Back to pre-
Devil's Kisses days, and how could I possibly have overlooked ....
New Witchcraft issue #4 (Dallruth Publishing, Stockwell, 1975)
answer: because inexplicably, despite having snagged a copy in the mid-nineties, up to last night i'd not even bothered with the fictional content!
First, the basic background info, revised from Vault MK I, except this time have tried to translate it into something approaching English.
Launched in 1975,
New Witchcraft was a professionally produced glossy which survived just the four issues before its editor, Brian Netscher, disillusioned by "Black and White Magic and the terrible effects it can have", brought the project to a grinding halt after an alleged "mental duel" in a North London churchyard left one of his featured black magicians "temporarily blinded." This, at least, is what Brian and his readers were led to believe: years later, the bride and me were fortunate enough to land an interview with the "defeated" necromancer who cheerfully informed us, "It was a load of bollocks! We made it all up! We just went there to take photos!" Anyway, if the final issue is anything to go by, then
New Witchcraft was Black Sorcery at it's spellbinding best! We get Paul Cummings' on the Church of Satan, and Emile C Shurmacher on
Swinging Covens. Exhumed from a pre-WWII issue of
Police Illustrated News, a joyfully sensationalist report on
Satan Cult's Sex Orgies In Rural England that would not be out of place in
The News Of The World. There's even a full colour photo of what a mangled voodoo dolly looks like just in case you want to curse somebody. Most of the advertisements are for esoteric literature of a direct-to-wants-list nature like E. A. St. George's
The Casebook Of A Working Occultist ("Read how Mrs. St. George rescued Apollo 13 spacecraft" !!!?), while those hawking back-issues of
New Witchcraft are notable for outrageous come-on's and grainy Polaroids of naked people dancing in a circle. A full page splash announces forthcoming sister publication,
Psychic Eye, devoted entirely to white magic, but nothing seems to have come of it. On the down side,
New Witchcraft fast became a vehicle for two of the less entertaining publicity seekers who seem to cling barnacle-like to the occult, and their antics account for more pages of #4 than are healthy.
So, onto such content that isn't ashamed to paint itself as anything other than fictional. How he got roped in is anyone's guess, but would you believe
Robert Bloch is here with
The Tchen-Lam's Vengeance! I'll get back to you on
E. A. St. George's
The Case Of The Unwanted Actress as the signs are that, unlike her serious investigations, this one may be entirely made up. As to erotic horror content, how about this pair?
John Wannote - Transposition:
"Leave me alone, Barbara. I did everything I could that night at Netherhome. I laid them all - the Clergymen, the Coven, and set you free ...Richard Llewellyn Davis has been recruited in an exorcist capacity by the Department for Scientific Investigation of Phenomena, formed in response to public outrage over an alleged outbreak of Devil Worship in Leicestershire and Northants. He's good at his job - the horrid business on the village green at Netherhome proves that - but wife Margaret is worried for him. Up until now she and Richard have enjoyed "excellent bedmanship" and she'd hoped that "one of their truly superb performances together" would finally bring them a child. But lately Richard has been pensive, uncommunicative. He shows no interest whatsoever in having sex with her. How have we reached this sorry state of affairs?
It's all down to Barbara Breck, the gorgeous widow he rescued from a Satanic Coven during his Netherhome adventure. We might have guessed she was pretty loose by her red mini wet-look raincoat. Big and bouncy Babs has taken to visiting Richard as a succubus and her insatiable demands have sapped him of his strength! Richard blurts as much to Margaret in his sleep and the succubus is so cross she decides they must be punished! Despite Richard's pleading, Barbara enters Margaret's body and forces her to perform a demonstration of solitary vice, before the two/ three of them get stuck into the steamiest sex session.
In his explanatory afterword to
The Words That Count in Dennis Etchison's
Masters Of Darkness, Ramsey Campbell tells us that a reason for writing the story was, "It seemed to me that there are everyday situations in which even black magic would be liberating." Such is the case with
Transposition as six months on the Davis's are back to their bonking best, Margaret is pregnant and she wants to throw a party. All she asks of Richard is that he invite his sexy former client, Barbara Breck!
J. H. Docherty - Evil From Us Deliver: "Tom Hainey was proud of his secluded but picturesque cottage, nestling deep in the southern English countryside. And rightly so. He had worked damned hard in the London rat-race to reach the comfortable position he now held." Yes, things are looking dandy for the Hainey family. It's Christmas Eve, the first snow is falling, eight year old twins Robert and Linda are happily playing their favourite game, and mum Claire has just baked the cake. What could possibly go wrong? Well, the children's favourite game happens to be speaking backward, not advisable unless you have the ability to control any "Hellish elemental" you might invoke. Bedtime and the kids are still at it, Robert daring his sister to recite her prayers in reverse. Come the end of the 23rd Psalm and a monstrous incubus materialises by their beds. Enormous of head, pendulous of breasts, its "stallion-like phallus" ready for action, the hideous monster makes short work of tearing Linda to pieces and eating clumps of her flesh. Now we follow him to the master bedroom, where the sleeping Claire is in for a big Christmas surprise!
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