#Penny Dreadfuls

[weirdlookindog]

"Rose carried of by Count Lerno"

"The hag and her victim"

"The murder in the green-room"

"The murderous attack"

"Found dead"

"The crime"

"Digging the grave"

"Clara and the ruffians"

"The lost one"

"The murder by poison"

"The sweep and his victims"

"Selling a wife"

"The bodysnatchers"

"ROSE MORTIMER; OR, THE BALLET-GIRL'S REVENGE"

by a comedian of the T. R. Drury Lane, London, c. 1865

source

[victoriaswillow]

Japanese Tales of the Macrabre - Junji Ito Maniac (2023)

[kingbuffy]

I'm actually reading Varney the Vampire for the first time, because I'm determined to become an expert in foundational vampire history, and it's really fascinating how much it has influenced modern vampire lore. Varney, by my estimation, may have been the first vampire portrayed with fangs. More importantly, Varney seems to be the first sympathetic vampire.

The way he acts actually reminds me a lot of Barnabas Collins, another extremely influential vampire that made his debut in the soap opera Dark Shadows over a century later. Barnabas begins his story being merely a charismatic and conniving villain, but as he goes on the layers are peeled back and we see the man that longs to love and be human again. If you've read Varney, you'll recognize the comparison. Varney the Vampire and Dark Shadows actually have many striking similarities. Varney the Vampire was an extremely popular Penny Dreadful, which were basically soap operas at the time. Even the meandering plots and repetitive dialogue are the same, but it's always Varney and Barnabas that keeps the audience entertained.

I'm not sure though if I would recommend Varney the Vampire to the average person, if only because it's really long. The writers were paid by the line, so you can understand the dragged out story, but that doesn't make for very palatable reading. If you're a total nerd dedicated to the niche of vampire history like me though, you'll probably get something out of it. I don't know when or if I'll finish it, but it'd be cool to talk about with someone.

[mistressofthemacabresworld]

[joe-iconis-banger-bracket]

Banger Bracket Round 1 Match 11

Rules:

Please have heard each song in the poll before voting.

Vote for the best song, not your favorite.

Propaganda welcome :)

Links to songs:

Penny Dreadfuls

The Squip Song

The Vagabond

Voices In My Head

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Dr. Morton #34 by Michael Studt Via Flickr: Dr. Morton / Heft-Reihe John Ball / Der Irre von Colchester Grusel-Kriminalroman cover: Theo Thomas Anne Erber Verlag (Sasbachwalden / Deutschland; 1977-1978) ex libris MTP www.romanhefte-info.de/d_weitere_drm.html

[rhiannonhgarrard]

Back From Hiatus + Book Announcement!

Where have I been, and why? Sorry as I am to have vanished on you all - I have an announcement to make!

Hello, wonderful people! I hope you’re all having a glorious day! First things first, I deeply apologise for the unexpected hiatus I took – I ended up needing the time to sort some things out for… well, the book I’m officially announcing to you with this blog post! Everyone, it is with great pride that I have the honour of announcing Inspector Gilboux and the Cursed Inn, due to be published in…

[bitletsanddrabbles]

Fan Fiction: What Are You Afraid Of?

I knew my brain couldn't just...concentrate on old stuff for long. Or even switch to 'new stuff we viably should be working on'. Nope, it found a new way to scratch an itch it's had for a rather long time, resulting this 30 minute short.

Happy Almost-Half-Way-To-Halloween from Thomas and Guy.

“I’m still not certain it quite gets the point across,” Guy’s voice carried from the bedroom. It carried with it the hint of a frown. “It’s rather difficult to make half of my face look younger, and the difference in hair style really isn’t that noticeable.”

“Not much we can do about that now,” Thomas replied, regarding his own reflection in the mirror. Their rooms were directly next to each other, so they could easily have conversation without raising their voices too much. If anyone asked, it was so Thomas could be there Johnny-on-the-spot if ‘Mr. Dexter’ were ill and needed help, but no one asked. Honestly Thomas didn't think anyone would believe it if they did. “I suppose we could try to make half of your face look older, if it bothers you that much, although I’d never gotten the impression from the book that Jekyll was exactly in his dotage.”

“No,” Guy agreed. “And if I’m honest, I rather thought John looked older when he was Hyde.”

“True, but we’re not supposed to be mimicking his version, so I’d say that what we have works.” Thomas frowned in his own mirror, sighed, and teased his hair a bit more. “I, on the other hand, should have gotten a wig.”

There was a brief pause, then Guy appeared in the doorway. For any other occasion, he’d have looked a fright. His suit was a patchwork affair made from pieces found at a second hand shop. Thomas had spent the better part of a fortnight painstakingly cutting it all down the middle - from the trousers to the tie - and sewing it back together. The end effect was that the actor’s right side was dressed in a conservative style, while his right looked far more dandyish. He’d worn curlers in the right side of his hair the night before and for most of the day, so there was noticeably more curl, but his hair waved enough on its own that it really wasn’t as obvious as it could have been. Still, if you were at a Halloween party with the theme of ‘how you would interpret your favorite horror story character’, it was pretty obvious. If anything, Thomas’s only complaint was that the right side didn’t look evil enough. Maybe if they splattered some fake blood on the arm…

“Why would you need a wig?” the actor asked, his tone mild and curious. “Moore Marriott barely has any hair at all.”

“Again, I’m not trying to look like Marriott,” Thomas replied, grabbing a comb and trying to stick it into his spiked hair. It stayed, but not as securely as he’d have liked. “In the old penny dreadfuls, Todd had lots of hair. It was unruly and he kept his combs in it.” Thomas adjusted the comb in his own hair. This time it worked better. “Mine isn’t quite long enough for that.”

Guy looked him over, then shrugged. “I doubt anyone will notice. After all, penny dreadfuls didn’t exactly make it over on this side of the pond. They go in more for dime novels.” Almost apologetically he added, “You’ll probably spend more time explaining your costume than I will mine.”

“Hmph.” Thomas scowled into the mirror, picking up his straight razor and tucking it into the apron he wore. “Well if anyone dares mock me for it, I’ll polish them off and we can give them to Mrs. Reed to make into a pie for tomorrow’s dinner. Now, can I borrow your comb?”

[turnupsdrawsrarely]

I can excuse murdering people and baking them into pies, but I draw the line at killing the dog.

(Sweeney Todd book doodles.)

[sohannabarberaesque]

Imagine this dime-novel potboiler redone Funtastically, with a light-hearted touch in the bargain (especially when the Three Wolves are the treasure-seekers and such involves missing bonds and other papers caught up in an airliner crash some years before):

(Incidentally, 1,000 fathoms is 6,000 feet deep at the generally-recognised rate of six feet to the fathom. That would make things a little over a mile deep underwater, doubtless requiring special diving gear for such depths like rebreathers. However, for the sake of this concept, the milieu would likely be somewhere in northern Minnesota's lakes country, and more conventional SCUBA gear would prevail. Not to mention having the Divin' Wolf Pups in on the exercise.)

@warnerbrosentertainment @joey-gatorman @archive-archives @funtasticworld @warnerbros-blog1 @indigo-corvus @warnerbrosent-blog

[queenofthedorks]

Penny Dreadful covers

Courtesy of The British Library's Flickr

"Murder, Slow Diabolical Murder" she murmured.

I'm choosing to believe this is the plot of a reverse harem.

And this is definitely the sweet tale of a thrupple just trying to make it work at the tale end of Victoria's reign.

I mean same girl, same.

[weirdlookindog]

"Look! Look! 'Tis the Captain of the Skeleton Crew!!"

"Wildire Ned visits the red man of the Heath"

"The midnight dance of the Skeleton Crew"

"The fight between Wildfire Ned and the Skeleton Crew"

"The encounter between Wildfire Ned and the Skeleton Crew"

"The bodiless legs walked slowly across the path"

"The mysterious barber"

"Wildfire Ned's attack on Skeleton Crew"

"The meeting in the wood"

"A death-bed curse"

THE SKELETON CREW; OR, WILDFIRE NED

"First serialised between 1866 and 1867 by the Newsagents’ Publishing Company and Edwin J. Brett, The Skeleton Crew; Or, Wildfire Ned was among the finest and most popular of the fierce ‘penny dreadful’ tales which flourished in the mid nineteenth century."

"Occultist A. E. Waite described this bloodthirsty tale as “suggestive of a film produced by the inmates of Bedlam” with a storyline “in a state of nightmare”.

source

[iconuk01]

Honestly, based on the covers of this dime novel magazine series, Bowery Billy HAS to be an ancestor of The Hardy Boys in terms of random bondage and imperillment whilst crimebusting as a plucky teenager.

This next one hurts to look at in terms of either extreme motion sickness, or friction in unfortunate areas!

For some reason "Extreme Wine Tasting" never took off...

I do like that the author is repeatedly stressed as being an actual "Private investigator" because these all seem such workaday stories such as any random PI might find themselves involved in.

I'll also mention this page which, after the author (Who was inspired to look for it after a post I made on scans_daily) managed to read one of the actual issues, mentions that the guy who shared whatever shelter Billy was been able to find was his ally, a boy named "Lulu" (His name was actually Louis, but Billy thought he was so pale and delicate-looking that he must be " a sissy" and gave him a girls name... apply our own subtext)

It also gives an example of how Billy talked

"Green bananers! So dis pair is layin' for Bernard Gildersleeve, der millionaire that's jest come, from Chicago to show der fellers in New York how to blow in their boodle!"

Riiight!

[seemsanawfulwaste]

The String Of Pearls is actually cracking me up so badly like. Why did they not include his funny laugh (people who have me on discord and/or WhatsApp will know I've been ranting on about this) that has so much potential 😭 Although I cannot see Johnny Depp's Sweeney have a funny laugh, I can fully imagine it in the musical, especially since they're already batshit crazy (see how George Hearn smiled as he pointed at the thing Pirelli's body was in? I love him as Sweeney Todd so much).

I need help bro

[weirdgirlvampire]

Oh characters doomed from the start we’re really in it now

[bitletsanddrabbles]

Sweeney Todd was originally a penny dreadful character.

Dick Turpin was another penny dreadful character.

The two most modern adaptions of Sweeney Todd add a character named "Judge Turpin".

...

If you tell me this is coincidence, I will not believe you.

Also, from here on out Judge Turpin's first name is Richard Dick.