Czech Dreadfuls

I mentioned once before an email group to which I belong, Cover Ups, which circulates old pulp covers. One member of that group, going by the name Ufikus, is a collector of "Czech dreadfuls". Published in the Czech part of Austria-Hungary circa 1900, these were small, 64-page books; the equivalent of penny dreadfuls in the US and the UK. They are, apparently, now extraordinarily rare. The covers are wonderfully evocative, though not always wonderfully competent. See what you think. Roght translations of the titles are above each cover.

"The Roman Wizard"


"The King of the Sea"


"The Terrible Captain"


"The Bandit Knight"


"The Dead Father's Warning"


"Woman Doctor of the Tawnee Tribe"


"Skeletons of the Cursed Mountain"


"Captured by Cannibals"

More Blood-Curdling Shenanigans

A couple of months ago I looked at the available covers for the upcoming series of horror classics from Penguin. Two titles at that point were without cover designs: The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins, and The Virgin of the Seven Daggers by Vernon Lee, which was also the only book in the series I hadn't read in some other edition, and knew nothing about.

Well, here are those two covers, which are a lurid match with the rest of the set.



And here's the blurb for Virgin...: "The brutal Don Juan – an unrepentant sinner – makes a pact with the Virgin of the Seven Daggers. He promises to forever proclaim her supreme beauty and asks that in return she save him from damnation. Emboldened by the deal and driven by insatiable greed, he embarks on a necromantic journey to an enchanted palace beneath the Alhambra. In an orgy of beasts, demons and slumbering infantas Don Juan is called upon to uphold his side of the bargain and in doing so lose everything his lustful heart desires."

So, yes, I'll be getting that.

UPDATE: The most excellent Coralie Bickford-Smith informs me that she is responsible for these brilliant covers. She says that "[t]he process I used was inspired by Romek Marber, a freelance designer noted for his work on Penguin crime books in the 1960s. Like Marber I have used light sensitive paper to produce stark graphic images."

I also find that Coralie did the covers for the Penguin Red Classics adventure books I discussed in an earlier post. For more about Romek Marber, see my Simenon Retro post.

Blood-curdling shenanigans

Further to the last post, with its Boys' Own Adventure covers, here is another series of books Penguin is releasing later in the year (October): a number of classics of supernatural literature.

These books are a mix of the genuinely great (Bierce, James, Poe, Gaskell), wild-eyed-hysteria fun (Hodgson, Lovecraft), the intriguing-but-way-too-long (Marsh), and the obviously-written-under-the-brain-melting-effects-of-tertiary-syphillis (Stoker).

They also look great, with a mix of murky green/blue and shocking yellow, like Kirlian photographs of the impossible or ectoplasmic stains.



There's one other book in this series which has not yet had its cover finished: Vernon Lee's The Virgin of the Seven Daggers. It's the only one of this lot I haven't already read, either, but with a title like that, how can you go wrong?

UPDATE: These covers were designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith--see the follow-up post for more information.

Only Three of Them Really Know What is Going On

I came across this cover at the nice little collection of bizarre books that 'Arty Bees Books' of New Zealand have on their pages. Is that not a fantastic front-cover blurb? Almost up there with "sexual gymnastics"!

According to another site, this is the plot: "A scientist is sent to fill an empty slot at an experimental lab involving human communication with primates. There he discovers that the prize ape is brighter than expected, and that someone is working behind the scenes to destroy the project."

Mind-Boggling Quick One

I'm just posting a quickie here today, as I managed to fall off the roof on the weekend and damage my hand, which has limited keyboard time. However, I couldn't NOT post this old magazine image. Let's try to imagine what series of events led to this situation...


Scan from the good people at Cover Ups.

Perfect Title?

As an addendum to the look at Pulp, a question must be asked. Does this book not have the perfect pulp title? Perhaps even the perfect anything title?


Image nicked from here, which is well worth visiting.