Pressbook Promotion: THE VIRGIN AND THE GYPSY (1970)

Book Ad of the Week: THE CONTEST (1970) -- take two

December 18, 1970

The Contest

by Mort Weisinger

World Publishing, 1970

To learn more about this novel by D.C. Comics' Mort Weisinger, read our first take on it here.

Pressbook Promotion: PROPHECY (1979)

Paperback Newsreel (February/March edition)

Hammer Film Productions' The Revenge of Frankenstein (Panther, 1958), a novelization that was originally published only in England, made its extremely belated U.S. debut in February in a softcover edition from Bear Manor Media. The second volume in a series of 1950s and '60s horror novelization reprints edited by noted film historian and author Philip J Riley, it can be ordered directly from Bear Manor.  Future reprints in this series will include Gorgo by Carson Bingham (Monarch, 1960), Panic in Year Zero! (originally published as End of the World) by Dean Owen (Ace, 1962), The Pit and the Pendulum by Lee Sheridan (Lancer, 1961) Poe's Tales of Terror by Eunice Sudak (Lancer, 1962), The Raven by Sudak (Lancer, 1963), and Reptilicus by Owen (Monarch, 1961).

While we're on the subject of Hammer, the recently resuscitated studio has started a publishing division, and their first half dozen paperbacks should be of interest to our readers. There's a tie-in edition of The Witches by Peter Curtis now available, with a new foreword by director Cyril Frankel

Guy Adams' new novelization of KRONOS (a.k.a. CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER), with a foreword by director Brian Clemens, is also available. The previous KRONOS novelization (Fontana, 1974) was written by Hugh Enfield.

A novelization of TWINS OF EVIL by Shaun Hutson, with a foreword by director John Hough, can also be found, and a VAMPIRE CIRCUS novelization by Mark Morris will be released in October.

One of the recent Hammer productions, THE RESIDENT, has been novelized by Francis Cottam.

Wake Wood by Karen Watkins is another novelization of a new Hammer joint.

Compiled by Chris Poggiali and Darrin Venticinque

Book Ad of the Week: PEEPER (1981)

December 13, 1981

Peeper
by William Brinkley
Viking Press, 1981

The film adaptation was never made.

January 10, 1982

Pressbook Promotion: THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK (1969)

Book Ad of the Week: "Planet of the Apes paperbacks"

Despite what this ad claims -- "5 great novels based on films" -- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle (Signet, 1968) is really a movie tie-in paperback of Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète Des Singes, first published in English as the U.K. hardcover Monkey Planet (Secker & Warburg, 1963), which was the inspiration for the 1968 and 2001 films PLANET OF THE APES. The other four books pictured here are indeed novelizatons: Beneath the Planet of the Apes by Michael Avallone (Bantam, 1970), issued with two different covers, was followed by Conquest of the Planet of the Apes by John Jakes (Award, 1972), Escape from the Planet of the Apes by Jerry Pournelle (Award, 1973), and Battle for the Planet of the Apes by David Gerrold (Award, 1973). Award also issued four novelizations of the PLANET OF THE APES live-action TV series, which ran on CBS from September to December 1974, while Ballantine published three novelizations of the DePatie-Freling animated series RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES (NBC, 1975-1976). Dell Rey reprinted Boulle's novel in 2001 to tie in with Tim Burton's PLANET OF THE APES redux, but RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011), a prequel to the original film series, became the first POTA-related project to not have a novelization.

Pressbook Promotion: MIDNIGHT (1982)

Book Ad of the Week: THE COUCH (1962)

Gold Medal novelization by Robert Bloch, based on his screenplay (from a story by Blake Edwards and Owen Crump)