Friday, March 31, 2017

The Sky is a Poisonous Garden: Vampire Paperbacks of the 1990s

As the 1990s rolled on, so did the evolution of horror paperback covers. They became more photo-realistic, thuddingly square and obvious, with cheapie fangs pasted onto models ready for their "90210" walk-ons. Most of these books seem precursors to the paranormal romance subgenre that has today taken over bookstore horror shelves, absolute ugh. My appreciation of these covers is mostly nil, although I do kinda dig Vampire Apprentice's neatly tucked-in look and Vampire Beat's legit badge and gun, while the teasing-tongue vamp of Celebrity Vampires (kudos to artist Harvey Parker) has some subtle incisors which you'll discover after it's too late. I've not read a single one of these, don't ever plan on it, but I'd be interested in knowing if any of y'all have.

 

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeah I started reading a lot of these but sadly never finished any of them. Near Death was the best of the lot I think but I did not finish it. Curse of the Vampire's cover is cool or it appeals to me. because they are bats and people cool.

Griff said...

The original US paperback cover of Anno Dracula is decent.

John said...

For my money, the three best vampire novels of the '80s were Ray Garton's "Live Girls", Nancy Collins' "Sunglasses After Dark" and S.P. Somtow's "Vampire Junction". Most of the books shown above had their moments, but very few of them.

AndyDecker said...

I remember reading Courtney's Vampire Beat and liking it, but this was years ago.

John's list is pretty good. Collin's first Sonja Blue was a fine novel, the sequels were a mixed bag.

Space-Badger13 said...

Vampire books have just never been my cuppa - the only good ones I think I have read are Salem's Lot and Lestat.

Luis said...

Not only were the covers generic but the titles as well. Curse of the Vampire, Kiss of the Vampire, etc.. Really?? And also Unquenchable and Insatiable are pretty much interchangeable.

Ron Clinton said...
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Ron Clinton said...

The only one of the batch I've read is THE LAST VAMPIRE, but it's been too long to recall any of it. Many of those covers look familiar from my bookbrowsing adventures, but I've never been much of a vampire fan, so didn't pick any of the others up. That said, John mentions above Garton and Collins, and I did read all their vampire output back in the day...also read the Somtow novel, but not much else by him.

Karen said...

Nice to see the old covers. I have not only read a lot of these, but I wrote four of them. Just saying. Thanks!

Derek Tatum said...

Ha! I was about to comment that Karen Taylor is an old friend of mine.

Richard Lee Byers is a friend as well. It's been years since I've read "The Vampire's Apprentice" but remember it having some pretty nasty bits. It is a legit horror novel.

"Vampire Beat" is hilariously inept. It had a sequel, "Harvest of Blood."

I had most of these at one point or another.

Will Errickson said...

I appreciate all the personal connections to these books! Thanks for stopping by.

morgondag said...

I like #2, it is an original idea and the middle vampire actually looks unpleasant (though the hair distracts a bit once you notice it), like a creature that really just will drink your blood and throw away your pale corpse, not like a romance model in costume. I doubt the book lives up to it though.

The fangs in some of the covers really are incredibly bad. It even looks like they are glued to the outside of the lips, rather than the gums.

VotGs said...

THANK YOU SO MUCH. The Last Vampire was a novel I read as a pre-teen, and I'd loved it--something about a woman surviving the apocalypse and then oops, she's a vampire, and a survivalist and....well. I lost it at some point, forgot the title and details, and I've been looking for it off and on for the last twenty years. -You- found it for me, the cover you posted stirred my memory, and a double-check revealed that I'd finally found what I was looking for. :-D You've given me a piece of my childhood back, and I'm very grateful.

Will Errickson said...

Glad to hear it, VotGs! Happy to help anyone recover a forgotten part of their love of horror...

Mike said...

I loved VAMPIRE BEAT! Never got to read the sequel, HARVEST OF BLOOD, though.