Incidents from years as a horror radio fan

Bill Cosby had a routine where he recalled hearing the Lights Out "Chicken Heart" and was so terrified that when his father tried to come home Cosby lit the sofa on fire for fear that the chicken heart was trying to get in.

Now, I've heard a lot of horror radio programs, almost certainly everything broadcast which still exists up to 1962. I've even heard the Chicken Heart, but I didn't have an experience like that. Here's some programs where I (or others) had a memorable encounter.

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ESCAPE: "Papa Benjamin"

I woke up in the night to hear voices coming from my radio; it was New Orleans and a bandleader was taking the police through a dank back alley, guiding them to the place where he murdered a man. I had fallen asleep with the radio on and happened to draw myself from my slumber near the start of the program, missing little more than the opening theme and introduction. Consequently, I didn't know what exactly I was listening to and in that state my mind was in - still half-asleep - this weird tale of voodoo weaved a spell around me. In my state of partial consciousness, it was as though the story was happening to me, like it was a dream I was having instead of a 50 year old drama being replayed over the wire. Every time I hear it, I recall that first time and the mental pictures I saw then return to me.

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SUSPENSE: "The Dunwich Horror"

Anyone who's heard me speak about H.P. Lovecraft knows that I don't think much of his work. Bluntly, I think he was a poor writer and it mystifies me that he has a tremendous industry based around his works while many of his contemporaries (better or at least no worse) are forgotten.

Still, my first brush with Lovecraft was in the Suspense adaptation of his tale "the Dunwich Horror" and it's an effective broadcast. It helps that Ronald Colman was the lead actor and the sound effects of the whippoorwills generate a strong atmosphere. But what I recall vividly from that first broadcast was the description of the death of Wilbur Whateley, the revelation of his hideous, inhuman body. It was a terrifying moment, brought vividly to life in mind. And that's all that I recall because I dozed off. I didn't hear the rest of the episode until it came up again at least a year later.

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INNER SANCTUM: "Judas Clock"

After getting online in 1998 I quickly learned that Inner Sanctum had a bad reputation among OTR fans. Many look down on Inner Sanctum because of the "cop-out endings." It's true that while many Inner Sanctum stories would hint at the supernatural only to rein it in at the climax, I was never comfortable with that generalization because of one episode. "The Judas Clock."

This story of a clock which performs acts of murder made for some eerie listening the first time through, but I don't really recollect how I felt the first time I heard it. The time I recall was while I was riding in the car with my family (probably back home from a trip to Calgary) and, as I often insisted at such times, we had QR77's programs on. What I recall most vividly from listening to the episode with my family was my mother's utter disgust with the episode because of the amount of gore. Which, of course, is all in your mind - radio is the theater of the mind. So don't tell me Inner Sanctum always copped out!

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You can find "Papa Benjamin" here, "the Dunwich Horror" here (scroll to 45-11-01) and "the Judas Clock" here.

Halloween recommendations IV: Tomb of Dracula

I was reluctant to get involved with horror comics. Super heroes were and are my favorite aspect of the comics and by the early 90s they were a major passion. Somehow, that's when I discovered a comic which hadn't been published since 1979.

I think my enjoyment of Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan's Tomb of Dracula comes from my interest in Bram Stoker's original novel. I know that in modern readings people tend to prefer Dracula to the actual protagonists, but when I read it (I think I was 12?) I liked the good guys; John Seward, Jonathan & Mina Harker, Quincey Morris and Abraham Van Helsing were the point of view characters in the novel and their trials while facing the menace of Dracula was what engaged me as a reader.

Similarly, Wolfman often ran Tomb of Dracula from the perspective of the people hunting him; Frank Drake, Quincy Harker, Rachel Van Helsing, Harold H. Harold, Taj Nital and, of course, Blade. I enjoyed all of these characters but the stories which really stood out were the offbeat tales; Dracula writing an entry in his diary (#15), or a hardboiled detective story where the narrating private eye runs into Dracula (#25); those were gold.

Dracula himself was always a strong figure, usually being followed in hot pursuit by the vampire hunters, but occasionally pit against someone more evil than he was (like Dr. Sun or Satan himself). I really appreciated that Tomb of Dracula didn't over-romanticize Dracula (a problem a lot of contemporary vampire fiction has), notably in issue #50 where he meets a woman who thinks of him as a romantic hero...it ends badly for her (Buffy fans may be reminded of "Lie to Me"). And unlike most comics, Christianity plays a part when God himself takes a dim view of Dracula and when Dracula has a son, a battle plays out for his soul. It's rare to see God utilized in a comic book (for something other than mockery).

Marv Wolfman didn't arrive until issue #7 of Tomb of Dracula but he made it his own; Gene Colan was there from start to finish and he's probably more strongly associated with Tomb of Dracula than anything else in his 60+ year career.

Tomb of Dracula is collected into four black and white Essential volumes; there's also an Omnibus collecting the first thirty-one issues (volume two should have the other thirty nine).

Halloween recommendations III: Pigeons From Hell

Once again, a recommendation to a title which came up in my Great Short Stories list.

"Pigeons From Hell" is a great 1938 pulp horror tale from Robert E. Howard, best known for his Conan work. It inspired a 1961 episode of Boris Karloff's Thriller and a "sequel" comic book from Dark Horse.

The story concerns two men who spend the night in an old plantation manor. One of the men goes upstairs during the night and is killed; then he comes downstairs to kill his friend! It's a wild tale of voodoo and revenge with a twist ending I didn't see coming. Howard's atmosphere is perfectly rendered, it's a story that stays with you.

Pigeons From Hell was collected in Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard, but you can read it online for free here.

Halloween recommendations II: Dead of Night

I like horror the way I like socks: best enjoyed in bulk.

With that in mind, when it comes to selecting a horror film this Halloween, might I suggest a portmanteau? No, not a spork. An anthology! The economical path to a few fervid frights. The best-known portmanteau is 1945's Dead of Night, my recommednation for today.

Dead of Night combines five stories, linked together by a sequence of strangers telling each other stories of the supernatural in that fireside freakout manner the British do best. Four of the stories include a lonesome boy encountered at a Christmas party; a man who avoids a fatal car crash but feels that destiny is catching up with him; a golfer haunted by his best friend's ghost; and a mirror that seems to carry traces of those reflected in it. The fifth segment is the one that made this film legendary: a ventriloquist is haunted by his dummy, who seems to be alive. This was before the idea had been done to death (either in decent productions like William Goldman's Magic or crummy ones like Twilight Zone's "Caesar and Me") and this, the first, still packs a punch.

In fact, Dead of Night was the material adapted to the pilot episode of Escape, although it only adapted the ventriloquist segment. You can hear the episode here.

Dead of Night is rather British, especially the comedic segment with the golfers, so it helps to have an appreciation for dry comedy and ghosts who are decently friendly; the real scares are withheld until the climax.

Dead of Night is a little obscure and apparently out-of-print as a DVD, but I think you can find it broken up into 11 parts on something that rhymes with "too rube."

Halloween recommendations I: Casting the Runes

With Halloween just a few days away, I'll be blogging the next four days with recommendations for something from four different medias: prose, comics, film and old-time radio.

I'll kick this off with an old-time radio program which is itself adapted from the short story medium. Broadcast on the series Escape in 1947, the tale is "Casting the Runes" by M.R. James, which you may recall ranked in my 100 favorite short stories. It also inspired the film Night of the Demon which has a following of its own (and is a good movie at that).

My old-time radio hobby was brought about thanks to local station QR77, which has broadcast old radio shows every evening for many, many years. I became an avid fan of old-time radio in my early teenage years in part because of the horror/mystery shows (although eventually I grew fond of all radio show genres). But after all, QR77's resources were only so great at the time. After a few years I felt that I had heard it all and there were few horror shows remaining that I hadn't heard and even fewer which would seem scary.

Then one night I heard "Casting the Runes." I had no idea what to expect and the show stunned me with its sense of dread. The story's protagonist is visited by a creature which follows him everywhere he goes. He can feel its presence, but never sees it. This fear of the unknown translated itself to the radio perfectly.

You can find a copy of the episode online here.

Only X-Men are Forever

X-MEN FOREVER #15 & 16

Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT Penciled by PETER VALE (#15) & TBA (#16) Cover by TOM GRUMMETT

GREAT JUMPING ON POINT...the fate of PERFECT STORM! The last time we saw Storm, she was fleeing from the X-Men, having blinded Sabretooth and killed Logan. Now, we turn our focus to Wakanda to see what became of the evil clone of the woman that the X-Men loved and trusted. ALSO: new two-part story starting with Issue 16 as CHRIS CLAREMONT continues his landmark run on X-MEN FOREVER! Don’t miss a single panel! Plus, an extra feature detailing a timeline of what other Marvel Universe stories were occurring during the current X-Men Forever saga! #15 - 40 PGS./Rated A ...$3.99 #16 - 32 PGS./Rated A ...$3.99

Yes, that's me as the author of the "extra" in #15!

My website is back!

With Geocities about to tap the mat, it was surely high time I found a a new home for the rambling lists I kept at my old website. Thanks to Janna & Juniper I have a new site at the Hoskin Centre. At this point it's just the old site.

Wait, did I say "just the old site?" Actually, it's the old site plus several months worth of updates that I kept off Geocities. The Archive section now lists several hundred more synopses of various defunct Marvel genre books. I even opened a new page for romance comics! It's still home to the Mark's Remarks archive too; I hope I'll find time to transcribe more of them over the next year.