The Shining S/L from Subterranean Press

[Randall Flagg]

Well worth a read. I was not aware of the Skeleton Crew info.

http://www.stephenkingcollector.com/...d/shining.html

The Catalog is your friend (but the info was long ago published in George Beahm's "The Stephen King Companion")
http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...ton+Crew+-+S+L

[mikeyw]

i missed the boat on this one, so, if anyone has one and they are unhappy because of a defect, message me and i'll be glad to take it off your hands!

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Well worth a read. I was not aware of the Skeleton Crew info.

http://www.stephenkingcollector.com/...d/shining.html

The Catalog is your friend (but the info was long ago published in George Beahm's "The Stephen King Companion")
http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...ton+Crew+-+S+L

Yes, the catalog is the best source for info and photos.
In this case you should cut and paste all of Tomas's comments into the catalog info. (and obviously give him credit, as hes has done to TDT.org)

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

i missed the boat on this one, so, if anyone has one and they are unhappy because of a defect, message me and i'll be glad to take it off your hands!

Sorry Mikey, but I don't think there will be many (if any), who will want to part with this one, unless they get big bucks.

[carlosdetweiller]

Well worth a read. I was not aware of the Skeleton Crew info.

http://www.stephenkingcollector.com/...d/shining.html

The Catalog is your friend (but the info was long ago published in George Beahm's "The Stephen King Companion")
http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...ton+Crew+-+S+L

Did you mean to say it was published in Beahm's Stephen King Collectibles? As far as I know Scream/Press was still active (and taking money from me) in 1989 when The Stephen King Companion was initially published.

[tippy4]

Mine arrived today.

My S/L book is perfect. My S/L slipcase is perfect. My sketch book is perfect.

Thank you Sub Press for yet another great production.


Can't wait for the Lettered.

Great for you!!! I just wish everyone could say the same.

Honestly I think if you get a perfect book it's kind of bad form to flaunt it here. Especially with so many of us getting damaged ones.

I don't think it is flaunting...it is merely making the point that not all of the books have issues.

[carlosdetweiller]

Well worth a read. I was not aware of the Skeleton Crew info.

http://www.stephenkingcollector.com/...d/shining.html

The Catalog is your friend (but the info was long ago published in George Beahm's "The Stephen King Companion")
http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...ton+Crew+-+S+L

Also, I wonder how much of Beahm's statement as to the cause of Scream/Press' demise is fact and how much is conjecture? Skeleton Crew was published in 1985 and Scream/Press continued to publish books until at least 1989. They published limited editions of Barker's Books of Blood and quite a few others.

[Papaseraphim]

The took money from me for a Signed Limited Edition of Anne Rice's Interview With a Vampire, but they never produced it. I still have the receipt for it.

Well worth a read. I was not aware of the Skeleton Crew info.

http://www.stephenkingcollector.com/...d/shining.html

The Catalog is your friend (but the info was long ago published in George Beahm's "The Stephen King Companion")
http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...ton+Crew+-+S+L

Also, I wonder how much of Beahm's statement as to the cause of Scream/Press' demise is fact and how much is conjecture? Skeleton Crew was published in 1985 and Scream/Press continued to publish books until at least 1989. They published limited editions of Barker's Books of Blood and quite a few others.

[sentinel]

To get back on thread, the Sub Press S/L of The Shining is better than the My Pretty Pony, which is a pain-in-the-butt to store/display.

Absolutely agree!

[Randall Flagg]

Well worth a read. I was not aware of the Skeleton Crew info.

http://www.stephenkingcollector.com/...d/shining.html

The Catalog is your friend (but the info was long ago published in George Beahm's "The Stephen King Companion")
http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...ton+Crew+-+S+L

Did you mean to say it was published in Beahm's Stephen King Collectibles? As far as I know Scream/Press was still active (and taking money from me) in 1989 when The Stephen King Companion was initially published.

My mistake. As expected you are correct. That's why you are a MVP here as far as I am concerned.
The book IIRC was "Stephen King Collectibles: An Illustrated Price Guide" by George Beahm. © 2000


I hope I got it right this time.

???-Wasn't there a thread discussion about Scream Press/Jeff Conner returning to publishing, and possibly even customers receiving money back? Forgive me if I am mistaken.
Cemetery Dance Talks With IDW’s Jeff Conner Scream/Press..future of Signed Limiteds

[Randall Flagg]

Time to get back on topic (myself included).

[methril]

http://youtu.be/yep8sk_S_a8
Mine is one of the very slightly scuffed, stained tray case editions. I'm very happy with it because I never thought I'd own anything signed by the greatest storyteller of our time. The fact that it's also a classic horror novel, regardless of the edition, means I'd never part with it.

[Jimimck]

They must have run the numbers and recognised it would be unaffordable to give the credit to those with book issues. Fewer people will have damage to the tray case that meets their requirements for the voucher...

[shaq]

http://youtu.be/yep8sk_S_a8
Mine is one of the very slightly scuffed, stained tray case editions. I'm very happy with it because I never thought I'd own anything signed by the greatest storyteller of our time. The fact that it's also a classic horror novel, regardless of the edition, means I'd never part with it.

Congratulations. That looks a fantastic book. To get such a wonderful looking 1st signed book is brill. I was lucky enough to start my collection with the Salems Lot.

Great feeling opening it.

[carlosdetweiller]

???-Wasn't there a thread discussion about Scream Press/Jeff Conner returning to publishing, and possibly even customers receiving money back? Forgive me if I am mistaken.
Cemetery Dance Talks With IDW’s Jeff Conner Scream/Press..future of Signed Limiteds

Yes. After Brian Freeman posted that link I brought up the issue of Conner not being the saint or hero some thought he was. He took money for and never produced an S/L of Rice's Interview With The Vampire. With Brian's help I was able to get a refund from Conner after over 20 years.

[methril]

http://youtu.be/yep8sk_S_a8
Mine is one of the very slightly scuffed, stained tray case editions. I'm very happy with it because I never thought I'd own anything signed by the greatest storyteller of our time. The fact that it's also a classic horror novel, regardless of the edition, means I'd never part with it.

Congratulations. That looks a fantastic book. To get such a wonderful looking 1st signed book is brill. I was lucky enough to start my collection with the Salems Lot.

Great feeling opening it.

Thank you very much! I never paid much attention to signed limited editions before, but I'll certainly keep my eye out for others.

On the topic of dust jackets, I think it'd be cool if we had some sort of door or exterior of the overlook. Then you open the book and are hit with the ghosts staring out of the barroom at you...

[ajw2910]

Just heard back from Bill and I will be getting a new traycase along with my dustjacket.

[carlosdetweiller]

From the catalog regarding the S/L Skeleton Crew: "Scream Press underestimated production costs and instead of making a name for themselves, went bankrupt."

I suppose the source of this info is George Beahm in his book Stephen King Collectibles. He doesn't quote his source for this information and it just seems to be accepted as fact and repeated on other websites, including this one. Perhaps it is just my nature to question statements like this (or perhaps my profession has taught me to be skeptical of unsubstantiated statements). And, maybe, it just doesn't make a bit of difference to anyone but me. But I don't think the S/L of Skeleton Crew is the sole reason Scream/Press folded. Scream/Press started taking orders for this book in late 1984 and the book was in the warehouse ready to ship to customers in April, 1986 (I have an S/P newsletter with that date showing a picture of Conner with the books stacked behind him). That isn't overly long for a small press publisher from start to finish. I'm not privy to any of the financial details but one of the explanatory letters I got during the wait (July 1985) was the inclusion of the full color J.K. Potter poster. I also know that it had to be reprinted at least once and one of the book's signatures had to be reprinted as well.

Scream/Press continued to operate until at least 1991 publishing several subsequent books. The ones I am most familiar with were the S/L editions of Barker's Books of Blood. The first three "books" were included in one volume. BoB volumes IV, V, and VI were subjected to numerous delays (mostly due to printers' errors) and volume VI was not delivered to me until 1991 (three years after I received volume V!).

And then, of course, there was the disastrous S/L of Rice's Interview With The Vampire in which they solicited orders as early as October, 1988 and completely failed to deliver leaving many, many irate customers in their wake.

I suspect only Jeff Conner ("Mr. Publisher") and Mimi Duncan ("Order Czar" and/or "Ministress of Information") know for sure but I suspect the failure of Scream/Press was due to a combination of suspect management (albeit well intentioned, I'm sure), hazards of running a small business and the usual unavoidable problems with printers, slipcase makers, etc. over a period of years. Since Scream/Press didn't officially fold until 1991 (I received a book from them that year) I think it is suspect to say that underestimating production costs for a single book Skeleton Crew (circa 1985) caused their bankruptcy doesn't seem correct. I think this is another of those examples where some unsubstantiated statement with no source attributed gets repeated as fact over and over again with no one questioning the validity.

[Roseannebarr]

Just heard back from Bill and I will be getting a new traycase along with my dustjacket.

Bill,

Should we be expecting an email confirming that we will get a new tray case? Or assume that you got our email and will be sending a replacement? In other words, if we did not hear from you should we be worried?

Any follow up from the printer? Did you get anything settled with them?

Thanks for any and all feedback!

Roseannebarr!

[Papaseraphim]

There was also an offshoot called Dream Press that published books by Richard Matheson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbo and William F Nolan.

From the catalog regarding the S/L Skeleton Crew: "Scream Press underestimated production costs and instead of making a name for themselves, went bankrupt."

I suppose the source of this info is George Beahm in his book Stephen King Collectibles. He doesn't quote his source for this information and it just seems to be accepted as fact and repeated on other websites, including this one. Perhaps it is just my nature to question statements like this (or perhaps my profession has taught me to be skeptical of unsubstantiated statements). And, maybe, it just doesn't make a bit of difference to anyone but me. But I don't think the S/L of Skeleton Crew is the sole reason Scream/Press folded. Scream/Press started taking orders for this book in late 1984 and the book was in the warehouse ready to ship to customers in April, 1986 (I have an S/P newsletter with that date showing a picture of Conner with the books stacked behind him). That isn't overly long for a small press publisher from start to finish. I'm not privy to any of the financial details but one of the explanatory letters I got during the wait (July 1985) was the inclusion of the full color J.K. Potter poster. I also know that it had to be reprinted at least once and one of the book's signatures had to be reprinted as well.

Scream/Press continued to operate until at least 1991 publishing several subsequent books. The ones I am most familiar with were the S/L editions of Barker's Books of Blood. The first three "books" were included in one volume. BoB volumes IV, V, and VI were subjected to numerous delays (mostly due to printers' errors) and volume VI was not delivered to me until 1991 (three years after I received volume V!).

And then, of course, there was the disastrous S/L of Rice's Interview With The Vampire in which they solicited orders as early as October, 1988 and completely failed to deliver leaving many, many irate customers in their wake.

I suspect only Jeff Conner ("Mr. Publisher") and Mimi Duncan ("Order Czar" and/or "Ministress of Information") know for sure but I suspect the failure of Scream/Press was due to a combination of suspect management (albeit well intentioned, I'm sure), hazards of running a small business and the usual unavoidable problems with printers, slipcase makers, etc. over a period of years. Since Scream/Press didn't officially fold until 1991 (I received a book from them that year) I think it is suspect to say that underestimating production costs for a single book Skeleton Crew (circa 1985) caused their bankruptcy doesn't seem correct. I think this is another of those examples where some unsubstantiated statement with no source attributed gets repeated as fact over and over again with no one questioning the validity.

[swintek]

I think Bob's argument is well thought out, documented and backed up. I agree, and the distinction is important (to some of us old dudes, at least), who have a keen interest in not only the latest limited edition, but the history of the genre small presses, and their posterity- good or bad. Some of my absolute favorite items in my collection are old small press newsletters and catalogs (especially the SCREAM stuff), and I refer back to them often. Graig Goden's "Time Tunnel", Larry Coven's "The Coven"- I love all that old stuff. Not to get off the point too much..

Ron

[subpress]

Hi.

You can safely assume we received emails sent about traycases.

I heard a very early supposition from my printer about the paper issue, but I'm waiting to hear something more concrete before relaying it.

As a lot of The Shining posts have slowed, or repeat comments already made, I'm going to be a bit scarcer around here. Before The Shining issue revved up, I hadn't posted here in roughly six years.

I don't expect this hiatus to be anywhere near that long, as I'll drop in to update folks on replacement traycases and the Vincent Chong dust jackets, and anything else, as appropriate.

As always, you can drop me an email at subpress@gmail.com if you need anything.

Thanks to all of you for the feedback, be it criticism or praise.

Best,

Bill

Just heard back from Bill and I will be getting a new traycase along with my dustjacket.

Bill,

Should we be expecting an email confirming that we will get a new tray case? Or assume that you got our email and will be sending a replacement? In other words, if we did not hear from you should we be worried?

Any follow up from the printer? Did you get anything settled with them?

Thanks for any and all feedback!

Roseannebarr!

[jhanic]

I think I can speak for the vast majority here in thanking you for posting.

John

[The Library Policeman]

I think I can speak for the vast majority here in thanking you for posting.

John

Yep.

[tippy4]

http://youtu.be/yep8sk_S_a8
Mine is one of the very slightly scuffed, stained tray case editions. I'm very happy with it because I never thought I'd own anything signed by the greatest storyteller of our time. The fact that it's also a classic horror novel, regardless of the edition, means I'd never part with it.

Congratulations. That looks a fantastic book. To get such a wonderful looking 1st signed book is brill. I was lucky enough to start my collection with the Salems Lot.

Great feeling opening it.

Ughh......was I the only one who cringed when he jammed that pair of scissors into the box?

I appreciate the video...but I was a bit concerned for your book there for a minute.