Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour. 
The Dashiell Hammett Tour
1977-2022
Arkham House Ephemera
The Classic Years 1937–1973
Death Lit
Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
Willeford
The Book
Tag Archives: Halloween
Rediscovered: Eph Book Suddenly NOT 13% Off
On October 20th Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years dived to 13% off, and on October 25th the price just as suddenly returned to the usual retail of $40. You’d think they could have kept that 13% going through Halloween, … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Arkham House Ephemera The Classic Years 1937-1973, Book Collecting, Halloween
Rediscovered: The “Lost” Dustjacket for Feast of Fear
Creeping up on Halloween, I might as well get into the spirit with a bit about a dustjacket showcasing one of the many weird carvings crafted by horror and fantasy great Clark Ashton Smith. My bookman pal Paul Dobish and … Continue reading
Mort: Scott Connors
As Halloween breaks I get word that Scott Connors — Young Scott — has died. Don’t know if he died on Halloween itself or just before. The Scott of yesteryear would have appreciated going out on such an eldritch and … Continue reading
Rediscovered: FrankenHammer
To keep Autograph Hound Super-Sunday going, Halloween-style, how about a glance at a formal display from Brian Leno’s extensive collection of John Hancocks? A couple of days ago Brian informed me: “Got up this morning and figured today would be … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Christopher Lee, Halloween, Hammer Films, Hazel Court, Peter Cushing, The Curse of Frankenstein
Rediscovered: Vampira for the Holiday
Autograph Hound Super-Sunday — and on Halloween! Does our resident Autograph Hound Brian Leno have anything to put on display? A rhetorical question, really, because he’s done Halloween before, and I’ll bet on him doing it again. Take it away, … Continue reading
Posted in Film
Tagged Autographs, Brian Leno, Halloween, Maila Nurmi, Paavo Nurmi, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Vampira
Sinister Cinema: A Fistful of Fisher
Pulps in the Movies. On Sale Every Wednesday. And does our resident pulp/film buff John Locke have a title for you today: I Wake Up Screaming. Yeah, we all get that feeling, right? — now maybe more so than ever. … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Lit
Tagged Black Mask, Clues, Detective Fiction Weekly, Halloween, I Wake Up Screaming, John Locke, Laird Cregar, Liberty, Pulps in the Movies, Steve Fisher, The Shadow
Sinister Cinema: Cyclopean
For Halloween proper Brian Leno trots out an apt image recently pulled from his holdings: I bought this years ago, and I think, if I remember rightly, purchased it directly from William Stout. Of course it’s an original drawing of … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Carnival of Souls
To further prep his fellow Autograph Hounds for the arrival of Halloween, that most eldritch of holidays, Brian Leno jumps back into action with another triple-threat spread of Heroines of Horror. Today he kicks off Autograph Hound Saturday with a … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Karloff
Autograph Hound Super-Sunday — what signature could Brian Leno possibly offer on the altar of Movie Titans Past for the John Hancock Ritual? Especially after his tour de force rollout yesterday. I think he’s got it covered. Here’s Brian: Nobody will … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Dracula’s Daughter
And Brian Leno rings the knell on today’s Autograph Hound Saturday: We can’t have Halloween without some mention of Dracula and that brings us to an often overlooked horror movie. Gloria Holden, best known for Dracula’s Daughter (1936), is a … Continue reading
