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Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Even Clive Barker Would Flinch: The Horror Paperbacks of Gene Lazuta

Late '80s and early '90s horror writer Gene Lazuta was born on this date in 1959. Lazuta wrote several paperback originals under pseudonyms (as well as a mystery series), but did not continue his career as a horror author; indeed, you can see his professional bio here. While the cover art is striking and in keeping with totemic pulp horror imagery—drippy typeface, fangs, skulls, hands crawling out of eyes—I haven't read any of these titles, and I don't think I've seen any in the wild when I'm out haunting used bookstores, so I can't tell you whether Barker would actually flinch or not! Bloodshot Books reprinted 1992's Vyrmin in 2016.

 
 

4 comments:

  1. I love your blog. I love your From Hell book. But now those paperbacks seem to be selling for more $$$. Oh well. Gene Lazuta's are going for $15+ on AbeBooks. Keep screamin'

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  2. Wow-a real obscurity here. Ive never heard of Lazuta, nor have I seen any of these books-as you put it, "in the wild."I do like the VYRMIN cover though. For some reason I have a feeling the content would be sub par unfortunately. Does anyone know? Who has read this guy's work?

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  3. I recently purchased Vyrmin at a negligible price at a local used bookstore. I haven't read it yet.

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  4. Vyrmin can easily be read online at archive.org.

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