"Dead Giveaway"

by J. Vernon Shea 

originally published Outre #1, May 1976

It is a weird Halloween in this New England town.  Mary Peabody, local kook, gets eaten by her own undead brother.  Charlotte Carmody, local widow, finds her son's corpse on the porch.  Emil Weiskopf, local Nazi war criminal in hiding, is killed by a skeleton.  A gang of thugs, local assholes, come across an underground ritual held by Innsmouthers.

This is a sort-of sequel to Shea's "Haunter of the Graveyard" and, like that earlier tale, its kind of cute, spooky fun.  The writing is plain and unflashy but professional, what I call straight fiction magazine style writing.  Workmanlike, but nothing to complain about.  It's no classic but it is an enjoyable enough read.

"Aliah Warden"

by Roger Johnson
originally published The Count Dracula Fan Club Annual, Vol. 5 No. 1 1985

Our narrator meets Aliah Warden in a solicitor's office in 1902.  Aliah is an old, retiring lawyer with a curious appearance - squat, bow-legged, wide-mouthed.  He lives in a village named Wrabley and shares the narrator's interest in witchcraft and devil worship (academically, of course).

He invites the narrator to come around his place, which is located in a marshy region near Essex.  Aliah has the usual titles in his library.  He reveals himself to be a deep one hybrid.

This story actually has a nice and effective build-up, and its a shame it shorts itself out with an abrupt and unfulfilling ending.

"The Return of the Sorceror"

by Clark Ashton Smith
originally published Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror, September 1931

Mr. Ogden, who's been out of work for awhile and needs money (and a first name), lands a gig helping do some translations from ancient Arabic for John Carnby, an eccentric fruit loop who lives in a dilapidated mansion in Oakland CA (which means it would have to be in the hills, kiddies!).  

Carnby's a creep who lives as a full-on black magician, with pentagrams painted on the floor and stuffed alligators hanging from the ceiling.  What he wants translated is a passage from The Necronomicon itself, one which explains how a dead sorcerer can rise from the dead, and even summon dismembered body parts back together to form a whole.  

Ogden thinks this whole setup is a little weird.  He also thinks the fact that the house is allegedly infested with extra-large rats, which Carnby seems to fear, is a bit off.  When he sees a severed human hand scuttling across the floor, he knows something is a bit off.

Alright, Carnby confesses - he killed his twin brother Helman out of jealousy (Helman was a more successful sorcerer) and cut him into pieces and buried/hid them in different places.  But yeah, now Helman is reassembling himself and coming back for revenge.  Carnby attempts an exorcism spell, but it fails, and the dismembered pieces of Helman converge on the room and take gruesome revenge...

Okay, this tale is completely in EC territory, right down to crawling sever limbs.  But CAS often had his tongue in his cheek, sometimes more firmly than others.  It's a gruesome little bit of black-humored horror and fun to read.

Incidentally, trivia buffs; "Return of the Sorceror" was adapted - quite effectively - for TV's Night Gallery in the early 70's, with Vincent Price as the Carnbys and Bill Bixby as Ogden. 

"The Spheres Beyond Sound (Threnody)"

by Stephen Mark Rainey
originally published Deathrealm No. 2, Summer, 1987

Our narrator decided to spend a vacation visiting his late grandfather's old house, in a remote part of the Appalachian called Copper Peak.  The place is old and run down but liveable, and among the things he finds there is a very old book called The Spheres Beyond Sound by Maurice Zann, which alleges that certain combinations of tunings and tones can open up gateways to other worlds.  The book intrigues him.  Later he finds a recording grandpa made with some local musicians, experiments with Zann's pieces to see if they would indeed open gates.  It seems like nothing happened.

The next day, while exploring a local graveyard, narrator gets spooked and starts to flee.  He sees a growing blackness behind him and hears sounds like things digging out and shuffling after him.  Back at the house, he's confronted by a group of zombies and a giant, shadowy spider-thing looming over the house.  He flees, and escapes, but continues to believe that one day he too will become a zombie in thrall to the creature.

This story actually made something of an impression, in part because it manages to play with Derleth/Lovecraft clichés and make them sorta fresh.  The EC-like ending isn't exactly Lovecraftian, but it is kind of effective.  It's very pulpy but a lot of fun.

"Vastarien"

 by Thomas Ligotti
originally published Crypt of Cthulhu No. 48, St. John's Eve, 1987

Victor Keirion is tormented by dreams of a strange and fabulous city.  He belongs to "that wretched sect of souls who believe that the only value of this world lies in its power -- to suggest another world."

He makes his way to a bookstore where the proprietor and customer act very strange.  They show him a very rare, ornate book, then tell him the cost is out of his range.  Then they tell him there's a mistake and quote him a price he can afford.

His dreams become more and more vivid.  He realizes that in some way, the book is not merely a book but some manifestation of the dream-city.  He returns to the bookstore to learn more about it, but gets little in the way of answers other than that the book was somehow meant for him.

He comes to believe that the other customer is somehow vampirizing his mind/soul in order to experience the dreams himself, which for some reason he is unable to do in any other way.  He tries to think of some way to stop this.

Victor is actually a resident of an insane asylum.  The book is completely blank, yet he sits studying it and becoming violent in the night.  Even though the book is taken away from him, it somehow reappears in his cell every night.

More Alfred Kubin or Kafka than Lovecraft.  As always, Ligotti is interesting and even impressive, but, as always, he leaves me a little cold.

"Lights! Camera! Shub-Niggurath!"

by Richard A, Lupoff 

originally published The New Lovecraft Circle, Fedogan and Bremer, 1996

On a planet-sized space station called Starret, the entertainment industry is #1.  Far future.  They decide to make a film version of "The Dunwich Horror".  They do so.  It's a big hit all over the known universe.

I really had to struggle to get through this one.  It's not funny and it's not fun.

"The Whisperers"

by Richard A. Lupoff
originally published Fantastic, September 1977

Mario Cipolla and Annie Epstein work for the Millbrook High school paper, and have a chance to interview the hottest rock group around, The Whisperers, before their show at San Francisco's Winterland.

The Whisperers are apparently a synth/vocal duo, and all their songs are about the Great Old Ones, etc.  Mario and Annie watch their sound check and Mario starts to feel weird.  During the interview, The Whisperers tell Mario that they are using the concert audience as part of a ritual to unleash The Great Old Ones.

Pretty superficial stuff that mostly shows Lupoff knew the local mainstream rock scene in SF in the 70's.  Somewhat prophetic in imagining a synth/vocal duo, but the idea that such an outfit singing about obscure occultisms would get critical acclaim and hits is a bit much for this rock fan to swallow.  

"The Madness Out Of Space"

by Peter H. Cannon aka Crispin Burnham 

originally published Eldritch Tales No's 8 and 9, 1982, 1983

Our young narrator (E. Phillips Winsor)  is a student at Miskatonic U in 1928, where he befriends an eccentric fellow student named Howard Wentworth Anable, who is basically H.P. Lovecraft under another name.  It seems Anable has vanished, and our narrator knows how.

Anable has become absorbed in eccentric, occult studies, and likes our narrator because he thinks his friendship may help him stay grounded. He asks him to move into some rooms he's rented, next semester.

Winsor goes on vacation and has fun, while Anable writes increasingly weird letters about the discoveries he's making in his studies of old New England cults.  When Winsor returns, Anable takes him to a remote spot called Satan's Ledge, where occult rites were held, and there they meet a local squatter named Jay Harper who claims to have part of the original Old Ones cult that met there.

Anable gets deeper and deeper into it. The cult is revived and begins to meet again on Satan's Ledge.  Winsor interrupts Anable's initiation.  At first Anable is angry, then grateful.  He begins to recuperate, returns to his studies.  But then becomes secretive and strange again.  One night Winsor hears Anable chanting again, and busts down his door, but too late - Anable has been spirited away by something.

As he settles affairs and moves out, the landlady passes on a condescending letter from Anable, stating that Winsor wasn't worthy of transcending the mundane world anyway.

This is a relatively entertaining tale, despite being overloaded with Derleth/Lovecraft clichés.  I can't quite make up my mind if I find the climax underwhelming, or impressive just cause it doesn't close with a shootout with gloopy monsters.  In any case you could do a lot worse.

"The Horror on the Beach"

by Alan Dean Foster
originally published Shroud Publishers, 1978

David Corfu buys himself a ranchero on the California coast:  Caso de Rodrigo de Lima, on the beach in Cabrillo Cove.  Dave is an oil engineer working on a project.  The house is big, old, historic and isolated.  He only has two neighbors - the Birches, and Joshua Whipple, an eccentric old beachcomber.

Things quickly turn weird.  The house has a bad rep.  The locals think its evil ("may god have mercy on your soul," one tells him).  Dave and his wife hear weird drumming sounds coming from the beach at night.  Martin Birch has heard the drums too, and notes they've become more frequent since the Corfus arrived.

Dave learns that de Lima was rumored to have made deals with the devil, and so frightened the local Yani Indians that they stormed the ranchero one night - and somehow de Lima, his wife, kid, and some servants wiped out the entire tribe.  They maintained their bad rep until they finally left the place in 1889 - and its stood empty ever since!

There are problems on the project, leading to an uncontrollable oil spill.  The local cops are aware of the night drumming but seem uninterested.  David's wife tells him it feels like the house moves in rhythm to the music.

David is awakened by a call from Martin, who's in some kind of dire emergency, warning him to grab the wife and kid and clear out ("my god - what an abomination!" he shouts) he hears Martin and his family scream, and the sound of glass shattering and more.  The cops come, and with David, find the Birches house obliterated and no sign of Birch, his wife, or his two kids.  They also don't seem terribly interested.  Josh Whipple tells David he's clearing out and suggests they do the same.  And he mentions some odd things.  Like something called Cthulhu.

Dave goes to see Pedro Armendariz, a Prof. of biochemistry.  When he hears the name Cthulhu dropped, Pedro gets a-larmed.  He knows quite a bit about such things, it seems.  And he urges David to get the wife and kid and come stay with him.  Advice which David, again, ignores.

That night at the house, Cthulhu tears the house down while they hide out in the wine cellar.  And he eats the family's Siamese cat (the bastard!)

The next morning they head out to Pedro's place, and he explains the usual Mythos stuff.  He believes there's a cult trying to loose Cthu on the world (thus the drums at night) and that they must take action.  He's enlisted Major Gomez at the nearby missile base to help.  With an army regiment in tow, they surround the cultists in mid-ritual.  Pedro interrupts their summoning with a counter-spell.  Joshua turns out to be the leader, his body covered in symbols burned or etched into his skin ("it was the very first time Dave had seen Joshua Whipple with his clothes off" - I guess Dave was in the habit of seeing his neighbors naked?).  Cthu arrives, then leaves, taking Whipple with him and wiping out most of the beach.  The cultists are rounded up by the army.

This is a weird story that somehow managed to veer between good and bad writing (it's full on non-sequitors like "it was the very first time Dave had seen Joshua Whipple with his clothes off", and decent and embarrassingly corny plotting.  Plus its weirdly structured, with sudden and abrupt jumps in time that make it initially hard to follow.  The penultimate scene with the family hiding out in the cellar while Cthu slaps his tentacles around is pretty effective, but in the end, Foster has reduced Lovecraft's cosmic god to a 50's B-movie monster, a feeling confirmed when the army saves the day (and since when are civilians able to persuade army regiments to go into action?).  A fun read but kind of stupid.

"The Howler in the Dark"

by Richard L. Tierney
originally published Crypt of Cthulhu No. 24, Lammas, 1984

Irving Hamilton, and American architect and antiquarian (surprise) and his Brit Clyde Mayfield are on foot in the highlands(I think), and come face-to-face with the ruins of Duncaster Abbey ("How delightfully gothic!" sez Irv).  It turns out the Abbey is occupied, by a couple of weird Americans no one likes very much.

At the local bookshop, Hamilton learns the history of the Abbey.  Built by Hugo de Taran in 12 century, with a nasty rep for playing host to pagan rites and human sacrifice. Eventually in the 17th century the church of Scotland descended and burned the witches.

People are going missing in the community, and the two American weirdos are prime suspects.  Irv and Clyde pay a visit to the two oddballs (named John Taggart and "Pitts" - no front name given).  The place is mostly in ruins, and the library contains the usual suspects (gimme an N!).  While visiting, they hear a weird howling, and Taggart `n' Pitts excuse themselves to deal with it.

The next day Hamilton reads of an outbreak of a strange disease called "screaming death" among American visitors to the UK.  

They decide to pay another visit to the Abbey.  They find Taggart/Pitt are out and decide to go exploring.  They find the local Constable in the dungeon in a bad state - a living head somehow kept alive ala Futurama.

This is actually a fun little tale and Tierney builds up some nice atmosphere, but its basically a rehash of Derleth/Lovecraft pastiches with a particularly silly ending which robs it of its punch.