Occult: A Collection of Stories of the Supernatural (Gerald Swan, 194?)

Contents:

The Guide by Irene Amesbury

Call of The Pool Godess by John C. Craig

The Room Without Windows by W. P. Cockcroft

The Fulfilment by Alexander O. Pearson

Sir Rodney Keeps A Date by Andrew Ringwood

The Window by Winifred M. Carnegie

Binker's Ghost by A. C. Bailey

Gerald Swan is one of those publishers that new items are frequently been discovered. They re-bound, re-issued and re-packaged more than most other UK publishers and infomation is scarce when it comes to dates etc. They printed a lot of US Pulp Magazines inlcuding some very rare editions of Weird Tales.

Wonderful ink drawing on the cover,  check out those demons with the Devil, this was published when paper rations were in full force and the paper here is so thin that the type comes trough from the previous page.

The storys are short and to be honest pretty terrible, worth picking up for the cover, two volumes were published, the second one doesn't turn up to often. The date given to this one ranges from 1941-1946.

Another Girl's Secret by Paul Dupont(Martin & Reid Books,194?)

Romance Pulps hmmmmmmmmmmmm, not many people seem to collect them. But once in a while they transcend the rose smelling sweatness and offer something far more interesting.

Prime example is this undated 16 page "Romance" pulp from possibly the late 1940's. This is number 1 in a run of who knows how many. Classic gangster type dame dressed for a night on the town whilst another woman looks after her ligitimate baby.

The three colour cover is fantastic, just look at the dame, she doesn't give a fuck, bad to the bone. So keep on checking those dusty book shops, carboots or junk shops, as these pulps can be far more subversive than the more lurid stuff,  sometimes been this suttle has far more impact.

The Moon Monsters by Roy Marquis (Barington Gray, 1951)

Mushroom publisher Barrington Gray are more widely known for their Gangster titles (see second scan above, great little add for two mouth watering titles) this is the only Sci-Fi/Fantasy title I've ever come across. I imported this near mint copy from the USA for $3, which for how scarce this is was a steal (even with inflated shipping costs)

The cover art is just flat out great, not too overblown with unnecessary blasters and lasers and googly eyes. I can't help been reminded of The Day The Earth Stood Still which was released in the same year. With a lot of pulp artists been under insanely tight deadlines this is a common occurrence with UK titles. it would have set you back 1/6 at your local newsagents.

Wonderful bad ass dame with a gun interior artwork that as nothing to do with te book, but points to the other genres favoured by Barrington Gray.

Flesh Devils By J.K. WIlliams (Pillar Books, 1963) Lust Team By Andrew Shole (Ember Books, 1963)

Two classic sleaze titles, although different book publishers are listed they both come from the same house no doubt.

Flesh Devils cover is full of humour, woman ties up guy, another runs in from the back laughing. Looks like a hoot. Real primitive stuff here, with little detail other than a little murky water, common with titles from this series.

Next up is Lust Team, a far more in your face piece of pulp art. That's a strategically placed knife if I ever did see one. Interesting to note that this book was sold at newsagents across the United States, when this sort of tawdry cover would have been banned in the United Kingdom. You see UK censors didn't allow a breast to be in the same vicinity as a knife, so we have to tanks them for saving us from this type of filth.

Well worth picking up, but not easy if your in the UK, the books themselves are pretty nasty affairs perfect for those rain soaked Sunday afternoons.

Futuristic Stories 1 - N. Wesley Firth, Earl Ellison & Rice Ackerman (Hamiltons UK, 1947)

Contents

The Lords of Zorm By N. Wesley Firth

Laughter of The Gods By Earl Ellison

The Timeless Dimension By Rice Ackerman

Managed to track down the first issue of this UK Pulp (I believe it lasted two issues?) Contains the three short stories above, is it worth a read? yes because it's a pretty thin book and it's very childlike in it's nature.

The main area of interest for me is the cover artwork, another stunning piece by H.W. Perl who was one of the major cover artists of the 1940's/50's. Here he takes the tin man from The Wizard of Oz, adds a couple of old broomsticks for legs and KAPOW! you have cool spacey looking robots.

I love Perl's artwork because of it's primitive nature. His slight subversion of everyday items to create his Sci-Fi universe. On The cover it looks like a typical 1940's fireman/woman plonked on a red fire engine, zapping the robot with stage lights.

Sublime interior artwork, could be Perl? and a vintage add for Joan The Wad, a Cornish piksey lucky charm.  The add appeared in just about every pulp book from the Mushroom era. The third image is Hamilton's book crest that appears on the reverse.