Enjoy these perfectly vintage 1980s horror paperbacks from
William Schoell. Meanwhile I'm finishing up a pretty fantastic vampire novel (made into a cult '80s flick that featured a certain classic Goth song), and getting its review ready...
1984
1985
1986
1986
1988
1989
Shivers is a tremendously good piece of design. Have you read it, Will? Is it any good? I assume that the contents could in no way match the expectations set by such a well-designed cover.
ReplyDeleteNo I haven't read any of these, don't see 'em in the used bookstores much.
ReplyDeleteOh my god, did they just pre-Photoshop-Photoshop a picture of an iguana for that "Dragon" cover? That has to be the most ambitiously lazy (ergo awesome) cover yet.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the lizard has a decidedly Audrey Hepburn-ish "meh" expression on its face. It just needs a long white silk glove and a cigarette holder.
These are all fantastic covers with the exception of Bride of Satan which uses the way over used skeleton cliché.
ReplyDeleteI particularly admire how the typography is integrated into the design of each cover with Shivers being a standout.
I have all of these books on my shelf. I've read The Dragon and Saurian...They were...serviceable. Not truly bad, not great, kinda clunky in spots but with some great ideas.
ReplyDeleteAnd...The Hunger?
Anther good, nostalgic batch of covers Will.
ReplyDeleteLike Adam, I have these all on my shelves here, with the exception of THE DRAGON. Oddly enough, I've never seen that around at all. Maybe it had spotty distribution here in my area or something. But all the others were pretty much available everywhere where paperback originals were sold.
And the guy could spin a good yarn too! I hate a good time with all four of his novels that I read. They're not highbrow literature that's for sure, but they're good, scary, lurid pageturners that I'd recommend to any fan of such material.
Peace,
Jim
I was always lucky that I generally got striking covers for my Leisure titles. The Late at Night cover was singled out as one of the best of the year [don't ask me by who, I don't remember, but when Writer's Digest did a piece on the year's notable covers they headlined it "Ten Writers Who Wouldn't Mind Being Judged By Their Covers".] And these mini-masterpieces -- LOL -- are soon coming out in ebooks from cemetery dance publishers with new, equally distinctive covers. I appreciate some of the kind comments your readers left about the books. -- William Schoell
ReplyDeleteI bet you're reading The Hunger, right? "Bela Lugosi's Dead..." :)
ReplyDeleteI always liked William Schoell's stuff. He also put out a book on horror movies (Stay Out of The Shower) that was really good, and I've got another couple of horror novels he did (The Pact, Fatal Beauty) in addition to the covers you've got listed. His stuff stood out from a lot of what Leisure was publishing at the time. Late At Night was pretty creepy, and I remember Spawn of Hell (the first of his I got) had a scene where a guy got bitten in half... and NOT the way you're thinking he did (and not even the SECOND way you're thinking he did!) - only time I've ever seen that happen in a horror novel or movie. :) Saurian was a little goofy (a were-brontosaurus-thing?) but I have fond memories of it because I read the whole thing sitting in a tree one day... (yeah, I was kind of a weird kid).
I don't buy e-books (hate the damn things), but if Mr. Schoell puts out any new material in paper, I'd definitely pick it up...
I've been trying to remember "Late At Night" for several years now. I instantly recognized the cover from this post and was able to locate a copy. Many thanks!
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to check out Schoell for awhile, and after seeing how cool he is to get on here and comment, well, I just ordered a copy of "Shivers" from Amazon!
ReplyDeleteJust finished "Shivers" and it was quite good. Highly original premise and interesting execution. Recommended. I'll be reading more Schoell for sure.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Saurian many years ago. An odd concept but definitely a pretty original one. I'll read it again one of these days. I've got Spawn Of Hell too, which looks interesting.
ReplyDelete