Victorian Witchcraft

I found this delightful article from an 1979 local Folkestone newspaper the other day, whilst researching something else.

Thursday 18th August 2022

More Halloween Stamps

For the philatelists out there, the US Postal Service issued a set of 4 Jack O'Lantern stamps on 29th September 2016.

Thursday 6th October 2016

Twilight Zone US Stamp

In 2009 the US Postal Service released a series of stamps commemorating popular televisions shows and one of the stamps featured was of 'The Twilight Zone'.

The caption on the back of the adhesive stamps reads as follows:

'The Twilight Zone cautioned viewers not to be too sure of anything. Intended for an adult audience, this anthology series focused on the imaginary and the bizarre. Creator Rod Serling (pictured on the stamp) wrote many episodes and served as narrator. The stranger-than-fiction dramas were often social commentaries set against a background of fantasy and science fiction.'

But if you are reading this blog, you probably know all that already. Nice stamp though... don't know how I missed this when it came out.

Thursday 31st March 2016

Star Wars Stamps

Today sees the release by the Royal Mail of a set of Star Wars postage stamps. The following images are from the Royal Mail's advertising booklet sent to customers. There are 12 first class stamps featuring characters from old and the forthcoming film - thankfully the prequel trilogy character are deftly sidestepped by only using characters from those films that appeared in the others (e.g. The Emperor) or having very small images in the bottom corner of the stamp (e.g. Hayden Christiansen). And one can only thank whatever God you believe in that there's no Jar Jar Binks stamp!

Then there is a miniature sheet showing the iconic space vehicles across 4 stamps.

And there is the A4 sized 'Smiler' sheet with 10 1st class stamps alongside other images.

There will be a 'Prestige' stamp book issued also in December. Interestingly the 'Prestige' stamp book will be hideously overpriced at £16.99 compared to other Royal Mail 'Prestige' stamp books. However the 'Smiler' sheet seems somewhat under-priced at £6.80 compared to other issues. Go figure!

Tuesday 20th October 2015

Peter Cushing stamp

This Tuesday saw the issuing in the United Kingdom of 10 stamps celebrating the centenaries of the birth of 10 great Britons from such diverse backgrounds as politics, sport, archaeology and media. And amongst the ten people chosen was Peter Cushing. Sadly, I suppose, for horror fans the stamp is of him portraying Sherlock Holmes, but how great is it to see true horror icon represented on a postage stamp!

So not bad going on the horror and sci-fi philately front after last month's issue of Doctor Who stamps and last year's M.R.James stamp! So get some while stocks last...

Wednesday 17th April 2013

M. R. James postage stamp

Last week, the Royal Mail in a series of distinguished Britons, issued a first class stamp commemorating the horror short story specialist M. R. James.

Wednesday 29th February 2012

New stamps...

The Royal Mail in the UK have just issued a set of 8 stamps featuring successful musicals. Obvious choices such as "We Will Rock You," "Blood Brothers" & "Oliver" in there... but it's really nice to see recognised: "The Rocky Horror Show" & "Return to the Forbidden Planet."

The latter was a very successful show that I saw back in the early 1990s and was the only non Lloyd Webber or Cameron Mackintosh show to make it then into the top 10 most successful London musicals. Obviously a few decades later it will no longer be ranked in this position, but it does go to show that a quirky tribute to the classic film Forbidden Planet (which itself is a tribute to Shakespeare's Tempest) filled with late 1950s/early 1960s Rock 'N' Roll numbers can beat the mawkish, bland and over-commercialised rubbish that's out there.

Saturday 5th March 2011

A Philatelist's Nightmare! (Part 2)

America has been ahead of the game with stamps as these two show from many years before the 90s. But even the UK had previously had a horror themed stamp if you include the Hound of the Baskervilles from a set of Arthur Conan Doyle stamps.

More recently, Boris Karloff has appeared on another stamp in the US in 2003 which celebrates Hollywood and the art of cinema - in this case Jack Pierce's make up. And according to Sara Karloff, Boris' daughter, in a recent BBC documentary, her father has appeared on more US stamps now than any other person apart from the presidents!

In the UK in 2008 the Royal Mail celebrated the Carry On films and Hammer films with a set of 6 stamps - 3 from each genre. Below are the 3 Hammer stamps, but also I've shown one of the Carry On stamps as the film poster shown was Carry On Screaming.

Sunday 24th October 2010

A Philatelist's Nightmare! (Part 1)

And now for a rather big blog...

In 1997 the Royal Mail issued the first Horror themed stamps issued in the UK; it was just a shame they didn't go with their original designs...

And as other countries also issued stamps that year with a folk story theme, various other stamps soon followed; such as Romania issuing a set of Vlad Tepes stamps...

Canada issued a set of monster related stamps...

America based its designs on the Universal Studios monsters...

And Ireland issued some very camp Dracula stamps...

Yet both before 1997 and after stamps across the world have cropped up with Horror related themes... and my list excludes any Science Fiction stamps (of which the UK has issued stamps commemorating H.G. Wells, The Clangers & Daleks!) Tomorrow I'll upload some more stamps that I've found.

Saturday 23rd October 2010