Thunderstorm Books

[Sock Monkey]

Very Jealous! The Thunderstorm LE's of both books might be my favorite things that I read last year. They were amazing collections. Do you know if the interiors of the lettered editions differ from the LE editions at all, in terms of content, materials used, art, etc.; or is the traycase the only difference? May be a dumb question, but I've never purchased a lettered edition from Thunderstorm (or really any publishers due to price).


Another dorky question, but looking at your photos, do you sort your bookcases by Publisher? Looks really nice and I'm wondering if I should do that. I'm always torn, but usually end up sorting mine by author with a few exceptions here and there. 

Hey, sholloman.  You must have caught my initial post before I deleted it and reposted!  I was battling the process to upload the pictures and had to get back to doing some actual work.  I have two new posts up showing the traycase and the book itself, which will answer some of those questions.  (And no such thing as a dumb question!)   In short, the contents are the same but different endpapers, signature page, binding, etc.  Some publishers use different paper between editions as well (like Lividian), but as far as I'm aware, Thunderstorm does not.

As far as my bookcase organization, yes, I organize by publisher.  I have three bookcases as of now.  The first has Cemetery Dance, Subterranean Press, Gauntlet, and misc. publishers.  The second one is entirely Centipede Press.  The third has the top three dedicated to Thunderstorm, the next two to SST and Earthling, then I have two more shelves of Centipede Press overflow.   I know a lot of people organize their books by author, which honestly makes a lot of sense.  If you want to show off your King collection, you'd want them all together to be more impressive and easier to locate.  However, for me, there is something that looks so nice with a bunch of uniformed SST or Centipede Press logos lined up in a row on a shelf.  I also go a step further and organize each publisher's books by trim size because it also is aesthetically pleasing to my eye.
 

[Sock Monkey]

2. The Books

So the books, in comparison to the limited editions which are bound in bonded leather, are actually bound in real leather and I can definitely tell by both the look and feel of the books. The standard Black Voltage titles never feel bad in my hands or to my eye, but the genuine leather on these is just on another level. I'm a sucker for a leather-bound book, so this hit the mark for me. The stamping on the book mirrors that of the traycase and is very understated and simple. Each book has different endpapers from the limited edition and are very nice and thick. Each book has the cover art as a frontispiece and then, of course, the lettered limitation page with signature. The page blocks look to be the same as the limited edition and there is no additional material or illustrations in the books.


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3. Final Thoughts

I didn't know what to expect since these are the first ones from this line of books, but I was pleasantly surprised. There was a marked difference in the prices between the limited and lettered editions (PALE SKY was $100 for the limited and $275 for the lettered with VOID's editions being $110 versus $350), so I could see how someone might have maybe wanted more bells and whistles in the design, but I think there's a beauty in the simplicity, maybe even an elegance. Whether these choices scratch the itch enough to warrant the additional price point is obviously a personal choice, but this hits my sweet spot.
 

[Sock Monkey]

Today I received the lettered editions of both BEHOLD THE VOID and BENEATH A PALE SKY from Thunderstorm. Splync did a very nice unboxing of the the limited editions over on Youtube that you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV8YXVl4JXA if you are so inclined. Since I haven't seen any of these out in the wild yet and these are the first traycased lettered editions in Thunderstorm's Screaming Cacti line of books, I thought I'd post some pictures and my thoughts in comparison to what Thunderstorm normally does in their limited editions.

First, a warning: I am not a great photographer like Cyberghostface and these were taken with my phone, so please forgive my overall lack of skill. I also only included single photos of PALE SKY in a good portion of photos since the design elements are the same in both books.

1. The Traycase

I'll start with the traycases. The construction of the cases are actually very nice and feel sturdy and substantial in your hands. The material for the traycases are a bonded leather that's very similar to what the Black Voltage books themselves are bound in and, in fact, the stamping on the front of the traycase is the style as is used on the Black Voltage books as well. The back of the traycase has "Thunderstorm Books" stamped on them. What I thought was interesting was that the spine of the traycase only has the title and author's name, omitting any reference to the publisher. While this looks very simple in hand, I think it looks really sharp on the shelf, especially as a pair.

I don't have a large swath of lettered traycases to compare to, but these are a significant step up from, say, CD's standard lettered traycase. My closest comparison would be the traycase for OFF SEASON from Dark Regions, but the traycases for the Thunderstorm books, I'd say, are nicer than those as well. I can't speak to something like CD's King lettereds or Suntup's lettereds, but these are also a fraction of the cost of those editions, so they might not be a good comparison anyways.

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[sholloman81]

Very Jealous! The Thunderstorm LE's of both books might be my favorite things that I read last year. They were amazing collections. Do you know if the interiors of the lettered editions differ from the LE editions at all, in terms of content, materials used, art, etc.; or is the traycase the only difference? May be a dumb question, but I've never purchased a lettered edition from Thunderstorm (or really any publishers due to price).


Another dorky question, but looking at your photos, do you sort your bookcases by Publisher? Looks really nice and I'm wondering if I should do that. I'm always torn, but usually end up sorting mine by author with a few exceptions here and there. 

[saginawhorror]

You know, reviewing the contents of these grab bags on this thread and I just have to say that these were some pretty darn nice grab bags, especially considering that it was, like, less than $20 a book. Very generous of Paul as he could have charged double and they still would have been a bargain when compared to publication prices. Â

I consider about 2/3rd of the price to be reasonable. I've picked up quite a few around that range.

[Ben Staad]

I'm in the club now. I agree there are three intriguing options.

[saginawhorror]

I thought briefly about the third but keeping the budget in case a black voltage I still need pops up.

[Sock Monkey]

Very excited by Paul's Clubhouse announcements yesterday. Ended-Up pre-ordering all three books. Boy is my wallet hurting!

Two are calling my name. I also want to pick up a copy of I Died Too, but as I just mentioned on the Sub Press thread, I'm trying to be better in my impulse purchases this year.

[saginawhorror]

2 out of 3 for me. Very exciting!

[Ben Staad]

Congrats to you for whatever you bought.

Sounds like I never signed up for the right thing.

Very excited by Paul's Clubhouse announcements yesterday. Ended-Up pre-ordering all three books. Boy is my wallet hurting!

[sholloman81]

Very excited by Paul's Clubhouse announcements yesterday.  Ended-Up pre-ordering all three books.  Boy is my wallet hurting!

[RonClinton]

All this reminds me that at some point I need to track down a copy of Strand's DEMONIC. I was on the Gleeful Macabre train until CYCLOPS ROAD, at which point I dropped off, and then forgot about DEMONIC.

[sholloman81]

You know, reviewing the contents of these grab bags on this thread and I just have to say that these were some pretty darn nice grab bags, especially considering that it was, like, less than $20 a book. Very generous of Paul as he could have charged double and they still would have been a bargain when compared to publication prices. Â

Just sent you a private message regarding one of your books, let me know what you think, no rush.

[sholloman81]

You know, reviewing the contents of these grab bags on this thread and I just have to say that these were some pretty darn nice grab bags, especially considering that it was, like, less than $20 a book. Very generous of Paul as he could have charged double and they still would have been a bargain when compared to publication prices. Â

For sure! When I heard the deal, I couldn't believe it. Most of their newer hardcovers are averaging around $125; so, I figured that as long as I hit on at least one book that I wanted in the grab bag, then I would be coming out ahead. I only had one dupe in both of my sets; so, I ended up quite happy. At least 6 of the books are definite keepers. The others, I could go either way on. I was also able to do a swap with Splync for a couple, making me even more happy. Big thanks to Paul.

Below is what I still currently have available to trade:

Jeff Strand, Allison, Gleefully Macabe
Jeff Strand, Cyclops Road, Gleefully Macabe
Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason, Scum Janitors vs. The Living Dead, VS Line
Briane Keene, School's Out, Maelstrom
Brian Keene, Good Things for Bad People, Nightmare Alley
Candace Nola, Desperate Wishes, Tempest
Mark Matthews, The Hobgoblin of Little Minds, Black Voltage

[Sock Monkey]

You know, reviewing the contents of these grab bags on this thread and I just have to say that these were some pretty darn nice grab bags, especially considering that it was, like, less than $20 a book.  Very generous of Paul as he could have charged double and they still would have been a bargain when compared to publication prices.