Excavating a Story

[bendk]

Have you ever liked a story so much that you tracked down its origin? As a lover of books, I have always looked for different artistic interpretations of my favorite novels and collections: The Alice books by Lewis Carroll, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, and Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination to name a few. I have the Arthur Rackham illustrated versions for all three. In addition to those, I have the Alice books not just illustrated by Tennial, but by Mervyn Peake, Peter Weevers, Robert Ingpen, and others. For Gulliver's Travels, I have volumes by J.J. Grandville, Milo Winter, Louis Rhead, et al. For Poe's collection, I have Harry Clarke, Gustave Dore, Satty, et al.

But it wasn't until the stories of Thomas Ligotti did I start searching for individual short stories in their initial publication. Many of Tom's stories were first published in horror fanzines. With the help of Thomas Ligotti: A Bibliography compiled by Douglas A. Anderson.

https://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=223

I started tracking them down on eBay, AbeBooks, Bookfinder, and other sites. I was searching for publications such as Nyctalops, Crypt of Cthulhu, Grue, Grimoire, and others. Here I got to see the art of Harry O. Morris for the first time. He illustrated many of Tom's earliest stories. Even later, Ligotti published some in Weird Tales magazine accompanied by wonderful artwork by Jason Van Hollander.

While I was initially just interested in the accompanying art for each story, I made many nice discoveries along the way.

Text variations
Letters from Ligotti and others.
Interviews
The table of contents page showed other authors earlier in their careers (if the story was published in a small press horror zine)
Epigraphs (Discarded when the stories were published in book form due to copyright issues)
And other odds and ends.

In this thread I will share some of the more fortunate material that I was lucky enough to find. If anyone else does this, I would love to hear about it.

All of the art for Ligotti's stories can be found here: https://ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1499
Compiled by Brian (the good Dr. Bantham)

[bendk]

When I located the issue of Grue #5 that contained the first publication of "Dr. Locrian's Asylum", in addition to the art, letters, text variations, etc. that I listed above, I later found out that Joe R. Lansdale's character "The God of the Razor" made his first appearance in the same issue. It also contained a wonderful illustration of that evil entity. This villain grew into a popular character that was featured in several books and even a comic book storyline.

[bendk]

[bendk]

I have always liked the movie The Candyman. It might be the quintessential urban horror movie. It's about an urban legend come to life. It is a combination of urban myth, decay, crime, and even has urban exploration. When I researched the film, I discovered that it was based on the short story "The Forbidden" by Clive Barker. The screenplay was by Barker and the director Bernhard Rose. Adapting a short story for the screen necessitated elaboration. They also made considerable changes. The original story was set in Liverpool, but the story is basically the same:

"This story focuses on Helen who has come to the run-down Spector Street Estate, to photograph and study graffiti, for her local university. While there she interacts with numerous residents, who keep to themselves and crime is a daily occurrence. Helen discovers that several murders have happened on the estate and chooses to investigate. She discovers a mural of a hook-handed man with a bee-covered face, who is called "Candyman" by the locals. She learns that Candyman is a vengeful spirit who can be summoned by saying his name five times in front of a mirror. He kills anyone who dares to doubt his existence or challenge his power. Helen becomes obsessed with Candyman and his history, and soon finds herself in danger of becoming his next victim."

The film changed the setting from Liverpool to Chicago and added more details about Candyman's origin as a former slave who was tortured and killed for falling in love with a white woman.



The story was originally published in Fantasy Tales #14 (Summer 1985). This was the same magazine that first published Ligotti's story " "The Frolic" in Fantasy Tales #9 (Spring 1982). Knowing that Ligotti's story was illustrated, I bought a copy on Abebooks. I was very pleased. It also has an introduction. Here it is:

"Already a respected playwright (with such genre titles as The History of the Devil, Frankenstein in Love, and The Secret Life of Cartoons), Clive Barker made an impressive debut as a horror writer in 1984 with the publication of his first short story collection, Clive Barker's Books of Blood, published simultaneously in three volumes by Sphere Books. Since then, his reputation has grown considerably, and in 1985 he has consolidated his position with a host of projects. This summer Sphere will publish a further trio of books of Books of Blood and later in the year his first novel The Damnation Game, is due in hardcover from Weidenfeld. Scream Press has announced a compilation volume of the first three Books of Blood to appear at the 1985 World Fantasy Convention, and a new horror film, Underworld, was recently completed from the author's original screenplay. We are therefore extremely proud to present a new story from volume 5 of Books of Blood..."

[bendk]

I have been a longtime fan of the late cartoonist Gahan Wilson. He was a connoisseur of weird fiction, especially that of H.P. Lovecraft, and also an author who has written some fine horror stories. My favorite is "The Sea Was Wet as Wet Can Be." I first read this in his anthology Gahan Wilson's Favorite Tales of Terror. In researching the origins of this story, I discovered that it was first published in Playboy magazine May 1967.* Knowing that Wilson was a frequent contributor to that publication, I hoped he had illustrated his story. I bought a copy through eBay. It did contain a few illustrations; sadly, none by Gahan Wilson. An excellent story though and well worth reading. It is a homage to Lewis Carroll and his deceptively dark poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter."



* Ellen Datlow, who knows as much about horror fiction anyone, chose The Playboy Book Of Horror And The Supernatural for inclusion in the book Horror: Another 100 Best Books edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. It has proven to be a valuable resource.

The Sea Was Wet as Wet Can Be - Gahan Wilson - YouTube

[dr. locrian]

Amazing thread, bendk! Thank you!

[bendk]

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Locrian

Amazing thread, bendk! Thank you!

Thanks, Jon, I appreciate it. I'm glad you share some of my enthusiasm for this subject.

[bendk]

While I no longer follow the work of Mark Samuels, at one time I was an avid reader. One of my favorite stories was "Shallaballah." I first read this story in the book The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Nineteenth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow, Gavin J. Grant, and Kelly Link. They cited the story as having first appeared in the book Don't Turn Out The Light. This was one of three books that Stephen Jones compiled as a tribute to Christine Campbell Thomson's Not At Night series of anthologies.



Christine Campbell Thomson - Wikipedia

When a reasonably priced volume surfaced on Abebooks, I contacted the seller and asked them if the story was illustrated. They said yes. I ordered it. Not only did it contain a wonderful illustration, but each story contained an introduction. Mark wrote his. Here it is:

"When I was ten years old, I was taken to the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, south London. Amongst the display cases housed in this Gothic, Victorian edifice were a series of Punch & Judy puppets. The memory of those antique, decayed figures has preyed on my mind ever since. Recently I wondered what might happen if the Mr. Punch of my nightmares made a comeback via television. This tale is the result."





What I found especially interesting is that M.R. James had a similar childhood encounter with Punch. He exorcized his youthful haunting experience in the creepy and highly effective tale "The Story of a Disappearance and An Appearance."

MR JAMES AND THE GHOST OF PUNCH AND JUDY

(Both stories have been narrated on YouTube)

[bendk]

For newer members, here are a few things I turned up looking for the original publication of some of Ligotti's stories.

https://www.ligotti.net/showthread.p...=letters+dagon


https://www.ligotti.net/showthread.p...ters+nyctalops


https://www.ligotti.net/showthread.p...highlight=riaz


https://www.ligotti.net/showthread.p...=nestled+dread

[bendk]

The short story "The God of Dark Laughter" by Michael Chabon was originally published in The New Yorker April 9, 2001. My main library has these magazines archived. Other than the nice sideshow photo accompanying the story, no additional information was provided. The pic did confirm my belief that this story belongs to the "Carnival Noir" sub-genre of horror fiction.