Tales of Terror (1975, Ida Chittum)

Tales of Terror (1975, by Ida Chittum, illustrated by Franz Altschuler), is a collection of ghost and monster stories told and set in the mysterious backwood hills of the Ozarks.

Similar enough in design, tone, and size to be considered belonging in series with three other children's horror anthology books published by Rand McNally in the 1970s (the other titles being Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures, Horror Tales and Monster Tales), these stories definitely have their own unique flavor that sets them apart.


The beautiful, yet vaguely disturbing illustrations perfectly capture the tone of these tales of drowned children, restless ghosts, magic spells and malevolent wildlife.


The complete contents are (all stories by Ida Chittum):

By The Author (an introduction)
The House the Dovers Didn't Move Into
Vision of Roses
Uncle Ned Kunkle
The Twins
The Snipe Hunt
The Yellow Cat
Giant
The Feather Reader
The Woman Who Turned To Paper
Sod Miller's Money
Print On The Window
The Haunted Well
The Special Gift
Bring Back My Teeth
The Lovers
The Cruel Girl
The Twisting Wind
Courtland Wethers And The Pit

I'll let the illustrations below speak for themselves and won't summarize any stories here. But I will share a passage from one story, The Cruel Girl, which haunted me long after reading it for its unflinching depiction of childhood evil:

No hurt was too small for her to overlook. She mocked every word of a
first-grader who stuttered, until he quivered at the very sight of the schoolhouse door.

Any child feared showing a liking for any living thing, as Emmadean was sure to get hold of it and put an end to the creature in some unspeakable, slow way. New, helpless puppies were thrown headfirst into thorn bushes. Kittens were sunk in the creek, revived, and sunk again.

Dark stuff. As a child, that image of puppies being thrown into thorn bushes buried itself into my subconscience and stayed there long after I'd forgotten that it came from this book.

Monster Tales: Vampires, Werewolves & Things

Fans of "Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures" would do well to seek out another early 1970's children's horror anthology, "Monster Tales: Vampires, Werewolves, and Things" (1973, edited by Roger Elwood, illustrated by Franz Altschuler).


The two books are so similar in design, binding and size they could almost be mistaken for belonging in series. "Monster Tales" sets the tone with a short introduction by genre author Robert Bloch (probably best known for penning the novel "Psycho", but with a huge resume in books, television and film). We then get six stories by six different authors, all illustrated in wonderful black and white.



The complete contents are:

INTRODUCTION by Robert Bloch
WENDIGO'S CHILD by Thomas F. Monteleone
TORCHBEARER by Arthur Tofte
THE CALL OF THE GRAVE by Brian Ball
WEREWOLF BOY by Nic Andersson
PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS by Mario Martin, Jr.
and
THE VRKOLAK by Brian T. LoMedico

Like "Baleful...", the first story of "Monster Tales" is also the stand-out: "Wendigo's Child" by Thomas F. Montelone.


Set in Corona, Arizona, we follow young Marty Alvarez as he sets out to explore an Indian burial ground recently uncovered just a short bike ride's distance from home. Hoping to discover arrowheads or other artifacts, Marty instead finds buried a small mummy that appears to be part human, part bird.

His stomach churned as he uncovered the thing, and he pulled his trembling hand away--he had almost touched it. It looked vaguely like a little baby, with its curled-up legs and thin, sticklike arms. It was about two feet long and covered with dark brown skin that looked like cracked, dry leather. The head was like a human skull, but instead of teeth, it bore a sharp, curved beak like a big
bird... The eye sockets were empty--big and dark and round, but the face seemed
to be almost grinning.

Convinced he's made an important archeological find, he wraps the thing in his shirt and takes it home in the basket of his bike. Along the way, Marty stops by an Indian friend, Charlie Longhand, in hopes of learning more about his find.

After asking Charlie a vague question about Indian mummies, we learn of an old Indian legend of the "Wendigo", a fearful god that was part man, part reptile and part bird. It was said that when a child died, its buried body would sometimes transform into a child of Wendigo to protect the graves from harm.

Once home, Marty stashes the mummy in his cellar overnight. But the creature's presence has disturbed his dog, Digger, who is now howling endlessly in the backyard. Hoping to assure Digger there is nothing to be afraid of, Marty leads the dog into the dark cellar, armed only with a flashlight. But the Wendigo is missing! Or is it?

He heard a sound. And then another. Several loud, snapping, cracking sounds cut through the darkness and burned his eardrums. They were followed by an oozing, soft, gurgling, slurping noise.

Marty and Digger never do get out of that cellar, by the way. Scary stuff.

Below are the illustrations from the other stories. I'll detail these stories in a later post.

The Torchbearer:


Call of the Grave:




Werewolf Boy:




Precious Bodily Fluids:


The Vrkolak: