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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 18, 2020 12:19:31 GMT
From the Startling Mystery Stories thread: Everill Worrell - The Gray Killer: Zingler, the new Doctor is a godsend to the Hospital, working around the clock and administering a miracle drug to the horribly injured and terminally ill. The nurses adore him, not least because he's dashed handsome. This view is shared by everyone bar patient Marion Wheaton who lives in dread of a nocturnal visit from the man she dubs "the gray killer." Several horrible events befall the Hospital. A child is savagely murdered in what seems to be a ritual murder and a new born child is abducted from the Maternity ward, while those who've submitted to the bogus doctor's ever-handy hypodermic discover the miracle drug has a nasty side-effect; overnight leprosy! As more patient's disappear and Marion's fear and paranoia reach stratospheric levels, the gray killer is forced to strike again and, strapping her down on a trolley, wheels her into theatre. At least he leaves her hands free so she can keep her journal going to the last. It's no consolation to Marion, who'll spend the rest of her life in an insane asylum, but it transpires that Dr. Zingler was entirely blameless in the affair. The culprit was a High Priest from the planet Horil who worships the Devil God of Space! This evil being, who resembles a colossal devil-fish, is believed by the Horillians to react favourably to human sacrifice. And what about all that leprosy business? He was merely fixing himself something to eat. "Countless centuries ago our epicures evolved a taste for the flesh of leprous persons ..." If ever a story warranted a "they just don't write them like that any more" ... I'm glad I skipped glancing at this description before reading "The Gray Killer"; I never would have guessed where Worrell was going with the story. It's a wild journey from ominous medical drama to alien cannibals who worship a devilish devil-fish and savor leprous flesh. One of the highlights of the book so far. Sadly, that's the last of the Worrell tales. I'd love to see a collection of her stories in print. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 19, 2020 14:42:38 GMT
Moving on to the Mary Elizabeth Counselman segment of The Women of Weird Tales: Mary E. Counselman - The Black Stone Statue: Kennicott's plane crashes in the dense Brazilian forest. His co-pilot, broken-legged and delirious, makes off into the trees before he can stop him. Kennicott tracks his friend to to an expanse of petrified forest where everything "glitters like soft coal". Along with several small animals, the injured man has been turned to stone by the touch of a slug-like entity. Kennicott survives, but is unwise to confide the experience in a struggling sculptor ... Like Dem, I previously encountered this story in Stefan R. Dziemainowicz, Robert Weinberg and Martin H. Greenberg's Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors. Mary Elizabeth Counselman - The Web of SilenceThe mayor and local newspaper editor of Blankville (not its real name) each receive a letter from a "Dr. Ubique" demanding half a quarter of a million dollars, to be delivered through an elaborate process. A week after the recipients ignore the mysterious doctor's demands, a spell of silence falls over the town. In style, "The Web of Silence" resembles Counselman's two short-short puzzle stories, "The Three Marked Pennies" and "The Devil's Lottery." It also bears a strong likeness to the classic Buffy episode "Hush," right down to the run on writing implements that develops in the town. It's a fun read right up until the postscript, which reveals a culprit far less creepy than the smiling, floating Gentlemen from Buffy (who were after human hearts rather than a Dr. Evil-esque ransom) . |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 20, 2020 18:36:54 GMT
Wrapping up The Women of Weird Tales with three more stories by Greye La Spina: Greye La Spina - The Antimacassar: ( Weird Tales, May 1949). Lucy Butterfield, investigating the mysterious disappearance of her friend, Cera Kent, follows the trail to an isolated cottage in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and takes a room there for a week. One night early in her stay, she overhears her landlady, Mrs. Renners in agitated conversation with Aaron Gross, her simple-minded long-term tenant and confidante. Kathy, the sick daughter she keeps locked away in her room, is screaming to be fed. Aaron reminds her of what happened the last time she was let loose on a guest and argues that the time has come to ram a stake through the child and put an end to the horror. Mrs. Renners won't hear of it. Her daughter is suffering and city girls are, after all, expendable. Assisted by the ghost of Cera, Lucy gets to work on the loom. She's not sure why, but the intricate design she weaves into her towel may be all that stands between her and a dreadful end at the fangs of an infant vampire! One of La Spina's best-known stories, though I prefer the lurid werewolf action of "The Devil's Pool." Greye La Spina - The Deadly TheoryA narrator walks into a bar and meets a man who strongly resembles Julian Crosse, the famous artist who gave up his paintbrushes and supposedly died while serving in the Foreign Legion. The Man Who Isn't Crosse tells a story of black magic, doomed love, and the theory of palingenesis, or rebirth from the ashes of death. This twisty and twisted tale would fit well in a collection of La Spina's work. Greye La Spina - Great Pan is HereA rich young man and the woman he loves meet a mysterious pipe-playing stranger who would like to borrow the young man's garden for the evening. The stranger is particularly interested in the statue of a nymph that the young man smuggled out of Greece. A fairly standard story of Pan in the modern age. This time around he's in a relatively good mood; just make sure to heed him. The scariest part of the story is probably the opening scene, where the narrator insists "that five cocktails [are] well within my limit" while driving to a symphony performance. |
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Post by humgoo on Jan 3, 2021 15:48:29 GMT
From the Startling Mystery Stories thread: Everill Worrell - The Gray Killer: {Spoiler}Zingler, the new Doctor is a godsend to the Hospital, working around the clock and administering a miracle drug to the horribly injured and terminally ill. The nurses adore him, not least because he's dashed handsome. This view is shared by everyone bar patient Marion Wheaton who lives in dread of a nocturnal visit from the man she dubs "the gray killer."
Several horrible events befall the Hospital. A child is savagely murdered in what seems to be a ritual murder and a new born child is abducted from the Maternity ward, while those who've submitted to the bogus doctor's ever-handy hypodermic discover the miracle drug has a nasty side-effect; overnight leprosy!
As more patient's disappear and Marion's fear and paranoia reach stratospheric levels, the gray killer is forced to strike again and, strapping her down on a trolley, wheels her into theatre. At least he leaves her hands free so she can keep her journal going to the last.
It's no consolation to Marion, who'll spend the rest of her life in an insane asylum, but it transpires that Dr. Zingler was entirely blameless in the affair. The culprit was a High Priest from the planet Horil who worships the Devil God of Space! This evil being, who resembles a colossal devil-fish, is believed by the Horillians to react favourably to human sacrifice. And what about all that leprosy business? He was merely fixing himself something to eat. "Countless centuries ago our epicures evolved a taste for the flesh of leprous persons ..." If ever a story warranted a "they just don't write them like that any more" ... I'm glad I skipped glancing at this description before reading "The Gray Killer"; I never would have guessed where Worrell was going with the story. {Spoiler}It's a wild journey from ominous medical drama to alien cannibals who worship a devilish devil-fish and savor leprous flesh. One of the highlights of the book so far. Sadly, that's the last of the Worrell tales. I'd love to see a collection of her stories in print. I went straight to this story based on your and Dem's recommendation (I was even shrewd enough, for the first time in my life, to skip the synopsis provided by you guys). I finished it last night and l still can't believe what I read. I may need to re-read the final third to confirm I was not hallucinating or dreaming. My first tale in 2021, and it certainly bodes well! |
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Post by helrunar on Jan 3, 2021 16:51:46 GMT
I read the synopsis and laughed--again, a rarity, and I'm immensely grateful.
I think Miss Scarlett said that some of these are on archive dot org, but I did not see the info posted, and I guess it doesn't matter all that much to me.
Some really extreme stuff came out in the pulp-esque publications of the American 1950s. Everyone knows about EC comics, but there were loads of other horror comics from the early 50s that aren't so well known. Thankfully, all of them seem to be available on a site called Comic Books Plus. I was looking last night at a couple of issues of something called The Witch's Tales--freeeeaaaaak.
cheers, H.
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Post by Swampirella on Jan 3, 2021 17:25:20 GMT
I read the synopsis and laughed--again, a rarity, and I'm immensely grateful. I think Miss Scarlett said that some of these are on archive dot org, but I did not see the info posted, and I guess it doesn't matter all that much to me. Some really extreme stuff came out in the pulp-esque publications of the American 1950s. Everyone knows about EC comics, but there were loads of other horror comics from the early 50s that aren't so well known. Thankfully, all of them seem to be available on a site called Comic Books Plus. I was looking last night at a couple of issues of something called The Witch's Tales--freeeeaaaaak. cheers, H. Since the pandemic, archive.org has almost no books/comics, for some (legal?) reason. It may or not be there now, but I found "The Grey Killer" easily as it seems to be out of copyright. I hope to have time to read it later today, since I want to see what all the "fuss" is about....
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Post by helrunar on Jan 3, 2021 18:01:52 GMT
Thanks, Miss Scarlett! That's quite sad about Archive. I remember reading in the early months of Lockdown that a lot of resources were being made freely available, but then I suppose the wretched dogma of profit maximization without scruple kicked in once again.
Amazing to learn that stories from Weird Tales are being made available now on Wikimedia Commons. You're a wonder!
cheers, Steve
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jan 3, 2021 19:30:48 GMT
I guessed the ending of "The Gray Killer"! Or such is my claim.
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Post by humgoo on Feb 19, 2021 10:06:25 GMT
To complicate matters further, the version printed in The Women of Weird Tales includes the part about the bat-cave but omits the coda with the dynamite! Thanks for the note! I wonder if the omission is intentional or not. The Valancourt version is confusing because, without the dynamite part, the third paragraph ("The city will be in mourning for the thing I shall have done — but its mourning will be of no consequence beside that other fate from which I shall have saved it" etc) of the story becomes inexplicable. (The "short version" is at least coherent because it doesn't contain that paragraph.) |
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Post by dem on Aug 27, 2021 19:08:20 GMT
"The bunk was covered with it. Foam, dirty gray foam — inches thick! right over the bunk, pillows and all. And the smell — my Gawd!" Virgil Finlay: ( Weird Tales, July 1937). A gripping weird novelette of the sea, by the author of "The Eighth Green Man." Cabin 14 of the passenger liner S. S. Dragon has been sealed since the summer of '35 when evil sadist Eldren Vernon murdered his wife, Kathleen, and her lover, Guy Lockland, who at least had the satisfaction of landing his killer a fatal knife wound. The rest of the voyage became a nightmare endurance test for passengers and crew as they were tormented by the three ghosts and a ceaseless unendurable, high pitched whistle, unmistakably Vernon's, mocking his late wife with her signature song, Kathleen Mavourneen. Only when the fatal cabin was sealed did the terror stop. Two years on, the Dragon has a new man at the helm, Captain Ross. Eager to impress his employees and with not one superstitious bone in his body, against staff wishes he gives the order that Cabin 14 be unsealed and readied for his guest, Colonel Everett .... The Eighth Green Manstill rules, but, for me, this is a superb example of supernatural pulp horror at it's most thrilling.
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Post by dem on Sept 13, 2021 8:04:22 GMT
 Joseph Doolin: ( Weird Tales, Jan. 1932). A tale of the beautiful violinist, Erzebet, and the invocation of evil powers to work revenge for her. Beautiful Erzebet Machik, has risen from the gutter to win fame and fortune as the greatest violinist of the age. Orphaned in childhood, she is the daughter of a Hungarian Devil Worshipper and Black Magician hanged at Budapest for abominable crimes. When Hugh Bremner breaks off their engagement, having fallen for the incomparable Cynthia, vows to destroy him. The fiery fiddler consults her father's Grimoire to unleash an elemental. Hugh is subsequently haunted around the clock by an obscene, spectral double of Erzebet, reeking of corruption and hateful to the touch. His only hope is that his best friend, one-legged war veteran, Rafé Horvath, who has loved Erzebet since childhood, can somehow negate the diabolical spell. As scheduled for revival in the Magazine of Horror that didn't make it. |
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Post by humgoo on May 31, 2023 5:18:48 GMT
Sadly, that's the last of the Worrell tales. I'd love to see a collection of her stories in print. I highly suspect that you've already got this, friend Brewer: -Everil Worrell, The Canal and Other Weird Stories (Weird House Press, 2023), edited and with an introduction by S. T. Joshi From the same publisher (also edited by Mr. Joshi): -Robert Barbour Johnson, Far Below and Other Weird Stories
-Carl Jacobi, Mive and Others: Best Weird Stories of Carl Jacobi Volume 1-Carl Jacobi, Witches in the Corrnfield: Best Weird Stories of Carl Jacobi Volume 2 |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 1, 2023 19:11:05 GMT
I highly suspect that you've already got this, friend Brewer: -Everil Worrell, The Canal and Other Weird Stories (Weird House Press, 2023), edited and with an introduction by S. T. Joshi I didn't--but I just ordered it, so thank you for posting about it! Here's the table of contents: Introduction by S. T. Joshi Leonora The Canal From Beyond The Elemental Law Vulture Crag The Rays of the Moon An Adventure in Anesthesia The Gray Killer Light-Echoes The Key and the Child None So Blind Norn The Hollow Moon Hideaway Once There Was a Little Girl ... I Loved Her with My Soul Call Not Their Names The White Gull Most of these come from Weird Tales, but "The Key and the Child" first appeared in Ghost Stories and "The White Gull" in Mystic Magazine. It's worth noting that this collection doesn't include all of her short fiction--for example, it omits "The Bird of Space," "Cattle of Furos," "The High Tower," and "Deadlock," all of which appeared in Weird Tales. |
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