[3] The collection was never reprinted in the United States, but its contents (aside from Bloch's introduction) were included in the 1994 omnibus The Early Fears.

[5] Stephen Jones and Kim Newman included the collection in Horror: Another 100 Best Books, with Joel Lang noting that it demonstrated Bloch's "meteoric development from faux-Gothic pastiche to sour, elliptical portraits of urban damnation".

[6] Don D'Ammassa stated that "Although some of the stories are crude by [Bloch's] later standards, there is a raw power to many of them that has ensured their continued popularity".

[7] The creators of the game Half-Life 2 reference Bloch's work: the central villain, Dr. Wallace Breen refers to the player's character, Gordon Freeman in a televised speech saying "And yet, unsophisticated minds continue to imbue him with romantic power, giving him such dangerous poetic labels as 'the one free man, the opener of the way.'"

The Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game features (in the third Monster Manual) a creature called Allabar, Opener of the Way.