Summary: I love the high-quality, underground and small-press horror movement. Some decent titles, with large production quality. But...man, sometimes those volumes hurt.
At first I thought it sounded like an awesome book, and then I saw the price...
BLOT: (06 Mar 2011 - 05:46:53 PM)
At first I thought it sounded like an awesome book, and then I saw the price...
I went looking for Wilum Pugmire's
In the 1970s, the German psychedelic artist Helmut Wenske completed a cycle of twelve paintings based on Gustav Meyrinkr's mystical classic, The Golem. For the first time these paintings are being published with the novel that served as their inspiration...In an oversize 8x12 format with printed silk panels on both the front and rear boards, head and tail bands, ribbon marker, and a two-color cloth slipcase. Each book is signed by John Clute and Helmut Wenske. Limited to 200 copies...
Well, that both sounds really neat and looks gorgeous. Right? Let's just scroll down to look at the price...oh...
Now, let me tell you something that you might not realize and, had you to answer true/false on a quiz, would probably get wrong. The highest quality publishing in the fiction world today* is in the horror and weird press indies. Seriously. Their books include such "extras" as hand-stitching, sewn silk screens, leather bindings, high quality paper, and a number of other things. A lot of them are in small enough print ones that you get them inscribed, numbered. Volumes are released in matching sets with other books by the author and publisher so they look gorgeous on your shelf. They come with glossy illustration pages, hand-picked fonts, actual book-art design. The works. Centipede Press has some gorgeous volumes floating around, absolutely gorgeous. And, well, they cost from $60 on the cheap end to $200-$300 on the low-end of the higher end. Which sucks because it makes it really hard to try-out an author. Plus, well, if you have a book budget of $300 per month/year/etc then you can sink it all into a book or two. These are books made with the passion that used to make books heirlooms but now is gone, and with its passing most books are at best just containers for James Patterson and Tom Clancy. Oh well.
Still. $1000 for the deluxe? Ouch. So pretty, though.
* In both art and non-fiction publications, you have other great examples. However, much of fiction has been reduced to the level of impulse buy prices.
LABEL(s): Book Shopping
OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: March 2011
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Written by Doug Bolden
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