As you might have heard, Cemetery Dance #68 is shipping from the printer now and it’s our Glenn Chadbourne Special Issue. In addition to a new interview with Glenn and a new short story he wrote with Holly Newstein, every story and all of the columns feature an original illustration created by Glenn!
It was a lot of fun to put this one together since we’ve never published a Special Issue focused on an artist before and Glenn is one of our favorite people in the business. He’s a talented artist and a good friend.
There are several great new stories in this issue by Rick Hautala, Bruce McAllister, Weston Ochse, Rick Koster, and Elizabeth Voss, but the icing on the cake was being able to include “The Glass Floor” by Stephen King. “The Glass Floor” was first published in Startling Mystery Stories in 1967 and it was King’s first professional sale. The story has only been reprinted once since then, I believe, and it has never appeared in any of his collections.
King wrote the story a few months before his twentieth birthday and it’s full of raw talent. There’s a line toward the end — “Wharton felt a quiet chill steal over him.” — that really hits the mark. If you’ve never read “The Glass Floor” before, I think you’ll feel a chill, too.
To set the mood, Glenn Chadbourne created a two page illustration for the story, which I’m pleased to debut here for your previewing pleasure:
Click on the image above for a larger version. If that link doesn’t work for you, try this one instead. Be sure to order your copy of Cemetery Dance #68 because it’s already shipping from the printer!
Every issue of CD is always full of exciting and surprising material. I have never been disappointed in reading an issue. You guys really know what your doing, and your readers appreciate it. I have never read this story by King, and I’ll be anxious to receiving the issue. Way to go Brian!
I will be grabbing my copy very soon