Gauntlet Press has now started taking orders for the 52-copy signed traycased lettered edition of Illustrated Masques. The cost of the lettered edition (signed by all who signed the numbered plus Stephen King and Clive Barker, who did not sign any other edition) is $1500. This is the only version of the book signed by Stephen King.
Description: The Masques series of anthologies, published from 1984 to 2006 and edited by J. N. Williamson, presented work by established and emerging horror writers, including Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Charles Grant, Ray Russell, Charles Beaumont, Tom Monteleone, Robert Bloch, F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Christian Matheson, Paul Dale Anderson, and Robert R. McCammon.
In 1992, Mort Castle and David Campiti, working with J.N. Williamson, produced two 48 page issues of J.N. Williamson’s Masques, presenting Masques stories in “graphic album” format. The “deluxe comics” (perfect bound) were published by Innovation Books, a comic book publisher. Illustrators included Mark Evans, Ted Naifeh, Mike Okamoto, Tim Vigil, Jose Pimentel, and Matt Thompson.
But the “comic book boom” was going bust – and the “graphic novel” still had to await Art Spiegelman’s winning the Pulitzer for Maus and Alan Moore’s Watchmen being named one of the top “100 Novels of the 20th Century” by Time Magazine to become legitimate. Few copies of J.N. Williamson’s Masques were printed, far fewer comics stores were around to sell them, and within a year, the publisher Innovation itself was gone from the scene.
Now, J. N. Williamson’s Illustrated Masques triumphantly returns in a 112 page beautifully produced collectible from Gauntlet Press.
Here’s what you’ll find in this collection:
- Paul Dale Anderson “Better Than One”
- Illustrated by Jose Pimentel
- Mort Castle “If You Take My Hand, My Son”
- Illustrated by Mark Evans
- Mort Castle “A Billion Monstrosities”
- Illustrated by Tim Vigil
- Stephen King “Popsy”
- Illustrated by Matt Thompson
- Robert R. McCammon “Nightcrawlers”
- Illustrated by Ted Naifeh & Scott Rockwell
- Wayne Allen Sallee “Rail Rider”
- Illustrated by Mike Okamoto
- Robert Weinberg “The Crushing Death”
- Illustrated by Mark Evans
- F. Paul Wilson “Soft”
- Illustrated by The Artists of Glass House Graphics
The ordering procedure is as follows:
(1) You have until January 19th to order. Ordering makes you eligible for a copy of the book but does not secure a copy. Only those who order will be considered for one of the 52 copies.
(2) Order as you normally would on the Gauntlet Press website.
(3) Gauntlet will accept only credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Discover) or checks.
(4) Gauntlet will not charge your credit card until you are one of the 52 people chosen (just one per customer). However, once you are chosen they will charge your credit card right away, not when the book is published.
(5) The notification you receive from the Gauntlet server once you place your order is not a confirmation that you will be getting the book. This is very important as some customers feel the notice generated by the server serves as a confirmation. In this case the notice generated by the server only means Gauntlet has received your order.
(6) There are no cancellations.
(7) On January 19th Gauntlet will begin choosing the 52 customers who will get the lettered edition.
You can order directly from Gauntlet: Illustrated Masques
