The Secretary of Dreams by Stephen King illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications (October 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587671409
• ISBN-13: 978-1587671401
• List Price: $75.00
• I finished this book July 7th

Okay, friends and neighbors, you all know I'm a Stephen King "constant reader". Also, you know I dig on the graphic novels and comics. So, imagine my happiness last fall when I heard I could purchase some of SK's short stories newly illustrated. I hinted that I wanted this gift for Christmas (by hint I mean I sent the link to the Amazon page and where to buy it to my boyfriend via e-mail. cause I'm stealthy like that.) and his parents bought it for me. However, it was on this crazy backorder or something and I only just got it now. Let me tell you this, my lovlies, it is sexy! It's big and hard bound and came with this faux leather case deal. Fancy.
So, the actual stories are all ones I've read before, of course. I was impressed that they were some of his lesser known ones. The first is called Home Delivery and is actually from a collection called Book of the Dead which is all zombie stories from different authors. There are 6 short stories in all, 3 are just illustrated about every other page and the others are written as though they are comic books. So, it's a really cool idea. However, I'm not in love with the illustrator's work, to be honest. It's gory, to be certain, but it's all black and white sort of scratchy pen lines to me, and I didn't love it. Apparently Glenn (with 2 n's, why?) is an illustrator from Maine (shock!) and you can read an interview with him here. He has already signed on for volume two and is hard at work. These are put out by Cemetery Dance who is also putting out the Dark Tower Series as comic books (which, you know, I want super bad too).
Honestly, I will probably get the second volume too, though I'm not a huge fan of the art. Mostly because Stephen King is my boyfriend (I think you should know that when I say that I'm saying it in the Frau Blücher voice from Young Frankenstein) Maybe the artwork will grow on me. I guess I was expecting some super creepy art like from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Let's not pretend that stuff didn't scare the crap out of you when you were little (or last night, you wuss!). See creepy images, here, here and here. Hell's bells, creepy stuff, people.