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Post by pulphack on Dec 8, 2014 13:38:44 GMT
The Favenc was a great piece of writing - and for the early 1900's was, like Edgar Wallace's work, incredibly streamlined. Which, as you say, was the journalistic training. Odd how 'cheap' newsprint training forged a leaner style that has become the literary norm. Did I say norm? Not if you're Hugh Orford (or going by that name for your own safety) - what a delirious tale. Was it me, or did some of it not make sense? All the 'better' for it, too. Great stuff so far from Dem on editorial duties and Chrissie on graphics (spot the difference with the old illos for the Orford!).
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Post by dem bones on Dec 8, 2014 14:42:12 GMT
The Favenc was a great piece of writing - and for the early 1900's was, like Edgar Wallace's work, incredibly streamlined. Which, as you say, was the journalistic training. Odd how 'cheap' newsprint training forged a leaner style that has become the literary norm. Did I say norm? Not if you're Hugh Orford (or going by that name for your own safety) - what a delirious tale. Was it me, or did some of it not make sense? All the 'better' for it, too. Great stuff so far from Dem on editorial duties and Chrissie on graphics (spot the difference with the old illos for the Orford!). I love Hugh Orford's story - and Oriol Bath's illustrations. Plastic Horror would not have been out of place in a pre-war Weird Tales which ain't bad going for a story (presumably) written in 1971. The Ernest Favenc is pure doom-laden class. James is right: he really should be better known. I'm very lucky in that I've only relatively recently entered the world of pulps and classic old short stories like these, with the possible exception of a few of the old sci-fi Planet Stories and the like. Fantastic stuff. That's lovely. It is there to be enjoyed, and I'm sure you'll get a thrill from the contemporary selections, an eclectic mix if ever was. Truly, we've been blessed! Stay tuned for more proper horror! My bashful bride has asked me to say thank you for your kind comments.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 8, 2014 19:01:16 GMT
KC - so sorry to hear this! I wish you a full and fast recovery.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 8, 2014 19:31:06 GMT
My last checkup went well and I see them again in January and then for years to come should all go well. Great that you're doing well, KC!
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 8, 2014 19:38:22 GMT
Great illustration! Favenc died not long after the story was published, in May 1905. He suffered from alcoholism for much of his life and had to be hospitalised a few times - I sometimes wonder if "What the Rats Brought" was inspired by a nasty dose of the DTs.
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Post by killercrab on Dec 9, 2014 0:15:12 GMT
Thanks for the well wishes guys!
KC
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Post by pulphack on Dec 9, 2014 6:20:51 GMT
I'm not sure about the drawings for the Orford - they're a bit like those cheap reprint comics, or really cheapo Gerald Swan annuals from the forties. But do not mistake my confusion for not liking the story - it was, as you say, like a throwback to the '30's. It's just that I had to read some sentences several times and was still not a hundred percent clear. Possibly those who read my posts will have a similar feeling. It was delirious, like Lionel Fanthorpe subbing to Weird Tales. This is the first year I've actually taken the time to read all these stories as I go along, and I think I might go back and catch up on the past few years now...
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Post by dem bones on Dec 9, 2014 7:17:02 GMT
I'm not sure about the drawings for the Orford - they're a bit like those cheap reprint comics, or really cheapo Gerald Swan annuals from the forties. But do not mistake my confusion for not liking the story - it was, as you say, like a throwback to the '30's. It's just that I had to read some sentences several times and was still not a hundred percent clear. Possibly those who read my posts will have a similar feeling. It was delirious, like Lionel Fanthorpe subbing to Weird Tales. This is the first year I've actually taken the time to read all these stories as I go along, and I think I might go back and catch up on the past few years now... Oh yeah, I got that you liked Plastic Horror, Mr. Hack! " ...like Lionel Fanthorpe subbing to Weird Tales" nails it. Thing is, there are at least some among our contemporary authors whose work could just as easily slot into Weird Tales or Strange Tales (they'd maybe be a little too spicy for the "spicies"): I can pay no higher compliment. If you fancy playing catch-up - and I hope many do - there's a handy checklist with direct links on p.1 of this thread. Treats a-plenty. I swear on my Crabs Moon fridge-magnet. And speaking of the "unique magazine"; Day nine belongs to H. R. Wakefield with a macabre short which, to the best of my knowledge, has yet to be included in any collection. Where the sprightly Ghost Hunt is a sequel to his first and perhaps most famous ghost story, Woe Water ( Weird Tales, July 1950) reads - to me - like a hideous variation on the original - with added misogyny, a barking narrator and a spectacularly nasty spectral zombie.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 9, 2014 10:32:33 GMT
Woe Water, excellent
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Post by dem bones on Dec 10, 2014 6:39:27 GMT
Day Ten. Enter Vault & friends, the contemporary authors. Russ Nicholson illustration for Ne Resurgat in A Graven Image and Other Essex Ghost Stories, Haunted Library, 1985. " Mary Ann Allen is a rather mysterious, reclusive figure who, in the course of one year - 1980 - wrote ten ghost stories, all involving Jane Bradshawe, church restorer. She had never written any fiction before that, and she has not written any since. What's more, she claims that she will never produce any more." So writes Rosemary Pardoe of Ghosts & Scholars fame in her introduction to Ms. Allen's The Angry Dead (Crimson Altar Press, 1986), and I can confirm that locating the author is the devil's own job! Miss Allen's home address is a closely guarded secret known to the very few. The good lady has no internet presence. Indeed, were it not for Ro graciously agreeing to intervene on our behalf, we would have been unable to secure Mary Ann's kind permission to reprint the following grisly ghost story. We are also indebted to Russ Nicholson who has generously allowed us to reproduce his striking illustration. I recommend you visit his lovely on-line gallery! Following publication of the Crimson Altar Press booklet, Ms. Allen had a change of heart and returned to the genre, albeit very briefly, and an expanded, hardcover The Angry Dead was published by Richard H Fawcett in 2000.
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Post by ripper on Dec 10, 2014 9:58:59 GMT
Nice to see a story by Mary Ann being included in the calendar. I missed her collection, so it is always a pleasure when one of her tales turns up so unexpectedly.
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Post by pulphack on Dec 10, 2014 11:17:17 GMT
What a splendid couple of days... yesterday was superb, and today was such a perfect vignette. Also, a very good choice to transition from old to new, the Dem editorial eye sure and steady.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 10, 2014 12:47:15 GMT
What a splendid couple of days... yesterday was superb, and today was such a perfect vignette Nice to see a story by Mary Ann being included in the calendar. I missed her collection, so it is always a pleasure when one of her tales turns up so unexpectedly. Colin P. Langeveld Ne Resurgat has stuck with me for more years than I care to dwell upon. Without being remotely like it in plot, the story has a similar nightmare feel to H. B. 'Ethel' Marriott Watson's The Devil Of The Marsh (or so it seems to me). Some Christmas's back, was fortunate enough to bag copies of the Crimson Altar Press booklet and Dark Dreams #6 (featuring Ms. Allen's The Cambridge Beast) from Charing X Road's Murder One (R.I.P.), while The Sheelagh-na-gig resurfaced in Mark Valentine's The Black Veil and Other Tales of Supernatural Sleuths from our old friends, Wordsworth editions. At time of writing, there are still a few copies of the hardcover Angry Dead available on Amazon, but a paperback edition would be most welcome!
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Post by dem bones on Dec 11, 2014 6:13:30 GMT
Day eleven, and we're delighted to showcase a second Ghosts & Scholars contributor (he's written for a couple of other publications, too). "The idea for this anthology first came to me some years ago when I was still at school" wrote Michel Parry in his introduction to the following story in Beware Of The Cat (Gollancz, 1972). "In fact, I can remember drawing up a list of possible stories in class, from behind the cover of a third form maths textbook. At the time I wrote to another schoolboy, an aspiring author, asking for a suitable story. He politely pointed out that I lacked the wherewithal to finance such an ambitious project." But not for long. Come the early 'seventies, Michel Parry was working as a bookreader for Anthony Cheetham at Sphere. Mr. Cheetham suggested he come up with ideas for books of his own, so Michel mentioned the still-born ferocious feline project. Cheetham didn't think it appropriate for Sphere but offered to act as his agent and duly sold the book to Gollancz. "When Daphne DuMaurier declined my invitation to write a cat story especially for the collection, I was able to commission an original story from my long-time correspondent, Ramsey Campbell." *He would commission several more. Several of the censor-bothering stories collected as Scared Stiff :Tales of Sex and Death premièred in the Parry-edited Devil's Kisses, More Devil's Kisses (Corgi, 1976-77) and various numbers of the six-volume Mayflower Books of Black Magic (1976-77), while Michel took the male lead in Ramsey's supernatural horror short, The Second Staircase ( Demons By Daylight, Arkham House, 1973; Star, 1975). Ramsey's Beware Of The Cat contribution has since resurfaced in Stephen Jones & Jo Fletcher (eds.) Gaslight & Ghosts (Robinson, 1988), Ramsey's collection Strange Things & Stranger Places (Tor, 1993), and now, the 5th Vault advent calendar! Special thanks to my lovely proof-reader and, of course, to Ramsey for allowing us to reprint his strange and horrible story. Watch out for the lugubrious estate agent, a man so miserable in his work he simply has to have been drawn from life. * Justin Marriott, The Kiss Of The Devil, Pulpmania! [aka Paperback Fanatic #1], Hot Cherry, 2006)
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 11, 2014 8:44:27 GMT
Excellent by Mr Campbell. Reminiscent slightly of P.K. Dick
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