Phil Tippett is the stop-motion animator who worked on the first two Star Wars movies, as well as being the visual effects supervisor for some of the Twilight movies (man’s got to eat). Now he’s directed an entire stop-motion movie it took him some thirty years to produce, and it looks way trippy:
It sort of looks like Jan Svankmajer, Ladislas Starevich, a survival horror game and the war machine sequence from The Thief and the Cobbler got together and birthed a mutant cinematic baby.
Is it any good? Eh, maybe. Interesting visually, but it sounds plotless.
Bryant, Tim, editor (with Joe R. Lansdale). Mule Tales. The Runaway Mule, 2012. First edition trade paperback original (a POD book), a Fine copy, new and unread. Anthology to benefit a now-defunct shop in Lansdale’s home town of Nacogdoches. Lansdale contributes six pieces. Bought from Amazon.
Case, Jim (pseudonym for Chet Cunningham and Joe R. Lansdale). Cody’s Army. Warner Books, 1986. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine- copy with a crease across the bottom corner and thin black lines at head, but otherwise tight and square. Military adventure novel. “The four man anti-terrorist guerilla unit.” Joe says he wrote one chapter in this. Stephen Mertz sold the series and had various writers work on different volumes, and confirmed Cunningham wrote this one except for one chapter from Lansdale. Bought off Amazon for $5, where the seller called it a “Fine” copy.
Lansdale, Joe R. The Drive-In. Centipede Press, 2015. First edition hardback thus, a signed, illustrated omnibus of The Drive-In, The Drive-In 2, and The Drive-In: The Bus Tour, one of 300 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrink wrap. I passed on picking this up when it first came out because I already had the PBO firsts of the first two, the hardback firsts of al three (two from Kinnell, the third from Subterranean), and The Complete Drive-In omnibus of all three from Underland Press. But this disappeared pretty quickly, and I decided to pick it up because I’m crazy Lansdale completist. Bought off a fellow dealer for $120.
Lansdale, Joe R. The Hungry Snow. Death’s Head Press, 2021. First edition trade paperback original (a side-sewn chapbook), #40 of 500 numbered copies, a Fine copy, new and unread, with Death’s Head Press bookmark and card laid in. A Reverend Jedidiah Mercer story. Illustrated by Tim Truman. Bought from the publisher at a very thin discount. I’ll have copies of this available in the forthcoming Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).
(Lansdale, Joe R.) Isajenko, Fred. The World Lansdalean: The Authorized Joe R. Lansdale Bibliography. Short, Scary Tales (SST) Publications, 2021. Uncorrected proof, trade paperback format, of the hardback first edition. Sent to me for spot-checking, and I sent them back a list of some things that were missing, etc. I will have copies of the published book available for sale through Lame Excuse Books when it’s released.
Boyett, Stephen R. The Architect of Sleep. Centipede Press, 2021. First hardback edition, #355 of 400 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrinkwrap. Really interesting novel about a man transported to an alternate earth where raccoons evolved as the planet’s sentient life form. Originally published as an Ace paperback original back in 1986 and became something of a cult classic, and I’ve sold a lot of PBO copies of this and Ariel over the years (and indeed, if you just want to read it, I have copies available). Recommended. This signed edition is already sold out from the publisher. I’m hoping this new edition prods Boyett into revising and finishing the still-unpublished sequel, The Geography of Dreams.
Foster, Alan Dean. The Director Should’ve Shot You: Memoirs of the Film Trade. Centipede Press, 2021. First hardback edition, #430 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrinkwrap. I haven’t read any Foster novels since one of the early Pip and Flinx books way back in my misspent youth, but this one interests me. As the king of media tie-in novels, from Star Wars to Alien to Krull, Foster has worked on a lot of big hits (and misses), and in this book he dishes on all the behind-the-scenes drama he witnessed in in his career. This signed edition is already sold out from the publisher.
The white square visible on the front is a numbered card inside the shrink wrap that will get laid in when it’s opened.
When this book originally came out at $600, I went “I want that…but not at that price point.” Now Charnel House has used the last 100 sheet sets of the original printing to come out with this 10th Anniversary Edition at a price I could afford:
Ellison, Harlan. The Glass Teat & The Other Glass Teat. Charnel House, 2011. First hardback edition, #182 of 250 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issue, with a CD of Harlan reading “Welcome to the Gulag,” the introduction written for this edition laid in. All Ellison’s TV essays and reviews written for The Los Angeles Free Press. Not having a copy of the original binding, I can’t tell you how this 10th Anniversary edition binding differs from the original. Bought from the publisher at a discount.
I will have a single copy of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).
Another book in the Borderlands Little Book series:
Child, Lee. A Little Gold Book of Unconsidered Trifles. Borderlands Press, 2021. First edition hardback, #498 of 600 signed and numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Mixture of fiction and non-fiction by the best-selling author of the Jack Reacher series, some original to this volume, including a piece from Esquire. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount. Right on the verge of selling out, and may be out of print by the time you read this.
I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).
This is a book set that was originally due out a year ago and, like so many other things, got delayed.
Straub, Peter. The Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub Volume One and The Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub Volume Two. Borderlands Press, 2021. First edition hardbacks, #321 of 350 signed, numbered copies, Fine copies in Fine dust jackets. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount. I believe that is already out of print, but I will have copies available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (due Real Soon Now).
Bull, Emma, and Will Shetterly. Double Feature. NESFA Press, 1994. First edition hardback, #24 of 175 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and Fine slipcase. Short story collection by this pair of married Minnesota writers. Bought off eBay for $20.50.
Hodgson, William Hope (Sam Moskowitz, editor). Out of the Storm. Donald M. Grant, 1975. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Uncollected fantasies, with Stephen Fabian illustrations. Bought off a fellow Biblio dealer for $20 after discount.
Two more items from that ongoing collection sale on eBay:
Derleth, August as Stephen Grendon. Mr. George and Other Odd Persons. Arkham House, 1963. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with possibly a tiny amount of spine fading, right at the edge of perceptability, an extremely bright and attractive copy. Stories written by August Derleth under his open pseudonym, most of which appeared in either Weird Tales or The Arkham Sampler. 100 Books by August Derleth, page 93 (“Awaiting Publication”). Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 70. Thirty Years of Arkham House, 70. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 72. Nielsen, Arkham House Books, 74. Currey, page 148. Chalker/Owings, Science Fantasy Publishers, page 32. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 524. Bought off eBay for $48.
Howard, Robert E. Almuric. Donald M. Grant, 1975. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Currey, page 248. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy, page 117. I put off picking up these Donald M. Grant Howard firsts for quite a while since they seemed readily available, but that no longer seems to be the case. Bought off a fellow Biblio dealer for $18.
Someone sold off a large science fiction collection on eBay, including a great deal of Stephen King. All the actual King books went for way more than I bid, but I did pick up a couple of King reference works:
(King, Stephen) Blue, Tyson. The Unseen King. Starmont House, 1989. First edition hardback, #24 of 100 copies with a signed, numbered sheet done for The Overlook Connection laid in, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Critical companion of Stephen King works that had never (up to this publication) been republished. I’m sort of half-assedly collecting all these Starmont House/Borgo Press SF/F/H critical hardbacks when I find them cheap. Won off eBay for $15.50.
(King, Stephen) Terrell, Carroll F. Stephen King: Man and Artist. Northern Lights, 1990. First edition hardback, #158 of 400 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine- slipcase with two pinprick nicks to the top rear. Critical companion. Won off eBay for $30.51.
My long-term goal of obtaining a complete Arkham House collection gains another important volume:
Derleth, August. 100 Books by August Derleth. Arkham House, 1962. First edition hardback, one of only 200 hardback copies, a Near Fine- copy with wear at head, heel and points (and a few traces elsewhere) on the decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Inscribed by Derleth: “Best wishes,/August Derleth.” Bibliography. Simultaneous with a much larger paperback run. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 65. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 67. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 69. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House, 65. Currey, page 155. Tymn Schlobin Currey, A Research Guide to Science Fiction Studies, 247. Chalker Owings, The Science-Fantasy Publishers, page 32 (which notes this was actually published in 1963). Bought off Biblio for $360.
