ONE CRABBY WRITER

 

“Crabs, crabs, crabs. Crabs the size of beach donkeys.”

― Guy N Smith

It would be hard to argue that Guy N. Smith isn't the crabbiest person writing horror. The author's "Killer Crabs" series of books has him firmly in first place among champions of crustacean lore.

After many years, I just recently watched the Corman-directed 1957 giant monster flick, ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS again. While I was a bit underwhelmed, it made me think of Smith's crusty creations. Instead of sentient, radioactive beasts, Smith's crabs are just nasty critters, out to chomp on human flesh and generally create fear and havoc among England's coastline populace.

Guy Newman Smith (b. November 21, 1939, age 81 years) has been writing since 1974. During this time, he has penned over 1,000 stories and magazine articles, as well as 70-plus horror novels. He is best known, however, for his crab stories, the first being "Night of the Crabs" (see cover above).

Below is a post from the online site, Flashbak, covering Mr. Smith's propensities for giant, killer crabs and other assorted and sundry monsters. Following is a gallery of Smith's paperback covers.

Here Be Monsters: Guy N. Smith’s Glorious Horror Fiction

By Paul Gallagher | November 26, 2020 | Flashbak.com

It must be rather fun to be Guy N. Smith, especially if the old adage “Write what you know” is true. For Smith writes horror stories featuring crabs (“as big as donkeys”), mutated bats laying waste to Birmingham, blood-thirsty werewolves, and an ancient Slime Beast awoken from muddy depths to chew-off the face of anyone unfortunate enough to fall into its scaly grasp.

Smith started writing at the age of twelve. His work was published in newspapers and magazines. He was encouraged by his novelist mother (E. M. Weale) and discouraged by his banker father who insisted his son followed the family tradition of a career in banking. Smith became a banker. He quickly worked his way up to manager which afforded him an office, a desk, and the time to write.

In the late sixties-early seventies, Smith started submitting stories to porn mags. His success encouraged him to write his first horror novel Werewolf by Moonlight in 1974. This slim volume was a moderate success when compared to his second Night of the Crabs which was the must-read novel during that hot summer of 1976.

The Welsh coast basks in summer tranquility. Then the ‘drownings’ begin.

But not until the monstrous crustaceans crawl ashore, their pincers poised for destruction, does the world understand the threat it faces.

A seafood cocktail for the strongest stomachs.

The book’s runaway success allowed Smith to give up banking and focus solely on his writing career. Since then, he has written a marvellous array of horror fiction which has entertained and thrilled millions of readers.

Those who criticise Smith for a lack of writing style or under-developed characters, fail to appreciate his books deliver what all horror fans want: terrifying thrills. His books are page-turners, to be read in one big gulp or under-the-bedcovers by torchlight. Smith’s policy is “to tell a fast moving story which holds the reader’s interest from start to finish.” He is like Edgar Wallace or Dennis Wheatley, where the story roars like a juggernaut over any inconsistencies or plot holes.

Smith’s interest in horror fiction stems from his reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Premature Burial” at a young and impressionable age. Now in his eighties, he has kept the faith with horror fiction unlike his rivals like Stephen King, whose work has been a bit of a downhill struggle since the glories of Carrie, Salem’s Lot and IT, or Dean Koontz who has seamlessly moved from horror to thrillers.

Guy N. Smith is a rites of passage novelist best appreciated by a young or young-at-heart readership who want to believe in a world of demons, monsters, deranged killers, and mutated creatures just a-waiting to chomp on your flesh…

BERNIE WRIGHTSON'S POE PAINTINGS

Although I have always appreciated Harry S. Clarke's decadent illustrations for the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, he and countless others are left in the graveyard dust by the magnificent renderings by the late Bernie Wrightson, who certainly needs no introduction to readers of this blog. It seems almost unbelievable, but Wrightson created a series of illustrations for Mary Shelley's novel, "Frankenstein" that surpassed even these. There seemed to be no limit to his masterful work and it's too bad we lost him so soon.

Following is a reminisce that appeared on the website, Flashbak.

Paintings of Mystery and Imagination: Bernie Wrightson’s artwork for the tales of Edgar Allan Poe
Bernie Wrightson was one of the greatest graphic artist of the past fifty years. He was revered and respected by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Joss Whedon and Guillermo Del Toro, who took a twenty-four hour vow of silence after Wrightson died in 2017 at the age of 68.
By Paul Gallagher | February 14, 2020 | via Flashbak

Bernie Wrightson was one of the greatest graphic artist of the past fifty years. He was revered and respected by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Joss Whedon and Guillermo Del Toro, who took a twenty-four hour vow of silence after Wrightson died in 2017 at the age of 68. Del Toro afterwards said:

As it comes to all of us, the end came for the greatest that ever lived: Bernie Wrightson. My North dark star of youth. A master.

Best known as the co-creator of Swamp Thing, Wrightson produced an enviable catalogue of graphic art work for comic books and magazines during his career, including a series of rare and much sought after illustrations for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the artwork for Stephen King’s The Cycle of the Werewolf.

In 1976, Wrightson produced a series of paintings for a limited edition set of prints featuring key scenes from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. The portfolio consisted of eight prints and was limited to an edition of 2000. Most of these prints were signed by Wrightson, who was then still using the first name “Berni” so as not to be confused with the Olympic gold medalist diver Bernie Wrightson.

For the series, Wrightson produced eight paintings. However, the first painting for “The Pit and the Pendulum” proved to be too bright and could not be used by the printers as the thick impasto paint caused considerable glare. Wrightson replaced the image with a darker far more atmospheric picture. It is perhaps noticeable that the finished prints had a slightly darker less vibrant appearance than their original paintings. Even so, each image brilliantly captured Poe’s haunting work.

ATTACK OF THE 70'S SPACE ERASERS!

Found in stores and McDonald's Happy Meals, Diener Industries capitalized on the STAR WARS craze by introducing a line of mini-martians and spaceships that doubled as pencil erasers. They were non-toxic, soft and safe! Here's the nostalgic story. . .

Space: 1979 – Remembering Diener’s Space Raiders and Space Creatures
By John Kenneth Muir | July 21, 2016 | via Flashbak

In the late 1970s, Diener Industries created two memorable lines of characters (and spaceships) that also doubled as…erasers.

The first was a line called “Space Raiders,” which premiered in 1979 and was a kind of (delightful) Star Wars (1977) knock-off.  The Space Raiders could be found in stores, but also — delightfully — were sold in McDonalds Happy Meals.

The Space Raiders were actually four unique robotic individuals.

First there was Zama, who looked like an offspring of R2-D2 and the Lost in Space (1965-1968) robot.

Then there was Dard, who seemed part-Darth Vader, part-Shogun Warrior.

The other two robots were Horta (think Star Trek’s “The Devil in the Dark”) and Brak (think: This Island Earth [1951], replete with giant forehead).

The Space Raiders were also sold with spaceships erasers, including a flying saucer (the Lyra 4), a rocket ship (the Altair 2), and two other vessels, the Ceti 3, and the Kyrgo 5.

I vividly recall, in the summer of 1979 – while on a cross-country trip – absolutely begging my parents to take me and my sister to McDonalds’ so we could collect more of these Space Raiders, who came in a variety of colors (pink, brown, blue, green and yellow, if memory serves).

I definitely recall having a Green Zama, a brown Dard, a pink Horta and a green Lyra 4.

In 1980, Diener went a (slightly) different way and marketed “Space Creatures.” These small erasers were marketed as “Space Aliens” in McDonalds’ Happy Meals, and looked quite familiar if one happened to be a fan of classic science fiction movies.

One space alien resembled the Ray Harryhausen-created Ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), while another looked like the bug-eye alien from Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957).

Other monsters in the series included a dead ringer for the invader in I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958), while the alien in The Outer Limits (1962-1963) episode “Keeper of the Purple Twilight” seemed to be the design basis for another eraser monster.

I never collected the Space Creatures, alas, but to this day, Zama, Brak, Dard and Horta — the Space Raiders — are displayed in a place of honor in my home office, along with their spaceships.

HARRYHAUSEN'S MONSTERS RESTORED!

Vanessa Harryhausen, surrounded by her father's creations.

No word here about the restoration process or who was responsible for it, but the results are stunning. Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema will open later this year at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA). More on this in a later post.

Ray Harryhausen’s Restored Skeletons and Monsters
The stop-motion pioneer's skeletons and monsters have been restored. And they're brilliant
By Paul Sorene | July 6, 2019 | via Flashbak

“Everyone has their own right way of doing things. I’d probably call myself a film-maker rather than just a special effects man. I’d often come up with the story, advise on the script, scout locations, design and sculpt the models. I’d have to be on the set to make sure the effects sequences were shot properly which was a problem for some directors – that never really got easier. And I’d do all the animation myself. It was just simpler to do all that myself than try to delegate.”

– Ray Harryhausen

To mark what would have been stop-motion guru Ray Harryhausen’s 99th birthday (born: Los Angeles, June 29, 1920 – died: London, May 7, 2013), original figures from his archive have been restored. Chief amongst them are those terrifying skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts. What was it that made those skeletons fashioned in metal with every limb jointed so compelling? For Harryhausen those models weren’t otherworldly and unreal but actors. “I took some acting classes, but that wasn’t really me,” he recalled in 2012, “although I did learn about movement and building character.” Each of his model’s movements was painstaking; a few minutes of footage took him days to make. Working alone, Harryhausen moved his handmade characters into position, each tiny shift enabling them to interact with one another and develop personality. Harryhausen had created a new reality. His special effects, story and characters became inseparable.

“The 8-year-old me was no longer sitting in my seat at the Crest Theater in West Los Angeles, I was on the beach of the island of Colossa and as awe-struck and fearful as Sinbad and his crew when the first Cyclops made his appearance. I was spellbound by Sinbad’s adventures and marvelled at the Cyclops, the Two-Headed Roc, the fire breathing Dragon and the Skeleton brought to life by the evil magician Sokurah. Only later did I learn that these extraordinary beasts were really brought to life by the magician Ray Harryhausen.

“The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was a truly life-changing experience for me. Thrilled by the movie I went home and asked my mother, “Who does that? Who makes the movie?” She replied, “Well a lot of people honey, but I guess the right answer is the director.’ And that was that – I would be a director when I grew up. All of my energy went into that goal and I read everything about film I could get my hands on.”

– John Landis, The Film That Changed My Life by Robert K. Elder.

“Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no Star Wars”, whilst Jackson called The Lord of the Rings his, “‘Ray Harryhausen movie’…Without that life-long love of his wondrous images and storytelling, it would never have been made – not by me at least”.

– George Lucas

“He stands alone as a technician, as an artist and a dreamer. He breathed life into mythological creatures he constructed with his own hands”.

– Ray Bradbury