The Centipede Press Thread, Including CP: Book by Book – An Incomplete Bibliography

[CyberGhostface]

'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' is getting a Centipede release soon. I asked and Jared said the announcement should be out in February.

Example art from Thomas Ehretsmann:

[Lurker]

I just went through my email and saw this from Camelot - "Well I guess the feeding frenzy is afoot - we have a customer that purchased the first 3 volumes, signed, of the Elric Series being published by Centipede and when they saw what a set sold for on E-Bay they asked us to list their set in our next newsletter for $1,500.00." And it's already sold. I'm speechless.

[RC65]

I just went through my email and saw this from Camelot - "Well I guess the feeding frenzy is afoot - we have a customer that purchased the first 3 volumes, signed, of the Elric Series being published by Centipede and when they saw what a set sold for on E-Bay they asked us to list their set in our next newsletter for $1,500.00." And it's already sold. I'm speechless.

I saw that as well. Tough to believe and understand, but apparently I made a poor choice of Centipede books to skip. I'm not a fan of sword-and-sorcery, but I could've taken the profits from those books and applied them to other forthcoming Centipede Press books I have my eye on. Ah well, tough to predict what's going to really catch fire and which won't.

[PennyUnwise]

I just went through my email and saw this from Camelot - "Well I guess the feeding frenzy is afoot - we have a customer that purchased the first 3 volumes, signed, of the Elric Series being published by Centipede and when they saw what a set sold for on E-Bay they asked us to list their set in our next newsletter for $1,500.00." And it's already sold. I'm speechless.

They SOLD?! I'm shocked. There are multiple cheaper options on eBay right now...

[swintek]

Re: Elric: Honestly, the high selling price doesn't really surprise me: The books were pricey to begin with, uber limited (sold out in hours with hardly any promo), are considered a cornerstone of S & S, and most importantly- they are absolutely stunning examples of just how beautiful books can be. Jerad worked hard on these for years, and he really hit it out of the park. What did surprise me, though, is seeing a set sold on ebay for "$695", the same day as the earlier mentioned "$1600" set (both prices in quotes because both sold for an undisclosed "Best Offer Accepted"). So, perhaps the market price will settle down to a "happy" medium? Regardless, I can't state enough how great these turned out.

And, RC65: I really don't read S & S either. I did a bit in my formative years, and have no real care to revisit most of it- except for Elric, which is S & S of a different stripe. I highly recommend you (as a paperback guy!) hunt down those iconic DAW 70's Elric pb's (6 books) with the awesome Whelan covers and give the sickly, existential albino a try. Fun stuff!

[Hunchback Jack]

Right now, rights to the following six volumes is baked into the price. So although $1500 is the current market price for the first three, I would expect that on completion, a complete set of 9 will not fetch $4500. But they could fetch $2000-$2500, easily.

HBJ

[PennyUnwise]

Be cautious buying THIS set of Elric books. The seller will let you have first refusal for future volumes, but for 1.5x retail so just realize that before buying! I picked up a different set because of that.

[Hunchback Jack]

Huh? Doesn't rights to future volumes pass with the books, not the stay with the original buyer?

[PennyUnwise]

Huh? Doesn't rights to future volumes pass with the books, not the stay with the original buyer?

I would have thought so, but this seller seems to think otherwise and I am not taking the chance to be suckered into paying an extra $200 each time for no reason! Maybe you can just buy and then email Jerad with photos or something that you are the owner of that given number?

The only time I have purchased where rights can't transfer is from a dealer of Sub Press books. I don't mind as I have purchased a ton through the individual, and they were offered at retail. They had some exclusive deal to a letter that couldn't transfer. Maybe this is similar, I don't know?

[Hunchback Jack]

Oh, I certainly wouldn't take the chance either. I was just confused because I didn't think the seller would have the option to keep future rights unless (as you say) they were a dealer or have an agreement with Jerad.

[swintek]

That seems.. wrong. Prob a question for Jerad, as to which he would honor for that number- the original purchaser, or the current owner.

[lotuz]

Dracula
Bram Stoker

7.a.i “Printed on mouldmade Arches paper, quarterbound in leather with printed silk panels, oversize traycase bound in cloth, printed endsheets, extra suite of color prints housed in their own folder, ribbon marker, signed by Patrick McGrath and Greg Hidebrandt”*: unknown number of 22 total - $1500 (Red roman numerals)
7.a.ii “Printed on mouldmade Arches paper, quarterbound in leather with printed silk panels, oversixe traycase bound in cloth, printed endsheets, extra suite of color prints housed in their own folder, ribbon marker, signed by Patrick McGrath and Greg Hidebrandt”, slightly different size, with differently oriented front boards, and different limitation page: unknown number of 22 total - $1500 (Red roman numerals)
7.b.i “Printed on Mohawk Superfine, bound in cloth, enclosed in a cloth traycase [actually, a slipcase], ribbon marker” with numbered limitation page. Bound in black cloth with pictorial inset on front board: 50+ (unknown) of 300/500 – $250
7.b.ii “Printed on Mohawk Superfine, bound in cloth, enclosed in a cloth traycase [actually, a slipcase], ribbon marker” with numbered limitation page. Bound in black cloth with pictorial printed front boards: 250/450- (unknown) of 300/500 – $250


*Postmortem 7 (December 2007)

Published as Centipede Press; 2006
Original price: $1500/$250

The next title from Centipede Press is Dracula, which is also the next title in the Gothic series. This is the closest that two books from the Gothic series were released to each other.

Unfortunately, I don’t own either version of this book, and so I don’t have any pictures to share. But here’s what I know about it based on the old newsletters, what I’ve seen online, and what I’ve seen personally.

There were probably 22 copies of the deluxe edition printed. One of the newsletters states “XXIII” but all of the deluxe limitation pages that I’ve seen state 22. There are two different states of the lettered. The printed picture on the front boards shows two different orientations, one in which Dracula is facing right and the other in which he’s facing left (this copy is also about a half an inch longer!). There are also two different versions of the limitation page: one of them mentions the regular numbered state, the other does not. The version that mentions the numbered state is also somewhat smaller than the rest of the pages and is perhaps not mouldmade Arches paper – it appears to be attached to a larger page.

WHAT?!?



This is why a complete bibliography will be impossible. I only know of these differences because a collector shared images with me of the two books next to each other! Had I seen them one at a time, and possibly years apart, I would probably have never noted the differences (maybe the limitation page) and would thus have no idea that there were different states of the deluxe version (and potentially of the numbered version!).

[Sidenote: To some extent, there are also definitely various opinions on what exactly constitutes a different “state” of a book. I think something big like a different binding would definitely count. But what about slightly different limitation pages? What if a book is identical except for some have sprayed edges? I’m probably erring on the more radical side in this bibliography in the definition. To me, all of these previous things, or any combinations thereof, would constitute a different state.

And yes there are books with all of these characteristics, including a book that differs only by stained vs. unstained top edge.

But the pitfall of such a radical definition is that cataloguing the complete set of different states from the inception of the press until about 2013 is impossible. Some of the differences are so subtle that you might not notice unless you see them both at the same time. Some are really rare: how many different copies of the right-facing Dracula exist? At most 21! At fewest – 1. There are a couple of numbered edition states that have 25 or fewer copies in existence.

However, I think it’s all super exciting to try to track down! At the very least, it makes every early (pre-2013) Centipede Press book that comes up for sale of possible interest. And some books haven’t ever been spotted in the “wild” (for public sale), so there’s a bit of mystery there as well ]

Back to Dracula:

The regular version has either 300 or 500 copies – newsletters say different things. I believe that the limitation page for the regular version is the same as the smaller, non-Arches paper deluxe version, but I can’t say for sure. If so, that page states that there are 500 copies. As with some of the earlier books, it certainly doesn’t seem like there are 500 copies out there…

Someone mentioned earlier in this thread that s/he has a slightly different numbered version – I’m not surprised and would love to see it!

I wish I had more on this, but I don’t. As far as the overall deluxe editions are concerned, there is at least one more deluxe out there that has two possible states – it has to do with the number of signatures on them, but there may be more title like this, where you can’t tell unless you have more than one copy in front of you. Or maybe only one version has ever been photographed

I hope that folks will feel free to post their pics of this title, and enlighten us! I hope even more that I can find a copy out there sometime – I had an opportunity for the deluxe edition that I had to pass on over the holidays and I think I’ll be kicking myself over that one for years to come…

Up next - the first title from the Millipede Press imprint:

Some of Your Blood

EDIT to fix numbering error and add details from Munnecom's post.

EDIT 2 to add a link to pictures of the limited version, complements of Munnecom - thank you Munnecom! See them here.

EDIT 3 to add a link to pictures of the deluxe version, thanks to Clegane! It even includes a bonus pic of some of the prints that are included. See them here.

(I know they're both on the same page but for continuity's sake, I'll try to add links to posts that expand upon any of the information/pictures that I provide in the original posts.)

[Hunchback Jack]

Fantastic stuff! Thanks so much for posting this info.

By the way, why do you say pre-2013 titles are hard to catalog exhaustively because of variations? What happened in 2013 that prevents it from being a problem since?

[Munnecom]

I picked up my copy on eBay late last year. I had never seen one come up before, so I jumped at the chance to get this. I suspect I overpaid a bit, but such is the life of a collector sometimes.

Before hitting “Buy It Now,” I contacted Jerad to ask about the listing, because the book does not look like the images on CP’s website. Here’s what he told me:

The edition of Dracula you are seeing is one of the earlier bindings. This actually might be a better printed book. I don't remember honestly. At some point I changed the bindery style over to the one shown on the Centipede Press website.

It is a legit copy. The limitation page was a misprint on each copy. Some of my earlier books were bound in different stages, so there are always some differences between the books!

On to the pictures!

Here’s the limitation page:



It mentions 525 copies, but 500 numbered plus 22 deluxe only makes 522. What about the remaining three?

Here’s what made me contact Jerad in the first place. My copy is bound in black cloth with a small image pasted on the front board, instead of having full printed boards like what is shown on the CP website. Based on what Jerad told me, there must be at least 50 other copies that look like this (made before the switch to a different binding style).



Here’s the slipcase:



Here’s a few more shots. The red D is actually the first thing you see when you open the book, which I think is a nice touch. The book contains a lot of colour and black-and-white illustrations, as well as an author photograph of Bram Stoker and three of his best-known short stories. They appear in the back of the book, separated from the main text and each other by sheets of thick, textured paper.

[Munnecom]

Lotuz, I just noticed that you misnumbered this listing. It should be 7.x, not 6.x.

[lotuz]

Lotuz, I just noticed that you misnumbered this listing. It should be 7.x, not 6.x.

Thank you! And thank you for sharing your pictures Really neat to see this one. I like the yellow title page and the "D"!

I've updated the post to both reflect the fixed number as well as the addition of the extra state that you brought to our attention. I appreciate it!

[lotuz]

Fantastic stuff! Thanks so much for posting this info.

By the way, why do you say pre-2013 titles are hard to catalog exhaustively because of variations? What happened in 2013 that prevents it from being a problem since?

This is a great question!

And because I'm feeling long-winded tonight and have some free time, I'm going to give you a too-long response that touches on some other stuff as well. I'll start with the caveat that this is all based on my personal opinion and speculation as a collector of the press - any other info/opinions are welcome

I would broadly lump Centipede Press productions into four time periods:

2001-2005: This first time period is what's used on the Centipede Press page because it represents the very beginning of the press, and over this 5 year period, only 5 books were produced. The first was in 2001 and the next wasn't until 2004, so my guess is that this wasn't a full-time press until then. In 2004 came 'Salem's Lot, which Jerad has credited in the rare interview as having helped get the press off the ground. Four books were released in 2004 & 2005.

2006-2010: I would consider this the "experimental" stage of the press. Experimental in two different ways: first off, Jerad pushing the envelope on some of the design - trying different bindings, different materials, producing deluxe editions, etc. Secondly, experimenting with different printers (definitely) and different binders (maybe). The combination of these two lead to various states of multiple books.

2011-2013: By 2011 a lot of the materials and techniques had started to become more consistent. Between 2011 and 2013 dust jackets were used more and more often, after being previously relegated to the rarer Millipede Press titles.

2014+: Dust jackets became the norm during this period. Several different ongoing sets were debuted, each with a consistent theme (e.g., the R.A. Lafferty series, Vintage Horrors, the Library of Weird Fiction). Almost all books during this period differ only by the limitation page (no limitation page, numbered limitation page, and roman numeral limitation page (PC)), and fewer deluxe books are being produced.

So, overall, the most variation exists within the 2006-2010 period, and then much less during 2011-2013, and almost none between 2014 and now. Dracula turned out to be a great example of this - different states for both the limited and deluxe editions!

[Munnecom]

I just realised the title page is possibly a reference to the first edition of Dracula, which had boards in just that shade of yellow.

[lotuz]

I just realised the title page is possibly a reference to the first edition of Dracula, which had boards in just that shade of yellow.

Amazing! I'm sure you are right!!

[swintek]

Digging out my copy- the regular, full board printed image edition- I was surprised to see that the limitation page in my copy is unnumbered. It doesn't even have the "This is copy number..." line. I did buy it (direct from Jerad) a bit after release- at least a year or two- so maybe he was out of numbered copies by then and this is one of those.. 'reserved for the press' copies. No big deal to me.

It also omits the line "numbered in black with Arabic numerals" from the limitation statement. That must be the misprint Jerad mentioned.

I also remember remarking to him that I liked the "original" cover better than the "Romantic" cover (his term): The original design had the illustration of Dracula crawling down the side of the castle- much better. I always assumed that the book was done in (at least) two batches, and the first states had that crawling image and the later states the "Romantic". I could swear I saw a copy of the earlier on ebay years ago... Can anyone confirm it's existence?

Ron

[lotuz]

Digging out my copy- the regular, full board printed image edition- I was surprised to see that the limitation page in my copy is unnumbered. It doesn't even have the "This is copy number..." line. I did buy it (direct from Jerad) a bit after release- at least a year or two- so maybe he was out of numbered copies by then and this is one of those.. 'reserved for the press' copies. No big deal to me.

It also omits the line "numbered in black with Arabic numerals" from the limitation statement. That must be the misprint Jerad mentioned.

I also remember remarking to him that I liked the "original" cover better than the "Romantic" cover (his term): The original design had the illustration of Dracula crawling down the side of the castle- much better. I always assumed that the book was done in (at least) two batches, and the first states had that crawling image and the later states the "Romantic". I could swear I saw a copy of the earlier on ebay years ago... Can anyone confirm it's existence?

Ron

This has got to be the cover that you're remembering (this pic from the October 2007 newsletter, then titled Post-Mortem):



I agree that this one is cooler!

My guess is that this was just a mock-up for the newsletter and that none were produced. But just because I haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist! That's just what I'm thinking based on the fact that a lot of the early newsletter mock-ups, and even a lot of the mock-ups on the final product pages, were changed in production. I'd love to see one of these in the wild and be shown wrong, I definitely like it better

[Tony]

Be cautious buying THIS set of Elric books. The seller will let you have first refusal for future volumes, but for 1.5x retail so just realize that before buying! I picked up a different set because of that.

Nothing nefarious is happening here. The listing points out that you'd be getting the books at publish price from Camelot books. What I've learnt along the way is when publishers like Subpress, Centipede, etc. sell some of their books through Camelot (and perhaps other third part sellers), the rights of the number remain with Camelot. Subpress/Centipede won't sell that number to you directly even if you have the previous volume in the series. Of course, you're buying it at publish price, so no great loss really.

Kim/Tony will reach out to those with the previous matched volume and let you know they have it for you and confirm you'd like to buy it. They even put mylar over the dust jacket for you.

[PennyUnwise]

Be cautious buying THIS set of Elric books. The seller will let you have first refusal for future volumes, but for 1.5x retail so just realize that before buying! I picked up a different set because of that.

Nothing nefarious is happening here. The listing points out that you'd be getting the books at publish price from Camelot books. What I've learnt along the way is when publishers like Subpress, Centipede, etc. sell some of their books through Camelot (and perhaps other third part sellers), the rights of the number remain with Camelot. Subpress/Centipede won't sell that number to you directly even if you have the previous volume in the series. Of course, you're buying it at publish price, so no great loss really.

Kim/Tony will reach out to those with the previous matched volume and let you know they have it for you and confirm you'd like to buy it. They even put mylar over the dust jacket for you.

You are looking at the wrong listing I believe. I am discussing the one from badmoonbooks. I contacted him and asked about rights. He said he would sell them to the buyer for a little less, but said no less than 1.5x retail. The set I linked isn't through Camelot and already sold to someone. Another set on eBay is though, which I am guessing is the one you are looking at [seller: thebookviking (who is actually a member here)].

[PennyUnwise]

Also, does anyone have a Dracula copy available for sale. I have been looking but they don't seem to pop up often as of late. Not too bent on holding out for deluxe to complement my Jekyll & Hyde. Would go after just limited if there are any out there! Thanks.

[Clegane]

Uploading a handful of photos here of the Deluxe edition of Dracula that Centipede put out, limited to 22 copies. Some exteriors of the traycase, the book itself, the limitation and title pages, and a sample of some of the glossy, high-quality art prints included.
I'll provide photos of the Deluxe Frankenstein later when I dig them out or take new ones.
(Haven't included photos in a post here before, so bear with me if I get jammed up with it)