The Werewolf Scrapbook

[dem]

Aug 23, 2012 11:01:27 GMT Craig Herbertson said:

Comedy Gold! problem is of course, it could have been real going by some we've seen

Pretty pointless game, really, bit like writing deliberately bad fiction. You can't replicate the essential innocence of the genuine article so the results lack a magical ingredient. Charm. Case in point, our old friend, 'The Black Dog of Barnstable' from Rosemary Anne Lauder & Michael Williams' Strange Stories From Devon (Bossiney, 1982)

Now that's what I'd call a good bad werewolf cover.

If you're a regular user of Fantastic Fiction, you've maybe noticed that a considerable number of our - and everyone else's - cover scans have a habit of appearing uncredited. It's kind of an ambition of mine to have 'em swipe one of the mischievous ones (I'm not a very ambitious person) - but don't tell 'em.

[andydecker]

Aug 23, 2012 9:48:52 GMT dem said:

uh ... andy, i've a confession to make ....

Good one!

[andydecker]

here are another few from the shelf. As older I get sometimes I think they multiply in the dark as for some of them I have no recollection of buying them or reading them. And I even don´t like Werewolf tales much.

Anthony Boucher The Compleat Werewolf (Caroll and Greaf 1990)

Has anybody a third edition?

Geoffrey Caine - Wake of the Werewolf (Berkley/Diamond 1991)

Death by Tooth and Claw

An escaped madman is heading toward Chicago, leaving behind a trail of corpses. The victims are savagely torn apart - and eaten. Is the killer merely a cannibalistic psychopath ... or a creature from the darkest pits of superstition?

Only Abraham Stroud dares to think the forbidden names: Wendigo, Sasquatch, Werewolf. And only Stroud faces the most terriying truth of all ...

Wolves travel in packs.

Have no clue about this one. Only that Abraham Stroud is an archeologist, psychic and detective. And Caine wrote at least three novels about him. According to the further blurb.

Michael Cadnum - Saint Peter´s Wolf (German Ed. 1992)

Also no clue about this one. Wasn´t this praised as a "literary" werewolf novel?

Cheri Scotch - The Werewolf´s Kiss (Berkley/Diamond 1992)

Born of the Moon

The world of the Lousiana werewolves ... Sensual and seductive, it holds secrets that only the initiated may share. Sylvie marley is drawn to the moonlit bayous. to her lover Lucien, and to a choice between the debutante´s life she knows and the werewolf´s life she craves.

But for Sylvie there is a hidden danger: a madman must have her power - the power she is unaware she posesses - to satisfy his desire, th make himself King of Voodoos. All he needs is Sylvies total surrender. And one act of ritual murder ...

This is an odd one. Written long before the Paranormal Romance craze and the Poppy Brite/Anne Rice New Orleans is so cool meme this was in fact one of the first paranormal romances. Kind of a Patient Zero book. Surprisingly it was quite entertaining and well written.

Carl Dreadstone - The Wolf-Man (Vampir Paperback 1979)

They put "The Werewolf of Ponkert" in the back because it was too short. One of Mr Campbells novelisations, I think.

[andydecker]

Can´t believe I forgot this:

Nicholas Pekearo - The Wolfman (Tor Books, 2008)

Marlowe Higgins has had a hard life. Since being dishonorably discharged after a tour in Vietnam, he´s been in and out prison, moving from town to town, going whereever the wind takes him. He can´t stay in one place too long - every full moon he kills someone.

For years he struggled with this affliction, until he found a way to use this unfortunate curse for good - he kills only really bad people.

setting at last in the small town of Evelyn, Higgins works at a local restaurant and even has a friend, Daniel Pearce, one of Evelyn´s two police detectives.

One night, everything changes. It turns out Marlowe Higgins isn´t the only monster lurking in the aerrea. A fiendish serial killer, known as the Rose Killer, is brutally murdering young girls all around the country. Higgins targets the killer as his netxt victim, but on the night of the full moon, things go drastically wrong...

This is way better then the lukewarm copy. It was the first novel of a young writer, and he had some good variations on the werewolf concepts - they weren´t exactly new, but they worked well - and he excelled at the hard guy/drifter hardboiled tone. Done as kind of a period piece, it takes place in 1993, it combined the werewolf novel with the serial killer novel.

Tragically Pekearo, who volunteered as an NYPD Auxiliary Police Officer, was killed in the line of duty before the novel was published.

The book sunk without a trace. which is a shame because it was very well done.

[dem]

Another top selection, Andy. Love dog face on the Geoffrey Caine cover. Must admit, my first thought was that Cheri Scotch's Werewolf's Kiss would require superhuman perseverance.

Another grab-bag

At some time during the 'nineties, Vintage Publications issued a number of the Weird Tales covers as postcards, including:

Margaret Brundage, depicting a scene from Arlton Eadie's The Wolf-Girl of Josselin, "An engrossing novelette of the Barking Women of Josselin, the Ghoul Pack, and the struggle between a mother's love and an ancient curse." (Weird Tales, Aug. 1938). Reprinted in
Kurt Singer's Ghost Omnibus (Nel-Four Square, Nov 1967)

Stephen Jones (ed.) - The Mammoth Book Of Werewolves/ Wolf Men (Robinson, 1994: 2009)

JoeRoberts.co.uk

Way too recent for Paperback Fanatic, but of all Stephen Jones' Mammoths, this is among my very favourites.

George W. M. Reynolds - Wagner, The Werewolf (Wordsworth Editions, 2006)

S. H. Vedder, depicting a scene from S. Carleton's The Wolf, Pall Mall Magazine, Dec. 1901.

Blurb:
In the midst of a wood of evergreens on the banks of the Arno, a man – young, handsome, and splendidly attired - has thrown himself upon the ground, where he writhes like a stricken serpent. He is the prey of a demoniac excitement: an appalling consternation is upon him – madness is in his brain – his mind is on fire. Lightnings appear to gleam from his eyes – as if his soul were dismayed, and withering within his breast. ‘Oh! no – no!’ he cries with a piercing shriek, as if wrestling madly - furiously – but vainly, against some unseen fiend that holds him in his grasp.

Aged and deserted, Fernand Wagner agrees to serve John Faust for the last year of his life. In return he is given youth, wealth and beauty – but at the terrible price of becoming a werewolf. He loves the glacial, beautiful, sensual Nisida, whose family history conceals a dreadful secret. Together they flee from Florence to a desert island: but dogged by the Inquisition, and by the might of the Ottoman Empire, they are finally forced to face the horror that lurks in the closet…

First published in 1847, Wagner the Werewolf is one of the very earliest treatments of the Werewolf theme in English literature, and has lost none of its power to shock, it is one of the greatest works of George W.M. Reynolds, once the most popular author in England, and the Master of the Penny Dreadful.

Mark Valentine (ed.) - The Werewolf Pack (Wordsworth Editions, June 2008)

Jeffrey Goddin - Blood Of The Wolf (Leisure, 1992)

Blurb:
WARNING. Before you read this book, there are two things you ought to know:

I. ly*can*thro*py/'Iik-an-thro-pe: the assump­tion of the form and characteristics of a wolf or other predatory animal held to be possible through the practice of witchcraft or magic.
2. Even a man who's pure in heart, And says his prayers at night, May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, And the moon shines full and bright.
JEFFREY GODDIN

Author of The Living Dead

Blood Of The Wolf. It flows through the veins of nightmare creatures.

Nope, still not got past the cover ...

.... and, how could we ever forget ...

Gary Brander - Howling III; Echoes (Hamlyn, 1985)

[dem]

Franklin Gregory - The White Wolf (Random House, 1941)

Norman Saunders, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Aug. 1952

Cover reproduced from unz.org, where you'll find the entire novel.

Then there's this beauty, "a really rare werewolf thriller", first posted by James on the Aus pulp thread

Vol Molesworth -Wolfblood (Transport Publishing, Sydney, 1948)

[jamesdoig]

Aug 24, 2012 12:47:24 GMT dem said:

Then there's this beauty, "a really rare werewolf thriller", first posted by James on the Aus pulp thread

I might have one or two to add, but I'm on the Gold Coast at the moment with the family. You know you're getting old and stupid when you find yourself googling for 2nd hand bookshops here.

[dem]

Aug 24, 2012 22:51:04 GMT jamesdoig said:

I might have one or two to add, but I'm on the Gold Coast at the moment with the family. You know you're getting old and stupid when you find yourself googling for 2nd hand bookshops here.

somehow, i would expect nothing less.

Meanwhile, think 'werewolves', think Guy N. Smith. So why has it taken him so long to feature on this thread?

Guy N. Smith - Return Of The Werewolf (NEL, 1977)

Blurb:
The werewolf that had scourged the Black Hill was long since dead. The villagers who lived nearby no longer listened on nights of the full moon for its chilling howl, no longer had need to bar and lock their doors against the supernatural strength of the half-man, half-beast.

Until the grave of the werewolf was found ripped open, despoiled, and the body gone! Gordon Hall, who had hunted the creature before, returned from London, but too late. Already mutilated sheep had been found, and a man attacked.

Had the werewolf returned - or was some other ravening menace loose on the hills?

Guy N. Smith - Night Of The Werewolf(Black Hill eBooks, 2011)

I've not got a copy, but here's the keyring looking nice.


'Robert Black' (Robert Holdstock) - Legend of the Werewolf (Sphere, 1976)

Blurb:
Horror stalked the streets of Paris.
As a child Etoile had run with the wolves. Then he was brought to civilization and his past was forgotten. But not when the moon shone full! Then he could not fight the bestial urges his body felt. The wolves called Etoile and the animal within responded, compelling him to stalk the streets of Paris, thirsting with vulpine ferocity for the taste of blood.

[sara]

Virgin Books 2007. Cover photograph: Ashley.



Grafton Books 1985, reprinted 1988. Cover art Chris Moore.



Scholastic Book Services 1978.

Michael Avallone has written some pretty cool gothics too, under the pseudonym Edwina Noone. There's a fun post about them on the Pretty Sinister Books blog here - prettysinister.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/alternative-horror-craghold-creatures.html

[dem]

Thanks for the additions, Sara. Ramsey sure gets around a bit, but, uh, are you 100% certain Nikki Flynn's book concerns werewolves in the .... strictest sense? The Avallone looks particularly accomplished. Justin includes his 'Satan Sleuth' adventure, Werewolf Walks Tonight, in the original gallery (Paperback Fanatic #23). El Fanatico also sent on a selection of illustrations from an Image Of The Beast comic adaptation, but pho*t*bucket were going through a puritanical phase at the time and banned all but one.

[sara]

Aug 27, 2012 17:17:09 GMT dem said:

Ramsey sure gets around a bit, but, uh, are you 100% certain Nikki Flynn's book concerns werewolves in the .... strictest sense?

Well, perhaps not in the very strictest sense of the word
but, now you mention it, from my (albeit vague) recollection of Image of the Beast, I don’t think they feature much in that one either!

[dem]

Aug 27, 2012 17:35:42 GMT sara said:

now you mention it, from my (albeit vague) recollection of Image of the Beast, I don’t think they feature much in that one either!

I've not read Image Of The Beast but struggled through the sequel, Blown, where the going gets very extreme indeed. Can't say i enjoyed the experience overmuch.

Alan Durant (ed.) - Vampire And Werewolf Stories (Kingfisher, 1998)

Nick Hardcastle

A tidy young adult collection, perhaps deserving of a more dynamic cover. The shaggy fellow is OK but i'm not so sure about the other guy, though if Leslie Halliwell is to be believed, this is far from his worst portrayal of the undead. Of The Return of Dr X (1939), Halliwell writes: "Bogart gave positively his worst performance - quite possibly the worst performance by any major star - in this lethargic potboiler about a modern vampire. The hairstyle seems to have been borrowed from a skunk." (The Dead That Walk, (Grafton, 1986)

A slightly earlier edition of:

Karl E. Wagner (ed.) - The Years Best Horror Stories IX (DAW, Aug 1981)

Michael Whelan

Christine Bernard (ed.) - The 3rd Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories (1968)

Another dog actor, but he or she gives it their all.

[dem]

Devil Dog interlude #1

Stephen King - Cujo (Futura, 1985: first Futura paperback edition, 1982)

Blurb:
Stephen King, the world's bestselling author, weaves another spellbinding tale of horror in his latest novel CUJO.

OUTSIDE A PEACEFUL TOWN IN CENTRAL MAINE, A MONSTER IS WAITING

CUJO is a two hundred pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day CUJO chases a rabbit into a bolt-hole – a cave inhabited by some very sick bats. What happens to CUJO, how he becomes a horrifying vortex inexorably drawing in all the people around him, makes for the most heart-stopping novel Stephen King has yet written.

Soppy great dog gets bitten by vampire bats in cave, does a Zoltan, rips apart, among others, flatulent postman who may or may not have an ulcer. An engrossing read, but it's not another Pet Sematary.

Jack Ramsay - The Rage (Sphere, 1977: Ace, 1978)

Rabid fox bites tramp and next thing you know we're going down in a sea of froth and saliva. An "it could happen - it's just a case of when!" narure in revolt novel.

JKen Johnson - Zoltan Hound Of Dracula (Everest, 1977)

Count Igor's loyal Doberman Pinscher visits horror upon the good people of Lake Arrowhead.

Jessica Hamilton - Baxter (Sphere, 1979)

James Herbert's Fluke taken out and given a mauling. Psycho bull terrier and sadistic boy owner versus rest of world. Beware Of The Baxter!

Michel Parry (ed.) - Hounds Of Hell (Gollancz, 1974: Arrow, 1975)

Companion volume to Michel's début anthology, Beware Of The Cat. Cover star needs to up his or her game - have faced more terrifying squirrels - but contents don't disappoint.

[dem]

Here's a notable pair of near misses

Kurt Singer (ed.) - Horror Omnibus (Panther, 1966)

Singer's outrageous plunder of Robert Lowndes' Magazine Of Horror material makes for a great anthology (how could it be anything but?). Cover artwork to the contrary, it's entirely free of werewolves.

Ivor Watkins - The Bloodsnarl (Futura, 1980)

Zero lycanthrope, just a good honest wolf pack waging war on a village in the Scottish Highlands. Perhaps less grisly/ trashy/ morally repugnant than the Hamlyn nasties, but highly recommended nonetheless.

[jamesdoig]

And here's Doug Anderson getting stuck into Peter Haining again, over a werewolf fraud: wormwoodiana.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/another-peter-haining-fraud.html