uh-oh thrillers SO NOT FOR KIDS!
they were on sale in SAFEWAYS — yes yes the first safeways in the UK THAT ONE yes — and for a v long while when small i REFUSED TO PASS DOWN THAT AISLE bcz the covers were so all creepy! HERBERT VAN THAL!
at the time this wasn’t even the worst (which was a HAND with an EYE in the PALM! tho when i googlimaged the hand just now it had not stood the test of time er its hauntological index was in the blissbog zone it seemed a bit meh)
in related news: CLIVE BARKER IS RUBBISH
UPDATE: thinking about this more, i conclude that aged 7 i found SKULLS and EYEBALLS more frightening than SPIDERS and CREEPYDOLLS — whereas now this has sort of reversed… i am backed up a bit with SF for KIDS but have just now started thinking a bit about what kept me awake after i read it aged 7-12.
Exhibit one = THE UPPER BERTH, which i got so scared by (on holiday in France) that i got a telling off for being silly!
Exhibit two = this fellow as pictured in the guiness book of records (tho not this actual picture)
pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør in FT /The Brown Wedge • Art/Books • 789 views
I have oodles of those little books of pulp – the charity shops in Lowestoft were crammed with them when I was working there, and I have a thing for trashy moralistic horror. My Very Favourite Ever Story from them is about devil worshipping and SEX and is really quite filthy. I should dig it out.
They are made from cheap glue, and now are all falling apart.
the acid-rich paper from very very VERY old paperbacks actually burns itself from within, so that after about 50 years it has gone a rich brown and is extremely brittle to the touch
I think that the binding is degrading faster than the paper in these ones – the glue has turned into brittle, crumbling stuff that ends up as powder when you turn pages. Then all the pages ESCAPE, just like DEMONS. Ahem.
I don’t think the paper’s in very good shape either, though.
the 4th pan NECRONOMICON
oi Sinker – since you experienced the same life as me ever – anyone remember which titles/books these 2 brilliant mid-70′s pulp horror stories were:
– the one with the spiders in da brain! geezer’s in a (equitorial african accident) coma and spider (pregnant) crawls up ‘is nose – awwww!
– the guy with the snails hobby. gets out of hand and they take over a room, escape the tanks, collapse the wallpaper and crawl down ‘is throat… apt metaphor for my vinyl addiction.
nothing scares me ever now (cept planes in thunderstorms)
answering my own: The Man Whose Nose Was Too Big by Alan Hillery
Pan Horror vol.13 (published 1972) (the spiders one)
The Man Whose Nose Was Too Big was definitely the playground horror story king when I was small – generally presented as true.