Dark Black by Sam Weller
Hardcover
5 in. x 7 in.
Black & White Illustrations
254 pages
In this haunting debut collection of short stories, Sam Weller—two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning writer and authorized biographer of the legendary Ray Bradbury—blurs the boundaries between the weird, outré, paranormal, Gothic, and old school punk rock. Dark Black features 20 tales, at turns chilling, melancholy, hilarious, and full-on macabre.
A marine biologist at the end of his career embarks on his greatest field study: to find the mythical sea beast he believes he witnessed as a young man, long ago ...
A writing professor discovers the Clutter murder house, made infamous in Truman Capote’s 1966 classic, In Cold Blood, is now available as a rental. He books the home to finish his latest book with dark and unexpected results ...
A college student with subtle telekinetic abilities attempts to use her powers in the midst of a horrifying school shooting ...
+++
Sam Weller worked side by side with Ray Bradbury for over a decade. No surprise, then, that Dark Black is deeply inspired by Bradbury’s dark and enduring 1955 collection, The October Country, mashed-up with modern influences such as anthology television programs Black Mirror and American Horror Story. Dark Black contains 20 short stories of evanescent ghosts and inner demons, of lost souls and lost love.
Featuring striking, original color artwork by renowned artist and printmaker Dan Grzeca—known for his concert prints for the Black Keys, Sharon Van Etten, U2, among others—Dark Black is a book of haunting new American Gothic fiction.
+++
Advanced praise for Dark Black:
“It’s no surprise that Sam Weller, a renowned scholar of Ray Bradbury, would be such a beautiful storyteller in his own right. What IS a thrill is the depth and breadth of Dark Black’s tales—some of which deserve to be read aloud, crackling-campfire style; others meant to be savored slowly and quite gloriously alone. By turns haunting, mysterious, wickedly funny, and deeply insightful, Dark Black is a truly mood-flipping, mind-tripping collection.”
—GILLIAN FLYNN, author of Gone Girl
Designed by Sabrina Che
Illustrations by Dan Grzeca
Press