More Science Fiction Tales (Roger Elwood, Rod Ruth, 1974)

Here's More Science Fiction Tales (1974, edited by Roger Elwood, illustrations by Rod Ruth), a follow up to 1971's Science Fiction Tales (also edited by Elwood and illustrated by Ruth) and belonging to a series of hardcover children's horror/sci-fi anthology books published by Rand McNally in the 70s (I've previously posted on the Elwood-edited Monster Tales and Horror Tales, Ida Chittum's Tales of Terror, and perhaps the most sought after entry, Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures, also illustrated by Ruth).

The full title is More Science Fiction Tales, Crystal Creatures, Bird-Things, & Other Weirdies, seven tales of science fiction by seven authors, with an introduction by Barry N. Malzberg (full table of contents posted below).

Several of the stories here could rightfully be considered belonging to the horror genre, including my favorite, A Hole In Jennifer's Room by Brian T. LoMedico.

Fourth-grader Jennifer is awakened one evening by a glowing orb that materializes out of her bedroom wall. A creature that she describes as resembling a large chicken embryo emerges from the lit portal and begins stalking around her bedroom.

Frightened, Jennifer is about to attack the alien thing with a baseball bat when the creature suddenly introduces itself, speaking perfect English. Its name is Xander, and it is an inter-dimensional traveler that took a wrong turn and ended up in Jennifer's room in Dimension Three. At first it seems like the beginnings of a friendship between the unlikely pair is starting to emerge, until Xander decides to explore the rest of the house on his own and is never seen again.

Jennifer's parents don't believe her story and she is forced to see a doctor who prescribes pills to alleviate what they presume is a hallucinatory episode.

But the pills don't help, as Jennifer is continually tormented by the sounds of Xander's clicking beak, and glimpses of movement caught in her peripheral vision. Xander, as it turns out, never really did leave Jennifer, as the final chilling paragraph reveals:

And sometimes, in the deep darkened corners of her mind, Jennifer heard a whispering voice, answering her as if from a great distance. It always said the same thing. "I'm right here, Jennifer. And remember, you did it all to yourself.... You should have hit me with that baseball bat."

...

In The Bend of Time (William Danton), a boy returning to a recolonized Earth in the year 4010 is able to communicate across time with another boy his age from a prior millenium, when the world was ruled by robots called Ogolots.

In Hide and Seek (Mario Martin Jr.), a boy looking for a fallen meteor encounters a friendly crashed alien who helps him defend the Earth from some not-so-friendly crab-like invaders.

The Music of Minox (Howard Goldsmith) finds an interplanetary mining camp attacked by aliens monsters resembling crystalline porcupines that emit harp-like sounds.

In The Thing From Ennis Rock (Thomas F. Monteleone), a boy brings home a large egg found in the rubble following an earthquake and soon hatches a baby pteranodon. But mama pteranodon isn't giving up on her baby that easily. This story has a surprisingly dark ending.

A Thirst For Blood (Arthur Tofte), a story of vampires and interplanetary adventure set in the year 2040, opens with a boy being forced to carry out the grim ritual of decapitating the corpse of his father to cancel a vampiric curse.

Finally, a girl is temporarily transformed into a wolf by a mad scientist in Werewolf Girl (Nic Andersson).

The Whistle (Strangely Enough)

Here's an unnerving tale culled from the pages of the Scholastic Book Club's collection of "chilling stories" and "offbeat yarns", Strangely Enough (C.B. Colby, 1959).

In The Whistle, a South Carolina woman living on a remote farm with her dog is repeatedly startled by a strange, unnatural whistling sound emitting from somewhere in the neighboring woods. The  whistle seems to be coming closer every time she hears it, and the high-pitch of the sound disturbs her pet terrier.

One evening, the noise returns and is so loud and frightening she bolts the front door, leaving her dog barking hysterically on the front porch, until suddenly... silence. The next morning she inspects the scene only to find her dog is missing, the porch splattered with blood.

What was the source of the whistle? What happened to the dog?

"Nobody ever found out."

Read the complete text of the story above. While "The Whistle" leaves it a mystery, I have my own theory. The dog could very well have been the victim of a shadmock.

What is shadmock? To explain, I'll first need to brief you on the confusing geneology of monsters. Luckily there's a visual aid for that.

You see, the three primary monsters at the top of the family tree are the vampire, the werewolf and the ghoul. When a vampire and werewolf breed, the offspring is called a werevamp. A werewolf and ghoul produce a weregoo, while a vampire and ghoul produce a vamgoo.

A weregoo and werevamp make a shaddie, weregoo and vamgoo a maddie, and werevamp and vamgoo, a raddie. Now any combination of shaddies, maddies and raddies results in a mock (a polite term for mongrel).

And should a mock mate with any of the other hybrids... they produce a shadmock, lowest on the monster geneological hierarchy.

Shadmocks do not bite or tear at their victims... they only WHISTLE. But their whistle is very deadly. There was one particular shadmock who lived at a remote English castle, so remote that his only friends were the pigeons.

One morning he noticed a stray cat stalking his feathered friends...

...and before he could do anything about it, the cat had a mouthful of pigeon.

The shadmock let loose the eerie, inhuman whistle for which his race is known...

...and in short order, the cat turned into, well... this.

You don't even want to know what happened to the woman he was wooing after she tried to run out on him and he had to whistle for her to come back home.

The story of the shadmock comes from the 1980 cult classic The Monster Club (here's a rendering of the unfortunate cat incident as it appeared in the comic book adaptation of the story)

The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales (1970, Scholastic Book Services)

Here's another Scholastic Book Services entry, The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales (1970, edited by Gladys Schwarcz and Vic Crume, illustrations by Gerry Contreras). This is a collection of spooky poems and short stories from various authors, including a reappearance of Maria Leach's telling of The Cradle That Rocked By Itself.

Some of these stories were performed for an accompanying album (called, appropriately, Selections From the Haunted House and Other Poems and Tales).

Some of the more notable entries include the poems The Haunted House (Vic Crume), A Skeleton Once in Khartoum (author unknown), Dust (Sydney King Russell), The Bat (Theodore Roethke), and short stories The Cradle That Rocked By Itself (Maria Leach)and The Velvet Ribbon (Ann McGovern). Below is a sample of illustrations from the book, some with accompanying audio from the record (hat tip and thanks to Scar Stuff).

THE CRADLE THAT ROCKED BY ITSELF (Maria Leach)

DUST (Sydney King Russell)

THE HAUNTED HOUSE (Vic Crume)

A SKELETON ONCE IN KHARTOUM (Author Unknown)

THE GHOST CATCHER (A tale from India retold by E.B. Chance)

OLD CORNISH LITANY (Author Unknown)

THE OLD WIFE AND THE GHOST (James Reeves)

SPOOKS (Nathalia Crane)

THE BAT (Theodore Roethke)

THE VELVET RIBBON (Ann McGovern)

Who wants to play The Death Game™ ?

It's The Death Game™, the exciting family game that transports you back to ancient Rome for a thrilling duel of sorcery and superstition between father and son!

OBJECTIVE
The Death Game pits one child player (called "Caligula") against one father player (called "Germanicus") in a battle of magic charms and witchery. Caligula must prove his worthiness on his path to divine Godhood by frightening Germanicus to death. He does this by hiding various magical artifacts for Germanicus to find. The more artifacts Germanicus uncovers, the weaker he becomes and the closer Caligula comes to winning Godhood!

DURATION
One game typically lasts several weeks.

SET UP
Before play begins, check to make sure you have all the game parts.

You should have:

• 1 naked, decaying corpse of an infant, its belly painted red, with horns tied to its forehead;

• 1 corpse of a cat with rudimentary wings growing from its back;

• 1 decapitated head with a child's severed hand in its mouth;

• 1 skull of an ass (write Dad's name on it before the game begins);

• 1 set of bloody cock feathers (not pictured);
• 1 Green Jasper Charm of Hecate.

GAMEPLAY
Germanicus begins the game in bed. Caligula must try to hide as many cursed artifacts as he can in various places around the house (for example, Caligula might hide the dead infant under a loose floor tile, or place the bloody cock feathers among the bed cushions.)

Being a very superstitious person, Germanicus must try to avoid discovering these items as he moves around the board, lest they frighten him to death. Every item that Germanicus accidentally uncovers costs him one life point. When all life points are expended, Germanicus dies and Caligula wins!

The only defense Germanicus has against the cursed artifacts is the Green Jasper Charm of Hecate, which negates their power. However, during a sleeping round, Caligula has a chance to steal the charm, leaving Germanicus defenseless.

---

Okay... as much fun as this seems, there isn't really a board game. You see, The Death Game is a game played out in real life by son Caligula against father Germanicus, one of several horrific vignettes depicted in the 1970s BBC television drama I, Claudius.

Even though this was essentially a soap opera for grown ups, with lots of talking heads going on about interpersonal and political intrigue within the Roman Empire, it caught my attention as a youngster right off the bat with its eerie musical theme (by composer Wilfred Josephs) and a creepy opening sequence in which a snake slithers across the titles... uh, tiles. Both, actually.

Shot on videotape, lending it a surreal tone that I've always been drawn to (see also 70s-era Dr. Who, Land of the Lost, and Sapphire and Steel), I, Claudius depicts the decadence of Caligula in all its horror (fairly graphic for a television series of that era!)

The Death Game is among Caligula's earliest exploits, in which he enlists a grab-bag of disgusting ingredients with supernatural implications to drive his sickly and superstitious father Germanicus to an early grave.

In a later episode, an adult Caligula "cures" the persistent cough of a palace child by ordering his beheading...

I, Claudius has been released to DVD in a few different releases, including the most recent 35th Anniversary Edition.