Boasting a Cthulhu cover by Bob Eggleton, the nearly 500-page volume featured forty stories (thirteen original) by, among others, Conrad Williams, Christopher Fowler, Jasper Kent, Robert Shearman, Paul Finch, Stephen Gallagher, Simon Clark, Kim Newman, Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton, Stephen Laws, Sam Stone and Jonathan Carroll.
Midnight Echo was an attractive-looking magazine put out by the Australian Horror Writers Association. Edited by Leigh Blackmore, the perfect-bound fifth issue included numerous short stories and poetry by Terry Dowling, Rick Kennett, Bryce Stevens, Charles Lovecraft, Kyla Ward and others, along with interviews with Jeff Lindsay and Chris Mars.
Patrick McAleer’s The Writing Family of Stephen King: A Critical Study of the Fiction of Tabitha King, Joe Hill and Owen King from McFarland & Co looked at the literary careers of the author’s wife and two sons.
From the same imprint, Rocky Wood’s A Literary Stephen King Companion was a handy guide to the best-selling author’s fiction and films, including entries about the characters and settings.
In Becoming Ray Bradbury from the University of Illinois Press, Jonathan R. Eller took a look at the author’s early life through to 1953. The biographical study also included sixteen pages of photos.
Edited with an Introduction by Phil and Sarah Stokes, Clive Barker: The Painter, the Creature, and the Father of Lies: 30 Years of Non-Fiction Writings from Earthling Publications collected Barker’s articles, introductions, reviews and artwork, along with a new Foreword by the author. As well as a trade hardcover, it was also available in a signed, slipcased leather-bound edition of 250 copies ($125.00), and a twenty- six copy traycased lettered edition containing an original sketch by Barker ($750.00).
Published by the Stokes themselves, Beneath the Surface of Clive Barker’s Abarat Volume 1 was a handsome, full-colour illustrated guide to the book series that included a glossary and an interview with the author.
“It’s easy to be smart, later” was one of the many epithetical sayings quoted in bugf#ck: The Useless Wit & Wisdom of Harlan Ellison®, a delightful pocket-sized hardcover from Edgeworks Abbey/Spectrum Fantastic Arts, edited by Arnie Fenner.
Nested Scrolls: A Writer’s Life was a typically idiosyncratic memoir by “transrealism” writer/software designer Rudy Rucker. Along with the trade edition, it was also available from PS Publishing in 100 signed and slipcased copies that came with a CD-Rom containing thirteen sets of book-writing notes in a one million-word file entitled Twenty Years of Writing.
From Tartarus Press, Time, A Falconer: A Study of Sarban was Mark Valentine’s biography of the writer (a pseudonym for career diplomat John William Wall), limited to 400 copies.
Lest You Should Suffer Nightmares: A Biography of Herbert van Thal was an expanded version of Johnny Mains’ Afterword to his 2010 anthology Back From the Dead. The slim hardcover also included a selection of letter reproductions, a van Thal checklist, an article reprinted from SFX, and reminiscences by various contributors to the Pan Book of Horror Stories series, including Conrad Hill, David A. Riley, David Case and John Burke. It was published by Screaming Dreams in an edition of just 100 copies signed by the author and Les Edwards, who did the stunning cover portrait.
Massimo Berruti’s Dim-Remembered Stories: A Critical Study of R. H. Barlow from Hippocampus Press looked at the career of the troubled young man who became H. P. Lovecraft’s literary executor, with a Foreword by S. T. Joshi.
With David E. Schultz, Joshi also edited An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H. P. Lovecraft for the same PoD imprint. Some of the thirteen essays had been updated.
Also from Hippocampus, A Monster of Voices: Speaking for H. P. Lovecraft collected thirteen essays and a poem by Robert H. Waugh.
Edited by S. T. Joshi, Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture from Greenwood/ABC–CLIO contained numerous critical essays on authors, characters and vampires in literature and the media by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Paula Guran, Melissa Mia Hall, Stephen Jones, John Langan, Barbara Roden, Christopher Roden, Brian Stableford, Bev Vincent and many others, as well as a general bibliography.
Joshi also supplied the Foreword for Scarecrow Press’ 21st-Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000 edited by English professor Danel Olson. The book contained fifty-three essays by, amongst others, Steve Rasnic Tem, Nancy A. Collins, Adam L. G. Nevill, Don D’Ammassa, Lisa Tuttle, Robert Hood, Darrell Schweitzer, Nicholas Royle, Lucy Taylor, Graham Joyce and Reggie Oliver, along with extensive appendices.
Zombies! An Illustrated History of the Undead was put together by former Rue Morgue editor Jovanka Vuckovic and covered the walking dead (“undead” refers to vampires) in films and fiction.
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion included a new novella by Charlaine Harris, various lists, synopses and trivia, and an exclusive interview with True Blood creator Alan Ball, while Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide was an in-depth look at the YA series by Michelle Rowen and Richelle Mead.
Edited by Jamey Heit, Vader, Voldemort and Other Villains: Essays on Evil in Popular Culture was published by McFarland & Co.
From the same publisher, Seduced by Twilight: The Allure and Contradictory Messages of the Popular Saga was a look at Stephenie Meyer’s anaemic YA series by Natalie Wilson. Theorizing Twilight: Critical Essays on What’s at Stake in a Post-Vampire World, also edited by Wilson with Maggie Parke, explored the influence of Meyer’s books and films on popular culture in fifteen essays.
Stephenie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide was aimed at the young adult market and included illustrations by various artists along with an extensive interview with the author.
Cory Doctorow, Jules Feiffer, Stephen King and Tabitha King were among the fourteen authors who contributed stories to The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, based around the illustrations of Chris Van Allsburg. Lemony Snicket supplied the Introduction.
Written by Adam-Troy Castro, V is for Vampire: An Illustrated Alphabet of the Undead was embellished with two-colour illustrations by Johnny Atomic. The same team was also responsible for Z is for Zombie.
Edited by Arnie Fenner and Cathy Fenner, Spectrum 18: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art from Underwood Books collected work from more than 300 artists, including Grand Master Award recipient Ralph McQuarrie.
Chamber of Chills Volume One was the first in the sumptuous “Harvey Horrors Collected Works” series from PS Artbooks. Collecting seven full-colour reprints of the 1950s pre-Code horror comic, with a gonzo Foreword by Joe Hill and an informative article by Peter Normanton on the career of artist Al Avison, the book came in three states: a bookshop edition, a slipcased edition with a print signed by Hill, and a twenty-six copy deluxe lettered traycased edition (?249.99) that included a print signed by both Hill and artist Glenn Chadbourne.
It was followed by Witches Tales Volume One, with an Introduction by Ramsey Campbell and art print by Bryan Talbot, and Tomb of Terror Volume One with an Introduction by Stephen Jones and art print by Randy Broecker.
As if that wasn’t enough, PS Artbooks also launched a series of glorious full-colour reprints of such ACG (American Comics Group) titles as Adventures Into the Unknown, with an Introduction by Barry Forshaw, and Forbidden Worlds, with an Introduction by Stan Nicholls. Artists Glenn Chadbourne and Edward Miller, respectively, contributed a “re-imagined” covers to each volume.
DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking from Taschen Books celebrated the comics publisher’s seventy-fifth anniversary and featured more than 2,000 images over more than 700 pages.
