Interesting discovery on Pink Tentacle, a site dedicated to weird Japanology. There’s a post covering a collection of illustrations by Gōjin Ishihara that appeared in a load of Japanese kids books from the 70’s.
Yamasei (mountain sprite), Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters, 1972
Nostradamus (Psychics of the World, 1974)
Tenjō-sagari (ceiling dweller), Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters, 1972
Above is just a handful of these unusual illustrations. You can view more of these creepy pictures by visiting the original Pink Tentacle article. Useful for inspiration in the horror department.
The Seventh Issue of the Temple APA digital comics showcase is now available to download as a completely free pdf file. 56 pages of artwork and strips featuring contributions from the likes of Dave Hailwood, Dirk Van Dom, Matthew McLaughlin, Simon Mackie, Paul Eldridge, Dan Butcher and Adam Grose amongst others and I’ve got a few pages in there too. I also put it all together and did that cover right there.
Thanks for tuning in for Monster. It’s taken a while to re-start (never realised just how close it was to the end) due to a slight intermission for ice-cream. Hope you all enjoyed it!
In September of 1954, PC Alex Deeprose was called to Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis. Expecting to find a simple case of vandalism, he was instead confronted with an altogether more bizarre sight. Hundreds of children, some of them armed with knives and pointed sticks, patrolling the graveyard.
When asked, they told the constable that they were hunting a 7ft tall vampire with iron teeth who had already kidnapped and eaten two local boys. Children returned to the graveyard on subsequent nights to continue their hunt.
The incident was quickly blamed on American horror comics, such as those published by E.C., despite there being no evidence to suggest any of the children had ever read any such material. Nevertheless, the government responded to the moral outcry by introducing the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955, which banned the sale of magazines and comics portraying “incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature” to minors.
BBC Radio 4 will be broadcasting a documentary about the incident at 11pm on Tuesday 30th March, which will be available on BBC iPlayer.
The (somewhat overdue) sixth issue of Temple APA is now available to download as a free pdf file. Almost 100 pages featuring artwork and strips by Adam Grose, Dave Candlish, Dave Hailwood, Paul Eldridge, Simon Mackie, Tony Suleri and there are a few pages by me in there too. There’s also a feature on FutureQuake and a Small Press Directory, all put together by John Kirkham.
This is actually John’s final issue and someone new will be taking over from issue seven. Hopefully this new bloke won’t make a total mess of things or sully the memory of what has gone before. This is of particular concern to myself because I’m the new bloke. So, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish Mr. Kirkham well in his future endeavours and I promise to try my hardest not to ruin everything.
To download Issue Six right click here and “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As…” if you’re using Firefox. File size is 50.6 MB.
If you’re a UK based comic artist/writer who’s interested in joining the Temple APA, then more details are available on the site which you can visit by clicking this link… http://templeapa.ning.com/
Following the success of the Back From The Depths Hallowscream Special in 2009, we’ve decided to do it all again this year. That means we’re once again looking for contributors. Here’s this year’s guidelines, (barely altered from last year’s guidelines ‘cos I’m feeling incredibly lazy)…
Ideal submissions should be horror orientated and must be weird or spooky to make the final cut. We are mainly looking for completed comic strips between 1-7 pages in length. Script submissions should also preferably be around 1-7 psges in length. Eerie illustrations and artwork along with interesting horror/comic articles, scary short stories, petrifying poems or anything just plain creepy will also be considered.
If you’re an artist looking to illustrate a script, get in contact and we’ll give you details of what might require your skills.
We’ll also consider material previously published elsewhere, as long as the contributors own the copyright.
Completed artwork can be either colour or black and white, and should preferably be A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) 300 dpi jpegs.
Submissions can be sent to malcolm_iain_kirk@yahoo.co.uk or you can join the ning group and upload stuff there if you prefer.
As this is a non-profit, small press publication, contributors will not be paid but they will retain copyright on any material submitted.
DEADLINES :
Scripts, articles and text submissions : Saturday 24th July
Artwork : Saturday 9th October
Completed strips : Saturday 23rd October.
The finished issue will be available online for free on October 31st.
The Alton Towers marketing team have been in overdrive this past week promoting their new ride ‘Th13teen’ officially due to open next month. Billed as a psychoaster Alton Towers claim the ride is a mix of physical and psychological terror but it’s he technology behind Thirteen that gives it a ‘world first’ status.
In what is surely marketing bluster, the park say it “will potentially make the ride so frightening that the Resort is considering introducing a controversial age-rating.” This is almost certainly a device to build hype for the ride, as opposed to a credible proposal.
I wonder if the Thirtennth Floor’s Max had anything to do with
Do you want to join the Scream team? Looking for enthusiastic people to contribute articles on horror or comics here on The Theatre of Terror. Contact me for more info.
Ghastly 
M.I.K.
Countess 
Jova