Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (1976): Ballantine First Edition Paperback

This is one of those horror paperbacks that began my obsession with, well, horror paperbacks. Another one of my recent finds from the used bookstore in South Jersey (a choice find too as I lost my copy of this edition many years ago), this May 1977 first mass market paperback of Anne Rice's influential Interview with the Vampire is luckily in excellent condition... and I think I paid $1.25 for it!

First time I saw it I must've been 9 or 10, wandering around in the library, when I saw the word "vampire" featured on its spine in the paperback racks. Upon picking it up I was nonplussed to find the elegant cover photo with everything in... white. That's not right, my monster-kid brain told me, Vampires always wear black! Little did I know that Rice was doing away with decades of Draculean lore. But it was obvious even then that the cover design was such so that it appealed to non-horror fans. I love it now: the three characters figured prominently, dressed to the nines (even if Lestat and Louis didn't exactly wear early 20th century dinner tuxes in the novel), beside their beloved Claudia, who's looking childlike and ancient at once. An immortal family portrait. Creep-ee.

Claudia and Lestat might hunt and seduce, stay long in the company of the doomed victim, enjoying the splendid humor in his unwitting friendship with death...

And... how about this pre-publication edition? Looking as she did then, how could Anne Rice have ever done anything but write something called Interview with the Vampire?

Creature from the Black Lagoon by Carl Dreadstone (1977): Can't Figure Out Your Watery Love

Writing under the unparalleled horror-fiction pseudonym of "Carl Dreadstone," Ramsey Campbell produced a series of novelizations of the classic Universal monster movies. They've long been collectors' items going for quite a few bucks despite being thin mass-market paperbacks from Berkley Medallion. But one day a month or so ago, browsing one of my usual used bookstore haunts, I happened upon Creature from the Black Lagoon... and paid an entire dollar for it!

Campbell writes, under his own name, a nice little intro to the novelization about the making of the 1954 film and its various subtexts - sexual, political, evolutionary - as well as the Creature's place in the pantheon of vintage monster gods. Loaded with b/w movie stills (oh, Julie Adams!), Carl Dreadstone's Creature from the Black Lagoon is another cool collectible coup for Too Much Horror Fiction.

Julie Adams, I'm on a submarine mission for you baby

Update: According to ISFDB, Campbell didn't actually write Creature; somebody named Walter Harris did. Ah well. Campbell did write at least 3 others in the series. Guess I shoulda checked this out first.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959): The Paperback Covers

Always in print since its original publication over 50 years ago, horror fans should need no introduction to The Haunting of Hill House. You might, however, need an introduction to the various paperback editions of the novel. Above is the Penguin Books edition from 1984... not sure how I feel about all those neon colors, and the odd placement of the title over that guy's head; something might be threatening them, or maybe an intrusive photographer just butted in and they're waiting for him to move on. Who knows...

Editions from Popular Library in 1962 highlighted the fantastic Robert Wise movie adaptation, titled simply The Haunting. I love the image of the woman trapped in the maze; perfectly apt for poor Eleanor.

This cover with the critical blurbs taking up the top half seems to be the first paperback edition. The slightly cartoonish image of Hill House reminds me of something you'd see on an edition of Bradbury's The October Country or The Halloween Tree.

From Warner Books in 1982, both author and title are well-known enough that it can be Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. The simplicity of this cover is just oh-so-slightly malevolent. Nice.

And in 1999 came another movie version, some CGI travesty I've no desire to ever see. The movie tie-in from Penguin isn't too terrible, although Hill House looks more like a Gothic castle than a house. But I'm just glad people are still reading The Haunting of Hill House today.

Current trade paperback edition

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Vols. I and II, ed. by August Derleth (1969): Just Another Dream of Death

Actually it's been some decades since I read these classic Lovecraft-inspired anthologies, Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, and over the years have sadly lost my copies. Weird, surrealistic images on these, bespeaking of the general madness, terror, and disorientation of a reality that should not be. The first volume includes Mythos tales by the mighty likes of HPL himself, Conan creator Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, J. Vernon Shea, Frank Belknap Long, Henry Kuttner, and editor Derleth. The second has more Lovecraft and Bloch, Brian Lumley, Colin Wilson, and Ramsey Campbell. I daresay you cannot go wrong with either volume, although I remember the stories do vary in quality. However, in Derleth's intro, he states "It is undeniably evident that there exists in Lovecraft's concept a basic similarity to the Christian Mythos, specifically in regard to the expulsion of Satan from Eden and the power of evil." Yeahhhh... no.

These first two paperbacks, from Beagle Books, May and June 1971 respectively, are adorned by Victor Valla's insanity-inducing cover art. Below you see the Ballantine Books reprints from 1973, with covers whose art I've never totally understood or liked (neither does this fellow), from John Holmes. There was a Del Rey reprint of both volumes in one in 1998. But you can find these old editions used on eBay and Amazon and elsewhere, usually around $10 to $15. It's worth it, for these are the kinds of old paperbacks that exude that inimitable old-book smell, one of dust and mold, of dreaming death and deathlessness, where one dwells amidst the wonder and glory of the Old Ones forever...

original Arkham House hardcover, 1969

August Derleth 1909 - 1971

Our Lady of Darkness (1977) and others by Fritz Leiber

More vintage paperback editions of famous horror/fantasy novels by elder genre statesmen Fritz Leiber: Our Lady of Darkness, Conjure Wife, and Night's Black Agents. I first wrote about Leiber's work here last year. Above you see the Ace Fantasy edition of Our Lady from 1978, with cover art by Norman Walker. Rather well-done, keeping very much to the nature of the story itself. In England it was published by Fontana that same year, art by Roy Ellsworth.

Two editions of Night's Black Agents (originally published by Arkham House in 1947): first from Ballantine Books in 1961 - complete with "Leiber" misspelled - then Berkley 1978, cover art by the incredible Wayne Barlowe. This later edition contains two of Leiber's most famous tales, "Smoke Ghost" and "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes." First paperback edition emphasizes "horror," while the latter, after his reputation was made, "fantasy."

First paperback for Conjure Wife from Lion Books in 1953, cover art by Robert Maguire. Lovely classic Gothic imagery, although the story is set on a sedate college campus and most definitely not in a remote mountaintop castle.

Here's the movie tie-in edition, from Berkley Medallion 1962. You can now watch Burn, Witch, Burn on Netflix Instant! Highly recommended, not least because the screenplay is by - hot damn! - Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont! The Ace paperback from 1977 has an almost mainstream-thriller die-cut cover. Reprinted again by Ace Fantasy in 1984, you can see it's meant as a companion volume to Our Lady at the top.

And finally, in 1991 Tor Books published one of their double editions collecting both of Leiber's stellar novels about dark and mysterious women, again with art from Barlowe.

Fritz Leiber 1910 - 1992

The Tenant by Roland Topor (1964): The Paperback Cover

When I reviewed Topor's The Tenant last month I noted I'd been unable to find any cover art online for its first American paperback edition from Bantam Books. Well, thanks to Dan Mosier of Dead Man's Brain, I can now finally post it. He just sent me a photo of his own copy of the book, noting that the "tear" on the cover is actually part of the artwork. So perfectly composed, so accurate to the book's description; dig the look of fascinated horror on poor Trelkovsky's face--! Unfortunately the artist is unknown. Glorious vintage horror cover art indeed. Thanks again, Dan!

The Tenant by Roland Topor (1964): Personality Crisis

The Tenant by French artist Roland Topor is the first foreign-language work I've reviewed for Too Much Horror Fiction. And while I wouldn't necessarily call it a straight horror novel, I think its quiet, creepy coldness would hold some interest for many horror-fiction fans. After all, the cover blurb sells it as A novel of nightmare evil... I have the 1976 movie tie-in from Bantam Books; I used all my Google-fu to find the original American paperback, but to no avail. The copyright page states that Bantam published it originally in 1967. Ah well.

New English Library edition

Trelkovsky is an anonymous young Parisian man who is put upon by everything; despite trying to stand up for himself he seems a hapless, perpetual victim: absurdity was an essential part of him. It was probably the most basic element of his personality. After finagling with a landlord to let him stay in a recently vacated apartment for just under the asking price - a superhuman feat for someone as fearful as Trelkovsky - he learns of the horrible suicide attempt by Simone Choule, the woman who lived in the room previously. After leaping from the apartment window and crashing through a glass roof below, Simone is now laid up in the hospital, completely bandaged, gravely injured, except for one staring eye and a wounded, screaming mouth.

Topor (1938 - 1997)

Then Trelkovsky embarks on an awkward romance with Stella, the woman's younger friend. But his new neighbors seem to be irritated beyond belief by Trelkovsky, unjustifiably so, always banging on his walls and ceiling for him to be quiet when he makes the slightest sound. Trelkovsky slowly begins to fear he is at the center of a diabolical plot orchestrated by the other tenants in the building. He wakes one morning to find one of his teeth is missing and, on another, that women's makeup has been applied to his face...

Original US hardcover from Doubleday, 1966

At a slim 130-some pages it's a day's read (although I highly recommend reading it alone in your dark room of an evening). It's a tale told in unadorned language - or is that just the translation? - that is deceptively simple. Taking the great themes of classic world literature, it distills them down to novella-length and presents them in the form of a psychological horror/mystery with flashes of bizarre surrealism (Topor was part of the Panic Movement). There's alienation, humiliation and embarrassment, pervasive loneliness and the struggle to reach out, feelings of worthlessness and spite, of indignity and pride, of being trapped in a tightening noose of unavoidable social obligation, awash in suspicion and paranoia.

He caught a glimpse of his own reflection in a shop window. He was no different. Identical, exactly the same likeness as that of the monsters. He belonged to their species, but for some unknown reason he had been banished form their company. They had no confidence in him. All they wanted from him was obedience to their incongruous rules and their ridiculous laws, ridiculous only to him, because he could never fathom their intricacy and their subtlety.

So it's Dostoevsky, Kafka, Camus, Poe, and more all thrown together into a hell of a puzzle of an identity crisis. That should make you feel better after reading all those cheap paperbacks with bloody fangs and foil-stamped titles on the cover. And if it doesn't, here's Isabelle Adjani from Roman Polanski's film adaptation.

Ahh, now that's much better.

Free Tor Horror Sampler (1986)

Found this cool little freebie unexpectedly the other day when out book-hunting. From what I could discover online, this Tor Horror sampler was given out at an American Booksellers Association convention in early 1986. And I was just wondering when Tor Books began their official horror line with the monster icon; the introduction states they would begin publishing three books in the line per month, starting in August 1986. I skimmed through a few of the 8- or 10-page excerpts and while nothing blew me away, I did add some to my to-read list.

I've read and reviewed a couple already: Song of Kali by Dan Simmons and The Orchard by Charles L. Grant; the latter book was all right while the former is a modern classic. Two of the offerings, Maggie Davis's Forbidden Objects and R.R. Walters's Ladies in Waiting, seemed promising despite having no familiarity with the authors whatsoever, and for some time I've heard good things about the novels of Chet Williamson and T.M. Wright. Of course Laymon drops a real turd as expected. But really, behold the cover art of these paperbacks! Really, really spectacular stuff. Dare I hope the contents are as satisfying?

Richard Matheson: Shock! The Paperback Covers

X-- This day when it had light mother called me a retch. You retch she said. I saw in her eyes the anger. I wonder what it is a retch.

With those opening lines to his first published short story "Born of Man and Woman" in 1950, Richard Matheson was let loose upon the world. Many of his short stories became famous "Twilight Zone" episodes or appeared in Playboy, the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and various mystery/crime magazines. Just the other night I read for the first time "Prey," his 1969 short that became the legendary episode "Amelia" in Dan Curtis's Trilogy of Terror TV movie (1975). The story was splendid: perfectly conceived and then executed with stark believability and conviction. I can't imagine there's a horror fan out there without at least some passing knowledge of that horrific Zuni fetish doll!

These four different Shock collections gather those tales, and though long out-of-print they seem to be fairly widely available online in various editions: the original Dell publications from the early and mid-1960s, as well as the Berkley reprints from the late 1970s (cover art by Murray Tinkelman).