Forgotten Books: THE MASK OF DR. FU MANCHU by Wally Wood (and Sax Rohmer, too) (1951)

From way back in 1951 comes this full-length Avon one-shot adapting the novel by Sax Rohmer. This one was scanned for comicbookplus by "larrytalbot," whom we all know was aka the Wolf Man.

STILL AVAILABLE: Black Dog Package Specials (including TWO great Sax Rohmers)

There was a lot more to Sax Rohmer than Fu Manchu. These two volumes rediscover stories that have been out of print for decades, including eight that have never been seen (at least in their original form) in the United States. Never read Rohmer? In my review of The Leopard Couch (that's HERE), I likened him to Arthur Conan Doyle on steroids.

The Green Spider presents mystery and suspense stories, while The Leopard Couch focuses on the fantastic and supernatural. For a limited time, you can both for $29 (a ten dollar savings), by clicking right HERE.

Time is running out on the other Package Specials, too. Lester Dent, Spicy Westerns, Best of Adventure, G-Men, Killer Skies, Creeping Terror, Classic Science Fiction, and many more. You'll find them all HERE.

The Leopard Couch - A new Sax Rohmer collection!

Here's another instant classic from Black Dog Books. The Leopard Couch is Volume 2 of The Sax Rohmer Library, a follow-up to last year's entry, The Green Spider. Like the first volume, this one features four stories that were never before published - at least in their complete and original form - in the United States.

But while The Green Spider featured mystery and suspense stories, The Leopard Couch focuses on the fantastic and supernatural. And Rohmer's style, which is just naturally sort of creepy, lends itself very well to this type of tale.

If you haven't read Sax Rohmer, the best way I can describe him is to say - think Arthur Conan Doyle on drugs. Even Rohmer's mundane scenes have a dreamy quality, and when he wants to create a really mystic mood, he goes all out.

It's the mood Rohmer creates - and draws the reader into - that give these stories their power. The fantastic and supernatural elements themselves are rather subtle, making them all the more believable. You'll find no zombies eating brains in this collection. Instead, people have dreams that just might explain seemingly impossible occurences. There are strange lights, sounds and smells, and maybe a set of moving footprints with no body attached. An aura of evil might fall over a house, or an object, or a person. But the true manifestation of that evil is always just out of sight, where it stretches the imagination just enough - without reaching the breaking point.

Surprisingly, given the author's long-time association with Dr. Fu Manchu, most of these stories involve the mysticism of ancient Egypt. And that's a good thing, because to me, Egypt has always rated way higher on the creepy scale than China.

Click HERE to visit Black Dog Books and check out The Leopard Couch and other lost treasures of pulp fiction.