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Post by dem bones on Apr 29, 2015 8:14:27 GMT
...... with a few Carney sideshows thrown in ...John Drew Tragedy on a trapeze, ex-lion tamers, human cannonball disasters, scary clowns, revolting freaks, etc. Recommended anthologies: Peter Haining, [ed], The Freak Show, and to a slightly lesser extent, both versions of his Dr. Caligari's Black Book. Short stories: Dagney Major - Children Of Bondage. (Christine Campbell Thomson [ed], Gruesome Cargoes, Selwyn & Blount, 1928: Vault Advent Calendar, 2011). A E Coppard - Silver Circus. ( Silver Circus, Jonathan Cape, 1928: Michael Sissons [ed.], The Masque of the Red Death, Panther, 1964) Lady Eleanor Smith - Satan's Circus. ( Weird Tales, Oct. 1931; Evening Standard Book Of Strange Stories, Hutchinson, 1934: Peter Haining [ed.], Dr. Caligari's Black Book, W. H. Allen, 1968) Tod Robbins - Spurs. ('Charles Lloyd' [ed.], Creeps, Philip Allen, 1932: Peter Haining [ed.] The Freak Show, Corgi 1971: originally c. 1920) Charles Lloyd [Birkin] - The Harlem Horror. ('Charles Lloyd' [ed.], Creeps, Philip Allen, 1932: Peter Haining [ed.] Dr. Caligari's Black Book, Nel, 1969) Charles Cullum - Queer. ('Charles Lloyd' [ed.] Quakes, Philip Allen, 1933) Phyllis Bottome - Henry. ( Evening Standard Book Of Strange Stories, Hutchinson, 1934) S.L. Dennis - The Second Awakening of a Magician. ( Evening Standard Book Of Strange Stories, Hutchinson, 1934: Peter Haining [ed.] Dr. Caligari's Black Book, W. H. Allen, 1968) A. E. Coppard - The Tiger. ( The Mammoth Book Of Thrillers, Ghosts & Mysteries, Odhams, 1936) Charles Cullum - Scarred Mirror. (Christine Campbell Thomson, [ed.], Nightmare By Daylight, Selwyn & Blount, 1936). Donald Graham - Revolt Of The Circus Freaks. ( Horror Stories, October-November, 1938) Arthur J. Burks - Tiger Pit. ( Thrilling Mystery, November 1938; reprinted in Robert Weinberg (ed.) Weird Menace #6: Dance Of The Skeletons, Robert Weinberg, 1980) Donald Graham - Revelry In Hell. ( Uncanny Tales, Apr-May 1939): reprinted to Robert Weinberg [ed], Pulp Classics#3: Uncanny Tales, Robert Weinberg, 1974) John L Benton - Clown of Doom. ( Popular Detective, June, 1945) Oscar Williams - The Dance of Death. ( The Dance of Death & Other Stories, Morris Books 1947) Winston Graham - The Circus. (Denys Val Baker [ed.] Stories Of The Macabre, Kimber, 1976: Mary Danby [ed.] Realms Of Darkness, Octopus/ St. Michaels, 1985) Ray Bradbury - The Black Ferris. ( Weird Tales, May, 1948: Damon Knight [ed.], The Dark Side, Corgi, 1967)
Ray Bradbury - The Illustrated Man. (Groff Conklin [ed.], In The Grip Of Terror, Permabooks, 1951. Herbert Van Thal [ed.], 8th Pan Book Of Horror Stories, 1967) Robert Bloch - Girl From Mars. ( Fantastic Adventures, March, 1950; Peter Haining [ed.] The Freak Show, Corgi 1971) John Wyndham - Jizzle. ( Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1952: Jizzle, Four Square, 1962: Peter Haining [ed.] The Freak Show, Corgi 1971) Ray Bradbury - The Dwarf. ( Fantastic, January-February 1954: Peter Haining [ed.] The Freak Show, Corgi 1971) Charles G. Finney - The Circus Of Dr. Lao. (Ray Bradbury [ed.], The Circus Of Dr. Lao & Other Improbable Stories, Bantam, 1956) Cornell Woolrich - If The Dead Could Talk. ( The Saint Mystery Magazine, April 1964). Charles Birkin - The Cornered Beast. ( The Smell Of Evil, Tandem, 1965) Robert Bloch - Double Whammy. (Richard Davis [ed.] - The Year’s Best Horror Stories, Sphere, 1971). Robert Bloch - The Animal Fair. (Richard Davis [ed.] - The Year’s Best Horror Stories 2, Sphere, 1972) Robert E. Lory - Put On A Deadly Face. ( More Tales Of The Frightened, (Pyramid. 1975) Eddy C. Bertin - Something Small, Something Hungry. (W. Paul Ganley [ed], Weirdbook #13, 1978: David A. Sutton [ed], The Whispering Horror, Shadow, 2013) Sydney J Bounds - The Circus. (Mary Danby [ed.], The 13th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories, 1980). Not, on any account, to be confused with the same author's The Haunted Circus (Mary Danby [ed.], Armada Ghost 9, 1977, The Green Ghosts & Others, etc.) Ken Johns - Mumsy And Sonny. (Herbert Van Thal [ed], 21st Pan Book Of Horror Stories, 1980) Ruth Cameron - Dolly. (Herbert Van Thal [ed], 21st Pan Book Of Horror Stories, 1980) There must be a good many more. As ever, all suggestions, corrections welcome.
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Post by bobby on Apr 29, 2015 23:06:37 GMT
Robert Bloch (as "Nathan Hindin") "Fangs of Vengeance" (Weird Tales, April 1937; reprinted in Flowers from the Moon and Other Lunacies, Arkham House, 1998)
Robert Bloch (as "Nathan Hindin") "Death is an Elephant" (Weird Tales, February 1939; reprinted in Flowers from the Moon and Other Lunacies, Arkham House, 1998)
Stephen King "The Night of the Tiger" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1978; reprinted in The Best Horror Stories from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Edward L. Ferman and Anne Jordan, 1988)
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Post by dem bones on Apr 30, 2015 21:52:05 GMT
Welcome, Bobby. Thank you for the additions. A few more, some more circusy than others; Alan Nelson - Professor Pfaff's Last Recital: ( Cosmopolitan, June 1946: August Derleth [ed], The Night Side, Rinehart, 1947, Four Square, 1966). Fredric Brown - Big-Top Doom ( Ten Detective Aces, March 1941) Fredric Brown - The Freak Show Murders ( Street & Smith's Mystery Magazine, May 1943) Ramsey Campbell - The Companion (Kirby McCauley [ed.], Frights, St. Martins, 1976). A derelict funfair. Close enough? NovelsObsessed by a burning desire to create beauty from ugliness he probed deeper and deeper into the mysteries of surgery using the living as guinea pigs for his sinister experiments. "See it and gasp!"I'm struggling to come up with circus themed horror/ supernatural novels. Can only vouch for the first pair, as they're the only two I've read in past ten years. Ted Willis - Man-Eater (Pan, 1977) Mark Morris - Vampire Circus (Hammer, 2002) Tom Owen - Circus Of Horrors (Panther, 1960) Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bantam, 1963) 'Owen West' - The Funhouse (Sphere, 1981) Christine Sparks - The Elephant Man (Futura, 1980) Richard Laymon - The Travelling Vampire Show (Headline, 2000) We've not had one for a while so here's a Vault diabolical download. John L Benton's Clown of Doom, featuring crack homicide detective Ed Rice.
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Post by bobby on May 1, 2015 0:22:00 GMT
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Post by dem bones on May 23, 2015 10:54:34 GMT
Some more: Charles G. Finney - The Circus Of Dr. Lao: (Viking, 1955). Short novel, reprinted in Ray Bradbury's The Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories, (Bantam, 1956) The ancient Chinese, Dr. Lao, and his colourful troupe, who include a mermaid, a satyr, a were-bear, a giant sea monster, a "vegetable dog"- and Satan himself, descend on Abalone, Arizona to play havoc with the lives and minds of the disgruntled residents, leaving a trail of quivering chaos in their wake. The F. Paul Wilson-edited theme anthology cum multi-authored novel, Freak Show (Pocket, 1992), is not without circus acts, though the traditional performers are effortlessly upstaged by the Oddity Emporium all-stars. Gerald Kersh - Carnival On The Downs ( Men Without Bones, Heinemann, 1955). Wettendene, 1904. Jolly Jumbo, bent circus proprietor, and negligent Dr. MacVitie, abandon a crippled acrobat and his fever-stricken wife to die in Wagnall's Barn. Each August 14th, the ghosts of the above - supplemented by Dot, the performing poodle - re-enact the shameful episode. Yaiza Marrero-Shepherd - Clowns: ( Graveyard Rendezvous #39, Summer 2011). Faye is terrified of the toy clowns her mum picked up at a jumble sale, especially when the little ceramic-headed bastards recite doggerel detailing what they're going to do with her, and "it will really hurt." It does, too! John Leon Byrne - Satan Is The Ringmaster: ( Dime Mystery, Sept. 1937). Don't have a copy, but would not be the least surprised if story is heavy on gratuitous whiplash action. Was there a novelization of mid-sixties circus horror flick, Berserk!? If not, there really should have been.
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Post by bobby on Oct 18, 2015 22:56:22 GMT
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Post by bobby on Oct 18, 2015 23:08:41 GMT
Cover of Tales from the Crypt #32
The cover story in this issue, "Squash, Anyone?", has a circus elephant trainer using his elephant act to dispose of his wife after he finds a new lover. Ordinarily he would command the elephant to stop lowering its foot over his lying-down wife before she is harmed, but this time he doesn't. His wife is killed, and the elephant is destroyed. But the story doesn't end there... www.icollectcomicart.com/appraise/SoldImages/6561071945.JPG (I'm guessing that the inspiration for this story was Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth, which does have a scene in which the elephant trainer tries to dispose of the woman who performs with him like that. But of course in this version the ringmaster puts a stop to it before she is harmed.)
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Post by dem bones on Oct 18, 2015 23:30:11 GMT
(The lead story in Vault of Horror #21, "One Last Fling!", is also about a husband-and-wife knife-throwing act, but that's about all I can remember about it.) It's a sad one. Olga's a vampire, it's not her fault, and she dearly loves husband Harry. Just her luck that he's not the understanding type. Eddy C. Bertin - Something Small, Something Hungry: (W. Paul Ganley [ed.], Weirdbook #13, 1978). "The phantom of nameless fear, and the resulting anger at anything and anyone at all, began slowly to spread over the circus grounds like a parasitic slug. Nerves were brought to breaking point, resulting in small fights for silly reasons, in curses and bad work, and in many silent prayers to five different gods."
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Post by bobby on Oct 18, 2015 23:36:53 GMT
From Haunt of Fear #5: anintrotohorror.blogspot.com/2013/02/horror-in-freak-tent.html ("The Freaks" in Weird Fantasy #22 is also about the owners of a freak show who treat their freaks cruelly, to the point that "Dog Boy" commits suicide. But these cruel owners end up getting teleported to the future where, because of nuclear war, everyone has mutated, and the Earthmen from the past are the "freaks" who get put on display.)
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Post by bobby on Oct 18, 2015 23:48:54 GMT
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