Announcing DARK CARNIVAL by Ray Bradbury, Illustrated by Dave McKean

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be publishing a hugely illustrated limited edition of Ray Bradbury’s Dark Carnival this summer. Now’s the time to lock in your copy!

The collection is 520 pages, with a trim size of 8x8—the same as our Joe Hill collection, Full Throttle.

Dark Carnival is heavily illustrated by Dave McKean, with the following features:

• A full-color wraparound dust jacket;
• Full-color endsheets (a different image in the front and back);
• 34 two-color “title page” illustrations, one for each story, as well as one for book’s title page proper, and the section of Lost Stories.

Notes:

We have seven stickers signed by Ray Bradbury. One stickered copy will be sent to a long-time friend of the press. The other six stickers will be placed in random copies of the limited edition.

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We’re thrilled to announce a signed limited edition of Dark Carnival, Ray Bradbury’s legendary collection, printed in two colors, and fully-illustrated by Dave McKean, and an introduction by Stephen Gallagher.

About the Book:

“I have always tried to write my own story,” wrote Ray Bradbury more than a quarter-century after the publication of Dark Carnival, his first collection of short fiction. “Give it a label if you wish, call it science fiction or fantasy or the mystery or the western. But, at heart, all good stories are the one kind of story, the story written by an individual from their individual truth.”

Published in 1947 by weird fiction specialist Arkham House, Dark Carnival gathered stories from the early years of Bradbury’s professional life. Many had made their first appearances in the pages of Weird Tales magazine. Still learning and developing his craft, he revised the material for the book’s publication—in the case of ”The Skeleton,” developing a brief vignette into a full-blown and layered narrative. To these selections he added six new pieces written specifically for the lineup.

Then in 1955 a number of the stories were chosen for inclusion in a further collection, The October Country. Appearing there with further and mostly minor revisions, these became the author’s preferred versions. With Bradbury declining to authorise any further printings, Dark Carnival became a scarce and sought-after volume.

This Subterranean Press edition presents all the stories in that first collected form, reuniting the twenty-seven originals and adding five more. Of the passed-over titles, a number remained unseen for decades.

On the evidence here, Bradbury found his voice early. Though the language is rich, it’s also pure and precise. Styled with a purpose, and the tone is confident from the outset.

Here you can experience that early, heady explosion of the young Bradbury’s talent, presented in this new edition with illustrations by the legendary Dave McKean.

Limited: 750 numbered copies signed by Dave McKean and Stephen Gallagher, in custom slipcase: $225