Greenwood’s The Supernatural in Short Fiction of the Americas by Dana Del George was a somewhat skewered look at short horror fiction by such authors as Poe, Hawthorne, Bradbury and others. However, most modern writers were notable by their absence. Bob Madison’s American Horror Writers was a young-adult study of ten authors, including King, Lovecraft and Poe.
French fan Alain Sprauel added to his series of attractive self-published bibliographies with a chronological listing of Peter Straub’s published work in France.
One of the best art books of the year was Fantasy of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History written by artist Randy Broecker. Beautifully designed and printed by Collectors Press, the stunning oversized hardcover not only contained around 450 exemplarily chosen full-colour illustrations (including many rare pulp and paperback covers), but also a detailed history of the genre and its practitioners that was immaculately researched and presented with an infectious enthusiasm for its subject matter.
From the same publisher, Richard A. Lupoff’s The Great American Paperback: An Illustrated Tribute to Legends of the Book contained more than 600 lavishly produced cover reproductions from all genres.
After issuing a profits warning in January, Collins & Brown Publishing, owner of Pavilion and the Paper Tiger art-book imprint, was taken over by the Chrysalis Group in a reported £2.1 million deal.
The Art of Richard Powers by Jane Frank was a beautiful and in-depth tribute from Paper Tiger to the American artist (1921–1996) whose often surreal covers graced many horror collections and anthologies in the 1950s and early 1960s. It additionally included a foreword by Vincent Di Fate; a memoir by the artist’s son, Richard Gid Powers; a previously unpublished interview and a checklist of book covers. Also from the Paper Tiger imprint, Offerings was the latest full-colour collection of Brom’s dark depictions of demonic heroes and villains.
Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta was the third and final volume in the Frazetta series from Underwood Books, edited by Cathy and Arnie Fenner. It included a wealth of previously unpublished material and appreciations by Bernie Wrightson, Dave Stevens, Michael Kaluta and others.
Introduced by Dave Stevens, Wings of Twilight: The Art of Michael Kaluta included much of the artist’s comics work plus illustrations for The Lord of the Rings, Prince Valiant, Vampirella and Metropolis.
The Wally Wood Sketchbook was a large-sized paperback from Vanguard Productions which featured fascinating commentary on the comics artist by Steranko, Al Williamson and Joe Orlando.
Visionary, edited by Mark Wheatley and Allan Gross, collected the art of Gray Morrow from the late 1950s onwards, with an introduction by Al Williamson.
From Cemetery Dance Publications, Dark Dreamers: Facing the Masters of Fear was a book of monochrome photographs by Beth Gwinn, with commentary by Stanley Wiater and an introduction by Clive Barker. Just over 100 horror authors, artists, editors and film-makers were featured, along with a short commentary by the subject or from Wiater, who also supplied brief recommended reading lists. Some of the most poignant shots were those of people who are no longer with us — Robert Bloch, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Richard Laymon, and Karl Edward Wagner (with an uncredited Lynne Gauger). There were also signed, limited and leather-bound lettered editions. Despite the dull dust jacket, the book was billed as the official companion volume to Dark Dreamers, a weekly Canadian television series hosted by Wiater.
Dynamic Forces released two full-colour lithographs of ‘Universale Mightiest Monsters’. Alex Horley’s Dracula: Crimson Kiss and Greg and Tim Hildebrandt’s Bride of Frankenstein were available both as regular prints and in limited editions signed by the artists.
Co-authored in German and English by film director Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromantik), Nightmares in Plastic looked at horror-inspired model kits through nearly 150 photos of completed kits and box art.
Despite his death the year before, Edward Gorey continued to have wicked fun with the month-by-month misfortune that mysteriously plagued The Deranged Cousins. Edited by Karen Wilkin, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey collected interviews, photographs and unpublished artwork by the late artist.
Probably the most superfluous book of the year was The Quotable Sandman: Memorable Lines from the Acclaimed Series by Neil Gaiman. Unless such pithy pensées as ‘That which is dreamed can never be lost, can never be undreamed’ had some kind of resonance for the reader, the attractive pocket hardcover was only worth acquiring for the full-colour illustrations by ‘a remarkable ensemble of artists’, including Dave McKean, Kent Williams, Glenn Fabry, Charles Vess, Rick Berry, Brian Bolland and others.
It was also hard to know who would want Edison’s Frankenstein 2002 Calendar, featuring twelve rare stills from the 1910 film, with anecdotes, trivia and interesting facts written by Frederick C. Wiebel, Jr. At least Midnight Marquee’s Attack of the Movie Monsters 2002 Calendar included stills from 1950s and 1960s sci-fi films featuring ‘Damsels in Distress and the Monsters Who Terrorize Them’.
The Classic Movie Tin Sign set contained poster reproductions of The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Invisible Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon.
An original poster advertising Boris Karloff’s 1932 The Mummy sold to a telephone bidder at Christie’s in London for £80,750 in March. Designed by artist Karoly Grosz, it was one of only three copies known to have survived and was discovered amongst a collection found in a garage in Arizona.
From Pentagram Publications, Dracula: The Graphic Novel reprinted the 1966 Ballantine Books comic strip with introductions by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.
Dark Horse Comics’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured a four-part mini-series, False Memories, scripted by Tom Fassbender and Jim Pascoe, which explored the effect that Buffy’s younger sister Dawn had on the history of the Scooby gang.
Also from Dark Horse came a 168-page Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novel, which included such reprint stories as TV scriptwriter Doug Petrie’s ‘Food Chain’ and ‘Double Cross’, plus Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski’s first Buffy collaboration.
Meanwhile, Buffy creator Joss Whedon made his comic writing debut with Dark Horse Comics’ eight-issue miniseries Fray, which was set in a future where vampires, demons, and other supernatural creatures existed. The books were illustrated by newcomer Karl Moline.
Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic character Tim Hunter returned, somewhat older and wiser, in DC/Vertigo Comics’ Hunter: The Age of Magic, a new series written by Dylan Horrocks and illustrated by Richard Case, which picked up three years after the recent mini-series Names of Magic.
DC/Vertigo’s House of Secrets: Facade was a two-issue mini-series scripted by Steven T. Seagle and illustrated by Teddy Kristiansen in which human witness Rain Harper fled the Spirit Court.
Despite a promise by publisher Brian Pulido that the character would never return after being killed off, Chaos! Comics launched a new series of Evil Ernie on Halloween while, from the same publisher, Phil Nutman continued the original story of Tommy Doyle from the lacklustre movie Halloween IV in the somewhat confusingly titled comics Halloween II and Halloween III: The Devil’s Eyes (which featured a variant cover design).