http://www.gruselromane.de
https://www.romantruhe.de
https://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/4689/luther-horror-collections
https://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/2576/random-german-weekly-pulps
Here are some covers of german weekly horrorpulps. With the exception of two they are all cancelled for years. All were sold only at the newsstand. As it was supposed that german readers wouldn´t see storys taking place in Germany as exciting or interesting, 99% of these novels written by german writers are taking place either in England or America. This is a random selection of the good, the bad and the ugly ;D
Let’s begin with another Vampir Horror. VHR was published weekly and cancelled with No. 451. Here is No. 284 from 1978, written by a german writer who wrote everything from western to crime. At the time the series was tame and inoffensive. Not to mention really boring.
This is a Geister-Krimi from Kelter Publishing. Geister-Krimi ran for 405 weekly issues from 1974 to 1981. According to anecdotes Kelter was the worst paying outfit and it isn´t held in high regards. They had the same cover concept for the whole run.
The Silber Grusel-Krimi from Zauberkreis Publishing is the granddaddy of all the german horror pulps. At first a serial with the adventures of secret agent Larry Brent against the forces of darkness it later became another of those stand alone novels series and ran from 1968 to 1986 for 494 issues. At first bi-weekly it later went weekly, near the end it went back to bi-weekly. Most of this time they had the same cover concept.
This is Der Magier (The Magician) 1982 to 1983, also from Zauberkreis Publishing, one of the short-lived serials. It was a showcase of german pulp cliches, even for weekly pulps the stories were bland and tame. No wonder it got the axe after one year due to low sales. The cover art was uniformly this ugly.
This is Geisterjäger John Sinclair (Ghosthunter John Sinclair) from Bastei Publishing. This serial was started under its own imprint in 1978 (after 50 novels as a sub-series in another anthology-series) and is still published today. All 1600 weekly novels (+312 monthly paperbacks which are cancelled) were and are written by Helmut Rellergard aka Jason Dark, back then an editor at Bastei. (Except a handful of novels at the beginning when the publisher wasn´t sure if the writer could deliver 4 novels a month.)
It is one policeman with magical weapons against the forces of darkness, and it has its fans. The covers were mostly done by spanish artists, often tailored to the content, sometimes the story is written around a picture. This is one of the recent better covers from issue 1307, called "Dead women of Berlin", one of novels were the british Chiefinspector is working on the continent as Evil is international
Professor Zamorra, the Master of the Supernatural, is also from Bastei Publishing and the second survivor. Started in 1974 it was also a bi-weekly serial. French parapsychologist Zamorra, the man with no first name, inherits a castle on the Loire and a magical talisman, which was created by Merlin. With his beautiful secretary/lover Nicole Duval he fights the forces of darkness.
At first it was a typical monster-of-the-week series with a dozen writers under one house-name and no continuity whatsoever. In 1978 a young writer named Werner Kurt Giesa came on board and became the only writer. He invented a solid background and brought in elements of fantasy and science fiction. Bastei´s series never were very gory or violent, but Zamorra is horror light. Giesa injected a lot of humour into the stories and did complex story-lines which went on forever. He was an original and loved by fandom. A couple of years ago his declining health forced him to take other writers on board. He died last year. This is No. 887 from 2008, called "Bloody Fog", the cover is one of the computerdrawn pictures which are now all the rage.
And last the most infamous of all german horror pulps. Dr. Morton was published by Erber Publishing from 1974 to 1975 for 54 weekly issues. Erber was primarily a publisher of nurse novels and love novels who tried on the horror market.
Conceptwise the serial was way ahead of its time. It had no supernatural like all the competition and was a straight crime and thriller series. Basically it was the evil scientist as the hero. Brilliant Harley Street surgeon Dr. Glenn Morton does medical experiments on humans in his secret laboratory, always one step ahead of Scotland Yard who wonders who this madman is doing these terrible crimes. His specimen are either crooks, who "deserved it" or unlucky bystanders. His sidekick is his chaufeur William Grimsby, who is a serial killer; he only gets off when he kills woman, so sometimes he goes on the hunt.
The series was incredible gory and violent.
The issue shown here "The singing killer" is one of the more memorable stories. Popstar Roy Barnabas is borerline mentally ill with sadistic tendencies. He likes to bite girls. Morton thinks he is an interesting case to study and kidnaps him. He treats him with drugs and hypnosis until Barnabas goes over the edge, digging up corpses for a bit of necrophila or biting young girls to death. When the police is closing in, Morton brings him to his laboratory and kills him for an autopsy. all in the name of science. End of story
Needless to say that the authorities charged with keeping an eye of the newsstand periodicals so there was no explicit sex or too gory violence in books sold to basically a young readership weren´t amused. The series was banned so often that the publisher had to take it from the market. The novels were fast written hackwork, with a basic characterisation at best - like all the weeklys - still they are a truly guilty pleasure. I love it, even if I would also say today that this is truly no reading material for minors.
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