 Stage Fright may be more of an acquired taste than some of the more crowd pleasing, straightforward books of the 1980s horror paperback boom, but if you can forgive the fact that there isn’t a single keytar wielding skeleton to be found in its pages, you’ll discover a wholly unique melding of madcap ideas and disparate genres that, despite all logic, work together fantastically as a cohesive whole. Horror was doing big business in the bookstores in the 1960s. This was largely thanks to gothic literature which promised gentle tales of haunted manors and melancholy spirits on their covers. Things took a more devilish turn towards the end of the decade with the release of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ in 1967, followed by William Peter Blatty’s ‘The Exorcist’ and Thomas Tryon’s ‘The Other in 1971, but the real fun began in 1974 with the release of two books that would open the floodgate for pulp horror. Jaws (Peter Benchley) and The Rats (James Herbert) proved that there was an appetite out there for books that weren’t ashamed to be all-out horror. The publishing industry took note and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, companies such as Zebra, Tor and Pinnacle published a seemingly endless supply of books promising unspeakable terrors and sporting covers that had to be seen to be believed. Sometimes the content was great, other times… not so much, but one thing that you could always be guaranteed was a fun and entertaining read. By the mid-90s, horror paperbacks were seemingly out, and thrillers were in. Gone were the lurid covers of skeletons, evil dolls, creepy kids and flesh hungry critters. The horror was still there, it just wasn’t marketed as such, treated like a shameful secret. As titles fell quickly out of print, many of the horror authors and their work became increasingly forgotten by all but the most avid fans and collectors. Enter Will Errickson, Grady Hendrix and ‘Paperbacks From Hell’. In 2017 Hendrix and Errickson released their seminal love letter to the horror paperbacks of a bygone era, shining a light on some long-forgotten classics and renewing interest in the mass market horror paperbacks of the 1970s and 80s. Not content to simply share their passion for these oft maligned but much missed books, thanks to their partnership with Valancourt Books, we are being treated to new reprints of the best of these decades-old, forgotten gems. To date, fourteen reprints have been published, retaining the original cover art and boasting brand new and insightful introductions from Hendrix and Errickson. In this series I’ll be reading each and every one and posting articles at Ginger Nuts of Horror looking back at the best books two decades of horror has to offer. One of the things I love most about horror paperbacks from this era is the cover art. The best of them are gloriously over the top, cartoonishly lurid, often colourful and bloody, and usually boasting either a skeleton, a creepy doll, or a vicious looking creature (ideally, some kind of mix of the three). Stage Fright sports a great example of these silly but lovingly crafted covers, with a skeleton decked in full glam rock regalia, head tossed back, arm raised in salute as it plays what is doubtless an epic keytar solo with one leather gloved hand. It is weird, ridiculous and absolutely brilliant. The question is, does it actually reflect the content of the book? Well… sort of. The back cover blurb for Stage Fright suggests an altogether different book to the one we actually get, without telling any outright lies. Promises of “Biker gangs of decomposing corpses” riding the highways of America, or “Horror movie monsters” who “burst from late night TV screens to turn their viewers into victims” are, strictly speaking, delivered upon, but it does suggest a more bombastic and action-packed spectacle of a book than we actually get (at least, to begin with). This isn’t a criticism, but rather a warning to temper expectations. ‘Stage Fright’ does have its fair share of big set scenes and monsters, but their appearances tend to be short lived (with one notable exception, but we’ll get to that later). Where the blurb suggests a ‘Heavy Metal’ inspired epic with a grindhouse movie sensibility, what we actually get is something more unexpected. Better described as a psychedelic horror fantasy with a punk rock ethos and a dash of sci-fi for good measure, ‘Stage Fright’ is a truly unusual book, ones that is more focused on addiction, technology and fame than it is zombie bikers and movie monsters. Set in the far-flung future of 1996, the entertainment industry has been revolutionised by the invention of dreamies; a new form of movie beamed directly into the minds of its audience. Izzy Stark is the undisputed King of the Dreamies. His work is more cerebral, more ground breaking and more disturbing than anyone else working in the field, bar none. He is a modern rock n roll superstar, beloved by millions of fans. Quentin Hughes, a former childhood friend turned journalist is given a life changing opportunity to pen Izzy’s autobiography, he relishes the chance to make a name for himself. When Izzy begins to grow more distant, disappearing for days at a time, he says he is working on something new. Something so big that it will go down in history as the greatest production ever staged. Izzy’s dreamies have always felt so real. This time, it may be too real. You’d be hard-pressed to find a Paperback From Hell with a more offbeat and unconventional premise than Stage Fright, which features a rock star/film-maker hybrid who uses MDIT (microwave dream-imaging transmitter) technology to beam movies created from his dreams into the minds of a live audience. The books narrative drive revolves around Izzy’s experimentation with the blood of schizophrenics (still with me?) to create more vivid and delirious dreamies. It’s a set-up as creative as it is ingenious, as it allows the author to explore addiction through his lead character, grounding the story in something relatable, whilst also using the premise of the dreamie to go as big and bold as his imagination can go while staying true to the story being told. Boatman peppers the story with faux historical facts about the birth of the technology behind dreamies, going on tangents about inventors and early pioneers. I thoroughly enjoyed these occasional but very welcome side tracks into world building which would feel out of place or jarring in a lesser work. The textbook style delivery, formal yet conversational, is worlds away from the frantic, nightmarish descriptions of the dreamies themselves and the two different styles are like having breakfast for dinner. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Lest I paint ‘Stage Fright’ as overly serious, I should probably put pulp horror fans at ease. The books opening hints at some of the mayhem to come, with its gloopy, rotten prose about rotting zombies dredging themselves up from river beds to feast on the living, but that is nothing in comparison to the grand finale. Given the story is about a persons dreams being made a reality, Boatman has absolutely free reign to go as big and crazy as possible and he sure does deliver. You could not hope to read a more insane, blood-soaked blast of pure creativity and it’s a very memorable ending to a very unique book. Stage Fright may be more of an acquired taste than some of the more crowd pleasing, straightforward books of the 1980s horror paperback boom, but if you can forgive the fact that there isn’t a single keytar wielding skeleton to be found in its pages, you’ll discover a wholly unique melding of madcap ideas and disparate genres that, despite all logic, work together fantastically as a cohesive whole. Join me next time when I’ll be sharing my thoughts on Familiar Spirit by Lisa Tuttle If you’d like to read along with this series and want to pick up copies of the books, or learn more about Valancourts’ Paperbacks From Hell line, visit their site at www.valancourtbooks.com/paperbacksfromhell By Richard Martin STAGE FRIGHT BY GARRETT BOATMAN Out of the darkness of the fetid Hudson River, the undead rose to eat their victims alive.... Horror-movie monsters burst from late-night TV screens — to turn their viewers into victims. Biker gangs of decomposing corpses rode the highways of America, on the hunt for unsuspecting motorists.... Take a front seat in the baddest nightmare in town. Superstar Izzy Stark has the power to make your dreams — and nightmares — come true. He's the master of disaster, the guru of gore, the doctor of doom, the duke of death and destruction -- and you can't escape this command performance. This first-ever reprint of Garrett Boatman's rare '80s paperback horror gem Stage Fright (1988) features a new introduction by Will Errickson and the original cover art. TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE BOOK REVIEW: ALL THE WHITE SPACES BY ALLY WILKES THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR REVIEWSComments are closed.
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