Spring 2005 issue of Useless News

July 11, 2012

I seem to be lacking the Spring 2005 issue of Useless News. Anyone care to send me a scanned copy?
2018: Found one!

Needed: Barnes & Noble Reading Group

July 10, 2012

The Holidays 2006 issue of Useless News states the following:

“Dean participated in a Barnes & Noble reading group for THE HUSBAND. These were a few of the more interesting exchanges, which have been adapted for an installment of “TEN QUESTIONS” on out site.

Does anyone have any information about this online event? Date, original URL, text archive, etc.

Happy birthday Dean!

July 9, 2012

Dean turns 67 today. Here’s wishing him a happy birthday!

Needed: First Headline (UK) edition of Darkfall

July 8, 2012

Long-time Koontz collectors are generally aware that from it’s original release in 1984 Darkfall was known as Darkness Comes in the UK. Why? I have no idea. However Dean’s latest batch of notes pointed out something I’d missed. The UK publisher of Darkness Comes, Headline finaly brought itself in line with the US publisher and changed the title to Darkfall. So, here’s the thing. I keep trying to order a copy through third-party sellers on Amazon and they keep sending me copies of Darkness Comes instead of Darkfall, regardless of the fact that Darkfall is what’s shown in the listing. Even if I was to get my hands on a copy, there’s no promise that it’ll be the first printing/edition under the Darkfall title and I can’t even tell if it’s a mass market or trade paperback. So, does anyone have one of the first printing/editions of Headline’s Darkfall? If so, please leave a comment as I’d like to get the proper information listed in the book.
Update 12/18/12:
It does look like that on November 22, 2012 Headline did release an eBook edition titled Darkfall and I have added it to the manuscript as one of the very few eBooks that will be included. However, I have still yet to locate a print UK edition under this title.

Needed: The Book of Counted Sorrows Dogged Press Edition

July 8, 2012

I’m looking for any and all information about the Dogged Press edition of The Book Of Counted Sorrows. There are two copies available via third-party sellers on Amazon.com if you’re not familiar with this edition. I know it was originally offered via the now defunct store on DeanKoontz.com and Dogged Press is Dean’s own publishing imprint. However, I don’t know how many copies were printed (I’m assuming it was a limited edition,) if it was numbered or lettered, it’s page count, original list/cover price, ISBN, or printing statement.
Wikipedia says “In the summer of 2009, Dogged Press issued a 3000-copy hardcover edition” but I’d like to get confirmation of that.
Basically, if you’ve got a copy of this one or can point me to a reliable Web page with more details, please leave a comment.
Update 10 July 2012:
Turns out that there was an ad for this edition in the Spring 2008 issue of Useless News which included the original list price of $30.00 and stating the print run was just 3,000 copies. So, I’ve got some of the info but I’m still looking for a more specific release date, page count, ISBN (if there was one), and printing statement.
Update 11 July 2012:
The plot thickens! (a.k.a. welcome to my own private version of Hell.) But the Holidays 2007 issue of Useless News says this edition is selling for $35. My biggest question right now is, why didn’t I just buy a copy back then?
 

How long is the film version of Whispers?

July 7, 2012

Here’s a fun fact I just noticed: The VHS edition of Whispers lists a run time of 96 minutes. However, the laser disc lists a run time of 94 minutes and the DVD lists a run time of 90 minutes. Then again IMDB lists a run time of 100 minutes.

Found: Prisoners & Other Stories publication date & prices

July 7, 2012

Prisoners & Other Stories by Ed Gorman was published by Cemetery Dance in 1992. However,the year is the most specific information I have. Also, there were two limited editions published but the both list the same cover price as the trade hardcover. I’m assuming they actually had a different original list price. (Dean wrote the afterword.)

Needed: Info on the leather-bound edition of The Bad Place

July 6, 2012

Here’s a screencap from this television interview with Dean:

Do you see that leather-bound edition of The Bad Place? (Fifth from the right, starting with the one with the white spine. Click for a larger version of the image.) I know nothing about this. Can anyone provide any information about it. All searching on my part has come up with absolutely nothing.

Read An Excerpt from Odd Apocalypse

July 5, 2012

Random House has made the first 23 pages of Odd Apocalypse available for your online reading via Scribd.
Dear Random House: Please allow embedding next time. It would have made for a much more interesting blog post.

US vs UK: Which is first

July 4, 2012

I’m working my way through Dean’s latest batch of notes and there are some things I just can’t share prior to publication but here’s a bit I think would be ok.
Did you know that the only title to intentionally come out in the UK prior to the US is the forthcoming Odd Apocalypse? The UK edition has a release date of 19 July 2012 while the US edition is scheduled for 31 July 2012.
Why? Well, turns out that releasing it in the UK at the end of the month would have pretty much had the book compete with the Olympics. Marketing 101: known when not to compete with a bigger news story.

Exciting news and updates!

July 4, 2012

I just got Dean’s latest edits/comments and it’s only two pages long, which may sound like a lot but compared to previous versions of the manuscript this is a very small amount.
All I need to do next is keep up with the updates of newly released material (a constant project) and integrate his comments and corrections in to the manuscript. At that point Dean will be doing one last review and writing his afterword. I can’t say much on that front as I don’t exactly know what he’s going to say but I have some ideas and let’s just say it’s going to be well worth the wait.
On the Cemetery Dance front, you may not have noticed, but this book is listed as “Out of Print” and currently not available for ordering. That was done a while back when the status of this project was unclear. Once things get more locked down in the next few months or so, CD will be relaunching the project including significant promotion and advertising.
So, at this point CD is aiming for a 2013 release. As details become more clear I’ll of course post them here. As for how you can help, there’s still a handful of items that are missing information that I’d love to get filled in prior to publication. Please take a moment to head over to the Information Needed page and see if there’s anything you can help me out with. If you can provide me with verifiable information that fills in a hole, I’ll do my best to list you in the book’s thanks. (A list that is already considerable in length due to the number of folks that have assisted me over the years.)
Thanks for your continued patience!
Michael

Deeply Odd

June 29, 2012

It looks like we won’t have to wait as long as most of us thought for the sixth Odd Thomas novel. According to Amazon.com Deeply Odd is scheduled to be released on 12 March 2013. Of course, no cover art to be found just yet.

77 Shadow Street / Moonlit Mind paperback

June 29, 2012

According to Amazon.com 77 Shadow Street will be released as a premium paperback on 28 August 2012. This edition will also contain the novella The Moonlit Mind.

Not exactly a novice when it comes to comics

June 25, 2012

This past weekend I started unboxing the majority of my Koontz collection (still boxed from my last move) as work on the book progresses. Having had the majority of the collection in boxes for the past seven years has made me forget about some of the collection.
Recalling my recent post about Dean in comic book form these were a great find.
Back in 1993 Dean’s short story “Trapped” was adapted by Ed Gorman and published as a graphic novel. The photo below shows (left to right) the trade paperback (HarperCollins), the hardcover, and the comic-store trade paperback (Eclipse Books).

Going even further back, more than 35 years(!), there’s Starstream (1976) and Questar (1979) both containing a comic adaptation of Dean’s Night of the Storm.

So, for those that think comics like Frankenstein and Nevermore are a new format for Dean, think again.

Five new premium paperbacks coming out this Tuesday

June 22, 2012

For those of you liking the new covers and larger “premium” format (let’s ignore the $9.99 price point,) there are five more titles coming out Tuesday:
    

UK covers for Odd Interlude & Odd Apocalpypse

June 19, 2012

As Dean has been quoted in the past, he’s never had a clear picture of Odd Thomas in his head. I think because of this I much prefer the UK covers for Odd Interlude and Odd Apocalypse than the US covers.
 
 

Virgin Art

June 14, 2012

If you’re a Koontz book collector like me you know that there are different editions and covers and finding all of them (or at least all the first editions in English) can be a daunting task. But, enter the world of comics and you’ve got some learning to do as I have.
I’ve collected comics in the past (i.e. the 1980s) and still read a handful of titles these days but I was not experienced in the fine art of variant covers and “dealer incentives”. For this post let’s just use Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein Volume 2 Issue #1 as an example.
Turns out this particular issue was issued with three different covers. The first was the “standard” cover. The second was the “virgin art” cover, meaning that the art was there but there was no wording including the title, issue number, etc. The third featured the same art at the standard but in “negative”. (Shown left-to-right below.)
  
The dealer incentive part of this story is what makes the non-standard covers more collectible. In this case the virgin art version was only sold to comic shops that ordered 15 copies of the standard cover version. This is known as a “1-for-15 incentive”. The negative cover in this case only had 250 printed and was released as a “Dynamic Forces exclusive”.
Well, I think I’ve explained that well enough. (If someone knows more about comics than I please feel free to fill in details in the comments.) Oh, and this is a simple example. Maybe in a future post I’ll talk about the six different versions of Dean Koontz’s Nevermore Issue #1 from Dynamite. (Which ignores the version from Dabel Brothers, a completely different publisher…)

Odd Interlude #1 is out today

June 11, 2012

Don’t forget to pick up your copy of Odd Interlude #1 today. It’s available via Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and the iBookstore.

Whispers on DVD

June 8, 2012

Love it or hate it, I think this is the first time Whispers has been released on DVD but I’ve not checked my record on that. (Please correct me in the comments if I’m wrong.) The interesting bit is that you can watch it in “Katrina’s Nightmare Theater” format, whatever that is exactly.
For the record it was released back on 21 February 2012 but I’d somehow missed it until now.

Cold Fire trade paperback now available

June 8, 2012

The trade paperback edition of Cold Fire was released on Tuesday, June 5th. Have you got your copy yet?