IDW Launches Literary Mash-Ups Collection

IDW is all set to bring you nothing short of a full classics mutilated collection this October. Say what?

Available this October will be the Classics Mutilated hardcover from Joe R. Lansdale. It offers a different take on the current monster literary trend by adding new fantasy and horror twists. The collection will focus on the story Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer on an H.P. Lovecraft raft. The work itself will boast the talents of writers such as Nancy Collins, John Shirley, Thomas Tessier, Kristine Katheryn Rusch, Chris Ryall, Rick Hautala, John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow. The collection will also feature a painted, wrap around cover by Menton Matthews III.

The mutilated fun doesn't end there. Dread Island will have four different editions. The first will be at Comic-Con and will be a trade paperback limited to 500 copies. After SDCC, IDW will offer a 400-copy signed hardcover edition and a 100-copy signed and numbered leatherbound edition exclusively through the IDW website. Finally, a fourth, “retailer only” configuration will be available to Diamond accounts for an October release.

I don't think I would naturally associate anything called Dread Island with Mark Twain. I think those two topics are somewhat opposite each other on the literary spectrum. Joe R. Lansdale would disagree it seems.

“I wrote ‘Dread Island’ based on my love for Mark Twain,” reveals Lansdale, “which collided with my interest in Lovecraft, and the fact that the Uncle Remus tales may have been the first stories I ever read. And then there were comics. I always saw ‘Dread Island’ as a kind of comic book in prose, the old Classics Illustrated look. That's how it played out in my head.”

Full press release after the jump.

IDW Launches Literary Mash-Ups with Limited Joe R. Lansdale Novella Full Classics Mutilated collection coming in October

San Diego, CA (July 15, 2010) – IDW Publishing is proud to announce CLASSICS MUTILATED, an all-new prose collection of genre mash-up stories by top-tier authors, coming in October. At San Diego Comic-Con, IDW will debut the original novella “Dread Island” by noted horror and crime writer Joe R. Lansdale, as an exclusive preview of the upcoming collection. Lansdale will be featured at special autograph sessions at the IDW booth #2643 throughout the convention.

CLASSICS MUTILATED offers a different take on the current monster-lit trend by challenging a coterie of major talents to twist fantasy and horror elements with classic tales and icons, creating all-new stories. Lansdale’s “Dread Island” showcases the collection’s unique tone by featuring Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer in a new adventure, with bizarre fantasy and supernatural elements out of both H. P. Lovecraft and Uncle Remus.

“I wrote ‘Dread Island’ based on my love for Mark Twain,” reveals Lansdale, “which collided with my interest in Lovecraft, and the fact that the Uncle Remus tales may have been the first stories I ever read. And then there were comics. I always saw ‘Dread Island’ as a kind of comic book in prose, the old Classics Illustrated look. That's how it played out in my head.”

Available in October, the full CLASSICS MUTILATED collection will feature fifteen stories from writers such as Nancy Collins, John Shirley, Thomas Tessier, Kristine Katheryn Rusch, Chris Ryall, Rick Hautala, John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow. The collection will also feature a painted, wrap around cover by Menton Matthews III.

To promote the upcoming CLASSICS MUTILATED, "Dread Island" will be available in four different editions, beginning with the trade paperback version, limited to 500 copies and available only at conventions. After SDCC, IDW will offer a 400-copy signed hardcover edition and a 100-copy signed and numbered leatherbound edition exclusively through the company’s website. A fourth, “retailer only” configuration will be available to Diamond accounts for an October release, alongside CLASSICS MUTILATED.

“CLASSICS MUTILATED is our take on this so-called Monster- Lit trend,” explains Jeff Conner, the collection’s editor. “Rather than foisting zombies and the like onto beloved literary classics or unsuspecting historic figures, we’re approaching the concept from the other end, challenging an unholy cabal of fantasy and horror writers to use their dark arts on genre-blending. The results have been remarkable, as lucky readers of Lansdale’s ‘Dread Island’ preview edition will get to see.”

Dread Island ($15, 86 pages, trade paperback, prose) will be available from IDW at San Diego Comic Con.

Dread Island ($35, 86 pages, hardcover, signed, prose) will be available from IDW Publishing in August.

Dread Island ($100, 86 pages, hardcover, signed and numbered, prose) will be available from IDW Publishing in August.

Dread Island ($24.99, 86 pages, hardcover, signed, prose) will be available in stores in October.

Classics Mutilated ($16.99, 320 pages, paperback, prose) will be available in stores in October. ISBN 978-160010830-3