I’ve always found the best way of getting what you would like for Christmas is to get it yourself and this year is no exception. Having acquired all of Johnny Main’s archives for his proposed ‘Horror Stories Scrapbook’, which unfortunately didn’t materialise, I asked Les Edwards if he was now selling his artwork for the cover as previously he was holding on to it. It was later used for ‘Back From The Dead’ This time he said I could have it and so this was my present, now to decide on a frame and where to put it.
Having mentioned Herbert van Thal last week I thought I would feature a book, although no real PAN connection, he wrote to impress a lady back in 1931. It is entitled ‘The Old Lady Makes a Cup of Tea’ which he had privately printed to prove he was published author! There were 250 copies of which the first 200 were numbered and signed. It is interesting in that he uses ‘B’ for Bertie and not Herbert when refering to himself. My scanner had problems with his signature and number being written in a light ink but hopefully it can been seen as number 10.
…. and finally just a quick end piece to say I heard from Jules Burt who recommended a video by Stephen Andrews. Stephen looks at the PAN S/F ‘lozenge’ books as he calls them. It is over an hour so you may want make yourself comfortable or just dip in now and again. Although Stephen is more intrested in the content it does remind me how fantstatic some of those covers were with only the occasional ‘clunker’