signet horror paperback covers of the 70s and 80s and related desiderata

after ward fowler posted the cover of the shoemaker on the sybil thread, I got an immediate nostalgia rush for those signet horror paperbacks of the late 70s/early 80s.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_shoemaker.jpg

they definitely had a distinct look and feel, even beyond the art itself - a design sensibility.

I can actually trace my fascination w/ these things back to a particular event: around '78 my mom took me into NYC to see mummenschanz on broadway. while killing time in grand central station, I spotted a copy of DEATH TOUR and fell in love. who cares what it was about, it was called DEATH TOUR and the cover was a cheerful, skull-like reptilian creature swimming in a river of blood. fucking blood! my mom declined to buy DEATH TOUR for me, so I petitioned the school librarian for a copy which, much to my surprise and delight, she ordered. I guess she was just happy somebody in the 3rd grade actually wanted to read a book.

so I don't remember much about the book itself, something to do with college students trapped in the sewers with killer... alligators? crocodiles? who cares, look at this cover! it's swimming in fucking blood!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/death_tour_2.jpg

signet's horror imprint had to be pretty flush around this time, considering they issued the stephen king paperbacks in the 70s. and they were real beauties. their edition of the shining is one of my favorites. iirc this was a silver foil cover, so a jpg isn't going to do it justice.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_shining.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_stand.jpg

their version of carrie was crazy, had a wraparound cover and inner front and back cover art

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Carrie_1975_front.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/carrie_1975_spine.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Carrie_1975_inside_front_cover.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Carrie_1975_inside_back_cover.jpg

they had the brass balls TO NOT PUT THE NAME OF THE BOOK OR THE AUTHOR ON THE COVER

how cool is that?

their salem's lot was even cooler, not only did it lack the book's name or author on the cover, it was black, with the cover art in a raised imprint, so it didn't even look like anything. another one the internet won't do justice to, however the copies abrasioned by time actually help to show the artwork.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/salems_lot.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/salems_lot_2.jpg

reissue looked like this

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/salems_lot_1975.jpg

That silver foil edition of The Shining was cool -- 2nd King paperback I bought iirc. 1st one was this, the 1st Signet edition:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31Ub%2BV7wcZL._SL500_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-big,TopRight,35,-73_OU01_AA300_.jpg

The plain blue cover had die-cuts showing the eyes, with a 2nd inner cover with the full image:
http://thoydloki.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/nightshift.jpg

night shift was cool, it had a punchout cover, just looked like a bunch of cheesy eyes but then you opened it up and AIGHH wtf is that!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/night_shift_1979_closed.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/night_shift_1979_open.jpg

lol xp

another signet author I got into was james herbet. in hindsight, his novels are kinda terrible, but I still have a soft spot for THE RATS, which is about a bunch of rats taking over england. RATS! THEY EATS U!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_rats_1975.jpg

then they made THE RATS into a major motion movie, DEADLY EYES.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/deadly_eyes_aka_the_rats.jpg

there was even a sequel to THE RATS called LAIR, dropping a preposition was never more terrifying

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/lair.jpg

^ that gemini rat isn't just some cool cover art concept, the book actually featured 2 headed rats! at signet they cared! it was like they actually read the books!

here are some more herbert classics

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_fog.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_dark.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_spear.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_survivor.jpg

the fog, not to be confused with carpenter's the fog, was educational. features a scene where a fog-crazed high school gym class engage in some kind of bloody orgy that climaxes with them lopping off their gym teacher's erect member w/ a pair of garden shears.

and a priest urinates on his congregation in the middle of his sermon? it's a messed up book.

Wow that Survivor cover is actually moving for me.

oh i loved James Herbert so much as a kid, knew you'd have to namecheck the cock-loppage. there's another orgy with old folks getting shish-kebabed whilst engaged in a threesome iirc

i mean i read a fair bit of King etc but The Fog was the most right fucking out there book i'd ever read as a teen who hadn't found out about de Sade yet

and The Rats was clearly hugely influential

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PkrP_mxCB5E/T_PmWDmLHAI/AAAAAAAAARU/GfWkf_N1eKc/s1600/slug.jpg

pulp horror fans, you haven't lived until you've read Slugs and it's sequel(s?)

actually now i think about it the old folks orgy might've been The Dark. i can't remember what the difference was between the plots of that and The Fog.

good thread

James Herbert also clearly the blood brother of Garth Marenghi

http://www.garthmarenghi.com/images/garth1.gif http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/0/1349.jpg

can't remember how old I was when I read the fog, all I know is, too young

woods and geasland's twins, the basis for cronenberg's dead ringers, was another nicely austere embossing job

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/twins_2.jpg

doubt this was another rosemary's baby but the cover art was sweet, love the flare effect here

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/The_Religion_1982.jpg

good example of a cover that could've looked terrible, but for some reason, doesn't

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_nightwalker.jpg

if you pitched this cover to me like "there is a ghostly head with some scratches and streaks of blood over the mouth" idk sounds dumb right, but it works

can't remember but I think this was embossed too

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/unholy_child.jpg

AHHH I WANNA READ ALL OF THESE

A+ thread

this is like what Summer is to my 8 year old brain... reading some trashy embossed cover horror novel!

p sure these are all widely available on yr amazons and yr ebays, at 1980s prices too

King was not only the Blurbmeister of that tyme (main rival: Thomas Pynchon, didn't plug horror, the wuss), his non-fiction collection Danse Macabre led me to Herbert and many other King contemporaries--also classicks such as The Monk

so signet apparently went through a period of heavy involvement in the animal/bug/reptile attack genre, some of these will be ridiculous but some are genuinely creepy like, uh, THE CATS

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_cats.jpg

snakes why did it have to be snakes

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/rattlers_1979.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Fangs_1980.jpg

was hoping for a tie-in between these two

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_spiders.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/killer_flies.jpg

"The venom of savage menace and writhing death," that's got to be way worse that regular old venom.

in GILA! a carnival is apparently devoured by a giant gila monster, I assume the broadway musical was a bomb

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Gila_1981.jpg

these are so dope the night shift hand w/eyes used to creep me out bad

Was going to post a bunch of Robert Heinlein psych-deco Signet covers by Gene Szafran but they're not horror so

Still got a bunch of Campbells from this era
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uz_zjgCJKgM/TyZ6YUZapnI/AAAAAAAAAD0/Nuam73XFGr0/s1600/doll%2Bate%2Bmother%2BTor%2BBooks%2B1985.jpg

Fuck all these covers for scaring the shit out of me and thank you EIII for this thread.

I think I read like 2/3 of these when I was a kid!! (not the bug/animal ones though)

We have The Doll Who Ate His Mother on the bookshelves right now.

more bugs

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_swarm.jpg

the movie tie-in

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_swarm_movie_tiein.jpg

fuck a snake

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uw6KxmMct6c/TV07xOEN5WI/AAAAAAAADHg/7o6FfFfgddY/s1600/2-17-2011%2B8%253B49%253B51%2BAM.JPG

hooray american editions of Hutson

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mxc2ddvdhAM/TtQN0oCSlvI/AAAAAAAAEr4/1S-cfYYZP04/s1600/slugs%2Bshaun%2Bhutson%2Bleisure%2Bbooks.JPG

this guy was right up there with yr Kings et al

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dYol0DDQcMA/TtQv_QkNwnI/AAAAAAAAEsE/dbu5ve3eR1o/s1600/Manitou%2Bgraham%2Bmasterton%2B1977%2Bplayboy%2Bpress.JPG

movie tie-ins or novelizations usually had the worst covers, but signet's version of the omen was nicely done

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_omen.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/salems_lot_2.jpg

best shroud of turin ever

yeah, that first edition paperback of salem's lot is still blowing my mind

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/salems_lot_3.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/salems_lot_4.jpg

slightly perturbed at being detained by deadly tentacles

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_deadly_deep.jpg

that looks like frida!

http://powerlinead.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/frida-lyngstad-somethings-going-on-cover.jpg?w=450&h=450

lol

Not Signet but I have pleasant memories reading this beaut. That red color was sparkly.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-85nrXy2z54c/TtFDiCugbGI/AAAAAAAAEqk/H8PnWK-aKK8/s1600/skull%2Bshaun%2Bhutson%2Bleisure%2Bbooks%2B1989.jpg

And this one, too.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ApRzW5xApF4/Ts2_MVQFx9I/AAAAAAAAA10/10om2ctP8oc/s1600/Garden%2Bof%2BEvil%2B%25286%2Bof%2B6%2529.JPG

this was sci-fi but the cover looks like an escapee from the horror division

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_magicians.jpg

anybody found artist credits for any of these?

this was an inspirational tale of a teacher who cared yadda yadda, guess what, cover is nightmares

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/a_circle_of_children.jpg

um what now

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eFedenOpcCM/Ts2CmipfEEI/AAAAAAAAEpk/AgeK7a7YnHU/s1600/spawn%2Bshaun%2Bhutson%2Bleisure%2Bbooks.jpg

ew!

pretty sure don ivan punchatz did the art for death tour and the cats

xps to dow

OMG thanks Edward III

http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/media_vault/images/1256340293.jpeg

Don Ivan Punchatz, for Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld

http://i43.tinypic.com/2h67m0k.jpg

so beautiful

speaking of farmer, signet's 70s editions of his stuff was awes

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/flesh.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/lord_tyger.jpg

whoa those are super cool

almost as good as the 1960 one!

http://www.fanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/flesh.jpg

those 70s farmers were by bob pepper who also did those great PKD covers for DAW in the 80s

anyone read this????

http://www.bookitinc.com/pictures225/984804.jpg

"A highly plotted tale."

"a novel with sentences"

from what i know of Beryl Bainbridge i doubt the contents have much connection to the cover

forgot about the bachman signet books

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/rage.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_long_walk.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_running_man.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/roadwork.jpg

ok until photobucket stops being a bucket of shit I'm done for the day

been trying to find an image of signet's first edition of the shining, it's diff than the one I posted above, but all the ones I'm finding look beat to shit

also the blog toomuchhorrorfiction is a great source for scans of old horror paperbacks

So many of these look so familiar to me. I love this thread.

http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/horror_pan02.jpg

http://panhorrors.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/pan24.jpg

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/t0/t403.jpg

http://vaultofevil.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/pan26.jpg

http://www.panbookofhorrorstories.co.uk/communities/8/004/006/637/238/images/4524800383_pre.jpg

another icon of the era:

http://retrobookshop.com/images/products/display/102620.jpg

oh yeah! this one too

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/fear_of_flying.jpg

forgot about all those crichton and cook and follett paperbacks

back when signet was king of the airport bookstand

those 70s farmers were by bob pepper who also did those great PKD covers for DAW in the 80s

And who ALSO did... Forever Changes!

"THE MOST UNINHIBITED, DELICIOUS, EROTIC NOVEL A WOMAN EVER WROTE"

"THE MOST BACKHANDED, SEXIST BLURB..."

And who ALSO did... Forever Changes!

― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Monday, July 30, 2012 6:37 PM (25 minutes ago)

during my googling today I stumbled across the blog of a guy who theorized that pepper did the uncredited 60s signet cover for do androids dream of electric sheep based on its similarity to forever changes

this one

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/ea063acc.jpg

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm243/andydecker/HerbertDomain-1.jpg
The thirs Herbert Rats book really frwaked me out--nucelar war destroys the waorld, and the surviviors scrabble round in the rubble being eaten by the intelligent rats of the first two books, now rulers of the world.

http://www.bookitinc.com/pictures225/984804.jpg
This is actually pretty good (I'm a big Bainbridge fan), about two girls who decide to kill an adult--based on the same true story as inspired Heavenly Creatures

That's very effective, looks like the girls next door in my 70s neighborhood. Wonder if the idea for that Salem's Lot ocver came from the original jacket of White Light White Heat: plain black 'til tilted, when a l'il skull could be seen. Think Reed or Cale said the cover was a photo of a biker's tattoo.

More Signet horror covers:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/-V-IBwAUePr4/T6EUxHK2B-I/AAAAAAAAGQo/0e3rEwRROik/chesbro_affairofsorcerers_signet1979_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aNmqmLah6BU/T848JWzj19I/AAAAAAAAGRQ/G6_3ctPo4FU/s1600/The+Religion+nicholas+conde+1982+Signet+pbk.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lXubxyM7PEM/T8w8QOQ66zI/AAAAAAAAApc/AmxhTzg8hL4/s1600/scan0006.jpg

A different Rats cover
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U3nuI31Kmpo/T4NfVYX4sjI/AAAAAAAAFw8/a8XY9z8ddGc/s1600/rats%2Bjames%2Bherbert%2Bsignet%2Bbooks%2Breprint.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2719/4453537387_279d107384_o.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zKfmA6an1SU/TZSO8ZQwScI/AAAAAAAADTQ/yjW82M9HtLc/s1600/dew%2Bclaws.jpg

forgot all about herbert's threads, er, domain I mean

an affair of sorcerers was a detective novel but yeah the cover looks like another escapee from the horror divi

the summer visitors cover is creeping me out

that second cover of the rats says a lot about the new era of signet. I know styles change but they just lost the plot somewhere along the way. these covers nowadays aren't going to haunt the bedtimes of children or feed their dreams of monstrous smirking reptiles swimming in rivers of fucking blood.

I remember staring at this cover for long periods of time.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GfiJkpBdA5E/TirlDlHQf-I/AAAAAAAADz8/OemIso8AqZ0/s1600/in%2Bthe%2Bflesh.JPG

freaky, looks kinda like robert williams

omg this entire thread is basically junior high for me

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_killing_gift.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/the_visitor.jpg

From James Herbert's wiki entry

James Herbert, OBE (born 8 April 1943, London[1]) is a best-selling English horror writer who originally worked as the art director of an advertising agency. He is a full-time writer who also designs his own book covers and publicity. His books have sold over forty-two million copies.[2]

I can't believe herbert designed *all* his book covers

cuz that means the guy who came up with this

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/lair_sm.jpg

also came up with this

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/herbertlair.jpg

and I don't want to live in that world

not a signet book but this thread made me check if this cover art was half as frightening to me as when i read it as a kid
http://ca.pbsstatic.com/xl/80/6380/56380.jpg
lolnope

Plenty of fun covers to be found here:

http://uncledougsbunkerofhorror.blogspot.com/

I had this one as a lad and it scared me good:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qpg4IricKFw/UCfO7cBr2CI/AAAAAAAAAyo/DiZ3m0sm4v0/s1600/late-at-night-1.jpg

Been a long time since I read it, but liked this:

http://www.neconebooks.com/BOOKS/TheFaceThatMustDie_COVER.jpg

a friend has it with this cover

http://www.brixpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/face.jpg

But this is the one I still have

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AeV-ZglWJk0/TipZhO_M6sI/AAAAAAAAAY0/wJfdZfLbgh4/s1600/scan0047.jpg

http://www.strangethingsarehappening.com/britcultmovies.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bYtLwlwME8M/UiQEwdd-a7I/AAAAAAAAKXc/ChyB1AcePe4/s1600/Berserkers+-+Apr+1974,+ed.+Roger+Elwood,+pub+-+Pocket+Books,+0-671-77769-6,+C.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">.95,+191pp,+pb,+anth+-+Cover+-+Mike+Gross.JPG" class="noborder">

arrgh... sorry about the garbage code

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4039/4493513282_b6cb57299d_z.jpg

ooh those are good. i like the skull especially.

These always remind me of books my dad used to read on the beach

I like the Ballantine Lovecraft covers also:
http://i40.tinypic.com/zob380.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/2lt3cls.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/2j3mi9z.jpg

ok well maybe that third one is kinda goofy

He's just a fun guy from Yuggoth, look at his cheeky little face.

Hooooooooly shit: http://www.quirkbooks.com/book/paperbacks-hell#

Wow

full disclosure, i'm involved with this but:

http://www.booklistreader.com/?s=we+read+dead+people

That Grady Hendrix book is a collection of his Tor.Com articles

In all honesty, I'd happily buy a book of '80s horror paperback covers with nothing but lorem ipsum dolor text filling the space between them, so that's cool.

both of these links are v v useful to me!

The Tricycle!

I'm always glad when this thread rises from the dead.

He's just a fun guy from Yuggoth, look at his cheeky little face.

― emil.y, Sunday, 8 September 2013 22:12

I was thinking "damn, I wish I'd thought of that!" but subsequently discovered there's an essay series in Crypt Of Cthulhu magazine called Fun Guys From Yuggoth from the 80s.

That Grady Hendrix book is a collection of his Tor.Com articles

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 6 July 2017 18:31 (four months ago)

Actually it isn't. His Tor reviews of books were quite lengthy but Paperbacks From Hell has quite brief summaries of books. People are definitely tracking down the recommended books, they pop up in my goodreads feed.

that book is fantastic by the way, got through it very fast

It really is. I was very pleasantly surprised by how many (hundreds) of covers Hendrix was able to pack into that thing.

Have my eye 👁 on this book.

I read it last week, it is excellent

leafing through library copy now