I picked the following up at various Subterranean Press sales (some were 50% off, others discounted even more than that as part of a “grab bag” deal). A few of these will be available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, which I’m about to start work on.
Library Additions: 10 Subterranean Press Books
November 3rd, 2016Library Addition: Michael Moorcock’s Caribbean Crisis
October 31st, 2016Here’s a fairly rare Moorcock item: His first published novel, if you can call it that.
Moorcock, Michael, with James Cawthorn, as Desmond Reid. Caribbean Crisis. Sexton Blake Library 501/Fleetway Publications, 1962. First edition (“First Printing” stated) trade paperback original (digest format), a Very Good- copy with small stains to front and rear cover (some from bleed-through from rusting staple), general wear and wrinkling along spine edge, small line of thin blue handwriting at top of rear cover, and slight page darkening. 62 double-column pages, plus a two page “mailbag” at rear. Not sure if this counts as a book serial or a magazine, but it features an English detective who first made his debut in 1893! Currey, page 368. Tanelorn Archives, page 12. An online Sexton Blake bibliography says that W. Howard Baker also did some revisions on this. Bought online for $6.65 plus $12.96 in shipping from a UK dealer.
Fark Annual Scary Story Thread
October 30th, 2016Shoegazer Sunday: Curve’s “Horror Head”
October 30th, 2016For your Sunday-before-Halloween dose of Shoegaze, here’s Curve’s “Horror Head”:
TV Horrors: The Phoenix
October 29th, 2016If you were trying to construct The Most Painfully 1970s SF TV Show Ever, you might come up with The Phoenix, and never mind that it debuted in 1981.
I mean, look at the intro footage, and tell me it doesn’t reek of the 1970s:
I mean, ancient astronauts, pyramid power, ESP, big medallions and feathered hair! How much more 70s can you get?
This arrived after my “I’ll Watch Any Damn SF/F/H Show On TV” phase, and it actually came and went so quickly (only five episodes aired, including the pilot) I wasn’t even aware of it.
Someone has put up a fairly crappy quality video of the complete pilot:
Hope you like flute music. The writing isn’t very good, but Judson Scott (who I remember best as Khan’s second-in-command) is surprisingly tolerable as Hunky McSunAlien.
For more on similar subject, see Decade of Weirdness: The 1970s and Retro TV Memories: The Fantastic Journey.
Halloween Horror: Nicely Done GIF From a Hammer Film
October 28th, 2016I’ve never seen it, but this is evidently from The Witches:
Halloween Horrors: Mummified Clown
October 27th, 2016Which is scarier, a clown or a mummy?
Well, how about a mummified clown?
The California Institute of Abnormalarts, a bar and concert venue that also functions as a museum of oddities, is home to something that will make anyone with coulrophobia (an irrational fear of clowns) quake in their boots…and it’s every bit as creepy as you might imagine….
Some time ago, Crew acquired what he claims to be the mummified corpse of a clown known as Achile Chatouilleu, a performer who died in 1912.
Achile, whose name translates to “French tickler,” reportedly asked before his death to be embalmed in his favorite clown costume and makeup. The body – which is still in perfect condition today – is pretty creepy, to say the least.
If anyone reading this is out in LA, feel free to drop by the CIA and let me know how well-embalmed the clown looks up close…
Halloween Horrors: A Blog About Devices for Speaking to the Dead
October 26th, 2016This seems like a good thing to mention in October: a blog dedicated to devices for speaking to the dead.
There are planchettes and Ouija boards aplenty, but also tipping tables and rapping hands.
Or how about a neanderthal spirit that supposedly killed 15 people at a French sanitarium?
Library Additions: Three PS Publishing Slipcased Editions
October 25th, 2016Back in August, I ordered three PS Publishing slipcased editions on sale at £12.99 each marked down from £60:
Library Addition: David Wong’s John Dies at the End
October 24th, 2016Wong, David. John Dies At the End. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2009. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Cult science fiction horror novel and basis of the Don Coscarelli movie of the same name. Bought for $32.50 from Half Price Books with a 50% off coupon.
