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Post by dem bones on Aug 15, 2014 14:47:44 GMT
Cryptozoology in Horror Fiction This thread was inspired by Nick Pope's 'Crytozoology Top Ten' in Paperback Fanatic 27, (the 'comics into paperbacks' special). Mr. Pope's selection included Peter Tremayne's Nicor! and The Curse Of Loch Ness, the Nel Bigfoot classics Snowman and Sasquatch, Terrence Dick's Dr. Who & The Loch Ness Monster, Robin Brown's Shark! (Sphere, 1983), F. W. Holiday's The Great Orm of Loch Ness (Faber, 1971), John Boston's Naked Came The Sasquatch (TSR Books, 1993), Charles Wilson's Extinct (Mandarin, 1997) and Bernard Heuvelman's On The Track Of Unknown Animals (Paladin, 1965). Should you locate all of the above and seek more of same, here's an alternate selection. admittedly, some might be considered borderline Novels (and a 'non-fiction' offering)Mike Jahn - Six Million Dollar Man: The Secret Of Bigfoot (Star, 1976). Initially the Bionic Man and the Sasquach from outer space don't hit it off, but with Southern California under threat of nuclear attack this is no time for playground squabbles ("my civilisation is better than your civilisation," etc.). Cyril Donson - Draco The Dragon Man (Nel, 1974). Sir Damon Draycot, master of potholing, encounters a lost subterranean tribe, returns to the surface a FEARSOME, HORRIBLE, OBSCENE MUTATION, i.e., a sex-crazed half man, half dragon who rips up and flame-grills the corpses of his victims. Ed & Lorraine Warren with Robert David Chase - Ghost Hunters: True Stories From The World's Most Famous Demonologists (Futura, 1990). Quite possible the 'Non-fiction' title I cherish above all others. The Warrens establish psychic contact with Bigfoot and Ed explains why the Loch Ness monster is "a creature of black magic." Also features a dynamic cameo from vault legend Jane 'Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman' Seymour. Dean Owen - Reptilicus. (Monarch, 1961). Mad boffins unleash enormous dinosaur on the world. Dean 'breasts are my business' Owen's steamy take on the terrifying monster movie so upset screenwriter Sid Pink he issued a law suit against the publisher. Pierce Nace - Eat Them Alive (Nel, 1977). Dyke Mellis and his oversized preying mantis private army versus, first the villains who double-crossed and castrated him, and second, mankind in its entirety. Cliff Twemlow - The Pike (Hamlyn, 1982). Actually, several 'when animals attack!' titles qualify, but this one .... I dunno, it just has the edge. A broken down hack enlists a team of volunteers to hunt the face-eating terror of Lake Windermere .... Thomas Page - Spirit (Hamlyn, 1979, 1981), An Abominable snowman is pursued through the Canadian wilderness by a thoroughly unpleasant big game hunter and an escaped mental patient. David J. Michael - Death Tour. (Nel, 1980). Someone flushed a baby alligator down the toilet. Old Man Malgen, a big shot at the local sewage plant, cultivates it as an attack pet to dispose of irritant college kids. The giant goldfish is not to be trifled with either. Peter Tremayne - The Morgow Rises (Sphere, 1982). Yet another sleepy Cornish village comes under attack after some old fool disturbs a colony of giant man-eating earthworms in the old copper mine. Hans Searls - Jaws 2 (Pan, 1978). Another great white shark takes a dislike to the good people of Amity and this time - she's pregnant. Included because Jaws II is probably the brainiest shark ever. Bob Martin
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Post by ripper on Aug 16, 2014 11:11:36 GMT
Dallas Tanner wrote a trio of books featuring cryptozoological creatures: Shadow of the Thunderbird, Track of the Bigfoot and Wake of the Lake Monster, each featuring the same central character.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 17, 2014 7:31:35 GMT
A mini-gallery Basil Copper – The Great White Space (Sphere, 1978) Terry Oakes Blurb: THE ULTIMATE HORROR Beyond the hideous Plain of darkness, past the terrifying secret city, deep within earth’s dank uncharted caverns, a monstrous hybrid race stood guard at the entrance to the great white space.
So it was that the Great Northern Expedition ventured into the horrors of a stupendously vast underground terrain, in search of the legendary opening to another universe, peopled by an unimaginable spawn of darkness…The much-missed Basil Copper's documentary, detailing Prof. Clark Ashton Scarsdale's heroic descent into the lost subterranean world of malevolent, giant slug-beings surely qualifies .... Peter Tremayne - The Curse Of Loch Ness (Sphere, 1979) Terry Oakes ... as do several of Peter Tremayne's genre novels, including this one, thank goodness, as you can't have a proper strange phenomena gallery minus the Loch Ness monster, it wouldn't be right at all. The Morgow Rises, Nicor!, Troll Night, Snowbeast, etc. Mr. Tremayne has a flair for taking basic B-movie fantasy & horror themes and sprucing them up with folklore and mythology. Norman Bogner - Snowman (Nel, 1979) David McAllister Look what some blinking rotter did to my copy of the Bogs' masterpiece! Mr. Nick Cave once similarly defaced the cover of my copy of groovy Henry's Dream album, but i don't think it was him this time. I don't have a copy of John Cotter & Judith Frankle's Nights with Sasquatch, (Berkley Medallion, 1977), and borrowed above scan from Bigfoot's blog, so thank you, Mr. Steven Streufert! "An Explosive Ordeal of Rape And Revenge Beyond Any Woman's Experience." By all accounts this his one is in very poor taste, but I suppose you have to let it go because it's got a good cover and anyway, it really happened. Rod Serling - More Stories From The Twilight Zone (Bantam, May 1982 [24th printing: originally April 1961) A chilling scene from The Odyssey of Flight 33 (artist uncredited) The Lonely Mr. Dingle, The Strong A Thing About Machines The Big, Tall Wish A Stop at Willoughby The Odyssey of Flight 33 DustBlurb: YOU CAN'T PLAN THINGS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE You might get on a plane bound for New York and find yourself trying to land in a field of grazing dinosaurs. You might sit down ready to pound your typewriter and find your typewriter pounding you. Or you might woo and win the only woman left on your planet only to discover that she runs on electronics. CHANCES ARE YOU WON'T EVER HAVE TO LIVE IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE. BUT YOU CAN DROP IN FOR A VISIT IF YOUR DARE!
MORE STORIES FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE BY ROD SERLING THE GRANDMASTER OF THE FANTASTICNot read this yet, but it has dinosaurs on the cover so you can't really go wrong. Themes include time-travel, a tragic love affair between man and automaton, and everyday appliances in mutiny. The Big, Tall Wish - a boxer busts his hand on the eve of his comeback fight - has 'sport is horror' potential. August Derleth (ed.) - The Night Side (4-Square 1966; originally Rinehart, 1947) Josh Kirby painting depicting a scene from Nelson Bond's The Mask Of Medusa. Gorgons. Gorgons are definitely Fortean material, as are several of these stories including those by H. P. Lovecraft, Henry Kuttner, John Metcalfe, H. F. Arnold and Henry A Norton.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 19, 2014 12:54:02 GMT
I love a good cryptozoology tale. Some personal choices:
Robert W. Chambers: In Search of the Unknown and Police!!! Chambers is more famous for The King in Yellow, and for good reason, but I have a soft spot for these somewhat silly books.
Sterling Lanier: The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes and The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes Not all of the stories in these collections are cryptozoological, if that's a word, but some of them are classics in the genre (such as "His Only Safari" and "Soldier Key")
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Post by dem bones on Aug 19, 2014 18:04:07 GMT
I love a good cryptozoology tale. Some personal choices: Robert W. Chambers: In Search of the Unknown and Police!!!Chambers is more famous for The King in Yellow, and for good reason, but I have a soft spot for these somewhat silly books. Sterling Lanier: The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes and The Curious Quests of Brigadier FfellowesNot all of the stories in these collections are cryptozoological, if that's a word, but some of them are classics in the genre (such as "His Only Safari" and "Soldier Key") Thank you for broadening my horizons, Messrs. ripper & brewer. Have read a few of Chambers' post- King In Yellow efforts - The Third Eye is insane - but Sterling Lanier and Dallas Tanner are new names on me. First thought was to try for some kind of Fortean-themed imaginary horror anthology until I realised it would be less time consuming to post a dirty great arrow directing dear reader to rest of board. n 1998, long before S. Cowell & Co hijacked the title, Guy N. Smith was interviewed about his ^investigations into the unknown" over three pages of Marshall-Cavendish part work The X Factor (issue #38). His pet subjects include UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, psychic research (he favours a pendulum), Lionel Fanthorpe and big cats, the latter being the subject of his novel Caracal (Nel, 1980). Even Slugs maestro Shaun Hutson has pitched in with The Skull and its evil spawn, Relics. Have yet to read any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, but we have it on good authority that they are rife with cryptozoological action. Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan And The Lion Man (Four Square, 1965) Blurb: `He wanted to scream and curse, yet he fought in silence. He wanted to cry out against the terror that engulfed him, but he made no sound. And so, in terror, he fought a thousand men.
But this one-sided battle could not go on for long. Slowly, by force of numbers, they closed upon him; they seized his ankles and his legs. With heavy fists he struck men unconscious with a single blow; but at last they dragged him down. And then ... ' Does the King of the Apes meet his match at last?
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 19, 2014 18:06:58 GMT
Have yet to read any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, but we have it on good authority that they are rife with cryptozoological action. Start with TARZAN THE TERRIBLE, the best of them and a veritable feast of cryptozoology.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Aug 19, 2014 18:30:41 GMT
Have yet to read any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, but we have it on good authority that they are rife with cryptozoological action. Start with TARZAN THE TERRIBLE, the best of them and a veritable feast of cryptozoology. Martian books with their strange beasts are also good. Many of the non theme books by Burroughs have strange beasts lurking around - mostly ape like creatures with a propensity for carrying off the heroine into the jungle - referred to as anthropoids.
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Post by mcannon on Aug 20, 2014 12:35:34 GMT
I love a good cryptozoology tale. Some personal choices: Robert W. Chambers: In Search of the Unknown and Police!!!Chambers is more famous for The King in Yellow, and for good reason, but I have a soft spot for these somewhat silly books. Sterling Lanier: The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes and The Curious Quests of Brigadier FfellowesNot all of the stories in these collections are cryptozoological, if that's a word, but some of them are classics in the genre (such as "His Only Safari" and "Soldier Key") The Ffellowes series is a particular favourite of mine - old-fashioned (in the best possible way) "Club Tales" of the Brigadier's fantastical adventures in various parts of the world. The series appeared in "The Magazine of Fantasy of Fantasy and Science Fiction" from the late 1960s through to the early '80s. It's a pity that they're not better known - to the best of my knowledge neither of the two collections was ever reprinted in paperback, although a few of the stories were anthologised several times. And yes, several of them certainly feature some odd beasties! BTW, belated Many Happy Returns to the Vault - may it fester for many more years!
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Post by dem bones on Aug 21, 2014 8:34:04 GMT
If Vault did themed fancy dress parties .... Lee Wright & Richard G. Sheehan (ed's.) - Wake Up Screaming: 16 Chilling Tales Of The Macabre (Bantam, Feb. 1967) "I am the fly/ I am the fly/ I am the fly/ I am the fly/ fly in the/ fly in the/ oint-ment ..." Some cracking cryto-fortean content in this one including George Langelaan's inspiration for our cover stars costume, The Saint's run in with 'The Man Who Liked Ants', a ghoulish when-frogs-get-mad revenge fantasy and Philip MacDonald's excellent low-budget version of The Birds. Don't know how I could've overlooked this crypto classic ... James Moffat - Queen Kong (Everest, 1977) Rod Serling's Triple W: Witches, Warlocks & Werewolves (Bantam, May 1963: 5th printing, Feb. 1967) Evidently funds were low at Bantam just then, hence the 'werewolf' having to make do with a chicken-man costume.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 11, 2014 9:37:28 GMT
Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yeti, Abominable Snowman, etc A modified and slightly extended version of the listing which appears in Scream Factory #16, so should you find this listing useful, the credit belongs to William D. Gaglian,Bob Morrish, Peter Enfantino & John Scoleri. NovelsMichael Waugh - The Mystery Of The Abominable Snowman (Cleveland Publishing [Australia], 1954). " Copies of this book are difficult, if not impossible, to locate, and nothing more is known about this one than its title." ( Scream Factory #16). M. V. Carey - Alfred Hitchcock And The Three Investigators #20: The Mystery Of Monster Mountain(Armada, 1974, 1980) Terrance Dicks - Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen (Target, 1974) Mike Kahn - Six Million Dollar Man: The Secret Of Bigfoot (Star, 1976) Thomas Page - The Spirit (Hamlyn, 1977) John Cotter & Judith Frankle, Nights With Sasquatch (Berkley, 1977). A 'non-fiction' I was an abominable snowman's unwilling loveslave kiss & tell expose. True, it takes two to tango, but in view of the Sasquatch's dignified silence, we wonder who really came out of this regretable affair the sorriest? M. E. Knerr - Sasquatch (Nel, Dec. 1978). Norman Bogner - Snowman (Dell, 1978, NEL 1979) Walter J. Sheldon - The Beast (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1980) Logan Winters (Paul J. Lederer) - Spectros #2: Hunt the Beast Down (Tower Books, 1981). Peter Tremayne - Snowbeast (Sphere Books 1983) Douglas Orgill & John Gribb - Brother Esau (TOR, 1984) James Howard Kunstler - The Hunt (TOR, 1987) Joseph Citro - The Unseen (Warner Books, 1990) John Boston - Naked Came the Sasquatch (TSR Books, 1993) Karen Marie Christy Minns- Calling Rain (Naiad Books, 1993). According to Scream Factory's editorial team, "A lesbian love story, in which primatologist Darden Stone has loved the legendary Bigfoot, and Nikki, a beautiful young woman, is determined to meet and love the woman whose discovery amazed the world." Michael Slade - Cutthroat (Nel, 1993) John Tigges - Monster (Leisure, 1995) ShortsH. Russell Wakefield - The Cairn ( Old Man’s Beard, Bles 1929) John Martin Leahy - In Amundsen's Tent ( Weird Tales, January, 1928). A borderline job, really, as these creatures of the snow hail from outer space and if you see one you go mad. They like decapitating people. William Sambot - Creature Of The Snow ( Saturday Evening Post, 29 Oct. 1960: Bill Pronzini [ed.] - Creature!:A Chrestomathy of "Monstery", Arbor House, 1981) Josef Nesvadba - In The Footsteps Of The Abominable Snowman (Gollancz, 1970). Erika Johansson - Some Like It Cold ('Linda Lovecraft' [ed.] More Devil's Kisses, Corgi, 1977). Richard Laymon - Barney's Bigfoot Museum (Bill Pronzini [ed.] - Creature!:A Chrestomathy of "Monstery", Arbor House, 1981) Joe R. Lansdale - Waziah (Bill Pronzini [ed.] - Creature!:A Chrestomathy of "Monstery", Arbor House, 1981)
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Post by Knygathin on Apr 7, 2020 9:45:16 GMT
This is my favorite of all Tarzan book covers. Tarzan visits a hidden geography somewhere east of Congo, and meets a black people whose skin is covered by short seal-like fur, with tails, and long finger-toes for climbing and grabbing.
I have one more of the Tarzans from Four Square Books, the first in the series, Tarzan of the Apes, Burroughs' masterpiece. It has absolutely wonderful cover art, but unfortunately I cannot find my scan for it. Tarzan the apeman stands high up on a branch, looking down on a party just arrived from Civilization stranding their rowboat on the beach; they have along a fat black maid, who is first to notice Tarzan up in the trees, with a horrified expression. Brilliant stuff.
And I almost forgot, the marvelous Tarzan At the Earth's Core, also a Four Square. Tarzan meets prehistoric monsters and fauna in the hollow Earth. Made a very vivid impression on me in my teens, and will I expect again.
The painter's name was Edward Mortelmans. A really lovely talent. Quintessential for these paperbacks.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 7, 2020 10:19:17 GMT
This one remains my favourite Tarzan painting (thanks to Craig for identifying the artist). Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan's Quest (Mark Goulden, London, n.d [1949]) J. Allen St. John
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Post by helrunar on Apr 7, 2020 13:43:47 GMT
J. Allen St John's Burroughs work is gorgeous. His Mars paintings are my favorites. Very different in every respect from Frazetta, whose male figures had a pornographic edge for me as a teen. Oddly, in St John's Wikipedia entry, both Roy Krenkel and Frazetta are described as "disciples" of St John. I can maybe see it in Krenkel, but not at all in Frazetta.
Vanguard press has a book of St John's fantasy paintings that's still available from online retail sites. Looks like a nice volume.
I was a major Burroughs fan for a period as a teen and read lots of Barsoom, Pellucidar and some of the Venus books, but for reasons I can't even recall now avoided the Tarzan series.
The finest Tarzan art I've seen has to be the work of Hal Foster. I checked out from the library back in the early 70s an adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes Foster did--it was republished in an attractively printed single volume with full color. Maybe around '74 or '75 I think, so mid 70s rather than early. Some of those panels, too, really rang my chimes. He had a beautiful mastery of the nude male figure. Gorgeous work.
H.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Apr 7, 2020 15:54:42 GMT
Oddly, in St John's Wikipedia entry, both Roy Krenkel and Frazetta are described as "disciples" of St John. I can maybe see it in Krenkel, but not at all in Frazetta. I can. In fact, it is obvious to me. It is hard to put into words, however.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 7, 2020 16:14:32 GMT
Another for the Loch Ness Monster file. John Collier - The Monster of the Deep: ( Nash’s Magazine, Apr. 1935: Peter Haining [ed.], Dungeons and Dragons, 1986).
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