NEW BOOKS: THE BLOODY AND THE BEAUTIFUL

EYES OF BLOOD
The meteoric rise of Hammer Films as a force in world horror cinema resulted from the release of two seminal movies: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1957 and, especially, 1958's DRACULA starring Christopher Lee. Lee became the most famous incarnation of the vampire Count ever, in a series of stylish films spanning 16 years: DRACULA, DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS. DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE , THE SCARS OF DRACULA, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, DRACULA AD 72, and THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA. EYES OF BLOOD is a comprehensive visual tribute to Christopher Lee's magnetic and enduring portrayal of Dracula, featuring over 50 rare production photographs covering all seven of these classic horror movies, plus a section of stunning poster art with 20 full-colour images. Each film is also reviewed in full, with details of cast and crew. EYES OF BLOOD is adapted from a previous publication LIPS OF BLOOD (Glitter Books, 2000).

Suggested Retail Price: $16.95.
Release Date: November 30, 2012.

PSYCHEDELIC SEX VAMPIRES
An illustrated appreciation of the films of Jean Rollin, the cult French film director best-known for his surrealistic depictions of vampires, sex, and horror. With 140 photographs and poster images, including 40 pages in full colour; an interview with Jean Rollin; an introductory essay on his films; a complete illustrated filmography; and a foreword by noted film writer Ado Kyrou. The book features extended photographic sections on each of Rollin's notorious :vampire Quartet" - THE RAPE OF THE VAMPIRE, THE NUDE VAMPIRE, THE SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES, and REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE - as well as dozens of images from his other films.

Suggested Retail Price: $24.95.
Release Date: September 30, 2012.

CAROLINE MUNROE: FIRST LADY OF FANTASY
Now available in paperback! This filmography (including television and music video appearances) chronicles the career of Caroline Munro, a woman of humble beginnings whose chance entry in a "Face of the Year" photo competition propelled her to international fame as a model and actress, and whose work in genre cinema has won her the well-earned title of "First Lady of Fantasy." It provides complete technical and cast credits for each film, a synopsis, reviews and notes, and a foreword by Caroline Munro.

Suggested Retail Price: $45.00.
Release Date: Available now.

MARGARET BRUNDAGE: FIRST LADY OF ILLUSTRATED FEAR

In her time, Margaret Brundage had no equal. Her provocative painted covers for WEIRD TALES magazine have endured as examples of fantasy and horror masterpieces.

Now, VANGUARD PRODUCTIONS, who have already brought us exquisite collections of artwork by J. Allen St. John, Roy Krenkel, and Frank Frazetta, are about to release a first-ever retrospective collection of Miss Brundage's work.

Three editions will be available: an affordable softcover edition, a hardcover edition, and a deluxe, slipcover edition that includes an extra 16 pages of material.

I don't even have to see one page of this book to give it my highest recommendation. These guys know how to put on an art show.


An iconic WEIRD TALES cover image painted
by Margaret Brundage.


From the VANGUARD PRODUCTIONS website:

"Starting in 1932, Margaret Brundage forever changed the look of Fantasy, Science-Fiction and Horror with her alluring sensationalisti covers for the legendary pulp magazine, Weird Tales. Brundage, whose contemporaries include Virgil Finlay and Hannes Bok, is unique as she was the first female cover artist of the pulp era. Decades before the gothic fetish craze, Brundage's lush, provocative paintings, which frequently featured smoldering, semi-nude young women bearing whips, became a focus of acute attention and controversy. At the very peak of the notorious pulp's classic run, the magazine's appeal was due as much to Brundage's covers as to the stories inside by famous authors H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch and Conan creator, Robert E. Howard. The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage is the first book devoted to this noted artist.

Authors and compilers Stephen D. Korshak and J. David Spurlock follow their seminal collaboration, The Paintings of J. Allen St. John: Grand Master of Fantasy, with The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage which, also features essays by noted artist Rowena Morrill, Weird Tales historian Robert Weinberg, First Fandom member / founding Shasta publisher Melvin Korshak, and more.

All editions feature big, 9" x 12" lavish illustrated, full-color pages with text."


THE SLASHER MOVIE BOOK - IT SLICES, IT DICES

ATTENTION: MAKE SURE YOU READ THE VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!

Just released is J.A. Kerswell's THE SLASHER MOVIE BOOK. By all appearances, it's the U.S. version of TEENAGE WASTELAND: THE SLASHER MOVIE UNCUT, a previously published U.K. book with the same content, same cover and same book design.

Like Jason Vorheese, itt has been resurrected for good reason -- the slasher movie, albeit its evolution (and regression, some might say) for the most part into the torture porn horror film genre, has maintained its popularity since the heyday of the 1980's.

Entertaining with just the right touch of scholarship, THE SLASHER MOVIE BOOK is a cut above (yes, pun intended!) some of the usual fare. Kerswell has an obvious love, if not, an outright lust for these types of movies. Besides being a good writer, who better than an enthusiastic fan of the material to cover the topic?

I will be reviewing THE SLASHER MOVIE BOOK with more depth in a later post. In the meantime, here is an article from THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Voted Most Likely to Slaughter
By ERIK PIEPENBURG

READING “The Slasher Movie Book” is like paging through a 1980s yearbook from a high school for maniacs. Look how young Michael and Jason look! Oh, and there’s Freddy in that sweater he wore, like, every day. And whatever happened to Chucky, that little monster?

The new book, a compendium of horror film artwork to be released by Chicago Review Press on Friday [last week - Editor], features scores of posters, advertisements and video covers culled from the collection of J. A. Kerswell, 43, an Englishman who grew up watching classic American horror films on late-night television or on rented VHS tapes. “I loved the scares, the cat-and-mouse thrills,” Mr. Kerswell said by phone from his home in Bristol, England.

He fell especially hard for what he called the “underdog” slasher, a low-budget subgenre that generally follows a formula: a sexually repressed man-child kills, in outlandish ways, frisky teenagers who are having sex in dorms, homes or (ideally) the woods. The golden age of slashers began in the late ’70s and lasted through the early ’80s when “Friday the 13th,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Halloween” turned into box office hits.

"International in scope, “The Slasher Movie Book” traces how the genre’s conventions — lustful teenagers, gleaming cutlery, bloody deaths — have been used to market these films to mostly young fans."

Beginning in the silent era, when a frightened woman peered out from the poster for “The Cat and the Canary” (1927), the artwork ranges in flavor from cheesy to gristly. The poster for “Happy Birthday to Me” (1981), for instance, shows a young man about to get a skewer of meat and vegetables to the throat. (The tagline: “John will never eat shish kebab again.”) One series even has a superstar logo: the hockey goalie facegear used to advertise several “Friday the 13th” sequels has become shorthand for the franchise, much like another white mask did for the musical “The Phantom of the Opera.”

[SOURCE: The New York Times May 26, 2012,]

A SLIDE SHOW includes five examples from the book that offer a cinematic timeline of how slasher-film posters have evolved. The New York Times asked several artists to design their fantasy versions of posters for the original “Friday the 13th”; their work is HERE.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! To coincide with it's publication MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD will be offering a free copy of THE SLASHER MOVIE BOOK to one lucky winner. Find out the details tomorrow right here!

ANYONE CARE FOR SOME "EGGS BARNABAS"?

It seems no tombstone was left unturned in the marketing of the TV hit series, DARK SHADOWS. While not as uncommon as one might think, a cookbook -- that's right, cookbook -- based on the show was published by Ace Books in 1970. The recipies were assembled by Jody Cameron Malis and were basic concotions found simmering on the stovetop or spinning in any Waring blender in any American household at the time. The only difference was that these recipies had goofy titles slapped on, like "David's Demoniacal Pancakes and Waffles," "Barnabas' Bloody Mary and Other Beastly Beverages," "Quentin's Ghoulish Goulash and Karate (!) Chops", and "Carolyn's Fiendish Fish".

The novelty book has become something of a collector's item these days, with prices reaching as high as $140. One could make a pretty good-sized salad with lettuce like that.

ABANDON $ ALL YE WHO READ THIS DREAD NECRONOMICON

Those of you familiar with the weird fiction of H. P. Lovevcraft will know that among the varied devices he employed in efforts to add authenticity to his stories was the "dread Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul-Alhazred". Well, this Necronomicon was supposed to be a book that contained the worst imaginable for the human race and anybody that attempted to use its power was destined for a bad end.

In 1977, a book appeared for sale published by Shlangekraft, Inc. that was purported to be a Greek version of the Necronomicon. While its contents is far afield from the abhorrent text that Lovecraft assumed, it nevertheless sent a ripple through the fantasy, science-fiction, and occult communities at the time of its publication. Controversy spread as to who this so-called "Simon" character was that wrote a lengthy introduction included in the book.

The Simon Necronomicon has been the subject of much speculation and discussion over the ensuing years. A supposed genuine copyright was tracked down that revealed the author -- or at least the person securing the rights -- was one, Peter Levenda. Levenda was an acquaintance of Herman Slater, who ran the Magickal Childe bookstore in New York. Some say it was Slater who was the author, and some maintain that it was a collaboration between the two. In any case, the books has enjoyed a rather enthusiastic cult following. A mass market paperback edition was published by Avon Books in 1980, and, like another blasted tome that sits near it in the "Metaphysical" section of your local bookstore, Anton Szandor La Vey's THE SATANIC BIBLE, I believe it has never gone out of print.

The Necronomicon has enjoyed an interesting, if exclusive, existence in films as well. It was Wilbur Whately's raison d'etre in AIP's THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970) and was an animated prop in Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD series.

The book was originally published in hardcover in several editions, including a deluxe limited leatherbound edition, and was advertised in various "fringe" magazines such as HEAVY METAL and THE TWILIGHT ZONE magazine.



An ad for the clothbound edition of the NECRONOMICON.
From HEAVY METAL magazine.

As one might guess, these original editions have become collector's editions. Several years ago, I saw a copy in a display case at a local bookstore with a selling price of $800 (!). It was gone the next time I looked.

Shown here in today's post is a copy of the Necronomicon up for sale by Weiser Antiquarian Books, who distribute a catalogue every so often dealing with subjects of the occult and metaphysics. It is one of the original, Schlangekraft, Inc. limited edition leatherbound copies, with a price tag of $600. With a book in that range, why not have a bit of fun and charge an extra $66, I say!

IT IS A GOOD YEAR FOR HAMMER FILMS. The reinvigorated film studio has released two movies, Richard Klemensen's superb 'zine LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS is continuing its run with special issues on HANDS OF THE RIPPER and THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, and author Marcus Hearn has now completed another book in his series about the Hammer Films empire. Beginning with THE HAMMER STORY in 2007, and followed by HAMMER GLAMOUR in 2009, and THE ART OF HAMMER in 2010, his latest opus, THE HAMMER VAULT, is releasing here in the States on December 20.

The book has already caught on and astounded readers in the UK. It is described as a "remarkable journey through the Hammer Vault" that includes props, annotated script pages, unused poster artwork, production designs, rare promotional material and private correspondence. Hundreds of rare and previously unseen stills help to create a rich souvenir of Hammer’s legacy, from the X certificate classics of the 1950s to the studio’s latest productions.

And, from Amazon: "Written and compiled by the official Hammer Films historian Marcus Hearn, and featuring exclusive contributions from the actors and filmmakers associated with the company, this is the most lavish book ever published on the legendary House of Horror."

Highlights include:

- Letters to and from some of the company's stars
- Pages from Peter Cushing's scrapbooks
- Pages from the scrapbook of managing director Michael Carreras
- Pre-production artwork, and poster artwork from films that were never made
- Production designs
- Rare and previously unpublished photos

[HAUNTED LIBRARY logo and accompanying illustration are Copyright (C) 2011 by Navroth. All rights reserved. Do not copy or distribute without permission.]