Horror/Sci-Fi, read in the late 60' or '70s. See descriptions..

codevark

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  • Short story about a guy whose stairwell has a pair of opposing mirrors. One night while he's heading upstairs to sleep, he notices a small black thing near the edge of a distant reflection. Each night, the black thing appears larger and closer, as if it's working its way through the reflections towards him. It slowly resolves into a figure, or part of a figure (i.e., humanoid, dressed in black). The guy's sense of impending doom increases with each successive night.
  • Short story about a black blob that hunts at night, engulfing and digesting people. With each kill it gets larger. (When I later got into HPL, the shoggoths reminded me of this creature.)
  • Short story about a scientist? engineer? who discovers that a race of tiny "men" capable of phasing through solid matter are invading the Earth.

    I read these in collections of stories (all in English), starting around 1967-ish, so the actual stories/books were probably older. Any ideas? TIA!
 
  • Short story about a guy whose stairwell has a pair of opposing mirrors. One night while he's heading upstairs to sleep, he notices a small black thing near the edge of a distant reflection. Each night, the black thing appears larger and closer, as if it's working its way through the reflections towards him. It slowly resolves into a figure, or part of a figure (i.e., humanoid, dressed in black). The guy's sense of impending doom increases with each successive night.
  • Short story about a black blob that hunts at night, engulfing and digesting people. With each kill it gets larger. (When I later got into HPL, the shoggoths reminded me of this creature.)
  • Short story about a scientist? engineer? who discovers that a race of tiny "men" capable of phasing through solid matter are invading the Earth.

    I read these in collections of stories (all in English), starting around 1967-ish, so the actual stories/books were probably older. Any ideas? TIA!

Sounds like a very interning collection of stories

Here's anathogy you might find of interest

Nightshade and Damnations by Gerald Kersh It contain 11 of best stories

Some short short stories to look out for that you might find worth you while

1. Double Shadow by Clark Ashton Smith
2, The Vaults of Yoh- Vombus Clark Ashton Smith one the literary inspirations for the 1979 film Alien
3. The City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith
4. Beyond the Signing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith
5. The Resurrection by A E Van Vogt
6. The Sombrus Tower by Tanith Lee
7. Camera Obscura by Basil Copper
 
Hmm...the first has elements of Stephen King's The Reaper's Image - a great short story in his excellent Skeleton Crew collection. Wonder if he read the one you read and it inspired him?
 
The small men pushing through solid matter rings big bells. I read something akin to this set in a deep cave and one or more of these creatures tries to pull a person into the wall. They were incredibly strong but had a different density - at least I think that was how it was explained. My memory tells me it was called The Micronauts but Googling that brings up something completely different.
 
Sounds like a very interning collection of stories

Here's anathogy you might find of interest

Nightshade and Damnations by Gerald Kersh It contain 11 of best stories

Some short short stories to look out for that you might find worth you while

1. Double Shadow by Clark Ashton Smith
2, The Vaults of Yoh- Vombus Clark Ashton Smith one the literary inspirations for the 1979 film Alien
3. The City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith
4. Beyond the Signing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith
5. The Resurrection by A E Van Vogt
6. The Sombrus Tower by Tanith Lee
7. Camera Obscura by Basil Copper

The Resurrection is also known as The Monster in Van Vogts collection Destination Universe. It's a good collection and The Monster stands out as a classic. Another good SF/ horror collection I read as a youngster was Tales of Terror From Outer Space, edited by R Chetwynd Hayes which brings together some real big hitters. Going to have to raid the garage for both now.
 
The small men pushing through solid matter rings big bells. I read something akin to this set in a deep cave and one or more of these creatures tries to pull a person into the wall. They were incredibly strong but had a different density - at least I think that was how it was explained. My memory tells me it was called The Micronauts but Googling that brings up something completely different.

The Microscopic Giants by Paul Ernst
 
The Microscopic Giants by Paul Ernst
I had a quick look tonight through one of 6 storage containers. Well done danny. I wonder if it's the same story the op was asking about
 
The Resurrection is also known as The Monster in Van Vogts collection Destination Universe. It's a good collection and The Monster stands out as a classic. Another good SF/ horror collection I read as a youngster was Tales of Terror From Outer Space, edited by R Chetwynd Hayes which brings together some real big hitters. Going to have to raid the garage for both now.

I read Destination. Universe a long time ago . I always liked Van Vogt's stories .:cool:

anthologies to check out. Galactic Empire Volume 1 and 2 edited by Brain Aldiss . It's got great stats by Pula Anderson, R A Laftety and Corwainer Smith . Bu the most meemable story in that collection All The Way Back By Michael Shaara

Before the Golden Age edited by Isaac Asimov , has lost of terror science fiction stories writer by autherknown and sleeper known among the satires is Jacks Williamson's Born of the Sun This Williams on store was adapted by fora comic Slipstream Adventures in Science Fiction issue 3 1976

The Vaults of Yoh Vombus by Clark Ashton Smith was give a graphic Novel Adaptation by Richard Corben .:cool:
 
Hmm, maybe.. But, something else tells me that it was another story. "The Molecule Men"? "The Molecular Men"? Dunno. Searching for those comes up with a bunch of comic madness like a never ending spiral into pop-culture.

I would say that, of the three stories I mentioned, this one is the least imperative, in terms of finding out the original author/text.

The black blob story scared the crap out of me as a 2nd grader. I probably read the mirror story a couple of years later, and it still was creep-o-ville for a few weeks..

Thanks for all the ideas!

Disclaimer: I read Kingsley Amis' "New Maps of Hell" when I was 5. hehe
 
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Extract from my eCopy of The Microscopic Giants:-

A message of haste? I think so. For the one
picked up Belmont again, and all three stepped
into the concrete. I saw them forge slowly ahead
through it. And I saw Belmont, at arm’s length of
the little man who dragged him, flatten against the
smooth side of the stuff.

I think I went a little mad, then, as I
understood at last just what had happened.
The little men had killed Belmont as a
specimen, just as a man might kill a rare insect.
They wanted to take him back to their own deep
realms and study him. And they were trying to
drag him through the solid concrete.

It offered only normal resistance to their own compacted
tons of weight, and it didn’t occur to them that it
would to Belmont’s body.
I flung myself at the wall and clawed at it with
my left hand. The body of my friend was
suspended there, flattened against it as the little
man within tried to make solid matter go through
solid matter, ignorant of the limitations of the laws

of physics as we of earth’s surface know them.
 
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I think we have a winner. I'll see if I can figure out which collection it was in. Thanks, Danny!
 
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I think we have a winner. I'll see if I can figure out which collection it was in. Thanks, Danny!

I had the right story.Just couldn't remember the name. I have it in a collection and will see if I can dig it out
 
The second entry sounds a bit like The "wiggly line/ink spot" by Gahan Wilson. Might be another data point - or a red herring!
 
I think the blob story could be Brennan’s Slime, which is the ur slime monster story and matches the description. It appears in Hitchcock’s Monster anthology with Microscopic Giants Here
 

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