“In Loving Memory” and “A Wiggle of Maggot, a Curl of Bacon”

In its illustrious 29*-year print run, Cemetery Dance magazine has published no less than 560 short stories and novel excerpts in 73** individual issues. As the super fan that I am, Exhumed is my humble attempt to read and review them all in monthly double reviews.

*and counting!

**there were also two “double issues” (#17/18 in 1993 and #74/75 in 2016), each of which squeezed twice as much content into a single magazine.

Last time I reviewed two Norman Partridge stories:

  • “Save the Last Dance for Me” from Cemetery Dance #2 (1989), and
  • “Slippin’ Into Darkness” (a novel excerpt) from Cemetery Dance #17/18 (1993).

If you missed it, you missed a particularly complex story (and a particularly “colorful” review).  

This month is the 10th installment of Exhumed and, as promised, I present to you two Steve Vernon stories.

Let’s get to it… Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Best of Subterranean’ edited by William Schafer

The Best of Subterranean edited by William Schafer
Subterranean Press (July 2017)
752 pages; $37.74 hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

In what is already being looked back on as a groundbreaking ten-year run, Subterranean magazine published a staggering array of stories featuring one elite, award-winning author after another. Three years after the last issue was published, The Best of Subterranean arrives as an overdue celebration of one our finest, most lamented genre magazines.Continue Reading

Two New Signed Limited Editions by Robert McCammon!

We’re thrilled to report we have FOUR projects in the works with one of our favorite authors, Robert McCammon! Two of the books are being announced today and will be published at the end of October; a new novel will be announced in a few weeks and published in February; and a Limited Edition of one of his classic novels will be announced next year.

The two books being announced today are Tales from Greystone Bay and He’ll Come Knocking at Your Door, and the signed Limited Editions of these books are expected to sell very, very quickly given the high demand for McCammon’s collectible editions!

PLUS: For a few days only, we are offering FREE SHIPPING on both of these titles to US addresses, so now is the perfect time to place your order!

Tales From Greystone Bay

He'll Come Knocking at Your Door

Read more or place your order for the signed Limited Edition hardcovers on our website!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Christopher Golden on Hellboy and his Assortment of Horrors

Obviously, there’s no name more synonymous with the character of Hellboy than that of creator Mike Mignola. However, Christopher Golden runs a close second. Golden, a prolific best-selling author of original novels, media tie-in books and countless short stories, helped pioneer the line of Hellboy prose novels and anthologies, beginning with 1997’s The Lost Army and continuing this month with Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors. He’s also a screenwriter (along with Mignola and Andrew Cosby) of the upcoming Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen, the Neil Marshall-directed reboot of the Hellboy film franchise. Golden was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to talk with Cemetery Dance Online about his long history in the world of Hellboy.
Continue Reading

Review: ‘Black Mad Wheel’ by Josh Malerman

Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman
Ecco (May 2017)
304 pages; $17.29 hardback; $12.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

When Bird Box hit the horror scene three years ago, something special happened. Readers discovered a new voice, one which was lyrical and rhythmic but could also turn brutal on the next page. Josh Malerman wrote like a musician carving away at an album of great songs.The result was a true original which should have won the Bram Stoker award.Continue Reading

Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #200

Stephen King News From the Dead Zone

Control…Chaos…Darkness: A Preview of Mr. Mercedes by Bev Vincent

Over the past few years, TV series based on the works of Stephen King have taken different approaches with varying degrees of success. One of the best was 11.22.63, which stayed reasonably close to the source material and did not continue past the novel’s conclusion. At the other end of the spectrum was Under the Dome, which started out okay, but struggled as time went on. Rather than film the novel, they decided to stretch it as far as it could go, and it broke.Continue Reading

Night Shift Chris Odgers Artwork Preview!

Our deluxe special edition of Night Shift by Stephen King is already 90% sold out due to high demand, so please do not wait to place your preorder. There will NOT be a second printing of this special edition!

In the meantime, we thought you might like to see just a few of the TWENTY black and white interior illustrations by Chris Odgers, so here is a preview of that incredible artwork:

Night Shift

Night Shift

Night Shift

Night Shift

Night Shift

Read more or place your order while supplies last!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

7 Movies You Must Watch While Reading ‘The Dark Tower’

Well. Yeah. That headline is a little misleading. A little clickbaity. Sue me. These definitely aren’t films you must watch while you’re reading the Dark Tower series.

But still, hunker down and let us palaver for a secondContinue Reading

Review: ‘The Dark Tower: The Art of the Film’

The Dark Tower: The Art of the Film text by Daniel Wallace
Scribner (July 2017)
208 pages; $27.19 hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Some might view books like The Dark Tower: The Art of the Film as big, expensive brochures for upcoming movies, but for me they’ve always provided a fascinating glimpse into the process of bringing these large-scale extravaganzas to our screens. Even when they come from the kind of rich source material of, say, an eight-book series written by Stephen King, there’s a lot of designing and refining that goes into the look of a movie like The Dark Tower. This volume gives us a glimpse of that, but I’ll confess that it left me wanting much, much more.Continue Reading

Bev Vincent reviews ‘The Dark Tower’

I was fortunate enough to see The Dark Tower on Tuesday evening at the Bangor Mall Cinemas 10, an event sponsored by Zone Radio. The audience was filled with people who won tickets from the station. In addition to getting a chance to see the film early, attendees also won some King-related merchandise as door prizes, including Dark Tower novel sets, audio books and signed ARCs of the final three volumes in the series. Dark Tower t-shirts were flung into the audience, too.Continue Reading

Night Shift: The Deluxe Special Edition Announced Today and Already 80% Sold Out!

We’re thrilled to announce our deluxe special edition of Night Shift by Stephen King, featuring two pieces of full-color artwork by Mark Stutzman, TWENTY black and white interior illustrations by Chris Odgers, and a brand new afterword by Stewart O’Nan!

PLEASE NOTE: The Slipcased Gift Edition is already 80% sold out due to high demand, so please do not wait to place your preorder. There will NOT be a second printing of this special edition!

Night Shift

Read more or place your order while supplies last!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Robin Furth and the Comic Side of The Dark Tower

Robin Furth doesn’t live in Mid-World, but it could be argued she knows it better than the characters themselves. After working as Stephen King’s research assistant, Furth published Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Concordance, has written the graphic novel adaptations of The Dark Tower series for Marvel Comics, and is a consultant for the new film The Dark Tower and the TV series that will follow. As an avid folklorist, a fan of comics and King’s own go-to expert on all things Roland Deschain, Furth is the perfect person for all these jobs. She spoke to Cemetery Dance Online about her books, graphic fiction as a medium, and what she thinks about the upcoming movie and Idris Elba as the lead.Continue Reading

Headhunter Reimagined by Michael Slade: New Signed Limited Edition Coming Later This Year!

We’re thrilled to announce our brand new signed Limited Edition hardcover of HEADHUNTER Reimagined, a brand new signed Limited Edition hardcover by Michael Slade, which we’ll be publishing later this year!

HEADHUNTER Reimagined is a revised and updated version of his first Special X thriller (originally published in 1984) about the psycho-hunters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police!

In related news, D Films Corp. announced earlier today that it will launch a new production division in partnership with veteran producer Rob Merilees (“Motive,” Capote, Brain on Fire, Stone of Destiny). The new partnership is actively developing both feature film and television content in Canada, launching with the series “Headhunter,” and will leverage the company’s established platform and international distribution relationships. The eight part series “Headhunter” is based on the bestselling Mountie Noir thrillers about the Special X psycho-hunters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police by Vancouver criminal lawyer Michael Slade, who specialized in murder cases involving insanity.

Headhunter

Read more or place your order for our signed Limited Edition hardcover on our website!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

An Interview with ‘The Dark Tower’ Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman

In March, 2012, while I was writing The Dark Tower Companion, I spoke with Akiva Goldsman about his plans to adapt the Dark Tower series with Ron Howard. Clearly things have changed significantly in the past five years, but his thoughts at the time show where he was coming from and might indicate where the adaptations could be headed. As we anticipate this week’s release of The Dark Tower, enjoy this excerpt from that interview.Continue Reading

Ka Like a Wheel, Time Like a Circle

Ka Like a Wheel, Time Like a Circle
by Kevin Quigley

The notion of circular time is ancient. Hebrew interpretation of the Bible forwards the concept of “cycles,” of time moving in a loop like the orbits of the planets or the sweep of the hands of a clock. The Rolling Stones mention the concept in their song “Sway,” from the album Sticky Fingers: “Did you ever wake up to find / A day that broke up your mind / Destroyed your notion of circular time / It’s just that demon life has got you in its sway.”Continue Reading