Quick takes and capsule reviews from the dark suspense master himself, Ed Gorman!
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, the magazine that inspired everybody from Stephen King to Steven Spielberg, appeared in 1958. By then, I was well into my Gold Medal books phase. I still read science fiction and I still saw most of the horror movies that came my way. But FAMOUS MONSTERS, I’m almost ashamed to admit, struck me as pretty juvenile and not worth buying.
McFarland’s THE GREAT MONSTER MAGAZINES: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE BLACK AND WHITE PUBLICATIONS OF THE 1950S, 1960S AND 1970S by Robert Michael “Bobb” Cutter takes singular exception to my feelings about FAMOUS MONSTERS. But just about everything else he praises strikes me as just about right.
As the publisher notes, “This work provides a critical overview of monster magazines from the 1950s to the 1970s. The term ‘monster magazine’ is a blanket term, which, for the purposes of this study is used to describe both magazines that focus primarily on popular horror movies and magazines that contain stories featuring monsters which are illustrated in comic book style but printed in black and white.”
Thus, the book details the history of the hallowed EC comics, Jim Warren’s fantastic magazines, Marvel’s long run of horror comics and various Conan sagas, Hammer films and all the black-and-white horror mags that translated the likes of Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson and Robert E. Howard into graphic form.
Cotter is an excellent writer and a great organizer. A good table of contents backed with a fine Index makes it easy for the reader to skip around if he chooses, although Cotter’s chapters are coherent, thematic units, so I read straight through.
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When C.L. Moore’s first story “Shambleau” appeared in 1933, writers and readers alike knew that an important new talent had just staked her claim. Among her admirers was H.P. Lovecraft, who praised the horrorific aspects of her strange and lurid tale of outer space. For me, “Shambleau” remains one of the finest horror stories I’ve ever read, even though it comes wrapped inside a pulp science fiction story.
It opens with our hero Northwest Smith, a hard-boiled spacer presently trapped on seedy Venus, rescuing a beautiful woman from the clutches of a mob that means her harm. If Smith had known what he was rescuing, he might well have been part of the mob. For what follows is exotic, erotic and toxic.
There are 13 Northwest Smith stories in NORTHWEST OF EARTH: THE COMPLETE NORTHWEST SMITH, with each depicting the vile, treacherous worlds that the protagonist finds himself on. The silliness of so much space opera is balanced here by a grimness that owes a good deal to the BLACK MASK school of writing. Moore created worlds that were truly alien, but she never forgot that the man she was dealing with was Terran. Smith is a real person, subject to melancholy, fear, malice, lust, vengeance. No STAR WARS nobillity here.
I read a story a night and when I finished, I wished she’d written more.
She went on to marry Henry Kuttner, and before his untimely death, they may have collaborated on as many as 100 stories, principally science fiction and fantasy, but also mystery. She wrote everything from action pulp to the most subtle of fantasies. And her best work was rendered in prose far superior to what was being published at the time.
This book is part of the Paizo’s Planet Stories series of pulp reprints — handsome books at reasonable prices.
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Millipede Press is pleased to announce A LOVECRAFT RETROSPECTIVE: ARTISTS INSPIRED BY H.P. LOVECRAFT. This huge tome is 400 pages long and features the work of more than 40 artists, including J.K. Potter, H.R. Giger, Raymond Bayless, Ian Miller, Virgil Finlay, Lee Brown Coye, Rowena Morrill, Bob Eggleton, Allen Koszowski, Mike Mignola, Michael Whelan, John Coulthart, Harry O. Morris, John Jude Palencar and dozens of others, as well as 20,000 words of original essays.
This is an art book unlike anything ever published. Many works have never before seen publication, many are printed as special multi-page fold-outs, and several have detail views. A thumbnail gallery allows you an overview of the entire contents of the book and provides notations on each artist, work title, publication information, size and location.
Because of its sheer size and scope, A LOVECRAFT RETROSPECTIVE will never be reprinted and will sell out very quickly. Twenty years down the road, people will be paying huge prices for this book because of its range and the quality of reproductions. This is the Lovecraft fan’s dream come true.
I’m not a collector of art books. Not even an afficianado. But in the week I’ve had this book for review, I’ve kept going back and back to it. The sweep of styles and subject matter by so many different masters is the equivalent of spending time in a fine gallery. The interpretations of Lovecraft demonstrate the breadth of his influence on our culture. The introduction by Harlan Ellison is extradordinary even by his standards, a stunning examination of Lovecraft’s work and importance.
At the $395 price, it’s obvious you’re not going to rush out and buy it. But for the serious Lovecraft reader and fan, this is an essential part of any library. The notion that buying it as an invesment is not just a sales ploy. This collection will be doubling and tripling in price within a few years. There sure isn’t anything else like it.
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John Farris was my generation’s first literary rock star. When his novel HARRISON HIGH was published, it quickly became controversial because of its honest depiction of life among American teenagers. This was 1959. America still believed that if teens weren’t exactly like Ricky and David Nelson, they certainly weren’t like Elvis. Given the fact that many of these teens would be in the streets protesting the Vietnam war only a few years later, you can see how badly books such as Pat Boone’s ‘TWIXT TWELVE AND TWENTY misjudged them.
The paperback edition became a companion to PEYTON PLACE, published a few years earlier, both great reads and both purveyors of unpopular truths. Farris, now famous, was all of 23 when the book was published. But he was no beginner. Born in 1936, he could already claim the following novels in print:
• THE CORPSE NEXT DOOR
• THE BODY ON THE BEACH
• DANGER IN MY BLOOD
• BABY MOLL
He was writing and publishing before he could legally buy beer. Hard Case Crime has now given us a chance to look at some of Farris’ early work with BABY MOLL. And fine work it is.
If you have any doubt about Farris’ writing skills, open the book and read the first chapter. It is both lyrical and ominous — an unlikely combination in a paperback crime novel. This establishes the way Farris even then managed to take some of the familiar tropes of genre fiction and make them entirely his own.
The setup itself is unique: Mallory called back to save the life of a boss he despises, but a man he owes his life. The boss got him off the bottle. The story, as it plays out, is also all Farris’. While parts of the first act brought Peter Rabe to mind, Farris takes the gangster novel in a different direction. Given the relationship of the people on the island, the book becomes almost Gothic in its entanglements and ambience.
Farris, of course, went on to write numerous bestsellers, a number of them staples of modern dark suspense and horror, but even here, early on, he was a cunning storyteller fascinated by the perplexity and perversity of the human soul.
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The usual blockbuster summer issue of MYSTERY SCENE features a lengthy piece on Lawence Block; a fine article on how Joseph Wambaugh has inspired young people to join the police — and some of them to write fiction as well; an excellent Jon Breen on the late private eye writer Thomas B. Dewey; a serious look at fun court dramas; a really unique piece on the crime stories that are told in the songs of such performers as Johnny Cash and The Beatles, among many others; a new star in the Southern cozy; and the most comprehensive book review section available anywhere. This issue is loaded with oustanding photographs and graphic designs.
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CINEMA RETRO #11 looks at the history of the famous noir movie GET CARTER, with a massive overview of how the film came to be made and to be made with Michael Caine. He’s interviewed for the article and the piece is packed with stills from the film. Joe Dante talks at length about his career, how Hollywood really works and what he’s doing these days. And if you think Doris Day is dull, you’ll learn otherwise in “A Day to Remember” — a fascinating sad life story. Lots of color photos plus the original scream queen Barbara Steele, the first PINK PANTHER movie and much, much more. —Ed Gorman
