Though a step down from Usborne’s guides to monsters and the supernatural, Monsterbacks were still a much-treasured book in the 1980s for kids desperate for a horror fix. The four books, published by Marshall Cavendish, covered four enticing subjects: ‘Monster or Man?’; ‘Werewolves and Other Weird Creatures’; ‘Vampires’ and ‘Ghosts, Ghouls and Spirits’. All four […]
Baron Samedi (the slightly less impressive Baron Saturday, translated into English,) and also Baron Samdi, Bawon Samedi, or Bawon Sanmdi, is one of the Loa (or Lwa) of Haitian vodou, the spirits of the dead. Samedi is a Loa of the dead, along with Baron’s numerous other incarnations Baron Cimetière, Baron La Croix, and Baron […]
There are those who gawp open-mouthed at rollercoasters and those who fall to their knees at ghost trains. There is something profoundly alluring and strangely shocking about gazing upon the elaborately decorated exterior of a ghost train, an experience which promises not only the (admittedly restrained) thrill of a rollercoaster but also elements which have […]
Harold von Braunhut – born plain old Harold Nathan Braunhut – was one of the greatest marketing geniuses of his age…possibly of any age. Taking snake oil to brave new pastures, he was the Emperor of Comic Book ads. He created dozens upon dozens of crackpot novelties, available for only a handful of coins. Yet, despite […]
Little evokes as eye-watering a Proustian rush as images of Waddington’s Horror Top Trumps. Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to ascertain the artist of the two packs of cards released in the 1970s, their felt-tip pen work now sadly attributed to ‘anonymous’. It was a German company, Dubreq, who first devised […]
Since the late 1960s, zombies have become one of the most referenced monsters in popular culture, whether it be film, literature or art. It makes sense – creatures that are essentially ‘us’ as the greatest threat to our survival, killing and consuming us for no reason other than an inherent, primal desire are going to […]
An Overview of Horror Films Transformed into Comics Forgive the slightly hand-holding title but there is, of course, a very big distinction between comics which were based on horror films and those which spawned films. Very much the errant cousin of film novelisations, this strand of comic allowed the writer and illustrator to ‘finish off’ […]
If you believe in God, the inevitable consequence is that you must also believe in the Devil. Fond of saints and angels? There are a surprising number of their dark counterparts to acquaint yourself with. You can’t have it all your own way. The big surprise is that the story of the Devil and his […]
You’d think that Roald Dahl was the only author of children’s books for those living through the latter half of the 20th century, but the collections of curated folk tales by Ruth Manning-Sanders and illustrated by Robin Jacques were every bit as vital for those in the know. Though a noted poet and novelist in […]
Loompanics was your go-to one-stop shop for ‘grey area’ and ‘very black indeed area’ books for thirty years. At this risk of this sounding like one of those cataract-viewed pieces which suggest everything in the old days was better, pre-internet, to find out anything beyond the mainstream, whether it be weird films, bootlegged music, or […]
