The light is dimming outside and the leaves are dancing in the street, excited at what will come when night falls. Yes, it's the between channels Halloween post and served up on a bed of death and worms is a series of plates from Hamlyn's 1980 anthology 'Echoes of Terror'. Unlike many of these volumes it was published as an A4 hardback with copious gruesome illustrations. Fittingly, someone has been at this copy with a knife so when I bought it everything tumbled onto the floor like, er, a sailor's guts. I'm not sure which illustration goes with which story - perhaps you can guess! - and as a result am unsure as to which illustrator penned which picture. Let's just give a severed hand to Les Edwards, Gordon Crabb, Jim Burns, Terry Oakes, Stuart Hughes, Peter Goodfellow, Bob Fowke and George Smith.
Now let's peep through the crooked bits of wood I hammered over the window, enjoy a hedge-meal of rat and henbane and try to figure out what those lights bobbing in the field really are...
I'm sure Denholm Elliott played Dracula once. Anyone?
There's something about an A4 scary face propelling itself towards you at great speed.
Hypgnosis goes horror, and it works.
I have to admit that this one is quite frightening.
Poker is much easier in the underworld.
The Ramblers Association's new logo.
A cross-breed, unsuitable for families with young children.
Medieval Jaegerbomb.
The man himself, give it up for him and rock will NEVER die.
Like much of the country I will spend the evening with kith and kin, watching 'The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue', Kevin Billington's 1973 Hemmings-fest 'Whispers' and shutting the curtains to pretend nobody is in. Stay safe, and remember that on the night when the invisible membrane between this world and the hereafter is at its thinnest, turn your lights on if you're going for a bike ride. Adieu!
It was imperative that 70s and 80s children learned prison slang.
One teenager was injured in the making of this book (this image also features in the 'Ri-' volume, under 'rite').
Saint Jenny, patron saint of Rollerboogie, who was crucified on a giant radiator at Humberside Ice Arena.
This picture kind of sums up why I like these books so much. Somewhat inevitably, more to follow ...
