Library Sort Out

 I am doing a major sort out of my library at the moment, having decided to lighten my shelves and get rid of a load of titles that have sleeping up in the attic doing nobody and favours. You can catch my expanding book sale here.

This disparate pair are most definitely keepers though 🙂

Tales from the Crypt

This old-timer was pushed through my letterbox today:

Nazichauns!!

So, the Nazichauns have arrived and have settled onto my bookshelves, snuggled next between this edition of Dracula and The Monster Club.

I still can't quite my believe my luck grabbing this highlight of pulp horror fiction publishing for the price of just one night at a Premiere Inn. The question now is, where does my book collection go from here? Especially as I am now in love with my Kindle Scribe! 

The Monster Club by R Chetwynd Hayes

 I am feeling a little under the weather today. Gonna wallow in my misery under a blanket on the settee and read the very entertaining:

Closing Collection with a Question

 I have now completed my Armada Ghost book collection, but with the addition of today's  rejigged cover art reprints has left me with a question to which I can find no answer. 

Everyone who has made it a mission to collect this anthology series of ghost stories soon discovers there are several alternate reprints amongst their number with variant re-imaginings of their cover art. These can be seen in my Collection page here.

That stated, I have also noted that these Series 2 reprints also appear under various imprints. As seen below, these imprint versions are almost identical to their Armada counterparts, with the exception of the deletion of their title's reference to Armada.

 

 

The name of these Armada alternatives appear under a dragon logo:

Until this morning's final Armada Ghost Book delivery, I had been under the impression that when these Dragon version of these books appeared, Armada had already folded and had sold the right to their design to content to this alternate publisher. It was the only explanation I could muster to explain the existence of these non-Armada editions. But now I can only assume that my assumption must be incorrect. Why? Look at the price-tags on the Armada and Dragon versions of the same book. The Armada version is a fair chunk pricier than the Dragon books. Which is, frankly, frustrating as I can't understand why these non-Armada books exist?

Does anyone know?

Nazi Leprechauns!

I spent yesterday evening alone and occupied my time watching youtube videos of pulp horror fiction reviews, personal book collections and paperback fair visits.

These days, you can't look up pulp horror fiction without a ton-load of Paperbacks from Hell dominating the links offered for your perusal. One of these led me to a vlogger who had the interesting idea of presenting a couple of shows evidencing how that much-loved tome has raised the market prices of the books it explored and clearly cherished.

After turning off the TV, I was in the mood to do a little investigation of my own and started searching for that collector's dream of a paperback - the Arrow edition of John Christopher's The Little People.

 I soon discovered that the number one holy grail paperback on everybody's Want list, was selling in the region of the £200 - £380 mark. That was, except for one American seller who just seemed to be selling the contents of their home in a mass clearing. Whilst this particular seller was still asking for a price well over what I am willing to pay for even the rarest of titles, he was open to offers. 🤔 And so I sent off my offer, which took me below my forbidden zone, even taking into account the postage fees from the currently troubled U.S. of A. It was then a waiting game. 🫣

My offer was a fair one, and came in under what  I paid to source my most expensive book thus far - Guy N Smith's even rarer Crabs' Sacrifice a few years back.

My most expensive
book purchase ever

It was a bit of a troubled sleep for me as I waited for the seller's decision on my offer.

Even though it's my 59th birthday next weekend, and I am in possession of a long-idle Paypal credit card to spread the costs, I knew I would not be able to match any higher offer he demanded. And so my sleep was disturbed for a couple hours before I finally received the seller's decision.

😬🫣🤪😃🎉

By the time I awoke this morning, this email was already waiting for me:

I'll write another post on this real gem of a paperback when it crosses the Atlantic and finds a home on my bookshelves. Until then I will be 🕰👀 as I await the arrival of the nazi leprechauns...

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlos Collodi

Sadly, my original copy of this book, already degraded by time, was ruined after last year's house fire.

To readers interested in the darkness inherent within the tale, I highly recommend having a read of my original blog post about the book. Comparing the images in that post with those in this post also highlights how a book will deteriorate over time without care!

Regular readers of Pixie-Led will already be aware of how scary I find this particular book. As such, it will definitely feature in the the first issue of my Pixie-Led zine, which I plan on writing, producing and publish some time in 2026...

The Super-Scary Silhouette

Creepy First Steps

What Strange Sights & Adventure Await in this Wood?

Look at Those Razor-Sharp Teeth

Scary Finally

I'll keep any further chat on Pinocchio for the future zine. But I will leave you with a question. Am I alone in finding this particular edition of Pinocchio to be the best version of the tale?

The Dead of Summer

The above arrived at my home this morning, a very well packed treasure of a book, signed and sent my way the the editor himself - Mr Johnny Mains.

Crabs's Moon by Guy N Smith

 Found this stuffed in my letter box when I got home tonight:

Happy World Dracula Day

My favorite Dracula book covers #WorldDraculaDay :

 

The Bumper Book of Ghost Stories

 Whilst I was collecting Armada Ghost Books, I also acquired this gem of an Armada book. As you can see, it is also signed by Mary Danby!

15th Armada Ghost Book

1983 saw the 15th Armada Ghost Books appear on the bookshelves.

Despite reintroducing the iconic running child from the early entries in the series, the new cover design, introduced in the previous entry in the anthology series, does little to encourage fingers to open the book. Which is a shame, as there are some genuinely series stories contained within. I especially look forward to reading 'Who's a Pretty Boy, Then?'

Alas, all good things must come to an end. But the Armada Ghost Books remains in the hearts of many who grew up in the 1960's, 70's and early 80's, as well as the bookshelves of second hand book trade. My hope is, after reading my short guide to this fascinating slice of publishing history, your fingers will search out these well-read volumes and you feast your minds on the work of som very fine masters of the supernatural genre...

14th Armada Ghost Book

The 14th Armada Ghost Book, released in 1982, was the penultimate in the long-running anthology series of children's ghost stories. 

The first nail was already in the coffin of this popular series as the public were starting to turn their backs on supernatural and horror tales. A new artist was brought on board, whose illustrations appealed more to children, but the book cover art was a firm step down from the series' more iconic imagery.

That stated, the stories themselves are on par, with a couple of them edging on the dark side of children's fiction.

Unfortunately, the change of  book cover designs is difficult to get past.