Dark Forces • About the Book
About The Book • Artwork • Photos

Dark Forces: The 25th Anniversary Special Edition
edited by Kirby McCauley

cover artwork by: Bernie Wrightson

interior artwork by Alan M. Clark, Glenn Chadbourne, Keith Minnion, Allen Koszowski, Jill Bauman, Alex McVey, Chad Savage, and Erik Wilson

Click here to see the cover designs for both editions

Status:
Out of Print (Sold Out Pre-Publication)

About the Book:
In 1980, Kirby McCauley assembled a landmark horror anthology that set the benchmark for the genre. That book was Dark Forces, and while it has been imitated many times over the last twenty-five years, it has never been matched.

Featuring stories from Stephen King, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, Ramsey Campbell, Charles L. Grant, Richard & Richard Christian Matheson, and over a dozen other masters of the genre, Dark Forces belongs in the collection of anyone who treasures works of classic horror and dark fantasy.

This special edition will feature a new afterword from editor Kirby McCauley and the first Limited Edition appearance for many of these classic tales. All of these stories are on the must-read list for any new horror fan, including Stephen King's classic novella The Mist, which was made into a major feature film by director Frank Darabont.

If the cover artwork looks familiar, you might have caught its cameo in a movie. Bernie Wrightson originally painted the artwork for the Stephen King movie Riding the Bullet, directed by Mick Garris. This will be the artwork's first appearance in print.

The special Deluxe Edition of Dark Forces: The 25th Anniversary Edition was published as the debut title from Lonely Road Books.

About this Special Edition:
With an oversized page size, an extremely low print run, and the finest materials available, Dark Forces was designed with the ultimate collectors in mind. Each edition features a deluxe binding selected from the finest materials available.

The Limited Edition was housed in a custom-made traycase, and the Lettered Edition has a custom-made traycase. Both editions were signed by editor Kirby McCauley and the artists. There were over two dozen illustrations, along with six color plates tipped into each book, and a full-color dust jacket featuring artwork by horror legend Bernie Wrightson.

In addition, we secretly commissioned a very long interview with editor Kirby McCauley (after the book sold out so quickly) and in this interview he discussed the popularity and importance of the book with Kealan Patrick Burke. This special bonus addition to the Lonely Road Books edition of Dark Forces has never been printed anywhere else.

Click here to see a just few samples of the interior artwork that we commissioned for this special Deluxe Edition or click here to see photos of the final production values.

Both editions sold out within days of being announced.

Table of Contents:
1980 Introduction — Kirby McCauley
The Late Shift — Dennis Etchison
The Enemy — Isaac Bashevis Singer
Dark Angel — Edward Bryant
The Crest of Thirty-Six — Davis Grubb
Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale — Robert Aickman
Where the Summer Ends — Karl Edward Wagner
The Bingo Master — Joyce Carol Oates
Children of the Kingdom — T. E. D. Klein
The Detective of Dreams — Gene Wolfe
Vengeance Is. — Theodore Sturgeon
The Brood — Ramsey Campbell
The Whistling Well — Clifford D. Simak
The Peculiar Demesne — Russell Kirk
Where the Stones Grow — Lisa Tuttle
The Night Before Christmas — Robert Bloch
The Stupid Joke — Edward Gorey
A Touch of Petulance — Ray Bradbury
Lindsay and the Red City Blues — Joe W. Haldeman
A Garden of Blackred Roses — Charles L. Grant
Owls Hoot in the Daytime — Manly Wade Wellman
Where There's a Will — Richard & Richard Christian Matheson
Traps — Gahan Wilson
The Mist — Stephen King
New Afterword — Kirby McCauley
Brand New Interview with Kirby McCauley by Kealan Patrick Burke (unannounced special bonus feature)

Limitation Information:
• Limited Edition: 300 copies, signed by the editor and artists on an illustrated signature page, bound in a deluxe material, with full-color and black & white interior illustrations, a full-color dust jacket, all housed in a custom-made traycase featuring a special magnetic latch ($200)

• Lettered Edition: 26 copies, with all the special features of the Limited Edition, plus a different type of high quality binding, a full-color dust jacket with a different design than the Limited Edition, all housed in a custom-made deluxe traycase featuring a special magnetic latch ($750)