The Secretary of Dreams

The Secretary of Dreams - Volume One is an illustrated special edition (graphic novel) from 2006 by the publisher 'Cemetery Dance', which contains six short stories by the US author Stephen King that have already been published elsewhere and in this format in Germany did not appear . The book was illustrated by the US artist Glenn Chadbourne from King's home state Maine , who had already worked with him on a special edition of the Colorado Kid . He drew on The Secretary of Dreams - Volume One for two years. The second volume is currently in progress.

The short stories included

The following six short stories were selected (in brackets the collections in which they have already appeared):

• Home Delivery , German: ' home delivery ' ( nightmares )
• The Road Virus Heads North , German: 'The road virus moves north' ( In the cabinet of death )
• Jerusalem's Lot , German: 'Letters from Jerusalem' ( night shift )
• Rainy Season , German: 'Regenzeit' ( nightmares )
• The Reach , German: 'Der Gesang der Toten' ( The Song of the Dead ) and
• Uncle Otto's Truck , German: 'Onkel Otto's Truck' ( The Song of the Dead )

Concept of the book

With the exception of the colored book cover (which shows, among other things, the mental hospital 'Juniper Hill', which often appears in King books, as well as a closet filled with King motifs), the illustrations are all black and white. The stories were illustrated in two different ways:

• Half of the stories (numbers 1, 3, and 5) have accompanying illustrations; H. The running text is interrupted by partly smaller, partly full or double-sided drawings that have selected passages on the topic.
• The other half is like a comic created: Although the complete text of the short story in each case been taken, however, is here embedded in the pictures, some with speech and thought bubbles or the usual for comics onomatopoeia .
• Chadbourne also hides allusions to other works by King: The cover shows in the cabinet, for example, the monkey from the short story The Monkey (German: 'Der Affe' from Der Fornit ); At the flea market, where Richard Kinnell bought the picture The Street Virus Moves North , an old edition of the comics Creepshow is sold .

Presentation and circulation

• The book has 281 pages; Information about the artists can only be found on the envelope.
• The Secretary of Dreams - Volume One is 31 cm high and 23 cm wide in the 'Gift Edition'.
• The book is packed in a brown slipcase; like the book itself (without cover), it is decorated with partly gold (title), partly orange (author's name) inscription.
• Since the first edition of the 'Gift Edition' only contains 5000 copies and no reprint is planned, the volume is already considered a collector's item. Further editions are signed and comprise a total of 802 individual books; these are already valued at around $ 500.

literature

King, Stephen and Chadbourne, Glenn. The Secretary of Dreams - Volume One . Forest Hill, 2006.