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Post by dem bones on Jul 5, 2010 10:50:12 GMT
News from Justin's trash morgue bolt-hole, aka Fanatic HQJustin Marriott (ed.) - Paperback Fanatic #15 (July, 2010) Issue 15Is back from the printers and will be posted by Wednesday at the latest, so UK subscribers should have their new issue by next weekend. Overseas subscribers should allow 10 days for air-mail. Any problems, please do let me know. Two new one-off publications from The FanaticI plan to issue two specials, both of which will be printed strictly to demand so I require you to lodge your interest. This means I can work out if demand makes them financially viable, and then to work out a final price/format etc. Details of the planned publications are below, but if you are interested I need an e-mail from you for each publication. Respond to this mail and place either "NEL" or "Pennington" in the subject. Responses required by the end of July. If you want both, I require two separate mails. By responding you are not 100% committing to purchasing the publications, but you are saying "If the price is right, the content looks good and my finances haven't drastically changed by the time of publication, I have every intention of paying for one." As a ball park, I would expect both publications to be in the region of 90 pages, A5, perfect-bound (i.e. with a spine), 50% full colour, and costing in the region of £7 post-paid in the UK, and $15 international. (I'm hoping I can offer them cheaper, or include more colour for the same price- it all comes down to demand) Bruce Pennington SpecialGiant interview with the master fantasy artist, covering every aspect of his career The stories behind his iconic covers for Stranger in a Strange Land and Dune. Rare documents and photos supplied by the artist. A checklist of every single one of his paperback covers. At least 150 reproductions of his art and covers, with most in colour. The Visual Guide to New English LibraryA lavishly illustrated guide to the legendary publishing company. Key genres in the 1970s paperback industry are given a chapter each. Including - horror, science fiction, sleaze, historical adventure, crime, youth cults, slavers and the MEWS imprint. Each chapter contains an overview of the genre, notable titles and authors. Full checklists including pseudonyms and artists. At least 150 reproductions of covers, with many in colour. I appreciate your ongoing support. JustinThe new issue literally dropped through the door as i was formatting the above. Presented in a wraparound of Kane covers, this typically eclectic issue features an overview of Guy N. Smith's extracurricular horror work for Hamlyn, Arrow, Pitakus, Grafton & Co: an interview with Warren Murphy, co-editor of not very laid back mens adventure series The Destroyer: Rob Matthews on Fu Manchu in Pyramid (Stephen Sennitt devotes his now regular column to Rohmer) Holger Haase on The Baroness: Justin's overview of Karl E. Wagner's immortal acid goth sword & sorcery legend (who I never really got on with!); plus the usual lively exchange of information and opinion in the mighty Fanatic Thoughts. Seems to me #15 boasts the most color pages yet? back with you once I've had time to devour it.dem Thank you, Mr. Fanatic! [/center]
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Post by pulphack on Jul 7, 2010 20:19:52 GMT
Another excellent issue. Sennit sez is a welcome regular addition, and the continuing saga of Fu Manchu in us paperback has some great scans. The use of colour pages, well spaced, makes it look like it has more colour than there really is - mind you, the design is really clear these days, text well seperated (for those of us with eyes getting dodgy with age, this can only be good! too much Richard Allen and Timothy Lea, perhaps).
Karl Edward Wagner - sword and sorcery is lost on me, even moorcock and howard, but it has to be said the covers are great and the story of a writer in torment is always (sorry) a good read.
Big things about the issue for me were the Baroness and the Destroyer...
The Baroness feature is cracking, and following on from last issues' post-Modesty Blaise theme shows that there's a lot of great spyploitation to explore.
Best of all for me was the Warren Murphy interview. I grew up with the Corgi editions of both The Destroyer and the The Executioner, and although I still like mr Bolan, it has to be said that Remo and Chiun have more depth and a greater subtext. I make mr Murphy right when he says that if they weren't 'series' fiction but had been unnumbered and published like, say, Bond or Modesty Blaise, they would have been taken a whole lot more seriously. Fascinating interview and another example of Justin and his chaps getting the stuff of pop culture that other magazines miss.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 7, 2010 23:29:25 GMT
Karl Edward Wagner - sword and sorcery is lost on me, even moorcock and howard, but it has to be said the covers are great and the story of a writer in torment is always (sorry) a good read. actually, i'd really like to see a companion piece covering Wagner's horror stories and perhaps a retrospective on his career with contributions from authors, publishers and fans who came into his orbit (i'll bet there are plenty among the fanatical Fanatic readership and i can think of a few who've mentioned meeting KEW on this board). Another old school genre-hopping pulpster i've no hesitation in recommending for the Fanatic treatment is the late, great Sydney J. Bounds. Horror, SF, Romance, Westerns, Mysteries - Syd was quite happy to write for just about any market you care to mention. Perhaps you could persuade Steve Holland to write something based around this very lovely tribute on Bear Alley? Corgi, 1967 Back to #15. still have the Warren Murphy interview and Holger on The Baroness to tackle. Agree with pulphack that it's another devilishly fascinating issue. Because many of the paperback covers were loud enough to start with, the four-to-a-page full colour reproductions make for an outrageous assault on the eyes, almost psychedelic in impact. Even with the Sennett and severance material, i think there's still more life to be had from Sax Rohmer (didn't Corgi run a series of Fumanchu reprints in the 'sixties? anybody read his 'Gaston Max' novels?). If memory serves, the GNS round-up is part 2 of the interview/ retrospective from Pulpmania??! And the glue that holds it together is still the Fanatical Thoughts editorial-cum-letters page. There's just such a contagious enthusiasm about it.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 8, 2010 16:04:01 GMT
Got mine, and it´s great as always.
Fantastic interview with Murphy. Made me want to re-read one of the early Destroyers. I bought quite a few over the years, but can´t warm to the later ghosted ones. Too long and trying too hard. Hard to believe that he and Sapir never had a contract. Friends working together like that, Recipe for disaster, I can tell you. Read one of those Trace again some time ago. Normally I am not much for "funny" crime novels, but those are truly good and amusing.
The GNS-article was fun. Always good to know about content. seems I have some scarce titles in my collection. Have to re-read the later GNS books sometime, the Dell editions. I remember being disappointed when they first were published.
The KEW article was a nice introduction to Kane. Good idea about a follow up with the horror stories. dem, btw. Kane is fun, even if the novels were sometimes a bit long for my taste. Kane works better in short form, just like Howard´s stuff.
The article about The Baroness was also interesting. Seems I bought exactly the wrong ones. ;D Only read the first novel, which I didn´t like much.
The quality of the cover reproductions is so good. They seem to jump from the page. And I always marvel about the letter column, how lively it is.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 8, 2010 20:05:48 GMT
Kane is fun, even if the novels were sometimes a bit long for my taste. Kane works better in short form, just like Howard´s stuff. Not having read any of Wagner's novels i shouldn't really comment but my guess is that, like Howard and Hugh B. Cave, KEW's talent was perhaps best suited to those long-ish short stories so beloved of Weird Tales and the shudder pulps. After reading the PF article, i'm determined to give Kane another go, compare and contrast the stories with his - often decidedly far out - horrors. KEW's spectre lurks in many a dusky corner of Vault - 'The Curse Of Beyond', the moans about dark bloody fantasy, even Ghosts & Scholars - but here are some threads devoted to his fiction. Collections: In A Lonely Place (Warner, 1983) Why Not You And I? (Dark Harvest, 1987: Tor, 1987) Exorcisms and Ecstasies (Fedogan & Bremer, 1997) As editor: Years Best Horror (1980-94: KEW takes over editorship with Vol. VIII [Daw, 1980]) Intensive Scare: Scalpel-Edged Tales From Terror's Operating Room (DAW, 1990)
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Post by David A. Riley on Jul 9, 2010 5:28:35 GMT
I must disagree about Karl Wagner's Kane novels. To me they are the best novels of their type and I have read several of them more than once. In fact, I was only thinking recently about rereading them all again (and I rarely reread anything). I would place them at least on a level with the best of Robert E. Howard - and head and shoulders above everyone else in that particular genre, apart perhaps from Fritz Leiber. I am surprised anyone should think they're too long, but tastes vary. They're certainly a lot shorter than the unspeakable doorstoppers so many fantasy writers feel obliged to produce today and weren't parts of trilogies!
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Post by dem bones on Jul 9, 2010 20:16:56 GMT
i've never read or, as far as i'm aware, even seen a single copy of a Destroyer novel, not sure i ever heard of the authors until now, but IMO the Warren Murphy interview is far and away the highlight of a very strong issue. To make it worse, Andy Byers' review of Destroyer #38: Bay City Blast makes Murphy & Richard Sapir's series sound so utterly unmissable! Mr. Murphy has a Robert Lory-ness about him if you catch my meaning? i get the strong impression that he is very much the guy who comes across in the interview. Real sharp and very, very funny. And i adore the way he moans about some of the disasters that befell the pair (the collapse of Pinnacle, etc) as though he's grown almost fond of them. Adding the Mens Adventure genre to the mix has given PF yet another rich seam to mine. The scope is seriously terrifying. Horror, SF, Sword & Sorcery, Brit Westerns, Kung Fu, Skinheads, Hells A., "Educational" sex manuals, Black Magic, Confessions .... .... how are we readers expected to catch up on it all?
What with the Agent 0008 feature and Holger on The Baroness in consecutive issues i've come to realise that there is more to this Sexy Spy lark than W. Howard Baker's Danger Man: Storm Over Rockall or even Vance Stanton's Partridge Family 6: Keith Partridge, Master Spy had prepared me for. So that's yet more rat-eared tat to look out for. It really is never ending, but would you want it any other way?
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Post by severance on Jul 10, 2010 9:30:25 GMT
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 10, 2010 10:39:35 GMT
Nice! Did they bring out film tie-in covers for the 'Mask' & 'Bride' Harry Alan Towers / Don Sharp Christopher Lee pictures?
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Post by andydecker on Jul 11, 2010 12:17:52 GMT
Nice! Did they bring out film tie-in covers for the 'Mask' & 'Bride' Harry Alan Towers / Don Sharp Christopher Lee pictures? If they had any sense they didn´t I love Trash movies, more than I should - just yesterday I watched The Devil´s Wedding Night with the lovely Rosalba Neri which Amazin sells as a truly bizarre DVD on demand - and even I find the Fu Manchu movies ineptly made and unwatchable. I always have to grin when I read Sir Lee bitchin´ about his later Dracula roles, because compared to the Fu Manchu stuff they were Oscar material. The first Fu Manchu novels would be terrific material for a tv-remake, preferable as a period piece, but I guess that won´t happen. Lol, even the Doug Moench written Fu Manchu in his Masters of Kung Fu series from Marvel Comics had its great moments. I fondly remember a 12 issue story line where he incooperated Fu Manchu with the Order of the Golden Dawn and the Illuminati.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 11, 2010 13:08:44 GMT
Mask of Fu Manchu & Brides of Fu Manchu aren't too bad - instead of his usual cheapjack approach, at the insistence of director Don Sharp Harry Alan Towers actually spent proper money on them. It's Jess Franco's Blood & Castle of Fu Manchu that are truly awful.
Famous quote from Towers to Franco:
"Congratulations Jess, you've done what the entire might of Scotland Yard couldn't pull off. You've killed Fu Manchu."
Rosalba Neri is quite lovely by the way - she's my second favourite actress next to Edwige Fenech.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jul 13, 2010 10:52:00 GMT
Got my copy in Canberra today - very nice! looking forward to getting the Bruce Pennington and NEL specials when they're out.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 11, 2011 6:57:26 GMT
Paperback Fanatic, so much to answer for. persistent raids on TYPE by various vault hoodlums having all but depleted the horror stock, i figured it was time to snap up some men's adventure titles. having thoroughly enjoyed the Warren Murphy interview in #15, where better to start than a Destroyer novel, and this surgical shocker looks as good a place as any. Richard Sapir & Warren Murphy - Destroyer # 15: Murder Ward (Corgi, 1976) Blurb Ms. Kathy Hahl had dark red hair and cool brown eyes. She was assistant administrator of the hospital and chief fund raiser. She had Dan Demmet under her thumb ... step by step, he became the medical button man for Kathy Hahl's contract- killing service. The whole life-and-death idea gave her a feeling of power. Then she discovered that power is a narcotic: you start out liking it and then you need it. That was when she realised that all the government officials who used the Robley Clinic might somehow be used to help build her power and wealth. And then that scruffy old lesbian researcher on the fifth floor had made a strange discovery, and although it was still being Tested, if it held true, it could wind up giving Kathy greater power than she had ever dreamed of...and then there's this: i'm compelled to admit that it was the cover and the cover alone that swayed me, in fact, the title barely registered at the time, but now having calmed down i must say mr. Quinn's offering looks positively Sabatesque. Simon Quinn - The Inquisitor #2: The Last Time I Saw Hell (Dell, 1974) Blurb
HEAVEN HELP THOSE WHO CROSS
His name is Francis Xavier Killy. He's a lay brother of the Militia Christi working for the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Rome. Unbound by vows of celibacy and fears of common men, he's tough, aggressive, and a master of highly original deadly arts.
Part saint, part sinner, he kills only when he must. But when he finds himself up against a power-mad ex-priest about to seize the French government, the question of choice is diabolically removed.both the above creeping up top of 'to read' pile as we speak ...
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Post by justin on Jun 11, 2011 11:28:15 GMT
The quinns are excellent. Quinn was Martin Nightwing Cruz Smith. No Sabat like occultism but well researched, rollicking, good reads. there were 6 I think, not easy to track down with duplex in red being the trickiest to secure.
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