Archive for October, 2022

Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 31st, 2022

Today is Halloween, which means it’s time for the annul Fark scary story thread!

Here are the links to threads from previous years:

  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • While you’re here, feel free to check out some of my other freaky/creepy/scary/silly Halloween posts.

    Halloween Horrors: The Backrooms

    Sunday, October 30th, 2022

    The Backrooms are a liminal space CreepyPasta setting where you’ve “no clipped” out of reality into and endless office maze of office corridors decorated in ugly yellow wallpaper and brown carpets illuminated by buzzing florescent lights.

    Several video creators have run with this idea and produced some pretty convincing depictions of it. In the ones below, YouTuber Kane Parsons, AKA Kane Pixals, has filled in background lore where the Async Corporation has created (or possibly tapped into) The Backrooms as a potential money-making project, documenting their work as bland, 1980s-corporate speak promotional videos and handheld camera footage that have come down to us as grainy VHS copies. It’s a pretty-inspired mating of presentation format and subject.

    And the people exploring the Backrooms start to realize that the deeper you get, the weirder things seem to be, and that there’s something else wandering those yellow hallways…

    Evidently he’s doing all this in Blender, which you can download for free.

    And there are lots more YouTube creators doing their own versions of the Backrooms…

    Halloween Horrors: Transworld 2022 Halloween Show

    Saturday, October 29th, 2022

    Here’s video from the 2022 Transworld Halloween trade show, where there are lots of high end props, animatronics, costumes, etc., for the haunted house trade.

    This year: Lots of monsters being electrocuted, and some rather good dinosaurs.

    Halloween Horrors: The Dark Watchers

    Friday, October 28th, 2022

    It’s not often hear of legendary American creature previously unknown to me, but I hadn’t heard of The Dark Watchers before I stumbled across this

    The Dark Watchers are described as tall, sometimes giant-sized featureless dark silhouettes often adorned with brimmed hats or walking sticks. They are most often reported to be seen in the hours around twilight and dawn. They are said to motionlessly watch travelers from the horizon along the Santa Lucia Mountain Range. According to legend, no one has seen one up close and if someone were to approach them, they disappear.”

    Here’s a page of firsthand accounts.

    Halloween Horrors: Underground Car Graveyard

    Thursday, October 27th, 2022

    Less scary than weird and curious, here’s some people exploring a water-filled “Cavern of Lost Souls” with “1000” (probably an exaggeration) old cars mysteriously dumped there. But there are an awful lot there, and it looks like a genuinely dangerous exploration.

    This is evidently in north Wales.

    Library Addition: Lettered Edition of F. Paul Wilson’s Sims Book 5

    Wednesday, October 26th, 2022

    This one of those “what the hell” lowball bids that won. F. Paul Wilson is a writer I collected some early work of (The Keep, etc.), but hadn’t really kept up with. This is the final book from that UK dealer sale.

    Wilson, F. Paul. Sims Book 5: Thy Brother’s Keeper. Cemetery Dance, 2010. First edition hardback, letter R of 26 lettered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine traycase. Bought from a notable UK dealer for £52.60.

    I think this is the only non-Lansdale lettered edition I have from Cemetery Dance.

    Halloween Horrors: Joe R. Lansdale’s River Adventures

    Wednesday, October 26th, 2022

    Mojo storyteller Joe R. Lansdale tells about some early adventures on the haunted banks of the Sabine river, from water moccasins to the legend of the Goat Man to spending the night in an old cemetery.

    One of the times we came to the cemetery, one of our group brought a recorder. A device that would be crude by modern standards, with a spinning tape and heavy buttons that required determination and strong fingers to activate and stop.

    Recorded on the tape was the heart-wrenching sound of a dying rabbit, or at least an imitation of one. The noise a dying or injured rabbit made was of the sort that could cause the backbone to shift and the contents of your stomach to curdle.

    We turned out all the flashlights, and then the recording was turned on. The plaintive cry of a suffering rabbit filled the air, and as we sat there, bright eyes gradually appeared around the perimeter of the cemetery. The owners of those eyes were unseen, and I can’t honestly tell you what sort of critters they belonged to. I could imagine slinking coyotes or red wolves—or at least their dog-mixed descendants—licking their lips. Hot little eyes like golden cigarette tips burning holes through black velvet. Gradually the eyes came closer, and when we could stand it no longer, flashlights were flicked on. It was as if the owners of those eyes were made of shadows. They disappeared into the trees and undergrowth so fast, there was only a slight rustle and a sensation of having imagined it all. Our lights couldn’t find them.

    Read the whole thing, as it ends up in quite a different place than it begins.

    Halloween Horrors: The Book of Cosmic Horror

    Tuesday, October 25th, 2022

    If you like some Hieronymus Bosch, maybe you’ll enjoy this freaky medieval book of prophecy.

    With a nod to H. P. Lovecraft.

    Library Additions: Four Clark Ashton Smith, Three Arkhams, One Signed

    Monday, October 24th, 2022

    One of these came over from the same UK book dealer as the last few purchases, the other three came over in a Heritage Auctions lot I won from the Gary Munson Collection. Which was a surprise, since I hadn’t won a Heritage lot since 2016!

  • Smith, Clark Ashton. The Abominations of Yondo. Arkham House, 1960. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Really an excellent copy. Joshi, Schultz & Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, I.15.a. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 57. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House 57. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries 57. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 60. Currey, page 453. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 200. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1487. Chalker/Owings, page 29. Bought as part of the Heritage lot.

  • Smith, Clark Ashton. Genius Loci and other tales. Arkham House, 1948. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with small owners name in ink on front free endpaper, moderate rubbing to letters on spine, an slight bumping at head and heel, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with 2″ of moderate dampstaining along rear join at heel, a much fainter example of same along head join, age darkening to spine, and general wear. The third Arkham House collection of Smith stories. Joshi, Schultz & Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, I.a.11. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 35. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House 35. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries 35. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 36. Currey, page 453. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 200. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1486. Chalker/Owings, page 26. Kemp, The Anthem Series 35 (page 323). Bought as part of the Heritage lot.

  • Smith, Clark Ashton. Spells and Philtres. Arkham House, 1958. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bump to top front corner and the barest trace of foxing to inside covers, in a Fine- dust jacket with slight age darkening to white portions of jacket, a few traces of dust soiling, and a trace of rubbing along front spine join near heel and at points. A really attractive copy of Smith’s first poetry collection from Arkham House. Joshi, Schultz & Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 51. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House 51. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries 51. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 54. Chalker/Owings, page 28. Bought from a notable UK dealer for £400.

  • Smith, Clark Ashton. The Star-Treader and other poems. A.M. Robinson/Philopolis Press, 1912. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with start of a crease to top of spine and slight bumping at heel, in a Fine- dust jacket with one short stray pencil mark on front cover near spine, one small, faint teardrop stain affecting “r” in Star and hyphen, signed “Clark Ashton Smith/Auburn, Cal./Nov. 25th, 1912, with printed portrait of Smith laid in. (There is also a small stray pen-mark matching Clark’s fountain pen signature color to bottom inside front cover, which I don’t regard as a flaw.) By far the best of the three copies of this book I’ve handled, and replaces a less attractive copy. Smith’s first published book. Joshi, Schultz & Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography I.1.a. Bought as part of the Heritage lot.

    Note: The bright white spot at top is merely a reflection off the Mylar dust jacket protector.

  • I will have more Clark Ashton Smith and Arkham House books available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.

    Library Addition: Eric Frank Russell’s Somewhere A Voice

    Sunday, October 23rd, 2022

    Another purchase from that British book dealer:

    Russell, Eric Frank. Somewhere A Voice. Dennis Dobson, 1965. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a small Foyle’s stickler on inside front cover under flap in a Near Fine- dust jacket with a 3/4″ split to bottom of front fold (and faint associated crease to front), a nail-head sized semi-closed circular chip to rear spine join near head, slight age darkening to edges of white portion of jacket, a faint, intermittant line of rubbing near right front cover edge, and slight foxing to blind side of dust jacket spine, otherwise a fairly bright example of the dust jacket. Short story collection. Currey, page 424. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy III, page 70. Bought from a notable UK book dealer for £32.

    I enjoyed Wasp enough that I think I should pick up some more Russell.