Happy 100th Birthday Jules de Grandin

 THE VENERABLE OCCULT DETECTIVE JULES DE GRANDIN FIRST APPEARED 100 YEARS AGO. 

The story was called "THE HORROR ON THE LINKS" and it first appeared in the October 1925 (how apropos) issue of WEIRD TALES.  Created and written by Seabury Quinn, the occult detective would become extremely popular and made Quinn the most popular writer in that ground-breaking pulp.  There would ultimately be 92 Jules de Grandin stories written by Seabury Quinn up until the year 1951 and Arkham House would eventually published a handful of them in book form in 1966.  I have one or two volumes of Quinn's de Grandin stories and they're pretty great and a lot of fun. 

The OG cover from WEIRD TALES October 1925 kinda sucks -- it shows a giant flea chasing a dog -- so instead I'm going to show a later, much better cover which actually features Seabury Quinn's story on the cover.  

Beistle Resurgence

 EVERYONE WHO KNOWS VINTAGE HALLOWEEN, KNOWS BEISTLE.  When I was a kid back in the 70's, my Mom had a bunch of original Beistle Halloween decorations of which I've spoken on previous Halloween Countdowns. In recent years, Beistle has returned with new and reproductions of their old-time Halloween decorations.  I've just picked up a few of them for this Halloween; including the awesome Witch Goblin (the OG of which I still own . . . though it's just a head now and it's lower body has long since disappeared).  Who knows?  I might pick up some more of this stuff but right now, here's what I gotted:

IT'S THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN ONCE AGAIN

 HOW UNBELIEVABLE THAT IT'S THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN ONCE MORE! 

Growing up in the 1970s was prime time Halloween territory.  The monster boom which started in the late 1950's with Universal's Shock Theater package sold to TV stations was still going strong in the 70's.  Horror hosts, which started nascently with Vampire in the early 50's and really got started with Zacherley (Roland in Philly) with Shock Theater was also still going; my local horror host was Joe Zawislak as Dr. Shock.  Zawislak actually asked permission from John Zacherle (who had long before moved to New York City) if he could do a riff on his Zacherley Cool Ghoul make-up was given the OK. 

From 1969 until his death in 1979, Zawislak's Dr. Shock was a staple for me every Saturday afternoon.  Comic books in the early 70's also were experiencing a horror boom because of the relaxation of the Comics Code ban on monsters, vampires & their ilk.  Marvel Comics had a golden ago of 70's horror comix with such staples as TOMB OF DRACULA, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and a host of others while DC published everything from EC Comics-like anthologies like THE WITCHING HOUR, HOUSE OF MYSTERY, THE UNEXPECTED, HOUSE OF SECRETS, GHOSTS etc.  Every other comic book publisher also had their own horror comics; HAUNTED LOVE was a particular favourite of my cousin Loran. 

Gothic horror boomed as well with the rise of DARK SHADOWS on TV and a bevy of Gothic horror novels featuring the required nightgown-clad woman running from a spooky house with one lone light in a top window. 

There were tons of horror-themed vinyl records for kids and adults as well as the return of Bobby "Boris" Pickett's song MONSTER MASH to the top 40. 

TV horror was in full swing as well with series like Rod Serling's NIGHT GALLERY, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER (spun off from the highest watched TV movie of all time . . . at the time) and countless spooky Saturday morning cartoons like SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU and it's countless clones such as THE FUNKY PHANTOM et. al.  H.P. Lovecraft really took off in paperback books in the 70's (as well as a paperback edition of what purported to be the actual NECRONOMICON);

and that's even before the horror bombshell that was Stephen King starting his career in the middle of the decade.  Even the damn breakfast cereal went monsterific with COUNT CHOCULA, FRANKENBERRY and BOO BERRY; still going strong to this day.  Horror TV movies experienced a golden age in the 1970s and even Hammer Horror was still releasing movies until the blockbuster that was THE EXORCIST changed the game forever.  But even THAT was a horror movie!!!  Monsters were permeating the very air we breathed in the 1970s and it's never been the same atmosphere no matter how popular horror became in the years since.  I was 11 when STAR WARS hit the silver screen and -- don't get me wrong -- I was fully a fan and saw it 14 times in the cinema at the time.  But STAR WARS was the death knell for the horror boom in 1977.  After a few years, horror returned, of course, starting with another blockbuster that was John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN in 1978 which birthed the horror movie boom of the early 1980s.  And that was great too.  But totally different in feel and atmosphere than the 70's version; based on the slasher films like FRIDAY THE 13th.  But the 80's were very different from the 70s.  Still great but different. 

Every year, when the Halloween Countdown comes around, it is my childhood 1970's horror atmosphere of Halloween that resonates with me.  And everything I do, watch and read for Halloween these days still comes through the filter of Halloween in the 1970s. 

The never-fading feeling of my little self in my costume (usually made by my Mom who also did my scary makeup) walking down my town's streetlight-lined avenue in the dark.  The air still held on to a little bit of summer with a slight chill in the air and, if I was lucky, some nice mist clinging to the trees which had already dropped most their red, orange & yellow leaves onto the very street upon which I was walking from house to house to get my FULL SIZE candy bars -- that's right, you poor modern folk -- there was no such thing as fun-size candy bars -- we got the actual regular-size candy for trick-or-treats.  This fun-size nonsense didn't start until the 80's; long after my trick-or-treating days were done.  So follow me this month down the gently-descending road leading to the autumn leaf-covered cul-de-sac with one lone streetlight and some fog hovering around the bare-branched treetops.  This is were you'll find the Countdown to Halloween 2025. 

  

September Top Ten List

 HERE ARE MY FAVOURITE FIRST-TIME WATCHES DURING THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER.

1. BASIN STREET REVUE  (1956)
2. JET STORM  (1959)
3. THE RITUAL  (2017)
4. CROOKED HOUSE  (2017)
5. THUNDERBOLTS*  (2025)
6. SUPERMAN  (2025)
7. OFFSEASON  (2021)
8. SCARIEST MONSTERS IN AMERICA  (2022)
9. SCARIEST MONSTERS IN THE WORLD  (2023)
10. HOLLYWOOD IN THE ATOMIC AGE  (2021)

And here's everything else I watched.

Then there's the books I read:

THE MOST WATCHED STARS SO FAR THIS YEAR

MOST WATCHED DIRECTORS SO FAR THIS YEAR

SEPTEMBER EARWORMS

 

SEPTEMBER 3rd - YESTERDAY'S MEN by Madness

SEPT. 4th - SCIENCE FICTION/DOUBLE FEATURE by Richard O'Brien

SEPT. 5th - WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE by The Animals 

SEPT. 6th - WATER MUSIC by George Friedrich Handel 

Sept. 7th -BRINGIN' ON THE HEARTBREAK by Def Leppard

SEPT. 8th -CRACKLIN' ROSIE by Neil Diamond 

SEPT. 10th - HELP YOURSELF by Tom Jones

SEPT. 11th - SENORA by The Kingston Trio 

SEPT. 12th - LET YOUR LOVE FLOW by The Bellamy Brothers

SEPT. 13th - IT'S A SIN by Pet Shop Boys

SEPT. 14th - It's Still Rock and Roll To Me by Billy Joel

SEPT. 15th - IF I COULD by Seal & Joni Mitchell

SEPT. 17th - SHE BOP by Cyndi Lauper

SEPT. 18th - WRAPPED AROUND YOUR FINGER by The Police

SEPT. 19th - DOGTOWN by Harry Chapin

SEPT. 20th - ESTATE SALE by Cheryl Wheeler

SEPT. 23rd - DAMNED IF I DO by The Alan Parsons Project

SEPT. 24th - FRIENDS NEVER SAY GOODBYE by Elton John & The Backstreet Boys

SEPT. 25th - LOONEY TUNE by Montezuma's Revenge

Scariest British TV Shows Ever Aired (Some Only Once)

August 2025 Top Ten List

 HERE ARE MY 10 FAVOURITE FIRST TIME WATCHES IN THE MONTH OF AUGUST 2025:

1. SANDS OF THE KALAHARI  (1965) 
2. THE DRIVER  (1978) 
3. MYSTERE  (1983)  aka DAGGER EYES
4. THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  (2025) 
5. DINOSAURUS!  (1960) 
6. NOSFERATU  (2024) 
7. DEVO  (2024) 
8. CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD  (2025) 
9. COBRA  (1983) 
10. DROP ZONE  (1994) 

And here is everything I watched during the month.

And now, the books I read: