For a Halloween Horror, how about a song from a band called Suicide actually blamed on causing real suicides? It’s Suicide’s “Frankie Teardrop,” about a working stiff who can’t make it, so he kills his wife and kids and then himself, and ends the song screaming in Hell.
Just another feel good 1970s ditty.
(Hat tip: The Professor of Rock, who advises listeners not to listen to the song alone at night…)
We’ve previously featured some giant movie spiders. How about a (theoretically) real life giant spider?
Meet the J’ba Fofi.
The J’ba FoFi, also known as the Congolese Giant Spiders, are a type of large arachnid cryptid which is said to inhabit the forests of the Congo, possibly representing a new species of Arachnida.
Most of the many anecdotal tales describe the spiders digging a shallow tunnel under tree roots and camouflaging it with a large screen of leaves. Then they create an almost invisible web between their burrow and a nearby tree, stringing the whole area with a network of trip lines. Some oblivious animal, that’s likely soon to end up on the creature’s menu, will trip the line alerting the spider. The victim will then be chased into the web. This type of predatory behavior is similar to that of several species of trap-door spider.
Natives claim the J’ba FoFi eggs are a pale yellow-white and shaped like peanuts, and the hatchlings are bright yellow with a purple abdomen. Their coloration becomes darker and brown as they mature. Some of the peoples indigenous to the regions in the Congo where the J’ba FoFi has been seen assert that the spider was once quite common, but has since become very rare. Possibly indicating the species has become endangered due to deforestation.
The fullest account by Westerners appears in a cryptozoological book by George Eberhart. On page 204, Eberhart relates the terrifying experience of an English couple traveling through a region of jungle in what is now called the Congo: “R.K. Lloyd and his wife were motoring in the Belgian Congo in 1938 when they saw a large object crossing the trail in front of them. At first, they thought it was a cat or a monkey, but they soon realized it was a spider with legs nearly 3 feet.”
Cryptozoologist William J. Gibbons has hunted for what some think may be a living Congolese dinosaur called Mokele-mbembe. On his third expedition in search of the creature he came upon natives who related their experiences with giant spiders. He shared his experience with readers upon his return to Canada:
“On this third expedition to Equatorial Africa, I took the opportunity to inquire if the pygmies knew of such a giant spider, and indeed they did! They speak of the J’ba FoFi, which is a “giant” or “great spider.” They described a spider that is generally brown in color with a purple mark on the abdomen. They grow to quite an enormous size with a leg span of at least five feet. The giant arachnids weave together a lair made of leaves similar in shape to a traditional pygmy hut, and spin a circular web (said to be very strong) between two trees with a strand stretched across a game trail.”
“These giant ground-dwelling spiders prey on the diminutive forest antelope, birds, and other small game, and are said to be extremely dangerous, not to mention highly venomous,” Gibbons states. “The spiders are said to lay white, peanut-sized eggs in a cluster, and the pygmies give them a wide berth when encountered, but have killed them in the past. The giant spiders were once very common but are now a rare sight.”
Supposedly someone captured footage of a J’ba Fofi in Mozambique in 2014. Look to the right side of this video:
Amazingly vague footage, is it not?
I think a spider of that size unlikely, but more likely than Mokele-mbembe.
But I don’t think I’ll be vacationing in the Congolese jungle any time soon…
Six Joe R. Lansdale-related items bought from three different sources.
Note: The white streak at upper right is dust jacket glare.
Another purchase from that Facebook seller.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) S. T. Joshi, editor. Primal Sources: Essays on Lovecraft. Hippocampus Press, 2003. First edition trade paperback original (stated, though I think all Hippocampus Press trade paperbacks are POD books now), a Fine- copy with first page slightly dog-eared at bottom. Joshi essays on various Lovecraftian topics. Joshi, H.P. Lovecraft: A Comprehensive Bibliography III-C-65. Joshi, 200 Books by S. T. Joshi, I.23. Bought for $10.
Another purchase from that Facebook seller:
Shirley, John. Lovecraft Alive!. Hippocampus Press, 2016. First edition trade paperback original (stated, though I think all Hippocampus Press trade paperbacks are POD books now), a Fine copy. Collection of Shirley’s Lovecraftian stories. Bought for $10.
I have all the rest in this series, mostly bought from the publisher when they were first published, but for some reason I missed these two:
Three more books from that Facebook seller:
I’m pretty good at picking up the Hippocampus Press hardbacks before the sell out, but I don’t pick up every trade paperback on publication (and when I do pick them up, they tend to hang around in Lame Excuse Books stock). These were all at good prices.
I don’t usually pick up ARCs, but this was offered at a bargain price.
Lansdale, Joe R., editor. The Horror Hall of Fame. Cemetery Dance, 2011. First edition Advanced Uncorrected Proof, trade paperback format, of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy. Isajanko D13.a (but no mention of proof states). Bought off Facebook for $10.
New signed, limited edition from Subterranean:
Reynolds, Alastair. The Dagger in Vichy. Subterranean Press, 2025. First edition hardback, #422 of 1,000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with bookmark laid in. Novella described as a mixture of science fiction and fantasy, with perhaps a dollop of Eldritch Horror.
I will have a small number of these available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Another Kathryn Cramer purchase:
Disch, Thomas M. The Businessman: A Tale of Terror. Harper & Row, 1984. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Disch. Cawthorn and Moorcock, Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 98. Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 88. Supplements an unsigned copy. Bought for $20.
