Reading Rumble Round 16

The Future of Horror Clive Barker manifests in the ring.

Love Comes From the Grave by Wyatt Blassingame

Horror Stories, Feb/Mar 1936

The scorned lovers of an Alabama couple kill themselves in a suicide pact, then return to the couple in dreams, turning them into bestial killers. 

The Life of Death by Clive Barker

Books of Blood IV, 1985. Available from Amazon https://amzn.to/3VDJY0l

A woman sneaks into an uncovered plague pit and becomes an immune carrier. She recently had an hysterectomy and there's some kind of thematic connection. Can't tell if the prose is old fashioned or just very British.

Room 502 by Paul Ernst
Clues Detective Stories, May 1936

Detective solves the case of a long dead woman falling to her death. Needlessly convoluted, especially given that the copper overhears the murderers confess.

Meet Mr. Murder by Robert Bloch as Tarleton Fiske
Mammoth Detective, November 1943

The villains from an author's work in progress come to life.

Fish Night by Joe Lansdale
Specter!, 1982

The deserts of the southwest were once the ocean bottom, and some nights the ghosts of long dead fish swim above the sand.

The Monster from Mars by Richard Shaver as Alexander Blade
Amazing Stories, April 1948

Giant spiders from outer space attack in the South American jungle, concluding with the aliens blowing up all evidence, Predator style. Ray Palmer's introduction says that they had proof of the Shaver Mystery, but since a "respectable citizen" has offered proof in a different venue (?), Amazing Stories will revert back to 100% fiction, including some written by Shaver.

Barker gets tangled in the ropes trying to enter the ring. Blassingame goes to the well too many times and is knocked over the ropes, taking Ernst with him.

Reading Rumble Young Guns Championship: Derrick Ferguson vs Greg Gifune

 

With no signs of stopping, Derrick Ferguson's Dillon racks up another win.

Dillon And The Pirates of Xonira by Derrick Ferguson

Dillon And The Pirates of Xonira
by Derrick Ferguson
2012 Pulpwork Press

Dillion is hired to investigate his old friend Lord Chancellor C'jai of Xonira, accused of piracy. We get submarine battles and swordfights, but not near as over-the-top as other entries. 

Available from Amazon

Rogue by Greg Gifune

Rogue
by Greg Gifune
2014 DarkFuse

A civil servant who monitors sex offenders is losing his mind. He's suspended for actions he doesn't remember, prone to fits of anger, has horrifying hallucinations, and is visited by a stranger in his backyard warning him to not use the phone.

Is it a government conspiracy? Demon possession? Time travel and alternate universes? Is it all a dream? Is he dead and being tormented in the afterlife?

Good prose, but the story reaches a level early on and doesn't move from there, aside from a quick scene of violence that felt out of place. Without things ramping up I was just left to guess what the resolution would be. I didn't guess completely right, but given that the story felt four parts Jacob's Ladder and one part Angel Heart, it wasn't a surprise either.

Some loose threads are wrapped up at the end, but like Jacob's Ladder a lot is dropped. The audiobook's narration was a good artistic choice, whispery and lethargic, but didn't help with the pacing.

Available from Amazon

Reading Rumble Young Guns Championship: Derrick Ferguson vs Greg Gifune

 

Newcomer Greg Gifune challenges the champion Derrick Ferguson for the Young Guns Title

Reading Rumble Round 15

 

Robert "Author of Psycho" Bloch worked from Weird Tales through Tales from the Darkside. Known mainly for the Hitchcock adaptation, my favorites from him have been in horror anthology TV and film.

Catnip by Robert Bloch
Weird Tales, March 1948

A school bully is menaced by the cat of a witch whose house he burned down. Just gruesome enough to stay in the ring.

The Dragon of Kao Tsu by Robert E Howard
Spicy Adventure Stories, September 1936

A woman wanting a dragon statue and our "hero" run around a warehouse getting menaced and knocked out. No adventure, an unfair mystery, and caps off with a bad-even-for-spicy-pulps light hearted rape.

Her Lover - Death! by Wyatt Blassingame
Horror Stories, January 1935

A mill owner prone to blackouts believes he's been on a murder spree and is a danger to his wife. Standard shudder stuff, though Blassingame crafts a more dreamlike atmosphere than most.

Not From Detroit by Joe R. Lansdale
Midnight Graffiti, Fall 1988

Collected in Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road from Amazon https://amzn.to/3U7JTkE

Lansdale waxes sentimental with an elderly man fighting death to save his wife.

Slaves of the Worm by Richard Shaver
Fantastic Adventures, February 1948

Deep in the inner earth, the evil Fellowship of the Black Cross worships a giant worm with a human head.

Death Dines Out by Paul Ernst
Dime Mystery Magazine,  January 1936

Everyone drops dead at the death themed restaurant Café Styx, where guests sit at coffins and are served by waiters dressed as skeletons. Felt like he wrote a mystery into a corner  and just abandoned it as a horror tale.

Murder in the Family by Leigh Brackett
Mammoth Detective, March 1943

A homeless man finds a woman dead in the jaws of a lion statue at the La Brea tar pits. Promising premise runs aground in a series of false finishes in a single locatiom.

Brackett goes over the ropes. Robert E. Howard is disqualified and escorted out of the ring by security.

Reading Rumble Round 14

 

Our next entry Wyatt Blassingame started with Weird Menace before moving into juvenile non-fiction.

Dread Exile by Paul Ernst
Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, June 1932

Spooky story of interplanetary body transference.

People of the Dark by Robert E. Howard
Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, June 1932

A man seeking to kill his romantic rival is bonked on the head and awakens in the past as Conan the Reaver, who has square bangs, wears a loincoth and worships Crom. This supposedly isn't officially Conan, but whatever. These framing stories of people regressing to past lives feel like ways to fill out story fragments.

Death Seems So Final by Richard Shaver (as Alexander Blade)
Amazing Stories January 1947, Vol 21 No 1

Narrative of a man still conscious after dying in a crash. Cliché subject saved by Shaver's inept yet impassioned take.

You Can Go Now by Dennis Etchison
Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, September 1980

Guy dies in a car wreck, dies in a plane crash, looks for his houseboat, killed his wife.

Subway Jack by Joe R. Lansdale
The Further Adventures of Batman, 1989

Batman fights Lansdale's interdimensional serial killer The God of the Razor, from his novel Nightrunners. Mostly prose, but parts are written in comic book script, which was distracting.

I Feel Bad Killing You by Leigh Brackett
New Detective Magazine, November 1944

Disgraced former cop navigates the world of criminals and crooked police to uncover the truth of his brother's suicide. My favorite tough guy prose, but the plot was a little limited.

They Thirst by Night by Wyatt Blassingame
Dime Mystery Magazine, June 1935

An Alabama preacher is seduced by a vampire. 

Etchison goes over the ropes.