Beginning sometime in that impossibly long-ago year of 1972, Popular Library published the first volume in its paperback
Frankenstein Horror Series, with the somewhat non-Frankensteinian title
The Curse of Quintana Roo. Eight more slim volumes followed, featuring more primary-color artwork and scenes of vintage comic-book horror than you can shake a pitchfork at. This series predates the
Dracula Horror Series, but where that series had one author -
Mr. Robert Lory - the Frankenstein series has multiple, mostly nobodies, except one large somebody, HPL's ol' buddy
Frank Belknap Long. All cover art is by comix artist
Gray Morrow, except for one by the esteemed
Jeffrey Catherine Jones - betcha can't guess which.
What's that late '80s Iggy song? "I ain't gonna be no
squarehead!" Uh, too late lady, sorry.
Look out Jackie O! Some things might be worse than Texas.
Dare we think this night belongs to the Hounds of Tindalos?
Zombie ladies in diaphanous gowns? More please.
Ha ha ha, I love how the late '60s spy couple has been added in as an afterthought.
Get away from her Marty Feldman!
Haunting horror imagery, just spectacular. No snark here!
Is he pulling her head off or putting it back on?
You can buy these paperbacks separately at
around $5 to $15 on eBay, Amazon, and everywhere in between. I haven't read the series actually, it's more of a
Groovy Age of Horror
kinda thing than what I'm personally into, but that's just, if this
blog is any indication, me.
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,+%23445-01593-075,+$0.75,+192pp,+pb)+Cover+Gray+Morrow.JPG)
I've only seen three of these beofre and I own the Belknap Long book though I've yet to read it.
ReplyDeleteJeff Jones must be the artist for DRAGON'S TEETH. On most of Moore's you can see his signature. Jones' has that distinctive box-like symbol.
BTW, Otto O. Binder should not be clumped with all those other "nobody" writers. He was quite a name in the pulp magazines of the 40s and 50s under his psedonym "Eando Binder". The E of that obviously phoney first name stands for Earl, his brother with whom he collborated. Binder also wrote many fo the scripts for the Captain Marvel comic books.
GHOUL LOVER is a pretty great, atmospheric novel. I read it a few years ago. Nothing mind-blowing but an excellent read if you crave stuff like '70s grindhouse and Euro horror films.
ReplyDeletePaul Fairman has written quite a few novels. The Frankenstein Wheel is quite good, a period horror novel with the monster.
ReplyDeleteThey've gone up in price since this was written.
ReplyDelete