While I'm getting my holiday gift guide together I thought I'd make special mention of the amazing work being done over at Centipede Press. I was so intrigued at the variety and quality of work being done there that I have recently found myself reading even the unbound books used to package some of the larger review volumes Jerad Walters has been kind enough to send. Like most readers I usually find myself reaching for the latest stuff by my favorite writers but lately, thanks to Centipede, I just haven't had the time. I'm discovering writers for the first time, or going over the early work of others who I discovered on my own after they'd been around awhile. The plain truth is I'm not sure anyone out there is doing a better job at this. 

I talked to Walters briefly about what it was like to run a small press of this kind, "It's a dog-eat-dog world," he said.  "All the small presses are competing for the same batch of 4 or 5 thousand people that regularly buy their books. The people don't have a lot of cash, for the most part, and the publishers struggle to do exceptional work." Is he affected by the high rate of burn-out? 

"If I don't make the books, the house payment doesn't get made, and we go without meals. It's that simple. That said, I'll probably be looking for supplemental income here real soon. With a one-man show, you have to be super organized. Contracts and prints and artwork are at every single stage of development. Plus there is keeping track of the sales, doing promotional work, communicating with printers and binderies, packing books when they are done...it can be pretty stressful." 

Of course the opportunity to present and champion favorite and forgotten writers can be its own reward and so far having discovered John Franklin Bardin (The Deadly Percheron) Roland Topor (The Tenant) and perusing lavish collections of graphic art like Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft has proven more than rewarding, but quite literally changed what I prefer to read. I've owned at least 3 copies of The Other by Thomas Tryon but somehow avoided reading them until Walters sent me this one. 

And Centipede also has a great habit of including extra short stories and unpublished materials, scholarly yet absolutely accessible introductions and supplementary materials in their editions. In short, if you have a Centipede edition of a work then it is likely to be the definitive edition.

One book of theirs I'm particularly excited about is the upcoming Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King, a massive graphic collection which comes with its own slipcase and is available in three collectible editions Walters shares, "Any project of this size brings moments where you wish you'd never started. But then you get the proofs back and suddenly you're staring at a 448 page 11 x 15 inch book with 30 pages of double-page fold-outs. So much of the art has never even been seen before. King fans are in for a real treat."

Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired By Stephen King can be pre-ordered here. 

Look for more in depth reviews of this and other Centipede titles in the near future.