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Post by dem bones on Aug 8, 2017 19:10:07 GMT
Robert Bloch - The Living Demons (Belmont, 1967: Sphere, 1973) Life In Our Time The Indian Spirit Guide Lucy Comes To Stay The Plot Is The Thing Underground The Beasts Of Barsac Philtre Tip The Unspeakable Betrothal Black Bargain The Girl From Mars Beauty's Beast Tell Your FortuneBlurb Monstrous Creatures are spawned in the nightmare land of macabre imagination found in such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft ... and the modern master ROBERT BLOCH. From the murky depths of the fiendish mind of Bloch emerge - fully grown and devilishly developed - the unhumans... ... Mere figments of imagination? Are you really willing to match wits with a mere wisp of phantom light that is satanically clever at wielding an axe? Or with a man who controls a machine capable of draining your soul from your body?
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Post by dem bones on Aug 10, 2017 6:58:43 GMT
"Thornwald was leading a dog's life because of his lust for Adrienne, but only a cur would have thought of such a plan."Philtre Tip: ( Rogue, March 1961). "The meerest droppe, if placed in a posset of wine or sack, will transforme ye beloved into a veritable bitche on heate." Mark Thornwald has big plans for Adrienne, but, infuriatingly, she remains faithful to her husband and his friend/ employee, Charles, a Professor of Medieval History. When Thornwald spitefully fixes it that Charles' contract at the University is terminated, the old boy casually refers him to a love potion referenced in Ludvig Prinn's proscribed Grimoire. Could this be his passport into Adrienne's knickers? Not if she first switches their glasses. Life In Our Time: ( Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Oct. 1966). Professor Harrison Cramer is entrusted with selecting appropriate items for preservation in a time capsule to be buried in the foundation of the new Humanities Building. As these must be "representative of our culture," Cramer enlists the help of his wife, Jill, an avid fan of TV soaps, popular music ( The Poodles Bark Again), trash fiction (Steve Slash spy paperbacks), Hell's Angels, and everything else Bloch despises about modern life. Jill's knowledge proves invaluable to the project. It's just a shame that the Professor has learnt of her affair with their handsome attorney, Rick. The Plot Is The Thing: ( MF&SF, July 1966). After undergoing a lobotomy courtesy of Dr. Crane, Peggy, a fan of macabre cinema, finds herself trapped in an ever-changing horror movie peopled by Jack the Ripper, Norman Bates, Dr. Hyde, Fu Manchu, Frankenstein's monster, Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, & Co. Terrified for her life, Peggy makes a break for the sanctuary of a tropical paradise on the South Seas. The natives call it Skull Island ... Underground: ( Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1967). Grim final moments of Nazi collaborator Erich Karon, formerly an actor in the Grand Guignol, currently masquerading as a vampire to scare the superstitious peasants away from Château Barsac. The following year, Peter Haining rechristened the story The Living Dead for inclusion in his vampire anthology, The Midnight People. Girl From Mars and, especially, Lucy Comes To Stay are also much anthologised.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 17, 2017 8:10:52 GMT
The Indian Spirit Guide: (Weird Tales, Nov. 1948). Meet Orlando Crown, famous ghost hunter and self-styled scourge of fraudulent mediums. After publicly exposing "Mrs. Hubbard" for the phoney he is, Crown is invited by a Mrs. Brewster - one of Hubbard's swizzed clients - to attend the incredible Mrs. Prinn's next seance. It's Crown's misfortune that this particular medium is the real deal, while her spirit guide, 'Little Hatchet," has a very low tolerance of sceptics.
The Beasts Of Barsac: (Weird Tales, July 1944). Dr. Jerome is invited to Castle Barsac which his old colleague, Sebastian Barsac, last of the family line, has converted into a laboratory worthy of the maddest MAD SCIENTIST. Barsac believes that, through a process of "mechanical hypnotism," he can transfer human characteristics to animals and has sacrificed countless rats, mice, guinea pigs and at least one monkey to the cause. Dr. Jerome realises from the first that his mentor has gone totally Garrity but his own desperate requirement for money in a hurry makes it worth his while to stick around. Barsac has confided he is not long for this world and, on his death, Jerome inherits everything!
The Unspeakable Betrothal: (Avon Fantasy Reader #9, 1949). From childhood, Avis Long, wannabe fairy tale princess, has dreamt of weird but seemingly benign entities from beyond who visit her nights via her bedroom window. When Avis very nearly sleepwalks over the ledge in pursuit of her weird friends, Aunt May and Uncle Roscoe seal the window. The dreams cease. She and childhood sweetheart Marvin Mason reach adulthood and plan for marriage.
With the deaths of her guardians, Avis inherits and has the boards removed. Dr. Clegg and Marvin are again concerned for her sanity, but Avis no longer cares what they think. The Old Ones have promised she can join them - all it will require is a trifling sacrifice .....
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Post by andydecker on Aug 17, 2017 9:07:46 GMT
I always marvel how different the early Bloch and the later Bloch are. He really broke the mould.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 17, 2017 12:31:24 GMT
Nice reviews, Dem. "The Indian Spirit Guide" was dramatized as an episode of the Hammer studios series Journey to the Unknown back in 1968.
Interesting that he re-used the setting of Chateau/Castle Barsac.
Very trippy cover on that paperback. Gorgeous!
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2017 8:54:14 GMT
I always marvel how different the early Bloch and the later Bloch are. He really broke the mould. Nice reviews, Dem. "The Indian Spirit Guide" was dramatized as an episode of the Hammer studios series Journey to the Unknown back in 1968. Interesting that he re-used the setting of Chateau/Castle Barsac. Very trippy cover on that paperback. Gorgeous! cheers, H. Someone may yet oblige with a scan of the Sphere photo cover which is fairly trippy in its own right (don't have a copy). Have had this one for years via the Fantasy Centre. Read it through aeons back, and, while I was very fond of the stories I'd previously read, didn't think that much of the collection as a whole. These last few weeks I've needed SOMETHING to kick start me out of a rut and revisiting a Bloch collection seemed as good a bet as any. It's been fun. Very telling that the curmudgeonly Life In Our Time was written - or, at least, first published - the previous year. Philtre Tip is pretty much typical of his work for the men's mags. The Plot Is The Thing - to these eyes a variation on Talent - made the cut for The Best Of Robert Bloch over The Indian Spirit Guide, Beasts of Barsac (great fun) and The Unspeakable Betrothal (great title, told relatively straight, too) all of which I prefer. Underground and The Girl From Mars have stayed with me since first acquaintance in Peter Haining's The Midnight People and The Freak Show respectively. Have particularly fond memories of the latter as I first read it one evening back to back with August Derleth's Carousel in 'The Sir John Falstaffe,' a particularly pleasant pub on Canon Street Road circa late 'nineties. Needless to say, the Falstaffe has long since been converted into a block of 'luxury flats.'
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Post by johnnymains on Aug 19, 2017 9:59:07 GMT
There you go, Dem
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Post by dem bones on Aug 19, 2017 10:40:32 GMT
Thanks, uh, Primrose, but that's Fevre Dream. LaterThis is the one. Was first posted way back on Vault Mk I (which seems to have vanished yet again) but apologies, I can't remember who by.
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Post by johnnymains on Aug 19, 2017 12:25:05 GMT
Ha, the book was right next to it! How the hell did I fuck up so badly?
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Post by helrunar on Aug 19, 2017 13:08:06 GMT
Cool.
I wonder if there's a thread here somewhere for the "Sphere Occult" series...
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 19, 2017 13:42:17 GMT
Cool. I wonder if there's a thread here somewhere for the "Sphere Occult" series... cheers, H. There was one on Vault Mk I, but our archive has again gone missing in action. Titles included Bloch's The Living Demons, Tales In A Jugular Vein, Fever Dream (shared with Bradbury), a J. Sheridan Le Fanu selection ( The Best Horror Stories), and Kurt Singer's The Oblong Box, Plague Of The Living Dead The Day Of The Dragon and House In The Valley anthologies, and Ray Russell's The Case Against Satan and Unholy Trinity. There may have been a few more but not many as I think the 'Sphere Occult' logo was dropped after 1970-71 (?) though the company continued to publish some amazing horror & supernatural fiction through the 'eighties (and probably after). Will try dig out the relevant issue of Paperback Fanatic (#3, I think: the first to go under that name) as it was Justin's article on the ten or so books inspired the thread.
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Post by johnnymains on Aug 19, 2017 13:44:27 GMT
Anyone notice Nastassja Kinski on the left hand side of the cover?
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Post by johnnymains on Aug 19, 2017 15:38:46 GMT
Sadly my CASE AGAINST SATAN is a much later reprint, and has dropped the branding. I also have John Blackburn's BURY HIM DARKLY somewhere - with the GREATEST cover ever, but I'll be buggered if I can find it at the moment...
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Post by helrunar on Aug 19, 2017 16:37:05 GMT
Many thanks, Dem, for that very interesting info about the line/series, and to Primrose Hildebrand for the juicy photos!
I'd never even heard of this publisher... will have to check google as I am curious now.
I don't think I'm the only one in this desolate realm who finds himself beguiled by a particular publisher's editions of a favorite writer's work. One of my life goals now (at age 59) is to collect the Panther paperback editions of Simon Raven's ALMS FOR OBLIVION novel sequence. And I might just move on to the SUMURU editions they did (from the Sax Rohmer series, in the Sixties), but I think the latter can be pricey online which is my only option for purchasing UK paperbacks. (Though I do occasionally stumble upon them over here in moments of sheer serendipity.)
H.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 19, 2017 16:39:27 GMT
What's the year, Primrose, on that book? Nastassja K was born in 1961 so if the book is from 1970 or '71, I think it is several years too early to have been her in the photo.
Thanks again for the excellent photos!
H.
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