March 23rd, 2014
Yet another cover, this one UK’s Stumbleine covering Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You.”
Tags: Mazzy Star, Shoegazer, Stumbleine
Posted in Music | No Comments »
March 22nd, 2014
Three more books from that big 70% off purchase:
(Bradbury, Ray) Borst, Ronald V. Graven Images. Grove Press, 1992. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Oversized art book reprinting science fiction, fantasy and horror movie posters, production art, etc., from Borst’s own extensive collection. Signed by Ray Bradbury, who provided the introduction to the chapter on the 1930s. Amount paid: $26.24. This is actually not hard to find signed by Bradbury, but it usually goes for about twice that.
Bloch, Robert. American Gothic. Simon and Schuster, 1974. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with a couple of large, faint light brownish stains on front free endpaper and one much smaller one on the rear free endpaper, in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed by Bloch, who actually mentions the stain: “Clean up this page/immediately! ——->/ Robert Bloch” (with the arrow pointing toward one of the stains). Replaces an unsigned ex-library copy in my collection. Price paid: $30.00.
Leiber, Fritz. Our Lady of Darkness. Berkley Putnam, 1977. First edition hardback (no statement of printing on copyright page, as per Currey), a Near Fine copy with slight dust staining and wear to bottom boards and small white abrasion to bottom rear boards, in a Near Fine, price-clipped dust jacket. Inscribed by Leiber in purple ink: “For my Dear Friend/Doris Cornejo with/my very best/wishes. Enjoy!/Fritz Leiber/March 4, 1977”. At the bottom of the name Grace Cornejo has been written in red ink, possibly by a different hand. Supplements an unsigned copy (also, alas, with an imperfect dust jacket) in my library. Price paid: $33.74.
Tags: Books, Fantasy, Fritz Leiber, Horror, pics, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Science Fiction, signatures
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, pics, Science Fiction | No Comments »
March 21st, 2014
More from the big 70% off sale purchase:
Shea, Michael. The Mines of Behemoth. Baen Books, 1997. First edition paperback original, a Fine copy, new and unread. Signed by Shea. Price paid: $4.49.
Wolheim, Elizabeth (Betsy), and Sheila Gilbert, editors. DAW 30th Anniversary Box Set (including 30th Anniversary DAW Science Fiction and 30th Anniversary DAW Fantasy). DAW, 2002. First edition hardbacks, Fine leatherbound copies with gilt endpapers, #312 of 350 sets so produced, in a Fine slipcase, sans dust jackets, as issued. (I have not been able to determine if the leather binding state is simultaneous with the trade editions or not.) Signed by editor Sheila E. Gilbert and contributors Michael Shea, Tad Williams, C.S. Friedman, Melanie Rawn, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon, Kate Elliott, and Irene Radford. This set was originally offered at $125 (though copies can now be found on Amazon for considerably less). The sets were not, as far as I can tell, offered in a signed state; these were signed independently by the contributors. Price paid: $59.99.
Michael Shea was probably the finest dark fantasy stylist of his generation, and Nift the Lean is a classic work that I expect to be read for years to come. He died unexpectedly on February 16th at age 67. I never had a chance to meet Shea in person.
Tags: Books, Fantasy, First Edition, Horror, Michael Shea, pics, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction | No Comments »
March 20th, 2014
I just got a big box of books from a dealer holding a 70% off sale, which I’ll probably be cataloging for the next week or so. This is the item that made me start piling things in the virtual basket for immediate purchase:
Chacal No. 1. First edition magazine original, a Fine- copy with slight bumping to top of spine. Signed by contributors Tom Reamy, Howard Waldrop, Richard Corben, Tim Kirk, and publisher Arnie Fenner.
Tom Reamy was widely acclaimed as the very best SF writer in Texas, winning a John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer as well as a Nebula Award for “San Diego Lightfoot Sue.” Reamy died of a heart attack on November 4, 1977 at the horrifically young age of 42. Reamy had no books of his own published during his lifetime, and things signed by him are genuinely rare and seldom come on the market.
Chacal was Arnie Fenner’s first magazine, a big color glossy magazine featuring first-rate fantasy fiction and art. (After two issues this would be followed up by Shayol, which had more of a science fiction focus, co-edited with Fenner’s then-wife Pat Cadigan.)
Howard believes that this was almost certainly signed at the 1976 Worldcon in Kansas City, which is the only time he recalled all of them being together at the same place and time after it was published.
Price paid: $29.99.
Tags: Arnie Fenner, Books, Fantasy, Howard Waldrop, Science Fiction, Texas, Tom Reamy
Posted in pics, Science Fiction | 2 Comments »
March 20th, 2014
Though I have seen no official word, people on Lucius Shepard’s Facebook page are mourning his death this morning.
Shepard was one of the most important new writers of the 1980s, with most of the stories in The Jaguar Hunter nominated for or winning major awards. His output fell off in the 1990s, then came back in the 21st century. He was certainly one of the finest prose stylists of his generation.
Shepard suffered a stroke while in the hospital in August of 2013.
It looks like the terrible year for deaths in the field that was 2013 is extending into 2014…
Tags: Books, Lucius Shepard, Obituary, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Science Fiction | No Comments »
March 19th, 2014
It’s not so much that I’ve been on a crazy buying spree of these last few books as that: A.) I bought a few things between January and now I hadn’t had time to catalog yet, B.) I paid for pre-publication books a while back that just now showed up (as with this book), or C.) Actually, I did go on a crazy buying spree last week, and I have to catalog stuff before those books show up.
So…
Ellison, Harlan. Flintlock. Charnel House, 2013 (actually 2014). First edition hardback, #55 of 274 signed and numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Unproduced screenplay for James Cobrun’s Derek Flint character.
I have one additional copy for sale at $145 ($5 off cover price).
Tags: Harlan Ellison, Science Fiction, signed, Thriller
Posted in Books, Science Fiction | 2 Comments »
March 18th, 2014
Well, we only had to wait a decade, but Disney has finally announced that Brad Bird is starting to write the script for the sequel to The Incredibles. You know, it was only the best film Pixar ever did. No need to rush or anything.
Now let’s hope they don’t screw it up…
Tags: Animation, Brad Bird, Disney, Movies, Pixar, superheroes, The Incredibles
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction | No Comments »
March 18th, 2014
I also pick up science fiction-related reference works, especially when I see them cheap.
(Ballard, J. G.) Baxter, John. The Inner Man: the life of J. G. Ballard. Weidenfield & Nicolson, 2011. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Critical biography.
(Gilliam, Terry) McCabe, Bob. Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Grimm, and other cautionary tales of Hollywood. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with what appears to be “delamination” of otherwise shiny area at base of the spine, in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Book on the making of the Terry Gilliam film The Brothers Grimm.
Lovecraft, H.P. (S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, editors. O Fortunate Floridian: H.P. Lovecraft’s Letters to R. H. Barlow. University of Tampa Press, 2007. First edition hardback (stated), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread.
Barlow was an interesting fellow in his own right. He was studying ancient Mexican writings at Mexico City College (at the same time William S. Burroughs was there) when he committed suicide in January of 1951.
Now I have the perfect thing to lay the envelope from Lovecraft to Barlow into.
(Moskowitz, Sam) The Sam Moskowitz Collection of Science Fiction b/w Comic Books and Comic Art. Southbys, 1999. First edition oversized trade paperback original, Fine. Auction catalog for the Sam Moskowitz’s science fiction collection held June 29, 1999 (plus a collection of rare comics sold the next day).
Stephenson, Neal. In the Beginning was the Command Line. Avon Books, 1999. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Long essay on the history of computing the Internet, and cyber culture.
Tags: Books, H. P. Lovecraft, J. G. Ballard, John Baxter, Movies, Neal Stephenson, R. H. Barlow, reference works, S. T. Joshi, Sam Moskowitz, Terry Gilliam
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Movies, Science Fiction | No Comments »
March 17th, 2014
Because a lot of people have been searching for this on St. Patrick’s day, and the old video appears to have died, here’s a new version.
Tags: funny, John Belushi, Saturday Night Live, St. Patrick's Day, TV, video
Posted in TV, video | No Comments »
March 17th, 2014
Someone was selling off a numbered of signed editions of books on eBay; three of those are here, and the fourth (Farmer’s River of Time) was from Lloyd Currey.
Farmer, Philip Jose. River of Eternity. Phantasia Press, 1983. First edition hardback, #81 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase, new and unread.
Lansdale, Joe R. The Drive-In: The Bus Tour. Subterranean Press, 2005. First edition hardback, #223 of 350 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase, new and unread. Supplements a signed trade edition.
Leiber, Fritz. Gummitch and Friends. Donald M. Grant, 1992. First edition hardback, #237 of 1000 signed, numbered copies (though not signed by Leiber, who died before the book was finished), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase, new and unread. Contains both Leiber’s cat stories, as well as memorial appreciations of Leiber by Stephen King, Robert Bloch, etc. bound at the front of the volume. Also, for some reason, an unsigned limitation number plate for the Grant edition of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Black House is also laid in.
Straub, Peter. Mrs. God. Donald M. Grant, 1990. First edition hardback, #179 of 600 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket (as issued) in a Fine slipcase, new and unread.
I didn’t pay more than $40 for any of these…
Tags: Books, Donald M. Grant, Fantasy, First Edition, Fritz Leiber, Horror, Joe R. Lansdale, Peter Straub, Phantasia Press, Philip Jose Farmer, Science Fiction, Subterranean Press
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction | No Comments »
