Zines for every occasion .... & Ephemera

[jamesdoig]

Apr 20, 2022 21:17:23 GMT andydecker said:

It tries a bit too hard to be controversial

Indeed - in fact so controversial it was instantly banned. Must have part of the whole splatterpunk thing in the early 90s.

[dem]

Yet more places to go, things to see in the 'nineties.

[helrunar]

Thanks, Dem! These are all quite cool and fun. 

This article was published today about various "Beltane Bash" type events happening this week and next in various parts of Albion:

wildhunt.org/2022/04/the-return-of-beltane-bashes-in-the-u-k.html

cheers, Hel

[dem]

+ Vault Exciting Wookey Hole Interlude + Vault Exciting Wookey Hole Interlude + Vault Exciting Wookey Hole Interlude + Vault Exciting Wookey Hole Interlude + Vault Exciting, etc. +

Re: The Jottings, the late Gerry Cottle & Co., this enlightening Spellbound feature from the summer of punk.

The Wonders of Wookey Hole
SPECIAL SPELLBOUND FEATURE

Limestone caves form the wonderful world of Wookey hole in Somerset, where the families of primitive tribes lived more than 62,000 years ago. The caves themselves, are millions of years old.

Through the centuries, the water of the River Axe flowing through the caves affected the stone and caused strange pillars called stalagmites to form. One of these is known as the Witch of Wookey Hole, and according to an old legend, she was turned to stone when a monk sprinkled holy water on her.

The wicked witch worked many spells, and terrified the people of Wookey village. Instead of the usual black cat, she had a goat and a kid as her pets, and claimed to foresee the future by consulting her crystal ball.

People had long stopped believing the old folk tales about the witch of Wookey Hole in 1912, when excavations were taking place in the caves. The treasure hunters were seeking pieces of pottery and jewellery dating from the Stone and Iron ages; but as well as those they found the skeleton of a woman, beside those of a goat and kid! Along with the bones lay a comb, a dagger, and a round object like a crystal ball turned to stone! So although the gigantic stalagmite is not the real witch of Wookey, it seems certain there WAS a witch living there long, long ago.

So far, nobody has sighted the giant eel, thirty feet long, which is said to lurk deep in the caves having swum up the river Axe. It remains as much of a mystery as the Loch Ness monster.

Also, nobody has seen Titania, queen of the fairies either, although her fabulous palace is on show at Wookey, from 10 a.m. until dusk in summer.

In 1907 a child named Guendolen told her father she had seen a fairy disappear into a tiny house at the roots of the tree.

Her father, Sir Nevile Wilkinson, told Guendolen he would make her a dolls' house fit for a fairy queen, and Titania's Palace was the result.

In 1922 it was dedicated to crippled children and opened to the public by the late Queen Mary, who presented a tiny china teaset to Queen Titania!

Since then, the fairy palace has been taken on tour round the world and earned an enormous amount for charity. There are sixteen rooms built round a centre courtyard, and each one is filled with fabulous mini treasures, many made of gold and jewels by craftsmen, and others made by children like the quilt with Titania's royal crest on it which came from Belgium, and the cobweb fine, fairy scarf and mittens knitted by an Indian girl. She used sewing needles for the job. There's even a pair of tiny snowshoes for Titania which came from Canada, but so far the fairy queen hasn't visited her palace, although she may do so yet, because anything could happen at Wookey Hole!


Spellbound #37, 4 June, 1977

[helrunar]

I'm confused--how could one promote Wookey Hole and not mention the lair of the Cybermen, or the scrying-place of Herne the Hunter?? Still, lovely to see. The story of the Witch is so cool.

H.

[dem]

Gareth J. James [ed.] - Pieces of Mary #5 (Walsall, Staffs, 1988)

"... its great to have a 'zine concentrating on literature for a change." Interview with Ian Watson who reveals why there is no American edition of The Power, his disdain for the overrated likes of "Whitley Streiber, who is vulgar, and Peter Straub who is actually a clever clever American campus novelist impersonating a horror author", and why it took him so long to give horror fiction the time of day; Really Nasty ... the horror novel 'nasty' is a one page critique of the post-The Rats when animals attack/ chainsaw and guts boom (editor not a fan); The Devil Rides In: Dark Deeds in Horror Literature usual suspects; Wheatley, Blatty, Seltzer, St. Clair, de Felitta, etc.); Can Horror Films Seriously Damage Your Health? (editor doubts it); Cruisin' for a Bruisin' - macabre history of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand's 'killer car.' Reviews of Stephen Laws Spectre, Hutson's Relics, King's The Eyes of the Dragon, Bloch's Night World and 28th Book of pan Horror Stories. Also a 'zine round-up, short story by Mark Hockley, Pieces poll results, and Bad Mail from Shaun Hutson, James Herbert, Rob Webley, Ian Westbrook and Coetmor Pierce:

See also Clarence Paget

[helrunar]

Ian Watson, Shaun Hutson, Graham Masterson--sounds like essential Vault reading! All authors of whom I've never read a single title.

Intriguing that in the midst of all that, there's an article all about the Archduke Ferdinand's killer car. Imaginative editing!

I love these scans so much.

Thanks, 

Hel.

[helrunar]

"Fave victim," LOL. I'm trying to recall who Edwina Currie was. Some Tory dowager perhaps?

H.

[helrunar]

Currie was a Tory MP who resigned in 1988 during the salmonella-in-eggs controversy according to an online source. LOL. Her daughters are named Susie and Debbie. The things one reads on the interwebs. Currie is 75 years old now and no doubt out terrorising the countryside with brolly clenched in paw.

H.

[dem]

Gareth J. James [ed.] - Pieces of Mary #6 (Walsall, Staffs, 1989)

Interview with F. Paul Wilson and a few words with Clarence Paget; results of the Pieces top 30 horror novels poll (Stephen King in first, second and third place); Ian Westbrook asks "Can horror fiction seriously damage your health?" — he also contributes the issue's proto-flash fiction, The Tree; reviews of Robert McCammon's Swan Song, Stephen Laws' The Wyrm, Mendall Johnston's Let's Go Play at the Adams', Graham Masterton's Family Portrait, James Herbert's Haunted, Charles L. Grant's Tales from the Nightside and Dale Pierce's The Wind Blows Death. Bad mail - letters from Robert Brown, Roger Birchall and Ian Watson ("no one has done an anthology, have they, of church horrors?" He wasn't joking when he told Pieces that he'd only recently taken to reading this stuff). The Editor devotes a page to capsule reviews of the day's fear fanzines — Samhain, Bleeder's Digest, Imaginator, Raw Virus, Slash Hits, Whiplash Smile, Gore Gazette, Dark Movies and the German language Phantastische Zeiten — most, if not all of them film/ video nasty related, which makes it more of a shame that this appears to be Pieces of Mary's last stand.

John Gullidge [ed.] - Samhain #3 (Exeter, Devon, May/ June 1987)

Continued from the previous issue, More Terror Cross the Mersey; John Martin — the same fellow who contributed a handful of short psycho shockers to the mid-period Pan horrors? — concludes a lengthy interview with Ramsey Campbell. Kim Newman interviews Sam Raini and Bruce Campbell re the recently released Evil Dead II. Michael Slatter on the continued superbness of Mr. Alice Cooper and his contagious brand of Grand Guignol rock; Police 55 - The video nasties on Scotland Yard's hit list; This issue - Bogey Man and The Burning. Also a feature on the delights of gut-churning cannibal movies, the Films of David Lynch, Something to Scream About (readers' letters) and film, video, soundtrack and movie book reviews. Buried among the news items, a sadly prescient "Mary Whitehouse, Winston Churchill and co are now having a go at magazines (chiefly Fangoria) and comix and the fanzine scene, healthier now than it's ever been, may well come under attack. It would be nice if genre fans mounted some concerted opposition this time out. Any thoughts let us know."

[helrunar]

More gorgeous scans. Does "Mary" in Pieces of Mary refer to Whitehouse? An amusing conceit.

Samhain looks to have been a vigorous, even sprightly effort. Thanks so much for sharing these.

H.

[dem]

Thanks for sharing these, James. This was the occult mag God was looking for when he played us a surprise visit last October; Witchcraft.

May 4, 2022 13:04:44 GMT helrunar said:

More gorgeous scans. Does "Mary" in Pieces of Mary refer to Whitehouse? An amusing conceit.

It's named after Robert Ashley's gleefully horrible 'let's take apart a little girl and see how it works' story in 12th Pan Book of Horror Stories.

Alas, John Samhain Gullidge's fears of a moral crusade versus the fanzines were to be horribly realised ...

David Langford [ed.] - Ansible #80 (Reading, Berks, March 1994)

[andydecker]

May 5, 2022 6:30:57 GMT jamesdoig said:

I've picked up a few of these recently - a strange combination of serious articles and soft porn, usually with a naked spread in the middle of a woman being menaced by warlocks and suchlike:

Wonderful finds, James. Sometimes I envy you to have such opportunities for buying old stuff.

This is a really fascinating periodical. A shame that they never found their way to the Continent.

You have to love those made-up articles, even if at the time chances are the readers took it seriously. "I met her at that Santanic Party and we hit it off". Yeah, right. We all live in a Eric Ericson novel. What's to do on a lazy Saturday evening? Go to a Satanic Party and hope you don't end in one of those barrels under the cellar because you draw the line at sacrificing that baby or recognizing the Prime Minister.

[dem]

Sorry James, but have been asked by our hosts to remove the Witchcraft stuff.

ProBoards does not permit the posting of adult material. Your forum appears to be in violation of this policy.

We ask that you please remove all offending content from your forum within 48 hours.

Examples of offending content includes but may not be limited to:

vaultofevil.proboards.com/post/75822/thread

[jamesdoig]

May 6, 2022 10:10:56 GMT dem said:

Sorry James, but have been asked by our hosts to remove the Witchcraft stuff.

No problems, Kev - it is a tad offensive.