"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.