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Post by dem on Jan 7, 2008 19:34:27 GMT
Formerly 'A Gothic Fix'Another oldie, resurrected from a dead bad 'zine. Don't know what I was on in '98 but I could use some nowUdolpho (Vol 35, Winter1998) Rest in Peace, Last Bites, Melancholia, Reluctant Agony - the titles intimate that the patient has seen sprightlier moments, and but a cursory peak at editor Jennie Gray's Funeral Oration confirms that, sadly, the current, 35th volume of the magnificent Udolpho is also the last. Worse, the Gothic Society are now at one with the bleeding nuns and rotting revenants they've so delighted in terrifying us with over the past nine years! Judging by the correspondence we've received, the general consensus is that its passing will leave the mother of all gaping black holes in the lives of a great number of phantasmagoriacally inclined people, and you can certainly count us amongst that number. And yet, in a way I'm glad it didn't stick around long enough to become fat and lazy and live off its former glories. Too many publications malinger for years after the initial spark of creativity has long been extinguished and they are, to all intents and purposes, if not technically dead then certainly leaning toward premature putrefaction, There is much to be said for bowing out at the height of one's powers and it's evident from what we now know to be the final three issues that Udolpho did just that. It seems unfair to name-check a few personal favourite contributions from #30 onwards, but I will anyway. To give you some inkling of the cheery souls who prowl these glossy pages, over the years we've gone toe-to-toe with not only Dracula, Sir Francis Varney, Frankenstein's monster, Quasimodo, Ambrosio the Monk and any other fictional fiend you care to mention, but their real-life counterparts; Marauding Resurrectionists, mad medics whose miracle cures decimate their waiting lists, big blood-sucking leper fan Marcel Schwob and his impressive circle of back-stabbing admirers and name-droppers, La Bete ("Makes the Hound of the Baskervilles look like a poodle") and plenty of vampire nastiness to wash it all down with. Recent highlights include Daniel Richler's unflinchingly impartial (and therefore, wonderfully bitchy) account of an ill-starred Dracula Centenary Convention in Transylvania featuring cameo appearances from all manner of vampire luminaries, aficionados and crackpots [Vol. 30]; Jan Bondeson on the tragedy of a nondescript mother and son whose mummified remains were haggled over by unscrupulous Freak Show proprietors and sent on a comeback tour of Scandinavia a century after their deaths [Vol. 32]; An account of the grisly Red Barn murder and subsequent eerie developments ; Editor Jennie Gray's report on a series of nocturnal nuisance calls endured by her Answerphone when an article didn't meet with the approval of the self appointed Vampire Police [Vol. 30]; and My Favourite Gothic where-in the readers put the case for their particular raves from the grave. Paul Murray weighs in with a fine essay on the beauty and horror in the writings of Lafcadio Hearn, whose Haceldama, a graphic depiction of slaughterhouse barbarity and blood-drinking consumptives, continues to turn stomach's a century after it was written. Theresa Taylor's article on Elizabeth Bathory scores highly in that for once it doesn't read as if the author/ess has condensed the spicier passages from Valentine Penrose's The Bloody Countess and passed the result off as all-my-very-own-original-research. There's Ian James Mead's reappraisal of a seventeenth century astrologer and the same author's account of a descent into a haunted Victorian railway tunnel: Andrew Phelvin investigates Salem-era folk magic and the grim Uncle Gustav's who sought to stomp out its practitioners; at various points in the proceedings we're given crash courses in both D-I-Y decadence and the fostering of half dead owls, handy tips on how to rid oneself of unwanted vampires, the editors aforementioned, cheerfully misanthropic Funeral Oration, arguably the finest kiss-off a body has given their magazine since Thomas Strauch took spectacular leave of Children Of The Night ... Instructive, stylish, witty and insanely entertaining, Udolpho departs this life leaving behind a beautiful corpse, the most glamorously attired mourners ever to be set loose on a dilapidated graveyard, and a legacy that will take some beating.
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Post by dem on May 5, 2008 17:04:53 GMT
The Goth # 12 (Gargoyle's Head Press: June, 1993)  Phiz
Sir Ansley Cooper - Lecture from The Lancet, 1823
Franklin Bishop - Danse Macabre
John Harrison & Christopher Kennard - The Neurological Boundaries Of Reality
Steven Valdemar - Between The Hours Of 9 And 11
Editor's Letter
Members Letters: Ramsey Campbell, Raymond Deane, Charles Kewin, Ian Morland, Shirley Williamson
Opinions: Duncan Barford on Coppola's Dracula
Ramsey Campbell - The Colour Out Of Space
William Austin - Peter Rugg: The Missing Man (Part II)
Memento Mori
The Diary Of Lady J. The classic "body-snatchers" issue, full of stomach-churning Victorian surgery madness! Ramsey Campbell's letter and article are in response to a HPL-bashing item by the editor in the previous issue and it's fair to say that sometimes the book reviews provoked 'controversy'. Imagine my delight when I exhumed #11 and saw that Gerald Suster had written in, complaining about the treatment of his The Truth About The Tarot: "Byron would've taken a horsewhip to Mr. Reviewer on account of the latter's flagrant dishonesty, dishonour and fatuous twittering, but this would have been a waste of leather" .... and on, and on, and on ... I really must revisit these in some detail, however much you scream.
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Post by lovecraftian on Dec 17, 2016 15:29:42 GMT
Ah Happy Days!
I was the reviewer who got Mr Suster all worked up, and the person who defended HPL in issue 11. It was a lot of fun back then! Thanks for the post.
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Post by dem on Dec 18, 2016 15:15:52 GMT
Ah Happy Days!
I was the reviewer who got Mr Suster all worked up, and the person who defended HPL in issue 11. It was a lot of fun back then! Thanks for the post.
Ah, lovely to 'meet' you after all this time, Mr. Lovecraftian, and congratulations on escaping your brush with Mr. Suster! Did he come back to you after your riposte to his riposte in #12? Can only agree that the Gothic Society experience was most certainly a lot of - very mischievous - fun. Particularly fond memories of the first GS meeting - in the Reptile House at London Zoo, obviously - and one where the massed ranks of the morbid took over a pub over (I think) Greenwich way after the entire area had cordoned off beforehand due to a bomb scare. Was delighted to learn recently that Lady Goth has since gone on to receive a doctorate in WWII history. |
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Post by lovecraftian on Dec 23, 2016 18:07:18 GMT
Hi and thank you for the reply, good to 'meet' indeed. I heard no more from Mr Suster. When the Editor declared the published correspondence closed, we did not continue any private exchanges. I was glad of that mercy.
I was pleased to hear about the award of the doctorate this year too. There was a lot of talent involved in the Gothic Society and it's god to think that its luminaries have gone on to achieve much more besides. |
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Post by dem on Dec 23, 2016 21:41:53 GMT
Hi and thank you for the reply, good to 'meet' indeed. I heard no more from Mr Suster. When the Editor declared the published correspondence closed, we did not continue any private exchanges. I was glad of that mercy. Ah, there's more about the episode here; Gerald Suster - The OfferingIt's for the best that Lady Goth canned it before things got too out of hand. There were a few heated exchanged down the years. Amusing for the readers, not quite so for the participants, and the novelty soon wears off when one 'slighted' party keeps on and on and on and on for TWO DECADES (and counting)..... Have not read any of Suster's occult non-fiction, but adore his supernatural/ horror thrillers, The Offering and The Handyman in particular. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 29, 2017 9:37:58 GMT
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Post by dem on Nov 29, 2017 9:54:14 GMT
Not guite the 'Gothic' the Chislehurst Slasher and her Udolpho cronies had in mind, perhaps, but the cover art is truly beautiful. Costumes also very easy on the eye. Was very pleased Grady Hendrix included a chapter on the Gothic Romances in Paperbacks From Hell, though I suspect, as with every title featured therein, on-line prices have since sky-rocketed way beyond the point of sanity. Thank you for sharing, James. |
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Post by andydecker on Nov 29, 2017 10:40:36 GMT
Wonderful covers, James. Thanks.
Do I detect a McGinnis or two? Dragon's Mount? |
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Post by severance on Nov 29, 2017 11:30:15 GMT
More than one or two - all of them are McGinnis covers except "The Lotus Vellum" which is by Jerome Podwil.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 29, 2017 15:51:19 GMT
James, these are marvelous, and are a wonderful treat to see. I love just looking at these volumes and recalling the times long ago when they were all over the shops, even in the unlikely book section in this one low-end budget department store, "Ames" (often vocalized as "Ames's") which was a popular shopping destination for local families back in the early to mid 70s. It was the real end of an era when Ames closed. I start counting was filmed in 1969 (and Dusty Springfield recorded the theme song) and is something of a cult item, with significant roles for Jenny Agutter and Simon Ward. More info here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Start_CountingIt's so gracious and generous of you to share all these with us. What I thought was "What a sweet dear James is!" but I am afraid such language would not go down well with the sinister and rather crusty crew of Vault dwellers... cheers, H. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 30, 2017 6:49:56 GMT
What I thought was "What a sweet dear James is!" but I am afraid such language would not go down well with the sinister and rather crusty crew of Vault dwellers... Oh, I'm sure no one would object. Addendum: with the possible exception of JoJo. |
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 30, 2017 6:50:24 GMT
More than one or two - all of them are McGinnis covers except "The Lotus Vellum" which is by Jerome Podwil. You're a very learned man, Sev. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 30, 2017 8:37:09 GMT
What I thought was "What a sweet dear James is!" but I am afraid such language would not go down well with the sinister and rather crusty crew of Vault dwellers... Oh, I'm sure no one would object. I might object, if I felt like it. |
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Post by dem on Aug 17, 2018 11:46:53 GMT
Suzanne Ruthven - Charnel House Blues; The Vampyre's Tale (John Hunt, 2014) Blurb A view of vampire culture through the eyes of Lord Ruthven - the first vampire in the literary world from John Polidori's 'The Vampyre'. Written as faction, Lord Ruthven rarely appears in vampiric anthologies and has never been filmed - neither has he ever been vanquished!Dedicated to the fond memory
of The Gothic Society
and its members: 1990-1998 A Ruthven's-eye view of contemporary vampire culture, included here because author devotes an entire chapter to The Gothic Society including reports on such events as the Summer Party in the Reptile House at London Zoo, the "Black Banquet," and a manic contributors' showcase in a Greenwich pub which saw the immediate vicinity cordoned off on account of an IRA bomb-scare. Various vampire-interest clubs also referenced in passing. God, but that cover painting is a shocker.
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