Exciting! Electrifying! Eckhardtian! Episcopalian! These are just four words beginning with E. None of the illustrated books we mention today are episcopalian (we don’t think) but they are fun – even scholarly but fun in one case. And we have some exclusive illos to show off. Our targets are Jason Eckhardt, Sam Gafford, Brandon Barrows, Hugo Petrus, Edgar Allan Poe and a surprise guest, David Langford.

NOTE: All pics should be clickable for larger versions, and sales links are provided for each book should you fancy a copy.

The Artist at the Threshold

We start with an illustrated volume we mentioned a while back, as a neatish link. Our first in-depth exposure to Jason Eckhardt’s striking work was in Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H.P. Lovecraft (PS Publishing 2017), written by Sam Gafford.

The art of Some Notes on a Nonentity, a biography in graphic novel form, is fascinating, and was very well received:

“Eckhardt’s art deserves especial praise here: while he has published many drawings on Lovecraftian subjects over his career, the breadth of style and expression in SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY is a cut above what anyone might have expected, and those familiar with the people and places involved will appreciate the considerable care that has gone into photo-references of the historical persons and places within. It’s an attention to detail that is echoed in Sam Gafford’s text, although the pace is kept lively – this is a work that could easily have been twice as long, and yet have become less accessible.” (Amazon Reviewer)

We even bought a copy at the time, and were most pleased with it – a lovely work to browse, and very informative.

Eckhardt: Behind the Masque

Now Jason Eckhardt has turned to Edgar Allan Poe, a fitting choice given Poe’s influence on Lovecraft.

“Poe has probably influenced me more than any other one person. If I have ever been able to approximate his kind of thrill, it is only because he himself paved the way by creating a whole atmosphere & method which lesser men can follow with relative ease.” (HPL to J. Vernon Shea, 19 June 1931)

The new book, The Masque of the Red Death and Others (Ulthar Press 2018), includes a selection of Poe’s original stories, each beautifully illustrated by Eckhardt:

“Edgar Allan Poe lives again in this collection of 13 of his most famous short stories and poems brought to life by exclusive, never-before-seen haunting illustrations from famed artist Jason Eckhardt. Stories include ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘Metzengerstein’, ‘The Gold-Bug’ and many more including the title story.”

The Masque of the Red Death and Others

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/fn8ygc7

Amazon US http://a.co/d/g99wlZs

Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H.P. Lovecraft

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/2E48Yz7

Amazon US http://a.co/d/ezZVFgx

By Langford Station, We Sat Down and Wept

The curious thing is that whilst checking out more of Eckhardt’s work, we knew he’d done a lot of line art for other Lovecraftian projects, but hadn’t realised that he’d illustrated an old friend of ours, that erudite author, editor and reviewer David Langford, a Britlander like ourselves. Many and many’s the time we have shouted at him across a crowded convention bar – and discovered that we were on his deaf side. No, really.

The item in question is the Irrational Numbers Pamphlet (Necronomicon Press 1994) by David Langford (Author), Jason C. Eckhardt (Illustrator).

“Irrational Numbers by David Langford is a collection of three short stories in techno-Lovecraftian vein, where occult investigations intersect dangerously with physics, mathematics and computer software.

“Neil Gaiman’s back-cover quote reads “Only Dave Langford knows the meaning of the word ‘fear’,” with the tiny footnote The other words only Dave Langford knows the meaning of are ‘Labile’, ‘Glabrous’ and ‘Scrotiform’.”“

The pamphlet itself is around occasionally, secondhand, but the three stories are still available in Different Kinds of Darkness by Langford:

“Different Kinds of Darkness collects 36 “straight” sf/fantasy/horror stories, complementing the parodies and pastiches in He Do the Time Police in Different Voices — there is no overlap. The stories range from the first Langford professional appearance in (gulp) 1975 to my latest piece of fiction at the time of delivery in October 2003.”

He Do the Time Police in Different Voices is an especially delightful book of parodies which we have mentioned on greydogtales before:

http://greydogtales.com/blog/parodies-possibilities-end-of-the-year-part-the-last/

Different Kinds of Darkness is available through Ansible (as is Time Police).

https://ansible.uk/books/dkod.html

Barrows Wrangles with Lovecraft’s Worlds

Finally, as we’re in the zone, it seems well worth mentioning another graphic work from last year, Mythos: Lovecraft’s Worlds, written by Brandon Barrows and illustrated by Hugo Petrus, published by Calibre Comics. Petrus has worked with writer Roy Thomas for Marvel Illustrated: The Three Musketeers, amongst other projects.

Barrows is, of course, a writer of both comics and many varieties of weird and thriller fiction, including his recent novel This Rough Old World, which is published by… Ulthar Press, run by Sam Gafford. Degrees of Kevin Bacon explode.

“Remembered as the father of modern horror, H.P. Lovecraft is best known for tales of terror, cosmic abominations and especially his most famous creation, the dreaded Cthulhu! Few realize, however, the true creative breadth and depth spanned by Lovecraft, who penned stories of horror but also of fantasy, science fiction and even humor. Within this Mythos series, writer Brandon Barrows and artist Hugo Petrus go beyond tentacles and evil gods to explore the rare corners and the myriad worlds created by H.P. Lovecraft!”

Barrows has adapted Lovecraft’s original texts clearly and appropriately to fit the medium of graphic stories, and there are two other particular pleasures in Mythos:

• It’s not all the usual stories, and the collection includes ‘The Strange High House in the Mist’, and ‘The Beast in the Cave’, as well as the wry, humorous ‘Ibid’.
• Petrus has selected different styles of B/W work for each story, so you get a rather clever contrast between them. In some cases the art is almost EC Comics style, but then it becomes finer, or more subtle, or more pervaded with greyscale, depending on the tale being depicted.

We found it an enjoyable collection, and a nice change.

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/6pqUVaX

Amazon US http://a.co/d/2v83cMY

Pictures! We interrupt our normal programming to bring you coverage of a new book by Charles van Sandwyk, How to See Fairies, with some rather spiffy art to show off (all the illustrations should be clickable for much larger versions).

A kindly move by us, for, as Dave Brzeski says in his article below, people nowadays (including greydogtales) do indeed like to take the fae/fey “back to their very earliest roots”, exposing their sly, inhuman ways –

Clinging to the cotton-grass, claws wrapped round stalks and stems, narrow heads lifting. Out of the half-world to play, soft pipes and changelings, curdled milk and blood on the bedsheets. The Children of Angles and Corners, as alike to the fey of folk-tales as a cleaver to a butter knife.

Their music is a scrape on glass, a lost child’s wail, forced through throats which do not quite exist. Their limbs twitch without sinews and bend where there are no joints. They see farmsteads and the flesh within, flesh that dances when plucked. Fat where they are lean, sweetmeats for their soured tongues…

The Horse Road, John Linwood Grant

But we shall not be perverse. This books reminds us more of lolling at home as children, flicking through the little ‘Flower Fairies’ books by Cicely Mary Barker (we were hoping that there would be more really malicious fey-folk – the Nightshade Berry Fairy was our favourite).

Art from another era, skilfully reborn today…

How to See Fairies and Other Tales

by Charles van Sandwyk

Reviewed by Dave Brzeski

Publisher: The Folio Society

Format: Hardcover in slipcase

I’m forced to begin this review with a question—Why have I never heard of Charles van Sandwyk before? This is almost inconceivable to me when you look at the superb quality of van Sandwyk’s artwork. It’s not as if he hasn’t been around a while. A quick look up on Wikipedia reveals that he’s had numerous books published since the late 80s, that he has paintings hanging in the National Library of Canada, as well as in several important private collections. Charles van Sandwyk is evidently not obscure.

This gorgeous, slipcased hardcover is, in fact a collection of previously printed works, collected together for the first time. Originally published in extremely limited edition runs by The Fairy Press, a division of Charles van Sandwyk Fine Arts. A good number of the illustrations are newly coloured, or completely new to this collection, thus making this volume an essential purchase even for those very lucky few to own copies of the original Fairy Press editions.

The works included are…

The Fairy Market (2009)

How to See Fairies (1993)

The Gnome King’s Treasure Song (2000)

Pocket Guide to the Little People (1997)

Afterglow (2008)

Wee Folk (1994)

The Fairies’ Christmas (2001)

It’s immediately obvious that van Sandwyk is very familiar with the artists that trod this ground before him. In fact, this book is dedicated to Arthur Rackham, probably the greatest of them all. Van Sandwyk’s artwork is easily of sufficient quality to stand side by side with anyone from the grand master Rackham to Brian Froud. He even manages to capture the period feel of the earlier fairy artist’s work, while having a style completely of his own. One could wax eloquent about the brilliance of van Sandwyk’s artwork for page after page—there’s even a three panel foldout—but How to See Fairies isn’t simply a collection of great fantasy artwork. Van Sandwyk writes too…

It’s the fashion these days, to take fairy tales and the fae right back to their very earliest roots, by which I mean they tend to be a nasty, spiteful bunch and not something you’d ever be happy to encounter. Here, however, we harken back to the days when children’s authors presented a much kinder, more pleasant view of the little people. I certainly feel there’s room for both.

The Fairy Market, and indeed most of the book is told in verse and, astonishingly, van Sandwyk’s writing somehow manages to perfectly capture the style and feel of those classic children’s books most of us grew up with just as well as his artwork. It becomes immediately evident on reading that van Sandwyk isn’t simply knocking a few words together, on which to hang his pictures—the man can actually write!

Pocket Guide to the Little People and Wee Folk are more along the lines of a bestiary of the fairy folk, the latter being very much a small collection of pictures with few words. The final item, The Fairies’ Christmas, also breaks from the mould, in that it’s a rather delightful vignette, not told in verse.

Considering that van Sandwyk is a decade younger than I, I cannot help but be impressed with the way he effortlessly transports me back to those years before he was born, when my mother taught me to read at least a year before I started school.

If I could level any criticism at all at this beautiful book it would be that it’s in a rather too fine and expensive a format for children. I honestly can’t see many parents allowing their pre-schoolers to get their hands on it. Having said that, at £39.95, it doesn’t seem all that expensive for such a quality package.

The Folio Society’s How To See Fairies, authored and illustrated by Charles van Sandwyk, is available exclusively from www.FolioSociety.com

(All art copyright Folio Society/van Sandwyk 2018)

I talk a lot. It’s not that I don’t enjoy listening to flesh-people (I find them jolly interesting), it’s not a defence mechanism, and it’s not meant to overwhelm others – but my brain is one of those busy, shallow things, always on the go. If you’ve seen a pond with loads of mad little insects skimming across the surface in constant, frenetic motion, well, that surface is me. All the other writers are the deeper, contemplative waters beneath.

So, apart from my regular agoraphobia, meeting flesh-people is peculiar. Last week I went to a meeting of the Scandalous Bohemians, a group of Holmesian enthusiasts, and very nice it was too. Being well-mannered, I tried to not chip in all the time. Because of my shallow trivia-packed mind, I had things to say on almost every topic, but I sat back listening as much as I could. I was a Good Dog. Relatively.

In the next fortnight, I’m also making myself go to the annual UK Fantasycon, and speaking at the Ryedale Spookfest, part of their Literary Festival. More flesh-people. The first will be eased by my minder being present, there being a bar, and the fact that there are some nice folk I know there. The second may be helped by the advantage that I’m being interviewed, where you’re expected to talk. Phew.

I was reminded, looking at these commitments, of Mr Edwin Dry, the Deptford Assassin, who represents my alter-ego, the soul who neither talks a lot nor really wishes to hear the ins and outs of other lives:

“Arthur Hill was of modest county stock, a junior manager in his father’s engineering firm. Mr Dry was not greatly interested in his targets, but had endured the half-drunk father’s long, sometimes tearful explanation. A good boy, a credit to his late mother, bright at school. Arthur and his beloved gun-dog, the delightful country walks with his father and cousins… there had seemed no end to it.

“Mr Dry had been reminded why he merely killed people. Living with them must be intolerable.”

‘The Intrusion’, John Linwood Grant

And I sort of admire Mr Dry for simplifying things by making a decision early in his life: get on with your work, and filter out the nonsense that flesh-people produce. It does, unfortunately, make you into a quiet, lethal assassin working to a morality no one else can understand. Swings and roundabouts.

I don’t think my chattering self would last long if the Deptford Assassin was around. Mr Dry asks questions only when he wishes to know something directly of value to his work. Most people decide they’d better answer, sharpish. He listens only when necessary, when useful. It’s a fine discipline when you pad the streets of London with purpose.

Perhaps he’s the Anti-Linwood Grant, who will save us all.

By the way, in all of these social situations I’d prefer to have the little donkeys (the lurchers, to you) with me, but practicalities of hotel policies aside, they have their own quirks. Chilli is very dominant, and bashes people in the groin to say hello, plus she tells almost every other dog to submit. And Django, who is affable and bumbling, likes to urinate on things and make them his. Not everyone likes a large black lurcher leaping into their lap whilst a half-kangaroo beast claims their briefcase, funnily enough.

So should you really wish, you can meet me and hear me mutter at Fantasycon 2018, in Chester from 19th – 21st October, and the Ryedale Spookfest, in Malton, Yorkshire, Saturday 27th October. Or you can be like the Deptford Assassin, and get on with something useful.

https://ryedalebookfestival.com/whats-on/grey-dog-tales-from-john-linwood-grant/

OCTOBER FRIGHTS BLOGHOP

Time has been horrendously pressing this year, and we haven’t had time to do the October Frights Blog Hop justice – here are some writers (who are also flesh-people) we meant to mention . Organiser Anita Stewart has been busy with a series which we want to cover on greydogtales in the future, as one of our reviewers says it looks very promising – The Saga of the Outer Islands. Dark fantasy, with the second book out last month.

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/jbeaTyJ

Amazon US http://a.co/d/4MjXeYZ

Another participant in October Frights, Christine Verstraete has released her second ‘Lizzie Borden’ re-imagined horror novel, Lizzie Borden Zombie Hunter 2: The Axe will Fall.

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/06yFDz0

Amazon US http://a.co/d/6pyM4n2

Finally, with Halloween on its way, we’ll nod to a further participant, one who has something coming out on October 26th 2018, deliberately timed for the season (so obviously, we haven’t been able to read it yet). Last autumn, writer Stephanie Ayers put out the first of a series of collections of short fiction, The 13: Tales of Illusory, and this year’s offering is The 13: Tales of Macabre.

“Killer watermelons, murderous jewelry boxes, centenarian sea whisperers, creatures of myth/legend, and more…

“This supernatural story collection will make you reconsider everything you thought you knew. At night you’ll hover under your covers while looking over your shoulder in the day. Down, down in the depths they fell; bodies in the dark of a liquid hell. Can you survive all 12?”

Stephanie adds:

“I write a lot of short stories, 90% of them creepy, spooky, horror-ish. I decided I would do one book of short stories a year, released around Halloween. Thus the whole The 13 series was born…

“Next I had to pick through all my stories and figure out which ones belonged in this volume. I revised and added to many of them and even wrote a few new stories, so several of them are never before seen, not even on my blog. I expect readers to get a little grossed out, feel a little squeamish, cower under their blankets, and look over their shoulders. I hope each story plays like a movie in their head and their spine crawls.”

Stephanie Ayers can be found on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/theauthorSAM

Pre-order links for the Kindle:

Amazon US http://a.co/d/2Ixdal1

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/iqjtJ8o

You can still have a look round all the sites involved in the blog hop here:

http://www.inlinkz.com/new/view.php?id=797504

More October bookerations today, dear listener. A quick note on a new novel by Willie Meikle, a guest review of a themed anthology, Welcome to the Show, complied by Matt Hayward and edited by Doug Murano, and a mention of another anthology on the wind from Planet X Publications – which also concerns a show, the classic US carnival.

Right, there are always far more interesting books than we can cover. So in addition to our usual wittering, articles and oddities, we’re going to include more guest reviews. We’ll still be doing our own thing, poking our cold wet noses into other people’s work and exploring, of course. We’re going for this approach because one of the biggest problems for small and independent presses (and their authors) is getting their works noticed at all.

The guest reviews will be clearly marked and attributed, just in case you get confused. Any opinions expressed in those sections belong to the reviewers, not us – our tastes are a bit peculiar, and we’ll make our own recommendations as we bumble along. This might also leave us more time to go back to lurchers and classic weird things!

What we ourselves are reading, by the way – about fifteen books at once, but Tade Thompson’s recent novel Rosewater is absolutely cracking and it looks like we’ll be recommending that one highly. First speculative novel we’ve read recently that was also a complete page-turner.

We’re also interested in Haunted are These Houses (from Unnerving), short stories and poetry with Gemma Files and others; Trade Yer Coffin for a Gun by Mer Whinery (from Muzzleland), Entranced by Eyes of Evil, edited by Tim Prasil (Brom Bones Books) and many more. We will try to report back.

The Green and the Black

Firstly, released this week we find Willie Meikle’s latest novel The Green and the Black, published by Crossroad Press.

“A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the centre of Newfoundland, investigating a rumour of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century. They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.

“Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control. The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.”

William Meikle at his best, delivering strong, deftly-written prose entwined with a highly imaginative and richly-detailed mythological plot. It digs out the most disturbing elements of local folklore and legend and then uses them as a framework for a powerful, atmospheric and slow-burning piece of horror fiction that is often almost unbearably tense. – The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer

Amazon UK http://amzn.eu/d/6lyubaj

Amazon US http://a.co/d/03LgERv

And now we have writer/editor Duane Pesice on a new anthology from Crystal Lake Publishing, Welcome to the Show…

WELCOME TO THE SHOW

Reviewed by Duane Pesice

Here’s the pitch:

“We all know the old cliché: Sex, drugs and rock and roll. Now, add demons, other dimensions, monsters, revenge, human sacrifice, and a dash of the truly inexplicable. This is the story of the (fictional) San Francisco music venue, The Shantyman.

“In Welcome to the Show, seventeen of today’s hottest writers of horror and dark fiction come together in devilish harmony to trace The Shantyman’s history from its disturbing birth through its apocalyptic encore.”

Table of Contents:

• Alan M Clark – What Sort of Rube
• Jonathan Janz – Night and Day and in Between
• John Skipp – In the Winter of No Love
• Patrick Lacey – Wolf with Diamond Eyes
• Bryan Smith – Pilgrimage
• Rachel Autumn Deering – A Tongue like Fire
• Glenn Rolfe – Master of Beyond
• Matt Hayward – Dark Stage
• Kelli Owen – Open Mic Night
• Matt Serafini – Beat on the Past
• Max Booth III – True Starmen
• Somer Canon – Just to be Seen
• Jeff Strand – Parody
• Robert Ford – Ascending
• Adam Cesare – The Southern Thing
• Brian Keene – Running Free
• Mary SanGiovanni – We Sang in Darkness

The Shantyman’s beginning isn’t really chronicled – it’s a going concern in even the oldest (chronologically-speaking) stories, such as Alan Clark’s excellent show-opener, which also treats with the associations of the venue’s name.

And it fades away rather than rusting…but that’s just a sales blurb.

This is a pro anthology, make no mistake about that. One quick glance at the ToC confirms that these are some of the best-regarded, most popular writers on the scene.

Each story is carefully-plotted, well-characterized. The gears turn when asked, and the overall impression is one of technical competence.

The strongest stories are at the front and the rear, with the middle, which mostly consists of random devil/demon stories, sagging somewhat. That section may not sag for every reader. Random violent demons are a proven market driver. For me, that’s the easy way out, as cheerless a prospect as seeing romantic vampires or viral zombies.

I like specific demons. Paimon is one thing, Pazuzu another. Take the time to research and develop your devils, I say. Out-Blish Blish if you can. Blatty took the time.

Some standouts – Clark’s story, Max Booth III’s piece, Mary Sangiovanni’s tale. Those are more imaginative and move to different music.

In the bulk of the tales here, The Shantyman stands in for the Fillmore West or a reasonable facsimile. It seems natural, given the premise. But, given the quality of the pen-wielders here, I wanted more. Perhaps some insight into the mind of a bandmember, by someone who knows the music biz. Maybe some instrument-talk, something to add verisimilitude, to demonstrate some love for the idea.

I’d have loved to see a haunted venue. A couple of the pieces flirt with the idea, but shy away in favor of outre ideas. Two have actual ghosts, and they’re pretty satisfying.

Kelli Owens’ Open Mic Night has some neat ideas along the ghostly track, and Adam Cesare’s The Southern Thing unrolls nicely, to choose a couple more stories that made me nod or smile.

Mind you, there are no BAD stories here. Even the least tale has redeeming qualities. The floor is very high, but the ceilings aren’t raised.

I’ll give it three and a half stars, and recommend that you read it and form your own opinion.

Universal Link: http://getbook.at/TheShantyman

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40725438-welcome-to-the-show

Duane Pesice is currently editing the anthologies Test Patterns 2: Creature Features, and Caravans Awry, from Planet X. Being jolly transparent, poor greydog will have stories in these, but we nabbed Duane to review simply because he offered and we were short of time. You can be reassured that even our nepotism and corruption are done in a rambling and confused manner.

Caravans Awry

An anthology of sixties carnival stories along Route 66

Due out October/November 2018 from Planet X.

When the clowns turn away, you know not to look. They are our hyenas, ready with their grinding jaws and their maniacal amusement at the world’s pain. If they cannot face what comes, you do not want to even glimpse it. I do not want to glimpse it.

But I did. Something came to the carnival that night, and I looked.

***

I don’t have a name for the outfit that owns me. We are Mr Maelstrom’s Fun Palace, and the Leman Brothers’ Travelling Show. Or White’s Circus, in a gentle season when the leaves have no edges, and children smile. We were Rousch’s Carnival a few years ago. I don’t remember further back.

I do remember an early autumn in the mid-sixties, and the abandoned gas station that we found. ‘Eddie’s Gas’, an imaginative name. The Twinkies in the vending machine were stale, specked with gray when we opened them, but everyone was hungry, and there were crates of flat cherry soda around the back. These was no sign of what had happened to Eddie, but what did we care?

The place had a septic tank into which we could drain the wagons, and under the cracked concrete apron there was still fuel in the underground tank. Jackie Knife found it, fooling around with one of the two rusty pumps and spraying herself in the process. Reynard the fire-eater closed in on her when he smelled the octane, but the clowns growled him back.

We’d put on five shows in a row across three towns. Wheels churned and axles creaked as we drove from one dead-eyed, God-fearing place to another, playing to half-crowds only. Weatherford and Clinton had paid, but not in cash. This was a land of preachers, who would stand outside the general store and denounce the carnival before it was dust on the horizon.

Sometimes that helped, the thrill of the forbidden, but mostly it made parents send their kids to their rooms, and teenagers hang around the edge of the fairground, hesitant. A good minister could smell us on the wind.

Wires – John Linwood Grant, for Caravans Awry

You can support Caravans Awry here by pledging/reserving a copy here:

https://www.gofundme.com/caravans-awry

OCTOBER FRIGHTS BLOG HOP

Once again we’re part of this fun tour – sixteen horror-y writers this year, sharing posts, offering neat stuff and so on. Do have a look round, and we’ll have some more books news and guest posts on here over the next week.

http://www.inlinkz.com/new/view.php?id=797504

AND FREEBIES…

There are also over forty FREE short tales and books available durign the October Frights Bloghop here:

https://claims.prolificworks.com/gg/tdWv9uMKsTXepP6LFY3A