IN my day kids didn't go back to school until after Labor Day. Now they're starting the new school year in mid-August. Oh the horror! Even more so because most of America is sweltering under an oppressive heat dome, the worst in recorded history. Imagine being stuck in a classroom all day with the temperature inside exceeding 90 degrees. Oh the horror, indeed!
Of course, if the kids want some relief from the heat they can always crowd into their principal's office: it's always air-conditioned.
School, in addition to being an ordeal at times, is supposed to instill a love for literature and reading into its students, but I for one didn't need much of a push there. My home was already filled to the rafters with books, magazines and comics, and my mom regularly took us to the public library and mall bookstores. This may sound arrogant but I had stopped reading teen novels almost before I became a teen. By the age of fourteen I had already moved on to the likes of Wells, Verne, Tolkien, Silverberg, Peake, Poe, Lovecraft, Lindsay, Howard, Eddison, Dunsany, Burroughs, Doyle, Christie, Biggers... well, you get the point.
It wasn't like I was any brighter or maturer than other kids my age, it was simply because I loved to read and escape into books and cover art more than they did, and I let those things transport my mind everywhere, just as long as it was anywhere but dull Denver. The more advanced and imaginative a novel was the better it was to me. And cover art meant everything! A funny thing happened though. Now I like to read the
occasional young-adult novel, or middle-grade book, because it allows me to experience what I missed out on. Which, granted, in most cases isn't much, but
nevertheless I've discovered that many YA novels are surprisingly well written, entertaining and even
ambitious in scope. Such was the recent situation with the 1980s Private School paperback series by Steven Charles.
Private School 1, Nightmare Session was published by Archway, the teen fiction division of Pocket Books, in October, 1986. The cover art was produced by G. D. Lang.
'WHEN CLASSES END, THE HORROR BEGINS... Posh Thaler Academy, nestled
in the leafy Connecticut countryside, is one of New England's most
exclusive boarding schools. for scholarship student Jennifer Field, it's
a dream come true to be at Thaler. Until the dream turns into a
nightmare... Strange shadows flickering across the moonlit campus... a
mysterious old building in the woods with a secret lab... a Dean of
students whose startling eyes seem to convey unspoken evil. Jennifer is
tempted to blame her imagination for her fears. Then she and her
boyfriend, Lee, stumble across the body of a Thaler classmate in the
woods. A body twisted in agony... from an encounter with something that
only looks human...
JUST before reading Nightmare Session, volume one of the six volume Private School series, I had knocked off Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #58 and Hardy Boys Casefiles #11, so my expectations for the Nightmare Session were only slightly higher than that of those two, and neither were worth recommending beyond that of any other Drew and Hardy book (although an argument could be made for #58 because Nancy encounters an actual flying saucer--whoa!). Still, I knew Nightmare Session had at least the assumption of scary entertainment, if only for the creature on the cover and the captivating blurb on the back.
But after several pages I knew something was vastly different about this book. Sure the prose was stripped down to some degree like it is in all YA books, but it was also smooth and elegant and surprisingly subtle in its manipulation. It felt almost Bradburyesque. I hadn't expected that. Not at all. And the main teenage character, Jennifer Field, was becoming too human in a way that Nancy, Frank and Joe could never account for. I was also struck by the sad realization that she was lonely, even while surrounded by friends and classmates. Nightmare Session was becoming an interesting story too, with a slow, quiet buildup of atmosphere and menace, and after the screeching tires of the Hardy Boys, a welcome relief.
The more I read the more I became convinced that this author was someone I knew from past reading. But who exactly?
I quickly dug around to see if Steven Charles had written anything else. Well no, he hadn't, but some additional digging uncovered the bare truth: Steven Charles was a pseudonym of Charles L. Grant. That's right, the Charles L. Grant, who in the 1970's and 80's was practically a household name among horror fiction fans, and someone Stephen King once praised as being "one of the premier horror writers of his or any generation." And yes, I had read Grant back in the day, lots of Grant in fact, including several of his more than 90 short stories, a dozen of his more than 30 horror novels, two of his 7 historical romances, and I owned, in addition to a stack of his novels and collections, the entire paperback anthology series Shadows that he edited, which ran to 11 volumes. It's no wonder I recognized his writing style and proclivities. Take for example this passage from Chapter Three:
Jennifer dried herself off as best she could, then wrapped her towel around her shoulders and padded back to her room. A few girls still stood in the hall talking, giggling as she passed, cringing in mock fear when she scowled and muttered vengeance.
And when she was alone, her door closed, the storm rumbling gently over the hills, she felt a stinging in her eyes and brushed at it angrily. This was no time to cry, but she couldn't help it---this was the first time at Thaler that she felt accepted. The shower hadn't been a punishment, but a game; and the looks on their faces afterward were ones of promise, not malice.
It was a wonderful, almost giddy feeling, and after getting ready for bed she stood at the window, grinning to herself and paying no attention to the shadows outside, shadows that moved even when the wind wasn't blowing.
Grant was an undeniable master at delivering quiet horror and at
exposing the psychological underpinnings of his characters, and I say was
because he died of a heart attack in 2006. Sadly, he was only 64 years
old. I suspect cigarettes may have been a contributing factor to his
death because towards the end he also suffered from COPD (I have
brothers who still smoke and I fear for them too).
David Morrell, one of my favorite suspense writers, came up with this great quote about Grant: "Stephen King and Peter Straub are like the luxury liners of the horror field. They’re
always visible on the horizon when you look out over these deep, dark
waters. But Charlie Grant---he’s the unseen power, like the great white
shark, just below the surface."
As for the ending to volume 1, Nightmare Session, well it went exactly as I
anticipated, but that doesn't mean it was a letdown, because it wasn't, not really.
Grant merely used an age old device that would help connect and overlap each volume logically. As an example, the X-Files used the same device to conclude every
episode they filmed, otherwise Mulder and Scully would be out on a worldwide tour promoting an alien corpse instead of investigating the next unexplained phenomena.
'GREEN EYES IN A WOLF'S FACE... That's the creepy nightmare Jennifer keeps having---ever since that terrible night when she and her boyfriend, Lee, stumbled upon Thaler Academy's terrifying secret... and almost died because of it. But now the evil has been purged from the select Connecticut boarding school. Or has it? What are the strange animal-like creatures moving across the campus at night? What happened to the former Dean at Thaler---and why did he disappear so suddenly? Why is her best friend Monica acting so weirdly. Soon she and Lee realize they are up against something even more horrible than they ever imagined... a dark, alien terror that hungers to destroy them...'
'WHERE FEAR LURKS---HORROR MAKES ITS HOME... They were out there. Watching. Waiting. In the looming shadows around Thaler Academy, the wolf-like creatures were hiding their terrible secret from the world. A student was dead, a teacher was missing... and Jennifer Field was terrified. She and her friends were the only ones who knew the awful truth. For only miles away from the school, beyond the murky waters of a legendary lake called Witch's Eye, the alien horror had set up its unearthly home---killing trees and plants, and perhaps, anyone who knew too much.'
'TRAPPED LIKE A FLY IN A WEB OF MOUNTING TERROR. The Aliens were taking over. At first, Jennifer thought the horrible menace was confined to posh Thaler Academy. But now, she and her friends were beginning to realize that no one could be trusted. Not even the police. The terror was growing. The hideous creatures that roamed the school grounds assumed human forms. And worse yet, the unearthly beasts knew about Jennifer---and her plan to expose them. Could she stop the escalating nightmare before the aliens found the key to Earth's ultimate destruction?'
'JENNIFER IS FIGHTING A BATTLE FOR THE SURVIVAL OF THE PLANET. The eerie night cloaks Thaler Academy in silent shadows. Jennifer and her friends know that something is out there. It is infinitely dangerous and it comes from a distant world, intending to destroy all that lives on the planet. Two of Jennifer's friends have been kidnapped---dragged down into the alien laboratories on the edge of the lake known as the Witch's Eye. And now, Jennifer realizes there is only one way to stop the relentless terror of the hideous wolf-like creatures. Enter their lair and destroy them... or die...'
Private School 6, The Last Alien was published by Archway (Pocket) in February, 1987. The cover art for this final volume in the series was produced by Ken Barr (1933-2016), a Scottish artist who produced scores of outstanding magazine and paperback covers during the last quarter of the 20th century. Why Archway switched to Barr is not known, but it probably has more to do with Lang's schedule that anything else. Barr was a pro's pro and stepped in nicely, using what looks to be the same female model as Lang (Jennifer is dressed funny because she's wearing a wolf costume for a Halloween dance at Thaler Academy).
'THE FINAL BATTLE. The Aliens have been defeated. The nightmare is
over. Or so Jennifer thinks. Lurking in the shadows of Thaler Academy,
the last surviving creature plots its vengeance in blood. One by one,
her friends are stalked by the wolf-like beast. And one by one, they are
rendered helpless. Now, Jennifer is alone. Can she put an end to the
alien terror?'
Of minor interest is that Barr's first paperback cover, The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny (Avon, 1974), seen below, and one of my favorite illustrations in all of fantasy, nearly coincided with the beginning of Lang's career. Perhaps as newbie's in the business the two men became friends, hence the easy tapping of Barr for #6.
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| KEN BARR'S THE GUNS OF AVALON. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE |
AS ONE might expect for such a horror luminary, there is quite a bit of pertinent information about Charles L. Grant online (Ken Barr too for that matter), including bibliographies, tributes and reminiscences from fans and colleagues, but very little about artist G. D. Lang and his time as a cover illustrator. The Private School series credits the cover art to Gary Lang c/o
Jerry Leff Associates, and all of the cover art except of course for #6 is signed G. D. Lang.
The books themselves were produced by Byron Preiss Visual Publications,
Inc., and sold to Pocket Books, but that's another interesting story for
another day. I know Lang began producing paperback covers in the 1970's but by 1990 he seemed to have vanished from the scene. Why? What did he do after that? An initial couple of searches came up empty, so I carefully reworded my inquiry... and voila, there he was under the name G. Davis Lang.
G. Davis Lang is actually Gary Davis Lang, who signed most of his cover
art as G. D. Lang. Since 1990 he has become an award winning painter of
trains, people and landscapes. His website is The
Railroad Art of G. Davis Lang, and it can be accessed here. He sells prints of his artwork too and accepts commissions.
The Lang covers I'm featuring below are all clearly signed or have been credited by others. When I was scouting around for more Lang's I found that it can be difficult to identify one realist painter over another, especially if their artwork is unsigned, or as I suspect with Lang, a signature isn't always visible due to the vagaries of placement. And when your source material is a puny 4 x 7 inch paperback cover, well, it makes it even tougher. But that being said, there was a certain look, a certain tone, a certain value that I see in Lang's cover art that has helped me to identify at least some of it. Or so I believe. However, for this posting I'm going to stick with the known over the unknown.
'THE GOLDEN GIRLS... Julie---so proper, so lovely, so pliant---so compulsively thrusting herself into the arms of Forrest, the football hero, and Steinberg, the psychology professor. Janine---Julie's roommate, who was working her way through college as the campus prostitute. This is the story of two women, one a fragile Southern beauty born to the best of everything; the other a tough ecstasy machine who had to fight for everything she got---their loves, their friendship, and the tragedy that stalked and claimed one of them.'
The House at Parson's Landing (also published as Ellena) by Candace Connell was published in paperback by Zebra in 1977, and it contains 20 illustrations, which I'm assuming were produced by Lang, to go along with his credited cover art. I'm also going to assume that Candace Connell is a pseudonym because there's absolutely no information about this author other than the fact that they penned one other novel, Dark Legacy (Dell, ca. 1980, also published as The Red Turrets of Orne).
'A STATELY OLD HOUSE. Constructed years and years before out of sturdy timbers and fieldstone, Parson's Landing looked like it would withstand any storm---except the terrible torment that raged within its walls. For the house held many dread secrets... secrets that threatened to burst through the walls and destroy more than its wood and brick, but the lives of the very people it sheltered. Suicide... jealousy... murder... insanity... the House at Parson's Landing had experienced them all---and worse. It was a house divided, and a house divided cannot stand. And into this taut atmosphere of brother against brother, of insane old ladies and feeble children, came Ellena. Fair Ellena, looking for rest and peace and solace---and finding herself MARKED FOR DEATH.'
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'THE LADY IN THE TAPESTRY. Alice MacDonneaugh, visiting Cullcraig Castle, her family's ancestral home in the Scottish moors to recover from the shock of the fire that claimed her parents' lives, fears she is losing her mind. For everywhere she goes, she is beset by visions and voices... beckoning... warning... threatening... luring... Voices out of time, that call from musty graves and sing softly to the music of flutes and pipes... And visions of Morag---the lady in the tapestry---whom everyone says is Alice's look-alike, though she has been dead for over 300 years. Morag, the witch; Morag, once Mistress of Cullcraig; Morag, whose magnificent ruby gem holds the secrets of the past and the salvation of the future; Morag, whose hand reaches out from the grave and the tapestry, trying to defy time and space and pull Alice back through the centuries, back past the grave, so she alone might learn the secret of the MacDonneaugh clan!'
'THE HEART OF A WITCH, SNATCHED FROM THE BURNING, WORN BY ANOTHER TO DOUBLE HER EVIL POWER. Jeanne Lemoyne, beautiful, frail heiress, returns to her birthplace, the Mason Sol, to flee the shadows of the dark fever haunting her. There she suffers hallucinations so vivid that she is convinced of their reality---it is as though someone touched a flaming brand to her tender skin. And there she discovers her tortuous heritage---that the women of the Lemoyne family retain the hated memory of the evil days when they were burned as witches in medieval France... and that she herself may be maliciously purposeful though the unwitting cause of the murders of Maison Sol!'
'In the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge the Presidential motorcade is waylaid... This is the beginning of the most spectacular kidnapping in history. The President of the Unites States and two Arab leaders are taken hostage in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge---and the bridge is wired to explode! A half billion dollars' ransom is what master criminal Peter Branson and his handpicked gang of killers are asking. It appears to be a foolproof scheme. Except for one thing. Agent Paul Revson, who has mysteriously become a hostage. Quietly, stealthily, Paul begins to unleash his counterplot---as daring and dangerous as Branson's own...'
'Anna stirred up passions and politics from the time she arrived on Capitol Hill. Old Senator Seab Cooley took the measure of the tiny, blue-eyed reporter and predicted, "Mark my words, that little lady is going to own this town." Thirty years later Anna almost does---and the story of her rise over friends and enemies, lovers and loved ones to the top of the Washington heap makes ANNA HASTINGS Drury's most convincing Washington novel since ADVICE AND CONSENT.'
'TANTALIZINGLY BEAUTIFUL, TOUGH AND RUTHLESS... Arabella Sperling was determined to succeed at the glittering and debauched court of Charles II. Though barely a woman, she was already aware of her power of men. Against the backdrop of 17th-century London, a city grasping at greatness, where nobles and thieves struggled for mastery, Arabella played out her dream of adventure, her quest of power and passion. But it was the father of her son who really touched greatness. He was the only man Arabella truly loved. And now it was too late...'
'THE "WHISPERING SHADOWS" CALLED HER... TOLD HER... INSISTED THAT SHE KILL! As a curly-topped infant, Sarah was loved and cherished---even though her birth almost killed her mother... As a winsome five-year-old with shiny blue eyes, she was the perfect child---except for her terrifyingly destructive tantrums.... Creeping panic soon enveloped her parents and neighbors... the gruesome deaths... the strange painting... Sarah befriended the whispering shadows... 150 years of patient evil had waited for Sarah, and now she must listen to the darkness... she must obey... she must seduce... she must kill.'
Richie Tankersley Cusick may sound like a man's name, and the YA genre Cusick wrote for is probably fielded mostly by men (though I don't really know if that's true or not), but Cusick is a woman, born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1952. Evil on the Bayou was her first novel, one of 30 that she's published since leaving her first job after college as a writer for Hallmark Cards. She also penned a couple of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel TV series novelizations.
'What is the secret the bayou holds? Eternal life... or hideous death? Meg Daton has been uneasy since the first moment she arrived in the back bayou country. Being volunteer nurse to the shriveled husk of a dying woman she hardly knows is bad enough. But the house, where strange, inexplicable things keep happening, is worse. And the people! Though Esther seems good-hearted, Wes, her handsome, tight-lipped son, is frightening. Most menacing of all is debonair Doctor La Vane, who treats Aunt Belle behind a locked door. Wes and Doc blame each other for the mysterious death of Wes's sister Anna---a mystery that becomes starkly real to meg when she begins to realize that Aunt Belle's unexpected "recovery" may cost her her life.'
'Freedom meant everything to Catherine James. And freedom meant money. When her father died and it looked as if Amalgamated Oil would fall into the hands of her inept younger brother, she had to act. Cato Cassidy, her father's partner, had to be lured out of early retirement and brought back into the boardroom just long enough to make some crucial decisions. The rugged loner had retreated to his Colorado mountain hideaway. He'd sworn off business as adamantly as he'd sworn off women. Catherine was determined to beat him at his own game. And since Cato's game was fishing, she'd have to reel him in slow and easy. Then suddenly she realized that freedom was no longer her top priority, but whether she could catch the elusive man she'd fallen for hook, line, and singer!'
