Paperbacks from Hell [N.F. - Literature, Art]

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

An enormous expression of thanks is due to the crew at Abyss. Jeanne Cavelos, Kathe Koja, and Michael Blumlein are all exceptionally busy individuals, but they were willing to give me a lot more time than I deserved to help with this book. I interviewed them all early in its writing and they had an enormous influence on my thinking about the paperback publishing boom and, especially, its end.

Elizabeth Hand was the first person I interviewed for this book, and she was also one of my teachers at Clarion Writers’ Workshop back in 2009. I wouldn’t have written this book without her encouragement.

I have rarely interviewed someone who tells as many great stories as well as Thomas Monteleone. I stole several of his jokes.

Ellen Datlow has always been one of the nicest people in the business, and the time she gave me was valuable beyond words.

One of the great honors of this book was getting to meet Agnes Greenhall, the widow of Ken Greenhall. I hope in some small way this book helps him finally receive the readers he deserves.

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but a huge debt of gratitude is owed to the cover artists whose work appears in this book. I tried my best to identify everyone, but please let me know if I missed someone, got something wrong, or if you have a credit for an uncredited cover.

Special thanks to Lisa Falkenstern who was as lovely as her paintings and far more generous with her time than I ever could have expected.

Jill Bauman is as funny and off-center as her art would lead you to believe, but she was also enormously kind and told some of the best stories.

Vincent Di Fate now teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology and everything I know about the history of cover illustration comes from him. The wisdom is his, the mistakes are mine. He was also instrumental in helping me contact the Society of Illustrators who were an invaluable resource. If you don’t support their work, you should.

Tom Hallman was as gracious as he is talented, and Richard Newton was frank, straightforward, and this book would be poorer without his insights.

Jane Frank at Worlds of Wonder Art opened up the world of British cover illustration to me, and I would not have Terry Oakes’s mind-melting artwork in this book if not for her. Also, Val and Les Edwards were tremendously helpful and kind.

Zebra Books art director Patty Pecoraro gave generously of her time and insight, which was invaluable.

Almost as important as the writers and artists are the fans, many of whom have become historians of a world that would otherwise be lost.

This book would not exist if not for Will Errickson and his Too Much Horror Fiction blog. No one has worked harder to read the unreadable, champion the unchampioned, and identify the unidentified than Will.

Enormous thanks go also to Darrin Venticinque. Besides Will, no one has done more to preserve the art of cover illustration than Darrin, and he was always happy to do some sleuthing to figure out who painted which cover, if he didn’t already own the original and have it hanging in his Gallery of Gloom.

For information about the British horror paperback industry, check out the Vault of Evil ProBoards forum, or Justin Marriott’s Paperback Fanatic. And there would not be a chapter about the gothic revival in horror paperbacks if not for Jennifer F. and her astounding website, The Complete V. C. Andrews.

Finally, my apologies to Amanda Cohen. That vacation was supposed to be a celebration of the completion of this book. Who knew that those leprechauns would turn out to be Nazis? And so hungry?