Tuesday 26 August 2008

Czech Dreadfuls

I mentioned once before an email group to which I belong, Cover Ups, which circulates old pulp covers. One member of that group, going by the name Ufikus, is a collector of "Czech dreadfuls". Published in the Czech part of Austria-Hungary circa 1900, these were small, 64-page books; the equivalent of penny dreadfuls in the US and the UK. They are, apparently, now extraordinarily rare. The covers are wonderfully evocative, though not always wonderfully competent. See what you think. Roght translations of the titles are above each cover.

"The Roman Wizard"


"The King of the Sea"


"The Terrible Captain"


"The Bandit Knight"


"The Dead Father's Warning"


"Woman Doctor of the Tawnee Tribe"


"Skeletons of the Cursed Mountain"


"Captured by Cannibals"

2 comments:

Levi Stahl said...

Those are amazing! I love the titles and the covers both--though I don't see cannibalism in that last cover so much as typical lion-human relations.

JRSM said...

I know--a bit of a missed opportunity, really, although not for the lion.