With a glorious cover by David Mann, the 1987 novel Chain Letter reminds me of a story I wrote when I was 12 about a newspaper boy who gets run over by a drunk driver the driver rushes home without reporting the accident and tries to shrug it off, doesn't report the crime. I think a very young Andy Richter modeled for this one. I heard this in my head as a kid would say it, Best Fwends. You just gotta laugh, right? Right?īest Friends (1985) Now we even have animal skulls. But the hair overplays the hand, as it were.

Wait and See (1986) Got damn you have to admit eyeballs in skulls are effin' terrifying.

Is she an albino or a statue come to life? Who knows but I find the pinpoints of light for eyes wonderfully malevolent. Lost and Found (1990) Another staple of '80s horror, the utterly generic title. The delightful Little Miss Zombie has a review here. And boy do I love skulls with hair! Thanks be to artist Richard Newton for this one.īaby Dolly (1991) Evil babies and dolls! They were everywhere in this era. I think my favorite is the above Home Sweet Home (ugh, really?) from 1985, which adds some bloodshot eyeballs to one-up Mrs. But I have to give props to whoever was doing her book covers back in the day because these are some freaky and unsettling images. I haven't read word one of Ruby Jean Jensen's paperback original horror novels of the 1980s, published by Zebra Books (Z for dead last) and I probably won't ever.

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