Event Report: The Horror Highlights of BookExpo America 2014
Steve Barton
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BookExpo America is a massive event, hosting nearly every publisher on the planet. To walk into it and say, “I’ve got it easy… I’ll just be covering horror and spooky-themed titles!” is LAUGHABLE. Team Dread hit the show hard this year, determined to squeeze it for all it was worth…
It took us two days to walk every aisle of the Javits Convention Center in the heart of New York City and find those 5,000 new zombie books you’ll see on the shelves later this year. Yeah, zombies are still hot.. with no signs of cooling down anytime soon. I bet you’re shocked.
We came back with over 100 images (shot by the ninja-like Galaxia Siandre), and so the challenge became how to present this pile to you in a way that will satisfy hard-core bibliophiles but won’t give our editors night terrors for the next three weeks. So we’ve posted the crème de la crème here, and you’ll find the rest on the Dread Central Google+ page.
Just know that any title you see should be easily Google-able or, more specifically, Amazon-able. From there you can gather more info on your favorite titles and pre-order. Remember: On Amazon, if a book is extra large (deluxe edition) or some such, chances are the pre-order price will be greatly reduced from the release day price so do your homework, and you just may save some cash!
On tap we’ve got books for everyone from the tiniest creeper to the fully grown adult ghoul in your home from Abrams, Insight Editions, Quirk, DK, Papercutz, Chronicle, Quatro, Capstone, Scholastic, BOOM! Studios, IDW Comics, Diamond Comics Distributors, Random House, Schiffer, Rizzoli, Red Wheel Weiser, and Chaosium. Whew!
Highlights of upcoming horror titles include:
• Zombies on Film: The Definitive Story of Undead Cinema by Ozzy Inguanzo, Foreword by Max Landis (Rizzoli) – Zombies on Film chronicles popular culture’s greatest and most terrifyingly intriguing monsters in the very medium their shuffling, rotting, flesh-eating characteristics were shaped—at the movies! Spanning nearly a century, the zombie genre has been built by a creative and cultural transfer of influences from generation to generation of storytellers, filmmakers, and artists. This book tells the remarkable true story behind the creative and independent spirit that shaped a legacy, from its cinematic inception and evolution to its ultimate rise to pop culture prominence, covering the most popular, most influential, most overlooked—and of course, the most gory and terrifying—films featuring zombies.
Author Ozzy Inguanzo’s insightful, witty, and informative text is complemented by more than 300 photographs, movie posters, and behind-the-scenes images spanning nine decades of classic films including Bela Lugosi’s White Zombie (1932), George Romero’s landmark Night of the Living Dead (1968), and Lucio Fulci’s cult classic Zombie (1979) as well as offerings from blockbuster directors such as Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive (1990), Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (2004), and more recent entries like the breakthrough series “The Walking Dead” (2010) and the international sensation World War Z (2013).
• Six-Gun Gorilla by Simon Spurrier and Jeff Stokely (BOOM! Studios) – Welcome to “the Blister” — a bizarre other-world colonized by humans sometime in the 22nd century, which quickly became a hotly-contested source of fertile land and natural resources long ago exhausted on Earth. In this new frontier a rogue gunslinger and his companion wander across a wilderness in the grips of a civil war, encountering lawlessness, natives, and perversions of civilization in a world at the crossroads between the past and the future. The fact that said gunslinger is a bio-surgically modified silverback gorilla toting a pair of enormous revolvers is neither here nor there. This one is bloody as all hell and insane from minute to minute… two of our favorite flavors!!
• Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (Quirk) – Something strange is happening at the Orsk Furniture superstore in Columbus, Ohio. Every morning employees arrive to find broken Kjerring wardrobes, shattered Brooka glassware, and vandalized Liripip sofa beds—clearly, someone or something is up to no good. To unravel the mystery, five young employees volunteer for a long dusk-till-dawn shift—and they encounter horrors that defy imagination. Along the way author Grady Hendrix infuses sly social commentary on the nature of work in the new twenty-first century economy.
A traditional haunted house story in a contemporary setting (and full of current fears), Horrorstör comes conveniently packaged in the form of a retail catalog, complete with illustrations of ready-to-assemble furniture and other, more sinister accessories. We promise you’ve never seen anything quite like it!
• Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller (Random House) – Jason Segel, multi-talented actor, writer, and musician, teams up with New York Times bestselling author Kirsten Miller for the hilariously frightening middle-grade novel Nightmares!, the first book in a trilogy about a boy named Charlie and a group of kids who must face their fears to save their town. Sleeping has never been so scary. And now waking up is even worse!
Charlie Laird has several problems:
1. His dad married a woman he is sure moonlights as a witch.
2. He had to move into her purple mansion, which is NOT a place you want to find yourself in after dark.
3.He can’t remember the last time sleeping wasn’t a nightmarish prospect. Like even a nap.
What Charlie doesn’t know is that his problems are about to get a whole lot more real. Nightmares can ruin a good night’s sleep, but when they start slipping out of your dreams and into the waking world—that’s a line that should never be crossed. And when your worst nightmares start to come true… well, that’s something only Charlie can face. And he’s going to need all the help he can get, or it might just be lights-out for Charlie Laird. For good.
• Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters by August Ragone (Chronicle) – Now in paperback! Behind-the-scenes hero to anyone who’s thrilled by giant monsters duking it out over Tokyo, Eiji Tsuburaya was the visual effects mastermind behind Godzilla, Ultraman, and numerous Japanese science fiction movies and TV shows beloved around the world. The first book on this legendary film figure in English, this highly visual biography surveys his fascinating life and career, featuring hundreds of film stills, posters, concept art, and delightful on-set photos of Tsuburaya prompting monsters to crush landmark buildings. A must-have for fans, this towering tribute also profiles Tsuburaya’s film collaborators, details his key films and shows, and spotlights the enduring popularity of the characters he helped create.
• Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History by Drew McWeeny (Insight Editions) – Not much news on this one yet other than that it’s tentatively scheduled for September 2015, but dig the eye candy and AWAIT THE COMING OF GOZER!!
BookExpo America (BEA) is the #1 book and author event that offers access to new titles and education about the publishing industry. BEA is also the best place to experience the latest technology trends and meet face-to-face and network with your favorite and up-and-coming authors and other industry professionals. BEA combines the largest selection of English language titles on the planet and is the most comprehensive gathering of booksellers, librarians, and retailers in North America.
Dates have already been set for 2015 and 2016:
Thursday, May 28-Saturday, May 30, 2015, at the Javits Center, NYC
Thursday, May 12-Saturday, May 14, 2016, in Chicago
Learn more on the official BookExpo America website, and happy reading!
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Tell us what you’ll be reading this summer in the comments section below!
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