Your First Experience with Weird Fiction?

[miguel1984]

This is a classic Spanish anthology that also got me hooked on weird fiction: Los Mitos de Cthulhu (The Cthulhu Mythos, Alianza Editorial, 1969).

[Liam Barden]

Quote Originally Posted by James Sucellus

I haven't thought about Paul Jennings since I was 11! I remember Ice Maiden, Souperman, Wunderpants and a few others. His TV show Round the Twist was a hit among the kids on the playground in 90s Britain. Reading up on Wikipedia, these ancient memories are flooding back. I remember a teacher reading my class the story Pink Bow Tie when I was around 9.

Yes, I'm stoked you remember James! Hahaha. Lighthouse Blues, Clear as Mud, Wake Up to Yourself . . . so many ghost stories.

I think I could still enjoy Paul Jennings . . . If only my mum didn't gift all my childhood books to some other dribbling, asshole stuffed with fingers brat.

[Spiral]

Quote Originally Posted by miguel1984

This is a classic Spanish anthology that also got me hooked on weird fiction: Los Mitos de Cthulhu (The Cthulhu Mythos, Alianza Editorial, 1969).

I always wanted to have that one but I never could find it (judging from a digital version it's a very nice anthology)

[Fenris Technique]

I wandered into the weird through Tolkein, oddly enough. When I was a kid there wasn't much in the way of Fantasy literature (Though a bunch of really bad Dungeons and Dragons books tried to fill the gap). After reading the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings I was looking for anything with wizards, warriors and occult magic.

Enter Fritz Leiber, and his Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books. One of the books had an anecdote about Fritz Leiber and HP Lovecraft which led me further down the path toward the classical weird.

[hopfrog]

It came not from reading but via vinyl. The bloke who lived across the street was a dealer or some such thing for a record distribution firm, and he had a huge collection of records. He had a speaker system outside his house, and every Halloween he would play spooky sound effects records, and I really loved it. He knew I was a kid in love with monsters, so one day he gave me a couple of records. One was some stories by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Price or Rathbone; and the other was a recording of Roddy McDowall reading "The Hound"--and THAT I found utterly transporting!

[Justin Isis]

Quote Originally Posted by Liam Barden

Quote Originally Posted by James Sucellus I haven't thought about Paul Jennings since I was 11! I remember Ice Maiden, Souperman, Wunderpants and a few others. His TV show Round the Twist was a hit among the kids on the playground in 90s Britain. Reading up on Wikipedia, these ancient memories are flooding back. I remember a teacher reading my class the story Pink Bow Tie when I was around 9. Yes, I'm stoked you remember James! Hahaha. Lighthouse Blues, Clear as Mud, Wake Up to Yourself . . . so many ghost stories. I think I could still enjoy Paul Jennings . . . If only my mum didn't gift all my childhood books to some other dribbling, asshole stuffed with fingers brat.

What about that story with the remote control with functions that worked on humans (i.e. causing them to pause, stop, and 'rewind' by performing all their prior actions in reverse), and the characters taking it to a spaghetti-eating contest where people were throwing up and using it to make them eat their own vomit? I can't remember the name of it but it surely ranks as one of the masterpieces of world literature in the 1990s. Think it appeared on Round the Twist as well.

I remember the other stories you mentioned ("Clear as Mud," "Wake Up to Yourself" etc.) also being really emotional and great. I wish I had a complete Jennings anthology around, would be great to revisit some of those stories.

[In A Dark Light]

I've always been a fan of horror fiction, though it was mostly of the more traditional ilk when I was younger. When I was nineteen I discovered the game 'Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth', and was so struck by the scene involving being chased by the Inssmouth folk, that I immediately bought an anthology of Lovecraft stories.

Safe to say I've never looked back since.

[Tom A.]

I can't remember the first, perhaps it was Poe or Matheson, but the first that left a lasting impression is The Haunter of the Dark by good ol HPL. Perfect to discover at the age of 13.

[miguel1984]

Quote

I always wanted to have that one but I never could find it (judging from a digital version it's a very nice anthology)

I was lucky with that one: I was in a bookstore without looking for anything in particular and I was about to buy The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy when I decided to look at a bunch of Lovecraft's books and I saw this one; I knew about it but it was the first time I saw a copy. I had read some Lovecraft and Poe before, but not any other weird fiction writers.

I bought it and got the Ellroy's book the following month.

[miguel1984]

If it is any help, this is the cover of the edition I bought: