross! which reminds me:

Alexandre Dumas - Horror At Fontenay (Sphere, 1975)

Peter Haining (ed.) - Weird Tales (Sphere, 1978)

Les Edwards

Richard Laymon - Beware (NEL, 1985)

[dem bones]

Further to Mr. Ager's enquiry of yesterday, time to update this long-forgotten thread with further examples of the artform. (couldn't add Matt's suggestion of The Fog as don't have a copy of that edition, so if anyone would care to oblige .....)

August Derleth (ed.) - The Night Side(4-Square 1966; originally Rinehart, 1947)

Josh Kirby

Details, commentary of sorts, etc.

William Harrison Ainsworth - The Elixir Of Life: Auriel (NEL, May 1975)

Josh Kirby

Blurb.
In a dingy backstreet a master of the occult sciences discovers the liquid of man’s dreams – the elixir of life.
For years the old man and his faithful dwarf servant have strived for this moment, but in their hour of triumph the precious phial with its golden contents is snatched from them.
For Auriol Darcy learns of the incredible discovery. Eagerly draining the potion, he is propelled into a series of horrifying adventures which make this novel a spell‑binding masterpiece of Gothic mystery.
But there is one peril against which the elixir is powerless – and man’s eternal dream becomes his greatest nightmare.

Peter Haining (ed.) - The Craft Of Terror (MEWS, 1976)

Tony Masero

Introduction – Peter Haining

Matthew Lewis – The Monk
Horace Walpole – The Castle Of Otranto
Clara Reeve – The Old English Baron
William Beckford – Vathek
William Godwin – Caleb Williams
Charles Brockden Brown – Wieland, or The Transformation
Charles Maturin – Melmoth The Wanderer
Mary Shelley – The Last Man
Edward Bulwer Lytton – The Cult Of Zanoni
Thomas Prest – The Feast Of blood
Eugene Sue – The Mysteries Of Paris
J. S. Le Fanu – The House By The Churchyard
William Harrison Ainsworth – The Elixir Of Life
Edgar Allan Poe – Metzengerstein

Bibliography

Blurb:
Haunted Castles and beautiful, terrified girls
Ghosts, demons, phantoms and The Devil himself
Evil, debauched monks and villainous noblemen
All these ar the ingredients which made the Gothic Horror Stories an overnight sensation and the foundation of a literary genre which flourishes to this day.

From their creation in the Eighteenth Century by such masters of the macabre as Matthew Lewis, Charles Maturin, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe, these stories have influenced all subsequent writers in the field of fantasy and horror.
In this unique collection, Peter Haining has brought together some of the very best of these stories providing, in effect, a basic reader for all who enjoy tales of terror.

Watch out for more horror titles in -this series.

Anne Billson - Dream Demon (Nel, 1989)

Blurb
She dug her fingernail into the face.
As she ran it down the crack, a flake of porcelain came away, then another. Now, like peeling a hard boiled egg, she had laid bare half the cheek. Inside, the greyish-white stuff was soft. She snatched her finger away as something pulsed and moved. A fat, glistening maggot poked blindly out, wriggled and fell onto the carpet.
Revolted, she stamped on it, smearing it into the pile.
The doll's eyes stared up at her, blank and malevolent....

[jamesdoig]

Oct 17, 2013 6:16:09 GMT dem bones said:

Further to Mr. Ager's enquiry of yesterday, time to update this long-forgotten thread with further examples of the artform.

I'm quite fond of this one:

[dem bones]

Moody at his tasteful best (see also Fourth Black Book of Horror)

Paul Mudie

details, commentary, cover stars named & shamed, etc

Peter Tremayne - Angelus! (Sphere, 1985)

[erebus]

Isn't there a severed head on Tremayne's SWAMP too.

[droogie]

Yes; the head is impaled on a stick. It was painted by Les Edwards. Also, the 1st NEL paperback of Night Show has a severed head in a paper bag (same artist as Out Are the Lights & Beware : Steve Crisp); he also painted Angelus as pictured in this thread.

[dem bones]

An impossibly lurid example of the form from June 1939. Writing in The Classic Era of the American Pulp Magazines, Peter Haining credits this one to Rudolph Belarski. The superb Tellers of Weird Tales argue Earle Bergey.