Post by demonik on May 2, 2006 6:24:35 GMT -5
Stefan R. Dziemainowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg (eds.) - Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors (Bonanza, 1988)
A story for each year the classic horror and fantasy magazine was published
Foreword - Stefan R. Dziemainowicz
Introduction - Robert Bloch
Anthony M. Rud - A Square Of Canvas
C. M. Eddy - The Loved Dead
Nictzin Dyalhis - When The Green Star Waned
R. Anthony - The Parasitic Hand
Edmond Hamilton - Evolution Island
H. Warner Munn - The Chain
Robert E. Howard - The Shadow Kingdom
Henry S. Whitehead - The Shut Room
Seabury Quinn - Satan's Stepson
Jack Williamson - The Wand Of Doom
Clark Ashton Smith - The Isle Of The Torturers
C. L. Moore - Dust Of Gods
Laurence J. Cahill - Charon
Arthur J. Burks - The Room Of Shadows
Mary E. Counselman - The Black Stone Statue
Gans T. Field (Manly Wade Wellman) - The Hairy Ones Shall Dance
Robert Barbour Johnson - Far Below
Fritz Leiber - The Automatic Pistol
H. P. Lovecraft - The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward
Henry Kuttner - Masquerade
Robert Bloch - Black Barter
Frank Belknap Long - The Peeper
Carl Jacobi - Barnaby's Fish
Ray Bradbury - Let's Play Poison
C. Hall Thompson - The Will Of Claude Ashur
Theodore Sturgeon - The Professor's Teddy Bear
Frederic Brown - Come And Go Mad
Isaac Asimov & James MacCreigh - Legal Rites
August Derleth - Something From Out There
Joseph Payne Brennan - The Green Parrot
Richard Matheson - Slaughter House
Everil Worrell - Call Not Their Names
Another huge collection (656 pages) incorperating Lovecraft's novel and Seabury Quinn's lengthy de Grandin, Satan's Stepson. The stories appear in order of publication, so we start in 1932 with Rud's loveable mad artist escapade and branch off into all manner of strange directions, taking in SF and Sword & Sorcery.
Anthony R. Rud - A Square Of Canvas ('Weird Tales', 1923).
The history of Hal Pemberton, the internationally acclaimed artist, as narrated by himself to a female visitor to the mental institution where he now resides. It seems that only acts of horrific sadism - the mutilation of rabbits and a pony or two- could inspire him to paint his works of genius. And when he could no longer draw inspiration from the animal kingdom, he turned instead to his beautiful young wife.
I placed a cot in the studio, fastening strong straps to it. Then I made ready a gag, and sharpened a keen Weiss knife I possessed until its edge would cut a hair at a touch. Last, I made ready my canvas.
She came at my call. At first, when I siezed her and tore off her clothing she thought me joking, and protested laughing. When I came to placing the gag, and bound her arms and legs with strong straps, however, the terror of death began to steal into her dark eyes.
To show her that I loved her still, no matter what duty impelled me to do, I kissed her hair, her eyes, her breast. Then I set to work .... In a few minutes I was away and painting as I had never painted before. A red stream dripped from the steel cot, down to the floor, and ran slowly toward where I stood. It elated me. I felt the fire of a fervor of inspiration greater than ever had beset me. I painted. I painted! This was my masterpiece.
Drunk with the fury of creation, I threw myself on the floor in the midst of the red puddle time and time again. I even dipped my brushes in it. Mad with the delight of unstinted accomplishment, I kept on and on, until late in the evening I heard my little daughter crying in her room for the dinner she had not received. Then I went downstairs, laughing at the horror I saw in the faces of the servants."
Mary E. Counselman - The Black Stone Statue: Kennicott's plane crashes in the dense Brazilian forest. His co-pilot, broken-legged and delerius, makes off into the trees before he can stop him. Kennicott tracks his friend to to an expanse of petrified forest where everything "glitters like soft coal". Along with several small animals, the injured man has been turned to stone by the touch of a slug-like entity.
Kennicott survives, but is unwise to confide the experience in a struggling sculptor ...
Henry Kuttner - Masquerade: The old lunatic asylum now serves as home to the Carta clan, A Charles Addamsesque bunch comprising hunch-backed grandpa Jed, imbecile son Lem and daughter Ruth who has a thing about whipping the skeleton of a former love-rival. The Carta's may or may not be the Henshawe vampires - they might just as likely be homicidal killers who murder their guests in their beds. A honeymooning couple shed some much needed light on the matter.
Arthur J. Burks - Room Of Shadows: This one is as insane and wonderfully entertaining as Bassett Morgan at his brain-transplant best. Weird goings on at an exclusive New York hotel, home to Lun Yukra, a Eurasian vampire and pimp. The girls he systematically vampirises are transformed into dogs and forced to do his bidding. Enter Eda, searching for her prostitute sister, and Adam Clerc, an explorer, whose paths entwine after Eda - mesmirised by Yukra - enters Clerc's room in the form of a black cloud and sucks his blood. The two combine to take on the undead with bizarre and grisly results.
R. Anthony - The Parasitic Hand:John Pendleton has a fully formed hand growing out of his side which has remained dormant for 23 years - until now. When Dr. Burnsturm decides to remove it, he has a fierce battle on his hands as it tries to drive the scalpel into the patients heart. Seven months later, Pendleton returns, complaining that "something is chewing and clawing within me."
Frank Belknap Long - The Peeper: Mike O'Hara, alcoholic gossip columnist, is literally scared to death after encountering the ghost of himself as a younger, better man. A mysterious epitaph appears in print, written by someone who signs themself 'The Peeper'.
A story for each year the classic horror and fantasy magazine was published
Foreword - Stefan R. Dziemainowicz
Introduction - Robert Bloch
Anthony M. Rud - A Square Of Canvas
C. M. Eddy - The Loved Dead
Nictzin Dyalhis - When The Green Star Waned
R. Anthony - The Parasitic Hand
Edmond Hamilton - Evolution Island
H. Warner Munn - The Chain
Robert E. Howard - The Shadow Kingdom
Henry S. Whitehead - The Shut Room
Seabury Quinn - Satan's Stepson
Jack Williamson - The Wand Of Doom
Clark Ashton Smith - The Isle Of The Torturers
C. L. Moore - Dust Of Gods
Laurence J. Cahill - Charon
Arthur J. Burks - The Room Of Shadows
Mary E. Counselman - The Black Stone Statue
Gans T. Field (Manly Wade Wellman) - The Hairy Ones Shall Dance
Robert Barbour Johnson - Far Below
Fritz Leiber - The Automatic Pistol
H. P. Lovecraft - The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward
Henry Kuttner - Masquerade
Robert Bloch - Black Barter
Frank Belknap Long - The Peeper
Carl Jacobi - Barnaby's Fish
Ray Bradbury - Let's Play Poison
C. Hall Thompson - The Will Of Claude Ashur
Theodore Sturgeon - The Professor's Teddy Bear
Frederic Brown - Come And Go Mad
Isaac Asimov & James MacCreigh - Legal Rites
August Derleth - Something From Out There
Joseph Payne Brennan - The Green Parrot
Richard Matheson - Slaughter House
Everil Worrell - Call Not Their Names
Another huge collection (656 pages) incorperating Lovecraft's novel and Seabury Quinn's lengthy de Grandin, Satan's Stepson. The stories appear in order of publication, so we start in 1932 with Rud's loveable mad artist escapade and branch off into all manner of strange directions, taking in SF and Sword & Sorcery.
Anthony R. Rud - A Square Of Canvas ('Weird Tales', 1923).
The history of Hal Pemberton, the internationally acclaimed artist, as narrated by himself to a female visitor to the mental institution where he now resides. It seems that only acts of horrific sadism - the mutilation of rabbits and a pony or two- could inspire him to paint his works of genius. And when he could no longer draw inspiration from the animal kingdom, he turned instead to his beautiful young wife.
Spoiler Alert
I placed a cot in the studio, fastening strong straps to it. Then I made ready a gag, and sharpened a keen Weiss knife I possessed until its edge would cut a hair at a touch. Last, I made ready my canvas.
She came at my call. At first, when I siezed her and tore off her clothing she thought me joking, and protested laughing. When I came to placing the gag, and bound her arms and legs with strong straps, however, the terror of death began to steal into her dark eyes.
To show her that I loved her still, no matter what duty impelled me to do, I kissed her hair, her eyes, her breast. Then I set to work .... In a few minutes I was away and painting as I had never painted before. A red stream dripped from the steel cot, down to the floor, and ran slowly toward where I stood. It elated me. I felt the fire of a fervor of inspiration greater than ever had beset me. I painted. I painted! This was my masterpiece.
Drunk with the fury of creation, I threw myself on the floor in the midst of the red puddle time and time again. I even dipped my brushes in it. Mad with the delight of unstinted accomplishment, I kept on and on, until late in the evening I heard my little daughter crying in her room for the dinner she had not received. Then I went downstairs, laughing at the horror I saw in the faces of the servants."
Mary E. Counselman - The Black Stone Statue: Kennicott's plane crashes in the dense Brazilian forest. His co-pilot, broken-legged and delerius, makes off into the trees before he can stop him. Kennicott tracks his friend to to an expanse of petrified forest where everything "glitters like soft coal". Along with several small animals, the injured man has been turned to stone by the touch of a slug-like entity.
Kennicott survives, but is unwise to confide the experience in a struggling sculptor ...
Henry Kuttner - Masquerade: The old lunatic asylum now serves as home to the Carta clan, A Charles Addamsesque bunch comprising hunch-backed grandpa Jed, imbecile son Lem and daughter Ruth who has a thing about whipping the skeleton of a former love-rival. The Carta's may or may not be the Henshawe vampires - they might just as likely be homicidal killers who murder their guests in their beds. A honeymooning couple shed some much needed light on the matter.
Arthur J. Burks - Room Of Shadows: This one is as insane and wonderfully entertaining as Bassett Morgan at his brain-transplant best. Weird goings on at an exclusive New York hotel, home to Lun Yukra, a Eurasian vampire and pimp. The girls he systematically vampirises are transformed into dogs and forced to do his bidding. Enter Eda, searching for her prostitute sister, and Adam Clerc, an explorer, whose paths entwine after Eda - mesmirised by Yukra - enters Clerc's room in the form of a black cloud and sucks his blood. The two combine to take on the undead with bizarre and grisly results.
R. Anthony - The Parasitic Hand:John Pendleton has a fully formed hand growing out of his side which has remained dormant for 23 years - until now. When Dr. Burnsturm decides to remove it, he has a fierce battle on his hands as it tries to drive the scalpel into the patients heart. Seven months later, Pendleton returns, complaining that "something is chewing and clawing within me."
Frank Belknap Long - The Peeper: Mike O'Hara, alcoholic gossip columnist, is literally scared to death after encountering the ghost of himself as a younger, better man. A mysterious epitaph appears in print, written by someone who signs themself 'The Peeper'.