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Bloch, Robert. “The Eyes of the Mummy.” Weird Tales, April 1938, pp. 424-434. https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v30n05_1937-11_ATLPM-Urf/page/n65/mode/2up Surprisingly enough, the protagonist from “The Secret of Sebek” returns in this story which was published only five months later. Remember that he is an Egyptologist who travels to New Orleans to do some writing and is caught up in Mardi Gras. He meets a few strangers who turn out to be acolytes of the Egyptian god, Sebek, who have a fresh mummy that they want the protagonist to tell them about. Curses being what they are, Sebek arrives to exact vengeance on those who defiled his burial place. Despite the evidence of his eyes and hands, which touched the reptilian snout of the crocodile go, he still does not completely believe in the curse or anything else supernatural. He speculates early in “The Eyes of the Mummy” about how the realistic crocodile mask might have been constructed, how the jaws might have been built to open and close as he saw that they did. He blames alcohol from clouding his senses and confusing his judgment. When one of the survivors comes to him soon thereafter with an offer to travel to Egypt for an easy in and out plunder of ancient riches, the protagonist cannot say no. They arrive with no fanfare and venture out into the desert where they find the crypt entrance exactly as predicted.
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Bloch, Robert. “Fane of the Black Pharaoh.” Weird Tales, December 1937, pp. 665-676. https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v30n05_1937-11_ATLPM-Urf/page/n65/mode/2up Captain Carteret is an Egyptologist in Cairo who is approached by a strange man who offers him the chance to explore the heretofore undiscovered crypt of Nephren-Ka, an ancient sorcerer king devoted to Nyarlathotep. Even though he senses he is being manipulated and possibly even coerced, Carteret cannot resist the offer. He explains all he knows to the mysterious stranger who then escorts him across Cairo and into the catacombs beneath the city. Nephren-Ka was gifted with prophecy, and he spent his final years inscribing onto the walls of his temple a history of Egypt and the world for all time to come. Lest they be rendered insane, the high priest of the temple reveals only one day at a time to followers. The rest—the future of humanity—is concealed behind a heavy curtain. As they make their way through this long tunnel, Carteret resists looking at the walls. He knows that if the account of the prophecy were true, then all of the horrific lore associated with it must also be true. Finally, his will breaks, and he studies the wall. All of history is revealed, all the work of a single hand, a single artist. Just before the concealing curtain, he seems an image of himself escorted by the stranger—the high priest of Nephren-Ka—into the secret great hall. The priest tells him that midnight has arrived, and it is now time to reveal the events of the new day. The image revealed himself being killed by the priest of Nephren-Ka exactly at the moment when the fatal knife plunged into this back.
Bloch, Robert. “The Secret of Sebek.” Weird Tales, November 1937, pp. 576-587.
https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v30n05_1937-11_ATLPM-Urf/page/n65/mode/2up This story is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. An outsider, a writer, spends Mardi Gras feeling alienated and alone amongst the celebrating crowds in New Orleans. While research ancient Egypt for a writing project, he decides to get drunk so he can feel a bit of the revelry that others seem to be enjoying. He meets a man dressed as an ancient Egyptian priest who invites him to a party. There are costumed attendees who do not impress him, but he is invited into the inner circle of true believers and is asked his opinion on some artifacts that they reveal to him. The relics all concern Sebek, an ancient god of fertility who has the body of a man and the head of a crocodile. The man, still drink from his earlier excesses, sees someone in the assembly dressed as this god, but the person disappears from view. The inner circle reveals the mummy of a priest of Sebek and also the warning they found in the burial chamber promising death to anyone who defiles the grave. Soon the man dressed as the priest of Sebek is attacked and devoured by the partygoer with the crocodile head. The incident so unnerved him that he fled the party and New Orleans without contacting the police or seeking any further information. in the story’s final moment, he relates that when he tried to intervene in the murder, he felt not a costume, not a crocodile mask, but the actual, living reptile flesh of the incarnated god. 7/2/2026 0 Comments “What Every Young Ghoul Should Know” (Amateur Correspondent, September-October 1937)Bloch, Robert. “What Every Young Ghoul Should Know.” Amateur Correspondent, September-October 1937, pp. 12-14. https://fanac.org/fanzines/Amateur_Correspondent/Amateur%20Correspondent%202%20Stickney,%20Corwin%20F.1937-09%20US.pdf
This is a piece of comedy by Bloch that chronicles the mysterious disappearance of fantasy-magazine editors, many of them, such as “Farnsworth Wrong,” easily connected to their real-world origin (in this case, Farnsworth Wright). Bloch’s fictitious magazine titles alone are worth the price (ten cents) of the magazine: Flabby Stories, Monstrous Yarns, Asinine Tales, Worried Tales, Awful, Putrid, and Pleurisy. After having his work rejected by several editors, the antagonist and narrator builds a rocket, kidnaps all of the editors, and sends them to the moon. Soon thereafter, he contacts them by radio expecting them to beg for forgiveness. Instead, they tell the narrator that they have found the people of the moon to be avid readers, and they have already established a new magazine on the moon for them. The narrator is heartbroken: I sat aghast. I'm always a little aghast after meals. A fine revenge this turned out to be! I send them to the moon, and they immediately start science-fiction magazines up there! It just ghost to show how uncooperative some people will be” (14). Bloch, Robert. “The Creeper in the Crypt.” Weird Tales, July, 1937, pp. 104-111.
https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v29n04_1937-04_sas/page/n57/mode/2up This story opens with a walk through Lovecraft’s city of Arkham, although Bloch adds families, streets, and other details not present in Lovecraft’s writing. The narrator is a descendent of Sir Ambrose Abbott, one of the founders of Arkham. This fact makes him an appealing to a kidnapper such as Joe Regetti, who knocks him cold and ties him up in the basement of an abandoned old house. As he is regaining consciousness, the narrator learns about the ragtag group of thugs who have come to town for ransom money. Regetti is joined by Slim, Greek, and the Polack in the criminal scheme. Polack warns Regetti about the house and the fate of the last gang that holed up there, that there was something terrible behind the massive steel door behind the coal pile. He reports that they found only the leg of the lookout in the basement and nothing else. Regetti scoffs at the warning and vows to stand watch over the narrator overnight. Regetti ties the narrator to a chair in the next room and proceeds to fall asleep playing solitaire. The narrator hears the heavy steel door open and the unmistakable sounds of claws clicking across the concrete floor. Regetti has only a moment to scream before he is torn to ribbons by the creature. The narrator manages to free himself and waits until he hears the steel door close once again. He escapes and calls the police vowing to never return to Arkham again after the carnage he witnessed. Bloch, Robert, and Henry Kuttner. “The Black Kiss.” Weird Tales, June 1937, pp. 978-690.
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV29N06193706/page/678/mode/2up The story opens with a young artist named Graham Dean visiting a doctor’s office for advice on the disturbing dreams he has been having. He has moved into his family’s house perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean in California. The doctor is of very little help, hustling to a diagnosis and ignoring most of what Dean has to say about the “planned” nature of his dreams, how they seem to him to be malign and filled with meaning. The doctor does little more than pat him on the head and send him out with a prescription. Dean goes home thinking about the family lore, how one of his ancestors seemed to have an unhealthy and even occult relationship with the sea. He finds a telegram from a distant uncle, an expert in occult lore, warning him to vacate the house immediately and visit a different doctor. Dean ignores the warning and falls asleep in his chair. He dreams of nightmarish sea creatures that lure him out into the depths. The dream shifts to a cave where he meets a strange woman who kisses him until her image dissolves into one of the hideous sea creatures. Bloch, Robert. “The Mannikin.” Weird Tales, April 1937, pp. 441-452.
https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v29n04_1937-04_sas/page/n57/mode/2up The unnamed narrator, on a break between semesters at then university where he teaches, vacations in Bridgetown, which is known for its natural beauty and excellent fishing. He bumps into an old familiar from his own college days, Simon Maglore, a friend whom he has not seen in years. Maglore seems friendly enough, but he has aged poorly. The physical deformity on his back has grown immensely, and his face reflects accumulated stress. The narrator is worried for his friend and decides to visit him. At the door, Maglore angrily shouts at him to leave, his whole bearing agitated and alarming. The narrator asks around town about him, and most people there hold a very low opinion of Maglore, saying he and his family are involved in all manner of occult activities. Bloch, Robert [Nathan Hindin]. “Fangs of Vengeance.” Weird Tales, April 1937, pp. 470-481.
https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV28N04193611/page/n65/mode/2up The story is set during the winter quarters of a circus. During the seasonal break, managers of circuses find new acts for the coming season, and fine-tune the offering so that once the season begins, the show will be running smoothly. Animal trainers have gone somewhat out of fashion, and so the Stellar Brothers Circus was happy to land Captain Zaroff, a big cat trainer, as a featured act. General Zaroff had uncanny mastery over the leopards in his charge. He controlled them without the aid of a chair or a gun. They seemed to fear him and his whip desperately. The narrator, one of the managers of the circus, began to grow suspicious. Strange things began to happen. A troupe of African show people arrived and immediately quit the show once they learned of General Zaroff’s methods. Bloch, Robert. “The Brood of Bubastis.” Weird Tales, March, 1937, pp. 274-284. https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV29N03193703/page/n19/mode/2up
The story opens with the unnamed narrator ruing his decision to visit his old college friend, Malcolm Kent, at his friend’s ancestral estate in Cornwall, England. He presents his regrets about the visit as a suicide note that explains the haunting events that led to the decision to end his life. It all started off well enough. Kent was the same as he ever was, except that his library of occult books had grown during the intervening years. As the night deepens, Kent reveals that he has made some amazing discoveries that he will share with the narrator in the morning. They embark on a sunrise hike, and Kent tells of his discovery of ancient Egyptian explorers who had visited Cornwall millennia ago. As they clamber down a cliffside, Kent shows the narrator an opening in the rock. Inside, he says, is unmistakable evidence of the Egyptian presence. Indeed, they find hieroglyphics and other evidence of ancient occupation. Bloch, Robert. “Mother of Serpents.” Weird Tales, December 1936, pp. 563-569. https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV28N05193612/page/562/mode/2up
I want to include an accurate summary of this story, but it all just blurred for me with the layers of “octaroons” and the main character’s disdain for anything “savage “ or “dark” makes me want to just put this story down and move onto other, less “of its time” stories. The narrator here presents himself as a researcher and scholar. I am a huge fan of zombie movies, but the story he tells of the President of Haiti trying to rein in the forces of voodoo in the rural areas of his country just does not work at all. On the other hand, this story has been reprinted and translated many times, so what do I know? |
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