Paperback Newsreel (April/May edition)

The latest issue of The Paperback Fanatic (#22) arrived the other day, and its chock full of novelization and tie-in goodness. First up is "Planet of the Tie-Ins," Cranston McMillan's roundup review of the PLANET OF THE APES movie, TV and cartoon novelizations. Next, Johnny Mains' column "The Paperback Dungeon" looks at David Sherwin's published screenplay if... (Sphere, 1969), the DR. CRIPPEN movie tie-in by Michael Hooker (Digit, 1962), and The Disoriented Man by Peter Saxon (Mayflower, 1966), which became the Vincent Price/Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing terror team-up SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN (Popular Library published a tie-in edition in 1970). Finally, Graham Andrews reviews Robert Bloch's novelization of THE COUCH (Gold Medal, 1962) for the "Fit to be Tied" column. Great stuff as always. Issues are limited runs and sell out fast, so grab one while you can! Order a subscription to The Paperback Fanatic here.

A couple of related blog posts went up in late March and just missed being included in our February/March edition. Over at The Grindhousehold, Lucas J. Gutman reviewed Philly by Dan Greenburg, the kinky 1969 thriller that was loosely adapted into the popular 1981 sex comedy PRIVATE LESSONS. Read about it here.

Similarly, Samuel Wilson of Mondo 70 wrote a "book into film" blog post comparing Alan Le May's novel The Searchers to the John Ford film THE SEARCHERS, a terrific piece that can be found here.

Grand Central Publishing has a movie tie-in edition of Seth Grahame-Smith's bestseller Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter now available. The movie opens in the U.S. on June 22nd.

Here's one from from last December that managed to sneak by us: The Divine Woman by Gladys Unger, a novelization of a lost Greta Garbo movie from 1928. Based on the shooting script by Dorothy Farnum, which itself had been adapted from Unger's 1925 stage play "Starlight," THE DIVINE WOMAN (directed by Victor Sjöström) was stored in the same MGM backlot vault that housed Tod Browning's LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927), and both were destroyed in the same fire. Only a single nine-minute reel still exists today, discovered two decades ago in a film archive in Moscow. The book is available from BearManor Media.

Another one that got by us last year is the new American edition of the DAWN OF THE DEAD novelization by George Romero and Susanna Sparrow. It came out November 10th and is available in hardcover and paperback from St. Martin's Griffin. Meanwhile...

...a new British edition was just published May 10th and features an introduction by SHAUN OF THE DEAD star Simon Pegg. It's available in paperback only from Sphere.

It's Hammer time again! On July 5th, a new Hands Of The Ripper novelization will be released by Hammer Books. The author is Guy Adams, who also wrote the new KRONOS novelization (An earlier HANDS OF THE RIPPER novelization, by Spencer Shew, was put out by Sphere 1971).

Also on July 5th, Hammer will publish Shaun Hutson's new novelization of X THE UNKNOWN. And finally...

...Mark Morris' new novelization of VAMPIRE CIRCUS will be available October 4th. That's all for now! See you in a month or two for the next installment of The Paperback Newsreel!

Compiled by Chris Poggiali & Darrin Venticinque

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

Paperback Newsreel (January edition)

The big news this month: Two classic horror movie novelizations that fetch very high prices among collectors are back in print!

The rare and incredibly pricey CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON novelization (Dragon, 1954) by Vargo Statten [a.k.a. John Russell Fearn], originally published only in England as a hardcover that could set you back $1,500 to $3,000 these days, has returned in softcover and hardcover thanks to Bad Moon Books, and at much more affordable prices. This new edition contains the original novel plus stills from the movie, new cover art by Bob Eggleton and a new introduction by David Schow. Bad Moon also has limited edition hardcovers signed by Julie Adams and Ricou Browning, while Dark Delicasies is selling copies signed by Adams and Schow in advance of their book signing event on Saturday, February 11th at 2:00 pm.

Dean Owen's novelization of BRIDES OF DRACULA (Monarch, 1960), based on Peter Bryan's early draft of the screenplay and also pretty scarce, has returned to print in softcover and hardcover editions from Bear Manor Media as the first volume in a series of 1950s and '60s horror novelization reprints edited by noted film historian and author Philip J Riley. You can order the softcover directly from Bear Manor. The hardcover is only available through Cover Out and supplies are limited.

John Pinkney's Thirst (Circus, 1979) -- based on his screenplay for the Australian thriller starring Chantal Contouri, David Hemmings and Henry Silva -- is another extremely rare novelization that has returned from the dead recently, albeit as a Kindle-only exclusive. It can be ordered here for only $2.99!

Meanwhile, over at Centipede Press there are still a few copies available of their new limited edition hardcover movie tie-in of Robert Marasco's novel Burnt Offerings, signed by co-screenwriter William F. Nolan (who contributed a new afterword) and artist J.K. Potter (new half title and full title artwork). Print run: 150 copies. Head over to Centipede Press for more details.

The latest issue of Justin Marriott's wonderful 'zine The Paperback Fanatic (#21) just arrived, and the first thing that caught our eye was "Fit to be Tied," a new column dedicated to novelizations. For the maiden voyage, writer Graham Andrews covers Five Weeks in a Balloon by Gardner F. Fox (Pyramid, 1962), which he mislabels a "tie-in" when it's actually a novelization (A "movie tie-in" would've been the Jules Verne novel reprinted to promote the movie); otherwise, he knows his stuff, and we're looking forward to future installments. The issue also contains an obituary for John Burke (1922-2011), the prolific sci-fi author who penned novelizations ranging from The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Look Back in Anger to Moon Zero Two, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and the two Hammer Horror Omnibus collections. Issues of The Paperback Fanatic sell out almost instantly, so order now!

And finally, if you haven’t seen it yet and can still find a copy at your local newsstand or bookseller (if you even have a local newsstand or bookseller anymore), the latest Film Comment (Vol. 47, #6) features a good historical overview of novelizations by journalist Grady Hendrix. It's the November/December issue pictured above, and the article is titled “Pulp Fiction: In Appreciation of Movie Novelizations”
(pp.44-49). Check it out.

Compiled by

Darrin Venticinque, Michael Gingold, Chris Poggiali