New, Rare and Interesting Items This Week at Miskatonic Books

To get ordering information on any title just click on the cover art.

Many of the books we carry are rare and we have a very limited quantity. All books are sold on a first come first serve basis.

We are always interested in buying classic horror, Lovecraftian fiction, Freemasonry, Alchemy, and hardcover occult titles. Feel free to contact us at miskatonicbooks@me.com

 

All books are in stock and shipping:

THE OCCULT RELIQUARY by Daniel Schulke (Limited Edition Hardcover in Custom Slipcase)

 

First Edition, First Printing. Quarto, original quarter burgundy leather over gilt-stamped cloth boards with felt-lined slipcase, limited to 250 copies. 216 pp, over 275 illustrations, 130 of which are in full colour. A fine copy in slipcase. Edited by Daniel A. Schulke and with an Introduction by Graham King,

The Occult Reliquary presents a selection of images from the Richel-Eldermans Collection, an occult archive of some 2,000 images and artifacts housed in the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall. Situated at the crossroads of erotic magic, ceremonial angelic conjuration, and witchcraft, the images comprise, in part, a pictorial cipher of the rituals of Ars Amatoria, a European magical order using sex magic, and the lesser-known M.:.M.:. , based in the Hague and Leiden. Also referenced among the collection are materials relating to A.:.A.:. of Aleister Crowley. The transfixing procession of images, charms, magical seals, and ritual objects in the Collection is the work of multiple artists, and displays a high degree of magical insight and creativity. It will be of interest to students of witchcraft, Freemasonry, the Goetia, sex magic, and early twentieth century occultism. The Reliquary presents for the first time a selection of these magical images, many reproduced at full scale, and bound with the highest quality materials. Printed in large-format on archival paper, it was released in three editions: We offer here a copy of the Deluxe Quarter Leather Bound Edition, limited to 250 numbered copies. Three Hands Press is an imprint associated with XOANON Publications.

 

 

 

 

SOLVE A Graphic Grimoire by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule

 

 

Bound in a premium black cloth lettered in white, with artistic embellishments in blind. Edition limited to 800 hand-numbered copies. The third volume in the Tela Quadrivum series following “Coagula”.

 

Solve takes the reader further into the alchemical process begun in Orryelle’s previous volume for Fulgur. Says the author/artist: “SOLVE dissolves the gold distilled in COAGULA, tears apart our egos, dismembers our bodies and hurls any conceptions of perfection back into the primal void. Herein lies death, destruction, and the Prima Materia, the base matter, the Al Khem – the fertile black soil of decomposing forms, the compost for new growth. In an exploration of the Nigredo, or Blackening phase, of Alchemy, the concepts of Black Magic are re-examined in this ThanatErotic tome of the backward winding path; from the darkness of the womb to the darkness of the tomb…”

 

776 1/2 by James A. Eshelman (Signed Leather Bound Hardcover Edition)

 

A very special edition of a popular reference, crafted with unusual beauty.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary year of Temple of Thelema, we are pleased to offer this deluxe limited edition of 156 numbered, signed copies of 776½ with premium design and manufacturing.

This edition offers a red bonded leather hardcover with gold foil stamping, gilded page edges, Rainbow end leaves, and a mounted bookmark ribbon. Manufactured with acid-free paper and binder boards, and with superior binding (Smyth-sewn signatures), this volume will last for generations.

A special numbered commemorative page, signed by the author, certifies the uniqueness of this edition.

 

DUELING MINDS by Brian James Freeman (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

 

Hardcover Limited Edition of 550 signed (by all of the contributors) and numbered copies bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn with illustrated endpapers

Featuring stories by Brian Keene, Gary A. Braunbeck, Tom Piccirilli, Tim Lebbon, Jenny Orosel, and Gerard Houarner!

Cover artwork by Alan M. Clark

Interior artwork by Erin S. Wells

About the Book:
Where do you get your ideas?

It’s probably the most common question an author gets asked during his or her career.

This anthology isn’t meant to answer that question, but it is designed to give readers a glimpse into how the imagination works.

These talented authors were shown a haunting piece of artwork by acclaimed artist Alan M. Clark and then asked: “What worlds do you see hidden inside this painting?”

The stories collected in this book are their answers.

Table of Contents:
“Introduction” by Brian James Freeman
“Purple Reign” by Brian Keene
“Bargain” by Gary A. Braunbeck
“Between the Dark and the Daylight” by Tom Piccirilli
“Falling Off the World” by Tim Lebbon
“That Which Binds” by Jenny Orosel
“Breath of Bygone Spirits” by Gerard Houarner

 

HOMESTEAD by James A. Moore (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

 

featuring artwork by Alex McVey

About the Book:
Home is where the pain is….

Kathy Erinson just wanted a hobby, something to help her relax and keep her from getting too bored.

What she didn’t expect was that the illustrations she started working on would try to tell her secrets best ignored.

What she didn’t expect was the sudden wash of memories about people and things she’d done her very best to forget about: Her first kiss, her best friend, her family and the dark, dark things that were done once to protect family and homestead alike.

Something from the past has come back and that something is very unforgiving.

Hardcover Limited Edition of 550 signed and numbered copies bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn with illustrated endpapers

 

TYLER’S THIRD ACT by Mick Garris (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

 

Artwork by William Stout

About the Book:
How much would you pay to experience something truly disturbing?

Tyler Sparrow isn’t too happy about recent changes in the movie and television industry.  The continuing emphasis on unscripted reality entertainment is putting writers like himself out of work.  As his career enters its “Third Act” (industry jargon for the final section of a film script), Tyler decides to take matters into his own hands: he’ll create and star in his own web-based program, something sensational and disturbing that will grab the short-attention-span of today’s fickle audiences.

Trouble is, if the program is successful, then audiences will be hungry for more… and it will become increasingly difficult to satisfy their appetites.

What happens when you mix the knowledge of a media-industry insider with a horror writer’s eye for the bizarre?  You get Tyler’s Third Act, Mick Garris’ satire on the twisted world of reality programs.

Hardcover Limited Edition of 550 signed and numbered copies bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn with illustrated endpapers

Low Stock Report and Some Interesting New Items

We are getting very low on copies of:

THE DEAD VALLEY AND OTHERS: H. P. Lovecraft’s Favorite Horror Stories Volume 2 edited by S. T. Joshi (Signed Limited Hardcover)

 

THE DEAD VALLEY AND OTHERS: H. P. Lovecraft’s Favorite Horror Stories Vol 2 edited by S. T. Joshi (Signed Limited Hardcover)

This is an advance order will will be shipping in approximately 90 days. Reserve your copy now to ensure you get a copy of this limited edition.

Limited to only 150 signed and numbered hardcover copies.  Each story is hand picked by Lovecraftian scholar S. T. Joshi, with introduction.

H. P. Lovecraft was a voracious reader of supernatural and fantastic fiction, and he was continually on the hunt for powerful and stimulating works in these genres. Many of the stories he read directly influenced his own writings

Here is the second volume in the very popular Lovecraft’s Favorite series.

Contents

• Introduction by S. T. Joshi
• The Diamond Lens by Fitz-James O’Brien
• The Horla by Guy de Maupassant
• The Moon Pool by A. Merritt
• Count Magnus by M. R. James
• The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce
• The Dead Valley by Ralph Adams Cram
• The Bad Lands by John Metcalfe
• Ooze by Anthony M. Rud
• Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb
• The Harbor-Master by Robert W. Chambers
• Ancient Sorceries by Algernon Blackwood
• Cassius by Henry S. Whitehead
• The Spider by Hanns Heinz Ewers
• Blind Man’s Buff by H. Russell Wakefield

 

THE COLOR OVER OCCAM by Jonathan Thomas (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover) #2 in the Modern Mythos Series

 

Gorman County disappeared decades ago when floodwaters rose to fill a reservoir. So why should the ghosts of drowned villages resurface only now, in a new century? And what does the reservoir have to do with the grisly deaths, disease, and disappearances stalking the benighted little town of Occam?

Amateur paranormal sleuth Jeff Slater poses these innocent questions, only to encounter hostility, intimidation, and violence wherever he turns. In this saga of Lovecraftian horror, noirish detection, and festering corruption, Slater comes to understand how little he ever knew of his hometown’s macabre history and its bizarre present. Meanwhile, those who do know of Occam’s sinister past warn him with one voice: unearthly doom is on its way. Run or die. But Slater can’t abandon his search for the truth so easily. Can he alter the fate of a town facing cosmic annihilation without destroying himself?

This is the second in our Modern Mythos Series edited by S. T. Joshi and Larry Roberts. The Modern Mythos Series is dedicated to finding the best modern lovecraftian fiction being written today by both veteran and new talented genre authors.

One of only 150 signed and numbered hardcover copies.

 

Some interesting items that are new to the store:

THE BOOK OF THE SIXTH WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION by Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Edgar Allan Poe (First Edition Hardcover)

THE BOOK OF THE SIXTH WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION by Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, Edgar Allan Poe (First Edition Hardcover) This copy also comes with the Sixth World Fantasy Convention Pocket Program. Both book and program are in fine condition.

Contents:

Contains the following Virgil Finlay illustrations:

Page 50: from Cholwell’s Chickens (facsimile).
Page 51: from Vercombie Station (facsimile).
Page 52: from The Houses of Iszm (facsimile).
Page 55: from Sjambak (facsimile).
Page 69: from The Tell-Tale Heart (facsimile).

Contents of book:

Frontispiece: Alicia Austin illustration form ‘The Last Castle’.
Page 4: Distinguished Guests.
Page 5: Fantasy will Endure.
Page 8: Excerpt from ‘The Book of Dreams’ by Jack Vance.
Page 9: Introducing Jack Vance by Poul Anderson.
Page 11: Jack Vance: A Bibliographic Checklist by Daniel J.H. Levack.
Page 17: The Fantasy Art of Boris Vallejo.
Page 18: Robert Bloch: A Few Words of Friendship by Harlan Ellison.
Page 18: ‘When Screwballs Meet …’ by Fritz Leiber.
Page 22: Past World Fantasy Awards.
Page 23: World Fantasy Award Nominees.
Page 24: World Fantasy Award Rules.
Page 30: Excerpts from ‘The Avatar’s Apprentice’ by Jack Vance.
Page 36: Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Bloch.
Page 38: Edgar Allan Poe – A Worthless Writer.
Page 39: A Facsimile from ‘The Bells’ by Edgar Allan Poe.
Page 41: Silence – A Fable by Edgar Allan Poe.
Page 50: A Portfolio from the Works of Jack Vance.
Page 62: Black Lotus by Robert Bloch.
Page 69: A Portfolio from the Works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Page 86: Past Conventions, (1975-1979) in photographs.
Page 93: Attending Memberships.
Page 95: Supporting Memberships.
Page 96: Colophon.

 

HE BLACK WHEEL by A. Merritt (Limited Edition Hardcover)

Abraham Merritt: The Black Wheel Limited Edition Completed and Illustrated by Hannes Bok. (New York: New Collectors Group, 1947), limited first edition bound by collector dealer Julius Unger, #537 of 1000 copies, 115 pages, black cloth with gilt lettering on front board, yellow illustrated dust jacket. Copyright affixed to copyright page.

Condition: Book is in near fine condition and the dust jacket is in VG++/Near Fine. The dust jacket would be in fine condition if not for the light rubbing and shelf wear. A fantastic copy of this rare edition!

 

NIGHT IMAGES by Robert E. Howard (Limited Edition Hardcover)

A very rare collection of Robert E. Howard, first complete appearance of “Oh Babylon, Lost Babylon.”

Book Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: VG++ to Near fine would be fine but the black cover has some light rubbing to else fine. Large 8vo. 102 pp; #813 of a limited edition of 1000 copies. Overall a fantastic copy of this difficult to fine title.

 

THE SOUND OF DRUMS by David Niall Wilson (Signed Ultra Limited Hardcover)

 

One of the rarest David Niall Wilson limited editions and the most limited Cargo Cult Title produced. Only 9 copies produced of the limited 6 that are numbered and 3 that are have the initials of the contributor.

This is one of the super rare contributor initialed copies. These copies were never for sale to the public and is a very tough find.

Book is in new unread condition.

 

THE DAMNED HIGHWAY by Brian Keene & Nick Mamatas (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

A Savage Journey Into the Heart of the American Nightmare.

January 1972.

Resenting his unexpected fame and suffering from severe writer’s block, America’s premier “gonzo” journalist decides to reinvent himself. He creates a new persona–Uncle Lono–and hatches a scheme to return to his roots, reinvigorating his patriotism and his writing in the process. On a freaked-out journey to Arkham, Massachusetts, and the 1972 presidential primary, evidence mounts that sinister forces are on the rise, led by the Cult of Cthulhu and its most prominent member–Richard M. Nixon! Will the truth set Lono free or simply drive him insane?

One of only 135 signed and numbered hardcover copies! This title is not yet in stock but we are expecting it in very soon. Reserve your copy now while they are still available.

Very Cool New Arrivals!

Just in and in very limited quantities:

ALWAYS COMES EVENING by Robert E. Howard (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover in Slipcase)

Underwood Miller, San Francisco, 1977. Hard Cover. Book Condition: near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Poems compiled by Glenn Lord, illustrated by Keiko Nelson, leather bound, limited to 206 copies this being number 73, in slipcase with facsimile print of Howard’s handwritten poem “The Song of Yar Ali Kahn”. Contains one poem omitted from the original Arkham House edition. Hardback.

Book is signed by the illustrator

HARVEST HOME by Thomas Tryon (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

Thomas Tryon’s follow-up to The Other was an even better horror novel, rich with full-drawn characters, enough depth of theme for a hundred dissertations, and a slowly dawning horror that made it one of the decade’s most shocking, most emulated, and brilliantly written novels. It has been out of print for over thirty years.
This edition features a new introduction by Tim Curran, new interior artwork by Alex McVey, and the original hardcover artwork. It also includes a new afterword by a variety of Tryon associates. This handsome edition features a gorgeous dustjacket on Mohawk Carnival Felt, with a ribbon marker, head and tail bands, full black Brillianta cloth, a full color image inlay on the front board, sewn binding, and patterend endpapers. Each copy is signed by Tim Curran and artist Alex McVey.

• Limited to 200 copies, each signed by Tim Curran and Alex McVey.
• Introduction by Tim Curran.
• Artwork by Alex McVey.
• Full color dustjacket, full color illustrations, ribbon marker, head and tail bands, full black cloth, color image on front board.

 

CHERRY HILL by James A. Moore (Signed Deluxe Lettered Edition)

 

Welcome to Cherry Hill. Attendance is mandatory. The Cherry Hill Sanitarium isn’t a friendly place. The inmates are among the most mentally deranged and dangerous minds known to the world. It’s the sort of place that sane people would do well to avoid, if they value their lives.

John Doe is not a normal man. He can’t remember his name, nor much of his past. He’s almost certain he’s been dead for a while, and that the asylum that has become his residence is haunted by more than broken minds and twisted memories.

John isn’t wrong. Something dark is growing inside the walls of the asylum, something that festers and hungers to be free of its prison. That something has never lived before, but it wants to live now, even if it has to destroy everything it encounters to get its way.

John Doe might just be the only person in the world who can stop the madness that is trying to be born into the walls of Cherry Hill. He might be the only chance for the staff and the patients alike. The problem isn’t simply that he can’t remember how to help them. It’s worse than that. John Doe is almost certain that if he does remember his past, the knowledge could very well drive him mad.

One of only 26 signed leather bound lettered edition in custom traycase.

 

URBAN GOTHIC by Brian Keene (Signed Deluxe Lettered Edition Hardcover)

 

When their car broke down in a dangerous neighborhood of the inner city, Kerri and her friends thought they would find shelter in the old dark row house. They thought it was abandoned. They thought they would be safe there until morning. They were wrong on all counts. The residents of the row house live in the cellar and rarely come out in the light of day. They’re far worse than anything on the streets outside. And they don’t like intruders. Before the sun comes up, Kerri and her friends will fight for their very lives… though death is only part of their nightmare.

This is a rare signed deluxe lettered edition with color illustrations in custom traycase. Book and Traycase are in fine condition. One of only 26 copies!

 

VENDETTA by James A Moore (Signed Deluxe Leather Bound Hardcover in Traycase)

 

He has a perfect life. A beautiful wife, three loving children and an empire he’s spent a lifetime building. Robert Workham is happy, truly happy for the first time in as long as he can remember.

The last time he came close to this level of joy was a lifetime ago, when he was a very different entity, a violent, hateful thing that killed without remorse or compassion. In his time he has slain kings, leaders of industry and some of the most power figures in the history of mankind. But that’s all in the past.

But now his past is coming back for him… His name is Jonathan Crowley, and he is relentless and unforgiving.

This is a signed deluxe lettered edition in custom leather traycase.

 

Just in and Notable

We have recently got in a few more unique and rare Bloodletting Press lettered editions.

Just click on any of the pictures below for ordering information:

THRUST by Tom Piccirilli (Signed Deluxe Lettered Edition in Metal Traycase)

Chase is a performance poet with a history of mental illness who’s spent time in jail and hospitals while trying to deal with traumas from his past. A cult figure in New York City, he’s as well known for his mania as he is for his poetry. During a reading, Chase sees a woman he believed had died on the ward due to the cruelty of a brutal guard—is she a hallucination, a ghost, or a killer who faked her own murder? Chase tries to battle his own demons, dementia, and insane desires long enough to face up to his heinous enemies before they destroy what’s left of his mind.

One of only 26 signed leather bound lettered edition in custom sculpted metal traycase. Book and traycase are in fine condition

 

TERMINAL by Brian Keene (Signed Deluxe Lettered Edition in Metal Traycase)

Tommy O’Brien has had a hard-knock life. The self-described ‘white trash loser’, lives in a run-down trailer that he can’t afford, and is trapped in a dead-end job that barely feeds his young wife and child. But Tommy recieves the hardest knock of all when he’s diagnosed with terminal cancer. With less than a month to live, Tommy is determined that his family have a better life after he’s gone. To do that, he’s going to pull the biggest bank job in County history. But when the heist goes wrong, and hostages are taken, Tommy meets a young child with the ability to heal–and learns that there are things worse than dying…”

Terminal is a supernatural dark-crime novella from Brian Keene, Bram Stoker Award Winning author of The Rising, No Rest For The Wicked, Babylon Falling, and more.

This is one of only 26, signed, leather bound and housed in a custom metal sculptured traycase.

 

DESECRATION by Michael Laimo (Signed Lettered Hardcover Edition)

There has been a blasphemous desecration at the St Peter’s Church and with it the doors of hell itself has been thrown open wide. All of humanity, earth and heaven hang in the balance as a war of biblical proportions is about to ensure.

This is a signed leather bound hardcover edition of only 26 copies in custom hand made traycase. Book is in fine condition

 

New, Notable and in Short Supply

Just in and shipping!

THE RHYME MAIDENS 1-1-11 by Neil Gaiman (signed limited broadside)

The Ryhme Maidens 1-1-11

These hand-printed broadsheets were made in celebration of the wedding of Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. The poem was written by Neil Gaiman about the night before their wedding. Fifty unique folios contain two versions of the same broadsheet.  The typefaces used are Granjon, Dyer, Willow and You Murderer. The embossing was done from polymer plates that were mounted type high and then squeezed through the press by hand. The paper is acid free 250 gm archival Rising Stonehenge. The wood engravings are incised on end grain maple and were made by George A.Walker who also designed and hand-printed the whole project on his Vandercook SP15 proof press in the winter of 2012.

Hand made broadside 12.5″ x 16″

Folio Edition limited to 50 copies.
Bound and slip cased in black fiscagoma, includes two versions of the poem signed by both Neil Gaiman
Blind stamped front and back, heavily embossed.

If you are interested in the signed regular edition of this broadside click the image below.

TALES OF LOVE AND DEATH by Robert Aickman (Limited Edition) Import

Robert Aickman (1914-1981) is considered by many to be one of the finest exponents of the modern ghost story. Aickman himself referred to his tales as ‘strange stories’, for they are often open to more complex interpretations. His writing is subtle and poetic, presenting us with psychological and more material terrors.Tales of Love and Death (first published in 1977) is a collection of seven mature tales by this craftsman of the uncanny.

“Along with Walter de la Mare, Elizabeth Bowen and a few others, Robert Aickman belongs to the Chekhov school of the weird tale. Such writers recognise that stories don’t require pat endings. They don’t need to close with the snap of an O. Henry trapdoor, or the ironic twist of a Maupassant. A short story can actually convey a more haunting depiction of the human predicament by avoiding any kind of artificial conclusiveness. Life is messy, not neat; most problems are never clearly resolved, but only lived with; people act unreasonably for no apparent reason.” Michael Dirda, from the Introduction to Tales of Love and Death.

Contents: ‘Growing Boys’, ‘Marriage’, ‘Le Miroir’, ‘Compulsory Games’, ‘Raising the Wind’, ‘Residents Only’ and ‘Wood’.

Tales of Love and Death is a sewn hardback of 243+ xiii pages, printed lithographically, with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w.

Publication 28th May 2012
Cover artwork by Stephen J Clark of The Singing Garden.
Limited to 350 copies.

Two rare and hard to find Delirium Books titles both are number “1″ and a lettered edition.

BODY COUNTING by David Whitman (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover) This is number “1″

This is one of only 92 signed and numbered hardcover copies. This being number “1″
Book is in perfect unread condition

David Whitman (co-author of Scary Rednecks And Other Inbred Horrors and author of Deadfellas) offers up his first short story collection.

Featuring a dozen short stories:

1. Out Of The Ashes
2. The Mind Of Hunter Castle
3. Killing Brando
4. Angel Lust
5. What Love Was
6. The Eyes Of God
7. The Death Of The Piano Man
8. Dust In The Wind
9. The Thursday Night Poker Players
10. Broken Souls
11. The Hitman Always Rings Twice
12. Body Counting

BACK FROM THE DEAD by J. F. Gonzalez (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover) This is number “1″

This is a signed limited edition hardcover of only 150 signed and numbered copies. This is number “1″ of 150

Tim Gaines was the town pariah. Mocked and teased continuously since he was in the sixth grade, he approaches his senior year of high school with a sense of cautious trepidation. Years before, when he was in the sixth grade, a group of boys led by Scott Bradfield—a popular, well-liked kid from well-to-do parents—spread a vicious rumor that he was a devil-worshipper. The rumor stuck, and is believed by most of the students and even a few of the teachers and administrators. It’s a rumor Tim can’t beat, and one he sometimes feels he’s brought on to himself due to his love of horror novels and movies.

Now Tim has become friends with a loose-knit group of kids who have also become social outcasts thanks to other rumors spread about them by the student elite. With their mutual support, Tim has begun to come out of his shell. He’s going out with them, being invited to parties, and even begins to have a romantic interest in a girl, something he never thought would happen to him in high school.

But all that will change when Scott Bradfield and his friends set their sights on Tim again. Only this time, they need his help. Like most of the student body of Spring Valley High School, they sincerely believe Tim Gaines is a devil-worshipper. And they believe he has a dark power. Now they want to use him and that power for their own sinister plight…

…To bring back the dead homeless man they’d kidnapped and brutally beaten to a pulp in the guesthouse that resides on the Bradfield residence.

They want him brought back not because they’re scared of getting caught for his murder, but so they can savagely beat and murder him again…

…and again…

CLICKERS II by Brian Keene and J. F. Gonzalez (Signed Leather Bound Edition)

This is a signed leather bound edition in a custom slipcase. This is letter RR of 52 copies published.

The first wave was only the beginning.

Since it’s publication in 1999, Clickers by J.F. Gonzalez and Mark Williams has become a geunine cult-classic, garnering a legion of fans and single-handedly revitalizing the “munch-out” sub-genre. Like Jaws did a decade before, Clickers gave readers another reason not to go in the water.

But now, it’s not even safe on land.

Delirium Books is proud to present Clickers II: The Next Wave. J.F. Gonzalez has teamed with best-selling novelist Brian Keene for a second assault — this time on a national scale.

The Clickers are back, wreaking havoc on a United States already demoralized and defenseless thanks to a category five hurricane and a president who rules through religious zealotry.

Now, as the death toll climbs into the thousands, two survivors from the original invasion find themselves teamed up with a marine biologist and a mob hitman, and on the run from the Clickers, the Dark Ones, and their own government. And as their enemies close in on all sides, only one thing is certain — if they fail, humanity loses.

Clickers II: The Next Wave. This time, the crabs eat you . . .

Spontaneous Myth: A New Appearance of The Orang Minyak

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. H. P. Lovecraft

Folklorists have thoroughly studied the origins of mythology. An event can spontaneously generate a story from a combination of a culture’s anthropological or sociological preconceptions. In turn, a collection of these “mythemes” (Or mythological themes) can be collected in a variety of ways to tell whole stories that can be basis of the underpinnings of the entire community. If one reverses this, one understands the key to individual culture.

It can be mundane such as why wear white at weddings, or why one culture adores tattoos and another abhors them.

A recent story by Rashvinjeet S.Bedi of the Star/Asia News Network (Sunday, Jan 01, 2012) shows how a myth is created from random elements. In most cases, humans have a condition whereby we see patterns where there are none. We tend to fear randomness. There must be a reason why Joe got eaten by a shark, but Charlie became a wealthy CEO. Indeed, Joe may have gotten drunk and fallen into the shark tank at the aquarium, while Joe graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, but barring this, randomness just happens. This we can’t stand.

Perhaps the best teller of these mythological tales – stories where normal people just have very horrific things happen – has been Brian Keene. But pick Ray Garton, or Ed Lee, or Michael Laimo, or so many others. It is the basis of our modern horror story since Shirley Jackson taught us that horror is right next door.

Enter the Orang Minyak.

A 1958 poster with an earlier era's Orang MInyak

Allegedly one 2 AM morning in Kampung Laksamana in Gombak around 40 residents divided into groups armed with lights and sticks were searching their village for a so-called Orang Minyak (oily man).

In fact they believed that two paranormal creatures had scurried about for 10 days.

1. Some claim to have seen and heard the orang minyak
2. Others say the thing is clad only underwear drenched in black shiny oil.
3. Still others say (like Spring Heel Jack f ancient London) jumps from one roof to another and vanishes into thin air within seconds.
4. One man claims “It is tall, stocky and bald”, while another is “thin and curly haired”. “It was breathing really loudly, like a cow.’

The myth begins to expand by adding cultural ritual, “the orang minyak conducts its ritual of reciting jampi (mantra) and having an oil bath.”

Then a location is given. “the villagers stumbled across the spot after chasing the orang minyak into some bushes…”

Justification? “There was a large oil patch there”.

More detail is added from other random events “… the next night, they found a packet of fried rice and noodles at the very same spot… later the food was gone … eaten by the orang minyak.”

Then a deep myth connects to these various elements. Or more likely, spliced onto a legend. “According to popular legend, the orang minyak is a person who has undertaken the study of black magic and as a rite of passage, and has to rape a certain number of anak dara (virgins) to pass that course.” A sort of gang initiation, one supposes.

Then comes the fear. “The villagers are worried because almost every house in the neighbourhood houses a young girl.”

To reinforce the story, “a 17-year-old girl did not only see the orang minyak a few times, but also felt ‘someone” caressing her and calling her to go out of the house’.” This may have been a simple psychopompic nightmare, an incubus dream, but it has now been spliced into the deeper legend adds to the new mythological beast.

Then another arbitrary story is added. “It reportedly also locked the family members outside the house on Christmas eve”.

Then this addition, “We saw a black heap underneath the kitchen table. When other residents poked it with a bamboo stick, we could see blood stains … It then fled to a neighbour’s house.”

The fear was real. One villager left. Or did he? Maybe it was an FOAF (friend of a friend story, which can never be verified.) “Unfortunately, all attempts by Sunday Star to contact him were unsuccessful.”

Often a myth or ghost tale is negatively reinforced by a skeptical authority figure. “… some of these stories sound incredible and illogical … it is hard to find any Kampung Laksamana resident who doesn’t believe in it …”

It isn’t true, but since everyone believes it is a higher level of truth. “During the Christmas weekend, some 200 people patrolled the street …”

There we have within a matter of less than a month, not only a new myth created, but carried on a national wire service. Myths are some of the most primal and powerful stories humans have, and they spread like wildfire. However, when they land elsewhrere, they easily morph to fit the new culture.

a classic Malaysian television version

For at least 2500 years, the “ghostly hitchhiker” myth has persisted. In Roman days (and there may be a few cases in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament) the hitchhiker, usually a girl, was found on a cart. In the mid-19th century, trains often had mysterious people appear and disappear. Then in the automobile age, the modern classic appeared. A teen-aged girl standing by the roadside suddenly was in the back seat of the speeding car. Later this became very elaborate, whereby a girl appeared to a boy, who took her home. She would leave a sweater, or other very identifiable garment. Then, having fallen in love, tried to relocate the address and either a cemetery was now there with the girl’s name on a tombstone, or inside the home a mother would say, “Yes, that is my daughter’s sweater, but she has been dead many years.”

It is a small step from a mythic story to a horror story, so perhaps one day the Orang Minyak will star in a new horror novel?

Professor Jan Harold Brunvand of the Univ. of Utah has written many books. He often documents the "vanishing hitchhiker".

 

Clickers vs Zombies by Brian Keene and J. F. Gonzalez

As many who read this blog know I publish genre fiction under several different imprints. One of my modern horror imprints is Morning Star Press and we’ve recently announce Clickers vs Zombies by Brian Keene and J. F. Gonzalez.  This edition is limited to only 350 signed and numbered copies and in only a few days we are already down to our last 50 copies.

DARKFUSE bookstore will be handling the distribution on these for us and you can reserve your copy be clicking the cover art below.

From best-selling writers J. F. Gonzalez and Brian Keene comes the wildest, pulpiest, most over-the-top B-movie installment in the Clickers series yet!

In the aftermath of a devastating tsunami and a series of undersea earthquakes, hordes of Clickers swarm onto the California coastline, slaughtering everything in their path. When the creatures begin attacking other parts of the world, humanity fights back, unaware that a second foe is about to emerge—Ob, Lord of a supernatural race of beings known as the Siqqusim, who have the ability to possess and reanimate the dead.

Now, Earth faces an invasion from not one, but two enemies—the mindless, hungry Clickers, and the evil, and equally ravenous zombies. Both groups have only one goal in mind—the total extermination of the human race. But what happens when these two forces meet…

CLICKERS VS. ZOMBIES – No matter who wins, mankind loses. Publisher: Morning Star

The Horror of “Ape Rape”

The term “rape” is a highly charged and emotional term, and it is used in this context with all due respect.  The best horror reflects primordial fears of our species.  Whether there are ancestral or genetically typed fears is still being explored and investigated by primatologists, paleontologists, and psychiatrists.  Writers such as Edgar Allan Poe (Murders in the Rue Morgue), Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes),  Max Brand/Frederick Faust (That Receding Brow), H. P. Lovecraft (Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family), Pierre Boule (Planet of the Apes) and Brian Keene (Castaways) have explored horrific aspects of ape/primate – human interactions gone terribly wrong.

In fact, there are numerous legends and well documented cases of primates – such as orangutans - attacking human females and copulating with them.  In addition, chimpanzees have been known to steal babies and eat them.  Even the thought can sicken most mortals, but these blood-chilling events do take place.

Despite generations of study by top biologists and archaeologists, we are only one small step closer to understanding how similar or how different we are from primates and early humans.  Or, for that matter, what it means to be human.

A brief passage in Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Biruté Galdikas [by Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Juntion, VT, 2009] is shocking, perhaps more so in the clinical description of what must have been a debilitating and traumatic event in the life of a local woman.

The indomitable Jane Goodall was incredibly lucky to not be accosted by either alpha-male Louis Leakey or her beloved chimpanzees. Only after she left the field did word come that chimpanzees were meat eaters – and more. It may be laughable when William Shatner recently described how a female gorilla once held his testicles in a delicate and compromising manner, but less so as we watch well-respected movie star Julia Roberts being mildly accosted by a large orangutan (about 2:20 into the video clip below). We -and she – realize how very badly this could have went for her.

It seems confirmed that Neanderthal genetic material is mixed into our own genes. There is but one way that got there. How many more, as yet undiscovered, early humans and primates are interlinked in our savage and horrific blood? Are we the top of the food chain – or just food? How thin is the veneer of civilization? The best writers of horror – from the ancients to the post-moderns – have examined and shocked us with the mirror held up to our apish souls.